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?
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.

Returning my G5 to get a HTC 10

I have been on the LG waggon sense the G2 so on day one I went out and got the G5 and was very disappointed with the quality of the device screen quality isn't bad but has terrible light bleed and I also have a ripple in my screen when I press on the center of it this is my second G5 I wanted to like it but it's back to HTC for me my last HTC phone was that M8 sense was always my favorite Android skin I'm hoping this phone lives up to the potential hype so my question is are there anyone out there who will be returning there G5 S7 or S7 Edge to get a HTC 10

dino1342 said:
I have been on the LG waggon sense the G2 so on day one I went out and got the G5 and was very disappointed with the quality of the device screen quality isn't bad but has terrible light bleed and I also have a ripple in my screen when I press on the center of it this is my second G5 I wanted to like it but it's back to HTC for me my last HTC phone was that M8 sense was always my favorite Android skin I'm hoping this phone lives up to the potential hype so my question is are there anyone out there who will be returning there G5 S7 or S7 Edge to get a HTC 10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe a lot of G5 maybe returned but I doubt the S7/Edge as they have a lot more advantage over the HTC 10 such like water/dust proofing, fast wireless charging, much better re-sale value, screen quality, potentially a faster and reliable camera to name but a few. The G5 was just a rushed prototype, perhaps they'll get it right next flagship as I like the modular concept.

dino1342 said:
I have been on the LG waggon sense the G2 so on day one I went out and got the G5 and was very disappointed with the quality of the device screen quality isn't bad but has terrible light bleed and I also have a ripple in my screen when I press on the center of it this is my second G5 I wanted to like it but it's back to HTC for me my last HTC phone was that M8 sense was always my favorite Android skin I'm hoping this phone lives up to the potential hype so my question is are there anyone out there who will be returning there G5 S7 or S7 Edge to get a HTC 10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used jump on demand for lg g5 from s7 edge and now i think i will jump again to htc 10. Only reason i jumped from s7 edge was hifi plus module but it looks like it will take a long time to come to us. In the meantime, the idea of buying module kinda died on me and now i am thinking why should i spend extra 200 bucks for module if htc 10 comes with a great audio? So yes as soon as htc 10 becomes available i am jumping again. I have to say if i have to choose between s7 edge and g5, i will pick s7 edge fast. I regretted jumpimg to g5 and that was the first time i felt regretted while in jump on demand program lol. S7 edge is that good, it has most of things right and i only wished they had an extra good audio. Only the idea of getting module resisted my thought of returning.

Sorry you wasted a Jump from the S7E to that poor excuse for a Flagship named the G5.
I actually still have 1 more Jump on Demand left to use before it resets in June. I have the S7E right now bit I've been debating on jumping to the HTC 10. The only reason I'm debating it is because I've always been an HTC fan and i prefer a better audio experience.
What I'm worried about though is the following when compared to my S7E.
1. Inferior display
2. Inferior storage speeds
3. Inferior main camera
4. Smaller battery
5. Smaller display
Why I'm thinking about jumping to the HTC 10:
1. Better audio through speakers and 3.5mm jack.
2. HTC Sense is much better and less bloated than TouchWiz
3. Lower display response time and less input lag
In regards to design/look and feel. I think they are both nice looking phones. The S7E might get the edge due to the curved display. I also like the way the HTC 10 looks. It's a very simple machinist look if that makes any sense.
At the end of the day I am happy with my S7 Edge but am thinking about using a jump on demand for the HTC 10. Please give me some reasons why is should just hold on to the S7E or jump to the HTC 10.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

jrwingate6 said:
Sorry you wasted a Jump from the S7E to that poor excuse for a Flagship named the G5.
I actually still have 1 more Jump on Demand left to use before it resets in June. I have the S7E right now bit I've been debating on jumping to the HTC 10. The only reason I'm debating it is because I've always been an HTC fan and i prefer a better audio experience.
What I'm worried about though is the following when compared to my S7E.
1. Inferior display
2. Inferior storage speeds
3. Inferior main camera
4. Smaller battery
5. Smaller display
Why I'm thinking about jumping to the HTC 10:
1. Better audio through speakers and 3.5mm jack.
2. HTC Sense is much better and less bloated than TouchWiz
3. Lower display response time and less input lag
In regards to design/look and feel. I think they are both nice looking phones. The S7E might get the edge due to the curved display. I also like the way the HTC 10 looks. It's a very simple machinist look if that makes any sense.
At the end of the day I am happy with my S7 Edge but am thinking about using a jump on demand for the HTC 10. Please give me some reasons why is should just hold on to the S7E or jump to the HTC 10.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
You are like me lol. I liked the s7 edge probably the best phone i ever used but i want better audio experience too among other things. Also i am addicted to phones that are somewhat unique and i believe htc 10 is one of them haha. Just jump to htc 10, that is what i will do.

