Database Users

[Mod Request]Major Challenging issue: the screen brightness lvls! on direct sunlight

One major Challenging issue, in my opinion,is the screen brightness levels
>>>especially on direct sunlight:
In this interesting link CNET has been doing Screens test of : Galaxy Note 2 vs. Apple iPhone 5
It would be GR8 if we can "custom control mega boost brightness" upon individual use....
and try to get close to iphone 5 outdoor brightness
Anyone willing to face the challenge
,

Thread moved.
I dont know why you misplaced the thread since I know you are a long time user, but pease do not do it again.
XDA Senior Moderator

This confirms my finding that Note 2 no longer has the "immeasurable" black levels like that in S1 and S2! They are more like this year's Panasonic Plasma TVs which is quite a disappointment as I have got used to the true blacks in S1 and S2 and they look quite gray and underwhelming in Note 2 even if latter has better accuracy and resolution. Also the viewing angles are significantly compromised with off axis bluish tint which dint exist in S1 or S2 either. Poor show Samsung!

brightness of S4 display

Hİ, guys
galaxy s3 screen was dim has anybody played with S4 is screen brighter than S3 i live in very sunny place need brightness thanks.

I haven't played with the S4 yet, however though, the S4's screen is clearly brighter than the S3's in some of the video on YouTube

The S4's screen is (according to reports) a little brighter than the S3.

so a little galaxy s3 was 330 cd so would s4 be 400?

Maximum brightness seems good, white is quite strong when it shines up (on pictures when you hover over the screen), but Samsung SW may tone it down for browsing etc. They say the new one will be adaptive depending on tasks and user habits and will be presets and manual adjustments available.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

thanks so its brighter tha s3 but is it like iphone 5

cihanleanne said:
Hİ, guys
galaxy s3 screen was dim has anybody played with S4 is screen brighter than S3 i live in very sunny place need brightness thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do u know,
Why amoled become darker ?!
S II was prefect in screen but after that i had lots of problem outdoor to use S III and i had to set brightness 100% !!!
now S IV has darker display than s3 !!!
samsung tries to have deep black but in software he set just deep darkness !
but i hope problem of darkness be like problem of demo version of xperia Z that were white... and in premium version It has S.oO pretty screen

x102x96x said:
do u know,
Why amoled become darker ?!
S II was prefect in screen but after that i had lots of problem outdoor to use S III and i had to set brightness 100% !!!
now S IV has darker display than s3 !!!
samsung tries to have deep black but in software he set just deep darkness !
but i hope problem of darkness be like problem of demo version of xperia Z that were white... and in premium version It has S.oO pretty screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so s4 is even darker tah s3 ?

x102x96x said:
do u know,
Why amoled become darker ?!
S II was prefect in screen but after that i had lots of problem outdoor to use S III and i had to set brightness 100% !!!
now S IV has darker display than s3 !!!
samsung tries to have deep black but in software he set just deep darkness !
but i hope problem of darkness be like problem of demo version of xperia Z that were white... and in premium version It has S.oO pretty screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cihanleanne said:
so s4 is even darker tah s3 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey guys, first post My biggest gripe with the S3 was the dim screen and unnatural colours especially the greyish white. I didn't buy it because of that. S4 seems to be a bit brighter and with better colour reproduction, only seen it on-line though. The screen on HTC One was really good, but seemed to be a bit dimmer than the One X, but I just tried it on a show floor so its hard to tell in that kind of lightning. Was a bit disappointing with the plain screen of Sony Z, maybe I looked at the demo version? I think that the white-magic stuff on my Sony Xperia P is really good for cranking up the brightness when needed, strange that Sony abandoned that tech. S4 with the screen of HTC One would be the best combo, but you could probably get used to Amoled?
The S4 seems brighter than the S3. Not sure if it's fair to compare brightness on Amoled with Lcd due to Amoleds black levels. quote from laptopmag (OT annoying Captcha):
"In addition to the Galaxy S4’s system performance, we also managed to benchmark the brightness level of the smartphone’s 5-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel Super AMOLED display. One of the biggest complaints we had regarding the S III was how dim its display was at just 213 lux. The Galaxy S4 improves upon that number, topping out at 258 lux. That’s brighter than the Galaxy S III, as well as the Galaxy Note II’s 240 lux rating. Unfortunately, the Galaxy S4 still falls behind the smartphone category average of 299 lux. The Google Nexus 4, meanwhile, came in with an average 399 lux."

Steambox said:
Hey guys, first post My biggest gripe with the S3 was the dim screen and unnatural colours especially the greyish white. I didn't buy it because of that. S4 seems to be a bit brighter and with better colour reproduction, only seen it on-line though. The screen on HTC One was really good, but seemed to be a bit dimmer than the One X, but I just tried it on a show floor so its hard to tell in that kind of lightning. Was a bit disappointing with the plain screen of Sony Z, maybe I looked at the demo version? I think that the white-magic stuff on my Sony Xperia P is really good for cranking up the brightness when needed, strange that Sony abandoned that tech. S4 with the screen of HTC One would be the best combo, but you could probably get used to Amoled?
The S4 seems brighter than the S3. Not sure if it's fair to compare brightness on Amoled with Lcd due to Amoleds black levels. quote from laptopmag (OT annoying Captcha):
"In addition to the Galaxy S4’s system performance, we also managed to benchmark the brightness level of the smartphone’s 5-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel Super AMOLED display. One of the biggest complaints we had regarding the S III was how dim its display was at just 213 lux. The Galaxy S4 improves upon that number, topping out at 258 lux. That’s brighter than the Galaxy S III, as well as the Galaxy Note II’s 240 lux rating. Unfortunately, the Galaxy S4 still falls behind the smartphone category average of 299 lux. The Google Nexus 4, meanwhile, came in with an average 399 lux."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wellcome to XDA,:good: so s4 nearly %10 brighterthan note 2?

BoneXDA said:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice cherry picking, but obviously the HTC One had power saving mode on, he turned it off like 30 seconds later:

bazzag said:
Nice cherry picking, but obviously the HTC One had power saving mode on, he turned it off like 30 seconds later:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what do you mean

cihanleanne said:
so s4 is even darker tah s3 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in some comparison unfortunately yeah
S4 is even darker than S3 !!!

u can check it here
left u can see S4 demo and right S4 premium in unpacked 2013

x102x96x said:
u can check it here
left u can see S4 demo and right S4 premium in unpacked 2013
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks has anybody had hands on

cihanleanne said:
Wellcome to XDA,:good: so s4 nearly %10 brighterthan note 2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tks! Looks like that. I saw that Cnet wrote a pieace about the S4 display, seams promising. I Can't link so i paste it below:
"Screen specs point to more natural-looking colors in the Samsung Galaxy S4 and other future Samsung phones
If you're the type of person who cares about these things, you'll be happy to know that a screen expert gives the Samsung Galaxy S4 kudos so far.
In particular, Ray Soneira, president of display analysis and software calibration company DisplayMate, takes it as a good sign that Samsung includes something called a CIE Chromaticity Diagram and grayscale for the GS4's adaptive screen settings.
The bottom line? If the Galaxy S4 has extensive color, white point, and display calibration adjustments, it means that Samsung's phones can back away from the oversaturated, candied colors they often get due to the AMOLED screen technology.
The varied spectrum indicates that whites could also look less blue than they have in the past, and more naturally pristine.
My colleague, CNET TV reviewer David Katzmaier, himself a screen fanatic, recently spent a lot of time playing with the settings on a Galaxy Note 2 and has some great insight of his own, including how to adjust settings to make colors more natural.
Samsung Galaxy S4 adapt display options Various adjustment modes could mean that colors look less oversaturated than in the past.
It's still the early days when it comes to actual display performance, both indoors and outdoors, and Samsung screens, like on the Galaxy S3, are often so reflective they're hard to read outdoors. But good changes could be coming soon.
Note: CNET uses DisplayMate software in lab tests."

