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Hi there people,
I have my DHD from Jan 2012 and back then two core phones were quite expensive, now with KitKat android it seems the phone is quite fast but still one core is one core, trying to do multiple things and the phone seems slow. Also if you are in hurry and you want to make a phonecall while having some apps open makes the process SLOWWWWWWWWWWWW
So I'm thinking of upgrading, but some phones cost quite much and I did like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 spec-wise but I didn't like the price. The best price I could find it in my country is 560Euro + 5Euro(shipping) to my door.
So I though why not buy a clone with the new Chinese 8 core processor(which isn't overheat) and performs quite good(and WAY better than the DHD)?
Price? $259.99(without shipping) or around 190 Euro
From what I see here: http://www.gizmochina.com/2014/01/06/goophone-n3-v-s-samsung-note-3-whats-different-on-benchmark/
(Goophone N3 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 3) the difference is about 27.3% which is not much while the performance/price ratio is perfect.
What do you think?
P.S. I'd prefer if the Goophone N3 had many custom roms available but that will come eventually if more and more users are buying this phone. This Chinese 8 core processor is quite new so it will take some time before we'll see any custom rom laying around.
evronetwork said:
Hi there people,
I have my DHD from Jan 2012 and back then two core phones were quite expensive, now with KitKat android it seems the phone is quite fast but still one core is one core, trying to do multiple things and the phone seems slow. Also if you are in hurry and you want to make a phonecall while having some apps open makes the process SLOWWWWWWWWWWWW
So I'm thinking of upgrading, but some phones cost quite much and I did like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 spec-wise but I didn't like the price. The best price I could find it in my country is 560Euro + 5Euro(shipping) to my door.
So I though why not buy a clone with the new Chinese 8 core processor(which isn't overheat) and performs quite good(and WAY better than the DHD)?
Price? $259.99(without shipping) or around 190 Euro
From what I see here: http://www.gizmochina.com/2014/01/06/goophone-n3-v-s-samsung-note-3-whats-different-on-benchmark/
(Goophone N3 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 3) the difference is about 27.3% which is not much while the performance/price ratio is perfect.
What do you think?
P.S. I'd prefer if the Goophone N3 had many custom roms available but that will come eventually if more and more users are buying this phone. This Chinese 8 core processor is quite new so it will take some time before we'll see any custom rom laying around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been searching the chinese market for quite some time and i found that mediatek (MTK) processors are pretty much closed source, So don't expect to many custom roms exept for some chinese ones like miui/lewa OS. I will probably buy a chinese phone but not one that is powered by a MTK processor but i'm mostly for the oppo find 5 wich has forum here on xda it also has Snapdragon quad core 1.5 Mhz , 13 mp sony camera , nfc ,steel frame , dlna , and the is fully gpl comliant and open source. :victory: . you can take a look at it here
http://europe.oppostyle.com/find-5/9-find-5-midnight.html
bondocel said:
I have been searching the chinese market for quite some time and i found that mediatek (MTK) processors are pretty much closed source, So don't expect to many custom roms exept for some chinese ones like miui/lewa OS. I will probably buy a chinese phone but not one that is powered by a MTK processor but i'm mostly for the oppo find 5 wich has forum here on xda it also has Snapdragon quad core 1.5 Mhz , 13 mp sony camera , nfc ,steel frame , dlna , and the is fully gpl comliant and open source. :victory: . you can take a look at it here
http://europe.oppostyle.com/find-5/9-find-5-midnight.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know about oppo mate, also they will have soon the find 7. But it's not as expensive as it should. I mean you can get a Xiaomi Mi3 with snapdragon 800 at the same price with 64GB on board (300E for 16GB and 350E for 64GB) - the problem is that you can't easily find that
P.S. If cyanogenmod could support MTK processors it would be a real game-changer. Cheap 8 core phone with similar performance as some of the top-line phones.