jkforce said:
You are like me lol. I liked the s7 edge probably the best phone i ever used but i want better audio experience too among other things. Also i am addicted to phones that are somewhat unique and i believe htc 10 is one of them haha. Just jump to htc 10, that is what i will do.
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Click to collapse
Yea. I figure if I jump to the 10 and don't like it that much I could always jump to the Note 6 and then the next Nexus being how my jump on demand restarts in June. Then I get 3 more upgrades.
I love Jump on demand. I feel bad for those who couldnt get it in time.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

jrwingate6 said:
Sorry you wasted a Jump from the S7E to that poor excuse for a Flagship named the G5.
I actually still have 1 more Jump on Demand left to use before it resets in June. I have the S7E right now bit I've been debating on jumping to the HTC 10. The only reason I'm debating it is because I've always been an HTC fan and i prefer a better audio experience.
What I'm worried about though is the following when compared to my S7E.
1. Inferior display
2. Inferior storage speeds
3. Inferior main camera
4. Smaller battery
5. Smaller display
Why I'm thinking about jumping to the HTC 10:
1. Better audio through speakers and 3.5mm jack.
2. HTC Sense is much better and less bloated than TouchWiz
3. Lower display response time and less input lag
In regards to design/look and feel. I think they are both nice looking phones. The S7E might get the edge due to the curved display. I also like the way the HTC 10 looks. It's a very simple machinist look if that makes any sense.
At the end of the day I am happy with my S7 Edge but am thinking about using a jump on demand for the HTC 10. Please give me some reasons why is should just hold on to the S7E or jump to the HTC 10.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
1. Don't be so quick to judge, I'd wait for Anandtech's full review. So far Joshua hasn't said anything majorly negative about it[1][2]. All I've heard is that it has a reddish tint if you look at it from non-realistic angles. Same applies to AMOLED displays. I'd personally be more concerned about getting a bad AMOLED with blotchy, uneven colors or green tint with the shades of grey..
2. Again, don't be so quick to judge.
Just saying "inferior storage speed" doesn't accurately describe the storage speed differences.They're whole different beasts.
And if you're complaining about the storage speed, then you MUST be talking about it in context of file transfers because I cannot imagine what you could possibly be doing on your phone that would need faster sequential read speed, because that's where the S7/S7E is faster where as the HTC 10 has faster sequential write speeds thanks to the SLC write cache.
Here's Anandtech's storage speed numbers from the HTC 10 battery life/storage speed article[2].
Of course this is just sequential reads and writes, what's important are the random 4K numbers because that's what using the phone is.
Unfortunately AndroBench 3.6 is borked on Android 6 and AndroBench 4 is just not consistent enough. So only sequential numbers for now..
But what we can do is look at previous random 4K read/write speeds.
And then we can guesstimate the random 4K speeds of the iNAND 7232 inside the HTC 10.
The previous version, iNAND 7132 boasted 2800/3300 IOPS for random 4K read/write respectively according to specs. But again, not sure in what circumstances you can get these numbers.
That's MBps = (IOPS * KB IO size) / 1024
(2800*4) / 1024 = 10.9MBps (plausible)
(3300*4) / 1024 = 12.8MBps (uhm, this seems a bit inflated)
iNAND 7132 was eMMC 5.0 where as iNAND 7232 is eMMC 5.1, the reason I mention that is because
This new solution also supports eMMC 5.1 with a command queue to improve random IO read speeds.
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Click to collapse
So in theory we should have higher random 4K read speeds on the iNAND 7232 IF your workload has an I/O queue higher than 1. Multitasking would be one of those scenarios.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9019/sandisk-announces-inand-7132-slctlc-hybrid-emmc
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9432/sandisk-announces-inand-7232-emmc-51-128gb-and-slctlc
Actually the LG V10 uses the iNAND 7232, notebookcheck.net has random 4K numbers for it. 30/16MB/s read/write respectively, but I'm not sure of the settings they used with AndroBench 3. So take those numbers with a grain of salt.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/LG-V10-Smartphone-Review.158944.0.html
Also if you find any random 4K read/write speed results of the HTC 10 on internet, like ArsTechnica's, I'd take them with a HUGE grain of salt.
Hunt3rj2 on Reddit a.k.a Joshua Ho from Anandtech said:
I don't enjoy calling out other sites for poor testing methodology but I can at least explain how Ars Technica arrived at those results.
In short, they're using AndroBench's default settings other than changing sequential to 256KB. The default settings are designed to give a huge advantage to UFS in ways that real apps generally do not.
By default, AndroBench uses 8 IO threads for all of its tests. This behavior showed up with AndroBench 4 and continues in AndroBench 4.1.
eMMC is half-duplex, and designed for single-threaded IO tasks. It's not the greatest system, but it is the most common storage in use in Android phones, so applications are going to be designed for eMMC storage instead of the 5 or so phones that are shipping with UFS storage. Multi-threaded IO actually can negatively affect storage performance with eMMC because of resource contention issues, so in general it's rare to see multi-threaded IO in real apps.
This leads to the results that Ars Technica is seeing. There's also an element of variability with AndroBench out of the box because the file size is 64MB. I've found that in the move from AndroBench 3.6 to 4.1 that the test has become far less stable and results can vary significantly from run to run, so I usually take the mode of multiple runs to get a result to report.
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Although one argued that
I can confidently say that almost no app developer designs their app based on eMMC or UFS storage. No one cares what kind of storage is in a phone.
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To which Joshua responded
That's fair, but generally speaking it's more difficult to implement multithreading than not. Using 8 threads for IO is going to be a rare situation at best.
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To which I completely agree.
On top of that, your S7 Edge has USB 2.0 which in real life tops around at 40-45MB/s while the HTC 10 has USB 3.1 Gen 1 (=USB 3.0) interface. Which is mind bogglingly fast compared to USB 2.0.
Which means that with the HTC 10 you'll be able to read/write to the phone at pretty much as fast as the storage allows, where as with the S7 Edge you're limited by the USB 2.0 transfer speed.
Aaaaaand inb4 someone mentions "but with 2x2 802.11ac you're going to have 867Mbps...". No. Just no.
You're going to be looking at ~600Mbps of real bandwidth in the best possible scenario with an excellent WiFi implementation (like iPad Pro) which is without anyone else sharing airtime with your device and standing right next to the access point. Add another device or more to the scenario or increase the distance between you and the AP > and you've dropped below USB 2.0 speeds.
Let's also throw in there the fact that HTC is going to allow us to use the Adoptable Storage feature of Android 6 > we can have truck loads of fast storage on the phone, assuming you buy a fast microSD card that is
We don't have confirmation yet but I'm hoping that the HTC 10 would have UHS-II bus interface. The A9 has UHS-I U3 so that's what we'll have at minimum (95/90MB/s cards) but it would be really nice if it would be UHS-II U3.
3. In what ways? Dxomark ranked the camera quite high. Of course it's not perfect but I wouldn't call it "inferior". It's certainly on par from what I've seen and heard.
S7/S7E auto focus speed is of course miles better and ridiculously fast thanks to PDAF but how often will you be shooting photos in perfectly lit conditions where PDAF reigns supreme?
In photos the two are very evenly matched but if video recording is more important to you, that is where the S7 is better, stabilization and noise wise.
Although the audio portion does make the 10 a bit more appealing in the video recording side of things. Stereo recording with noise cancellation is pretty freaking nice, wouldn't you agree?
Of course I would like PDAF for video recording on the HTC 10 because PDAF is freaking awesome but you can't have everything.
4. Pretty much inline with it's size. Sure I would've liked a, say 3200mAh capacity but they would've had to make the device slightly thicker, which I wouldn't mind of course, but in this day and age thinness has been
5. Um. Ok.
[1] http://anandtech.com/show/10238/hands-on-with-the-htc-10
[2] http://anandtech.com/show/10252/htc-10-battery-storage-results

