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Hi XDa'ers...
I'm sorry to say I've just had it with this phone. The awesome camera was the main reason I switched my Galaxy S4 to this. The promise of wireless charging was awesome. The sd card of course made it the only current flagship worth considering. The promotion of an extra leather back + battery just sweetened the deal.
But then...
1st G4 - Camera had a distinct pink tone. The wireless charging was iffy at first, and then completely broke down. Exchanged for a new one.
2nd G4 - Wireless charging was iffy. I attempted to downgrade the bootstack and it bricked (first one on XDA to report this fun fact which I warned everyone else about)--okay, this one's on me.
3rd G4 - Refurb warranty replacement had a broken camera which could not focus past 2 feet. Sheesh.
4th G4 - Out of the blue, wifi is suffering from a ridiculous on/off cycle which is likely hardware failure related. The phone is 2 months old! My problem specifically is that it turns on and does find wifi signals, but then turns off. Then turns on again. Repeat.
It's similar to these threads, but not exactly, as the wifi does turn on, it just keeps turning itself off.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/lg...ut-doesn-t-how-can-i-get-my-wifi-working.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/help/lg-g4-wifi-stuck-trying-to-t3167191
I think it's been well established that the wireless charging on this phone is poorly implemented and a hardware issue. Fine, I can do without it. But to have the wifi crap out for no reason is really the last straw.
Looking to see what phone to switch out to. I'm on T-Mobile Jump on Demand, so the Android options are really only just the S6 or V10. I've yet to investigate the V10 forums--who knows what kind of crap engineering issues LG will have in store for us as the months roll on.
I had g4 and sold it to get the note 5, best decision ever. G4 camera was the main reason i took the phone but, the poor gaming performance the weak cpu didnt answer my demands and i hated the random lags.
Same here I am selling my g4, what upset me is I mailed them about unlocking bootloader, they replied me with this....
I am checking on blackberry priv
Sent from my LG-H815 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
that LG approach to unlocking bootloader will cost them, Sammy does the best, despite the knox counter it always comes unlocked(unless u AT-T).
Mangtas_666 said:
Same here I am selling my g4, what upset me is I mailed them about unlocking bootloader, they replied me with this....
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I've seen on Reddit where people have been unable to unlock their SEA phones...
waylo said:
1st G4 - Camera had a distinct pink tone. The wireless charging was iffy at first, and then completely broke down. Exchanged for a new one.
2nd G4 - Wireless charging was iffy. I attempted to downgrade the bootstack and it bricked (first one on XDA to report this fun fact which I warned everyone else about)--okay, this one's on me.
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Curious to know whether your G4 variant includes wireless charging in the back itself ootb ?
In other markets you have to use the circle case or get a sticker and connect back the two pins.
In dual sim markets there are no two pins so there is no option for wireless charging at all
Not so bothered when stock charger can take this thing from 30% to full within a hour.
4th G4 - Out of the blue, wifi is suffering from a ridiculous on/off cycle which is likely hardware failure related. The phone is 2 months old! My problem specifically is that it turns on and does find wifi signals, but then turns off. Then turns on again. Repeat.
It's similar to these threads, but not exactly, as the wifi does turn on, it just keeps turning itself off.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/lg...ut-doesn-t-how-can-i-get-my-wifi-working.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/help/lg-g4-wifi-stuck-trying-to-t3167191
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A few reports here and there, for some reason sprint seems to be having the most issues. Its weird.
Never use pubic wifi so i assign static addresses, this is something i've done for years in pc land. very stable. screw dhcp.
I think it's been well established that the wireless charging on this phone is poorly implemented and a hardware issue. Fine, I can do without it.
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Which wireless charger did you use ? how well did it work with previous models with wireless charging.
LG has a good rep for wireless charging if you consider the Nexus 5. The nexus 6 made by motorola, heh, now that is more fussy. Get the impression that bigger devices are more finicky compared to smaller ones. Also flatter backs are better than curved ones. As screens get bigger those curves becomes important to make the thing feel smaller than it actually is.
Dang OP, you had some really bad luck with your g4's. Mines only actes retarded sometime when i try charging, and it thinks my charger is a usb.
Oh dear samsung...This money transaction too transparence
Ok end of joke.Wifi drop horror.My g4 same...
Derpling said:
I had g4 and sold it to get the note 5, best decision ever. G4 camera was the main reason i took the phone but, the poor gaming performance the weak cpu didnt answer my demands and i hated the random lags.
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I too got the Note 5 switching from the G4. The lag drove me up the wall. Glad that I made the switch, note 5 has more functionality, and TouchWiz has been toned wayyyy down since the Galaxy s4, the last Samsung device I had. I would go note 5 or nexus 6p.
TheEmpyre said:
I too got the Note 5 switching from the G4. The lag drove me up the wall. Glad that I made the switch, note 5 has more functionality, and TouchWiz has been toned wayyyy down since the Galaxy s4, the last Samsung device I had. I would go note 5 or nexus 6p.
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While not suited for everyone, Note 5 is the best phone of this year and will hold very well for next years.
Do yourself a favor, root the device and install Arter97 kernel, it fixes the sammy aggressive ram management, and enjoy the Note!
Derpling said:
While not suited for everyone, Note 5 is the best phone of this year and will hold very well for next years.
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That's what i thought about the note 4 nd was surprised to come across a few that switched to the G4.
Sammy's pissed off the Euro's though. They only get to see note 5 in jan.
In india it was out last month and its made here for the Indian market.
Do yourself a favor, root the device and install Arter97 kernel, it fixes the sammy aggressive ram management, and enjoy the Note!
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How's the battery on the note 5. sot ? run time ? mention your brightness in %.
mention how was it with stock. And then with this kernel.
Depends on your uses and what running in background.
I can get through the day easily with 30%+- remain from 7am to 8pm, 50-75% brightness, what i do is location always on, wifi+data, google sync, messages, chrome, facebook, what's up etc.
Now i also do heavy gaming since this is the only phone that cna do it right, i measured something intersting.
While forcing the phone to run at maximum speed on all 8 cores and GPU, and playing intensive game like Tekken 6 on 50-60% brightness, it will deplete to 0 after 3:30-3:40hr straight gaming at maximum frequency... which is amazing, the G4 barely held 2hr.
you won't be disappointed, specially if u come from G4.
Derpling said:
Depends on your uses and what running in background.
I can get through the day easily with 30%+- remain from 7am to 8pm, 50-75% brightness, what i do is location always on, wifi+data, google sync, messages, chrome, facebook, what's up etc.
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So that's a run time of maybe 12-14h. sot maybe 4-5h ?
been skimming the note 5 battery thread and not seeing the stellar performance of the note 4 under kk.
i wonder if those days are gone for good or not
Now i also do heavy gaming since this is the only phone that cna do it right, i measured something intersting.
While forcing the phone to run at maximum speed on all 8 cores and GPU, and playing intensive game like Tekken 6 on 50-60% brightness, it will deplete to 0 after 3:30-3:40hr straight gaming at maximum frequency... which is amazing, the G4 barely held 2hr.
you won't be disappointed, specially if u come from G4.
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exactly, for gamers note 5 is best. No lag, faster memory, but hey you're paying for it
One Twelve said:
So that's a run time of maybe 12-14h. sot maybe 4-5h.
exactly, for gamers note 5 is best. No lag, faster memory, but hey you're paying for it
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yes G4 is bad for gamers, what drove me insane is that angry birds 2 lagged on it, and it has weak cpu that can't run tekken 6 and dark resurrection at 60fps, note 5 can do it, that is amazing of itself.
G4 had random lags at times, Note 5 does not have any of those, rarely it has unlock screen freeze, when u unlock the screen it freezes for 5 second and then do all your taps... should be resolved in new update(already resolved for some).
Note 5 overall is the best phone i ever used, screen sound quality touchwiz... all better than g4 and v10.
Derpling said:
that LG approach to unlocking bootloader will cost them, Sammy does the best, despite the knox counter it always comes unlocked(unless u AT-T).
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unlocked with no good or intresting custom roms?
If it would been unlocked from get go, it would speed up development. But that took awhile
Derpling said:
yes G4 is bad for gamers, what drove me insane is that angry birds 2 lagged on it, and it has weak cpu that can't run tekken 6 and dark resurrection at 60fps, note 5 can do it, that is amazing of itself.
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How will note 5 fare against the SD 820 ?
Qualcom got a bloody nose this year, they are likely to come out swinging next year. Lots of building up going on, 80k antutu bla bla.
we will see is what i say. Note 5's cpu is a 14nm i think. so qualcom is playing catch up.
G4 had random lags at times, Note 5 does not have any of those, rarely it has unlock screen freeze, when u unlock the screen it freezes for 5 second and then do all your taps... should be resolved in new update(already resolved for some).
Note 5 overall is the best phone i ever used, screen sound quality touchwiz... all better than g4 and v10.
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Since you have both devices, do you have a ac wifi router ?
do you notice any difference in stated link speed between the two.
One Twelve said:
How will note 5 fare against the SD 820 ?
Qualcom got a bloody nose this year, they are likely to come out swinging next year. Lots of building up going on, 80k antutu bla bla.
we will see is what i say.
