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Fed up with my Sensation, I purchased a Nexus 4 yesterday, which is supposed to hit the mail in two days. Having been with HTC for pretty much all of the time I've ever used Android, since the G1(though honestly, the G1 or MT3G weren't mine, the myTouch 4G and Sensation is mine), moving to another manufacturer is scary in a way. So I got a few questions.
1. Moving away from a removable battery and SD Card slot. I don't really resent it, but it's getting used to it that's the issue. In case I need to cut power and immediately shut off the Nexus, what should I do? All the other phones were simply a battery pull.
2. I got myself a 16GB Nexus 4, but I LOVE to download ****. Is it worth depending totally on Google Music, totally on Google Web Albums, etc? I have songs on Google Music, but I don't use it since all of my songs are stored locally. Can't use Google Music without a data connection, and I can't have a data connection in a train underground.
3. The size. It took me months to get comfortable with my Sensation's 4.3 inch screen, coming from a 3.8 inch screen. For anyone that came from any 4.3 inch or below, did you find the phone comfortable? I wasn't really buying based on comfort or anything, but why not ask.
4. With the Sensation, I dropped it. A lot. One time, I accidentally threw it across a room. Through all the damage it's taken, the screen has remained totally intact, and very minimal scratching, absolutely the most impressive screen ever (wish it didn't have a ghosting issue). How does the Nexus 4 fare? And that back glass... I haven't heard good things about it. How does that fare?
5. Rooting. I rooted my Sensation the minute I opened the box, already had the tools and such needed to root. The thing was, I was not using Sense. I HATE HTC Sense, but the camera is still phenomenal. I only wanted to get my hands on some AOSP flavored ROMs. Since the Nexus 4 is obviously already vanilla, should I even bother rooting? I mean, I occasionally use ScreenRecorder and such, but I don't want to root just for that. (I am, however, unlocking the bootloader). Should I even root?
6. Wireless charging.. No way in hell I'm buying the $60 orb, when I can plug in a 10 cent charger. But, is there any cheaper wireless charging pads? I'd definitely go for a cheap one, but $60... No thanks.
7. NFC. Does Google still give the free $10 to Nexus users who download the Wallet app? Because I could really use a double cheeseburger, and be a show off.
8. In another thread, I noticed that the Nexus 4 has had way more than 2 variants, the current being 303K. Is this just simply revisions, or anything major? Should I strive to get a pretty one?
That's all, that you awesome people, thank you. :fingers-crossed:
1. Holding the power button will force the device to shut down. Keep it held and it’ll boot up again.
2. Upload all your music to Google Music. Pin the albums you plan on listening to for offline use.
3. My last phone was the SGS2 which was (I think) 4.2” and I’ve no problems adjusting. By most accounts, the N4’s size is not an issue. It’s pocketable and the weight makes it feel solid, not heavy.
4. All bets are off if you drop or throw your N4. Some people say theirs survived. Others have stories of shattered glass. The takeaway is this: At least TRY to not drop or throw your N4.
The rear glass will scratch even if you take good care of it. You’ll need some sort of protection for it. I highly recommend the skins from dbrand.com
5. Root if you use apps that require root access. It’s that simple. Personally, I didn’t even bother using the stock ROM on the N4. I unlocked the bootloader and flashed CM10 right away.
6-8: Don’t know. I’ll leave this to others.
Former sensation owner here. Welcome mate, welcome to heaven.
1. You can press and hold power button for 10 seconds, and it will cut the power from battery immediately, like pulling the battery off.
2. I dont use google music tho, but i have 5gigs of music in my N4, and its enough for me. You can use combine between those two if you want more music.
3. Its very comfortable for me, typing is a pleasure in this phone. You will easily get used to it.
4. Buy a case, or bumper, or it will be shattered if you drop it, this glass back is very vulnerable.
5. I rooted my phone since my first 10 minutes with it, unlock it too, unlocking and rooting is way easier than any other phone. I suggest you to unlock its bootloader first, since it will wipe your data, just in case you want to try custom rom and kernel you dont have to set it up from scratch.
6. Any Qi wireless charger is compatible, search on google for more info.
7. I am not in USA
8. The difference is minimal, very minor. As long as it performs well, nothing to be worried about that number. Mine is 301k and it performs pretty well.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Welcome to Nexus 4. As a Sensation owner, I can share some of my impressions. I've had my N4 for about a month.
1) I don't really miss the removable battery. My battery lasts all day with moderate use, less with heavy use. Instead of a battery pull, hold the power button.
2) I have the 16gb. I just had to ween myself off downloading and installing any and every app I thought I might want/use/just need to have. I use Google drive, Google music, dropbox. Still have space to keep a Nandroid backup on the phone (but not 2).
3/4) Size. The sensation is thicker, heavier and much more solid. I have an Otterbox case and screen protector on the Sensation. Only dropped it on carpet once.I would expect the it to survive a fall onto a hard surface with the case. The Nexus, on the other hand feels fragile. I have a bumper case and front and read screen protectors. I'm worried about dropping it. There are beefier cases out there. Discounted Squaretrade warranty will help if I do break it. I went a week or 2 without screen protection, no scratches. The phone is the only thing that goes into whatever pocket I put it in.
5) No reason to not root. You can always un-root. I stayed rooted stock ROM until a couple weeks ago. Been using Faux123 kernel with stock ROM. Then decided to start flashing Roms. I'm running Xylon with Faux123 mainline turbo boost kernel. Xylon seems to have the right mix of customization options while being stable. Getting good battery life, and could make it better, but I prefer performance over battery.
6) I've got chargers and more chargers. I don't need wireless charging. My higher mA chargers charge the Nexus fast.
7) Don't think so, because they converted my $10 credit on wallet to a physical debit card. I loaded that card into wallet, same difference...
8) Not sure about this one, haven't done any research on this.
Hope this helps. Enjoy the new toy.
Welcome to the club. The transition to the bigger phone was a little difficult, but totally doable. My wife went from her Glacier to a Note 2, if you can imagine that!
The storage thing may be an issue for you. You get just under 13gb of usable space on a 16gb model.
Get a case. This phone can't take a beating like an HTC. It's glass, and fairly thin glass at that.
Once the driver is installed, it literally takes 5 minutes to unlock the bootloader and root. Just do it and be happy. Think, ROMs galore. The stock ROM doesn't even have a T9 dialer. Who wants a third party dialer? Not me.
I forgot to mention, you will have to update your ADB drivers, which turned into a PITA for me. Probably because my laptop is a dinosaur. I managed to get Fastboot working, that's all you really need.
1. Hold power.
2. I don't keep music on my 8gb, I use pandora, but I do keep podcasts on there and it hold a few hours. It may come down to you needing a secodary device for music if you often find yourself in situations where you have no data connection but want to listen to music. I use dropbox for pics but it is essentially the same answer.
3. 4.3" is perfect to me, I have XL hands (if rubber gloves are anything to go by) and I can't touch the top right corner (when holding with my left hand) of the n4 which is something I could do with the sensation. If you are used to one hand operation right now, chances are there will be an adjustment and somethings you'll just have to use 2 hands for.
4. I have a launch device and nothing is damaged, yet, the sensation has the benefit of the removable casing which I love and makes for cheap mistakes (new housing is like $15) you aren't going to get any cheap mistakes with the N4. I had a tpu case and now have the poetic bumper (also have a superlegerra in the mail) the bumper is fine for me but I don't drop my phone, for the wife I got the superlegerra which should offer otterbox type protection.
5. Unlock the bootloader and make your decision on roms later
6. There are alternatives in the $40 range, it's a gimmick so I'm not even willing to spend that much.
7. Nope. NFC Task Launcher is awesome though and they have discounted tags in their app store so buy from there.
8. I'm on a launch device and I have a brand new one coming tomorrow...I'll let you know. I haven't had any issues with my current one though.
p.s. N4>>>>>>>Sensation running JB, you will be much happier.
Yay, replies Thanks guys!
A few more questions, and probably more to come later;
I'm seeing any Qi wireless charging mat should work with the Nexus 4. However, when the Lumia 920/820's mat was released (using Qi's tech), it kept connecting and disconnecting with the Nexus 4. This leads me to think that some mats may not work with it, even if it is a Qi mat. Has anyone experienced this?
And secondly, photo quality. That's a big deal for me. The Sensation was able to pull off some amazing pictures, and even more amazing photos when used with the HQ mod we had. Sadly it was onky in HTC Sense ROMa, and... i hate Sense. But when I switched to an AOSP ROM, picture quality was just horrible. Focusing was a nightmare, and we couldn't focus in video (not sure who's issue this is a part of). So, is picture quality amazing? As in, "damn, this came from a phone" I would Google some images taken with the N4, but I have a feeling they may be all slightly biased to look better than they really would under regular conditions.
Can you refocus the camera while recording video? Couldn't do it on Sensation AOSP ROMs. The camera was the only reason I ever kept going back to sense.
Edit: oh, and LTE! I hear the Nexus 4 already has LTE present, just inactive, and have seen a few activate it. Is it Band 4 LTE only? Does T-Mobile's new LTE network use this band? It would be nice to see some LTE on my Nexus, since their HSPA+ "4G" has become unbearably slow... Sometimes EDGE is faster, it's disappointing.
A note for #1, everyone is right about holding the power button to kill it. One thing I was curious about before I got mine, is what if its frozen. Holding the button button never fails. Doesn't matter if you have a sod, overclock problem, or anything else.
Yet another question, this one being shipping with incompetent-ass UPS. How long did it take for the phone to hit your doorstep? Knowing the fools that work at the UPS in my area, they'll find a way to screw this up. It's already been almost a day since I got a tracking number, and UPS has no records of it yet.
If it wasn't clear, I'm anxious as hell.
GazaIan said:
Yet another question, this one being shipping with incompetent-ass UPS. How long did it take for the phone to hit your doorstep? Knowing the fools that work at the UPS in my area, they'll find a way to screw this up. It's already been almost a day since I got a tracking number, and UPS has no records of it yet.
If it wasn't clear, I'm anxious as hell.
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Click to collapse
Should only take two days. Sign up for UPS my choice.
I will only say I'm coming from an HTC Inspire with only five days of use and I have already rooted and fallen in love with this phone. I don't miss Sense at all and I got used to the larger screen size, also 4.3 to 4.7, rather quickly. Now, when I pick up my Inspire, it looks and feels small. My Inspire does feel more durable, so I will try to be very careful with this phone, as I have also not read good things about the back glass. It took a day to show up in UPS, but then it delivered the next day.
As promised, although I only got a relatively short hands on, the newest revision of the n4 is slightly better built compared to my launch device. There isn't anything glaring but mine creaks a bit by the micro usb port but on the new one it feels completely solid. They've also added a few little things (extra "stickers" and such) in the packaging and the screen protector seems to be trimmed to better fit with a case almost as if LG wants you to use it.
GazaIan said:
Yay, replies Thanks guys!
A few more questions, and probably more to come later;
I'm seeing any Qi wireless charging mat should work with the Nexus 4. However, when the Lumia 920/820's mat was released (using Qi's tech), it kept connecting and disconnecting with the Nexus 4. This leads me to think that some mats may not work with it, even if it is a Qi mat. Has anyone experienced this?
And secondly, photo quality. That's a big deal for me. The Sensation was able to pull off some amazing pictures, and even more amazing photos when used with the HQ mod we had. Sadly it was onky in HTC Sense ROMa, and... i hate Sense. But when I switched to an AOSP ROM, picture quality was just horrible. Focusing was a nightmare, and we couldn't focus in video (not sure who's issue this is a part of). So, is picture quality amazing? As in, "damn, this came from a phone" I would Google some images taken with the N4, but I have a feeling they may be all slightly biased to look better than they really would under regular conditions.
Can you refocus the camera while recording video? Couldn't do it on Sensation AOSP ROMs. The camera was the only reason I ever kept going back to sense.
Edit: oh, and LTE! I hear the Nexus 4 already has LTE present, just inactive, and have seen a few activate it. Is it Band 4 LTE only? Does T-Mobile's new LTE network use this band? It would be nice to see some LTE on my Nexus, since their HSPA+ "4G" has become unbearably slow... Sometimes EDGE is faster, it's disappointing.
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Click to collapse
The camera is much better on the n4, HDR mode alone is worth the upgrade IMO. I can't seem to refocus the camera during video, I might be doing something wrong since I rarely record video with my phone so I'm not that familiar with it.
LTE is inactive, you have to jump through a few hoops to get it going, TMO LTE is a ways away but they are supposed to be using band 4 IIRC. Not sure why your fauxG is slow though, nearly everybody I know has iphone 5's on verizon LTE and my n4 (on straight talk TMO) is usually comparable when it comes to data speeds (~10Mbps down ~3Mbps up) but the latency is typically worse.
GazaIan said:
Yet another question, this one being shipping with incompetent-ass UPS. How long did it take for the phone to hit your doorstep? Knowing the fools that work at the UPS in my area, they'll find a way to screw this up. It's already been almost a day since I got a tracking number, and UPS has no records of it yet.
