Yotaphone 2 on the horizon! - YotaPhone

Starting to look less Sony Z'ish (version1), and more Sammy/Nexus'ish:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/yotaphone-2-review
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/12/03/yotaphone-2-dual-screen-eink-android-smartphone/
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...date-december-for-europe-worldwide-next-year/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2855112/seven-things-to-know-about-the-dualscreen-yotaphone-2.html
http://www.androidauthority.com/yotaphone-2-announced-571851/
http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/03/yotaphone-2-review/?ncid=rss_truncated

Its out and its beautiful. What are people's general thoughts on the yotaphone 2? I really really really want one but prefereably not until its less than £500

I have the phone, and i like it, here are some photos, sry for the quality, photos are taken with HTC Desire 816.
Antutu 37451 points
Quadrant 20879
3D Mark Ice Storm Unlimited 15086
PCMark 3753

my quick review
i have one,
ink display can be a little sluggish, and takes a little but to set up - can only use prefixed screens which can be slightly customized ... not like traditional hone screen where you can add a lot of widgets and apps!!!
case is slippy like most phones but overall pleased.
.but think price is a bit ott
not too much clutter ie inbuilt apps but no memory card slot
battery not lasting much longer at moment but playing a lot with it so hoping for better when novelty has worn off
customer care appears ok.... had to chase up delivery but it was carrier problem

I have also one. It is fast and slim. It feels realy nice and the ink display is working fine.
Missing all the options I have on S4 with custom roms xD
However, I'm trying to get root on the phone and so far I only found a way via Kingo Root. My problem is however that there is no driver for win7. If I enable USB-debug Kingo root can not find the device....
Nice thing is that you can charge it via EasyCHEE® T900: Qi for example.
I hope that I will find a way in the future to root the device p,p

It could do with a memory card slot and waterproofing. Hopefully in the next version
I actually preferred the Xperia Z'ish look but it might be just me.

Would you say that this phone was worth using as a dev unit or is it just a good phone to have in general?

just took the plunge and spent hundreds upon hundreds of pounds on a YotaPhone 2 (used YOLO as an excuse )
It will arrive next week so will be able to give some feedback if anyone will be interested

waiting for mine as well, hoping for it to come next week. will get back with first impressions sooooon

Would be really interested to hear how the battery life is if only the e-ink display is used. I only ever use my phone for reading webpages, text and phoning so if there was a big enough increase in life I'd switch.

G0dly said:
Would be really interested to hear how the battery life is if only the e-ink display is used. I only ever use my phone for reading webpages, text and phoning so if there was a big enough increase in life I'd switch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using the yotaenergy mode but still allowing full data and background account sync I have managed to run 24hours with only 15% battery used, so I could push if to go for a whole week without charging.
In reality I make a bit more use of the phone and am typically getting 2-3 days use out of it between charges with about 30% battery left.

First report - it is utterly beautiful and the bumper adds to the aesthetic imo. E ink screen is great, feels lovely, panels are pretty configurable. All the yota apps are working pretty well for me and being able to switch over is a great feeling. Still slightly disconcerting when putting hand in pocket and feeling screen on either side but its class being able to just take out phone and look at clock, notifications and whatever else without unlocking and using negligible battery. It hasn't had a full charge yet, it had a small one and then had a heavy night of downloading and updating apps and playing with. At work now, will give it a full charge when I get back and then can do a proper battery test (don't have gsam on him yet either). I'm impressed so far though, seems to be holding out well considering there were a fair few solid hours of heavy usage.
Full report to follow soon.
It's name is Yakov - after one of my favourite crazy Russians; Yakov Pavlov. (for those interested in a good story or two - http://listverse.com/2012/09/17/top-10-facts-about-the-battle-of-stalingrad/ has good summaries)

anyone tried rooting yet?

Framaroot not working, will try Kingo next

Kingo worked on the first yotaphone, fingers crossed.

Just stumbled across the fact that there is a YotaPhone 2. I had waited for the first one for quite some months before going for a Nexus 5 (well, it was over half a year after YotaPhone was announced and before Nexus 5 came out, you do the math)
Now, even after it was finally released, it was certainly not set up for success. But they seem to have done everything right with the secnd incarnation (almost, that is. Bit weak on the processor and battery, and what's this Qi-charging which cannot be done with E-Ink facing up?)
The phone is about 520 Euros in Russia and I'm getting really tempted, especially reading initial reactions on here. But at this point I'm not sure I could live without my custom Android tweaks. Do you guys think there will be any development on this device? Maybe Yota would be smart to actually release their code...
Cheers,
rien

TLDR version of my review that I stuck on a yota 2 review thread - Very pretty phone, great front screen, back screen surprisingly useful and nice to look at and touch. Software well implemented. Hopeful for long term development improvements. Very good performance, great battery. Occasional glitch but nothing that detracts from and limits experience.
Overall, loving it. Expensive but very different and a joy to use.

I admit I'm very tempted, but yes, will there be any development? The novelty of the double screen will wear off and then I will certainly miss the tweakability of a rooted phone.

YotaPhone 2 successfully rooted
Achieved root on YotaPhone 2 on 4.4.3, build KTU84L.4.4.3-S01-003-EU1.0.3.56a using Kingo Root on a Windows 8 device.
Used the original YotaPhone ADB drivers downloaded from yotaphone.com
Hope that helps

Nice one dude, thanks very much for the info. Happy tinkering / modding.

Related

Who came from a nexus??

And how are you adapting?
Is the lock bootloader bothering you?, and how about the size of the phone?
is the development what you thought it would be?
And what made you jump ship?
thanks for the feed back!
chefb said:
And how are you adapting?
Is the lock bootloader bothering you?, and how about the size of the phone?
is the development what you thought it would be?
And what made you jump ship?
thanks for the feed back!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i came from the nexus and yes I am a bit sad that i cant flash whatever I want. But i am thankful at least we can flash roms.
Honestly, i bought the note 3 without doing any research, it wasnt until a few days after I found out that the bootloader was locked...which took me by surprise.
I dont regret it at all. To me, the galaxy nexus on verizon was probably one of the worst phones ever built. I am so glad to be done with it you have no idea. Living day to day with the nexus was painful. No amount of tweaks could save that crap phone. I am in heaven with the note 3 and its battery. Its actually kind of nice not having to flash something everyday in hope of improving my phone so its usable.
I also had the Galaxy Nexus, and while in general I liked it a lot, the battery life was pretty poor, and 4g/3g reception wasn't nearly as good as my wife's S4.
I debated upgrading for a while, but over Black Friday week-end, found a deal I couldn't refuse: Verizon lowered the price to $199, Comcast had a promotion giving a $200 PrePaid VISA card with the purchase of a new Verizon phone/Upgrade, and then I sold my Galaxy Nexus for $105 through Craigs List. Even with the upgrade fee and taxes, I netted $60 in the deal (assuming the $200 card comes in 4 weeks).
I never had the need to root/flash ROM's, etc., so my experience might be different from yours. But the GN3 is much, much smoother/quicker over all. The browsing experience is night and day better. Chrome works fine, and is incredibly quick. Battery Life is much better as well.
The screen size is much nicer for me, and yes the overall phone size is big, but not problematic. I use the basic TPU Case/Holster, and just put on the JLG Nano screen protector yesterday. Adds minimal size/weight, and keeps it protected and easily portable.
Radio reception remains to be determined as I haven't traveled much since getting it. Where I have been, it's been fine. Just took the OTA update yesterday, so can't yet evaluate what impact that had.
Bottom line - I am extremely pleased with this phone vs the GN I had - no regrets whatsoever (would feel the same even if I had to pay for it!).
I'm coming from the g-nex, and the N3 is far and away an incredibly, insanely superior device. Speed of the device, in general, is easily 3-4x faster, and with 3x the RAM, there's no comparison when it comes to multitasking. Features like multi-window and pen window put this phone light years ahead. Not to mention, the s pen features and technology are just amazing. This is the first time I've ever updated a device and felt like I've actually advanced 4 years in tech instead of 2.
Reception and the radios are vastly better - I haven't missed a single call yet whereas I'd miss calls pretty frequently with my gnex, and the 4G speeds are much better...but by far, most importantly, battery life is almost triple of what I could ever achieve on the gnex. I've regularly gotten 2-3 days of uptime on my N3 and can easily get 6-8 hours of screen on time. Insanity.
As for ROMs, the only reason why I installed ROMs on the nexus was to mod the nav keys, make the nav key background transparent, and a few other mods. With my N3 I feel absolutely no need to even install a ROM. Every single mod I ever wanted I've installed though xposed.
And I really though I'd hate not having nav keys (soft keys) after having them for two years, but now I actually much prefer NOT having them! The extra screen real estate is very nice, allowing full use of this huge display, and with xposed you can mod the capacitive keys, so my back key is now also my menu key when long pressed...no need for soft keys at all. Not only that, I have it so the keys are never lit so it's a very streamlined look, almost all display.
Hopefully on the Note 4, Samsung will finally ditch the physical home button and make it, too, capacitive. Then the device will look even that much more slick.
TL ; DR version: The N3 is light years ahead of the gnex in every imaginable aspect. A no-brainer; even at $300 it's WELL worth it coming from ANY previous-gen device.
All interesting. ...keep Em coming!
chefb said:
All interesting. ...keep Em coming!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bumpity bump
I too came from a Verizon G'nex, and I pretty much agree with everything that's been said so far. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Gnex...still do, as a matter of fact, but this phone is just superior in so many ways. I used to have to use 2 batteries just to get through a single day. Nowadays, I still have two batteries, but I've gone for entire days without ever having to switch them.
As far as development goes...I bought the phone, in large part, because of its stylus, and the various apps that come with it. Seeing as flashing anything based on AOSP would mean the loss of pen window, action memo, screen write etc, I would be unlikely to flash anything other than a Touchwiz-based rom in the first place, so SafeStrap is acceptable. Ideologically, of course, I hate the idea of a locked bootloader, but in practice it's not really that bad. I've flashed Beans' rom, and it looks like that's where I'll probably stay for a good long while. It's certainly nice, though, that the only reason I wanted to flash a new rom in the first place was to remove bloatware and take care of a few aesthetic concerns...flashing roms on the G'nex was more of a survival strategy to keep the phone working than a luxury. I felt like I was changing roms every two or three weeks on the G'nex due to some sort of performance or radio issue, and there's none of that with the Note 3.
Overall...it's a lovely, lovely phone, and an improvement over the G'nex in every possible way except for, perhaps, the locked bootloader. Some may gripe with its size, but I watch a lot of videos on my phone, and the screen is amazing for media viewing. The processor is good enough to handle literally anything you throw at it, with any codec, up to 1080p. I've come to expect that MX Player with the custom codec pack will play nearly anything, but I was sore amazed to find that the native video app can play most (not all, but most) MKV files, which allows you to do cool things like floating video. I've never had the phone slow down or stutter, even with multiple parallel app downloads going (which used to KILL the G'nex), and almost everything I didn't like initially can be patched with a few quick Xposed tweaks. So yeah...if you're hesitating about switching to this phone from a G'nex...don't. You'll love it and never want to look back.
there is a sticky for this discussion here ... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2466108

