Galaxy Note 4 to OP3T - OnePlus 3T Questions & Answers

I have seen numerous mentions of Note 4 owners in the threads of this sub forum mention that they are considering a purchase of a OP3T coming from a Galaxy Note 4. I am one of those individuals that has done this and I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts on why they held on to there Note 4's for so long? And why this particular model of Oneplus has gotten us to consider leaving our expandable storage, removable battery larger screen, etc?
For me, the development was there with the Note 4 (if you got yours early enough to unlock the bootloader and root/rom it up). Now with the death of the Nexus line and the Note 7 fiasco, I was looking for an upgrade that offers great current specs and customizability. I guess you could say that "I settled" (pun intended) on Oneplus for this move. On top of all of that, this will be my first Oneplus device and I like the idea of a reasonable pricing structure that Oneplus provides with it's larger storage option. I personally think that they have remained competitive in the industry and I'll be more than happy to shell out the small amount extra to have these upgrades to the original OP3.
I realize that there is a Note 5 to OP3T thread but it didn't quite match what I've been seeing, so many times in the threads, as far as upgrade popularity. So I wanted to start this thread to get an idea of what other Note 4 owners thought.

I'm going from a Note 3 to a OP3t. I'd been looking nonstop for months for a gently used Note 4 to hold me over until the next note release but I just can't wait that long, and people want $400+ for a used note 4 that's still locked to a carrier. So for $639 I went with the 128gb model. No need for expandable storage at that point, all I ever use the SD on my N3 for is when I flash a rom and want to do a twrp backup. I'll just grab a USB-C flash drive for that and use it when I need it. Don't care about removable batteries either, never once swapped a battery on a smartphone. Besides, with this new dash charge thing, I shouldn't have to anyway, right?
It's still a little pricey, but for an unlocked handset with 128gb storage, and a flagship level processor I think it'll be a good purchase.

Point by point. The screen size I assume it would be roughly the same, But downgrading from 4K to to just FHD would help on the battery life by a large margin. Unless you have specific use for VR and very large screen resolution which most people don't, then stepping back to FHD seem like a batter idea.
Removable battery, I only see two reason for replaceable battery. One is for swapping out battery when you ran out and two is in case of emergency, then ability to fully remove power like you drop a phone in a pond/toilet. At this point in time, and in my experience, these larger new phone get a very good battery life, and many can be remedy via powerbank And ever since I have a mobile phone, I never have water issue. So, I'm willing to take that risk.
Expandable storage, to tell the true I still would prefer to have that option even with the 128GB model. But the fact is life is not perfect, and I can get by w/o it. Digging a little deeper, there are a few things that I considered. First off, you have 128GB option, and if you think about it most people don't need more than that. If you are currently using a 128GB SD card and still not satisfy, then OP3T may not be for you either. Second is speed, most smartphone w/ microSD card slot are never going to be that fast; while many don't need that much speed, it improve thing like game loading. Most apps will not need to store data on the SD but for games, you have a blob(OBB) sitting on the large space and some time on SD card, which can slow things down considerably. Another thing is a simplification, well I view this one as a trade off. As a geek I don't care much whether things goes on internal memory or external SD, as long as I know where everything is and how to back things up. This is not an issue for me. But having just one large storage area does simplify thing for most people, it also means easier to back thing up. Considering the faster NAND means faster transfer speed for backing up stuff out of the phone also.
In term of custom ROMs and stuff, the true is yes there is option to the bootloader unlocked Note 4, but it's never near the level of OnePlus. If you look at CyanogenMod web site, you can see that the most up to date for Note 4 is CM12.1, while even OPO is up to 14. Sure there are other AOSP ROM in the XDA, but at some point you want things to be just stable and at the minimum up to date security patches. This can complicate things if you have to jump from ROM to ROM just to keep the security patch up to date.

Well set your priorities and decide. I obviously own a Note 4, that's why posting in this topic. Going for OP3T will give you better battery life. Significantly faster fingerprint sensor. Probably a little better camera (I am not sure about this camera part, the sensor is pretty small in comparison with Note 4, but its a newer sensor!), Dash charging, which is the best charging technology out there, and Oxygen OS with lots of dev support (though that's for OP3, not T), needless to say almost any skin is better than TW.
What will you lose in the process then? I think video quality, the video samples from OP3 were really average, no fine details! Asking several Samsung users tells me that call quality on OP3 isn't as great! Note 4 has excellent call quality. GPS accuracy is also not as good! There is the touch latency, 65 ms on Note 4 vs 95 on OP3, and then the last thing, the Pentile 1080p display. I couldn't care much about the resolution, but its Pentile, so not 1080p at first place! But if Anand's chart of OP3's screen calibration is right then the saturation and colour accuracy should be much better on the OP3 than Note 4.
That's all. I myself am really torn. My Note 4 is already on sell on eBay. I am torn between Pixel XL and OP3T. While the former's price is unnecessarily huge, OP3T's price is a no brainer. Don't know yet really.

ithehappy said:
But if Anand's chart of OP3's screen calibration is right then the saturation and colour accuracy should be much better on the OP3 than Note 4.
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Click to collapse
I did see that article from Anandtech as well, but that option was in developer settings. Do you know if this option was finally in the normal setting and if it is a default now?

someone0 said:
I did see that article from Anandtech as well, but that option was in developer settings. Do you know if this option was finally in the normal setting and if it is a default now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's still under developer settings and it also might not stick after a reboot, got this response after asking the same in OP3 WhatsApp group. That's not cool
Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

ithehappy said:
It's still under developer settings and it also might not stick after a reboot, got this response after asking the same in OP3 WhatsApp group. That's not cool
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can only hope the initial stock ROM on 3T have that fixed and be a default, since it will be different (newer) than the OP3 at this moment. From what I see on the reviews, there is some UI changes as well.

Related

Anyone try the Nexus 4?

