Overall love - Moto G6 Real Life Review

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 Moto G6, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Moto G6 is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

Got it activated first on Project Fi 3 days ago, for some reasons - I was "expecting" it to be a little bigger but it's just 2 clicks larger than the Nexus 5X getting traded in with the "generous" upgrade. For an entry/mid-range smartphone in 2018, I voted a 4 out of 5 (not that the absence of NFC or inability to use G.Pay is a make or break deal, I hardly use it & most places still do not accept it as mobile payment here in the US)
Dolby sound is very good, screen is bright & audio played via the speaker is fine - giving it a good workout as we hit the road today for a trip, more on the G6 later ... bootloader still locked at the moment.
Net cost to get this brand new G6 to me is about $120 after the trade-in, not really spend much more than paying someone to replace the old, tired & not as good 2.5 years old battery on the Nexus 5X, so I'm a little biased on this Lenovo/Motorola piece.

Letitride said:
Got it activated first on Project Fi 3 days ago, for some reasons - I was "expecting" it to be a little bigger but it's just 2 clicks larger than the Nexus 5X getting traded in with the "generous" upgrade. For an entry/mid-range smartphone in 2018, I voted a 4 out of 5 (not that the absence of NFC or inability to use G.Pay is a make or break deal, I hardly use it & most places still do not accept it as mobile payment here in the US)
Dolby sound is very good, screen is bright & audio played via the speaker is fine - giving it a good workout as we hit the road today for a trip, more on the G6 later ... bootloader still locked at the moment.
Net cost to get this brand new G6 to me is about $120 after the trade-in, not really spend much more than paying someone to replace the old, tired & not as good 2.5 years old battery on the Nexus 5X, so I'm a little biased on this Lenovo/Motorola piece.
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Similar thoughts as you (also running the Project Fi version of the phone).
- Phone is smaller than I expected.
- Loving the thin bezels, looks much more premium than the actual cost to me ($200)
- I don't use NFC. Don't trust it, so the lack of NFC is not a big deal
- Battery life is good, front facing speaker loud, screen is bright and sharp
- Responsiveness is in line with what you would expect from a $300-400 phone IMO
- Nearly stock Android experience = CLUTCH

Agree with others. Coming from a 5X most everything is acceptable given the price. I was blown away by the speaker. BUT my biggest gripe is the cameras low light performance...its not good by any means, very grainy, colors are bad. Regular outdoor pics are good though. Also wouldve preferred for it to NOT have a glass back since im a klutz and guaranteed to break it.

Have had this phone a couple of weeks now. Got to say I like it a lot. Definitely a step up from my Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 that I had for 3 years. This is also the most expensive phone (about $250) I've had as I'm a cheap skate and no way I'm ever paying $400 plus for a phone. Just can't bring myself to do it. The price I paid for this phone is "high dollar" for me, lol. Still getting used to the new 18x9 screen. A part of me likes it and a part of me likes 16x9 better. Since pretty much all phones are going to this size, I guess I better get used to it. The new screen size almost feels like a "cheater" to me. Moved the menu icons inside screen and made the width smaller making keyboard in portrait view (which is the way I text) actually a little smaller than what I had. Taller view but most stuff you view in landscape has bars so I don't see the benefit to it yet. Most comments I read about it, people love it. Me not so much. Phone itself is very good. Performance is very good, screen resolution is very good, camera is very good, battery life is very good (especially compared to my Redmi Note 2 which was a battery sucker). I like Android 8 and Moto apps. Pretty much bloatware free, and is nice and snappy. Had to put a case on it (put a Spigen on it) cause the phone actually felt a little small in my hands. The case gave it a little more bulk and made it feel a lot better in my hand. Love the fingerprint scanner which to me is the coolest thing since sliced bread (yup I'm a dinosaur). To tell the truth I would probably still be using the Note 2 but it started acting up on me. Now since I got this one though, it pretty much blows away my old phone in every way possible which of course is a good thing since I spent the bucks for a new phone. All in all I'm pretty damned happy with this phone. About the only thing I could say I wished it was, was a bigger phone. I went from a 5.5" 16x9 screen to a 5.7" 18x9 screen and this feels smaller than the other one to me in my hands. In the 18x9 size, I wish a had like a 6" or 6.5" screen. That would give more width that I would like to have. The width on the 16x9 was actually about 1/4" wider than the18x9 one, which is actually a substantial difference when using a keyboard.

