I've noticed the color of the thumbnails in the stock Samsung gallery app differ when they're actually enlarged. Anyone else notice this? It doesn't happen with third party gallery apps, but I'd prefer to keep the stock gallery app simply because it plays back the slomo video. If you haven't noticed, check it out. Watch the vibrant reds/blues slightly shift to a lighter red/blue.
Now, I've experimented with this, and noticed it does this when the "Adaptive display" setting is left on. However, leaving it on and testing this out with a third party gallery app, it worked perfectly. The display adapted and the colors matched. Of course the color will be the same once enlarged so as long as you change the display's screen mode to "AMOLED photo". However, I'd prefer the adaptive setting because I don't like the warmer white tones when using my phone for everything else besides photo editing.
Leaving it on "Adaptive display", the software should know when I am actually opening a photo and adjust the colors so they're accurate. But now I'm thinking that there's a glitch with the stock gallery. The adaptive display setting is working fine with third party gallery apps, just not that stock gallery app. Which is sorta ironic....
Thoughts?
I noticed that too, doesnt really bother me.
What does bother me is how there is no "Capture" feature anymore what playing back a video and how trimming videos takes a ridiculous amount of time all while not being able to retain 4K resolution. My Note 4 trimmed 4K videos in seconds and kept the resolution.
I just used the phone for half a day and thoroughly enjoy it. On first impression, the phone is very light for the size and they give nice accessories considering the price; earphones, screen protector, case. The phone have an RGB notification light.
Interface:
-The interface is not stock Android, it's more like a modified version of MIUI. It's very usable once you install your choice of stock launcher, replace the default keyboard, and disable some of the bloat apps.
-Since it's not stock Android, I find it take a bit of time to get used to finding things in the Settings menu.
-The swipe up hardware toggles (Control center, similar to iPhone toggles) are pretty useful and more well organized than stock Android imo.
-Screen off gestures, you get many different commands (double tap on, camera, flashlight, customize your own, etc) and it work pretty good.
-Feature to display network speed on the notification bar
-"Close all" button in the recent apps menu.
-There is a feature to modify apps permissions called "Permissions of App".
-I can not find the shortcut to "Smart Lock" window anywhere, even though it is supported in the OS, if you pair a bluetooth device it will display the notification to enable it. But there seems to be no way to get to the actual Smart Lock window to enable other smart lock features, or I miss it somewhere.
Performance:
I installed all my programs pretty quick. I don't see any lag issues. All the apps launches fast and run smoothly. I don't intend to play any heavy games on a $100 phone, all the light games I play like Subway Surfer and Horizon Chase have no lags.
Connection:
Cell: The dual sim feature seems to work good. I still have to to test the signal quality, but I have to say the data speed is average. I get about 10 to 12mbps down for T-Mobile LTE speed test.
Bluetooth: I'm happy to report the Bluetooth have good performance, the motion of people lips in videos are in synced with the audio from the bluetooth speaker.
WiFi: Can reach high speed, no problem.
GPS: No problem.
Storage:
There is a strange quirk with the phone which is by default your microSD is acts as the main 'internal storage' of the phone (sdcard0), and the actual internal storage act as external (sdcard1). So it would help if you use a fast microSD. I think this is because I have the microSD inserted the first time I set up the phone. Maybe this problem can be prevented by not inserting the microSD for the first time you boot up the phone. I don't know, but I'll just live with it.
Display:
The screen is very nice for a 5.5" 720p AMOLED display. It's not going to be sharp, but it the pixels are smooth so you don't get so much of that pixelation effect. Pretty much deep black, saturated colors and good viewing angles you expect from AMOLED. It's definitely not the brightest of display though, so you might have some problem under direct sunlight.
Camera: I haven't used it too much, but it's pretty average. Like all lower end camera, it have issue with under/over exposure, also the white balance is really off on auto mode. I like the manual mode that let you control the ISO and shutter speed. It's no where bad in good lighting condition, I'd say it takes good enough details for a budget phone.
Speaker: Very average, don't expect much here.
Charging: I used my Anker quick charger and it seems to charge the device fast and safely.
