Database Users

[Q] LG G2 or wait.

Hello I'm having the hardest time deciding if I should wait to upgrade since the galaxy s5 and htc one/two are right around the corner or if I should just get the G2 for Christmas. The G2 seems like a great phone but it also seems to have it's fair share of issues, I'm worried that something much better might come out within a month or two. Anyway just looking for advice thanks!

luke10702 said:
Hello I'm having the hardest time deciding if I should wait to upgrade since the galaxy s5 and htc one/two are right around the corner or if I should just get the G2 for Christmas. The G2 seems like a great phone but it also seems to have it's fair share of issues, I'm worried that something much better might come out within a month or two. Anyway just looking for advice thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are the issues that concern you?

Seriously what issues?
Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

robogo1982 said:
What are the issues that concern you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been reading through some of the forums and heard that external speakerphone has very low decibel levels,camera video is poor quality due to shaky focus, and the knock-ON feature doesn't work reliably. One other thing that concerns me is android development behind the phone since it's not that popular. Also the design could be better but the screen is gorgeous.

My 2c. There is no perfect phone. IPhone, Samsung, lg, HTC, they all have their quirks and disappointments. But it's matter of if you can find a way to overcome it.
Camera is fantastic. And you being here means you are willing to do more than just complain. Root, remove bloat, update camera app. Knock 3 times instead of 2.
And personally if you do more than just play with your phone, ie use for work. Custom ROM other than modified stock ROM will just be way too buggy.
My honest opinion is that they are really 3 viable Android phones out there. The Sony Z, nexus5 and G2. After having gone through several Samsung phones, I'll never buy another Samsung.
Between the 3 above get the lg if battery life is important to you. Because that is the only thing you absolutely cannot change.
After
Sent from my VS980 4G using xda app-developers app

insang-droid said:
My 2c. There is no perfect phone. IPhone, Samsung, lg, HTC, they all have their quirks and disappointments. But it's matter of if you can find a way to overcome it.
Camera is fantastic. And you being here means you are willing to do more than just complain. Root, remove bloat, update camera app. Knock 3 times instead of 2.
And personally if you do more than just play with your phone, ie use for work. Custom ROM other than modified stock ROM will just be way too buggy.
My honest opinion is that they are really 3 viable Android phones out there. The Sony Z, nexus5 and G2. After having gone through several Samsung phones, I'll never buy another Samsung.
Between the 3 above get the lg if battery life is important to you. Because that is the only thing you absolutely cannot change.
After
Sent from my VS980 4G using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are all good points, just one more question then, if roms you think will be too buggy how is lg at updating to the latest version of android?

LG G2 is an outstanding choice for now, IMHO.
I realized that no matter how attractive a new phone's reviews or announcements get, there would always be a few minor issues or dislikes rising up after a couple of weeks hands-on playing. Phones are not designed by end users and LG team got to stick with their budgets and timeline.
G2 camera appeared very impressive me. "Optical" image stabilizer is a bonus point making the difference - simply with default app and settings, it can make awesome low-light/indoor photos. I was able to take a few decent photos when lights were really dim. Read some posts about its focusing speed as capturing moving objects in low lighting; no chance to try that yet but that task sounded quite a challenge to any phone cameras.
The only two issues caught my attention in daily uses are the screen flickering happening in certain places caused by the so called content adaptive back-lighting, and the brightness sensor output. Both are only noticeable in low-light settings and easy to work around them. Some said the content adaptive lighting is due to JB 4.22 OS. Hope a firmware/OS update will soon refine the g2.
Improve Photos on LG G2 Photos with Jishnu’s Camera Mod
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=48490991#post48490991
LG G2 Screen Brightness PROBLEM .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slwkFhpiYbs
Brightness sensor readings
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=48490991#post48490991
G2 feels an ambitious and strong strike from LG. As a flagship model, the design and implementation could be further polished if bosses gave the team more time to work on it, well then we probably had to pay more bucks for having one...

harmonyxda said:
LG G2 is an outstanding choice for now, IMHO.
I realized that no matter how attractive a new phone's reviews or announcements get, there would always be a few minor issues or dislikes rising up after a couple of weeks hands-on playing. Phones are not designed by end users and LG team got to stick with their budgets and timeline.
G2 camera appeared very impressive me. "Optical" image stabilizer is a bonus point making the difference - simply with default app and settings, it can make awesome low-light/indoor photos. I was able to take a few decent photos when lights were really dim. Read some posts about its focusing speed as capturing moving objects in low lighting; no chance to try that yet but that task sounded quite a challenge to any phone cameras.
The only two issues caught my attention in daily uses are the screen flickering happening in certain places caused by the so called content adaptive back-lighting, and the brightness sensor output. Both are only noticeable in low-light settings and easy to work around them. Some said the content adaptive lighting is due to JB 4.22 OS. Hope a firmware/OS update will soon refine the g2.
Improve Photos on LG G2 Photos with Jishnu’s Camera Mod
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=48490991#post48490991
LG G2 Screen Brightness PROBLEM .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slwkFhpiYbs
Brightness sensor readings
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=48490991#post48490991
G2 feels an ambitious and strong strike from LG. As a flagship model, the design and implementation could be further polished if bosses gave the team more time to work on it, well then we probably had to pay more bucks for having one...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So are you trying to say i should wait? or buy? I'm feeling the vibe from both from what you said, which was very interesting.

luke10702 said:
Hello I'm having the hardest time deciding if I should wait to upgrade since the galaxy s5 and htc one/two are right around the corner or if I should just get the G2 for Christmas. The G2 seems like a great phone but it also seems to have it's fair share of issues, I'm worried that something much better might come out within a month or two. Anyway just looking for advice thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in the same boat as you 2 weeks ago, but AT&T changing their prices on the family plan forced me to get the LG G2. Some of the concerns I had before getting it are somewhat still there, especially the camera performance in low light. I haven't had any battery drain issues yet and so far battery life has been fantastic. back buttons aren't that bad, the placement makes sense sometimes, especially when you are on a call. knock on/off feature is great as well but as others have said, it doesn't work 100% of the time. Overall, it's a fantastic phone & i'm glad I got it.

