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I want to buy the HTC Desire Z but a few things that I read on the net are really freaking me out:
1) BATTERY LIFE: Some users say the battery lasts for less than a day, while others say they have no problem for 2 days. Now I have a ZTE Blade(which I plan to sell) that also has bad battery life, somewhat similar, so its kinda OK as long as its not really that bad.
I wont really have the Wifi turned on 24/7, coz I am a conservative user(although when I get the phone initially I'll check it out every 10 seconds... only for some days).
Can the battery life be fixed by using custom ROMs or Kernels or is it just the underpowered battery pack?
2)Keyboard Hinge: It seems that the screen falls loose when you turn the phone upside down. Some people complain of loose hinges .
I will be using the keyboard frequently.
3)LAG AND BUGS: Actually, its software related so it doesn't really matter I would probably flash a Custom ROM as soon as I get.
So should I buy this phone or not? Please tell me about the other problems in this phone...
If you say "NO", then please suggest an alternative in the same price segment!
Thanks a lot!
Regards,
jj_95nano
I've had my Desire Z since august last year.
Pros:
-great dev support with PLENTY of ROMs to choose from, you get choices between AOSP, GB Sense, GB MIUI, ICS Sense and ICS MIUI.
-good sound quality output through headphone jack
-great screen with nice viewing angles and colours.
-good battery life lasting 2 full days regularly for me under light to medium use.
-great keyboard which has a good feel to it.
-fantastic build quality, i've dropped my DZ a bit more than a handful of times and it barely has any scratches anywhere.
-the "z-hinge" is much more sturdy than it seems and it will definitely last the test of time.
-the phone is blazing fast with AOSP ROMs and can play pretty much every game right now.
-Call quality is really good when there is good reception (read below)
Cons:
-sometimes not-so fantastic performance when it comes to Sense ROMs.
-my keyboard is becoming unresponsive and requires very hard pushes to register the keys Q,W,E and more recently the space bar is having this issue too.
-i have had both wifi and cellular signal death grip issues that occur when the keyboard is out and my hands are wrapped around the device.
-With wifi, a full bar signal can drop down to half signal or less than half if you hold the device as i described.
-With cellular signal, i have very poor reception at my house where i'll get 3/4 bars at the most but a lot of the time, if i hold my phone for more than 30 seconds while the keyboard is out with my hands wrapped around it, i will end up completely losing reception. That said, this has been an issue with previous phones of mine anyway though.
-The device does get hot at times where it can make your hands sweaty but it never really gets burning hot.
-call quality is quite terrible for me at times at my house due to the bad reception that i have and the death grip issues seem to interrupt calls as well at times as i've had a drop outs during calls before.
I hope that helps a bit. Oh and about the tightness of the Z-hinge, i can hold my phone upside down with the keyboard open without it closing, it takes a little bit of practice but my hinge is quite tight and it's still as tight as it was when i bought my phone so as mentioned earlier, the hinge will definitely last the tests of time.
Overall, the pros outweigh the cons for me simply because of how much i love android, so i'd give the phone about an 8/10. If you can find it for like $250USD or less, i'd buy it if i were you, but otherwise, i would just wait for the next best qwerty slider.
magic_android said:
I've had my Desire Z since august last year.
Pros:
-great dev support with PLENTY of ROMs to choose from, you get choices between AOSP, GB Sense, GB MIUI, ICS Sense and ICS MIUI.
-good sound quality output through headphone jack
-great screen with nice viewing angles and colours.
-good battery life lasting 2 full days regularly for me under light to medium use.
-great keyboard which has a good feel to it.
-fantastic build quality, i've dropped my DZ a bit more than a handful of times and it barely has any scratches anywhere.
-the "z-hinge" is much more sturdy than it seems and it will definitely last the test of time.
-the phone is blazing fast with AOSP ROMs and can play pretty much every game right now.
-Call quality is really good when there is good reception (read below)
Cons:
-sometimes not-so fantastic performance when it comes to Sense ROMs.
-my keyboard is becoming unresponsive and requires very hard pushes to register the keys Q,W,E and more recently the space bar is having this issue too.
-i have had both wifi and cellular signal death grip issues that occur when the keyboard is out and my hands are wrapped around the device.
-With wifi, a full bar signal can drop down to half signal or less than half if you hold the device as i described.
-With cellular signal, i have very poor reception at my house where i'll get 3/4 bars at the most but a lot of the time, if i hold my phone for more than 30 seconds while the keyboard is out with my hands wrapped around it, i will end up completely losing reception. That said, this has been an issue with previous phones of mine anyway though.
-The device does get hot at times where it can make your hands sweaty but it never really gets burning hot.
-call quality is quite terrible for me at times at my house due to the bad reception that i have and the death grip issues seem to interrupt calls as well at times as i've had a drop outs during calls before.
I hope that helps a bit. Oh and about the tightness of the Z-hinge, i can hold my phone upside down with the keyboard open without it closing, it takes a little bit of practice but my hinge is quite tight and it's still as tight as it was when i bought my phone so as mentioned earlier, the hinge will definitely last the tests of time.
Overall, the pros outweigh the cons for me simply because of how much i love android, so i'd give the phone about an 8/10. If you can find it for like $250USD or less, i'd buy it if i were you, but otherwise, i would just wait for the next best qwerty slider.
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Click to collapse
Thank you for answering!
But there are a few new problems(Call reception, bad signal) that you have just enlightened me about. But should it really matter at a place with full network strength?
But seriously, the PROS seem tooo attractive! The number of ROMS is amazing.
I guess I might just go to an E-store and check out the DZ today!
Then I'll make up my mind.
Thanks again for your helpful post.
jj_95nano said:
Thank you for answering!
But there are a few new problems(Call reception, bad signal) that you have just enlightened me about. But should it really matter at a place with full network strength?
But seriously, the PROS seem tooo attractive! The number of ROMS is amazing.
I guess I might just go to an E-store and check out the DZ today!
Then I'll make up my mind.
Thanks again for your helpful post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought my DZ a year and a half ago and i've never encountered major issues other than ROM depending ones.
I live in a french "big city" and never have signal troubles.
Sure he doesn't have incredible performances (mostly with Sense 3.x Roms) and if you want to use it while lying on your bed and holding it above you you will suffer of a loose hinge but if you can find it at a reasonable price, it's still a good deal and one of the best with an HW Keyboard.
Might be worthwhile to check out the official review thread in the General section.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA
If you live somewhere with good reception and you can get the desire z at a good price, then i'd say go for it . When i have good reception, calls sound pretty much perfect. It's just that my carrier somewhat sucks haha.
magic_android said:
If you live somewhere with good reception and you can get the desire z at a good price, then i'd say go for it . When i have good reception, calls sound pretty much perfect. It's just that my carrier somewhat sucks haha.
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Thanks for replying!
My carrier sucks too, but only outside the city, but I get full signal strength with my ZTE Blade in my house. Considering that the ZTE Blade has similar network issues, I think I don't mind the bad reception issue. Things are getting positive for this phone... I couldn't go to see it today, but I'll try tomorrow!
Ditamae said:
Might be worthwhile to check out the official review thread in the General section.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA
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Its great you pointed me out to that thread, it added to my knowledge about the DZ!
And I also found a ZTE Blade owner who had upgraded to DZ on that thread!
TenMaKo said:
I bought my DZ a year and a half ago and i've never encountered major issues other than ROM depending ones.
I live in a french "big city" and never have signal troubles.
Sure he doesn't have incredible performances (mostly with Sense 3.x Roms) and if you want to use it while lying on your bed and holding it above you you will suffer of a loose hinge but if you can find it at a reasonable price, it's still a good deal and one of the best with an HW Keyboard.
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Click to collapse
Yes, HW keyboard is important as I always face issues with my existing phone when it comes to using the on-screen keyboard. Well, I'll just grin and bear the loose hinge.
Thanks to everyone on this thread. I seem to like the phone now.I just need to see it in reality to make up my mind.
it's just the keyboard issue, other than that , the phone is awesome
Very quick fix if you feel the keyboard is loose. Check the thread on the spring fix. I did both mine and my girlfriends g2s in 20min. As for reception there are more radios to pick from then on any other device I've used so chances are at least one is good in your area and this may help with battery life too. Also I get about 20 hrs give or take with most roms and I'm a heavy user. My gf still has over 80% battery when she plugs in at night as a light user. Not to mention many after market batteries to pick from.
