Database Users

Moving from Sony Xperia Z2/Z3 to Galaxy S6 - your feedback

Hi Boys and Girls!
It's been a while since I last posted on XDA, maybe since I have been very content of my Z2 which was ticking almost all of my requirements. This phone is ALMOST all I need - legendary battery life, good camera, waterproofness, stereo speakers and so much more.
I want to upgrade and S6 is one of the options - others being considered are Galaxy S6 Active, Xperia Z4 later this year.
I would like to hear opinions from those of you who made the switch and it would be great if you gave some comparison on the following:
- Camera quality,
- Screen quality (sun legibility),
- Speaker LOUDNESS,
- Battery life.
My biggest worry is battery life. I know that Z2 has almost 25% more battery capacity, but Samsung has more energy efficient elements so really curious how this looks from your personal experience.
Any feedback from you and examples (your usage Z2 vs usage on S6) would be really appreciated!
Do you regret and if yes/no - why?

Already have forum.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3043183
Moved to S6 from which device & why
Read forum rules and do use search..
Sent from my SM-G900F using XDA Free mobile app

That topic is garbage, not only opinions but much off topic.
I am targeting this to more specific user group so no, don't think I have violated any rules and I have done search...

valdigre said:
That topic is garbage, not only opinions but much off topic.
I am targeting this to more specific user group so no, don't think I have violated any rules and I have done search...
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I agree.
I had a Z2 then went to a Z3 C and then to a OPO and then to a SGS 6.
I much prefer the SGS 6 over any of the other devices.
For the sake of this topic I will compare it directly to the Z3C.
- Camera quality
SGS 6 hands down kicks the arse off of the Z3 C.. I believe the sensor on the Z3 is capable of competing with the SGS 6 but the processing done on the SGS 6 is unbelievably gorgeous, plus the 1.9 aperture really REALLY helps it out a lot. Oh and the pink spot issue was ridiculously bad as well.
Best camera in a mobile device. Simply as that.
- Screen quality (sun legibility)
Never had any dramas with the Z3 C in this regard, but the SGS 6 is marvellous in sunlight.. The Super AMOLED screen simply cannot be beaten in any way shape or form.
- Speaker LOUDNESS
Plenty loud enough, when I first got it and copied some music across I started listening to it (couple slider notches from maximum) and it was heaps loud enough while sitting at my desk. My ringtone volume and message tone sits at 3 notches from maximum and I can easily hear it across the house. Even while using my electric shaver! Plus the sound quality is spectacular.. By far the best I have ever heard on a mobile. HTC can bite it.
- Battery life.
The only point of the SGS 6 that isn't spectacular.
Medium usage it will last a full day easily enough, in fact I'd say the only time you'd have trouble with the battery not lasting a full day is if you were heavily gaming all day.
It really is not bad at all. It will easily get you a full day and two days light usage and Coming from an OPO that is a pretty strong opinion.
To be honest, I've owned an arse load of devices and have used/tested so many I can't even remember half of them and this device blows them all out of the water, it has every good quality you could possibly want from a device. The lack of removable storage I don't care about (OTG EXISTS PEOPLE!! AND ITS FASTER AND CHEAPER THAN MICROSD!!!) the lack of battery I don't care about, it's plenty enough for me. Buy a portable battery pack if you're paranoid or need to be out of electric power point range for a week.
I went off Samsung because I didn't like the whole plastic casing design choice, and I am glad to say I am back on the bandwagon with this beautiful device
By the way.. The Xperia devices are significantly let down by the lack of hardware buttons. Really pisses me off having such a nice large screen and having a chunk of that taken away with terrible soft keys.

I currently have a Z2, and I am almost certainly going to jump to the S6. Probably solely for the camera. The Z2 never really seemed to fulfill it's potential camera-wise. It takes aaaaaages for the thing to focus - a toddler will only sit still for so long!. The video is also a bit disappointing on it - it's a bit too mushy (not sharp enough) even in good light. The software stabillisation really helps eliminate handshake for videos, but again, it adds to the mushyness of the image.
Although, really well made, it's also a bit too blocky. I think the S6 looks about the right size and shape.
I will miss the battery though, which is fantastic - I still can't believe sometimes how much juice is left at the end of the day.

le_lutin said:
I currently have a Z2, and I am almost certainly going to jump to the S6. Probably solely for the camera. The Z2 never really seemed to fulfill it's potential camera-wise. It takes aaaaaages for the thing to focus - a toddler will only sit still for so long!. The video is also a bit disappointing on it - it's a bit too mushy (not sharp enough) even in good light. The software stabillisation really helps eliminate handshake for videos, but again, it adds to the mushyness of the image.
Although, really well made, it's also a bit too blocky. I think the S6 looks about the right size and shape.
I will miss the battery though, which is fantastic - I still can't believe sometimes how much juice is left at the end of the day.
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Haha yeah the blockiness was absurd! Forgot about that!
It was like carrying a thin brick in your pocket.

Now this is what I am talking about!
Thanks people and keep it comming!
Batter life worries me. If you get a full day of medium usage and end up with <10% battery life then in the long term, this will not be good for the battery... This stops me from going for it... Still thinking

Stevles said:
Haha yeah the blockiness was absurd! Forgot about that!
It was like carrying a thin brick in your pocket.
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Stevles,
Do you have any feel for how it captures images of people in less than ideal light? I'm thinking specifically about taking photos of my kids indoors.
I remember I had a G2 a while back and it was TERRIBLE at this. Because it had OIS, the camera would always keep the shutter open way too long to let more light in. The downside of this is of course that any movement resulted in a blurry mess. Z2 is better at this, but still not very good.

le_lutin said:
Stevles,
Do you have any feel for how it captures images of people in less than ideal light? I'm thinking specifically about taking photos of my kids indoors.
I remember I had a G2 a while back and it was TERRIBLE at this. Because it had OIS, the camera would always keep the shutter open way too long to let more light in. The downside of this is of course that any movement resulted in a blurry mess. Z2 is better at this, but still not very good.
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Yeah the shutter speed goes to around 1/10 in low-light. Highly recommended to switch to "pro" and manually adjust the shutter speed to around 1/30 - 1/50 while keeping the rest of the "pro" settings on auto to account for it automatically. It will result in slightly noisier pictures but at least they won't be fully blurry like auto mode provides in fast-pace low-light situations.
Ultimately, best bet would be to either a) use flash b) pro mode with manual shutter speed c) Sony A7S (current low-light king MILC costing around $2600AUD)
With the SGS6 it will let you either use tracking focus OR Optical image stabilization, not both at the same time. Although I'm pretty sure that only effects the video taking, not 100% sure.
I'm sure you'll work something out

I think anyone coming from a z3c will be massively spoiled by its battery life. Its a freak. My s6 battery is average tbh but it's super fast and the camera is awesome. Sammy cam and picture software is really on point here

Stevles said:
Yeah the shutter speed goes to around 1/10 in low-light. Highly recommended to switch to "pro" and manually adjust the shutter speed to around 1/30 - 1/50 while keeping the rest of the "pro" settings on auto to account for it automatically. It will result in slightly noisier pictures but at least they won't be fully blurry like auto mode provides in fast-pace low-light situations.
Ultimately, best bet would be to either a) use flash b) pro mode with manual shutter speed c) Sony A7S (current low-light king MILC costing around $2600AUD)
With the SGS6 it will let you either use tracking focus OR Optical image stabilization, not both at the same time. Although I'm pretty sure that only effects the video taking, not 100% sure.
I'm sure you'll work something out
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The s6 has two types of stabilisation: OIS which is mechanical and you can't turn off. This used for photo and video. The second is EIS (electronic image stabilisation) which is software stabilisation and can be turned off. This is only for video. Both can be used together for video. EIS is type is the one that can't be used with tracking focus, but the camera is still using OIS (as it isn't something you can switch off).
Apologies if you knew all this already.

le_lutin said:
The s6 has two types of stabilisation: OIS which is mechanical and you can't turn off. This used for photo and video. The second is EIS (electronic image stabilisation) which is software stabilisation and can be turned off. This is only for video. Both can be used together for video. EIS is type is the one that can't be used with tracking focus, but the camera is still using OIS (as it isn't something you can switch off).
Apologies if you knew all this already.
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Ah that makes sense, thanks. Knew there was something a bit "this sounds wrong" about my post lol

I owned z3 since its release although sold it two moth ago and got s6 last week. I can say this, s6 is vastly superior in every aspect except the battery life. You can really tweak z3 setting and that battery would last two days easy.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I mostly agree with everything that was already said. Battery life is far from equivalent to the z3c. Also I should mention size and one hand usability in favor of the Sony. Also another missed function that Samsung just doesnt want to implement is Tap to unlock the screen. I dont really use the photos on the laptop screen, so from a small screen point of view I sometimes liked the photos of the z3c more that those of the S6. Colors combinations and the final result was more eye pleasant for me on the z3c (many times). Sure S6 has a great overall camera.
Lack of microsd is annoying, but I solved it with OTG.

