Database Users

Mi 5s vs Mi 5

So I was really considering on buying the 5s but now thinking is it really worth it?
They are boasting about the camera but they removed OIS! IR blaster though that's not a deal breaker. Guess camera is the highlight really
Here's a decent video https://youtu.be/ffO30N8OxtM

I'm actually contemplating about the same choice. I almost bought Mi 5 Prime with 3GB RAM, but was a bit hesitant because of the following things:
Mi 5 is one of the easiest bend-breakable phones so you need some sturdy case to mitigate bend break problem
(un)availability of custom ROMs as I don't think I'd like running MIUI on the long run. I would rather put some as vanilla as possible OS on it
Ordering from China is a bit risky
But in the meantime Mi 5S came out and I really like that it has aluminium back and upgraded processor although I'm not sure whether there's significant performance difference between the two. But if I do buy myself Mi 5S, I'll likely have to wait for a longer time before I'll be able to get some vanilla Android on it. Pixel is just too crazy expensive.
I guess I'll wait a bit until we get some feedback from the community to see how well this device is built and performs.

Just my 2 cents:
1) OIS on the Mi5s is not available for the sensor atm, might be, "might be" due to its large sensor. (As Google Pixel phones do not have OIS as well)
-On the bright side, the DIS works like a charm :3
2) If you want to get yourself "Daydream VR ready", do get the Mi5s as the Snapdragon 821 supports it~ (even though the performance increase is not skyrocket high)
3) After watching several videos from Youtube about Mi5 and Mi5s, camera performance is in fact increased for the Mi5s.
-However, low light scenario based pictures and videos would have varying results I suppose.
-Since it uses the same sensor as Google Pixel but not as great as Google Pixel's camera quality, future updates "might" be able to increase the Mi5s camera performance. (Or maybe even custom ROMs).
4) From what I heard on chinese Mi5s reviews/hands on, the ultrasonic fingerprint reader's performance may vary. Might be due to its 'newborn' nature (it is a new tech, so optimisation might not be optimal).
5) Like what literadesign mentioned, the Mi5 surely is a "bendable" phone. I assume that Mi5s alloy body would have make it less bendable. (Hard to say, do not just buy it to try its bendable level lel)
In the end, it is all about your choice~

Damn, didn't know the mi5 bends easy. The mi5 with 4way axis is a joke, seen some vids
What other alternatives are the part from op3? Mayne Zuk z2 pro

OnePlus 3T vs Xiaomi Mi5s

Hi All,
I've bought both the Xiaomi Mi5s (miui 8 global) and the OnePlus 3T (oxygen OS 4.03 Android 7) and am trialling both for a few before I send the loser (if you could possibly call one of these great phones a loser) back. I'm finding it very difficult to chose.
Either phone is a huge upgrade from my previous and very safe and stable iPhone 5s. I hope you can help me resolve my conundrum.
My thoughts so far on the comparison:
Software and interfaces:
Both phones have great software but for me the xiaomi swings it on being more customisable in terms of the interface, being able to easily change themes. As nice as changing themes is however, a lot of the themes are like those Kodi skins with weird phrases like "seize the moment" plastered on the home screen. It is a nice to have though and some of them have added some clever navigation features for app sidetray access.
It has a couple of other features that are nice to haves like 'force touch' and recording calls as a standard option but both of these features I would rarely use and can live without. Miuis second space feature is a bit surplus to requirements considering fingerprint locking is all you need for security I'm not sure why I'd need to hide apps etc on another part of the phone, I also found it a bit slow to switch spaces.
Hardware:
Here the OnePlus wins, more ram more speed, not that noticeable in day to day operations but the fingerprint sensor on the Xiaomi has been disappointing, even after rescanning my thumb a couple of times it still either fails to unlock or takes a long time to unlock. The OnePlus 3T is super quick on the fingerprint unlock like the speed of light and very reliable for me. Screen sizes on both are nice, I prefer the larger OnePlus though. I would also say the microphone sensitivity on the OnePlus 3T is better in picking up the "OK google" commands. Both seem to be quite quiet on phone calls with the earphones plugged in, if you make regular conference calls this is quite annoying and there are lots of complaints on the xiaomi forums regarding this for the global rom.
Camera:
This is where the big let down is on the 3T and probably the reason I am still hanging on to the xiaomi . Despite impressive specs on paper I've found shots low in detail compared to the Xiaomi and poor when shooting moving objects. Low light performance is not great on both but overall I feel the Xiaomi Mi5s is the better camera. Video recording I can't comment, both seem to very similar. I'm not a huge photographer and don't post lots of pictures to social media so maybe I can live without it. I'm hoping something can be done with the OP3T camera to resolve some of the above issues.
Athetics and buttons etc:
I like the feel of the OP3T better but the Xiaomi is easier to hold on accounts of is size.
Anyway I hope you can help me with some thoughts here, would love to keep both but I ain't that rich, ideally I'd merge the two but it just can't happen.