Don't torture yourself by waiting. This phone is a beast...AND I've yet to install a custom ROM!

luke10702 said:
I've been reading through some of the forums and heard that external speakerphone has very low decibel levels,camera video is poor quality due to shaky focus, and the knock-ON feature doesn't work reliably. One other thing that concerns me is android development behind the phone since it's not that popular. Also the design could be better but the screen is gorgeous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the speaker is a little bit tinny, but it's not that quiet, I'd say it's fine. Camera video focus problems happen occasionally, nothing that a camera firmware update won't fix. Knock On works fine when you get the hang of it. This phone has a bunch of ROMs, but to be honest - you don't really need them. I got this phone and I left it completely stock and just rooted it - it's THAT good.
What's wrong with the design? I think it's a good looking phone.

robogo1982 said:
Yes, the speaker is a little bit tinny, but it's not that quiet, I'd say it's fine. Camera video focus problems happen occasionally, nothing that a camera firmware update won't fix. Knock On works fine when you get the hang of it. This phone has a bunch of ROMs, but to be honest - you don't really need them. I got this phone and I left it completely stock and just rooted it - it's THAT good.
What's wrong with the design? I think it's a good looking phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it seems like it's an amazing phone but how do you think it will compete going into 2014??

robogo1982 said:
Yes, the speaker is a little bit tinny, but it's not that quiet, I'd say it's fine. Camera video focus problems happen occasionally, nothing that a camera firmware update won't fix. Knock On works fine when you get the hang of it. This phone has a bunch of ROMs, but to be honest - you don't really need them. I got this phone and I left it completely stock and just rooted it - it's THAT good.
What's wrong with the design? I think it's a good looking phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here stock rooted; was thinking about a prettier launcher replacement but like to stay with some of the stock features. Always use the knock on without touching the power button now - very convenient design.
Increase speaker volume - two xda posts about an easy fix by editing the file snd_soc_msm_Taiko:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2442883
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2482750
I just push the back button to increase in-call volume to max when needed.
---------- Post added at 03:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:07 PM ----------
luke10702 said:
So are you trying to say i should wait? or buy? I'm feeling the vibe from both from what you said, which was very interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was just purely experience sharing for your reference. You'll get a great phone in either case.
My plan-renewal credit was available since July but htc one or s4 didn't make the urge for me to upgrade the phone, until last month I grabbed the G2 with a price tag of $50.

Owners' Impression

Those who already have the device, post your impression / comments.
I own the TL10 version. It's been a few days in my hands. I can confirm that LTE works in Singapore, Malaysia (just came back from there) and Japan (I remember reading somewhere that it's compatible with most European and Asian networks).
I decided to get the phone because I'm too worried about Note 4 battery life, Xperia Z3 being too small, unable to get the latest Pantech phones (A910 & A920) due to their recent bankruptcy which scared off my usual supplier and also the unavailability of Vibe Z2 Pro at the time. Those were the other phones I had considered before settling with Mate 7.
I'm pleased by its slim bezels and thinness. Impressed by its battery life, currently low battery after I pulled off the charger almost 48 hours ago, used it to call and text people, find my way to the airport using Google navigation, listened to music in flight, layover in Hong Kong, another flight to Tokyo, 2 hours transiting in Tokyo subways, then used it for browsing while I rested this whole day. Simply superb.
Issues I've noticed so far:
Unable to change launcher (can't remove Huawei launcher from default)
Navigation bar sometimes freezes, doesn't response, had to hide it and showed it again to make it work (hopefully just firmware issue).
Haven't found easy way to root it.
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-TL10 using XDA Free mobile app

We can remotely root the device for you.
GetMobilePhone

Fulvian said:
Those who already have the device, post your impression / comments.
I own the TL10 version. It's been a few days in my hands. I can confirm that LTE works in Singapore, Malaysia (just came back from there) and Japan (I remember reading somewhere that it's compatible with most European and Asian networks).
I decided to get the phone because I'm too worried about Note 4 battery life, Xperia Z3 being too small, unable to get the latest Pantech phones (A910 & A920) due to their recent bankruptcy which scared off my usual supplier and also the unavailability of Vibe Z2 Pro at the time. Those were the other phones I had considered before settling with Mate 7.
I'm pleased by its slim bezels and thinness. Impressed by its battery life, currently low battery after I pulled off the charger almost 48 hours ago, used it to call and text people, find my way to the airport using Google navigation, listened to music in flight, layover in Hong Kong, another flight to Tokyo, 2 hours transiting in Tokyo subways, then used it for browsing while I rested this whole day. Simply superb.
Issues I've noticed so far:
Unable to change launcher (can't remove Huawei launcher from default)
Navigation bar sometimes freezes, doesn't response, had to hide it and showed it again to make it work (hopefully just firmware issue).
Haven't found easy way to root it.
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-TL10 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind flying over to the US and testing it on T-Mobile?
LOL/jk
Thanks for giving your impressions of the device. Have you found it to be any more laggy/buggy than other Android devices that you've owned? Also, does your device say TD-LTE on the box or FDD-LTE?