Did a lot of research before I bought us both g2s and I could not find a better option for us as the keyboard was the hw biggest need for us
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
The screen is meant to be loose, in that it allows you to flip the keyboard open and closed with almost no effort. I actually find it pretty tough to hold the phone in such a way, that it opens when upside down. Any contact with your fingers/hands on the "screen" portion of the phone will prevent it from opening accidentally. You actually have to be holding the back "half" of the phone without touching the front "half" in order for it to open while upside down. A few people have mentioned that the phone opens when they are using the phone and laying down. But I often use my Z while laying on the couch, and have never found this to be an issue. My opinion is that the hinge "issue" has been completely overblown, and don't let it negatively sway your opinion of the phone.
Battery life is obviously a very difficult thing to compare between users, as its very dependent on how you use your phone, and also reception. But with fairly moderate use, the Z will easily get you through the day, and then you charge overnight. With light usage, I can often get 2 days. On the other hand, when I'm hiking in the woods, in poor reception areas, I can kill the battery in 8 hours or less, without even using it. Forcing the phone to EDGE seems to help, as some of the battery drain seems to be from the phone constantly trying to connect to a dodgy 3G signal. Similarly, in less populated areas (but still in built up towns) I will sometimes get battery life much less than the usual 1-2 days I can get at my home and work locations. I guess the moral of the story, your mileage will certainly vary. But for average conditions, I'd say the Z has pretty good battery life for a smartphone.
All that said, the Z is a solid phone, and a great community here. But I'd be hard pressed to recommend buying one at this time. The phone is a year and a half old. The CPU and memory specs are really showing their age. And its unfortunate that flagship devices with hardware keyboards seem to be becoming an extinct species. I'd only consider this device if you really require a hardware keyboard, and can get a good price.
redpoint73 said:
The screen is meant to be loose, in that it allows you to flip the keyboard open and closed with almost no effort. I actually find it pretty tough to hold the phone in such a way, that it opens when upside down. Any contact with your fingers/hands on the "screen" portion of the phone will prevent it from opening accidentally. You actually have to be holding the back "half" of the phone without touching the front "half" in order for it to open while upside down. A few people have mentioned that the phone opens when they are using the phone and laying down. But I often use my Z while laying on the couch, and have never found this to be an issue. My opinion is that the hinge "issue" has been completely overblown, and don't let it negatively sway your opinion of the phone.
Battery life is obviously a very difficult thing to compare between users, as its very dependent on how you use your phone, and also reception. But with fairly moderate use, the Z will easily get you through the day, and then you charge overnight. With light usage, I can often get 2 days. On the other hand, when I'm hiking in the woods, in poor reception areas, I can kill the battery in 8 hours or less, without even using it. Forcing the phone to EDGE seems to help, as some of the battery drain seems to be from the phone constantly trying to connect to a dodgy 3G signal. Similarly, in less populated areas (but still in built up towns) I will sometimes get battery life much less than the usual 1-2 days I can get at my home and work locations. I guess the moral of the story, your mileage will certainly vary. But for average conditions, I'd say the Z has pretty good battery life for a smartphone.
All that said, the Z is a solid phone, and a great community here. But I'd be hard pressed to recommend buying one at this time. The phone is a year and a half old. The CPU and memory specs are really showing their age. And its unfortunate that flagship devices with hardware keyboards seem to be becoming an extinct species. I'd only consider this device if you really require a hardware keyboard, and can get a good price.
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Click to collapse
I guess if I buy the phone, I'll have better battery life as I have my cellular plan limited to 2G so that is going to make a big difference. Anyways its not like my existing phone(ZTE Blade) has great battery life and reception, so I'm used to this.
And ay the community here is AMAZING, the number of ROMs and Radios is superb! I am no fan of OC'ing so CPU speed doesn't matter. HW keyboard is soo tempting.
Thanks a lot for all your responses... I'll search for the spring fix for the keyboard...
jj_95nano said:
I am no fan of OC'ing so CPU speed doesn't matter.
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Click to collapse
Actually have to say that this statement is a bit backward. If you were into overclocking, that would make up a bit for the lower "stock" CPU clock speed of 800 MHz. As it is, the CPU on the Z is good enough for most tasks. But newer CPUs are pushing 1.5 GHz, and multi cores, and you can really tell the difference. My tablet is a HTC Flyer, with a 1.5 GHz CPU, and it just, well . . . flies. So much more smoother interface experience (even with Sense), smooth video playback (Rockplayer), and this is only with single core (most phones are now coming dual core, and quad core coming soon). Plus 1 GB of RAM means much less dropping of apps from memory. My Flyer acts like I wish my Z would.
Again, don't get me wrong. The Z is solid, and will still have plenty of life left, if you really need the keyboard. But its nowhere near cutting edge, and for me its time to move on. I'll likely be picking up the One X when its released.
redpoint73 said:
Actually have to say that this statement is a bit backward. If you were into overclocking, that would make up a bit for the lower "stock" CPU clock speed of 800 MHz. As it is, the CPU on the Z is good enough for most tasks. But newer CPUs are pushing 1.5 GHz, and multi cores, and you can really tell the difference. My tablet is a HTC Flyer, with a 1.5 GHz CPU, and it just, well . . . flies. So much more smoother interface experience (even with Sense), smooth video playback (Rockplayer), and this is only with single core (most phones are now coming dual core, and quad core coming soon). Plus 1 GB of RAM means much less dropping of apps from memory. My Flyer acts like I wish my Z would.
Again, don't get me wrong. The Z is solid, and will still have plenty of life left, if you really need the keyboard. But its nowhere near cutting edge, and for me its time to move on. I'll likely be picking up the One X when its released.
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Click to collapse
I mostly agree with this post and his previous one.
I'm also considering buying an HTC One X.
It seems so great : Tegra3 1.5Ghz QuadCore - 1GB RAM - Screen resolution : 1280*720px, Internal Memory 32GB, Front Camera, NFC, Native ICS + Sense 4 in its full version
Compared to our DZ, that's just like WOW !!
But no hardware keyboard anymore and no real HDMI connection (you need a special cable).... for a 600€ phone.... that really pisses me off.
@ the OP, i think you should wait a couple of months until some new phones come out so that you have more choice. I'm personally HIGHLY considering getting a One X or One S if i can find the money for it as the keyboard on my phone is driving me nuts xD.
redpoint73 said:
Actually have to say that this statement is a bit backward. If you were into overclocking, that would make up a bit for the lower "stock" CPU clock speed of 800 MHz. As it is, the CPU on the Z is good enough for most tasks. But newer CPUs are pushing 1.5 GHz, and multi cores, and you can really tell the difference. My tablet is a HTC Flyer, with a 1.5 GHz CPU, and it just, well . . . flies. So much more smoother interface experience (even with Sense), smooth video playback (Rockplayer), and this is only with single core (most phones are now coming dual core, and quad core coming soon). Plus 1 GB of RAM means much less dropping of apps from memory. My Flyer acts like I wish my Z would.
Again, don't get me wrong. The Z is solid, and will still have plenty of life left, if you really need the keyboard. But its nowhere near cutting edge, and for me its time to move on. I'll likely be picking up the One X when its released.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't want to contradict you, but I never overclocked my existing phone which is only 600MHz and I was pretty satisfied because I used custom ROMs. The only Overclocking that I did was to OC the GPU. But the stock 800MHz on DZ is good with custom ROMs as I saw on youtube...
Well I'm still a teen so the One X is a tad too expensive. I txt, so HW keyboard is a necessity. I have an iPod touch 4 for 1GHz . I use that for Gaming, media, etc(you obviously know)...
Yes the market is full of Dual and Quad core phones and tabs out there but I might just venture out to that segment when I'm actually looking for a good quality phone to use long-term when I'm older(Coz my parents don't think I'd handle those kinda expensive Gizmos)
magic_android said:
@ the OP, i think you should wait a couple of months until some new phones come out so that you have more choice. I'm personally HIGHLY considering getting a One X or One S if i can find the money for it as the keyboard on my phone is driving me nuts xD.
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Click to collapse
After reviewing the phone in a store I was pretty impressed and there really wasn't anything wrong with the keyboard(firm enough) on that piece so I think I'll just have to have my fingers crossed to get a piece that has a stiff keyboard.
I need to buy a phone quick as my ZTE Blade's value is going down and I don't want to spend too much on upgrading. The only competitor IMHO to the DZ is Xperia Pro. So I think I'd either buy the DZ or the Xperia Pro...
You're talking about the mini pro? Or is there another version of it? The dz will probably have a larger community since that device wasn't advertised too much. It's still a great device though, a friend of mine's got it and I had the chance to play around with it.