I've had my Note since November 2011 (well a Note as I lost one and proceeded to buy another one). I still love the phone, the screen size is great and the white Note still gets a lot of attention over a year later (most people call it or actually think it's the mini ipad). Well I just successfully ordered a 16gb Nexus 4, now I am trying to decide if I will give it as a gift and keep the note or try something new. Does anyone have both and can tell me the pros and cons?
I like the Notes screen size, sd card slot, TW and honestly that it's still a unique device however I like the specs on the Nexus 4, NFC, wireless charging, and LED light. I feel the note is actually better looking than the Nexus and although I heard the Nexus has great build quality it will just got lost in the sea of black phones versus my white Note. I am not too concerned with the 16gb, I used to have a 16gb iphone and never ran out of space. I honestly am torn, I am not sure if some of the new features outweigh the screen size, uniqueness, and TW? Any other opinions? I realize they will be bias in the Note section.
Also any comparison on cameras, I love how great the pictures come out on my Note in the dark. My friends with iphone 4 and iphone 4s always want me to use my camera since it takes such better pictures than their phones when the flash is on, I wonder how the nexus 4 camera compares to the original Note camera?
BTW don't care about removeable battery or the spen, I barely ever use it.
I suffer from a severe upgradeitis, and since Nexus 4 is actually affordable (which couldn't be said about the GNex), I am jumping ship and getting myself one. I will probably suffer because of the smaller screen (I really got fond of Note's size), and I loathe the lack of microSD slot, but I love everything else about the N4.
I am with the N4...
You'll suffer for:
smaller screen
less vivid colors
lower quality of the camera
spen (if you use it frequently)
You'll like:
Google updates
smaller screen (will let you use it with one hand)
your wallet
led notifications
project butter full compliancy
impressive response
PolishDude said:
I've had my Note since November 2011 (well a Note as I lost one and proceeded to buy another one). I still love the phone, the screen size is great and the white Note still gets a lot of attention over a year later (most people call it or actually think it's the mini ipad). Well I just successfully ordered a 16gb Nexus 4, now I am trying to decide if I will give it as a gift and keep the note or try something new. Does anyone have both and can tell me the pros and cons?
I like the Notes screen size, sd card slot, TW and honestly that it's still a unique device however I like the specs on the Nexus 4, NFC, wireless charging, and LED light. I feel the note is actually better looking than the Nexus and although I heard the Nexus has great build quality it will just got lost in the sea of black phones versus my white Note. I am not too concerned with the 16gb, I used to have a 16gb iphone and never ran out of space. I honestly am torn, I am not sure if some of the new features outweigh the screen size, uniqueness, and TW? Any other opinions? I realize they will be bias in the Note section.
Also any comparison on cameras, I love how great the pictures come out on my Note in the dark. My friends with iphone 4 and iphone 4s always want me to use my camera since it takes such better pictures than their phones when the flash is on, I wonder how the nexus 4 camera compares to the original Note camera?
BTW don't care about removeable battery or the spen, I barely ever use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking about getting one, but i don't like the hardware. Smaller screen and it's actually thinner than the Note, but it looks like a damn brick. Most of you don't care about these things, but i do
My Nexus 4 arrives December 10th. For me, I'm going to miss the screen the most on the Note which I still think is one of the nicest to look at. My wife has the One X which everyone tells me is the best display on a phone, but we both prefer the colours and general impression of the Note, even if they are unnatural.
Biggest reason for the purchase is that I'm tired of Samsung's BS with software updates and closed-source platform. I want the latest version of Android when it's released, not months later. I use aosp anyway, have never liked TW.
Things I expect to like about the Nexus are the smaller size (I don't know why but after a year of having the Note I'm starting to find its size prohibitive more often than I used to) , LED notification, proper Butter, software updates and general speed.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
None of you is bothered by the lack of an SD card slot? To me, this is definitely a showstopper along with the non-removable battery (iPhone style for the lose).
My main concern about the Nexus 4 is that it is just generic Android. I don't like the bloat around the other implementations such as TouchWiz, but there's a couple of dealbreaker bugs in stock Android that Samsung, HTC etc have fixed. I don't know why Google haven't.
In particular the Email client can't work with Exchange when offline. Deleting emails on the device leaves them all on the server still, even after connection is established and sync run. Makes it pretty useless for managing emails on a commute. Samsung, HTC and even Motorola have fixed this problem, but it's still in the base Android and has been since at least ICS and possibly HC. Google don't seem interested.
It gets even worse with Imap, where it puts all the emails you've deleted back on the device once you sync. Again HTC and Motorola have fixed this, although Samsung has this problem.
Seems a basic issue, but means I won't recommend these devices for corporate use until it is fixed.
Nick
I don't care about non-removable battery, I only take out my battery if I need to access my SIM or SD card, so not a big deal for me.
Lack of SD slot and puny internal memory is a bummer for sure, but I've decided I can live with that. In return, I get stock android experience without the need of using custom ROMs (and let's face it - while CM10 for the Note is awesome, it has its issues), I'm always up to speed with new Android releases (instead of waiting for CM to catch up), awesome hjardware, and great looks. Fair tradeoff in my opinion. I will mourn the lack of SD slot and lack of FM Radio, but I'll deal with it. I got my Note last year only because it was carrier-subsided, and I couldn't afford to buy an unlocked GNex.
Got the phone in, so far I rooted it. I need to play around with it for a bit before I decide which phone I want to keep.
Yes I bought 3 nexus 4 mobile phones really amazing phones hyper fast feels good gonna rom it rip it root it to the max.... This baby will blast off!!!!
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
I too have the nexus 4
Sold my galaxy note
And yes there's a difference in size but you get use to it
It's amazingly fast and already with 4.2.1
I'm rented by the price but lack of micro sd ruins it. Out of the 16 gig you will be lucky to have access to 11gig, as with other phones. I love my music and have a lot of roms on board so 11g is nothing.
From the man in your attic...
Can I just ask around a question, real quick. What's all that speed for? (casual) gaming?
Nexus 4 for me is the Android version of an iPhone, and unfortunately I am not meaning it as a compliment. As someone already stated in this topic, no sd card, no removable battery just means that if you want to take lots of pictures, videos, get your off-line Navigation with the entire Europe Maps (about 3.7GB) on your device there is not much left for anything else. I have seen a review where they state that only 12,3GB are available for the end user. That might be OK for some people, but I am not one of them.
Another thing is that if you want to use it a gamers phone, with this storage and HD games now available you will be able to get 3, maybe 4 big games in it, which is not something I would call ground breaking.
Last but not least, the battery in the phone will loose its charge over time. I am not a type of person to carry with me extra batteries and swap them around, but after some time everyone notices that their battery is not what it used to be. Specially when you want to buy / sell a second hand phone, being able to change the battery for a new one and enjoy your phone as when it was unpacked is something that Nexus 4 users will not be able to experience without getting their hands dirty and probably voiding the warranty of the device.
Sound Problems?
Does anyone here suffer from the Earpiece Defect in Nexus 4 that got mentioned in Mashable?
http://mashable.com/2012/11/25/google-nexus-4-defect/
Kortxero said:
None of you is bothered by the lack of an SD card slot? To me, this is definitely a showstopper along with the non-removable battery (iPhone style for the lose).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the OP doesn't care, but for me this is the showstopper (which would only change if a reasonably priced 64gb model came out). As others have said, this is the iPhone of Androids, and not in a good way. The lack of removable battery gets me as well as I use my phone so much that I need either two batteries or an extended battery.
But the pros are Butter, good updates etc. But personally ill stick with the Note until the Note 3 (or something better arrives), mainly through choice than cost.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app
iyousif said:
Does anyone here suffer from the Earpiece Defect in Nexus 4 that got mentioned in Mashable?
http://mashable.com/2012/11/25/google-nexus-4-defect/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I have a the distortion going on. Like, for the quality of the speaker to be good and not have any type of audio artifact, I need to keep the volume at 30% at all times. Anything higher, and certain pitches starts distorting/cracking. I guess one "fix" for this would be to change the kernel code to restrict the volume range of the speaker so that the maximum would be much lower. It could be the case that the kernel is actually overdriving the speaker module which results in the distortion. Whatever it is, it is definitely annoying to hear the edges of a person's voice gets distorted.
It's like they opted to use the cheapest POS speaker module they could find with an extremely limited range. The speaker on the Galaxy Note is a world better.
I have both....the screen size is something to get used to without a doubt. It is so tiny, but it is bearable. The constant updates from Google makes this phone worth it seeing how Samsung is a POS when it comes to releasing sources.
I'm also seeing some banding on the screen. Not sure if it's because of the screen or due to the image used (low bit).
I have an RMA on the way soon and will compare how the newer unit fares.
As NickC42 pointed out, I don't like stock Google android for few of these nitpicking stuffs -
1. Does not support speed dial? Hello Google!!??
2. Email/Calendar clients are white background black text. Why can't they have optional reverse color?
3. Oh I didn't know about those Exchange Email annoyances - total dealbreaker.
Sent from GNote.
willstay said:
As NickC42 pointed out, I don't like stock Google android for few of these nitpicking stuffs -
1. Does not support speed dial? Hello Google!!??
2. Email/Calendar clients are white background black text. Why can't they have optional reverse color?
3. Oh I didn't know about those Exchange Email annoyances - total dealbreaker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.Install custom rom/mod
2.Install inverted gapps
3.No single issue with exchange.
All this can be solved in 10 mniutes. This is Android. Want everything out of the box? Buy iPhone.
My reasoning was why I do not like stock Android aka Nexus. If I have to install custom ROM, it defeats purpose of buying a Nexus device.
Edited: Ask yourself ahalford why do people buy Nexus device? Because they get update from God Google on day one. What is use of that update if it never fixes few of the basic things?
Edited 2: Maybe you have iPhone hidden inside your secret stash and know it enough to recommend to other people. How about giving us out of the box experience one gets from iPhone?
Sent from GNote.

