Develop Bugs

Surround or Focus

Hey guys... Ive had both the Samsung Focus and the HTC Surround... not sure which i want to keep though... Surround is louder which i like ringtone wise and i like the soft touch back.. I liked the screen, camera and thickness of the focus more though.... Just looking to see what other peoples thoughts were or maybe what your determining factor was...

focus, compare the screen of both phones side by side and you'll clearly see the difference

Compare them side by side using office or email and you'll notice the surround looks better. The surround does better with the lighter colors. Size really isnt a factor because even though the Focus is thinner (less then an 1/8 of an inch) because when you compare all 3 dimensions the Surround is actually smaller. Both are good picks. Just go with your gut and I'm sure you'll be pleased either way.

do you use your phone as a multimedia device or a business device? Thats kinda what it comes to.

Been using a Surround for more than a week now. It feels substantial but not clumsy and has excellent build quality. I thought the Samsung felt cheaper and had a more pixilated screen. Vote for Surround.

The ATT store I went to had the Focus and Surround side by side.. played with both and bought the Focus eventually. The Focus is really very thin and light and you wont even fell it in your pocket. Also even though its basically all plastic it does not feel cheap.

Definitely keep the Focus.

The way that I decided between the two (well, three for me) was to stand at the AT&T display and play around with both. With one in each hand, making the decision was really rather easy for me.
I was really impressed by the Focus. The large, pretty screen made me happy. I bought one.
Honestly, my impression of the Surround was that it was a terrible joke gone awry. It makes absolutely no sense to me, and it boggles my mind that the Surround was ever manufactured, much less brought to retail. Every time I see one, I want to slap Ralph De La Vega for polluting my potential choices with garbage like that instead of bringing over quality equipment.
That being said, lots of folk really seem to thing that the Surround is not a miscarried fetus of design, and as such what you should take away when considering your personal device should be what matters to you. Think about what you do or want to do with your phone on a daily basis, and apply that to the choices you have at hand. I ended up choosing the Focus, but you may decide that something else fits your desires better.

I'd hate to be the one to bump a thread but I too am looking at these two devices. I have always used qwerty phones (I have the Tilt 2 now) and HTC. However now AT&T only has the LG to choose from for a kb and its screen is small, quality is nominal compared to the other two and the kb feels horrible to the touch (and cheap).
Now I am trying to figure out which of these two phones (Focus/Surround) I want.
Focus: I like the focus for its larger screen, lighter weight and the fact that is has 1gb internal sys mem (sys mem, not storage mem). However all of the store displays of all AT&T stores I went to have a slight image burned onto the screen. They told me the screens are on 24/7 but still...the other phones don't have that. Also it lacks 50% of the space since it doesn't have the 8GB card in it.
HTC Surround: I like the brightness a little more on this screen, plus the HTC software (ie, youtube). The sound is a better obviously and it has the extra 8GB card. The screen is a little smaller though, it has way less sys mem (not storage mem), and less talk time (battery life)...at least based on specs.
I need good images, accurate keyboard for a touch kb, use it for business and space....well I have a 8GB SanDisk so I'm sure it would work in the Focus so space isn't much a concern. Battery life is important as I use my phone a lot. Also important is speed....the HTC has 1/2 the sys mem pretty much as the Focus does...yet I haven't heard anyone make any comments about this yet.
PS: Oh! and I can get the HTC Surround for 1 penny but the Focus is $99.....so that also obviously adds a little imbalance.

jh20001 said:
I'd hate to be the one to bump a thread but I too am looking at these two devices. I have always used qwerty phones (I have the Tilt 2 now) and HTC. However now AT&T only has the LG to choose from for a kb and its screen is small, quality is nominal compared to the other two and the kb feels horrible to the touch (and cheap).
Now I am trying to figure out which of these two phones (Focus/Surround) I want.
Focus: I like the focus for its larger screen, lighter weight and the fact that is has 1gb internal sys mem (sys mem, not storage mem). However all of the store displays of all AT&T stores I went to have a slight image burned onto the screen. They told me the screens are on 24/7 but still...the other phones don't have that. Also it lacks 50% of the space since it doesn't have the 8GB card in it.
HTC Surround: I like the brightness a little more on this screen, plus the HTC software (ie, youtube). The sound is a better obviously and it has the extra 8GB card. The screen is a little smaller though, it has way less sys mem (not storage mem), and less talk time (battery life)...at least based on specs.
I need good images, accurate keyboard for a touch kb, use it for business and space....well I have a 8GB SanDisk so I'm sure it would work in the Focus so space isn't much a concern. Battery life is important as I use my phone a lot. Also important is speed....the HTC has 1/2 the sys mem pretty much as the Focus does...yet I haven't heard anyone make any comments about this yet.
PS: Oh! and I can get the HTC Surround for 1 penny but the Focus is $99.....so that also obviously adds a little imbalance.
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Speed is never mentioned because its not that big of an issue. Windows Phone 7 was designed specifically for these devices and as such, has a minimum system requirement, and because of that, they both work very well on any of the devices on the market currently. The extra memory doesn't make much of impact on performance.
To be honest, aside from the SAMOLED screen, the Focus looks boring and feels cheap. Also, Samsung's track record for supporting their own devices has been subpar at most, for this reason alone I steer away from Samsung devices unless its a Samsung TV.
The Surround doesn't win any design awards, but I do think it looks better than the Focus and doesn't feel cheap. The speaker, while not really useful, is great for pumping out music and video (which is good since WP7 is a media-centered device). Not to mention the awesome support that HTC devices get from HTC, from software to updates, HTC has a much better track record than Samsung.
And when it comes to smartphone battery life, I think its safe to say you're not going to get great battery life period. You are gonna have to plug in your phone at least once a day, and anyone expecting it to last any more than that will be in for a surprise. So I usually ignore battery life when looking at phones (unless the battery life is really dismal).
Obviously they both have their ups and downs and its up to you to decide whats most important to you. The screen burn-in issue on the Focus is one I've heard before, so that actually would bother me quite a bit. I haven't heard any issues with the Surround really.