The phone's hardware, as redpoint73 stated, is indeed starting to age. It can last for a bit more than a year, if you don't mind the slower hardware. So, it might just be worth it if you upgrade every 1,5-2 years.
Sent from my DZ.
crestofawave said:
You're talking about the mini pro? Or is there another version of it? The dz will probably have a larger community since that device wasn't advertised too much. It's still a great device though, a friend of mine's got it and I had the chance to play around with it.
The phone's hardware, as redpoint73 stated, is indeed starting to age. It can last for a bit more than a year, if you don't mind the slower hardware. So, it might just be worth it if you upgrade every 1,5-2 years.
Sent from my DZ.
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Click to collapse
No I'm talking about this: http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_pro-3779.php <<< It has a resolution of 480x854, so its bigger and it has a 1GHz processor. Only thing is that it does not have a good community(or maybe no community...)
I bought my ZTE Blade just 5 months back, so you know that's pretty short... I will obviously upgrade in the future if there is another phone that I fall in love with
http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_pro-3779.php
jj_95nano said:
I don't want to contradict you, but I never overclocked my existing phone which is only 600MHz and I was pretty satisfied because I used custom ROMs. The only Overclocking that I did was to OC the GPU. But the stock 800MHz on DZ is good with custom ROMs as I saw on youtube...
Well I'm still a teen so the One X is a tad too expensive. I txt, so HW keyboard is a necessity. I have an iPod touch 4 for 1GHz . I use that for Gaming, media, etc(you obviously know)...
Yes the market is full of Dual and Quad core phones and tabs out there but I might just venture out to that segment when I'm actually looking for a good quality phone to use long-term when I'm older(Coz my parents don't think I'd handle those kinda expensive Gizmos)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its largely a matter of personal preference and needs, so feel free to disagree! Its you buying the phone, after all. But for me, its really quite evident when comparing the Z to more modern phones, the difference in CPU. Lightweight ROMs help, but its really just a Band-Aid when the CPU is falling this far behind. But if you're on a budget, and can get a good deal on a Z, its still a solid phone.
Slightly off topic, but speaking of CPUs on newer phones, have you guys seen the recently posted benchmarks on the US (AT&T) version of the One X (actually One XL)? Dammmnnnn, this thing embarrasses every phone currently on the market, including the Galaxy Nexus. Much less an older phone like the Z:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1565181
jj_95nano said:
No I'm talking about this: http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_pro-3779.php <<< It has a resolution of 480x854, so its bigger and it has a 1GHz processor. Only thing is that it does not have a good community(or maybe no community...)
I bought my ZTE Blade just 5 months back, so you know that's pretty short... I will obviously upgrade in the future if there is another phone that I fall in love with
http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_pro-3779.php
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that we don't care about the slight difference between the 2 processor as you can OC your DZ from 800Mhz to 1.8Ghz without problems (i know u can even go higher but i've never tried). Even if you're not fond of OCing, that's still a possibility.
Screen resolution doesn't seem relevant to me neither. 480*800 VS 480*854.....
On the other hand, the community should be a major argument as it's the one thing that allows our DZ not to be totally outdated.
P.S: Sorry, i'm pretty sure my english is terrible
TenMaKo said:
P.S: Sorry, i'm pretty sure my english is terrible
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Click to collapse
Um, almost perfect, actually. And more better than many native English speakers on XDA. ;-)
I have got my One X on Saturday (Tegra version, HT24 batch) and I am posting my quick impressions.
GOOD THINGS:
- Build quality is superb, after reading horror stories here I was really worried, but happily my device is perfect - no creaking, flex, gaps, yellow spots etc.
- Polycarbonate body looks really great, although it is a bit slippery. Rubber-like back of my HD2 felt more secure in hand.
- Display is just amazing, colours are vivid and natural (compared to oversaturated, 'radioactive' mess on SAMOLEDs), resolution is perfect (no pen-tile absurd). I don't think any screen in the near future can get much better than this. I haven't observed any flickering at all or graphics corruption a lot of people complain about. My LCD is slightly on the warmer side (but not yellowish), colour calibration and gamma are surprisingly good (this is not something you see on mobiles displays often). If I wanted to be really picky, there is a small particle of dust behind the glass (about one pixel size, looks like a dead pixel), which I can only see under the microscope (sic!) really.
- Touchscreen is very responsive and the glass has got this nice 'soft' feeling under the fingers (some kind of coating?).
- Performance is great, UI is smooth, internal storage is blazing fast (> 30MB/s). It is a joy to use this phone.
NEUTRAL:
- Battery life. Not great, but not terrible either (sofware 1.28). The battery can easily last the whole day (6AM - 11PM) with moderate usage: a lot of phone calls & texts, 1 hour of internet browsing and music, a bit of gaming, 3G / Wifi on + Exchange & GMail push synchronization enabled all the time.
- Sense. I prefer stock ICS, but Sense is not that bad. It has got some nice widgets and sync features. It would be perfect if HTC could just provide stock ICS experience, will some additional wallpapers, themes, widgets and sync options. The biggest problem is that Sense alone eats almost 800MB of RAM on One-X.
BAD THINGS:
- Quality of headphone output is really terrible. There is huge amount of noise (SNR must be really low) and even at the maximum level volume is just OK on pretty sensitive Ultimate Ears 700 IEMs. My old HD2 sounds like audiophile device when compared to One X. Really disappointed here.
- GPS works well indoors and fix is quick, but erratic. Position on Google maps is just floating all over the screen (it looks quite funny), in most cases it stabilizes after a while though. It seems like some output filtering / accuracy reporting issue (GPS reports 1m accuracy which I find hard to believe), hopefully this can be corrected by further software updates. At this point GPS is quite unusable in applications that rely on distance / speed calculations (Sports tracking, Car Nav, etc).
- Camera is overhyped IMHO. The pictures are VERY grainy, oversaturated and lacking details (too much noise reduction?). They actually look worse than from HD2, not to mention my old Nokia N82. The photos I saw in various 'camera is great' threads on XDA are also pretty bad, I am not sure what all this fuss is about. It is probably some mass-hallucination The camera is just average, at best. However, you can't deny that speed of capture application is great.
- Not enough RAM - when Android + Sense consumes almost 800MB, 1GB is just not enough. Because of lack of RAM, applications are killed very quickly and multitasking is significantly affected. This device should ship with at least 1.5GB of RAM.
- Software is still unpolished and outdated (2.x kernel, Android 4.0.3 base in 2012 flagship model - HTC, seriously?), Tegra power management is lacking, there are a lot of small bugs. This should be resolved within a few months (hopefully!)
- Lack of MicroSD slot. I am not that concerned about replacement battery, but absence of SD card slot is a MAJOR design fault. First of all, with microSD you could expand your phone with 32GB of extra space for 15 quid or so and not waste quick internal memory for data like movies, music or pictures. Second (I think more important) point is that memory card is great for quickly transferring data between devices and storing / taking backups (Titanium Backup, CWM). If something goes wrong with the phone (it dies, gets damaged, etc.) then you can say goodbye to your data on the internal memory. With microSD card, you just move it to another device / card reader and easily recover your files from it.
It might look like there are more bad points than good ones, but I am actually loving this device. It has just got this 'premium' felling (build quality, screen), it is really hard not to like it. It is just a shame that sound quality is dire (despite of 'Beats Audio' branding) and the phone is plagued with various QC / software issues. I really hope HTC will be able to rectify them soon, this handset deserves it.
aszu said:
I have got my One X on Saturday (Tegra version, HT24 batch) and I am posting my quick impressions.
GOOD THINGS:
- Build quality is superb, after reading horror stories here I was really worried, but happily my device is perfect - no creaking, flex, gaps, yellow spots etc.
- Polycarbonate body looks really great, although it is a bit slippery. Rubber-like back of my HD2 felt more secure in hand.
- Display is just amazing, colours are vivid and natural (compared to oversaturated, 'radioactive' mess on SAMOLEDs), resolution is perfect (no pen-tile absurd). I don't think any screen in the near future can get much better than this. I haven't observed any flickering at all or graphics corruption a lot of people complain about. My LCD is slightly on the warmer side (but not yellowish), colour calibration and gamma are surprisingly good (this is not something you see on mobiles displays often). If I wanted to be really picky, there is a small particle of dust behind the glass (about one pixel size, looks like a dead pixel), which I can only see under the microscope (sic!) really.
- Touchscreen is very responsive and the glass has got this nice 'soft' feeling under the fingers (some kind of coating?).
