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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?
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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.
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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?
I've done tons of research for choosing my next phone and the choice basically boils down to these two phones now. They both have massive batteries, which is what I need, although the A9 Pro has a bigger one. I thought I'd be better to get a second opinion from people who've already used the Mate 8 before getting one.
Here's what I've found:
Huawei Mate 8:
Pros:
+Insanely fast and snappy
+64 GB storage (important), even has a 128 GB version!
+Possibly slightly better camera than on A9 Pro (not sure)
+Covers a huge number of bands (pretty important, I will be traveling to many places)
+SloMo video
Cons:
-EMUI
-EMUI
-Subscription to a company that does crappy software
-Fingerprint scanner on the back
-On-screen buttons
Galaxy A9 Pro:
Pros:
+TouchWiz
+TouchWiz
+Subscription to a company that does civilized software
+Still pretty fast, also has 4 GB RAM
+Bigger battery at 5000mAh
+Dual SIM + dedicated microSD slot
+AMOLED screen could be a slight advantage
+Fingerprint scanner on the front
+Physical home button + capacitive buttons (I'm just so used to them coming from a Samsung device, but I'm sure I could also get used to on-screen buttons)
Cons:
- Camera a little bit underwhelming and can be hit or miss in some settings (e.g. G Note 4 camera is better)
- 32 GB storage only (guess I could live with it)
- Doesn't cover nearly as many bands
- No SloMo video, only 30 fps
The Mate 8 is clearly better hardware-wise, but I'm really concerned about the EMUI. I've read varying opinions that Nova Launcher solves most of the problems, but then also that you're still kind of stuck with menus and notification drawer that tries to look like iOS really hard. I'm also not very keen on rooting the phone and flashing a new ROM, I want something stable and that works right out of the box.
Is EMUI really that bad? Is it buggy? Are you having any issues with it? I watched some videos on YT of Huawei Mate 8 with Nova Launcher and it looked pretty good. Some people told me that after setting up the Nova Launcher they can barely tell it's EMUI, and that the notification drawer is customizable.
The A9 Pro does have that big advantage of having a peace of mind that your UI is optimized (inb4 hating on TouchWiz - it's surely way better than EMUI) and will continue to run well in the future. And that monster 5000mAh battery... it's really tempting.
What are your suggestions? Is Huawei Mate 8 still a good phone for me if I don't want to do any rooting or flashing?
Also I'm based in China. Will buying the Mate 8 in China come with any cons vs. buying outside of China? Or I just download and install the Google apks and I'm good to go?
*Disclaimer - I'm also posting this on Galaxy A series subforum to get opinions from Samsung users.
I choosed Huawei Mate 8 over A9pro
The Mate 8 is clearly better hardware-wise, but I'm really concerned about the EMUI. I've read varying opinions that Nova Launcher solves most of the problems, but then also that you're still kind of stuck with menus and notification drawer that tries to look like iOS really hard. I'm also not very keen on rooting the phone and flashing a new ROM, I want something stable and that works right out of the box.
Is EMUI really that bad? Is it buggy? Are you having any issues with it? I watched some videos on YT of Huawei Mate 8 with Nova Launcher and it looked pretty good. Some people told me that after setting up the Nova Launcher they can barely tell it's EMUI, and that the notification drawer is customizable.
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There are plenty of EMUI themes on xda that gives you material design icons , you can just install one or use together with 3rd party launcher like Nova, no need to root or switch rom for this.
The notification and quick settings menu looked nothing like ios, unless you think anything with some transparency effect equals ios. To me they look much better than that bluish-green and busy looking drop-down on touchwiz, although touchwiz does give you a bit more options on what to put on the quick settings panel. The (non-quick) settings menu may have more of a resemblance to ios in UI design, but so what, it looks clean and easy to use. Besides, how often will you be looking at the settings menu?
Overall, I'm generally satisfied with the aesthetics of EMUI 4 (I'd argue some parts better looking than touchwiz or even stock android). The main things I don't like are the stock icons and forced icon boarder, and to a lesser extent the default launcher. These are easily solvable by installing a theme and Nova Prime.
As far as user experience goes, the system runs stable, fast, and not buggy for me (what's with the hating that made you so sure Touchwiz optimized better? ) But there are some things you may want know if you haven't used EMUI before:
By default there will be power-intensive prompts and it will auto-close apps while screen is off. Some people find it unnecessary and annoying, but they can be turned off altogether or be excluded on selected apps. Just adjust it to the way you like in settings.