Since you have both devices, do you have a ac wifi router ?
do you notice any difference in stated link speed between the two.
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1)Note 5 will fare very well against SD820, i expect SD820 multi-test score will either slightly higher than 7420 or slightly lower, the GPU will probably be 30-40% better if it won't throttle, but who knows? i have yet seen any game that bring Note 5 to it's knees, Exynos 7420 is seriously best chip Sammy ever made, and best cheap of last generation(till 8890 at least).
2)I had G4 from June 2 till 18 Aug, i didn't really measure the speed of the upload and download of both phones , but since i know my wifi speed, the G4 would miss sometimes and stopped downloading in the middle, or download very slow despite the connection was perfect, but it was inconsistent. some days it will be good, some other won't.
Note 5 has yet to do it to me, mobile data and wifi link are great.
And btw, gonna drain my battery a bit more now and send you the picture of the SOT and battery usage, the only thing that G4 does slightly better than note 5, is taking picture in low light.
Derpling said:
1)Note 5 will fare very well against SD820, i expect SD820 multi-test score will either slightly higher than 7420 or slightly lower, the GPU will probably be 30-40% better if it won't throttle, but who knows? i have yet seen any game that bring Note 5 to it's knees, Exynos 7420 is seriously best chip Sammy ever made, and best cheap of last generation(till 8890 at least).
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How is the rom scene with exynos ?
yes you have an unlocked bootloader but how does rom development fare when exynos sources are not completely released.
The result seems to be the same with the Lg's use qualcom but lock the bootloader. I've not figured out why the rest of the world got locked out except europe. Its like they use europe as a test case and when they have other products for sale, quietly unlock the rest. I don't beleive the current situation will endure, when the door is already slightly open.
2)I had G4 from June 2 till 18 Aug, i didn't really measure the speed of the upload and download of both phones , but since i know my wifi speed, the G4 would miss sometimes and stopped downloading in the middle, or download very slow despite the connection was perfect, but it was inconsistent. some days it will be good, some other won't.
Note 5 has yet to do it to me, mobile data and wifi link are great.
And btw, gonna drain my battery a bit more now and send you the picture of the SOT and battery usage, the only thing that G4 does slightly better than note 5, is taking picture in low light.
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What i'm thinking is the wifi chip sammy's have been using since the S5 last year is twice as fast. Not found any one to verify that though. There have been reports of sketchy wifi on the G4, maybe some tweaking required.
PURPOSE
So 1st and foremost, the plan here is to give you my experience with the LeEco Le Max 2 6GB version compared to some other recent flagship phones I have tried. Granted, I have only used the Max 2 for about 1/2 a week now and can say I have yet to fully break it in to find everything that may or may not be right / wrong with it. However, this will be a unbiased look and comparison. I'm neither a fanboy or sheep. No brand affiliation. Not a programmer either, just a pro-sumer Senior Member of XDA willing to get trolled, flamed, etc. for sharing a look at these 3 phones. Hopefully, I can give "the everyday guy / gal look" without getting bogged down in stats, variables or benchmarks. Here goes...
MY BACKGROUND
No one special. Just a guy that likes the latest tech... phones being at the top of the list. I am a nerd. No doubt about that. I think anyone that knows about XDA probably is to some extent. No brand loyalty. Recently, I have had the privilege to try out the following phones:
1. LeEco Le Max 2 6GB
2. HTC 10
3. Huawei P9 4GB
4. LG G5
5. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
6. Huawei Mate 8
7. Huawei Nexus 6P
8. LG Nexus 5X
9. Samsung Note 5
10. Apple iPhone 6s+
And probably some more, but these are the most recent. Does that make me qualified to make a review... Maybe. It does make me an idiot that likes new phones, though. I am always looking for something that meets my needs but also is a good phone. Currently with TMobile but have been with ATT, Verizon & Sprint at some point 20 years of using cell phones.
MY NEEDS
I drive about 40 miles everyday to work (yes, my work week is currently 7 days a week with a few occasional days off). So, with this in mind and where I drive. I need the minimum requirements:
1. Can Stream Music
2. Bluetooth is fully compatible with my 2016 vehicle
3. An equalizer of some sort since I have only switch out my new cars speakers for better ones and don't plan on changing or adding a better sound system.
4. Decent pictures when needed
5. Works with my Huawei Watch
6. Relatively not laggy - will sometimes do some ROM-ing or some customization but since I tend to get rid of the phones quickly I try not to void warranties or make it too non-stock
THE COMPARISON
I am looking at my experience with the Max 2 and the other flagships under/around these requirements and some normal stuff like battery, screen, snappiness, heat, speakers, etc. Here goes:
SOUND OVERALL
Lets start out by saying that I'm not a person that needs a phone that has good external speakers... I really have no use for them and as long as they are loud enough for notifications then I'm cool. Also, I am not a cross-training adventure workout junkie that requires 3.5mm in order to do everything with my phone... I state this now so that I clear the air with the Max 2 being one of the first phones not to have a 3.5mm jack and require a CDLA to 3.5mm adapter or CDLA USB Type C Headphones... I think the Max 2 may even come with the adapter and since I so don't give a brown matter from my butt about it, I haven't even taken it out of its packaging. Personally, the only time I use headphones is skiing and I have bluetooth wireless headphones built into my helmet... and like someone in the 21st century I realize I can have wireless headphones. :good: Now, my main sound experience with the Max 2 is bluetooth to my 2016 HR-V. It connects with zero issues, phone and bluetooth audio both work great. As a bonus, the built-in Dolby ATMOS makes my otherwise tinny speakers without equalization sound great. It also doesn't detract from the volume output like other similar apps... It allows me to blast bassy metal to offend anyone I want, which is a great double bonus situation for me. Nothing like driving by a church blasting GHOST and having the lyrics Hail Satan play loud, clear and rockin' hahaha. Seriously though, in recent memory, this is the only phone from 2016 flagships I haven't had to use a workaround app that drastically decreases the volume. Now I will say that the Dolby ATMOS setting works a little wonky and easily resets itself if you enter into the sound settings or back out of sound setting after enabling... once you know about this though, it is easy to workaround just by hitting home button instead. For the external speaker people, the Max 2 is super loud and the speakers do sound crisp... I think it is stereo speakers as well, if you care about those things... bass-wise, the speakers are not the best but not bad also... definitely as good as of not better than the HTC 10 or LG G5.
WINNER: NO DOUBT SO FAR IN 2016 - LeEco Max 2
BATTERY
From my experience so far, I have had decent battery life out of the Max 2. 3100 mAh does seem a tad small for this larger phalet... but I'm yet to say that its a problem for me. Of recent phones, LG G5 has the worse battery life with the HTC 10 being next in line, then S7 rounded out at the top with the P9... The P9 has a Kirin processor so lets toss it out. Out of the Snapdragons I will say that with my usage so far the Max 2 matches the S7 with battery life from my usage. Max 2 has fast charge as well which helps keep it on par with the other 820's. Just yesterday, I used the Max 2 all-day no recharging with 2 heavy usage periods for a total of 3 hours plus of screen on time playing Clash Royale. The rest of the day was standard usage of checking emails, looking at some news items, etc. It lasted the whole day from 8:30am until 1am in the morning with 15% left. This was on wifi the whole time as well. I feel this adequately meets my needs to last a whole day without recharge (which rarely happens since I always recharge when in my car) with moderate usage all day long.
WINNER: It's close to call but since its the larger phone and still performs well even though no wireless charging - LeEco Max 2
HEAT
I have yet to see a real heat spike with the Max 2. I have heard reports of heat but maybe this is with the 4GB version. Since the lack of need to flush RAM or actively manage memory more critically with the greater space, this may play a factor. Not a super nerdy tech guru on this so someone that understands this more may have to chime in. I have also yet to place it in a what I like to call, a pocket burning situation like at a concert were I'm using the camera a lot, there's high tower saturation causing the radio to work more, etc. I can say the phone barely heated up trying to download a 1.5GB update on LTE... so I guess that says something right? The only other phone that runs this cool is the P9 with it Kirin processor... all the 820's run a little hot when taxed so I would not be surprised if the Max 2 was the same if push to limits. I can say that I have gotten overheat warnings on the S7 when setting up the phone and downloading copious amounts of data.... and my first G5 overheated that it caused an internal malfunction causing me to have to replace the phone under warranty. The HTC 10 seemed to be the coolest out of the other 820's I have tried.
