I positively adore the Quick Circle interface, so much so that I waffled about upgrading my G4 for quite some time cause I didn't want to lose it. I finally sucked under and picked up the G6, and it comes close, but, you know, horseshoes and hand-grenades
The closest they have is an interface that displays basic info in a square opening in the case, activated with a similar magnet sensor. It's not interactive - you can't turn off an alarm, or select whether or not to pick up a call - you still need to open the case. You can't even activate the display to check the time with a double-tap - you need to hit the power button. That I've found, that is. But it's better than the proverbial nothing.
Also, unlike the Quick Circle case for the Stylo and G4, the opening on the cover does not expose the camera, just the power button. There's other cases that expose the power button and the camera, but they aren't interactive, and only barely display the data from the "always on" option.
The location of the window can't change, but has anyone come up with an app (or are there settings I haven't found) to make that square display a little more interactive, and closer to the QC interface?
If I hear it got brought back for the G7, I'll drop this phone like a hot rock, but till then, let's see what I can do.
Related
Well it's not even out for sale yet but we've all seen plenty of reviews & videos giving us a taster of what's in store when we get our hands on one. Of course we're all well aware of the headlining specs - 20.7mpx, waterproofing, small form factor etc. but what about the lesser known bullet points, the small things that may have escaped attention or been quickly glossed over but still contribute to making this a great device. If you have any, share em here. Here's my three -
F2.0 camera aperture - great, nice & big
Dust proof - yes, not just dust resistant like other phones, this is fully dust proof.
Smart window case available - I'll be having one of these. Smart window with smart orientation, awake on opening, and phone still fits in the charging dock when folded back.
For me it came down to the battery life and a quality camera. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
I like how the percentage is inside the battery icon. It saves notification space. I like how they removed the consumer logos from the back of the phone and hid it inside the phone. It looks cleaner.
I'm also liking the 'smart connect' app it comes with. I plug in my headphones, it's set's the volume, opens Google play, starts playing, when I unplug headphones volume gets reset.
It's also got configurable settings for charger dock, headset and normal charger.
The stamina and ultra stamina modes - I wish those and the FM Radio could be ported to AOSP too.
Small thing but coming from exynos devices it's a blessing:
Whenever you hit the power button or double tap, the screen is on_instantly_ no lag or anything. considering how often you wake up your phone that is kinda important!
Something that's been bugging me with my active display is where I have my phone mounted in my car to the right of my steering wheel. It's constantly popping up the time / active display when I move at all. I'm sure this is speeding up battery drain. It also happens a lot when I'm at my desktop at home and at work since I keep the phone nearby, upright in my keyboard's built-in dock or laying flat on the desk between my arms.
While I LOVE the idea, it would be nice to incorporate the option to have it activate via single tap instead of waving over or looking at the device. It comes up a lot when I'm not looking at it and not really waving over it. Any movement near it seems to bring that screen up and since it's not AMOLED, it is lighting every single pixel enough to worry me on drain. I've looked at displaying active display, but then I lose the entire convenience of not having to press the physical power button.
My LG G4 had a double-tap, but I think I would enjoy a single tap or something. Does anyone know of my options to disable the wave or looking at the phone waking but still have convenience? I swear I read there's an option to have it activate on movement of the phone, but not the waving detection... but can't seem to put that together myself.
I feel like a bit of a dunce... I disabled Approach for Moto Display, but left Wake screen when notifications arrive set to On Moto Display and moving the phone works. If I set that to Ambient Display or Off, then moving the phone does nothing at all. It's a temporary solution to my annoying issue, but still no response to a tap on the screen which would be the best option for those needing to disable Approach for Moto Display for whatever their reason.
One thing to make sure you're doing is that you are acknowledging notifications as they come in. You can swipe them tot he left or right to dismiss, but if you do nothing with a notification it will keep lighting the screen up every minute or so until you do.
I did not know this initially and was concerned over how much the phone lit up, after finding this out and acknowledging the notifications as they come in it's gotten a lot better.
I've picked up an LG Stylo 2, but was disappointed to see the Quick Circle interface functionality is gone.
All the specs I read told me the 2 was slightly bigger than the original Stylo, but miracle of miracles, my quick circle case fits it perfectly. Also it's clear that the magnet location is the same, cause when the phone closes, the screen goes blank, but instead of bringing up the Quick Circle, it turns on the new Quick view, a single line of data down the side of the screen. Not as elegant or useful.
Also, the new Quick View case isn't as elegant - the Quick Circle case, when folded back, left the camera and volume buttons exposed, a very useful design.
Has anyone, by any chance, come up with a way to emulate the QC interface on this device?
Title says it all. I will keep it short and sweet.