Some people complained about missing or delayed push notification when the phone has been idle for a few hours, I experienced it as well on early ROM versions, but I no longer encounter this problem since the last few OTA updates, push notifications now come like normal (instantly).
If you rely on on-going notification apps that shows dynamic interactive icon on the top status bar (e.g. an always-on weather app that shows current temperature in its icon), it may not work on the EMUI status bar as it will only show the default app icon. I don't use these kind of things so I'm not affected, but that's just me.
EMUI 4.x has extensive app specific battery-use management, network-use management, and phone/text harassment filter, which are great in general. But I find the harassment filter a little bit lacking in that you can't block text and phone calls using separate rules.
The camera hardware is just meh/passable if compared to other high-end phones, but still better than mid-range phones like the Galaxy a9. The camera app on EMUI 4.0 is good, on EMUI 4.1 it is great (the best I have used). EMUI 4.1 is recently being pushed to some Mate 8.
I don't know if you used 6 inch phones before or not, but I would think that having a back fingerprint scanner rather than a front one is a blessing and not a con on 6 inch devices. I'm a fan of front scanners on smaller phones, but if you tried to hold a 6-inch phone you will know how much more comfortable it is to unlock with your index-finger than with your thumb (unless you have huge hands, or that you use your phone placed on a table much more often than holding it)
If you are a die hard stock/MD fans and can't stand any EMUI design cues, or if you like flashing different roms, then you will have a hard time owning an Mate 8, because it is unlikely that you will find Cyanogen/AOSP rom for this device given that it uses Kirin SoC.
But if you don't like manually flashing roms, the Mate 8 will actually receive better rom support than the a9, because Mate 8 is a much more important product line for Huawei than the a9 is for Samsung. The Mate 8 has been on android marshmallow since the beginning, yet many Galaxy a9 are still on lollipop today (marshmallow for a9 just rolling out for a couple weeks). Mate 8 will likely receive support up to Android N/EMUI 5.0, but for the a9 I'm less confident about it.
Emui is horrible and plagued with old bugs. Install Google launcher or similar for great experience.
I installed twisted mate 8 which is a stock like custom rom.
Sent from my HUAWEI NXT-L29 using Tapatalk
Thanks all for the input, I ended up buying the Mate 8, 64 GB version. I couldn't be more happy, the battery life on that thing is insane and just what I need.
MauriceDz said:
Thanks all for the input, I ended up buying the Mate 8, 64 GB version. I couldn't be more happy, the battery life on that thing is insane and just what I need.
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Great, you will notice the Touchwiz was the real battery sucker and no matter how big the battery it would manage to drain it quickly. On the other side you have the glorious Mate 8 with the ugly EMUI but the great battery management. Just change the launcher, I personally have Google launcher but if you need more customization then you can choose another launcher but that will surely decrease the battery life.
Bla bla bla
Sent from my SM-A9100
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 Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Premise: I'm actually using a Redmi Note 4 with LineageOS, happily.
When Mi A2 Lite was announced days ago, I was like: "nobody will buy this device, with SD625 and micro USB in mid 2018".
Then a tech-dumb friend gave me an iPhone X to configure. I played with it for a day and I find it very comfy to hold in hand, and one-hand usability is very good (except for some iOS design flaws, but I hate the Apple philosophy in general).
I was so in love with the compactness of the iPhone X compared to my RN4, that I immediately searched for a phone that is not wider than 72 mm (the iPhone X is 71 mm). Thanks to GSMArena phone finder, I restricted the search down to two phones: the Nokia 6.1 and the Mi A2 Lite (I excluded all the unlock-able bootloader phones, and the Mediatek phones because of very poor custom ROMs and mods scenario, no updates and violation of the Linux kernel GPL).
The Nokia 6.1 (X6 in Asia) seems perfect under all aspects, but I found that Nokia don't unlock the bootloaders of their phones, and it's a no-go for me.
The last choice was the Mi A2 Lite, a phone with unlock-able bootloader but with an aged chipset. But frankly, it's the same chipset as my actual phone, and it does everything I need without problems. It's like having my same RN4 but in compact form and with upgraded camera (the same as RN5 I read somewhere).
In the end it will be a very small hardware upgrade, but a great upgrade for usability and for my fingers' health.
I will review this phone better when I will get it the next week.