Deleted: Double post

MikeO89 said:
Have had this phone a couple of weeks now. Got to say I like it a lot. Definitely a step up from my Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 that I had for 3 years. This is also the most expensive phone (about $250) I've had as I'm a cheap skate and no way I'm ever paying $400 plus for a phone. Just can't bring myself to do it. The price I paid for this phone is "high dollar" for me, lol. Still getting used to the new 18x9 screen. A part of me likes it and a part of me likes 16x9 better. Since pretty much all phones are going to this size, I guess I better get used to it. The new screen size almost feels like a "cheater" to me. Moved the menu icons inside screen and made the width smaller making keyboard in portrait view (which is the way I text) actually a little smaller than what I had. Taller view but most stuff you view in landscape has bars so I don't see the benefit to it yet. Most comments I read about it, people love it. Me not so much. Phone itself is very good. Performance is very good, screen resolution is very good, camera is very good, battery life is very good (especially compared to my Redmi Note 2 which was a battery sucker). I like Android 8 and Moto apps. Pretty much bloatware free, and is nice and snappy. Had to put a case on it (put a Spigen on it) cause the phone actually felt a little small in my hands. The case gave it a little more bulk and made it feel a lot better in my hand. Love the fingerprint scanner which to me is the coolest thing since sliced bread (yup I'm a dinosaur). To tell the truth I would probably still be using the Note 2 but it started acting up on me. Now since I got this one though, it pretty much blows away my old phone in every way possible which of course is a good thing since I spent the bucks for a new phone. All in all I'm pretty damned happy with this phone. About the only thing I could say I wished it was, was a bigger phone. I went from a 5.5" 16x9 screen to a 5.7" 18x9 screen and this feels smaller than the other one to me in my hands. In the 18x9 size, I wish a had like a 6" or 6.5" screen. That would give more width that I would like to have. The width on the 16x9 was actually about 1/4" wider than the18x9 one, which is actually a substantial difference when using a keyboard.
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Great post, MikeO89...
Love your enthusiasm for the G6. It pretty much echoes mine.
I paid £220 here in the UK for mine, and like yourself, it's really about as much as I want to pay for a phone these days. There's been a considerable amount of coverage over the recent release of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, and certainly the specs do look pretty damn awesome, but at close to nearly a £1000, an eye-watering sum of money for me... well, I just couldn't envisage spending that amount, even if I had it. Maybe when I have the next winning Euromillions lottery ticket, I'll buy one or whatever flagship is out then, but until that auspicious and lucky day arrives, I'm more than happy with my Moto G6.
And which I bought to replace my ageing and battery-dying HTC One M8, which I paid £530 for back in 2014. I remember my Dad at the time saying in almost stunned and amazed disbelief "You want to spend how much on a phone??!!!" as though he'd not quite heard me correctly. Of course, I did try to explain that it was more of a personal pocket computer that just happens to have the ability to make phone calls. After I bought one and he saw it in action and began to understand the capabilities of it... well, he went out and bought one himself!
That was four years ago, and I'm a little bit more price conscious these days, so when my One M8's battery began to die earlier this year, I knew I needed a new phone.
Initially, I made the mistake of assuming that you needed to spend £600 or £700 on a phone to get a quality device. I'd been hearing about the Moto G series phones and the rave reviews they'd received around a year before, so when I heard about this years G6 release, I checked out all the reviews. My initial response was one of skepticism ~ how can a company like Lenovo release a phone with such great features at just a shade over £200 AND make a profit. Surely there's a catch, I mean there has to be, right? Wrong!
As it turns out, the Moto G6 is every bit as good as the reviews say it is. And you don't need to mortgage your soul to own one. I mean, where do I begin... fast turbo charging, really nice vibrant colourful screen, amazing battery life, Android 8 Oreo with next-to-no bloat, and fingerprint unlock. Yeah, I love fingerprint unlock. It's like your very own personal ON switch that nobody else can use, and no more playing join-the-dots and trying to remember which unlock pattern is correct for this device amongst the other devices (tablets) I own.
As for the size and aspect ratio, I love it. Coming from my old HTC One M8 which had an aspect of 16:9 and a resolution of 1080x1920...
...to the Moto G6 with an aspect of 18:9 (Rhetorical question: why isn't it just simply called 2:1) and resolution of 1080x2160, which my calculations reveal to be a 12.5% increase based on number of pixels alone. It is a sort of a cheat, but I feel in a good way. I now have a phone that doesn't feel significantly bigger than my One M8, because the width has stayed the same, but the height has increased, but not by that much when you 'add-on' the One M8's speakers at the top and bottom, but the actual screen size increase on the G6 is quite noticeable.
I use Nova Launcher, and I like tinkering around with Themes, Icon Packs, Wallpapers and Layouts and with the increase vertically, I now have more layout options for things like icons and widgets, because there's an extra couple of rows on the Nova desktop. And 5.7 inches feels about right to me. I'm not sure I would feel comfortable handling something like a 6 inch or larger device. If I can, I like to operate my phone one-handed and the bigger these things get, the more difficult one-handed operation becomes.
I do take your point about black bars in landscape mode though, particularly if you're watching video content, most of which tends to be shot in 16:9 aspect. This doesn't overly bother me really, because I generally don't watch a lot of stuff on my phone anyway. And when I do, I just sort of ignore the black bars. I watch a lot of old films and TV dramas on my TV back when things were shot in 4:3 aspect, and I just got used to seeing left and right black bars on my TV, so on my phone it's really not an issue for me.
I guess we can quibble about the shortcomings of the G6 ~ for example, the one thing I do miss is the left and right stereo HTC BoomSound front facing speakers that provided great quality audio on my old One M8. On the G6 there's only a single mono speaker - it sounds pretty good, but I miss the stereo - gotta dig out my headphones now if I want stereo. Great that there's an old fashioned 3.5mm audio socket on it for me to use my headphones. Won't get that an some £1000 flagships! I jest of course; I'm not having a pop at flagship devices, I'm just amused by the irony of it.
So, on the whole, minor quibbles aside, the Moto G6 is a pretty amazing phone for such a great price. It performs brilliantly and looks great. The Gorilla Glass back adds a touch of class to the device, although it can feel a little bit slippery at times. When I first got it, I had unpleasant visions of it sliding out of my hand and crashing to the concrete outside and cracking all that beautiful glass (the horror, the horror!), so I have now ensconced it in the protective embrace of a Spigen case, which actually looks quite good, and feels good in the hand too.
Well, that pretty much says it all really. A great phone at a great price. Can't really say much more than that... Well, I could, but then I'd be here all night typing superlatives and this post would just go on and on and on and on, etc., etc. and etc.
Ged.

