Develop Bugs

New to Honor/Huawei - what's the Dev scene like? Do Huawei bother?

So I was all up and ready to buy a Moto G5 plus and then saw the Honor 8 Pro will be out soon. Everything about it looks great - The display (isn't amoled - thankfully!) and the size, the Kirin 960 looks like it competes with the Snapdragon 835 in many ways. And the price of course is very reasonable.
I'll be coming from the Nexus 5 so I've been in and around XDA a long time, flashing ROMs etc. I don't expect the Honor 8 Pro to be anywhere near as Dev friendly as the Nexus 5. But I was wondering if anyone can tell me what it's actually like for Devs with Huawei phones and getting hold of the sources needed to make custom ROMs or even get LineageOS and all the hardware working? I get the sense (but I'm not sure) that at the moment it's a *real* challenge because Huawei, like most manufacturers don't really believe that engaging with the Dev community can provide a great boost to brand visibility and "geek cred" which will then filter out into recommendations to friends and family etc: It can be a very strong marketing tool essentially. But companies rarely understand that it would actually benefit them in a business sense. So...
Do Huawei provide all the "sources" and resources needed for developing custom ROMs *eventually* or do they just not bother at all in some cases or make it very hard in others? I saw on a Honor 8 (not pro) thread that there are "ambassadors" around. Can these guys interact with Huawei/Honor to encourage them to help out with the necessary technical stuff to make building ROMs a viable possibility, and is that likely to get a good response or is it already in process?
I mean if I get the Honor 8 Pro, I'll use it "as is". EMUI is not bad but still quite amateurish/90s in many ways and I'm thinking I can go along way to fixing it by using a custom launcher. But if there's a good chance Honor/Huawei will suddenly become much more helpful with Dev stuff it would make it a dream phone for sure. Any info?

I've been looking in to this too. It seems you can unlock the bootloader on EMUI devices in an official way so that's a good start.
Have you had a look around the other Huawei and Honor forums? There do seem to be ROMs and unofficial Lineage OS builds, but I haven't found much info on sources, etc.
I have actually pre-ordered an Honor 8 Pro, it looks awesome and at £474 I couldn't resist. I think the major manufacturers have lost the plot in terms of flagship pricing.

alsheron said:
So I was all up and ready to buy a Moto G5 plus and then saw the Honor 8 Pro will be out soon. Everything about it looks great - The display (isn't amoled - thankfully!) and the size, the Kirin 960 looks like it competes with the Snapdragon 835 in many ways. And the price of course is very reasonable.
I'll be coming from the Nexus 5 so I've been in and around XDA a long time, flashing ROMs etc. I don't expect the Honor 8 Pro to be anywhere near as Dev friendly as the Nexus 5. But I was wondering if anyone can tell me what it's actually like for Devs with Huawei phones and getting hold of the sources needed to make custom ROMs or even get LineageOS and all the hardware working? I get the sense (but I'm not sure) that at the moment it's a *real* challenge because Huawei, like most manufacturers don't really believe that engaging with the Dev community can provide a great boost to brand visibility and "geek cred" which will then filter out into recommendations to friends and family etc: It can be a very strong marketing tool essentially. But companies rarely understand that it would actually benefit them in a business sense. So...
Do Huawei provide all the "sources" and resources needed for developing custom ROMs *eventually* or do they just not bother at all in some cases or make it very hard in others? I saw on a Honor 8 (not pro) thread that there are "ambassadors" around. Can these guys interact with Huawei/Honor to encourage them to help out with the necessary technical stuff to make building ROMs a viable possibility, and is that likely to get a good response or is it already in process?
I mean if I get the Honor 8 Pro, I'll use it "as is". EMUI is not bad but still quite amateurish/90s in many ways and I'm thinking I can go along way to fixing it by using a custom launcher. But if there's a good chance Honor/Huawei will suddenly become much more helpful with Dev stuff it would make it a dream phone for sure. Any info?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in the same boat. I love the H8Pro but all I see outside of stock based roms, is one unofficial Lineage build for the Honor 8. The camera is currently listed as not working still. It's like that on a lot of phones that aren't too well known. My Le Pro 3 for example didn't have working camera on the marshmallow roms for a while and then when they got it working the 7 roms didn't have it until very recently. So it's a maybe it will at all. The problem is that while a lot of these companies allow bootloader unlocking, no they don't release sources. That's a big problem. That means devs have to build things like camera drivers from scratch, and without them being that popular devs working on it aren't usually too plentiful. Also not too much kernel support for that Kirin chipset either.

Well let me ask you guys. How much custom ROMs do you use these days ? I myself found that after changing to custom ROM I found back to stock ROM. These days stock roms has become so good that they actually brings the true character of a phone

Apparently I'm not the only one facing this decision. I've owned the Moto 2nd gen, G3, and G4 and frankly every time I've moved up a model, I like them a little less. For that reason alone, I'm trying to look past the Moto G5. Now that the Honor 9 is coming out, I'm taking a look at the Honor 8, hoping the cost will come down. I've always carried my phone in my front pocket so the size difference over the G4 I have now has me a little worried, but the weight really doesn't matter. I'm really looking very hard at the Honor 8 Pro though since price wise, it looks pretty close to the best bang for the buck.

ehh ..