My A2 Lite 4GB arrived today.....screen seems a bit smaller when held in the hand than I had Imagined but I am use to a Oneplus 5 and a 5T, currently running all 3 phones, few minor gripes for the price, mostly software related
The battery percentage option does not work when set in the System UI Tuner, I had to download an app to show the percentage in the notification area and then remove the battery icon using the System UI Tuner.
Also the navigation buttons, I cannot find a way to swap there order, also no way for the navigation buttons to be called upon when needed rather than them taking up a portion of the screen at all times, which is ideal when surfing or reading a site, but hopefully there is a method, On the oneplus you can simply set to be called upon with a swipe up gesture from the bottom of the screen.
justwondering said:
My A2 Lite 4GB arrived today.....screen seems a bit smaller when held in the hand than I had Imagined but I am use to a Oneplus 5 and a 5T, currently running all 3 phones, few minor gripes for the price, mostly software related
The battery percentage option does not work when set in the System UI Tuner, I had to download an app to show the percentage in the notification area and then remove the battery icon using the System UI Tuner.
Also the navigation buttons, I cannot find a way to swap there order, also no way for the navigation buttons to be called upon when needed rather than them taking up a portion of the screen at all times, which is ideal when surfing or reading a site, but hopefully there is a method, On the oneplus you can simply set to be called upon with a swipe up gesture from the bottom of the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same
Sent from my Mi A2 Lite using Tapatalk
Look at this thread:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-a2-lite/themes/hide-navigation-bar-t3825864
im using non-rooted version and with that app you can hide navigation bar to, and swap button order.
It is a great phone, because of the AndroidOne and overall build and looks. Otherwise, all comments here apply to me also.
Things it misses from ideal phone for me are: at least SD636 (BT5, etc) and better camera (aperture at least 2.0)
justwondering said:
The battery percentage option does not work when set in the System UI Tuner, I had to download an app to show the percentage in the notification area and then remove the battery icon using the System UI Tuner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What app did you use?
Gesendet von meinem Mi A2 Lite mit Tapatalk
Very happy with this phone. Rapid Charging on good old Micro Usb (I don't want to have to change to USb C yet), great battery life, pure android, Loud Loud Speaker, android one is very smooth, no bloat, IR blaster, a kind of Hidden FM Radio (using Qmmi settings, not great but usuable in a way), great size and shape for me I can use one handed, just, and the camera is decent enough for me.
First time I have bee
BubuXP said:
Premise: I'm actually using a Redmi Note 4 with LineageOS, happily.
When Mi A2 Lite was announced days ago, I was like: "nobody will buy this device, with SD625 and micro USB in mid 2018".
Then a tech-dumb friend gave me an iPhone X to configure. I played with it for a day and I find it very comfy to hold in hand, and one-hand usability is very good (except for some iOS design flaws, but I hate the Apple philosophy in general).
I was so in love with the compactness of the iPhone X compared to my RN4, that I immediately searched for a phone that is not wider than 72 mm (the iPhone X is 71 mm). Thanks to GSMArena phone finder, I restricted the search down to two phones: the Nokia 6.1 and the Mi A2 Lite (I excluded all the unlock-able bootloader phones, and the Mediatek phones because of very poor custom ROMs and mods scenario, no updates and violation of the Linux kernel GPL).
The Nokia 6.1 (X6 in Asia) seems perfect under all aspects, but I found that Nokia don't unlock the bootloaders of their phones, and it's a no-go for me.
The last choice was the Mi A2 Lite, a phone with unlock-able bootloader but with an aged chipset. But frankly, it's the same chipset as my actual phone, and it does everything I need without problems. It's like having my same RN4 but in compact form and with upgraded camera (the same as RN5 I read somewhere).
In the end it will be a very small hardware upgrade, but a great upgrade for usability and for my fingers' health.
I will review this phone better when I will get it the next week.
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Click to collapse
I have it now, it's slow as duck but good phone.
Bought it 2 month ago..am travelling now. Nothing beats the big battery..side effect is lot of cheap places don't give up remote of airconditioning if any.. then I fire up phone and the ir blaster manages to make everything cold and nice..phone is not super cool but proves itself
Hello, I'm creating an account in order to give my real-life review of this phone.
For overall love, I would say 4/5.
I'm definitely felling this phone, right here.
I bought the phone in October 2018 and today, January 2019, I still enjoy this device.