On the box it only says "TD-LTE". Mine is the vmall.com 32GB gold version. Everything has been snappy. Only lag I notice is when pressing multi-task button, there's noticeable delay until the list of recent apps show up. Also, I notice navigation bar, toggles, settings, icons, pretty much all the UI aspects look like Android L, perhaps Huawei is already working on L and basing the Emotion 3.0 from L?
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-TL10 using XDA Free mobile app

I own the TL10 version too for 3 weeks now. I'm living in Switzerland and can confirm LTE works here.
Fulvian said:
I decided to get the phone because I'm too worried about Note 4 battery life, Xperia Z3 being too small, unable to get the latest Pantech phones (A910 & A920) due to their recent bankruptcy which scared off my usual supplier and also the unavailability of Vibe Z2 Pro at the time. Those were the other phones I had considered before settling with Mate 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly the same for me except I didn't know that Pantech brand.
Battery life is impressive. It's due to a good battery management. For example, Mate 7 notices you when Google Play services are running in background so you can stop the processes. There's also a "stamina" mode wich only enables phone calls and SMS. I got 2% drain in one whole day!
Yesterday my mate 7 became hot, I had to restart it because it was not responding anymore. It's my first problem with mate 7 since I have it. Anyway, I think that kind of problems are normal in every Android device. I'm also looking forward a root solution. Before, all my contacts were synchronized with Google but sadly it's not possible to keep it that way with EMUI. I had to import it (wich was very easy) to EMUI contacts manager.
I have some problems with special characters in french (like é, à, etc..) They are replaced with a chinese character.
getmobilephone said:
We can remotely root the device for you.
GetMobilePhone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible to know how?

Inspecteur_Gadget said:
I own the TL10 version too for 3 weeks now. I'm living in Switzerland and can confirm LTE works here.
Is it possible to know how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are not hiding anything from the xda community though.
We can offer you the code to root, however, during the last step and the most important step of recovery, it requires a Chinese software to proceed, of which it will be difficult for one to perform who cannot read Chinese.
If it is necessary, we can remotely root this device for you, and for our customers of course.

getmobilephone said:
We are not hiding anything from the xda community though.
We can offer you the code to root, however, during the last step and the most important step of recovery, it requires a Chinese software to proceed, of which it will be difficult for one to perform who cannot read Chinese.
If it is necessary, we can remotely root this device for you, and for our customers of course.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm currently learning chinese but I admit I can't understand by myself a root process. Anyway, I can follow a step by step guide. I found two differents ways to root on Baidu but in both, the comments suggest that it doesn't work, so I haven't tried
I unlocked successfully the bootloader. If you can share any link that can help me to root it, I'll be eternally grateful to you

Inspecteur_Gadget said:
I'm currently learning chinese but I admit I can't understand by myself a root process. Anyway, I can follow a step by step guide. I found two differents ways to root on Baidu but in both, the comments suggest that it doesn't work, so I haven't tried
I unlocked successfully the bootloader. If you can share any link that can help me to root it, I'll be eternally grateful to you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are glad to do this for you.
In two days, we will post a detailed instruction for rooting the AM7, for xda community members.