I still have both because I cracked the screen on the Z3 and I won't sell it until I get it repaired. But my opinion pretty much reflects what everyone else said.
The S6 does pretty much everything better except for battery life.
I love the fingerprint scanner. Way easier than having to use lock pattern or password.
I tested the speaker with the same youtube video and the S6 was actually louder. But the Z3 sounds better when you're watching something that pans from left or right.

Interesting, z3 louder than S6?
My z2 seems very quiet in comparison to other phones. My gf's 2013 motto g seems louder on 50 percent than z2 on 90 percent... No comparison with z3, maybe they actually made it louder.
I am also really tempted to wait on z4 but I have this bad feeling that nothing will change in terms of camera software and screen... Also worried about overheating snapdragon.
I guess z4 will not beat s6 in those regards and as you said, s6 is better in everything but battery...
If I only knew when S6 active is released and will it have better battery and same screen and camera...

Was just going through some videos I took recently with my Z2 and remembered another issue: the autofocus during video capture is diabolical. It's either out of focus or constantly going in and out of focus. It really affects the watchability of the recorded videos.

le_lutin said:
Was just going through some videos I took recently with my Z2 and remembered another issue: the autofocus during video capture is diabolical. It's either out of focus or constantly going in and out of focus. It really affects the watchability of the recorded videos.
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Good point. I noticed this as well, especially in worse lighting.

I've only owned my S6 for about 8 hours, but compared to my Z3,it blows it out the water. The only thing I preferred on the Z3 is the mostly stock Android UI, and the battery life. The camera on the s6 is crazy good. When you take a picture of say a cat or a dog, the amount of detail it picks up is amazing. My Z3 took some really nice pictures when the lighting was nice and sunny, but it was very inconsistent. The S6 is better in every condition by far. .
Display wise, the Z3 has a very bluish white balance, while the S6 is warmer. I haven't directly compared brightness yet but they both get bright enough in direct sunlight. The S6 kills it when it comes to resolution, and also them gorgeous deep blacks. The S6 display is easily the best display on any smartphone that I've ever seen. But that's not to say the Z3 has a bad display, it just isn't as good when directly compared.
Build quality, I would say they're both really nice, and I'm hesitant to give the win to either of them.
Ergonomics go to the S6. It's a smaller size, and just feels better in the hand as opposed to the square shape of the Z3. They're both quite slippery though.
Performance goes to the S6,but not by much. My Z3 was no slouch, and never lagged, but the S6 does seem faster by a little, and the animations are smoother more often.
Overall I would say the S6 is definitely the better phone. But if battery life is very important to you, and you really do prefer stock android to Touchwiz, then the Z3 is the better option. Honestly though, they're both awesome phones, and the only massive difference is the camera, and the S6 is noticeably better.

I came from an Xperia Z2 and the camera on this S6 is 1000x better. The focusing is fast and the pictures are sharp even in low light. The slow focusing speed on my Z2 drove me insane...

Is it worth buying this phone only for the audio?? And a few more questions

Hi. My note 4 is making me insane with all the lag and etc and it's near dying! And the camera is broken(not physically)
First. Please don't answer this question if you've never used an iPhone/nexus
Does it lag(if you had v10 or g5)? People told me no about Samsung s7 and note 7 but they do lag! They told me no about note 4 too but it's laggier than a 10 year old computer with a failing hdd. The keyboard is insane
Second: does the DAC ACTUALLY make a difference? Specially for a half-avarage person. I'm not an audiophile but I do care about Audio quality. But for example on mynote 4 I can't tell the difference between flac and mp3 (@320kbps).
But I do hear a difference Between 120kbps and flac with my Sennheiser cx 1.00 on some songs. I currently don't have any good headphones but I'm going to buy audio Technica 500x or m40x
Also as I listen to music on low volume I don't need an AMP or anything. Heck I can tell the name of the song that's playing on the tv o on the background of a movie while I'm in my room listening to music with headphones xD
And there's no background noise on my note 4. Or my PC! I don't understand why people complain about noise on internal DACs
I heard on somewhere that the v10 it barely makes a difference in Audio other than high volume
Third: how is LG at delivering software updates? Is LG fast? Samsung is awful at update! Specially when they have 1000 versions of the same phone
My other choices are iPhone 7+ or Pixel xl (I'll buy iPhone as a last resort as I don't likr apple and IOS although it's smooth)
Thanks Awesome XDA community I Love this site!

kamranhaghighi said:
Hi. My note 4 is making me insane with all the lag and etc and it's near dying! And the camera is broken(not physically)
First. Please don't answer this question if you've never used an iPhone/nexus
Does it lag(if you had v10 or g5)? People told me no about Samsung s7 and note 7 but they do lag! They told me no about note 4 too but it's laggier than a 10 year old computer with a failing hdd. The keyboard is insane
Second: does the DAC ACTUALLY make a difference? Specially for a half-avarage person. I'm not an audiophile but I do care about Audio quality. But for example on mynote 4 I can't tell the difference between flac and mp3 (@320kbps).
But I do hear a difference Between 120kbps and flac with my Sennheiser cx 1.00 on some songs. I currently don't have any good headphones but I'm going to buy audio Technica 500x or m40x
Also as I listen to music on low volume I don't need an AMP or anything. Heck I can tell the name of the song that's playing on the tv o on the background of a movie while I'm in my room listening to music with headphones xD
And there's no background noise on my note 4. Or my PC! I don't understand why people complain about noise on internal DACs
I heard on somewhere that the v10 it barely makes a difference in Audio other than high volume
Third: how is LG at delivering software updates? Is LG fast? Samsung is awful at update! Specially when they have 1000 versions of the same phone
My other choices are iPhone 7+ or Pixel xl (I'll buy iPhone as a last resort as I don't likr apple and IOS although it's smooth)
Thanks Awesome XDA community I Love this site!
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Click to collapse
I agree about the Note 4 lag, as I have a Developer Edition of the phone. Even though I can wipe it and install a custom ROM, within a month it is acting slow and lagy. Im always having to click Close all open app.
When I tried out the Note 7 a few times in the store, I wasn't really impressed with it, and not big on the curved screen.
So I am also hold hope that the V20 will be a good upgrade (despite it will probably never get root access).
I'm interested in it for the camera, audio quality, notification display, and Android 7. As a previous owner of a Note 2 & 3, I have yet to see Samsung release updates in a timely manner.
The only thing I wish the V20 had was an AMOLED display, as I've really gotten use to those over the years.

FAUguy said:
I agree about the Note 4 lag, as I have a Developer Edition of the phone. Even though I can wipe it and install a custom ROM, within a month it is acting slow and lagy. Im always having to click Close all open app.
When I tried out the Note 7 a few times in the store, I wasn't really impressed with it, and not big on the curved screen.
So I am also hold hope that the V20 will be a good upgrade (despite it will probably never get root access).
I'm interested in it for the camera, audio quality, notification display, and Android 7. As a previous owner of a Note 2 & 3, I have yet to see Samsung release updates in a timely manner.
The only thing I wish the V20 had was an AMOLED display, as I've really gotten use to those over the years.
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Well according to YouTube it's fast and awesome!
But why wouldn't it get root? I personally find less and less reason to root as android gets better. I didn't even bother rooting my note 4 after an OTA.
Oh and I'm actually glad they didn't use amoled. All the AMOLEDs I've seen even at maximum brightness kins of leave a tail or lag at darks. It's like when I swipe in rhe gallery or scroll or watch movies etc. The blacks kind of leave a purpleish tint behind. It's a million times less than my s4 but still pretty anoyying (I sold my s4 and bought a Nexus 4 afterwards. Best decision I ever made)
Btw I also hope that they come with the earbuds in my country if not I would be very heartbroken and I would have to buy a headphone my self ( an 80$ headphone costs 185~$ in my country. No idea why headphones are so expensive)

i am currently using note 5 and i am ready to change my phone very very tired of deleting or transferring stuff because of the storage .The new V20 will be good specially with the audio but same thing as mentioned up i don't have good headphone i might go for Sony's MDR-100ABN but at the moment i don't care about the audio capabilities. The only thing is i like my phone to be rooted but i am worried about is the locked bootloader and the dead development section so i guess Pixel XL will be a safer option for me but again storage will be an issue for me.

