Develop Bugs

[Q] Camera quality CM(JB) vs stock

Hi everyone,
I am considering 'upgrading' my HOV to CM10.1 or AOKP, but I am wondering if the new mods really effect the quality of the onboard camera? I know that the One series all has the HTC imagesense processor, and I was wondering if the newer kernels affected the quality of the camera at all? I enjoy the quality of the camera on stock greatly, so I was wondering if there was a big difference or if anyone did any comparisons?
Thanks!
ps - sorry if this has been asked before, I've searched and come up with nothing...

Stock camera is the best.It's the only reason why some people revert back to stock after trying out JB

stock camera > cm9 > cm10 > cm10.1 even tho cm10.1 camera doesn't work yet... lmao
Sent from my HTC One V using Tapatalk 2

mihirengg19 said:
Stock camera is the best.It's the only reason why some people revert back to stock after trying out JB
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I didn't quite get it.
I am wondering, does JB roms use HTC's ImageSense? If not, does those Sense based ROMs use ImageSense, as they use the stock camera, right?

putkimonitori said:
I didn't quite get it.
I am wondering, does JB roms use HTC's ImageSense? If not, does those Sense based ROMs use ImageSense, as they use the stock camera, right?
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The non-Sense based ROM's don't use the ImageSense chip ( or use it in the same way as stock ). I've Tried SupremU and mySenseV both seem to use the stock camera app and abilities. The CM10/etc use the cyanogen(?) camera, it cannot do the burst or capture during video, I had very little luck getting it going smoothly in CM10, video modes autofocus is wonky too
I did some searching to see if the Stock camera app could somehow be brought into CM10, but from what I could find it appears that the answer it no.. my guess is it's a kernel module needed + a bunch of Sense bits and pieces.

to me the quality seems about the same, but I have noticed that non-stock cameras on our HOV are slower at actually taking the picture, but that could be the settings? idk but I like stock camera, but not enough to switch back to sense... mostly because it makes me use a pin or passcode or pattern to unlock because of the wifi type at my school... it gets annoying

digitalat0m said:
The non-Sense based ROM's don't use the ImageSense chip ( or use it in the same way as stock ). I've Tried SupremU and mySenseV both seem to use the stock camera app and abilities. The CM10/etc use the cyanogen(?) camera, it cannot do the burst or capture during video, I had very little luck getting it going smoothly in CM10, video modes autofocus is wonky too
I did some searching to see if the Stock camera app could somehow be brought into CM10, but from what I could find it appears that the answer it no.. my guess is it's a kernel module needed + a bunch of Sense bits and pieces.
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So, when i use this ROM?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1974415
I have ImageSense in use, as it has the stock camera app, right? (which is the best for me) I really like ImageSense, autofocus in video is great with it and pictures too.

putkimonitori said:
So, when i use this ROM?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1974415
I have ImageSense in use, as it has the stock camera app, right? (which is the best for me) I really like ImageSense, autofocus in video is great with it and pictures too.
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Yup that you do It's the one I've been running this week and it appears to be going quite smoothly.

AOSP vs TW Camera Quality - and 3rd party Apps

Hi All,
Running 4.2.2 AOSP buttery smooth with excellent battery life. Using SOA with SOAP and 240 density I'm getting as good of battery life as Touchwiz based Roms and Kernels.
I love me some AOSP any day over Touchwiz on my Note II EXCEPT:
I really miss the Touchwiz Camera app. I hate the 4.2 Camera App, even hated it on my Nexus 4 before I sold it for my Note II. I even feel like the image quality isn't quite as good.
I don't really want to flash back to a TW to test the camera, and have been searching for an answer. Does TW take better pics than AOSP as far as quality for the Note II? (I know HTC Sense cam app does vs AOSP on the One S/One X for example, so wondering if TW is similar)
For the AOSP users out there, how are you finding the camera app? Have you tried any 3rd party app's like Line Camera? What's the best solution for 3rd party apps?