Owners' Impression

Those who already have the device, post your impression / comments.
I own the TL10 version. It's been a few days in my hands. I can confirm that LTE works in Singapore, Malaysia (just came back from there) and Japan (I remember reading somewhere that it's compatible with most European and Asian networks).
I decided to get the phone because I'm too worried about Note 4 battery life, Xperia Z3 being too small, unable to get the latest Pantech phones (A910 & A920) due to their recent bankruptcy which scared off my usual supplier and also the unavailability of Vibe Z2 Pro at the time. Those were the other phones I had considered before settling with Mate 7.
I'm pleased by its slim bezels and thinness. Impressed by its battery life, currently low battery after I pulled off the charger almost 48 hours ago, used it to call and text people, find my way to the airport using Google navigation, listened to music in flight, layover in Hong Kong, another flight to Tokyo, 2 hours transiting in Tokyo subways, then used it for browsing while I rested this whole day. Simply superb.
Issues I've noticed so far:
Unable to change launcher (can't remove Huawei launcher from default)
Navigation bar sometimes freezes, doesn't response, had to hide it and showed it again to make it work (hopefully just firmware issue).
Haven't found easy way to root it.
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-TL10 using XDA Free mobile app
We can remotely root the device for you.
GetMobilePhone
Fulvian said:
Those who already have the device, post your impression / comments.
I own the TL10 version. It's been a few days in my hands. I can confirm that LTE works in Singapore, Malaysia (just came back from there) and Japan (I remember reading somewhere that it's compatible with most European and Asian networks).
I decided to get the phone because I'm too worried about Note 4 battery life, Xperia Z3 being too small, unable to get the latest Pantech phones (A910 & A920) due to their recent bankruptcy which scared off my usual supplier and also the unavailability of Vibe Z2 Pro at the time. Those were the other phones I had considered before settling with Mate 7.
I'm pleased by its slim bezels and thinness. Impressed by its battery life, currently low battery after I pulled off the charger almost 48 hours ago, used it to call and text people, find my way to the airport using Google navigation, listened to music in flight, layover in Hong Kong, another flight to Tokyo, 2 hours transiting in Tokyo subways, then used it for browsing while I rested this whole day. Simply superb.
Issues I've noticed so far:
Unable to change launcher (can't remove Huawei launcher from default)
Navigation bar sometimes freezes, doesn't response, had to hide it and showed it again to make it work (hopefully just firmware issue).
Haven't found easy way to root it.
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-TL10 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind flying over to the US and testing it on T-Mobile?
LOL/jk
Thanks for giving your impressions of the device. Have you found it to be any more laggy/buggy than other Android devices that you've owned? Also, does your device say TD-LTE on the box or FDD-LTE?
On the box it only says "TD-LTE". Mine is the vmall.com 32GB gold version. Everything has been snappy. Only lag I notice is when pressing multi-task button, there's noticeable delay until the list of recent apps show up. Also, I notice navigation bar, toggles, settings, icons, pretty much all the UI aspects look like Android L, perhaps Huawei is already working on L and basing the Emotion 3.0 from L?
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-TL10 using XDA Free mobile app
I own the TL10 version too for 3 weeks now. I'm living in Switzerland and can confirm LTE works here.
Fulvian said:
I decided to get the phone because I'm too worried about Note 4 battery life, Xperia Z3 being too small, unable to get the latest Pantech phones (A910 & A920) due to their recent bankruptcy which scared off my usual supplier and also the unavailability of Vibe Z2 Pro at the time. Those were the other phones I had considered before settling with Mate 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly the same for me except I didn't know that Pantech brand.
Battery life is impressive. It's due to a good battery management. For example, Mate 7 notices you when Google Play services are running in background so you can stop the processes. There's also a "stamina" mode wich only enables phone calls and SMS. I got 2% drain in one whole day!
Yesterday my mate 7 became hot, I had to restart it because it was not responding anymore. It's my first problem with mate 7 since I have it. Anyway, I think that kind of problems are normal in every Android device. I'm also looking forward a root solution. Before, all my contacts were synchronized with Google but sadly it's not possible to keep it that way with EMUI. I had to import it (wich was very easy) to EMUI contacts manager.
I have some problems with special characters in french (like é, à, etc..) They are replaced with a chinese character.
getmobilephone said:
We can remotely root the device for you.
GetMobilePhone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible to know how?
Inspecteur_Gadget said:
I own the TL10 version too for 3 weeks now. I'm living in Switzerland and can confirm LTE works here.
Is it possible to know how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are not hiding anything from the xda community though.
We can offer you the code to root, however, during the last step and the most important step of recovery, it requires a Chinese software to proceed, of which it will be difficult for one to perform who cannot read Chinese.
If it is necessary, we can remotely root this device for you, and for our customers of course.
getmobilephone said:
We are not hiding anything from the xda community though.
We can offer you the code to root, however, during the last step and the most important step of recovery, it requires a Chinese software to proceed, of which it will be difficult for one to perform who cannot read Chinese.
If it is necessary, we can remotely root this device for you, and for our customers of course.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm currently learning chinese but I admit I can't understand by myself a root process. Anyway, I can follow a step by step guide. I found two differents ways to root on Baidu but in both, the comments suggest that it doesn't work, so I haven't tried
I unlocked successfully the bootloader. If you can share any link that can help me to root it, I'll be eternally grateful to you
Inspecteur_Gadget said:
I'm currently learning chinese but I admit I can't understand by myself a root process. Anyway, I can follow a step by step guide. I found two differents ways to root on Baidu but in both, the comments suggest that it doesn't work, so I haven't tried
I unlocked successfully the bootloader. If you can share any link that can help me to root it, I'll be eternally grateful to you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are glad to do this for you.
In two days, we will post a detailed instruction for rooting the AM7, for xda community members.
Pulled the trigger.
So I bought this phone, about a week ago, unicom compatible version mt7-tl10. I had actually gone with the mx4 because i wanted a better camera while in china, was currently using my note 3. I returned the mx4 after a day..... it was more buggy than 1.5 used to be haha. Random gcm pushes not happening, app crashing etc, freezes, and battery drains. They will probably sort it out, but I wasn't willing to wait weeks as i needed a functional daily driver so I picked it up at beijing local department store, for 3650rmb, not a bad price compared to what amazon etc are charging.
So my first impressions of the phone, which came with the flip leather case, is that like the cliche marketing pics of the guy in the sand, it is a classy looking phone. The thin bezels are amazing, and it just feels a lot nicer in the hand than my note 3. Now On my note 3 I have a spigen case, so the flip is definitely a thinner device. Caseless it fits in my hands very well, I have large hands but by no means ogre fists and everything is very reachable. I have been partial to large devices, owning every iteration of the note, as well as the ridiculous asus fonepad lol.
Watching reviews i was worried about the Nit* level in screen brightness, but the screen is very clear and crisp, pretty good colour reproduction, definitely not the saturated intensity of a samsung amoled screen, but very nice to watch netflix etc on. It is very responsive and has glove mode in the options so when the temperature drops a bit more I will give that feature a try.
Battery life is insane. Note 3 is no slouch, but this has had days of 7 to 8 hours of screen on time for me, with csip calls, 8 email accounts, 3 on push, wechat, whatsapp, telegram, instagram and a bunch of other daily apps i use... was at 20% in the evening.
Call quality has been decent although i have only used voip programs to make calls, over vpn. I will note that the wifi connectivity is much more stable than my note 3. I get better signal consistently on wifi, which is nice, as I am dependant on it for the most part for internet connectivity, data rates on a pay as go plan in beijing are murder. That said, 3g, 4g, lte all work great and i get very good signal and asu rates on this phone. I know the radio's are optimized vs my NA note 3 but its nice to have consistent signal all over the city with such spotty coverage.
So from a hardware standpoint, this phone feels and works like a quality product, which is what I Think huawei was aiming for..
Now from a software standpoint.. emui is nice, but it's not quite there yet. Without root and xposed modules it's even more of an issue, as there are root fixes for lots of the problems I have experienced.
Starting with the positives, the overall experience has been fluid and smooth, I have not experienced any of the slowdowns mentioned, video playback is stutter free, memory speed seems up to par with decent load times . I do really like the huawei multi tasking implementation on this rom, as I tend to cut and paste and switch between browser and apps quite frequently. Some of the pro reviews complained about the battery consumption monitor... but I find it to be quite useful, allowing me to micro manage apps if I choose, you can always set it to ignore the app after the first warning. Now that said, you may run into issues with non default apps for things like email (i m currently trying out the boxer client). I was doing push tests as i had my note 3 to compare, on same wifi etc... and emails were not coming through... so what i found is, you have to go in and give third party apps from the google play store certain permissions, the ability to run after the screen is off, to startup when device starts up etc... its actually quite useful to have such easy controls for these things, but if you don't know about them... it created a giant headache for me trying to figure out why push wasn't coming through. I thought it was my install of google play services etc... not allowing GCM push's to arrive. nope, just battery and permission settings, once go through for one app, you can easily do it for all the apps you want. Battery life is amazing as a result, as things like yahoo weather and other apps i used to use, were just killing my battery... now on my note i have better battery stats, gsam, wakelock detector.. the whole enchilada in terms of utils for optimizing battery life because i have had problems, even resorted to watch dog combined with greenify, because the wakes that were hidden from all my utils. On my huawei, i dont have any of the tools, the permissions, battery drain detection seem to keep things in check, and google services etc isn;t draining either. I used to find on other non google play native roms, that play services would run amok with battery. So far so good.
The most annoying issue presently is the default app selection. On some apps it works bringing up selected apps that make sense, click a picture selection in whatsapp , brings up gallery as an option. Trying to set my profile pic in another app i use, brings up an array of random useless apps that do not really have anything to do with a picture selection. Now without root or Xposed you cannot change the default apps that come up.. so i m stuck with this bug. I tried a workaround by installing a bunch of file managers to see if they could randomly pop up in the list...only es fileexplorer did and not the right option for it of a standard file browse.
The other major thing i have experienced , and i think it just be me, or my device specifically is finger print accuracy.. now watching all the reviews it looked phenomenal... now maybe its because i have a case on, big fingers or something, but i can only get about 50% accuracy in unlocking my phone with it.. It might be a technique thing too, so I m putting the caveat there.