No offense but starting your review (and the software aspect) talking about themes is ..... meh.

felixjet said:
No offense but starting your review (and the software aspect) talking about themes is ..... meh.
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OK so maybe you could suggest what's more important for you personally? Am I too hung up on the themes aspect?

Xiaomi Mi5s has a rear camera sensor with 1.55 um pixels (IMX 378 - As in the G Pixel), yet low light performance is not great? How come?
"Despite impressive camera specs on paper for 3T" - The Mi5S has more impressive specs on paper.

Because sensor is not everything my friend

Planning to switch from N5X to Mi A1, good choice?

I'm planning to buy Mi A1 in February. Since A1 is Snapdragon powered device in theory it's capable of SD goodies. It has slightly higher octa-core CPU(5X has hexa-core) and GPU clock speed, expandable storage and also have 4 GB of RAM unlike 5X that has 2 GB. I think it will be highly noticable in multitasking. Is there a huge deference (if any) between disabled and forced enabled Camera2API in photos? I'm worried because of it. Enabling Camera2API allows us to use Google camera from what I've heard.
Can someone post photos in different environments to let me compare them with my 5X, that would be grateful.
Hope Xiaomi release source code for this device before February, custom ROMs are "kill features for me".
If it's a bad choice tell me why.

not a major upgrade since 5x still has a support by google, camera is better, community is better since it's google,
Mi A1 released months ago but there is no source, You can't tell if this phone is interested from developers. The safe bet is to wait for a couple more weeks, maybe a month but this is just my opinion. You still can't go wrong to buy this phone. On 11.11 aliexpress will sell this phone for $184 + free shipping. this is insane price.

There's no noticeable difference in 6 or 8 cores, but difference between 2 and 4 GB of RAM is pretty huge.
I made 2 photos, one with stock Camera app(using HDR) and Google Camera app(using HDR+), I tried to make 2 exact same photos. First one is using Google Camera, second one is using stock Camera app: https://photos.app.goo.gl/VVaKFtKlq2ZNOtbz2
Also, kernel sources will be definitely released to public, question is when.

Compare with N5x, camera mia1 damn suck :v

matcho13579 said:
There's no noticeable difference in 6 or 8 cores, but difference between 2 and 4 GB of RAM is pretty huge.
I made 2 photos, one with stock Camera app(using HDR) and Google Camera app(using HDR+), I tried to make 2 exact same photos. First one is using Google Camera, second one is using stock Camera app: https://photos.app.goo.gl/VVaKFtKlq2ZNOtbz2
Also, kernel sources will be definitely released to public, question is when.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but can you take photos other than your leg lol. Does ZSL work? As in HDR+ works without loading spinner. I would super appreciate it if you can show us some night shots with HDR+

