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I figured it might be a good idea to share my thoughts on the Note 4, since I always put a lot of research into smartphone buying and someone might find it useful There are some of you that are still leaning toward different flagships all of the time (like I did!), so I hope this helps.
First of all I would like to mention that about a month ago I made up my mind to give up my LG G2 and switch to a new smartphone.
The Xiaomi mi4 came up first.
I liked the design, UI, price, specs. Everything about the mi4 is just above average, but thats about it. It didn't have that even slightest "wow factor" that I needed to push me to buying one. It's a very good phone, but the warranty would require me to send the phone far into the unknown in case something was wrong, I wasn't sure If I would pay tax as well. Nobody had the 64 gb model either (16gb and no card expansion, really?!). I decided that this would probably be a wise choice but it didn't offer anything more than what I already had on the G2, and in some cases, it was worse (camera). I passed.
My second choice was the LG G3.
So like always, I started researching, checking out different variants and prices, digging through the specs, looking for its strong sides and flaws. I liked the quad hd display at first, the SD 801 SoC, good camera with laser autofocus. The UI was a nice upgrade from the LG G2's cartoonish look. The 32 gb model seemed a good option with its 3gb of ram (although I didn't like the design as I wanted something different from the G2).
As I started to dig deaper though, I noticed that the display isn't all that awesome, as there is more to it than just resolution. I think they might have made the phone much better if they sticked to a 1080p panel and focused on other aspects like color reproduction, brightness, power consumption. I found out that the 801 chip is stretched to its limits (even over them..) with that display, which caused overheating, throttling and lagging in demanding tasks and games. I believe a smartphone should be able to handle anything you throw at it so I dumped the G3 from my plans.
Then the Z3 came up.
So again- researching, digging, looking at the cons and pros. I liked the design a lot better than the G3 (besides the plastic corners, although I can justify the reason they used them for). The display was beytter than the Z2, with very good brightness and color reproduction after making some adjustments to the stock settings. The audio quality is superb as well, the whole phone is waterproof and its battery life was very well above the current smartphones.
The camera in the Z3 is top of the line, but I didn't like how it overheats. Making the phone thinner wasn't necessary in my opinion and sony might have thought about the component allocation in the device, as putting everything in the top part of the phone wasn't too smart of a choice. The UI was something that I didn't like the most though. I know I could throw a custom ROM at it in a while, but I wasn't sure how that would work with the camera, battery life and other features sony offered in the stock ROM.
I almost made my mind up on the Z3, as it had everything I wanted and I could live with its cons but then the price came into my mind: 515 pounds including tax.
Thats the part the note 4 came into play.
I watched the Note 4 presentation: the phone impressed me in overall, I liked the design, UI, hardware etc. So I started digging again.
I've always wanted the best out of my phone, no matter if I was going to use all of the functions it had or not. I used my phone for calling, texting, making notes in google keep, gps, playing games, listening to music, browsing the web, taking pictures. Usually I endep up rooting it and putting a stock like ROM on it (although I used the stock LG G2 ROM all the way). The design of the phone was always important for me, thats why I had an iphone 4s and 5 for a month before ditching it cus of the awfully simple and boring OS.
The Note 4 seemed to be a very good phone that offered what I wanted and much more beyond that:
1. The display
It's resolution could have been not increased. Samsung could have stayed with a 1080p panel. But thats not whats important about this panel. This is what the DisplayMate test results are:
"The Galaxy Note 4 delivers uniformly consistent all around Top Tier display performance: it is the first Smartphone display to ever get all Green (Very Good to Excellent) Ratings in all test and measurement categories (except one Yellow for a Brightness Variation with Average Picture Level) since we started the Display Technology Shoot-Out article Series in 2006, an impressive achievement for a display. The Galaxy Note 4 has again raised the bar for top display performance up by another notch. "
The display is a window through which you interact with your phone, and it is a component that must be top of the line. There should be no compromise here. Samsung exceeded my expectations in this matter.
2. Performance
There are 2 variants of the Note as most of you know. I'm still having a hard time with both of them. At first I thought the Snapdragon is an obvious choice considering it was superior to all of the other chips last year.
But then the 64-bit affair came into place. Anyone would like their phone to be futureproof, and a 64-bit SoC would be a wise choice. The exynos and snapdragon chips offer pretty much the same performance. I tried looking at the benchmarks, real world usage, gaming, but one outpaces the other in different things and it is very hard to tell the difference. I believe the fluidity of the UI and overall performance must be taken into consideration the most, as I believe both chips will handle anything you throw at them when apps and games are optimized. The choice is either taking the 20nm exynos and hope for better battery life and 64-bit support OR the snapdragon one and expect better dev support.
I wanted the Exynos for the wolfson chip, as I like good quality music from my phone. I'll be using good headphones and PowerAmp so I figure I wouldn't notice much difference anyway. At least not enough to pay extra and import the exynos variant.
I'm pretty much set on the Snapdragon 805 as I believe the battery life should be good on both (the andreno 420 is powerful with lowered power consumption). Like I mentioned earlier I might change the ROM after a while if something good comes out. It's a matter of personal taste- NOT performance of the chips. Thats my opinion on the matter.
3. User Interface
Touchwiz was out of the question for me up until I saw the Galaxy S5 UI. I actually liked the flat style and functions it offered. The note 4 UI is pretty similar. I really like the S-Pen experience, it should be a great change for people who haven't used it before. I love taking notes and I'll use it often. I like the functions it offers, the selection in different UI elements, the ease of copy/pasting, more precise touch input.
Touchwiz has a lot of useless apps that I might not like, but I'm sure it will be possible to get rid of the ones you don't like later on, the dev community in here will surely help. I could go on about the stamina mode, multi-window, the ability to resize apps etc, but you've all seen that on videos. The most important fact for is that touchwiz had been improved, it is eye pleasing, smoother and faster than ever. It is the best custom android OS you can get atm.
4. Camera
On paper both of the cameras looked really good to me, but I wanted to wait and see the real world results. I wasn't disappointed. there were some early comparisions done, but some of them were pictures or videos not taken with the note 4, so getting a correct view at the performance was quite hard. We have these results now and the note camera is a top notch performer. I find day pictures top of the line, the details are there, colors are popping, OIS helps as well. 4k shooting isn't all that important to me but its a nice addition. The camera seems to be very capable and will perform great in a day-to-day user's hands as well in an experienced person ones.
You may find the night shots worse than of the lumia or z3, but thats just terribly trying to find a flaw to me. Come on- who the hell is going to photograph a piece of paper in the dark of the night!? insane. There are pictures taken with the note at night, i like how the lights aren't blurred and everything seems very crisp and detailed. Do remember what you'll be using the phone camera for, and the Note 4 delivers more than I want in those terms.
5. Battery life
Many people find this very important. I thought the Note 4 might get bad results cause of that screen so I checked out some vids of the LTE-A Galaxy S5 with the higher res display. The results were the same as the standars S5.
I am not sure if its the chip that is more power efficient, some power saving changes in the OS, or the screen, or maybe all of these at once, but the results people are having on the Notes they recently picked up are very pleasing to me.
Final words
I probably shouldn't, cause its so ridiculous, but I'll mention the gap gate as well- I don't give a crap about it. I wont even notice it. Especially with the case I'm going to put on the phone. And its something that samsung probably addressed already in the new batch of phones. There are other things I should maybe mention, but these 5 are most important for me. I really like the performace of the Note 4, its UI, functions, metal frame design, micro SD storage expansion, camera, battery, IR blaster and everything else that seems to be a full package that many will find good enough to put their money on. I surely will. On the black one of course
You have really done some good work digging up info and comparing them.