I will give further details in the separate categories.
I'm VERY happy with this phone, especially considering how how insanely cheap it is. Screen is gorgeous, battery life is fantastic, performance is good even on newer graphic intensive games. Downsides? It's thicker and heavier than most phones of similar size,and the camera is so so.
8 out of 10. Blows away the MotoE4 I was using before this, which that phone was only about $40 cheaper.
⠀
not 5/5 because of camera
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 , all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
My short review of redmi K20 Pro / Mi 9T Pro in croatian language (there are video and photo samples): https://android.bswireless.hr/2019/09/xiaomi-mi-9t-pro-odnosno-redmi-k20-pro-najpovoljniji-mobitel-s-najbrzim-snapdragon-procesorom/
I've had and used this device (9T Pro 6/128 Black, M1903F11G) for a bit over a week now. My previous phone was almost 5 years old (HTC M8), so for me this is a huge upgrade in every way. It is fast and beautiful and takes great pictures even in difficult conditions. Finally I have an AMOLED screen again and it is gorgeous.
I have not unlocked, rooted, modded the device yet. Running MiUI 10.3.3.0 PFKEUXM. I plan to keep it stock for a month or so just to make sure that any gripes I might have with MiUI are not just a matter of getting used to. I will probably put Lineage OS on it.
All in all I love the device a lot. It looks good and feels good in the hand. I have not used other modern devices, so I can't really compare. Instead I will list nags / negative things, then you can decide whether these are things you care about.
- Pop-up camera.
This feels like it would be a weak point, as it is the only moving part. It probably also makes it less dust and water proof.
I don't use face unlock and I don't take selfies, so I don't care too much about this. I like that the screen has no notch in it.
- It does not have stereo speakers.
Dual front facing speakers on the M8 were much better, but came at a cost of screen real estate.
I care about this a little bit, but for media I mostly use headphones anyway and for alarms, notifications, etc.. this does not matter.
- Finger print scanner response is inconsistent.
Most of the time it works very quickly (less than half a second) but sometimes it takes longer or I have to lift my finger and try again.
This is my first device with FPS so maybe this is normal. I like the idea of FPS on the back (Motorola, LG, ...) but I can't tell from experience whether this is actually better.
- The FM radio has no RDS and the reception is not very good.
I am probably one of the few people that care about FM radio.
- Lack of SD card slot
...but with 128GB internal storage that should not be a problem. On other devices that did have SD card slots I have always used them to expand internal storage, never as removable storage.
love it!
touch of jobo said:
This is my first device with FPS so maybe this is normal. I like the idea of FPS on the back (Motorola, LG, ...) but I can't tell from experience whether this is actually better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a fingerprint scanner on the back on my previous phone and this is one of the main reason I wanted to switch to a phone with a fingerprint scanner under the screen.
I use my phone a lot at work and most of time it’s lying on the desk, so each time I wanted to either use my phone, check message/mails or anything else, I had to grab the phone and put my finger on the back in order to unlock it and that was very inconvenient, especially when you do this 50/100 times a day.
Now I only have to put my finger on the screen and that’s it, don’t even have to move the phone, I like it much better, even though fingerprint scanner under the screen is not as quick as the one on the back.
Love it. I handed some devices with notch and I couldn't stand it. It may look strange but even the asymmetric bezels in mi 9t pro hurts my brain. Lol.
Switched from a Huawei P20 Lite to European MI 9T PRO and it's a huge improvement.
PRO's
- no notch
- better display
- updated hardware (resolves tasks much faster)
- better camera
- larger battery
CON's
- no expandable memory
- MIUI still strange to me (would've loved stock like OnePlus)
Overall I love it
Sent from my Mi 9T Pro using Tapatalk
In the middle of switching from a Mi Max 3. Not fully switching until I can unlock and root it.
Pluses -
LIttle bit faster than the Max but not enough that I'd not go back.
Better camera.
Cons -
No sd slot. First phone I've had without and not sure I like it.
Tiny screen. The Max series has been perfect for me and this is a major decider as to whether I keep it as I read a lot of pdfs and movie watching.
Unknown - battery life. Tiny battery in comparison and I'm used to 13+ hrs SOT so this could be another decider.
Meh - amoled isn't as much of an improvement as I'd been expecting after 2 years with lcd.