EDIT: Alternative you can see phones like this "Faea F2 Elite" and the company is working with cyanogenmod to bring some life to the phone. Source: http://www.gizchina.com/2014/01/17/cyanogenmod-faea-f2s-getting-closer/
So if a cyanogenmod version exists(if they complete it), it would be a Chinese phone with MTK cpu and open source android . Based on that I expect CM to roll on many Chinese devices(officially or unofficially)
I've seen the "Alcatel One Touch Idol X+" also know as TLC Idol X+ S960 with a pricetag of 300E (runs at 2GHz 8 core MTK) and performs quite good also it accepts microsd cards(up to 32GB), the only thing is the 2500mAh seems a bit low for a 5" phone but it's quite enough for most of the things. I'm thing it very seriously as I can get it without much hassle.
evronetwork said:
I know about oppo mate, also they will have soon the find 7. But it's not as expensive as it should. I mean you can get a Xiaomi Mi3 with snapdragon 800 at the same price with 64GB on board (300E for 16GB and 350E for 64GB) - the problem is that you can't easily find that
P.S. If cyanogenmod could support MTK processors it would be a real game-changer. Cheap 8 core phone with similar performance as some of the top-line phones.
EDIT: Alternative you can see phones like this "Faea F2 Elite" and the company is working with cyanogenmod to bring some life to the phone. Source: http://www.gizchina.com/2014/01/17/cyanogenmod-faea-f2s-getting-closer/
So if a cyanogenmod version exists(if they complete it), it would be a Chinese phone with MTK cpu and open source android . Based on that I expect CM to roll on many Chinese devices(officially or unofficially)
I've seen the "Alcatel One Touch Idol X+" also know as TLC Idol X+ S960 with a pricetag of 300E (runs at 2GHz 8 core MTK) and performs quite good also it accepts microsd cards(up to 32GB), the only thing is the 2500mAh seems a bit low for a 5" phone but it's quite enough for most of the things. I'm thing it very seriously as I can get it without much hassle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the past year i have been going on and off about buying one of those phones. I probably will but untill i see a fully gpl compliant mtk phone/phablem i's sticking with snapdragon . I want an oppo find 5 because i have played with one for a few days on cm rom and it is magnificent compared to my DHD. And it ships from EU warehouse so no more import taxes. I also liked zopo very much and thl and gionee and the list could go on and on and on :highfive: But frankly i thing we should switch to some of these " no name" phones so that brands like samsung ot htc or lg could lower the prices to a more resonable value . Some devices are pure rip-offs
evronetwork said:
P.S. I'd prefer if the Goophone N3 had many custom roms available but that will come eventually if more and more users are buying this phone. This Chinese 8 core processor is quite new so it will take some time before we'll see any custom rom laying around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can instantly forget any proper support for than knock-off. I would expect some more unexpected drawbacks from it as well.
IMO better go for used proper smartphone, than brand new some hyeagizil.
bondocel said:
For the past year i have been going on and off about buying one of those phones. I probably will but untill i see a fully gpl compliant mtk phone/phablem i's sticking with snapdragon . I want an oppo find 5 because i have played with one for a few days on cm rom and it is magnificent compared to my DHD. And it ships from EU warehouse so no more import taxes. I also liked zopo very much and thl and gionee and the list could go on and on and on :highfive: But frankly i thing we should switch to some of these " no name" phones so that brands like samsung ot htc or lg could lower the prices to a more resonable value . Some devices are pure rip-offs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oppo is a great phone but price is not better than any other brand phone. Oppo N1 has a snapdragon 600 at 1.7GHz and costs 449E from their Europe store, it's not exactly a bargain and although you can get it with either CM or colour-something(their os based on android), I hear that there are still lot of bugs
P.S. No 4.4 support ..yet
-SmOgER said:
You can instantly forget any proper support for than knock-off. I would expect some more unexpected drawbacks from it as well.
IMO better go for used proper smartphone, than brand new some hyeagizil.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the only problem.. the support, the lack of CM roms and if for any reason you have a problem you can turn to no one as the people who have it probably don't don't more than you..
nice mobile
I've got a mediatek tablet and it's dual core @ 1.5ghz with 1gb ram and it lags worse than any device I've had... At the beginning there was no lag, over time (3 months) it started to happen. The build.prop was modified for any graphical usage to be low density which is how it had no lag...
Before buying anything Chinese make sure the specs are correct (as in do a test) many cheapos are clones of the Chinese device :0
Also before you buy ask the seller for firmware as they are well hidden...