Just to add couple points to OP's excellent write up:
The battery life concern in #5 is actually addressed in already mentioned DisplayMate article, right towards the bottom it clearly states that the new screen, despite having larger number of pixels is more power efficient than 1080p screen of Note3 (0.05W for 50% and 0.2 W for 100% brightness), about 5 to 10% more efficient and Note 3 has proven itself to have very good battery life already.
The gap between screen and frame around might be by design, due to combination of plastic, glass and metal having different expansion rate due to temperature changes. My thinking is that if the phone was brought from very warm room into very cold outside, metal frame would cool and shrink much faster than the rest and could even possibly crack the glass, doing so. The gap possibly allows for contraction/expansion without doing any damage. Either way, outside of aesthetics, it doesn't affect anything and it's a non issue. Probably blown out of proportions as an attempt to shift attention away from bendgate.
pete4k said:
The battery life concern in #5 is actually addressed in already mentioned DisplayMate article, right towards the bottom it clearly states that the new screen, despite having larger number of pixels is more power efficient than 1080p screen of Note3 (0.05W for 50% and 0.2 W for 100% brightness), about 5 to 10% more efficient and Note 3 has proven itself to have very good battery life already
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he was referring to the increased GPU load due to the higher resolution which is a valid concern.
But as it has already been said, even the S5 LTE-A with its Snapdragon 805 and QHD resolution has the same battery life as the regular S5 with Full HD and Snapdragon 800.
Still, it would be interesting to see the battery life on a Snapdragon 805 device with only a Full HD display.
I would prefer the note 4 to have a 1080p panel with the same characteristics. But how many people actually use their head before buying a phone? It's a spec war for android phones..
han4mi said:
I would prefer the note 4 to have a 1080p panel with the same characteristics. But how many people actually use their head before buying a phone? It's a spec war for android phones..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Normally I would agree that FHD 1080p would be more than enough. However, since the GN4 is going to host the Gear VR, with magnifying lenses, I'm happy it went for the QHD
Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk
Audio Quality
Thanks for taking the time for the write up.
One area I would really like to know about is the quality of the rear speaker.
The sound quality is much more important to me than the placement (and sometimes the rear placement actually helps when you put it on a flat hard surface). I ruled out the Note 3 because its speaker was worse than the Note 2 which is still my current phone. The Note 2's speaker is actually pretty decent if the 4's is equal or better I would be thrilled.
Any input?
ymmp said:
Thanks for taking the time for the write up.
One area I would really like to know about is the quality of the rear speaker.
The sound quality is much more important to me than the placement (and sometimes the rear placement actually helps when you put it on a flat hard surface). I ruled out the Note 3 because its speaker was worse than the Note 2 which is still my current phone. The Note 2's speaker is actually pretty decent if the 4's is equal or better I would be thrilled.
Any input?
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Click to collapse
I have the same question, ´cause I am afraid, that speeker-quality will be on low level and I am used to fantastic stereo sound of my current htv one m8.
I think, the price for Note 4 ist extremly high. Meanwhile Samsungs flagships are playing in the same €-league with the latest iphons. So I want to hold it in my own hands first before buying it. In center of Europe the Note 4 will be available in about 2 weeks.
Maybe the new Nexus 6 has a better balance between price and specs. We´ll check it out.
Just read Phone Arena's review. Here's a quote:
"Unfortunately, the audio portion of the media experience isn't so spectacular. The single speaker of the Galaxy Note 4 is rather quiet and lacking any depth, making it sound thin and weak. It's not too bad, but it's far from the best we've heard"
How disappointing! The new Moto X is supposed to have an amazing front speaker. I just wonder if it is more like the Note 2 or 3.
I believe the speaker will be good enough to play the ringtone I choose. I prefer earphones+ Poweramp for my music. Like I said, it depends what you're expecting to use the phone for. The Note 4 meets my demands in key aspects and thats why I'm going for it. I don't want THE BEST PHONE. Such a phone does not exist. All of the flagships have their strenghts and weaknesses and a smart person would take the one with the most personally suitable set of features.
So I'm still waiting for my ZUK to arrive! It's taking forever!
I bought from AliExpress and shipped via regular post.
I currently have the note 4 so as you can guess, it may not be a very wise switch. But I was very impressed with the phone and ordered it as a birthday gift to myself!
I will be comparing them thoroughly!
So which device are you coming from? Share your experience and feel free to compare them pointing out in what areas you feel it's an upgrade and where it's a downgrade!
I am comming from an iphone 4S and I am not sure if I shall keep the device or send it back. Compared to the iphone 4s the screen and performance of the Z1 are magnificient. The camera is a little bit worse, but this does not bother me.
But what bothers me is the general network and talk quality. At my place the device is constantly switching across three different cell ids (once lte, once 3g, once edge). When I hold it on top on the upper side in my hand it looses network connectivity completely (similar to the death grip on the iphone 4). During calls there is always some noise behind - the person I am talking with reports noise and I am hearing noise when the person is talking to me (also after the latest updates). Unfortunately in the usual reviews there is nothing mentioned about this ...
What do others think - are you happy with the network and talk quality?
Note 4 and Redmi Note 2. Battery and CM destroy both
Gesendet von meinem Z1 mit Tapatalk
Well i have an Xiaomi Mi4 too, which is also a great devices and it supports inbuilt root on the developer roms without the need to patch something.
I would have prolly stayed with it to be fair, but it had a hardware defect so i bought something that is available in europe without importing.
I have to say i like the ZUK Z1 with the dual sim and big battery as i travel a lot it´s a great advantage for me.
Let´s just hope Cyanogen fixes all the little bugs and problems and gives us inbuilt root too, then it would be near perfect.
I also have an iphone 4S, but it´s too old and too small and a samsung galaxy s4 mini which is far too slow which a far too little battery and screen size.
For me a big battery is king, the Mi4 also have a 3000 mha battery but the ZUK even tops them.
But theres one thing i have to say, i miss some cool featurs CMIUI the xiaomi android fork has!
1) root inbuilt with permission managment, no need for supersu.
2) battery saver with different profiles and ram freeing etc.
3) edgetap for wakeup
4) a superb camera with a great camera stock app
5) File based OTA updates, even after installing Xposed etc and modding the system you can still just OTA upgrade
6) WEEKLY! Developer rom OTA upgrade
I come from Asus Zenfone 2 4GB, which is worst for:
- too much battery drain (maybe because android os in still 5.0), so I had to recharge before evening
- poor display (the sensor simply doesn't work)
while it has NFC and LTE band 20 (800).
I had Huawei Mate 7.
Nice phone, but the screen developed some white spots, the speaker is bad, ui not good either. Very slow updates.
I also owned 3 Oneplus Ones. All had issues :|
I really like the ZUK. Very smooth, the battery life is crazy good, the screen is beautiful, audio through speaker and headphone jack good, well as you know.
The only bad thing about it is the camera, but it's fixable.
I've sold my OPO today and bought the zuk... It will arrive next week. I hope I don't regret my decision...
javirenart said:
I've sold my OPO today and bought the zuk... It will arrive next week. I hope I don't regret my decision...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You won't
I hope developers will start making custom roms.. It is way much better when you can chose what you want than having to stay with COS alone
Enviado desde mi XT1032 mediante Tapatalk
I come from OnePlus One which is also a good mobile phone and I think ZUK Z1 is a little better than it as a whole.
I am coming from a Nexus 5 wich starting to fall apart and had pretty bad battery life even on marshmallow.
