Develop Bugs

HTC Desire Eye mini review

So, I picked up a Desire Eye on launch day. I feel like I was one of the few people intrigued by this device when it was announced. Since then, it has received almost zero attention: Few reviews, no posts on XDA, very little buzz on the internet in general. So, if you're even remotely considering this device and want a little info, here's a personal perspective from someone who bought the phone.
Disclaimer: I have owned dozens of flagship phones over the last several years. I'm also quite a fan of Sense UI and HTC in general. I did not buy this phone for the front facing camera. I don't care about selfies, so I'm probably not the target audience. I really just wanted an M8 with a better camera.
Display
The display is probably my one gripe about the device so far. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it looks washed out to me. When I first turned it on in the store, it immediately looked dull. A lot of the HTC wallpapers and themes are a sort of pastel, so it's really hard to tell, but next to my iPhone 6 Plus, and even a Windows M8 in the store, it just doesn't look as vibrant as I'd expect. Compared to my Note 4, it looks positively depressing, but that's to be expected. That said, it does get plenty bright. I just wish I still had my M8 to compare it with because I swear the M8 had more contrast and vibrance.
Camera
My only real beef with the M8 was the camera, mainly the low megapixel count which made cropping nearly impossible. It also had trouble with exposure and focus. I was really hoping that they fixed that with this phone. I know it's not their flagship and is, in fact, marketed as mid range, but it's really just an M8 with a different build and cameras. I have taken quite a few photo samples and compared them online to the Z3 Compact, iPhone 6 Plus, OnePlus One, G3, and Note 4. There is definitely more detail and you can crop in much further than the M8, but it still gets soft when you do. I also noticed the same issues with exposure. If you're not careful about where you tap to focus, you'll get a blown out sky or dark subject. Focus is fast, but not always accurate. It sometimes blurs the subject instead of the background. Definitely not on par with the focusing systems found in the Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus. Colors are good, if not great. They lean toward the warmer and more vibrant side, which I personally prefer. Overall, it's an upgrade over the M8 and on par with phones like the OnePlus One and G3, at least in my testing.
Build
I know a lot of people are fans of metal, but there are advantages and disadvantages to metal and plastic. The advantages here are water resistance and weight. This is a light phone and it feels good in the hand. Coming from my Note 4, it is significantly lighter and easier to hold. It's also fairly grippy. I don't feel the need for a case. My one complaint about build is the size. This thing is big. It's nearly as big as the iPhone 6 Plus and Note 4, which is kind of sad when you consider the 5.2" screen. Part of this is the 13mp front-facing camera. Part is the speakers, even though the grills are much smaller this time around. They still needed that blank "HTC" strip on the front for components and that adds to the overall size. The camera shutter button is very difficult to press. I only see using this thing under water. If you try to use it for normal pictures, you'll get blur because the phone will move when you try to press it. I find this to be a problem on a lot of phones with dedicated shutter buttons, but it's much more pronounced here.
Battery
My other primary concern with this phone was battery. It's the same internals as the M8 with a bigger screen and a smaller battery. While disappointing, so far it's not as bad as I expected. It seems to be about on par with the M8, though I'm not sure how. Standby time is pretty good (in my limited testing so far) and it doesn't drain horribly fast when the screen is on. Since HTC doesn't show screen on time and I had to install GSAM, I don't have any screen on results yet, but I will be testing that over the next few days.
Performance
This is the reason to get an HTC phone, in my opinion. Sense and stock Android are easily the fastest, best performing versions of Android, in my experience. But Sense brings some nice enhancements to the table that I think are worth it over stock Android. There's no lag or delay anywhere on the phone so far. Everything is fast and fluid. It makes my Note 4 look positively slow. Just the gallery lag on the Note 4 alone is enough to drive someone mad. HTC is doing it right. I'm actually a fan of Blinkfeed, too, though I know other people hate it. Since the introduction of Blinkfeed, I almost always end up putting a widget on my left most homescreen of every other Android phone that gives me a full page of news, though nothing quite compares to HTC's solution. I like their enhancements to the gallery, contacts, etc. Very nice overall experience.
Misc.
1. Minor annoyance, but the stock email client makes you tap to show images on every HTML email. Since I actually use it, it's kind of annoying. I wish they would at least give an option in the settings to "always show".
2. Some of the camera features are really need, like face merge and photo strip. I do miss slow motion video and 4k recording, though.
3. Internal storage is only 16gb. You have a little over 9 free out of the box. This is the only other con to this phone, in my opinion.
4. I'm a pretty big fan of the screen on gestures. I basically never have to use the power button. And now we can launch straight into the camera, too.
5. I received an update yesterday and it auto installed. There's no info anywhere on what it was. The phone just rebooted and installed with no warning.
6. There is a ton of bloatware on this thing (AT&T). Seriously, brace yourselves. It's even more insulting with only 16gb to start with.
7. Bootloader is unlockable at HTC Dev so, there's at least hope that we'll get root soon. The main issue will be S-Off, as usual. But I really only want/need root.
8. The front-facing speakers are every bit as good as you'd expect, despite the water resistant membrane and smaller grills. It's pretty impressive how small and unnoticeable they are.
Wrap Up
Overall, I really like the device. My main concerns are camera quality and battery life, which I will continue to test. I really like the user experience overall, though, and it's one of my favorite phones of the year. I don't think this phone is really getting the attention it deserves. Even the tech bloggers seem to be ignoring it. I hope this helps anyone who's on the fence about this phone and/or looking for more information.

Obligatory Camera Samples
Here are some camera samples. XDA is compressing them, but you get the idea.

Thanks for the review and photos. The camera was better than what I was expecting from the sensor HTC is using, to be honest. The only downside from what I've read in your review is the screen: while I don't like oversatured screens, I also don't appreciate "dark" screens (it hasn't to do with brightness, but with the white tone).
Regarding the speakers, I know you don't have a M8 to compare, but do you notice much of a difference between the devices?
Can you please confirm that it has MHL and it works?

For what it's worth, I held my One M8 side by side with a Desire Eye in store and compared the screens while displaying the same images and websites. They looked pretty much exactly the same to me other than a slight difference in size. Didn't think it looked dull. Of course, the lighting in AT&T was pretty harsh so it wasn't the best environment for comparison. Maybe you just got used to the super punchy over saturated colors of the Note 4?

gtg465x said:
For what it's worth, I held my One M8 side by side with a Desire Eye in store and compared the screens while displaying the same images and websites. They looked pretty much exactly the same to me other than a slight difference in size. Didn't think it looked dull. Of course, the lighting in AT&T was pretty harsh so it wasn't the best environment for comparison. Maybe you just got used to the super punchy over saturated colors of the Note 4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's actually what I was thinking too. Not a bad display by any means.