Well. To me, the best smartphone Samsung has ever came up with is the Samsung Galaxy s5, the others are CR*P ... I still using my S5 but i think it is time to move on and LG v20 seems like a perfect candidate. I also have a LG G3 and it is even faster than my Galaxy s5. So, why wouldnt i love the V20 (that if it doesnt come with any issues of course lol). I do like AMOLED screen but i hate burn-in image, and i have developed burn in image on all my samsungs (s2, s3, s4 s5, note 2, note 3, and note 4) , yet with the G2, G3, G4, G5 and V10 I have never had burn in image. so i can sacrifice the pure black and the extreme contrast as long as i dont get burn in image. LOL AMOLED screens are way more expensive than IPS screens.
Anyway, i do believe that the V20 could be a great option. But i will buy it after 2 month of release, since this time i only have one chance to buy the phone. I willl wait to see if there will be root, roms and other developments, and no less important, if it comes with any major issues .

joseguillen1994 said:
Well. To me, the best smartphone Samsung has ever came up with is the Samsung Galaxy s5, the others are CR*P ... I still using my S5 but i think it is time to move on and LG v20 seems like a perfect candidate. I also have a LG G3 and it is even faster than my Galaxy s5. So, why wouldnt i love the V20 (that if it doesnt come with any issues of course lol). I do like AMOLED screen but i hate burn-in image, and i have developed burn in image on all my samsungs (s2, s3, s4 s5, note 2, note 3, and note 4) , yet with the G2, G3, G4, G5 and V10 I have never had burn in image. so i can sacrifice the pure black and the extreme contrast as long as i dont get burn in image. LOL AMOLED screens are way more expensive than IPS screens.
Anyway, i do believe that the V20 could be a great option. But i will buy it after 2 month of release, since this time i only have one chance to buy the phone. I willl wait to see if there will be root, roms and other developments, and no less important, if it comes with any major issues .
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I wad just taking another look at Motorola and moto z force sounds amazing!
Shatterproof display? Hot swappable battery? Maybe later a dac/amp mod!
Too sad that the mod acts as a power bank(afaik 80% wasted as heat and it just wears the unreplaceable internal battery further)
And I won't be able to buy a phone after a year. I assume it will take a year or a year and a half(I can handle 1.5years? Maybe) for it to lose so much capacity that I'll have to hug the wall! My note 4 has 2h SoT after 1.5 years but it's easily replaceable
I don't think there's a reason behind unreplaceable battery other than making us pay more. I mean come on lg does it good! So did note 4 and htc sensation(I know it's old. But it has an amazingly soft button for it to release and it's aluminum)
And how much space does a button waste?
Waterproofing however... S5 is waterproof and has a removable battery(Am I right?) But still...

I currently am using my S5 Active, have been for awhile. I actually bought it off eBay for $200 in brand new condition. This guy is definitely waterproof and has taken more than a dozen drops that i would consider iPhone screen shattering drops - still no scratches on my screen. Battery has been killing me recently though, can't last more than half a day (granted, I am texting and using fb messenger a lot). But other issues such as lag and random freezes have been occurring much more often now. But the nice thing is I have it rooted.
So I could care less about having a locked bootloader, but having a root for the V20 would be amazing. Still- I will be buying the v20 whether it is going to have a locked/unlocked bootloader and even if it won't have a root method. I think this phone is definitely more than a worthy upgrade especially from an S5.

does the DAC only work with the stock music player? what happens when using other music players or soundcloud, youtube,....?

On V10 the dac worked on all audio programs after MM update
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

ok thanks. i asked because on the Axon 7 it wasn´t so, right?

Not sure with the Axon.
There's an high impedance mode too but it depends on your headphones, I remember for the V10 I bought a little cable that automatically enabled high impedance on any headphones. The volume was amazing
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

NO! You will regret buying a LG phone! No root, no bootloader unlock and no custom ROM..You will be glad if it doesn't bootloop 6 months later..

had a g2 that was rooted and had tons of development and never boot looped... but thanks!
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7 using Tapatalk

well the Note 4 is one of the laggiest phones I have ever had. My current S7 Edge is not what I would call laggy at all. However it is not as fast as the Nexus 6 that I had.
for LG, i had the G2, G3, and V10. I liked the G2 but did not have it long. The G3 is still in use every day, but my son has it, so not my daily driver, but when I pick it up, it does not seem laggy. The V10 was not laggy, but it drank battery juice. I had to swap a battery around 5pm every day. That got annoying.
I was also considering the Moto Z Force, since it will be super quick. But then the V20 will be bigger and have some cool features, still a toss up for me

CadillacMike said:
well the Note 4 is one of the laggiest phones I have ever had. My current S7 Edge is not what I would call laggy at all. However it is not as fast as the Nexus 6 that I had.
for LG, i had the G2, G3, and V10. I liked the G2 but did not have it long. The G3 is still in use every day, but my son has it, so not my daily driver, but when I pick it up, it does not seem laggy. The V10 was not laggy, but it drank battery juice. I had to swap a battery around 5pm every day. That got annoying.
I was also considering the Moto Z Force, since it will be super quick. But then the V20 will be bigger and have some cool features, still a toss up for me
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I agree. S7E is "fast", but no way it feels as fluid as the Nexus, even just a Nexus 6. The LG phones has always been snappy for me, possibly due to the lighter skin on top.
For me, V20 has checked out almost all boxes for me. I could wish for a Samsung-like fast camera, but I can't live without the ultra wide angle now. The vibrator isn't as solid as the flagship counterpart (note, S7, iPhone 7). I would like front facing speakers, but it's not a standard feature. As with all phones, there are small things I can pick on, but for 95% of the phone, I couldn't be happier.
Back to the original question - Yes, I think it's worth it if you use it for music all the time. I can definitely hear a difference from the Quad DAC vs a normal phone or even a phone that has a wolfson DAC. I am only using some alright in ear monitor - Shure SE215 and Monster Turbine Pro.

I remember the audio on my V10 being fantastic, so I would assume the V20 will be even better

2 things that drove me nuts about the V10 and keeps me from considering the V20 is the battery life and the reception that the V10 got. I'm waiting for you all to get them in your hands and start reporting on these 2 things..

Battery is alright so far, things are still settling. Audio is fantastic!

Hi, I'm a musician and I hope I can clarify several things for you:
kamranhaghighi said:
Second: does the DAC ACTUALLY make a difference? Specially for a half-avarage person. I'm not an audiophile but I do care about Audio quality. But for example on mynote 4 I can't tell the difference between flac and mp3 (@320kbps). But I do hear a difference Between 120kbps and flac with my Sennheiser cx 1.00 on some songs. I currently don't have any good headphones but I'm going to buy audio Technica 500x or m40x
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A good DAC will definitely improve the sound quality, no matter the source is mp3 or lossless. However you must understand that for mp3 files a good DAC is totally overkill, which means the improvement would be limited, much less than the improvement of a lossless source. On the other hand, only several technologies like Sony's DSEE HX can improve/repair the quality of lossy files to a certain level and then output as Hi-Res audio.
Using higher quality equipment most of the time makes you aware more of the audio source quality differences, so that's why there is no turning back on equipment
Also as I listen to music on low volume I don't need an AMP or anything. Heck I can tell the name of the song that's playing on the tv o on the background of a movie while I'm in my room listening to music with headphones xD
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Yes an AMP amplifies the volume, but this is not it's only job. Every AMP has it's own acoustic characteristics and that's why there are AMPs of different price tags. An AMP also affects the tone color, spectrum balance, noise ...etc no matter you're listening at high or low volume. However if you actually always listen to music and all the outer sounds at the same time then perhaps it really doesn't matter to you.
And there's no background noise on my note 4. Or my PC! I don't understand why people complain about noise on internal DACs
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If you are speaking about the V20's advertisement of 130dB signal noise ratio (SNR), then actually the "noise" here means unwanted sound only during the signal process, which normal consumers won't care about.
If you are speaking about the noises that people sometimes can hear in the headphone or speaker, they actually have so many possible causes that takes examinations to resolve them, can't simply blame internal DAC.
V20's audio features is attractive enough for me to buy, not only the playback capability but also the HD recording feature. As for casual listeners it will definitely provide better listening experience, but it's full potential can only be discovered using high quality source files and good headphones. Oh, and perhaps a nice listening environment or a noise isolating/canceling headphone

^nice write up and welcome aboard!