My zuk z1 arrived this Thursday, unfortunately my Sim didn't fit and I had to order a new one which arrived today. So far I am pretty satisfied with it, the screen is good battery life is pretty good so far as I had the time to play with it. I charged it till 80% on Thursday around 19:00 at the moment I have 7% left with a sot of 5 hours.
I am coming from a Nexus 4 wich is still very good phone, but zuk z1 is amazing
I also greeted my ze551ml!
I'm coming from Lenovo P780, that have in common the monster battery of 4000mah.
On my P780, with a Russian custom ROM I was able to reach 2 days.
Unlucky with this device I barely reach evening.
I'll try tu use with a single sim and see if the situation will increase
Inviato dal mio Z1 utilizzando Tapatalk
I had a Nexus 6 which i smashed. I loved that phone but thought I would get something slightly smaller this time and wanted the fingerprint sensor so the ZUK seemed like a good buy. It's a nice phone but a shame the fingerprint setup is not working properly
From a Oneplus 2.. Sick of battery life and having to use either OxygenOS (why not just use AOSP? Seriously..) or use a ROM I actually like, such as Exodus but then I lose fingerprint functionality.
Much rather the Zuk Z1 with a solid SoC and has a massive battery life, and all the features of the Oneplus 2 but with a good ROM as stock.
I'm very fussy with my phones.
Pleased. I previously owned these phones: BlackBerry 9720, LG Nexus 4, Moto X 1st gen (2013, ghost), and Sony Xperia M2 (D2303). And currently own one Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact (scorpion_windy). My Zuk Z1 brings stellar battery life (1.5 days), CyanogenOS is decent as compared to CyanogenMod (5 incremental updates within a month, no critical bugs or malfunctions). If you can live without LTE/4G band 20 (800mhz), a mediocre camera (pixelated photo, particularly in low light) as well as without NFC support then I do not see any major showstopper. There is no microsd card reader but 64gb storage is more than sufficient for a phone. The Snapdragon 801 CPU is blazzing fast (no stuttering/freeze) but does not support 64-bit instructions (it might not be future proof although I highly doubt it). 3gb of RAM is generous enough for all Android use. The 1080p (IPS?) display is nice although it does not match the Sony Triluminos (Z3TC). Bluetooth works out of the box without issues (as opposed to the stuttering Z3TC scorpion_windy)
Minor issues: the hotspot function (4G to WiFi) sometimes drops (not as stable as a Huawei 5776s-32 mobile WiFi hotspot), the default system font is not fully UTF-8 compliant (causes display issues related to French characters such as ç, é, è ê), does not come with an autoscreen off function when the lid case closes (at least I did not find this option) but such a gap may be closed using a 3rd party app.
No issue with the WiFi component (fast and stable), excellent 4G signal (note my provider does not make use of the 800Mhz band), no much bloatware (not loaded into memory at startup, no Microsoft application such as Cortana or Outlook)
Running CyanogenOS 12.1-YOG4PAS3AJ including Android (5.1.1) patch level 2015-11-01 on 2015-11-03.
coming from a elephone p7000 and previously samsung note 3..
have ma phone for 5 days now and its all smiles...
audio is top notch through both headphone and loud speakers..
os is very satisfying , the numbers of update is great and improvements are noticeable.
battery life is 10/10.......easily 8 hrs on screen time ..............
everyone was complaining about the camera but the updates seem to help..if not just use fv-5v camera app...
only thing i miss a the finger print app lock to lock my apps that was on the p7000.
my personal score 9.5/10 ...........paid 299.00 and very satisfied
Comming from a OnePlus One.
I'm happy with it.
Comming from LG G2. I was looking for another phone with decent battery life.
I resigned from oneplus two invitation and choose ZUK.
Till now I' very pleased with this choice, battery is amaizing, phone works flawlessly. Good choice.
I am considering either getting A2 or Nokia 7 Plus.
The A2 has the same hardware platform but is considerably cheaper but there are a few things/questions that I am considering:
1. the updates on A1, if I read comments or on the A1 forum seem to be late and buggy. This is one of the major drawbacks for me as I want a stable device and I am afraid the same thing will happen with A2
2. on Nokia there seem a way to enable gcam without doing root on the device, on A2 I saw that root is needed... this would be a drawback as gcam seems to improve picture taking on many devices
3. How does the device feel in hand? Is it slippery? Is the camera bump annoying?
4. Any software/hardware issues reported so far? I read something about proximity sensor but other than that not much.
The reviews for the device aren't stellar. Most complain about nfc, jack and sd card. None of this are important to me, I care about updates and camera.
So, should I get the Nokia (better build, bigger battery, stable and fast updates, probably a bit better camera, gcam working, better screen, no PWM for brightness)
I'd like to hear your advices. Thank you for your time.
It'll be better if you buy the Nokia 7 plus Android One version! You'll get most the things needed in a flagship phone (not all) and it's better than Mi A2 in most of the time except the camera!
You should also bear in mind that Nokia phones have no official way of unlocking bootloader for now, so there won't be lot of custom development for their devices until HMD decide to provide way to unlock bootloader. And according to HMDs head twitter, they won't do it because of security (proof: https://twitter.com/sarvikas/status/910421837661790208)
There certainly are a ** lot ** of things to consider when buying a phone now-a-days.
One of the very first things I look at is appearance, and weight. So right off the bat, 2 knocks on the 7plus; it's gaudy looking with the faux gold trim, and it's 183 grams (and I thought 165 gram phones were heavy!).
I'm shocked you would say an issue with the Mi A2 would be build quality? I don't have mine yet, but the unibody construction of these devices, like the Huawei Mate SE, are as good as it gets. Could not feel more solid. There's a marked difference to how a device with a unibody and 2.5D raised glass feels compared to how a device (like the 7plus) that has a 'flat' band all around it, holding the top and the bottom panels together.
I much much prefer the rounded unibody, way more comfortable in the hand, less likely to slip. And the metal body of them isn't slippery.
Yes, the A1 has had some issues with updates / bugs. But the A2 already has the ota security patch / bug fixes for August available. Someone mentioned they seem to be doing better with the A2 and it may well be because it's Project Treble.
As someone else mentioned; Is the bootloader unlockable? That's right near the top of the list for me, if not the top. If the Nok is locked down (as said), it's off my list. At some point, and you might keep the phone that long, updates will stop. If you can't unlock it, then the phone is basically done.
As far as reviews go, actually the ones i've read, are stellar. Yes, the lack of nfc, expansion, no jack, are mentioned. They all mention it. I guess they have to or it won't be considered a decent review. But to me, I can live without them, not that much of a big. What is a big, and it's mentioned a lot in the reviews I've read, are the cameras. The f1.75 cams on the back will let in a ** lot ** of light. All reviews indicate they do well in low light (as you would expect), some even say the great cameras make up for the loss of the other items.
So what's important to you? I"m going with Android One is big, good cameras is really big, unlockable bootloader is huge, not too heavy helps to keep me from constantly pulling my pants up, available in black... I like black (not gaudy pls).
We all have our criteria don't we...
Build quality of the A2 is amazing. Feels like a flagship device. I was afraid how it would compare to my light Nexus 5x but man was I wrong. I loved it from the start
Custom roms were my main deciding factor compared to Nokia or bq even if there is no NFC or RGB notification LED. So I am ready to use the hardware until it breaks.
Headphone jack I don't care too much, get a fiio btr Bluetooth headphone amp and you are smartphone independent and can use your cable headphones which I won't change to anything purely bluetooth based unless Sennheiser comes out with some usb-c based ie80s.