Thank you for this mini review! Really helpful.
Could you please state in which degree you can use the phone with one hand?
Would it feel closer to the use of a One M8/Galaxy S5/LG G2 or would it compare more to a One Plus One / Iphone 6 Plus (which is for me slightly to big).
The 5.2 inch of the LG G2 is of perfect size, but that phone had way smaller bezzels, so this is in fact something that scares me of the HTC desire EYE.

Waarez said:
Thank you for this mini review! Really helpful.
Could you please state in which degree you can use the phone with one hand?
Would it feel closer to the use of a One M8/Galaxy S5 or would it compare more to a One Plus One / Iphone 6 Plus (which is for me slightly to big).
The 5.2 inch of the LG G2 were perfect.. but this phone had way smaller bezzels, so this is what scares me of the one M8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's definitely closer to the OnePlus One or iphone 6 Plus size wise, but it is MUCH lighter, which does make it easier to handle with one hand. Unless you have gorilla hands, though, you definitely won't be able to reach all four corners of the screen with one hand.
It's tall, rather than wide.

I got the Desire EYE in the mail 2 days ago, it's a really good phone, really fast, takes nice pictures, overall I'm happy about it, the only downside about it is the internal storage, it has like 7 gb out of the 16 dedicated to the OS and stock apps... But other than that, really good phone!

To start off, I will say I am a big HTC fan. I talked about 7 people into buying the One M8 over the S5 this year. I love Sense, Blinkfeed and the snappiness of their devices. I have since sold my One M8 earlier this summer, around May, and have been jumping around to different devices. I strayed from the One M8 mostly due to the camera and the fact that I like to try the latest and greatest devices. I have been using an iPhone 6 since it launched. When I saw the Desire Eye was announced, I got excited. I was really hoping for an M8 Eye, which I think would have been the perfect smartphone for 2014, but this was almost as good. I picked one of these up on Friday at an AT&T store. The guy kind of looked at me funny when I said I wanted one, I don't think he was trained on the device or knew what it was. I didn't open it until Saturday night, but in the store, when playing with it, the first thing I said was, this screen looks washed out. I think it has something to do with the default theme, when I changed it back to one of the same Sense stock themes on the One M8, it didn't look as bad. It is something to do with that pink color they are using. I am torn on the device, it is like 2 steps forward, a couple steps back. I didn't like the first few indoor pictures without flash I took of my 3 month old daughter, so I switched back to the iPhone 6 yesterday because it was her baptism and I didn't want to miss any shots, or risk them coming out badly. One thing that Apple knows is how to make a camera that focuses fast and gives you good pictures. The Boom Sound is also a bit of a disappointment. The bass and clarity seems to be lacking compared to the M8. I played some Vevo music videos on the demo models in store. I am currently thinking about trying to find a second hand M8 Google Play Edition in mint condition (so I have full T-Mobile support for the $30 SIM I have for my play phone line), and keep either it or the Eye and my iPhone 6.
Y2J

Thanks for the review!
The camera doesn't seem bad but for some reason i was expecting it to have a bit more "wow" factor, don't know why and they the shots seem good enough.
You mentioned no-slow motion (i had actually talked about this in the other thread) and the info i read was that it didn't have. However, i was just watching a video review of the desire eye and in the settings i noticed the slow motion icon and the review actually pressed it and it sayed it was slow motion (its an italian video, i actually looked it up to see the translation lol). It was in the camera interface under the " ... " icon and on the modes (it usually says auto) it has the slow motion icon/cartoon - Here is the video @ 11:45
Still no mention of 4k, so that is not from stock but maybe with a mod.

griffin_1 said:
Thanks for the review!
The camera doesn't seem bad but for some reason i was expecting it to have a bit more "wow" factor, don't know why and they the shots seem good enough.
You mentioned no-slow motion (i had actually talked about this in the other thread) and the info i read was that it didn't have. However, i was just watching a video review of the desire eye and in the settings i noticed the slow motion icon and the review actually pressed it and it sayed it was slow motion (its an italian video, i actually looked it up to see the translation lol). It was in the camera interface under the " ... " icon and on the modes (it usually says auto) it has the slow motion icon/cartoon - Here is the video @ 11:45
Still no mention of 4k, so that is not from stock but maybe with a mod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see a slow motion option anywhere in the settings. The only video options are for the resolution (MMS, 1080, etc). One thing they did do right, though, is put the video record button back on the main interface full time next to the camera shutter button. They were crazy to ever take that away.
Quality is okay. It's about on par with the OnePlus One and G3, in my testing. Most of the shots I took were on an overcast day, so not the best testing environment, but overall I think it's acceptable. I think I'd still grab my Note 4 or iPhone 6 Plus if I was going somewhere to take a lot of pictures, but I don't feel like I'm carrying around a bad camera when I have this phone.

griffin_1 said:
Thanks for the review!
The camera doesn't seem bad but for some reason i was expecting it to have a bit more "wow" factor, don't know why and they the shots seem good enough.
You mentioned no-slow motion (i had actually talked about this in the other thread) and the info i read was that it didn't have. However, i was just watching a video review of the desire eye and in the settings i noticed the slow motion icon and the review actually pressed it and it sayed it was slow motion (its an italian video, i actually looked it up to see the translation lol). It was in the camera interface under the " ... " icon and on the modes (it usually says auto) it has the slow motion icon/cartoon - Here is the video @ 11:45
Still no mention of 4k, so that is not from stock but maybe with a mod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, I was totally wrong about slow motion. I just found the option. It was not where I expected, but I'm stoked to see that it's there!

Great Slow motion on htc is good, at least if its like on the m8. I think only htc and sony in Android lets you record 120fps and then edit what parts to slow down, which is how slow motion should be. Glad to see its there and websites like gsmarena should mention it and update the specs info with that.

battery update?

G1_enthusiast said:
battery update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery is really good for the capacity. Idle drain with my apps and setting was about 3%/hr. With the screen on, it does seem to lose battery pretty fast, but I was still able to get about 10-13 hours of use with around 3 hours screen time. That's not much worse than most of my other phones do, actually.
I would post screenshots, but I no longer have the phone. As much as I really liked it, I just couldn't live with the camera quality. I was really hoping for better. But if camera isn't your #1 priority, this is a great all around phone. Camera is definitely better than phones like the Moto X. I was just hoping for closer to Note 4/iPhone quality.