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
First of all, apologies for the poor english and if these questions were already answered. I already read some of the things i wanted to know so but it was some months ago.. i'm hoping most have changed.
I have a moto g1 since it came out. It had Android 4.3, received update for 4.4, 5.0 and 5.1.. I never had the need for a custom rom.. the stock ones are super stable. Nowadays 1GB of ram is nothing, even for a light user like me.. i literally only have 3 or 4 light apps apart from gapps.. A custom rom will give me more features but won't make my phone (much) faster.
I had my eye on this phone for a while now but there are some things that make me think twice. I have some questions for you.
-Lets start with acessories.. is there any screen protector on the market right now for the Z2 that doesn't peel on the edges of the curved glass? If you have one, can you post a pic so i can see if it stays neat?
-Is the phone receiving official updates? Are they any good? Did those stupid quirks i read about some months ago vanish?
-Is there a way of putting soft navigation buttons on the official rom (i don't care about the gestures on the fingerprint reader)?
-What's the state of the custom roms compared to the official? Not talking about having more features.. are they as stable as the original ones and does everything that works on ZUI, also works in the custom ones?
-For someone that doesn't want a phone with a screen larger than 5" (something smaller would be even greater), do you recommend this phone or have a better alternative at the same price point (~200€)? I highly value the stock android design and above all, something stable. I don't mind a phone with less ram and even lower specs than the Z2 if it meets those things i prefer on a phone..
-Are the community roms making good progress? By this i mean, do you think we can have something near 100% stable in the future or the lack of source code will never allow it?
Many thanks!
It is receiving software updates. I don't know about which "quirks" you are talking about but the updates are okay... Not perfect minor bugs in notification bar etc.
Yes you can enable soft navigation buttons. Its in settings.
You can also go for redmi 4.
But for 11000₹ this phone is a steal deal in my opinion. I bought it for 15k.
PS. I too was a moto g1 owner before this and I also have most of your doubts.
-Lets start with acessories.. is there any screen protector on the market right now for the Z2 that doesn't peel on the edges of the curved glass? If you have one, can you post a pic so i can see if it stays neat?
-> Somehow, i never put glass/screen protector for every curved glass phone i ever had including this one. Well this is personal tho..
-Is the phone receiving official updates? Are they any good? Did those stupid quirks i read about some months ago vanish?
-> Yep. Yep, they're pretty good on developing. Which one?
-Is there a way of putting soft navigation buttons on the official rom (i don't care about the gestures on the fingerprint reader)?
-> Yep, built in
-What's the state of the custom roms compared to the official? Not talking about having more features.. are they as stable as the original ones and does everything that works on ZUI, also works in the custom ones?
-> ZUI wins on Camera, so far. Porting ZUI cam status is on progress
-For someone that doesn't want a phone with a screen larger than 5" (something smaller would be even greater), do you recommend this phone or have a better alternative at the same price point (~200€)? I highly value the stock android design and above all, something stable. I don't mind a phone with less ram and even lower specs than the Z2 if it meets those things i prefer on a phone..
-> Go for it, awesome phone at its price, but dont expect too much on Cam, its 13/5..
-Are the community roms making good progress? By this i mean, do you think we can have something near 100% stable in the future or the lack of source code will never allow it?
-> Yeah, they're fookin awesome developers, lots of ROM goin Official right now.. have a try on RR or DU
Many thanks!
No Worries, cheers!
I appreciate your replies. The phone now is out of stock on gearbest (the only place i can buy so i don't pay customs).. let's see if it comes back since the brand is apparently dead now.
Disclaimer: This is rant, a civilized one, if you disagree with me, you are welcome to illustrate me but offenses are not appreciated.
This phone is great, but it refuses to be acceptable as a daily driver.
Developers are the best people in the world, they do what they do with no return at all sometimes, but the software (the lack of a good kernel base) makes it really hard to enjoy. I could never get more than 4.5 hours of SOT on any ROM, whereas stock would give me at least 5.5; however stock software is a bad joke for the Android base and the camera output is nerve wracking...
The CDLA headphones are a must, no one likes the dongle and it seems that (due to broken kernel) no dev was able to figure out this one (clarifying again that I don't blame them). So my options are to get used to carry the dongle or to the crack and pop from the CDLA ones... hmmmmmm......