Damn dude. Quite the long response. I didn't say any of these things were definitely going to be worse on the HTC. I just said I was worried about these areas.
Am I not thinking correctly when I say I'm worried the HTC display won't be as good as the S7? The S7 only has the highest rated mobile display.
Am I not thinking correctly when I say I'm worried the camera won't be as good? The S7 only has the highest rated camera.
Am I not thinking correctly when I say I'm worried that I won't get as good of battery life out of the HTC? I'm only getting 8 hours of SOT with over 30 hours on a single charge.
Good point on the NAND argument by the way.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

jrwingate6 said:
Damn dude. Quite the long response. I didn't say any of these things were definitely going to be worse on the HTC. I just said I was worried about these areas.
Am I not thinking correctly when I say I'm worried the HTC display won't be as good as the S7? The S7 only has the highest rated mobile display.
Am I not thinking correctly when I say I'm worried the camera won't be as good? The S7 only has the highest rated camera.
Am I not thinking correctly when I say I'm worried that I won't get as good of battery life out of the HTC? I'm only getting 8 hours of SOT with over 30 hours on a single charge.
Good point on the NAND argument by the way.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That NAND argument is only viable in file transfers, specifically from computer to the phone. I personally dont transfer filesvia wired connection, i just use airdroid and give it time to transfer. But in real world performance, The S7 has much better read speed which equates to better day to day use (app opening times etc...)

I am thinking...unlocked boot loader? If the s7 had unlocked boot loader I would have kept it. But I simply want custom roms and can't have it with the s7. The main feature of the s7 that hooked me was ip68. I mean i can just toss any phone in a zip lock baggie and use it but Still. G5 is out. I am still curious the next nexus devices and the note 6 but honestly I am tired of wielding such large phone single handedly it's getting old. I was smaller phone with huge battery, ip68, stellar audio and decent camera and display. I would choose the 10 over the s7 at this point because of boot loader. If that doesn't matter then s7.
Sent from my LG-H901 using XDA-Developers mobile app

Battery Life Gets Rave Review
This reviewer says battery life could be as high as two days with normal use. He said he got more than a day with heavy use and testing.
http://bgr.com/2016/04/14/htc-10-review/
The screen isn't going to be on par with the S7, but it sounds like the 10 might be the phone many of us were hoping the S7 would be.
I'm on Verizon, and I'll probably jump on this phone if Big Red doesn't screw up the bootloader options.

Screen vs S7 is subjective.
For me the S7 is AMOLED, so is automatically pants, lol.
Having seen the HTC 10, I'd have definitely returned the G5 I had on order, if it had turned up, but the order was delayed to 22nd April - clearly meant to be.