How do the camera quality and pictures compare to Samsung S4 or S5?
Thanks.

struff said:
How do the camera quality and pictures compare to Samsung S4 or S5?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My mom has the S5 And I prefer the Eye´s camera, It´s just... sharper and more clear.

sidle said:
My mom has the S5 And I prefer the Eye´s camera, It´s just... sharper and more clear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to politely however completely disagree. There's no comparison. S5 is one of the best cameras you can get.
Sent from my HTC Desire Eye using Tapatalk

robstunner said:
I'm going to politely however completely disagree. There's no comparison. S5 is one of the best cameras you can get.
Sent from my HTC Desire Eye using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And yet, I like this one more.
Front HTC Desire Eye:
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/143110-image/HTC-Desire-EYE.jpg
Front Galaxy S5:
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/143127-image/Samsung-Galaxy-S5.jpg
Back HTC Desire Eye:
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/143113-image/HTC-Desire-EYE.jpg
Back Galaxy S5:
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/143130-image/Samsung-Galaxy-S5.jpg
Let the photo's speak for themselves. The HTC Desire Eye clearly wins this battle, or even HTC in general. The S5 is litteraly crap in low to medium-light area's.
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Firs...-HTC-One-M8-and-the-Samsung-Galaxy-S5_id61506

Fair enough, but in better lighting the s5 proves much better and rarely overexposed the pictures.

M8 or G3? Help please!

I'm getting a new phone soon, and I'm stuck between the LG G3 and HTC One M8.
Since I'm coming from the Moto X 2014, I need a fast enough and future proof (duh, till 2016 Jun) phone. I sold it because the screen was fragile, display was so yellowish to my liking, camera wasn't good, no dev support, poor headphone output, poor battery and tempered glass protectors won't even fit properly.
I really like the G3 for its screen size and camera (camera isn't a big priority though), a GB of RAM extra, bezel less design. While, the HTC M8 is cheaper, with some good Harman Kardon earphones, much better speakers, better performance, better battery.
No faboyism please, anyone who has used both, please comment.
Help me out please!

edios123 said:
I'm getting a new phone soon, and I'm stuck between the LG G3 and HTC One M8.
Since I'm coming from the Moto X 2014, I need a fast enough and future proof (duh, till 2016 Jun) phone. I sold it because the screen was fragile, display was so yellowish to my liking, camera wasn't good, no dev support, poor headphone output, poor battery and tempered glass protectors won't even fit properly.
I really like the G3 for its screen size and camera (camera isn't a big priority though), a GB of RAM extra, bezel less design. While, the HTC M8 is cheaper, with some good Harman Kardon earphones, much better speakers, better performance, better battery.
No faboyism please, anyone who has used both, please comment.
Help me out please!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought a second hand g3 last month. Returned it as performance was not good compared to HTC one m8. M8's software is much better and is more polished than that of LG g3. As you said camera is not a priority I would suggest go with m8 you won't regret .
Just to inform you m8's camera is capable of taking some decent shots.

Mukhi11 said:
I bought a second hand g3 last month. Returned it as performance was not good compared to HTC one m8. M8's software is much better and is more polished than that of LG g3. As you said camera is not a priority I would suggest go with m8 you won't regret .
Just to inform you m8's camera is capable of taking some decent shots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the input. Seems like M8 is there one to go.
I use my camera for photos anyway. I gone the camera isn't much poorer than the Moto X I had before.

Also I personally didn't like g3 display. M8 has a much vivid and brighter display. Camera quality is more than enough for sharing on social sites.

edios123 said:
I'm getting a new phone soon, and I'm stuck between the LG G3 and HTC One M8.
Since I'm coming from the Moto X 2014, I need a fast enough and future proof (duh, till 2016 Jun) phone. I sold it because the screen was fragile, display was so yellowish to my liking, camera wasn't good, no dev support, poor headphone output, poor battery and tempered glass protectors won't even fit properly.
I really like the G3 for its screen size and camera (camera isn't a big priority though), a GB of RAM extra, bezel less design. While, the HTC M8 is cheaper, with some good Harman Kardon earphones, much better speakers, better performance, better battery.
No faboyism please, anyone who has used both, please comment.
Help me out please!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used both, I have the M8 now and I had the G3 as recently as last week. In my opinion both devices are excellent but I prefer the M8. I just love the M8's all around greatness. It performs so well, has very good battery life, has a very nice display, audio is second to none, dev support is great....it's just the best S801 phone . The G3 on the other is also great with its big screen in a smaller body, better camera than the M8 but less dev support. Both are great devices though, you really can't go wrong with either.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

barondebxl said:
I have used both, I have the M8 now and I had the G3 as recently as last week. In my opinion both devices are excellent but I prefer the M8. I just love the M8's all around greatness. It performs so well, has very good battery life, has a very nice display, audio is second to none, dev support is great....it's just the best S801 phone . The G3 on the other is also great with its big screen in a smaller body, better camera than the M8 but less dev support. Both are great devices though, you really can't go wrong with either.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm going for the HK version. Is the dev support still great? I don't need lots of ROMs and kernels, but some of the best should be there. I'm almost decided on the M8.
Since your signature says you have used Moto X, how would you compare these two?
And how my SOT do you get on an average? I've read the battery life thread and it's all variating.
Thanks.

Some questions for actual users (if possible coming from HTC)

Hello
I have some questions I couldn't have clear answers in reviews about the G4:
-Is music quality and volume good over earphones (both wired and BT)? How can you compare with HTC M7 or M8 or M9?
-How nice is the screen under direct sunlight?
-Did you try the ported Sense 7 UI on the G4? If yes how nice does it look?
-Do you get any Car app in the G4?

vegetaleb said:
Hello
I have some questions I couldn't have clear answers in reviews about the G4:
-Is music quality and volume good over earphones (both wired and BT)? How can you compare with HTC M7 or M8 or M9?
-How nice is the screen under direct sunlight?
-Did you try the ported Sense 7 UI on the G4? If yes how nice does it look?
-Do you get any Car app in the G4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came from the M7. The quality and volume on earphones is quite good. I'm not an audiophile so I'm not that picky, but for me I couldn't find much difference from the M7. The external speaker, however, it's a totally different story...
The screen is pretty good under direct sunlight, at least as bright as my M7. I had the M9 for a couple of weeks before the G4 and it's screen was brighter and easier to see in bright daylight however...
Didn't try the Sense 7 port but I'm preety sure I will. I actually like some of LG's UI, but I really like Sense...