If it wasn't clear, I'm anxious as hell.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shipped on monday and I got it today (so 2 day air was really 1.)
2. I use Spotify and I'm very happy with it. Google Music would be the same, no need to have all the music stored locally, just sync what you want.
3. I was also afraid of it. And I hate big phones, 4,7" is not the bigger on the market, but I still notice it when I carry it in my pocket. I seems like more performance == bigger phones :crying:
4. 3 falls, 1 scratched screen. I had to send it to repair, 150 € :crying:. Now, I always have it in a case.
5. I have not rooted or flashed the phone. I come from a Samsung Galaxy S1 with cooked roms, but I love stock N4 so I'm not thinking on it.
6. I think wireless charging is the most useless feature on a phone. You still have to stop charging it to answer calls (unless you use a headset), so I prefer wire chargers (just my opinion).
Extra: I think N4 is the best mobile you can buy today in terms on price/quality relation
estallings15 said:
Should only take two days. Sign up for UPS my choice.
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Click to collapse
Tried to sign up, but apparently my name wasn't found in any public records, and I couldn't be verified. It's amazing how much public records of me are actually available, but UPS can't find one. Just another reason to hate UPS, I guess.
threeclaws said:
LTE is inactive, you have to jump through a few hoops to get it going, TMO LTE is a ways away but they are supposed to be using band 4 IIRC. Not sure why your fauxG is slow though, nearly everybody I know has iphone 5's on verizon LTE and my n4 (on straight talk TMO) is usually comparable when it comes to data speeds (~10Mbps down ~3Mbps up) but the latency is typically worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I first started using T-Mobile's HSPA, it was pretty fast, and in other locations it's still blazing fast. But ever since late 2012, the speeds have just slowed to crawl. In some cases, I get better speeds on EDGE. it's frightening. I'm willing to jump through hoops to get LTE, because you know... It's freaking LTE. Why not? (Aside from the battery issues I'm gonna have, thanks to no VoLTE).
rcampos said:
2. I use Spotify and I'm very happy with it. Google Music would be the same, no need to have all the music stored locally, just sync what you want.
3. I was also afraid of it. And I hate big phones, 4,7" is not the bigger on the market, but I still notice it when I carry it in my pocket. I seems like more performance == bigger phones :crying:
4. 3 falls, 1 scratched screen. I had to send it to repair, 150 € :crying:. Now, I always have it in a case.
5. I have not rooted or flashed the phone. I come from a Samsung Galaxy S1 with cooked roms, but I love stock N4 so I'm not thinking on it.
6. I think wireless charging is the most useless feature on a phone. You still have to stop charging it to answer calls (unless you use a headset), so I prefer wire chargers (just my opinion).
Extra: I think N4 is the best mobile you can buy today in terms on price/quality relation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm gonna just start using Google Music again. I haven't used it in months, and forgot that songs still upload, so I have 3000+ songs on it, some of which I don't even like. As for wireless charging, that's my issue with it... and not just talking on the phone, but any general use. Why pay $60 for a charger where I have to stop charging my phone to do anything that involves holding my phone? At the same time, I'm someone who frequently forgets to put the damn phone on the charger, so it could help too.
Does anyone know the wireless charging range? I have a nightstand right next to my bed, I may just get a large powermat or something, install directly under the highest part of my nightstand, so I can charge with basically my nightstand. I heard the older ones we're only 5mm, and the surface of my nightstand is a around an inch thick. I've seen the mod before with a desk, so I know I can do it.
Also, my Nexus 4 has finally arrived unfortunately I won't be at my house for another 4 hours, and apparently they left it a my doorstep (can they do that? I have never seen them leave expensive packages like that). So I'll be on this in 4 hours.. Thanks guys! LD
One final thing, because I'm probably going to root at some point; Unlocking the bootloader is simple "fastboot oem unlock" for this phone, right? If someone can point me in the direction of a rooting and unlocking guide, that'd be sweet. I already have ADB set up, because why not. ADB is a life saver, and a best friend.
Enjoy your new toy. you will love it.
Now I`m not even looking back at my Sensation... maybe someday
So far, I'm loving this phone. What's scary is that it's extremely smooth, and I only now notice some lag on my Sensation. This thing is huge, but way easier to hold than I expected. Took me months to get used to my Sensation. The screen is so sexy :d so far, I've unlocked the boot loader, (to avoid having data i actually need getting wiped out) but haven't rooted yet.
Just have to get my SIM Card cut now, and ill be ready to go! Thanks for all your help guys! I think I'm gonna have a good time in this subforum
Here we go another boring review of the ZF2, I'll try to make it short and sweet...
Canadian Version, Asus Zenfone 2, 4g/64gb Silver version
What I came from?
Samsung Galaxy S5 16g, truly loved this phone when I got it less then a year ago. Has been serving me good until Lollipop update which on a 16gb version phone doesn't leave you much to play with. Even apps/games copied to MicroSD, I was left with 1 gb left on the phone to use and no idea what was chewing up the memory. My S5 was starting to lag a bit on a daily usage.
When I got the ZF2...
I wasn't looking to get a new phone but when my neighbour bought one, she had me set it up for her, that did it, I went out and bought it the next day, it was truly that good in my hands. It literally blew my S5 away in so many ways and I'll outline some of them here.
Unrealistic reviews...
I did a lot of reading that evening on the ZF2 before I got it, a good 10 hours of reading to be exact. The only things that I didn't like pre-purchase was the obvious, battery life, top power button and the non-removeable battery. I was quite amazed that a lot of people were listing negatives of the ZF2 compared to high end phones, ok ppl, this is not rated as a high-end phone although it competes quite close to them. You need to understand that you are comparing a $380 cdn phone to $800 to $1100 phones, apples and oranges folks.
Some glitches I've noticed...
Well, only one but not a huge deal. A couple of my games start up fine but controls are way off, ie. the controls are mirrored, meaning where the screen joysticks are, the sensitive is actually mirrored vertically, weird. The rest of my games are fine, just a couple I've noticed. Again, I don't play a lot of games so not a big deal. The other is we have LTE here and I'm use to the LTE icon on the status bar, on the ZF2, it just says 4G, which is basically the same thing, again, cosmetics, the speed is the same if not faster then my S5 for internet.
What I love...
Not sure what everyone is complaining about the battery, I haven't noticed any excessive drain then the usual, I get a whole day of usage from mine and even a bit left over before it hits the charger. This was the same as my S5 maybe a tad more probably because of the bigger screen. The fast charging makes up for this, the S5 took forever to charge. Also, the S5 was waterproof IF you remember to close the sync door lol.
In the end my decisions were the 64gb, you don't know how much nicer that is compared to a 16gb until you have the amount of apps/games I do Speed, this phone is insanely smooth and fast, I've used the Galaxy S6 and I'm not able to tell the difference between the two under normal use. Dual-sim, I use a US/Mexico Roam Mobility sim, so I can just leave this in my phone and activate it when I'm in those areas, nice and convenient. Screen size is nice and big but I'm not a big screen phone fan, single hand use is tough. Fast battery charging, this phone charges super fast.
Overall this phone I've had for about a week now has served me well. The screen is not as bright as my SuperAMOLED S5 but again, the price makes up for that. Screen looks good to me though, pictures are vivid, HD MKV movies play perfect, no complaints there. The outer case is fine, a little slippery, doesn't look cheap, volume buttons are oddly in the center on the back but I'm starting to like it there, I use to have fiddle around with my S5 on the sides and almost dropped the phone a couple of times doing so, the ZF2 volume buttons I think is more accessible because my index is naturally there when talking on the phone. A couple of things I did find interesting, the ZF2 has better call quality and reception then my S5 which I find quite odd for a phone that's much cheaper. Unassisted GPS works and syncs very fast using Sygic.
For the price and the caliber of this phone, I say I made the right decision. Unlocked, dual-sim, 4 gb/64gb, Quard-core, 5.5" screen, fast charging, you really can't lose. I just can't wait to get my protective case and glass screen protector, I'm really paranoid about dropping or scratching it now So, I will give it another week or so, if it performs like it does now still, my unlocked Galaxy S5 will probably go on sale with the unfortunately ZF2 incompatible Galaxy Gear watch (damn Samsung )
I can highly recommend the zenwatch to go along with your ZF2. It also punches well above its weight for the price.
Congrats Minim3. I just picked up a 4gb/64gb model in gold today from NCIX. Loving it so far.
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Free mobile app
What I hate about zf2 is its black plastic bezzel got scratches easily if you are not using any case, second its button does not have any background lights
Yea I've literally received mine today but the first thing I've done is put it in a case. No matter how small a nick you get it will always annoy you.
As to backlit capacitive buttons that's a matter of preference. The last phone I had with them was the S3 and the first thing I did with it was switch the lights of as they annoyed me so much. (-:
Sent from my ASUS_Z00ADA using Tapatalk
When ppl are reviewing this phone how come no one mentions the 100GB Google drive offer, at least for me this was a fifty dollar value.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using XDA
Yes codgib, that was a very welcome bonus. I am so pleased with this phone and the bonus.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using XDA Free mobile app
nice review,
the 2nd sim slot is useful for me too, and the double tap to turn on/off is very useful on that big screen (even it consume power)
I've had mine for a few weeks now. I got the 1.8GHz/4GB/32GB model. I came from a 1st gen Moto G.
Pros
- Big, colourful display
- Good performance (in general and on gfx-heavy games)
- Multitasking is a breeze thanks to the RAM
- Great reception (at least compared to my previous phone)
- Native call recording
- Expandable memory
- OTG (although seemingly not NTFS. Disappointing)
Cons
- Average camera (although the app itself is much better than the base Google Camera)
- Average sound volume. I had to bump the dB levels of my mp3s before transferring to the phone (although it's fine through headphones). Misleading speaker grille at the rear of the phone (I was aware of this before purchase)
- Below average sound quality (bass seems almost non-existent/tinny)
- Average screen brightness. Can be very difficult to use in direct sunlight (The 720p model apparently has better brightness)
- Average battery life
- Power button is awkward to reach at times, saved only by double-tap on/off screen
- Volume up/down button on the rear. I use my phone to play radio/music so it sits on a table etc. Having to lift the phone to adjust the volume is a bit of a nuisance
- Can get sluggish after a while (granted, this is really more down to the 5.0 LP memory leak issue)
- Too much pre-loaded software
Yes I forgot those, good call. Was so use to my s5 buttons lighting this will take time to get use to.
Nice review, I have also had mine for almost a month now.
I am quite fond of the device, and have no major issues with it. I am still getting used to the size, and ZenUI is not my favorite., but a custom launcher makes it "feel" better to me. The latest update has done wonders for battery life, which I was initially concerned about as mine was drastically different then the one a good buddy picked up on the same day. For my usage patterns the phone works perfectly well; call quality, camera, audio, radios, and screen responsiveness included.
Some of my biggest pros for the device are: overall speed, storage, SD Card, battery life, camera, quick access lock screen apps, USB OTG, and tap to wake. Oh, and quick charging is awesome, I love it.
My cons are mostly related to all of the ZenUI apps now listed on "My Apps" in the Play Store, the occasional missed gesture, and lack of customization options for the tools on the quick settings panel (which is a nice option to have, but I would like take better advantage of it, especially from the lock screen). I would have loved to have had wireless charging, but if that is a trade off for quick charging, I am fine with it.
All in all, I am more than pleased with the device, and will recommend to anyone not scared of the size.
Maybe we are one of the lucky ones not experiencing the battery drain issue, I get a full days use with some left over on mine, which is what I got from my Galaxy S5. Yeah, I hear ya, the ZenUI is a bit gruesome but I'm a big fan of Nova Prime and that was installed pretty quickly after.
As for the bloatware, some are actually useful, it's not really creating an issue for me, just hide the apps if you don't want to see it and I use the Startup Manager to disable startup on most of them, no biggie. I am however a bit disappointed and I hope Asus reads these threads, with all the bloatware, you would think they could at least put in an app that syncs with Outlook Contacts and Calendar, it is a pretty widely used program but I'm force to buy a 3rd party app that syncs contacts and calendar. I've tried Outlook.com etc, but I'm not a big fan of dumping my contacts and calendar online and syncing that way. Samsung has Kies to do this and so does LG, really, with all the bloatware how hard is it for Asus to create a simple and effective sync app for Outlook.
I hear you with the size thing and the phone is a bit slippery, until my case and screen protector arrives, this is will be handle with extra care, gorilla glass or not I thought my S5 was big to handle, this one is bigger, will take a bit to get use to but I think the phone is worth it.
jaysus145 said:
Nice review, I have also had mine for almost a month now.
I am quite fond of the device, and have no major issues with it. I am still getting used to the size, and ZenUI is not my favorite., but a custom launcher makes it "feel" better to me. The latest update has done wonders for battery life, which I was initially concerned about as mine was drastically different then the one a good buddy picked up on the same day. For my usage patterns the phone works perfectly well; call quality, camera, audio, radios, and screen responsiveness included.