- Performance is great, UI is smooth, internal storage is blazing fast (> 30MB/s). It is a joy to use this phone.
NEUTRAL:
- Battery life. Not great, but not terrible either (sofware 1.28). The battery can easily last the whole day (6AM - 11PM) with moderate usage: a lot of phone calls & texts, 1 hour of internet browsing and music, a bit of gaming, 3G / Wifi on + Exchange & GMail push synchronization enabled all the time.
- Sense. I prefer stock ICS, but Sense is not that bad. It has got some nice widgets and sync features. It would be perfect if HTC could just provide stock ICS experience, will some additional wallpapers, themes, widgets and sync options. The biggest problem is that Sense alone eats almost 800MB of RAM on One-X.
BAD THINGS:
- Quality of headphone output is really terrible. There is huge amount of noise (SNR must be really low) and even at the maximum level volume is just OK on pretty sensitive Ultimate Ears 700 IEMs. My old HD2 sounds like audiophile device when compared to One X. Really disappointed here.
- GPS works well indoors and fix is quick, but erratic. Position on Google maps is just floating all over the screen (it looks quite funny), in most cases it stabilizes after a while though. It seems like some output filtering / accuracy reporting issue (GPS reports 1m accuracy which I find hard to believe), hopefully this can be corrected by further software updates. At this point GPS is quite unusable in applications that rely on distance / speed calculations (Sports tracking, Car Nav, etc).
- Camera is overhyped IMHO. The pictures are VERY grainy, oversaturated and lacking details (too much noise reduction?). They actually look worse than from HD2, not to mention my old Nokia N82. The photos I saw in various 'camera is great' threads on XDA are also pretty bad, I am not sure what all this fuss is about. It is probably some mass-hallucination The camera is just average, at best. However, you can't deny that speed of capture application is great.
- Not enough RAM - when Android + Sense consumes almost 800MB, 1GB is just not enough. Because of lack of RAM, applications are killed very quickly and multitasking is significantly affected. This device should ship with at least 1.5GB of RAM.
- Software is still unpolished and outdated (2.x kernel, Android 4.0.3 base in 2012 flagship model - HTC, seriously?), Tegra power management is lacking, there are a lot of small bugs. This should be resolved within a few months (hopefully!)
- Lack of MicroSD slot. I am not that concerned about replacement battery, but absence of SD card slot is a MAJOR design fault. First of all, with microSD you could expand your phone with 32GB of extra space for 15 quid or so and not waste quick internal memory for data like movies, music or pictures. Second (I think more important) point is that memory card is great for quickly transferring data between devices and storing / taking backups (Titanium Backup, CWM). If something goes wrong with the phone (it dies, gets damaged, etc.) then you can say goodbye to your data on the internal memory. With microSD card, you just move it to another device / card reader and easily recover your files from it.
It might look like there are more bad points than good ones, but I am actually loving this device. It has just got this 'premium' felling (build quality, screen), it is really hard not to like it. It is just a shame that sound quality is dire (despite of 'Beats Audio' branding) and the phone is plagued with various QC / software issues. I really hope HTC will be able to rectify them soon, this handset deserves it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just would like to offer my own experience on the bad poings you covered:
Audio is Great with my Marley Zions, On the Beats profiles and no effect settings its above and beyond my Desire HD and HD2. Not sure how you'd. Put the HD2 above it, as IMO that was a horrible sounding device (It lasted me two weeks). But of course audio is subjective.
GPS, this may be your device, as I was using GPS extensively saturday night for a car cruise where we'd be texted the next location and have to find our way there (all 500+ of us )
But GPS lock on in Essex, Took 2-5 seconds, withvabsolutely no disconnections for 2 hours estimated total, I was very impressed as my DHD had awful GPS performance.
I partly agree with the Camera, In low light it struggles due to the over compression, which should be sorted via software update, but in good light It's one of the best Or the best cameraphones I've used.
Ram- 1GB is quite sufficient, I have around 350MB free RAM when I'm not using any other applications, and I don't know of any apps that require 350MB of Ram , Games like GTA and Riptide GP etc will use 100MB at It's max. I can run Stick it while browsing facebook. and listening to music, etc.
More RAM isn't really necessary yet, until battery improvements arise, and of course the requirement for it, but if It's a concern then LG have a phone with 2GB of RAM, but like I said its not necessary and wouldn't be utilized.
SD card issue is also subjective. sure I agree It's a little inconvenient as I like to swap data around, but the improved read and. write speed is a welcome trade off , 25+MB/s compared to around 6-10MB/S On my DHD.
Good review but:
- Battery will improve in a week, especially on 1.29
- Camera is like you described in low light but its amazing in daylight reduce sharpness to -2
- Audio output is amazing, earphones are a nodge better than iPhone4/4s earphoens, what are you talking about
Regarding sd card, everything seems to be going the way of the cloud. I never switched my sd card on previous phones anyway.
Music is backed up on Google music, photos on dropbox, titanium backup can sync with multiple cloud services, so there's not too many important things that can be lost.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
I bought my over the weekend.
Battery Life will alway seem rubbish when you first get the phone, mostly because it a new toy so we keep playing with it.
My Desire was rubbish.. but once got over the wow new toy.. i could take it off charge at 7am and at 11pm it was at 75% (sometimes 90% if untouched).
So i am hoping the same will be true with the HOX.
I like to watch videos, (on holiday) so i do hope it can handle a 2hour film and still be at 50+% charge when done.
I wasn't really that bothered the battery cannot be removed, really the only time i needed to remove battery on the Desire was due to some apps not liking the new Custom ROM. i can alway use a portable charger.
The Screen is gorgeous, just stunning.
Now i was shocked to find only 300megs was left on a 1GB phone... wow, the desire only had 480 and i still had 120mb free.
The big problem was that HTC failed to give us update and blamed the limited amout of Memory... I really hope they dont pull that trick again, eg Jelly Bean comes out and say sorry your 1gb Quad core phone doesn't have the space to run it!
there is some lag here and there but overal an impressive phone.
The dancing GPS will not affect car navigation. You can only really see it when using Google maps and standing still. It is due to a firmware bug from what I can tell, whereby it is not utilising all available satellites, and seemingly also misinterpreting A-GPS info. I find it better if Wi-Fi is switched off for example. I am confident that this will improve with a subsequent firmware update.
If you havent done this yet.
Go to Settings - Sound - Sound Enhancer -
Then at the very top on the black bar there is an Arrow. Select this it will be on Other for Heandphones. Select one of the other 2 options and see wich works better.
The other default sounds horrible. You will notice an increase in volume as well.
Also - you need the headphones plugged in or Sound Enhancer is greyed out.
why on earth would anyone buy a phone w no SD card slot just to complain about it? It's like buying an Iphone but complain about the 3.5 inch screen. Just to remind you the fact that it has no SD card slot --> unibody --> why it's beautiful --> why people choose it over the S3.
Anyway it's your phone, your money, your experience. Complain as much as you want or just return it and move on.
jonstatt said:
The dancing GPS will not affect car navigation. You can only really see it when using Google maps and standing still. It is due to a firmware bug from what I can tell, whereby it is not utilising all available satellites, and seemingly also misinterpreting A-GPS info. I find it better if Wi-Fi is switched off for example. I am confident that this will improve with a subsequent firmware update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you're right about firmware fiing this.
I tried to use Runkeeper and Endomondo sports tracker today for a walking trip. After 1 mile walking, the SGPS track reported me covering 6 miles at a speed of 20-something miles per hour. The track was all over the place. USELESS!
I had a Galaxy Nexus as backup...track was flawless.
aszu said:
Software is still unpolished and outdated (2.x kernel, Android 4.0.3 base in 2012 flagship model - HTC, seriously?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Blame Nvidia (or HTC for choosing their SoC). Not a single Teg3 device released is on a ICS kernel (the XL is). The biggest and most common issue with the phone right now is graphics drivers problems that are clogging the front page of the forum and really frustrating people. The same thing happened when the Asus Prime launched. Not letting HTC off the hook but, based on some of the Teg3 related problems the One X is experiencing that neither the XL or S are, I'm betting their not real big Nvidia fans right now either.
TommUK said:
... I was using GPS extensively saturday night for a car cruise where we'd be texted the next location and have to find our way there (all 500+ of us ) ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds like a lot of fun.
I'm hoping the Tegra problems are taking a while because Nvidia are working on the 3.x kernel.