Ringtones selection:
The only thing I don't like is that if you have music in your phone, when you go to change the default ringtones, it will display every single songs in your phone and you have to scroll through it. The way to remedy this is to use the file manager in the phone and create a file called ".nomedia" in your music folder, so the phone will not recognize songs in it. Once you set your desired ringtone, you can remove that file. Or you can simply use a third party app to do the job.
Aside from some quirks, I honestly have no complaints so far, I would have no problem paying the full $150 for this device. I definitely like it better than the Moto G3, except that Motorola phones tends to have superior signals and call quality compared to most other brands. I definitely will not use this phone without a case though since it's on the light side.
Couple of things I noticed
1. The navigation buttons at the bottom (Home, Back & Option) does not have backlight. Not sure if there is a LED there that can be enabled in settings. I couldn't find any setting for that.
2. The data connection drops from 4G LTE to 'H' (HSPA) when on a call.
One of thing I notice about the Gallery app in this phone is there is an "Encrypt" option. If you press it accidentally it encrypt the file and move it into the "Pictures\.GallerySafe" folder. To access the encrypted photo, you have to "pinch outward" in the app.
No Smart Lock support: I tested and even though the smart lock feature turned on when you paired a bluetooth device, it actually doesn't work.
Here are some photo samples. The main problem are over exposure, white balance detection and some lost of saturation. The quality suffers when you're indoor with less lights.
https://goo.gl/photos/j9BrJ7gcbDCXBQgD6
The LED notification light seem like its set a ways under the glass and has this really bright shining affect versus a little glow other devices have.
I must say, the amoled screen on this is quite impressive for $100 phone..
wifi and data speeds are very similar compared to my oneplus 2 (both running Tmobile)
I noticed that the user cannot remove home screen icons. Like when you press and hold there's no option to remove the icon. Some apps show an option to uninstall. But for some pre installed apps there is no option to remove the icon.
Like Google chrome, opera browser, BLU help, amazon etc....
I don't want to uninstall the app, just remove from home screen.
Yea I noticed the LED light being very bright. I could read a book under that lighting.
hamilLewiston said:
I noticed that the user cannot remove home screen icons. Like when you press and hold there's no option to remove the icon. Some apps show an option to uninstall. But for some pre installed apps there is no option to remove the icon.
Like Google chrome, opera browser, BLU help, amazon etc....
I don't want to uninstall the app, just remove from home screen.
Yea I noticed the LED light being very bright. I could read a book under that lighting.
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just use another launcher. google now, nova
eksasol said:
One of thing I notice about the Gallery app in this phone is there is an "Encrypt" option. If you press it accidentally it encrypt the file and move it into the "Pictures\.GallerySafe" folder. To access the encrypted photo, you have to "pinch outward" in the app.
No Smart Lock support: I tested and even though the smart lock feature turned on when you paired a bluetooth device, it actually doesn't work.
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The smart lock is really baffling. It prompts to turn on smart lock but never works after that.
tlxxxsracer said:
just use another launcher. google now, nova
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thanks, that's what i finally did
so i found that there is an option on the desktop settings to 'hide' apps that you don't want to see on the desktop. it will hide the apps, with a password / pin. i'll post a guide later.
I've been using the Honor 5X a bit today so here is a comparison.
Things I prefer on the Vivo XL:
-This is a faster device. Everything about the Blu is more responsive and I don't think it's down to just the 720p display. It seems that this Mediatek CPU is actually pretty decent, games are smoother on it as well. In comparison, Honor 5X is slightly sluggy, not just in the interface, but in apps as well. This is probably due to the EMUI OS on the Honor 5X.
-Blu's UI is actually easier to understand and getting used to, especially if you're not accustomed to MIUI style interface on the Honor 5X.
-I'm not sure if it's due to the screen protector preinstalled on the Honor 5X, but the Blu touchscreen is a bit more sensitive and responsive to touch. Though it's not bad on the Honor 5X.
-The slide up "Control Panel" on the Blu is more useful with lots of options. Hate to admit it, but I prefer this slide up behavior more than Android's default because it's faster being close to your thumb. The notification toggles for the Honor 5X is missing a few options, but not a big deal.
-Blu is thinner and more light weight.
-The USB Type C connector is god sent.
-Removable battery.
Prefer on the 5X:
-Sharper screen that is very bright, its actually brighter than some highend flagship devices. The viewing angle isn't great however, but that is non-problem because it's a phone, not a TV.