its not the fastest device but for a budget device I really like it.

Overall probably the best bang for your buck if your looking at carrier specific devices. Came from a Galaxy S7 which I kinda went swimming with. I'm loving the 18:9 screen. I do notice the occasional hiccup when multitasking, but the battery life is on another level compared to my old S7.

Love my North American unlocked G6! Great value for the money. The battery life is fine, but I suggest using a browser for some of your social media, if you want to get plenty of power for a day of use.
I've already gotten direct looks at my phone from other people, and some folks can't believe I paid less than $300 for it. Glad I chose the oyster finish vs deep indigo. I do have a case on it, as the glass back is known to crack easily if the phone falls hard on the ground. My B&H order came with a free frosted silicone case, and tempered glass for the screen. Perfect!

Coming from U11 life, this phone seems better.
VoLTE and Wi-Fi Calling work out of the box with T-Mobile
Rather loud speaker
I think 2:1 screen is OK
It looks like plain Android
Cam looks OK under low light
Decent reception with B12
It's fast like 6xx processor.
Adjustable screen tint
I am satisfied with the phone for the price.

Cool looking..

I've manageg to buy mine G6 for 129EUR, for that price it's best device I could choose.

Great phone for ~$100 now on eBay that's still getting security updates.
Pros:
+ $100 now on eBay for like-new condition
+ Almost pure stock Android, very little bloat and what is there I actually use (chop twice for flashlight, etc). Very stable.
+ Great band support, unlocked XT1925-6 will work on any US carrier, only missing bands 14, 46, and 71.
+ 3gb RAM is plenty sufficient to keep about three resource-heavy apps active at once.
+ Camera is decent enough and about what you'd expect from a phone in this price range.
+ You can adjust DPI under developer options, which makes content on phone appear larger/smaller so you can fit more on-screen. Very handy.
Cons:
- SD450 is an obvious bottleneck in resource-heavy apps, expect sporadic lag if you're playing PUBGM or running a browser with ten tabs open.
- Battery life could be better, usually end the day around 20% with moderate use. Not bad, but not great either.
If this had a SD600 series and a slightly larger battery it'd easily be 5*. For $100 bucks though it's hard to be upset with it.

Well I found the first problem with this phone. I can't get it to recognize an external microphone to record with the camera. I plugged in an external mic I had (3.5mm with 4 pin plug) and at first thought it was working as I made a couple of videos. Then I noticed in the videos that the sound would go up and down through the video. As I later found out, the volume was going up and down each time I would walk away from the phone while recording being the external mic had a 6 ft cord on it. I then actually tested the external mic this time (like I should have from the beginning) and found out the whole time it was still recording with the onboard mic even with external mic plugged in. The G6 was just ignoring it as a microphone and treating it as a headphone. So now I'm stymied. The onboard mic works well enough but I really wanted to have an external mic if I wanted it. I can hardly find any info on this whole external mic vs onboard mic thing with cellphones. Still like this phone and plan on having it for quite some time but a little bummed about this latest development.