S7E - Is it still worth it

After returning my faulty phone, Im looking at a replacement tomorrow... looking at HTC 10 / LG G5 or S7 Edge)... Ive heard alot of mixed reviews about the Edge... really bad cheap sounding speaker, poor battery life.. as well as differences between the ICOCELL and SONY camera sensors..
I live in UK, so we have the European version, which has the EXYNOS SOC..
Do all Exynos versions have the ICOCELL sensor.. and 820 have the SONY... or do they vary from device to device....
Under the Current BTU 601 BPH OS, is there still any difference in the 2 sensors worth worrying about
Thanks all

If the audio is SO important for u, the best of these three is the HTC 10, who has dedicated audio chips for every speaker, the G5 and the S7e use the integrated SoC for audio, and in my experience the S7 sucks so hard in both speakers and headphones (it's like trying to play games with and w/o graphic card)...
THe batery life is indeed good, but remember that depends on use, and actually there are severals threads here to see which exact build gives u better battery life (u can get that one w/o lose warranty if u use odin)
The camera sensor is not dependant of the processor, there are snapdragon with sony and isocell sensors, and exynos with sony and isocell sensors... and as I remember, theres no way to know which one u will get, both a friend and me buy the phone tghe same day on the same place and I got a sony sensor and he got a isocell

Is it still worth it? Definitely but it depends on what your priorities are
Audio - The speaker by itself is pretty poor but I don't care much for it, it does the job if I am showing off a funny video etc and I couldn't care less about playing music out loud on a smartphone speaker. If you ever decide to root, you can mimic the HTC 10 and iPhone 7 setup by having the speakerphone play music, which does indeed make a big difference. Headphone audio on the Edge is good, but Samsung have limited the output power as usual. Again, if you ever decide to root, you can fix this. It's powerful enough to drive my M50x nicely. Still, it is no HTC 10 or V10
Battery life - Good with older firmware (Feb/March). Mediocre with newer firmware (April onwards). The september firmware has good battery drain in active use but the standby time sucks in my opinion. I've stayed on March firmware for the longest time because it has the best battery life. The latest update adds a new gallery that I don't care for and Samsung Cloud which in my limited usage, has sucked lol.
You either have a Sony sensor or a Samsung one. There is a comparison thread somewhere here and quite honestly, the differences between the two are so minuscule that there is so reason to worry about it. http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s7-isocell-vs-sony-sensor-camera-680266/ nothing to worry about

Thanks for these great answers, youve helped alot... as Most, not all, but most YouTube and written reviewers are paid BS
The 4 proirities i look for in a phone are Camera > Audio > Battery Life > Screen Size
TBH, I dont care about the output of a single speaker, as long as it rings/sms loud enough to hear when Im outdoors... Im not that bothered whether its thin and reedy sounding.... however, I do value headphone audio.. I rip in Flac or WMA.. as MP3 is yseless,. even the higher quality LAME encoder is no match for Flac.
Great news on the Camera though... I know on release day.. the ICOCELL images werent great.. but its good to read theyre now equally good

Camera wise, all three devices exchange blows. Anandtech actually thinks the HTC 10 camera is the best, when it comes to raw photo quality. That isn't the entire story though. The S7/Edge still has the fastest auto focus and capture time which is very important with moving objects. The G5 of course has two camera's and I've heard nothing but great things about the standard and wide angle camera. The HTC 10 suffers from blur on the edges of it's photos and have seen many complaints about that. The front camera module on the S7 is fixed focus, so selfies too close can look horrible.
Audio - HTC 10 is king here, no debate about that one. The G5 seems to be a love hate thing with some saying the G5 isn't good unless you have the B & O module attachment. The S7/Edge Exynos is good though, certainly better than the Snapdragon model. If you have cans/IEMS that are hard to drive, an unrooted S7/Edge may be a problem, but nothing is stopping you from testing the audio and sending it back if it really really bothers you.
Battery life - Better than the HTC 10 and G5 even on the poor firmware. Nothing more to say about that here.
Screen - S7/Edge wins here again, plenty of tests show the phone has great colour accuracy etc, well in basic mode it does lol. Screen size of course is your preference.

What are the main cons of this Axon 7 ???

Hey Everyone,
So Guys , I'm about to buy the Axon 7 A2017 the Chinese variant (Since I'm outside the US) with 4gb RAM and 128gb of storage as an upgrade of my old LG G4, that's why I'm asking you guys to answer me honestly what was your personal experience with this device ? what are the bad sides that have made you frustrated or made you regretting making this purchase ??
I've heard many downsides but I cannot really believe them since many reputable reviewers on Youtube have said the opposite ??
Some Cons I heard :
1-The sound output from Headphones are not really great same for the dual front facing speakers.(Which is a bit shocking as the main promoted feature of this smartphone was the audio capabilities ).
2-The Screen is not clearly visible at direct sunlight
3-The Camera is awful , in other words a piece of crap (I dont really care about Photography or low light stills , but I also hate a smartphone that cannot take some sharp stills at daylight ,such as portait of myself for social media)
4-The capacitive buttons are not back lit , but I think I could get used to them.
5-The UI is buggy and bloated , the phone doesn't have any support from devs and the Company didn't fix many issues and bugs.
6-The fingerprint is not that fast or accurate (I've heard from a review that it works 60-70% of time)
7-Multi tasking and app launching is not good either comparing to smartphones that have the same cpu/gpu like Oneplus 3 , LG G5 ,..
8-Gaming experience is worse , as the 1440p leads to fps drops.
9-Notification are not received , bad sync
10-bad signal reception , bad GPS reception , Wi-fi range ??
Yes I know this is so long because after reading many opinions and seeing many reviews that's what came out !!
I still hear that all this can be fixed by an update but till now (after 6 months of releasing) nothing to be confirmed.
I'm a casual user , I don't root my phones , or install custom roms I can bear the Stock Rom if it's doing well , no bugs or lags.
Guys Please be honest , I know that almost every opinion will be biased , I don't want to buy a whortless smartphone because I also consider buying Oneplus 3 since my brother got it and it's an amazing smartphone blazing fast , takes some good images at good light , charging really so quick , everything is good with it except the battery drain when playing heavy games , the standby drain , and some heat issues.
The reasons that pushes me to consider buying Axon 7 over OP3 is it's great 1440p screen VR ready and the front facing speakers even if the Oneplus 3 have a good display despite it's FHD only and also a decent loudspeakers .
Yeahhh this thing is damnn long, but You know I don't wanna spend 400$ for useless features !!
Best Regards , Youssef

1- Not true, the sound is great with both speakers and headphones, although you may have problems with some apps and compatibility.
2- I use the phone a lot outside and never had any problems reading the screen
3- the camera is awful in low light, but its a really good camera in good light. REALLY good.
4- Yes, this is a con, but you get use to it.
5- False and true. The ui is not bloated and it works really good. I actually like it more than pure stock. But regarding bugs and dev support, its really, really bad.
6- It could be faster.... and yes, you get a couple of misreads, but its not as bad as you make it sound.
7- Really don't know what are you referring to. Apps launch fast and multitasking work great (when the phone doesn't kill you app, though)
8- I don't do gaming on my phone, can't comment.
9- This is a mayor problem that should have been fix a long time ago. This is pretty much a killer point.
10- Except for some minor GPS issue indoors, my WIFI and phone receptions have been really great.
As I said in other threads, get the OnePlus 3T. Save yourself some headaches.
This phone is great in paper, and the hardware is excellent, but its pretty much dead. You are going to be really disappointed if you want to change ROMs or get community support.

yamils said:
1- Not true, the sound is great with both speakers and headphones, although you may have problems with some apps and compatibility.
2- I use the phone a lot outside and never had any problems reading the screen
3- the camera is awful in low light, but its a really good camera in good light. REALLY good.
4- Yes, this is a con, but you get use to it.
5- False and true. The ui is not bloated and it works really good. I actually like it more than pure stock. But regarding bugs and dev support, its really, really bad.
6- It could be faster.... and yes, you get a couple of misreads, but its not as bad as you make it sound.
7- Really don't know what are you referring to. Apps launch fast and multitasking work great (when the phone doesn't kill you app, though)
8- I don't do gaming on my phone, can't comment.
9- This is a mayor problem that should have been fix a long time ago. This is pretty much a killer point.
10- Except for some minor GPS issue indoors, my WIFI and phone receptions have been really great.
As I said in other threads, get the OnePlus 3T. Save yourself some headaches.
This phone is great in paper, and the hardware is excellent, but its pretty much dead. You are going to be really disappointed if you want to change ROMs or get community support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really appreciate your answer it's really helping , as I don't really care about updates or custom roms I think it's bearable since you said it's not bloated . I mean overall this smartphone is great !! But I'm afraid that what you said is only applicable for A2017U (US variant) and not the chinese variant A2017 becuz as I stated before I'm not from The US , so I need to import the device from China.

