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Hello Everyone,
I'm mattymac from Waterloo, Ontario. I'm making the huge leap from iOS to Android and I need some advice. I searched all of the forum, post after post, reading thoughts on devices, operating systems, future products and I am in a bind. I am going to buy a phone to replace my iphone 4, I love modding, customizing and the latter and I don't know what phone to get. I am leaning to the Galaxy Nexus (i'm with Rogers in Canada). I don't care about internal memory because frankly I don't think I have ever reached 10 GIGs on my iphone. I don't have LTE and won't in my area for a year. I love the design of the GN but is it worth while to wait for something new this year or is the GN the phone to get? I understand from all the other posts that the GN is the more pure android device and that I like. All of your comments will be greatly appreciated. (cost is no issue, i can purchase any device out there).
Ya, Galaxy nexus is a great start for android, get it and be ready to taste the pure android experience.
thanks, do you think it is the best phone on the market? I have been looking at the s2 lte as well. I can't say I like the phone design better than the Nexus. I have to say I am rather nervous about the learning curve but it seems android has way more to offer.
The Galaxy S2 it's great also. And this year is coming the Galaxy S3.
You will be good with the Galaxy Nexus Matt. Development for this phone will be ongoing for a long time. I made the switch YEARS ago and never looked back to ios.
First off, thanks for all of your speedy replies, its awesome. Do you think it is worth the wait? Is there that much difference between the s2 or s3 and Nexus? I was offered a free upgrade, so I can get any phone from Rogers free pretty much anytime in the next year.
FACK IT! *611 to Rogers as we speak I am going for it. Ordering the NEXUS ! YA BABY.. Stoked.
Well how bad are you trying to get rid of your current phone? If you can't stand it upgrade now but if you just have an itch then it comes down to how bad that itch is.
The only reason I don't want to wait is, if I do, a new iphone will come out and I won't be able to sell if for close to as much (I probably could get 375 for it today).
Go for the Galaxy Nexus. If you keep waiting for the best, you will wait forever.
Thanks buddy, I'm on it. Ps. your videos are pretty sweet. Well done.
Thank you sir.
I'm far from a video pro.... but I don't mind doing them to help the Android community.
I would say yes, go for the Nexus Prime, it's uber easy to unlock and mod, as long as you take the time to learn the process behind the retard proof one-click methods of rooting and installing recoveries, etc. The Nexus series of phones are an excellent choice for an introduction to Android.
Welcome to XDA, Mattymac from Waterloo, Ontario.
Like the others said.if you can wait I would wait for something down the road..as technology is outdated so quickly and new devices are always out performing them...I've had the Droid x.x2..bionic..And this phone is the best so far..One thing with this phone is the nexus community will always be here with full support of roms,kernals,and themes..due to the phone being so new a lot of roms and kernals are in testing and constantly making changes...you'll love the phone
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
Great, I think I made the right choice
Coming from a and Iphone 3g myself I can offer some opinions after going to the galaxy nexus:
Pros of the iOS and Iphone:
1. Battery life is better - with the GN I'm finding all sorts of ways to decrease my battery usage from different kernels, darker wall papers and apps, etc. I find it adequate now, but definitely not as good as my GF's Iphone 4s
2. Speaker much better - you'll need to get some apps to increase the volume on the GN, which intern distorts the sound a bit
3. iTunes (can be a pro and a con), everything is quite integrated with itunes, all your photos, videos, music, books etc... it's all one system and one place. Where as with android I find you have the flexiibility to choose whatever you want, but it's not as integrated. Even backing up the GN is not easy unless your rooted and have clockwork mod. if your a bit of a techie, it's not really an issue.
4. Specifically for the 4s, the Siri system works with bluetooth... for some reason, the google voice commands don't work with bluetooth. Just this stupid generic voice recognitiion that doesn't work very well.
5. Accessories - With apple, there is a whole slew of Apple and aftermarket accessories that work with the phone... Samsung can't even get their own accessories to launch in a timely fashion.
6. Apps - undisputely there are more apps for the iOS. Reality is that it's not as big of a detriment as Android has plenty of apps and most of the important ones.
7. Smoother scrolling - Android is not as smooth in the scrolling and will studder. It's not bad, but when you put it next to an iOS device you will notice it.
8. High Resolution Contact Pics - This is just something stupid on Googles part. If you load up High Res photos to your contacts and it's sync'd with your gmail, the high res photos will be downgraded into this pixelated mess.
Pros of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus over the iOS:
1. Big ass screen - this makes browsing, emails, pretty much anything more enjoyable. I find I use the GN more than the Iphone just because of this... probably also why I drain the battery faster too
2. Highly customizable - once you play with custom launchers, roms, kernels, you'll get the phone to exactly how you personally like it
3. UI controls - after you get through the learning curve, it's actually much faster accessing anything on the Android. Everything from quick menus, toggle switches.
4. Widgets - darn cool to have widgets and things that update automatically in the menu screen.
5. File System - you can actually see what you download, where things are stored, manipulate them like it's on a PC
6. Notification screen and icons - Much nicer than the iOS
7. Google Music - can load all your songs up there without having to pay!!
8. Navigation - Turn by turn navigation as well as seeing things on street view. much better than the iOS
Overall, I'd say if you like to play with your electronic devices and let the geek in you come out, the Android is a wonderful device that can be customize to your needs and wants. If all you do is take it out of the box and want it perform at it's best, the iOS does that much better. I find the iOS is a purposefully designed device and works as it should right out of the box. Whether the design suits your needs is another question.