My Note 4 thoughts

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?
Click to expand...
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.

G4 To Note 5?

Those of you who have the device, Help!!!
I have the amazing LG G4 and it camera is the best i've used and seen, but something attracting me towards the Note 5 even though it has 32gb and no SD card...
How is it compared to G4? i mainly looking for better processing power and more custom roms in the future as well as awesome camera(which the note has), would u switch from G4?
Quick read: I went from the G4 to the Note 5 and am staying with the Note 5 no question. More detail below.
I made this switch. Before the G4 I had the Note 3 which had a extended battery and a 128GB microSD card in it. When rumors flew that the Note 5 had a sealed battery and no expansion I got the G4. The G4 has serious headphone out audio quality and volume issues so bought the Note5. I have the Note 5 since the 21st and here are my observations.
Screen: The G4 has a great LCD screen. I don't like the on screen buttons but got used to them. When I got the Note 5 I remembered how much I liked the amoled style display. Saturated colors, deep blacks. Read displaymate's review of the Note 5 screen. It's insane how good this screen is.
Speed: I never had any issues withe the G4. That being said the Note 5 is snappier. There are a ton of benchmarks of the Snapdragon 808 and the Exynos chip in the Note 5 (same SoC as the Galaxy S6). With this and the extra ram you will be getting a speed boost. On the Note 5.
Camera: There are a ton of G4 vs S6 comparisons out there. Most place the G4 as the slight winner with more accurate colors in low light. In good light both are close enough to not let good-light performance be a deciding factor. The G4 has an 8MP front shooter instead of 5MP on the Note 5. The Note 5 DOES have a faster responding camera and that makes a big difference to me in my camera experience. Both do manual mode and RAW capture. The G4 can do a 30 sec exposure vs 10 sec on the Note 5 which is a shame. In the end, look at the extensive comparisons out there.
Audio: On headphones the Note 5 kills it. The G4 isn't even close and this is what makes me the most happy about the switch. BT, which I don't use, seems to favor the Note 5 as well. Phone speakers are weak on both, but I don't know who in their right mind would listen to anything important on a smartphone speaker.
Battery life: The Note 5 is great and I have made peace with not being able to replace or expand it. The fast charging and 2 wireless charging standards being supported is really useful. If you haven't tried wireless charging then do so. All of my previous phones that I've kept for more than 1.5 years experienced a micro USB connector failure. Wireless charging removes that concern. The G4 does not support this out of the box and that is too bad. That curved back isn't going to make wireless charging any easier anyway. Look again at displaymate's review of the Note 5 screen. It is crazy efficient.
User experience. No real issues with the G4. Their customizations were fine by me. Touchwiz doesn't bother me either and if it does, that is what custom launchers are for. I do love the fingerprint reader on the Note 5. It is so seamless unlocking the phone with it. There are options for expanding the storage on the Note 5 either through the small USB OTG flash drives out there to wireless expansion (look up HooToo, their devices are well loved and I just got one)
Rooting and ROMS: The G4 is probably a safer bet here. There is already root for it, though no custom ROMS that I know of this early. Samsung is an unknown quantity here. There have been some mumbling that Samsung has software that will brick your Phone (especially on Verizon and ATT) if you try to root it, but until a method is found and someone tries it, it is too early to say. Samsung really wants their phones adopted by the Enterprise, hence the knox 2.0 and such. They are probably trying harder to make it harder for those like us to root.
If you have followup questions let me know
wow that was detailed, i appricate that.
I have noticed G4 camera can come a bit far ahead the S6 specially in low light, it kinda very important good feature to me, i've seen many photos of Note 5 and S6 in low light and they kinda ok, but not as good as G4.
About audio you totally right, it sucks on G4, no idea why.
Now can u test angry birds 2 on level 5 at least and tell me how it plays, does it lag, no? if possible, test other heavy games and tell me if there is a lag.
Also i heard Note 5 have memory management issues as S6, can you replicate that?
Derpling said:
wow that was detailed, i appricate that.
I have noticed G4 camera can come a bit far ahead the S6 specially in low light, it kinda very important good feature to me, i've seen many photos of Note 5 and S6 in low light and they kinda ok, but not as good as G4.
About audio you totally right, it sucks on G4, no idea why.
Now can u test angry birds 2 on level 5 at least and tell me how it plays, does it lag, no? if possible, test other heavy games and tell me if there is a lag.
Also i heard Note 5 have memory management issues as S6, can you replicate that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am downloading Angry Birds 2 now, but it may take a while to get to Lv5.
I have not had memory management issues on the Note 5. I cannot replicate this and do a fair amount of multitasking. If there is a repeatable procedure to test this let me know and I am happy to try it.
No joke on that G4 camera. In low light it just does white balance better. You might be able to compensate this in post processing if using a Note 5 (especially if you capture in RAW). But if you just want to snap and send then your best bet is snapseed which is amazing in how powerful it is for pic manipulation.
far_star said:
I am downloading Angry Birds 2 now, but it may take a while to get to Lv5.
I have not had memory management issues on the Note 5. I cannot replicate this and do a fair amount of multitasking. If there is a repeatable procedure to test this let me know and I am happy to try it.
No joke on that G4 camera. In low light it just does white balance better. You might be able to compensate this in post processing if using a Note 5 (especially if you capture in RAW). But if you just want to snap and send then your best bet is snapseed which is amazing in how powerful it is for pic manipulation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep i used snapseed, it can make very good picture to perfect, well almost
So u do have it for 5 days, and u not regretting moving to Note 5 from G4? have u got the 32gb? cause that the only version here.
It's quite a lot of money, and i won't exchange the phone for at least 2-3 years, would u say in a single heartbeat, no looking back, that moving from G4 to Note 5 is good step?
Derpling said:
wow that was detailed, i appricate that.
I have noticed G4 camera can come a bit far ahead the S6 specially in low light, it kinda very important good feature to me, i've seen many photos of Note 5 and S6 in low light and they kinda ok, but not as good as G4.
About audio you totally right, it sucks on G4, no idea why.
Now can u test angry birds 2 on level 5 at least and tell me how it plays, does it lag, no? if possible, test other heavy games and tell me if there is a lag.
Also i heard Note 5 have memory management issues as S6, can you replicate that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is not even the slightest stutter on angry birds 2 level 5 on the Note 5, the phone is much faster and snappier than the G4, better screen, better sound, better battery life, S-pen (that can go backwards and get stuck Ayooo!) , no on screen buttons (huge for me) , camera's are comparable especially if they are all using the sony sensor, the samsung sensor was the one that lost to the G4 in low light.
Does the note 5 also have split samsung/sony sensors? or just sony?
whoamanwtf said:
There is not even the slightest stutter on angry birds 2 level 5 on the Note 5, the phone is much faster and snappier than the G4, better screen, better sound, better battery life, S-pen (that can go backwards and get stuck Ayooo!) , no on screen buttons (huge for me) , camera's are comparable especially if they are all using the sony sensor, the samsung sensor was the one that lost to the G4 in low light.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So moving to note 5 is big upgrade over G4, or smart upgrade?
Derpling said:
So moving to note 5 is big upgrade over G4, or smart upgrade?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the key to that would be in the op it said custom roms, so far this phone is not even rooted... It may never be? So I guess I would weigh that heavily if I were you, hardware wise it is a completely sound upgrade and I would not be disappointed if I were a G4 owner and the G5 came out with Note5 specs, I would upgrade to it.
I personally would do the upgrade if I could do it in a manner that was not too expensive. Otherwise I would say they are both great phones, the N5 is certainly faster and has a much better spec sheet across the board, the cameras are roughly equal, but I feel that the much better processing power offered by the N5 will lead to better reaction time on pictures and better video.
Derpling said:
yep i used snapseed, it can make very good picture to perfect, well almost
So u do have it for 5 days, and u not regretting moving to Note 5 from G4? have u got the 32gb? cause that the only version here.
It's quite a lot of money, and i won't exchange the phone for at least 2-3 years, would u say in a single heartbeat, no looking back, that moving from G4 to Note 5 is good step?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay just finished Lv. 5. Man that game has changed since I played the original. No lag here.
No regrets whatsoever except that I wished I waited for the Note 5. Now I have to go through the trouble of unloading the G4.
Regarding the other question, I got the 64GB version. Again, no regrets here as the audio is dynamite and the camera is close enough to the G4 for me.
If you get the 32GB then of course you will spend some time now and then migrating photos and music. I am on an unlimited data plan still from Verizon so I will stream live content to my hearts content. Look at the small USB OTG memory sticks or the HooToo or similar devices. These can make your migrations quick and keep with some buffer space on the Note's internal storage.
Off to work now. Post questions if you have more.
---------- Post added at 08:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:22 AM ----------
Derpling said:
So moving to note 5 is big upgrade over G4, or smart upgrade?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Note 5 has the Sony sensors so maybe that's why I have not been disappointed in the camera at all.
Might actually do that the note is attractive. There are no slowdown with touchwiz?
far_star said:
Quick read: I went from the G4 to the Note 5 and am staying with the Note 5 no question. More detail below.
I made this switch. Before the G4 I had the Note 3 which had a extended battery and a 128GB microSD card in it. When rumors flew that the Note 5 had a sealed battery and no expansion I got the G4. The G4 has serious headphone out audio quality and volume issues so bought the Note5. I have the Note 5 since the 21st and here are my observations.
Speed: I never had any issues withe the G4. That being said the Note 5 is snappier. There are a ton of benchmarks of the Snapdragon 808 and the Exynos chip in the Note 5 (same SoC as the Galaxy S6). With this and the extra ram you will be getting a speed boost. On the Note 5.
Battery life: The Note 5 is great and I have made peace with not being able to replace or expand it. The fast charging and 2 wireless charging standards being supported is really useful. If you haven't tried wireless charging then do so. All of my previous phones that I've kept for more than 1.5 years experienced a micro USB connector failure. Wireless charging removes that concern. The G4 does not support this out of the box and that is too bad. That curved back isn't going to make wireless charging any easier anyway. Look again at displaymate's review of the Note 5 screen. It is crazy efficient.
User experience. No real issues with the G4. Their customizations were fine by me. Touchwiz doesn't bother me either and if it does, that is what custom launchers are for. I do love the fingerprint reader on the Note 5. It is so seamless unlocking the phone with it. There are options for expanding the storage on the Note 5 either through the small USB OTG flash drives out there to wireless expansion (look up HooToo, their devices are well loved and I just got one)
Rooting and ROMS: The G4 is probably a safer bet here. There is already root for it, though no custom ROMS that I know of this early. Samsung is an unknown quantity here. There have been some mumbling that Samsung has software that will brick your Phone (especially on Verizon and ATT) if you try to root it, but until a method is found and someone tries it, it is too early to say. Samsung really wants their phones adopted by the Enterprise, hence the knox 2.0 and such. They are probably trying harder to make it harder for those like us to root.
If you have followup questions let me know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Benchmarks.....
My note 4 performs almost the same as my nexus 4. yet has higher benchmark!
UI was smoother on nexus 4!
I gave Samsung 3 chances every time i thought its not like that any longer, i will not ever buy Samsung again :S
Might buy it now!!! Oh idk is 32gb really enought? Is it not gonna lag?
kamranhaghighi said:
Benchmarks.....
My note 4 performs almost the same as my nexus 4. yet has higher benchmark!
UI was smoother on nexus 4!
I gave Samsung 3 chances every time i thought its not like that any longer, i will not ever buy Samsung again :S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have benchmarks, but most of the thorough reviews for the Note 5 have benchmarked them against the G4. It beats the G4 in most of the benchmarks, sometimes by a lot, but that doesn't mean that the G4 lags that much compared to the Note5. The difference in UI responsiveness is there, but it is very small and it's not enough by itself that it should sway a person one way or another. Benchmarks just do not reflect what a user's UI experience will be.
---------- Post added at 10:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 AM ----------
kamranhaghighi said:
Benchmarks.....
My note 4 performs almost the same as my nexus 4. yet has higher benchmark!
UI was smoother on nexus 4!
I gave Samsung 3 chances every time i thought its not like that any longer, i will not ever buy Samsung again :S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Derpling said:
Might buy it now!!! Oh idk is 32gb really enought? Is it not gonna lag?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not going to lag. If you're concerned about the 32GB do this test. Look at your storage usage on the G4. If it's well under 32GB then great. If it's close to or more than 32GB then ask yourself if you would be put off having to migrate things off and delete other things to get to under 32GB. That is how I determined the 64GB Note 5 would be enough for me.
Ok i gonna buy it hopefully not gonna regret.
Just moved from the G4 to the Note 5, no doubt its a better phone. The Note Feels like a complete phone, I felt like the G4 lacked polish it would lag and audio quality was pretty bad. However I would give the camera nod to the G4, especially in low light
[/COLOR]
Derpling said:
Ok i gonna buy it hopefully not gonna regret.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Be aware, 15GB of the 32gb is used by os, i wouldn't get the 32GB!
I love the note5
I prefer the note5, but It just has been giving me bad wifi problems
kamranhaghighi said:
[/COLOR]
Be aware, 15GB of the 32gb is used by os, i wouldn't get the 32GB!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My 32gb model is only using 7.30gb for system. This is on the Sprint model.
Race2Speed said:
My 32gb model is only using 7.30gb for system. This is on the Sprint model.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm.. weird! what I said was based on another post in the same forum! forgive me if i'm wrong!