The other issue, which is one of the reasons I like android over IOS, is the app drawer. Again without root, i dont think I it comes up. Reading above someone has said that they could not get an app drawer to work..I have not tried to install nova as I want to wait until rooted to use it. I find it is easy to lose track of the apps you have with a whole mess of folders stashed away... I like very open pages, with a few widgets but it is hard to have that experience if you have a lot of apps. Now you can just shove all of them into a single folder but it takes 4 to 5 actions to get to the app you want, that is too much for me. I like 3 actions at most, with nova it was app drawer, scroll, click in, worst case. Now its swipe, search for folder, click folder, swipe, to correct folder page, if you have more than 6 apps in folder. Its not the end of the world, but being used to nova style, it shouldn't have to be this way either.
One thing about the notification bar that at first was annoying, until i had a aha moment where i realized it was much more clever than i thought. The notification pull down is actually subdivided into two hotzones. On the left is notifications when you pull down, and on the right is shortcuts to system things, like screen brightness, screenshot, data toggle etc. Now at first i thought i was just getting random selections, until i realized there are hotzones at the top for this.. Another aspect i like is the timeline esque notifications, that give you timestamps and a lot of access to actions like deleting emails, replying etc right from the notification bar as an option... saves a couple clicks so it s a nice touch.
Now another issue I have had is widget display... certain apps do not like to play nice with the grid and end up taking way to much room, and do not adjust properly. One app in particular is network signal info pro the 1x1 widgets take up double the space, and the larger ones block off the screen. On touchwiz i have no issues lining corner to corner with these widgets, so i know its emui in this case.
Overall I find this phone to be a good experience, as I mainly use email and webbrowsing for work, the mega screen on time, and large viewing space make this a pleasant experience. Everyone uses their device differently so I can't say if its a good fit for me... but vs my note three, one the few niggles get ironed out with updates It will remain my daily device for the forseeable future... and for the price vs the note4 or edge...(although the cool factor of the edge is hard to resist) the battery life and screen size are hard to pass up... granted note 4 has higher res..but that just kills battery life, and the ppi is good enough for my purposes, i dont really notice the difference unless i look really closely..but if you have a six inch phone, that is the beauty, you dont have to face hug it to see things.
As for other comparitives, i played around with all the other devices listed... the lenovo Z2 pro.. while having an amazing screen and battery as well, and a ridiculously good camera comparitively, the software experience just wasnt there yet, and having used a k900 before, i wasn't optimistic that lenovo's software team is there yet... by next year they will be a major player i m sure, but it will take 6 to 8 months before that new resource and developer allocation makes a dent in user experience. As i said the mx4 was one of the worst software experiences i have had, now, to be fair it was not and international version, so maybe that one plays nice with google services...but mine certainly didnt. Looked at xiaomi... the mi4 is just too small for me, and battery life is a bit suspect, although miui is polished and updated frequently, it feels like all my data is being downloaded to the central servers.. haha, huawei may not be much better, but from my network tests watching wifi traffic, there isn't to many suspicious calls home. ZTE again, software was a bit laggy, same with their luxury brand, nubia... the oneplus and find7 were here, but oppo s marketing strategy lost me.. and comparitively they just dont look as nice as the huawei does... Now its funny because in china huawei has a bad rep as a cheapo garbage phone, with iphone, samsung, sony and xiaomi taking the prestige roles.. but this device has got some looks and questions as to what it is.. and wow really, a huawei lol.
Hope this is useful in decision making..
cheers.
^ didn't wanted to quote the whole post so .. I think this is the first comment review or whatever u may call it, that I read completely and thoroughly . thanks for your thoughts sir. I can't wait for mine to be delivered.
pantmunu said:
^ didn't wanted to quote the whole post so .. I think this is the first comment review or whatever u may call it, that I read completely and thoroughly . thanks for your thoughts sir. I can't wait for mine to be delivered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, just wanted to get it all down so people know what they re in for. I am fortunate in that i have a pretty lax expenditure account in terms of tech upgrades, so if I make a bad choice on a phone, i only have a to put up with it for a few months. But most have to survive at least a year with their device, and I find on a stressful day its the little things, like an email app crashing, or keyboard not responding lol that make the difference between a good and bad day.
I will add that if you don't read pinyin (i dont) you may have to do some guess and test exploration with the themes etc.. the keyboard is their own version or licensed not sure which, of swype that comes with some very asian themes to choose from the store. The theme store is in pinyin for phone themes but its pretty straight forward to figure out, by seeing the pictures and applying them.
I cant stress how much i love the battery life, it might be an ocd issue for me haha, but i always worry about phone dying. I have the Xiaomi 10000mah battery and the anker 12000 mah battery, but i dont need to pocket them anymore... so far today 96% battery with 45 mins of screen time (all my morning emails) and an ZRTP voip call (encryption usually works battery harder) for 30mins... pretty happy about that.
gn0s1s said:
No problem, just wanted to get it all down so people know what they re in for. I am fortunate in that i have a pretty lax expenditure account in terms of tech upgrades, so if I make a bad choice on a phone, i only have a to put up with it for a few months. But most have to survive at least a year with their device, and I find on a stressful day its the little things, like an email app crashing, or keyboard not responding lol that make the difference between a good and bad day.
I will add that if you don't read pinyin (i dont) you may have to do some guess and test exploration with the themes etc.. the keyboard is their own version or licensed not sure which, of swype that comes with some very asian themes to choose from the store. The theme store is in pinyin for phone themes but its pretty straight forward to figure out, by seeing the pictures and applying them.
I cant stress how much i love the battery life, it might be an ocd issue for me haha, but i always worry about phone dying. I have the Xiaomi 10000mah battery and the anker 12000 mah battery, but i dont need to pocket them anymore... so far today 96% battery with 45 mins of screen time (all my morning emails) and an ZRTP voip call (encryption usually works battery harder) for 30mins... pretty happy about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just hope we get good amount of development here. And yeah. Glad about the battery life.
Thanks gn0s1s for that exhaustive review!
As i myself cant still decide whether to get the am7 or lenovo vibe z2 pro, and since you mentioned lenovo vibe z2 pro as one you compared the am7 against, may i ask a question. Have you had an ample time to play with the z2 pro to say that the sw experience is lacking?
Thanks for the answer sir!
Bevor I got me a Ascend Mate 7 I had a LG G3. On my trip to China I wanted to buy my a new phone.
I watched for many different phones (Meizu mx4, Xiaomi Mi4, Oppo Find 7, Lenovo vibe z2 pro and the Mate 7).
Many of them I did not buy because they have no LTE working outside of Europe.... or the lack of quality (Meizu was baaaad).
At the end there was only the z2 pro and the Mate 7 in the ring.
I decided against the z2 pro because I would have not a bigger screen then in the LG G3.... and the Mate 7 look&feel was much better.
Hope that helped.
Very positive experience
Hi,
I am a very new owner of Mate 7 Gold MT7-TL10. Have received my device this morning from getmobilephone (xda forum member). Experience with getmobilephone was simply the best experience i have ever had when getting something online. Really recommended!
First impressions are very positive. Build quality is extraordinary. Screen is better than expected. Phone already has factory installed screen protection on it + nice protective case for the phone.
Before purchasing, was hesitating between Note4, lenovo z2 pro and mate7. I believe that Huawei build quality really beats samsung devices. Mate 7 looks and feels like a high quality product.
No problems with 3G or 4G connections in Belgium (and probably in the most rest of Europe).
Phone is fast and responsive. At the moment feels faster than Note3 or Samsung S5.
So far I cannot comment a lot more about other features, as i would need to use this phone for few days first.
Thanks again for getmobilephone and XDA community for this opportunity.
Hello zilviukas,
I'm also from Belgium and i wish to buy the Mate 7. I prefer the Black One with 3 Go of Ram but no info about this configuration !
The Gold is too much 'bling bling' for me Do you know if the Black with 3 Go of ram come one day ?
Have you photos of your phone and the case inside ? How many time for full charge when the battery is low like 10% ? How many time for receipt your phone in Belgium ?
Have fun with your wonderfull phone !!!
P.S. : Now i use the Note 3 with 3 Go of ram but i'm afraid that mate 7 have not the same power than the Note 3 ( sorry for my english). And how is the lisibility outside and under the sun because the Super Amoled from Samsung is wonderfull !
Hi [email protected],
Regarding the battery it charges fast. I have tried to charge from 10% today to full. It took 2.5 hours (approx 150 minutes). But keep in mind that it has this large battery. And at least up to 60% was charging 1% every minute! Maybe other users can be more precise here, as i didn't check when charging slows down.
Regarding Gold version. As far i as know, only gold has 3GB RAM and 32GB internal. Black an silver have lower specs 2GB/16GB.
Reception of the signal is better than my other devices, Note 2 or Note 3.
I have attached some low res images. Let me know if you need higher quality.
Thank you very much for your reply and the photos. Very beautiful phone and case, the window seem to be very big .. more than my smartcover on my Note 3.
What's the functions with the cover (sleep wake-up, photo, music ... ?).
What's the prize with shipping and how many times for receipt tu Belgium ?
If you sold your phone, Call me for an other belgium user
For photos, if you have other pictures with good Light ... think to me
Edit : very good news for the speed of charging because not usb 3.0 on Mate 7.
The position of the speaker give good sound or not when the phone is on the desk ?
Take the phone in the hand for unlock the phone is not very good because with my Note 3, i push the home button and wake up the phone without to take the phone in hand.
With the cover from Huawei, what's happening with the fingerscan and function wake up when you open the cover ? The cover has a magnet for to keep close or not ?
[email protected] said:
Thank you very much for your reply and the photos. Very beautiful phone and case, the window seem to be very big .. more than my smartcover on my Note 3.
What's the functions with the cover (sleep wake-up, photo, music ... ?).
What's the prize with shipping and how many times for receipt tu Belgium ?
If you sold your phone, Call me for an other belgium user
For photos, if you have other pictures with good Light ... think to me
Edit : very good news for the speed of charging because not usb 3.0 on Mate 7.
The position of the speaker give good sound or not when the phone is on the desk ?
Take the phone in the hand for unlock the phone is not very good because with my Note 3, i push the home button and wake up the phone without to take the phone in hand.
With the cover from Huawei, what's happening with the fingerscan and function wake up when you open the cover ? The cover has a magnet for to keep close or not ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am also in Belgium and i am using the mate 7 32gb 3gb for 1 week now. Excellent phone, very fast, really nothing to say except that as it is a chinese version, i am having chinese writings depsite putting it in english. I am awaiting promptly for a custom rom
4g is working properly here, screen quality is amazing, battery is great, sound quality is excellent ... The only bad idea was from huawei to have put 2 sim cards in 2 different formats. One in Micro sim and one nano Very annoying but honestly, this phone is almost "perfect".
Huawei just tweeted that they have sold 1 million mate 7 in only 1 month. That is only accounting most sales from china (coz the device is not yet available in many markets).
I am hoping that with many people buying mate 7, it will spur development of custom rom for this device.