alsheron said:
So I was all up and ready to buy a Moto G5 plus and then saw the Honor 8 Pro will be out soon. Everything about it looks great - The display (isn't amoled - thankfully!) and the size, the Kirin 960 looks like it competes with the Snapdragon 835 in many ways. And the price of course is very reasonable.
I'll be coming from the Nexus 5 so I've been in and around XDA a long time, flashing ROMs etc. I don't expect the Honor 8 Pro to be anywhere near as Dev friendly as the Nexus 5. But I was wondering if anyone can tell me what it's actually like for Devs with Huawei phones and getting hold of the sources needed to make custom ROMs or even get LineageOS and all the hardware working? I get the sense (but I'm not sure) that at the moment it's a *real* challenge because Huawei, like most manufacturers don't really believe that engaging with the Dev community can provide a great boost to brand visibility and "geek cred" which will then filter out into recommendations to friends and family etc: It can be a very strong marketing tool essentially. But companies rarely understand that it would actually benefit them in a business sense. So...
Do Huawei provide all the "sources" and resources needed for developing custom ROMs *eventually* or do they just not bother at all in some cases or make it very hard in others? I saw on a Honor 8 (not pro) thread that there are "ambassadors" around. Can these guys interact with Huawei/Honor to encourage them to help out with the necessary technical stuff to make building ROMs a viable possibility, and is that likely to get a good response or is it already in process?
I mean if I get the Honor 8 Pro, I'll use it "as is". EMUI is not bad but still quite amateurish/90s in many ways and I'm thinking I can go along way to fixing it by using a custom launcher. But if there's a good chance Honor/Huawei will suddenly become much more helpful with Dev stuff it would make it a dream phone for sure. Any info?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
personally, i am a fan of their emui5, amazing ui tho,
and their harware is solid,
camera is good too,
battery lives are excellent (thanks to emui optimisations)
but my only regret is that i dont have much of a custom roms to play with, given that their kirin chip is not open sourced
offcourse, their is open kirin team unofficially, but they are not working on every device, so only complaint will be kernel sources,
many honor devices has no development at all,

thilak devraj said:
personally, i am a fan of their emui5, amazing ui tho,
and their harware is solid,
camera is good too,
battery lives are excellent (thanks to emui optimisations)
but my only regret is that i dont have much of a custom roms to play with, given that their kirin chip is not open sourced
offcourse, their is open kirin team unofficially, but they are not working on every device, so only complaint will be kernel sources,
many honor devices has no development at all,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. kernel source from p10 plus works on duk
2. resurrection remix will follow soon .. it is booting already, but still has some major bugs we have to fix first
EDIT: I just saw you are talking about kirin devices in general, sorry

OldDroid said:
1. kernel source from p10 plus works on duk
2. resurrection remix will follow soon .. it is booting already, but still has some major bugs we have to fix first
EDIT: I just saw you are talking about kirin devices in general, sorry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't worry, we are always greatfull for open Kirin and the hard work of devs like you

Source code is just released! Check HERE. Since the phone is new, source is released early. OpenKirin Team can now develop for this device.

adriansticoid said:
Source code is just released! Check HERE. Since the phone is new, source is released early. OpenKirin Team can now develop for this device.
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Click to collapse
wooow... source released ?? :cyclops:

thilak devraj said:
wooow... source released ?? :cyclops:
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Click to collapse
Yeah. That's what I just said.

adriansticoid said:
Yeah. That's what I just said.
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wasnt expecting huawei to do this

thilak devraj said:
wasnt expecting huawei to do this
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Click to collapse
Rox_Honor said it will be released mid-June. A bit delayed but it's good.

adriansticoid said:
Rox_Honor said it will be released mid-June. A bit delayed but it's good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
finally, i could play with custom roms , hope it woud happen for the 6x too

thilak devraj said:
finally, i could play with custom roms , hope it woud happen for the 6x too
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Click to collapse
Yeah. Everybody's hoping for that.

adriansticoid said:
Yeah. Everybody's hoping for that.
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Click to collapse
imagin , if huawei bedev friendly, and their phones will be like snapdragons, no one would stop em

thilak devraj said:
imagin , if huawei bedev friendly, and their phones will be like snapdragons, no one would stop em
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Click to collapse
They'll see this in the future. Yeah that future again.

adriansticoid said:
They'll see this in the future. Yeah that future again.
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Click to collapse
if that happens, huawei's gonna beat sam

thilak devraj said:
if that happens, huawei's gonna beat sam
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Click to collapse
Of course. So it's important that they decide for this.

Worth to buy an S9 to use LOS?

Hi all! It's time to change my old Nexus 5 and I'm looking to buy an OP6 or a S9 due to its smaller dimensions.
Thing is I don't like Samsung's personalizations as I heard it slows down very quickly.
Here in Italy I could get an used S9 for 400€. Is it worth to get it with the specific intent of using it only with LineageOS? How does it perform and what am I going to miss from stock android?
Thank you!

Jeeza said:
Hi all! It's time to change my old Nexus 5 and I'm looking to buy an OP6 or a S9 due to its smaller dimensions.
Thing is I don't like Samsung's personalizations as I heard it slows down very quickly.
Here in Italy I could get an used S9 for 400€. Is it worth to get it with the specific intent of using it only with LineageOS? How does it perform and what am I going to miss from stock android?
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Performance wise, S9 performs really well upto this point. I got it since launch and there were only minor drawbacks in the launcher, which were easily removed by installing pixel launcher, and now everything feels smooth. I dont think there is a need for using LOS rom just for speed because you'll lose the great features of samsung.

kyooohei08 said:
Performance wise, S9 performs really well upto this point. I got it since launch and there were only minor drawbacks in the launcher, which were easily removed by installing pixel launcher, and now everything feels smooth. I dont think there is a need for using LOS rom just for speed because you'll lose the great features of samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which features you think I would miss the most?