Hard to find an upgrade phone!

UPDATE! Unfortunately my note 4 took a fall and landed on a jagged rock (serves me right for holding it in my mouth using the flashlight) - Anyway, I ended up finding a (like new) LG V20 for $300 USD (It's big but I had to make a sacrifice) It was very hard to decide over the mate 9, oneplus 3t and the V20. Because I got it at a reasonably low price it won't be much of a loss at resale if I decide on something else, especially as something is always right around the corner.
UPDATE COMPARISON BETWEEN LG V20 AND NOTE 4
Impressions about the LG V20 after 2 weeks in comparison to the Note 4.
What is better?
Performance is snappier on the V20 (for obvious reasons)
The screen looks more detailed and sharper (even though they both have the same resolution I think the LCD tech is better in this instance IMO)
The device is easier to hold (I really didn't think a small reduction in width could be so noticeable)
The second display is very useful for launching recent apps and using it to launch flashlight while the screen is off is very handy
Battery life is very similar (I average 5 hours of SOT over 24 hour period) - This is a tie but considering people would constantly rant about poor battery life I had to mention it
Although I don't use headphones often you really can tell the difference when using high level cups
The cameras are much better for enthusiasts. You also have a lot of options that are usually only seen in actual cameras (focus peaking, advanced manual modes etc)
What is not?
Loudspeaker and earpiece are deeper but sound less detailed and clear (even after removing the speaker grille from the chin). If you rely heavily on listening to podcasts or anything else where plain vocals are concerned than this will be a bit of an adjustment for you
There are so many different model variants that development is far less than I originally read in to (almost to the point where I am prepared to look for another phone)
I really do miss having physical keys (I am getting used to it, though)
Overall I am not disappointed in the actual device or it's capabilities in comparison to the Note 4. I could definitely forgive the little things I don't like if it had a stronger community. I will see how it goes over the next few months
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm really struggling to replace my note 4. Don't get me wrong, you can get better handsets, but not a big enough leap for me to make the switch. For example I will list the features that I require in a list from most important to least important features.
1. Community/company development
2. Screen size to body ratio (NON CURVED) (Critical. I want a smaller phone but with still at least a 5.5" display)
3. Capacitive/Physical buttons. (Heavily preferred but open minded to change if everything else is perfect)
4. Large removable battery (Open minded to change)
5. Micro SD and IR Blaster (These aren't deal breakers)
Obviously the rest of the phone would need to have higher internal specs etc, else it wouldn't be an upgrade!
The closest i can find is the
Oneplus 3T (But it unfortunately is a similar size with smaller screen)
LG V20 (Quite bigger than Note 4)
Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus (Little bit taller than Note 4 and unsure about future dev)
Mi Mix (Much bigger and poor camera but this type of design really caught my eye)
Without reducing screen size it's really hard to find anything that ticks every box by a large enough margin to make it feel worth it to me. What are your thoughts? Do you have any advice or do you feel the same way?
I'm kind of in the same boat. I think I'm gonna go with the One Plus 3T, I like how the community looks and One Plus also look like a decent company. Another Samsung isn't an option for me as this will be my last.
My Note 4 has developed the lag, freeze and reboot issue that many have reported, so it's either stick with the workaround of the partial wakelock which hammers the battery life or get a new phone (struggling to find replacement mobo's here in the UK). My last 3 phones have been Samsung and all were bought used but this is the first that's developed a major problem.
So I'm with you guys in wondering what to go for. Something around 5.5 inches with an sd slot a removable battery and a solid camera are my main concerns.
Ideally I'd like a removable battery as it's amazing when I'm travelling (and I travel a lot). What would be the best alternative_A powerbank with quickcharge 2.0?
woldranger said:
My Note 4 has developed the lag, freeze and reboot issue that many have reported, so it's either stick with the workaround of the partial wakelock which hammers the battery life or get a new phone (struggling to find replacement mobo's here in the UK). My last 3 phones have been Samsung and all were bought used but this is the first that's developed a major problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unexpected reboots/shutdowns can be due to degraded/dying battery,
freezes/lags (tried to flash from 0?) due to the EMMC is about to fail.
i'm in the same boat, but i want at least:
a 6-6.2 inch screen with minimum to no bezels,
635 CPU with 6GB (to be a substantial upgrade)
removable battery.
our note 4 fits 6.4 inch bezelless display (sacrificing home button), so it's perfectly viable.
i guess, we should wait 3 more months till S8 and other options will come out, that promise to be bezelless. Xiaomi Mi Mix did the job, now everybody wants such a phone. At the moment, i see no options to buy either.
lisbon2004 said:
unexpected reboots/shutdowns can be due to degraded/dying battery,
freezes/lags (tried to flash from 0?) due to the EMMC is about to fail.
i'm in the same boat, but i want at least:
a 6-6.2 inch screen with minimum to no bezels,
635 CPU with 6GB (to be a substantial upgrade)
removable battery.
our note 4 fits 6.4 inch bezelless display (sacrificing home button), so it's perfectly viable.
i guess, we should wait 3 more months till S8 and other options will come out, that promise to be bezelless. Xiaomi Mi Mix did the job, now everybody wants such a phone. At the moment, i see no options to buy either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got 3 different batteries including an Anker one that's only a couple of months old so I dont think it can be that.
What did you mean, flash from 0?
I'm using this Note 7 rom based on aurora 3.1
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/general/note7-port-n910f-standm-aurora-base-t3500338/page1
Before I installed it, I flashed the latest stock rom with odin to get updated base and modems (sammobile) for 910F version.
After that Flashed twrp, did three consecutive wipes in twrp (incl data to clean internal memory) and then flashed the note 7 rom.
Did take a very long time to boot, but that's normal.
If roms don't boot, it's probably because of the bootloader or base not compatible with rom.
Used a couple of kernels, and the best one so far is the latest Xceed test build (N910FG-MM-Test-bld4k.zip) and set it on conservative for food battery.
Absolutely love the rom, no problems at all for me. Makes the note 4 look up to date again.
sebas_tytn2 said:
I'm using this Note 7 rom based on aurora 3.1