Some of my biggest pros for the device are: overall speed, storage, SD Card, battery life, camera, quick access lock screen apps, USB OTG, and tap to wake. Oh, and quick charging is awesome, I love it.
My cons are mostly related to all of the ZenUI apps now listed on "My Apps" in the Play Store, the occasional missed gesture, and lack of customization options for the tools on the quick settings panel (which is a nice option to have, but I would like take better advantage of it, especially from the lock screen). I would have loved to have had wireless charging, but if that is a trade off for quick charging, I am fine with it.
All in all, I am more than pleased with the device, and will recommend to anyone not scared of the size.
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godgib said:
When ppl are reviewing this phone how come no one mentions the 100GB Google drive offer, at least for me this was a fifty dollar value.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using XDA
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phppt. In my case because I got 1TB when I picked up the i3 Acer chromebook last fall... 100GB is nothing...
Something that I forget to mention on the negatives, now having had the phone for several weeks now using it daily are the non-backlit capacitive buttons. In the dark, I generally hit them correctly but having them lit would've been nice to have.
The top power button doesn't really bother, but I'm not sold on the rear volume buttons.
Side mounter externally accessible uSD and SIM slots would've been better as well as a more readily user replaceable battery, beyond that I'm with the review coming from a nexus 5 with the added bonus that this phone is capable of twice the bandwidth(4G) that my n5 was capable of in the identical geopgraphical locations as well as apparently overall better antenna design(better signal reception from just above the n5 to WAY better in many cases...).
cutterjohn said:
phppt. In my case because I got 1TB when I picked up the i3 Acer chromebook last fall... 100GB is nothing...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing when compared to 1TB maybe, but it's still a considerable chunk of 'free' cloud space. I still have my 50GB from my Moto G offer and that was ~18 months ago. To be honest, I only use ~8GB on my Dropbox/Drive anyway so it wasn't a big pro.
I think their gist was that they didn't make a big (or any) deal of the 100GB. I (and most others) didn't even know it was a thing until we got the phone. The 1TB on those Chromebooks was offered as an incentive and as a kind of offset for the small SSDs that normally come with them. What's on yours? 32/64GB?
I appreciate the free 100gb of cloud storage.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using XDA Free mobile app
100 GB or 1 TB, all I know is you can never have too much Google Drive :good:
cutterjohn said:
phppt. In my case because I got 1TB when I picked up the i3 Acer chromebook last fall... 100GB is nothing...
Something that I forget to mention on the negatives, now having had the phone for several weeks now using it daily are the non-backlit capacitive buttons. In the dark, I generally hit them correctly but having them lit would've been nice to have.
The top power button doesn't really bother, but I'm not sold on the rear volume buttons.
Side mounter externally accessible uSD and SIM slots would've been better as well as a more readily user replaceable battery, beyond that I'm with the review coming from a nexus 5 with the added bonus that this phone is capable of twice the bandwidth(4G) that my n5 was capable of in the identical geopgraphical locations as well as apparently overall better antenna design(better signal reception from just above the n5 to WAY better in many cases...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with you on the capacitor buttons but I'm starting to get use to it, the double tap on and off on the screen is actually becoming very handy. I come from the Galaxy S5, the lit buttons were nice I wish they had the double tap on and off, I much prefer that.
As for the volume button, I actually find it more natural for me the way I hold the phone if I need to turn the volume up or down while speaking on the phone, personal preference. Also, I'm use to putting my phone down face down on a table/desk because I'm paranoid about something dropping on my screen, this happened to my Galaxy S3, face up on my desk, I went to pick up my coffee mug and it slipped, landed right center on my S3 screen and cracked it and the mug wasn't very high off the desk, ever since then I've been paranoid about leaving my phone anywhere face up. That said, when I'm playing music on my phone, while face down, it's much easier to adjust volume when it's easily accessible on the back top rather then on the sides. Again, personal preference.
Absolutely, side mount accessible cards would be great, but again, you're comparing a phone that's less then half the price of most of the phones that have those features. Even some of the more expensive flagship phones don't have these options either. ie. Nexus, no exp. memory, built in battery also, the new S6 Galaxy, built in battery, no SD Card expansion etc etc. I read endless reviews and I find it hilarious that people out there want a Mercedes Benz phone but want to pay Honda Civic prices. When you build a phone at this price, some corners have to be cut, then when a phone comes out with all these features and the price is high, people complain about the price, you can't win.
I love the phone for what it is and how much it broke my bank, if it does what I need it to do and it's better then my last phone, then I see it as a investment, it's a new phone, there will be issues as all new phones do, Galaxy S6 is having their list of problems just now popping up and so on. The phone is only about a month old maybe? I won't write it off, way too early, talk to me in about 6-8 months, if the same issues persist, then that's another story.
My brother just got his Galaxy S6 Edge phone, I told him about this phone and all he does is knocked the phone down because he has the "almighty" Galaxy S6 Edge, we start comparing features and honestly, it's not that big a list, yes, granted, it has a beautiful screen, bit faster processor (but if you put the two side by side and actually use it, I really can't tell that much of a dif), wireless charging but no SD expansion slot. That's great, but then I asked him how much he paid for it..... $900 plus taxes. No comments.
PURPOSE
So 1st and foremost, the plan here is to give you my experience with the LeEco Le Max 2 6GB version compared to some other recent flagship phones I have tried. Granted, I have only used the Max 2 for about 1/2 a week now and can say I have yet to fully break it in to find everything that may or may not be right / wrong with it. However, this will be a unbiased look and comparison. I'm neither a fanboy or sheep. No brand affiliation. Not a programmer either, just a pro-sumer Senior Member of XDA willing to get trolled, flamed, etc. for sharing a look at these 3 phones. Hopefully, I can give "the everyday guy / gal look" without getting bogged down in stats, variables or benchmarks. Here goes...
MY BACKGROUND
No one special. Just a guy that likes the latest tech... phones being at the top of the list. I am a nerd. No doubt about that. I think anyone that knows about XDA probably is to some extent. No brand loyalty. Recently, I have had the privilege to try out the following phones:
1. LeEco Le Max 2 6GB
2. HTC 10
3. Huawei P9 4GB
4. LG G5
5. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
6. Huawei Mate 8
7. Huawei Nexus 6P
8. LG Nexus 5X
9. Samsung Note 5
10. Apple iPhone 6s+
And probably some more, but these are the most recent. Does that make me qualified to make a review... Maybe. It does make me an idiot that likes new phones, though. I am always looking for something that meets my needs but also is a good phone. Currently with TMobile but have been with ATT, Verizon & Sprint at some point 20 years of using cell phones.
MY NEEDS
I drive about 40 miles everyday to work (yes, my work week is currently 7 days a week with a few occasional days off). So, with this in mind and where I drive. I need the minimum requirements:
1. Can Stream Music
2. Bluetooth is fully compatible with my 2016 vehicle
3. An equalizer of some sort since I have only switch out my new cars speakers for better ones and don't plan on changing or adding a better sound system.
4. Decent pictures when needed
5. Works with my Huawei Watch
6. Relatively not laggy - will sometimes do some ROM-ing or some customization but since I tend to get rid of the phones quickly I try not to void warranties or make it too non-stock
THE COMPARISON
I am looking at my experience with the Max 2 and the other flagships under/around these requirements and some normal stuff like battery, screen, snappiness, heat, speakers, etc. Here goes:
SOUND OVERALL
Lets start out by saying that I'm not a person that needs a phone that has good external speakers... I really have no use for them and as long as they are loud enough for notifications then I'm cool. Also, I am not a cross-training adventure workout junkie that requires 3.5mm in order to do everything with my phone... I state this now so that I clear the air with the Max 2 being one of the first phones not to have a 3.5mm jack and require a CDLA to 3.5mm adapter or CDLA USB Type C Headphones... I think the Max 2 may even come with the adapter and since I so don't give a brown matter from my butt about it, I haven't even taken it out of its packaging. Personally, the only time I use headphones is skiing and I have bluetooth wireless headphones built into my helmet... and like someone in the 21st century I realize I can have wireless headphones. :good: Now, my main sound experience with the Max 2 is bluetooth to my 2016 HR-V. It connects with zero issues, phone and bluetooth audio both work great. As a bonus, the built-in Dolby ATMOS makes my otherwise tinny speakers without equalization sound great. It also doesn't detract from the volume output like other similar apps... It allows me to blast bassy metal to offend anyone I want, which is a great double bonus situation for me. Nothing like driving by a church blasting GHOST and having the lyrics Hail Satan play loud, clear and rockin' hahaha. Seriously though, in recent memory, this is the only phone from 2016 flagships I haven't had to use a workaround app that drastically decreases the volume. Now I will say that the Dolby ATMOS setting works a little wonky and easily resets itself if you enter into the sound settings or back out of sound setting after enabling... once you know about this though, it is easy to workaround just by hitting home button instead. For the external speaker people, the Max 2 is super loud and the speakers do sound crisp... I think it is stereo speakers as well, if you care about those things... bass-wise, the speakers are not the best but not bad also... definitely as good as of not better than the HTC 10 or LG G5.
WINNER: NO DOUBT SO FAR IN 2016 - LeEco Max 2
BATTERY
From my experience so far, I have had decent battery life out of the Max 2. 3100 mAh does seem a tad small for this larger phalet... but I'm yet to say that its a problem for me. Of recent phones, LG G5 has the worse battery life with the HTC 10 being next in line, then S7 rounded out at the top with the P9... The P9 has a Kirin processor so lets toss it out. Out of the Snapdragons I will say that with my usage so far the Max 2 matches the S7 with battery life from my usage. Max 2 has fast charge as well which helps keep it on par with the other 820's. Just yesterday, I used the Max 2 all-day no recharging with 2 heavy usage periods for a total of 3 hours plus of screen on time playing Clash Royale. The rest of the day was standard usage of checking emails, looking at some news items, etc. It lasted the whole day from 8:30am until 1am in the morning with 15% left. This was on wifi the whole time as well. I feel this adequately meets my needs to last a whole day without recharge (which rarely happens since I always recharge when in my car) with moderate usage all day long.
WINNER: It's close to call but since its the larger phone and still performs well even though no wireless charging - LeEco Max 2
HEAT
I have yet to see a real heat spike with the Max 2. I have heard reports of heat but maybe this is with the 4GB version. Since the lack of need to flush RAM or actively manage memory more critically with the greater space, this may play a factor. Not a super nerdy tech guru on this so someone that understands this more may have to chime in. I have also yet to place it in a what I like to call, a pocket burning situation like at a concert were I'm using the camera a lot, there's high tower saturation causing the radio to work more, etc. I can say the phone barely heated up trying to download a 1.5GB update on LTE... so I guess that says something right? The only other phone that runs this cool is the P9 with it Kirin processor... all the 820's run a little hot when taxed so I would not be surprised if the Max 2 was the same if push to limits. I can say that I have gotten overheat warnings on the S7 when setting up the phone and downloading copious amounts of data.... and my first G5 overheated that it caused an internal malfunction causing me to have to replace the phone under warranty. The HTC 10 seemed to be the coolest out of the other 820's I have tried.
WINNER: Still is the P9 however out of the 820's - LeEco Max 2
SNAPPINESS
I have explained in some of my other reviews, I like to talk about performance in terms of snappiness with normal day to day usage with the phone rather than throw up meaningless to most people AnTuTu stats or whatever. I am going on out on a limp here and saying that the Max 2 dominates of course due to 6GB of RAM... it's like pitting a turbocharged version of a car vs. its not turbocharge version... more under the hood most of the time leads to better performance. No loading issues, no lag from app to app. What I can say is that EUI is a fairly nice GUI take on Android, better than EMUI, but not as nice as the new HTC 10 Sense / Stock like interface. I however did my standard change of porting over the sense launcher to the Max 2 which I just love... as far as getting use to how things work, there is a lot of configuration that can be done with notifications, much like Huawei's EMUI interface that might make it off putting to some... I lucked out and the aliexpress merchant I bought the Max 2 from pre-loaded the Google App Store when I got the phone. I since did 2 updates (one I downloaded and force flashed myself, the other was through LeEco's update system directly) and the app store continues to work fine.... There are redundant apps for email, calendar, message, etc. to google versions... however most of these are built well enough that you might not want or need the google versions. Notifications seem to work OK although some do not like that it does not litter the top of your screen with icons for every single notification.... rather it just typically puts an icon with "..." and a circle at the top... takes a little to get use to, but with a notification LED as well, I think this bypasses this small issue for some. :laugh: Also, people are starting to create ROMs for it and it is easily rootable albeit in Chinese at first, so you can definitely get more out of it with some tweaking.... haven't heard if they released Kernels yet. But it is only a matter of time given it popularity in China.