I see the exact same story as with the Amazon phone, on its time, the Amazon phone had a really good thing going here in XDA, but the bootloader was never unlocked and the momentum was lost. I had to let go on my Fire phone....
For the LePro3, many great options are at hand at the same price, I'm looking heavily right now at the LG G5 from the $200 custom rom on eBay, WAY BETTER camera (like 10X times better), about the same battery life if you compare custom ROM of LePro3 vs stock of LG G5, and I have to admit that although I dislike LG's interface, it is tolerable.
Also, the LeEco servers (including the one that supports OTAs) has been down for at least 3 days (that I have tried myself), like seriously, we know the company is nearly in bankruptcy although still having customer support working, but the fact that security updates have halted and servers are down, tells me that there is something wrong going on.
At $200 dlls that I got the phone for, it is still not worth it for *me*.
My Moto Z play was $450 with a hasselblad camera mod that I was able to sell to get $100 in return, so for $350, I would still take yet another Moto Z Play at the current price, with way lower specifications, than taking a LePro3 for $200.
Help yourself and download these apps
Power Toggles
ACDisplay
Simple Control
Fingerprint Quick Action
Pixel Launcher
Modify the DPI to 300 via ADB
Download Google Camera (2.7) , Phone, Contacts etc from APKMirror
I am enjoying all the benefits from stock ROM plus emulated stock Android experience. =D
I bought this phone at what I thought was a steal for the hardware I was getting. I knew the company was unknown in the US and would likely not support the phone for long (if at all). I've flashed many Roms and played with this phone more than any other than perhaps my Nexus 6. Its a great phone overall with pretty decent developer support. I regret nothing.
Jose-MXL said:
Disclaimer: This is rant, a civilized one, if you disagree with me, you are welcome to illustrate me but offenses are not appreciated.
This phone is great, but it refuses to be acceptable as a daily driver.
Developers are the best people in the world, they do what they do with no return at all sometimes, but the software (the lack of a good kernel base) makes it really hard to enjoy. I could never get more than 4.5 hours of SOT on any ROM, whereas stock would give me at least 5.5; however stock software is a bad joke for the Android base and the camera output is nerve wracking...
The CDLA headphones are a must, no one likes the dongle and it seems that (due to broken kernel) no dev was able to figure out this one (clarifying again that I don't blame them). So my options are to get used to carry the dongle or to the crack and pop from the CDLA ones... hmmmmmm......
I see the exact same story as with the Amazon phone, on its time, the Amazon phone had a really good thing going here in XDA, but the bootloader was never unlocked and the momentum was lost. I had to let go on my Fire phone....
For the LePro3, many great options are at hand at the same price, I'm looking heavily right now at the LG G5 from the $200 custom rom on eBay, WAY BETTER camera (like 10X times better), about the same battery life if you compare custom ROM of LePro3 vs stock of LG G5, and I have to admit that although I dislike LG's interface, it is tolerable.
Also, the LeEco servers (including the one that supports OTAs) has been down for at least 3 days (that I have tried myself), like seriously, we know the company is nearly in bankruptcy although still having customer support working, but the fact that security updates have halted and servers are down, tells me that there is something wrong going on.
At $200 dlls that I got the phone for, it is still not worth it for *me*.
My Moto Z play was $450 with a hasselblad camera mod that I was able to sell to get $100 in return, so for $350, I would still take yet another Moto Z Play at the current price, with way lower specifications, than taking a LePro3 for $200.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rivethead23 said:
I bought this phone at what I thought was a steal for the hardware I was getting. I knew the company was unknown in the US and would likely not support the phone for long (if at all). I've flashed many Roms and played with this phone more than any other than perhaps my Nexus 6. Its a great phone overall with pretty decent developer support. I regret nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree with rivethead23 I got the Pro 3 and immediately flashed the Turbo Destroyer rom on it and have never had any regrets
I also bought an LG G6 and I found it was no upgrade to the Pro 3 and ended up returning it.