The only one I agree with is the unlit capacitive buttons. This phone is pretty solid otherwise.
Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk

I have EU variant A2017G
1- Havent heard anything better yet on mobile phones (havent tried LG V10 or V20, which I believe should have better headphone output)
2- No problems
3- Photos depend on situations actually, daylight are quite good. Software needs to be fixed, manual mode is not that much manual
4- Got used.
5- I use Nova on top of MiFavor and it's almost like anything else.
6- It's fast, reads fingerprint in any direction also, sure sometimes it doesnt get it, but works fine.
7- Dont have OP3 or G5 to compare to.
8- Tried some games, and except for heating and huge battery drain I didnt notice anything. Heats up to 40C, when usually it sits at ~30C.
9- This. Waiting for fix.
10- GPS seems to work good, WiFi good. Signal - not really. on 2G it's great, on 4G - it's there, but drains battery as it's always very low, and it seems that is a problem with A2017G's only, not all, but there is a problem for some people who reported it.

Why *****ing about the capacitive buttons not lit? I mean, it's not like you didn't know before you bought the Axon, right? It would be like complaining about the size of the display...

Youssefmans said:
Hey Everyone,
So Guys , I'm about to buy the Axon 7 A2017 the Chinese variant (Since I'm outside the US) with 4gb RAM and 128gb of storage as an upgrade of my old LG G4, that's why I'm asking you guys to answer me honestly what was your personal experience with this device ? what are the bad sides that have made you frustrated or made you regretting making this purchase ??
I've heard many downsides but I cannot really believe them since many reputable reviewers on Youtube have said the opposite ??
Some Cons I heard :
1-The sound output from Headphones are not really great same for the dual front facing speakers.(Which is a bit shocking as the main promoted feature of this smartphone was the audio capabilities ).
2-The Screen is not clearly visible at direct sunlight
3-The Camera is awful , in other words a piece of crap (I dont really care about Photography or low light stills , but I also hate a smartphone that cannot take some sharp stills at daylight ,such as portait of myself for social media)
4-The capacitive buttons are not back lit , but I think I could get used to them.
5-The UI is buggy and bloated , the phone doesn't have any support from devs and the Company didn't fix many issues and bugs.
6-The fingerprint is not that fast or accurate (I've heard from a review that it works 60-70% of time)
7-Multi tasking and app launching is not good either comparing to smartphones that have the same cpu/gpu like Oneplus 3 , LG G5 ,..
8-Gaming experience is worse , as the 1440p leads to fps drops.
9-Notification are not received , bad sync
10-bad signal reception , bad GPS reception , Wi-fi range ??
Yes I know this is so long because after reading many opinions and seeing many reviews that's what came out !!
I still hear that all this can be fixed by an update but till now (after 6 months of releasing) nothing to be confirmed.
I'm a casual user , I don't root my phones , or install custom roms I can bear the Stock Rom if it's doing well , no bugs or lags.
Guys Please be honest , I know that almost every opinion will be biased , I don't want to buy a whortless smartphone because I also consider buying Oneplus 3 since my brother got it and it's an amazing smartphone blazing fast , takes some good images at good light , charging really so quick , everything is good with it except the battery drain when playing heavy games , the standby drain , and some heat issues.
The reasons that pushes me to consider buying Axon 7 over OP3 is it's great 1440p screen VR ready and the front facing speakers even if the Oneplus 3 have a good display despite it's FHD only and also a decent loudspeakers .
Yeahhh this thing is damnn long, but You know I don't wanna spend 400$ for useless features !!
Best Regards , Youssef
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had any issues whatsoever with this phone. I'm coming from A LG-G4 as well.
1) Sound is phenomenal! You'll have nothing to worry about.
2) It's not as bright as some other phones like the gs7 or IPhone 7, but it's better visibility than the G4 which is every you're coming from.
3) Camera is mediocre compared to today's phones, but it's similar to G4 performance. So it's slightly behind, but I don't take issue with it for such a good price. Daytime shots are really good, night time are meh, hdr makes them look pretty good but you have to stay really still. Manual mode is great if you know what you're doing.
4) Chinese variant uses on screen keys from my understanding. So the issue of non-backlit isn't relevant in your case.
5) UI is not stock Android, but waaaay closer & smoother than LG's UI. You'll have no issues with bloat coming from a G4 imo. Company has taken care of the major concerns like the notification bell on the lock screen and other things of the like. They was my biggest one, do I'm good now.
6) Fingerprint doesn't always get it perfect, but it's good like 85% of the time for me.
7) I haven't done any speed tests against any other phones, but from what I've seen on YouTube, it is slightly slower than competitors. For me, this isn't an issue cuz we're talking an incomprehensible real world difference. That's my opinion however. Its still faster than the G4.
8) No lag issues with gaming here. It on lagged on me once while I had Need for speed open in the background, a photo backup uploading my 32gb worth of photos going, while playing NBA live. It was only a slight stutter though. Other than that one incident, it's really smooth.
9) No issues with notifications or sync here. Could have been an early problem. I got the phone after they released the latest marshmallow build.
10) I get slightly worse reception than my G4. To me it was expected due to it being a metal phone vs a plastic one. I compared it to the G5 at a Tmo store and it wasn't to far off. Like 3dbm lower signal (higher number). Wifi is great though! Faster speeds, more stable signal, & prefers the 5ghz band when available. I always felt like the G4 sucked with wifi.
Overall, you cant go wrong with this purchase. One plus 3 is also a great option. I picked this phone over the OP3 because I'm a sucker for its design. I think it's sexier. I have been thrilled with my purchase so far and have no regrets. It's got all some quirks, but nothing that is a deal breaker for me. I also have the US variant so obviously this is my experience with that model and your mileage my vary if you are shooting for a Chinese unit. But there is my 2¢, hope it helps with your decision! Best of luck.

Thanks Guys I really appreciate your answers , I was about to switch to the OP3 , but I guess I may get The Axon 7 , cuz I'm a regular user and I'm not seeking for a fast responsive smartphone if this is doing the job well , I was also considering the Xiaomi Mi5s Plus 6gb ram version due to the better camera onfiguration and the latest snapdragon but Yeah , a 2k and Front facing speakers worth it !!

I've read cell reception is really bad and therefore I won't buy it.
Enviado desde mi SM-G920F mediante Tapatalk

Cell reception and how it does hotspot compared to my previous phones are pretty bad. But everything else is spot on.. Love the phone. My wife has the oneplus 3 and keeps it stock.. Both phones are awfully similar. I would get the axon if you keep it stock and the oneplus if you plan on installing custom stuff.

From my limited experience with the device (about 1 week, coming from a Galaxy S7 edge).
1) Sounds has been great for me. Both the speakers and headphone sound are louder and clearer that the S7 edge.
2) Screen is really, really good. Sunlight visibility may be a smidge less than the S7 edge, but I like the way the colours pop a lot more on the A7.
3) Not a big photog to be honest. S7 edge had the better camera, for sure. The A7 camera seems pretty good in good lightning, and pretty bad in low lighting.
4) Definitely not backlit, but I honestly have no issue with them. Your muscle memory kicks in pretty much straight away.
5) Definitely not bloated (especially if you come from Touchwiz). Haven't noticed any large scale bugs yet, but need more time.
6) It could be better. I'd say it's accurate about 80% of the time. It seems to work best with a double tap for me.
7) Can't really compare to those devices, but it's about on par with the S7 edge.
8) Gaming has been as good or better than the S7 edge for me (mine is the Exynos variant though).
9) Hard to say since I turn off most notifications. SMS and Slack are my primaries, and they seem to work fine.
10) WiFi has been fine. Haven't tested GPS much. LTE is definitely weak though. I seem to hover around 2-3 bars most of the time. My house, which for whatever reason is a weak spot for my carrier, poses a particular problem.