Pulled the trigger.
So I bought this phone, about a week ago, unicom compatible version mt7-tl10. I had actually gone with the mx4 because i wanted a better camera while in china, was currently using my note 3. I returned the mx4 after a day..... it was more buggy than 1.5 used to be haha. Random gcm pushes not happening, app crashing etc, freezes, and battery drains. They will probably sort it out, but I wasn't willing to wait weeks as i needed a functional daily driver so I picked it up at beijing local department store, for 3650rmb, not a bad price compared to what amazon etc are charging.
So my first impressions of the phone, which came with the flip leather case, is that like the cliche marketing pics of the guy in the sand, it is a classy looking phone. The thin bezels are amazing, and it just feels a lot nicer in the hand than my note 3. Now On my note 3 I have a spigen case, so the flip is definitely a thinner device. Caseless it fits in my hands very well, I have large hands but by no means ogre fists and everything is very reachable. I have been partial to large devices, owning every iteration of the note, as well as the ridiculous asus fonepad lol.
Watching reviews i was worried about the Nit* level in screen brightness, but the screen is very clear and crisp, pretty good colour reproduction, definitely not the saturated intensity of a samsung amoled screen, but very nice to watch netflix etc on. It is very responsive and has glove mode in the options so when the temperature drops a bit more I will give that feature a try.
Battery life is insane. Note 3 is no slouch, but this has had days of 7 to 8 hours of screen on time for me, with csip calls, 8 email accounts, 3 on push, wechat, whatsapp, telegram, instagram and a bunch of other daily apps i use... was at 20% in the evening.
Call quality has been decent although i have only used voip programs to make calls, over vpn. I will note that the wifi connectivity is much more stable than my note 3. I get better signal consistently on wifi, which is nice, as I am dependant on it for the most part for internet connectivity, data rates on a pay as go plan in beijing are murder. That said, 3g, 4g, lte all work great and i get very good signal and asu rates on this phone. I know the radio's are optimized vs my NA note 3 but its nice to have consistent signal all over the city with such spotty coverage.
So from a hardware standpoint, this phone feels and works like a quality product, which is what I Think huawei was aiming for..
Now from a software standpoint.. emui is nice, but it's not quite there yet. Without root and xposed modules it's even more of an issue, as there are root fixes for lots of the problems I have experienced.
Starting with the positives, the overall experience has been fluid and smooth, I have not experienced any of the slowdowns mentioned, video playback is stutter free, memory speed seems up to par with decent load times . I do really like the huawei multi tasking implementation on this rom, as I tend to cut and paste and switch between browser and apps quite frequently. Some of the pro reviews complained about the battery consumption monitor... but I find it to be quite useful, allowing me to micro manage apps if I choose, you can always set it to ignore the app after the first warning. Now that said, you may run into issues with non default apps for things like email (i m currently trying out the boxer client). I was doing push tests as i had my note 3 to compare, on same wifi etc... and emails were not coming through... so what i found is, you have to go in and give third party apps from the google play store certain permissions, the ability to run after the screen is off, to startup when device starts up etc... its actually quite useful to have such easy controls for these things, but if you don't know about them... it created a giant headache for me trying to figure out why push wasn't coming through. I thought it was my install of google play services etc... not allowing GCM push's to arrive. nope, just battery and permission settings, once go through for one app, you can easily do it for all the apps you want. Battery life is amazing as a result, as things like yahoo weather and other apps i used to use, were just killing my battery... now on my note i have better battery stats, gsam, wakelock detector.. the whole enchilada in terms of utils for optimizing battery life because i have had problems, even resorted to watch dog combined with greenify, because the wakes that were hidden from all my utils. On my huawei, i dont have any of the tools, the permissions, battery drain detection seem to keep things in check, and google services etc isn;t draining either. I used to find on other non google play native roms, that play services would run amok with battery. So far so good.
The most annoying issue presently is the default app selection. On some apps it works bringing up selected apps that make sense, click a picture selection in whatsapp , brings up gallery as an option. Trying to set my profile pic in another app i use, brings up an array of random useless apps that do not really have anything to do with a picture selection. Now without root or Xposed you cannot change the default apps that come up.. so i m stuck with this bug. I tried a workaround by installing a bunch of file managers to see if they could randomly pop up in the list...only es fileexplorer did and not the right option for it of a standard file browse.
The other major thing i have experienced , and i think it just be me, or my device specifically is finger print accuracy.. now watching all the reviews it looked phenomenal... now maybe its because i have a case on, big fingers or something, but i can only get about 50% accuracy in unlocking my phone with it.. It might be a technique thing too, so I m putting the caveat there.
The other issue, which is one of the reasons I like android over IOS, is the app drawer. Again without root, i dont think I it comes up. Reading above someone has said that they could not get an app drawer to work..I have not tried to install nova as I want to wait until rooted to use it. I find it is easy to lose track of the apps you have with a whole mess of folders stashed away... I like very open pages, with a few widgets but it is hard to have that experience if you have a lot of apps. Now you can just shove all of them into a single folder but it takes 4 to 5 actions to get to the app you want, that is too much for me. I like 3 actions at most, with nova it was app drawer, scroll, click in, worst case. Now its swipe, search for folder, click folder, swipe, to correct folder page, if you have more than 6 apps in folder. Its not the end of the world, but being used to nova style, it shouldn't have to be this way either.
One thing about the notification bar that at first was annoying, until i had a aha moment where i realized it was much more clever than i thought. The notification pull down is actually subdivided into two hotzones. On the left is notifications when you pull down, and on the right is shortcuts to system things, like screen brightness, screenshot, data toggle etc. Now at first i thought i was just getting random selections, until i realized there are hotzones at the top for this.. Another aspect i like is the timeline esque notifications, that give you timestamps and a lot of access to actions like deleting emails, replying etc right from the notification bar as an option... saves a couple clicks so it s a nice touch.
Now another issue I have had is widget display... certain apps do not like to play nice with the grid and end up taking way to much room, and do not adjust properly. One app in particular is network signal info pro the 1x1 widgets take up double the space, and the larger ones block off the screen. On touchwiz i have no issues lining corner to corner with these widgets, so i know its emui in this case.
Overall I find this phone to be a good experience, as I mainly use email and webbrowsing for work, the mega screen on time, and large viewing space make this a pleasant experience. Everyone uses their device differently so I can't say if its a good fit for me... but vs my note three, one the few niggles get ironed out with updates It will remain my daily device for the forseeable future... and for the price vs the note4 or edge...(although the cool factor of the edge is hard to resist) the battery life and screen size are hard to pass up... granted note 4 has higher res..but that just kills battery life, and the ppi is good enough for my purposes, i dont really notice the difference unless i look really closely..but if you have a six inch phone, that is the beauty, you dont have to face hug it to see things.
As for other comparitives, i played around with all the other devices listed... the lenovo Z2 pro.. while having an amazing screen and battery as well, and a ridiculously good camera comparitively, the software experience just wasnt there yet, and having used a k900 before, i wasn't optimistic that lenovo's software team is there yet... by next year they will be a major player i m sure, but it will take 6 to 8 months before that new resource and developer allocation makes a dent in user experience. As i said the mx4 was one of the worst software experiences i have had, now, to be fair it was not and international version, so maybe that one plays nice with google services...but mine certainly didnt. Looked at xiaomi... the mi4 is just too small for me, and battery life is a bit suspect, although miui is polished and updated frequently, it feels like all my data is being downloaded to the central servers.. haha, huawei may not be much better, but from my network tests watching wifi traffic, there isn't to many suspicious calls home. ZTE again, software was a bit laggy, same with their luxury brand, nubia... the oneplus and find7 were here, but oppo s marketing strategy lost me.. and comparitively they just dont look as nice as the huawei does... Now its funny because in china huawei has a bad rep as a cheapo garbage phone, with iphone, samsung, sony and xiaomi taking the prestige roles.. but this device has got some looks and questions as to what it is.. and wow really, a huawei lol.
Hope this is useful in decision making..
cheers.