WINNER: Maybe just because of the 6GB but still... LeEco Le Max 2
DISPLAY
This to me is one of the areas much like sound where if it is not screwing up the way I use the phone then I care less about stuff like resolution. If someone can truly tell a load of difference between QHD, SuperHD, 1080p, etc. etc. good for you. Here what I can say. The Max 2 screen is great! Plus, its the largest compared to the other Flagships I have tried... forgot how nice it is to use a larger phone... It does not suffer from which ultimately made me get rid of the HTC 10 from the screen polarization being applied wrong causing you not to be able to use it outdoors with sunglasses on.... I know right... major f-up IMO that HTC 10 did... I couldn't see it in my car with sunglasses on, too annoying for me. Thankfully, don't have to worry about this with the Max 2 even with a tempered glass screen protector. Since it is somewhat screen related, I can say that the fingerprint sensor is something to be desired. Its slow, sometimes taking 3 tries for it to read properly... I have tried multiple times to reprogram and it does not help. Definitely the G5 and P9 beat it hands down when talking about rear facing fingerprint sensors... Even touchwiz laggy S7 sensor beats it. Hopefully, updates help with this. Like capacitive buttons it has, in the configuration I like with back button on left... apps button also reveals the control center feature on the Max 2... similar to Apples swipe up control center... not placing these toggles in the notification panel is a fresh take on using these toggles and I like it... Color balance seems good on the phone as well if you care about those things... No Always-On feature for the Max 2 either but not a huge deal with a configurable notification LED.
WINNER: The S7 still has the best "looking screen"; G5 has the best always-on screen - Max 2 is ok but not the best in this class of phones.... Does get bonus points for the control center feature and correctly orientated IMO capacitive buttons
PHONE DESIGN
The Max 2 is a good looking phone especially with a premium metal chassis... I do have to say that I had to get the "Gold" version of the phone since it was the only one available at this point in the 6GB Version... I use "gold" here loosely as like other can report... gold is actually rose gold... not that rose gold is bad, but a pinkish phone for a guy is not cool... No matter, I got a Matte black hard case today the covers the back and pretty much takes care of the covering most of the pinkish gold exterior.... I believe there will be other colors out there soon but I could not wait any longer... Camera and button placement is nice. Phone feels great in hand. Although bigger than the other 2016 Flagships, its not gargantuan either... doesn't feel like putting a tablet up to your ear like other phalets can feel like. Pretty thin too and not overly heavy. The biggest design issue is of course no SD Card add-on memory since the SIM tray only accommodates dual SIMs. At 64GB, this isn't an issue for me as I don't save a lot to my phone and jam pack it with needless stuff. The fingerprint sensor is in a good natural position albeit if it only worked on the first try... Its not like Megan Fox / Candice Swanepoel good looking phone rather more like Melissa Benoist / Kate Upton good looking. You ain't going to wake up after a long night of drinking and go "my god... what did I do..." but you are also not getting the top of the heap in design characteristics either. It's nice looking but not someone you'd use your "hall pass" on over your wife, if you get my point..." Notification LED work great and should be noted as not being blinding at night like others can be.... looking at you HTC 10... I like no 3.5mm jack since I don't use it anyway... less holes to get dirt into... in this case, having less holes to stick stuff into wins out!!! :silly:
WINNER: Still S7 for overall design, wireless charging, etc. - Your not bad Max 2, but pinkish gold is makes my balls instantly shrink!!!
CAMERA
Another big deal for some but not really a huge concern for me is the camera on smartphones... Personally and I have gone over the reasons time and time again, I went to school for photography and have used some really great cameras, film and digital. So when you start looking at smartphone cameras, even in 2016, it is still hard to compare to the output of an actual camera. With that said, there is no real gimmick with the Max 2... looks to be an alright camera that I will post examples later of. Doesn't have "superpixels", low light lens, dual lens, etc, etc. etc. It will take pictures decently and in most cases that's all you need it to do. I can say that it does have one of my major pet peeves when it comes to the camera app in video mode... no focus lock.... honestly who uses always on auto focus in video mode.... looks like a bad wedding video... when you are recording something that you are a fixed distance away, like a concert lets say, you don't need for it to re-focus... it annoying. So, I am going to cut this section short and just say, the Max 2 has a camera, its nothing special and if you are ok with a no gimmick no frills nexus like camera than its absolutely fine for what its supposed to do.... :highfive:
WINNER: S7 for low-light, G5 for wide angled, P9 for dynamic range; HTC 10 for camera app & Max 2 for no frills OK no gimmicks camera
CONCLUSION
For my daily usage case, the Max 2 is great! When you consider that it outperforms in most cases phones that are $200 - $400 more than what it costs... It tends to soften the negatives. I think for me the greatest of which is the current functionality of the fingerprint sensor... I hate struggling to get it to read than having to still punch in a pin when it fails. Besides this, all the othe negatives are minor. Camera - its really ok just nothing special. Color - if you can wait, you can get a more manly color unless you want to go with the 4GB version (you can get different colors now). EUI - definitely not as big of a learning curve as EMUI but it does take a little bit of commitment to get use to all the customization you can do. Looks like LeEco plans to release updates frequently since there has been at least one since it released in May... Yeah, it doesn't have a headphone jack... grow up and get with the 21st century... hahaha. To get a 6GB phone, under $500, 64GB internal is not too shabby. Would it be stellar with a SD Card add-on, yep it sure would but I can make do without having the SD Card in most cases unless I really started ROM-ing and backing up TWRPs with it.... I think if you are looking for a good, well performing phone at a good price with some decent specs and killer sound, this does the trick, most definitely. Could it be better, you betcha... but I can say that for any of the 2016 Flagship phones. Lastly and as always, this is just Some Guy's Opinion... :good:
Good review, makes it sound really awesome. My experience is very different.
I have the 6GB version and its regularly becoming warm.
Sound is ok, but Huawei Mate 8 is a different class altogether (better).
As a mid level budget phone the Eco Max 2 is very clearly on the cost performance side.
But I think the battery softens its advantage.
The hardware specs on the Max 2 are all top class, but there is definitely muuuch room for improvement. On the paper the network is Cat 12, but tell you the truth in daily usage it doesnt differ speed to Huawei Mate 8. Same for the user experience speed.
Also its not funny if the phone reboots occasionally
LeTV has fixed some of the issues with the upcoming EUI 5.8 release, but they need to do more !!
If you are thinking about getting it and tweaking it for your local marcet you have to do little homework with Google playstore etc. Its a gadget for geeky power users, but not mainstream user, to many changes required.
EverPing said:
Good review, makes it sound really awesome. My experience is very different.
I have the 6GB version and its regularly becoming warm.
Sound is ok, but Huawei Mate 8 is a different class altogether (better).
As a mid level budget phone the Eco Max 2 is very clearly on the cost performance side.
But I think the battery softens its advantage.
The hardware specs on the Max 2 are all top class, but there is definitely muuuch room for improvement. On the paper the network is Cat 12, but tell you the truth in daily usage it doesnt differ speed to Huawei Mate 8. Same for the user experience speed.
Also its not funny if the phone reboots occasionally
LeTV has fixed some of the issues with the upcoming EUI 5.8 release, but they need to do more !!
If you are thinking about getting it and tweaking it for your local marcet you have to do little homework with Google playstore etc. Its a gadget for geeky power users, but not mainstream user, to many changes required.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny mine never rebooted once. No heat even under load. No big modifications to get google play. Mine was stock and able to OTA... Google Play just took a simple APK download and agreeing to "unknown sources." Yes, its not a consumer mainstream phone outside of China... however doing a review on XDA, pretty much means its a review for a more "geeky" crowd easily capable of simple APK downloads from shared sources mentioned at least 10 different times in 10 different posts in this forum. The Huawei Mate 8 succeeds because of Kirin... however of 820's and at this price point, its hard to beat... maybe only by OP3 once they figure out the RAM Management. The camera is better on the Mate 8 but it's not as good as the P9... Plus all in all, its just as difficult to install the Play Store on the Mate8 & P9... both phones I owned and sold, as I was able to get just as good as and somewhat better phone for $200 to $300 cheaper. In the states, all these phones max out our 4G LTE networks so seeing any major difference between the P9, Mate8 and the Max 2 in modem performance is minor. Once again, OGO
Thanks for the feedback, maybe I am just unlucky this time. The apk's I downloaded from apkmirror etc don't seem to work on my Chinese version max 2. I also tried Xiaomi installer version 2, Opengapps, LeTV Playstore zips for same.
I think in terms of price LeTV has found a sweet spot in the marcet, but overall the software quality is just not there yet. However the upcoming update will fix some of it.
Hi,
Thanks for the review. Could you tell me if it has MHL ?
Regards
I tried with my MHL-Adapter, which is working fine with LETV LE 1 (X600). Didn´t work ...
Ok, thanks for the info. MHL is so usefull when you want to see a film at the hotel...
I think it should have MHL (I might have found this hint in some descriptions) but actually it is not working (for me?)...
Having been in IT, the first thing you learn is most problems are usually user problems. Most of the issues that I have come up against are problems of my own doing. For example, some thing may not work because I deleted a necessary file in my quest to remove Chinese Le-bloat. So it has been trial and error. I installed the CM 13 yesterday, but didn't like the tinny sound the speakers were making. Went back to the dev 5.8 stock, installed Google play and a few apps and it's running like a charm. I have not experienced any overheating issues. This phone does everything that one does with a phone very well. I sure you can find an individual that does intense things on their device, but for the average user that surfs the web, watches you tube, plays a few games, sends/reads email and IM's others, this phone is hard to beat. This morning I had an antutu of 140491, which is pretty good considering I only have the 4/32 GB version. Can you say fast phone?!
Hi,
I may add a comparison to a phone that can be considered as the direct competitor to the Le 2 Max : the One+ 3.
There is one area where the Le 2 Max clearly wins : it's the display. I don't care about 2k or FHD. It's hard to tell the difference in real life anyways. But I'm talking about brightness and legibility in sunny daylight conditions. And there, there is no question : the Le 2 Max is superior to the OP3, even after OP3 released the new display drivers that improves things on the brightness side...
And the 0.2" more is a nice addition too... Really noticeable when you used the LeEco for several days and you then go back to OP3
But apart from that (which is really important I admit it), the Le 2 Max is lagging behind in almost every other aspect...
BATTERY LIFE : OP3 wins without a question...In really heavy usage (GPS + BT active +display on all the time) I get about 3h45minutes of battery life with the LeEco... and about 5h30 in the same conditions with the OP3. That's almost 50% better battery. Think the 2K display has a cost unfortunately
SNAPPINESS : the LeEco is OK. But once you compare it to the OP3, the overall feeling is clearly pointing into the OP3 direction !!! And just install a custom ROM like Tipsy, and your device seems to fly, when the Le Eco seems to walk
HEAT : under the heavy usage conditions I described before, the LeEco gets mildly hot. It's much cooler than the Nexus 5 used to be in the same conditions( where it lasted about 1h40 on battery !). But the OP3 is simply almost cool. On that side, OP3 wins...
SOUND : I admit that I don't give a **** about sound coming from the speakers. But on phone calls OP3 clearly wins. On Le 2 Max I have a "ghost sound". I seem to hear everything I am saying to the other person like he has a loudspeaker on. Doesn't happen on OP3.
CAMERA : I am not a great camera user. But both deliver pictures that are good enough for me. But I must say it's difficult to tear them apart
FINGERPRINT SCANNER : it's adictive to use on OP3 because fingerprint is recognized in a fraction of a second and is ALWAYS recognized. I cannot count the times I left my finger on the finger print scanner for seconds before it decided to consider it has to recognize a finger... and then I would say about 30% of the time it doesn't recognize my finger print on first attempt, and about 15% of the time it doesn't recognize it at all so I have to fire it up with the power key and pattern.
DEVELOPMENT : It seems LeEco has no intention at all to consider those phones as an important part of their business. Look at their website : they're ahrdly advertised. Go to their forums : there no activity. An official from LeEco shows up about once every 3 weeks. All in all, discussion and support are simply dead. All tehy keep saying is "Stay tuned, we have a lot to unveil"... but no date nor nothing ! And after 4 months of phone existence what do we have : a tweaked Stock ROM and a CM13 build that is obviously not really actively developped. After 3 weeks of existence, OP3 has tweaked stock ROM, CM13 and 3 derivatives, 3 or 4 AOSP derivatives and just recevied multi ROM... So all problems may have a fix some day... There's really little hope to have that with LeEco
Even CM13 builders doesn't publish their github source which would allow to work on other ROM's...
PERFORMANCE : not that I really care about benchmarks... as I am convinced that 3k or 4k points in Antutu will go unnoticed in real life. But on the OP3 if I run several Antutu tests in a row, I have only a really slight variation in results It goes from 142k to 136-138k on 3rd/4th pass. On x820 results vary from 140k (generally on first pass) and then sink to 110k (sometimes even less) on third/fourth pass... And that sounds really weird to me : maybe there's a throttle on the phone ?
ALL IN ALL : I'd love to keep the LeEco because of it's display. But considering all the "cons" it has, I am afraid it will soon join an ad site for used devices And that's a shame because with a little support from it's manufacturer, it would be THE device to keep
So LeEco : if you hang around here sometime, show us some love and release official device trees.