Nexus 6 Thoughts and Review from a former Note II User

I have noticed quite a few Galaxy Note II users online that are close to pulling the trigger on a new phone. I have been in that camp for a few months and finally did. I really don't have and major complaints about the Galaxy Note II but rather small quibbles about the device. So you have a basic idea of where I am coming from I'll let you know what I like and dislike about the Galaxy Note II.
GNOTE II Pros:
Good Specs - The phone has specs that are still considered above mid level and should still be a viable phone for at least a couple more years if properly updated...if.
Camera - I get pretty fair image clarity from the phone and when I need something better I'll break out a DSLR or my Galaxy Camera.
Voice - Very clear and loud.
S-Pen - Oh how I'll miss thee.
Capacitive Buttons/Physical Buttons - Well thought out for one-handed use.
Weight Its a bit heavy but I actually like the weight of this phone and could probably use it as a throwing-star analog to get the drop on somebody if I hit them square in the temple. But that really is not a concern for most people.
Hardware - Its well made and very resistant to drops with a simple TPU case.
GNOTE II Cons:
Updates - I'm on T-Mobile which has taken any chance it has to kill the possibility of future updates. Occasionally an errant voice on a messageboard out of T-Mobile Customer Support stating they have seen this in the works wafts across my screen but I have yet to see it come to fruition.
Samsung Ideology - Samsung products are good for a year then they release a new one as if you really need a new product from them. Samsung makes great products but rarely do they fix glaringly obvious mistakes after a year past its original creation. I currently am working on a Samsung monitor with a color calibration issue that has been reported and known by the company for years but never fixed but they fixed it on the new model of this monitor. My Galaxy Camera, while nice, suffers from insane Touchwiz lag and could use an update on fixing that but we won't see it because they released the Galaxy Camera 2. I am in the game for technology to last a minimum of 3 years running well. I realize the market is bleeding edge but the edge has gotten far less bloody than the G1 days. I shop for phones like I do TV's or computers now.
S-Pen Manufacturing - I've been through four S-Pens. I use it a lot for taking notes throughout the day as it feels more natural than typing on a computer screen. The S-Pen tends to randomly stop working without provocation. Then if you order a "100% OEM Samsung Factory S-Pen" most likely its a Chinese knock-off. I can't find true S-pens anymore which is a concern for owning a new Note.
Lack of Stable ROMS - Nearly everything I have tried causes issues with NFC or Bluetooth. I use bluetooth all the time for music to various speakers, headphones, or my car.
Knox - It does its stinking job too well. SU can run but it can't hide. I have lost SU so many times on this stupid phone it is ridiculous. Let alone the every 10 minutes my phone lets me know that Triangle Away is being activated. I don't do a lot of coding or tinkering but I do like finding ROM's with good utilitarian purposes. I remember swapcache back in the G1 days and enjoyed finding the next cool thing to do with my phone! We are past that time now, honestly, but if it isn't Samsung branded then Samsung doesn't want you to do it.
Samsung Services - "You have started S-Voice" NO I DIDN'T. "Saving contact to Samsung Contacts" Bad Samsung, stop it! I insanely dislike...nay..HATE how Samsung will not let you get rid of its version of things. My contact list was a thing of beauty running in the 100's with every person I needed to work with (I'm a teacher that does coordination work and administrative work for a school of 600+), their room numbers, email addresses, and everything you could think of until I bought a Samsung product. I have some names with 20 duplicates due to the way this beast handles contacts. I eventually just had executive function overload and decided to give up on being organized. I might bring that back to life soon.
Now that you have an idea of where I'm coming from this is what I think of the Nexus 6....
I like it!
The first thing I really enjoyed about this phone was the speed. I'm running it Stock, Rooted, and Encrypted (for now...maybe forever...I work at a school where my kids know how to build robots and get linux running on projectors so I wouldn't mind encryption on my devices) and loving the heck out of it. I was so impressed by simple things at first such as animations from opening folders as soon as my finger touched the screen whereas my Note II would lag for a good time without animations. In fact, turning on the device is so overwhelmingly stupidly simple to turn on. I can check the time by just pulling it out of my pocket without touching buttons where if I wanted to check the time on my Note I would have to wait 5 - 10 seconds after pressing the power button while pondering the ever present question, "Did I press that button?" which inevitably leads to "#$&(*, I pressed it again and turned it off!"
The next thing I noticed was the size and weight. It is a bit harder to use than my Galaxy Note II with one hand. I think if they reversed the capacitive Back button it would be a lot easier to use for us right handers. I may look in to figuring that out. Honestly, I almost feel like this thing is too thin and light. It feels well built and solid. Even with the SUPCASE I bought it still feels a little odd in my hands but that may be due to the weight being very centered in the deep area of the curve opposed to being consistently weighted. As a personal aside this is the first phone I have ever put a screen protector on WITHOUT BUBBLES....I..AM...A ....GOD!!! Well..maybe demigod. Needless to say, Spigen makes a fine screen protector.
Unlocking and rooting this thing was a breeze. Once I get paid in a couple of weeks I plan on donating to @WugFresh for at least a case of beer for his amazing Toolkit that will even walk you through setting up Windows 8 drivers! You can find that at http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/development/toolkit-wugs-nexus-root-toolkit-v1-9-8-t2947452
The camera is better than my Note II by simply being clearer which I'm assuming is to the better camera sensor. I haven't messed with it that much.
The screen and adaptive lighting are by far my favorite thing on this phone. I am probably in the minority on this but adaptive lighting is brilliant. I have seen a lot of people talking about how AMOLED is causing the reddish/purple/yellowish hues to blacks and grays at low light levels. I do not believe that is the fact. It seems like they are using some sort of blue light filtering for this in low light. As an insomniac I tend to send the wee hours of morning which I consider night perusing XDA, Twitter, and various other odds and ends of the internets and am so happy the screen actually gets dark. My Gnote II on the lowest setting was annoyingly bright. I thought I was a genius one day when I thought to use a blue screen filter and made it darker but lo and behold the backlit capacitive buttons attached directly to the stinking hardware on the Gnote II. Its like having someone flash their brights at you when you use one of those programs on the Note. Its annoying. The Nexus 6 takes no part in this and I would 100% recommend it for fellow insomniacs. It has helped me to get sleep a little bit quicker over the last couple days which is a nice benefit. Lets see if that keeps up though. I'm pretty immune to sleep.
Also the screen is really nice quality and reproduces blacks amazingly well. I'm an art teacher and art history buff so I usually check out different high quality images on my phone to see how good it looks. It seems to work very well at recreating the color and light of some of the paintings. My favorite to use for this test is Van Gogh's Starry Night Over Rhone. Eventually my phone gets used in the classroom when a student needs to look up an image and put on an easel (or kickstand case but haven't seen one I like yet) to display when my tablet or laptop is in use.