As someone else has already pointed out, I'm not sure what's up with the sound on your HOX but I don't have any noise on mine. I'm using a mix of Denon in ear (got them on a Play.com offer for travelling around with) to high end Sennheiser full size headphones and with decent quality FLAC files the sound is very good.
Using the Sennheisers the volume is quite loud but it's not as loud as on some other kit, the Denon's go louder than I could ever want them, so it does depend on sensitivity of the headphones but sure, the output isn't as high as some others.
Agree with you on the camera though, it is pretty grainy on most pics I have seen, not that I bought the phone for the camera, but it's a bit disappointing seeing how HTC seem to make a point of how great the camera is.
jonstatt said:
The dancing GPS will not affect car navigation. You can only really see it when using Google maps and standing still. It is due to a firmware bug from what I can tell, whereby it is not utilising all available satellites, and seemingly also misinterpreting A-GPS info. I find it better if Wi-Fi is switched off for example. I am confident that this will improve with a subsequent firmware update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am afraid it does affect car navigation badly, i.e when car waits on the traffic lights, position just jumps all over the place and causes route to be constantly recalculated. I really hope it could be solved by software patch. Allegedly 1.29.401.11 (not in UK yet) provides some fix for this problem, can anyone confirm?
louis.b said:
why on earth would anyone buy a phone w no SD card slot just to complain about it? It's like buying an Iphone but complain about the 3.5 inch screen. Just to remind you the fact that it has no SD card slot --> unibody --> why it's beautiful --> why people choose it over the S3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not complaining, just providing feedback. I was aware of the lack of SD card slot before I bought the phone and I decided I can live with it. This however does not change the fact that SD card can be very useful in some cases and removing this feature from One X was IMO bad HTC design decision. While I agree that absense of removable battery is a tradeoff required for solid unibody design, in microSD case HTC could just add another small slot on the side (like the one for microSIM). I think users should be vocal about issues like this, so possibly HTC will think twice when designing the next model.
Regarding sound quality, I played a bit more with various equalizer / DSP / Beats Audio options and I can agree I exaggerated a bit calling it 'terrible'. The quality is actually passable (nothing spectacular though), it might even sound good if you don't do A/B testing with some better kit. The thing that bothers me the most is very high noise floor (I am not used to hear noise in my earphones when there is silence on the music track) and realatively low output power. My old HD2 sounded very dull and harsh out of the box, but after doing EQ tweaks in Poweramp it was IMO great (for a phone), no noise at all either. One X sounds initially better without tweaks, but EQ does not help that much. The sound is somehow muffled / lacking details though. BTW: In my case the noise in quesiton is only heard on sensitive IEMs. I don't have this problem when using regular headphones.
I think the headphone output is superb personally, especially on my Sony DJ headphones. Better quality than my iPod anyway.
Completely disagree about the battery though, I've bearly used my phone today and I'm on 80% already. I'm scared to use my phone in case the battery goes flat
I think the camera is pretty good, in the right light it can take some great pics. Took some amazing shots when I went to Tunisia
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
All,
So this is my first foray into the Android world, coming from an iPhone 4 that I liked but have been bored with for quite some time.
First impressions are mostly positive. The phone is obviously built well and sits in the hand fine despite its large size. The screen is great - more than enough brightness, extremely crisp text and great colors. The thing is extremely fast - pretty much no lag that I can find, even when I turn on ECO mode. I just got it this afternoon and used it with the charge it had from the box, so I can't comment fully on battery life yet. But it seems to be power hungry so far, though that was doing a lot of initial syncing and keeping the screen on a good bit.
Camera, as several reviews said, is average at best.
If you have any questions about it, let me know and I'll give my findings. I do have a couple of issues, though:
1. The phone gets quite warm, even after the mystery update. And I'm talking about just surfing the net and downloading apps - no games or anything intensive at all. If you try to turn the display up past 80 or 90%, you get an alert saying "Unable to further brighten due to temperature increase. Try again later." While it's plenty bright at 50%, this is completely unacceptable. If they don't do something about that quickly, I'm probably returning it.
2. I can't find a way to disable LTE. I'm getting 25-30mbit down here in north Atlanta, but I won't need that a lot of the time. I'd prefer to put it on HSPA+ to save battery (and, presumably, keep the thing cool.)
3. Voice Dial stinks. It "gets" what I'm asking for through my Motorola Roadster 2 speakerphone about 20% of the time. This worked 90% of the time with my iPhone. Not sure if there's a better dialer, or if this will improve with Jelly Bean.
Any input appreciated. I'll probably root it tonight or tomorrow, so if anyone needs anything (safe) for bootloader purposes just let me know.
-A
Alpione said:
All,
So this is my first foray into the Android world, coming from an iPhone 4 that I liked but have been bored with for quite some time.
First impressions are mostly positive. The phone is obviously built well and sits in the hand fine despite its large size. The screen is great - more than enough brightness, extremely crisp text and great colors. The thing is extremely fast - pretty much no lag that I can find, even when I turn on ECO mode. I just got it this afternoon and used it with the charge it had from the box, so I can't comment fully on battery life yet. But it seems to be power hungry so far, though that was doing a lot of initial syncing and keeping the screen on a good bit.
Camera, as several reviews said, is average at best.
If you have any questions about it, let me know and I'll give my findings. I do have a couple of issues, though:
1. The phone gets quite warm, even after the mystery update. And I'm talking about just surfing the net and downloading apps - no games or anything intensive at all. If you try to turn the display up past 80 or 90%, you get an alert saying "Unable to further brighten due to temperature increase. Try again later." While it's plenty bright at 50%, this is completely unacceptable. If they don't do something about that quickly, I'm probably returning it.
2. I can't find a way to disable LTE. I'm getting 25-30mbit down here in north Atlanta, but I won't need that a lot of the time. I'd prefer to put it on HSPA+ to save battery (and, presumably, keep the thing cool.)
3. Voice Dial stinks. It "gets" what I'm asking for through my Motorola Roadster 2 speakerphone about 20% of the time. This worked 90% of the time with my iPhone. Not sure if there's a better dialer, or if this will improve with Jelly Bean.
Any input appreciated. I'll probably root it tonight or tomorrow, so if anyone needs anything (safe) for bootloader purposes just let me know.
-A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for doing this, i too have and iphone 4, can you please tell me compared to the 4, how loud and clear is the speaker compared to the iphone 4? Thanks!
Alpione said:
All,
So this is my first foray into the Android world, coming from an iPhone 4 that I liked but have been bored with for quite some time.
First impressions are mostly positive. The phone is obviously built well and sits in the hand fine despite its large size. The screen is great - more than enough brightness, extremely crisp text and great colors. The thing is extremely fast - pretty much no lag that I can find, even when I turn on ECO mode. I just got it this afternoon and used it with the charge it had from the box, so I can't comment fully on battery life yet. But it seems to be power hungry so far, though that was doing a lot of initial syncing and keeping the screen on a good bit.
Camera, as several reviews said, is average at best.
If you have any questions about it, let me know and I'll give my findings. I do have a couple of issues, though:
1. The phone gets quite warm, even after the mystery update. And I'm talking about just surfing the net and downloading apps - no games or anything intensive at all. If you try to turn the display up past 80 or 90%, you get an alert saying "Unable to further brighten due to temperature increase. Try again later." While it's plenty bright at 50%, this is completely unacceptable. If they don't do something about that quickly, I'm probably returning it.
2. I can't find a way to disable LTE. I'm getting 25-30mbit down here in north Atlanta, but I won't need that a lot of the time. I'd prefer to put it on HSPA+ to save battery (and, presumably, keep the thing cool.)
3. Voice Dial stinks. It "gets" what I'm asking for through my Motorola Roadster 2 speakerphone about 20% of the time. This worked 90% of the time with my iPhone. Not sure if there's a better dialer, or if this will improve with Jelly Bean.
Any input appreciated. I'll probably root it tonight or tomorrow, so if anyone needs anything (safe) for bootloader purposes just let me know.
-A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the update. I was planning on picking one up tomorrow, but there seems to be more overwhelming negatives than positives from those that got theirs early. I think Google may have really dropped the ball on anointing LG as their official hardware vendor for the Nexus 4. There seems to be widespread overheating issues with the Nexus 4 which shares the exact same hardware as the Optimus G, sans LTE of course. Cause for concern of the reliability of the internal components as well as the glass back having cracked in 2 review units is pretty disheartening, think I'm going to hold off for now.
1. OG has auto bright limit. Proportionately with temp, phone apply bright limit. It is not a hardware trouble.
If your phone is too hot, return it.