It is decent in bright sunlight...seems better than my s3 but I'll try a side by side comparison later
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium

dlutz8 said:
It is decent in bright sunlight...seems better than my s3 but I'll try a side by side comparison later
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that would be great

has anybody had chance to play with galaxy S4?

Honestly don't know why people complain so much about the phone's brightness, its not that bad. And in regards to that whole auto-adjust stuff, well you can turn it off and just put it on max brightness if need be. On max brightness its plenty bright.

Moto X Review (coming from Galaxy S2) IMAGE HEAVY

I have been using a Galaxy S2 for the past two and a half years and have been pretty happy with it overall. Last week my Republic Wireless Moto X came in, and I decided to share my experience.
(Physical Appearance)
Physically, the Galaxy S2 and Moto X are almost identical in vertical and horizontal size. The Galaxy S2 is a hair wider, and not quite as long. The Moto X packs a 4.7” screen into approximately the same sized package as the Galaxy S2 which has a 4.3” screen - though only around 4.45” of the X’s screen is usable most of the time due to onscreen buttons. The Moto X is considerably thicker (the S2 is an incredibly thin phone) though its shape is very pleasant to hold. Thinner is not always better. I was also surprised by how noticeable an increase from 122g to 130g is in my hand – the X feels surprisingly heavier and denser.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
The screens on these two devices are both Samsung-manufactured OLED panels. The S2 uses the same RGB pixel layout as the Moto X, but runs at a lower resolution of 800x480 (16:10) as opposed to the X’s 1280x720 (16:9). The Moto X’s panel is basically the same panel as is used in the Note 2, though with smaller pixels, making it one generation behind the S4 and one generation ahead of the S2. Neither has the RGBG (pentile) layout of the Galaxy S, S3 and S4, which is arguably a plus.
Auto brightness:
Max brightness:
Although it’s difficult to capture with a camera (my second S2, in fact), the Moto X’s screen is a little brighter at any given level of auto-brightness, has a higher max brightness, and a slightly lower minimum brightness than the S2. The saturation is higher on the Moto X than on the S2 though its pixels have faded in the past two and a half years (a common problem with OLED panels). Interestingly, the S2’s blue pixels have faded more quickly than its red and green pixels, which has changed its originally overly-blue image to a slightly red-green tinted image. I have to wonder if Samsung did this intentionally with their tuning, and wonder if the Moto X will suffer the same pixel fading as it ages. Also worth noting is Samsung’s inclusion of “screen modes” which control the saturation, which is absent in the Moto X. I have been using the “natural” setting on my S2 for a while now and I wish the Moto X had the option to decrease it’s saturation a little too.
Subjectively, the Moto X’s screen is an incredible improvement. Text is easier to read due to the higher resolution, and it’s just generally a more pleasant screen to look at. Not to say that the S2’s screen wasn’t acceptable, but displays have come a long way in a short time.
One thing that surprised me was the feeling of the vibrations in the S2 vs the Moto X. The X’s vibrations remind me a lot of the OG Droid (I have not owned a Motorola phone since that one), and are a lot rougher or lower-frequency than those of the S2. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other, but they definitely feel different, each being very representative of their manufacturers.
(UI and subjective performance)
The UI on the Moto X (as you probably already know) is very near stock android. Aesthetically, I like it better than TouchWiz on the S2 though functionally they are not very different. Nearly everything is organized exactly the same in the S2’s version of TW, the major differences being in the font choices and colorfulness of icons and menus. One thing notably lacking on the Moto X (with the stock launcher) is the ability to resize widgets and add or remove homepages.
Some of the app skinning done in TouchWiz is arguably an improvement over stock android, and most of the places where things are better there, Motorola has done the same. The most notable example is the camera UI. To be frank, I don’t like the UI Google has chosen for its camera, and am glad Motorola made their own.
The S2 is one of the first phones that I felt was largely “fast enough”. It has a dual core Exynos 4 SOC clocked at 1.2GHz and 1GB of RAM (~830MB usable). The Moto X has a dual core Snapdragon S4 Pro clocked at 1.7GHz and 2GB of RAM. The Snapdragon is considerably faster per clock.
I have been running my S2 rooted since day 1 and with recent 3rd-party kernels, the UI is almost perfectly smooth if there isn’t anything running in the background. There are occasionally dropped frames, and animations can be choppy if things are running in the background. Scrolling up and down webpages as they are loading in Chrome can also show dropped frames. 1GB of RAM is sufficient right now, but only just, and with the increasing requirements of apps I expect the S2 will be limited by its RAM sooner than its SOC. I would like to note that TouchWiz actually runs better than more recent versions of Cyanogenmod, so I have gone back to a modified 4.1.2 TW. The Moto X by contrast has a perfectly fluid UI out of the box, and almost nothing I have done has produced any dropped frames. Subjectively, the Moto X is noticeably smoother than the S2, especially when multitasking.
Game-wise, there is no game on the Android Market that won’t run perfectly smoothly on the S2 (today). It even handles DS emulation smoothly – you can’t tell the difference between a DS game running on the S2 vs the Moto X. So, despite the Moto X being several times faster on paper, games and emulators show no improvement (yet).
Worth mentioning is how much more quickly the Moto X tends to connect to and authenticate over WiFi.
(Features)
The Moto X has several features which I appreciate, but they aren’t make-or-break for me. Sadly, it lacks a few features which almost are.
The twist-to-activate-camera feature is neat, but it takes very little more time to hit the power button and turn it on from the lockscreen. I was surprised to learn (and other reviews hadn’t mentioned) that the motion works regardless of what you’re doing. The camera can be activated via the motion from within a call, while watching a video, or from within a game (unless, I assume, the game takes control of the motion sensors). This is situationally pretty useful.
Active display is a wonderful feature which I find as useful because I can wake my phone without hitting the power button as seeing if I have notifications without fully waking the phone.
Moto Connect is a fantastic seamless integration of texting into your desktop browser, and I wonder why others haven’t done this before. It’s one of the main reasons I used primarily Google Voice for texting before.
Assist’s Sleeping and Meeting modes are useful, but I had to disable Driving as I suspect it was hitting my battery pretty hard (tons of GPS related wakelocks) for what I got out of it. I’ll admit, I sometimes check my texts while driving, but I always wait until I’m in a low-risk area (ie stopped at a traffic light, or when there are no cars for some distance on the highway) and it would probably save more than a few lives if this feature existed on all android phones. I thought the custom SOC was supposed to allow these features without a significant battery hit, but it seems that’s not entirely true. I may revisit this feature later.
Audio effects – I turned this off almost right away. It’s nice to have a system-wide equalizer included but it’s not a very robust implementation.
I haven’t yet felt the need to use Moto Care, but it seems a very thoughtful feature to include for non-tech savvy users.
What is the Moto X missing that the Galaxy S2 has?
1. uSD card slot. On my phone I keep ~16GB of music, ~2GB of audiobooks, ~3GB of game ROMs (PSX games are large), ~1.5GB of system ROMs and backups (or at least I did on my S2), and may use half a GB for photos / backgrounds / other images at any given time. Add in 4GB of system files/apps and keeping at least 20% spare area to keep performance up, and 32GB is just about right for me - assuming that my usage patterns don't change and I don't need any more space than I'm already using in the next 2 years. The Moto X has only around 10.5GB of usable space free unless you get the developer edition (not available through Republic Wireless and probably not through contract either) which a serious, serious problem for me.
I'm not happy with the idea of paying an extra $30+ per month for higher data limit when the amount of storage I need to decrease my data usage to near zero is less than $30 up front. If I don't need to stream anything, I can easily get by with a 300MB cap. Republic Wireless is uncapped when you have their basic data plan, but Sprint’s 3G is pretty much too slow to stream music, much less videos, and coverage is not great. As for the arguments about how it could negatively affect build quality – keep in mind, the phone already has a sim card slot, and uSD cards are not any larger.
2. Removable battery. This one is actually less of an issue for me now as I bought an external battery pack. I can live without it, but this can be a problem for some users. One thing to note is that generally, most of the replaceable batteries that will fit a phone will be manufactured for only as long as the phone is, so if you’re looking to replace an old battery with a new one, most that you buy will probably be equally old, just less used. Still, it is a point of failure that can easily be replaced, which brings me to the next point…