SD card? You really need more than 64GB or 128Gb even? I am happy with the 64GB but depends a lot on what you are planning to do.
Oh I forgot the amazing camera. You can find some of my pics in the gcam thread. Guess I will upload a little camera showcase soon.
Thank you all for your thoughts.
@AsItLies I did not say there's an issue with build quality on A2. As you say, I am kind of convinced that it will fell better in hand as it is rounded, and that matters on big phones a lot. What I have noticed is that the camera bump is really big and that could make it wobble on the table.
So to set the list of pros and cons
A2
+ good feel in hand
- no way to use gcam without root and bootloader unlock which is something I don't want to do.
- no double tap to wake
+/- the software remains to be seen... A1 wasn't really great in that department
7Plus
+ double tape to wake
+ better screen quality
+ stable software with quick updates
+ google camera works without root
- like 25% more expensive
- not sure the looks in live preview with the copper accent.
- finger print scanner seems a bit too high, but A2 kind of looks at the same spot
- no notification led and glance uses battery since it has LCD
- bulkier and heavier
To be honest, I don't care for rooting the device. In 2 years, after no more updates, I am sure there will be other cheap alternatives to get.
Looks like you're not power user, doesn't need rooted device or custom ROM, etc. Based on this I recommend the 7 Plus, I think it's better than A2 for general usage. A2 to me strong in the community support and development since it has better value for budget phone.
7 Plus wins in many aspects, but A2 is slightly better at camera department based on some reviews I read. 7 Plus prices is very high compared to other mid range devices, I think if you have the money and can add few bucks more, you can buy flagship phone with Snapdragon 8XX instead of 7 Plus.
I care about:
1. updates - I have my concerns on updates given the previous history with A1.
2. camera - some say nokia is better, some say a2 is better. Probably nokia with gcam is better
3.handling- a2 seems to be more rounded, slimmer but has that huge camera bump what probably makes it wobble on table. Together with no double touch to wake makes it no so ergonomic.
Nokia kind of ticks most of the boxes really, however, a2 is 25% cheaper and may have life after 2 years with the community. At the price of 7plus, I could get a used pixel 2 for instance and that has better camera and updates.
Tough choice to make.
alinescoo said:
I care about:
1. updates - I have my concerns on updates given the previous history with A1.
2. camera - some say nokia is better, some say a2 is better. Probably nokia with gcam is better
3.handling- a2 seems to be more rounded, slimmer but has that huge camera bump what probably makes it wobble on table. Together with no double touch to wake makes it no so ergonomic.
Nokia kind of ticks most of the boxes really, however, a2 is 25% cheaper and may have life after 2 years with the community. At the price of 7plus, I could get a used pixel 2 for instance and that has better camera and updates.
Tough choice to make.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well hopefully you won't mind my version of your concerns, but always remember, these things are evolving and changing, due to experience. It's only natural with complicated things like this.
1. updates - While the A1 did run into a few issues, I'd say remember, this is a new thing for them. They'll probably get it right soon, evidenced by the August patch available now... and it's August! That's almost unheard of in itself.
2. Camera - I certainly like the Zeiss optics on the Nok, but Sony is no slouch either. Keep in mind the aperture of the 2 rear cameras on the A2 are f1.75. The Nok are f1.8 and f2.6 (for the optical zoom one). I don't know exactly, but the diff between the 1.75 and 2.6 is a Full Stop, if not more. That means, if u don't know, that the 1.75 will let in TWICE the amount of light. That's a huge difference, resulting in much better pictures.
The other thing re the GCam. I have a port on my LG G6 now. It's very good. Except it doesn't have all the features the OEM app has. For instance; taking a selfie in portrait mode, there is no timer. Also note the GCam ports won't use both lenses, as the pixel phones only have one lens. Some OEM apps use info from both lenses to create bokeh effects etc.
3. Handling - it is an individual thing for sure. My take on the camera bump is - I'd prefer it didn't have it, but I just don't set the phone down on the back (unless it's in a case). If I set it down I'll set it on the front. It's usually just in my pocket.
All cameras (except the G6!) have a bump, the A2 is just a bit bigger. Oh well. As far as double tap, for me... I've never used it, even once. Just use the finger print scanner.
Again! not knocking your concerns, they are valid for you, that's all that matters. Just giving a different perspective on them. Tomorrow, I may think differently! Haha, phones, they've become so complicated it's more and more time consuming to evaluate them. I've bought and sold so many lately, I never thought I would do that! I think I have a new addiction
About the handling, if you don't use a case with Mi A2, it is a bit slippery for me. The device is actually round but it is also thin. The metal at the back is very smooth and could be slippery for some.
And I think the cameras between two are not so different, depends on your taste. But the sensor with Nokia 7 Plus is larger so it should produce better images in low light.
@AsItLies thank you for your detailed info. I am very glad to receive info from an owner.
@Marciano09 thank you. To be honest, my comfort zone ends around the sizes of pixel 2, but the trend now is to have phones bigger and bigger so I guess I need to get used to it. So, bigger and slippery is not something that sounds comfortable. Nokia seems to have some ceramic back cover which probably improves handling but has rougher edges.
I saw some comparison videos on camera samples, sometimes I liked A2 ones, sometimes the Nokia ones. Nokia with gcam has some really nice photos where on xiaomi I depend on the OEM camera.
Really tough choice to make.
alinescoo said:
I care about:
1. updates - I have my concerns on updates given the previous history with A1.
2. camera - some say nokia is better, some say a2 is better. Probably nokia with gcam is better
3.handling- a2 seems to be more rounded, slimmer but has that huge camera bump what probably makes it wobble on table. Together with no double touch to wake makes it no so ergonomic.
Nokia kind of ticks most of the boxes really, however, a2 is 25% cheaper and may have life after 2 years with the community. At the price of 7plus, I could get a used pixel 2 for instance and that has better camera and updates.
Tough choice to make.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. they're both android one devices, sure, the nokia may not have as much dev support but it will get the same 2y official treatment because of android one.
2. both good cameras yep, the a2 will probably take some better nighttime pics, the nokia might be better at portrait mode.
3. forget about the double tap to wake... it's so much nicer to use the fingerprint to wake up instead! and yes, the a2 isn't stable on a flat table. even with the tpu case it still wobbles. the case helps, but it's still not standing nicely.
if you care about the price difference, go for the a2. but be aware that the a2 will drop in price over the next few months. this is the most expensive it will ever be. the nokia may have started to drop in price already.
the features that may point you to the nokia:
- nfc
- bigger battery
- 3.5 jack
- sd card support
- sturdier
a2:
- slimmer, lighter
- maybe better dev support (on the long long run however it's probably irrelevant since both phones are android one supported) - see LE
- maybe better night shots (it's still a phone however, and anything but the highest end flagships pale in comparison to real cameras - if you ask me never pick a phone based on cameras)
- cheaper (however expect the price to drop over the next months! this is the launch price)
did you consider/looked at the redmi note 5 pro (whyred)?
- already has some good custom roms (lineage)
- better battery
- 636 is a 660 running at a lower clock speed (even better use of battery)
- way cheaper
L.E.
- yes, the proximity sensor on the a2 seems a bit wonky, but not as bad as some reviews describe it
- updates are always a bit weird at first, android one is the fix for that (on both phones), only difference is the nokia had the time it needed to fix some already
- without a case yes, the a2 is slippery. use the included case from the moment you unbox it.
- yes, i own an A2, i love it and dont regret getting one, i recommend it to anyone looking to buy one.
- dev support...
*yes, it's very possible the a2 will get better unofficial support. however, and i don't know how i'm gonna say this without getting the full wrath of the forum thrown at me... that's irrelevant.