2. Try *147359# at dial. It may show popup menu.
So far no problems, one thing is annoying - notification LED is on the power button, can't really see it, also doesn't stay on, just blinks once, kinda dumb.
So I really am liking this phone. Its not perfect, but its incredibly fast, has a great screen, and has some good customization possibilities.
Going to try Eco mode tomorrow to see how it performs and compare battery life. Seen some reviews that say it nearly doubles battery life, which would make it quite good.
The code mentioned above gave me an error, so I'm still looking for a way to turn off 4G.
As for the heat, I got that message in the parking lot at after I got it and again when it was plugged in, but its cool now on the couch.
Sent from my LG-E970 using xda app-developers app
I've had no issues with the temp on mine as of now. But then again I set my brightness at 63%. My lite blinks more then once but it only blinks I think like every 30 seconds or so. I'm still watching that I could be wrong. Going to to a you tube review on this tomorrow. I will post it here and on the at&t optimus g forum as well. So far I'm loving this phone.
Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2
I just switched from iphone 4 to this too and I gotta say it feels ridiculous looking at how small the iphone 4 screen is now after getting used to this.
For me the biggest complaints are the camera. I really don't like the quality and the other is the width. I can't get used to holding it. This is probably just a personal problem but it's feels too wide for me.
Other than that it's a great phone. Very fast sans project butter.
Oh n I don't think I can go back to iphone
Sent from my LG-E970 using xda app-developers app
Agreed. The camera is average.
Back on the heat thing. For whatever reason, I haven't had any more heat problems since the first couple of days. No issues.
A
Further overall impression after several days of use:
1. Battery life is so-so. Getting through a whole day is a 50/50 proposition, which is a significant drop from my old iPhone 4.
2. Camera, as mentioned, is mediocre.
3. Speed is still great.
4. Screen is still great.
5. Sound is pretty good, but not as good as iPhone 4. Signal from the headphone jack is a bit quieter than i4.
6. Internal speaker is kind of tinny and weak.
7. Voice calls over ear piece are plenty loud and sound good.
I really want to like this phone, but I'm coming up with some limitations. We'll see what happens with the development, which could help #1 and that's my biggest concern.
A
I personally like the camera. Better then my sg3
Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2
All I can say High Quality phone. And the software is sooo smooth
Sent from my LG-E970 using xda premium
Yeah, in liking it and will probably keep it. Just being very particular.
Sent from my LG Optimus G.
Alpione said:
Yeah, in liking it and will probably keep it. Just being very particular.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Being "very particular" is good in my book. Thanks to everyone on this thread. I hope to see a lot more join in.
On the heat issue, based on my experience with my DInc...
Charging really heats the battery, so doing anything will lead towards overheating.
Holding it in your hand (the more skin contact the worse) or laying it on it's back (worse on a soft surface) prevents heat from escaping.
Releasing heat (IMO) is best done screen down, propped up against something, so that the phone is barely touching any surface. (Alternatively, lay it screen up on a cold hard surface, and move it periodically... contradicting my previous point.)
I'm itching to upgrade, but I'm waiting to see what's what. The LGOG is the current point of reference for all other droids out there. So I'm really hoping to hear many good things (esp. root and unlocked bootloader). But I also really want to hear all of the nitpicking details, because I expect "perfection" from everything. [OT] Yes, I am disappointed a lot of the time. After all, I'm using Microsoft at work and home. [/OT]
For the LED thing, do any market apps work on this?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
After a week
After owning this phone for about a week and using the Note 2, Galaxy s3, and the One X+ for a bit, I think this is the best phone out there as far as fluidity goes, and its not even on jelly bean. I wish I can rip off the camera on One X+ and glue it on the optimus G but oh well.
If you're holding out because its not perfect, you're right its not. But you'll be hard pressed to find a phone besting this in the 4.7" form factor for a while. Now if you want to go to a phablet, I would suggest you to try the Note 2 for a bit, but you have to make sure you don't wear skinny jeans, have big hands, are proud of yourself (people look at you when you hold it up to your head) or not scared of face cancer (it warms up your face like nothing when talking for a while). But it's a real great phone, I wish there was a Note 2 mini with the same specs.
Of course, there is the Nexus 4, which I got to play with once, for like 5 minutes, and that was awesome. Sadly, you know all about what it's missing, and personally, I thought that between Jelly Bean 4.2 and no microD or LTE, I would go sans Jelly Bean 4.2. I can live with Jelly bean 4.1.
I dropped my screen brightness about 5% each day till i got used to it and now my optimus G lasts longer and I have no problem looking at a < 40% screen brightness indoors. =/ It helps with the heat.. actually I don't feel much heat anymore either and I still dont use the eco mode. It would be nice if it could automatically use eco for less intensive things and then switch to full for games, but it seems to just stay at eco the whole time.
Hope this helps anyone being on the fence. Oh and I use atnt
I actually prefer my optimus g over my nexus. Better battery life. Plus I scores better on benchmarks.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
kydkupa said:
I actually prefer my optimus g over my nexus. Better battery life. Plus I scores better on benchmarks.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny how that is even possible when internally it's identical?
A lot of people really like this phone. Wondering how it compares to the SG3 though?
Muffinman51432 said:
Funny how that is even possible when internally it's identical?
A lot of people really like this phone. Wondering how it compares to the SG3 though?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They aren't identical. From an operation perspective they have different OS and different radio.
Seems like JB for phones isn't "fully baked" (or at least not for these LG devices). Anandtech got better performance out of the N4, when they chilled it in the freezer 1st.
dbgeek said:
They aren't identical. From an operation perspective they have different OS and different radio.
Seems like JB for phones isn't "fully baked" (or at least not for these LG devices). Anandtech got better performance out of the N4, when they chilled it in the freezer 1st.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True,what I really meant was same processor/ram, however much more to the phone. I want a phone today, however the N4 looks better in some ways the LGOG in more. If I wasn't sick i would be at AT&T or Best buy right now
Hi!
I would like to kindly ask if anyone can give me some input on how this Huawei Ascen P6 is behaving in everyday use? I have an option to get it as my work phone and would really like to know if this is a stable phone, or does start to behave poorly as previous Huawei Honor started to, after some use.
I have an option to get Nokia 925, Glaxy S4 Mini, Xperia SP and Huawei P6.
Thanks for your opinions.
Best regards,
D
dejkoman said:
Hi!
I would like to kindly ask if anyone can give me some input on how this Huawei Ascen P6 is behaving in everyday use? I have an option to get it as my work phone and would really like to know if this is a stable phone, or does start to behave poorly as previous Huawei Honor started to, after some use.
I have an option to get Nokia 925, Glaxy S4 Mini, Xperia SP and Huawei P6.
Thanks for your opinions.
Best regards,
D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using the ascend p6 for the past 2 3 months. I am using the stock emotion ui with very heavy modifications using xposed framework and also a custom launcher.
So far I am very impressed with its performance. Emotion ui is a very well made rom with really smooth and nice animations (i love eye candy ). I haven't noticed any lag on my phone yet. Battery life is not exceptional but not disappointing as well. I can go through the day with normal usage without having to recharge (My normal usage includes frequent phone calls, not much internet browsing but a lot of music playing). You can play all normal games quite well though games with extremely heavy graphic requirements might lag (I never play such games on a mobile). Sound quality is also pretty good and it comes with dolby digital enhancements. Using iphone earphones on the p6 gives amazing sound quality.
So far the only problem I have noticed is a slight heating up on the top part of the phone which i have heard may be resolved with the kitkat update.
When compared to the others, I would choose the huawei hands down. It has better specs, emui is an amazing rom and finally it is one damn beautiful phone.. exceptionally beautiful!!!
It's very good, and the B125 update is very smooth.
Takes a day or two to settle down, then, very easy use, a pleasure to hold, screen very silky.
Only thing is you have to play with your battery life a little... Every night charge!
Sent from my HUAWEI P6-U06 using XDA Premium HD app
Had the phone since August last year, with various stock roms and a few beta's, currently on B122, not upgrading again till the official KK one comes out. I liked it initially, but things are starting to annoy me now.
The back panel is very easily scratched/scuffed for one, not from dropping but just sitting on a desk, in empty pocket etc. I never have a cover on my phones but do stick on a screen protector mind you. Also the silver edging at the top is marked, again from being in an empty pocket, and just general use.
The little pin thats in the audio jack is a pain, had to hunt about for it countless times after wanting to plug my headphones in, now lost.