Jeeza said:
Which features you think I would miss the most?
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Click to collapse
The features from your camera, I dont think gcam camera is any better than samsung stock. You would also lose any Knox related apps such as secure folder, samsung pass, etc. For me, I dont think there is a need to root now, atleast when it is still receiving software updates .

kyooohei08 said:
The features from your camera, I dont think gcam camera is any better than samsung stock. You would also lose any Knox related apps such as secure folder, samsung pass, etc. For me, I dont think there is a need to root now, atleast when it is still receiving software updates .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are u kidding? GCam is way better than samsung stock , i have s9 and Gcam installed..i know what i am talking about

Simion Catalin said:
are u kidding? GCam is way better than samsung stock , i have s9 and Gcam installed..i know what i am talking about
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you don't. Samsung's proprietary image libraries and enhancements are better than any gcam port will achieve.
Not saying gcam is bad but stock is quite a bit better on Samsung Experience compared to gcam.
also to OP: Note you probably won't be able to use the variable apeture OR the iris scanner to unlock your phone. Also as much of a meme as it is VoLTE also isn't supported on LOS.

iiyn said:
No you don't. Samsung's proprietary image libraries and enhancements are better than any gcam port will achieve.
Not saying gcam is bad but stock is quite a bit better on Samsung Experience compared to gcam.
also to OP: Note you probably won't be able to use the variable apeture OR the iris scanner to unlock your phone. Also as much of a meme as it is VoLTE also isn't supported on LOS.
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Click to collapse
so..u are saying that my eyes are ****ed up if i see that photos taken with Gcam are better in every way ..and the eyes of many others see the same results...i don`t know man...maybe is something wrong with your eyes....just saying

Simion Catalin said:
so..u are saying that my eyes are ****ed up if i see that photos taken with Gcam are better in every way ..and the eyes of many others see the same results...i don`t know man...maybe is something wrong with your eyes....just saying
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Click to collapse
Yeah, pretty much. Even inside the GCam thread for the s9 there are plenty of people saying it's not as good as stock. It's one of the reasons why I haven't jumped ship from Samsung Experience yet.
Also, more vibrant color != better photos. They might LOOK better but what I look for in a smartphone camera is color accuracy. If you like saturated hdr+ overblown shots so be it, to each their own.

When i bought the S8, I was hoping that the dev comunity could after some month port an AOSP rom on it but nothing stable really happend. It's a shame because I always prefered stock roms. Then the s9 came with de Treble project and this was for me the best feature that could ever been done.
You have everything that you could wish :
- Sweet design of the galaxy serie with the infinit display and for me the most beautifull overall body design (without the f*****g notch)
- Very great battery life (it easily last the day without have to charge during the day)
- The best performances, smoothness.
- No bugs at all
I always said that the galaxy series had the most complete phones in the market. But TouchWizz was the point where i always been frustrated about. With LOS, i'm ready to say that the S9 is probably the best phone you can get on the market.
Btw, don't worry about the camera's quality. It's still good even whitout samsung's camera framework.
Peace !

Simion Catalin said:
are u kidding? GCam is way better than samsung stock , i have s9 and Gcam installed..i know what i am talking about
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Click to collapse
The GCam Im talking about is the one from gapps, not the gcam ported from pixel 2 which has HDR+ capability. I agree GCam with hdr+ is superior when it comes to contrast and details, but you dont get it when you are in LOS. That's what Im referring to.

Suggestion for the next phone after Zuk Z2 Plus

There was a small discussion in the AEX 6.7 thread started by @mcalistri asking for a suggestion to replace his Zuk Z2 Plus with another one. His suggestion was Pixel 3A and Nokia 7.2. I too asked if the OnePlus 6T is a good option. @selvarajrajkanna and @GopalKaul answered both of us and suggested K20 Pro and Pixel 3A. Since it is not good to discuss this in AEX thread I'm continuing that discussion here.
My suggestions and the summary of the discussion:
- OnePlus 7 (but the development is not in a good position; I read a few threads there. Also the 7T is on the way so buying a new one would not be a better idea I think)
- OnePlus 6T (if you want to stay on stock rom because oxygen os is good. - suggested by selvarajrajkanna. I found a few pre-owned 6Ts and also my friend has one, that's why I suggested it)
- Pixel 3A (have better camera and if camera is the only priority - suggested by selvarajrajkanna and mcalistri)
- Redmi K20 Pro (suggested by GopalKaul and selvarajrajkanna because it has latest chipset, 3.5mm jack, bigger battery, etc.)
- Nokia 7.2 (suggested by mcalistri)
- Poco F1 (if on a tight budget - suggested by GopalKaul)
Also please tell if you have any other good options or suggestions in this list. I'll update this post if anything relevant is posted. Our Z2 Plus started with 6.0 and went through 7.0, 8.0 and 9.0 without any serious performance issues. So I think Android Q will also work flawlessly. But if any Z2 Plus owner who like to replace it with another one and also expect a legend like Z2 this post may/should help. Thanks for taking the time to read this long post. ?

niyonsv said:
There was a small discussion in the AEX 6.7 thread started by @mcalistri asking for a suggestion to replace his Zuk Z2 Plus with another one. His suggestion was Pixel 3A and Nokia 7.2. I too asked if the OnePlus 6T is a good option. @selvarajrajkanna and @GopalKaul answered both of us and suggested K20 Pro and Pixel 3A. Since it is not good to discuss this in AEX thread I'm continuing that discussion here.
My suggestions and the summary of the discussion:
- OnePlus 7 (but the development is not in a good position; I read a few threads there. Also the 7T is on the way so buying a new one would not be a better idea I think)
- OnePlus 6T (if you want to stay on stock rom because oxygen os is good. - suggested by selvarajrajkanna. I found a few pre-owned 6Ts and also my friend has one, that's why I suggested it)
- Pixel 3A (have better camera and if camera is the only priority - suggested by selvarajrajkanna and mcalistri)
- Redmi K20 Pro (suggested by GopalKaul and selvarajrajkanna because it has latest chipset, 3.5mm jack, bigger battery, etc.)
- Nokia 7.2 (suggested by mcalistri)
- Poco F1 (if on a tight budget - suggested by GopalKaul)
Also please tell if you have any other good options or suggestions in this list. I'll update this post if anything relevant is posted. Our Z2 Plus started with 6.0 and went through 7.0, 8.0 and 9.0 without any serious performance issues. So I think Android Q will also work flawlessly. But if any Z2 Plus owner who like to replace it with another one and also expect a legend like Z2 this post may/should help. Thanks for taking the time to read this long post. ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In reality I have not suggested any devices ?
Nokia could be a good choice for what I remember about its Zeiss Camera lenses, I could appreciate it on my Nokia Lumia which now it's gone to paradise.
I honestly am tempted to take the pixel 3a but I live in Brazil and here it is more expensive due to the importation taxes.
The K20 if I'm not wrong, is a bit strange to my eyes because it has a lifting camera jumping from the outside of the chassis.
The choice is not so easy also because the old Zuk-Z2 is working extremely well