Upgraded from an OP8. The Oppo definitely feels heavier in the hand and pocket but can attribute this to the ceramic housing. Feels good in the hand, even with the stock case. I did receive the gift pack which had the Kevlar case and that is lovely but the top, bottom and side buttons are exposed to the elements and that has put me off using and I am continuing with the stock case.
Camera - good. Better than the OP8. Better than a Pixel6 Pro? No, almost as good. I am no camera expert so I don't tinker with all the settings, I am more your regular point and shoot user. I rarely shoot video so can't comment much but again no issue, playback is nice and crisp, sharp smooth quality.
Good battery - charges quick, although I'm not convinced the wireless charger is as fast as it claims i.e. 50W.
User experience - this is where I have some gripes. On the whole it is fine and slick and snappy most of the time but...
1. Sometimes there is a moment of freeze/lag/sticks when I have tried to leave an app or switch to another app- not snappy.
2. When I am listening to YouTube via Bluetooth in the car and somebody calls me, the YT playback continues so I hear both the caller and YT. The caller does not hear the YT playback but can hear me. I have tried the various permission settings but no joy.
3. Screen sometimes wakes up with fingerprint. What I mean here is I can place my thumb on the screen and it signs in. However sometimes I have to double tap the screen to wake it up THEN apply my finger to unlock.
4. Power button - does not power down. Have to use volume up and Power button. Not a biggie but quite annoying.
5. No lockdown mode. I badly want this, but again this works in tandem with the power button.
6. No alert slider like the OnePlus range (which I hear is ditching the alert slider which means they will be using and rebranding Oppo hardware going forward). I usually have my phone on vibrate or silent, very rarely on Loud/ringtones. A helpful XDA user advised me to use the vibrate button to switch between silent and vibrate.
7. I use the Podcast Addict app. The player appears in the banner (pull down) even after I have closed the app. Annoying. This did not happen on the OP8, ever.
Appreciate 6 of the 7 above are software issues and this might be a ColorOS thing and needs tidying up. If anyone has answers to the above that can help me, please do let me know.
I like my phone. Is it significantly better than my OP8? No... better camera but on a day to day, that's it. Again this comes down to what people use their phones for. I am not a gamer so the new SD8.1 will be of use to others.
Thanks all
I trust user reviews more than the mainstream glowing it's great reviews...
All Androids need to be optimized to get the best performance. Workarounds need to be found for issues.
Try modifying the notification settings for Pod Addict. For badly behaving apps I will turn off notifications for them completely... or just take out the trash
This setting is useful to kill ads globally:
Hello all!
My Razer Phone 2 stopped charging. This is how my Razer Phone 1 also died, basically the charging port went bad, then worse, then died completely.
Anyway I got the Nothing instead, since price and specs fit me pretty fine.
However I want to change a few things. I might be blind in the settings menu, but I'm hoping you'll still help me!
I got a few points I'd like changed, and no amount of googling helped me here:
1. The phone turns on the screen when I pick it up. But there are often mistakes, and the screen just turns on by itself when I'm walking with it in my hand, or in my pocket. It has happened already a few times, after having for phone for 48 hours, that I have dismissed some notifications because of this. Can I stop this function all together?
2. I can also press the screen once and the screen will turn on. This is also a problem when the phone is in my pocket. On my Razer I had to double tap and it still turned on sometimes in my pocket. I ran the Razer phone with Nova Launcher, maybe I have to change to this launcher from the Nothing one to get this double tap feature?
3. I can turn off the screen by double tapping on the home screen. That is a feature I always use and appreciate. I never put the phone screen down so the lights on the backside won't get used. I always double tap to turn on the screen, check for notifications, and double tap to turn the screen off should there be no notifications. Nothing phone won't turn off the screen with a double tap unless I actually unlock it, so I can't do a quick check for notifications by double tapping and double tapping again. It won't matter if the phone is on a table, but I frequently check notifications and put the phone back to my pocket, and having to go for the screen button is not exactly for me. Do I need Nova Launcher here?
4. I NEVER use sounds on my phone, except for the alarms. When someone calls me while the screen is turned off, the screen turns off and I get vibration. If the screen is on I won't get any vibration from it, only a visual notification which is easy to overlook if I let it sit with the screen on but locked if I just checked notifications. Also I like the feedback in my hands in case I am doing something on the phone. I already missed some calls because of this. Can it be changed?
5. Is it possible to manipulate the glyph on the backside? I found a "secret" setting which makes them light up to the music playing, but that became pretty annoying just after 5 seconds. Are there some basic things you can do with the light? Like making a custom event and then specify how the light should react? Could be something simple like when a call is active the lights come on very dim? Maybe a 3rd party app someone did?