I'm of the same opinion. I don't necessarily feel the quality of pics is any better, I just prefer the UI and bells and whistles.
This is an about-face for me, as far as the Sammy camera is concerned; on my previous Note and GS2, I didn't like it and always went with a different app (most recently the Camera 4.2). But now, with slo-mo, screenshots, pause, etc etc, I really like it.
My problem is (as noted in another thread on this Q&A board), that all of my video recordings have a "popping" sound on them, and I've done EVERYTHING to try and solve it to no avail.
I've moved on to CM10.1 nightlies and have no prob with the 4.2 camera.
I use alt s-pen apps, so I'm not really beholden to TW, but if my camera worked, I would have stayed.
One more note: I've just started using Snap Camera, which improves upon Camera 4.2, and so far so good.

I have seen several of these threads, never posted on any of them but have seen several. The AOSP camera in my opinion does not take as good of pictures as the stock Samsung camera. The first thing I have noticed is that the pictures taken with the AOSP camera are not as clear or crisp as the TW camera. More noticeable when zoomed in. Secondly the file size of AOSP pictures is often times smaller than the TW file size. This could be just different information stored within the picture but I lean more to picture quality making up the size difference. I could be wrong. Lastly I know it is just my preference but I prefer the TW file naming format versus the AOSP file naming format.

CodeNameRedNeck said:
I have seen several of these threads, never posted on any of them but have seen several. The AOSP camera in my opinion does not take as good of pictures as the stock Samsung camera. The first thing I have noticed is that the pictures taken with the AOSP camera are not as clear or crisp as the TW camera. More noticeable when zoomed in. Secondly the file size of AOSP pictures is often times smaller than the TW file size. This could be just different information stored within the picture but I lean more to picture quality making up the size difference. I could be wrong. Lastly I know it is just my preference but I prefer the TW file naming format versus the AOSP file naming format.
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I am using the Camera and Video a lot right now as I'm a new father, so I'm going to switch back to a TW rom for first time in a while mostly for the Camera for testing and comparing.
I just flashed Jedi XP 12 and Saber Kernel

the touchwiz camera app was fast with picture taking. was very quick when moments were there. does the aosp camera snap pics with the same speed?
i know when i was using my nexus 4, it was a slug compared to the note 2. probably wasn't any faster than taking pics with my galaxy s2.

Try Camera FV-5
Fantastic SLR style app.
Sent from my SGH-I317M using xda premium

Has anyone done or tried to do some actual comparisons between AOSP and TW cameras?
I'm basing this simply off my experience with the phone - I used CleanRom for quite a while, then went 4.2.2 (Rootbox then SOA), and now back to JediXP
Honestly- I miss Sons of Android - I love AOSP - but I still feel like the TW Cam takes better pics.
Am I making this up?

bigystyle84 said:
Has anyone done or tried to do some actual comparisons between AOSP and TW cameras?
I'm basing this simply off my experience with the phone - I used CleanRom for quite a while, then went 4.2.2 (Rootbox then SOA), and now back to JediXP
Honestly- I miss Sons of Android - I love AOSP - but I still feel like the TW Cam takes better pics.
Am I making this up?
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Snap Camera is awesome FTW
Sent From My Custom Inverted VZW Note 2

trentb12 said:
Snap Camera is awesome FTW
Sent From My Custom Inverted VZW Note 2
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I agree that Snap Camera is great. Only one thing I noticed (And this may not be exclusive to Snap Camera, but maybe other AOSP apps):
I did a test to compare the quality of stock vs. Snap Camera. I couldn't discern any difference in quality, but I did notice that the stock app captures "more". What I mean is, I set the camera in the same position, taking identical pics of a box with both apps. The Snap Camera pic cut off the top of the box, but the stock app got the whole box in the picture. It's as though Snap C is slightly zoomed in, compared to stock. No, it wasn't zoomed in. Both were set at same settings, same focus, etc.
Anyway, aside from that, I think it's a great app too.

I was actually wondering if there would be any way to install the samsung camera into an aosp ?
Probably not possible. Just thought about it today. Because I like Liquid Smooth. But some things are not as functional as a tw rom. Like the camera.
I dont like the aosp stock camera it always locks up on me, so I will have to give these other cam apps mentioned above a try.
Good post and replys guys, thanks.