WINNER: Still is the P9 however out of the 820's - LeEco Max 2
SNAPPINESS
I have explained in some of my other reviews, I like to talk about performance in terms of snappiness with normal day to day usage with the phone rather than throw up meaningless to most people AnTuTu stats or whatever. I am going on out on a limp here and saying that the Max 2 dominates of course due to 6GB of RAM... it's like pitting a turbocharged version of a car vs. its not turbocharge version... more under the hood most of the time leads to better performance. No loading issues, no lag from app to app. What I can say is that EUI is a fairly nice GUI take on Android, better than EMUI, but not as nice as the new HTC 10 Sense / Stock like interface. I however did my standard change of porting over the sense launcher to the Max 2 which I just love... as far as getting use to how things work, there is a lot of configuration that can be done with notifications, much like Huawei's EMUI interface that might make it off putting to some... I lucked out and the aliexpress merchant I bought the Max 2 from pre-loaded the Google App Store when I got the phone. I since did 2 updates (one I downloaded and force flashed myself, the other was through LeEco's update system directly) and the app store continues to work fine.... There are redundant apps for email, calendar, message, etc. to google versions... however most of these are built well enough that you might not want or need the google versions. Notifications seem to work OK although some do not like that it does not litter the top of your screen with icons for every single notification.... rather it just typically puts an icon with "..." and a circle at the top... takes a little to get use to, but with a notification LED as well, I think this bypasses this small issue for some. :laugh: Also, people are starting to create ROMs for it and it is easily rootable albeit in Chinese at first, so you can definitely get more out of it with some tweaking.... haven't heard if they released Kernels yet. But it is only a matter of time given it popularity in China.
WINNER: Maybe just because of the 6GB but still... LeEco Le Max 2
DISPLAY
This to me is one of the areas much like sound where if it is not screwing up the way I use the phone then I care less about stuff like resolution. If someone can truly tell a load of difference between QHD, SuperHD, 1080p, etc. etc. good for you. Here what I can say. The Max 2 screen is great! Plus, its the largest compared to the other Flagships I have tried... forgot how nice it is to use a larger phone... It does not suffer from which ultimately made me get rid of the HTC 10 from the screen polarization being applied wrong causing you not to be able to use it outdoors with sunglasses on.... I know right... major f-up IMO that HTC 10 did... I couldn't see it in my car with sunglasses on, too annoying for me. Thankfully, don't have to worry about this with the Max 2 even with a tempered glass screen protector. Since it is somewhat screen related, I can say that the fingerprint sensor is something to be desired. Its slow, sometimes taking 3 tries for it to read properly... I have tried multiple times to reprogram and it does not help. Definitely the G5 and P9 beat it hands down when talking about rear facing fingerprint sensors... Even touchwiz laggy S7 sensor beats it. Hopefully, updates help with this. Like capacitive buttons it has, in the configuration I like with back button on left... apps button also reveals the control center feature on the Max 2... similar to Apples swipe up control center... not placing these toggles in the notification panel is a fresh take on using these toggles and I like it... Color balance seems good on the phone as well if you care about those things... No Always-On feature for the Max 2 either but not a huge deal with a configurable notification LED.
WINNER: The S7 still has the best "looking screen"; G5 has the best always-on screen - Max 2 is ok but not the best in this class of phones.... Does get bonus points for the control center feature and correctly orientated IMO capacitive buttons
PHONE DESIGN
The Max 2 is a good looking phone especially with a premium metal chassis... I do have to say that I had to get the "Gold" version of the phone since it was the only one available at this point in the 6GB Version... I use "gold" here loosely as like other can report... gold is actually rose gold... not that rose gold is bad, but a pinkish phone for a guy is not cool... No matter, I got a Matte black hard case today the covers the back and pretty much takes care of the covering most of the pinkish gold exterior.... I believe there will be other colors out there soon but I could not wait any longer... Camera and button placement is nice. Phone feels great in hand. Although bigger than the other 2016 Flagships, its not gargantuan either... doesn't feel like putting a tablet up to your ear like other phalets can feel like. Pretty thin too and not overly heavy. The biggest design issue is of course no SD Card add-on memory since the SIM tray only accommodates dual SIMs. At 64GB, this isn't an issue for me as I don't save a lot to my phone and jam pack it with needless stuff. The fingerprint sensor is in a good natural position albeit if it only worked on the first try... Its not like Megan Fox / Candice Swanepoel good looking phone rather more like Melissa Benoist / Kate Upton good looking. You ain't going to wake up after a long night of drinking and go "my god... what did I do..." but you are also not getting the top of the heap in design characteristics either. It's nice looking but not someone you'd use your "hall pass" on over your wife, if you get my point..." Notification LED work great and should be noted as not being blinding at night like others can be.... looking at you HTC 10... I like no 3.5mm jack since I don't use it anyway... less holes to get dirt into... in this case, having less holes to stick stuff into wins out!!! :silly:
WINNER: Still S7 for overall design, wireless charging, etc. - Your not bad Max 2, but pinkish gold is makes my balls instantly shrink!!!
CAMERA
Another big deal for some but not really a huge concern for me is the camera on smartphones... Personally and I have gone over the reasons time and time again, I went to school for photography and have used some really great cameras, film and digital. So when you start looking at smartphone cameras, even in 2016, it is still hard to compare to the output of an actual camera. With that said, there is no real gimmick with the Max 2... looks to be an alright camera that I will post examples later of. Doesn't have "superpixels", low light lens, dual lens, etc, etc. etc. It will take pictures decently and in most cases that's all you need it to do. I can say that it does have one of my major pet peeves when it comes to the camera app in video mode... no focus lock.... honestly who uses always on auto focus in video mode.... looks like a bad wedding video... when you are recording something that you are a fixed distance away, like a concert lets say, you don't need for it to re-focus... it annoying. So, I am going to cut this section short and just say, the Max 2 has a camera, its nothing special and if you are ok with a no gimmick no frills nexus like camera than its absolutely fine for what its supposed to do.... :highfive:
WINNER: S7 for low-light, G5 for wide angled, P9 for dynamic range; HTC 10 for camera app & Max 2 for no frills OK no gimmicks camera
CONCLUSION
For my daily usage case, the Max 2 is great! When you consider that it outperforms in most cases phones that are $200 - $400 more than what it costs... It tends to soften the negatives. I think for me the greatest of which is the current functionality of the fingerprint sensor... I hate struggling to get it to read than having to still punch in a pin when it fails. Besides this, all the othe negatives are minor. Camera - its really ok just nothing special. Color - if you can wait, you can get a more manly color unless you want to go with the 4GB version (you can get different colors now). EUI - definitely not as big of a learning curve as EMUI but it does take a little bit of commitment to get use to all the customization you can do. Looks like LeEco plans to release updates frequently since there has been at least one since it released in May... Yeah, it doesn't have a headphone jack... grow up and get with the 21st century... hahaha. To get a 6GB phone, under $500, 64GB internal is not too shabby. Would it be stellar with a SD Card add-on, yep it sure would but I can make do without having the SD Card in most cases unless I really started ROM-ing and backing up TWRPs with it.... I think if you are looking for a good, well performing phone at a good price with some decent specs and killer sound, this does the trick, most definitely. Could it be better, you betcha... but I can say that for any of the 2016 Flagship phones. Lastly and as always, this is just Some Guy's Opinion... :good:
Good review, makes it sound really awesome. My experience is very different.
I have the 6GB version and its regularly becoming warm.
Sound is ok, but Huawei Mate 8 is a different class altogether (better).
As a mid level budget phone the Eco Max 2 is very clearly on the cost performance side.
But I think the battery softens its advantage.
The hardware specs on the Max 2 are all top class, but there is definitely muuuch room for improvement. On the paper the network is Cat 12, but tell you the truth in daily usage it doesnt differ speed to Huawei Mate 8. Same for the user experience speed.
Also its not funny if the phone reboots occasionally
LeTV has fixed some of the issues with the upcoming EUI 5.8 release, but they need to do more !!
If you are thinking about getting it and tweaking it for your local marcet you have to do little homework with Google playstore etc. Its a gadget for geeky power users, but not mainstream user, to many changes required.
EverPing said:
Good review, makes it sound really awesome. My experience is very different.
I have the 6GB version and its regularly becoming warm.
Sound is ok, but Huawei Mate 8 is a different class altogether (better).
As a mid level budget phone the Eco Max 2 is very clearly on the cost performance side.
But I think the battery softens its advantage.
The hardware specs on the Max 2 are all top class, but there is definitely muuuch room for improvement. On the paper the network is Cat 12, but tell you the truth in daily usage it doesnt differ speed to Huawei Mate 8. Same for the user experience speed.
Also its not funny if the phone reboots occasionally
LeTV has fixed some of the issues with the upcoming EUI 5.8 release, but they need to do more !!
If you are thinking about getting it and tweaking it for your local marcet you have to do little homework with Google playstore etc. Its a gadget for geeky power users, but not mainstream user, to many changes required.
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Funny mine never rebooted once. No heat even under load. No big modifications to get google play. Mine was stock and able to OTA... Google Play just took a simple APK download and agreeing to "unknown sources." Yes, its not a consumer mainstream phone outside of China... however doing a review on XDA, pretty much means its a review for a more "geeky" crowd easily capable of simple APK downloads from shared sources mentioned at least 10 different times in 10 different posts in this forum. The Huawei Mate 8 succeeds because of Kirin... however of 820's and at this price point, its hard to beat... maybe only by OP3 once they figure out the RAM Management. The camera is better on the Mate 8 but it's not as good as the P9... Plus all in all, its just as difficult to install the Play Store on the Mate8 & P9... both phones I owned and sold, as I was able to get just as good as and somewhat better phone for $200 to $300 cheaper. In the states, all these phones max out our 4G LTE networks so seeing any major difference between the P9, Mate8 and the Max 2 in modem performance is minor. Once again, OGO
Thanks for the feedback, maybe I am just unlucky this time. The apk's I downloaded from apkmirror etc don't seem to work on my Chinese version max 2. I also tried Xiaomi installer version 2, Opengapps, LeTV Playstore zips for same.