The audio sound is very very low, sometimes not even audible if surrounding noise is high. I have some beats in ear headphones that work perfectly with everything else, but not this.
the camera is garbage, takes too long to snap and the focus is terrible, on all varying settings. Been the same on every rom ive tested. At the moment with 2 young kids its pretty much joint top of my list of most important features.
Apart from the above the hardware seems to be fairly decent, I like the size and the feel of the phone, but just seems to be a bit lacking now.
Battery is ok, but feel its a constant fight to keep it lasting longer than a day. I like the profile settings software, so have it all turned off at night, which helps make it last longer, but if I use wifi or have the screen on watching videos etc it plummets rapidly.
Software is ok, few things they dont do as well as some others, but few they do.
Wife recently bought the moto g and if it wasn't for the fact its only 16gb with no expandable storage i'd be getting that (I have a lot of music on a sd card ). For the money its head and shoulders above this.
All in all its been a fairly decent phone, but one i'll look to be replacing soon. Probably for the same price or cheaper than I got his sim free.
I'm sure all of the above could be fixed by rooting, doing this, doing that, but to be honest I dont have time or patience to do all that, and shouldnt really have to.
Anyway, that's my thoughts, few some people might find it useful, sure some will be offended. hey ho.
Everyday use:
Phone(Talk/SMS):10/8
Media:
Make(Video record):10/5(Laggy,cheap sound quality ,cheap video quality)
Make(Photo):10/7
Music(After europian volume boost trick)10/7
Wathch(Video)10/10 not problem me.(Im try many video version(mov,mkv,etc)
Game:10/4 Very poor:first problem many,many game run laggyas hell..And many not supported.
Net:10/8.
Batttery:10/7(Heavy use 1.5 day)
EtcLike huawei services)10/8
From the choices you have, p6 is the best as an all rounder. The xperia sp might beat p6 over GPU, while Nokia 925 got LTE.
But you need to mention your phone usage habits and make sure your important needs fall within it. Everyone got different usage habits so their experiences cannot guarantee everything.
Phone calls & sms: 10/10 have not encountered any problems
Video recording: 7/10 Video has very washed out colours and there used to be glitches when Stabilizer was enabled on JB roms, on KitKat this problem seems to have been fixed. Sometimes unconsistant fps range, especially on JB roms, seems fixed on KK.
Photos: 8/10 The sony imx134 sensor is okay, altough it gets rather grainy at even ~400iso, the quality of the lens is also low. Auto wb works perfectly, focusing takes abit more time than other flagship devices. Most of these problems have to do with software & driver optimization.
Music: 5/10 Audio quality is not the greatest, the audio jack also has some problems with some plugs.
Watching video: 10/10 Obviously it cant play 4K (interestingly enough, the 4K plays at the same tempo as on the snapdragon 600 phones), but 1080p and 720p run absolutely fine, havent had any problems
Gaming: 4/10 Not good, phone tends give off alot of heat and causes throttling
Internet surfing: 10/10 on JB, 6/10 on KK The problem with browsing in KK is not really device specific, the Chrome engine it uses instead of webkit just is slow and laggy on every phone. Dolphin Browser uses a modified webkit engine(like on JB) which runs well on KK and it also has support for flash which is not supported in KK by Chrome.
Battery: 7/10 The battery varies alot, I remember having the phone on 20% of battery in the end of the day, nowadays I end the day with 60%, could be the KK rom but I am not sure about it. Or could also be because the weather here has gone warmer
Emotion UI: 1/10 Horrible, it runs like crap even on their own devices compared to AOSP ui, huge lack of dark themes. Just an unpleasant eyekiller in the dark because everything is lightgrey and lightblue. You would also expect to have 60fps animations for simple thing like for example pulling down the notification center and scrolling through the settings menu, even phones with quite abit weaker hardware, but better optimization, manage to keep this at 60fps!
Basically most of the issues have to do with the optimization of the GPU
It runs stable, but for a work phone the S4 Mini will most likely work better.
The camera quality in the right lighting is better than a Sony Z1 !!! I compared the exact same photos taken by my P6 and my friends Z1. I could not beleve it !
If youll mainly use p6 for work, its the perfect fit. Fast and stable. I use mine for daily emails, web browsing etc.. Well what really sealed the deal is its beauty. Would choose p6 over any other phone for its design alone.
Sent from my HUAWEI P6-U06 using xda app-developers app
skyp6user said:
If youll mainly use p6 for work, its the perfect fit. Fast and stable. I use mine for daily emails, web browsing etc.. Well what really sealed the deal is its beauty. Would choose p6 over any other phone for its design alone.
Sent from my HUAWEI P6-U06 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
amen to that
Hi
For the receivers of the very fist batch that should be arriving to your door step please share your first impressions / photos / videos
I pre ordered the second batch, to be dispatched around may 16th.
P
I've got the phone since Friday now (3rd day) and it's a great phone.
+ Recharge, overall quality, screen, feel in the hand, amazing speakers.
- Fast drain on batery, yellow tint on the bottom of the screen (as many others)
pics: click here
Phone quality is great
Speakers are loud and crisp
Fast charge is an added bonus.
Camera shutter is instant.
No yellow tint
Buggy OS:
-Sometimes ColorOS reverts my changed settings.
-Phone mutes all notification sounds after a restart.
Dead pixel on far right, the dead pixel is so darn small it's not even noticeable unless you thoroughly search for a dead pixel.
have you guys tried Beta 2.0 of color OS ?
marianoitalianoo said:
have you guys tried Beta 2.0 of color OS ?
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Yes, i'm running 2.0 from the start.
clarckent said:
I
yellow tint on the bottom of the screen (as many others)
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have you contacted oppostyle for the replacement of the phone due to this yellow tint ?
marianoitalianoo said:
have you contacted oppostyle for the replacement of the phone due to this yellow tint ?
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Click to collapse
No i have not. It's not much, but it is there...
I got mine on Friday ( 2nd). So far I really like the phone. Same as others have said....
Pros:
Fast charging times
speakers sound quality are really quite good ( this was a bonus for me)
very responsive
lots of theme options
feels like a large Nexus 5 to me.
Cons:
Color OS takes some getting used to
viewing angles are a little washed out ( not as good as my M8 or note 3)
idle time on battery needs some tweaking
Overall I am glad I purchased the 7a.
The os is pretty much in an early alpha state and requires a few more updates to actually be fully usable.
Some features suck battery like it's cotton candy, but the superb sound and awesome screen make up for it.
If you wish to make it through a day on one charge then turn everything you don't need off and change the lock screen because the normal lock screen is glitched and drains your battery on standby.
Overall it's a great device with a not so great operating system.
But people like entropy are already working on the first custom ROMs so that should be handled soon.
Sent from my X9006 using Tapatalk
Received mine last Monday, started playing with it Tuesday, got a sim for it Wednesday.
I'll preface this by stating I'm coming from a 3 year old HTC Inspire 4g so if somethings seem "wrong" well it's light years difference between the Inspire and this Oppo Find 7a
My first suggestion would be to put the 2.0 beta on it, been running it since yesterday and so far I think it "feels" more stable than the 1.2.x that comes with the phone. Most importantly I haven't had a single SD issue since updating to 2.0b.
Sound/speakers are amazing. Granted I'm no audiophile but considering my other 2 devices, HTC Inspire 4g and HP Touchpad, this sounds night and day better than both.
Speed is blazing, again though I am coming from a 3 year old phone (single core).
Battery life is great for me even from the start. Even w/o comparing it to the abysmal life of my previous device I'd still consider this good.
No yellow tint for me so can't comment on that
The phone is light as heck and the size is great. I thought I'd have problems since I have such small hands but none to speak of.
Downside is no custom rom yet and as I'm used to CM the features and nomenclature are different and a bit annoying having to think about doing something where as I'm used to being able to just do it.
An annoying thing is the flip case that came with the preorder turns the screen on/off which seems like a great idea, it's just implemented wrong. When I put my phone in the cubby hole in my truck the screen turning on and off is distracting. I've read others are discovering it's turning on and off in their pockets too.
No LTE for me until I "backdoor" it since AT&T doesn't recognize this device. I registered it and got a new sim twice and my account still shows that I'm on my Inspire 4g. Granted I don't use a lot of data so not really a priority, but still would be nice to have it even if I don't use it all that much. Then again with the speed and battery life of this phone that might change.
Got mine Friday. Love the screen size and colours, the overall built quality, the sound of the speakers and the fastcharging.
I am on a rooted ColorOS 2.0 (International) Beta and I must admit I actually like it's clean look and feel. I will probably go for a custom kernel and rom in the long run though.