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/general/note7-port-n910f-standm-aurora-base-t3500338/page1
Before I installed it, I flashed the latest stock rom with odin to get updated base and modems (sammobile) for 910F version.
After that Flashed twrp, did three consecutive wipes in twrp (incl data to clean internal memory) and then flashed the note 7 rom.
Did take a very long time to boot, but that's normal.
If roms don't boot, it's probably because of the bootloader or base not compatible with rom.
Used a couple of kernels, and the best one so far is the latest Xceed test build (N910FG-MM-Test-bld4k.zip) and set it on conservative for food battery.
Absolutely love the rom, no problems at all for me. Makes the note 4 look up to date again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry, but I'm a tad confused as to how this relates to the "new phone" in this topic. If it's how you fixed the Lag/restart debacle then I'm in your debt....
woldranger said:
I'm sorry, but I'm a tad confused as to how this relates to the "new phone" in this topic. If it's how you fixed the Lag/restart debacle then I'm in your debt....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah I posted in the wrong thread
Welcome on board. Have the same problem. My contract ends now and I've completely no idea where to go now. List of phones which I could get isn't too great. Huawei P9, Samsung S7, HTC 10 or Sony X. Naah. In the end I will probably just buy something but still it's hard to find for me a decent replacement for Note 4. Thought about Pixel but a quick look at the price tag and bam we are far,far away.
On another hand, LG looks interesting. G5 or V20. Especially the G5 with add-ons capability, but I'm not sure would it be an upgrade or just simple change.
woldranger said:
I've got 3 different batteries including an Anker one that's only a couple of months old so I dont think it can be that.
What did you mean, flash from 0?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
from scratch, with complete full wipes before/after, and using a service ROM (with everything included).
Yoshiktk said:
Welcome on board. Have the same problem. My contract ends now and I've completely no idea where to go now. List of phones which I could get isn't too great. Huawei P9, Samsung S7, HTC 10 or Sony X. Naah. In the end I will probably just buy something but still it's hard to find for me a decent replacement for Note 4. Thought about Pixel but a quick look at the price tag and bam we are far,far away.
On another hand, LG looks interesting. G5 or V20. Especially the G5 with add-ons capability, but I'm not sure would it be an upgrade or just simple change.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a tough choice between those handsets!
uppon2 said:
That's a tough choice between those handsets!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did spend like whole Sunday looking at different phones, Youtube vids, reviews etc. but still don't see anything claiming the top spot to replace Note. In the end I did just order new battery and Ill just wait till 2017 to see what will show up.
A perfect replacement for a Note 4 is a Note 4S, better spec with a decent fingerprint scanner, LOL if only Samsung thought of that. You guys should wait till after CES 2017, it's in February (CMIIW) there should be new phones out afterwards. The only worthy replacement thus far is either the S7 Edge or V20 IMHO.
This rumoured smaller Mi mix looks interesting. Next year will be the year they perfect screen to body ratio! http://m.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_mix_nano-8439.php
uchihakurtz said:
A perfect replacement for a Note 4 is a Note 4S, better spec with a decent fingerprint scanner, LOL if only Samsung thought of that. You guys should wait till after CES 2017, it's in February (CMIIW) there should be new phones out afterwards. The only worthy replacement thus far is either the S7 Edge or V20 IMHO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mobile World Congress in February is another one to watch for
uppon2 said:
Mobile World Congress in February is another one to watch for
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet mother of God, MWC is actually the one on February (27 - 2 Mar) and CES is on the 5 - 8 of January. Wow gotta save up some cash for mid March.
Yoshiktk said:
Welcome on board. Have the same problem. My contract ends now and I've completely no idea where to go now. List of phones which I could get isn't too great. Huawei P9, Samsung S7, HTC 10 or Sony X. Naah. In the end I will probably just buy something but still it's hard to find for me a decent replacement for Note 4. Thought about Pixel but a quick look at the price tag and bam we are far,far away.
On another hand, LG looks interesting. G5 or V20. Especially the G5 with add-ons capability, but I'm not sure would it be an upgrade or just simple change.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thought about that this morning...being a huge LG fan in the past, I have to say I'm quite disappointed with the G5.
V20 is a beast I've heard but don't know if the G5 would be that big a leap from your Note 4.
I'd probably say the Oneplus 3T or hold out for S8 Edge
---------- Post added at 01:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:00 PM ----------
Yoshiktk said:
I did spend like whole Sunday looking at different phones, Youtube vids, reviews etc. but still don't see anything claiming the top spot to replace Note. In the end I did just order new battery and Ill just wait till 2017 to see what will show up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doing the exact same thing lol
I guess that's a great problem to have...Samsung overbuilt the Note 4 in 2014....now its hard to find a replacement lol
Thats true. For me personally Note 4 is so well made and tailored that I would be happy to stay with it forever. Ticks all the boxes, and thats the problem for me.
Lg G5 is nice but lacks something to convince to change. V20 on another hand is tempting. I really like the idea with second wide angle lens. If nothing jumps till march I will give Lg a go.
Yoshiktk said:
Thats true. For me personally Note 4 is so well made and tailored that I would be happy to stay with it forever. Ticks all the boxes, and thats the problem for me.
Lg G5 is nice but lacks something to convince to change. V20 on another hand is tempting. I really like the idea with second wide angle lens. If nothing jumps till march I will give Lg a go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't forget about the EMMC time bomb, and it's low performance (read/write speed).
also, it could be time to upgrade to a faster, more efficient chipset with a modem of a higher LTE Category, and more bands.
lisbon2004 said:
don't forget about the EMMC time bomb, and it's low performance (read/write speed).
also, it could be time to upgrade to a faster, more efficient chipset with a modem of a higher LTE Category, and more bands.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine just started showing the EMMC issue's. No luck at the end of year. The only option for me is S7. The best choice from what I can get from my provider, not much too choose from.