VictorC said:
I came from the M7. The quality and volume on earphones is quite good. I'm not an audiophile so I'm not that picky, but for me I couldn't find much difference from the M7. The external speaker, however, it's a totally different story...
The screen is pretty good under direct sunlight, at least as bright as my M7. I had the M9 for a couple of weeks before the G4 and it's screen was brighter and easier to see in bright daylight however...
Didn't try the Sense 7 port but I'm preety sure I will. I actually like some of LG's UI, but I really like Sense...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep I liked the idea of detailed weather on the widget.
How's the camera? better than M9?

vegetaleb said:
Yep I liked the idea of detailed weather on the widget.
How's the camera? better than M9?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, almost in every aspect. Maybe in great light shots are not that far apart in terms of quality, but in night time there is no competition. However, I don't know how the camera on the M9 behaves now after the last update... I do like the G4's camera and I like the camera app too.

-Is music quality and volume good over earphones (both wired and BT)?
Very good, included earbuds are pretty good too. Excellent audio quality on both headphones and car auxiliary.
-How nice is the screen under direct sunlight?
Very good, the brightness is amped as is the contrast in direct sunlight and definitely makes things easier to read.

I come from the m7 whose screen I couldn't see in direct sunlight. The G4 is easy to read. No comparison.

i came from an M8, the camera is by far the most amazing aspect on this phone, but the power of my G4 is Unreal! i also have a G Flex 2(which is i just bricked last night) and the G4 still blows it out of the water but the audio quality is much better i have beats headpones, and speaker quality even more so, the speakers on my M8 sucked in my opinion...they were raspy and just didnt sound well, i had the harmon kardon edition, but it wasnt at all what i expected

As others have stated, The camera on this device is simply incredible (probably the best camera I have ever actually used/had).
As far as direct sunlight I find that I do struggle occasionally with trying to see what I am doing or just give up what I am doing as the view is aggravating me, lol.
As far as sound, I have found this phone can certainly hold its own. With headphones I find that the quality is just fine and with using the EQ feature of PlayerPro I can tweak the audio to be absolutely perfect....Even with just using the speaker on the device I find music comes through crisp, clean, and surprisingly loud for being just a tiny stock speaker....Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are better devices for audio (like the Nexus 6 for example) but the G4 is certainly nothing to sneeze as in this department.
and as far as the screen goes, the 5.5" is (to me anyway) the perfect size, It makes the device super easy to handle with only one hand but also is quite comfortable if you are wanting to use it with both hands. The HD aspect of the screen REALLY shines through with the G4. Everything looks SO beautiful and the colours are super vivid and clean (I also have the Note Edge and would take the screen on the G4 over the Edge any day of the week).
Keep in mind though, we do get the occasional "miss-touch" or "delayed-response" when using the touch screen but at most it is just a slight annoyance and has yet to "kill the device" or make me regret purchasing the G4.
The battery can also drain SUPER fast if you are not careful, like I have started my day off at 100% battery and gotten down to less than 20%, recharged back up to 100% and by the end of that night been back down to about half dead. (Granted I use my phone A LOT for music which really takes its toll on the power consumption)
These are just a couple minor "flaws" though and I would not consider them to be anything that would make you want to trade the device for something else.

I think there is no 2015 smartphone with a good battery!
My M9 can just give me 1 day with good usage but without games. So was the S6 I had for 2 weeks.
Btw is the G4 compatible with Quickcharger 2.0?
Do you think the XDA devs will give a strong support to the G4? I love playing with Roms.
This touch screen thingy will be fixed by OTA later or LG is blind?
Oh and a very special question: I use my M9 on a sticky pad in my car, the metal back stick on it like superglue, the S6 glass back was not sticking, so I wonder if the G4 can stick well?

@VictorC
Do you regret your move from M9 to G4 (I did regret moving from M8 to S6)

Actually, my move was from the M7 to the G4. I had an M9 (actually two) for testing for a few weeks. I didn't actually move to the G4 by choice I won the device in a contest and decided to stick with it.
There are some things I regret moving from HTC and some things that I think I can live without or adjust to them. Up until now I like the G4. Wish the battery was a little bit better, but I think I'm going to get a spare battery and a quick-charger...
And next year, with the M10, who knows

VictorC said:
Actually, my move was from the M7 to the G4. I had an M9 (actually two) for testing for a few weeks. I didn't actually move to the G4 by choice I won the device in a contest and decided to stick with it.
There are some things I regret moving from HTC and some things that I think I can live without or adjust to them. Up until now I like the G4. Wish the battery was a little bit better, but I think I'm going to get a spare battery and a quick-charger...
And next year, with the M10, who knows
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bet you missed the goodness of Sense 7
Btw give the port of Sense 7 a try, on s6 it was good but I hated the black statusbar

Yeah, Sense (6 and 7 especially) is maybe the thing I miss the most. I'm still trying to give the LG UI a chance, but I'm pretty sure I'll end up trying the Sense 7 port

VictorC said:
Yeah, Sense (6 and 7 especially) is maybe the thing I miss the most. I'm still trying to give the LG UI a chance, but I'm pretty sure I'll end up trying the Sense 7 port
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you feel you G4 with the new FW update?
You still didn't try Sense port?

Didn't get the update yet. Still waiting.
Playing around with an Xperia Z3 these days, so the G4 is idling at home

I had m9 since before release g4 is better in every aspect
Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

aaronrw said:
I had m9 since before release g4 is better in every aspect
Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk[/QUOTe
Can you try to install htc car app from playstore? It's one of the thing I will miss if I swap my M9 with G4
Sent from my HTC One M9 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I can't find it in the play store @vegetaleb
Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

aaronrw said:
I can't find it in the play store @vegetaleb
Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok!
No worries, Xpirt the dude who is behind the Sense 7 port is working on a port of this app and others from HTC.
I think I will wait a couple of weeks till the price of the G4 goes down, like now I would lose 130$ in the swapping process, I already loosed 80$ with S6 to M9. If I wait another 2-3 weeks I would pay only 30 to 50$ for the swap.

Digging up this thread as I have been attacked by the fact that I could consider the G4 while I have an M9.
One thing for sure: I won't swap my M9 with a G4 as long as the touchscreen issue isn't fixed once and for all

Upgrading from the One M8 -- stick with HTC or move on?