I do not like the white back, not much grip for me and I really hate the pleather case that came with it.
The batery drain is also a minor problem for me.
Overall it's still the best phone I owned and I recommend it (unless you have really tiny hands)
jacquad said:
Got mine Friday. Love the screen size and colours, the overall built quality, the sound of the speakers and the fastcharging.
I am on a rooted ColorOS 2.0 (International) Beta and I must admit I actually like it's clean look and feel. I will probably go for a custom kernel and rom in the long run though.
I do not like the white back, not much grip for me and I really hate the pleather case that came with it.
The batery drain is also a minor problem for me.
Overall it's still the best phone I owned and I recommend it (unless you have really tiny hands)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is ColorOS 2.0 a big difference than what it came with? I am currently on V1.20i. Ive been holding off from rooting until I start seeing some real ROM action.
boogie2001 said:
Is ColorOS 2.0 a big difference than what it came with? I am currently on V1.20i. Ive been holding off from rooting until I start seeing some real ROM action.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Screen seems to react a little quicker to touch. 2.0 seems a crisper and smoother rom. I really love the blurr effect. Voice wakeup und Live Weather 2.0 are also pretty nice.
ATT LTE Fix
Chevyguy85 said:
Received mine last Monday, started playing with it Tuesday, got a sim for it Wednesday.
I'll preface this by stating I'm coming from a 3 year old HTC Inspire 4g so if somethings seem "wrong" well it's light years difference between the Inspire and this Oppo Find 7a
My first suggestion would be to put the 2.0 beta on it, been running it since yesterday and so far I think it "feels" more stable than the 1.2.x that comes with the phone. Most importantly I haven't had a single SD issue since updating to 2.0b.
Sound/speakers are amazing. Granted I'm no audiophile but considering my other 2 devices, HTC Inspire 4g and HP Touchpad, this sounds night and day better than both.
Speed is blazing, again though I am coming from a 3 year old phone (single core).
Battery life is great for me even from the start. Even w/o comparing it to the abysmal life of my previous device I'd still consider this good.
No yellow tint for me so can't comment on that
The phone is light as heck and the size is great. I thought I'd have problems since I have such small hands but none to speak of.
Downside is no custom rom yet and as I'm used to CM the features and nomenclature are different and a bit annoying having to think about doing something where as I'm used to being able to just do it.
An annoying thing is the flip case that came with the preorder turns the screen on/off which seems like a great idea, it's just implemented wrong. When I put my phone in the cubby hole in my truck the screen turning on and off is distracting. I've read others are discovering it's turning on and off in their pockets too.
No LTE for me until I "backdoor" it since AT&T doesn't recognize this device. I registered it and got a new sim twice and my account still shows that I'm on my Inspire 4g. Granted I don't use a lot of data so not really a priority, but still would be nice to have it even if I don't use it all that much. Then again with the speed and battery life of this phone that might change.
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Click to collapse
LTE works great if you give them an IMEI from a 4G phone like a Nexus 5. Just call ATT and have them change your IMEI, presto... your LTE will work like a champ!
rswheaton said:
LTE works great if you give them an IMEI from a 4G phone like a Nexus 5. Just call ATT and have them change your IMEI, presto... your LTE will work like a champ!
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I had an 4g phone, but not a LTE phone. I gotta borrow a friend's phone one day and do that, eventually.
Solid build but buttons are little bit hard to press IMO.
Great screen. Very bright though. Camera is good.
Color OS features are nice but there is one bug with cellular network battery usage. I think it doesn't go into deep sleep because of it and drains battery on standby mode especially if you have screen off gesture on. If you turn this feature off, it's a lot better. I do not have yellow tint problem.
I wish we can swap back plates like One Plus. I like to use my phone without cover and the back plate is white.
The touch is very responsive. I have to change Touch & hold delay to medium to prevent accidental click while scrolling. Then again, I'm using a screen protector which comes with the phone and it might be the screen protector problem.
The speaker is loud. Really really loud. I am HTC M7 user and I think Find 7 speaker is better than M7.
best phone I ever had.
hardware: Impressive built quality, awsome gorilla glass with almost perfect touch (but I had to remove that **** of screen protector that killed touch sensitive), conversation quality is like havin ur friend talkin beside you and it get signal where other phones die.
software: I m using colorOS 1.2i, it has lacks of some feature, but it sports everything you really need and it does it fast and easy to use. It's like a stock android with kool features. Never had bug like force closing of apps....for me it's much better to use than a touchwiz and I feel like I m using a reactive nexus or a cooked rom.
camera: should I spend words? no...it's the best, there's no competion. it doesnt have any gimmick feature like htc zoe..but it's so easy and fast to find the settings u need, just shoot! and pics are nearly professional.
loudspeaker: it's in gods arena, beside z2 and htc one. if htc m8 is the king in this way, find7a is a prince, and u ll be happy of having.
Battery drain: kernel and governor need to be fixed. I had a good 6% of drain when using it with lte and screen on, but I also had 5.5% in stand by mode. so....here it's how I fixed and now I get 1.5% in standby (tnx to Gsam and Wakelock apps):
-removed stock google news and wheater widget, it doesnt allow sleep mode and it drain 1.5% of battery per hour
-removed yahoo wheater app (removing just widget is unuseful)...saved other 1.5%
-WIFI advanced settings : everythin off but optimization wifi...saved another 1.5%
- I use pattern unlock mode, from ever, someone reported that using stock colorOS mode drains battery
I noticed that when switching off WIFI , 3g/4g connection is already on...never happened with other phones, they all took some seconds for 3g to be working, maybe this means connection drain battery as it never goes really off even when is under wifi? dunno..
something I didnt like , but doesnt matter:
-power button sucks, it s less than half millimeter, so it's very hard to push it. but I dont really care, I use double tap to lock and unlock it!
-back cover. it's good and has grip, nice color and wotever...but it's very very slim and flexible. due it's so slim, antenna works like a blackberry but I m afraid it will destroy itself easily, bcs it's already starting to be flexible at my touch.
-screen: awsome , color are very good, but a more calibrated temperature can improve it. it's not blueish like some reviewr says...but a better temperature could improve its gamma as well, that s very high (I used to calibrate televisions some years ago so I have a special look on screens). at a first look , find7a screen is like an LG g2 screen with a wrong calibration (but more realistic colors ).
-It arrived with a dead pixel , but it s impossible to notice it due it's a full-hd screen, so I really dont give a shot about it.
-yellow screen, there's a yellow ghost at the base of the screen for 2 millimeters...but believe me guyz, I v seen ppl going crazy on forums for this, It's something u can notice only on a completely white screen and if nobody tells u, your not going to see it! but if u love perfection, I can say that it went away after some days of usage...I m sure it's glue and it takes some days of warm screen to be fixed.
-optional case: tnx oppo to send me such a gift in real leather, but I trash it after 1h. software doesnt support this case, having it in my pocket means it opens itself and screen goes on, but when u close it , the screen stays on anyway. I have to open it to pick up a call! wtf! why does it have such a window if I have to open it???
-warranty: oppo policy in europe is to send the phone I dont know where in europe, they will send I dont where in china, someone I dunno will decide if I have to pay to repair the phone. anyway I will pay to ship it. Ok, I accept to save 300€ on s5, m8, z2...and get 1+ if I destroy my find7...
just my opnion, everyone has his needs, wot is good for me can be bad for u...
alexleon said:
best phone I ever had.
here it's how I fixed and now I get 1.5% in standby (tnx to Gsam and Wakelock apps):
.
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So what is standby time after your fixes? People complained that the phone drains 50% of battery over night. So if the phone can't keep charge for 2-3 days it is useless for me. I do not use phone lot, so always forget to charge, so I need 2-3 days at least and I am getting 5 days with my current Nexus One.
So apparently 2.0b didn't fix the SD card issue so I'm just going to put in my old 16gb Sandisk that I've been using for a year and half and see what it does. If it works then I'll just assume the card I was sent is faulty/fake. Read speeds are between 20-35 megabytes while copying stuff off of the card onto my hard drive so that seems a bit slowish?
Chevyguy85 said:
So apparently 2.0b didn't fix the SD card issue so I'm just going to put in my old 16gb Sandisk that I've been using for a year and half and see what it does. If it works then I'll just assume the card I was sent is faulty/fake. Read speeds are between 20-35 megabytes while copying stuff off of the card onto my hard drive so that seems a bit slowish?
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It seems like a lot of people are having problems with the SD cards purchased from Oppo. I wonder if they got a bad batch.