3. No user replaceable parts. Over the two and a half years I owned my S2, I needed to replace the camera module and the charge port. It’s arguable that build quality of the S2 is to blame here, but it isn’t an invalid criticism of the Moto X that parts are not user-replaceable as they are on Samsung phones. Twice I would have needed to replace my phone or send it to the manufacturer for repairs. The total cost of parts was $12 and about 10 minutes to pull the phone apart because of this “feature”. I’m actually waiting on rooting my Moto X until the one-month warranty/return period is over as I’m concerned about part failures.
Despite how much I like the Moto X, I might not have chosen it had it not been for the incredible pricing through Republic Wireless. A uSD card is practically a requirement for me.
(Subjective Sound Quality)
Using my Beyerdynamic DT 880’s, I feel that the Moto X has better quality output, though I know basically nothing about the hardware involved. I think I could most accurately describe it as sounding like the difference between using a pocket amplifier and not. It’s easier to distinguish individual instruments and sounds, and the noise floor is a bit lower.
(Camera)
I spent a bit more time comparing the cameras, because the camera is so important to me.
The Moto X has a 10MP sensor as compared to the Galaxy S2’s 8MP sensor. Both have the same horizontal resolution so the extra pixels on the X’s camera are vertical. The Galaxy S2 takes 4:3 aspect ratio pictures, while the X takes 16:9 photos.
The Moto X has a larger aperture (f/2.6 vs f/2.4) which allows the sensor to collect more light. The X is also capable of taking pictures with an ISO as high as 5000, vs 800 from the Galaxy S2, ISO being the sensitivity to light that the sensor is capable of. These two factors will allow the X to take much brighter low-light pictures at a given exposure time, or take similarly bright pictures with much shorter exposure, which helps to prevent blurry pictures.
The X also has a different subpixel layout than most (all?) other smartphone cameras, having one clear pixel in place of the second green pixel in the camera’s 2x2 grid. This gives the possibility of collecting even more light, but can potentially produce odd artifacts when taking pictures.
Software-wise, the Moto X is very simple to use. Tap on the screen, and it focuses quickly and snaps a picture. The Galaxy S2 uses tap-to-focus by default, and only captures if you hit the capture button, which is small. The Moto X is capable of taking pictures much more quickly.
How do the cameras compare in practice? Both cameras are being used with default settings in the following shots. The left (or if you’re using a small screen, first/upper) image is taken by my Galaxy S2, while the second is from the Moto X’s camera with the latest update.
These two shots were taken in a dark room with the curtains drawn. The Galaxy S2 used an ISO of 400 with 1/17 of a second exposure. The Moto X used an ISO of 5000 with a 1/14 of a second exposure. Definite win for the Moto X, the Galaxy S2’s camera fails miserably in these conditions.
With the curtains pulled back to let in a bit of sunlight, the Galaxy S2 fares better. It continues to use a 400 ISO with a 1/17 of a second exposure, and takes a fair, if slightly blurry picture. The Moto X’s shot comes out sharp in part because it is able to use a 1250 ISO with a 1/40 of a second exposure. There is some software sharpening going on here too though, as can be seen at the bottom of the image. Overall, another win for the Moto X.
In this indoor shot, the Galaxy S2 arguably takes a better indoor picture. Although the Moto X’s shot is sharper, the repeating pattern of the carpet causes weird color artifacts due to the Moto X’s subpixel layout. Additionally, the colors are closer to natural in the Galaxy S2’s shoot. The Galaxy S2 opted for ISO 800 + 1/16s while the X went with ISO 1600 + 1/19s.
In this early-morning outdoor shot, the Moto X performs admirably. There is a deep shadow on the house to the left, with bright sunlight on the right. In order to capture enough light for detail in the shadow, the Galaxy S2 overexposes the building on the right. The Moto X automatically enables HDR and exposes both parts of the image properly. While the Galaxy S2 is capable of HDR, it’s very slow and often results in incredibly blurry shots.
This is a closeup of a fallen pine branch taken outdoors in direct sunlight. The Moto X captures more detail with more natural colors.
This is a crop of a macro shot taken with varying light levels similar to those taken in the 4th set of pictures. These have been cropped (obviously) with the building being at the center of the photo and the leaves on the grass at the bottom being at the edge of the Galaxy S2’s sensor, and near the edge of the Moto X’s. In this shot, the Moto X opted not to use HDR. The Galaxy S2 actually captured more natural colors here. Additionally, I noticed that the edges of many images taken on the Moto X are blurry, and more than can be explained just by having a very wide aspect ratio. Take a look at the leaves on the ground in the two shots.
My apologies for the extremely long images, but it was necessary.
In this shot, there is a sun glare and varying light levels, as well as repeating visual patterns in the plants. The Galaxy S2 takes a hazy shot but the colors are fairly accurate. The Moto X opted for HDR here and took a sharper shot, but messed up the colors quite a bit in the entire image. Additionally, we see the odd color-checkerboard artifacts in the plants near the pool deck, and blurriness toward the bottom edge of the shot. A strong win for the Galaxy S2.
This is another closeup in good outdoor light. The top of the cropped image represents the middle of the image captured by the camera, and the bottom is the edge. I would argue that the Moto X does slightly better in the colors in this shot and has a bit more detail in the center of its focus, but notice the extreme blurriness present at the bottom of the Moto X’s shot.
This comparison shows the common visual artifact taken by the Galaxy S2’s camera which is not present in the Moto X’s shots. Images taken in low light without a flash on the Galaxy S2 do not have consistent color between the center and the edges. It is not generally visible in shots which have detail, but can ruin certain indoor shots.
In this first flash comparison, the Galaxy S2 appears to take a better shot, but it’s deceptive. The S2 has a much brighter flash but it’s almost perfectly white, while the X has an almost yellow-green flash that helps make reddish indoor/evening scenes’ color tone closer to that of sunlight. Also, the Moto X doesn’t need nearly as bright a flash because of its incredible low-light sensitivity. I would say that the S2 generally picks up more detail when its flash goes off (at least on things close enough to be lit by the flash) but the color of the flash doesn’t do good things for a person’s face. (sorry, you’re not getting any pictures of my wife ^^)
The S2 probably makes a better flashlight and is good for taking pictures of “stuff” in low light, but the Moto X is better for taking pictures of people in these conditions – which is what you’re probably going to be taking a lot more pictures of in low light. I’d call this one a win for the Moto X.
Interestingly, the S2 does not have its color problems when the flash is on, while the Moto X does. I would argue that the Moto X is probably best used with the flash off when you can get away with it, while the S2 is basically useless in low-light without the flash.
I would argue that the Moto X definitely takes better low light pictures than the Galaxy S2. In mixed lighting conditions, the Moto X also takes superior shots, assuming its software isn’t confused and color artifacts aren’t produced. In well-lit conditions, I believe the Galaxy S2 takes better macro shots because of its consistency, lack of color artifacts, and no visible edge-blurring in these conditions. In well-lit micro shots, the Moto X displays generally better color accuracy but has noticeable edge-burr, making it a tossup in my eyes.
Overall I would rather have the Moto X’s camera. When it’s working “right” it takes stunning pictures, but the more-than-occasional color artifacts introduced by its unusual subpixel layout and lack of perfect software correction leave me with mixed feelings.
(Battery Life)
The Moto X comes with a much larger battery than the Galaxy S2 (2200mAh vs 1650mAh) so better battery life is expected. Additionally, the S2’s battery is close to 2 years old and may have lost as much as 20% of its max capacity.
I have found that with the Moto X, I am able to get a bit over 5 hours of screen-on time on a charge vs 4 hours with the S2, both mostly browsing the web over WiFi. However, the Moto X does not sleep nearly as well.
Digging into Better Battery Stats, it appears that I had some really bad GPS wakelocks – more than 500 overnight. The S2 will happily sleep for more than 5 days on a single charge without airplane mode, while the Moto X would probably die in 3 days, despite its newer SOC built on a smaller process and larger battery. Because of this I find that on a day of average usage (~2.5-3.5 hours screen on), I tend to have around the same battery remaining on the S2 as on the Moto X, though both easily get me through a day. I’m going to need to play around with the Moto X further to see if I can reduce GPS related wakelocks (isn’t there hardware that’s supposed to make this not a problem?) or just turn it off when I’m not using it. I may write another article on how to save battery on your Moto X at a later date.
Worth noting here is that the Moto X charges much more quickly than the S2 does. The S2 is capped at 650mA charge current, while the X comes with an 800mA charger and can draw more than 1200mA if you have a charger that can support it.
Conclusion – draw your own. I went from a great phone to a great phone, but not everything is an improvement.