^ didn't wanted to quote the whole post so .. I think this is the first comment review or whatever u may call it, that I read completely and thoroughly . thanks for your thoughts sir. I can't wait for mine to be delivered.

pantmunu said:
^ didn't wanted to quote the whole post so .. I think this is the first comment review or whatever u may call it, that I read completely and thoroughly . thanks for your thoughts sir. I can't wait for mine to be delivered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, just wanted to get it all down so people know what they re in for. I am fortunate in that i have a pretty lax expenditure account in terms of tech upgrades, so if I make a bad choice on a phone, i only have a to put up with it for a few months. But most have to survive at least a year with their device, and I find on a stressful day its the little things, like an email app crashing, or keyboard not responding lol that make the difference between a good and bad day.
I will add that if you don't read pinyin (i dont) you may have to do some guess and test exploration with the themes etc.. the keyboard is their own version or licensed not sure which, of swype that comes with some very asian themes to choose from the store. The theme store is in pinyin for phone themes but its pretty straight forward to figure out, by seeing the pictures and applying them.
I cant stress how much i love the battery life, it might be an ocd issue for me haha, but i always worry about phone dying. I have the Xiaomi 10000mah battery and the anker 12000 mah battery, but i dont need to pocket them anymore... so far today 96% battery with 45 mins of screen time (all my morning emails) and an ZRTP voip call (encryption usually works battery harder) for 30mins... pretty happy about that.

gn0s1s said:
No problem, just wanted to get it all down so people know what they re in for. I am fortunate in that i have a pretty lax expenditure account in terms of tech upgrades, so if I make a bad choice on a phone, i only have a to put up with it for a few months. But most have to survive at least a year with their device, and I find on a stressful day its the little things, like an email app crashing, or keyboard not responding lol that make the difference between a good and bad day.
I will add that if you don't read pinyin (i dont) you may have to do some guess and test exploration with the themes etc.. the keyboard is their own version or licensed not sure which, of swype that comes with some very asian themes to choose from the store. The theme store is in pinyin for phone themes but its pretty straight forward to figure out, by seeing the pictures and applying them.
I cant stress how much i love the battery life, it might be an ocd issue for me haha, but i always worry about phone dying. I have the Xiaomi 10000mah battery and the anker 12000 mah battery, but i dont need to pocket them anymore... so far today 96% battery with 45 mins of screen time (all my morning emails) and an ZRTP voip call (encryption usually works battery harder) for 30mins... pretty happy about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just hope we get good amount of development here. And yeah. Glad about the battery life.

Thanks gn0s1s for that exhaustive review!
As i myself cant still decide whether to get the am7 or lenovo vibe z2 pro, and since you mentioned lenovo vibe z2 pro as one you compared the am7 against, may i ask a question. Have you had an ample time to play with the z2 pro to say that the sw experience is lacking?
Thanks for the answer sir!

Bevor I got me a Ascend Mate 7 I had a LG G3. On my trip to China I wanted to buy my a new phone.
I watched for many different phones (Meizu mx4, Xiaomi Mi4, Oppo Find 7, Lenovo vibe z2 pro and the Mate 7).
Many of them I did not buy because they have no LTE working outside of Europe.... or the lack of quality (Meizu was baaaad).
At the end there was only the z2 pro and the Mate 7 in the ring.
I decided against the z2 pro because I would have not a bigger screen then in the LG G3.... and the Mate 7 look&feel was much better.
Hope that helped.

Very positive experience
Hi,
I am a very new owner of Mate 7 Gold MT7-TL10. Have received my device this morning from getmobilephone (xda forum member). Experience with getmobilephone was simply the best experience i have ever had when getting something online. Really recommended!
First impressions are very positive. Build quality is extraordinary. Screen is better than expected. Phone already has factory installed screen protection on it + nice protective case for the phone.
Before purchasing, was hesitating between Note4, lenovo z2 pro and mate7. I believe that Huawei build quality really beats samsung devices. Mate 7 looks and feels like a high quality product.
No problems with 3G or 4G connections in Belgium (and probably in the most rest of Europe).
Phone is fast and responsive. At the moment feels faster than Note3 or Samsung S5.
So far I cannot comment a lot more about other features, as i would need to use this phone for few days first.
Thanks again for getmobilephone and XDA community for this opportunity.

Hello zilviukas,
I'm also from Belgium and i wish to buy the Mate 7. I prefer the Black One with 3 Go of Ram but no info about this configuration !
The Gold is too much 'bling bling' for me Do you know if the Black with 3 Go of ram come one day ?
Have you photos of your phone and the case inside ? How many time for full charge when the battery is low like 10% ? How many time for receipt your phone in Belgium ?
Have fun with your wonderfull phone !!!
P.S. : Now i use the Note 3 with 3 Go of ram but i'm afraid that mate 7 have not the same power than the Note 3 ( sorry for my english). And how is the lisibility outside and under the sun because the Super Amoled from Samsung is wonderfull !

Hi [email protected],
Regarding the battery it charges fast. I have tried to charge from 10% today to full. It took 2.5 hours (approx 150 minutes). But keep in mind that it has this large battery. And at least up to 60% was charging 1% every minute! Maybe other users can be more precise here, as i didn't check when charging slows down.
Regarding Gold version. As far i as know, only gold has 3GB RAM and 32GB internal. Black an silver have lower specs 2GB/16GB.
Reception of the signal is better than my other devices, Note 2 or Note 3.
I have attached some low res images. Let me know if you need higher quality.

Thank you very much for your reply and the photos. Very beautiful phone and case, the window seem to be very big .. more than my smartcover on my Note 3.
What's the functions with the cover (sleep wake-up, photo, music ... ?).
What's the prize with shipping and how many times for receipt tu Belgium ?
If you sold your phone, Call me for an other belgium user
For photos, if you have other pictures with good Light ... think to me
Edit : very good news for the speed of charging because not usb 3.0 on Mate 7.
The position of the speaker give good sound or not when the phone is on the desk ?
Take the phone in the hand for unlock the phone is not very good because with my Note 3, i push the home button and wake up the phone without to take the phone in hand.
With the cover from Huawei, what's happening with the fingerscan and function wake up when you open the cover ? The cover has a magnet for to keep close or not ?