I just hope if I were to choose HTC, if it will last with good use until the end of the day. I am perfectly fine with charging my phone ever night. It's just when I have to charge it i the middle of the day and wonder if I even have a charger near me that bothers me. My tilt 2 has even had this issue (although usually it does ok).

can't speak much for the surround but i have a HTC 7 Trophy and it lasts through the day. however, i use mine for radio for like 6 hours of the day and by about 7pm it's dead, so i charge it at work. but still, that is using the radio for 6 hours...

which one is having trouble getting updated? get the other one.

nrfitchett4 said:
which one is having trouble getting updated? get the other one.
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lol, this has been another factor in choosing. It's the Samsung Focus that has been having troubles. That alone has put a lot of favor towards the surround for me and installs a lot of negative assumption in Samsung's build quality.

jh20001 said:
lol, this has been another factor in choosing. It's the Samsung Focus that has been having troubles. That alone has put a lot of favor towards the surround for me and installs a lot of negative assumption in Samsung's build quality.
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Why don't we wait and see how a real update is handled. If NODO comes out at the same time for both devices (even if it was delayed because of the Samsung), it really doesn't matter, because both received the update at the same time.
Weighing in on the question at hand. The Focus takes some of the best pictures of any smartphone on market today. If that is important to you, then that is reason enough to get the focus.
The Focus has a very nice screen, with gorilla glass. The battery life is top notch. The external speaker isn't bad. Fast NAND memory that may likely be more reliable.
The Samsung simply has higher quality components, even though the two devices share many of the same components.
Now, I do have the Focus, but when buying a WP7 device I wasn't bound to any single carrier, so I was able to research out all the devices thoroughly, and the Focus is the one I went with.

Well I do know that I thank all for their feedback. I have decided to order the HTC Surround. There has been good reasons for both sides to get either phone but the more I read online, the more I see people complaining about the screen burn-in issue as well as upgrading windows and the history of Samsung's own efforts to update their products.
Once I have the Surround I will share my own feedback to help contribute to the pot of knowledge.

Get the Focus. Its faster, has better specs, better battery life, better screen, etc.
Sent from my Samsung Focus using Board Express

I have a Captivate at the moment but am considering a Focus, no other phone is even in the running. I have been spoiled by the Samsung screen.....nothing else will do. I've looked at the surround but it just can't compare.

jh20001 said:
more I read online, the more I see people complaining about the screen burn-in issue as well as upgrading windows and the history of Samsung's own efforts to update their products.
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I really think this is going to end up like the whole plasma screen burn in issue - something we will hear about for years to come that is more of an issue in word than in reality. Regardless I hope that the Surround works out for you.

As a Surround user, I can say that the battery life is terrible. I love the phone although with moderate usage I still end up having to charge it around 5 PM if I plan on going anywhere that evening. Or if I make any long phone calls.

One X to One m8 users.

Know there are a few of you out there. Just wondering your thoughts on your shiny nice new phone. Undecided whether to get the m8 or wait for the g3. So how does it compare to the One X?

p70shooter said:
Know there are a few of you out there. Just wondering your thoughts on your shiny nice new phone. Undecided whether to get the m8 or wait for the g3. So how does it compare to the One X?
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Loved my one X but decided to upgrade to the M8. Very impressed with the actual phone but the build quality is shocking.
Going to be receiving my 3rd and final one tomorrow and it will be going back if the volume button is loose like the last, or the grills are not flush like the first.

paul211b said:
Loved my one X but decided to upgrade to the M8. Very impressed with the actual phone but the build quality is shocking.
Going to be receiving my 3rd and final one tomorrow and it will be going back if the volume button is loose like the last, or the grills are not flush like the first.
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Oops, that ain't good. If I remember right the first lot of One X's weren't all that good either. Here's hoping you third time lucky.

Its definitely a nice step up, it`s somewhat like a perfected HTC one. I`m mainly impressed by the battery life, which is darn amazing compared to my old one x+ which had better battery life than the regular one x so it should be even more of an upgrade. It`ll last 2 days of medium use, 1 and a half of heavy use, full hd video, gaming, etc. UI is also much smoother without a hitch and gaming is fluid as anything. The screen is also nice without the need of anti aliasing due to the high pixel density. The speakers are also so much better, they have a hearty thump and are about 30-50% louder, sound out of the headphone jack is also much improved, 4x louder (it`s too loud for me on lowest volume which is an issue), much more power and better bass response (its seriously very good!). I somewhat miss the matte one x texture but the new brushed aluminium on my gunmetal m8 is equally complimenting in the palm and feels more solid overall. I noticed the volume and power buttons are more pronounced and have a firm click which is nice. The build really is topnotch overall, I personally had no defects (if the speaker holes look blocked, it`s because the speakers only take up around half of the grill, the rest is just plastic and sensors behind the grill, they have larger grills for aesthetic reasons only). Camera I feel is improved, and although its only 4mp, the camera is much smoother and faster, with no focusing or shutter lag, there`s also full hd 1080p recording which is great if you have a large sd card, audio recording is fantastic, clear with a nice perception of bass and stereo seperation. Actual images look much sharper and cleaner without the typical HTC paint texture, lowlight is simply the best. If you need to zoom in however, for example text from an image you took at a lecture or such, it will not have the pixels to reveal fine details and text, this is the only downside I can think of so far. I personally dislike onscreen buttons but I won`t hold it as a negative since some people prefer it and immersive mode looks pretty sweet. All in all a great update for HTC lovers or those looking for a great phone in general, its perfect except for the lack of megapixels, however pictures come out rich and sharp just with limited zooming capability.