niyonsv said:
There was a small discussion in the AEX 6.7 thread started by @mcalistri asking for a suggestion to replace his Zuk Z2 Plus with another one. His suggestion was Pixel 3A and Nokia 7.2. I too asked if the OnePlus 6T is a good option. @selvarajrajkanna and @GopalKaul answered both of us and suggested K20 Pro and Pixel 3A. Since it is not good to discuss this in AEX thread I'm continuing that discussion here.
My suggestions and the summary of the discussion:
- OnePlus 7 (but the development is not in a good position; I read a few threads there. Also the 7T is on the way so buying a new one would not be a better idea I think)
- OnePlus 6T (if you want to stay on stock rom because oxygen os is good. - suggested by selvarajrajkanna. I found a few pre-owned 6Ts and also my friend has one, that's why I suggested it)
- Pixel 3A (have better camera and if camera is the only priority - suggested by selvarajrajkanna and mcalistri)
- Redmi K20 Pro (suggested by GopalKaul and selvarajrajkanna because it has latest chipset, 3.5mm jack, bigger battery, etc.)
- Nokia 7.2 (suggested by mcalistri)
- Poco F1 (if on a tight budget - suggested by GopalKaul)
Also please tell if you have any other good options or suggestions in this list. I'll update this post if anything relevant is posted. Our Z2 Plus started with 6.0 and went through 7.0, 8.0 and 9.0 without any serious performance issues. So I think Android Q will also work flawlessly. But if any Z2 Plus owner who like to replace it with another one and also expect a legend like Z2 this post may/should help. Thanks for taking the time to read this long post. ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to try a new phone after the Zuk Z2, try buying either Pixel 3, or even 7 is a very good option[seeing the development of other one plus phones, 7's development should soon emerge]

akshay pro said:
If you want to try a new phone after the Zuk Z2, try buying either Pixel 3, or even 7 is a very good option[seeing the development of other one plus phones, 7's development should soon emerge]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMHO we should consider first the device as it we find it from the factory, with its default software and O.S., I mean we should consider if it can or can't be ROM customized as second requirement.
For example, for my personal user case, I purchased my ZukZ2 with Chinese ROM, than the decision to flash a custom ROM on it has been almost mandatory.

akshay pro said:
If you want to try a new phone after the Zuk Z2, try buying either Pixel 3, or even 7 is a very good option[seeing the development of other one plus phones, 7's development should soon emerge]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I can get a OnePlus 6T phone (pre-owned, 6-128, still in warranty) for about 75% of that of a new OnePlus 7's price. So, which one would be better? OnePlus 6T or 7? Or any other?

mcalistri said:
IMHO we should consider first the device as it we find it from the factory, with its default software and O.S., I mean we should consider if it can or can't be ROM customized as second requirement.
For example, for my personal user case, I purchased my ZukZ2 with Chinese ROM, than the decision to flash a custom ROM on it has been almost mandatory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. My thought is just opposite. I like almost-stock-ROMs with additional features and the factory OSs never attracted me except for some of their features or something. I flashed the custom ROM the day I got Z2. Before buying it I searched about many devices in XDA which had better custom ROM development support. Also Z2 was a device with almost high-end spec then and I got a huge discount then. That's why I'm looking for a device identical to Z2 of that time.

I would defenately go to k20 pro

niyonsv said:
Thanks. My thought is just opposite. I like almost-stock-ROMs with additional features and the factory OSs never attracted me except for some of their features or something. I flashed the custom ROM the day I got Z2. Before buying it I searched about many devices in XDA which had better custom ROM development support. Also Z2 was a device with almost high-end spec then and I got a huge discount then. That's why I'm looking for a device identical to Z2 of that time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock OS as the pure Android running on a Google Pixel phone, from what I've heard have everything we need to forget about custom ROM.
Our device, thanks to its hardware is still pretty good to offer brilliant service for years to come.
The maior lacks, I IMHO can resume for Z2 are:
1 - A not superlative camera, beside its hw specs which are not the top of the market, probably has not been achieved the very best in terms of firmware and software to manage it at a better level.
2 - A not superlative sound in terms of loudness
Regards,

I don't see any reason to change the device.
Charge the ROM, chahe the screen guard and change the cover or add a skin.
That's the new device for you.

manishgkasera said:
I don't see any reason to change the device.
Charge the ROM, chahe the screen guard and change the cover or add a skin.
That's the new device for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:laugh:

-Deleted-

manishgkasera said:
I don't see any reason to change the device.
Charge the ROM, chahe the screen guard and change the cover or add a skin.
That's the new device for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's how I used my Z2 bro. It has a unique design (all phones where curved then) and it always stayed different from others. But there's one thing that I changed thrice and it was a bit more costly - battery. Also my phone is becoming slow and slow each day. Tried different ROMs, reduced number of apps. The phone is not performing well too. It is taking ages to click a photo. Also the earpiece speaker now started distorting, I've to use headset always for talking. There are other reasons here and there, so I think it is better to change my phone. That's why I asked for suggestion.

