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Howdy all,
Currently I have a Optimus 7 that's going to be given to my wife, and Telus is going to send me another device due to the issues I'm having with mine.
My options are the cheaper phones that they have and I've been eyeing up the Defy because of it's Gorilla glass and damage resistance. I do a bunch of hiking, caving, etc and I'm in the military which means my phones get roughed up a bit, in very humid conditions and so on.
Now, I know the Defy is a tad old in the way of things, but once rooted and Motoblur is removed how does it stack up?
Basically I use my phone for internet, email, texting, some photos (nothing spectacular expected from phones, carry a camera when I hike too) and GPS (I have Back Country Navigator from when I had a XPeria X10 - http://www.backcountrynavigator.com/content/android-gps )
Anyways, I don't have the cash to roll out for a Galaxy S2 or Atriux or whatever (I have wife, kids and other important things that eat my money). I'd like to know how the Defy has held up.
Thanks
Well, it's the best phone I've ever had.
Some lag on CM7, but I'm running nightly versions, so I don't know if a stable version will work better.
It's a bit too big, but the resistance factor makes it worth. I've dropped this phone so many times, I can't even count. Dropped it on beer once, no damage.
So, yeah, get it, but beware of the lagging once you start installing apps
I don't have any lagging on CM7 latest nightly and neither had any on RC1 or RC1.5. I also have a second defy with tons of games on it and there is no lagging there either.
I'd say the lagging on your phone is not the norm and rather an exception, most running CM7 don't have any issues. You might want to tell us what apps you have installed.
Get the Defy+ if you can.
Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk
The display is bad!
But with cm7 it works great!
juli9797 said:
The display is bad!
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Click to collapse
i can't notice any issue, what did you mean?
The phone just cant compete if you keep it with Stock rom. Its crippled (Software wise) in every imaginable way to keep it to a 200ish $ phone. Once you root it and blow away the stock rom and install Cm7 is just simply amazing.
Motorola just crippled the phone in the kernel so it wouldnt compete against their higher priced phones while having pretty much the same internals.
You can play any of the new games fluently, I'm playing Tegra games like Riptide amazingly well, Galaxy on Fire 2 and quite a few other Graphics/CPU intensive apps and they all run perfectly.
Last week I took my defy to a water park... it did its job very, very well. I have some amazing pics with my girlfriend underwater, got some videos in some high-speed waterslides and so on. All I did was put a bit of duct tape on the USB port to be safe and used a Silicon skin to avoid the battery cover getting opened by handling the phone.
How is the sound quality?
I had many phones and Defy is by far the best in sound quality.
Voice quality in phone calls is great (loud and clear), loud-speaker is excellent - maybe best i've ever heard from mobile phone.
Sound quality on headphones is very good, better than any MP3 player i ever had. And you can trust me, i have trained ears from my home hi-end headphones setup
You would be so unfair to your wife
I carry mine all the time while mountain biking and even after a few wipes (and holes in T-shirts), the Defy is still kicking butts.
The Defy is such an understated phone; it's marketed as a high-entry/middle level but perfoms like a mid-high to high end one once you root it and switch to CM7.
Ignore the comment about lag; it's fast and has no problem playing decent games like Asphalt 6 and other Gameloft games.
Sound is great (on headphones or speakerphone) and if I'd really had to find a downside or two, I'd say GPS performance is so-so in dense urban areas and low-light pictures also so-so - but that is also true for many digital camera as well...
But once again, just don't waste time on Froyo and move up to CM7 right away.
You could try/buy the Defy+, but other than the slightly bigger battery, it brings nothing more than mine on that ROM - in fact it would lack a lot of very useful options. I'd choose all the extras of CM7 over any official Gingerbread (and Blurred) ROM from Motorola any day.
I like it so much that I recommend this phone to all my friendsl so I do the same to you.
So go for it! You won't regret it...other than maybe having the wife yapping about it or constantly borrowing it from you - hehehe!
Nightpath said:
How is the sound quality?