Welcome to Team Android!
I think you'll like it here
I got the Galaxy Nexus as my first Android phone and I LOVE IT! Amazing that I can customize and set it up the way I want it, and the development of custom roms on this device have really come a long way in the short time since launch.
The next great android phone might be the s3, but that's still far away.
You wont regret it. I switched from iOS on an iPhone 3GS and Android as a whole is a much better experience.
my 2 cents
Hi,
i also switched from iphone4 to gnex for about a month now and let me tell u my experience...
Expecting the worst...
1) battery: expect to be half of iphone
2) OS: not stable. Need restart avg 5 times a wk. I now get into a habbit of doing it evryday.
3) music: headset support only 1 button where ios supports 3
4) music: i had 2-3 songs playing at the same time... usually should be 1. Again, lot of bugs
5) apps stop: quite often apps willl say it stops. I don't see much in ios
6) pics file management: every apps has a folder. All pics assoicated to apps saved to their own folder. After sometime, you have 20+ folders everywhere with dup pics everywhere
7) apps: IOS apps still better i have to say
The goods....
1) big screen
2) voice recognization is very good. English i say 90-95% types out what you said. You can even do chinese in simplified or traditional. When i m home and chat with someone, i just talk to it instead of typing.
3) Lots of cool home customizations
4) ligh weight
5) Many good voice assistant to choose from and they are fun (Skyvi, eva, vlingo etc)
Conclusion:
I feel i m back to pocket pc phone day where i spent lots of time fixing the phone rather than using or enjoying it Don't get me wrong i still have the phone. The reason i stuck with it it's because i broke a sim pin when i first insert micro sim adaptor. NEVER DO THAT!!!! cuz the sim tray on gnex the pin stick out lot and if you put in an adaptor it will likely break the pin which i did and the reason i m still stuck with it. Hard to find spare part still.
http://www.androidauthority.com/note-4-64-bit-32-bit-android-l-536280/
SPOILER ALERT: I found this article to be extremely helpful and information. It completely clarified every question I had over Samsung's confusing (and IMO bizarre) decision to release a single phone with chipsets that vary to the degree that one is 64 bit capable and the other is not only still just 32 bit capable but performs (slightly) worse that the clearly superior and more desirable Exynos 5 Ocata 5433 64 bit capable variant even current, solely x86 architecture based Android across the board. This article clarified that decision to the degree that is made absolutely zero sense to is merely "unwise". Despite the info in the article answering that and other seemingly "WTF were they thinking?" questions re: design decisions made re: hardware differences in the two variants leading to variations in specs that further increase the desirability of the variant unavailable in America (i.e. the version I wouldn't even have an option to obtain if I were to "upgrade" via the (by far) most sensible method: T-mobile JUMP. Topics (and a link to an article which I'm about to check out) regarding difference of the perception of concerns related to future-proof-ness of the Qualcomm variant are also addressed. I was surprised by the concluding paragraph, in which they make a recommendation for or against the phone, and won't spoil it, since the clarity provided by the article resulting from the article prior to their conclusion lead me to the opinion completely opposed to theirs, which I again won't "spoil" here be I very much think that anyone considering buying a Note 4 shouldn't make any decision re the device without be aware here which I was completely confused by until it was finally completely clarified here.
ON A SEMI-RELATED NOTE: I recently started experimenting with FULL functionality of the S Pen (reinstalling GMD S pen Controls, which I had bought a while ago but never really used.... but as it turns out is freaking awesome. It takes kind of a long time to fully configure it, but as I discovered from getting started, that's actually a good thing because the reason for it is the incredible degree of customization available with the app. Setting that up vs previously using only native Sammy style (as well as getting other apps; Tasker for an example with.... a bit of functionality ) I've just recently started interacting with my phone completely differently that I had previously, with a goal of completely my configuration to that point that I can control my phone entirely from just drawing a symbol indicating what I want to do on the screen. I seriously mean entirely, obviously toggles, but even stuff like service codes, "hidden menu" modes.... Relevance: just recently, by configuring a new method of interacting with my phone and increasing automation (most recently via NotificationsOff and its unadvertised but majorly welcome appearance in the Tasker task plugins screen edit: I messed this up, the app I'm using to chill syncing out is Force AutoSync, does one thing and does it well. I would like to figure out how to control syncing via Tasker though... I left my error in, because NotificationsOff and it's Tasker integration is sweet and worthy of a mention.. I seem to lose quite a bit less battery life now that my phone only autosyncs, at an interval, only when my cpu freq is lower than what I capped it at when the screen is off ) IOW, I feel like just by doing that stuff, and running Tweaked ROM, trading it for a Note 4 would be an instantly noticeable downgrade, and, really, I'm far from "done" with my Note 3, which I'm continually impressed by, obviously has had more dev work than its successor, and I really don't feel like I'm "waiting for whichever OEM puts out the first phone with the 64 bit capable Snapdragon 05 / or preferably but more up in the air Nvidia TEGRA K1 Denver" but really, I don't think I'll really be ready to be done with my Note 3 (that is, trade is for something via JUMP) until I have my choice between top-tear completely 64 bit, Android L.x phones. Note 5 could work, as long as it has those specs. I'm just really glad I came across that article, which was the only place that I had found that specific info, and the answers to the exact questions I had about it, but it really increased my appreciation of my N3, and just how "not done" with it I am. So, check it out if you enjoy making informed decisions If a the new shiny is your top priority, then it may be above your head
Hope you all find this info as helpful as I did!