OK, doing a follow up post to the one above concerning the issue with G6 not recognizing external mic when making a video. I had about given up on this and I had been searching like crazy about it. With my lack on finding anyone having similar issues like this, I was starting to think I'm the only one who is trying to use an external mic with this phone to make videos. I thought maybe is was just a jack issue so I then tried same external mic with my voice recorder app. With that app the external mic was working. Now I knew it wasn't the jack. I then installed "Open Camera" from the Google Play Store. There was actually a setting in video settings to select an external mic for recording. I then went ahead and made another video using the external mic and what do you know it worked perfect! One other setting that I'm excited about so far in Open Camera is the video stabilization setting. I don't have the steadiest hands and always had to use a tripod or my videos would come out like being on a boat. Made one with that setting on and it kept the video still as I was shooting it. It made me look like my shake was gone (wish it really was). This Open Camera app just kicks the living **** out of the Moto G6 stock camera app! Sure glad I tried it.

Got one on Motorola promo for $100. Very nice inexpensive backup phone!

Related

I used to love the X1, but now I have re-accessed my opinion. Here is my new review.

Two out of Five stars. (Amazon Review)
"This phone was a nightmare! I hate it with a passion", May 31, 2010
Here is a review of the Xperia X1. I have owned the X1, HTC Touch Pro2, HTC HD2, Nokia E90, Nokia E72, Nokia N95 and Apple iPhone. Other than the iPhone, I really hate this phone.
1) Build Quality - the plastic on this phone peeled off everywhere! The finishing on this phone is very susceptible to friction. The plastic chrome will peel off. The paint on the metal battery cover will scratch or peel off. The internal housing will crack. It's like the device had an earthquake and cracked itself. I didn't even sit on the device or drop it on anything. There is no way to prevent the plastic from cracking and peeling. All of this happened within 6 months.
The keyboard will also loose sensitivity. Over time, you will have to press on the keys harder and harder when you want to type something. The keyboard will only satisfy you for a year. And on top of that, the keyboard sucks. Don't even think about speed typing on this bad boy.
2) Efficiency - the phone is very inefficient. The terrible feedback on the keyboard forces me to use the virtual keyboard on the phone. On top of that, the screen is so small that using the virtual keyboard is a nightmare. This prevents me from being efficient with contact management and note taking. In deterred me from actually using the calendar and responding to text messages and emails. Unlike on the E72, I was not motivated to be organized with the software.
The phone is also very, very slow. Even with the latest firmware, it is very slow. This made me abhor using this phone for any reason. Don't even think about installing software that runs in the background, because it will eat your battery and retard your phone. The only way to make the device run at decent speeds is to minimize the software and the ROM.
3) Battery - the battery life is terrible. It only lasts 12-15 hours on standby without 3G enabled.
4) Camera - the camera doesn't beat the N95, but it's alright. The camera software is sluggish and is very uncomfortable to use. The camera has bad auto focus and weak flash LED.
5) Multimedia - the speakers on the phone is very weak so don't even bother watching movies or listening to music. Since this is a touch screen device, the screen isn't big enough for me to enjoy videos or web-browsing.
The sluggishness of this device also applied to it's Wi-Fi. That's why I avoided web-browsing altogether. It was just plain terrible. In fact, I prefer the Nokia E90 or Nokia E72 for web-browsing (they are non touch screen phones).
6) Phone - the call quality and loudness was at least better than my Nokia E72. However, the X1 speakerphone can't even compare to the E72 speakerphone. Please recall that phones usually have two separate speakers: the speakerphone/loudspeaker and the normal speaker. Well, the X1 has a very bad speakerphone/loudspeaker.
8) Internet - the internet is slow, the screen is small, and the CPU needs an update. This should conclude everything.
9) Price - at 800 U.S. dollars, it was an expensive piece of junk. But now that it is sold for 400 dollars brand new, it's a little more forgiving.
10) Something to consider - regardless of all of the cons I have provided, I enjoyed using the phone because it was highly customizable. Unfortunately, it lacked everything I expected from what was advertised: an awesome keyboard, perfect build quality, fast processor. I tried to make the best of it by customizing it with software and 'tricks' and that alleviated some of the pain. Also, so many people complemented on the beauty of my X1.
11) History on X1: When the X1 first came out, all of the reviewers gave the phone high marks for it's amazing build quality. Within a year, everyone noticed that its cosmetic and physical condition deteriorated greatly. The phone reviewers returned the X1 to the 'lenders' before they got the chance to witness the true nature of this phone.
I recently bought a X1 to use instead of a HD2 I also own, for emails etc. because of the hardware keyboard. I bought the X1 on ebay for £150 mint boxed condition, the HD2 was about £450 new. So far I am really loving the X1 vs the HD2 and wish I'd not bought the HD2 really.
I probably wouldn't be so happy with the X1 if I'd paid full retail price for it though!