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The Call sound quality is REALLY amazing. When I first bought it a few people to whom I call often actually asked me what I did to my phone since they could hear me perfectly, even with lots of noise around me. And the earpiece is really good.
The speaker phone is by far the best I've heard in a Mobile phone.
The Camera (I got a red leans, tweaked) is crap compared to Cameras, average compared to other phones.
I had an HD2 before and it took better pictures (using android) than 200-300$ Compact cameras, is just insane, so it was a big letdown once I found out the Defy camera just cant compete
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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Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see a slow motion option anywhere in the settings. The only video options are for the resolution (MMS, 1080, etc). One thing they did do right, though, is put the video record button back on the main interface full time next to the camera shutter button. They were crazy to ever take that away.
Quality is okay. It's about on par with the OnePlus One and G3, in my testing. Most of the shots I took were on an overcast day, so not the best testing environment, but overall I think it's acceptable. I think I'd still grab my Note 4 or iPhone 6 Plus if I was going somewhere to take a lot of pictures, but I don't feel like I'm carrying around a bad camera when I have this phone.
griffin_1 said:
Thanks for the review!
The camera doesn't seem bad but for some reason i was expecting it to have a bit more "wow" factor, don't know why and they the shots seem good enough.
You mentioned no-slow motion (i had actually talked about this in the other thread) and the info i read was that it didn't have. However, i was just watching a video review of the desire eye and in the settings i noticed the slow motion icon and the review actually pressed it and it sayed it was slow motion (its an italian video, i actually looked it up to see the translation lol). It was in the camera interface under the " ... " icon and on the modes (it usually says auto) it has the slow motion icon/cartoon - Here is the video @ 11:45
Still no mention of 4k, so that is not from stock but maybe with a mod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, I was totally wrong about slow motion. I just found the option. It was not where I expected, but I'm stoked to see that it's there!
Great Slow motion on htc is good, at least if its like on the m8. I think only htc and sony in Android lets you record 120fps and then edit what parts to slow down, which is how slow motion should be. Glad to see its there and websites like gsmarena should mention it and update the specs info with that.
battery update?
G1_enthusiast said:
battery update?
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Click to collapse
Battery is really good for the capacity. Idle drain with my apps and setting was about 3%/hr. With the screen on, it does seem to lose battery pretty fast, but I was still able to get about 10-13 hours of use with around 3 hours screen time. That's not much worse than most of my other phones do, actually.
I would post screenshots, but I no longer have the phone. As much as I really liked it, I just couldn't live with the camera quality. I was really hoping for better. But if camera isn't your #1 priority, this is a great all around phone. Camera is definitely better than phones like the Moto X. I was just hoping for closer to Note 4/iPhone quality.
How do the camera quality and pictures compare to Samsung S4 or S5?
Thanks.
struff said:
How do the camera quality and pictures compare to Samsung S4 or S5?
Thanks.
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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.
Which one should I buy?
Really like the front speakers from HTC and Nexus 6. But dont know what is the best choice overall.
Here in my country the price of them are very similar.
Thanks.
If you are looking for a crack-flasher phone with no bugs on custom ROMs, Nexus is the way to go. If you want a nice audio experience, M9 it is. If you want a DSLR-like camera, G4 is your weapon. And if you want the more mainstream, less dev friendly but overall awesome device, GS6!
Sent from my SCH-I535PP using XDA Free mobile app
Csetoue said:
Which one should I buy?
Really like the front speakers from HTC and Nexus 6. But dont know what is the best choice overall.
Here in my country the price of them are very similar.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What else are you looking for?
sezamer66 said:
If you want a DSLR-like camera, G4 is your weapon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice joke....
Cryosx said:
What else are you looking for?
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Click to collapse
My last phones were Moto X and HTC M8.
I loved them both.
Moto X had a horrible battery life, and I gave it to my wife, that was in need of a phone.
My M8 was perfect, but I though that, as the Moto X, had a bad camera... Really smooth, excelent battery life, and a nice front speaker. I forgot my M8 on the top of my car, while I was putting my baggage on it.
I saw S6 and G4 on the store. Pretty nice phones, but I dont know if the their android will keep smooth after installing my stuff like it was on M8 or Moto X.