Had a zte zmax pro for years... talk about an upgrade! i did days of research, and continuously went up and up the chain of cost until I felt like I landed at the sweet spot for price and modern performance with the Mi 9T Pro. Just before ordering I realized AMOLED has "OLED" in it :highfive:. I live in the US so after showing coworkers they were shocked. One even commented how they basically paid 3 times as much for a phone that is similar (at best) than mine. Yup :victory:
Overall am amazed by the quality and performance as you can imagine. Now just looking for a daily driver to stick with. So far MIUI isn't bad, but I'd like to see whats out there. Thanks to the devs who continue to work on what they love, and allow us to use our devices to their fullest potential.
Love it too
all I need is no notch and it does , that's all
For the price, phone is really great . It's super fast, quality is good. My main complaint is lack of sd card slot, but it's not really big problem
So, after using the Note 8 for the last 2 years, I decided that I wanted to try something new. There was nothing wrong with my Note 8 except for screen burn-in ( I hope this doesn't do the same thing). I was really impressed when I opened the eBay package. Phone, Charger, USB-C cable, "case" and the seller tossed in an international to USA adapter. The initial setup was a typical android. Once I got it set up, there were a few updates and I was ready to roll. The thing that impressed me the most initially was the build quality and display. This phone does not feel like a sub $400 phone. It feels just as solid as my note 8. The next biggest plus was the display.. It's gorgeous!! and compared to my note 8, the colors are more realistic. This was immediately noticeable on Instagram. I'm with T-mobile and it configured everything correctly. I tested SMS, data, and voice. All worked as they should.
Some Pros:
The build and display rival much more expensive phones
The cameras on the back are very good. Video and stills are more than acceptable.
The battery life is AMAZING, I don't know what kind of voodoo Xiaomi is doing, but the phone lasts all day. I felt like I had to constantly keep my note 8 on a charger.
The OS runs really smooth and I've not had any app crashes
Some Cons:
The fingerprint ready can be hit or miss at times... Hopefully can be sorted with a software patch
The Selfie Camera is average, not nearly as impressive as the rear cameras.
Accessories are a bit sparse at the moment ( looking for a good-tempered glass cover)
The UI... This may be a plus for some, but after a few days, I gave up on it and went to Nova, I could not figure out how to remove icons from the desktop and there isn't a app drawer (that I could find). I think I will eventually give it another chance.
No SD or wireless (It can't be that hard to add these)
Summary: While not perfect, It's pretty damn close.. All they need to add is wireless charging and a few tweaks to make this a gem. If you have any questions about features, feel free to ask.
really nice review, agreed on most of the points except the SD thing since 128GB is more than enough for me.
Totaly agree ! I have to say that I don't care about wireless charging since I can't use the phone even for a call while charge xD but I understand, also sound quality is pretty good.
SD card + IP68 and it's really perfect !
walkerl said:
So, after using the Note 8 for the last 2 years, I decided that I wanted to try something new. There was nothing wrong with my Note 8 except for screen burn-in ( I hope this doesn't do the same thing). I was really impressed when I opened the eBay package. Phone, Charger, USB-C cable, "case" and the seller tossed in an international to USA adapter. The initial setup was a typical android. Once I got it set up, there were a few updates and I was ready to roll. The thing that impressed me the most initially was the build quality and display. This phone does not feel like a sub $400 phone. It feels just as solid as my note 8. The next biggest plus was the display.. It's gorgeous!! and compared to my note 8, the colors are more realistic. This was immediately noticeable on Instagram. I'm with T-mobile and it configured everything correctly. I tested SMS, data, and voice. All worked as they should.
Some Pros:
The build and display rival much more expensive phones
The cameras on the back are very good. Video and stills are more than acceptable.
The battery life is AMAZING, I don't know what kind of voodoo Xiaomi is doing, but the phone lasts all day. I felt like I had to constantly keep my note 8 on a charger.
The OS runs really smooth and I've not had any app crashes
Some Cons:
The fingerprint ready can be hit or miss at times... Hopefully can be sorted with a software patch
The Selfie Camera is average, not nearly as impressive as the rear cameras.
Accessories are a bit sparse at the moment ( looking for a good-tempered glass cover)
The UI... This may be a plus for some, but after a few days, I gave up on it and went to Nova, I could not figure out how to remove icons from the desktop and there isn't a app drawer (that I could find). I think I will eventually give it another chance.