I'm also looking for an upgrade to this phone. I bought the ZUK about 3 years ago with the intention of only keeping it for under 12 months. But I ended up sticking with it since I couldn't find a suitable upgrade at the time. After a lot of use it seems the ZUK is starting to show signs of slowing down. It's taking time to open apps and the storage is incredibly slow as prooven by benchmark testing.
Unfortunately my choice for a replacement is limited because I get eyestrain and headaches when looking at AMOLED screens with PWM flickering. The Asus Zenfone 6 looks perfect with an IPS panel, but it is too expensive at £450 here in the UK. The upcoming Realme 5 Pro seems good with SD712, 6GB RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 storage for a much more reasonable £190. But I worry about whether this phone will recieve good custom ROM support. There's also the Redmi Note 7 Pro with SD675 but it has a horrible ugly U-shaped notch. Maybe the upcoming Redmi Note 8 will also be decent.

I'm a bit surprised about hear some buddies have the need to replace the battery in their ZukZ2.
My battery, after years of usage looks like brand new, it doesn't presents any sign of longevity.
Furthermore I can't understand how the device appears running slower! We have not any mechanical disk inside it, neither a Windows XP is running here! If your device is slow then try to clean flash after performing a factory reset.
Sirs, are you violenting yours smartphones? Are you using it extensively with gaming and repetitive charging during usage?
May be you should have been more respectful and conservative using the phone now you have to pay the bill!

P650SE said:
I'm also looking for an upgrade to this phone. I bought the ZUK about 3 years ago with the intention of only keeping it for under 12 months. But I ended up sticking with it since I couldn't find a suitable upgrade at the time. After a lot of use it seems the ZUK is starting to show signs of slowing down. It's taking time to open apps and the storage is incredibly slow as prooven by benchmark testing.
Unfortunately my choice for a replacement is limited because I get eyestrain and headaches when looking at AMOLED screens with PWM flickering. The Asus Zenfone 6 looks perfect with an IPS panel, but it is too expensive at £450 here in the UK. The upcoming Realme 5 Pro seems good with SD712, 6GB RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 storage for a much more reasonable £190. But I worry about whether this phone will recieve good custom ROM support. There's also the Redmi Note 7 Pro with SD675 but it has a horrible ugly U-shaped notch. Maybe the upcoming Redmi Note 8 will also be decent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't heard of this AMOLED flickering issue till now. Is it a serious issue to consider?

mcalistri said:
I'm a bit surprised about hear some buddies have the need to replace the battery in their ZukZ2.
My battery, after years of usage looks like brand new, it doesn't presents any sign of longevity.
Furthermore I can't understand how the device appears running slower! We have not any mechanical disk inside it, neither a Windows XP is running here! If your device is slow then try to clean flash after performing a factory reset.
Sirs, are you violenting yours smartphones? Are you using it extensively with gaming and repetitive charging during usage?
May be you should have been more respectful and conservative using the phone now you have to pay the bill!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But I changed the batteries thrice, all from Lenovo official service center. I always go to stock ROM between each ROM changes, and clean flash between each updates. It's a bit time consuming sometimes but I know its better. Only a very few times I dirty flashed.
I used it for gaming only in the first year of purchase, now I'm not interest in that, that's why. Also I was always respectful to my phone, since it is the only device I have.
The phone is speedier with old stock ROMs and nougat ROMs, but not that speedier than then. So if I need to use newer version of ROMs and apps I should switch to a newer phone rather forcing Z2 to do all new stuffs.
I remember only a few phone models were capable of taking photos with GCams and Z2 was there in the list right after getting camera2API. Also it took and processed photos very fast. But now it is taking a lot of time even to click a photo.

niyonsv said:
I haven't heard of this AMOLED flickering issue till now. Is it a serious issue to consider?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it only affects a small minority of people, I heard about 10% of users can experience these symptoms with AMOLED panels. It just means you are more sensitive to the flickering than other people. Sadly, the only way to find out is to purchase an AMOLED phone and try it for yourself. That's what happened with me.
mcalistri said:
I'm a bit surprised about hear some buddies have the need to replace the battery in their ZukZ2.
My battery, after years of usage looks like brand new, it doesn't presents any sign of longevity.
Furthermore I can't understand how the device appears running slower! We have not any mechanical disk inside it, neither a Windows XP is running here! If your device is slow then try to clean flash after performing a factory reset.
Sirs, are you violenting yours smartphones? Are you using it extensively with gaming and repetitive charging during usage?
May be you should have been more respectful and conservative using the phone now you have to pay the bill!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was of the understanding that flash storage can degrade over time in smartphones. I probably didn't do mine any favours by constantly flashing ROMs and copying files to it over the course of 3 years. I did some storage benchmarks and I'm only getting 33MB/s sequential write speeds. Random write 4K is even worse at 1.3MB/s average. Surely that's not normal.
https://files.catbox.moe/e1wu3r.png
Can anyone compare against my scores? The app is called CPDT Benchmark in the Play Store.
In regards to battery performance, mine still gives about 4 hours of SOT but that is disappointing when it used to last for 7 hours and 30 minutes. I always allow my phone to run completely out of battery which I heard isn't good for for in the long-term. So perhaps bad charging habits have caused more degradation.