I think in terms of price LeTV has found a sweet spot in the marcet, but overall the software quality is just not there yet. However the upcoming update will fix some of it.
Hi,
Thanks for the review. Could you tell me if it has MHL ?
Regards
I tried with my MHL-Adapter, which is working fine with LETV LE 1 (X600). Didn´t work ...
Ok, thanks for the info. MHL is so usefull when you want to see a film at the hotel...
I think it should have MHL (I might have found this hint in some descriptions) but actually it is not working (for me?)...
Having been in IT, the first thing you learn is most problems are usually user problems. Most of the issues that I have come up against are problems of my own doing. For example, some thing may not work because I deleted a necessary file in my quest to remove Chinese Le-bloat. So it has been trial and error. I installed the CM 13 yesterday, but didn't like the tinny sound the speakers were making. Went back to the dev 5.8 stock, installed Google play and a few apps and it's running like a charm. I have not experienced any overheating issues. This phone does everything that one does with a phone very well. I sure you can find an individual that does intense things on their device, but for the average user that surfs the web, watches you tube, plays a few games, sends/reads email and IM's others, this phone is hard to beat. This morning I had an antutu of 140491, which is pretty good considering I only have the 4/32 GB version. Can you say fast phone?!
Hi,
I may add a comparison to a phone that can be considered as the direct competitor to the Le 2 Max : the One+ 3.
There is one area where the Le 2 Max clearly wins : it's the display. I don't care about 2k or FHD. It's hard to tell the difference in real life anyways. But I'm talking about brightness and legibility in sunny daylight conditions. And there, there is no question : the Le 2 Max is superior to the OP3, even after OP3 released the new display drivers that improves things on the brightness side...
And the 0.2" more is a nice addition too... Really noticeable when you used the LeEco for several days and you then go back to OP3
But apart from that (which is really important I admit it), the Le 2 Max is lagging behind in almost every other aspect...
BATTERY LIFE : OP3 wins without a question...In really heavy usage (GPS + BT active +display on all the time) I get about 3h45minutes of battery life with the LeEco... and about 5h30 in the same conditions with the OP3. That's almost 50% better battery. Think the 2K display has a cost unfortunately
SNAPPINESS : the LeEco is OK. But once you compare it to the OP3, the overall feeling is clearly pointing into the OP3 direction !!! And just install a custom ROM like Tipsy, and your device seems to fly, when the Le Eco seems to walk
HEAT : under the heavy usage conditions I described before, the LeEco gets mildly hot. It's much cooler than the Nexus 5 used to be in the same conditions( where it lasted about 1h40 on battery !). But the OP3 is simply almost cool. On that side, OP3 wins...
SOUND : I admit that I don't give a **** about sound coming from the speakers. But on phone calls OP3 clearly wins. On Le 2 Max I have a "ghost sound". I seem to hear everything I am saying to the other person like he has a loudspeaker on. Doesn't happen on OP3.
CAMERA : I am not a great camera user. But both deliver pictures that are good enough for me. But I must say it's difficult to tear them apart
FINGERPRINT SCANNER : it's adictive to use on OP3 because fingerprint is recognized in a fraction of a second and is ALWAYS recognized. I cannot count the times I left my finger on the finger print scanner for seconds before it decided to consider it has to recognize a finger... and then I would say about 30% of the time it doesn't recognize my finger print on first attempt, and about 15% of the time it doesn't recognize it at all so I have to fire it up with the power key and pattern.
DEVELOPMENT : It seems LeEco has no intention at all to consider those phones as an important part of their business. Look at their website : they're ahrdly advertised. Go to their forums : there no activity. An official from LeEco shows up about once every 3 weeks. All in all, discussion and support are simply dead. All tehy keep saying is "Stay tuned, we have a lot to unveil"... but no date nor nothing ! And after 4 months of phone existence what do we have : a tweaked Stock ROM and a CM13 build that is obviously not really actively developped. After 3 weeks of existence, OP3 has tweaked stock ROM, CM13 and 3 derivatives, 3 or 4 AOSP derivatives and just recevied multi ROM... So all problems may have a fix some day... There's really little hope to have that with LeEco
Even CM13 builders doesn't publish their github source which would allow to work on other ROM's...
PERFORMANCE : not that I really care about benchmarks... as I am convinced that 3k or 4k points in Antutu will go unnoticed in real life. But on the OP3 if I run several Antutu tests in a row, I have only a really slight variation in results It goes from 142k to 136-138k on 3rd/4th pass. On x820 results vary from 140k (generally on first pass) and then sink to 110k (sometimes even less) on third/fourth pass... And that sounds really weird to me : maybe there's a throttle on the phone ?
ALL IN ALL : I'd love to keep the LeEco because of it's display. But considering all the "cons" it has, I am afraid it will soon join an ad site for used devices And that's a shame because with a little support from it's manufacturer, it would be THE device to keep
So LeEco : if you hang around here sometime, show us some love and release official device trees.
Well said and your comments are spot on @NexusPenguin
Le needs to release kernel sources to their phones to survive in this industry. They absolutely do not want to go down Xiaomi's footsteps.
If they don't release device trees, most people will simply not buy their Le Max 3 or whatever they release next. Simple to earn bad-will and buey themselves to ground.
it is definitively fast but....
Dear jim262,
it is really fast. With Google Keyboard app, not debloated and after autoupdate to EUI 5.8.016S mine had a Antutu v6.2.1 of 139.159
But:
- I Need a international ROM
- why can´t the user decide wether he want´s the LeTV Software on it or not? So debloate that phone. I don´t want a fixed button on the Screen wich leeds to Chinese Websites. Unfortunately I can´t speak/read Chinese.
- The cam should have more Software ability to take pics with lower size. Actual it doesn´t allow less than 8 MP`s
jim262 said:
Having been in IT, the first thing you learn is most problems are usually user problems. Most of the issues that I have come up against are problems of my own doing. For example, some thing may not work because I deleted a necessary file in my quest to remove Chinese Le-bloat. So it has been trial and error. I installed the CM 13 yesterday, but didn't like the tinny sound the speakers were making. Went back to the dev 5.8 stock, installed Google play and a few apps and it's running like a charm. I have not experienced any overheating issues. This phone does everything that one does with a phone very well. I sure you can find an individual that does intense things on their device, but for the average user that surfs the web, watches you tube, plays a few games, sends/reads email and IM's others, this phone is hard to beat. This morning I had an antutu of 140491, which is pretty good considering I only have the 4/32 GB version. Can you say fast phone?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LeTvNewby said:
Dear jim262,
it is really fast. With Google Keyboard app, not debloated and after autoupdate to EUI 5.8.016S mine had a Antutu v6.2.1 of 139.159
But:
- I Need a international ROM
- why can´t the user decide wether he want´s the LeTV Software on it or not? So debloate that phone. I don´t want a fixed button on the Screen wich leeds to Chinese Websites. Unfortunately I can´t speak/read Chinese.
- The cam should have more Software ability to take pics with lower size. Actual it doesn´t allow less than 8 MP`s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the roms are international roms with the ability to select language when you start.
Yeah, the phone is not a Galaxy S7 killer but I don't think we ever had such a device ~$250 on the market. Oneplus One might have been the only thing that came close but now their devices cost ~400€.
It doesn't have any real weaknesses, only a few things like the camera and software are mid-to-high end.
Clearly we'll see a drop in smartphone prices in the coming years, users won't pay 700€ anymore if you can get the latest for less. And these cheap manufacturers will catch up to Samsung and co. eventually.
mahst68 said:
PURPOSE
So 1st and foremost, the plan here is to give you my experience with the LeEco Le Max 2 6GB version compared to some other recent flagship phones I have tried. Granted, I have only used the Max 2 for about 1/2 a week now and can say I have yet to fully break it in to find everything that may or may not be right / wrong with it. However, this will be a unbiased look and comparison. I'm neither a fanboy or sheep. No brand affiliation. Not a programmer either, just a pro-sumer Senior Member of XDA willing to get trolled, flamed, etc. for sharing a look at these 3 phones. Hopefully, I can give "the everyday guy / gal look" without getting bogged down in stats, variables or benchmarks. Here goes...
MY BACKGROUND
No one special. Just a guy that likes the latest tech... phones being at the top of the list. I am a nerd. No doubt about that. I think anyone that knows about XDA probably is to some extent. No brand loyalty. Recently, I have had the privilege to try out the following phones:
1. LeEco Le Max 2 6GB
2. HTC 10
3. Huawei P9 4GB
4. LG G5
5. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
6. Huawei Mate 8
7. Huawei Nexus 6P
8. LG Nexus 5X
9. Samsung Note 5
10. Apple iPhone 6s+
And probably some more, but these are the most recent. Does that make me qualified to make a review... Maybe. It does make me an idiot that likes new phones, though. I am always looking for something that meets my needs but also is a good phone. Currently with TMobile but have been with ATT, Verizon & Sprint at some point 20 years of using cell phones.