No SD or wireless (It can't be that hard to add these)
Summary: While not perfect, It's pretty damn close.. All they need to add is wireless charging and a few tweaks to make this a gem. If you have any questions about features, feel free to ask.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fingerprint works great for me, you have to train it a handful of times and it's perfect.
Selfie camera I'm still tinkering around with Gcam and what not, no opinion on it yet.
The UI + a launcher is fine, in my case im using the microsoft halo launcher.
My problems this being my first Mi phone was that the wifi was going down every few minutes, switched to a 2.4ghz network and seems to be more stable for whatever reason.
Auto brightness ****ing sucks but I think I've found a solution... > Disable automatic contrast.
Notifications / Sreenlock notifications, wasn't receiving any, being used to taking it for granted, figured out I had to activate it "per-app", but there's an easy way to do this Settings / Manage Apps / Permissions / Other Permissions / Permissions (on top) / "Show on Lock Screen"
If you want to go back and use the MI launcher with app drawer, I suggest you download Poco laucher, which has this possibility and enables you to switch off the phone with the double tap, amongst other useful other tweaks.
Cheers
there is a miui launcher with app drawer : https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/xiaom...-launcher-alpha-4-10-6-1025-06141703-release/
source: https://www.xda-developers.com/xiaomi-miui-app-drawer-app-shortcuts/
master66 said:
If you want to go back and use the MI launcher with app drawer, I suggest you download Poco laucher, which has this possibility and enables you to switch off the phone with the double tap, amongst other useful other tweaks.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The halo launcher has this functionality as well.
I use the Xiaomi Poco launcher 2.0. Best launcher out there.
Agree with you with all of those points. What about the vibration for notifications? while in hand feel is great. I find it hard to notice in my pocket.
I had the galaxy s8 before so that's what I'm comparing it against.
Is it that mi9t comes with a MIUI launcher?
As of my K20 indian variant was bundled with the poco launcher instead of MIUI launcher and app drawer etc. Was never a problem for me then.
I cannot find any cons with this phone. Ok, fingerprint is not perfect, but I expected this when coming from a phone with capacitive sensor.I didn't test Oneplus's sensor, but after I tried the one in Galaxy A50, this one is at least 3x better. I really cannot complain about anything else...this could easily be a 600$ Samsung phone, but fortunately it isn't
After using Xiaomi Mi6 for two years it never slowed down, and even now it runs circles around all midrange Samsung/Huawei... phones without a sweat. Sold it because battery backup is around 5hrs Sot, and that is not enough for me anymore.
I tried almost all phone brands, and I can only reccomend Xiaomi and Oneplus....other just don't make sense
Don't expect a "perfect" phone for its price. That's why they don't put a sd card slot and a wireless charging to make the phone a "budget phone".
Well, my thoughts after a few days... it blows the Samsung A50 I had before out of the water. It's like going from very much midrange to the luxury class without paying the luxury price. Sure, there are a few occasions where you can notice the lower cost. But not where it really counts.
For me, it was the fingerprint sensor on the A50 that made me look elsewhere and finally go back to Xiaomi. Still not comparable to a dedicated one even on the cheapest models but lightyears beyond the crap Samsung puts under the display. Also, the Mi 9T doesn't have trouble knowing where it is so Smart Unlock works, as does Face Unlock even when not standing in a brightly lit studio.
Yes, I find that quite important as one unlocks the thing like 600 times per day
The whole experience is much more fluid. Not seeing the need for an alternative ROM - even tho they exist, thanks to the Snappy inside.
My main niggle is an old one with Xiaomi: sound. Why the heck can't they get this right? Everybody listens to music all the time and I know from experience what even the cheaper models are capable of. So why do we get such thin tinny sound out of the box, cable or not? And why does it start distorting the second you touch the equalizer? That's the one thing Samsung's midrange does better; I never saw the need to root the A50 for V4A. With the Mi 9T I very much do (hanging in the waiting period now grrrrrrr). It's generally surprising to me why phone makers don't give more care to this. I mean how hard can it be to include some V4A routines or something? Or am I weird in caring about some bass and body to my music?
Anyway, happy to have made the switch. Good deal.
there is an app drawer on system launcher look at the system setting find the home screen then you will find the regular one and with app drawer. :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=amirz.rootless.nexuslauncher&hl=en_US
I use rootless launcher as my default, i tried poco but it didnt have the google feed and the stock launcher icons on the home screen was too much to bare with.
full screen gestures also enabled