Youssefmans said:
1-The sound output from Headphones are not really great same for the dual front facing speakers.(Which is a bit shocking as the main promoted feature of this smartphone was the audio capabilities ).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries here. Best speakers hands down. Only phones that come close are HTC M8 and Alcatel One Touch. Headphone output has been great for me, but I think it works best with high end headphones.
Youssefmans said:
2-The Screen is not clearly visible at direct sunlight
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More visible than most thanks to color saturation and low reflectance. Maximum brightness of 360cd/m² is not the highest but thanks to low reflectance and high color saturation sunlight contrast ratio is amongst the best, just below OP3T and S7 but better than iPhone 7.
Youssefmans said:
3-The Camera is awful , in other words a piece of crap (I dont really care about Photography or low light stills , but I also hate a smartphone that cannot take some sharp stills at daylight ,such as portait of myself for social media)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The camera has very good color accuracy and low light is actually pretty decent considering the small pixels size, you just need to be steady or it can become blurry. In bright daylight pictures are good but less sharp than on other 20MP devices (e.g. X play). Noise reduction is a bit too aggressive. I find the camera adequate but it is clearly the main weaker point of the Axon 7 (but I come from the x play which is exceptionally sharp and a very pleasing camera, so I may be a bit biased).
Youssefmans said:
4-The capacitive buttons are not back lit , but I think I could get used to them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got used to them very quickly but in the dark I occasionally miss them.
Youssefmans said:
5-The UI is buggy and bloated , the phone doesn't have any support from devs and the Company didn't fix many issues and bugs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UI is great, only the launcher is not that good, but I replaced it with HTC blinkfeed launcher from xda, as I love their blinkfeed + theming and other aspects.
Youssefmans said:
6-The fingerprint is not that fast or accurate (I've heard from a review that it works 60-70% of time)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People who have this issue did not map their finger correctly, that is not from all possible angles. If you make sure you map your finger from every possible angle and position it works perfectly. It took me a couple of tries to get it right but after that no issues. If you activate ZTE Locker daily wallpaper feature it may reduce recognition times, so may prevent successful recognition if the finger is removed too fast. For me it's no big deal but I know some people prefer to deactivate daily wallpapers to speed up recognition.
Youssefmans said:
7-Multi tasking and app launching is not good either comparing to smartphones that have the same cpu/gpu like Oneplus 3 , LG G5 ,..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that may be true because of the use of a different file mapping system (I read something about this) however this may become default in Android nougat so may not be an issue going forward. I personally don't find app launching slow but other phones are slightly better.
I know that OP recently implemented this file system on their phone:
https://www.google.fr/amp/s/www.xda...fferences-and-f2fs/amp/?client=ms-android-zte
I think this can be replicated on any phone where the ROM build support this. It was replicated on the OP3, it should be positive to get it to work on custom ROMs for the Axon 7 if not done already.
Youssefmans said:
8-Gaming experience is worse , as the 1440p leads to fps drops.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since the Axon 7's display has a pentile arrangement, it is not a true 1440p, this means the display actually has fewer pixels so the difference in performance is not that dramatic. That also explains why the Axon 7 can maintain good battery performance despite 1440p display.
Youssefmans said:
9-Notification are not received , bad sync
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never had this issue. However you need to know that as a default the phone kills apps that are in the background and does not let apps interrupt deep sleep, so you need to set up exceptions for each app to allow them to share notifications.
Youssefmans said:
10-bad signal reception , bad GPS reception , Wi-fi range ??
Youssef
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't confirm this, I actually found this phone to have better reception than OP1, OP1 and Moto X play. My house has thick walls and in spots where I usually had poor reception I now have good reception, access to 4G, etc. I compared db values and they were better than on my other phones.

1- The sound output from headphones is perfectly fine, as good as you can expect from a phone really. The speakers didn't come close to living up to the hype and reviews if you ask me. The only problem with sound is that you'd have to use their stock music app for the Hi-Fi DAC to work, and that app is beyond trash. Super laggy, super buggy, with less than bare-bones functionality. That and the phone apparently only outputs 16 bit sound despite having a 32 bit DAC.
2- Almost no phone is visible in direct sunlight, this phone's brightness is absolutely fine and very bright. Only phones like the Galaxy S7 with super contrast modes can be more visible.
3- The Camera is indeed utterly useless in low light, but in good lighting conditions is okay-ish. It's not in the same league as expensive flagship phone cameras, this is where they really cut costs (aside from the software).
4- Yes, they are not back lit, and yes it's easy to get used to, but super annoying in the dark.
5- The software is abysmal, by far the worst I've ever used. The empty promises and months of not delivering make me completely regret my purchase. If I was within the return period I'd refund the phone and get a OP3T.
6- The fingerprint sensor is very fast and works 95%+ of the time for me. Anyone who's having issues likely didn't register their finger prints from all angles as the phone explicitly tells you to do in its instructions.
7- There's nothing about multi-tasking that has annoyed me yet aside from the occasional bug where a program just closes, but I don't do side by side comparisons so I don't know if it's outperformed by other SD820 phones.
8- I haven't gamed all that much on it, but its gaming performance should be pretty much the same as any other SD820/1440p phone, or slightly better than some of the earlier SD820 phones. I've ran emulated PSP games at 1440p with all settings maxed out without frame drops. If you want a 1080p phone for better performance buy a OP3T.
9- I've had no issues with notifications aside from the lock screen being garbage (even if you disable the stupid bell, which took them forever to update to allow).
10- It's an aluminium unibody phone, of course it's not going to have the same reception as a glass or plastic phone. In my experience it's only slightly worse and hasn't affected me much.
Most your concerns are nothing to worry about, it's the software/non-existent support that would make me turn around, run away, and never look back.
puremind said:
Since the Axon 7's display has a pentile arrangement, it is not a true 1440p, this means the display actually has fewer pixels so the difference in performance is not that dramatic. That also explains why the Axon 7 can maintain good battery performance despite 1440p display. .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, this is actually a major problem with pentile. The resolution has to be rendered as normal, they have no magical trick that renders based on subpixels, it's per "pixel", so all these pseudo-1440p phones actually are rendering the software at 1440p if set to full resolution.

1) it's pretty clear, better than any other phone that I have used. Might need an extra amp if you plan to use 70ohm+ cans. Anything else is driven really well if you use DVC within poweramp.
2)no problems for me, but reports have said it is only around 320~ nits which is just not true as I compared it to a Nexus 5 and 5X, and it was brighter than both of them. Even if it was dimmer it should be just fine anyway. I'd compare the level to be a iPhone on 90%.
3)pretty good camera front and back, I don't take selfies as I hate myself amongst other things. Good in normal sunlight and medium to low light (bedroom). I have no idea what the standard is these day and I frankly don't care as I don't use it that much. Good enough to not have your friends laugh at you.
4)I don't like back lit anyway since I normally turn them off and if you can't turn them off they stand out too much at night since the screen is AMOLED.
5) No bugs, just different, I'd say it's the best custom UI that I've used. Close to stock with more compact icons etc. Like a half arsed attempt at making android 7 UI on 6 which is actually pretty good if you look at other manufacturers like Samsung.
6)If you wet your fingers and touch it, lightning fast. I find that if I have really dry hands (half an hour bike ride) I might have to slide it around a bit more but it works. Just do what the setup tells you and keep moving your finger around that scanner. More you cover the better. If you unlock while taking out your pocket you have at least 3 attempts at the scanner at least unless your are Sherrif QuickDraw. If you are using the Chinese version you can even set certain fingers to use certain apps such as camera, very useful as you can add up to 5 fingers.
7)True, but it's marginal. You probably have seen those benchmark videos where they open up 20 apps all in one row and time it. Not a big deal if you consider that the time for each app is like half a second longer each. Doesn't bother me. Been using android since gingerbread, I've experienced full minute waits before.
8)It's 1440p like you said, if you root it you can do some xposed hacks and run it at 1080p shouldn't be that big of a deal anyway. Most games run just fine. I play asphalt 8 (yeah bit old but oh well) just fine.
9)Some ****ty power settings that are enabled by default, just look around in the settings for a bit and you should be fine.
10)It's on par or better than my S3. No dropped calls or missed texts but then again not a lot of people contact me:crying:.
Like you said, if you are a casual user, it shouldn't bother you. 70% of the phones on the market will be just fine. Phone have reached a level where if you don't go for the big names or just buy smart you can use them for 2+ years easy. Sister still rocking Nexus 5 just fine. Battery is crapping out but it was never that good to start with.
If you like games and media, get the Axon. Best portable device I have brought for years. Provides solid audio when paired with good IEMs. Games like Asphalt come to life with the front speakers. Also for a phone this size, it's very easy to hold. If you look at the phone next to a 5" one it's wider by not even 1cm.
If your bro has a OP3 I personally won't get one as well just to be different, also might get confusing. BUT it has:
-better software support (you said you were a normal user so doesn't matter really)
-tad faster with better general battery life due to smaller screen, less GPU load etc.
-more accessories, it's a more popular phone.
-get the 3T instead if you plan on getting this.
-notification slider thing, if you go to college this will be handy as you don't have to pull your phone out.
The Axon also has a few nit picks that I like to pick:
-the notification light is RG not RGB, Not that anyone actually uses that light, I just use it to see if my battery is full lol.
-didn't notice this but some guy on reddit also said that because the headphone jack and the charger is on different sides it lead to some weird holding positions which is true.
-the right speaker (button side) is not in the middle but at the bottom right of the phone due to the charging port. Didn't notice this until I saw a tear down video now when I watch youtube I try to listen out for it. Most of the time I can't but it's there.
Google VR Is also SOON^TM, some guy also said it didn't fit due to the bands touching the hardware buttons. But the ZTE headset is pretty cheap $50~ I think but it's china only.