*you get a android one so you don't have to worry about the official support! you get one of these to be able to stay on the stock rom.
*either way you look at it, and in all honesty i really appreciate the work all the devs pull of unofficially for devices, thank you all and keep up the good work!
*however you cannot expect a handful of devs to be able to compete with google or big oem's. - again, this may seem like i am ungrateful, that's not the case. (only exception is when those oem-s choose to drop support). with android one they cannot do that even if they wanted to.
*both phones will get security patches and android updates for a minimum of 2 years. by then, regardless which one you buy you'll want a newer one that supports 6g or vr over lte or 5 cameras or a bendable screen. or whatever else gimmick they pull out of the hat by then. (if anything, i would be sorry for having to dump the nokia more)
I personally was debating between this or the 6.1 plus. I don't recall off hand what the deciding factor for me was. But I went with the a2 and it will be here Tuesday.
Nickdroid86 said:
I personally was debating between this or the 6.1 plus. I don't recall off hand what the deciding factor for me was. But I went with the a2 and it will be here Tuesday.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
now that's a better comparison!
picked the a2 for the large screen and better cameras?
enjoy the new a2! and piece of advice... dont switch away from the standard android one for as long as you can. unlike the other xiaomi-s with miui, it's actually not a bad idea to stick to stock.
if you find the time share your opinions about it after a few days
Doing a little research and found on gsmarena u can not only compare phones, but also photo comparisons;
There are 3 categories it compares them in: Lowest ISO, Good Light, Low Light. There's some explanation of how they got their results, but they seem a bit vague (but at least they have SOME control they're doing).
An issue that comes up when comparing Cameras is some think it has to be an apples to apples comparison; Same ISO, Same Aperture, Same exposure time. They think that's the only way to have a true comparison.
But here's the thing; A comparison really should be 'take the best picture possible' for ea camera under the exact conditions and exact subject matter. That way, if one camera has pixel binning, it can use that. Or another camera has a wider aperture it can use that, etc.
But this does give 'some' idea of how the 2 phone cameras compare, it's pretty cool to fool around with, click in the design on the left to change what's focused on. Also note, the pictures do seem to indicate when a lense has a wider angle than another, noted by what's captured in the 'viewing box'.
https://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=5&idPhone1=9140&idPhone2=9058
I think the build quality of A2 is very good but the metal back is really slippery. I have to use the TPU cover provided. After using the cover, the camera bump is not a big issue. The bump becomes much smaller.
I also considered Nokia 7 Plus but I think it's too bulky and heavy for me. As I don't need NFC and SD card because it's not my main phone, I can live with it.
The screen is vibrant and crisp. I really didn't expect that in such a low price phone.
Thank you all for your valuable informations. The price of Nokia 7 plus is around the same as a Pixel 2 (the smaller one) and I think I'll keep an eye on the market for a good deal. Pixel is more compact, has great camera and another 2 years of software updates.
Thank all again you for your time.
laviniu_c said:
now that's a better comparison!
picked the a2 for the large screen and better cameras?
enjoy the new a2! and piece of advice... dont switch away from the standard android one for as long as you can. unlike the other xiaomi-s with miui, it's actually not a bad idea to stick to stock.
if you find the time share your opinions about it after a few days
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will for sure. I love Android One software. I had it with my regular Nokia 6.1
Comparing 7 plus and a2 is like comparing apples to oranges (both are phones). In terms of price there is a stellar difference, if you can afford the 7 plus, better go for a pixel 1 (you said you wanted updates and camera), i personally bought a2 because it's cheap as hell and even if i'd be the richest person on the planet i would not pay more than 300 dollars for a phone.
Android is made for SD8XX, nomatter what these cheapsters hide under the lid (SD6XX) they will always hang, lag, overheat and die fast.
Component wise the a2 feels like a joke (sorry, copying the iphone x in this manner it's way beyond shame) and a toy for kids with the ir blaster (come on it's 2018) and the lack of nfc (if you're european you'll understand).
If you have the money buy the pixel 1, if you're a cheapster like the a2, go for it. I don't se the reason to buy the 7 plus.
strapabiro said:
Comparing 7 plus and a2 is like comparing apples to oranges (both are phones). In terms of price there is a stellar difference, if you can afford the 7 plus, better go for a pixel 1 (you said you wanted updates and camera), i personally bought a2 because it's cheap as hell and even if i'd be the richest person on the planet i would not pay more than 300 dollars for a phone.
Android is made for SD8XX, nomatter what these cheapsters hide under the lid (SD6XX) they will always hang, lag, overheat and die fast.
Component wise the a2 feels like a joke (sorry, copying the iphone x in this manner it's way beyond shame) and a toy for kids with the ir blaster (come on it's 2018) and the lack of nfc (if you're european you'll understand).
If you have the money buy the pixel 1, if you're a cheapster like the a2, go for it. I don't se the reason to buy the 7 plus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android is made for SD8XX? Each phone is optimized for it's precessor, among other hardware. Some better than others. The sd660 in my mi a2 is hanging in there up against my sd845 in my s9+ and the sd835 in my pixel 2 xl..
This isn't a rant, just things which I've noticed of considerable concern.
Hi, just a full disclosure. I bought a K20 Pro Chinese rom from Aliexpress, waited 3 months and watched a lot of reviews. I'm english speaking, so none of these issues were brought up in the video's I watched.
1) The speaker at the bottom is too easy to cover, as a right hand user. I cannot comfortably watch videos in portrait mode without accidentally concealing it.
2) The camera reflects its own infrared on closeup images of shiny objects.
https://imgur.com/9iCMfut
3) The display is not sharp. This clarity is comparable to the Galaxy S3, you can see the pixels individually and quite vividly. This makes icon edges appear blurry. I'll put this down to the low resolution, as compared to my 2k display of the Galaxy Note 5.
https://imgur.com/rExaM1Z
4) The display is very thin. Having come from the Galaxy Note 5, I'm used to a wider phone. But this is much to small to consume media in vertical form.
5) The battery life isn't great. It lasts a day, and only a day with medium use.
6) Gestures in Android 9 are broken. Specifically the 'recents gesture' and the 'go back'. I only had about a 10% success rate with the 'recents gesture', it just didn't want to work. Whereas the 'go back' gesture works a bit too well and I was constantly going back accidentally as you can swipe from either side.
7) MIUI is not good. I personally do not find it enjoyable to use.
Three months is a long time. I was getting impatient and got it after 30 days. I'll say I agree with the speaker being easy to cover, that being said you can just turn the phone upside down.
1) just turn device upside down.
2) weird thing indeed
3) pretty okay for the price, not best display ever, but not uncomfortable to me..
4)there's a choice here, if you make it too wide, you make it hard to use with a single hand...
5) pretty great here, I don't know what you call "medium use", but here I'm getting all day long (lasting around 25% in the end of it) with 7 hours of screen on... I consider it as hard use. It is not great compared to what, exactly?
6)never used it, can't opine...
7)I used to be a vanilla guy, miui stock is just awful for me. But, xiaomi.eu rom is pretty great, I believe you could give it a try. It is just what miui should be...
Cheers
I wasn't pleased too when i went from Galaxy s8 to one plus 5t about the display but you will get used to it believe me , it's a good display you will not notice any pixel after some time , almost every phone nowadays comes in FHD+ except high end Samsung , besides it's 6'4 inch it's really big
---------- Post added at 09:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 PM ----------
And you're completely wrong about the battery life maybe you have a faulty unit because the battery is amazing I'm getting 7 to 9 SOT
In my opinion:
1) Agree with you, but although I always (almost) use headphones it doesnt bother me. But, you can flip the phone to avoid this scenario...