I've just migrated from N5X to A1 and so far I'm impressed. I was afraid of slightly bigger screen, but got used to it after few hours and now 5.2" feels "small" For me the main differences:
1. 4GB RAM, multitasking is working as expected, no more unfinished HDR photos, no more launcher crashes, ..
2. CPU is much more responsive, doesn't overheat and throttle. I wasn't able to keep up big cores of N5X on long enough, they were shut down very often to keep the temeperature down.
3. A1 is faster overal, app installations took half the time of N5X
4. Stock A1 photos in low light are not very impressive. However simple mod brings gcam (so far I like the simplest version the most) with its HDR+ which does pretty much the same job as on N5X with faster processing.
5. I am not interested in custom ROMs, but A1 is limited at this for the time being
6. A1 has shameful headphones hissing noise, especially with sensitive low impedance headphones. To be fair, N5X has similar issue, however solved easily with custom kernel and lowering the headphone gain. Once Xiaomi releases kernel sources, I expect this issue to be solved in the same way too.
7. Build quality is better on A1, however it is bigger and heavier phone. Better feeling, but a bit less pocket friendly..
8. ZSL HDR works, but with same mixed results as on N5X - bunch of my test photos were blurred. Never had this issue with forced HDR mode, so I'm using it exclusively. Spinner doesn't bother me, at least I know I should keep phone steady
9. A/B partitioning is super nice for seamless updates, but I experienced some issues with Magisk. After failed installation of some modules, Magisk image probably got corrupted and I had to remove it completely and install it again without such modules. Took a bit of trial and error, but I have fully systemless rooted and modded (build.prop tweaks) phone now.
10. Oreo vs Nougat - I miss only really fast boot times and easy use of substratum. Otherwise no big loss in my eyes.
11. attached crops of test comparison photos (Stock HDR enhanced N5X vs. Gcam HDR enhanced A1). Please note that I was able to achieve sharper results with A1, but this is the only photo which I have taken with N5X as well. And there are no legs

TehGooner said:
Thanks but can you take photos other than your leg lol. Does ZSL work? As in HDR+ works without loading spinner. I would super appreciate it if you can show us some night shots with HDR+
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I was in the work, so that was the most I could do at that moment xD But you can see pretty big difference between them.
I will make 2 more photos when it's evening here and will post it.

I switched to A1 from op3. Obviously it was a forced switch as there was multiple failure in op3.
Both the phones have their own upper hands and the most I miss from op3 is the super amoled screen. Low light camera in op3 was better but then A1 has portrait mode. Looks wise A1 is not less than op3. As of now, the phone doesn't feel slower to me in daily use as compared to op3.

@TehGooner
Try to guess which photo is taken with Google Camera app: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TKD0zxZZcdPLu2WJ3

matcho13579 said:
@TehGooner
Try to guess which photo is taken with Google Camera app: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TKD0zxZZcdPLu2WJ3
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Click to collapse
Damn it's really good.

matcho13579 said:
@TehGooner
Try to guess which photo is taken with Google Camera app: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TKD0zxZZcdPLu2WJ3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This makes me feel good about buying A1
Can't wait to get Gcam, waiting for Oreo first before rooting.
Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

I switched, and the phone is better daily driver. No lags or overheating, no more app closing because of memory running out. Does not have nfc but used only once on my Nexus. Mi remote is a cool feature though. Portrait shots are really good in daylight, and modded Google camera works great. What I don't like is that the phone should have launched with Oreo out of the box, or it should have got Oreo by now. There are no cool features like night light and life to check gestures, no double tap to check notification (this feature is present in redmi note 4, which has similar hardware). Android one seems more like a marketing strategy now.

Coming from a Nexus 5X, Mi A1 really is an upgrade. It's like having a more premium phone than Pixel devices since the device feels like an iPhone but with stock android. 4GB ram and SD625-14nm.

Switch from Samsung Galaxy S7 to Redmi Note 7

Someone here switched from Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge to Redmi note 7 ?

s7 edge to redmi note 7 here. What's up?

chiplovez9x said:
s7 edge to redmi note 7 here. What's up?
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I would like to know if it's à good idea to switch from S7 to redmi note 7 And how is good thé Xiaomi in picture, screen, speakers, battery life, power compared to s7.
Thank you.