Battery life and charger! Its great. 'Nuff said.
I think the biggest negative so far is the volume of calls. My wife said I sound quieter than usual. I also can't hear people as loudly as I used to. The speakerphone does not travel as far as the Note when it absolutely should seeing as the speakers are fairly decent for a cell phone. I could see someone fixing this pretty easily in a ROM.
The other negative is the lack of some multitasking programs that Samsung had and of course the lack of S-Pen. I use a Huion H610 Pro at home for digital art and graphic design so I loved the fact that Samsung phones used similar tech but I absolutely abhor using capacitive styluses (styli?). I'll have to figure out something I can carry with me that will work like that with a similar feel.
Anyway, as of right now I'm extremely happy with this phone. I have had no issues as of yet and luckily no burn in however I do not like my phone to cause sunspots when I look away from it so I'm not expecting to have a huge problem with it. If you have some similar issues with the Galaxy Note II (which T-Mobile amplifies) then I would suggest jumping ship especially if you have crackflashing tendencies because there is no Samsung product without a Nexus name attached to it that will be as easy to deal with as this.
-Travis
Let me go ahead and apologize for the poor grammar and lengthy sentences. I'm sitting home from work sick today (XDA fun time does not happen between the hours of 7am to 5pm at work normally) with bronchitis. The medicine(s) I'm on must really like run-on sentences after I re-read that wall of text. I hope it helps someone after deciphering it, haha.
From one educator to another (I'm a school administrator and former classroom teacher), let me say 'well done!'. Before the Nexus 6, I was a proud Note owner for the last three years - Note 1 and Note 3 to be exact. After finding out that the Note 4 would be even more locked down than the 3, and deciding that I was getting really really tired of TouchWiz and truly loved what Lollipop's UI brought to the table, I made the jump. And I am just as pleased with my choice as you are. No more crazy contacts lists or S-Voice intrusions, amen. ......I do miss my old S-Pen though....
I'm using the Note 2 atm and I "really want" the Nexus 6 (64gb infact, hard to come by in Australia otherwise I probably would have one by now).
Using SlimKat now because the stock ROM was absolutely dreadful!! (Laaag!) The S-pen does not work out of the box on the current rom and I'm not missing it either... I'm ready for the Nexus and looking forward to using "modern speakers" on a phone.
PerthSGS2 said:
I'm using the Note 2 atm and I "really want" the Nexus 6 (64gb infact, hard to come by in Australia otherwise I probably would have one by now).
Using SlimKat now because the stock ROM was absolutely dreadful!! (Laaag!) The S-pen does not work out of the box on the current rom and I'm not missing it either... I'm ready for the Nexus and looking forward to using "modern speakers" on a phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also came from the note2 on tmobile and like the OP said, there was a lack of ROMs for the phone.
i ended up pulling the trigger on a white 32gb nexus 6 (i was looking for a 64gb but they were hard to find) the other day and like it very much. I think i rooted and unlocked the bootloader within 30mins of having the phone.
just trying to enable tethering on it right now is the only obstacle for me.
simplyTravis said:
Let me go ahead and apologize for the poor grammar and lengthy sentences. I'm sitting home from work sick today (XDA fun time does not happen between the hours of 7am to 5pm at work normally) with bronchitis. The medicine(s) I'm on must really like run-on sentences after I re-read that wall of text. I hope it helps someone after deciphering it, haha.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a Note 4 from T-Mobile for a few days and I didn't care for it at all & I was coming from a S4 before getting the Note 4, So I decided to return it and got the Nexus 6 which is way better. I'll also be paying less then I would of been with the Note 4.
How does the screen brightness compare between the two?
How's the focusing speed compared to the note 2?
I'm trying to decide between this and the HTC m8. I have small kids so I need something with a quick focus and overall good durability. (I'm not really concerned with megapixel count.)
Thanks!
lschuman said:
From one educator to another (I'm a school administrator and former classroom teacher), let me say 'well done!'. Before the Nexus 6, I was a proud Note owner for the last three years - Note 1 and Note 3 to be exact. After finding out that the Note 4 would be even more locked down than the 3, and deciding that I was getting really really tired of TouchWiz and truly loved what Lollipop's UI brought to the table, I made the jump. And I am just as pleased with my choice as you are. No more crazy contacts lists or S-Voice intrusions, amen. ......I do miss my old S-Pen though....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I plan on getting things back to normal now thankfully. My contacts are so much easier to get through now. Right now I'm in the midst of dealing with starting up after school programs for our school and will be editing Google Docs with this thing next week so I'll get a real test of how it works. I work at a charter school (part of the biggest charter school system in Texas: Harmony Public Schools) and since we don't have a bus system our after school clubs tend to be in the hundreds daily. I run around circles making sure everything is going right and people are in the right place so its helpful to be able to pull up a list on a decent size screen to find information on the go. Our school has been around 7 years and I've been there 6 years of that with only 2 people there longer than me so I tend to be the guy to ask about anything.
Tubgirl said:
How does the screen brightness compare between the two?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With adaptive brightness off the Nexus 6 is noticeably brighter with better black levels and a warmer tone (not yellowish.) I keep it on most of the time and haven't had any problems seeing things. It has been raining here in South East Texas since I've owned the phone so if it ever clears up I'll let you know how it compares outside but I'm assuming it will be a bit better than the Note II.
anrkee said:
How's the focusing speed compared to the note 2?
I'm trying to decide between this and the HTC m8. I have small kids so I need something with a quick focus and overall good durability. (I'm not really concerned with megapixel count.)
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I did a couple of tests. First from picking it up off of a black countertop and letting it autofocus on its own in a decently lit room. The Nexus 6 won by like less than half a second to a second.
The next test was when I would tap the screen to set white balance and autofocus in a decently lit room. From the tap the Note II won by less than half a second.
The last test was in a dark room looking then picking it up to focus on a computer screen to test white balance setting and autofocus. The Nexus 6 won this hands down by a bit over a second. I think it simply achieves much quicker white balance but autofocus is slightly slower. I'll try to do some comparison shots tomorrow when I get home from work if you want.
Thanks for that. No need for test shots. You answered my question perfectly.
Totally off-topic from the Nexus 6: if you enjoy the extra duties in addition to your classroom, please consider administration! Keep up the good work for our kids.

Over a week and still in love...