The AOSP camera app, probably isn't able to use all the advanced features of the camera hardware, because the driver is not open source and likely requires the Samsung framework. AOSP is using a basic driver that simply allows it to take picture, but it's not particularly good or useful.
IMO, AOSP is inferior to a TW/Nature UX rom. I would never use an AOSP rom on a Samsung phone. Just too many features I use would be missing, and I don't like the way AOSP looks.

I definitly prefer everything AOSP over TW except the Camera
I am using a TW app though and the camera quality is better - to the point I will get used to TW.

TW vs AOSP Camera tests
QUOTE=bigystyle84;39957450]Has anyone done or tried to do some actual comparisons between AOSP and TW cameras?
I'm basing this simply off my experience with the phone - I used CleanRom for quite a while, then went 4.2.2 (Rootbox then SOA), and now back to JediXP
Honestly- I miss Sons of Android - I love AOSP - but I still feel like the TW Cam takes better pics.
Am I making this up?[/QUOTE]
My wife has a stock S3 and I am running Carbon ROM 1.7. I did some rudimentary testing and was suprised to find that the AOSP camera took slightly better shots. Close ups in good light had better contrast and colour realism than TW.
However I cannot get over the fact that AOSP clips the viewfinder to a widescreen format - it is impossible to frame a photo well because of this. In addition the camera crashes quite regularly and requires a reboot.

hardly anyone mentions video - I currently have CM 10.1 and really like it but the camera/video is a deal breaker for me. Trying to take video renders them unusable because not only about the quality but the sound - horribly distorted, far cry from TW based ROMs can achieve. I find the pix on TW are a bit too bright (taking indoor shots with a lot of light tends to 'blind' the camera too much - easy fix is to bring exposure 2 notches down, and I have a mod that does it automatically). So, sadly, no more AOSP roms for me strictly because of the camera. Return of the Jedi for me

Touchwiz camera is much better..
Tried both on my s3 that I had before this phone and tw roms took much better pics

I hate AOSP camera too and for the same reasons I stick with TW ROMs. However, I really like carbon ROM 1.7 so I found this link to help in the camera area. It's not better than TW but it is a huge improvement over stock camera features. Let me know what you think...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1746611

Tried the mod from the above post and ultra pixel doesn't seem to do much of anything. Just can't zoom as much.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

I find the CM 4.2.2 Camera to be a little quicker with taking pics. I also find it produces more crisp pictures. Could just be me, or the ROM I'm on.
Never really cared for the TW camera gimmicky options; Best Face, Best Picture, Etc.

SNAP Camera settings guide?

Hi there.
Anyone know of a guide for the optimal configuration of SNAP camera for the LG G3?
Thx

I just use the default settings, sometimes i change the exposure or contrast but overall i enjoy the pictures taken with Snap camera. Although I do find the HDR a bit too slow and the Snap gallery is rather a feature I never use.
I've used Snap camera as my main camera app on various roms (AICP, cm, euphoria,...) and performance is equal on every rom. It's a decent replacement for the lg camera on aosp roms but the stock camera and image processing stays the best option for taking pictures on the G3

frandroid-v95 said:
I just use the default settings, sometimes i change the exposure or contrast but overall i enjoy the pictures taken with Snap camera. Although I do find the HDR a bit too slow and the Snap gallery is rather a feature I never use.
I've used Snap camera as my main camera app on various roms (AICP, cm, euphoria,...) and performance is equal on every rom. It's a decent replacement for the lg camera on aosp roms but the stock camera and image processing stays the best option for taking pictures on the G3
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Cool. Thx for the info. I'm not a photography nut, but wanted to configure it as best possible. AOSP features mean more to me than photo quality. I'm happy with SNAPs quality overall. Just wanted to see if I had it correctly configured.

Comparison between stock photos with LineageOS photos?

Since we're not getting the update for Nougat I'm thinking of finally unlocking the phone. The main issue for me is the camera quality. I searched the whole forum but I couldn't find any post comparing the quality of the photos of both ROMs. I was wondering if someone could make a comparison post since it would help a lot of people decide whether to unlock or keep the phone locked.

up! I'm also interested

Stock cam quality is far better than other custom roms btw i am on RR-N-v5.8.2 due to battery and performance i moved from stock to RR.