Something is wrong with your particluar X1 if it cant last more than 12 hours in standby - leave mine on standby over night not charging at say 50 percent, wake up and its usually about 49 percent so maybe a problem with your battery.
Obviously its not perfect and it has many many problems but i've had it since it came out in the UK and i'm still with it (different one obviously since its been sent back so many times) but it works for me, its does what i want and how i want so its great, and internet browsing is greate and easy! Have you tried Opera Mini Beta? download it from their website - can easily look stuff up on the go!
Hey if i wasn't so much in a rush, i'd post a solution for almost every problem your facing. iv'e had my x1i for a month now and although it took me quite some time searching and posting throughout this forum! iv'e maximized as best as i could,My phones super fast,super stable,not to mention the internet. made mine alot louder both in speakerphone and music without any distort or damage,and all while having a look so good that makes peoples mouth water! anyone else agree?
Zeyn Karim said:
Hey if i wasn't so much in a rush, i'd post a solution for almost every problem your facing. iv'e had my x1i for a month now and although it took me quite some time searching and posting throughout this forum! iv'e maximized as best as i could,My phones super fast,super stable,not to mention the internet. made mine alot louder both in speakerphone and music without any distort or damage,and all while having a look so good that makes peoples mouth water! anyone else agree?
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I agree with everything you said . I've had my phone for 8 months now and have never had to send it in to get repaired for anything?
I agree with the second poll option but i'm not supprised that this was XDA's #1 device, at the time this device was awesome and sleek.
poetryrocksalot said:
Two out of Five stars. (Amazon Review)
"This phone was a nightmare! I hate it with a passion", May 31, 2010
Here is a review of the Xperia X1. I have owned the X1, HTC Touch Pro2, HTC HD2, Nokia E90, Nokia E72, Nokia N95 and Apple iPhone. Other than the iPhone, I really hate this phone.
1) Build Quality - the plastic on this phone peeled off everywhere! The finishing on this phone is very susceptible to friction. The plastic chrome will peel off. The paint on the metal battery cover will scratch or peel off. The internal housing will crack. It's like the device had an earthquake and cracked itself. I didn't even sit on the device or drop it on anything. There is no way to prevent the plastic from cracking and peeling. All of this happened within 6 months.
The keyboard will also loose sensitivity. Over time, you will have to press on the keys harder and harder when you want to type something. The keyboard will only satisfy you for a year. And on top of that, the keyboard sucks. Don't even think about speed typing on this bad boy.
2) Efficiency - the phone is very inefficient. The terrible feedback on the keyboard forces me to use the virtual keyboard on the phone. On top of that, the screen is so small that using the virtual keyboard is a nightmare. This prevents me from being efficient with contact management and note taking. In deterred me from actually using the calendar and responding to text messages and emails. Unlike on the E72, I was not motivated to be organized with the software.
The phone is also very, very slow. Even with the latest firmware, it is very slow. This made me abhor using this phone for any reason. Don't even think about installing software that runs in the background, because it will eat your battery and retard your phone. The only way to make the device run at decent speeds is to minimize the software and the ROM.
3) Battery - the battery life is terrible. It only lasts 12-15 hours on standby without 3G enabled.
4) Camera - the camera doesn't beat the N95, but it's alright. The camera software is sluggish and is very uncomfortable to use. The camera has bad auto focus and weak flash LED.
5) Multimedia - the speakers on the phone is very weak so don't even bother watching movies or listening to music. Since this is a touch screen device, the screen isn't big enough for me to enjoy videos or web-browsing.
The sluggishness of this device also applied to it's Wi-Fi. That's why I avoided web-browsing altogether. It was just plain terrible. In fact, I prefer the Nokia E90 or Nokia E72 for web-browsing (they are non touch screen phones).
6) Phone - the call quality and loudness was at least better than my Nokia E72. However, the X1 speakerphone can't even compare to the E72 speakerphone. Please recall that phones usually have two separate speakers: the speakerphone/loudspeaker and the normal speaker. Well, the X1 has a very bad speakerphone/loudspeaker.
8) Internet - the internet is slow, the screen is small, and the CPU needs an update. This should conclude everything.
9) Price - at 800 U.S. dollars, it was an expensive piece of junk. But now that it is sold for 400 dollars brand new, it's a little more forgiving.
10) Something to consider - regardless of all of the cons I have provided, I enjoyed using the phone because it was highly customizable. Unfortunately, it lacked everything I expected from what was advertised: an awesome keyboard, perfect build quality, fast processor. I tried to make the best of it by customizing it with software and 'tricks' and that alleviated some of the pain. Also, so many people complemented on the beauty of my X1.
11) History on X1: When the X1 first came out, all of the reviewers gave the phone high marks for it's amazing build quality. Within a year, everyone noticed that its cosmetic and physical condition deteriorated greatly. The phone reviewers returned the X1 to the 'lenders' before they got the chance to witness the true nature of this phone.