-The camera is (only) slightly better. It have a bit more details and much better handle at white balance. Although the Blu camera's tap to focus is faster and more responsive. At this price range, it's not a big difference between the two phones.
-While their EMUI interface takes time to learn, it have some useful features, such as network control for apps. This let you disable data or wifi access for any apps you want, which is a very useful security feature.
-Very nice metal body.
-Finger print scanner, which I don't use.
It's a bit hard to choose which phone I would use as the daily driver. I think that if you go with the Blu, the software is good enough that you don't need to install custom roms. If you go with the Honor 5X, I believe you will need to install custom roms if you want the most out of the performance. I would have to pick the Blu Vivo XL as better value for the money, since it performs better for $50 less, and may last longer due to removable battery and USB Type C connector (more durable than microUSB). Also I like it when companies throw in free phone case and headphones, which is lacking in the Honor 5X packaging.
hamilLewiston said:
so i found that there is an option on the desktop settings to 'hide' apps that you don't want to see on the desktop. it will hide the apps, with a password / pin. i'll post a guide later.
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Click to collapse
wheres the guide?
Thanks you for this app
Hey!
I recently downloaded a few mkv HDR files to the phone, but when playing the files, it didn't activate the HDR feature (washed out colors and bad contrasts) in VLC or the native Samsung video app. How come and how can I watch HDR content? (It does work on YouTube HDR videos...)
Thanks!
HDR content is HIT AND MISS. Some will look fine after adjusting the brightness and contrast, some devices require Auto Brightness and Iris to be turned off. and sometimes a codec can fix the problem....
Have you tried using KODI and adjusting the hardware and software codec settings?
But honestly, HDR on a 6 inch screen isn't doing you any good. 1080p Will consume far less data and will look the same on that tiny screen. Unless you're using HDMI out to a screen over 50 inches, i don't see the need...
HDR has nothing to do with the resolution (and the fact that you should be watching it on big screens). HDR is about dynamic range and the color range which is perfect to watch on a high-end screen of a premium smartphone display like Galaxy S10.
I've noticed that my display's brightness automatically increases and gets oversaturated when viewing videos on the youtube and twitch app in fullscreen. When the videos are playing in portrait mode, display is normal but once the video is switched to landscape mode the oversaturation happens and this doesn't disappear even if you switch back to portrait mode...Display reverts back to normal only after exiting the video.
This effect seems to be subtle in lifelike videos but becomes really apparent in gameplay and other animated videos. The twitch streams look so cartoonish that it is impossible to enjoy gameplay streams on my mobile. Fullscreen videos from Chrome browser dont seem to be affected by this.
Is anyone else affected by this? Is there any solution?
Two things I recommend disabling if you encounter this:
- Under display, go to "screen colors/pallet" and change it to whichever color temperature you prefer (automatic is enabled by default)
- Check if you have "reading mode" enabled
AlmostIdiot said:
Two things I recommend disabling if you encounter this:
- Under display, go to "screen colors/pallet" and change it to whichever color temperature you prefer (automatic is enabled by default)
- Check if you have "reading mode" enabled
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I've already turn off the reading mode and choose screen colors to automatic but its still seems so oversaturated or its just software bug?. But if iam watching it on 1080p its just like hdr video
I was recommending you to disable automatic colors, that's why I believe colors are too saturated, you can change temperature too if you want. Sorry if I wasn't clear.
AlmostIdiot said:
I was recommending you to disable automatic colors, that's why I believe colors are too saturated, you can change temperature too if you want. Sorry if I wasn't clear.
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Thanks man it work
Hello
I have just bought a tab s8+, and videos played in fullscreen seem to be aggressively oversharpened (no issue in popup view).
It is noticeable when upscaling is involved, especially when the video resolution is at 1080p or below, causing a lot of ringing artifacts (mainly white lines around black borders). The image seems quite unnatural.
One way I have found to disable this post-processing is to use VLC, and in the settings set hw acceleration to be used only for decoding (as opposed to the "full" setting).
However, this post-processing is still enabled for other video apps (Youtube, Amazon, TV...).
Has anyone noticed the same thing, and is there any setting or way (adb, root...) to correct this behavior ?
Thanks