If you want good photos you must stay to stock rom.
Forget the custom roms for photo quality.

first pic is aosp DU 7.1.1 stock camera
second its imperium stock based 6.0 v10 cam.

raptorddd said:
first pic is aosp DU 7.1.1 stock camera
second its imperium stock based 6.0 v10 cam.
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Well Stock seems clearly better. Maybe results can be change with different apps. BTW shooting raw is another option. what s ur raw shooting app?

ndhakara said:
Well Stock seems clearly better. Maybe results can be change with different apps. BTW shooting raw is another option. what s ur raw shooting app?
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yes i zoomed both pics on the cup i could read better on stock clear image.
i use v10 camera stock app.. its here in theme section i beleive.. and freedcam google it for g+ or in playstore has alot of parameters for manual. for raw. for editing snapseed and photoshop express.

Thank's for this thread. Thousands of posts in the thread but no clear statement on this important fact.

Also, the stock camera seems to be able to focus on closer objects than third party cameras using camera API 2. At least with the (excellent) Footej camera app I wasn't able to focus as close in a controlled test.

On cm or lineage use lightroom camera shoot in raw quality problem solved

Thoughts on how (not) to compare image quality especially with third party apps
Preambel:
in this context "stock camera" means whatever LG packaged into the official LG G4 stock roms, in my case Marshmallow. So no V10 backport/sideport or likewise
"third party camera app" refers mostly to me using "ProShot", but in some cases also "FreeDCam"; but is not limited to
third party is simplified an app not from LG; it is mostly available through Play store or via apk sideload. The point is that for comparison it must be available to - and run on - any custom/AOSP based ROM.
honestly I did not yet go to any custom ROM, neither Stock nor AOSP. My 2016 built G4 (H815) didn't boot loop yet and my 2 years warranty is void in a few months. Therefor and because I might have time in late summer I will go from theoretical to practical.
if and when you use automatic modes and respective filter settings of a camera app, you might not be interested in the detail that I am going into. Honestly, that's nothing wrong and maybe a healthy decision!
as I work very often in manual mode and I constantly adjust these settings to get specific results, it is very important to judge in detail, also doing pixel peeping :cyclops:
These are more hypothetical methods for comparison the stock ROM and custom ROM camera performance. It is a subject that bothers me for quite some time. As I stumbled upon this thread I decided to dump methods on how I would - or better will - do the comparison. Please don't be offended because of me ripping apart the previously mentioned methods.
I believe that the methods presented in this thread - to determine quality difference between Stock and Custom/AOSP based ROM - are quite flawed.
Just to analyze the quality it needs most complete EXIF data. Which isn't available in the posted images. (Again, you might be fine by "just looking" at the automatic mode results .) As I use the stock camera app now and then and mainly ProShot I know that these apps differently set Shutterspeed and ISO under same conditions. I guess, which is done by the expectation and goals of the respective developers. So a good comparison would require to set the values manually. Also focus, as far as it can be done precisely (eg. macro and infinite; as I know only "FreeDCam" provides setting it by values in %)
Yes, the basis for comparison should be a raw image. Example: ProShot has an option for noise reduction. It can be set to "NR HQ/LQ/Off". When taking pictures with these settings you (most of the time) can easily distinguished each from the other. Therefor ProShot either uses different and own algorithms, or it can say to Camera2 API (wild guess...) to do more/less noise reduction. Just by this fact, a comparison between the stock camera JPGs and ProShots JPGs isn't enlightening.
Therefor raw/dng files should be better for comparison. BUT there is the next thing: The stock camera saves DNGs with a different bit depth than ProShot. (I just now cannot name a tool to read the bit depth, but you'll find one). Stock camera creates 10bit files where ProShot creates 16bit files (btw, size is about 20MB vs 30MB). I do not know if ProShot just converts the 10bit data and puts it into a 16bit file. But therefor even a comparison between stock and third party RAW/DNG might not be valid, too!!! FreeDCam offers in its "complex" user interface different RAW bitdepths but I never gave it a try.
Btw, I read once (TL;DR) that modern professional cameras "nowadays output 14bit or even 16bit depth" raws. Therefor another wild guess(!) is that the LG G4 truely outputs only 10bit raws - even for ProShot. I got not the slightest idea on how to determine. Do you? Help appreciated!
Not to compare apples and oranges I would rule out in-depth comparison between stock and third party camera apps as the stock app won't be available. As I am already almost only using third party apps even on stock ROM this makes it in the future much easier for me to determine if and how much custom ROMs influence the LG G4 camera and photo quality.
Until now it's theoretical and addresses the methods that I will use myself in the near future. Sorry for making such a fuzz about it. That's all I can offer for now.