You guys get a bit to technical for me (no offense whatsoever meant), but am I missing something with the screen? Sure, AMOLED is amazing in bright light situations, however I can't bear the over saturation in colors on AMOLED screens. I also read that AMOLED has a much shorter lifespan in comparison. Maybe I've been away from AMOLED too long, but I never liked them.
With regard to cameras, I shoot a vast majority in low light situations, so Ultrapixel wins all day in that respect.
I'll admit I'm a HTC fan boy, but with the M9 I was so disappointed I went to a LG V10. The sound (phones, not speaker) are very good and the camera IMHO is the best all around on a smartphone. The 10 has me itching to make the jump back to HTC. My only disappointment thus far is that they moved a speaker to the bottom. Everything else seems like a major step forward.

hunteditor said:
This reviewer says battery life could be as high as two days with normal use. He said he got more than a day with heavy use and testing.
http://bgr.com/2016/04/14/htc-10-review/
The screen isn't going to be on par with the S7, but it sounds like the 10 might be the phone many of us were hoping the S7 would be.
I'm on Verizon, and I'll probably jump on this phone if Big Red doesn't screw up the bootloader options.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There has not been a phone were verizon left the bootloader unlocked. You'll have better luck buying the unlocked version and hoping it works on verizon.

WorldOfJohnboy said:
You guys get a bit to technical for me (no offense whatsoever meant), but am I missing something with the screen? Sure, AMOLED is amazing in bright light situations, however I can't bear the over saturation in colors on AMOLED screens. I also read that AMOLED has a much shorter lifespan in comparison. Maybe I've been away from AMOLED too long, but I never liked them.
With regard to cameras, I shoot a vast majority in low light situations, so Ultrapixel wins all day in that respect.
I'll admit I'm a HTC fan boy, but with the M9 I was so disappointed I went to a LG V10. The sound (phones, not speaker) are very good and the camera IMHO is the best all around on a smartphone. The 10 has me itching to make the jump back to HTC. My only disappointment thus far is that they moved a speaker to the bottom. Everything else seems like a major step forward.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn where do you ppl get these infos from, i have friends using the S1 and it still works with no burning what so ever. That is 7yrs.

I bet I could spot burn in on a 7 year old AMOLED phone, unless it's never been turned on.
It's just the display tech, the notification bar will almost certainly be ghosting on a phone that old.

FalconFX said:
Damn where do you ppl get these infos from, i have friends using the S1 and it still works with no burning what so ever. That is 7yrs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Burn in is one thing, but degradation is a different animal. Here's one example: http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/features/item/20372_Do_AMOLED_phone_screens_degrad.php
Again, everything is subjective, but for me most important is color reproduction and saturation, which AMOLED quite frankly sucks at. I remember on my older Notes and S phones, half the pictures I took of family, skin displayed as orange on the phone, but accurate tones on my laptop or LCD/LED displays.

Add me to the club of G5 owners who ditched it. Battery life wasnt good for me. I could never get higher than 4hr sot. I never had bt running or gps either and brightness on 35-40% because auto was always too dim. Device was very fast though. Didnt have build issues but didnt feel like a $600+ phone. Preorded HTC 10 in glacier wooot wooot

Here's one review comparing the 4 major flagships. HTC 10 is #2 and the G5 is last (pretty significantly so).
http://www.stuff.tv/features/smartp...s-vs-htc-10/and-winner-samsung-galaxy-s7-edge

WorldOfJohnboy said:
Burn in is one thing, but degradation is a different animal. Here's one example: http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/features/item/20372_Do_AMOLED_phone_screens_degrad.php
Again, everything is subjective, but for me most important is color reproduction and saturation, which AMOLED quite frankly sucks at. I remember on my older Notes and S phones, half the pictures I took of family, skin displayed as orange on the phone, but accurate tones on my laptop or LCD/LED displays.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well even that is no problem, they stil look pretty good, no problems whatsoever. AMOLED is the most color acxcurate display on the market if you use Photo mode in the settings

HTC 10 vs Samsung S7

Hello, I have been a long time fan of HTC, and still use my One S from 2012. Back then the one series was the best in every department, the Samsung equivalent has was nowhere in sight.
Anyway time has finally come to upgrade, and looking at the reviews I am torn between the HTC 10 and Samsung S7. I know there must be plenty of threads on this topic, but I couldn't find any using the search, so please link if there is any. I created a list below, but I wanted the opinions of the owners to tell me if they are accurate.
HTC 10 Pros:
Unlocked Bootloader/Easy custom ROMS
Best Lite Android UI (Sense)
Use SD Card are Internal Storage
Boomsound and Audio Codecs
USB 3.0
S7 Pros:
AMOLED >>>> LCD
Camera??
Waterproofing
A lot has been said about the camera problems with the HTC 10, the latest update v1.51 was supposed to address the issues. Have any owners received the update and has it improved to match the S7? And I guess with further updates the camera can only get better...
But on the other hand, surely with time the S7 will become unlockable and easy to install custom ROM's? And if so I could easily install a better ROM with near stock android UI
Not sure what to decide. What do owners think of my list, do they agree with the things I have said??
Cheers

Well I have the S7 Edge and I decided to buy the HTC 10 because I was sick of all the issues the S7 Edge had, if that tells you anything.
Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

At the end of the day, both devices are more than capable, so I'm forced to be a little nitpicky and look at what I consider big cons for me that I've read about throughout my research on both. I do want the HTC 10 far more.
HTC 10 has been experiencing random screen issues, such as pink/yellow tints.
SG7 has been experiencing random pink tints, too, plus an apparent dead zone on the lowest point of the screen. I've also read about the camera glass randomly cracking/shattering. The entire phone being incased in glass makes me very nervous. A bump/drop could mean a shattered phone instead of a cracked screen.
Sadly, due to my wedding/money issues I'm forced to use my BestBuy credit to upgrade, so if the unlocked HTC 10 does not come to BestBuy, I'm forced into a Exynos G7.