[email protected] said:
Thank you very much for your reply and the photos. Very beautiful phone and case, the window seem to be very big .. more than my smartcover on my Note 3.
What's the functions with the cover (sleep wake-up, photo, music ... ?).
What's the prize with shipping and how many times for receipt tu Belgium ?
If you sold your phone, Call me for an other belgium user
For photos, if you have other pictures with good Light ... think to me
Edit : very good news for the speed of charging because not usb 3.0 on Mate 7.
The position of the speaker give good sound or not when the phone is on the desk ?
Take the phone in the hand for unlock the phone is not very good because with my Note 3, i push the home button and wake up the phone without to take the phone in hand.
With the cover from Huawei, what's happening with the fingerscan and function wake up when you open the cover ? The cover has a magnet for to keep close or not ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am also in Belgium and i am using the mate 7 32gb 3gb for 1 week now. Excellent phone, very fast, really nothing to say except that as it is a chinese version, i am having chinese writings depsite putting it in english. I am awaiting promptly for a custom rom
4g is working properly here, screen quality is amazing, battery is great, sound quality is excellent ... The only bad idea was from huawei to have put 2 sim cards in 2 different formats. One in Micro sim and one nano Very annoying but honestly, this phone is almost "perfect".

Huawei just tweeted that they have sold 1 million mate 7 in only 1 month. That is only accounting most sales from china (coz the device is not yet available in many markets).
I am hoping that with many people buying mate 7, it will spur development of custom rom for this device.

Are You Keeping The Vivo Air?

I assume most of you own other smartphones so is this one a keeper? Thanks much in advance for your response.

I had mine and sold it to a buddy. It's a very nice phone for the price.
Wrote with my Note 4

I have it and plan on keeping it. It's a great phone, no better option in the price range for now.

robertc88 said:
I assume most of you own other smartphones so is this one a keeper? Thanks much in advance for your response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ill keep it! So I have some minor issues with him!
Experience: Having a custom android skin on it I'm not capable of running some apps that I just learn to need now! Such as gravity box! Software runs smooth and no problems just change the default launcher! It has some minor bugs such as when you start a new text message doest go first to who its the text it just go straight to the place where u type! It's a minor thing but its there!
Phone itself: its so so thin that gets to the point where u can get scared of holding it and dropping it. Its close to mandatory for me to use it with the included PE case which gives me a bit more of grip and adds a bit more thickness to the phone! But you can get use to use it without the case its just that I haven't.
Temperature: the device gets a bit hot around 120°F under heavy use such as gaming, I manage to reduce this by rooting the phone and under clocking the CPU with setcpu the temps went down to 110 105°f!
Camera: its a good one according to the price takes good pictures and video the flash its amazing super powerful my wife took me some pics the other day and I felt like I was running blind! In low lights takes good pics with some hard to notice noise and takes a bit longer to focus but when it does the picture it's better I guess just tries to find the better light and focus!
Sound: the speaker it's good lack of body on the bass but given the thinness of the device it's hard to have a nice bass
With headphones the sound it's really good since comes with DTS sound and this is with the included headphones I pretty sure will have a even better sound with a more expensive headphones
In calls the sound its good a little flat but its ok!
Screen: the screen its pretty good the colors look super nice its bright and lets you have a nice view on what you do! Under direct sound ligth I can tell it needs more power and brightness!
Battery! It can hold a full day with moderated use such as texting and calling some browsing! Under heavy use the CPU will eat the battery like a candy!
It does help to say that a CPU power consumption feature it's on the battery settings and helps to keep the battery a bit longer! Also having smart gestures on drains the battery but having both enabled makes the perfect balance for a full day use!
Plus features: it has some hidden features the CPU super renders the videos at 60fps which makes YouTube movies and other media look super smooth!
Smart gestures work flawless! The phone also let's you customize what each of the 4 gestures can do such as open a specific app or just the camera! Also has smart reminder which makes the phone vibrate when you pick it up and has a message or a misses call!
Over all this is a excellent phone for a 200$ budget its has some drawbacks but again its a 200$ phone and even a 650$ phone it's not perfect! We can't spect to be a 100% happy with a mass production product the built its really good and its a piece of engineering which feels luxury and well build!
Sent from my REVIVED VIVO AIR using XDA mobile app wild taking a poopnap!

robertc88 said:
I assume most of you own other smartphones so is this one a keeper? Thanks much in advance for your response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah man I mean you gotta take this phone for what it is...a 200 dollar phone
When I use this phone and forget the specs this phone is on par with my nexus 5 in terms of how I use it...I'm getting 3 hours/4 hours screen on time that's crazy to me with this 2100 mah battery
The camera is hit or miss but I believe its a camera you have to learn to use to get consistently decent shots...probably start a photo thread later after I go take some pics
And at 200 bucks this thing looks so good hard to argue..if stock lollipop ever makes it on this thing I might hold on to this phone longer than I planned, the hobby of customizing android how we want is part of why were all here and the way manufacturer's are making it harder to root is a huge plus for me that we have a shot with this device
Sent from my VIVO AIR using XDA Free mobile app

robertc88 said:
I assume most of you own other smartphones so is this one a keeper? Thanks much in advance for your response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm definitely keeping it. The main purpose of me getting a low-mid range Android smartphone is to spend less time on the phone. With 1G RAM, I don't expect it to be able to do much quickly and smoothly. I mainly use it for the calendar (Google Calendar), SMS (Google Messenger), E-mail (Mailbox app) and news reading (Twitter & Feedly). It's certainly not built for gaming, video editing or even watching videos.
It's worth it for my needs and it's quite pretty. When BLU releases Lollipop in June/July, it could get even better.