My advice is to Flash the Turbo EUI 21S v20 rom and Nova launcher with Nova Google companion and you get the best experience from this device
rivethead23 said:
I bought this phone at what I thought was a steal for the hardware I was getting. I knew the company was unknown in the US and would likely not support the phone for long (if at all). I've flashed many Roms and played with this phone more than any other than perhaps my Nexus 6. Its a great phone overall with pretty decent developer support. I regret nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much this.
I'm using the phone on stock 26s, pretty heavily customized though: Magisk, Xposed, Viper, GravityBox, Tasker, stock android/Google apps like Dialer Contact Messages Calendar Keep Hangout Gmail etc., Nova Launcher with companion, PlayerPro and VLC, Brave browser... I removed all Chinese bloatware, and stock apps I don't need anymore like Contact, Message, Music, Video, Browser, Launcher, LIVE, lots of LeEco apps, etc. Disabled all stock extra memory optimizations to let Android deal with memory. Splash and bootanim without Chinese. Etc.
It works really great, battery is still really good (I often have 5 or 5.5 hours SoT at the end of the day), I customized a lot of things to make it exactly how I wanted it. So far, the best device I owned, and one of the cheapest...
ZeblodS said:
Pretty much this.
I'm using the phone on stock 26s, pretty heavily customized though: Magisk, Xposed, Viper, GravityBox, Tasker, stock android/Google apps like Dialer Contact Messages Calendar Keep Hangout Gmail etc., Nova Launcher with companion, PlayerPro and VLC, Brave browser... I removed all Chinese bloatware, and stock apps I don't need anymore like Contact, Message, Music, Video, Browser, Launcher, LIVE, lots of LeEco apps, etc. Disabled all stock extra memory optimizations to let Android deal with memory. Splash and bootanim without Chinese. Etc.
It works really great, battery is still really good (I often have 5 or 5.5 hours SoT at the end of the day), I customized a lot of things to make it exactly how I wanted it. So far, the best device I owned, and one of the cheapest...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is 26s an official update? I've only received 21s ota on my x727
darkmuck said:
Is 26s an official update? I've only received 21s ota on my x727
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the latest Chinese stock ROM for x720.
ALSO RANT:
Well the issue is with android itself, there is no real AOSP phone, i don't get why manufaturers just don't put AOSP on phone and be done with it, i guess target for android phones are geeks, at least this kind of android phones. I wanted dual sim phone, but now i think i will manage some woraround and go ios, as bad as it is, OS is much more polished and unified.
Even Moto with almost stock android still does not get direct google updates, it is just bad design.
BTW i use pro3 as daily, i get 8 + hours SOT with stock firmare, i managed to get ACR to work quite good, DND to work quite good, but still, default apps, like browser does not work, google integration is crap, even with launcher 3, missing pulldown is a joke and google services crash quite often so ... meh, but still better then my gs4 with new battery and lineage
Oh and also the ambient light sensors sets screen too dim for me at night, until now I had opposite problem with all the other phones i had.
I also have galaxy s7 at hand to use and in my opinion samsung android is even worse.
The main issue is there is really no Android OS, no phone with AOSP, which is only real Android OS, only ****ton of phones with more or less molested OS.
BTW my budget was 1100usd for a phone, i still chose pro3 and I still think, despite it's flaws, for me, it is best choice, which is sad, but it is reality, we can't change it, reality is reality. I will try z2 force with battery pack if they sell it officially in Czech, but I don't expect much.
Oh my I thought I was the only one with the headphone issue
Hmm my Le Pro 3 is coming soon... But I'm more likely to just sell It while it's new and make some $$$ of it. Seeing this rants and all... AOSP/lineage is a must for me, same as Oreo.
Just gonna buy OP5 to replace my Bacon. Maybe that jelly pentile so not exactly FHD, POS display won't be so bad...
FunkyRasta said:
Hmm my Le Pro 3 is coming soon... But I'm more likely to just sell It while it's new and make some $$$ of it. Seeing this rants and all... AOSP/lineage is a must for me, same as Oreo.
Just gonna buy OP5 to replace my Bacon. Maybe that jelly pentile so not exactly FHD, POS display won't be so bad...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These rants are about things that we would like to have on the device and are inevitable, like the fact that we knew that there was no headphone jack and that the CDLA headphones are not perfect on custom software, we knew it and still took the chance, not the phone or dev's fault.