6. The Razer Phone 2 (and 1) has HUGE speakers in the top and bottom, so I have been living with pretty big bezels. The Nothing has the same size but the phone is almost 100% screen. If I need to go to the bottom and press a back button or something, I cannot reach anymore like on the Razer. Is there a way to add some virtual bezels on Android?
7. I really hate this "notch" or "camera bump". It is a bit of the same as number 6, but can I remove it completely, so the top of the screen where the camera is won't be used at all? The whole line, effectively adding more bezel here too.
I am probably picky, but I have used my phone in a specific way for my whole life, and I am not really good with changes. Also I think a phone should adapt to my needs, and I shouldn't adapt to it.
Thanks for reading and hopefully helping
To be honest, sounds like the Nothing Phone isn't the right device for you.
I like to know the answer to question 1 too.
Jelle99 said:
Hello all!
My Razer Phone 2 stopped charging. This is how my Razer Phone 1 also died, basically the charging port went bad, then worse, then died completely.
Anyway I got the Nothing instead, since price and specs fit me pretty fine.
However I want to change a few things. I might be blind in the settings menu, but I'm hoping you'll still help me!
I got a few points I'd like changed, and no amount of googling helped me here:
1. The phone turns on the screen when I pick it up. But there are often mistakes, and the screen just turns on by itself when I'm walking with it in my hand, or in my pocket. It has happened already a few times, after having for phone for 48 hours, that I have dismissed some notifications because of this. Can I stop this function all together?
2. I can also press the screen once and the screen will turn on. This is also a problem when the phone is in my pocket. On my Razer I had to double tap and it still turned on sometimes in my pocket. I ran the Razer phone with Nova Launcher, maybe I have to change to this launcher from the Nothing one to get this double tap feature?
3. I can turn off the screen by double tapping on the home screen. That is a feature I always use and appreciate. I never put the phone screen down so the lights on the backside won't get used. I always double tap to turn on the screen, check for notifications, and double tap to turn the screen off should there be no notifications. Nothing phone won't turn off the screen with a double tap unless I actually unlock it, so I can't do a quick check for notifications by double tapping and double tapping again. It won't matter if the phone is on a table, but I frequently check notifications and put the phone back to my pocket, and having to go for the screen button is not exactly for me. Do I need Nova Launcher here?
4. I NEVER use sounds on my phone, except for the alarms. When someone calls me while the screen is turned off, the screen turns off and I get vibration. If the screen is on I won't get any vibration from it, only a visual notification which is easy to overlook if I let it sit with the screen on but locked if I just checked notifications. Also I like the feedback in my hands in case I am doing something on the phone. I already missed some calls because of this. Can it be changed?
5. Is it possible to manipulate the glyph on the backside? I found a "secret" setting which makes them light up to the music playing, but that became pretty annoying just after 5 seconds. Are there some basic things you can do with the light? Like making a custom event and then specify how the light should react? Could be something simple like when a call is active the lights come on very dim? Maybe a 3rd party app someone did?
6. The Razer Phone 2 (and 1) has HUGE speakers in the top and bottom, so I have been living with pretty big bezels. The Nothing has the same size but the phone is almost 100% screen. If I need to go to the bottom and press a back button or something, I cannot reach anymore like on the Razer. Is there a way to add some virtual bezels on Android?
7. I really hate this "notch" or "camera bump". It is a bit of the same as number 6, but can I remove it completely, so the top of the screen where the camera is won't be used at all? The whole line, effectively adding more bezel here too.
I am probably picky, but I have used my phone in a specific way for my whole life, and I am not really good with changes. Also I think a phone should adapt to my needs, and I shouldn't adapt to it.
Thanks for reading and hopefully helping
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. There is an option to turn this feature off under Display->Lock Screen called Lift to show lock screen.
2. Don't know, but you should try using the Nova Launcher.
3. Don't know, but you should try using the Nova Launcher.
4. Very niche use case, you can try to search some root methods.
5. There is root app which can control the light you can try that.
6. and 7. There should be some root apps or magisk modules which allows to do that.
To 2: (I dont know if this works on NothingOS since im on Paranoid Android. But both are very near to stock, maybe it works for you or for others.) I disabled that tap to activate setting and am using fingerprint while screen is off. This can also act as a quick look for notifications, for that i tap where the fingerprint reader is really short so it fails to unlock. This way only the always on display shows up for 3-4 seconds.
Nova wont change anything lockscreen related.
To 5: If you have root, time and like playing around with commands and apps, you can try tasker. Since im on Paranoid Android and the glyphs arent really implemented yet, i made a task that fits my needs perfect.
To your other problems: i think too, the phone should adapt to the user. So i suggest you to wait, i guess there will come roms that are way more customizable.
And maybe a pixel would fit your needings better than this phone because there is a big custom rom scene around.