The battery on this phone is nothing short of amazing.
I am on 16h 10 minutes of battery as I write this, with 34% left. Granted, i didn't use my phone for about 4 hours yesterday and another 6 while I slept last night. My One X wouldn't have lasted 10 hours of off time with 1 hour of use. I haven't played any games or anything, but I've flashed two ROMS, achieved S-Off, and surfed the web/facebook and played music for a good chunk of the time it's been on.
I'm running Viper One 1.2.0 and stock kernel.

Upgraded to my m8 yesterday and if I'm being honest, after all the fiddling and tweaking I did on the one x I was a little bit underwhelmed HOWEVER the battery is worth the upgrade alone. The speakers blew me away and the build is superb for me.
The only thing I did not like about this phone is the htc logo bezel with the softkeys. Coming form the HOX it made the phone feel like I was using it upside down. I solved this by modding the build.prop to delete the navigation onscreen buttons and replace with the LMT pie settings. Now I am in love and would not change a thing...
Camera may be a downgrade, but I only use it for FB and instagram so I'm not going to base an upgrade on something other people care about. The size was a worry, but feels fine now. The case it came with is nice, but I want to try the dot case before I buy.
Battery Battery Battery Battery and sense 6 is actually nice.

Heellllooo,
I came from the HTC One XL LTE Dual Core One X and for the past few weeks, I was really just looking for something with better battery life since The One XL just wasn't lasting a proper full day. It just so happened that the release date of the M8 was the released just a day before I decided enough was enough, it was time for a new phone. I could not be happier with my choice, I certainly feel as though every aspect of the phone is better than my One XL. I too sacked the software buttons for the Pie Controls and while the screen feels Much bigger, I still don't have any problem one handed swipe typing with swiftkey like I did on the One XL. A lot of people seem to be knocking the camera but I actually think it's great for a phone camera and feel like it is an improvement over the camera I had. The sound is great aswell, not just for music but previously I could barely hear when texts went off or when people called but now I never miss it, even though I work in a somewhat loud environment.
I love AOSP so having GPE Rom access is just another plus as I no longer need to worry about nightly AOSP based ROM stability.
There's not a single part of me that regrets this upgrade. Hope this helps.

Thanks guys for all your feedback. Did go and have a play with one yesterday in the shop. It feels amazing, definite quality. I'm just not sure of how it looks. Love the onscreen keys but why waste all the space with the bezel? Know it must have a purpose but if they could have put hard keys on it and not wasted so much space. Thing I'm going to wait until the g3 comes out and then decide. M8 and viper might take some beating tho

Thread closed,
Comparison threads are against forum rules.
Ghost

How does the G3 compare to my S5 and M8? My mini review.

So after using the G3 for about a week, I picked up an S5 also to compare it to. My G3 will be replacing my HTC One M8.
Performance initially was disappointing, seemed to microstutter everywhere which gives a perception of a laggy device. At first I was very upset but after putting all 3 devices side by side and running and opening apps ect., the G3 is just as quick, if not quicker then the S5 and M8 when opening and switching apps, the key difference here are in the animations.
The S5 and M8 are very consistent with smooth app opening, closing and switching animations. Always seems to run fluid 90-100 percent of the time, the G3 struggles to render them smoothly consistently. The animation stutters, stutters, then closes and vise versa when it opens on many occasions. Drove me insane! In-app performance are pretty much identical between the 3 with scrolling a tiny bit smoother on the S5 and M8.
Screen quality, I would have to give the win to the HTC M8 out of the box, because of the weird over sharpening high contrast setting LG decided to use, text on the G3 looks lower resolution than the HTC as a direct result. Colors on the G3 also looks a little washed out compared to the M8 and S5 out of the box, BUT...you can change the contrast ratio on the G3 in the accessibility menu and make the colors pop to your hearts desire. Very nice.. M8 also has better black levels than G3.
Don't get me started with the S5's screen, I can't believe one report actually gave it the "best display ever tested" title. Looks like garbage compared to the G3 and M8. No matter what setting I chose, adapt display, professional, cinema ect, it was way over saturated to the point where the colors look almost neon like. Everything looks lower resolution also, I blame TouchJizz mostly because once you switch to a different launcher like Nova, the icons look sharper but still not on par with the M8 or G3. The S5's display looks "Okay" once you crank the brightness past 75 percent, anything under that and the screen just looks terrible. Maybe my eyes have gotten accustomed to IPS LCD, I can't see myself going back to AMOLED. If this is the best that AMOLED can offer at the moment.. NO THANKS!
Camera, lets make this simple. The S5 takes the best pictures overall. It also records the best video with options for full 60fps in 1080p. G3 is a close second but the colors just doesn't seem to look as nice as the S5's, clarity and details are similar but the S5 exposes the picture better. HDR is also better on the S5. M8 takes very nice close up and macro shots but sucks big time when you try and take a scenery shot I really haven't tried much night time photography so I can't comment on that.
Battery life, S5 and G3 seems to be neck and neck lasting my entire work day with heavy use, the M8 trails behind and needs to be plugged in for my drive home.
Design and in hand usage. This is very subjective, I find the S5 the most comfortable to hold but it's also the most godawful looking. There's no denying it, the S5 is one ugly phone compared to the other two. Looks and feels terribly cheap, huge bezels giving the phone a very dated look. M8 looks great, build quality is nice but it's also very uncomfortable to use. It's slippery, the edges are sharp and it's just a pain (literally) to hold on to. It just doesn't give you a reassuring feel when using it especially over any hard surface. It also feels a lot heavier. The G3 is the perfect blend between the two, it looks beautiful, perfectly weighted, comfortable to hold, feels solid in the hand and has just enough "grip". Hands down I think it looks the best, just gorgeous.
Audio, as you guessed it the HTC One M8 tops it here, it sounds great with the Boom sound external speakers and with headphones plugged in. Bluetooth audio streaming also sounds very clean with the M8, the G3 matches the M8 in headphone audio output and bluetooth streaming quality but obviously gets smoked when it comes to external speaker quality. G3 still sounds very loud and pretty full for having only one rear firing mono speaker. The S5 is the worst performer here, headphone audio performance is just dismal compared to the other two even after playing with the built-in EQ. Bluetooth audio streaming on the S5 is also weak, audio tracks sound very degraded over bluetooth. Another weird issue I had with the S5 was it didn't play nicely with my Lexus Mark Levinson system, I had to crank the volume to twice the level to get the same output as the M8 and G3. (Yes, the bluetooth output volume was set to max on the S5) The S5's external speaker is also the tinniest, almost painful to listen to at higher volumes. It has piercing highs with no mids or lows. I guess when you make the phone IP67, sacrifices must be made.
Conclusion, as you can see all the phones have their pros and cons but overall I think we all made the right decision with the G3. I've been on a search for the "perfect" phone since I can remember, for me at the moment, the G3 is the closest one yet. I'm sure performance will improve with updates so I am excited for the G3's future. I'm also glad I gave it a second chance, I literally had it all boxed up with the return label slapped on it back to T-Mobile. Looks like it will be sticking with me for a little bit longer.