thank you for your review. could you comment on the bass audio output of this phone? (through headphones)

Interesting that you say you can easily get 5 days idle on your S2, and the battery stats seem under 0.5% per hour. I've never owned an Android phone that could do that... actually, my iPhone couldn't either but that was a few generations ago. iPhone 3G, 3GS, Droid X, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S3, and now my Droid X.
Do you have email sync? Other apps syncing/polling? I mean, I don't have a whole lot but Facebook/Google+ sync, Gmail, Weather bug updates hourly... all of that adds up to about 1% or so per hour in ideal circumstances, so 3 days is about all I'll ever get - and that has always been consistent, I've never owned a phone I could get much under 1% per hour if I have normal polling/syncing stuff running.
Not doubting, just interested.

c19932 said:
thank you for your review. could you comment on the bass audio output of this phone? (through headphones)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely.
In comparison to the Galaxy S2, low bass is slightly "warmer" and noticeably less muddy. Whether it's because of a better DAC or more amplification I can't say for certain. I could probably make a recording of the outputs with my PC if you're interested - you won't hear exactly what it sounds like because it will have been processed but you might be able to hear relative differences.

binary visions said:
Interesting that you say you can easily get 5 days idle on your S2, and the battery stats seem under 0.5% per hour. I've never owned an Android phone that could do that... actually, my iPhone couldn't either but that was a few generations ago. iPhone 3G, 3GS, Droid X, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S3, and now my Droid X.
Do you have email sync? Other apps syncing/polling? I mean, I don't have a whole lot but Facebook/Google+ sync, Gmail, Weather bug updates hourly... all of that adds up to about 1% or so per hour in ideal circumstances, so 3 days is about all I'll ever get - and that has always been consistent, I've never owned a phone I could get much under 1% per hour if I have normal polling/syncing stuff running.
Not doubting, just interested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exchange kills my battery but I have GMail / Calendar / Contacts / Google Keep / Google Voice / Hangouts / Chrome / Drive / Currents Sync on. In things like Words With Friends I disable notifications when the option is present. Beautiful Widgets Weather updates are set to 2.5 hours. I don't have a Facebook app installed, and I close Skype and sign out when I'm not using it. Market is set to not auto-update apps, location reporting is disabled (so you can't track your path around town but it gets rid of most GPS wakelocks), and in apps that have an option of not using data unless on WiFi I enable that, and set WiFi to turn off while the device is sleeping (WiFi -> Advanced).
Functionally, there is very little lost from these settings.
I've recently been playing with Greenify, but it seems unnecessary with the above settings.

Eckyx said:
Exchange kills my battery but I have GMail / Calendar / Contacts / Google Keep / Google Voice / Hangouts / Chrome / Drive / Currents Sync on. In things like Words With Friends I disable notifications when the option is present. Beautiful Widgets Weather updates are set to 2.5 hours. I don't have a Facebook app installed, and I close Skype and sign out when I'm not using it. Market is set to not auto-update apps, location reporting is disabled (so you can't track your path around town but it gets rid of most GPS wakelocks), and in apps that have an option of not using data unless on WiFi I enable that, and set WiFi to turn off while the device is sleeping (WiFi -> Advanced).
Functionally, there is very little lost from these settings.
I've recently been playing with Greenify, but it seems unnecessary with the above settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look into getting Better Battery Stats. You can get a free copy here on XDA. I used it to figure a strange wake lock issue I was having only when connected to a specific wifi router. Based on your high Android OS number I would guess you might have a similar issue. I kept seeing my phone be idle for 7 hours but somehow the CPU total would be over 4 hours and the awake time being almost 1.5 hours. I am trying to figure out what the setting is on my router that causes the issue but so far no luck.

landale said:
Look into getting Better Battery Stats. You can get a free copy here on XDA. I used it to figure a strange wake lock issue I was having only when connected to a specific wifi router. Based on your high Android OS number I would guess you might have a similar issue. I kept seeing my phone be idle for 7 hours but somehow the CPU total would be over 4 hours and the awake time being almost 1.5 hours. I am trying to figure out what the setting is on my router that causes the issue but so far no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have it but I haven't made sense of it yet. The two largest wakelocks I've seen has been qcom_rx_wakelock with more than an hour in a 14 hour period and a count of 6,678, and nlpcollectorwakelock. I don't know what's calling on the GPS yet so my temporary fix for that is to turn off GPS when I'm not using it. There are some minor wakelocks under "Partial" - MMApiWebService.lastChance, MMApiWebService, AcquireWakeLockAction, NotifDataListener - but these are not nearly as bad as the qcom and nlp wakelocks. Without rooting I am unable to view Alarms, and the only reference that works is since "Unplugged". So, every time I have wanted to transfer data to or from my phone I've reset BBS and haven't yet had a good record. I'll definitely be looking into it over the next few days.

Eckyx said:
I have it but I haven't made sense of it yet. The two largest wakelocks I've seen has been qcom_rx_wakelock with more than an hour in a 14 hour period and a count of 6,678, and nlpcollectorwakelock. I don't know what's calling on the GPS yet so my temporary fix for that is to turn off GPS when I'm not using it. There are some minor wakelocks under "Partial" - MMApiWebService.lastChance, MMApiWebService, AcquireWakeLockAction, NotifDataListener - but these are not nearly as bad as the qcom and nlp wakelocks. Without rooting I am unable to view Alarms, and the only reference that works is since "Unplugged". So, every time I have wanted to transfer data to or from my phone I've reset BBS and haven't yet had a good record. I'll definitely be looking into it over the next few days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I can't say some of the things on there made much sense to me either but I've at least been able to use it to try and figure out that the drain issues are only happening on specific wifi connections. I wish I had another KitKat device to test to see if it's a Moto X issue or a KitKat issue.