Note 8 or One Plus 5

Hi, I need some advice on which device I am going to buy. I'm going to use this I guess 3 to 5 years as I dont replace my phone that often so this thread will help A LOT. I'm basing on some reviews, speed tests, but the two seems to be on par with each other. Price is/may kind of an issue here as I would love to use some of the money (if I buy the OP5) for the after sales and some personal stuff. However if the Note 8 is really "bang for the buck" then I'll gladly go with it. I also tried to search some issues. Here's what I found so far:
One Plus 5:
GPS Issue
Bluetooth Issue
Overheating issue
Jelly Effect in screen
Note 8:
Red tint in a lot of device
Light leak (lights leaking on the side of the phone not much of an issue for me)
If you have some issues with the phone, please feel free to reply. It would be appreciated a lot!
I also created Pros and Cons that might help me but I ended up more confused what to buy. Haha.
Pros for One Plus 5
Performance
Price
Dev Community as I love to mod my phone
Fingerprint Scanner placement + the scan speed is so fast
I've seen a lot of people who still uses OPO or OP2 which means that this device last long
The toggle above the volume like in iPhones
Customizable hardware buttons (I really love this one)
Cons for One Plus 5
Issues above as I really need the GPS and bluetooth, and I play heavy games.
No waterproofing
No Micro SD slot (I guess 128gb is enough but I would love to have the option of expanding more)
Pros for Note 8
SPen
Camera
Performance (but I've read OP5 has better. The 8gb ram may be the reason. But please feel free to correct me)
Display is a plus
Iris Scanner and Face Recognition (Is it accurate?)
Cons for Note 8
Samsung phones tend to slow down after months/years of using it.
Price
Body build is somewhat easy to crack due to glass body + curved edge
Samsung is a little bit strict when it comes to flashing Custom ROMS and I dont know if the SPen functionalities will be affected. (Please correct me here)
Fingerprint Scanner placement
I may be wrong with some of this but I've researched and this is what I've seen.
If this is a point to consider, I'm coming from a Xperia Z3Compact which didn't last long (I hated sony to the hell because of this) because of the digitizer issue. However, I enjoyed tweaking that phone. Now I'm forced to use my iPhone5s with jailbreak.
Note: Just to be clear, the devices in comparison are OP5 8gb/128gb and Note 8 6gb/64gb Exynos
Note: I'm posting this to each respective forum to have a fair discussion for each phone. I hope this is allowed. I also hope to help some people that have the same options with me.
Note 8 Thread: Link Here
OnePlus 5 Thread: Link Here
Thank you guys. After a long comparison, I'm going for the OP5 even with the rumors of OP5T. I just hate the back fingerprint scanner placements which is the trend now. And regarding with the bezels, I'm more into those phone with bezels on top and bottom for landscape usage. I've been trying the S8+, and some games that I play doesn't maximize or utilize the whole screen which leaves some part of the screen blank. However, the screen in the Note 8 is A1 dont get me wrong, but I'm more into the performance and the OP5's screen is enough. Thank you guys!
For me would have gone oneplus 5,cause that thing is crazy fast. However the jello, jelly put me right off. And the fact that oneplus 5,would not until now come out in the open about it, really bugged me and beggars belief!. You can see the problem as soon as you pick the device up, so that reason I went note 8 and it's been an amazing experience. I haven't played games on it yet, still enjoying just browsing, multimedia, taking photos of my munchkins etc.
I had the oneplus 5 like 4 phones ago and it was great. No issues whatsoever, no jelly or any of the other issues you mentioned tbh. Bang for bucks it is the best phone you can get. Great for flashing and whatnot. That being said the note 8 has so much more added value and the exynos has a dev community that should keep you flash happy for years to come...
marvi0 said:
For me would have gone oneplus 5,cause that thing is crazy fast. However the jello, jelly put me right off. And the fact that oneplus 5,would not until now come out in the open about it, really bugged me and beggars belief!. You can see the problem as soon as you pick the device up, so that reason I went note 8 and it's been an amazing experience. I haven't played games on it yet, still enjoying just browsing, multimedia, taking photos of my munchkins etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah yes, the jelly effect. I've also heard it too and seen it in facebook. That thing also prevents me in purchasing this device. However, some owners claimed that their device has small to no signs of jelly effect in their device. So I think they have fixed it now, I wish. Thank you for your comment
mrnovanova said:
I had the oneplus 5 like 4 phones ago and it was great. No issues whatsoever, no jelly or any of the other issues you mentioned tbh. Bang for bucks it is the best phone you can get. Great for flashing and whatnot. That being said the note 8 has so much more added value and the exynos has a dev community that should keep you flash happy for years to come...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see. I heard that Snapdragon version is more strict in terms of tweaking than the Exynos version. Thank you for you reply!
lazygeniuslanz said:
Hi, I need some advice on which device I am going to buy. I'm going to use this I guess 3 to 5 years as I dont replace my phone that often so this thread will help A LOT. I'm basing on some reviews, speed tests, but the two seems to be on par with each other. Price is/may kind of an issue here as I would love to use some of the money (if I buy the OP5) for the after sales and some personal stuff. However if the Note 8 is really "bang for the buck" then I'll gladly go with it. I also tried to search some issues. Here's what I found so far:
One Plus 5:
GPS Issue
Bluetooth Issue
Overheating issue
Jelly Effect in screen
Note 8:
Red tint in a lot of device
Light leak (lights leaking on the side of the phone not much of an issue for me)
If you have some issues with the phone, please feel free to reply. It would be appreciated a lot!
I also created Pros and Cons that might help me but I ended up more confused what to buy. Haha.
Pros for One Plus 5
Performance
Price
Dev Community as I love to mod my phone
Fingerprint Scanner placement + the scan speed is so fast
I've seen a lot of people who still uses OPO or OP2 which means that this device last long
The toggle above the volume like in iPhones
Customizable hardware buttons (I really love this one)
Cons for One Plus 5
Issues above as I really need the GPS and bluetooth, and I play heavy games.
No waterproofing
No Micro SD slot (I guess 128gb is enough but I would love to have the option of expanding more)
Pros for Note 8
SPen
Camera
Performance (but I've read OP5 has better. The 8gb ram may be the reason. But please feel free to correct me)
Display is a plus
Iris Scanner and Face Recognition (Is it accurate?)
Cons for Note 8
Samsung phones tend to slow down after months/years of using it.
Price
Body build is somewhat easy to crack due to glass body + curved edge
Samsung is a little bit strict when it comes to flashing Custom ROMS and I dont know if the SPen functionalities will be affected. (Please correct me here)
Fingerprint Scanner placement
I may be wrong with some of this but I've researched and this is what I've seen.
If this is a point to consider, I'm coming from a Xperia Z3Compact which didn't last long (I hated sony to the hell because of this) because of the digitizer issue. However, I enjoyed tweaking that phone. Now I'm forced to use my iPhone5s with jailbreak.
Note: Just to be clear, the devices in comparison are OP5 8gb/128gb and Note 8 6gb/64gb Exynos
Note: I'm posting this to each respective forum to have a fair discussion for each phone. I hope this is allowed. I also hope to help some people that have the same options with me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I a solution for you to avoid those listed "issues" if you decide to buy a Note 8.
Just find a open box or used one and inspect it fully before handing over the money.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
marvi0 said:
For me would have gone oneplus 5,cause that thing is crazy fast. However the jello, jelly put me right off. And the fact that oneplus 5,would not until now come out in the open about it, really bugged me and beggars belief!. You can see the problem as soon as you pick the device up, so that reason I went note 8 and it's been an amazing experience. I haven't played games on it yet, still enjoying just browsing, multimedia, taking photos of my munchkins etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Limeybastard said:
I a solution for you to avoid those listed "issues" if you decide to buy a Note 8.