Didn't have an S7 but did have a Note 4 Exynos and Honor 8 before I got the Redmi Note 7phone.
Honestly, speed will probably feel about the same since S7 had the Snapdragon 820 processor.
Gaming performance will probably be about the same as well.
The screen isn't amoled so if that matters to you, you're probably better skipping the Redmi Note 7 and getting the Mi 8(snapdragon 845) or the newer Mi 9(snapdragon 855 with quad hd and dual speakers).
Either of those will definitely be an upgrade to your S7 in multiple ways...
Processor, functionality, performance, build quality, battery life, camera, gaming etc
Mi 8 can now be had for under $400 new as well if price matters to you

Thank you for responding.
My S7 is exynos one and I know that Mali GPU is more powerfull for gaming. S7 has à good display but it's too little and had burn in.
I want to know how is thé remdi's camera compared to S7 has a good One. My brother buyed à redmi Note 5 pro and S7 photos are much better

Deleted

achour7 said:
Thank you for responding.
My S7 is exynos one and I know that Mali GPU is more powerfull for gaming. S7 has à good display but it's too little and had burn in.
I want to know how is thé remdi's camera compared to S7 has a good One. My brother buyed à redmi Note 5 pro and S7 photos are much better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure... S7 photos may be a little better since it was the flagship of the year a couple years back.
If you're worried about photos, I'd get the Mi 8 or if you can afford... Skip the Xiaomi budget line altogether and go straight for the The Mi 9.
Don't get me wrong... Redmi Note 7 or it's twin brother Mi 8 Lite are both spectacular phones especially for the money to value quotient. They pack a hell of a punch and are popular globally for a reason but coming from the S7, if you're not willing to compromise a little bit in the area of video and photo quality, you're better off shopping for a Xiaomi flagship.
Either phone (Mi 8 or Mi 9) is the flagship experience you want but the Mi 9 will blow you away and be the true upgrade you're looking for

tiguy99 said:
Didn't have an S7 but did have a Note 4 Exynos and Honor 8 before I got the Redmi Note 7phone.
Honestly, speed will probably feel about the same since S7 had the Snapdragon 820 processor.
Gaming performance will probably be about the same as well.
The screen isn't amoled so if that matters to you, you're probably better skipping the Redmi Note 7 and getting the Mi 8(snapdragon 845) or the newer Mi 9(snapdragon 855 with quad hd and dual speakers).
Either of those will definitely be an upgrade to your S7 in multiple ways...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got a Redmi Note 7 today, and it will replace a ZTE Axon 7 (Snapdragon 820, like the US version S7), so I'm in a similar position.
Haven't used it much yet, but initial impressions are very good. I just run some tests on both phones in Geekbench Pro, and the Redmi Note 7 won in some areas, while the Axon 7 still smoked it in some tests. You're right, the overall performance should feel pretty similar to the S7.
Benchmarks aside, I'm happy to have a new device that is fully up to date - stock Pie (that I'll dump in favor of LOS as soon as I'm able, haha), a big battery and efficient CPU, a really fast fingerprint scanner in a natural position (meaning NOT on the front), a big screen (any bigger wouldn't fit my pocket), VOLTE, a decent camera, and some support on XDA. It took me a while to decide to buy it because I was concerned about it not having an OLED screen but now I don't think it's going to be an issue - it looks good. Works with Mint Mobile (T-Mobile) here.
Only Day 1, but I'm satisfied so far, especially for $200!