I love the HTC One M8. I've had mine for about 2.5 years now and it has worked well. Battery life is still good. If the camera took higher resolution photos and the processor was a little faster, I'd stick with it. This is my 3rd HTC phone. I never buy a phone right after it is released, preferring to see how well it is liked after the first year or two. The M9 was pretty much a disaster, so I left that out of consideration. Then there's the HTC 10.
The HTC 10 looked to be everything I want in a phone, going from the M8. It has good reviews and is recommended as a used phone. But... I didn't do enough homework and unfortunately discovered it has some serious problems. I was one of the unlucky ones. I bought a great condition HTC 10 and thought I'd gotten a good deal. The screen is noticeably richer in color, brighter, and processor speed is faster. But I ran into that nasty battery problem. It shuts down at around 25% and goes into a boot loop that won't quit until you plug in the phone. That's when I went on-line and looked up this problem... much to my dismay, discovering that this is a pretty common problem with no simple fix. I'm in the process of dealing with the seller to return the phone.
Now that I've witnessed this nightmare first hand, I'm very leery of trying this again, buying another used HTC 10. At this point, the U11 is still too new and costly. Frankly, I really don't see a good path... except maybe a Samsung S7. But I've never liked Samsung phones. I much prefer HTC Sense.
I'm wondering if I should just hang onto my One M8 for another year and see how things go with the U11. Or maybe consider a Google Pixel 2.
If you were an owner of a One M8 and upgraded to a better phone, which one did you choose and are you happy with it?

I'd say stick with M8 until it dies, there's really no better replacement for this phone except 10, but as you said it's hit or miss.
U11 definitely isn't a bad phone, but it doesn't have the soul of older HTCs IMO.
Also it really depends what thing in phone do you need the most - build quality and materials? speed? audio quality? overall experience?
ZTE Axon 7 is a solid all rounder and should feel like an upgrade of everything in M8. It's a bit old now though, but if age or manufacturer doesn't concern you then it should be a good choice.
Galaxy S7 also isn't that bad. Hardware wise S series are always one of the best - great camera and display, however it's a Samsung, so due to it's heavy UI it's slower than comparable phones.
OnePlus 5T has four pros - price, speed, ram and metal unibody. Apart from those it really doesn't stand out.
My next phone for 90% is LG V30 - it's pretty much a great all rounder with focus on audio and camera/video quality and that's what interest me the most.

Phalangioides said:
I'd say stick with M8 until it dies, there's really no better replacement for this phone except 10, but as you said it's hit or miss. U11 definitely isn't a bad phone, but it doesn't have the soul of older HTCs IMO.
Also it really depends what thing in phone do you need the most - build quality and materials? speed? audio quality? overall experience?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I'm not a heavy camera/video user, I'd like to have better hardware. The M8 employs this dual 4MP lens design that, while good for its day, is lagging far behind now. All of those factors are important for me: build quality/materials, system and video speed, audio quality, and user experience. The M8 has a great user experience and generally performs quickly, with really terrific audio quality. The screen looks fine, but next to an HTC 10? It's not as bright and quite as color rich.
ZTE Axon 7 is a solid all rounder and should feel like an upgrade of everything in M8. It's a bit old now though, but if age or manufacturer doesn't concern you then it should be a good choice.
Galaxy S7 also isn't that bad. Hardware wise S series are always one of the best - great camera and display, however it's a Samsung, so due to it's heavy UI it's slower than comparable phones.
OnePlus 5T has four pros - price, speed, ram and metal unibody. Apart from those it really doesn't stand out.
My next phone for 90% is LG V30 - it's pretty much a great all rounder with focus on audio and camera/video quality and that's what interest me the most.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've not warmed up to these other brands, like ZTE, Huawei, OnePlus. Comparably they've not been on the market for very long. I've read about reliability issues after a couple years of ownership, so getting one of those used is outside my consideration.
Two of my family members have Samsung Galaxy phones, and I can't stand their UI. It's utterly ridiculous how they bury mobile data access control. You should be able to 1) double-finger swipe down, and 2) uncheck mobile data. That's how HTC works. But with Samsung, you've got to swipe, click, swipe, click, swipe, click to get to the mobile data control. They probably did that as a "friend to the carrier" so you'll use up more mobile data because it's too much of a pain to turn it off. Screw that. Of course, you could install a widget for controlling that... but it takes up real estate and it's simply illogical--this should be accessible from the swipe-down menu.
I have to say, I'd looked at the LG V30 and was considering it... until I read LG V30 REVIEW: GROUNDBREAKING PHONE WITH A DEAL-BREAKING FLAW. Screen resolution, clarity, and color rendition is important to me, and the V30 drops the ball. I did look at it compared directly to a couple other phones in a cellular phone store, and I have to agree it's not on par with the competition.

Honestly many smartphones nowadays have some type of problems, it's a gamble to get a perfect one.
As the review said, V30 has bad OLED display, but it's not 100% chance that every model will be as bad and that's what I'm hoping for when I get one.
Pixel 2 phones also had issues with display and some other things. Some of them got fixed with software upgrade, but not all of them, you should look into it.
Can't really think of any other solid phones that could be a good upgrade over M8 and not too expensive. Maybe something from Sony? I've thought about Xperia XZ Premium for a long time myself - hardware wise it's pretty good and their UI is very simple. The size is what put me off - it's just too big to be comfortable, V30 with half an inch bigger display feels pretty snug in hand.
That said, maybe the smaller XZ or XZ1 might be a better choice.
If not then I guess you could think about U11 - it's definitely not a bad phone, but different than M8. If you could accept it's cons it would be a pretty good choice.

Phalangioides said:
Honestly many smartphones nowadays have some type of problems, it's a gamble to get a perfect one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No doubt at all. I'm not expecting perfection, only issues that I can live with. The HTC 10 isn't perfect, but without the reported battery issue it would be my choice for now. If I could find a totally checked out excellent condition example for about $150, I'd be happy. I'd even consider $195, for refurbished/like-new with warranty. In my book, $500~$600 for a new phone is too much. $300~$350 is about right. Back when the Evo 3D was still in play, if the battery was faulty all you'd have to do is swap it out. Unfortunately everyone has moved to these embedded batteries. It really sucks. Was a slim case that compelling enough to do it? I'd rather have a phone where half of it is thicker to house the removable battery. Far easier to manage. But, I think the ulterior motive was control. Now cellular phone makers don't have to worry about non-OEM / 3rd party questionable batteries being used in their phones. What they could have done is make intelligent batteries with circuitry required for usage, something a clone battery maker can't copy.
As the review said, V30 has bad OLED display, but it's not 100% chance that every model will be as bad and that's what I'm hoping for when I get one. Pixel 2 phones also had issues with display and some other things. Some of them got fixed with software upgrade, but not all of them, you should look into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might have been a production batch issue... you'd have to look at other reviews. I did hear about the Google Pixel 2 having some issues but it looks like they were successfully addressed. And they're more readily apparent and easier to verify than something like a vague battery issue.
The U11 is a very nice phone, but too pricey for me right now. However, the U12 comes out in May. Maybe I'll wait until then for a U11 price drop.