niyonsv said:
But I changed the batteries thrice, all from Lenovo official service center. I always go to stock ROM between each ROM changes, and clean flash between each updates. It's a bit time consuming sometimes but I know its better. Only a very few times I dirty flashed.
I used it for gaming only in the first year of purchase, now I'm not interest in that, that's why. Also I was always respectful to my phone, since it is the only device I have.
The phone is speedier with old stock ROMs and nougat ROMs, but not that speedier than then. So if I need to use newer version of ROMs and apps I should switch to a newer phone rather forcing Z2 to do all new stuffs.
I remember only a few phone models were capable of taking photos with GCams and Z2 was there in the list right after getting camera2API. Also it took and processed photos very fast. But now it is taking a lot of time even to click a photo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't know why you had to replace your battery trice, I think it is a very seldom occurrence, nor I can say it happened due your usage, most likely it could be due you purchased a defective device.
About slowing down after time, I agree about the SSD consideration made by our buddy participating to this discussion because I recently red something about SSD since I'm going to replace my laptop HDD but also this kind of issue I believe it's happening seldom in smartphones.
I won't to cause frustrations writing that I've not noticed any slowness on my Zuk Z2 so far, just a little bit when I flashed Nameless kernel which was an EAS kernel.
Now on AEX 6.7 I'm using the default kernel which is giving to the Z2 an extremely fast responsiveness and smooth usability too.
I think I will try to run the SSD performance test suggested by our buddy (sorry I didn't wrote your name to mention it but you sent interesting comments indeed).
I'm sure that there are not many users affected by problems you are facing about slowness and battery, or better, it would be interesting to make a survey here on XDA to know how many people have such problems on their ZukZ2.
Best regards,
---------- Post added at 01:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:54 PM ----------
P650SE said:
Well it only affects a small minority of people, I heard about 10% of users can experience these symptoms with AMOLED panels. It just means you are more sensitive to the flickering than other people. Sadly, the only way to find out is to purchase an AMOLED phone and try it for yourself. That's what happened with me.
I was of the understanding that flash storage can degrade over time in smartphones. I probably didn't do mine any favours by constantly flashing ROMs and copying files to it over the course of 3 years. I did some storage benchmarks and I'm only getting 33MB/s sequential write speeds. Random write 4K is even worse at 1.3MB/s average. Surely that's not normal.
https://files.catbox.moe/e1wu3r.png
Can anyone compare against my scores? The app is called CPDT Benchmark in the Play Store.
In regards to battery performance, mine still gives about 4 hours of SOT but that is disappointing when it used to last for 7 hours and 30 minutes. I always allow my phone to run completely out of battery which I heard isn't good for for in the long-term. So perhaps bad charging habits have caused more degradation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very much interesting comments!
I think I will try to run the SSD benchmark but before I would like to ask you why you say that your results are bad?
Did you compared with another ZukZ2 user running similar environment?
About the battery we also have to take in account the adjustment we could have done to applications (running in background or not) the screen stby after X seconds, the charger we use, in fact there are plenty of chargers around that are not good for our battery but that are being used normally.
In any case your SOT looks very normal to me.
Regards,

P650SE said:
I was of the understanding that flash storage can degrade over time in smartphones. I probably didn't do mine any favours by constantly flashing ROMs and copying files to it over the course of 3 years. I did some storage benchmarks and I'm only getting 33MB/s sequential write speeds. Random write 4K is even worse at 1.3MB/s average. Surely that's not normal.
https://files.catbox.moe/e1wu3r.png
Can anyone compare against my scores? The app is called CPDT Benchmark in the Play Store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is my CPDT benchmark result which looks quite aligned with your, so I think that SSD performance has nothing to do with the slowness of the responsiveness of your Zuk Z2.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Saplin.CPDT
Regards,

mcalistri said:
Here is my CPDT benchmark result which looks quite aligned with your, so I think that SSD performance has nothing to do with the slowness of the responsiveness of your Zuk Z2.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Saplin.CPDT
Regards,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, the result of my benchmark is not visible externally so I'm attaching the screenshot here.
Regards,

i love one plus 7T

who else love it

I thought there was gonna be a "but" on the text lol. I do love it too, I came to this phone from a Pocophone and the only thing i miss is the custom ROMs development on the Oneplus 7T.

hectorviov said:
I thought there was gonna be a "but" on the text lol. I do love it too, I came to this phone from a Pocophone and the only thing i miss is the custom ROMs development on the Oneplus 7T.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came from pocophone too. Lack of development is kinda disappointing, and i recently saw that delevopers said "TWRP may never come because of the new partition layout on android 10".

EugenStanis said:
I came from pocophone too. Lack of development is kinda disappointing, and i recently saw that delevopers said "TWRP may never come because of the new partition layout on android 10".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know if it's never gonna come or devs just haven't had the time to work on it. I read on their blog that the primary dev was having his child born and coudn't work on it. Also if I'm not mistaken the only phones with Android 10 out of the box as of right now are the Pixel 4 series and the Oneplus 7T series so not a lot to work on. Wait until Xiaomi, Samsung and more brands release Android 10 by default and I think development of TWRP on this new kind of partition system is gonna get more attention. That is why I'm hopeful that development for this phone can get more attention "soon-ish".

I like it alot wish there was more development tho

If google would just make something this quality i would buy one of their phones already. I was dissapointed in the looks of the pixel 4. They cheaped out on their components to maximize profits and its obvious. I have been mostly happy with the oneplus 7t but it has had some serious quirks too. I have had to reset mine several times and I am dealing with gps issues constantly.

I mostly love my OnePlus 7t. Though it has some issues. That need addressed. Also the lack of customization options is irritating coming from a custom ROM standpoint.

Love my 7T
Can't wait for TWRP to de-google this phone, but outside of that I totally love it. Although, to be fair this is my very first 'smart' phone so I really have nothing to compare it to. I think it's pretty damn great, actually.

Love the phone? hate the lack of development for it ?

I like it but will definitely hold off on next purchase to make sure development is more active. Luckily oxygen os is pretty decent, but still leaves a lot to be desired.