Woot

Here's my copy and paste from another site reviewing the same three phones. This may be a good thread for people to detail their experience with the three big players.
"Alright so I've had it a few days now and here's what I think of it. Out****ingstanding.
Hardware - The metal looking plastic back is actually pretty nice. I think it actually has some metal in it, it doesn't feel plastic and cheap in the hand like the GS5 does. It doesn't have the heft of the M8 but it's also not as slippery as the M8 either. It's just about right. It's removable so it's easy to throw a spare battery in your car or camera bag or pocket or whatever if you're going to be out all day. That being said, the battery life is surprisingly good given the resolution/size of the display. Which brings me to the display. It's also outstanding. The first G3 I got had a weird yellowish tint to the display, did a little research and it seems there's some inconsistency among the displays from manufacture, I took it back to T-Mobile and they swapped it out without any hassle. It's huge, it's bright, it's incredibly sharp. There really isn't much bad I can say about the display. The buttons on the back took a little getting used to, but after a day you're used to them and it's actually quite natural to use them. The camera is awesome, I think it's bright light capabilities are on par or better than the M8 and definitely better than the S5. Under lower light it's at least on par or slightly better than the S5 and ****s on the M8. The OIS and "frikkin laser" focus is awesome, makes it really easy to pull it out and snap a pic really quick without the fuss the other two give. Wireless charging is available with an appropriate back cover, but more on that later. The single rear speaker is similarly placed to the S5 but it's much louder and your hand doesn't muffle it in regular use. Clarity is much better than the S5 as well. The M8 destroys all comers in this area with it's front facing speakers.
Software - The LG overlay is actually quite nice. I think it's just as good as HTC's Sense and kicks Touchwhiz in the grundel. It's easy enough to disable most stock LG apps if you want to. There's a faint touch of lag to the OS, not as bad as Touchwhiz but just a hair worse than Sense. If you kick the animations down to 0.5x from 1x in developer options it goes away. There's a health app, the people on xda seem to like it a lot but I don't use it.
Daily use - This thing really shines. The size is marginally bigger than the others in one dimension or another, but the shape of the back cover makes it perfectly comfortable to use and it doesn't feel at all as big as it actually is. The M8 feels really skinny next to it and the S5 feels like a giant, rectangular brick. Easy to use one handed, especially with the rear buttons. The OIS of the camera is really quite good and it's probably the first Android phone I've used that I think has a camera comparable to the quality output from the iPhones under all scenarios. Battery life has been great, I can easily get through a whole 12 hour shift at work and have plenty of battery to spare and I use the phone quite heavily and have music playing probably 10 of those 12 hours.
Signal strength - So I originally got the AT&T version before realizing those ****s disabled Qi charging in favor of PMA so I actually have some experience with the d850 (ATT) and d851 (TMo). The modems are the same between the two, the only hardware difference between the two devices I believe is AT&T's hardware removal of Qi. Both phones were on the same rev and they picked up signal the same as the S5 and a little worse than the M8 on AT&T. I have all Qi stuff so I said **** it and switched to TMo and have been quite pleasantly surprised. Their service in my area is great (better than AT&T coverage was) and the calls/sms/mms over WiFi is actually awesome, especially at work as most of the hospital is well insulated from outside communication. I also have unlimited everything for about $40/mo less than I was paying for 4gb at AT&T.
Advanced nerdy stuff (root) - If you root the phone, which is available for all variants and most with a one click utility, then the thing outshines the other 2 on all fronts. There's a mod for camera quality that kicks the image quality above the other 2 under all lighting conditions and increases the video recording quality to 1080p/60 and increases the bitrate of the 4k recording. There's a tweakbox that lets you customize the LG overlay to your personal taste and with a couple minor tweaks it is fastest experience of the 3. You can tinker with the volume of the speaker and the volume increments which is needed (30 vs stock 15 options). Then of course you can use Titanium Backup to freeze/uninstall all the carrier bloat. Xposed Framework of course brings hundreds of mods for just about anything you'd want to do.
Overall - Out of the box within confinements of not being rooted 9/10
----------- After root 10/10"