cytherian said:
I love the HTC One M8. I've had mine for about 2.5 years now and it has worked well. Battery life is still good. If the camera took higher resolution photos and the processor was a little faster, I'd stick with it. This is my 3rd HTC phone. I never buy a phone right after it is released, preferring to see how well it is liked after the first year or two. The M9 was pretty much a disaster, so I left that out of consideration. Then there's the HTC 10.
The HTC 10 looked to be everything I want in a phone, going from the M8. It has good reviews and is recommended as a used phone. But... I didn't do enough homework and unfortunately discovered it has some serious problems. I was one of the unlucky ones. I bought a great condition HTC 10 and thought I'd gotten a good deal. The screen is noticeably richer in color, brighter, and processor speed is faster. But I ran into that nasty battery problem. It shuts down at around 25% and goes into a boot loop that won't quit until you plug in the phone. That's when I went on-line and looked up this problem... much to my dismay, discovering that this is a pretty common problem with no simple fix. I'm in the process of dealing with the seller to return the phone.
Now that I've witnessed this nightmare first hand, I'm very leery of trying this again, buying another used HTC 10. At this point, the U11 is still too new and costly. Frankly, I really don't see a good path... except maybe a Samsung S7. But I've never liked Samsung phones. I much prefer HTC Sense.
I'm wondering if I should just hang onto my One M8 for another year and see how things go with the U11. Or maybe consider a Google Pixel 2.
If you were an owner of a One M8 and upgraded to a better phone, which one did you choose and are you happy with it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in the same boat as you are. I love my M8, but with some of the new technology out there, and with the M8 still sporting Android 6 (I've tried Oreo - don't really like it), I was a hair away from buying the U11. But I just couldn't see spending $600 for a new phone.
Then I looked at the Moto z2 Force - a great phone with specs similar to the U11. And I can get the Motorola for about $375.00
To me, there is one main "con" for each of these phones:
Moto: Not water or dust resistant (U11 is)
U11: Price is high
Both: No headphone jack
If the Motorola had an IP67 or 68 rating, I'd get it in a heartbeat.
And if the U11 price went down to, say, $400, I'd grab it right away.
To me, those are the two strongest candidates. And the Moto has mods (if that interests you).
I love Sense, and it's able to be added to most phones now, but it's not the same as being built-in.

I love the M8 and has been my all-time favorite phone. I've since moved on to LG V10 and V20, but there are weeks where I pop out my sim card and throw into my M8. Battery on my M8 is still just as good as my V20, and the M8 is just that perfect phone. I wish they could have squeezed a 5.2 inch display and while I loved the Ultra Pixel in its day, its still not bad. In fact I used it over Easter, and in doors I grabbed some great photos that probably would have been hard for my V20 in lower light.
I've also thought of actually selling my V20 and picking up an HTC 10. I've been watching all the phones that come into Swappa. Personally I'm not into the all glass phone trend, so the U11 isn't really an option.
However the only thing that holds me back from picking up a 10 is I'm just not happy with the front design. It reminds me too much of a mash up between an iPhone and an Galaxy S6/S7. I realize that was intentional by HTC, as they had great success with the A9, which was mostly an iPhone clone. But when I see the 10 in a case(which is probably what I'd do), it just kind of loses that unique HTC design touch that was great with the M7-M9. Although I do love Sense as a skin.
I don't think I'll ever let go of the M8.

Hi guys, could anyone tell where to buy an m8 or 10 for cheap right now? Any suggestions plz?
I sold my m8 an year ago for a note 3; I'm tired of the sammy now, and wish to get rid of it.
I checked some Aliexpress listings, but they come off as a bit shady and untrustworthy?
Any reliable sources to grab one of these?(I live in South Asia)

dhrjbhtt0 said:
Hi guys, could anyone tell where to buy an m8 or 10 for cheap right now? Any suggestions plz?
I sold my m8 an year ago for a note 3; I'm tired of the sammy now, and wish to get rid of it.
I checked some Aliexpress listings, but they come off as a bit shady and untrustworthy?
Any reliable sources to grab one of these?(I live in South Asia)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe try Swappa? Someone might do international shipping for you. Most are pretty cheap.
Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

gustav30 said:
Maybe try Swappa? Someone might do international shipping for you. Most are pretty cheap.
Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with Swappa is exactly with the shipping scene, they just won't ship the device to any international location outside the States. This seemed to be the case at least with the M8 and 10.
Thanks for your suggestion though

dhrjbhtt0 said:
The problem with Swappa is exactly with the shipping scene, they just won't ship the device to any international location outside the States. This seemed to be the case at least with the M8 and 10.
Thanks for your suggestion though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is too bad. How about eBay?
Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

dhrjbhtt0 said:
Hi guys, could anyone tell where to buy an m8 or 10 for cheap right now? Any suggestions plz?
I sold my m8 an year ago for a note 3; I'm tired of the sammy now, and wish to get rid of it.
I checked some Aliexpress listings, but they come off as a bit shady and untrustworthy?
Any reliable sources to grab one of these?(I live in South Asia)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't you have a local online selling site? Most often it's the fastest and reliable way to get things cheaper.