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Click to collapse
I have had my Xperia for over a year (since feb 2009) and I am still happy with it,
1 My Xperia is the silver version so no paint to scratch off. Usually I carry it around in a case so no real scratches. It does have a couple of the notorious cracks though, (Just under the volume control and above the camera) but they are not noticible unless you look for them and they do not affect the functionality of the device.
2. The keyboard is mostly good for me. It seems to have a few rare times when it is being tempramental but on the whole no issues. I use the onscreen keyboard occasionally and can type relitively well without using the stylus if I have to.
3. My batttery life with the R3A rom was over and around 3 days with light use. My current rom (Christians full rom) requires charging around once a day so I am going to change to a lighter rom.
4. The camera is a bit slow, and the LED flash isnt the best, but I find it does what I need it to do, I use it as my main camera since I cant be bothered carying around two devices and have no complaints. It takes scenery and people quite well, for dark scenes it may take a bit of playing around.
5 Yes the loudspeaker is bad, But I watch movies and play multimedia with the headphones, sound quality is great then. I only run into problems when I want loud speaker for phonecalls in noisy environments, which isnt often.
6 I manage web browsing fine, yes its true I would use a device with a larger screen if I bought one along, but I often dont because the xperia is extreemely portable and web browsing is no problem for me.
7. I haven't run into any problems with the wifi, the wifi seems to operate as well as anyone elses phone.
8. Yes I agree that when it was released it was overpriced, but arnt most devices? the age old lesson is that you should wait a bit before buying somthing, Dont get caught in the hype.
Their is a simple fix for the sound on the Xperia X1. It's called "optxperiabeta02". I've been using it for 7 month's now.
hungry81 said:
I have had my Xperia for over a year (since feb 2009) and I am still happy with it,
1 My Xperia is the silver version so no paint to scratch off. Usually I carry it around in a case so no real scratches. It does have a couple of the notorious cracks though, (Just under the volume control and above the camera) but they are not noticible unless you look for them and they do not affect the functionality of the device.
2. The keyboard is mostly good for me. It seems to have a few rare times when it is being tempramental but on the whole no issues. I use the onscreen keyboard occasionally and can type relitively well without using the stylus if I have to.
3. My batttery life with the R3A rom was over and around 3 days with light use. My current rom (Christians full rom) requires charging around once a day so I am going to change to a lighter rom.
4. The camera is a bit slow, and the LED flash isnt the best, but I find it does what I need it to do, I use it as my main camera since I cant be bothered carying around two devices and have no complaints. It takes scenery and people quite well, for dark scenes it may take a bit of playing around.
5 Yes the loudspeaker is bad, But I watch movies and play multimedia with the headphones, sound quality is great then. I only run into problems when I want loud speaker for phonecalls in noisy environments, which isnt often.
6 I manage web browsing fine, yes its true I would use a device with a larger screen if I bought one along, but I often dont because the xperia is extreemely portable and web browsing is no problem for me.
7. I haven't run into any problems with the wifi, the wifi seems to operate as well as anyone elses phone.
8. Yes I agree that when it was released it was overpriced, but arnt most devices? the age old lesson is that you should wait a bit before buying somthing, Dont get caught in the hype.
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Click to collapse
I owe and use every day my X1 as a main and only
pocket computer since December 2008.
Use is heavily.....
And I must say basically it still rocks.
Regarding the problems from the first post:
I agree that a keyboard gets a bit worse after that time. I didn't happen to SE P990 which I've also used for 1,5 years.
Now I owe also X2 and THIS IS THE KEYBOARD!!
The paint on the black back cover got scratched but
this is what happens to every device.
Plastic peeled off only on the 4 direction pad.
The rest is perfect.
The one crack I have is only be because it dropped badly and nothing else happened actually.
Battery is perfect. If not used heavily it's like 2 days.
The speed: that's interesting.
I don't know what did you do with your X1
@poetry
My X1 is still on R1 firmware (!!!!!)
and it is lightning fast!
I mean really fast....
I also saw lately Omnia I who somebody owned:
that was a crap man......
@poetryrocksalot: I do not agree with you. So far I have only made the best experiences with my Xperia X1.
Build quality: Like I stated on various occasions here at XDA the build quality of my Xperia X1 is absoluetely ok. Ok the paint of the baterry cover comes of but this is only a minor issue. In fact every phone has it's weak points and this one is really not serious. What's more my phone is completely free of cracks.
Battery: Are you kidding me? I have not seen many smartphones that have better endurance with one battery than the X1. I have got two batteries and if I mind how often I use the phone those two batteries easely last 4 days and there is still some power left after those 4 days. There are only a few smartphones out there that last more than a day with one charge.