Well said and your comments are spot on @NexusPenguin
Le needs to release kernel sources to their phones to survive in this industry. They absolutely do not want to go down Xiaomi's footsteps.
If they don't release device trees, most people will simply not buy their Le Max 3 or whatever they release next. Simple to earn bad-will and buey themselves to ground.
it is definitively fast but....
Dear jim262,
it is really fast. With Google Keyboard app, not debloated and after autoupdate to EUI 5.8.016S mine had a Antutu v6.2.1 of 139.159
But:
- I Need a international ROM
- why can´t the user decide wether he want´s the LeTV Software on it or not? So debloate that phone. I don´t want a fixed button on the Screen wich leeds to Chinese Websites. Unfortunately I can´t speak/read Chinese.
- The cam should have more Software ability to take pics with lower size. Actual it doesn´t allow less than 8 MP`s
jim262 said:
Having been in IT, the first thing you learn is most problems are usually user problems. Most of the issues that I have come up against are problems of my own doing. For example, some thing may not work because I deleted a necessary file in my quest to remove Chinese Le-bloat. So it has been trial and error. I installed the CM 13 yesterday, but didn't like the tinny sound the speakers were making. Went back to the dev 5.8 stock, installed Google play and a few apps and it's running like a charm. I have not experienced any overheating issues. This phone does everything that one does with a phone very well. I sure you can find an individual that does intense things on their device, but for the average user that surfs the web, watches you tube, plays a few games, sends/reads email and IM's others, this phone is hard to beat. This morning I had an antutu of 140491, which is pretty good considering I only have the 4/32 GB version. Can you say fast phone?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LeTvNewby said:
Dear jim262,
it is really fast. With Google Keyboard app, not debloated and after autoupdate to EUI 5.8.016S mine had a Antutu v6.2.1 of 139.159
But:
- I Need a international ROM
- why can´t the user decide wether he want´s the LeTV Software on it or not? So debloate that phone. I don´t want a fixed button on the Screen wich leeds to Chinese Websites. Unfortunately I can´t speak/read Chinese.
- The cam should have more Software ability to take pics with lower size. Actual it doesn´t allow less than 8 MP`s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the roms are international roms with the ability to select language when you start.
Yeah, the phone is not a Galaxy S7 killer but I don't think we ever had such a device ~$250 on the market. Oneplus One might have been the only thing that came close but now their devices cost ~400€.
It doesn't have any real weaknesses, only a few things like the camera and software are mid-to-high end.
Clearly we'll see a drop in smartphone prices in the coming years, users won't pay 700€ anymore if you can get the latest for less. And these cheap manufacturers will catch up to Samsung and co. eventually.
mahst68 said:
PURPOSE
So 1st and foremost, the plan here is to give you my experience with the LeEco Le Max 2 6GB version compared to some other recent flagship phones I have tried. Granted, I have only used the Max 2 for about 1/2 a week now and can say I have yet to fully break it in to find everything that may or may not be right / wrong with it. However, this will be a unbiased look and comparison. I'm neither a fanboy or sheep. No brand affiliation. Not a programmer either, just a pro-sumer Senior Member of XDA willing to get trolled, flamed, etc. for sharing a look at these 3 phones. Hopefully, I can give "the everyday guy / gal look" without getting bogged down in stats, variables or benchmarks. Here goes...
MY BACKGROUND
No one special. Just a guy that likes the latest tech... phones being at the top of the list. I am a nerd. No doubt about that. I think anyone that knows about XDA probably is to some extent. No brand loyalty. Recently, I have had the privilege to try out the following phones:
1. LeEco Le Max 2 6GB
2. HTC 10
3. Huawei P9 4GB
4. LG G5
5. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
6. Huawei Mate 8
7. Huawei Nexus 6P
8. LG Nexus 5X
9. Samsung Note 5
10. Apple iPhone 6s+
And probably some more, but these are the most recent. Does that make me qualified to make a review... Maybe. It does make me an idiot that likes new phones, though. I am always looking for something that meets my needs but also is a good phone. Currently with TMobile but have been with ATT, Verizon & Sprint at some point 20 years of using cell phones.
MY NEEDS
I drive about 40 miles everyday to work (yes, my work week is currently 7 days a week with a few occasional days off). So, with this in mind and where I drive. I need the minimum requirements:
1. Can Stream Music
2. Bluetooth is fully compatible with my 2016 vehicle
3. An equalizer of some sort since I have only switch out my new cars speakers for better ones and don't plan on changing or adding a better sound system.
4. Decent pictures when needed
5. Works with my Huawei Watch
6. Relatively not laggy - will sometimes do some ROM-ing or some customization but since I tend to get rid of the phones quickly I try not to void warranties or make it too non-stock
THE COMPARISON
I am looking at my experience with the Max 2 and the other flagships under/around these requirements and some normal stuff like battery, screen, snappiness, heat, speakers, etc. Here goes:
SOUND OVERALL
Lets start out by saying that I'm not a person that needs a phone that has good external speakers... I really have no use for them and as long as they are loud enough for notifications then I'm cool. Also, I am not a cross-training adventure workout junkie that requires 3.5mm in order to do everything with my phone... I state this now so that I clear the air with the Max 2 being one of the first phones not to have a 3.5mm jack and require a CDLA to 3.5mm adapter or CDLA USB Type C Headphones... I think the Max 2 may even come with the adapter and since I so don't give a brown matter from my butt about it, I haven't even taken it out of its packaging. Personally, the only time I use headphones is skiing and I have bluetooth wireless headphones built into my helmet... and like someone in the 21st century I realize I can have wireless headphones. :good: Now, my main sound experience with the Max 2 is bluetooth to my 2016 HR-V. It connects with zero issues, phone and bluetooth audio both work great. As a bonus, the built-in Dolby ATMOS makes my otherwise tinny speakers without equalization sound great. It also doesn't detract from the volume output like other similar apps... It allows me to blast bassy metal to offend anyone I want, which is a great double bonus situation for me. Nothing like driving by a church blasting GHOST and having the lyrics Hail Satan play loud, clear and rockin' hahaha. Seriously though, in recent memory, this is the only phone from 2016 flagships I haven't had to use a workaround app that drastically decreases the volume. Now I will say that the Dolby ATMOS setting works a little wonky and easily resets itself if you enter into the sound settings or back out of sound setting after enabling... once you know about this though, it is easy to workaround just by hitting home button instead. For the external speaker people, the Max 2 is super loud and the speakers do sound crisp... I think it is stereo speakers as well, if you care about those things... bass-wise, the speakers are not the best but not bad also... definitely as good as of not better than the HTC 10 or LG G5.
WINNER: NO DOUBT SO FAR IN 2016 - LeEco Max 2
BATTERY
From my experience so far, I have had decent battery life out of the Max 2. 3100 mAh does seem a tad small for this larger phalet... but I'm yet to say that its a problem for me. Of recent phones, LG G5 has the worse battery life with the HTC 10 being next in line, then S7 rounded out at the top with the P9... The P9 has a Kirin processor so lets toss it out. Out of the Snapdragons I will say that with my usage so far the Max 2 matches the S7 with battery life from my usage. Max 2 has fast charge as well which helps keep it on par with the other 820's. Just yesterday, I used the Max 2 all-day no recharging with 2 heavy usage periods for a total of 3 hours plus of screen on time playing Clash Royale. The rest of the day was standard usage of checking emails, looking at some news items, etc. It lasted the whole day from 8:30am until 1am in the morning with 15% left. This was on wifi the whole time as well. I feel this adequately meets my needs to last a whole day without recharge (which rarely happens since I always recharge when in my car) with moderate usage all day long.
WINNER: It's close to call but since its the larger phone and still performs well even though no wireless charging - LeEco Max 2
HEAT
I have yet to see a real heat spike with the Max 2. I have heard reports of heat but maybe this is with the 4GB version. Since the lack of need to flush RAM or actively manage memory more critically with the greater space, this may play a factor. Not a super nerdy tech guru on this so someone that understands this more may have to chime in. I have also yet to place it in a what I like to call, a pocket burning situation like at a concert were I'm using the camera a lot, there's high tower saturation causing the radio to work more, etc. I can say the phone barely heated up trying to download a 1.5GB update on LTE... so I guess that says something right? The only other phone that runs this cool is the P9 with it Kirin processor... all the 820's run a little hot when taxed so I would not be surprised if the Max 2 was the same if push to limits. I can say that I have gotten overheat warnings on the S7 when setting up the phone and downloading copious amounts of data.... and my first G5 overheated that it caused an internal malfunction causing me to have to replace the phone under warranty. The HTC 10 seemed to be the coolest out of the other 820's I have tried.
WINNER: Still is the P9 however out of the 820's - LeEco Max 2
SNAPPINESS
I have explained in some of my other reviews, I like to talk about performance in terms of snappiness with normal day to day usage with the phone rather than throw up meaningless to most people AnTuTu stats or whatever. I am going on out on a limp here and saying that the Max 2 dominates of course due to 6GB of RAM... it's like pitting a turbocharged version of a car vs. its not turbocharge version... more under the hood most of the time leads to better performance. No loading issues, no lag from app to app. What I can say is that EUI is a fairly nice GUI take on Android, better than EMUI, but not as nice as the new HTC 10 Sense / Stock like interface. I however did my standard change of porting over the sense launcher to the Max 2 which I just love... as far as getting use to how things work, there is a lot of configuration that can be done with notifications, much like Huawei's EMUI interface that might make it off putting to some... I lucked out and the aliexpress merchant I bought the Max 2 from pre-loaded the Google App Store when I got the phone. I since did 2 updates (one I downloaded and force flashed myself, the other was through LeEco's update system directly) and the app store continues to work fine.... There are redundant apps for email, calendar, message, etc. to google versions... however most of these are built well enough that you might not want or need the google versions. Notifications seem to work OK although some do not like that it does not litter the top of your screen with icons for every single notification.... rather it just typically puts an icon with "..." and a circle at the top... takes a little to get use to, but with a notification LED as well, I think this bypasses this small issue for some. :laugh: Also, people are starting to create ROMs for it and it is easily rootable albeit in Chinese at first, so you can definitely get more out of it with some tweaking.... haven't heard if they released Kernels yet. But it is only a matter of time given it popularity in China.
WINNER: Maybe just because of the 6GB but still... LeEco Le Max 2
DISPLAY
This to me is one of the areas much like sound where if it is not screwing up the way I use the phone then I care less about stuff like resolution. If someone can truly tell a load of difference between QHD, SuperHD, 1080p, etc. etc. good for you. Here what I can say. The Max 2 screen is great! Plus, its the largest compared to the other Flagships I have tried... forgot how nice it is to use a larger phone... It does not suffer from which ultimately made me get rid of the HTC 10 from the screen polarization being applied wrong causing you not to be able to use it outdoors with sunglasses on.... I know right... major f-up IMO that HTC 10 did... I couldn't see it in my car with sunglasses on, too annoying for me. Thankfully, don't have to worry about this with the Max 2 even with a tempered glass screen protector. Since it is somewhat screen related, I can say that the fingerprint sensor is something to be desired. Its slow, sometimes taking 3 tries for it to read properly... I have tried multiple times to reprogram and it does not help. Definitely the G5 and P9 beat it hands down when talking about rear facing fingerprint sensors... Even touchwiz laggy S7 sensor beats it. Hopefully, updates help with this. Like capacitive buttons it has, in the configuration I like with back button on left... apps button also reveals the control center feature on the Max 2... similar to Apples swipe up control center... not placing these toggles in the notification panel is a fresh take on using these toggles and I like it... Color balance seems good on the phone as well if you care about those things... No Always-On feature for the Max 2 either but not a huge deal with a configurable notification LED.
WINNER: The S7 still has the best "looking screen"; G5 has the best always-on screen - Max 2 is ok but not the best in this class of phones.... Does get bonus points for the control center feature and correctly orientated IMO capacitive buttons
PHONE DESIGN
The Max 2 is a good looking phone especially with a premium metal chassis... I do have to say that I had to get the "Gold" version of the phone since it was the only one available at this point in the 6GB Version... I use "gold" here loosely as like other can report... gold is actually rose gold... not that rose gold is bad, but a pinkish phone for a guy is not cool... No matter, I got a Matte black hard case today the covers the back and pretty much takes care of the covering most of the pinkish gold exterior.... I believe there will be other colors out there soon but I could not wait any longer... Camera and button placement is nice. Phone feels great in hand. Although bigger than the other 2016 Flagships, its not gargantuan either... doesn't feel like putting a tablet up to your ear like other phalets can feel like. Pretty thin too and not overly heavy. The biggest design issue is of course no SD Card add-on memory since the SIM tray only accommodates dual SIMs. At 64GB, this isn't an issue for me as I don't save a lot to my phone and jam pack it with needless stuff. The fingerprint sensor is in a good natural position albeit if it only worked on the first try... Its not like Megan Fox / Candice Swanepoel good looking phone rather more like Melissa Benoist / Kate Upton good looking. You ain't going to wake up after a long night of drinking and go "my god... what did I do..." but you are also not getting the top of the heap in design characteristics either. It's nice looking but not someone you'd use your "hall pass" on over your wife, if you get my point..." Notification LED work great and should be noted as not being blinding at night like others can be.... looking at you HTC 10... I like no 3.5mm jack since I don't use it anyway... less holes to get dirt into... in this case, having less holes to stick stuff into wins out!!! :silly:
WINNER: Still S7 for overall design, wireless charging, etc. - Your not bad Max 2, but pinkish gold is makes my balls instantly shrink!!!