The processor arrangement doesn't have anything to do with GPS. You kept wondering if it did... It doesn't. GPS is separate from the low power chips. The 8 "cores" are used as such:
- 2 for applications
- 1 low power audio processing (Touchless Controls)
- 4 GPU cores
- 1 context aware core (no clue what that means)

natezire71 said:
The processor arrangement doesn't have anything to do with GPS. You kept wondering if it did... It doesn't. GPS is separate from the low power chips. The 8 "cores" are used as such:
- 2 for applications
- 1 low power audio processing (Touchless Controls)
- 4 GPU cores
- 1 context aware core (no clue what that means)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The context aware core I believe controls the sensors used as part of the Active Display. Which would explain why the Moto X does this so much better then on other phones with 3rd party apps.
Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

natezire71 said:
The processor arrangement doesn't have anything to do with GPS. You kept wondering if it did... It doesn't. GPS is separate from the low power chips. The 8 "cores" are used as such:
- 2 for applications
- 1 low power audio processing (Touchless Controls)
- 4 GPU cores
- 1 context aware core (no clue what that means)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, thank you. I poked around in some other reviews and found this, which agrees:
Brian Klug said:
This stowage and contextual awareness detection comes through fusion of the accelerometer, gyro, and ambient light sensor data on a TI MSP430 controller which enables most of the active display features from what I can tell. These then are exposed as flat down, flat up, stowed, docked, and the camera activation (flick) gesture. The MSP430 also surfaces its own temperature sensor to the rest of Android, which is nifty (the Moto X has an accelerometer, gyro, pressure sensor, compass, and the MSP430’s temp sensor).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For some reason I suspected that the GPS hardware well under this too.
____________
I set the phone back to stock and let it sleep overnight, and here are my BBS results from that:
Calcualtes to roughly 1.33% per hour idle vs <0.5% per hour I was getting before - which isn't going to prevent me from getting through a day, but completely unnecessary. Interestingly the qcom_rx_wakelock wasn't responsible for a large percentage of the wakeups last night, though its count was extremely high.. One thing I can think of that is different is that I'm on my 5GHz WiFi network now, though I'm definitely not ready to point fingers.
I'm going to go through and disable the following, one by one, and see how my device sleeps overnight with each gone:
Activity Recognition (RW specific)
Assist
Location Reporting
Help Improve Motorola Products + Moto Care
And if I still have odd wakelocks, GPS after that.

Assist gives GPS wakelocks to see if you are driving or not. That might be it.

Eckyx said:
I'm going to go through and disable the following, one by one, and see how my device sleeps overnight with each gone:
Activity Recognition (RW specific)
Assist
Location Reporting
Help Improve Motorola Products + Moto Care
And if I still have odd wakelocks, GPS after that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please update us after you experiment a bit.
I have location services turned on, which I'm sure contributes to my ~1%+ per hour idle consumption rate, but I've been happy with that and haven't done much controlled testing. Would be interested to see if that can be cut further - I'll probably fiddle a bit over the next couple nights as well with some of these services.

Thanks TS for posting this thread. I was considering whether to go from my current S2 to Moto X in view of the Cyber Monday discounts.
But the stuff ( expandable storage, fm tuner, gd camera ) that are important to me are unfortunately not found on the Moto X and the costs involved in importing the phone to my country isn't worth the effort.
Hence I've decided to go for an S3 + custom roms to resolve any software deficiencies compared to Moto X instead.
But still... :good: for the effort !

First battery life update -
I disabled Assist Driving and Activity Recognition (Republic Wireless Feature) and let the phone sleep for 6 hours. I had the following results:
* Battery loss reduced from ~1.3% per hour to ~1.2% per hour
* NlpCollectorWakeLock reduced from 8.0% to 1.7%
* NlpWakeLock approximately unchanged
* Overall deep sleep improved from 73.6% to 80.7%
I'm going to re-enable Activity Recognition and see if it hits battery life - disabling both of those gave a not-insignificant improvement, but I'm not sure which is the worse offender.

I'm on the same boat myself. Thinking of switching my dying i777 for the off contract motor x for att edition. I plan on switching to either aio or straight talk next march. I'm debating the nexus 5 but all the features of the x makes it a winner for me. Your review is great man, I wish everyone would do them like yours.
:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
Sent from the second to last Galaxy
PACman Rom Nightlies
AJK 4.9 "the boss"

Have you guys heard of the Meenova MicroSD card reader? It plugs into the microUSB port and allows you to read your expandable storage. It's smaller than a quarter, and it says it's compatible with the Moto X. I'm planning on getting one for Christmas.
It's not a permanent solution, but you could just plug it in everyone you wanted to "stream" something. And all without data.
http://www.meenova.com/st/p/m3r.html

Theron113 said:
Have you guys heard of the Meenova MicroSD card reader? It plugs into the microUSB port and allows you to read your expandable storage. It's smaller than a quarter, and it says it's compatible with the Moto X. I'm planning on getting one for Christmas.
It's not a permanent solution, but you could just plug it in everyone you wanted to "stream" something. And all without data.
http://www.meenova.com/st/p/m3r.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I have one on my desk it front of me. I haven't had a chance to play with it much but I found that Play Music and Apollo were both unable to play music from the card when I first tried. Play Music saw the files but could not play them, and Apollo did not see the files at all. I was surprised by this as I expected the media scanner took care of finding media. I have heard reports from others with different phones that Poweramp can play music just fine that way, but I haven't had a chance to test it much.
On a related note, .nomedia files don't seem to work on the Moto X (I put them in the folders where I keep my audiobooks to prevent them from being picked up by my media players) which suggests to me that its media scanner may work in a slightly different way than I'm accustomed to.
I'll take a short break from battery testing later this evening and see if I can get it working. At the very least, I should be able to store ROMs and other files that don't rely on the media scanner.

Confirmed - Poweramp will play files off of the USB disk but Play Music, Apollo, and presumably other media players which rely on the system's media scanner rather than scanning folders themselves. Mortplayer (the program I use for my audiobooks) is also fine with the Meenova adapter because it too is folder-based with its own media scanner.
It seems to be a bit buggy though. Sometimes I have to unplug and plug back in the adapter or none of my media will play, even that which is stored locally on the phone.
I think I could live with having my less-listened to music on there, but I have concerns about possible effects on battery life caused by the adapter. I would definitely need to purchase Poweramp, or find a good free player that uses folder structure and/or has its own media scanner. I often go to sleep with my phone charging and listening to an audiobook which rules out keeping those on the card, but game ROMs would probably be fine to move over.

I haven't done this since my 2012 Nexus 7, but I did have some issues with battery/wake time on the old N7 when using an OTG cable and a thumb drive. Basically, if I put the tablet away with the cable/drive plugged in, it would be heavily drained of battery when I pulled it out again, much more so than normal sleeping should account for.
Which makes sense, of course, it's pulling power to keep the drive online, and it's not awful when you're actually using the thing - just mentioning it since it also pulls power when the tablet is sleeping, and dropping your tablet into your backpack, then pulling it out 8 hours later and finding it severely depleted is a surprise.

Meizu m2 Note vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 2: a very appetizing comparison