I agree with most of what you said, except I think the S5 has a better screen overall. I came from a Note 2, so I am used to the saturated colors. But regardless of your preference of saturated vs natural colors, I think most people would agree that the S5 has better brightness and viewing angles. I also think text on the G3 is oversharpened/overprocessed.
I think LG got the "feel" of the G3 just right. The S5 is a freaking brick and looks like it was beaten with an ugly stick. The M8 is disproportionately tall, and also heavy & slippery.
As far as sound, the G3 falls in between. The S5 speaker is anemic. The M8 blows everything else out of the water. I always listen to music via headphones or my car system. But if you absolutely *must* listen to audio via speakerphone, then the M8 has no equal. I must admit, sharing videos with friends is a much more pleasant experience on the M8. The G3 speaker does a respectable job, but you still have to cup your hand around the back to hear anything (at least at my age).
Despite its flaws (which are very minor), I think the G3 is the phone to beat this year. The Note 4 will no doubt offer some serious competition, but I think the Note line targets a different demographic. People that don't want or need the Note's special features will probably find the G3 to be an almost perfect compromise of size, features and performance.
Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk

Dan37tz said:
Camera, lets make this simple. The S5 takes the best pictures overall.
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I don't have my G3 yet, but based on images I've seen online, I, ever so slightly, prefer the G3's photos as it seems to get slightly better detail. What I mean is that, at least from what I'm seeing, it looks like the S5 is trying to over-sharpen details in software instead of just using what is available through the sensor. For instance, outlines of leaves in front of the bright sky shows a tiny bit extra outlining to me.
Oddly enough, this shouldn't be the case since the S5 has a slightly larger sensor, more megapixels and a slightly wider aperture @ f/2.2. Perhaps that new isocell sensor isn't all it's cracked up to be or maybe they just haven't fine tuned the software for it. However, with the G3 you also get dual flash, which is a feature that might come in handy for macro shots, and there is that laser focus thingy the G3 has. So, I dunno, I was leaning towards the S5 myself, but after seeing test photos and reading reviews about all the other aspects of the phone itself I went with the G3.
Perhaps completely manual shooting with the S5 would render better results than the G3.
In the end though, I just wanted something that could compete with my old T-mobile 4G Slide. My Google Nexus 4 certainly didn't and I'm glad it's paid off and done with.

Dan37tz said:
Camera, lets make this simple. The S5 takes the best pictures overall.
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Have to disagree there, I think the G3 pictures are better. I took some pics of my car today and was actually quite impressed with how they came out compared to similar shots at the same place and same time of day and same subject matter. I do agree the HDR shots from the S5 are better, but who uses that anyway

boosting1bar said:
Have to disagree there, I think the G3 pictures are better. I took some pics of my car today and was actually quite impressed with how they came out compared to similar shots at the same place and same time of day and same subject matter. I do agree the HDR shots from the S5 are better, but who uses that anyway
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I wonder if it is due to the lens itself?
Perhaps the G3 is using a better lens (Sony?) and it is of better quality than what Samsung is using on the S5. There is actually a list of people with cracked and broken S5 lenses, so I'm guessing the glass they are using isn't very good.
From what I've seen, the M8 appears to take cleaner night shots, at least with macro and no flash, However; I do not know how low the ISO settings will go with it. I think the G3 can do ISO 50, so if the image stabilization is as good as LG claims and the focus laser is really fast it should end up taking pretty good night shots in manual mode.
In the end I think all three are good cameras for a cell phone, I just feel like the G3 has more options for covering different kinds of shooting. Then again, I haven't used any of these phones personally yet.:silly:

I suspect with the XPOSED module Viper4Android, you can tweak the sound on the G3 to be on par with boomsound or even better.
Also, have you taken many pictures in low light? It's my understanding that the g3 has a much better camera for low light than the s5. It's not as good in direct sunlight, but better everywhere else making it a better "overall" camera. I don't have an s5 to compare the G3 to, so I'm just going off what I've read. It would be nice to hear from someone that has both.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I must not be getting the same bluetooth results as you...
This is the worst I've heard in the past few years, as far as bluetooth media pairing goes..
it sounds like the bit rate of a 320 mp3 goes down to 96 or 128.
I'm quite concerned about this...
I'm pairing up to a VW/Dynaudio setup.
Iphone, GS4, lumia 925...all sound 10x better.
did you do any bluetooth tweaks?

sic0048 said:
I suspect with the XPOSED module Viper4Android, you can tweak the sound on the G3 to be on par with boomsound or even better.
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The M7/M8 have front facing stereo speakers. The G3 has one small speaker on the back, facing away from the user. Sorry, but no amount of mods will make the G3 external speaker sound like the M7/M8.
Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk

Is it a worthy upgrade from the HTC One M8?

The title says it all. Please share your empirical input, please.
Cheers

Badelhas said:
The title says it all. Please share your empirical input, please.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have both the M8 and the 10 and I use them daily. The 10 is a little bit faster than my M8, but the battery life of my M8 is still better, even after two years. Also the sound is better on the M8. Camera is about the same. It's too bad it's not getting the upgrade to Android 7 and doesn't have a fingerprint reader, else I wouldn't have upgraded.

ex260 said:
I have both the M8 and the 10 and I use them daily. The 10 is a little bit faster than my M8, but the battery life of my M8 is still better, even after two years. Also the sound is better on the M8. Camera is about the same. It's too bad it's not getting the upgrade to Android 7 and doesn't have a fingerprint reader, else I wouldn't have upgraded.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your input.
Are you saying that the headphone sound quality is not better, the camera is not much better and is not that much faster or smoother?! That's a surprise, to be honest.
Cheers

Badelhas said:
Thanks for your input.
Are you saying that the headphone sound quality is not better, the camera is not much better and is not that much faster or smoother?! That's a surprise, to be honest.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Headphone quality is probably the same, the external speakers of the M8 are better, in my opinion. I'm also experiencing the smudge/blur problem with the camera that I had on the M8, so that's not much better on the 10. After I received the 10 I gave the M8 a full reset to use it as a work phone, and I was surprised how smooth it was again. I do think the screen of the 10 is better, sharper.