Phalangioides said:
Don't you have a local online selling site? Most often it's the fastest and reliable way to get things cheaper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The closest are the Chinese retailers(I'm in India) through Aliexpress, as any of the online retailers like Amazon and Flipkart do not sell the M8 anymore and the HTC 10 is priced unreasonably high, priced at 490ish usd.

gustav30 said:
I love the M8 and has been my all-time favorite phone. I've since moved on to LG V10 and V20, but there are weeks where I pop out my sim card and throw into my M8. Battery on my M8 is still just as good as my V20, and the M8 is just that perfect phone. I wish they could have squeezed a 5.2 inch display and while I loved the Ultra Pixel in its day, its still not bad. In fact I used it over Easter, and in doors I grabbed some great photos that probably would have been hard for my V20 in lower light.
I've also thought of actually selling my V20 and picking up an HTC 10. I've been watching all the phones that come into Swappa. Personally I'm not into the all glass phone trend, so the U11 isn't really an option.
However the only thing that holds me back from picking up a 10 is I'm just not happy with the front design. It reminds me too much of a mash up between an iPhone and an Galaxy S6/S7. I realize that was intentional by HTC, as they had great success with the A9, which was mostly an iPhone clone. But when I see the 10 in a case(which is probably what I'd do), it just kind of loses that unique HTC design touch that was great with the M7-M9. Although I do love Sense as a skin.
I don't think I'll ever let go of the M8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice to see another member here with great appreciation for the M8. Phones like this often get easily dismissed as obsolete tech, but I don't think the M8 lags behind all that badly. It's another story when looking at the M8 over the Evo 3D though!
Side-by-side, the HTC 10 screen looks nicer than the M8. It's brighter, more vibrant colors, and you can tell it has a faster processor. It's not a huge difference, but enough to notice when they're adjacent. But take away the HTC 10, and the M8 starts looking good again. To be blunt, I don't know why people get bent out of shape by bezels. I think they look fine on the M8. And really, the back panel doesn't matter all that much because most people use cases. I could not use my One M8 without one, because it's too slippery and that brushed metal back would get dented/scratched. Being in a case has kept it in excellent shape. I use a translucent TPU case, so you can still see the back a bit while enjoying protection.
Generally the way I operate is to always keep a spare phone as a backup, in case I lose my main phone or run into an issue that I can't easily fix/recover. The spare one is quick and easy to activate, so I don't suffer much down-time. I don't want to be forced to run out to a store and pay top dollar for a new phone. When I misplaced my M8, I reactivated my old Evo 3D. And while it did the job, it was... painful. That thing is just too old now. So I was thinking should I get another M8... or upgrade to an HTC 10. That's when I ran into that battery problem on a gently used HTC 10 that threw my plan in the trash. Given how many people have reported the battery issue, I'm now leery of buying from a reseller that unloads large batches of phones with just minimal testing performed. They're not going to do the 1 hour HTC battery test. And when a seller can't answer your questions well for suffering with English as a 3rd language, it makes it risky.
I checked out Swappa, but didn't see anyone in my immediate area with an HTC 10 for a reasonable price.

cytherian said:
Nice to see another member here with great appreciation for the M8. Phones like this often get easily dismissed as obsolete tech, but I don't think the M8 lags behind all that badly. It's another story when looking at the M8 over the Evo 3D though!
Side-by-side, the HTC 10 screen looks nicer than the M8. It's brighter, more vibrant colors, and you can tell it has a faster processor. It's not a huge difference, but enough to notice when they're adjacent. But take away the HTC 10, and the M8 starts looking good again. To be blunt, I don't know why people get bent out of shape by bezels. I think they look fine on the M8. And really, the back panel doesn't matter all that much because most people use cases. I could not use my One M8 without one, because it's too slippery and that brushed metal back would get dented/scratched. Being in a case has kept it in excellent shape. I use a translucent TPU case, so you can still see the back a bit while enjoying protection.
Generally the way I operate is to always keep a spare phone as a backup, in case I lose my main phone or run into an issue that I can't easily fix/recover. The spare one is quick and easy to activate, so I don't suffer much down-time. I don't want to be forced to run out to a store and pay top dollar for a new phone. When I misplaced my M8, I reactivated my old Evo 3D. And while it did the job, it was... painful. That thing is just too old now. So I was thinking should I get another M8... or upgrade to an HTC 10. That's when I ran into that battery problem on a gently used HTC 10 that threw my plan in the trash. Given how many people have reported the battery issue, I'm now leery of buying from a reseller that unloads large batches of phones with just minimal testing performed. They're not going to do the 1 hour HTC battery test. And when a seller can't answer your questions well for suffering with English as a 3rd language, it makes it risky.
I checked out Swappa, but didn't see anyone in my immediate area with an HTC 10 for a reasonable price.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in a similar boat as you mate, can't find a legit place to but an m8 or 10 here in South Asia for cheap
PLz tell me if u find someone who does international shipping of either of these two.

Has anyone over here bought any HTC device from aliexpress?
I'm planning on buying an HTC 10 from over there, but don't have any past experiences with any of the sellers over there.
The price seems fine, just north of 250usd.
Any idea anyone might have?

My m8 had a bad battery after all the years of heavy usage, hundreds/countless drops to all kinds of grounds even fell in water a few times.It looks really really bad from the outside,completely full of ditches and scratches and other strange markings, I even managed to "pull/curl" a kind of sharp edge out on a small spot of the aluminum on the back through a drop.But besides that it was/is shutting down between 40-75% everything was working completely fine,so I really didn't want any other phone but an htc after that proof of ruggedness/solidness either.
I also got a dead m9 here that just one day to the other shut off and completely died over time,not even a led is blinking anymore and it's only lifesign is plugged into a PC where it shows up as a Qualcomm service hub, but all that is a different story,just wanted to mention that experience with HTC.
I lived with that m8 then for quite a time and nearly ended up buying another new/refurbished m8/9/10 but then i found the ZTE axon 7 to be my perfect replacement,as it was the only phone with good sounding/loud front facing speakers and an all aluminum body,also I wanted to have a slightly bigger screen and the other advantages of the zte didn't seem bad either.So I bought a used axon for 150€ and even though it has its own faults, like the buttons, I wouldn't change back to the m8 for my daily,not even with a factory new battery.
Hope that wasn't too much to read through

Flash jw 5.4 (the last one based on the A9 port, s-rom), use stock kernel, leave GPS on high accuracy, use it stock = profit. Best smoothness, stability, battery life and android OS for our device. You will enjoy it.
My advice is to wait a little longer, check out U12 and even pixel 3, maybe oneplus 6 (I am notch hater, but maybe you are not).

I'm thinking of picking up a used M9, just to sort of complete what I think is the perfect trifecta of HTC phones. M7, M8, M9.
Yeah, for camera needs I turn to my V20/V10s, but for aesthetics, I don't think any phone comes close to the M series.
M9 could have been a great phone if they had just used a better sensor and thrown in OIS.
Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

7 years old, my HTC M8 is finally starting to fail. Dot-view now mal-functions, and I can't upgrade anything else without a significant decrease in speed.
I am genuinely happy with this phone. The 'dot-view' function was groundbreaking for its time, as was the body armour that supported it.
I am unsure whether to consider another phone, or upgrade to the HTC 12

Purchasing a M9 now (mid-2018)?