Other than that, the phone is amazing, you should give it a go, I don't think you can get too much money out of it, this is the wrong phone to re-sell for higher.
Also, you have a very specific example from other people in this thread, which is, you might like stock software which gives you the best battery life for the device.
Jose-MXL said:
These rants are about things that we would like to have on the device and are inevitable, like the fact that we knew that there was no headphone jack and that the CDLA headphones are not perfect on custom software, we knew it and still took the chance, not the phone or dev's fault.
Other than that, the phone is amazing, you should give it a go, I don't think you can get too much money out of it, this is the wrong phone to re-sell for higher.
Also, you have a very specific example from other people in this thread, which is, you might like stock software which gives you the best battery life for the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I pretty OK with using adapter, no problem with me. I ordered it from China so when it gets to Europe it is worth more. I certainly would not lose money on it.
The only things that worry me are uncertain future of Oreo on this device and overall stability. I currently manage over 4 hours SOT with my OnePlus One.... Why this thing with 4070 Mah (thousand f-ing more) does 4.5 H or slightly more ? With newer SoC, screen etc. Stock software is a no-go for me. Android 6.0 is a no-go for me. So I rely on custom ROMs and dev support. At least dev support here is great!
Coming from Nexus and Nexus 5x, I was used to having so many roms and kernels. Getting LP3 was a big big jump and I did not like it in early days when no roms were available.
Now with more than enough roms and solid kernels, I do not miss anything. Omni Rom gives me 9 hrs of screen on time for my usage. It does not feel/act different than roms I used before.
The only problem was the camera performance. But with Google Camera port, that is no longer a problem now.
How's the phone holding now?
i'm planning to get this one just for normal usage like streaming , chat, browsing, etc
and how's the heat during those kind of usage?
considering xperia design is totally to my liking, and the battery is above 3k mAh, kinda want to downgrade? into this phone from mi5, as the docomo dumps are quite cheap here
Thanks in advance !
I'm pretty happy with the phone. Heat is not so much of an issue.
seilent said:
How's the phone holding now?
i'm planning to get this one just for normal usage like streaming , chat, browsing, etc
and how's the heat during those kind of usage?
considering xperia design is totally to my liking, and the battery is above 3k mAh, kinda want to downgrade? into this phone from mi5, as the docomo dumps are quite cheap here
Thanks in advance !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you are getting on good price ( 50% of the price since 2015) then go for it
Z5p is a gem!
How can I unlock bootloader and install TWRP, any guide?
i am also a user of z5P dual variant e6833, currently it has stock android 7.1.1, could anyone share the link of any post where i can find the list of all stable custom roms for z5p phone? unfortunately there is no linage rom available for this phone
After having this phone for 3 years, the first thing you will need to realize is stock battery even left in storage will have degraded past the stock level of battery, with little to no use over that time you'd be lucky to get even a stock unopened z5p with more than 60% of its original battery life.
The main issue with heat I've experienced has been during GPS use especially on warmer days.
The camera after unlocking and using non stock ROMs (even with DRM saved) as non stock ROMs don't use the DRM enhancements camera quality is noticeably less quality. So if you want to keep DRM quality you need to keep to stock roms, even custom stock ROMs need those enhancements enabled to be functional.
The overall speed, performance, battery life and functions of the phone are all good.
One thing to note also is latest official ROM is 7.1.2 so no Oreo, no project treble and no future proofing of the software. We also have a very, very quiet rom development.
You may enjoy the looks of Sony phones. But they don't support their hardware long enough for them to truely shine. We got 2 major ROM updates, with fixes in between that was what they reported as what they'll support.
This happened over a 16 month period. They dropped support for the phone as soon as Oreo came out, because they wanted everyone to upgrade to the ZX range.
Meaning a lot of us here that paid 1000+ dollars for their handset got less than 2 years of support from the manufacturer.
Companies like Samsung, Motorola and apple have put over 5 years support into most of their handsets. Software support is important due to app updates needing later OS versions to work. Meaning at some point the Z5 range will fall off the wagon even in terms of unofficial support.
Either way I hope you choose well a new device. Even though I like my phone, and will stand by my choice to purchase it, I would not recommend it to anyone else and urge them to find a better device with better software support.