MY NEEDS
I drive about 40 miles everyday to work (yes, my work week is currently 7 days a week with a few occasional days off). So, with this in mind and where I drive. I need the minimum requirements:
1. Can Stream Music
2. Bluetooth is fully compatible with my 2016 vehicle
3. An equalizer of some sort since I have only switch out my new cars speakers for better ones and don't plan on changing or adding a better sound system.
4. Decent pictures when needed
5. Works with my Huawei Watch
6. Relatively not laggy - will sometimes do some ROM-ing or some customization but since I tend to get rid of the phones quickly I try not to void warranties or make it too non-stock
THE COMPARISON
I am looking at my experience with the Max 2 and the other flagships under/around these requirements and some normal stuff like battery, screen, snappiness, heat, speakers, etc. Here goes:
SOUND OVERALL
Lets start out by saying that I'm not a person that needs a phone that has good external speakers... I really have no use for them and as long as they are loud enough for notifications then I'm cool. Also, I am not a cross-training adventure workout junkie that requires 3.5mm in order to do everything with my phone... I state this now so that I clear the air with the Max 2 being one of the first phones not to have a 3.5mm jack and require a CDLA to 3.5mm adapter or CDLA USB Type C Headphones... I think the Max 2 may even come with the adapter and since I so don't give a brown matter from my butt about it, I haven't even taken it out of its packaging. Personally, the only time I use headphones is skiing and I have bluetooth wireless headphones built into my helmet... and like someone in the 21st century I realize I can have wireless headphones. :good: Now, my main sound experience with the Max 2 is bluetooth to my 2016 HR-V. It connects with zero issues, phone and bluetooth audio both work great. As a bonus, the built-in Dolby ATMOS makes my otherwise tinny speakers without equalization sound great. It also doesn't detract from the volume output like other similar apps... It allows me to blast bassy metal to offend anyone I want, which is a great double bonus situation for me. Nothing like driving by a church blasting GHOST and having the lyrics Hail Satan play loud, clear and rockin' hahaha. Seriously though, in recent memory, this is the only phone from 2016 flagships I haven't had to use a workaround app that drastically decreases the volume. Now I will say that the Dolby ATMOS setting works a little wonky and easily resets itself if you enter into the sound settings or back out of sound setting after enabling... once you know about this though, it is easy to workaround just by hitting home button instead. For the external speaker people, the Max 2 is super loud and the speakers do sound crisp... I think it is stereo speakers as well, if you care about those things... bass-wise, the speakers are not the best but not bad also... definitely as good as of not better than the HTC 10 or LG G5.
WINNER: NO DOUBT SO FAR IN 2016 - LeEco Max 2
BATTERY
From my experience so far, I have had decent battery life out of the Max 2. 3100 mAh does seem a tad small for this larger phalet... but I'm yet to say that its a problem for me. Of recent phones, LG G5 has the worse battery life with the HTC 10 being next in line, then S7 rounded out at the top with the P9... The P9 has a Kirin processor so lets toss it out. Out of the Snapdragons I will say that with my usage so far the Max 2 matches the S7 with battery life from my usage. Max 2 has fast charge as well which helps keep it on par with the other 820's. Just yesterday, I used the Max 2 all-day no recharging with 2 heavy usage periods for a total of 3 hours plus of screen on time playing Clash Royale. The rest of the day was standard usage of checking emails, looking at some news items, etc. It lasted the whole day from 8:30am until 1am in the morning with 15% left. This was on wifi the whole time as well. I feel this adequately meets my needs to last a whole day without recharge (which rarely happens since I always recharge when in my car) with moderate usage all day long.
WINNER: It's close to call but since its the larger phone and still performs well even though no wireless charging - LeEco Max 2
HEAT
I have yet to see a real heat spike with the Max 2. I have heard reports of heat but maybe this is with the 4GB version. Since the lack of need to flush RAM or actively manage memory more critically with the greater space, this may play a factor. Not a super nerdy tech guru on this so someone that understands this more may have to chime in. I have also yet to place it in a what I like to call, a pocket burning situation like at a concert were I'm using the camera a lot, there's high tower saturation causing the radio to work more, etc. I can say the phone barely heated up trying to download a 1.5GB update on LTE... so I guess that says something right? The only other phone that runs this cool is the P9 with it Kirin processor... all the 820's run a little hot when taxed so I would not be surprised if the Max 2 was the same if push to limits. I can say that I have gotten overheat warnings on the S7 when setting up the phone and downloading copious amounts of data.... and my first G5 overheated that it caused an internal malfunction causing me to have to replace the phone under warranty. The HTC 10 seemed to be the coolest out of the other 820's I have tried.
WINNER: Still is the P9 however out of the 820's - LeEco Max 2
SNAPPINESS
I have explained in some of my other reviews, I like to talk about performance in terms of snappiness with normal day to day usage with the phone rather than throw up meaningless to most people AnTuTu stats or whatever. I am going on out on a limp here and saying that the Max 2 dominates of course due to 6GB of RAM... it's like pitting a turbocharged version of a car vs. its not turbocharge version... more under the hood most of the time leads to better performance. No loading issues, no lag from app to app. What I can say is that EUI is a fairly nice GUI take on Android, better than EMUI, but not as nice as the new HTC 10 Sense / Stock like interface. I however did my standard change of porting over the sense launcher to the Max 2 which I just love... as far as getting use to how things work, there is a lot of configuration that can be done with notifications, much like Huawei's EMUI interface that might make it off putting to some... I lucked out and the aliexpress merchant I bought the Max 2 from pre-loaded the Google App Store when I got the phone. I since did 2 updates (one I downloaded and force flashed myself, the other was through LeEco's update system directly) and the app store continues to work fine.... There are redundant apps for email, calendar, message, etc. to google versions... however most of these are built well enough that you might not want or need the google versions. Notifications seem to work OK although some do not like that it does not litter the top of your screen with icons for every single notification.... rather it just typically puts an icon with "..." and a circle at the top... takes a little to get use to, but with a notification LED as well, I think this bypasses this small issue for some. :laugh: Also, people are starting to create ROMs for it and it is easily rootable albeit in Chinese at first, so you can definitely get more out of it with some tweaking.... haven't heard if they released Kernels yet. But it is only a matter of time given it popularity in China.
WINNER: Maybe just because of the 6GB but still... LeEco Le Max 2
DISPLAY
This to me is one of the areas much like sound where if it is not screwing up the way I use the phone then I care less about stuff like resolution. If someone can truly tell a load of difference between QHD, SuperHD, 1080p, etc. etc. good for you. Here what I can say. The Max 2 screen is great! Plus, its the largest compared to the other Flagships I have tried... forgot how nice it is to use a larger phone... It does not suffer from which ultimately made me get rid of the HTC 10 from the screen polarization being applied wrong causing you not to be able to use it outdoors with sunglasses on.... I know right... major f-up IMO that HTC 10 did... I couldn't see it in my car with sunglasses on, too annoying for me. Thankfully, don't have to worry about this with the Max 2 even with a tempered glass screen protector. Since it is somewhat screen related, I can say that the fingerprint sensor is something to be desired. Its slow, sometimes taking 3 tries for it to read properly... I have tried multiple times to reprogram and it does not help. Definitely the G5 and P9 beat it hands down when talking about rear facing fingerprint sensors... Even touchwiz laggy S7 sensor beats it. Hopefully, updates help with this. Like capacitive buttons it has, in the configuration I like with back button on left... apps button also reveals the control center feature on the Max 2... similar to Apples swipe up control center... not placing these toggles in the notification panel is a fresh take on using these toggles and I like it... Color balance seems good on the phone as well if you care about those things... No Always-On feature for the Max 2 either but not a huge deal with a configurable notification LED.
WINNER: The S7 still has the best "looking screen"; G5 has the best always-on screen - Max 2 is ok but not the best in this class of phones.... Does get bonus points for the control center feature and correctly orientated IMO capacitive buttons
PHONE DESIGN
The Max 2 is a good looking phone especially with a premium metal chassis... I do have to say that I had to get the "Gold" version of the phone since it was the only one available at this point in the 6GB Version... I use "gold" here loosely as like other can report... gold is actually rose gold... not that rose gold is bad, but a pinkish phone for a guy is not cool... No matter, I got a Matte black hard case today the covers the back and pretty much takes care of the covering most of the pinkish gold exterior.... I believe there will be other colors out there soon but I could not wait any longer... Camera and button placement is nice. Phone feels great in hand. Although bigger than the other 2016 Flagships, its not gargantuan either... doesn't feel like putting a tablet up to your ear like other phalets can feel like. Pretty thin too and not overly heavy. The biggest design issue is of course no SD Card add-on memory since the SIM tray only accommodates dual SIMs. At 64GB, this isn't an issue for me as I don't save a lot to my phone and jam pack it with needless stuff. The fingerprint sensor is in a good natural position albeit if it only worked on the first try... Its not like Megan Fox / Candice Swanepoel good looking phone rather more like Melissa Benoist / Kate Upton good looking. You ain't going to wake up after a long night of drinking and go "my god... what did I do..." but you are also not getting the top of the heap in design characteristics either. It's nice looking but not someone you'd use your "hall pass" on over your wife, if you get my point..." Notification LED work great and should be noted as not being blinding at night like others can be.... looking at you HTC 10... I like no 3.5mm jack since I don't use it anyway... less holes to get dirt into... in this case, having less holes to stick stuff into wins out!!! :silly:
WINNER: Still S7 for overall design, wireless charging, etc. - Your not bad Max 2, but pinkish gold is makes my balls instantly shrink!!!