Screen: What influence has the fact that the X1 is a touchscreen phone on it's performance when it comes to multimedia features (such as playing videos). Would the screen be big enough so you could enjoy your videos if the screen wasn't touchable? Where is the context in this statment? I consider the screen still among the best on the market as long as we talk about quality. It could be bigger that's true but SE never claimed to sell the phone with the biggest display. Show me all phones out there that are capable of playing 800 * 480 movies fluently. There aren't many and the X1 was launched in 2008.
Internet: What makes you think the X1 is bad for webbrowsing? I use Opera 10 and it's by far not sluggish. Normally the speed of webbrowsing depends on the connection whitch itself depends on your provider and the network coverage. Even the HD 2 is slow when using GPRS Once again my phone is not slow neiter on WLAN nor on HSDPA/ UMTS.
Price: It's true the initial price of 800 $ was too much. Thats why I did not get it when it came out. I bought my phone back in November 2009 and I paid 570 Swiss Francs. In $ that is approximately 450. And that was without a contract. It's an old story: Early adopters will always pay the price.
I could go on like this for several lines but I think I have already made clear my attitude. The X1 has its flaws like every product but it's by no means a bad product.
Some remarks from me below. I've had my X1 since september 2008.
Build Quality
Seems to differ a lot from batch to batch, and from color to color. I have a black X1. Noting have peeled off anywhere, but a letter in the SE logo. Almost no scratches on the battery cover. No cracks in the usual places although I've dropped it rather frequently.
However, I do have a crack in the metal surrounding... but the hit the phone took when that appeared made me surprised the phone is still alive at all.
Keyboard. No issues whatsoever. Might need a little cleaning soon.
Cooling of LED bad. Made my vibrator stop working... 'til I dropped the phone the next time. Plastic lens cover broken. Got squeezed into a table corner when I moved.
2) Efficiency
Software updates from SE... sucks.
3) Battery
Not as good as when it was new, but it's ok. Always on 3G.
4) Camera
Can live with it. Not good.
5) Multimedia
Speaker utterly rubbish. The lack of xvid support is crap.
6) Phone
Ok. Nothing more. Nothing less.
8) Internet
Always using Opera Mini 5, way better when Opera Mobile IMHO. Fast and stable.
9) Price
Eh... I don't know. The discounts here in Sweden are very, very, very, very good if you sign up for two years. I pay about the same price as seven Big Mac & Co a month for flat rate data and I can still use all those money to make calls with. Phone was free of charge.
Conclusion: Will probably go for a Desire in two months. Or Iphone 4G. Or something else. Not a Win Mob phone.
Build quality isnt soo good - i noticed the black paint comes off so i got some cheap carbon fiber looking tape and covered it, its protects it well.
i hate the silver parts on it - thought it was metal till one day i noticed there was a crack and i haven't dropped yet,so i attached a piece of string on the bottom to decrease the chances of cracking on its own.
the battery is good in my opinion lasts 3,4 days for me
camera sucks because you have to press down on the button to take a picture which may put the phone focusing out of place, but htc sense roms with touch focus to take a pic is alot better
speaker is weak when outside.
i still think its a great phone, but i dislike the O\s when it comes to efficiency
the processor and its hardware should be fine for a phone.
I acquired a second-hand semi-broken X1 very recently, after owning, testing, repairing or playing with most WM phones on the market. My own conclusion - not bad at all, most impressed by the screen.
Got Nuts ROM and sound optimizer loaded - like it even more, can't say I would ever be happy with the original ROM, but with TF3D ports I got everything I needed. Every device will have its own little quirks and bogies, none will ever be perfect, my only gripe with X1 is the keyboard, but only because I also keep my old trusty 128Mb HTC Universal as a second device and its QWERTY simply can't be beaten. Even Wizard has better keyboard!!!!
X1's keyboard is miserable and next to useless - button feedback is misleading, general inconsistency in pressure requirement and double-typing is common, buttons are fiddly, even for my small and adept fingers - all leading to slow and deliberate usage, which is counter-productive.
No issues whatsoever with anything else. From past experiences with X1s brought in for repairs, main issue is, of course, flex. But that is simply called 'all-slide desease' and should be expected regardless of the make and model.
I do believe the silver version is a much better option, silver metallic parts can be lightly polished and be as good as new, I have no peeling paint or other obvious cracks, apart from tiny, barely noticeable ones here and there. The battery door opening could be better thought out design-wise, even a simple spring lock would be preferable to peeling it off with your fingernails.
Optimizations, tweaks and various add-ons are out there - don't complain about lack of this or that - find the solution!
Almost forgot - those complaining of lack of playback support for this or that - find the solution and you will be surprised how well everything will play. As far as browsers are concerned - nothing beats Opera 10 for me (well, for now anyway), got Opera mini 5 running on my LG Arena - had gutsful, but had no choice, so glad I don't have to on Xperia