How to get the best camera quality?

So, this is it. I'm running ZUI 2.5.412 ST, and read somewhere that it has a glass lens and it can compete with many high quality cellphone cameras. The thing is, that with stock camera app I'm not getting nearly the performance on mid light as i see on youtube. Pretty much on outside light it looks amazing (anyway, the fact that i cannot tell the difference there doesn't mean that it's not there). Also there are [email protected] videos there, where the stock camera app and stock zui doesn't let me modify the fps settings at any way, the questions are mostl likely:
1) Is stock camera app the best quality option? I'm not into ROMs and this kind of apps neither, so don't know how much it would change. Could I change the fps and more quality settings with this or that is a ROM-thing
2) I want to flash a new ROM (as I read, Jaguar is the most stable) but, if I'm not mistaken, general camera quality for videos and photos on ROMs tends to be worse, can you confirm me this? Or there's a ROM with good photos and video quality that I can check out? I'm using automatic settings and that's mostly what I look for, anyway wouldnt mind having great manual settings to adjust if i want to for some specific shots!
3) When you flash camera blobs and default camera app on a custom ROM, what does it really mean? I can get stock performance on custom ROMs? Will it work for any camera app as long as I install the blobs?
4) What's the native and best output scalation for front camera and front back camera? Don't know how to tell if the lens are 4:3, 1:1 or 16:9, is there info of that somewhere?
Thank you so much!

Stock ZUI has better camera quality than a custom ROM. AFAIK, no one has ported the ZUI camera app and framework to a custom ROM.
On a Nougat custom ROM without camera2 API support, your best bet is the OnePlus camera app. It does HDR, but photos are still awful. This is the current setup I have, and photos are much worse than the Nexus 5 I migrated from (which used the GCam app with HDR+).
Some Oreo ROMs support camera2 API, so you can use a modded GCam app. Google's HDR+ algorithm produces pretty decent photos. This is probably the highest quality you'll get on a custom ROM - but it's still a little unstable at the moment and I don't know how it compares to the ZUI camera.

Passa91 said:
Stock ZUI has better camera quality than a custom ROM. AFAIK, no one has ported the ZUI camera app and framework to a custom ROM.
On a Nougat custom ROM without camera2 API support, your best bet is the OnePlus camera app. It does HDR, but photos are still awful. This is the current setup I have, and photos are much worse than the Nexus 5 I migrated from (which used the GCam app with HDR+).
Some Oreo ROMs support camera2 API, so you can use a modded GCam app. Google's HDR+ algorithm produces pretty decent photos. This is probably the highest quality you'll get on a custom ROM - but it's still a little unstable at the moment and I don't know how it compares to the ZUI camera.
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Yes, but I mean, I saw some photos on youtube/google and also videos, my quality is not even near that, I understand photos could be taken with manual options, but the videos too? Also saw that many low-light videos look slow af, mines doesn't, but the quality is waaaay worse. Don't know what setting I'm missing really. Does the OnePlus camera app let you configure all the settings for photos and video? Or it's as limited as the stock one?

No, the OnePlus app has very few configuration options. It's probably worse than stock in that regard.
You could try flashing one of the ROMs with camera2 API support and see how you find the quality of GCam HDR+. I don't know where you saw videos of fantastic Z2 camera performance - it's always been really disappointing for me personally, regardless of settings or configuration.