CAMERA
Another big deal for some but not really a huge concern for me is the camera on smartphones... Personally and I have gone over the reasons time and time again, I went to school for photography and have used some really great cameras, film and digital. So when you start looking at smartphone cameras, even in 2016, it is still hard to compare to the output of an actual camera. With that said, there is no real gimmick with the Max 2... looks to be an alright camera that I will post examples later of. Doesn't have "superpixels", low light lens, dual lens, etc, etc. etc. It will take pictures decently and in most cases that's all you need it to do. I can say that it does have one of my major pet peeves when it comes to the camera app in video mode... no focus lock.... honestly who uses always on auto focus in video mode.... looks like a bad wedding video... when you are recording something that you are a fixed distance away, like a concert lets say, you don't need for it to re-focus... it annoying. So, I am going to cut this section short and just say, the Max 2 has a camera, its nothing special and if you are ok with a no gimmick no frills nexus like camera than its absolutely fine for what its supposed to do.... :highfive:
WINNER: S7 for low-light, G5 for wide angled, P9 for dynamic range; HTC 10 for camera app & Max 2 for no frills OK no gimmicks camera
CONCLUSION
For my daily usage case, the Max 2 is great! When you consider that it outperforms in most cases phones that are $200 - $400 more than what it costs... It tends to soften the negatives. I think for me the greatest of which is the current functionality of the fingerprint sensor... I hate struggling to get it to read than having to still punch in a pin when it fails. Besides this, all the othe negatives are minor. Camera - its really ok just nothing special. Color - if you can wait, you can get a more manly color unless you want to go with the 4GB version (you can get different colors now). EUI - definitely not as big of a learning curve as EMUI but it does take a little bit of commitment to get use to all the customization you can do. Looks like LeEco plans to release updates frequently since there has been at least one since it released in May... Yeah, it doesn't have a headphone jack... grow up and get with the 21st century... hahaha. To get a 6GB phone, under $500, 64GB internal is not too shabby. Would it be stellar with a SD Card add-on, yep it sure would but I can make do without having the SD Card in most cases unless I really started ROM-ing and backing up TWRPs with it.... I think if you are looking for a good, well performing phone at a good price with some decent specs and killer sound, this does the trick, most definitely. Could it be better, you betcha... but I can say that for any of the 2016 Flagship phones. Lastly and as always, this is just Some Guy's Opinion... :good:
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Thanks a lot this is thorough.. Impressive stuff
I really like my Le Max2. It's not perfect, but no phone is. It is certainly a fast and powerful phone. No lag and handles everything I throw at it with ease. Antutu scores of over 140K are crazy in a $230 device!! I am enjoying its audio output and have been mostly very impressed with the photos I have taken so far. The fingerprint scanner is very fast and reliable for me. I quite like eui as it is fairly light and has some very useful features, especially for power management (I have generally been getting 5 to 7 hours SOT). This is my first 2K display phone, and the clarity is fantastic. The black levels are good, and the colours are vibrant. Probably my main criticism of the phone is the viewing angles and max brightness level of the display. Colour shifting is pronounced when viewing at any angle much off straight, and the max brightness is just OK - I would like to be able to crank it up a fair bit more at times.
kanagawaben said:
I really like my Le Max2. It's not perfect, but no phone is. It is certainly a fast and powerful phone. No lag and handles everything I throw at it with ease. Antutu scores of over 140K are crazy in a $230 device!! I am enjoying its audio output and have been mostly very impressed with the photos I have taken so far. The fingerprint scanner is very fast and reliable for me. I quite like eui as it is fairly light and has some very useful features, especially for power management (I have generally been getting 5 to 7 hours SOT). This is my first 2K display phone, and the clarity is fantastic. The black levels are good, and the colours are vibrant. Probably my main criticism of the phone is the viewing angles and max brightness level of the display. Colour shifting is pronounced when viewing at any angle much off straight, and the max brightness is just OK - I would like to be able to crank it up a fair bit more at times.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anything special you did to improve fingerprint response
Mine does work but it becomes unresponsive if not used for a while but after first unlock the consecutive ones are fast
Which rom are you on?
Did you never had any fingerprint problem?
[email protected] said:
Anything special you did to improve fingerprint response
Mine does work but it becomes unresponsive if not used for a while but after first unlock the consecutive ones are fast
Which rom are you on?
Did you never had any fingerprint problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am currently using the Parasite debloated version of S19. I have also used Cuoco92, stock Chinese 17S and 19S, and Indian 16S. Haven't had the slightest problem with fingerprint on any of them. I always register two with the same finger (my right index) and the other with my left index. I'd say it is 99% accurate - it really only misses if I put my finger in at a very weird angle or move it too much. Fast too, not instant but pretty near it - less than a count of one.
kanagawaben said:
I am currently using the Parasite debloated version of S19. I have also used Cuoco92, stock Chinese 17S and 19S, and Indian 16S. Haven't had the slightest problem with fingerprint on any of them. I always register two with the same finger (my right index) and the other with my left index.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you never have problems like the fingerprint doesn't recognize the first touch?
Or after all night standby the fingerprint takes a few seconds to unlock?
Do you think my fingerprint problem is hardware?
I bought it like 2 weeks ago I can return?
But it's a really good phone for the price
Only things that annoy me is fingerprint and lack of custom rom support both of which letv is to blame
[email protected] said:
So you never have problems like the fingerprint doesn't recognize the first touch?
Or after all night standby the fingerprint takes a few seconds to unlock?
Do you think my fingerprint problem is hardware?
I bought it like 2 weeks ago I can return?
But it's a really good phone for the price
Only things that annoy me is fingerprint and lack of custom rom support both of which letv is to blame
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly never. Scanner has been rock solid for me. What ROM are you on?
Hey guys currently im using a LG G4. I'm tired of not having a stable root, and bad battery.
Now i have a chance to buy this phone and sell my old lg g4 my question is, does it worth? How good the phone is compared to lg g4 and can you root/unlock, find a stable rom, use it as daily device? Thank you in advance.
I think it is a good device but the bootloader unlocking may not go as smooth as you would like. Lots of people have trouble unlocking.
Mine came already unlocked from aliexpress so...
But when unlocked i find root to be very stable.
Nice phone for 170 bucks or so.
its a good phone .....root is stable....performance is good....battery is good but need to fix a deep sleep problem by flashing two little things......
Everything is better on the Remi Pro except the screen resolution and camera quality. Camera on the G4 is much better, specialy in video recordin department. If the camera is not your main priority than buy this phone.
Sent from my Redmi Pro using Tapatalk
I bought it yesterday night. Now I need to figure out how to get Eu stable rom. So far so good. Camera is not that bad compared to lg g4 and from half day usage I can say battery is much better. No regrets.
Basically went through the same decision. Was using G4 dual sim, really needed fingerprint reader for Exchange mailbox. Got redmi pro - amoled screen is much better for all around usage (IPS QHD on g4 is whiter and little bit more detailed, also has gorilla 3, but Redmi Pros screen is more pleasant to look at and you really cant tell the difference of the DPI on normal day to day usage), battery life is considerably better on redmi PRO (around 1000 more mAH, lower resolution screen + possibly weaker processor gives more battery life), build quality is quite good ( i could nitpick here and there, like the fingerprint button dipping a little bit too deep on the left side, for two weeks has not become a problem yet though. metal unibody feels good, although more slippery than leather G4). The camera is my only grudge - although I did not take that much pictures on my G4, I loved the possibility of deep manual control over the camera. With Redmis camera, pictures in the dark are quite bad - but then again the time to focus and actually take a picture are noticeably faster on Redmi, so everyday snaps (for work, facebook chat and so on) are less of a hassle.
One of the true negative sides, is the lack of LTE 800 mhz(band 20 ) on the REDMI, as that is used here by all of the carriers. On G4 I had great 4g coverage indoors and on the road (countrysides, highways), Redmi falls short here, and lives mostly on 3g/3g+, rarely dropping to Edge - although I do get my 10ish mb download speed on the 3g, the networks used to be overburdened a year ago (especially 3g bands, now it is a bit better), so 4g was a saviour. Also the lack of a dedicated SD-card slot is a negative side, although not really a problem. I am yet to decide, if I'm keeping redmi pro as my main device - lack of 800mhz 4g being the only real decisive factor.