Just find a open box or used one and inspect it fully before handing over the money.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read that solution too haha. And that's a good one. But is there any reason to consider Note 8 for OP5?
lazygeniuslanz said:
I've read that solution too haha. And that's a good one. But is there any reason to consider Note 8 for OP5?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't answer that question as I don't have any experience with the OP5, to be honest.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
lazygeniuslanz said:
I've read that solution too haha. And that's a good one. But is there any reason to consider Note 8 for OP5?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a personal decision. Only you can weigh the pros and cons of each phone... and you seem to have done a great job of listing them.
The SD card is the dealbreaker for me. I carry about 200 GB of hi-res music. At this point, that's difficult to replicate any other way that doesn't involve paying even more for music I already own.
I've had the oneplus5, now currently have the note 8.
The reasons that made me return the oneplus 5 were as follows
- The jelly screen ....once you see it, it'll bug you forever
- The camera in my opinion wasn't all that..the lack of OIS was really annoying. Videos were shaky as hell! (It was improved with software stabilisation, bit it wasn't anything compaired to realtime optical stablisation
I really wanted to like the phone, it's so cheap for what you get and I love how oneplus allow you to root and mod away.
You need to decide what you'd want from your phone
Thanks but.. some of your "CONS" are off. You didnt go with the majority. On some cons.
note 8- tons more features
one plus- easier to mod
its just that simple; YOU decide whats important to YOU
In 3 or so years you probably won't want a phone with all that bezel. I'll venture out and say if you want a phone that won't feel obsolete sooner than later do to design get the note 8 hands down (or s8+).....imo
Sent from my SM-N950U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
louforgiveno said:
In 3 or so years you probably won't want a phone with all that bezel. I'll venture out and say if you want a phone that won't feel obsolete sooner than later do to design get the note 8 hands down (or s8+).....imo
Sent from my SM-N950U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the Note 8 has a higher chance of being obsolete. Reason being the 8GB RAM of the OnePlus 5; it will probably become standard on all devices in 2018 or 2019.
It's not like all that extra screen gives you extra functionality that you won't have if your device has bezels. So I don't see why a device with bezels would become obsolete.
Design is really the last thing you should look at when making your decision. You're gonna use one of those devices, not stare at it and admire its design. You're probably gonna put a case on it anyway, so that whole design aspect flies out the window.
Pwnycorn said:
I think the Note 8 has a higher chance of being obsolete. Reason being the 8GB RAM of the OnePlus 5; it will probably become standard on all devices in 2018 or 2019.
It's not like all that extra screen gives you extra functionality that you won't have if your device has bezels. So I don't see why a device with bezels would become obsolete.
Design is really the last thing you should look at when making your decision. You're gonna use one of those devices, not stare at it and admire its design. You're probably gonna put a case on it anyway, so that whole design aspect flies out the window.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I respect your opinion but I think you're off a smidge. If design were not important there would be no iPhone X. Expect large bezels to be frowned upon in the 2 years. Bezels will get smaller that's just a fact. 8gb is overkill how will OEMs justify the 8gb when Apple does wonders with 3. 6gb will remain the maximum and 4gb the standard. We might see 8gb again but it sure won't become the norm.
Now I know that I referred to Apple as a reference for both arguments but for better or for worse Android sets trends and they cement it. It's just facts.
Design is the reason why many great devices were overlooked this year IE HTC U11 and Sony Xperia Zx1 or whatever (Saw it, laughed, moved on) I agree with you that in the end, Greater scheme and all, it doesn't matter as beauty is subjective but...
8gb standard? Maybe for Chinese OEMs. Bezels? They're flying out the window as we speak ?
douger1957 said:
That's a personal decision. Only you can weigh the pros and cons of each phone... and you seem to have done a great job of listing them.
The SD card is the dealbreaker for me. I carry about 200 GB of hi-res music. At this point, that's difficult to replicate any other way that doesn't involve paying even more for music I already own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, thats a lot of music you have there. I can't even fill my 32gb from my z3c hahaha. Thank you sir!
Ry2mkk said:
I've had the oneplus5, now currently have the note 8.
The reasons that made me return the oneplus 5 were as follows
- The jelly screen ....once you see it, it'll bug you forever
- The camera in my opinion wasn't all that..the lack of OIS was really annoying. Videos were shaky as hell! (It was improved with software stabilisation, bit it wasn't anything compaired to realtime optical stablisation
I really wanted to like the phone, it's so cheap for what you get and I love how oneplus allow you to root and mod away.
You need to decide what you'd want from your phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the camera in OP5 kinda sucks at videos. I've watched many camera reviews against Note 8 and boy that OP5 videos are shaky but I think they can do better after software updates. However the stills from OP5 looked good that it made the OP5 worth it atleast at good lighting. Don't get me wrong, the Note 8 outputs are better but I guess it doesn't justify the price differences.
Zeblade said:
Thanks but.. some of your "CONS" are off. You didnt go with the majority. On some cons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you means sir?
wase4711 said:
note 8- tons more features
one plus- easier to mod
its just that simple; YOU decide whats important to YOU
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see, thank you sir!
Pwnycorn said:
I think the Note 8 has a higher chance of being obsolete. Reason being the 8GB RAM of the OnePlus 5; it will probably become standard on all devices in 2018 or 2019.
It's not like all that extra screen gives you extra functionality that you won't have if your device has bezels. So I don't see why a device with bezels would become obsolete.
Design is really the last thing you should look at when making your decision. You're gonna use one of those devices, not stare at it and admire its design. You're probably gonna put a case on it anyway, so that whole design aspect flies out the window.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mrnovanova said:
I respect your opinion but I think you're off a smidge. If design were not important there would be no iPhone X. Expect large bezels to be frowned upon in the 2 years. Bezels will get smaller that's just a fact. 8gb is overkill how will OEMs justify the 8gb when Apple does wonders with 3. 6gb will remain the maximum and 4gb the standard. We might see 8gb again but it sure won't become the norm.
Now I know that I referred to Apple as a reference for both arguments but for better or for worse Android sets trends and they cement it. It's just facts.
Design is the reason why many great devices were overlooked this year IE HTC U11 and Sony Xperia Zx1 or whatever (Saw it, laughed, moved on) I agree with you that in the end, Greater scheme and all, it doesn't matter as beauty is subjective but...
8gb standard? Maybe for Chinese OEMs. Bezels? They're flying out the window as we speak
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey you guys calm down haha I agree that the design may be obsolete but I think I value the performance than the design itself. I don't want to use a good design phone but stutters or lags even a bit specially when its priced in an almost 1k. But good points guys! :good: :fingers-crossed:
Thank you guys. After a long comparison, I'm going for the OP5 even with the rumors of OP5T. I just hate the back fingerprint scanner placements which is the trend now. And regarding with the bezels, I'm more into those phone with bezels on top and bottom for landscape usage. I've been trying the S8+, and some games that I play doesn't maximize or utilize the whole screen which leaves some part of the screen blank. However, the screen in the Note 8 is A1 dont get me wrong, but I'm more into the performance and the OP5's screen is enough. Thank you guys!

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