Hello,
I am evaluating purchasing an used HTC M9. The price seems to be a real bargain (around 60€), but I am worried that it is still a too old device to be enjoyable.
I own an iPhone 7 Plus now and I said myself numerous times that I would never switch back to Android, but I had lot of fun with Android ROMs years ago and I feel like I would love to try again.
I had both HTC m7 and m8 devices and loved it (more the M7 than the M8 actually). How does the M9 feels like?
How would it work after these years? I will not use it to play games, but I will make phone calls, internet browsing, messaging and lot of normal-light usage.
What is your suggestion? How does your M9 feels like after all these years?

Well, by now, the HTC M9 still has respectable development here on XDA. the SD810 feels hot by the heavy use, but it's not dangerous... the phone doesn't have official updates anymore, keep in mind that, still the phone runs great and the Sense UI is one of the fastest UIs around... it has 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and you can put more space with the microSD, so storage wouldn't be a problem, you will find cheap cases on internet, even the Otterbox Defender is like $7 USD on ebay.
The HTC M9 is like a M8 with steroids...

I've just moved to this phone from a Google pixel after it's untimely death ( kid broke it :'( )and I'm happy with it. Performance wise it's fine and I've only noticed a drop in performance on one game. I also flashed a different ROM without sense and got it just the way I like.
Edit: I thought I would add I have always loved the build quality on HTC devices and this one is just as good. Mine is an old phone my wife used for years and she does not look after them. It's full of dints and scrapes and has been very wet and still works perfect. Even the screen is remarkably scratch free.

€60 is a good price, I've just paid €150 for one, although mine was in mint condition and came with s-off.
My wife is still using my M7 that's still going strong after I replaced it with a Sony Z3 (far too fragile for my lifestyle) and then a Moto X Force (lovely phone just has ribbon cable issues with the OLED)
Only slight gripes are the sound quality in Lineageos, so gone back to stock Nougat, a case is essential if you want it to keep it's sexy looks

All said and done, the 810 is a disastrous chip which gets very hot and has a pathetic on-screen battery life.

for me at that price is a good phone, powerful and fast.
There are no overheating problems (at least with last firmware) and the defined disastrous processor is very powerful even if energivorous.
certainly a disastrous purchase at full price but at that price in my opinion is not despicable

Better get a refurbished HTC 10 @ ebay.

Sure not to get M9 is 2018, the battery life, camera, S810 is nor very well. Maybe you can try other budget phone.

Camera is NO good on the M9!!!
Cero92 said:
Hello,
I am evaluating purchasing an used HTC M9. The price seems to be a real bargain (around 60€), but I am worried that it is still a too old device to be enjoyable.
I own an iPhone 7 Plus now and I said myself numerous times that I would never switch back to Android, but I had lot of fun with Android ROMs years ago and I feel like I would love to try again.
I had both HTC m7 and m8 devices and loved it (more the M7 than the M8 actually). How does the M9 feels like?
How would it work after these years? I will not use it to play games, but I will make phone calls, internet browsing, messaging and lot of normal-light usage.
What is your suggestion? How does your M9 feels like after all these years?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
G'day mate,
I would give the M9 a wide girth if you have any interest in using it to take photos. It has an impressive 20M camera, but no ability to focus, and take good shots. Here is a post that I made some time ago on the subject.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/one-m9/help/photo-quality-m9-poor-compared-to-t3385288
I have three beautiful daughters, and the inability of this phone to take good photos of them lead me to purchase an Oppo A77. There are may good Android phones in the AU$300 (~EU$180) range. Oppo is an excellent brand to start with, however if you take this path be aware that you need to tinker with it a bit to get standard notifications; check out my Oppo post here -
https://forum.xda-developers.com/general/general/enabling-push-notifications-oppo-a77-t3748639
Good luck mate, I would say "Happy Hunting", but as I believe in peace on earth I will settle with "May you reach your dreams, even if they encompass the stars themselves!"
Cheers
Davo

For that price and just to play around with it, totally.
But the first thing you should do if you get one would be to go to a service, open it up and clean the dust from the speaker grille.
Or try at home with a toothbrush and a vacuum cleaner. (This is what i personally do, but there is clearly still dust in there because the sound is still cracking at high volume. Plus, dust particles still fly away from the speaker, even after cleaning, if i turn the volume all the way up)
But if you clean it professionally, it has an incredible speaker setup.
Camera now. The Nougat 7.0 update made the camwra usable in low light. (You could try to find the link for SunDream's 7.1.2 S.ROM because is clearly the best Sense-based ROM around here. And also the only one that also raised the API level by 1 over the OTA limit.)
Like, is incredible how much right that one update did... But you lose the 9 seconds of exposure time from the "More Light More Fun" Mod (or something between those lines. Somebody posted the link in this thread anyway).
Anyway, (5.1.1 MLMF + Luma Denoise. What i currently use) in daytime and slightly less than perfect light conditions, the camera performs really good.
The bokeh effect is amazing, like the edge detection is on point. It detects those hair strings like magic.
I did a bokeh test on a moving pine tree branch, and it got all the pins right.
Not a single one got blurred over.
I tried it against the Note 8, the S9+ and the iPhone X (stuff that my classmates have) and beat all of them at edge detection from my personal tests.
The others struggle with reflective surfaces from what i observed.
Anyway, performance.
Good. Doesnt slow down over time.
Never cleaned dalvik, never zipaligned, never optimized databases, never installed a new ROM.
I challenged myself to use it with what it had installed (in my case, the update right before 6.0.1).
It can still play PUBG just fine on HD settings... For like 10 minutes because it heats up and throttles.
But older games work just fine on the highest settings.
Screen. If you can ignore the fact that black is some sort of very dark blue, is ok.
You can play VR with it just fine. You wont notice the pixels.
Also, if you set it on Automatic, it actually goes darker than the lowest brightness setting.
(Also, activating the brightness slider from the customization file still doesnt make it darker than Auto Brightness.)
IR is really useful, imo.
Headphone sound was really good for it's time, but it's still just a 24-bit DAC.
Bluetooth is just AptX and you can feel the compression.
But still enjoyable with Viper FX.
I think you can patch AptX HD tho...
Also if i remeber correctly there is a mod that makes the speakers louder.
And finally Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 is very realistic... If the speakers are clean.
Done. Would i recommend it in 2018?
As a secondary phone, totally.
Would a Butterfly 3 be better? Obviously, if you dont care that much about ROMs and customization. (It has water resistance and dual cameras.)
So... For 60$. Have fun. Install as many ROMs you want.
(Also a good time to buy one because MIUI finally got released, so you have a very wide sellection of ROMs.)