2) Never noticed.
3) It is really not an ultra sharp display, but it is far from S3, which was ~300ppi, K20 is ~400ppi. Amoled pentile will hardly give an sharp display on FHD+ displays.
4) You are a long time whitout upgrading, thin phones are a trend since 2018. Last decent 16:9 phone was Huawei Mate 10.
5) Luckily you didnt buy other phones as this one have a great battery life on today standards.
6) It is necessary some time to get used and increase accuracy on gestures.
7) Having had mainly Samsungs, LGs, Motos, Huaweis and Xiaomis, I think MIUI is on par with EMUI (Huawei) and better than Samsung/LG/Moto.
Edit: Item 5. According to GSMArena, battery on K20 stands ~45% longer than Note5 for video playback. ~15% more for talking time, and ~25% more for browsing.
I don't know if the K20 Pro is different from the Mi 9T Pro but i can't agree on the unsharp display. Maybe with a magnifying glass but it is as sharp as any other phone i had before including my P30. Same for the battery life, i can easily hit 10 hours SOT in a day without having to charge it. Tried gestures, works well for me. The thin display isn't as good for videos, yes but overall it's quite nice to use/ handle. Also i'm okay with MIUI. It looks pretty nice and got some good customization options and it's certainly better than EMUI. But i can agree on it being a bit weird to use if you're used to stock Android.
Thanks for your positive feedback.
Someone suggested that I just rotate the phone 180 degrees to avoid covering the speaker, how does one enable this rotation in miui?
A suggestion was made about miui.eu, I plan to flash this when the 7 day unlock period expires.
Regarding the battery, it's just not revolutionary. Sitting around the 1 day mark. Has anyone had any positive battery life improvements using a custom kernel?
Turbine1991 said:
This isn't a rant, just things which I've noticed of considerable concern.
Hi, just a full disclosure. I bought a K20 Pro Chinese rom from Aliexpress, waited 3 months and watched a lot of reviews. I'm english speaking, so none of these issues were brought up in the video's I watched.
1) The speaker at the bottom is too easy to cover, as a right hand user. I cannot comfortably watch videos in portrait mode without accidentally concealing it.
2) The camera reflects its own infrared on closeup images of shiny objects.
https://imgur.com/9iCMfut
3) The display is not sharp. This clarity is comparable to the Galaxy S3, you can see the pixels individually and quite vividly. This makes icon edges appear blurry. I'll put this down to the low resolution, as compared to my 2k display of the Galaxy Note 5.
https://imgur.com/rExaM1Z
4) The display is very thin. Having come from the Galaxy Note 5, I'm used to a wider phone. But this is much to small to consume media in vertical form.
5) The battery life isn't great. It lasts a day, and only a day with medium use.
6) Gestures in Android 9 are broken. Specifically the 'recents gesture' and the 'go back'. I only had about a 10% success rate with the 'recents gesture', it just didn't want to work. Whereas the 'go back' gesture works a bit too well and I was constantly going back accidentally as you can swipe from either side.
7) MIUI is not good. I personally do not find it enjoyable to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmm no way its comparable , fyi i still have mine retired S3 , a sammy user since galaxy S , size wise k20 pro its pretty standard , note series i is always consider a bigger size phone , similar one perhaps might be mi max ? battery seem good so far , sorry but older sammy phones model, battery life always fail me , gestures , never use , maybe i am old school , miui does take a while to get used to , just throw in a poco launcher ,never like miui messy home screen , and the price you paid for a sd855 , not sure what country you are from , a samsung comes with exynos chipset most of the time , cant expect top quality hardware in all aspect ?
1. This issue isn't exactly exclusive to the K20 Pro, many devices have bottom firing speakers, not really and issue for me. I am also right handed and I rarely cover the speaker when using it in landscape.
2. You can avoid the infrared reflection issue by switching to manual focus.
3. Imo the display is fine. You are just coming from a phone with a QHD display (you should have done your research before buying)
4. The display is supposed to be taller and the fact that its taller make its naturally narrower for its size (6.39") The aspect ratio (18:9) on the K20 Pro is is used on all modern flagships now as it is better suited to the portrait content that is consumed on a smartphone. and as for "This clarity is comparable to the Galaxy S3" either your device is faulty or you're just talking crap. The galaxy S3 has a pixel density of 306 ppi and the K20 Pro's display has a pixel density of 403 ppi which is more than a noticeable difference
5. Most people have reported great battery life. I have gotten 2 days on a single charge before and in some cases getting over 10 hours of screen on time unless you game then of course it wont last as long.
6. I haven't had any issues with MIUI gestures, they work perfectly fine for me.
7. I love MIUI, this is my first Xiaomi device. When I first ordered the device I didn't think I'd like MIUI and thought I would end up switching to a custom rom like Pixel Experience or Lineage but I learned to love it. MIUI has the best gestures, it looks awesome, it is well optimised and performs great with great battery life.
I did a considerable amount of research before buying. Some of the issue you have stated were mentioned like the bottom firing speaker, the display being FHD+, the infrared reflection wasn't an issue on your note 5 because the note 5 doesn't have laser autofocus (which can be disabled) this isnt really an issue its just an extra feature on the K20 Pro which you don't have to use.
The K20 Pro is far cheaper than any other current flagship out there, so you cant expect it to have all the same flagship features. They obviously had to save money in some areas, for example the display is FHD+ unlike some Samsung, LG, Sony and OnePlus devices which have QHD Displays, Gorilla Glass 5 instead of 6, no wireless charging, the type-c port is only USB 2.0, no IP rating when this devices has been proven to be considerably water resistant
lordkiller347 said:
1. This issue isn't exactly exclusive to the K20 Pro, many devices have bottom firing speakers, not really and issue for me. I am also right handed and I rarely cover the speaker when using it in landscape.
2. You can avoid the infrared reflection issue by switching to manual focus.
3. Imo the display is fine. You are just coming from a phone with a QHD display (you should have done your research before buying)
4. The display is supposed to be taller and the fact that its taller make its naturally narrower for its size (6.39") The aspect ratio (18:9) on the K20 Pro is is used on all modern flagships now as it is better suited to the portrait content that is consumed on a smartphone. and as for "This clarity is comparable to the Galaxy S3" either your device is faulty or you're just talking crap. The galaxy S3 has a pixel density of 306 ppi and the K20 Pro's display has a pixel density of 403 ppi which is more than a noticeable difference
5. Most people have reported great battery life. I have gotten 2 days on a single charge before and in some cases getting over 10 hours of screen on time unless you game then of course it wont last as long.
6. I haven't had any issues with MIUI gestures, they work perfectly fine for me.
7. I love MIUI, this is my first Xiaomi device. When I first ordered the device I didn't think I'd like MIUI and thought I would end up switching to a custom rom like Pixel Experience or Lineage but I learned to love it. MIUI has the best gestures, it looks awesome, it is well optimised and performs great with great battery life.
I did a considerable amount of research before buying. Some of the issue you have stated were mentioned like the bottom firing speaker, the display being FHD+, the infrared reflection wasn't an issue on your note 5 because the note 5 doesn't have laser autofocus (which can be disabled) this isnt really an issue its just an extra feature on the K20 Pro which you don't have to use.
The K20 Pro is far cheaper than any other current flagship out there, so you cant expect it to have all the same flagship features. They obviously had to save money in some areas, for example the display is FHD+ unlike some Samsung, LG, Sony and OnePlus devices which have QHD Displays, Gorilla Glass 5 instead of 6, no wireless charging, the type-c port is only USB 2.0, no IP rating when this devices has been proven to be considerably water resistant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 to all of this except 7.