RN7 is way better .. except for the sound quality and the weight (rn7 is heavy lol)

These guys have nailed it!
Think you'll be happy with the phone especially for the price.
I know I am.
Use it for a while.... If you don't like it, sell it for a more expensive flagship.
For me it's so good I don't feel the need to have a flagship phone anymore!
Just saw a review on Amazon with someone who mentioned they upgraded to the Redmi Note 7 from an S7 and raved about it.
Check out the review for the Blue 4GB RAM/64GB version.
It's one of the newer reviews.

tiguy99 said:
These guys have nailed it!
Think you'll be happy with the phone especially for the price.
I know I am.
Use it for a while.... If you don't like it, sell it for a more expensive flagship.
For me it's so good I don't feel the need to have a flagship phone anymore!
Just saw a review on Amazon with someone who mentioned they upgraded to the Redmi Note 7 from an S7 and raved about it.
Check out the review for the Blue 4GB RAM/64GB version.
It's one of the newer reviews.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I finally replaced my S7 and for now I am completely satisfied except the camera. I will test Gcam and see the result...

chazy chaz said:
RN7 is way better .. except for the sound quality and the weight (rn7 is heavy lol)
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Click to collapse
I got it this morning and yes, the redmi is so heavy. Sound Quality is better on xiaomi but i was using dual speaker sounds on S7 wich makes a plaisent stéréo effect. Camera is a bit better on S7 Thanks to live HDR, dual pixel technology and à good noise réduction.

That's awesome!
Can't wait until you try GCam.
Think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Also try open camera for 4K video recording?
achour7 said:
I got it this morning and yes, the redmi is so heavy. Sound Quality is better on xiaomi but i was using dual speaker sounds on S7 wich makes a plaisent stéréo effect. Camera is a bit better on S7 Thanks to live HDR, dual pixel technology and à good noise réduction.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

achour7 said:
I would like to know if it's à good idea to switch from S7 to redmi note 7 And how is good thé Xiaomi in picture, screen, speakers, battery life, power compared to s7.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes Redmi note 7 is next level in term of screen size, entertaining purpose, everyday all around. Battery life 2 days on minimal use. Picture not as good as s7 edge

I replaced Huawei P10 whit RN7 and I'm surprised how better it is comparing to P10. Screen picture quality is way better and camera whit Gcam too. P10 have Leica lense blā, blā, but I don't like Leica look and that camera overexposes picture, loses detail in texture whit smoothing, makes picture to oversaturated and colors too neutral. RN7 whit GCam is neutral, exposes good and colors are good. If You like overprocessed pictures then You might want different camera app.
P10 is not S7, but I can say this phone is good. Only complains are weight, and writing is a bit hard for Me in position as I hold the phone. Of course there is minor things like screen is a bit less bright comparing to P10, plastic body, speaker can be more clear, still usb 2.0, no nfc, no IP rating etc. If You don't want to spend alot of money on phone as I do then this is solid choice. For that extra 250€ I would spend on phone I can buy alot of different things for Me.

Both my wife and I just bought the RN7 yesterday to replace both of our S7 Edge, personally I notice the screen resolution difference between the two, I miss the notifications staying at the top, miss the app draw and the camera start up speed is a lot faster than the RN7. The main reason why we switched though is the battery life, both of ours are the US version which use the Snapdragon CPU which only give us around 4 hr SOT, and I pretty much have to charge 2 or 3 times a day (yah on my phone all day long ) , now with the RN7, without doing anything, I just got 8 hr SOT with 10% left ....so yah wire free all day and way cheaper than a flagship Samsung, I know I can get over the cons very soon.

bestjsg said:
Both my wife and I just bought the RN7 yesterday to replace both of our S7 Edge, personally I notice the screen resolution difference between the two, I miss the notifications staying at the top, miss the app draw and the camera start up speed is a lot faster than the RN7. The main reason why we switched though is the battery life, both of ours are the US version which use the Snapdragon CPU which only give us around 4 hr SOT, and I pretty much have to charge 2 or 3 times a day (yah on my phone all day long ) , now with the RN7, without doing anything, I just got 8 hr SOT with 10% left ....so yah wire free all day and way cheaper than a flagship Samsung, I know I can get over the cons very soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Plus we can help you negate some of the flaws
To get the original look with the added app drawer, install Poco Launcher from the Play Store and you're done with that part.
Screen res? Can you actually notice S7's higher pixels per inch count? Nothing to do about that though.
To overcome the lack of permanent notifications at the top, install Notch Test (Notifications for MIUI) and set up the position, give all permissions to the app, autostart, set battery restrictions to none, and lock it in the app switcher so MIUI can't kill it off. I have the icons position set to 215 from the left and 36 from the top. Works great and mitigates the issue completely (issue for those of us not coming from MIUI, accustomed to "permanent" notifications).
Camera start-up - nothing to do about that unless Xiaomi updates the firmware to do so. GCam takes even more to start, but the image it produces is more than worth the wait.