G4 has a nice camera. I like cameraphones (had also a Nokia 808, before). But when I travel, I always take my dSLR with me. G4 would be a nice pocket cam, but doesnt have front speakers (I always watch ytube videos and use loudspeaker for calls - like to have my hands free while in my workdesk).
My first smartphone was a Galaxy S1, and my wife has a tablet Note 2014. Im a bit traumatized with touchwiz. Too laggy. Before I bought them both, they looked awesome and smooth on the store. I felt a bit tricked by Samsung, and never bought nothing else from them after these products.
Nexus looks like a big Moto X. Better battery life, better camera, but its a bit huge, and its not 64bits (I think it may have a lesser longevity cause of that than the others). Probably, its smooth, and it has front speakers as well.
Im really tempted to buy M9, but the all the reviews tell that its camera is worse than the M8 camera, and its front speakers is also worse than those from M8's. Dunno If its battery life is better or worse (can anyone tell me?) than M8's battery. Also, dunno if, after installing some apps, it keeps smooth and quick as M8 (can anyone tell me about this, too?).
Really in doubt about what to buy. My friend told me to take a look on Sony Z3, and my other friend told me to keep waiting for the incoming gadgets (but Im without any smartphone, bad bad ).
Help.
Csetoue said:
My last phones were Moto X and HTC M8.
I loved them both.
Moto X had a horrible battery life, and I gave it to my wife, that was in need of a phone.
My M8 was perfect, but I though that, as the Moto X, had a bad camera... Really smooth, excelent battery life, and a nice front speaker. I forgot my M8 on the top of my car, while I was putting my baggage on it.
I saw S6 and G4 on the store. Pretty nice phones, but I dont know if the their android will keep smooth after installing my stuff like it was on M8 or Moto X.
G4 has a nice camera. I like cameraphones (had also a Nokia 808, before). But when I travel, I always take my dSLR with me. G4 would be a nice pocket cam, but doesnt have front speakers (I always watch ytube videos and use loudspeaker for calls - like to have my hands free while in my workdesk).
My first smartphone was a Galaxy S1, and my wife has a tablet Note 2014. Im a bit traumatized with touchwiz. Too laggy. Before I bought them both, they looked awesome and smooth on the store. I felt a bit tricked by Samsung, and never bought nothing else from them after these products.
Nexus looks like a big Moto X. Better battery life, better camera, but its a bit huge, and its not 64bits (I think it may have a lesser longevity cause of that than the others). Probably, its smooth, and it has front speakers as well.
Im really tempted to buy M9, but the all the reviews tell that its camera is worse than the M8 camera, and its front speakers is also worse than those from M8's. Dunno If its battery life is better or worse (can anyone tell me?) than M8's battery. Also, dunno if, after installing some apps, it keeps smooth and quick as M8 (can anyone tell me about this, too?).
Really in doubt about what to buy. My friend told me to take a look on Sony Z3, and my other friend told me to keep waiting for the incoming gadgets (but Im without any smartphone, bad bad ).
Help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're upgrading from M8, be prepared for the differences to be very subtle. I did this but was expecting basically the same phone only with some minor/under the hood improvements. And this is exactly what the M9 is. I loved the M8 and I love the M9 more, but it's probably only about a 10% improvement.
What carrier are you on? If your carrier doesn't already have a direct path to the 2.X firmware, I'd either get the developer edition or budget an extra $25 to obtain S-off. I'm att and couldn't imagine having to wait for them to give me an update. I think they finally pushed lollipop to the M8 in freaking March or April.
Csetoue said:
My last phones were Moto X and HTC M8.
Really in doubt about what to buy. My friend told me to take a look on Sony Z3, and my other friend told me to keep waiting for the incoming gadgets (but Im without any smartphone, bad bad ).