Definitely keeping mine. It's just sooooo pretty
Sent from my 1+1

Don't own one (sorry i don't fit the targeted population of this post) but just wanted to chime in I'm just waiting to see a custom stock ROM appear on the Vivo Air Development page. As soon as that pops up I'm buying this gorgeous phone instantly. Really shame since most phones from Blu already come with stock

aznsephyi said:
Don't own one (sorry i don't fit the targeted population of this post) but just wanted to chime in I'm just waiting to see a custom stock ROM appear on the Vivo Air Development page. As soon as that pops up I'm buying this gorgeous phone instantly. Really shame since most phones from Blu already come with stock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you talking about? What what blu comes stock?
Sent from my VIVO AIR using XDA Free mobile app

I'm keeping it, but...
I'm keeping my Blu Vivo Air, for now. But would really like to see some roms and a good recovery for it. I'm not a programer but I'll test ROMs.
Jeff

It looks great. So keep it.

Definitely keeping mine. It's just an Monster for this range of price :highfive:
i using this phone as my Daily Drive Phone ;D

itsJohnuno said:
What are you talking about? What what blu comes stock?
Sent from my VIVO AIR using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lot of blu phones come with stock android. That's what I'm talking about. the skin on the vivo air is disgusting. Still ended up buying it though. Gotta say it has better battery life than my M8.

I sold it after few weeks use. I brought it because how pretty it was, as soon as I started using it. I just didn't like it, the interface, launcher just ugly. And no custom rom make it even worst. Went back to S4 with google play rom, felt so much better. Now my oneplus two is on its way, I hope I am not making the same mistake again.

There are custom ROMs for the blu vivo air. Google "gionee elife s5.1 needrom". Everything on that page can be flashed to the blu vivo air. This is a re-purposed phone meaning gionee made the phone and sold it to many different company's who gave the phone different names so any stock or custom ROMs or recoverys for any of those phones are also compatible with the blu vivo air.

Community development strength

You're a power user. Can the Nokia 8 keep up? Rate this thread to express how "healthy" the development scene is for the Nokia 8. A higher rating indicates available root methods, kernels, and custom ROMs.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

Locked bootloader. That's it.
Really a bummer on an otherwise outstanding device.

Don’t have complaints about hardware.
Software is buggy
No notifications LED
Camera just F 2.0 is outdated

coolz_hari said:
Don’t have complaints about hardware.
Software is buggy
No notifications LED
Camera just F 2.0 is outdated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you please let us know what bugs are you facing?

Camera app is very slow and occasionally crashes . Each pic takes at least 2-3 seconds .
Whenever you get a call while using cam . Screen freezes .it happens occasionally too.

nokia 8
Hi
just got my nokia 8 yesterday, i must say im truly impressed coming from a 5 years over in samsung phones.
New updates ota updated and overall phone is smooth.
The touch and feel of it feels amazing.... downside is for a phone cover and screen protector was extremely difficult to get so make sure u either order online before hand or simply know where to get it from shops. Found mine tho XD

Theobias said:
Hi
just got my nokia 8 yesterday, i must say im truly impressed coming from a 5 years over in samsung phones.
New updates ota updated and overall phone is smooth.
The touch and feel of it feels amazing.... downside is for a phone cover and screen protector was extremely difficult to get so make sure u either order online before hand or simply know where to get it from shops. Found mine tho XD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Info on which protector you used might be helpful to some as a few folks are experiencing touch issues with them fitted.

mitchst2 said:
Info on which protector you used might be helpful to some as a few folks are experiencing touch issues with them fitted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im just randomly using a tempered glass suggested by the shop vendor.
Still looking for a good fit since the sides has a 1 to 2mm gap.
and also the fingerprint which i work around by pressing and re calibrate fingerprints after installing.
Decent for now. Will have to find a TPU version fully enclosed type. monitoring on ebays/amazon etc

Hi has any android app developer use nokia 8’s to test their apps?
Am considering to get this phone but debugging mode is important for me to develop android apps - im a newbie

its growing, soon we'll all have root!

Lg v20 keep or upgrade

So i had my lg v20 since launch and I kept thinking should I upgrade or still keep it. I was hoping you guys could shed some light and give me advice, as I love my phone but feel like i want something different such as huawei p20 Pro or Google pixel 2.

matas17 said:
So i had my lg v20 since launch and I kept thinking should I upgrade or still keep it. I was hoping you guys could shed some light and give me advice, as I love my phone but feel like i want something different such as huawei p20 Pro or Google pixel 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3 of my last 4 phone purchase were V20s
(We have 7 lines)
My wife got an S9 and I don't see any need to get one or spend three times the price on anything that's been released this year.
The pricing has gotten ridicules and really the one plus 6 is the only other phone that has sparked any interest here. And even it is just not worth double the price of a V20 to me.
Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk

matas17 said:
So i had my lg v20 since launch and I kept thinking should I upgrade or still keep it. I was hoping you guys could shed some light and give me advice, as I love my phone but feel like i want something different such as huawei p20 Pro or Google pixel 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
V20 stock is running low, mostly refurbs and used ones out there. If you got the itch, scratch it if you want, but based on the horrible non support of the V20 by LG I'd move on from LG altogether
Sent from my LG-H910 using XDA Labs

My V20 does everything I want/need it to do. Including the removable battery that I've upgraded to the 10k mAh from ZeroLemon. [emoji106][emoji16][emoji367]
Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

I am keeping mine until I can get the Asus ROG Phone.