I've got the TMo S7 and will probably switch to the 10 when it's available for Jump.
The S7 is definitely not a bad phone at all. I love the waterproofing on it and only have a few minor complaints. The speaker isn't great, probably takes a hit from the waterproofing. I get a lot of accidental touches on the edges of the screen from my palm when using it one handed. Lastly, the home button is pretty loud. I use my phone a lot in bed while my fiancée is asleep, and it just seems deafeningly loud (exaggerating a lot, but in a quite bedroom it is noticeable).
I haven't used an HTC device in a few years so I'm not sure how it will compare, but I'm looking forward to giving it a shot.

I went from a Note 5 to the HTC 10 (just look at my signature for order of devices...I have zero brand loyalty). Couple buddies of mine went to the S7E. Nice device, but just like the Note 5, forget modding it. To me it looks like a bigger fisher price phone. Flashy design, flashy bold colors, and absolutely zero customization. No thanks...never again. I would have went for a Nexus phone but I like the SD slot so HTC 10 was my pick.

Sammy Exynos versions are unlockable and have a dev community going. It's just the US versions that are locked down.
Sammy isn't as forgiving as GTC, though, and rooting and such will void your warranty.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using XDA Free mobile app

I don't have a preference between LCD and AMOLED, honestly. AMOLED has its strengths, but I like better color reproduction vs. saturation. This is, of course, a personal preference. And I'm pretty sure the 10's camera is aboooooouuuut as good as the S7's, especially post-update. Dxomark thought so, anyway.
I'd hate to inflame a useless Samsung vs. HTC flame war, but Samsung's button placement and UI make me want to smash their phones off of a concrete floor, douse them in lighter fluid, burn them, and fire them into the sun.

I'm on T-Mobile, and with the locked bootloader on the S7, I'm about to JUMP again to the HTC 10, personally. The S7 is nice if you don't care about rooting, but I'm too much of a tinkerer to do without. There's a workaround for adoptable storage on the S7, but it causes the reporting of the storage to mess up and display wrong information, which makes me wonder if that's why Samsung left it out. The cameras will likely be fairly even since the update, and honestly, I listen to music more than I take pictures, so the 10 is better suited for me. I also am not a fan at all of Samsung's UI, but I thought I'd be able to fix that with root.

I'm on T-Mobile as well and have one more Jump until June with Jump on Demand. I'm waiting for the 10 to hit their stores so I can make up my mind.
I obviously can't make a pro's and con's list since I don't own the 10 but I can make a list of what I'm worried about switching from the S7 Edge to the HTC 10.
1. Battery......I have gotten a taste of what 8 hours SOT and over a day of usage tastes like. After reading some posts regarding the 10's battery life, it looks like one area I'd regret.
2. Display.....Putting the AMOLED/LCD argument aside because honestly, I could care less what display technology my phone has just as long as it's a good display. What I'm worried about however is the size and brightness. I use my phone a lot outdoors and after reading some reviews, it looks like the S7E is much brighter in direct sunlight. In regards to screen size, I've been using a phone with a 5.5 inch + display for the past 2 years and feel like anything below 5.5in. will feel small.
3. Camera.....I love the camera on the S7E and as of right now, I believe it to be the better camera in most situations as of right now. I do think HTC will improve the 10's camera through updates but it still worries me.
If HTC would have built this exact phone around a 5.5in display and a 3600 mAh battery, it would have made my decision much easier. I like the speaker design and I love how they didn't skin Android's UI to death. Granted it doesn't really effect me too much since Nova is the first app I install on every phone.
I guess we will see what happens on the 18th when the phone hit's T-Mobile shelves.

jrwingate6 said:
I'm on T-Mobile as well and have one more Jump until June with Jump on Demand. I'm waiting for the 10 to hit their stores so I can make up my mind.
I obviously can't make a pro's and con's list since I don't own the 10 but I can make a list of what I'm worried about switching from the S7 Edge to the HTC 10.
1. Battery......I have gotten a taste of what 8 hours SOT and over a day of usage tastes like. After reading some posts regarding the 10's battery life, it looks like one area I'd regret.
2. Display.....Putting the AMOLED/LCD argument aside because honestly, I could care less what display technology my phone has just as long as it's a good display. What I'm worried about however is the size and brightness. I use my phone a lot outdoors and after reading some reviews, it looks like the S7E is much brighter in direct sunlight. In regards to screen size, I've been using a phone with a 5.5 inch + display for the past 2 years and feel like anything below 5.5in. will feel small.
3. Camera.....I love the camera on the S7E and as of right now, I believe it to be the better camera in most situations as of right now. I do think HTC will improve the 10's camera through updates but it still worries me.
If HTC would have built this exact phone around a 5.5in display and a 3600 mAh battery, it would have made my decision much easier. I like the speaker design and I love how they didn't skin Android's UI to death. Granted it doesn't really effect me too much since Nova is the first app I install on every phone.
I guess we will see what happens on the 18th when the phone hit's T-Mobile shelves.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could run into a Verizon store and check it out. That's what I did as I was waiting for mine to arrive. I'm very satisfied with the 10. Only downside I've had is screen brightness outdoors.
Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