After reading that article I actually felt it does not answer many of my questions and doesn't add much besides the obvious.
So to clarify few things:
1. it is true that since one can not add RAM to the phone, addressing capabilities of CPU are irrelevant, if the phone has 3GB memory, it will always have 3GB, regardless of it's capabilities
2. newer 32 bit ARM processors can, in theory address more than 4GB memory using paging, concept as old as Intel x86 architecture, maybe older. The restriction here is that single program can use no more than 4GB. So this could be helpful on the ARM server using multiple VM's but it could be a programing nightmare on the phone and it doesn't answer the question of how many address lines are actually connected.
3. Yep, with no 64 bit Android OS yet, and very few 64 bit phones, 32 bit support is not going anywhere anytime soon.
4. Yes, the 64 ARM architecture supposed to be faster even in 32 bit mode, but I remember reading something along the lines of 20% -40% faster, not x1 .5. Either way with Exynos running at 1.9 GHz and Snapdragon at 2.7 GHz, single core performance should be just about the same on both. It's true that Exynos has 4 cores more than Qualcom, but a lot of programing is sequential (you need to get results from first part to continue with second etc.) and if you scheduled something important on the slower cores, you could be SOOL. Simplest example would be to use CPU to render a screen: you could divide screen into 4 parts and use 4 fast cores of Exynos to render them, having similar speed to qualcom, or divide screen into 8 parts and use all 8 cores, but now you have to wait for slower cores to finish, before screen can be displayed in full and loosing some speed advantage that way.
My questions (unanswered by article) are:
1. How much faster in real life Exynos is over Qualcom. From the benchmarks I saw, not that much, in some cases slower.
2. Can Exynos actually run 64 bit Android and if so would it be visibly faster: I actually read some article that was asking the same, Exynos being the first Samsung 64 bit CPU and OS written by Google, there might be some issues and OS may not be optimized as much in first release, but programmed more for compatibility.. (Look how fast Apple's OS is despite running on a junky hardware, thanks to being optimized for one specific hardware)
3. Assuming a lot of people don't keep their phones for more than 2 years (T-mo jump let's you change phone every 6 months, most contracts are for 2 years and this almost forces you to upgrade then) does it even matter which phone you buy now? it may take as much as 2 yrs before 64 bit becomes really relevant.
I'm buying it, I'm not one to live by what others think, I'm in for the display and could go another way but it's not like someone else is paying for it.
Thanks for your thoughts guys, and @peter4k, those are all excellent points which I agree with... just considering trading my N3 for an N4, and ignoring any other (financial, technical, etc.) factors would, for me at least, would be disappointingly more of a "trade-off" than an "upgrade". That is, I love my N3 and would surely miss it trading it in for an N4. However, the N4 is clearly "better" than the N3, and there are definitely some hardware and software elements are appealing. Also, I definitely wouldn't be comfortable buying any device (smart-refrigerators included ) That isn't *confirmed rootable*. Respect to Chainfire re: that mater and the N4!
Practically, what it really boils down to is... I don't fully understand the JUMP program (fortunately easily fixable). Well, I know what it's about, and wasn't really all that curious about it since it only recently became relevant when a phone that I might *possibly* be interested in upgrading to until the N4 was released. So now it's (past) time to run some numbers and determine: If JUMP costs $X over the time that you're a Tmo customer, how should one make use of JUMP to ensure that the value $Y exceeds $X maximally? In English, do you save more overall by upgrading as early as and often as possible, or does the interval between upgrades not really affect the amount of money saved, significantly, overall? Hopefully you all see what I'm getting at here.... plan to determine the "optimal / logical" upgrade "behavior-pattern" to maximize the value of JUMP. That will then probably be the biggest single factor determining if I end up with a Note 4 or not.
Just wondering if anyone's done anything like I described above? If so, feel free to post your method and result and I'd be happy to confirm / replicate your calculation
Sincerely yours,
Professor Science
I don't know much about jump, but my understanding is you pay $10 extra a month and if you want to upgrade your phone, you get up to half price credit, by trading in the old one. You would probably need to sit down with calculator and figure if it's better than selling the phone outright, but the kicker is jump comes with phone insurance, so if you were going to get the insurance any way, the jump is practically for free. It seems to work for many who like to change the phones often and don't want to be bothered by selling older phone on e-bay. It's not for me since I never get insurance for the phone and I have to have s-pen, which pretty much locks me into Note series only. I probably won't upgrade to Note 4, it is a great phone, but not that much better than Note 3 and it's still missing the only thing I miss on Note 3, waterproofing like GS 5.
Plenty of people have done the math on jump. What it boils down to is that you might get more selling the device. However, it's a gamble. Not all devices hold value well. There's also the convenience factor. I can take the device to TMO and swap out with guaranteed return. Or I can try to sell online, who knows what I'll get out of it.