ex260 said:
Headphone quality is probably the same, the external speakers of the M8 are better, in my opinion. I'm also experiencing the smudge/blur problem with the camera that I had on the M8, so that's not much better on the 10. After I received the 10 I gave the M8 a full reset to use it as a work phone, and I was surprised how smooth it was again. I do think the screen of the 10 is better, sharper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never had the smudge problem you refer on my m8. And on head-fi.org forums the audio experts guarantee that the headphone sound quality is much better but you have to use good headphones or you won't notice the difference. I'm using the best budget headphones out there, from what I know, the Xiaomi Piston 3. Which ones do you use?
Do you think battery life is better on the M8? Because I've replaced mine but still can't get to the end of the day. I use LTE only, though, since I don't have wifi at work.

Badelhas said:
Never had the smudge problem you refer on my m8. And on head-fi.org forums the audio experts guarantee that the headphone sound quality is much better but you have to use good headphones or you won't notice the difference. I'm using the best budget headphones out there, from what I know, the Xiaomi Piston 3. Which ones do you use?
Do you think battery life is better on the M8? Because I've replaced mine but still can't get to the end of the day. I use LTE only, though, since I don't have wifi at work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using Sennheiser CX 300-II as headphones, but not very often. I can't compare at the moment unfortunately. But the quality won't be less than the M8.
I am just really satisfied with the battery life of my M8. Maybe I was lucky with the M8 and less lucky with the 10
By the sound of it I think the 10 would be a nice upgrade for you

ex260 said:
I'm using Sennheiser CX 300-II as headphones, but not very often. I can't compare at the moment unfortunately. But the quality won't be less than the M8.
I am just really satisfied with the battery life of my M8. Maybe I was lucky with the M8 and less lucky with the 10
By the sound of it I think the 10 would be a nice upgrade for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's my point. I don't really think it will.

Badelhas said:
That's my point. I don't really think it will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what's important for you. Maybe you can get your hands on a 10 somewhere?

I have both too. My 2 cents:
Screen is much better on the 10, and no on-screen buttons
I personally don't care for the fingerprint reader, but here it is.
Audio quality on the 10 is much better, particularly on good headphones. On speakers, the M8 is louder, but IMHO, spatialization (video audio mode) and tone accuracy are better on the 10.
The 10 is snappier and smoother, even after resetting the M8.
Battery life globally is about the same, no problems to reach the end of the day, but I'm getting 1 hour longer SOT on the 10, and it charges sooo fast.
Camera is very good on the 10, it was mediocre on the M8. No clue what the blur problem is...
So if you ask me, yes, it's a pretty worthy upgrade.

pomponazzo said:
I have both too. My 2 cents:
Screen is much better on the 10, and no on-screen buttons
I personally don't care for the fingerprint reader, but here it is.
Audio quality on the 10 is much better, particularly on good headphones. On speakers, the M8 is louder, but IMHO, spatialization (video audio mode) and tone accuracy are better on the 10.
The 10 is snappier and smoother, even after resetting the M8.
Battery life globally is about the same, no problems to reach the end of the day, but I'm getting 1 hour longer SOT on the 10, and it charges sooo fast.
Camera is very good on the 10, it was mediocre on the M8. No clue what the blur problem is...
So if you ask me, yes, it's a pretty worthy upgrade.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your detailed opinion.
But now I'm again divided on what to do
Cheers

I don't regret my Upgrade to the 10
I upgraded, because I often spend time away from charging sources and can't wait for my phone to charge. Kept my M8 around to listen to Pandora at work on WiFi. I couldn't go a whole day just listening to Pandora (I leave the screen on all the time so I can change songs without unlocking.) on the M8. The 10 can go all day & still have about 45% battery. Game-wise the 10 is way faster. Audio Quality is better on the 10 over headphones and I have about the same quality over the external speakers on both phones. The camera on the 10 is faster and has much better controls than the M8. Also even when charging the 10 is a lot cooler than the M8 was during heavy use while charging or otherwise. Also it may just be my case choice, but the 10 feels a lot lighter than the M8 or even the M9. I also get better wireless service on the 10. So here's how I rate the phone:
Screen quality: The 10 is noticeably better.
Audio Quality: With headphones the 10 is much better, without headphones (external speakers) about the same maybe a bit better on the M8
Speed Overall: The 10 blows the M8 out of the water.
Camera Quality: 10 takes better pictures faster, and has better controls for the camera.
LTE Quality: 10 is much better. I get service in areas the M8 barely works.
Build Quality: the M8 feels heavier, both phones feel sturdy and both have survived falls in cases onto concrete with no cracked screens.
Charging: The 10 can go from 0 to 50% if off and on a Quickcharge 3.0 compatible charger in about 30-35 minutes.
I don't regret the purchase of the 10. I am often away from my dekstop PC, which is my primary gaming rig, the 10 does a nice job of playing mobile games with decent graphics and decent battery run times. I would say it's enitrely up to how you feel about upgrading. I paid $600 for mine, but they have a $200 discount sale on the 10 now. $500 for a flagship phone is good. CPU, RAM & Micro SD slot are all comparable to the other major flagship phones, USB-C is kind of a pain to switch everything over to, but it's nice having a reversible port, plus the data transfer speeds mean copying videos or photos or large quantities of music to or from your phone is stupid fast. Unlike the Galaxy Note 7 which had USB-C this phone doesn't explode.
If you can swing the money, upgrade, otherwise I don't see a reason to wait.