Mi 9T vs Pocophone mods/pictures quality

Hello.
I'm going to switch from my old op3 to a new phone. I'm on a buget, about 350$, and I can't decide between 9T and pocophone. The 9T looks promising but there is a huge lack of mods (roms, gcam ports, official twrp etc). On the other hand pocophone has a huge dev community, much like op1 had back in the day.
If I knew that the 9T will gain the same ammount of interest from devs I would buy it but F1 is a clear winner because of the community around it.
I understand that F1 camera quality is much improved with gcam ports. But is it better than the 9T default camera performance?
The display is also a downside for F1. OLED is anyway much better than any IPS but then again, there is small to none community around 9T.
I'm kinda stuck between these two. What would you buy?

Havoc is currently quite stable and the devs are still working on it. The display really looks good and that would be enough for me to take 9T over Pocophone to be honest.

editheraven said:
Hello.
I'm going to switch from my old op3 to a new phone. I'm on a buget, about 350$, and I can't decide between 9T and pocophone. The 9T looks promising but there is a huge lack of mods (roms, gcam ports, official twrp etc). On the other hand pocophone has a huge dev community, much like op1 had back in the day.
If I knew that the 9T will gain the same ammount of interest from devs I would buy it but F1 is a clear winner because of the community around it.
I understand that F1 camera quality is much improved with gcam ports. But is it better than the 9T default camera performance?
The display is also a downside for F1. OLED is anyway much better than any IPS but then again, there is small to none community around 9T.
I'm kinda stuck between these two. What would you buy?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are probably misinformed, if you want to use gcam 9t supports the latest builds of gcam 7 with no issues. You can find topics here on the forum. I'm using it myself.

I come from a pocophone and I can tell you I did the best choice:
1 Got rid of that awful notch, and now I have a big ass screen
2 AMOLED
3 The best custom ROM for Poco was Havoc, 9T has it and it's really good
4 Now I have LTE everywhere ( I'm from USA) on Poco I had only H+
5 Camera is really good, Poco was a little better, but for user experience, its excellent.
Yes maybe 9t lacks of Custom ROMs but I have eto be honest, what is the advantage of having 10 custom ROMs which only difference is the ROM name, it's better to have two or three but really good and stable

Is the WIDEVINE L1 reverting to L3 when unlocking bootloader/installing custom roms still a problem?

nosiobadx said:
I come from a pocophone and I can tell you I did the best choice:
1 Got rid of that awful notch, and now I have a big ass screen
2 AMOLED
3 The best custom ROM for Poco was Havoc, 9T has it and it's really good
4 Now I have LTE everywhere ( I'm from USA) on Poco I had only H+
5 Camera is really good, Poco was a little better, but for user experience, its excellent.
Yes maybe 9t lacks of Custom ROMs but I have eto be honest, what is the advantage of having 10 custom ROMs which only difference is the ROM name, it's better to have two or three but really good and stable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got to agree with most of this but from the few photos I have taken so far with the stock camera, I thought they looked a little better than Poco.

Had Poco for 6 months, and liked everything about it but ghost touch issue was killing me, so i sold it and got Mi9t, and here is my opinion:
- system performance is excellent
- cameras are better on Poco, especially gcam ports which are much more oprimized than for Mi9t
- battery life is ok, but on Poco it was more consistent, I got similar SOT on both
- fingerprint scanner is much much better on Poco
- popup camera is slow and gimmicky, totally unecessary
I would advise you not to switch for now, I sold my Mi9t and bought Mi8, which is a better phone all around