I can also buy devices cheaper. However, with the carriers blacklisting devices for something I have no control over and am not a party to, I no longer do that. And the used market is going to take a hit over that.
I also like having the insurance, so given those things, jump makes sense to me. I'm also on the old version, 2x a year, full payoff. I haven't used it yet, as I have yet to encounter anything I think is a significant enough upgrade. I also want to see the new Nexus, but with Google hating on SD card storage, I probably won't end up with one.
I also require full control of my devices. I bought it, it's mine to do with as I please. I will not accept the vendor or manufacturer having any say over that. Thankfully, TMO seems to get that and we don't seem to get the retarded locked bootloaders etc..
So I just got back from an EXTREMELY informative stop at the T-mobile store.
Re JUMP: So I now know that there is 'new' JUMP and 'old' JUMP, which as it turns out is the one I'm on. Very little math was required to determine how to get the greatest value out of 'old' JUMP. That version of the plan is incredibly simple: 2 upgrades per year - use or lose, straight-up walk in with your current phone and walk out with the new one. IOW, Note 4 or Nexus 6, most dependent on the Note 4 DevDB. I'm not sure how the 'new' JUMP differs, but the JUMP I just found out I had conjures images of much brightness and shininess in my future My N3 is probably my favorite phone I've ever had, and I will miss, but the question is basically "would you rather have a Note 3 or 4 to use until the phone I'm waiting for shows up, at which point you'll be able to switch again?" Obviously, the answer is, "yes please... wait, what'd you ask again? I was blinded(...and deafened) by all the shiny....."
I definitely appreciate the humor, as the OP, turning a complete 180 in my opinion.... but man, that is a killer deal! I N3 remember them explaining it to me when I bought my N3, but haven't thought about since, until I heard that they were changing it or something.... I guess I've just been so satisfied with my N3 that I hadn't really even felt a strong desire to upgrade; no plans to pre-order the N4, even before finding out how stingy they were with the upgrades, but that refresher on what the old JUMP program entails completely changed my perspective... with two use or lose upgrades / year... which I should clearly use, even for minor upgrades if the device is appealing. IOW, I've flipped from "justifying an upgrade" to "justifying not upgrading / burning an opportunity to". By those standards, the N4 is a pretty easy call (unless dwitherall decides to develop Tweaked for a different device). So this is just my personal situation, and probably doesn't apply for a x%(?) of people, but I'm pretty happy to learn that a phone upgrade isn't something I have to "work into my budget", and not getting a better device 2x yearly would be wasting either half or all of my JUMP benefits. Hope many of you are in the same position
That's another perfectly valid place to be. For me, it's also that I need to wait for accessories anyway. I need a ZL battery, stock just doesn't do it, and I actually like my phones to have a little more heft. Yes, I'm weird.
And I've finally got the N3 running really well. I think I'll enjoy it for a little while and see how things shake out. I do like knowing I can jump any time I wish though.
I am thinking over huawei note 8.
6,6 inches, external sd, external stylus, super amoled screen, good photo.
For videos should be really optimal, altough is bigger than samsung note
at the moment is my choice, although the processor is less performant, and is more challenging to be compact as note 7, but can be used with one hand really easily, with the shrinking window function.
6.6 inches is going to a huge device! I don't see it pulling much Note business. Maybe pull some Samsung Tab 7 buyers, I guess.
But be careful of Huawei. Horrible customer service.
Thank you,
my major concern would be changing the batteries to a third part shop, or maybe would fit whatever device that uses 4500 ma?
For the rest I guess even if the customer service is not good( I heard about) on the other side would be quite easy to substitute a phone in guarantee.
the screen is big indeed, but let's face it, I do not have to bring my tablet with me anymore to see a video. After all we all know that seing a video on the s note 7 screen was OK nut not optimal after all, although really cool and great resolution. Just I am afraid will be really challenging to change music and see maps on the bike but would find a workaround)
Huawei Mate 8 is fine
Samsung has A9 Pro which cool one
Thread closed.
A similar thread is discussed here : What Phone do I get Now??
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Thank you!
Vatsal,
Forum Moderator
I have note 9
I wanna replace it with mate 20x
Do you recommend it for me ?
Is this phone is really great ?
Confused
rowihel2012 said:
Wow zero help
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean you left so many details to help you decide.
Ever tried google or youtube?
rowihel2012 said:
I have note 9
I wanna replace it with mate 20x
Do you recommend it for me ?
Is this phone is really great ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really depends on your needs / use cases. I have a note 8 and I still use it as my primary phone, but I use the mate 20 x for all of my content consumption. If you can afford it, go for it, but you may want to wait until the price drops a bit
Here are some pros/cons to help:
Pros:
1. Battery life
2. Content consumption
3. Performance
4. Headphone jack
5. Audio quality
5. Great screen, although QHD would have been better. I wish Huawei would have put a QHD screen in and give the user the ability to adjust the settings as needed
6. It's a big phone, but still pocketable
7. The camera is very good, but my note 8 is still the better point and shoot. I know I can get a great shot (in daylight) with the note 8, but the mate x takes some tweaking sometimes depednding on the lighting conditions. Having the 3 lenses is very nice to have though
8. gaming. I don't game very much, but this phone is great when I do
9. Photo editing. I take a ton of family pics and this phone is great for editing
10. The m-pen is a nice feature if you take a lot of notes or draw. I don't have the pen but I'm sure I'll pick it up at some point. Would have been nice if Huawei would have made the pen slimmer and placed a slot in the phone for storing
Cons (China version)
1. If you get the China version, complete Google integration is not there. No contactless payments, Google assistant is not 100%
2. 3rd party launcher integration more difficult
3. Gesture only navigation quirks with 3rd party launchers
4. (Both versions) Nano memory card. Cmon Huawei... don't do that to us
Overall this phone is great. I've used the p8max and zenfon 3 ultra before this, and this truly is the best large phone to date.