[/COLOR]
Cyrus D. said:
No, this is actually a major problem with pentile. The resolution has to be rendered as normal, they have no magical trick that renders based on subpixels, it's per "pixel", so all these pseudo-1440p phones actually are rendering the software at 1440p if set to full resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it is accurate.
IPS 1440P screen has 11M lighting elements whereas
Pentile 1440p oled only has 7.3M lighting elements - only marginally more than the 6,220,800 Lighting Elements of 1080p IPS LCD display
I bought the phone just before B08 came out so I really wasn't troubled by the software at all, especially since I always install HTC Blinkfeed launcher from HTC, which replaces clock, weather and gallery.
I had no trouble using the HiFi DAC on other apps so far, which app didn't work for you?

puremind said:
I don't think it is accurate.
IPS 1440P screen has 11M lighting elements whereas
Pentile 1440p oled only has 7.3M lighting elements - only marginally more than the 6,220,800 Lighting Elements of 1080p IPS LCD display
I bought the phone just before B08 came out so I really wasn't troubled by the software at all, especially since I always install HTC Blinkfeed launcher from HTC, which replaces clock, weather and gallery.
I had no trouble using the HiFi DAC on other apps so far, which app didn't work for you?
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It's correct that pentile has 1/3rd less subpixels than a standard RGB array. "1080p" on an AMOLED would have the same number of subpixels as a real 720p panel. But that wouldn't matter for software, it's still coded per pseudo-pixel as far as I know. Resolution output isn't coded by subpixels.
As for the DAC, every program I've tried sounds different than the stock music player. That includes PowerAmp's latest alpha (called a beta in the app store). The difference is most apparent in instruments, they sound noticeably sharper on the stock music player. I don't know for sure if this is some sort of equalizer or software tricks in the stock player that can't be disabled (the stock player has squat for options) or if it's indeed due to the DAC.
As for the the claims it outputs only 16 bit sound, I haven't ever found out exactly what that means. Whether it's just the stock music app that is limiting it, or if it's coded in the ROM to work like that.

Cyrus D. said:
It's correct that pentile has 1/3rd less subpixels than a standard RGB array. "1080p" on an AMOLED would have the same number of subpixels as a real 720p panel. But that wouldn't matter for software, it's still coded per pseudo-pixel as far as I know. Resolution output isn't coded by subpixels.
As for the DAC, every program I've tried sounds different than the stock music player. That includes PowerAmp's latest alpha (called a beta in the app store). The difference is most apparent in instruments, they sound noticeably sharper on the stock music player. I don't know for sure if this is some sort of equalizer or software tricks in the stock player that can't be disabled (the stock player has squat for options) or if it's indeed due to the DAC.
As for the the claims it outputs only 16 bit sound, I haven't ever found out exactly what that means. Whether it's just the stock music app that is limiting it, or if it's coded in the ROM to work like that.
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Could you try MX Player?
For pentile displays there is a formula that calculates the subpixel intensities for each subpixel based on the desired "theoretical" pixels, so there are fewer operations being computed. Those operations are only marginally more complex than on an RGB display so the added complexity is offset by the much lower number of operations being conducted. From experience with calculation engines, it is usually more efficient to reduce the number of operations than to reduce the complexity of computations in terms of processing time.

Camera is the only major con for me.
The buttons on the bottom of the screen are ****ty too. Cant see them at night but i can deal with that.

puremind said:
Could you try MX Player?
For pentile displays there is a formula that calculates the subpixel intensities for each subpixel based on the desired "theoretical" pixels, so there are fewer operations being computed. Those operations are only marginally more complex than on an RGB display so the added complexity is offset by the much lower number of operations being conducted. From experience with calculation engines, it is usually more efficient to reduce the number of operations than to reduce the complexity of computations in terms of processing time.
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Well I tried to use it and compare the same song side by side to PowerAmp and the stock music player and I couldn't do it because that software is rage inducing. It's not designed at all to be a music player, so even if it could use the Hi-Fi DAC I wouldn't use it.
And that's interesting, I've looked into it and never found any info or article about the resolution output being optimized for pentile displays. Would you happen to have a link so I can read more about it?

Cyrus D. said:
Well I tried to use it and compare the same song side by side to PowerAmp and the stock music player and I couldn't do it because that software is rage inducing. It's not designed at all to be a music player, so even if it could use the Hi-Fi DAC I wouldn't use it.
And that's interesting, I've looked into it and never found any info or article about the resolution output being optimized for pentile displays. Would you happen to have a link so I can read more about it?
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Have you tried MX player? Did you find a difference? What is your go-to app? Which software version do you use? Have you made sure the dolby module was activated when comparing? It could be some apps somehow switch it off and you have to manually switch it on again.
If you don't compute values for each subpixel you have no means of producing the right colors on each theoretical pixel, this is true for both RGB and Pentile OLED. From a colorimetry standpoint there is no other way to control intensity and saturations, you have to drive each subpixel individuallly.

Overall love

Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the LG G7 ThinQ, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the LG G7 ThinQ is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

Just picked up 2 of these on T-mobile's BOGO sale. So far, I'm really enjoying the hardware. The phone is slick looking and feels solid. The interface and apps are snappy. The camera hardware is great, the software for it has room for improvement. The only thing I'm not grooving on is LG's android skin. A lot of it seems unnecessary, over-complicated, and doesn't match up visually with stock Android. The screen is great so far, no light bleed or polarization problems I remember from my last LCD screen. The colors are vibrant and true and the display is bright with a dim, always-on option. I am sad that it's not VR/Daydream compatible because of the screen (so I've read, anyway), but I honestly don't remember the last time I've used either of those on our Google phones (Coming from Nexus 6P and Pixel XL). At full price these might not have been my first choice, but the BOGO offer made them a no-brainer. So far, pretty happy with the purchase. Time and use will tell if I'll ultimately be content with the camera and get over the weird LG skin.
Oh, and yeah, case these babies up. They feel like nice solid phones but ultimately are mostly glass that LOVES to grab your fingerprints and put them on display. I just washed my hands and wiped my phone down. Pick it back up, already it's covered in prints and smudges.

I pre ordered mine in Canada as it came with a 43" 4K LG TV gift. +$700 value so it was a 'no-brainer' purchase for me too.
Had G6 and loved its wide angle cam and customized it to my liking.
G7 screen is beautiful! In my experience OLED phones suffer screen burn after a year or 2, esp. with white theme of vanilla android. So, im happy w the LCD and its full rich color spectrum. It pops and is bright.
The notch is a welcome as it is bones real estate for notifications. Nothing lost and 100pixels gained.
Form factor is ideal. So lightweight yet solid and shiny. I thought my box was empty when i purchased it.
LG skin/launcher sux. Hate it. I Dont mind the LG settings / phone app. And props to LG for switching to stock android messaging.
What I do to improve my phone:
1 - put on pixel 2 launcher:
*it*ub.com/amirzaidi/launcher3/releases - props Amir! Outstanding. Supports substratum.
2 - Dark LG Theme
3 - XDAs Gestures Navigation
With these small adjustments makes G7 the best LG has to offer and top 5 mobile device available today

I love everything about it. The LG skin is meh, but regardless I use nova launcher anyway. My only issue atm is the bottom firing speaker. It sounds great and all, but I accidentally cover it a lot and also coming from Sony phones, stereo speakers will be missed. I would have also preferred if the volume buttoms were more centered. Holding it in landscape, my left pinky is always hitting the volume by accident.

I'm usually not a fan of LG but so far this phone is a major Go! I can easily see myself not going back to my S9 plus. LG really nailed the little things on this one. Nice premium feel, satisfying haptic feedback yes the vibrations on this thing are as good as any iPhone. This is something that no android maker actually got until now. I remember the buzzy, tinny feeling of the oneplus 3 and even the Xiaomi mix 2, definite turn offs. They build on everything they got right with the G6. Not a big fan of the UI but it's still a lot better than the previous iterations.
So far what I don't like is the lack of dual speakers, sure the bottom firing speaker is loud and layed flat on hard surface this phone sounds amazing, however most of my media consumption is done when I wake up. So lying in bed watching YouTube this amazing speaker is pointless. The s9 actually remembers the volume of my Bluetooth devices so that when I put in my wireless earbuds my head doesn't explode because I had the volume cranked all the way up in my car. The G7 has no such function. Small potatoes though, definitely not a deal breaker. Still running it through its paces but so far, I'm impressed.
Sent from my LGE LM-G710 using XDA Labs

Coming from a pixel 2 XL I've really enjoyed the phone so far. Hardware wise the phone is a major hit, premium look and feel that makes my pixel feel cheap in comparison. Two concerns so far are subpar battery life, and the camera software. Coming from my pixel I feel those are two downgrades but literally everything else is an improvement by a long shot.
Additionally the phone has great haptics, and fantastic audio quality from the headphone Jack. Awesome phone especially with the BOGO deal on T-Mobile.

i'm wubbin it. camera isn't nearly as sharp as the s9+ i had for a week, but it doesn't overexpose every other pic like the sammy did. i thought i would hate the notch, but it has grown on me and makes more sense now that i've used it for a bit. i find myself using the boombox feature quite often. display is SUPER crisp and colors are perfect. it's hard to believe this is an LCD panel. if you told me it was OLED i would have to look pretty hard to see a difference. battery life has been really good for 3000mah. can't wait for LG to iron out all the small bugs in the coming updates.