Wow, using it over a week now and loving this phone even more....
Long stretch from my Galaxy S5, why didn't this phone come before I bought my S5 LOL
No battery issues here, getting more out of this phone then my S5 and better after the last OTA update. For anyone who's having battery issues, there are several features to disable to get the most out of your battery, do a search on google, there's a ton of people who's increased battery life by taking these steps.
As for the bloatware, I usually root my phone but I don't see the reason too with this one even with all the bloatware, most you can disable. The PC Link is a godsend, wow, every phone should have this feature. Speed wise, I've got mine on Balance mode and it's lightning speed, you can go all out and draw a bit more speed by using the Performance mode but you'll sacrifice some battery life, I didn't notice a whole lot of battery drain in that mode, may go back just to get that extra speed.
The only real gripe I have with this phone is the ability to sync effectively with Outlook, I keep my contacts and schedule on Outlook and with the S5 Samsung Kies was a nice free option to do so. Wish ASUS had a similar app to sync Outlook. The best way I found so far to do this is SyncDroid, worth the $4 to get my contacts synced alone. Calendar I just use Google Calendar Sync seems to do the job. But still prefer to stick with one PC app that does it altogether. If anyone out there found a better (Free) option then SyncDroid, please let me know. I won't use Outlook.com, I find it a pain and somewhat glitchy. Outlook is a pretty widely used app and I think this should be mandatory for all Android phones, this to me would make Android the ultimate mobile device. I paranoid about syncing my entire contact list and calendar via online/cloud etc. I prefer to do it locally with my pc.
This truly is an amazing product for the price, screen is not as bright as my S5 SuperAmoled but I'll take the performance, size, memory over screen hands down, big deal, it's a bit hard to see under sunlight but honestly, I don't use it under direct sunlight that much to ditch the phone. Asus has made excellent effort to keep OTA's coming, which is more then what I can say for Samsung phones. I don't think this phone is going away anytime soon, the only store that sells this phone in our city can't keep this thing in stock, they are constantly sold out, that's a good thing, if it sells that well, Asus will continue to support this phone. The hardware in the phone has great potential for future improvements, Android OS updates will just keep making it better.
Let's just hope the built in battery (which is my other gripe) will last. I hate built in batteries, gives me Iphone jitters I hope the battery is easily replaceable. But Samsung's new flagship has also gone this route. I saw the Zenfone 2 takedown and it seems relative straight forward so battery replacement is doable, would be nice to see companies start making 4000mAh or 5000mAh batteries for this phone
For all who are having intermittent issues and giving up, just be a little patient, this is a brand new phone, there will always be issues, happens to flagship phones, Asus is doing very well getting OTA's to us to fix these problems and I'm confident there will be more to come, growing pains. And please, don't knock this phone because it's not up to par with your Iphone 6 or S6 or phones that are twice/three times the price, it's like giving a Honda Civic a bad review because it doesn't compare to your Audi or Mercedes, how much did your Mercedes cost compared to your Civic, come on, let's be realistic.
Good luck with your new ZF2!
The problem is large amount of zen2 having defective battery. It causes high battery drain or randomly shutdown issue. I also have my battery replaced from service center. Otherwise, this fone perform very well with its price
Sorry I didn't read whole post...I just want to know how much SOT are you getting?
tuilalnvinh said:
The problem is large amount of zen2 having defective battery. It causes high battery drain or randomly shutdown issue. I also have my battery replaced from service center. Otherwise, this fone perform very well with its price
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear you're having that luck, with any phone there are defective units, I've only read a handful who's had battery issues, which version do you have? ie. North America, China etc.
SRV Rockable said:
Sorry I didn't read whole post...I just want to know how much SOT are you getting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't really measured using the battery usage. I go by normal use through out the day comparing it with my S5, I'll go through a day running my typical apps, texting, surfing and emailing and the odd calls. I'll end up with about 60-70% battery life by about 9 pm from about 8 am, that's when I sit down and plug it in to charge, I consider pretty good considering I was getting about 30-40% with my Galaxy S5 using it the same way. Not sure if that helps.
Minim3 said:
Sorry to hear you're having that luck, with any phone there are defective units, I've only read a handful who's had battery issues, which version do you have? ie. North America, China etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a taiwan version, i had issue with it after 2 weeks of using. I also see people report error from other versions too in zentalk
I've used mine for a bit over a day and I'm impressed. Performance is great, build quality seems great too. I've read some reviews that state the phone feels cheap, but to me it feels and looks better than Samsung S4 or S5.
I have no problem reaching the power button on top, it feels easier than pressing the power button on the side of my old 4.7" Blu Life Play phone, as I don't have to change the grip to reach the power button.
Battery life is a concern though. Yesterday I spent the day applying updates, rooting, instalar all my apps and tweaking all config options. The charge did not last me the day. Hopefully today it'll fare better today after all customization and setup is done.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk
Minim3 said:
I haven't really measured using the battery usage. I go by normal use through out the day comparing it with my S5, I'll go through a day running my typical apps, texting, surfing and emailing and the odd calls. I'll end up with about 60-70% battery life by about 9 pm from about 8 am, that's when I sit down and plug it in to charge, I consider pretty good considering I was getting about 30-40% with my Galaxy S5 using it the same way. Not sure if that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have no problem with battery too, with a normal use, some calls, web browsing, whatsapp and facebook i still have more than 50% at home at night, a great improvement since my samsung s3
i also tested the display on some hours, and it should last 5/6 hours of continuos web browsing
onesky said:
i have no problem with battery too, with a normal use, some calls, web browsing, whatsapp and facebook i still have more than 50% at home at night, a great improvement since my samsung s3
i also tested the display on some hours, and it should last 5/6 hours of continuos web browsing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been reading a lot of reviews for the ZF2 seems like the CN versions have more problems, I wonder if they got some duds. And also, I've noticed that the ZE551 CN versions have different configurations, maybe that's the problem.
Sorry to bring up an older post, but I see a lot of people loving this phone, and some haters (There's always haters)....I have an iphone 6 now after being on Android for a long time, and I'm about fed up with iOS...All of the things people say about iOS are true...locked down...Boring...Ect... That's a different topic for a different day..
My question is, how is the screen? Lots of people have complained about brightness, or lack there of. Also, camera, is it at least average? I'm looking to go about 300 on a phone and there's a few choices out there, but none seem as powerful as the Zenfone 2 with 4gb of ram, 64gb storage. It seems a little more future proof than the OPO, so I'm thinking of getting it....
Will I be disappointed coming from the Nexus line, then iPhone 6?
smokinjoe2122 said:
Sorry to bring up an older post, but I see a lot of people loving this phone, and some haters (There's always haters)....I have an iphone 6 now after being on Android for a long time, and I'm about fed up with iOS...All of the things people say about iOS are true...locked down...Boring...Ect... That's a different topic for a different day..
My question is, how is the screen? Lots of people have complained about brightness, or lack there of. Also, camera, is it at least average? I'm looking to go about 300 on a phone and there's a few choices out there, but none seem as powerful as the Zenfone 2 with 4gb of ram, 64gb storage. It seems a little more future proof than the OPO, so I'm thinking of getting it....
Will I be disappointed coming from the Nexus line, then iPhone 6?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have little patience to wait little more for 5.1 to come up (which most people dont have and hence judging things wrongly) then its worth having for sure..
I came from a G2 and iphone 6. I still have an iPad. I couldn't be happier to be honest
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk
I came from an HTC m7 and I love my new ZenFone 2. I have the 4gb/64gb model and it is superb. I also was worried about screen brightness, but I haven't found it bad at all.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using XDA Free mobile app
smokinjoe2122 said:
Sorry to bring up an older post, but I see a lot of people loving this phone, and some haters (There's always haters)....I have an iphone 6 now after being on Android for a long time, and I'm about fed up with iOS...All of the things people say about iOS are true...locked down...Boring...Ect... That's a different topic for a different day..
My question is, how is the screen? Lots of people have complained about brightness, or lack there of. Also, camera, is it at least average? I'm looking to go about 300 on a phone and there's a few choices out there, but none seem as powerful as the Zenfone 2 with 4gb of ram, 64gb storage. It seems a little more future proof than the OPO, so I'm thinking of getting it....
Will I be disappointed coming from the Nexus line, then iPhone 6?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had mine now about 3 weeks and I think that the phone is great for the price. The camera is OK, certainly not iPhone 6 good, but reasonable, especially when you use alternate camera apps. The screen is fine, but once again, I'm indoors most of the day, so no issue. Max brightness outside is not so great the one or two times I've used it.
I think that the phone is a work in progress and that a lot of the deficiencies that you see people griping about will be addressed with future Android updates. On the plus side, Asus had been sending out updates frequently so they seem committed to making this phone better.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk
Thanks for the input guys...Really having a hard time between this and the OPO....I still have until the end of the month to make my choice, but I'm leaning towards this phone...Really can't go wrong for $300 per the specs, and I like that Asus is continually updating this phone....
I had the same choice to .and and went for the ZenFone 2. I have had it for 4 weeks now and have had no regrets. This phone performs flawlessly in my opinion.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using XDA Free mobile app
Had mine for 4weeks now....am so LOVING it...
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk
i have no problem with battery, It's a taiwan version.
over 2 months and still in love.
smokinjoe2122 said:
Thanks for the input guys...Really having a hard time between this and the OPO....I still have until the end of the month to make my choice, but I'm leaning towards this phone...Really can't go wrong for $300 per the specs, and I like that Asus is continually updating this phone....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came from a Nexus 5 and was considering the same two phones as you. Decided to go with the zenfone 2 based on Asus being more reputable and customer friendly from what i read. So far its been great. I did root (which is super easy via one click) and used titanium to freeze all the unwanted apps. Haven't experienced any lag. Camera wont be as good as the Iphone, but definitely better than my nexus 5. I dont game on it because I dont see the point of gaming on a phone, but i did run hearthstone flawlessly. To me, the build quality is nice. comparable to Galaxy s4/5, so im not sure why so many reviews bring it up as a major con. at $300 this phone is awesome. And once Asus pushed out 5.1 it should shine even more, as 5.1 bumps android up to 64bit, and this has a 64bit chipset.
This phone is way better than I expected for $299. I'm coming from an LG G2, and I'm not missing anything. You can spend 3x this much on a phone and you won't end up with much more.
Honestly my biggest nit-pick is the power button placement, but double-tap-to-wake/sleep is far more convenient than any possible hardware switch. Battery life is a touch lower than I'm used to, but QC 2 is really great.
Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

Where are the positive experiences?