CAMERA
Another big deal for some but not really a huge concern for me is the camera on smartphones... Personally and I have gone over the reasons time and time again, I went to school for photography and have used some really great cameras, film and digital. So when you start looking at smartphone cameras, even in 2016, it is still hard to compare to the output of an actual camera. With that said, there is no real gimmick with the Max 2... looks to be an alright camera that I will post examples later of. Doesn't have "superpixels", low light lens, dual lens, etc, etc. etc. It will take pictures decently and in most cases that's all you need it to do. I can say that it does have one of my major pet peeves when it comes to the camera app in video mode... no focus lock.... honestly who uses always on auto focus in video mode.... looks like a bad wedding video... when you are recording something that you are a fixed distance away, like a concert lets say, you don't need for it to re-focus... it annoying. So, I am going to cut this section short and just say, the Max 2 has a camera, its nothing special and if you are ok with a no gimmick no frills nexus like camera than its absolutely fine for what its supposed to do.... :highfive:
WINNER: S7 for low-light, G5 for wide angled, P9 for dynamic range; HTC 10 for camera app & Max 2 for no frills OK no gimmicks camera
CONCLUSION
For my daily usage case, the Max 2 is great! When you consider that it outperforms in most cases phones that are $200 - $400 more than what it costs... It tends to soften the negatives. I think for me the greatest of which is the current functionality of the fingerprint sensor... I hate struggling to get it to read than having to still punch in a pin when it fails. Besides this, all the othe negatives are minor. Camera - its really ok just nothing special. Color - if you can wait, you can get a more manly color unless you want to go with the 4GB version (you can get different colors now). EUI - definitely not as big of a learning curve as EMUI but it does take a little bit of commitment to get use to all the customization you can do. Looks like LeEco plans to release updates frequently since there has been at least one since it released in May... Yeah, it doesn't have a headphone jack... grow up and get with the 21st century... hahaha. To get a 6GB phone, under $500, 64GB internal is not too shabby. Would it be stellar with a SD Card add-on, yep it sure would but I can make do without having the SD Card in most cases unless I really started ROM-ing and backing up TWRPs with it.... I think if you are looking for a good, well performing phone at a good price with some decent specs and killer sound, this does the trick, most definitely. Could it be better, you betcha... but I can say that for any of the 2016 Flagship phones. Lastly and as always, this is just Some Guy's Opinion... :good:
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Click to collapse
Thanks a lot this is thorough.. Impressive stuff
I really like my Le Max2. It's not perfect, but no phone is. It is certainly a fast and powerful phone. No lag and handles everything I throw at it with ease. Antutu scores of over 140K are crazy in a $230 device!! I am enjoying its audio output and have been mostly very impressed with the photos I have taken so far. The fingerprint scanner is very fast and reliable for me. I quite like eui as it is fairly light and has some very useful features, especially for power management (I have generally been getting 5 to 7 hours SOT). This is my first 2K display phone, and the clarity is fantastic. The black levels are good, and the colours are vibrant. Probably my main criticism of the phone is the viewing angles and max brightness level of the display. Colour shifting is pronounced when viewing at any angle much off straight, and the max brightness is just OK - I would like to be able to crank it up a fair bit more at times.
kanagawaben said:
I really like my Le Max2. It's not perfect, but no phone is. It is certainly a fast and powerful phone. No lag and handles everything I throw at it with ease. Antutu scores of over 140K are crazy in a $230 device!! I am enjoying its audio output and have been mostly very impressed with the photos I have taken so far. The fingerprint scanner is very fast and reliable for me. I quite like eui as it is fairly light and has some very useful features, especially for power management (I have generally been getting 5 to 7 hours SOT). This is my first 2K display phone, and the clarity is fantastic. The black levels are good, and the colours are vibrant. Probably my main criticism of the phone is the viewing angles and max brightness level of the display. Colour shifting is pronounced when viewing at any angle much off straight, and the max brightness is just OK - I would like to be able to crank it up a fair bit more at times.
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Click to collapse
Anything special you did to improve fingerprint response
Mine does work but it becomes unresponsive if not used for a while but after first unlock the consecutive ones are fast
Which rom are you on?
Did you never had any fingerprint problem?
[email protected] said:
Anything special you did to improve fingerprint response
Mine does work but it becomes unresponsive if not used for a while but after first unlock the consecutive ones are fast
Which rom are you on?
Did you never had any fingerprint problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am currently using the Parasite debloated version of S19. I have also used Cuoco92, stock Chinese 17S and 19S, and Indian 16S. Haven't had the slightest problem with fingerprint on any of them. I always register two with the same finger (my right index) and the other with my left index. I'd say it is 99% accurate - it really only misses if I put my finger in at a very weird angle or move it too much. Fast too, not instant but pretty near it - less than a count of one.
kanagawaben said:
I am currently using the Parasite debloated version of S19. I have also used Cuoco92, stock Chinese 17S and 19S, and Indian 16S. Haven't had the slightest problem with fingerprint on any of them. I always register two with the same finger (my right index) and the other with my left index.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you never have problems like the fingerprint doesn't recognize the first touch?
Or after all night standby the fingerprint takes a few seconds to unlock?
Do you think my fingerprint problem is hardware?
I bought it like 2 weeks ago I can return?
But it's a really good phone for the price
Only things that annoy me is fingerprint and lack of custom rom support both of which letv is to blame
[email protected] said:
So you never have problems like the fingerprint doesn't recognize the first touch?
Or after all night standby the fingerprint takes a few seconds to unlock?
Do you think my fingerprint problem is hardware?
I bought it like 2 weeks ago I can return?
But it's a really good phone for the price
Only things that annoy me is fingerprint and lack of custom rom support both of which letv is to blame
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Click to collapse
Honestly never. Scanner has been rock solid for me. What ROM are you on?
Having my two phones on pre-order and back ordered has given me time to reflect on dropping 2k on two phones.
But the more I thought about the more it makes sense. Anyone else in the same boat as me?
Still rocking my s7 edge on u firmware. Tbh my phone is still plenty fast with 0 bloat. Even with u firmware battery has taken a hit. Below are my reason for skipping:
1. Battery life - I understand trying to rebrand image not having a flaming brick. But to have $1000 flagship phone have less capacity than the s8+(3500) and s7 edge (3600) is inexcusable. Although they say battery is more efficient, I am sure a year from now or sooner, people will start complaining once the device has been burned in.
2.. Finger print reader location. If not in display, then I rather theyimplement into screen or power button in side.
3. Audio. For a 1k music should pristine with a quality dac and dual speakers.
4. Not compatible with 600mhz spectrum. Again for this price it should be future proof with new spectrum. Big miss imo.
5. Price.1k for a phone? Really ? I can buy a one plus or v30 with a decent tablet for that price
These are my gripes what about everyone else.
icugotit2 said:
Having my two phones on pre-order and back ordered has given me time to reflect on dropping 2k on two phones.
But the more I thought about the more it makes sense. Anyone else in the same boat as me?
Still rocking my s7 edge on u firmware. Tbh my phone is still plenty fast with 0 bloat. Even with u firmware battery has taken a hit. Below are my reason for skipping:
1. Battery life - I understand trying to rebrand image not having a flaming brick. But to have $1000 flagship phone have less capacity than the s8+(3500) and s7 edge (3600) is inexcusable. Although they say battery is more efficient, I am sure a year from now or sooner, people will start complaining once the device has been burned in.
2.. Finger print reader location. If not in display, then I rather theyimplement into screen or power button in side.
3. Audio. For a 1k music should pristine with a quality dac and dual speakers.
4. Not compatible with 600mhz spectrum. Again for this price it should be future proof with new spectrum. Big miss imo.
5. Price.1k for a phone? Really ? I can buy a one plus or v30 with a decent tablet for that price
These are my gripes what about everyone else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol what do you want a rocketship? Jesus! Future proof? Do you want the economy to drop?? Its because of ppl that hold on to old things that make economy go down... imagine if this was future proof, ppl don't upgrade already with crappy phones (looking at the note 3 and note 4 users that held on for that long)...JUST IMAGINE IF IT WAS FUTURE PROOF! Holy ishhhhh!! Samsung sales would go down... that's why i don't blame when companies makes phones go bad when new ones come out because ppl wanna hold on and stall sales.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
What I said was very conservative and resonable.
I did not mention sketchy irsis scanning,non removable battery, no IR.
Asking for bigger batteries when phones from a year ago had them is not a rocketship demands . It's the equivalent to Tropicana changing from 64oz to 59oz serving while charging the same or higher price.
Not rocketship when s7edge was one of first phones that supported 700mhz radio which prolongs the life of device.
I guess I like a good value and have received that in times past from samsung devices.
Same.. I didn't order yet but was thinking do I really need it right now... Yes a miss having a note. But this phone really is close to what I paid for my laptop. I really hate this s7 but still paying it off.. Maybe I'll wait also for the note 9 to come out.
Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
icugotit2 said:
Having my two phones on pre-order and back ordered has given me time to reflect on dropping 2k on two phones.
But the more I thought about the more it makes sense. Anyone else in the same boat as me?
Still rocking my s7 edge on u firmware. Tbh my phone is still plenty fast with 0 bloat. Even with u firmware battery has taken a hit. Below are my reason for skipping:
1. Battery life - I understand trying to rebrand image not having a flaming brick. But to have $1000 flagship phone have less capacity than the s8+(3500) and s7 edge (3600) is inexcusable. Although they say battery is more efficient, I am sure a year from now or sooner, people will start complaining once the device has been burned in.
2.. Finger print reader location. If not in display, then I rather theyimplement into screen or power button in side.
3. Audio. For a 1k music should pristine with a quality dac and dual speakers.
4. Not compatible with 600mhz spectrum. Again for this price it should be future proof with new spectrum. Big miss imo.
5. Price.1k for a phone? Really ? I can buy a one plus or v30 with a decent tablet for that price
These are my gripes what about everyone else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't have bought this device if the reports on battery life had not been so good. A bigger battery would have been nice, but as it is it keeps up with the S8. I don't think TMO will have that 600 mhz deployed in Portland (boy we could use it), so I'm not worried about that. I kept my Note 7 so I was just going to get a full refund then pay the hundred dollars extra to get this. Then the offer came along and I'm making out like a bandit! Half price, hell yeah!
Sent from my SM-N950U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Well to each their own! I'm absolutely loving the phone so far but I can see how these reasons can deter people from purchasing. Also I'm coming from a note 4 so this is a pretty major upgrade for me!
Battery is a huge improvement. Even though only about 200mah bigger, it last almost twice the amount of time. The 600mhz also isn't a big deal for me since I get great service and it's not estimated to roll out withinthe next 1-2 years anyways. I don't really understand people's issue with the fingerprint scanner. I don't see how you could smudge the camera unless you're dragging your finger across the back since it's not even directly next to the lens.
Also for 30 bucks a month it made it much more attainable for me.
If I didn't get the help with T-Mobile while in between Note 7 and Note 8 then I would of purchased the LG V30 this year. This year is a good year for good high end devices. You don't need to go for Samsung devices or $900 + devices.
I am happy with the Note 8. Though next year I will be looking at what all Android device manufactures are making before making the next purchase.
Good for you man I was considering it but are we for real its a a fricking phone and its $1000 ? Can it fly or make you teleport in the end its a phone and I dont like that phones ate getting so expensive . Thank you for opening my eyes.
icugotit2 said:
Having my two phones on pre-order and back ordered has given me time to reflect on dropping 2k on two phones.
But the more I thought about the more it makes sense. Anyone else in the same boat as me?
Still rocking my s7 edge on u firmware. Tbh my phone is still plenty fast with 0 bloat. Even with u firmware battery has taken a hit. Below are my reason for skipping:
1. Battery life - I understand trying to rebrand image not having a flaming brick. But to have $1000 flagship phone have less capacity than the s8+(3500) and s7 edge (3600) is inexcusable. Although they say battery is more efficient, I am sure a year from now or sooner, people will start complaining once the device has been burned in.
2.. Finger print reader location. If not in display, then I rather theyimplement into screen or power button in side.
3. Audio. For a 1k music should pristine with a quality dac and dual speakers.
4. Not compatible with 600mhz spectrum. Again for this price it should be future proof with new spectrum. Big miss imo.
5. Price.1k for a phone? Really ? I can buy a one plus or v30 with a decent tablet for that price
These are my gripes what about everyone else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All understandable concerns. But in practice I haven't found any of them to be that bad.