You have to excuse my language, I am dutch.
I am completely stoked about the G7. I listen music on the speaker a lot and the sound is outstanding for a phone. Even better when using headphones. The screen is really nice and easier for the eyes than an oled screen (no eye strain) . I liked the quality of the pictures on my G5 and see a nice improvement on the G7. Better pictures at night, nice colors and sharp. Have to play around with the different camera options still. No problems with connectivity and everything runs very fast and smoothly.
The only thing I like less is the software/skin. Having trouble finding simple options, not much logic in there. But that's something I will get used to so not really a problem.
The phone looks beautifull but is slippery as hell. Fell on the first day on a tile floor (and my hart missed a beat but the phone was fine). So I bought a Spigen Though Armor case. I have a muscle disease and the case adds a nice bulk to the phone for me.
The biggest suprise is the battery. It lasts a lot longer than I feared after reading different reviews. I make it thrue two days and one night on a single charge so far while playing a lot with the phone..
Very much in love with my phone

I love almost everything with this phone. Surprisingly including the battery life. It's been very good to me (aod off). On standby it's very efficient only sipping battery. Around 3% during 8 hrs sleep. I could get around 6hrs sot during 12-13 hrs of use.
Coming from pixel 2 xl and oneplus 6, the screen for me is GORGEOUS. LG produces the best LCD, period. The 1000 nits boost = awesome.
Boom box sound is very good. However I feel the use of case reduces its effect.
UI performance is smooth, multi tasking is good, all up to the standards of 2018.
My biggest gripe with this phone is its camera. Well I mightve been spoiled by pixel 2 xl.
1.The camera's shutter lag on medium to low light is too long for my liking
2. the detail on medium to low light is worse than my oneplus 6
3. In good light, it often overexposes
Also, I play a MOBA game called Mobile Legends which my pixel 2 xl (sd835) and Oneplus 6 (845) eats like it's nothing. It seems the g7 sometimes rendering it not at stable 60fps. Feels like only 30+ fps. I suspect that this is caused by cpu/gpu throttling done by LG, hence the surprisingly good battery life considering its 3000ma size.
Overall love this phone, but the camera alone is holding me back to keep this phone as my daily driver after I shoot my YouTube review.

My favourite device of this year!!
For my personal use its near on perfect - smooth and fast in operation with far better battery life than I expected considering the battery capacity. Audio is just superb, especially via headphones and with a decent set of cans really shows the difference the DAC makes.
Camera for me has also been really.good, although I've only tested in good light so far.
Best thing for me is the display, have owned a Pixel 2 XL and P20 Pro in last couple of months and to get a device with the whites I like that just looks 'sharper' and with the legibility in sunlight (even without boosted mode) is just superb.

How did LG manage to squeeze so much battery life out of a 3000 mAh battery?

I love the ease of one hand use, the screen, except the "second screen" that doesn't go dark enough during full screen use). And the haptic feedback is orgasmic )

Coming from LG G4, this thing is "WOW". I don't know why people go for useless Samsung or Apple? This feels almost perfect. Unless up to to the launch of the LG V40.

Ali Mirza said:
Coming from LG G4, this thing is "WOW". I don't know why people go for useless Samsung or Apple? This feels almost perfect. Unless up to to the launch of the LG V40.
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I LOVE this damn phone!!
1. Camera I rate as a 3 of 5 with built in app. 5 of 5 with Google Camera.
2. Audio I rate as 10 of 5. HOLY CRAP is it good.
3. Flat glass 5 of 5, easy to find full screen protectors with full adhesive. YES!
4. Killer battery life, 5 of 5. Most days I end up over %50 after heavy usage. Standby time is maybe 4-5 days if I do almost nothing.
5. LG software, 3 of 5. Too much bloatware but not as bad as some phones. Overall not a big deal.
6. Speed, 4 of 5. I think maybe other phones might be quicker but it is just fine for my purposes.
7. Buttons and controls, 5 of 5. Dedicated Google Assistant button rules. Actual Power button, finger print reader can turn screen on.
8. Slow motion video mode is quite nice. I enjoy using it for little fun stuff like capturing throwing a bowling ball.
9. Screen is very nice, I rate as 4 of 5. I prefer OLED but under heavy usage I think LCD comes out as a winner for power usage. I do have a bit of issue seeing the screen in full sunlight with sunglasses on. OLED do better in this circumstance.
The biggest problem with this phone is the camera, and it is far better with the Google Camera apk. Obviously LG could fix it if they wanted to.

redrol said:
I LOVE this damn phone!!
1. Camera I rate as a 3 of 5 with built in app. 5 of 5 with Google Camera.
2. Audio I rate as 10 of 5. HOLY CRAP is it good.
3. Flat glass 5 of 5, easy to find full screen protectors with full adhesive. YES!
4. Killer battery life, 5 of 5. Most days I end up over %50 after heavy usage. Standby time is maybe 4-5 days if I do almost nothing.
5. LG software, 3 of 5. Too much bloatware but not as bad as some phones. Overall not a big deal.
6. Speed, 4 of 5. I think maybe other phones might be quicker but it is just fine for my purposes.
7. Buttons and controls, 5 of 5. Dedicated Google Assistant button rules. Actual Power button, finger print reader can turn screen on.
8. Slow motion video mode is quite nice. I enjoy using it for little fun stuff like capturing throwing a bowling ball.
9. Screen is very nice, I rate as 4 of 5. I prefer OLED but under heavy usage I think LCD comes out as a winner for power usage. I do have a bit of issue seeing the screen in full sunlight with sunglasses on. OLED do better in this circumstance.
The biggest problem with this phone is the camera, and it is far better with the Google Camera apk. Obviously LG could fix it if they wanted to.
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Do you have a working apk version? Thanks

Ordered another G7 today...
I have a Note 9 but just ordered another G7. Despite the software not being great there is just something about this phone that I have really missed, feels great in the hand and is in a real sweet-spot size wise too. There really is not much bloat (compared to a Samsung) and battery life is very decent.
I was convinced this year that the Pixel 3XL would be my droid of choice but boy was I disappointed with that, as someone who rarely uses a case the rear would look like a used chalkboard within 2 or 3 days!
I think the Note is probably the best droid package currently available but there is something about the Samsung software and the amount of bloat that irks me, the G7 is IMO the nicest option at the moment and in the UK at least is an absolute bargain.

redrol said:
I LOVE this damn phone!!
1. Camera I rate as a 3 of 5 with built in app. 5 of 5 with Google Camera.
2. Audio I rate as 10 of 5. HOLY CRAP is it good.
3. Flat glass 5 of 5, easy to find full screen protectors with full adhesive. YES!
4. Killer battery life, 5 of 5. Most days I end up over %50 after heavy usage. Standby time is maybe 4-5 days if I do almost nothing.
5. LG software, 3 of 5. Too much bloatware but not as bad as some phones. Overall not a big deal.
6. Speed, 4 of 5. I think maybe other phones might be quicker but it is just fine for my purposes.
7. Buttons and controls, 5 of 5. Dedicated Google Assistant button rules. Actual Power button, finger print reader can turn screen on.
8. Slow motion video mode is quite nice. I enjoy using it for little fun stuff like capturing throwing a bowling ball.
9. Screen is very nice, I rate as 4 of 5. I prefer OLED but under heavy usage I think LCD comes out as a winner for power usage. I do have a bit of issue seeing the screen in full sunlight with sunglasses on. OLED do better in this circumstance.
The biggest problem with this phone is the camera, and it is far better with the Google Camera apk. Obviously LG could fix it if they wanted to.
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I'm coming from a S9 and Note 8.... This damn phone is marvelous. I hate that it's not receiving the love it deserves. LG took me away from my Galaxies with this one and I'm very satisfied.