From S7E to HTC 10

So. I'm seriously considering getting an HTC 10. Reasons below
Performance on the S7E SD820 is inconsistent
Battery life has taken a turn for the worst
Audio quality is not up to snuff
Fragile construction
Edge screen is visually striking, but false touches are annoying
Simple question: how is HTC 10? Is the performance as good as I think it is? Any annoyances I should know of?

I find performance to be decent. I can quickly switch between 5 apps, keeping each one in memory with no problem. *However* the phone does tend to show quite a bit of visual jank. So not everything is butter smooth 60fps all the time (I'd say around 20% it hits 60fps and around 80% it lags to something closer to 30fps ) I've tried multiple ROMs and kernels to see if I could get consistent 60fps in any but all of them eventually janked.
I've seen the false touches you're referring to on a friend's S7E and the HTC 10 doesn't have anything like that. Maybe the touch latency is a tiny bit higher but quite accurate.
I use my phone without a case because I love how it feels in the hand. I've dropped it a couple of times but I've had no scratching because of the skin I've put on it.
Overall I think is an okay phone that's not worth the $700 I paid for it. Having now the OP3 and other $400 smartphones on the market, meh

Willyman said:
So. I'm seriously considering getting an HTC 10. Reasons below
Performance on the S7E SD820 is inconsistent
Battery life has taken a turn for the worst
Audio quality is not up to snuff
Fragile construction
Edge screen is visually striking, but false touches are annoying
Simple question: how is HTC 10? Is the performance as good as I think it is? Any annoyances I should know of?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with the device's real life performance and few bugs and amazing development so far for a device which is only few months old.... suggestion would be go for 10 or wait for a nexus device which might be released by oct end and supposedly to be manufactured by HTC itself...
edge screen is a bummer that curves

I'm using 10 and 7E for a time. And with me, the 10 is sooooo !!!! Better. Really good designs, manly, good dev support, great battery. And believe me, the note 7 is sooo !! Ugly... i'm hand-on this phone yesterday. HTC 10 still my main phone for now.

thanks for the info

alfred4 said:
thanks for the info
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the S7 Edge and I have to say the reason why I moved to the HTC is for the music player which is fantastic by comparison to the S7 which is oversaturated in bass. When I got the HTC I found it felt like an ordinary phone as I was so used to having an uber stylish phone(S7) in my hand and the screen being much smaller took some getting used to. I have to say its quite a different experience and I believe the HTC 10 is clearly the better phone as it has a more all round feel to it.
The S7 has a way better camera and the screen is marginally better, the S7 clearly hjas its benefits so tbh I think you should go to a phone store and try the HTC out before you commit to buying the HTC unless you intend to have both in which case its win win.

I came to the 10 from the S7Edge in June after the S7E took an unfortunate 3 ft fall to the floor and shattered the screen. Decided that since I couldn't protect the "edge" screen without giving up touch sensitivity, I'd give the 10 a try. So far, it's much better than the S7E was in almost every regard.
1) Cellular/WiFi/BT. All 3 seem stronger on the HTC. I don't drop calls, can pick up my WiFi 3 houses away (S7E was in my back yard at best). BT had weird connection issues with the S7.
2) Battery much better. I don't care that the S7E has a larger battery. The 10 has been getting me an average of 24-28hrs total with 4hr screen while streaming BT audio from Spotify for 12 hrs per work day. S7E I had to have a charger, because at about 10hr, battery would be at 5-10%.
3) Camera-sure the S7E may have a better camera for speed shots and low light, but I have not had nearly as much of the odd overprocessed photos I had with the S7E in my experience with the 10 (in point and shoot "auto" setting). In manual, I can actually get better photos with some tweaking
4) Screen-S7E takes it here with one large exception....you can't protect that beautiful edge. The 10 may not have perfect protectors, but at least there are some decent tempered glass screen protectors. Also think that the screen on the 10 is still a very good screen overall.
5) Performance, I'd say that the 10 is faster response. Now, I don't play games. I use my phone primarily as a communication, music, social media, google, ordering device. I can't say how it'll compare in a game, but in multi-tasking, I find the 10 faster. Could be due to TW being so bloated (even with Sammy's supposed "slimming"). Which bring me to my next point
6) Sense. MUCH better than TW. Can't say how much I prefer the setup and ease of Sense compared to TW.
7) Charging-S7E took a long time to charge even with stock "quick" charger, and if you go for wireless, then be prepared to have it sit even longer. The 10 charges much faster.
There are some things that take some getting used to. First 2 weeks, I kept trying to "press" the home/fingerpring button like the S7E. Button location took a bit to get used to.
Overall, I don't regret changing out to the 10. Great device that unfortunately isn't getting the type of love it really should.