Hope that helps.
Lol.. you must be kidding right? your first post was just 4 hours ago!
Coming to the point, you would probably need to give more details such as why are you considering for a switch? What is it that you did not like in Note 9? Do you have eagle eyes to notice the screen difference between Note 9 and Mate 20x (Full HD)? Are you able to handle a bigger phone? What is your primary usage for? Games and media? Or just basic phone use? Where are you based (to understand whether you can buy it locally or import it)? Is Google apps usage important to you (to decide whether to for a International or Chinese variant)? etc etc...
Without providing more details of what you are looking for, no one would be able to read your mind or advise you!
PS: I do not have the phone myself but reading around the threads has given me a good idea about what the phone can and can't do. Probably you can do the same.
praveen6585 said:
Lol.. you must be kidding right? your first post was just 4 hours ago!
Coming to the point, you would probably need to give more details such as why are you considering for a switch? What is it that you did not like in Note 9? Do you have eagle eyes to notice the screen difference between Note 9 and Mate 20x (Full HD)? Are you able to handle a bigger phone? What is your primary usage for? Games and media? Or just basic phone use? Where are you based (to understand whether you can buy it locally or import it)? Is Google apps usage important to you (to decide whether to for a International or Chinese variant)? etc etc...
Without providing more details of what you are looking for, no one would be able to read your mind or advise you!
PS: I do not have the phone myself but reading around the threads has given me a good idea about what the phone can and can't do. Probably you can do the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow :laugh:
I love big screen
Note 9 camera is average at night
Fast charge is slow
Battery not great for me
htchd2mtk said:
It really depends on your needs / use cases. I have a note 8 and I still use it as my primary phone, but I use the mate 20 x for all of my content consumption. If you can afford it, go for it, but you may want to wait until the price drops a bit
Here are some pros/cons to help:
Pros:
1. Battery life
2. Content consumption
3. Performance
4. Headphone jack
5. Audio quality
5. Great screen, although QHD would have been better. I wish Huawei would have put a QHD screen in and give the user the ability to adjust the settings as needed
6. It's a big phone, but still pocketable
7. The camera is very good, but my note 8 is still the better point and shoot. I know I can get a great shot (in daylight) with the note 8, but the mate x takes some tweaking sometimes depednding on the lighting conditions. Having the 3 lenses is very nice to have though
8. gaming. I don't game very much, but this phone is great when I do
9. Photo editing. I take a ton of family pics and this phone is great for editing
10. The m-pen is a nice feature if you take a lot of notes or draw. I don't have the pen but I'm sure I'll pick it up at some point. Would have been nice if Huawei would have made the pen slimmer and placed a slot in the phone for storing
Cons (China version)
1. If you get the China version, complete Google integration is not there. No contactless payments, Google assistant is not 100%
2. 3rd party launcher integration more difficult
3. Gesture only navigation quirks with 3rd party launchers
4. (Both versions) Nano memory card. Cmon Huawei... don't do that to us
Overall this phone is great. I've used the p8max and zenfon 3 ultra before this, and this truly is the best large phone to date.
Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks my friend
Great :fingers-crossed:
Introduction
I have never written anything like this before. You might know me as the creator of the Omega kernel for the 6T, and now the 8 Pro. But I wanted to share my experience coming from a OnePlus 6T, to help everyone make a better decision whether to upgrade or not -> I'll cut to the chase... Upgrade now.
I have been using the OnePlus 6T since it was released in November 2018. Before I had almost every OnePlus since the 2, but kept changing between the current top iPhones and OnePlus-es. That changed with the 6T. I was blown away by the speed and responsiveness vs the iPhone 8 Plus I had before that, and Google really upped their game with Android Pie.
Since the 6T I never really wanted to get back into the Apple ecosystem, Android was just too good to use.
Kernel devving on the 6T was also very enjoyable, once a person finds out some of the quirks of the OnePlus code additions.
Enter the 8 Pro
I'll just say this comparing it to the 6T (I never wanted to try the 7 Pro series because of the pop-up camera): OH MY GOD. It's like going from a Fiat Panda (no offense to Fiat) to a Tesla. It's mind-blowing.
The looks. The blue on the 8 Pro is so beautiful, this is the first time I will keep the clear case on the phone that was provided in the box.
The speed. I know, it's mostly a perception, because of the 120Hz display, but oh my does that make a difference... Of course there is the 865 chipset, faster RAM, etc, but that screen is what blows you away the first time you boot it up.
The feel of the device. It's heavier than the 6T, but that's a good thing. You feel it's sturdier.
The experience. It's like opting for the red pill. You never want to go back. I think OnePlus perfectly nailed the combination of hardware and software on this one. After so many years a true flagship.