We find each time more models on the market, since the manufacturers have as goal to cover every single segment on the market, no matter what your budget is...there is a smartphone for you.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
During these past summer months, two of the big Chinese manufacturers have introduced an update for two of their most popular models. We are talking about the Meizu m2 Note (end of June) and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 (August).
The truth is that the only point they probably share is a FullHD 5,5” screen and low-medium segment they are both addressed.
Lets see the specifications:
Prices: Meizu m2 Note -> From $139 with Flash sales
Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 -> From $169.99 with current promos
As you can see, with this update Xiaomi has make much more emphasis on the “power” than his competitor. In addition, the version I’m trying is the Prime (2,2Ghz and 32GB of RAM) so the difference seems even more evident.
Appearance
Looking at the design, first thing to mention is that m2 Note is made on a single piece, meaning mainly a more “solid” terminal, or at least feels more resistant on the hand. It is slightly shorter and narrower than the Redmi Note 2, although thicker. The Redmi Note 2 on its side, has rear cover and removable battery.
Anyway, both are quite similar on size and weight, but they are figures difficult to notice on a daily basis.
Looking at them from the front, both show at first the imposing 5,5” screen, even though they use different technologies for it (I’ll talk about it later). Above the screen, Meizu’s one shows the speaker and the secondary camera. Xiaomi model adds also a LED for notifications (Meizu model also has a LED but it’s not as useful or evident, and not as customizable as the Xiaomi LED). Both cameras have 5Mpx.
Below the screen, Meizu only has a physical central button, with 3 different functions depending if we touch, press or hold it. The Xiaomi has the 3 typical Android haptic buttons, although they work in a different way because they can be customized (that’s pretty cool) so we can decide what they’ll do when we press or hold each button.
For the rest, on the Meizu we have the buttons for volume and lock on the left side and the slot for SIM and microSD on the right side. The secondary microphone (for noise cancelation) is on the top side, together with the Jack 3.5 plug, so the micro USB plug and the main speaker are on the bottom side.
The Xiaomi is quite similar, but having all the buttons on the right side, not having anything on the left side and adding the infrared port on the top...the rest all the same.
When flipping it, the main camera (13Mpx) and the flash, which is dual LED on the Meizu and single LED on the Xiaomi. The camera is completely flat for the Meizu and protrudes slightly on the Xiaomi. This last also includes the main speaker on this rear side. Both have the logo on the bottom.
The perception of the finishing is high quality for the two models, and with both I had the impression of sliding from my hand at the beginning. However, once you get used to their shape, size and weight... they fit very comfortable on the hand.
Screen
The 5,5” screens on these models deliver FullHD resolution and excel 400ppi of density with a incredibly good quality of image. The only one difference is then, that Meizu chose IZGO technology and Xiaomi opted for the commonly used IPS LCD panel.
After using both daily, my impression is that Meizu screen offers better quality and dims more, which is very nice for reading during the night for example. Said that, both screens have a very good quality and have the option to adjust the color temperature.
There are some complaints about IZGO screens showing yellowish when it should be white, but I haven't noticed that effect at all.
Use and multimedia
Both models come with Android Lollipop 5, nonetheless each one has a very different and complete customization layer.MIUI is much more known than FlymeOS, although the people from Meizu is doing a great job with continuous improvements on the ROM. The goal surely is to make it each time more popular and compatible with more models, something that has worked very well in the favour of MIUI in the past years.
An important part of this customizations is the way we use the buttons and interact by using gestures.
Since I'm now comparing those two smartphones, I'm not going deeper on the ROMs (MIUI and FlymeOS) used, since it would make an endless review.
What I must say is that both will require a (small) adaptation time even for those coming from Android. In my case it was easier and faster with FlymeOS than with MIUI. Maybe also because MIUI has even more personalization options.
Something that I dislike from both is the number of things (apps, screens, messages) in Chinese, it's not excessive, but they simply appear sometimes and you don't have any other option. It's easier to avoid them in Meizu, since in Xiaomi their AppStore cannot be entirely disabled, and will continue suggesting you updates, which in some cases will just change the language of your apps... to Chinese.
Something good from MIUI (Xiaomi) on this point is that the account creation can be made in English (or other languages) and then it's later integrated with many other apps like their cloud app (called MiCloud... does it remember you something?) coming with 5GB for free and working pretty well for pictures, contacts, messages and some more things which look very similar to Apple iCloud.
As an extra in this section, Xiaomi Redmi Note 2, features an infrared port, and Xiaomi's MiHome app detects it automatically and helps quite good to control different devices at home (TVs, air conditioned, satellites,…). It could seem some silly thing, but it works pretty well.
This Redmi Note 2 also includes radio (digital and FM options), which is something I missed a lot on the Meizu, it works well, with good sound quality.
Regarding the proprietary apps, each one has some strengths and weaknesses. FOr example Meixu's weather app doesn't work for cities outside China, while you can select any city with Xiaomi one. The music app for both allow to browse their extensive catalogue ready to download, but for Xiaomi it's quite complicated to find international (non asiatic) artists. On its side, Meizu's app works very well, it's completely translated and have lots of international artists.
We will find a voice assistant in both smartphones, and both very similar to Apple's Siri, but in Chinese, so in any case it's really useful or something to highlight. The day any of them translates it to make it available internationally (English at least) it will be a good point I guess.
Camera
Here the competition becomes even more interesting (if possible). The pictures I've taken with both smartphones show very good quality, they focus very fast and you can do burst shoot, which is something I cannot say about most of smartphones (not talking about first brands).
So this part is surprisingly satisfying for both competitors.
With the Redmi Note 2, I was surprised by the face detection on the selfies, which in addition is capable of identifying sex and age very accurately :-O
With the main camera, the results are very good even with low light where the flash works very precisely.
Talking about the Meizu m2 Note... I sincerely have the impression that it can compete hand to hand with my iPhone 5 and recording video (1080 @ 30fps) can probably beat him.
Some samples taken with each one, always first the Meizu then the Xiaomi (If you want to see real size pics, I could just upload them to my spanish blog -> http://dabarsocialmarketing.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/meizu-m2-note-vs-xiaomi-redmi-note-2.html):
Some samples of video
Meizu -> https://youtu.be/Epl1fUwMrjQ
Xiaomi -> https://youtu.be/ZePaimXFL3U
Battery
Not much to say in here. The manufacturers have bet for a size that covers perfectly the expectations, meaning around 3000mAh and 1 day of standard use.
We can find tools for managing the energy in both cases allowing us to choose between power, balance or power saving modes. We can even select if the power saving mode should be automatically enabled when reaching a percentage.
We can say that the Meizu m2 Note, having a less powerful processor and managing better the screen bright, wins by little this battle.
Conclusions
If I had to choose which one to keep, it would really be a hard decission.
A priori, the Redmi Note 2 is more powerful comes with some very interesting and useful extras (radio, infrared,…), however the user experience is more satisfying with the m2 Note and I like more the camera.
A table with pros and cons of each one would be like that:
As you can see, I find some more advantages on the Meizu, despite having less power. Specially strong in the camera, which is one of today's main uses for our smartphones.
In the present case, in addition, I'm using the Xiaomi's Prime version meaning an internal storage of 32GB and 2,2Ghz CPU's speed.
Personally, the FM radio is a very strong point, since I missed it a lot on the Meizu and one of the downside of iPhones for example, since you need data to listen to radio.
FlymeOS use is a little bit more agreeable, although you also get used to MIUI in some days.
For the power and the extras, I choose the Xiaomi as winner on today's competition.
Nevetheless, if you're not planning to play a lot of games, and so you don't require as much power, and you count on using one SIM and a microSD card, I recommend you the Meizu.
PS: if you liked the post... please thank it
If you want to see real size pics, I could just upload them to my spanish blog -> http://dabarsocialmarketing.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/meizu-m2-note-vs-xiaomi-redmi-note-2.html

Agreed my wife has the redmi note and I had the m2 note, I personally preferred the meizu,battery life doubled my wife's redmi issue,she's currently struggling to get over two hours sot, I'm pretty sure this is a os problem

sutty86 said:
Agreed my wife has the redmi note and I had the m2 note, I personally preferred the meizu,battery life doubled my wife's redmi issue,she's currently struggling to get over two hours sot, I'm pretty sure this is a os problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whoa, what? I'll hit 5 hours of SoT with 28 hour up-time now. Currently on 14%. And that's with 2 SIM cards active.
Sent from my Redmi Note 2

what miui are you running? thanks

sunbriel said:
Whoa, what? I'll hit 5 hours of SoT with 28 hour up-time now. Currently on 14%. And that's with 2 SIM cards active.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which miui version installed? I run the latest (.24) and my SoT is max 3h00'-3h15" with 45% screen brightness and 3G data connection

sutty86 said:
what miui are you running? thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
geco4u said:
Which miui version installed? I run the latest (.24) and my SoT is max 3h00'-3h15" with 45% screen brightness and 3G data connection
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xiaomi.eu dev 5.9.24. With brightness set to 25-45%, WiFi on and connected during the day and from 2AM-7AM WiFi off with 2G/3G on.

Great post!
So, the perfect phone would be the combination of these two
Maby I'll wait for a month or two.

I do want to correct the OP. M2 Note does have a LED for notifications. I didn't read the rest, but looking on the table, your pros and cons are somewhat subjective and depend on which version of OS you're running. For example, the Chinese bloat on RN2 can be easily dealt with and as far as I know, when Xiaomi releases RN2 globally, the ROM will be clean.