The battery is considerably better than any phone I've had previously. And I've had quite a few. iPhones , notes, nexi, the pixel, and both the V10 and v20. The lgs had by far the worst battery life, the iPhones, would get me through most of a day even the 6s plus would be under 10% if not dead when I would plug in at the end of the day. My Pixel and S7 don't make it. They all have to be plugged in as I wind down the day. The note 8 is incredible. I brought it down below 10% once on the first charge just to let it do one full cycle. But even with 6-7hrs SOT I'm still in the 20 or 30% range at the end of my day.
I bought a 5500mah battery case just for shiggles, I won't have to charge my phone for 3 days with the case on. But really I wouldn't let the battery hold you back.
I do agree with the fingerprint reader, both the LGs and the Pixel had the finger print reader in the middle of the back, which is a lot more convenient for the way I hold my phone but I've adjusted to the off center higher up placement. But it's still awkward.
The dual speaker miss is I guess a personal concern. I almost never use the speakers on my phone, I'm either connected to a Bluetooth headset or Bluetooth speaker and those have their own DAC. Which is also I guess why the phone DAC doesn't bother me either. If you listen a lot to headphones and want premium sound you'd probably use an amp anyway.
Also this phone isn't really all that much more expensive than previous notes. The note 4 and 7 were about $850. The note 8 is not cheap but I feel it is in line with current pricing. There are definitely nice phones for less, but they all lack the Wacom digitizer and stylus. Which definitely adds to the cost of development and materials and more importantly takes up space, leaving less room inside the phone, hence the smaller battery. And let's not forget, a very very large majority of people who had the note 7, are getting their phone for 525ish. So it's not really even a $600 phone. T-Mobile did BOGO so for about 1200 after all is said and done you end up with 2 phones. That's after taxes and adding a line. So again about $600.
600mhz would have been nice, but around me, it won't be available till late 2019. I'll have a different phone by then and band 12 is still being rolled out, which is supported. So while it's a nice to have, it's not a killer for me.
I was in a similar boat, my unlocked was backordered out into October and during that time I started convincing myself I didn't need the phone, but on release day I walked into tmobile and walked out with 2 note 8s and boy am I glad I did. I'll sell the second and I've already sold the S7 I was going to trade in. I still have the pixel and an iPhone 6s to play around with for when I want to run Oreo or whatever comes next since my one gripe with Samsung is how long it takes to get updates. But this easily became my daily driver. And I haven't looked back yet.
Thanks!
Thanks man needed to hear that. Very similar experiences. Audio was trash with the s7 and purchased a dragon fly black DAC a while back. I just went ahead with BOGO and am getting an additional 100GF.
(https://slickdeals.net/f/10560148-t...note-8-bogo?src=SiteSearchV2_SearchBarV2Algo1)
Curious as to how much you got for your s7 ? Putting mine up for sale and will sell the 2nd note 8. Thinking outof pocket cost should be around $200.
Thanks everyone .. made me a believer :good:
Notasaurus said:
All understandable concerns. But in practice I haven't found any of them to be that bad.
The battery is considerably better than any phone I've had previously. And I've had quite a few. iPhones , notes, nexi, the pixel, and both the V10 and v20. The lgs had by far the worst battery life, the iPhones, would get me through most of a day even the 6s plus would be under 10% if not dead when I would plug in at the end of the day. My Pixel and S7 don't make it. They all have to be plugged in as I wind down the day. The note 8 is incredible. I brought it down below 10% once on the first charge just to let it do one full cycle. But even with 6-7hrs SOT I'm still in the 20 or 30% range at the end of my day.
I bought a 5500mah battery case just for shiggles, I won't have to charge my phone for 3 days with the case on. But really I wouldn't let the battery hold you back.
I do agree with the fingerprint reader, both the LGs and the Pixel had the finger print reader in the middle of the back, which is a lot more convenient for the way I hold my phone but I've adjusted to the off center higher up placement. But it's still awkward.
The dual speaker miss is I guess a personal concern. I almost never use the speakers on my phone, I'm either connected to a Bluetooth headset or Bluetooth speaker and those have their own DAC. Which is also I guess why the phone DAC doesn't bother me either. If you listen a lot to headphones and want premium sound you'd probably use an amp anyway.
Also this phone isn't really all that much more expensive than previous notes. The note 4 and 7 were about $850. The note 8 is not cheap but I feel it is in line with current pricing. There are definitely nice phones for less, but they all lack the Wacom digitizer and stylus. Which definitely adds to the cost of development and materials and more importantly takes up space, leaving less room inside the phone, hence the smaller battery. And let's not forget, a very very large majority of people who had the note 7, are getting their phone for 525ish. So it's not really even a $600 phone. T-Mobile did BOGO so for about 1200 after all is said and done you end up with 2 phones. That's after taxes and adding a line. So again about $600.
600mhz would have been nice, but around me, it won't be available till late 2019. I'll have a different phone by then and band 12 is still being rolled out, which is supported. So while it's a nice to have, it's not a killer for me.
I was in a similar boat, my unlocked was backordered out into October and during that time I started convincing myself I didn't need the phone, but on release day I walked into tmobile and walked out with 2 note 8s and boy am I glad I did. I'll sell the second and I've already sold the S7 I was going to trade in. I still have the pixel and an iPhone 6s to play around with for when I want to run Oreo or whatever comes next since my one gripe with Samsung is how long it takes to get updates. But this easily became my daily driver. And I haven't looked back yet.
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icugotit2 said:
Having my two phones on pre-order and back ordered has given me time to reflect on dropping 2k on two phones.
But the more I thought about the more it makes sense. Anyone else in the same boat as me?
Still rocking my s7 edge on u firmware. Tbh my phone is still plenty fast with 0 bloat. Even with u firmware battery has taken a hit. Below are my reason for skipping:
1. Battery life - I understand trying to rebrand image not having a flaming brick. But to have $1000 flagship phone have less capacity than the s8+(3500) and s7 edge (3600) is inexcusable. Although they say battery is more efficient, I am sure a year from now or sooner, people will start complaining once the device has been burned in.
2.. Finger print reader location. If not in display, then I rather theyimplement into screen or power button in side.
3. Audio. For a 1k music should pristine with a quality dac and dual speakers.
4. Not compatible with 600mhz spectrum. Again for this price it should be future proof with new spectrum. Big miss imo.
5. Price.1k for a phone? Really ? I can buy a one plus or v30 with a decent tablet for that price
These are my gripes what about everyone else.
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icugotit2 said:
Thanks man needed to hear that. Very similar experiences. Audio was trash with the s7 and purchased a dragon fly black DAC a while back. I just went ahead with BOGO and am getting an additional 100GF.
(https://slickdeals.net/f/10560148-t...note-8-bogo?src=SiteSearchV2_SearchBarV2Algo1)
Curious as to how much you got for your s7 ? Putting mine up for sale and will sell the 2nd note 8. Thinking outof pocket cost should be around $200.
Thanks everyone .. made me a believer :good:
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I sold it for 250. I still had the box, charger and headphones in original wrapping though. Not sure if that made a difference or was just a nice to have for the buyer. I have chargers coming out my ears and never use the in box headphones, so they just sit there. My S7 as also mint because it didn't get much use with all the other phones I was swapping between and always kept it in a case.
icugotit2 said:
Having my two phones on pre-order and back ordered has given me time to reflect on dropping 2k on two phones.
But the more I thought about the more it makes sense. Anyone else in the same boat as me?
Still rocking my s7 edge on u firmware. Tbh my phone is still plenty fast with 0 bloat. Even with u firmware battery has taken a hit. Below are my reason for skipping:
1. Battery life - I understand trying to rebrand image not having a flaming brick. But to have $1000 flagship phone have less capacity than the s8+(3500) and s7 edge (3600) is inexcusable. Although they say battery is more efficient, I am sure a year from now or sooner, people will start complaining once the device has been burned in.
2.. Finger print reader location. If not in display, then I rather theyimplement into screen or power button in side.
3. Audio. For a 1k music should pristine with a quality dac and dual speakers.
4. Not compatible with 600mhz spectrum. Again for this price it should be future proof with new spectrum. Big miss imo.
5. Price.1k for a phone? Really ? I can buy a one plus or v30 with a decent tablet for that price
These are my gripes what about everyone else.
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Click to collapse
Having used the Note 8 for about a week now, here are my experiences:
1. According to reports, the Note 8's battery life is as good as or even better that the s8+. And compared to my Note 7 (3500 mAh), the Note 8 (3300 mAh) lasts WAY longer and has a longer Screen on Time. I usually had to charge the Note 7 at around 7-8 pm (20% battery), but with the Note 8 I hit 20% at around 11 pm. And compared to my last daily driver, the Note 3, the Note 8 is 10000000x better. I lose 20% every 30 minutes on the Note 3 while in use, on the Note 8 it's more like 3-4% every 30 mins.
2. I actually prefer the rear placement for some reason. This was one of my biggest worries when the phone was announced, but I'm having no problems with it so far. Ironically, I used the iris scanner as my main unlocking method for the Note 7, but I seem to be using the fingerprint scanner more on the Note 8. Maybe it's because the 8's scanner is vertical while the 7 was horizontal and you get more finger real estate with the 8. I remember having to tap the Note 7's scanner 2 or 3 times before it would register, while on the Note 8 it's been once (very rarely twice) to unlock.
3. Yeah, Samsung speakers suck. It's been that way for all the Notes and all the Galaxy S phones. Even my Nexus S had crappy speakers. So yes, I agree that the Note 8 has crappy speakers as usual.
4. Not really a concern for me. According to the T-Mobile rollout map, my area won't have the 600 spectrum until 2020, so I'll probably have the Note 10 or 11 by then. Plus, what a lot of people who complain about the 600 mHz miss is that TMo also has the 700 mHz spectrum and the Note 8 has the antenna for it. Both share the same advantages of lower-frequency radio waves. Compared to my Note 3, which barely gets 2 bars, the Note 8 is constantly 4-5 bars.
5. Yeah, agree with you on this one as well, $1K is a bit much. The only reason I got the Note 8 is because Samsung only wanted $580 for it. ($425 discount and $70 iphone 5s trade in) That's cheaper than any flagship phone coming in the next year even with Black Friday discounts.
I came from a t-mobile note 5, held off getting the note 7, coz for me new gadgets tend to have bugs, true enough it happened, but now my daughter's note 3 is having problems, then t-mobile had a note 8 zero down and $40+ a month jump on demand with just $7.50 up front for shipping, so no brainer for me, sold the note 3 to pay off note 5 and gear s2. Now between note 5 vs 8 worlds apart, 8 battery excellent for the last week I've used it, Wi-Fi on, Bluetooth on, aod on 7pm to 7am, 3 email sync every 30 minutes, facebook sync, weather screen, hd widgets ever 30mins refresh, 3-6 calls ranging from 20 mins to over an hour, I play games, brightness 55%-60, fully charged at 1230am it's 1020 pm already and I still have 32% battery. Yes i know I should have held off a little longer but 2 years no new phone, upgrade bug got me. ?
I don't use the finger print sensor just for camera shots, don't use facial recognition, I use iris scanner but mostly I use pattern with pin code as its faster for me to open it. I don't use phone speakers to listen to music coz I know most mobile phones speakers are crappy especially if you have a good home theater set up, I always use a good set of headphones, I guess just have fun with the new toy. Try to bargain or wait for one with your carriers if they have a good promo.
Sent from my SM-N950U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
I did the BOGO deal and everything eventually worked out.. TMobile tried to screw me though and not pay off Verizon when we switched
Sent from my SM-N950U1 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Its one thing to blindly buy a 1k phone, because you are a fan of a company's products, but its another thing to actually assess the product's value in relation to the price. I did not buy the note 8. I received it free through the tmobile deal buy one get one free. Tbh, if it were me gauging the price of this phone to be $700-800 for all its combined features. I sure as hell would have not coughed up 1k for this thing. Hell you could very well buy yourself an s8+ for cheaper with a note stylus and save a ton more money. People like to jump up and down claiming the s-pen is worth the $200-300 mark up compared to the s8+, but when it comes down to it majority do not even use the damn thing (surely not worth that markup price either).
In addition, scrutinizing the company for the price in relation to the actual product is a good thing. Consider what apple is doing for their new iphone, it has taken away essential phone feature (headphone jack) forcing people to buy the accessories to use headphones, finally implementing fast charge that require additional accessory purchases and marking up the phone for 1k. This is because they are aware that their fan-base that blindly buy their new products is so large that they can sell the same with implementing less. The last thing we want are android companies doing the same unsavory business models. All in all, I highly respect OP's opinion and choice.
kja4kc said:
Its one thing to blindly buy a 1k phone, because you are a fan of a company's products, but its another thing to actually assess the product's value in relation to the price. I did not buy the note 8. I received it free through the tmobile deal buy one get one free. Tbh, if it were me gauging the price of this phone to be $700-800 for all its combined features. I sure as hell would have not coughed up 1k for this thing. Hell you could very well buy yourself an s8+ for cheaper with a note stylus and save a ton more money. People like to jump up and down claiming the s-pen is worth the $200-300 mark up compared to the s8+, but when it comes ...