Setup
It took about an hour to setup from scratch. Yes, I know there is a OnePlus Switch app, but that would rob me from experiencing the setup itself, and I need that. Blazing fast.
Near stock Android experience, with just the right additions. I can tweak to exactly how I like it.
For those who are like me, and want to turn off vibration for everything (since I find it annoying). Go into USB debugging mode, and do:
Code:
adb shell
Code:
appops set android VIBRATE ignore
This disables all standard Android vibrations. If you are finnicky and want to be more granular, or do away with vibrations coming from a certain app:
Microsoft Teams - which I use quite a lot - seems to ignore every single setting I have in notifications, but you can disable app-specific vibrations with:
Code:
appops set com.microsoft.teams VIBRATE ignore
Just substitute "com.microsoft.teams" with the package name you want to turn vibrations off for...
I always disable Sleep Optimization, as I need to have notifications always.
Initial thoughts
Now this is a flagship. Incredible. From the way it feels in your hand, to how blazing fast it is. Battery seems good (see attached screenshots) - I know it has to settle in since it has only been 16 hours, but still. I'm impressed.
By default the screen is set to 120Hz but FHD display. I changed it to 120Hz and QHD resolution. I mean why have a phone like this if you don't enjoy to the max?
How is it vs the 6T?
Huge upgrade.
Camera - will test further over the weekend, but one-two pics I already took are much crisper and more vibrant
Speed - incredible jump forward, and the 6T is still no slouch in 2020...
WiFi - much more stable, seemless roaming now works fully on my home mesh router system. It didn't on the 6T...
OxygenOS - I know most of the added stuff in OOS 10.5 will come to the 6T, but the additions are very nice. Horizon lights, the new fingerprint animation, raise the phone to quiet the ringtone, are all very nice touches.
As I spend more time with the phone I will update this thread accordingly. If anyone has any questions, don't be shy to ask.
The display
OK guys, after two weeks now, let's talk about the display.
Few points: resolution, size, refresh rate, colors, brightness.
Resolution:
You can run in in 1080p or 1440p - some say they can't tell the difference between the two, but I personally can, and I can't go back to FHD... Text is crisper, photos have more detail, it simply looks better. And I read a lot of emails, so it's good to have beautiful fonts on the screen -> BTW I stay on stock Android's Roboto fonts, I simply prefer the more condensed fonts.
Size
6.7". Damn. I never thought I would have such a big screen, but after two weeks my wife's iPhone XR's 6.2" is just small. Because of the size, more calendar entries, more emails, and all my Fitbit stats actually fit on one screen! ...finally
One thing, though. On 1080p, the display density is set differently than 1440p. So if you switch to 1440p (QHD), all text becomes bigger. I'm not that old (yet), so you can actually go into System - Developer options - about 2/3 down Drawing - Smallest width - and change from 411 to 432. Now the scaling is the same as with 1080p, but the fonts are still crisper. (This took me two weeks to figure out )
Refresh rate
This is the biggest jump from my 6T. At first, I was like "yeah it's smooth". After a week, I looked at my son's Pixel 3a, and I asked "what's wrong with it?!?". Then I looked at my wife's iPhone XR, and I asked "what's wrong with it?!?" I'm now spoiled with the 120Hz, and now my work laptop seems slow...
This is the red pill I talked about.
And now the technical part: frame render time is around 6ms, meaning that there is virtually no dropped frame. It took precision to tune the hardware and software to perfection, and it shows!
Colors
Two categories: bright(er) screen is perfect. Colors are accurate, and photos show exactly what it is in real life. Perfect.
Dimmer screens do seem to have a green tint (standard settings), and overblown blacks (DC dimming). But this is something I'm certain will be fixed in an upcoming update, so I'm not worried.
Brightness
After the refresh rate, this is the next best thing. I started testing the phone inside, so it was nothing special. But when I used it in the car as a GPS, even in direct sunlight I was able to see everything clearly. Incredible. Compared to the 6T, and even an iPhone 8 Plus, this thing is bright, and beautiful to look at!
Performance
OK, so next up is performance. It's now been a bit more than 3 weeks with the phone, and I've had ample time to check out performance. Again, this is coming from the 6T.
Few points: general feeling, multitasking, gaming.
General overall feeling
It's fast
In more detail LOL: With the 6T, after booting up the phone, I always had to give it 4-5 hours to "settle in", and after that time performance was great. With th 8 Pro, I'm not really seeing that. It's already fast to begin with.
My primary usage is: emails, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, phone calls, camera, photos. I do tons of multitasking, listen to music in the meantime, etc., and not a glitch, no lag.
Some raw performance indicators: snapping multiple portrait shots one after another is finally working. The 865 chipset does wonders for this, and on the 6T I had to wait 2-3 seconds before I could shoot again.
Multitasking
Snappy, no reloading of apps, everything stays in memory. And now with 12Gb of RAM, everything stays in memory even if I use the most memory-hog app of all, the camera. Switching on a "regular" work-day between emails, calendar, Teams, Spotify, etc. is so seamless, it's an incredible experience.
Everything stays in memory (it does get cleared overnight to help with idle drain, but I'm good with that). Coming from the 6T (and maybe that has to do with the kernel moving from 4.9.y to 4.19.y), memory management is tons better than before. Background task killing decisions are much better, and not once have I had Fitbit close on me during an exercise, it always was able to track my GPS in the background.