Hello folks,
My I9195 has performed beautifully for the last couple of years, running CM and LOS. The phone is currently running the last official 14.1 build and works superbly well - honestly, I have no complaints! Thank you so much for your incredible work @arco68!
However, I'm keen to get back to trying the latest roms, and to also experiment with microG - perhaps this combination will allow even better battery life than I'm currently experiencing with LOS 14.1 + opengapps?
While my S4 Mini's hardware is still working well, it's a little battered and bruised from being dropped so many times. The screen is more-or-less perfect (one minor scratch), however the back case and silver edge surround is pretty badly chipped, revealing the gray plastic underneath. Rather than attempt to source spare parts and refurbish the device myself, I'm planning to simply purchase a second S4 Mini from AliExpress, and use this as a test device - maybe a daily driver once it improves.
I have a couple of questions:
- Is it still necessary to flash opengapps (nano being my preference) after flashing the OS (perhaps in order to get through installation without crashing?) - even if I intend to use gapps?
- Has anyone purchased an S4 Mini from AliExpress recently? If so, how much did you pay, and which vendor did you use?
- Am I crazy to consider buying another ~5 year old phone? Are there seriously no other compact devices with active rom development?
Thanks in advance!
James
x
Ciao James,
do you want to buy a S4 mini on aliexpress? How? I can see only spare parts, I think the production finished 4 years ago.
I'm also looking for a small android phone, not low quality, I think the only possibility is offered by sony and xperia compact serie.
Thank you for your reply.
Yes, AliExpress vendors sell plenty of spare parts, but there are also vendors selling complete phones:
https://www.aliexpress.com/premium/...Text=samsung+s4+mini&CatId=5090301&isrefine=y
I expect these are refurbished devices, rather than being brand new, however the S4 Mini I purchased from AliExpress a few years ago arrived in perfect condition - it looked like it had never been touched. If I can receive the same level of quality again, I will be very happy!
As you note, it seems only Sony is continuing to produce compact phones with good specifications. Before purchasing the S4 Mini, I strongly considered a Z3 Compact. The Sony has superior specs, but is a little bulkier than the Samsung. The recently discontinued iPhone SE is/was the perfect size and spec for me, however unfortunately it runs iOS instead of Android. :/
Cheers,
James
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I've just swithed nougat to oreo. MicroG. I see no visible improvement. Only reason was continue of security updates.
There is no need to Flash GApps. Yesterday i tried flashing a S5 with GApps. Oh my GOD! Google did a complete take-over. I did a clean wipe in the middle of that update orgy. If you are used to GApps, the microG phone will feel naked for you. I recommend first steps with a second hand phone and Lineage4microG nougat.
Alternative to S4 mini, I only see Sony Z1 compact at the moment. MSe1969 does a good job in keeping security level of lolypop rom high.
Thanks for the reply!
Yeah, I guess I could try Lineage for microG first, as it would be the same Nougat rom I’m currently using, and therefore a good way to compare vs gapps. Could I just directly flash it over the top of my current LOS14.1 install...would it automatically remove/disable the opengapps?
Interesting that you reverted back to Nougat from Oreo. I read that Pie offers some performance improvements over previous versions, but perhaps that is not the case?
The other query I had was how app updates work with microG. Do you still receive notifications and prompts to update apps as they are released?
Cheers,
James
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Just scrollred up. You would try microG for battery saving? I don't think that's worth the trouble. Only real benefit of leaving GApps is privacy.
A dirty flash is no good idea. Even if it would work: you keep your spyware setup.
There are many possible setups without GApps. Alternative or patched app sores have update mechanisms.
Performance plus of new androids? I update only to get security patches.
kurtn said:
Just scrollred up. You would try microG for battery saving? I don't think that's worth the trouble. Only real benefit of leaving GApps is privacy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting comment. It was my understanding that the low-memory, minimalist footprint of microG was well-suited to older devices such as the S4 Mini. Noticeably improved battery life would be the goal.
kurtn said:
A dirty flash is no good idea. Even if it would work: you keep your spyware setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some scripts to uninstall the existing Gapps.
Thanks!
James
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