Other corrections: Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 supports 1080 video recording from front facing camera. It also supports touch-to-focus during video recording (back camera) but you must enable it from settings
So tables are not correct

sunbriel said:
I do want to correct the OP. M2 Note does have a LED for notifications. I didn't read the rest, but looking on the table, your pros and cons are somewhat subjective and depend on which version of OS you're running. For example, the Chinese bloat on RN2 can be easily dealt with and as far as I know, when Xiaomi releases RN2 globally, the ROM will be clean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, Meizu has the LED, but only in white color. So You cant set different colors for few apps.
And Xiaomi with MIUI has a lot of updates and fixes. Meizu not .. Thats why i will buy Xiaomi.

xiaomi redmi note 2 and meizu m2 note are really the best rivals, but i like xiaomi redmi note 2 more, because it has better performance and price. there is one problem about xiaomi redmi note 2, we really don't know the shipping time. many Chinese sellers just presells it, so can anyone give me the idea about when the international version of Xiaomi redmi note 2 released?

galakty said:
Yeah, Meizu has the LED, but only in white color. So You cant set different colors for few apps.
And Xiaomi with MIUI has a lot of updates and fixes. Meizu not .. Thats why i will buy Xiaomi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure? I can check it this weekend when I'll have access to an M2N. But somehow I can't recall the LED flashes white only.
Sent from my Redmi Note 2

sunbriel said:
Are you sure? I can check it this weekend when I'll have access to an M2N. But somehow I can't recall the LED flashes white only.
Sent from my Redmi Note 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I watched two reviews and they said that. But if You can check it, will be great

FumiJ said:
xiaomi redmi note 2 and meizu m2 note are really the best rivals, but i like xiaomi redmi note 2 more, because it has better performance and price. there is one problem about xiaomi redmi note 2, we really don't know the shipping time. many Chinese sellers just presells it, so can anyone give me the idea about when the international version of Xiaomi redmi note 2 released?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There won't be an international version of xiaomi's devices.
Buy from a reseller with a spedition from Europe/USA

SkiFire13 said:
There won't be an international version of xiaomi's devices.
Buy from a reseller with a spedition from Europe/USA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, too sad for me!

Meizu has a notification LED, better battery, better design, proper software and camera. Xiaomi has a better chipset but a lame battery life so if you're buying it get yourself a power bank just in case[emoji23]

Redmi Note2 has a notification LED as well, the battery is replaceable and battery times are rather good on 5.9.18 - .24 had some problems with that.
I think I also like Redmi's post processing more than the Meizu, as seen here (look at the clouds for example, they're hideous). Redmi also has the bonus of being able to use dualSIM + µSD, while in Meizu's Note 2 µSD uses SIM2.
Also, I can't seem to find any TWRP/custom ROMs for m2 note, while there are some for Redmi, plus an official dev ROM with root. That's clearly an advantage for me.

Hi all, I've been some weeks out and couldn't check here. Some comments.
1- it's true that Meizu m2 Note had Led for notifications, but it's much less customisable and evident than the one in the Xiaomi. It's more discrete.
2- I was really tired of Chinese intrusion on the Xiaomi (really horrible, it started to install apps without asking me through the Chinese AppStore), so I tried to manually disable that store... Not a good idea, since it went soft bricked :[email protected] some hours later I found a new, European ROM. I lost some of the interesting aspects like the music downloads, but HUGE IMPROVEMENT in terms of battery life, much more hours of use with screen on, watching movies for example. This version is Xiaomi.EU 5.9.24 (still beta) based on Android 5.0.2
100% recommendable. The MiHome app works slightly worse.
3- I've tried but I cannot record 1080p video with the front camera, maybe because of the ROM.
4- I could change the video focus to "Tap" so I guess not I can focus when and where I want.
5- With the video in HD (720p) it's possible to use Slow-Motion and Time-Lapse. However, when selecting FullHD quality, only Time-Lapse is available.
Summary, after changing to this new ROM, this device (Redmi Note 2) has earned a few more points. So very happy and good feelings
Not everything is great, it's still a beta so I guess this is one of the bugs pending: sometimes when I take it and press unlock button... The phone doesn't responds, the screen remains black :-/ only option is to remove the battery and boot it again. This happens randomly.

mdabar said:
Hi all, I've been some weeks out and couldn't check here. Some comments.
1- it's true that Meizu m2 Note had Led for notifications, but it's much less customisable and evident than the one in the Xiaomi. It's more discrete.
2- I was really tired of Chinese intrusion on the Xiaomi (really horrible, it started to install apps without asking me through the Chinese AppStore), so I tried to manually disable that store... Not a good idea, since it went soft bricked :[email protected] some hours later I found a new, European ROM. I lost some of the interesting aspects like the music downloads, but HUGE IMPROVEMENT in terms of battery life, much more hours of use with screen on, watching movies for example. This version is Xiaomi.EU 5.9.24 (still beta) based on Android 5.0.2
100% recommendable. The MiHome app works slightly worse.
3- I've tried but I cannot record 1080p video with the front camera, maybe because of the ROM.
4- I could change the video focus to "Tap" so I guess not I can focus when and where I want.
5- With the video in HD (720p) it's possible to use Slow-Motion and Time-Lapse. However, when selecting FullHD quality, only Time-Lapse is available.
Summary, after changing to this new ROM, this device (Redmi Note 2) has earned a few more points. So very happy and good feelings
Not everything is great, it's still a beta so I guess this is one of the bugs pending: sometimes when I take it and press unlock button... The phone doesn't responds, the screen remains black :-/ only option is to remove the battery and boot it again. This happens randomly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For use 1080p in front camera you must open camera, select video mode, select front camera, open settings and set 1080p.
The ROM you have choosed has many bugs. Please, download other ROM from xiaomi.eu like 5.10.8 and i suggest to do a wipe data. If you don't want to wipe data try if wipe dalvik and cache may be enough.
Download from here miuif.celogeek.com/5.10.8/
(Hermes)

jack_21 said:
For use 1080p in front camera you must open camera, select video mode, select front camera, open settings and set 1080p.
The ROM you have choosed has many bugs. Please, download other ROM from xiaomi.eu like 5.10.8 and i suggest to do a wipe data. If you don't want to wipe data try if wipe dalvik and cache may be enough.
Download from here miuif.celogeek.com/5.10.8/
(Hermes)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice, the true is I'm very happy with the general working (specially the battery) although the random blockades and those options you mention... (now I have no way to go to settings when I select the front camera).
I'll try that ROM as soon as I can and share my comments
Have a nice one!

Color saturation & accuracy

If you're colorblind, please disregard this thread. Rate this thread to express how you deem the color saturation and accuracy of the Huawei Mate 10's display. A higher rating indicates that you think that color accuracy is very high and saturation is excellent.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

Coming from iPhone 7+, it's inferior. Does not support wide colour gamut DCI-P3.

I have 3 phones right now. An S7 edge as my daily driver. A P10 plus, and the mate 10 pro.
The P10 has a somewhat inferior display than the other two, but it can reach very high brightness and color saturation levels (but not so accurate colors...). The mate 10 pro produces dimmer image even at max brightness, and struggles to generate a well saturated image. At least it has a kind of better color accuracy than the p10 in my opinion. Sharpness is not a problem. Overall: It is good enough.
Sadly, I can't say it has any better display, or near as good as the s7. S7 edge still a strong performer when it comes to display quality. (brightness and colors)

Perfectly happy with the brightness on my Mate 10 because i haven't come across need to use max brightness in real usage and the auto brightness works fine (with minor instances of getting auto dimmed more than required). However need to note that a when viewing the display at angle it gets dimmer.
Nothing to complain about regards to visibility under sunlight as well. In my view what matters at the end is if the user has a problem with brightness with respect to the persons real life usage rather than comparison with others phones.
In terms of color saturation, one should know even before buying the Mate 10 that the IPS display don't compare with oled on saturation. I put my Mate 10 in vivid mode and im happy with it, even when using side by side by older generation oled screen P9 plus. I also had hands on side by side with the Mate 10 pro at the store and obviously Mate 10 pro oled is more saturated but i was not in any sense been blown away by it or wanting it. Likely that the QHD display + big screen of Mate 10 has spoilt me that im feeling the Mate 10 pro display to be washed out, yellowish and less immersive. But then it would be the same case that when using the Mate 10 pro as stand alone for some time you adapt and don't find those issues a problem anymore.

warea said:
when using the Mate 10 pro as stand alone for some time you adapt and don't find those issues a problem anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, you are right. I am mostly okay with the mate 10 pro. Overall I am very impressed with the quality of the product.

lowphas said:
Yeah, you are right. I am mostly okay with the mate 10 pro. Overall I am very impressed with the quality of the product.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One little flaw to mention. I have some clouding. At moderate to low brightness level, grey color is the worst. (screen shot was taken by another phone, so in real life it isn't that bad)
The problem is less prominent at higher brightness levels.
Anyone else have the same issue?