Another (previously taxing) scenario was: biking with Fitbit tracking my stats in the background, checking out Google Maps where I am, and doing a Whatsapp video call (I have a bike mount). On the 6T, after the video call, it started killing either Fitbit or Maps in the background, now it's all good.
I guess all this can be attributed to two things: better memory management code written by OnePlus (YAY!), and the faster LPDDR5 memory. All in all great.
Gaming
I'm not much of a gamer, I'd consider myself a social gamer. I occasionally have Clash Royale installed - when my son also installs it . But, it's limited to 60fps, and on top of that the Android code optimization is terrible, so not much of an experience there.
But lets' talk about two games in particular that manage higher FPS: Fortnite and Pokemon Go.
Fortnite: I just had to try it. I rarely play on my PC, but with all the hype, I wanted to try it on the OnePlus 8 Pro. And WOW - they really mean business...
In the menus and before playing, it's limited to 30fps (I guess to save battery, and it doesn't matter in the menus anyways), but during gameplay it was just as smooth as my gaming PC which has a 90Hz monitor. Impressive. And I even got to 4th place! :victory:
If anyone of you is into playing FPS on your phones, this is a game-changer. Also, because of the high RAM, in-game experience is top notch, with zero lag.
Battery seems decent, based on my 20-minute round, I reckon one can go around 4 hours of playtime, which is quite incredible.
Pokemon Go: Previously, my biggest gripe with Android was the performance (or rather lack of...) of Pokemon Go, especially compared to iPhones. The game takes full advantage of the 120Hz display, and it's simply gorgeous. Throwing curveballs is a breeze, and overall exprerience is now MUCH better than the iPhone. Plus add to that that I could probably manage 5-5.5 hours of game time with a full charge.
Summing up
I guess when you have a powerful phone, it doesn't matter what you throw at it... It simply performs incredibly well. And the 8 Pro is a damn powerful phone.
Camera
OK, it's camera time! It's now been 4 weeks with the phone, let's talk about the camera. Again, this is coming from the 6T.
Few points: general feeling, everyday shots, videos, low light.
General overall feeling
This rocks. On the 6T, I almost always had to shoot multiple shots to ensure I have a good picture there. Now - my use case is mostly taking pictures of the family, and they are always moving Also, family sports don't have when there is good lighting, so I was almost always struggling with getting good pictures...
Not anymore. In the first few weeks I did take multiple photos (habit I guess), but it's no longer needed. 95% of the time the photo I take is simply perfect. I think the biggest testament to this is my broader family, and everyone uses iPhones -> since the 8 Pro, they keep on complimenting me on the quality of the photos, and always ask me what phone I have
Everyday shots
Yes, because the family is always moving around (including our rabbit), it's very difficult to get a decent picture. With the 8 Pro, it's actually very easy to do that now. I guess because of the better sensor, shutter times have been reduced, so motion is no longer showing on the pictures (unless of course there is significant movement). But these are the more difficult scenarios.
For simpler scenarios, like group picture with everyone posing, the rabbit laying down, etc., the pictures are perfect, good enough to immediately take to a print studio, even without editing.
Videos
Honestly, this is the best part I am lucky to have a 21:9 QHD monitor, and I love watching movies on it. I was always bummed that none of the previous phones was able to shoot in that format. With the 8 Pro, they introduced Cinematik 4K. I now always shoot in this mode, in 60fps. And oh my it's beautiful. It already fills the whole screen on the phone, and it's immersive, but when I show the family the videos on my home computer, they are in awe. And it's perfectly fluid with 60fps! And this captures every single detail in sports, so perfect.
Low light
I only include this section because for some reason people actually take photos in low light...
Now in the Netherlands it only gets dark after 11PM, so this is a bit difficult to test, but every single dusk picture I took turned out perfectly, again prompting my family members to ask me what kind of phone I have. LOL
That sums it up (for now), do let me know if you have any questions!
Screenshots attached
My personal setup
Accounts, setups
- One personal Gmail account, IMAP idle
- One family-level Outlook.com account for the family calendar, push sync
- One company Office365 account for work, push sync
Apps
- Calendar: Google Calendar
- Email: Nine Email - works perfectly with all accounts, as well as supports dark mode and email aliases
- Gallery: OnePlus gallery - it's fast and also shows an icon for portraits
- Social apps: Twitter, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, Google News
Settings
- Screen set to QHD and 120Hz, automatic brightness
- WiFi and Bluetooth scanning both disabled
- Disabled "Hey Google" for the assistant
- Dark mode, of course
- Disabled haptics, as per post #1
- Disabled Bluetooth Discoverable
- Disabled Sleep Standby Optimization - I want to receive all notifications as they arrive, even at night
Great Review, i also had the 6t as my daily driver before. As i bought the 8 Pro i remember your last words about the 6t, that you will not switch to another Phone... And now you bought the exact device as me...
Don't know whats better: The Phone or that it will run with omega Kernel.
Thank you.
xx00xx1990 said:
Great Review, i also had the 6t as my daily driver before. As i bought the 8 Pro i remember your last words about the 6t, that you will not switch to another Phone... And now you bought the exact device as me...
Don't know whats better: The Phone or that it will run with omega Kernel.
Thank you.