Capt'n Mal said:
I upgraded, because I often spend time away from charging sources and can't wait for my phone to charge. Kept my M8 around to listen to Pandora at work on WiFi. I couldn't go a whole day just listening to Pandora (I leave the screen on all the time so I can change songs without unlocking.) on the M8. The 10 can go all day & still have about 45% battery. Game-wise the 10 is way faster. Audio Quality is better on the 10 over headphones and I have about the same quality over the external speakers on both phones. The camera on the 10 is faster and has much better controls than the M8. Also even when charging the 10 is a lot cooler than the M8 was during heavy use while charging or otherwise. Also it may just be my case choice, but the 10 feels a lot lighter than the M8 or even the M9. I also get better wireless service on the 10. So here's how I rate the phone:
Screen quality: The 10 is noticeably better.
Audio Quality: With headphones the 10 is much better, without headphones (external speakers) about the same maybe a bit better on the M8
Speed Overall: The 10 blows the M8 out of the water.
Camera Quality: 10 takes better pictures faster, and has better controls for the camera.
LTE Quality: 10 is much better. I get service in areas the M8 barely works.
Build Quality: the M8 feels heavier, both phones feel sturdy and both have survived falls in cases onto concrete with no cracked screens.
Charging: The 10 can go from 0 to 50% if off and on a Quickcharge 3.0 compatible charger in about 30-35 minutes.
I don't regret the purchase of the 10. I am often away from my dekstop PC, which is my primary gaming rig, the 10 does a nice job of playing mobile games with decent graphics and decent battery run times. I would say it's enitrely up to how you feel about upgrading. I paid $600 for mine, but they have a $200 discount sale on the 10 now. $500 for a flagship phone is good. CPU, RAM & Micro SD slot are all comparable to the other major flagship phones, USB-C is kind of a pain to switch everything over to, but it's nice having a reversible port, plus the data transfer speeds mean copying videos or photos or large quantities of music to or from your phone is stupid fast. Unlike the Galaxy Note 7 which had USB-C this phone doesn't explode.
If you can swing the money, upgrade, otherwise I don't see a reason to wait.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for your thoughtful response.

Honestly, the cameras are not even comparable, the 10 is a much better shooter. Dynamic range, detail and even image processing are all vastly improved. I've attached photos below to highlight this, the M8 is on the left, the 10 is on the right with crops on the bottom. Both were in auto, tap to focus when necessary, I cleaned the lenses on both beforehand. The M8 likes to overexpose shots, it's always been like that for me, I tried toothpaste on the lens, it worked for my One X but had no effect on my M8 unfortunately but whatever coating was on the lens from factory is gone. The 10 also produces a much more exaggerated bokeh due to the lower aperture lens and larger sensor, it gives macro and portrait photos a lot more artistic value which is especially impressive among smartphones though it's still a far cry from what my F1.8 A6000 can achieve of course.
Detail and Processing -
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Dynamic Range -
Bokeh -
Also, coming back to audio quality from the headphone jack, I guess I didn't notice a huge difference switching from the M8 to the 10 but rather picked up on the improvements when switching from the 10 back to the M8, such is the nature of audio upgrades, especially sources which are much more comparable than different headphones. In audio, especially with sources, quality is judged more in terms of what is wrong than what is right, and the 10 is less "wrong" than the M8. For instance, the level of background hiss is improved, it was prevalent on the M8 and silent on the 10, end to end extension is better and the 10 is noticeably more transparent and resolving in general, it has a less coloured sound. For reference, I am an audio reviewer and a photographer, I run a website and have listened to hundreds of headphones and dozens of phones/sources/DACs, many costing thousands of dollars, some costing just a handful; I know a good source when I hear one and am at adept at discerning the performance differences between devices.
You also don't need a $1000 headphone to notice the difference, hell, I can tell with my $5 VE Monk+ and $15 Toneking TP16. You will get a bigger improvement with better earphones of course, but as with many things, price does not define performance, and great earphones can be found for less than $60 online. The RE-400 and Shozy Zero for example, are both very, very good for a modest price whilst that same $60 won't get you nearly the same performance in a consumer retail store. If you want really good sound, just spend $300 and buy a fantastic earphone like the Oriveti Primacy, the headphone/earphone will always make a much larger difference than a better phone/player/source. Why spend $700 on a smartphone for a 5% performance increase when you can spend $60 and get an earphone that sounds about twice as good if not more so than your Pistons 3 or $300 for an earphone that you will likely never need to upgrade?

ryanjsoo said:
Honestly, the cameras are not even comparable, the 10 is a much better shooter. Dynamic range, detail and even image processing are all castly improved. I've attached photos below to highlight this, the M8 is on the left, the 10 is on the right with crops on the bottom. Both were in auto, tap to focus when necessary, I cleaned the lenses on both beforehand. The M8 likes to overexpose shots, it's always been like that for me, I tried toothpaste on the lens, it worked for my One X but had no effect on my M8 unfortunately. The 10 also produces a much more exaggerated bokeh due to the lower aperture lens and larger sensor, it gives macro and portrait photos a lot more artistic value which is especially impressive among smartphones though it's still a far cry from what my F1.8 A6000 can achieve of course.
Detail and Processing -
Dynamic Range -
Bokeh -
Also, coming back to audio quality from the headphone jack, I guess I didn't notice a huge difference switching from the M8 to the 10 but rather picked up on the improvements when switching from the 10 back to the M8, such is the nature of audio upgrades, especially sources which are much more comparable than different headphones. In audio, especially with sources, quality is judged more in terms of what is wrong than what is right, and the 10 is less "wrong" than the M8. For instance, the level of background hiss is improved, it was prevalent on the M8 and silent on the 10, end to end extension is better and the 10 is noticeably more transparent and resolving in general, it has a less coloured sound. For reference, I am an audio reviewer and a photographer, I run a website and have listened to hundreds of headphones and dozens of phones/sources/DACs, many costing thousands of dollars, some costing just a handful; I know a good source when I hear one and am at adept at discerning the performance differences between devices.
You also don't need a $1000 headphone to notice the difference, hell, I can tell with my $5 VE Monk+ and $15 Toneking TP16. You will get a bigger improvement with better earphones of course, but as with many things, price does not define performance, and great earphones can be found for less than $60 online. The RE-400 and Shozy Zero for example, are both very, very good for a modest price whilst that same $60 won't get you nearly the same performance in a consumer retail store. If you want really good sound, just spend $300 and buy a fantastic earphone like the Oriveti Primacy, the headphone/earphone will always make a much larger difference than a better phone/player/source. Why spend $700 on a smartphone for a 5% performance increase when you can spend $60 and get an earphone that sounds about twice as good if not more so than your Pistons 3 or $300 for an earphone that you will likely never need to upgrade?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your thoughtful opinion. So you think that apart from the camera (which I don't use or value that much but actually like because of the great night shots it can take) getting the 10 is not that much of an upgrade except if I buy the Primacy 300 headphones?
Cheers