MIUI does have some plus points, but for me, nowhere near enough to compensate for it's bad points. The only thing I miss is MIUI gestures.
I bought the phone knowing I'd be going to custom ROMs as soon as the bootloader could be unlocked.
With a good custom ROM, I cannot fault the phone for it's price point.
I gotta say that I think the battery life is absolutely insane (I came from a jailbroken iPhone X, but had tons of Xiaomis etc before). I charge it every evening but sometimes I just dont, because I got 60+ % and it jsut doesnt feel right.
I use the MIUI 11 ROM from xiaomi.eu, and I really loved MIUI since MIUI 6/7. I enjoyed some extra features(really great dark mode, always on display, dual apps, ...) and the visual look of it. As far as I know there are already quite a lot of roms with stock android for the phone.
Robbo.5000 said:
+1 to all of this except 7.
MIUI does have some plus points, but for me, nowhere near enough to compensate for it's bad points. The only thing I miss is MIUI gestures.
I bought the phone knowing I'd be going to custom ROMs as soon as the bootloader could be unlocked.
With a good custom ROM, I cannot fault the phone for it's price point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You say it doesn't compensate for its bad point. If you're gonna say something like that then maybe you should enlighten us on what those bad points are.
lordkiller347 said:
You say it doesn't compensate for its bad point. If you're gonna say something like that then maybe you should enlighten us on what those bad points are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My main issues are
Data Harvesting - on a worse scale than Google
Ads - which are convoluted to turn off, though it's supposed to be easier in MIUI 11
Bloatware - There is an immense amount of bloat, most of which cannot be removed. Compare the running services of a freshly booted phone running MIUI with, say, an AOSP ROM and see the vast increase MIUI is running, the majority if which you have no idea what or why.
It was developed to be, and still is to some degree, an iOS clone.
There were others and if I were to revert back to MIUI I'd remember what they were.
Turbine1991 said:
Thanks for your positive feedback.
Someone suggested that I just rotate the phone 180 degrees to avoid covering the speaker, how does one enable this rotation in miui?
A suggestion was made about miui.eu, I plan to flash this when the 7 day unlock period expires.
Regarding the battery, it's just not revolutionary. Sitting around the 1 day mark. Has anyone had any positive battery life improvements using a custom kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you own the indian variant or chinese? Apparently the indian has a lower quality display, that could explain why some people aren't finding that themselves, because I own the chinese and its pretty damn clear; Even comparing it to friends S9/S10's and latest iPhones.
The screen doesn't seem pixelated to me. Perhaps you're used to higher resolution displays. I've upgraded from the OnePlus 5 and haven't seen a reduction in image quality.
Gestures work fine for me. I didn't need an adjustment period, they were pretty intuitive and back works pretty much every time (with no accidental back swipes), while recents works like 9/10 times.
I don't have a problem with covering the speaker. When watching YouTube I grip the phone by the middle section with one hand, I don't hold it with both hands like when you play games.
Battery life isn't extraordinary, but it's decent compared to my OnePlus 5.
You can debloat most MIUI ROMs using the Xiaomi ADB/Fastboot tool.
Looking forward to trying miui 11. It's not officially available yet to Chinese rom users outside China.
Turbine1991 said:
Looking forward to trying miui 11. It's not officially available yet to Chinese rom users outside China.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
xiaomi.eu is the way to go
Okay, real talk
point 5 is straight up trolling?
I have to charge mine like once in 2 days and you're talking about not great battery life - what the hell
A full charge gets me like 11 sometimes even 12 hours SoT with medium/normal usage (youtube, spotify, browsing, mails etc. - basically everything except games).
Do you game all day long or what?
what battery life do you expect anyway? Theres not many devices which can even last that long as the K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro does (with somewhat similar pefomance obviously)
NZ Razer said:
Do you own the indian variant or chinese? Apparently the indian has a lower quality display, that could explain why some people aren't finding that themselves, because I own the chinese and its pretty damn clear; Even comparing it to friends S9/S10's and latest iPhones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OP must have a defective unit (battery, display). There is no way the display is 'poor' quality, compared to my 6T its much sharper and vivid. Battery life is also one of the best I have seen (less than 2% discharge overnight) I have been playing games on Dolphin, PPSSPP, etc and a full charge can easily last 4+ hours, and that's using emulators which are extreme battery hogs. Xiaomi have been pretty transparent about how and when they collect our data by giving us optout options nearly everywhere, which is something I cant say about other shady companies out there who are in the same line of business. Besides, data harvesting and adds can easily be tackled by debloating/flashing EU rom, where the 1st done doesn't even need root.
Finally coming from OOS the MIUI can be a pain to use but now I am beginning to like the features that it offers, for example, full-screen mode and gestures which I never thought would make my life so much easier. All in all this phone has been a wonderful upgrade for me and I couldn't be any happier.
Turbine1991 said:
Looking forward to trying miui 11. It's not officially available yet to Chinese rom users outside China.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
whats weird is many of mine country already gotten android 10 update , i didnt received any
Had the pixel 7 for 4 days now and not that impressed with it
Actually thinking about going back to my OnePlus 7 Pro
The charging is poor on it and generally scrolling on webpages menu etc its no better than my oneplus
Dont know maybe I will persevere with it and it will get better
Got the pixel 7 on a killer deal with 5g coming from 4g with EE - I literally got the phone for free but not feeling it
Anyone else not buying into the hype?
So I've had the phone for the better part of a month and my takeaway from owning the device is that whilst is not the best or does it have any killer features that stand out above any other phone I've used. It does everything that it does really very well
The auto brightness is basically perfect.
The camera is reliable, it's not the best. The video is a bit lacking, but everything else about it is very good.
Is probably not the fastest at navigating between apps and multitasking but when I use the device it's reliably smooth in operation.
The battery isn't as good as my previous device, Poco F3, however, it gets me through the day and it's reliable in battery drain.
Notifications work unlike MIUI
Signal is much better compared to my 7T Pro
I can use speaker phone in my car and the other side can hear me clearly, couldn't do this on the 7T or F3
The screen is accurate and well balanced
I could go on
The phone doesn't have anything amazing that will make you want to go out and buy it or talk about how amazing it is, but once you just use it day in day out as the tool phones are now, it becomes the best phone I've used as a package.
roughavoc said:
So I've had the phone for the better part of a month and my takeaway from owning the device is that whilst is not the best or does it have any killer features that stand out above any other phone I've used. It does everything that it does really very well
The auto brightness is basically perfect.
The camera is reliable, it's not the best. The video is a bit lacking, but everything else about it is very good.
Is probably not the fastest at navigating between apps and multitasking but when I use the device it's reliably smooth in operation.
The battery isn't as good as my previous device, Poco F3, however, it gets me through the day and it's reliable in battery drain.
Notifications work unlike MIUI
Signal is much better compared to my 7T Pro
I can use speaker phone in my car and the other side can hear me clearly, couldn't do this on the 7T or F3
The screen is accurate and well balanced
I could go on
The phone doesn't have anything amazing that will make you want to go out and buy it or talk about how amazing it is, but once you just use it day in day out as the tool phones are now, it becomes the best phone I've used as a package.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thing is my oneplus is a better phone than the pixel
I am not trying to downplay the pixel its just for a new phone/upgrade its not what I thought it would be
If it works for you great and I genuinely mean that
Going to give it a few more days but I can honestly see myself switching back I miss the fluidity and charging speed of my oneplus
I only got the P7 because the carrier I'm with would only give me a better deal if I got a new phone. It's been nearly 3 months and still haven't used it other than to take pictures and see how it runs lol. It's a quirky thing.