On the software side, I flashed Xiaomi EU rom - Sim toolkit started working (did not work on chinese version). Coming from LG factory roms, also having used CM and AOSP mods earlier, miui is a really well made "skin" for android. It is so well made actually, I wouldnt even call it a skin - the design and the configuration possibilites are very good. Besides only few small things, I would place miui over LG, Samsung and AOSP/CM in that regard. Few small gripes I have, is that I cannot seem to assign contacts to a specific sim (for calling purpouses - for example, i want work numbers to always call on sim 2, private numbers on sim1. right now I have to click and hold on the contact/number, and on the menu select Dial with sim X, where x is 1 or 2). In the dialer there are 2 call buttons for each sim, but that works only if you input the number manually. On LG G4, you could easily swap between two sims (selecting the main sim), or assign a sim for a contact.
Another problem, what is starting to get me a little bit, is the dropping of the 3g network - or rather the downstream part. On random times, all downloading ceases yet the phone shows upstream is still active. Sometimes this corrects itself in a minute or two, but when you need the connection now, you have to toggle mobile data off and on. This does not happen with Wifi. It might be the problem with the xiaomi.eu rom, as during the few days I used the factory Chinese rom, I did not notice this.
So basically for me, it comes down to the 4g 800mhz support, which for whatever reason, a lot of chinese phones lack (something to do with India laws?). Otherwise, for 180€ ish euros, this is a great buy ( if it does not degrade over time too quickly, especially the software part).
That's a very good post and very informative. Thank you for time. I hope people can benefit from it.
I have no regret so far. Great battery compared to lg 4. Submitted for the unlocking procedure. I want to have eu rom too. Hope it won't take long.
i think about seling it, miui is day by day more worst. phone is good, amoled is not real amoled, if you put black image and go in a dark room you will se pixel is not closed, not pure dark, only brownish.
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 Huawei P20, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Huawei P20 is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
I like so many things about P20 and few don't, P20 pro is not worth the money even if it 3 cam or highest rated on DxO , I got Sony A7 full frame mirrorless which no future phone can match at least for next five years
Good: Dual SIM as standard with most UK retailer
Design, front fingerprint reader
8.1 out of box
Huawei's customer service
Dolby Atmos
Reasonable price and even better with £320 Bose headphones
4 GB ram is not flagship class but acceptable
Bad: poor IP rating
No autofocus front cam with wasted megapixel (24 MP) what's the point ?
No FM radio
No infrared
Screen resolution is ok but screen quality is not on par with Sony, Samsung, LG or HTC
main snapper is too good on paper but in actual test I found not much visible improvement compared with last year's model
Given the size of battery , the battery life will dafinatly not better than P20 pro, Mate 10 pro, OnePlus 5, or Galaxy S9
Given the scenario I will go with Huawei mate 10 pro
onlinejobwork said:
I like so many things about P20 and few don't, P20 pro is not worth the money even if it 3 cam or highest rated on DxO , I got Sony A7 full frame mirrorless which no future phone can match at least for next five years
Good: Dual SIM as standard with most UK retailer
Design, front fingerprint reader
8.1 out of box
Huawei's customer service
Dolby Atmos
Reasonable price and even better with £320 Bose headphones
4 GB ram is not flagship class but acceptable
Bad: poor IP rating
No autofocus front cam with wasted megapixel (24 MP) what's the point ?
No FM radio
No infrared
Screen resolution is ok but screen quality is not on par with Sony, Samsung, LG or HTC
main snapper is too good on paper but in actual test I found not much visible improvement compared with last year's model
Given the size of battery , the battery life will dafinatly not better than P20 pro, Mate 10 pro, OnePlus 5, or Galaxy S9
Given the scenario I will go with Huawei mate 10 pro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Full Huawei range
Know everything about HiSilicon Kirin 970 and it's full characteristic, be sure & proud on your chosen device
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12195/hisilicon-kirin-970-power-performance-overview
onlinejobwork said:
Full Huawei range
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just found out that device sold by retailer like Voda, EE, cpw does have micro SD slot and NOT have dual SIM
onlinejobwork said:
Just found out that device sold by retailer like Voda, EE, cpw does have micro SD slot and NOT have dual SIM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is this confirmed somewhere? Does anybody sell it dualsim in the UK?
I preordered mine from cpw and will surely return it if it's not dualsim as it's a dealbreaker for me.
varignet said:
is this confirmed somewhere? Does anybody sell it dualsim in the UK?
I preordered mine from cpw and will surely return it if it's not dualsim as it's a dealbreaker for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, Carphonewarehouse one is NOT dual SIM , big disappointment
---------- Post added at 04:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:45 AM ----------
varignet said:
is this confirmed somewhere? Does anybody sell it dualsim in the UK?
I preordered mine from cpw and will surely return it if it's not dualsim as it's a dealbreaker for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confined , I got mine yesterday and it's not dual SIM
Anyone else having serious lag in Google maps?
Previously: Huawei messed something up in the past on P10 and map on satellite mode worked like s**t but they fixed on Emui 8.
However now on my P20 everything is slow and freezes in Google Maps, will check logcat for anything strange.
paul678 said:
Anyone else having serious lag in Google maps?
Previously: Huawei messed something up in the past on P10 and map on satellite mode worked like s**t but they fixed on Emui 8.
However now on my P20 everything is slow and freezes in Google Maps, will check logcat for anything strange.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have any issues with Maps on my P20 paul678, Satellite view does however take 2-3 seconds to load but is fine after that.
paulrod said:
I don't have any issues with Maps on my P20 paul678, Satellite view does however take 2-3 seconds to load but is fine after that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me the map itself is ok, scroll/pan/zoom works pretty well.
The problems appear when pressing the top search..that takes some time to react and a similar problem when doing a long press to drop a pin and then try to open the bottom sheet that contains details.
Can you check to see if you have problems with the above mentioned scenarios?
Love this handset overall. Battery life is great, camera is great, screen is great, sound is great (which was a big bone of contention with me coming from LG V20!).
Please add section on real-life review for Audio Quality! Both speaker and headphones (wired and wireless!).
P20 Lcd Problem(yellow screen where the navigation buttons are)
Hi Xda
First of all i want to say that the lcd screen looks great BUT i replaced my device for a third time but still no luck... The screen on the virtualbuttons is yellowish then the rest of the screen... Its the screen just above the touchbutton or on the virtual navigation buttons... Does someone has this also please comment, thank you!
Ieozt38 said:
Hi Xda
First of all i want to say that the lcd screen looks great BUT i replaced my device for a third time but still no luck... The screen on the virtualbuttons is yellowish then the rest of the screen... Its the screen just above the touchbutton or on the virtual navigation buttons... Does someone has this also please comment, thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I deactivated the on screen buttons a while ago, find more convenient using the multifunctional home button. I had the impression of yellow on the buttons bar also before, more a software issue to me.
2
bolof2 said:
Hi, I deactivated the on screen buttons
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its still yellow without the screenbuttons i just wanted to explain where the yellowish area is located. Received 3rd device still problem occurs, im switching to iphone x
I replaced my Zuk Z2 Pro with the P20. French n°1 telecom company made a price mistake and sold it for 249€ for about 15 minutes. It was the perfect occasion to change my phone.
Pros :
- Screen. Quality is just under the Z2 Pro AMOLED, but it's nice, big, reactive.
- Battery. It lasts way longer than what became the Z2 Pro battery
- Power. Obviously, nowadays, every phone allows you to do everything quickly when you're not into gaming
- Quality. The phone looks like it's perfectly build.
- Huawei offers, in France, the Freebuds with the phone (12 weeks to receive them, so I don't know if they are good)
- Bundle is nice : silicon case and noise reduction earphones (I don't like them, but
Cons :
- EMUI. I've been on custom ROMs over the last 5 years, and, OMG, it's very hard to be on a OEM ROM with so many limitation. Simply expand notification on the lockscreen or skipping a track with Vol+ or - is impossible. It induces erratic behaviour in some apps (no notifications from Telegram, even if all parameters are the same than Whatsapp), etc...
- Locked bootloader. I missed the news of Huawei preventing unlocking after the 25th of July. I hope there will be a solution soon for that.
- The charger. Every other charger than a SuperCharge one will charge the phone veeeeeeeeery slowly. My car charger, 2,1A, can't even charge the phone when Waze is on... My QC3 power bank becomes almost useless. As soon as the battery of the P20 will last less than a day, I will be annoyed. I hope it will never happen.
- Size : it's 4mm higher than the Zuk Z2 Pro, and it's 4mm too much. To fit in my pocket, the perfect size is 145mm.
- Phone Clone did not work with my Zuk Z2 Pro, it was a pain to import all the datas
- No SD card : risk of losing everything if the telephone is lost or whatever. To retrieve datas from one phone to another, SD Card is the most practicle
I'm waiting for the Mi 8 SE to be released in France with the right LTE frequencies, or an equivalent phone. I'll then sell my P20.
Excelente!
paul678 said:
For me the map itself is ok, scroll/pan/zoom works pretty well.
The problems appear when pressing the top search..that takes some time to react and a similar problem when doing a long press to drop a pin and then try to open the bottom sheet that contains details.
Can you check to see if you have problems with the above mentioned scenarios?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have exactly same problems as you describe, but to be noted: I did not update the phone since I first started it so... that might be the problem because it is urging me to update like every day (and the fix might be in some later build)....