Badelhas said:
Thanks for your thoughtful opinion. So you think that apart from the camera (which I don't use or value that much but actually like because of the great night shots it can take) getting the 10 is not that much of an upgrade except if I buy the Primacy 300 headphones?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, rather if you care about sound quality then you should spend money on your earphones/headphones rather than a new phone as it will make a bigger difference. I'm trying to say that you can tell the difference between the 10 and M8 on any earphone, even a $5 one.

ryanjsoo said:
No, rather if you care about sound quality then you should spend money on your earphones/headphones rather than a new phone as it will make a bigger difference. I'm trying to say that you can tell the difference between the 10 and M8 on any earphone, even a $5 one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got it. You did not compared them in terms of smoothness and so but I guess that´s not the most important part to you, based on what you sayd Is it much better on the 10?
So, in your opinion, if I decide to keep my trusty M8 (I am inclined to do that at the moment), if I buy a HiFiMAN RE-400 or a ZERO AUDIO Carbo Tenore ZH-DX200-CT, I should already notice a significant sound quality upgrade?
Cheers

Badelhas said:
Got it. You did not compared them in terms of smoothness and so but I guess that´s not the most important part to you, based on what you sayd Is it much better on the 10?
So, in your opinion, if I decide to keep my trusty M8 (I am inclined to do that at the moment), if I buy a HiFiMAN RE-400 or a ZERO AUDIO Carbo Tenore ZH-DX200-CT, I should already notice a significant sound quality upgrade?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most definitely, I used to use a set of Sennheiser ie800's with my M8, of course they sounded much better than my earpods... But both the ie800s and earpods sound better from my 10, just the ie800 benefits more. I don't think it's logical at all if you think that upgrading from the M8 to the 10 will make a bigger difference to sound quality than upgrading from Pistons 3s to the ie800's for example (which cost almost as much as the 10).
As an experiment you can spend maybe $50 on a decent set of earphones and $100 on a Fiio Q1 to see what I'm talking about, the $50 earphones will make a bigger difference than the $100 dedicated DAC/AMP.

The 10 is the best phone HTC has put out so far, hands down. There's no contest at all between a 10 and an 8, and I loved the M8. The only area where it beats the 10 is in speaker volume. In every other way the 10 is a superior phone. The display is amazing, the build is sexy, the camera is finally competitive (not better, but competitive) with Apple and Samsung tech, and as someone else pointed out, fast charging significantly improves quality of life. It sounds like you're trying to talk yourself into not upgrading, and that's totally your call. But don't not do it because you think the M8's a better phone. It's not.

thedodus said:
The 10 is the best phone HTC has put out so far, hands down. There's no contest at all between a 10 and an 8, and I loved the M8. The only area where it beats the 10 is in speaker volume. In every other way the 10 is a superior phone. The display is amazing, the build is sexy, the camera is finally competitive (not better, but competitive) with Apple and Samsung tech, and as someone else pointed out, fast charging significantly improves quality of life. It sounds like you're trying to talk yourself into not upgrading, and that's totally your call. But don't not do it because you think the M8's a better phone. It's not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never said it's better, did I?!
I'm just saying it's still a great smartphone: pretty, fast, nice screen, sound quality and, for my kind of use at least, has a great camara. It's the only smartphone till now I don't really feel the need to upgrade, even after 2 and a half years after getting it. That did not happen when I had the Samsung Galaxy S3, Note 2 and S4. I'm a tech geek and the "upgrade bug" is trying to bite me but 500 euros is a lot of money since I earn twice of that a month. What I'm really questioning is if I will really notice it's something vastly superior that will not make me regret spending that money instead of waiting a little more. I mean, I would like to have Nougat on my smartphone and I know I will never get it, officially at least.
Maybe I have to try one personality on a store to make up my mind since I don't know anyone who owns one.
Cheers

ryanjsoo said:
Most definitely, I used to use a set of Sennheiser ie800's with my M8, of course they sounded much better than my earpods... But both the ie800s and earpods sound better from my 10, just the ie800 benefits more. I don't think it's logical at all if you think that upgrading from the M8 to the 10 will make a bigger difference to sound quality than upgrading from Pistons 3s to the ie800's for example (which cost almost as much as the 10).
As an experiment you can spend maybe $50 on a decent set of earphones and $100 on a Fiio Q1 to see what I'm talking about, the $50 earphones will make a bigger difference than the $100 dedicated DAC/AMP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
If you had to buy a 50 bucks on a new set of in ear headphones, which one do you recommend?
Cheers

Purchasing a M9 now (mid-2018)?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Better get a refurbished HTC 10 @ ebay.

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

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

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