@Th3Bill
The HTC 10 doesn't use sense?
From what I saw it looked like almost vanilla android.
Just for clarification. That you don't get a overblown UI (sense, TW,...)

kar5ten said:
@Th3Bill
The HTC 10 doesn't use sense?
From what I saw it looked like almost vanilla android.
Just for clarification. That you don't get a overblown UI (sense, TW,...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's Sense 8.0.
Sent from my HTC 10

Have the 10 and opo 3. Opo 3 is what i like to use because of AMOLED and it's snappier and better to hold in the hand imo. Only cons for the 10 is that the display colors are not popping like AMOLED and software is not stock Android but pretty close to it.
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA-Developers mobile app

I've come from a Nexus 6p to the HTC 10 and prefer the sense overlay rather than stock android, with the 10 i think they've got it right its more or less stock but with some good added features, I also listen to a lot of music with headphones and this phone has the best sound i've listened to yet buy some distance, got to just add as well the Nexus 6p gets rave reviews but i bent 2 of them IMO they are massively over rated and this phone should be right up there on anyone's shopping list, this HTC 10 feels much better construction than my 6p, i was on my 2nd Nexus by now there's not a mark on my HTC...

kar5ten said:
@Th3Bill
The HTC 10 doesn't use sense?
From what I saw it looked like almost vanilla android.
Just for clarification. That you don't get a overblown UI (sense, TW,...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uses Sense. But the latest version of Sense is quite a bit less bloated and heavy than the latest version of TW.

Just Ordered the OnePlus 5t - Negative Reviews - Should I return Phone?

On the way from Fedex...
Any reason to keep it with Defects in camera/video etc
Thanks,
rp

It's not that bad a camera, the rest of the phone makes up for it
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

Keep it. I selled my samsung s8 and buy the 5T. I am not sorry for the choice i've made.

The nonsense about the camera is overblown. They are comparing it to the Google Pixel or iPhone 8 x.
PIXEL xl screen is nowhere is good as the 5T IMHO.
My camera takes as good a photo as my daughters iPhone 7plus. Actually, better at times.
If you want a good a camera, go buy a Canon DSLR and lenses for $15,000.
With that said, do what you want. Nobody really cares and it is your decision and money. If a camera is that important, move on.
BTW, I've been a HTC person since the Google Nexus One, HTC 7, 8, 9, 10, A9 and so forth, like 8+yrs. The OnePlus 5T is better than anything HTC has out there. Camera is as good/better than HTC phones. They've never had a great camera, but still one of the most popular phone. Only thing I miss, HTC has one of the best Dev support on the Forum going for it...but OnePlus is doing OK, and works very similar to the HTC brand when it comes to modding/Dev support...just a better phone though.

keep it !
i love it, my best smartphone till today !

I honestly think it depends what you're used to. I've been using cheap Jiayu and Xiaomi devices for years now. I love the 5T but for me this cost more than my last three phones combined. I love the speed of it, the ample RAM and generous storage, but it's not 3x better than my last phone. I dislike the yellowy tint of the Amoled screen compared to my last LCD, but I don't regret the purchase at all. It's a great device.
As far as the camera goes, it's honestly fine. More than anything I hate the awful panorama mode that results in a less than impressive image unless you can hold the phone totally level (in portrait) as you pan round.
Finally, I really miss the Xiaomi one handed mode. Also, the screen doesn't dim as far as my last Xiaomi.
I'm nit picking though. I bought my partner one and she absolutely loves it!

You wont get anything other then biased thoughts here. No one on these forums will tell you the blunt truth. You will have to make up your own mind.

zelendel said:
You wont get anything other then biased thoughts here. No one on these forums will tell you the blunt truth. You will have to make up your own mind.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recently sold my Galaxy S8+ to buy a OnePlus 5t. So a comparison, what I really liked about the S8+...
1. The camera, it's one of the very best single lens cameras on a smart phone. It's hard to fault in a wide variety of situations and more often you will come away with a more than satisfactory snap.
2. The build quality is an eye to behold it's a stunningly beautiful piece of engineering, looks amazing.... But it does come at a cost, which I'll explain in the dislikes.
3. The Samsung experience is a lot better than in the past with many options for customisation.
And here's what I disliked and why I changed....
1. I love the whole Google lightweight approach. Much of Samsung's value added software is bloatware that simply doesn't add enough perceived value for the hassle it so often causes. Bixby is the crowning glory, it completely gets in your way unlike the Google assistant. Other problems Sammy proprietary software causes is slowdown, some is immediately noticeable, some happens over time. And of course the Sammy 'look' which is very different from stock. I particularly disliked Samsung's redesign of the quick settings pulldown.
2. That beautiful piece of engineering isn't without its problems. The widely reported badly placed finger print reader being a constant annoyance.... But there's more.....fgs don't drop it at any height. Mine ended up as an insurance repair twice in the space of 3 months. A massive handset encased in glass...equals a very delicate and easy to slip out of your hands device. I also noticed that GG5 scratches very, very easily especially around the curved edges of that screen.
3. For a flagship phone under android 7 it was simply too slow, far too much attention has been paid on improving Samsung's own software and not enough on optimization of the OS in general. If I can commend them on one thing though, they have decoupled their software from the OS which meant updates come thick and fast and no longer require an entire system update.
So I've had my 5t for about a week and immediately loaded the open oreo beta, here's what I like....
1. The hardware, apart from the camera is first rate. I cannot fault it. For the money its staggering.
2. Build quality is sound. It's a good looking handset that doesn't try to over do it!
3. Absolutely love the face unlock and fingerprint reader, and while I accept face unlocks not as secure as iris.... Both methods piss all over the S8 for speed.
4. Its daaaaaaaaammmmnn fast! In day to day use.
5. Dash charge is daaaaaaaaammmmnn fast! And battery life is excellent
6. I have a pretty much stock android experience and I can disable any system app that has a better Google (or third party) replacement on play store.
And my dislikes....
Yep, the camera....I think they could still improve more in software though, but the two rear lenses of pretty much the same type is a gimmick and offers little more than what you can do with one. Portrait mode in my opinion would've been better remaining a completely software option in favour of a true 2x zoom lens with a slightly better aperture for low light shots over the original 5.
In low light I think we all agree for a phone to have not one but two f1.7 lenses, low light shots are still disappointing.