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Click to collapse
Thanks! I loved the 6T. Like I said, I wasn't too happy about the 7 Pro's pop-up camera, but already the 7T was tempting. But then the leaks came out about the 8, it started to look better.
And I have to say, this is one hellova' phone.
Great review & sums it up rather nicely, I have the 12/256gb Glacial Green and I just love it.....? For the same reasons as yourself. Owned every OnePlus from the 3T but this is the first that really is a true flagship......:good:
Duncan1982 said:
Great review & sums it up rather nicely, I have the 12/256gb Glacial Green and I just love it.....? For the same reasons as yourself. Owned every OnePlus from the 3T but this is the first that really is a true flagship......:good:
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I loved the 3T. That selfie camera was a league of its own. I remember trying to compile CyanogenMod for it. Good ole days...
And back to 8 Pro - I was testing frame rendering this morning, and per-frame rendering time is ~5ms. So even on QHD resolution with 120Hz there are no frame drops. Simply incredible.
kristofpetho said:
I loved the 3T. That selfie camera was a league of its own. I remember trying to compile CyanogenMod for it. Good ole days...
And back to 8 Pro - I was testing frame rendering this morning, and per-frame rendering time is ~5ms. So even on QHD resolution with 120Hz there are no frame drops. Simply incredible.
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Click to collapse
Ahhh yes the good ol' days .......? To me I'm like chainfire i used to root and mod all my devices, now there is not so much of a need to, as much as I'm sure your kernel is fantastic, I'll just stay stock, locked.....?
Which is unusual for me as with all OnePlus devices it's been the first thing I have done, now im not so much compelled to (again I'm sure your kernel is fantastic).
Enjoy and have fun with it, I'm sure you will.......:good:
Duncan1982 said:
Ahhh yes the good ol' days .......? To me I'm like chainfire i used to root and mod all my devices, now there is not so much of a need to, as much as I'm sure your kernel is fantastic, I'll just stay stock, locked.....?
Which is unusual for me as with all OnePlus devices it's been the first thing I have done, now im not so much compelled to (again I'm sure your kernel is fantastic).
Enjoy and have fun with it, I'm sure you will.......:good:
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Well... Don't tell anyone, but I'm also bootloader locked currently...
kristofpetho said:
Well... Don't tell anyone, but I'm also bootloader locked currently...
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Shhhhh you typed that out loud .......? Who knows I might get tempted to unlock, but like I said it would only be for kernel, as all other mods are not needed or there are no other reasons.......root is something that has unfortunately died.
Before we needed to, there was a reason to, now it's not so much......anyway broken record .....?
#Oneplus you nailed it with the 8 Pro......?
Duncan1982 said:
#Oneplus you nailed it with the 8 Pro......
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Absolutely agree
Duncan1982 said:
root is something that has unfortunately died.
Before we needed to, there was a reason to, now it's not so much......anyway broken record .....?
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Click to collapse
Have to disagree on this, as I think it still mostly depends on what you're going to do with your device, the way you use it, the level of 'freedom' you need to have on your system/apps.
Having been root on each and every device I've had for the past 10 years, I know I could never go backward. Not just because of adblockers (yeah, I could use a vpn-based adblocker but battery consumption is not comparable) or for Lucky Patcher, but for the level of control that you get on almost every part of your system and apps.
But I guess it depends on people, different devices for different needs
(no intention here to start a debate on whether root or non-root is best, just sharing a different opinion, peace ^.^ )
Surfeur-des-Reves said:
Have to disagree on this, as I think it still mostly depends on what you're going to do with your device, the way you use it, the level of 'freedom' you need to have on your system/apps.
Having been root on each and every device I've had for the past 10 years, I know I could never go backward. Not just because of adblockers (yeah, I could use a vpn-based adblocker but battery consumption is not comparable) or for Lucky Patcher, but for the level of control that you get on almost every part of your system and apps.
But I guess it depends on people, different devices for different needs
(no intention here to start a debate on whether root or unroot is best, just sharing a different opinion, peace ^.^ )
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Absolutely some do require for a few things, also some like the freedom of the device is theirs.....no debating and each has their own take on the matter .......:good:
I still root, but it's definitely far less necessary than it was a few years ago. I do it for Google dialer and vanced and that's about it now
Sent from my IN2025 using Tapatalk
Duncan1982 said:
Absolutely some do require for a few things, also some like the freedom of the device is theirs.....no debating and each has their own take on the matter .......:good:
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crzycrkr said:
I still root, but it's definitely far less necessary than it was a few years ago. I do it for Google dialer and vanced and that's about it now
Sent from my IN2025 using Tapatalk
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Exactly. For some people, root is still a necessity. To each their own.
kristofpetho said:
Introduction
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Congrats on your new phone and kernel.
Sounds like a great device. The price tag on the purchase of two of them right now which is what I would need, is a little too steep. If I'm able to switch, I'm glad to have the 6t's as a backup device if needed
Great review kristfpetho!!!
I will be getting one soon..
Good Read! I'm impressed with my 8Pro Green Machine! Cool ?
Thanks for the review, I am waiting till end of November for buying a new phone so probably go for this or for the 8t but don't know what the price will be and if it's worth the upgrade or go for the cheaper 8pro at that moment... I guess 6 months difference in hardware or software won't make it a huge difference I assume.