Passa91 said:
No, the OnePlus app has very few configuration options. It's probably worse than stock in that regard.
You could try flashing one of the ROMs with camera2 API support and see how you find the quality of GCam HDR+. I don't know where you saw videos of fantastic Z2 camera performance - it's always been really disappointing for me personally, regardless of settings or configuration.
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Just saw a few from youtube, I didn't mean it's fantastic, but it's better than mine for sure

following

I installed jaguar and didn't find any noticeable difference in quality and jaguar let's u change fps...

Some Oreo ROMs support camera2 API, so you can use a modded GCam app. Google's HDR+ algorithm produces pretty decent photos. This is probably the highest quality you'll get on a custom ROM - but it's still a little unstable at the moment and I don't know how it compares to the ZUI camera.
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Click to collapse
Does the modded Google Camera HDR work on these roms?

Passa91 said:
Stock ZUI has better camera quality than a custom ROM. AFAIK, no one has ported the ZUI camera app and framework to a custom ROM.
On a Nougat custom ROM without camera2 API support, your best bet is the OnePlus camera app. It does HDR, but photos are still awful. This is the current setup I have, and photos are much worse than the Nexus 5 I migrated from (which used the GCam app with HDR+).
Some Oreo ROMs support camera2 API, so you can use a modded GCam app. Google's HDR+ algorithm produces pretty decent photos. This is probably the highest quality you'll get on a custom ROM - but it's still a little unstable at the moment and I don't know how it compares to the ZUI camera.
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Click to collapse
I have a nexus 5 , looking to upgrade. Good choice?

I keep switching between ZUI stock camera app, Open Camera, and Camera MX app.
I guess they process images quite differently from each other so at different condition, different app (out of those 3) produce good results.
I am not a camera guru so I rarely go manual. So I keep switching between those three in auto mode to find the best one to shoot.

GopalKaul said:
I have a nexus 5 , looking to upgrade. Good choice?
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I got the Z2 early this year - it was a good replacement for the N5. Similar form factor, much better battery life, faster performance. But the N5 has a better camera and the ROM scene was much better.

Passa91 said:
I got the Z2 early this year - it was a good replacement for the N5. Similar form factor, much better battery life, faster performance. But the N5 has a better camera and the ROM scene was much better.
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Does the ported GCam work on this? The camera on nexus 5 rocks with HDR+... If it works, this device is mine...

GopalKaul said:
Does the ported GCam work on this? The camera on nexus 5 rocks with HDR+... If it works, this device is mine...
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Click to collapse
Yes, but only on Oreo roms because only there does the camera2 api work, and at the time all the Oreo ROMs are on an alpha stage, so unless someone manages to enable c2a on nougat, or if you want to be using an alpha/beta stage roms, you will have to wait a bit for the best experience

panchodmb said:
Yes, but only on Oreo roms because only there does the camera2 api work, and at the time all the Oreo ROMs are on an alpha stage, so unless someone manages to enable c2a on nougat, or if you want to be using an alpha/beta stage roms, you will have to wait a bit for the best experience
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So..... I'm gonna get this beast in 2 months?

panchodmb said:
Yes, but only on Oreo roms because only there does the camera2 api work, and at the time all the Oreo ROMs are on an alpha stage, so unless someone manages to enable c2a on nougat, or if you want to be using an alpha/beta stage roms, you will have to wait a bit for the best experience
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Thanks for the update. That's encouraging! I would've migrated the phone to Oreo if it were not for the lack of Agps.

glasseffects said:
Thanks for the update. That's encouraging! I would've migrated the phone to Oreo if it were not for the lack of Agps.
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There is no GPS on the phone?

GopalKaul said:
There is no GPS on the phone?
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There is gps and Agps, maybe he meant that on actual Oreo roms there's no way to enable Agps, don't know

GopalKaul said:
There is no GPS on the phone?
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A-GPS is network assisted GPS and it's not yet possible on Oreo for ZUK Z2. GPS on the other hand will work but a location fix will take minutes, that means no instantaneous location sharing or resolution in apps.