Can you guys tell me, what exactly you lack of for customization features? No offense, just out of curiosity.
I am flashing all of the devices in my household since the HTC desire days, like for the past 5..6..7 years or so... Constantly looking for the optimal ROM for me or my fiance's use case, tinkering with custom kernels, governer settings, blocking wakelocks... Whatsoever.
This is the first device I am happy with while it is just unlocked and rooted witch only a 1 magisk module active. For me android and OSS has come such a long way that all I build in aftermarket is now integrated in stock. Now it is just rooted, debloated and adfree. That's it for me. Although I somehow miss the long nights of flashing and trying out multiple stuff one after another, but also life gets more serious and time consumable so it's ok for me. I guess same for most of the gurus from the old days.. lol
I now can do my hobby more or less for a living, so no need to do it in my free time anymore...
What do you guys think? Is it just my feeling that the development branch somehow radically changed?
Gesendet von meinem HD1903 mit Tapatalk

I love this phone I installed Omni via adb and never looked back. I really want to get a lineage build on it but the builds I tried to make are very broken.

xe0r said:
Can you guys tell me, what exactly you lack of for customization features? No offense, just out of curiosity.
I am flashing all of the devices in my household since the HTC desire days, like for the past 5..6..7 years or so... Constantly looking for the optimal ROM for me or my fiance's use case, tinkering with custom kernels, governer settings, blocking wakelocks... Whatsoever.
This is the first device I am happy with while it is just unlocked and rooted witch only a 1 magisk module active. For me android and OSS has come such a long way that all I build in aftermarket is now integrated in stock. Now it is just rooted, debloated and adfree. That's it for me. Although I somehow miss the long nights of flashing and trying out multiple stuff one after another, but also life gets more serious and time consumable so it's ok for me. I guess same for most of the gurus from the old days.. lol
I now can do my hobby more or less for a living, so no need to do it in my free time anymore...
What do you guys think? Is it just my feeling that the development branch somehow radically changed?
Gesendet von meinem HD1903 mit Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. Since I left HTC (the M9 being he last one) I have not had the need to flash a custom ROM. Was on a Nokia 8 previously and the vanilla-ish android was good. I only missed the weather clock and mail app from HTC - but they are going down sadly so had to jump ship. Left Nokia as they launched too many phones and were not fixing bugs on their ex-flagships - promised to fixed their camera app but never came for example.
With the 7T I have to say I hardly have any complaint. Customisations are great and the phone is amazing. Adjusting the bokeh blur (live bokeh) would have been great even if it was after taking the photo but nothing else to complain about to be fair.
I do miss the old late nights flashing ROMS though - but like you say, life is different now. I haven't even rooted the Nokia and 7T! haha

xe0r said:
This is the first device I am happy with while it is just unlocked and rooted witch only a 1 magisk module active.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me! Running latest stable OSS (10.0.12) with xXx Rom/Module and thats it. Happy as I've been with any of my other OnePlus phones

foomanjackel said:
Same for me! Running latest stable OSS (10.0.12) with xXx Rom/Module and thats it. Happy as I've been with any of my other OnePlus phones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May I ask what version of xXx Rom/Module you are using for our OnePlus 7T?

fossiltkm said:
May I ask what version of xXx Rom/Module you are using for our OnePlus 7T?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the latest: 12.0

hectorviov said:
I thought there was gonna be a "but" on the text lol. I do love it too, I came to this phone from a Pocophone and the only thing i miss is the custom ROMs development on the Oneplus 7T.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I also came from Poco F1. Amazing phone. Took me a while to get use to OP7T even thought it is better in many ways. I bought it new for 300 pounds and then after a year on October 2019 I found a deal like hell and bought a new OP7T for 360 pounds. Amoled display was the biggest advantage I noticed for the first time. Later I could not even look on the Poco F1 display and before I was astonished by the quality of the LCD panel. I got so much used to the face unlock on F1 cause it was so freaking fast and precise even at complete dark. That and the fast fingerprint scanner is another think I missed for a while. But eventually I get used to the in-display one (but they still could add one more on the back cause it is the perfect place for it). Also that I was so used to the MIUI, the environment was kind of weird for me. But with little bit of tweaking and setting up Nova launcher, which I have been using already for like 8 years anyway, helped a lot. And I even found some tweaks I could not do in MIUI. But like you mentioned, there were so much variety of ROMs and hell I like rooting, flashing and stuff like this. There is also one function I found only in MIUI and which helped me a lot when I came lazy like hell from night shift home and that is that you could mirror your screen to smart TV, lets say play a sitcom or whatever, and minimize it on the device itself so I could be on FB, YT, even play a games and not disturb media streaming to my TV. I wish Oneplus add this feature in future.

Question Disappointment, with solution?

I am a big fan of cell phones and installing custom roms.
In the past I have had several oneplus like the o 3t, 6t, 7pro, and without a doubt the one that has disappointed me the most is the one I have now, the 9 pro European version.
It was already a big shock the purchase price, but I longed for the old days in which you could find dozens of functional roms for your oneplus and enjoyed exploring it.
Before I bought it I saw that there was community so I decided to get the 9 pro... but after half a year I am quite disappointed.
It makes me sad that there is no rom with all the features perfectly validated, battery life and customization superior to the stock rom and with the native camera app, I always believed that custom roms served to improve the stock one (very sloppy compared to previous times), but at the moment it is not so.
I admire developers a lot, and I know how difficult it is, just maybe my mistake was waiting for this oneplus to have its soul of the past, and now I don't know if it has a solution or it is better to sell it before its price plummets.