I do have plans for it down the road, once it's rooted with a custom ROM, but won't be using it as a primary device. 128 GB without an SD card slot was what killed it for me. I know most phones don't have the slot these days, but with specs similar enough to my S10 with 512 GB and the card slot, I've just stuck with using that. I know the P7 has a better battery and charges faster, but the extra storage is more important for what I need. Not bad as a back-up device though.
I have a pixel 7 after almost 3 years with the OnePlus 7pro and I was the same... OxigenOS have a lot more stuff than pixel except for the exclusive stuff. I was missing my OnePlus a lot and hold this P7 for a month or more... After that I went back to the OnePlus and noticed the quality of the phone. OnePlus felt so cheap in my hand and idk, it was not the same. So yes I understand your feeling about OP7pro it was a hell of a phone but , I think pixel 7 is just more premium feeling and a "mature OS" nut fun but mature.
Oneplus have a great deal on the 11 at the moment I can get £180.00 trade in on the 7 pro plus - free buds plus if I link my device and a 5% student beans I have got the price down £400 very tempting
I went from the OnePlus 6t to the pixel 6 and I kinda felt the same way. I knew it was a better phone in theory with higher specs and all, but the 6t had a better screen to me and seemed faster in charging and smoothness at first. However, the camera on the pixel was waaaay better and I was happy with that trade off. Fast forward a year and I got a good trade in deal from the pixel 6 to the 7 and it is a way better screen than my 6. Not much else other than slightly lighter in the hand with better weight distribution (6 was top heavy). It is a much better overall experience though and I love a couple of features I've only found on pixels like the ability to copy text from your recent apps slider, amazing speech to text, and I will say the scrolling speed/smoothness has gotten way better with time. I think the software needs a bit of time to smooth out.
I came from the OP8. I did like the phone, but got really tired of the hit or mostly miss camera. I know there are better camera phones than the P7, but I'm not buying a phone I can't root plus I really like the smaller size. The OP11, IDK, like another said, my P7 does everything I want and does it really well. Also there's the whole Chinese and Spyware thing.
I get what everyone is saying!! I came from a Pixel 3XL. The 7 didn't blow me away, but works very efficiently. At least I can unlock my bootloader now.
roughavoc said:
or does it have any killer features that stand out above any other phone I've used.
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That depends on if you use your phone as a phone, once you get used to not receiving spam calls and having call screening there is no going back.
Also the speech recognition is faster and more accurate than any device on the market.
Thing is phone's have been fast enough for years and you won't notice a huge difference between modern devices.
gap30 said:
Had the pixel 7 for 4 days now and not that impressed with it
Actually thinking about going back to my OnePlus 7 Pro
The charging is poor on it and generally scrolling on webpages menu etc its no better than my oneplus
Dont know maybe I will persevere with it and it will get better
Got the pixel 7 on a killer deal with 5g coming from 4g with EE - I literally got the phone for free but not feeling it
Anyone else not buying into the hype?
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I was in the same situation, upgraded from my oneplus 7 pro. I agree that the screen was better on the oneplus and looking at a spec sheet it is obvious that it is the better screen. Other than that and charging speed everything is better on the pixel 7. The NFC is more reliable, better sound quality, better networking, camera and so on. I think it is worth the upgrade if you do not mind the screen. I rarely ever used the dash charge and mostly stuck to slower charging for over night so I do not have issues with the charging and the battery lasts me the whole day anywaay.
gap30 said:
Had the pixel 7 for 4 days now and not that impressed with it
Actually thinking about going back to my OnePlus 7 Pro
The charging is poor on it and generally scrolling on webpages menu etc its no better than my oneplus
Dont know maybe I will persevere with it and it will get better
Got the pixel 7 on a killer deal with 5g coming from 4g with EE - I literally got the phone for free but not feeling it
Anyone else not buying into the hype?
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I've had my pixel 7 since late November, and I'll never buy another. I regret trading in my Galaxy S20fe for this turd of a phone. Google has locked down so much of the stock OS it's ridiculous. Very Apple -like. If I want that garbage I'll just buy an iphone.
But by far the most miserable part is the awful--and I mean TRULY, epically horrifically bad--fingerprint sensor. It's hands down the worst I have ever seen on any phone.
jasongw said:
I've had my pixel 7 since late November, and I'll never buy another. I regret trading in my Galaxy S20fe for this turd of a phone. Google has locked down so much of the stock OS it's ridiculous. Very Apple -like. If I want that garbage I'll just buy an iphone.
But by far the most miserable part is the awful--and I mean TRULY, epically horrifically bad--fingerprint sensor. It's hands down the worst I have ever seen on any phone.
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I can't comment on the OS because I just got the phone and rooted it right out of the box, but Samsung phones are fairly limited themselves IMO not to mention with tons of bloat. I went from an Honor View 10 to an S10(because ATT blocked my V10 from service last year) and the s10 is crap in comparison and has very restrictive OS.
Do you have a screen protector? Did you rescan your fingerprints after? Lots of issues have been reported for those who haven't rescanned after a screen protector install, even changing brands I would recommend it.
GL
I bought this in December after accidentally destroying the screen of my OnePlus 7 Pro. It's everything I loved about that phone, with the bonus of NOT having a curved screen. Best phone ever? Nah. But a damn good and reliable phone? Absolutely.
You need to give Pixels some time, as the software is supposed to be intuitive and adapt to your usage. Also, I think some people coming from a different OEM don't realize Pixels are pure android with no frills, so they don't always "wow" you right out of the box. Pixels aren't for everybody, but those of us who love our Pixels tend to be happy with them and enjoy special features that others may not get due to carrier software manipulation, etc.
At the end of the day, all devices are subjective and it just depends on what you're looking for. Don't like the Pixel? Cool. There are thousands of other options out there. Go find your happy place.
Pixels can run grapheOS, others phones can't. That's me reason to keep pixel phones.
I regret trading in my P3 for this phone
The OS is cleaner and it has some nice functionality, but even my Xiaomi mi 10 that I traded from feels like a better phone. And the battery life, which was the only reason I gave up the mi 10 (which had dropped to 60% battery), is **** on the pixel 7.
cannot talk about the OS, i immediately switched to LineageOS as i'm used to that.
i tend to agree to the general feeling, underwhelming it's a good summary for this device.
in my overall experience, it's a barely good device which could've been great if they wanted to.
Screen: 5/10
mediocre screen... it only looks good on darker colors, lighter ones look terrible with visible rainbow effects at very little movement.
minor, almost imperceptible, flickering on static images.
i completely fail to understand why pixel 7 has so many positive reviews about the screen.
thankfully xda and other reviewers made interesting insights about this issue, sadly we as the customers got a indecent panel.
Battery life: 8/10
usually allows me to do 5h of screen usage with ~50%, which is more than enough for me, just in time to put in charge for the next day.
Camera: 7/10
i expected more, considering the reviews.
i've tried it a few days on stock and gcam but i really don't see why all the praises.
anyway it delivers more than i actually need and care.
front camera is actual ****, really bad for video calls.
About the rest:
fingerprint sensors, odd enough, works ok for me: it always recognize my fingerprint. it's just a tad slow which isn't great.
stereo audio balance is weird.
i'll always complain about 3.5" mm audio jack lack.
57op said:
i'll always complain about 3.5" mm audio jack lack.
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It also doesn't have digital to analog conversion, soost USB-C to 3.5mm converters won't work.