Help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The M8 is at least $300 on eBay so its half the price of the high end right now. I'd tell you to go get another M8 and save some money. Comparing it to the M9, the M8 has better battery life with a much more battery efficient processor that keeps the phone relatively cool. The performance difference between the S801 and S810 is negligible, you're just not likely to notice. Daylight shots should be better on the M9 whereas night shots are better with the M8. Speakers are somewhat better, Dolby surround stuff is pretty nice. In terms of development M8 is leagues better right now. I'd highly recommend skipping this generation and waiting for the new Nexus, HTC Hero device coming later this year, or the M10 next year.
There also a noticeable difference between the M8s screen and the M9s. If you liked the M8s you might not like the M9s.
All these flagships are pretty nice, and all of them have possible problems:
-S6: Pink tint on white, Board traces under sunlight, exploding battery, illogical TW
-M9: Screen wake lag (will be fixed by OTA), QC 2.0 that not always work, cracked camera glass (though still a minority)
-G4: Touchscreen issue (could be fixable by OTA), leather backs can loose color quite fast, huge lack of roms
On the good sides:
-S6: Very good camera both low light and daylight, gorgeous screen (when you don't have the listed faults)
-M9: Gorgeous camera in daylight (RAW) , Superb music, Fastest UI ever, quality Roms, best UI and apps (Sense 7)
-G4: Gorgeous screen, Superb camera in both daylight and low light, faster UI than S6
All of the 3 have advantages and cons, now see which one fits you better!
For example if you prefer larger screen the G4 is more suitable
jollywhitefoot said:
If you're upgrading from M8, be prepared for the differences to be very subtle. I did this but was expecting basically the same phone only with some minor/under the hood improvements. And this is exactly what the M9 is. I loved the M8 and I love the M9 more, but it's probably only about a 10% improvement.
What carrier are you on? If your carrier doesn't already have a direct path to the 2.X firmware, I'd either get the developer edition or budget an extra $25 to obtain S-off. I'm att and couldn't imagine having to wait for them to give me an update. I think they finally pushed lollipop to the M8 in freaking March or April.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cryosx said:
The M8 is at least $300 on eBay so its half the price of the high end right now. I'd tell you to go get another M8 and save some money. Comparing it to the M9, the M8 has better battery life with a much more battery efficient processor that keeps the phone relatively cool. The performance difference between the S801 and S810 is negligible, you're just not likely to notice. Daylight shots should be better on the M9 whereas night shots are better with the M8. Speakers are somewhat better, Dolby surround stuff is pretty nice. In terms of development M8 is leagues better right now. I'd highly recommend skipping this generation and waiting for the new Nexus, HTC Hero device coming later this year, or the M10 next year.
There also a noticeable difference between the M8s screen and the M9s. If you liked the M8s you might not like the M9s.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vegetaleb said:
All these flagships are pretty nice, and all of them have possible problems:
-S6: Pink tint on white, Board traces under sunlight, exploding battery, illogical TW
-M9: Screen wake lag (will be fixed by OTA), QC 2.0 that not always work, cracked camera glass (though still a minority)
-G4: Touchscreen issue (could be fixable by OTA), leather backs can loose color quite fast, huge lack of roms
On the good sides:
-S6: Very good camera both low light and daylight, gorgeous screen (when you don't have the listed faults)
-M9: Gorgeous camera in daylight (RAW) , Superb music, Fastest UI ever, quality Roms, best UI and apps (Sense 7)
-G4: Gorgeous screen, Superb camera in both daylight and low light, faster UI than S6
All of the 3 have advantages and cons, now see which one fits you better!
For example if you prefer larger screen the G4 is more suitable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, guys!
Im in Brazil.
Here, the price are:
- M9 US$750
- G4 US$700
- S6 US$700
- N6 US$700
- Note 4 US$650
- M8 US$600
- Z3 US$600
- Z3C US$450
- Moto X US$400
If I could, I would wait for the next gen from HTC (the one named Hero).
But Im without any smartphone right now.
Id like to buy something that could lasts for the next 2 years.
Still, hasnt decided, yet. Have to make this until the next weekend.
I'd get the M8 over the M9. If you're bored with HTC phones then maybe try the Z3 compact. Battery life on that is supposed to be amazing. Not sure about anything else with the compact though.
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.)