Unfortunately, the stability does suffer on the 9 Pro. It's one of the things you'll have to live with. To be fair, most phones aren't that great in 2022. Samsung has horrible battery life and Apple's caught in that iCloud scanning controversy. Pixel 6 is meh for a phone, the chip just can't keep up.
So pick your poison.

aforocars said:
I am a big fan of cell phones and installing custom roms.
In the past I have had several oneplus like the o 3t, 6t, 7pro, and without a doubt the one that has disappointed me the most is the one I have now, the 9 pro European version.
It was already a big shock the purchase price, but I longed for the old days in which you could find dozens of functional roms for your oneplus and enjoyed exploring it.
Before I bought it I saw that there was community so I decided to get the 9 pro... but after half a year I am quite disappointed.
It makes me sad that there is no rom with all the features perfectly validated, battery life and customization superior to the stock rom and with the native camera app, I always believed that custom roms served to improve the stock one (very sloppy compared to previous times), but at the moment it is not so.
I admire developers a lot, and I know how difficult it is, just maybe my mistake was waiting for this oneplus to have its soul of the past, and now I don't know if it has a solution or it is better to sell it before its price plummets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you think stock OS is better than custom rom for the 9pro, just stick with stock.
if you are not satisfied with the result from people who do support custom roms in their free time, maybe think about doing it yourself instead of complaining.
also there is probably a reason, why the stock cam is not available in any custom rom...
there are great gcam alternatives, that work well.
for me the custom rom is way better, after the OOS 12 disaster from oneplus.

aforocars said:
It makes me sad that there is no rom with all the features perfectly validated, battery life and customization superior to the stock rom and with the native camera app, I always believed that custom roms served to improve the stock one (very sloppy compared to previous times), but at the moment it is not so.
I admire developers a lot, and I know how difficult it is, just maybe my mistake was waiting for this oneplus to have its soul of the past, and now I don't know if it has a solution or it is better to sell it before its price plummets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm afraid you don't understand how development works. Custom ROM developers rely mainly on how developer friendly a phone manufacturer is. OnePlus has known a steady decline in community support in the past few years. You would be amazed how difficult it is to make components like a fingerprint reader or camera work properly if no sources are released. This is a massive challenge that this community struggles with every single day. To be honest I'm even surprised they get the hardware working so fast. I'm not familiar with today's hacks but I remember the camera of the OnePlus "Bacon" One was quite the piece of work. I am still thankful to @Sultanxda for the near magic he performed on this and many other devices. Interesting read: Cameras in Custom ROMs: How Developers Make Hardware Work without Source Code
But that was then, "simpler times". With all added security measures by Big G nowadays and how reluctant OnePlus has become to cooperate with the very community that made them so great it can only have become more difficult. They say "added security" but they really mean "protecting our economic interests". If custom development is so important to you it should've been a part of your selection process when buying a new phone. That's what I asked myself when I was looking for a device for my son: "What's cheap, has a decent battery, some gaming capabilities and has a solid development community?". I got him a Xiaomi Poco M3, no regrets. I've been on the 6T for over 3 years now and will likely be on the lookout for an upgrade later this year. Development will be an important selling point. Nothing looks promising! If it's going to be as 'open' as they claim, it will have amazing community support.
TL;DR: Don't look to independant devs about quirky ROM development, complain to the companies about their lack of community support instead.

vincemue said:
if you think stock OS is better than custom rom for the 9pro, just stick with stock.
if you are not satisfied with the result from people who do support custom roms in their free time, maybe think about doing it yourself instead of complaining.
also there is probably a reason, why the stock cam is not available in any custom rom...
there are great gcam alternatives, that work well.
for me the custom rom is way better, after the OOS 12 disaster from oneplus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vincemue said:
if you think stock OS is better than custom rom for the 9pro, just stick with stock.
if you are not satisfied with the result from people who do support custom roms in their free time, maybe think about doing it yourself instead of complaining.
also there is probably a reason, why the stock cam is not available in any custom rom...
there are great gcam alternatives, that work well.
for me the custom rom is way better, after the OOS 12 disaster from oneplus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The point of my comment was not any criticism of developers, maybe I should have put this " I admire developers a lot" in bold.
Neither stock rom nor custom roms are what they used to be in oneplus devices.

Timmmmaaahh! said:
I'm afraid you don't understand how development works. Custom ROM developers rely mainly on how developer friendly a phone manufacturer is. OnePlus has known a steady decline in community support in the past few years. You would be amazed how difficult it is to make components like a fingerprint reader or camera work properly if no sources are released. This is a massive challenge that this community struggles with every single day. To be honest I'm even surprised they get the hardware working so fast. I'm not familiar with today's hacks but I remember the camera of the OnePlus "Bacon" One was quite the piece of work. I am still thankful to @Sultanxda for the near magic he performed on this and many other devices. Interesting read: Cameras in Custom ROMs: How Developers Make Hardware Work without Source Code
But that was then, "simpler times". With all added security measures by Big G nowadays and how reluctant OnePlus has become to cooperate with the very community that made them so great it can only have become more difficult. They say "added security" but they really mean "protecting our economic interests". If custom development is so important to you it should've been a part of your selection process when buying a new phone. That's what I asked myself when I was looking for a device for my son: "What's cheap, has a decent battery, some gaming capabilities and has a solid development community?". I got him a Xiaomi Poco M3, no regrets. I've been on the 6T for over 3 years now and will likely be on the lookout for an upgrade later this year. Development will be an important selling point. Nothing looks promising! If it's going to be as 'open' as they claim, it will have amazing community support.
TL;DR: Don't look to independant devs about quirky ROM development, complain to the companies about their lack of community support instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I probably know the world of development a lot better than you think... , I wasn't complaining at all about the developers, just my misconception that oneplus was what it used to be.

aforocars said:
I probably know the world of development a lot better than you think... , I wasn't complaining at all about the developers, just my misconception that oneplus was what it used to be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So we're basically saying the same thing? Alright then! Easy discussion. Maybe literally say you're disappointed in OnePlus next time, that would've made more sense.