Stay with it until the phone dies. No way to upgrade. Not all all! This phone is amazing. Good DAC, good camera, good microphones, 3,5mm in, swappable battery, wide angle camera. I'll stay with mine hopefully for years! But I have to admit that I don't give a **** about updates. Had my galaxy note 4, which unfortunately died, for 2,5 years running with kitkat.

I've got the 918. With the LAF root method, FM radio, removable battery, IR Blaster, wired headphone option... I'm not upgrading anytime soon.
Best phone I've had since the HTC Evo Supersonic.

Braaainz said:
I've got the 918. With the LAF root method, FM radio, removable battery, IR Blaster, wired headphone option... I'm not upgrading anytime soon.
Best phone I've had since the HTC Evo Supersonic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about battery backup.... I m planning to buy it... Please give some advise

bhanu9675 said:
What about battery backup.... I m planning to buy it... Please give some advise
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what you mean about battery backup.
I am still using stock battery but have a zero lemon extended battery for when it starts to go.
The zero lemon bicycle and windshield mounts are great if you use a protective case with the stock battery btw.

I'm now on my second V20, which just had the vibrato motor die on it, but otherwise works perfectly. My ONLY bones to pick: it can't be rooted because of the last OTA update to Oreo, and if you happen to test a lot of apps as I do, it's a power-hungry beast. If I were to upgrade at this point, I would probably go back to a Note 9, since my V20 replaced my rooted Note 4.
The thing I love most about this phone, however - and its a "biggie", for me - is the fact that it's the last flagship phone on the market with a removable battery. I don't care that it's already two gens behind, simply because it quite capably does everything I need it to do, including music player, photography and video recording, casting, and NFC functions, so until someone comes out with an embedded battery, feature-rich phone that REALLY wows me, I see no reason to upgrade. Hope this helps.
Cheers
Sent from my LG-LS997 using XDA Labs

The removable battery is one of the major reasons why I'll use the V20 indefinitely. Too many people have had to buy a new phone after 2 years because the battery died... or pay a lot for a battery replacement.

Same here on the notion of the removable battery. Maybe it's what you grew up with that determines your preference, but I like a phone that I can work on even if I don't need to. I really love the IR blaster. In fact, that's the reason I went back to it. I fancy controlling the TV in whatever restaurant I go! My only issue is the charging port is going bad and I'd like to de-bloat all Sprint's crap. Currently seeking a "How To" if there is one to be found.

I went from a note 4 to this and I'm very happy.
For me... it was the removable battery, screen ratio and I love the second screen.
Love the fact I can see the time while watching Netflix. Or turn on the flashlight with out messing with the phone.
Screen ratio... Movies/tv shows work without wasted space.
Sure, it's not lightening fast like my wife's s8... But the milliseconds I wait don't add up to much. Except the the big bucks I saved. Camera is pretty good, so much to love about this phone.
Also love the flat screen, so much less prone to breaking. Most of the bloatware can be disabled, even without root. Working hot-spot on sprint (with hack) is priceless too.

Apart from battery being changeable, I like that it is easy to repair. I shifted the thermal paste, and that was an easy task. I don't know any other phone where that would be the case. On top of that, I use the audio on high quality headphones. What a shame that LG stops updating, and then also make it difficult for our developers, too.

henrylar said:
Apart from battery being changeable, I like that it is easy to repair. I shifted the thermal paste, and that was an easy task. I don't know any other phone where that would be the case. On top of that, I use the audio on high quality headphones. What a shame that LG stops updating, and then also make it difficult for our developers, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tell me more of this thermal paste shift. Why would you do it, where, how... all that good stuff. Or a link

the link is here
https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20/how-to/changed-thermal-paste-h910-t3782765
It did not make a huge difference for me since I am not using my phone for gaming, but the existing paste in my phone were definitely upon for being removed

Thanks for the link. I followed it and several other articles that it links to. It's not really definitive on if it's a good idea or not. Like you, I don't use it for gaming so I think I'll pass on it. At least until I decide to replace the screen. Saw a post about rooting and altering the profile so it can't run that hot... also not doing that.

Despite the short-coming of the V20 such as battery life and say...CPU Throttling for battery/temps (just delete Thermal-engine-8996.conf), and some weird episodes of LCD burn-in (solvable with KCAL kernels like mk2000), this phone still works well. The only hard-limit that can't be solved, through tweaking, is the fact the SD820 only has 4 CPU threads to execute tasks on. Other than that, the day-to-day of the V20 competes with other phones well-enough.

I agree with everybody else in here. In terms of features, the following phone finder search gives you a good idea about what the current alternatives are:
https://www.gsmarena.com/search.php3?nRamMin=4000&chkCameraUltrawide=selected&chk35mm=selected&chkNFC=selected&chkInfrared=selected&chkFMradio=selected&idCardslot=1&idBatRemovable=1
Cookster128 said:
...and I'd like to de-bloat all Sprint's crap. Currently seeking a "How To" if there is one to be found.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen any Sprint-specific bloat discussions here, probably since most of the old Sprint-based ROMs are already de-bloated. If you are on an unrootable LS997, then here is a brief discussion on the V20 Subreddit about using adb or a package disabler app to remove bloatware.

C D said:
I haven't seen any Sprint-specific bloat discussions here, probably since most of the old Sprint-based ROMs are already de-bloated. If you are on an unrootable LS997, then here is a brief discussion on the V20 Subreddit about using adb or a package disabler app to remove bloatware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this. I'll have to try it out soon.