OlaffLudwig said:
I have exactly same problems as you describe, but to be noted: I did not update the phone since I first started it so... that might be the problem because it is urging me to update like every day (and the fix might be in some later build)....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol should probably update
I never thought of this as a "flagship" phone and honestly it isn't. It's an expensive mid-range device.
As far as rating from 1 (worst) to 5 (best)
1. Screen - 5 Sharp and colorful. I like this display, I think Huawei phones with LCDs are top notch screens, their Amoled screens they use are not so much.
2. form/size/ - 4 Perfect size for those who aren't looking for a large device- People coming from Samsung Note, and Pluses, iPhone pluses- look elswhere, this phone will feel significantly smaller. Still not 5 though. The aspect ratio is just kinda weird. I actually wish if was wider a bit, because using it landscape mode in navigation, half the screen is gone with the GPS GUI with the map is only 1/3, same issue with lots of other apps. This problem isn't only this phone specific, many other phones narrowing down their display size, like its some sort of a trend now, I'm not very happy about it.
3. Operating system - 2 While it has improved over the last couple of years, EMUI is still laggy. I can't pinpoint the real issue, since I'm not a developer but it seems like touch /sensitivy issues. I saw some complains regarding dead areas/less sensitive spots on some Huawei devices, and it seems like a recurring problem on more than just one model. There is also that sense of lacking fluidity. Anyone who used pure Google Android or near stock, or iOS or even Touchwiz will notice a sense of disconnect between touch input and reaction time in EMUI, and sometimes hang ups and delays, other times it's reacting too fast . It's hard to demonstrate, because even if someone would make a video, it's more of a feeling kinda thing, while using the device, a video wouldn't really show the issue.
There is also a sense of incompatibility while using even popular apps, whether they lag at some point or the app has to be restarted or even crash. Or have the app work as intended and then suspended in memory, return and the app would lag or just hang up, forcing me to quit and restart.
This happened to me more than once, and not only on the P20, but on an older Honor device. I have to blame EMUI because Chinese phones running near stock Android but similar hardware (or even weaker chipset) does not exhibit the same behavior.
4. Camera (rear) - 4.5 Can't give 5, because after a month of using this phone, there are time when the camera also lags, gets frozen or behaves erratically. To be on the positive note, this happens rarely, but it happens I'd say 1 out of 30 times the camera is launched. This might be a combination of apps loaded in the background while the camera is launched /re-launched or the phone is putting apps to sleep and just can't react quickly to user input, I don't know. Otherwise when it works, it makes remarkable shots, very "Instagram worthy" ones, although some people will probably turn off the AI to produce more realistic shots instead of Lord of the Rings style fantasy scenery. Jokes aside, the camera on this can be easily match the top flagships of 2018 phones, although personally I still prefer Samsung phone cameras work . And just for reference, I don't like iPhone _____cameras either (insert any iPhone since 2010), with their yellow/brownish tint applied on everything and under or over exposed shots and no control over anything user unfriendliness.
5. Camera (front)- 3. I don't really use it much, but the few times I tried it, it's made for selfie maniacs with all beauty modes, even with the beauty mode off, it still looks like it applies something. Blonde hair can show up as reddish for some reason, other times people I took selfies with noticed, that their eyebrows were missing. Funny as it sounds, the phone tries to Photoshop you aggressively without your consent, depending on the lighting conditions, but otherwise the selfie camera I'd rate it average, because it's more of a trend, even the newest iphones produce selifes, that are love it or hate it, depending on what the user is looking for.
6. Battery: - 4. By 2018 standards, it's average to very good. I see some people complain about 4-5 hours of screen on time, others report up to 8. I personally got about 5-6hrs and standby time is amazing. I'm sure EMUI has an aggressive power management, which may save plenty of battery life, but I suspect it may be also the culprit some of the issues regarding system performance and app management.
6. Overall : - 3.75 out of 5. After using several phones in 2018, including cheap budget phones to the iPhone X and back to mid range, this phone is no way and no how a flagship phone. It's a an expensive top-mid-range device. It's neither anything special, nor mediocre. Recommended for people coming from Apple and have absolutely zero skill using an Android. I also think, it's overpriced, especially right now (2019 January).
* Extra note: The vibrator. Very 2013-ish. Huawei needs to learn to implement a better taptic engine. iPhones are unbeatable in it, probably their best feature. The buzzing feel just don't cut it anymore. As I heard Pixels have them well, and some of the newer Motorola phones have it well done and they are cheaper. It gives a whole new dimension to the device to have a good haptic feedback. This phone buzzer/vibrator just feels kinda cheap and obsolete.
I agree with dollarpapa, P20 is a decent phone but nothing remarkable really. I bought it 6 months ago for a beefy price tag of 545 euros, it costs around 450 euros now. The main reason I picked p20 at that time was the camera, it was the 2nd best rated camera according to dxomark and bunch of youtubers.
My thoughts in brief:
1. Camera: Really good at night. Not great during the day.
2. Screen: pretty bright and crisp, however Amoleds are always more appealing.
3. Battery: very good.
4. UI: garbage. Like others have mentioned, there is a minor touch lag that kills the smoothness compared to say og Pixel.
5. Speed: the storage is really fast, that means apps open up really quick. Memory management is horrible, worse than og Pixel.
Overall I'd say don't buy this phone in 2019 unless you want it only for night time pictures. A decent alternative is Galaxy S9 without sacrificing much in terms of camera quality. For performance, I'd go with Pocophone f1,but the camera will be much worse.
Not sure if this is the right thread to post it, it'd be helpful if the mods can categorize it correctly as I'm not very frequent here. So it here goes.
I had the Moto X 2nd gen (2014) for about 3 years and I really enjoyed the phone for the time. The 2gb ram and 16gb non-expandable storage was becoming unusable in 2017 and certainly the abysmal battery was not helping either. So was looking for an upgrade and was not planning to go back to Moto ever since Lenovo took over. Yes I'm a sucker for stockish android, so there weren't many options at the time. I'm not a heavy phone user, mostly do phone calls, texting, youtube and music streaming, GPS navigation, some occasional photos and very light gaming as I don't enjoy mobile gaming much(pcmasterrace here). Then the mi a1 was announced with android one program and it definitely seemed like a good deal to me. So bought one the same month it came out. Initial impression were like it's sleek and felt premium and performance seemed slightly better the Moto X2, hated the big bezel, capacitive keys and size of the phone. Overall was happy with it.
3 months on using it, it just died one day. Wouldn't power on, led doesn't light up when connecting the charging cable. Took it to the service center and got to know that the motherboard was dead and since there was no water or physical damage, they offered to replace the board free of charge. But I insisted them to get me a new unit, which they agreed to. And this whole process was quick, I got a call within 1-2 hrs after dropping it off on the first day and got the replacement on the second day. The replaced phone screen had a slight yellowish hue but I got used to it and have been using it till now.
Now here comes the bad part. Not sure if it's just my unit, but cell reception is really bad, calls don't always connect the first time, data doesn't work unless you toggle airplane mode and always had to rely on the home and work WiFi and made a habit of downloading media for the commute. I'm based of Bangalore/India on Vodafone network and most of the other people I know on the network don't have this problem. I don't even want to talk about the GPS as it's a joke. So majority of the things I do are not very doable. Heard many people telling flash a custom roms etc, have to say been there done that and always returned to stock rom because of stability, reliability and security(apps from work require stock unrooted encrypted phone). And what pushed me over the edge was the power button stopped working about 6 months ago, and read online that it was a very common issue.
Finally decided to jump ship and ordered the one plus 7 base model. Been using for about 10 days and aside from being a landslide in performance vs the a1, finally able to stream media, phone calls connect the first time, hurray!! The GPS works like it should and it feels like worth while upgrade from the Moto X. I still hate the size of the phone but at least the bezel are not that big.
An advice to phone oems, try to get the basics right other than adding unnecessary redundant features.
Peace
My Mi A1 has definitely had some issues over time but nothing like you described. In fact the Mi A1 is the best smartphone I've ever owned. The Lumia 630 was great (I was a Windows Phone sucker), my Moto G 2015 was quite good (left it mainly because of battery issues) but compared to those - the Mi A1 is excellent. And yet there are still much better phones.
But my Mi A1 is still usable, no cell reception issues as you described.
nicolasmart said:
My Mi A1 has definitely had some issues over time but nothing like you described. In fact the Mi A1 is the best smartphone I've ever owned. The Lumia 630 was great (I was a Windows Phone sucker), my Moto G 2015 was quite good (left it mainly because of battery issues) but compared to those - the Mi A1 is excellent. And yet there are still much better phones.
But my Mi A1 is still usable, no cell reception issues as you described.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Might be like i got a bad unit and do remember having bad cell reception in the initial one i had. Getting two bad units in a rows seems unlikely or i just have a really bad luck
thatrandomnpc said:
Might be like i got a bad unit and do remember having bad cell reception in the initial one i had. Getting two bad units in a rows seems unlikely or i just have a really bad luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do you live? Could it be it doesn't fully support your carrier's bands?
:crying:
nicolasmart said:
Where do you live? Could it be it doesn't fully support your carrier's bands?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Bangalore/India on VodafoneIN. From what I got from frequency check, it's compatible.