I've been reading up about the Z5C because it's the only small yet powerful android phone currently on the market. Of course I always check XDA for root/rom/support experiences, and here I mostly see negative experiences. So many people are saying this is their last Xperia or that if the new Android M doesn't fix it's issues then they're going to switch to different phone, etc. This disheartens me greatly because I see no other viable option for a new sub-5 inch phone. I currently have a 1st gen Moto X - XT1053 Dev Edition. I love the phone and everything about it, but it's getting to be a bit slow with 2013 hardware running 2016 apps, and I think I will need an upgrade by 2017. I would buy another Motorola, but Lenovo has decided that Motorola should only make shovel sized phones (which goes against everything in Motorola's original vision.)
So where does that leave us who don't like gargantuan phones but still want a quality device? Do I wait and see if fixes come for the Z5C memory leak, stuttering, and its other issues? A few people report that their phone doesn't have these issues, do I gamble and hope I get a good one like that? Is there some other small form Andriod smartphone out there that I should consider? Or do I give up and get a 5+ inch device? It seems the Samsung G6 or G7 would be the next smallest option.
I would love to hear everyone's thoughts and comments on this.
DrvLikHell said:
I've been reading up about the Z5C because it's the only small yet powerful android phone currently on the market. Of course I always check XDA for root/rom/support experiences, and here I mostly see negative experiences. So many people are saying this is their last Xperia or that if the new Android M doesn't fix it's issues then they're going to switch to different phone, etc. This disheartens me greatly because I see no other viable option for a new sub-5 inch phone. I currently have a 1st gen Moto X - XT1053 Dev Edition. I love the phone and everything about it, but it's getting to be a bit slow with 2013 hardware running 2016 apps, and I think I will need an upgrade by 2017. I would buy another Motorola, but Lenovo has decided that Motorola should only make shovel sized phones (which goes against everything in Motorola's original vision.)
So where does that leave us who don't like gargantuan phones but still want a quality device? Do I wait and see if fixes come for the Z5C memory leak, stuttering, and its other issues? A few people report that their phone doesn't have these issues, do I gamble and hope I get a good one like that? Is there some other small form Andriod smartphone out there that I should consider? Or do I give up and get a 5+ inch device? It seems the Samsung G6 or G7 would be the next smallest option.
I would love to hear everyone's thoughts and comments on this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You ever consider the Z3 Compact? Or you picky on year and specs?
uchechris said:
You ever consider the Z3 Compact? Or you picky on year and specs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm picky on specs... Though I did consider it today and I watched several Z3C vs Z5C videos. I like it except that it's only one year newer/faster than my current phone, and it's only available in 16GB. My Moto X, being the Dev Edition, is a 32GB and it's usually full. the Z3C has an SD card slot, but not everything can go on an SD. If I was going to go with a Snapdragon 801 phone from 2014 I'd probably choose the Moto X 2nd gen and give a little on size to retain the seriously awesome Moto Display capability.
DrvLikHell said:
I'm picky on specs... Though I did consider it today and I watched several Z3C vs Z5C videos. I like it except that it's only one year newer/faster than my current phone, and it's only available in 16GB. My Moto X, being the Dev Edition, is a 32GB and it's usually full. the Z3C has an SD card slot, but not everything can go on an SD. If I was going to go with a Snapdragon 801 phone from 2014 I'd probably choose the Moto X 2nd gen and give a little on size to retain the seriously awesome Moto Display capability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well theres really isn't anything bad about the Z5 compact.....tho ppl complain about it being overheat and camera being not good, if those things is not an issue to you, then yea the z5 compact is a great phone, i say go for it, been having updates since it just had a update last two days ago
I know where you're coming from. My LG G2 has been getting really slow so I've been wanting a new phone,, but I really don't want a phablet. So I got the z5 compact (international model). It's ok. It isn't everything I hoped. The idle battery life sucks (it loses 1% per hour where as my g2 would only lose 1% every 8 hours. That makes it pretty much a 1 day phone, not 2 for most people I would imagine. And the fingerprint scanner seems to be a piece of garbage. It doesn't work 70% of the time. Other than that the phone is good. It's fast, the screen can get very bright. Obviously waterproof. So yeah, not the battery life king that the z3 compact used to be, and the fingerprint scanner might as well not exist. I bought a nexus 6p - I know I know, it's a phablet and I said I didn't want one - just to test ( I will most likely return it before the 15 day return policy) but I can't tell you how nice it is to have a fingerprint scanner that works 100% of the time and is accessible with both hands. I'm hoping the update that is just now rolling out fixes the fingerprint scanner if possible. So those are my thoughts.
uchechris said:
Well theres really isn't anything bad about the Z5 compact.....tho ppl complain about it being overheat and camera being not good, if those things is not an issue to you, then yea the z5 compact is a great phone, i say go for it, been having updates since it just had a update last two days ago
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heat isn't an issue because I don't do anything intensive for long periods of time, like gaming. The camera I don't know about. My Moto X camera is ok, my Galaxy S3 camera was good, but that's all I've got to compare to. So maybe if I never had a better one I won't notice.
ksc6000 said:
I know where you're coming from. My LG G2 has been getting really slow so I've been wanting a new phone,, but I really don't want a phablet. So I got the z5 compact (international model). It's ok. It isn't everything I hoped. The idle battery life sucks (it loses 1% per hour where as my g2 would only lose 1% every 8 hours. That makes it pretty much a 1 day phone, not 2 for most people I would imagine. And the fingerprint scanner seems to be a piece of garbage. It doesn't work 70% of the time. Other than that the phone is good. It's fast, the screen can get very bright. Obviously waterproof. So yeah, not the battery life king that the z3 compact used to be, and the fingerprint scanner might as well not exist. I bought a nexus 6p - I know I know, it's a phablet and I said I didn't want one - just to test ( I will most likely return it before the 15 day return policy) but I can't tell you how nice it is to have a fingerprint scanner that works 100% of the time and is accessible with both hands. I'm hoping the update that is just now rolling out fixes the fingerprint scanner if possible. So those are my thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also tried out a phablet, the Asus Zenfone 2. Really awesome phone, but awesomely huge as well. 64GB, 4GB ram, 4 Intel Atom cores, dual sim, SD slot, fully unlockable. I figured if I was going to go big, why not get crazy with specs too. While it performed great and had every option available, it was just too big. I felt like I was pulling out a ham sandwich to make a phone call. I could barely reach the power button one-handed, never mind navigate it one-handed. But my friend was enamored with it, so I sold it to him, and I'm on the hunt again.
The battery life could be an issue. Usually I end up with around 30% left on my Moto, but sometimes I'll have to use it a lot more than normal and hit single digits by the end of the day. I've never had it die on me though. I've heard mixed reviews about the fingerprint scanner ranging from "ok", to "crap." But I don't have one now, so I won't miss it if I don't use it, right? What I'll miss is the Moto Display where it semi-wakes when you pick it up or take it out of your pocket or get a notification. No other phones wake/unlock feature can hold a candle to that.
The thing that concerns me most is the RAM leak that people talk about and the stuttering. A lot of people complain that they have to restart their phone from once a day to once every 3-4 days to restore it's speed. Otherwise it starts to choke even with just one app open. Something about app caching or precaching or whatever, I can't remember. That would be a HUGE problem for me. I want a phone that's as fast today as it was a week ago when I turned it on. Even Windows doesn't have that problem anymore. And stuttering when swiping and/or moving from app to app. That would feel gheto, like I've got a $29 phone from Walmart. If I'm going to pay several hundred bucks for a phone, it needs to move like a several hundred dollar phone. My Moto is still smooth, even when it's loading or navigating a heavy app. It's just a little pokey about it sometimes.
I really appreciate your input guys. It helps substantially because no one I know AFK knows squat about phones.
DrvLikHell said:
Heat isn't an issue because I don't do anything intensive for long periods of time, like gaming. The camera I don't know about. My Moto X camera is ok, my Galaxy S3 camera was good, but that's all I've got to compare to. So maybe if I never had a better one I won't notice.
I also tried out a phablet, the Asus Zenfone 2. Really awesome phone, but awesomely huge as well. 64GB, 4GB ram, 4 Intel Atom cores, dual sim, SD slot, fully unlockable. I figured if I was going to go big, why not get crazy with specs too. While it performed great and had every option available, it was just too big. I felt like I was pulling out a ham sandwich to make a phone call. I could barely reach the power button one-handed, never mind navigate it one-handed. But my friend was enamored with it, so I sold it to him, and I'm on the hunt again.
The battery life could be an issue. Usually I end up with around 30% left on my Moto, but sometimes I'll have to use it a lot more than normal and hit single digits by the end of the day. I've never had it die on me though. I've heard mixed reviews about the fingerprint scanner ranging from "ok", to "crap." But I don't have one now, so I won't miss it if I don't use it, right? What I'll miss is the Moto Display where it semi-wakes when you pick it up or take it out of your pocket or get a notification. No other phones wake/unlock feature can hold a candle to that.
The thing that concerns me most is the RAM leak that people talk about and the stuttering. A lot of people complain that they have to restart their phone from once a day to once every 3-4 days to restore it's speed. Otherwise it starts to choke even with just one app open. Something about app caching or precaching or whatever, I can't remember. That would be a HUGE problem for me. I want a phone that's as fast today as it was a week ago when I turned it on. Even Windows doesn't have that problem anymore. And stuttering when swiping and/or moving from app to app. That would feel gheto, like I've got a $29 phone from Walmart. If I'm going to pay several hundred bucks for a phone, it needs to move like a several hundred dollar phone. My Moto is still smooth, even when it's loading or navigating a heavy app. It's just a little pokey about it sometimes.
I really appreciate your input guys. It helps substantially because no one I know AFK knows squat about phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You just need to realize that no phone is perfect....all phones has its pros and cons, kinda wish there was more small phones but nowadays its always big phones big phones big phones which is very annoying, but hey welcome to history of technology, it keeps improving every year
Most people come to these forums to fix problems or discuss issues so there won't be a lot of positive threads. But then again there's not much nice to say about the z5c lol if you can live with side charging go with the z3c. The xperia line has a lot of users that are too scared to root so the development is really slim. The z3c is at a more of a mature state than the z5c so it's your best bet.
I guess I just don't understand where did this problem of the phone being slow comes from. Because if there's anything positive that I can say about the Z5 compact that is that it is super fast and I am currently using a Nexus 6p which arguably is the fastest Android experience you can get and the Z5 compact doesn't feel any slower to me. I guess the camera is probably slower because I have noticed it take a half second longer to open than I would expect it and the photos take about a second to 2 seconds to fully load but really other than that the phone is blazing fast in my opinion.
civicsr2cool said:
Most people come to these forums to fix problems or discuss issues so there won't be a lot of positive threads. But then again there's not much nice to say about the z5c lol if you can live with side charging go with the z3c. The xperia line has a lot of users that are too scared to root so the development is really slim. The z3c is at a more of a mature state than the z5c so it's your best bet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't mind the side charge, but with only 16GB, it's a step down from what I have now in terms of storage. It's also 2 years old and I'm looking for something a little newer. If you go to other forums, there are a larger percentage of people talking about how they love their phone in spite of some issue they created or something they're trying to achieve or fix. I've seen users on the Moto X forum state that they'll give up their phone when someone pries it from their cold dead hands. Others have wept when their phone was irreparably damaged. I've seen the same thing said about the LG G2. You are quite correct about older phones being in a more mature state though. The S6/S7 don't have a Cyanogen build available yet, and neither does the Z5C. But the Z3C does.
ksc6000 said:
I guess I just don't understand where did this problem of the phone being slow comes from. Because if there's anything positive that I can say about the Z5 compact that is that it is super fast and I am currently using a Nexus 6p which arguably is the fastest Android experience you can get and the Z5 compact doesn't feel any slower to me. I guess the camera is probably slower because I have noticed it take a half second longer to open than I would expect it and the photos take about a second to 2 seconds to fully load but really other than that the phone is blazing fast in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not that the Z5C is slow all together, the complaints I've been reading are that it slows down after a few days of use due to an issue with the RAM not clearing properly. Everyone says a restart fixes/clears the issue till it builds up again. Sorta like Windows 98. If you don't restart your Z5C for a week, does it still feel just as fast as your Nexus?
DrvLikHell said:
It's not that the Z5C is slow all together, the complaints I've been reading are that it slows down after a few days of use due to an issue with the RAM not clearing properly. Everyone says a restart fixes/clears the issue till it builds up again. Sorta like Windows 98. If you don't restart your Z5C for a week, does it still feel just as fast as your Nexus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't say that mine doesn't slow down somewhat after a week or so, but I've never had it happen to the point it is unusable. I've gone weeks without a restart with no real problems. I've noticed that it does slow down some, but nothing that I can't live with. And even with a slowdown, are you so in need of being connected 24/7 that you can't take the a minute periodically to reboot?
I've read some varying reports that the 6.0.1 update improves the memory management, and at least helps this issue. However, I haven't had a chance to use flashtool to update yet, so I can't say for sure.
The Z5 Compact (mine at least) does have a bit of the 810 overheating problem. The only time it impacted anything for me, I had been setting in a hot car and then tried to use the camera. I got the 'overheating... camera will close' message. I had that happen to me a few times on the Z3 compact the didn't have the Snapdragon 810 SOC.
Battery life isn't awesome, but then again I'm not really a power user. Little gaming, little social media checking, etc... I work in a location with no signal at all for the phone. It spends almost all of the day trying to connect. I generally go out to the car at lunch for a little while, but that is about all the time it is connected during the day. I don't think it has ever actually died on me doing this. If it has, it was maybe once.
When I'm somewhere that has signal all day, I've never had an issue unless I'm using navigation a lot, or something similar.
I've tried a few other phones over the last few years, and even if they have worked well they are just too freaking big. I've stuck with the Xperia compacts because they are the only <5" phone that offers true flagship specs.
Just my two cents. You're mileage may vary. If you get it and hate it, please don't blame me.
Look if you're happy, you're not gonna bother posting about it. That's human nature. There are a lot of happy users like me who don't have anything to complain about. People will only open a thread or comment if they run into a problem. Anyway, this phone has been fantastic for me since 6.0 update. And now after the 6.0.1 update, the camera starts almost instantly. So I can finally say that this was a worthwhile investment from my part.
Sent from my E5803 using XDA-Developers mobile app
i have z5c 3 months now, using MM and don't have any problems, using my phone for photos, navigation and regular calls and so on, last night i was travel with car, navigation was on 3,5 hours ( connected on charger ), phone was hot but didn't FC navigation and did't have any problems, but when i took it in my hands it was hot, checked temp and it was 42 C, so nothing to wory about, battery life depends how you use it, i can make whole day and before bed time i have over 50% left, but if i use wifi while in bed that 50% will be gone in 2 hours, i never tried on this phone but on my work phone( only calls and sms, data turned off) htc 320 battery last over 15 days in standby without problems, back on topic, camera is great for me, clear nice colors and 4k video recording is great, really can't find anything bed in this phone, if you wanna be sure battery would last whole day charge it over night
The z5c with MM is a very fast and capable multitasker.
The only negative is the camera really isn't a comparison to its competitors.
Sony sent the z5c out with an utterly p!ss poor Lollipop firmware. You can trust those review you've read at that point the z5c "was" an utter disgrace and let a complete let down.
However since MM the device is as you'd have expected it to be. It's a performer and a half.
Again it's only the sub par camera quality that negates away from an almost legendary device.
Sent from my E5823 using XDA-Developers mobile app
DrvLikHell said:
I don't mind the side charge, but with only 16GB, it's a step down from what I have now in terms of storage. It's also 2 years old and I'm looking for something a little newer. If you go to other forums, there are a larger percentage of people talking about how they love their phone in spite of some issue they created or something they're trying to achieve or fix. I've seen users on the Moto X forum state that they'll give up their phone when someone pries it from their cold dead hands. Others have wept when their phone was irreparably damaged. I've seen the same thing said about the LG G2. You are quite correct about older phones being in a more mature state though. The S6/S7 don't have a Cyanogen build available yet, and neither does the Z5C. But the Z3C does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive never come close to running out of 16gb on internal storage on any phone ive ever had and I've got two grand theft auto installed. I put everything on a 200gb sd, I can't stand a phone without SD slots lol
I agree with other forums showing more love, this is the third Sony phone I've tried over the years and the third one that I have very little nice things to say about it. But the z5c forums have only just started to take off since the US release, it was real real dead before that.
DrvLikHell said:
I don't mind the side charge, but with only 16GB, it's a step down from what I have now in terms of storage. It's also 2 years old and I'm looking for something a little newer. If you go to other forums, there are a larger percentage of people talking about how they love their phone in spite of some issue they created or something they're trying to achieve or fix. I've seen users on the Moto X forum state that they'll give up their phone when someone pries it from their cold dead hands. Others have wept when their phone was irreparably damaged. I've seen the same thing said about the LG G2. You are quite correct about older phones being in a more mature state though. The S6/S7 don't have a Cyanogen build available yet, and neither does the Z5C. But the Z3C does.
It's not that the Z5C is slow all together, the complaints I've been reading are that it slows down after a few days of use due to an issue with the RAM not clearing properly. Everyone says a restart fixes/clears the issue till it builds up again. Sorta like Windows 98. If you don't restart your Z5C for a week, does it still feel just as fast as your Nexus?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah in my opinion the phone is still as fast and I do not have to reboot every week or whatever. I would still say that it remains as fast and doesn't seem to slow down at all in my opinion. My sister also has the Z5 Compact and she also does not notice any slowdowns of any sort and doesn't have to reboot regularly and the only does it if necessary while changing SIM cards or something.
So again my main gripes with this phone are the idle battery life which I can live with even though it's really annoying, but the fingerprint scanner is just not good in my opinion. Especially after using a nice one that works every time and seamlessly and it's just so effortless, it's really hard to use this when it screws up more than half the time it feels like. However my sister's Z5 compact fingerprint scanner seems to be a little bit better, I don't understand why. The difference only is that she has the black model and I have the white one and I know that there was an issue with the screen not responding to touch properly when the phones first came out just for the white model so maybe there's a difference in the hardware of the fingerprint scanner as well.
DrvLikHell said:
I've been reading up about the Z5C because it's the only small yet powerful android phone currently on the market. Of course I always check XDA for root/rom/support experiences, and here I mostly see negative experiences. So many people are saying this is their last Xperia or that if the new Android M doesn't fix it's issues then they're going to switch to different phone, etc. This disheartens me greatly because I see no other viable option for a new sub-5 inch phone. I currently have a 1st gen Moto X - XT1053 Dev Edition. I love the phone and everything about it, but it's getting to be a bit slow with 2013 hardware running 2016 apps, and I think I will need an upgrade by 2017. I would buy another Motorola, but Lenovo has decided that Motorola should only make shovel sized phones (which goes against everything in Motorola's original vision.)
So where does that leave us who don't like gargantuan phones but still want a quality device? Do I wait and see if fixes come for the Z5C memory leak, stuttering, and its other issues? A few people report that their phone doesn't have these issues, do I gamble and hope I get a good one like that? Is there some other small form Andriod smartphone out there that I should consider? Or do I give up and get a 5+ inch device? It seems the Samsung G6 or G7 would be the next smallest option.
I would love to hear everyone's thoughts and comments on this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bear in mind that people who don't have problems have little reason to post on forums.
I went from a XT1058 to a discounted Nexus 5 to a Z5C and have been mostly happy.
The only issues I've had:
- Phone app crashes after a call ends when using Android Auto
- Camera app is a little slow to launch
- No "active display" (i.e. google's equivalent of moto display)
- Absolutely needs a case as it's too slippery to use bare (unlike the Moto X)
- Phone gets really warm after using it with Android Auto
Really after Mm update z5c is blazing fast, no complains what so ever when it comes to performance. Sometimes it gets a bit hot, but nothing to be concerned about. And I don't know why everyone complaints about fingereader, it works 95 proc of time for me. I register same finger three times. I don't really use camera that much, but it opens super fast for me, but even I can tell quality is not great. At least auto mode.
My experience with this device has been mostly a pleasant one. One of the previous poster mentioned that no device is perfect and this one is no different. You will always find something that you feel the manufacturer didn't get right. The gripes I have with this device:
- Slow camera app. (Also, I can't find a burst mode...is there one?)
- Wi-Fi connection when the phone is sleeping (this is sometime-y)
- Some of the Sony apps are useless
The positives:
- Size size size
- Fingerprint scanner is fast (not iPhone fast, but fast)
- Battery life is nice. I've gotten 2 1/2 days (mostly idle time. On screen was about 3hrs)
- Playing hi-res music (subjective...well, I guess all of this is subjective)
- The 820 is a great piece of silicone (it would be extraordinary if not for the occasional heat)
- SD card slot (and the ability to use it to back up your settings)
- The diagnostic tool in the "About Phone" section
- Front facing speakers. Not going to blow your mind, but they're facing you..not away.
I know there are more that I'm missing but the point is that it's been positive. I'm not a big fan of MM, but that is a different story.
Scribe'd on my everlasting Z5C
I dont recomend the z5c at all, i use it for working, and the phone really struggles with facebook pages, youtube, Chrome, facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp all the time receiving notifications and messeges.
The phone overheats to the point that everything lags like a 2008 Android phone.
When i play real Racing 3, i always have couple of Ice cube close to me, for let my phone cools down to avoid lag while playing.
Dont buy it, go for a nexus or Samsung, and sacrifice the size thing, and remember ALWAYS AN ALUMINUM PHONE WILL HAVE LESS HEAT ISSUES THAN A GLASS P PHONE, BECAUSE OF HEAT DISCIPATION.

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