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Click to collapse
I agree mostly, I don't think I could really get myself to pay so much for this phone of I had to pay full price. It's getting ridiculous! The Note 7 prior owner discount was a big plus because I was going to use the full refund from my Note 7 and just pay the extra 100 dollars out of pocket. Now I'm keeping the entire refund and paying half with a qualifying device turned in, an option I like better since ideally I'd like this phone to be priced close to 600 dollars. Then there is always the fact that to date the Note series is still in a class of its own. Yes, I do use the pen.
1. The battery life hasn't been of an issue to me. This is coming from a person who (very briefly) owned an S8+ with a larger battery, as well as a Pixel XL (still own it) with a slightly larger battery. I have no clue what magic research sauce Samsung employed behind the scenes in the Note 8 battery design, but it works, and it works well, in spite of the bigger and bright as hell screen. I haven't had any battery complaints at all in terms of average usage (streaming, web surfing, email management, social media updates, etc). I am easily getting 4-5 (and sometimes with conservative use 5.5-6) hours of screen on time. The device doesn't even really warm up, either, except under the utmost heaviest of loads.
2. The fingerprint sensor, while still inopportunely placed, is an improvement over the sensor on the S8+. The sensor is inlaid some and distanced a bit more from the camera/flash modules. I don't use it as my main biometric, but it is there when I do use it and accurate enough.
3. Samsung has always had lousy external speakers...but then again I live a lifestyle that isn't necessarily conducive to carrying around my smartphone on my shoulder like a boombox, either, so yeah. It is a bit w/e.
FYI y'all, if you did a JOD you can return your phone if in good condition to any T-Mo store at anytime to cancel the lease
TheAnarchist1 said:
1. The battery life hasn't been of an issue to me. This is coming from a person who (very briefly) owned an S8+ with a larger battery, as well as a Pixel XL (still own it) with a slightly larger battery. I have no clue what magic research sauce Samsung employed behind the scenes in the Note 8 battery design, but it works, and it works well, in spite of the bigger and bright as hell screen. I haven't had any battery complaints at all in terms of average usage (streaming, web surfing, email management, social media updates, etc). I am easily getting 4-5 (and sometimes with conservative use 5.5-6) hours of screen on time. The device doesn't even really warm up, either, except under the utmost heaviest of loads.
2. The fingerprint sensor, while still inopportunely placed, is an improvement over the sensor on the S8+. The sensor is inlaid some and distanced a bit more from the camera/flash modules. I don't use it as my main biometric, but it is there when I do use it and accurate enough.
3. Samsung has always had lousy external speakers...but then again I live a lifestyle that isn't necessarily conducive to carrying around my smartphone on my shoulder like a boombox, either, so yeah. It is a bit w/e.
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Click to collapse
I get good battery life too as long as I use the phone. My standby battery usage is wack though.
Sent from my SM-N950U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
This phone is a trooper, I put it through the test the other day on AT&T in Orem UT, Provo UT.
This device didn't have any issue Navigating, Charging, Connecting, Texting, Phone Calls and Data in a sweltering 98+ F car with no air conditioning.
AT&T's network at the time 16th of July 2020 was overloaded in the area, I also didn't find any NR frequency's while in AT&T's Innovation network footprint, so I was sadly disappointed not to see the 1G+ speeds.
This phone averaged
~40 Mbps on 5G - peaking at about 60.
~80 on 5G-E (AKA LTE+) - Peaking at 100+
Got me through ordering an Uber to get to Auto Zone to fix my coolant belt.
This phone made it through the day without fully charging with no problems on full-screen brightness for hours on end!
This phone has passed my stress test with flying colors, I just wish AT&T had a better network in the area I broke down, as the specific spot was only pulling ~0.1-5 Mbps. It was good enough to do the Uber request and download an app or two on the new phone.
I was honestly surprised that such a populated area had poor service speeds by I-15 in Orem Utah.
This phone has really surprised me on how good it actually is compared to how good I THOUGHT it would be, especially the camera. I'm very glad I picked this over the OnePlus 8 5G, even though I initially liked that phone a bit more. I could buy higher level Samsung, but this phone is a sweet spot that checks all the boxes for the "phone you live with". For what it's worth, I recommend checking it out- even if on the initial blushes of reviews you might think it inferior. It's better than I've read.
I'm honestly a bit disappointed in this phone. Coming from the Moto G7 Power I find Samsung's software to be clunky and less user friendly. The 5G connection on T-Mobile is pretty good in my area. I'm averaging around 60mbps with peaks over 120. That is compared to about 1/4 to 1/2 that speed on LTE in the same area. Besides the software and the ads that Samsung serves you on its built in apps, I've experienced a few connectivity issues where the phone will have poor or no connectivity or at times it will drop to LTE from 5G when there is a strong 5G signal as verified by my son's One Plus 8. Toggling airplane mode for a few seconds then turning it off seems to "fix" the connection every time, but this is an annoyance that shouldn't be present on a $600 phone. Perhaps a future software update will address the issue. I also find the in screen fingerprint reader to be slow and inconsistent compared to the Moto's back fingerprint reader which was quick and accurate. The face recognition unlock works maybe 10-15% of the time. Most of the time it says No Match.
Honestly, I wish I'd waited for the Moto Edge or spent the extra $100 for another One Plus 8
I can't fault this phone much, other that hating Samsung's Bixby
and a few minor apps or adjustments. I'm on Sprint; the box is labeled for T-mobile,
so it should be good for the imminent absorption of Sprint.
I'm coming from an HTC EVO 4G LTE, which is from 8 or more years ago.
Remember that much: I don't change my device every year or two.
It worked great for my purposes until it started randomly restarting
and developing dark spots which grew on the display.
I rooted that device the day I brought it home, and unlocked the bootloader and unlocked the device
within a week or less. Just my history.
My wife got one of these as replacement of her old Galaxy S5 a week or two ago,
eliminating her troubles of the same random reboots and other issues.
It's a bit larger than I'd like it to be, but I understand that most people
are not like me, and want gigantic displays.
The display is of high quality, to be sure.
I cannot tell if I'm connecting to 5G; I suspect it hasn't yet been implemented here.
I get only an "LTE" icon in the status bar, as well as signal strength of Sprint radio, which is 100%
This is my first day with the phone; I have not yet commuted to work
or otherwise moved around with it.
I'm having trouble with accepting the main button's placement nearly in the middle of the righthand side
of the device, as my previous device placed it at the top. It's awfully easy to hit that button
just when picking up the device. Nevertheless, I've a case/holster arriving soon,
which should help to alleviate that inconvenience and decrease the likelihood of the button press.
I deactivated/uninstalled as much as I could, Googling each as I went along.
Sadly, Bixby has limited ways of disabling, and I don't like Bixby at all.
Samsung's bloatware is actually far more than HTC's was, and they don't
provide options as HTC used to.
As expected, there's an awful lot of Samsung-specific software I don't want.
Most of it can be uninstalled or disabled, but a handful cannot be dealt with.
[EDIT to add:]
So, I find some weird things on the Google Play Store which are shown as installed,
but don't show in any app lists locally: ANT Radio Service/Ant+ Plugins Service, Mobile Installer
(Apparently from SOFTBANK CORP), a couple of others. I get the SoftBank thing,
as they funded Sprint a while back, but ANT Radio -- ? I suppose it's maybe radio
hardware drivers?
I do get a 5G signal at work and home. It's a stronger signal at my workplace,
not so much at home, but throughput is significantly faster than 4G.
The display is indeed a very nice one, far better than my old device.
It's similar to my upgrade of desktop PC's 1920x1200 monitors to a pair
of full-on 4K monitors; that's how much sharper this display appears.
Battery life is fantastic compared to the incredibly-aged HTC EVO 4G LTE
this phone replaced. I could commute 15 minutes to work from 100% charge
on the HTC, and it could be anywhere from 15-35% depleted by the time
I got there, even with all radios off. Today, the A71 got me from a 98% charge
upon going to bed last night, to a final value of 87% battery upon returning home.
That's a significant difference over the 60-some to 40-some percent the HTC
would end my workday with.
5G is incredibly fast, far more so than 4G. I think I got almost 60Mb/s actually got 205Mb/s when
testing from SpeedTest, while 4G gave me around 25Mb/s max.
Even with only 2-3 signal bars out of 6, on a 5G signal, I'm getting as high as
a 25Mb/s throughput, which is better than 4G will do at my home location.
The phone responds well, and maybe a bit too readily, to touch even with
a 9H glass protector on it. There's a setting somewhere for this, and I may
explore its' options. It's not a major detractor to me.
This thing is super-thin as compared to what I've had, which is one major reason
I have a case/holster on the way. I expect it to knock down sensitivity of the
main button, as well as make it easier for me to simply pick up the phone
without pressing a button, along with general handling.
And the holster is is also something of my needs, as I don't like to carry
bulk like this in my pockets.
It seems very well-made, with excellent fit & finish of the outer shell.
It was incredibly annoying to pull off the flimsy and very-well-stuck
protective film on the outer edges. Samsung could easily apply a film
which isn't as well-adhered as the infuriating crap they currently
apply to the device.
It's kinda heavy for its size, which would indicate a rather strong
construction of substantial materials. Then again, maybe it's just
that high-capacity battery inside it.
Camera output is actually extremely good, to someone(me) who owns a Pro-Grade
Canon EOS 5D Mk IV. I'll have to spend time with the optional settings,
but I can say that the Auto-HDR gives quite good results, producing
fairly impressive images with scenes lit unevenly.
The Ultrawide option is also reasonably impressive, delivering perhaps
a wider field of view than my Rokinon 14mm super-ultra-wide lens
on a full-frame camera.
Colors appear true on my 4K calibrated monitors, while sharpness,
dynamic range, noise, and overall accuracy of the scene are also very good.
Overall, the camera and app produce a very high-quality output.
After a few days' use of this phone, I very much like it overall.
The things I'd like to change now will require root access,
so I'll keep checking in here in hopes of some progress.
Hey y'all! Man, it's been forrrreevverrrr since I've been around XDA. I was big in the early 2010s hackin' and crackin' my Note 3 and 4 at the time. From there, Note 5 and forward, cant hack em..so I've been stuck with stock. That said, I've been rocking my note 8 from verizon for quite awhile now and really been completely satisfied with it. Ultimately, I want the big display, and the big battery....so I never really cared about the stylus. So, as you can tell I've been a big note lover.
So, how does that relate to an A71? Well since early 2020, verizon launched a crap software update where the GPS was useless. It drove me nuts. So, I've been on the hunt for a new phone. However, I was repulsed by the 1200 dollar price tag of todays premiere phones.
Cue, the moto stylus G. The launch of the stylus G was right on target for my phone restlessness. So 300 bucks later, and.....well.....it was a 300 dollar phone. Dont get me wrong. The camera is adequate at 48MP, the battery life is great, and the AOSP interface is always great. Worked fine, and it sufficed on one of the two core features I *need*. Now, a quick aside, I'm on consumer cellular, on ATTs network. My note 8 was a verizon purchased and branded phone. Back to the stylus. The moto was great in one respect, it allowed data while on a call. This is an absolute must for me. Period. The other key feature was wifi calling. This, did not work. The hidden menu kept saying that it wasn't provisioned, but consumer cellular said it was. Ok. I considered going back to my Note 8, but it did not allow the data+calling. It would go into 3G mode when on a call. So, that was out.
Now, cue the A71. I had some people tell me how good their non-S samsung phones were, and that they recommended them. I started looking at the A71 since, well I'm used to a flagship phone. Amazon prime day came around, and I thought hard on it for about 3 or 4 hours as 409.99 was staring me in the face. I said screw it, and bought in. I got it two days later, and started setting it up immediately.
First, all my woes were cured with an unlocked phone. I have LTE+, I have VoLTE, I have data in a call, and I have wifi calling. All working, right out of the box. I got software and apps setup, and I'm a power user. I have lots of stuff on there, so many email accounts, so many apps, etc etc etc. And the A71 held up perfectly. Now, it doesn't have a perfectly flat display, which was disappointing. I prefer the tempered glass screen protectors.....so that's a bummer. However, the skinomi on my note 8 has been fine for years, so hopefully they release one for the A71. My city claims its on the 5G map, but that may be ATTs fake-5G crap, which is the LTE+...so I'm not sure if we have true 5G here or not. However, the phone has just impressed me and I can't tell any difference from a flagship phone. For less than half of a Note, I'm quite satisfied and I dont have to worry about stupid monthly payments for the next decade. I do hate the fingerprint scanner though. It was most natural on the back as a dedicated sensor.......I hate this on screen thing. Fun gimmick, but works like 25% of the time. I do have a case with a screen protector though.