drummerboy99 said:
I recently sold my Galaxy S8+ to buy a OnePlus 5t. So a comparison, what I really liked about the S8+...
1. The camera, it's one of the very best single lens cameras on a smart phone. It's hard to fault in a wide variety of situations and more often you will come away with a more than satisfactory snap.
2. The build quality is an eye to behold it's a stunningly beautiful piece of engineering, looks amazing.... But it does come at a cost, which I'll explain in the dislikes.
3. The Samsung experience is a lot better than in the past with many options for customisation.
And here's what I disliked and why I changed....
1. I love the whole Google lightweight approach. Much of Samsung's value added software is bloatware that simply doesn't add enough perceived value for the hassle it so often causes. Bixby is the crowning glory, it completely gets in your way unlike the Google assistant. Other problems Sammy proprietary software causes is slowdown, some is immediately noticeable, some happens over time. And of course the Sammy 'look' which is very different from stock. I particularly disliked Samsung's redesign of the quick settings pulldown.
2. That beautiful piece of engineering isn't without its problems. The widely reported badly placed finger print reader being a constant annoyance.... But there's more.....fgs don't drop it at any height. Mine ended up as an insurance repair twice in the space of 3 months. A massive handset encased in glass...equals a very delicate and easy to slip out of your hands device. I also noticed that GG5 scratches very, very easily especially around the curved edges of that screen.
3. For a flagship phone under android 7 it was simply too slow, far too much attention has been paid on improving Samsung's own software and not enough on optimization of the OS in general. If I can commend them on one thing though, they have decoupled their software from the OS which meant updates come thick and fast and no longer require an entire system update.
So I've had my 5t for about a week and immediately loaded the open oreo beta, here's what I like....
1. The hardware, apart from the camera is first rate. I cannot fault it. For the money its staggering.
2. Build quality is sound. It's a good looking handset that doesn't try to over do it!
3. Absolutely love the face unlock and fingerprint reader, and while I accept face unlocks not as secure as iris.... Both methods piss all over the S8 for speed.
4. Its daaaaaaaaammmmnn fast! In day to day use.
5. Dash charge is daaaaaaaaammmmnn fast! And battery life is excellent
6. I have a pretty much stock android experience and I can disable any system app that has a better Google (or third party) replacement on play store.
And my dislikes....
Yep, the camera....I think they could still improve more in software though, but the two rear lenses of pretty much the same type is a gimmick and offers little more than what you can do with one. Portrait mode in my opinion would've been better remaining a completely software option in favour of a true 2x zoom. Maybe with a slightly better aperture for low light shots.
In low light I think we all agree for a phone to have not one but two f1.7 lenses, low light shots are still disappointing.
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Dugaldrob said:
It's not that bad a camera, the rest of the phone makes up for it
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk
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Thanks for all the input.... not a photo junky.... res of model sounds very good

keep it or not.. that will always be your choice...

If you are into camera, just don't buy it. It is one of the worst I have used. It's great for other things. But camera is just so bad!

It's the best phone I have ever owned. I used to root all my phone to get the same experience I'm getting from oos stock.
I don't have any issue with the camera, I experienced the oil painting in some low light indoor conditions but mostly it's doing pretty well.

Someone tell me to which phones does the camera compares? Like which old flagships have more less the same camera quality...?

One more thing...this applies to many other phones...no SD Card for external storage. Samsung S8+ really was the perfect phone for me...with one huge problem, no bootloader unlocking and Dev support. Rooting breaks everything, Safetynet etc...Samsung for US customers really dropped the ball, or else it would be a killer on the XDA forum...hence, why the XDA Samsung forum sections are anemic....not much you can really do and you are stuck with their "experience" besides changes the launcher.
OnePlus 5T has been great so far for the money. Better than any HTC that is made today I've used for nearly 8 yrs.