Clouding...help
hello to all..meme probe on my mate 10 pro (FRANCE) .. clouding on background ..gris .. blue and other I do not know what to do
---------- Post added at 02:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:03 AM ----------
lowphas said:
Yeah, you are right. I am mostly okay with the mate 10 pro. Overall I am very impressed with the quality of the product.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
343/5000
how do you go?,? .. if you only use the mate 10 pro for some time you forget these probemes ... it means that we have to forget that the mate 10 pro has serious worries and that we must not regret our purchase .... would you buy a new car with scratches on the bodywork ... too strong .... or I did not understand your answer
---------- Post added at 01:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:11 AM ----------
lowphas said:
One little flaw to mention. I have some clouding. At moderate to low brightness level, grey color is the worst. (screen shot was taken by another phone, so in real life it isn't that bad)
The problem is less prominent at higher brightness levels.
Anyone else have the same issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes same problem on mate 10 pro FRANCE ... REGRETE ALMOST MY PURCHASE

kalsamia said:
hello to all..meme probe on my mate 10 pro (FRANCE) .. clouding on background ..gris .. blue and other I do not know what to do
---------- Post added at 02:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:03 AM ----------
343/5000
how do you go?,? .. if you only use the mate 10 pro for some time you forget these probemes ... it means that we have to forget that the mate 10 pro has serious worries and that we must not regret our purchase .... would you buy a new car with scratches on the bodywork ... too strong .... or I did not understand your answer
---------- Post added at 01:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:11 AM ----------
yes same problem on mate 10 pro FRANCE ... REGRETE ALMOST MY PURCHASE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The lack of really vivid colors, and the somewhat dimmer display is not that big problem. You can get used to it.
The clouding is a bigger issue, but it is almost invisible on medium to high brightness levels on my unit. It looks this bad only on low/the lowest brightness levels. (I rarely use it on min setting.) Samsung phones have better displays, I am sure, but I can live with this. (usually by manually set a bit higher brightness level) But it is my opinion.

I've got the same green tint on lower brightness (30% and lower)
Did any of you guys exchange it and got a better screen with no green tint on grey screens?

No issues at all with my Mate 10 Pro. I just love it! No clouding! Colors are real lifelike. Don't like Samsungs candy displays

I got my replacement device today and it also had that clouding issue! Really pisses me off because one of my main use cases on my mobile devices is reading pocket articles in dark mode. This is where I could see the yellow clouding very clearly. The replacement also had a defective fingerprint scanner (did not work at all not even during setup).
Now I'm waiting for my third device, if that one still has clouding (even if it is slightly) then I'm going to switch to the XL2. At least it doesn't have clouding.
This is meant to be huaweis high end device, such issues are nogos for me. Even my much cheaper but beloved Moto Z Play doesn't have this issue.

I don't understand why people are looking for flaws. I understand that you don't wanna pay so much money and then have any but imo it's something that's there but that I won't notice. What I don't notice is close to non existent to me.
I had a S8+ before and had it for a week still after I bought the Huawei mate 10 pro. Since I am curious I kept testing the screen by watching the same videos on max brightness etc.
Yes the Samsung is slightly better especially red and blue (funnily I think the greens are more vibrant on the Huawei) and it gets brighter but for me it wasn't a big surprise.
The phone gets a dark black and decent grey when in normal usage on normal brightness. I don't notice my screen being washed out unless I look for it (manually turn brightness down and open chrome).
I never tumbled across this in normal usage so I don't give a f.
If you only use it phone in the dark on low brightness... Well then you should maybe consider selling it.

Im also not searching for flaws that don't affect me. But the low brightness thing does affect me in a major way as Pocket in dark mode looks totally ****ed up. Huge yellowish tint.
And I'm using pocket daily. Also this kind of clouding is not acceptable, if much cheaper devices manage to provide better displays. It's a matter of quality control which Huawei can change in an instance if they want to.
If the third device has the same issue I'm going to sell it or exchange.
0alfred0 said:
I don't understand why people are looking for flaws. I understand that you don't wanna pay so much money and then have any but imo it's something that's there but that I won't notice. What I don't notice is close to non existent to me.
I had a S8+ before and had it for a week still after I bought the Huawei mate 10 pro. Since I am curious I kept testing the screen by watching the same videos on max brightness etc.
Yes the Samsung is slightly better especially red and blue (funnily I think the greens are more vibrant on the Huawei) and it gets brighter but for me it wasn't a big surprise.
The phone gets a dark black and decent grey when in normal usage on normal brightness. I don't notice my screen being washed out unless I look for it (manually turn brightness down and open chrome).
I never tumbled across this in normal usage so I don't give a f.
If you only use it phone in the dark on low brightness... Well then you should maybe consider selling it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

just checked my mate 10 pro for this issues since im very alergic to this kind of issues...and must say that i have none of them.. I ran color display app and display is perfect in every brightnes and color..back when i had galaxy s7 i remember that it had those gray stripes(lines) when u put brightnes to low value but on high values it cant be seen anymore...so i think those clouding issues are real and device should be sent back to waranty...let me tell u something i had 4 different xperia flagships and all of them got a white dots or anomalies after one year of usage (bad display construction?) so i always claimed waranty for that....since i pay 700*eur for a top end device it has to work like one and as long it has waranty ill claim it as mutch as i can.dont be fooled by todays manufacturer cuz they dont care about us.

I contacted Huawei about this, the guy in the live chat was very helpful. He said he never heard of that problem before (I believe him) and offered me to send pictures of the screen to a support email address... Never heard from them again. Thanks

0alfred0 said:
I contacted Huawei about this, the guy in the live chat was very helpful. He said he never heard of that problem before (I believe him) and offered me to send pictures of the screen to a support email address... Never heard from them again. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you even do that if your device hasn't got the issue?

Shahpur.Azizpour said:
Why would you even do that if your device hasn't got the issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have that issue, I just don't really care... But they told me I could get a replacement device. Having that confirmed I can wait for a year and ask for a replacement device. Fresh battery.

Hi! Is this on Mate 10 Pro? If that's the case, then I experience the same.
At minimum brightness and dark environment it is very noticeable. My problem though is on the upper part of the screen it is darker/reddish and on the lower part, it is lighter. I wonder if we can have this display changed in warranty.

Only issue I have noticed with the Mate 10 Pros is that they have a Redish timt to them specially near the top half of the screen I incrank the brightness always to Max then I don't see the Redish tint ..I have seen this on 4 different phones...I'm about done with my Mate 10 Pro us model crap updates.. Definitely not the smoothest running phone..Selling g mine now I just for to figure what to get next LOL..I'm kinda done with Hauwei for now...Plus I think the Stereo speakers sound like garbage an are not very loud..My old Mate nine wasnloud as hell.an sounded awesome...Now she is at the bottom of a Lake..lol

brightness is noticably higher on my samsung galaxy s7 edge to the Point where i was blinded at night when i moved from the mate 10 pro to the s7 edge, colors also seem better, i use a custom rom though and the colors on emui were awful Everything was so faded and washed out it's better with the new rom and a colder color temperature glowing is absolutely terrible though, i see a huge cloud of White around White Icons on black it ruins the image quality when i use a fully black ui.