Long road from Inspire to Atrix

Good morning all,
I created this thread in the Inspire forums and thought I'd bring it over here too. It's just my experiences as a daily carrier of both of these devices. It's aimed at people torn between the two handsets, and also to help me ultimately choose which I prefer to keep. Only one will survive.
I've included my running updates in the OP.
___________________________________________________________________
Hello all!
I've had the daunting task to pick between these two phones for the last couple days. I went into the store to actually get the devices in my hand and fully expected to walk out with the Atrix. I've always had a soft spot for HTC, ever since their WoMo phones. I saw the Inspire and was super impressed at how solid the phone felt in my hand. The phone felt very responsive, and I already knew the XDA Inspire team was cranking out some awesome stuff.
I then grabbed the Atrix and was not nearly as wow'd as I had expected to be. I've been following the phone since it's announcement, and pretty much had made up my mind on the spot to pick it up. After spending a half hour goofing around with both phones, I decided the Inspire really won my heart.
Then it happened... The cold sweats... The tossing and turning in bed at night. Images of the Atrix's Tegra 2 laying waste to the earth and doing vile things to my Inspire. My horrid indecision had struck. I decided that I had obviously made the wrong choice, so the next morning I headed off to the store and bought an Atrix without returning my perfectly set up Inspire. I wanted to play with them both side by side and just return whichever one didn't make me happy.
That was a bit over 24 hours ago. After spending the last day with both of the handsets, I am closer to a decision, but it's damn tough. My overall thoughts and struggles follow:
Motorola Atrix:
-Pros:
- Bright, higher resolution screen
- Dual Core processor (even though I thought the experience was pretty weak)
- Battery (theoretical, as I haven't had it long enough to fully experience)
- This goes to the hardware again, but this phone is quite a bit more future proof.
- The handset is light enough to not remind you it's in your pocket at every step.
- GPS (This is the most rock solid phone GPS I've ever used)
- Incredibly loud speaker
- Tons of ram
- HDMI out
-Cons:
- Cheaper build quality (I feel like I need to qualify this. The phone feels solid, but the battery door is, for lack of a better word, brittle)
- Very poor color representation on the otherwise beautiful screen.
- MotoBlur - This is just a very inelegant, unrefined overlay...
- Strange compatibility issues with certain apps
- multiple force closes
- Weak social media integration
- Odd bouts of lag when least expected
- Locked Bootloader (most don't care about this, but it matters when you have a primary developer that has a history of slow patches, feature adds, and os releases.
- Chicklet keyboard is a touch small for me and requires some focus to not miss type.
**FOLLOW-UP**
- I've removed the call quality knock from the Atrix device. It turns out it was entirely my own fault, and while some people, including Motorola, are reporting issues with sound quality on some devices, mine isn't one of them.
HTC Inspire:
-Pros:
- Excellent build quality (the aluminum uni-body is a joy to hold, and has the extra added benefit of being able to be used to fend off an attacker)
- Beautiful 4.3" screen (Yes, it is big, but I'm a fan)
- Sense (I'm not a fan of these proprietary UI's, but Sense shows that HTC can offer up an experience that is easy to like, and provide an attractive interface for a phone OS that is sometimes described as clinical looking)
- The brilliant development community (currently running CoreDroid /drool)
- Very snappy performance from the second gen Snapdragon CPU
- Tons of ram (Not as much as the Atrix, but enough to be a "ton" in my eyes)
- Lovely camera (I used to not care, but I have a new son, so suddenly a camera climbed up the ladder of important features)
- Fantastic out of the box social media integration
- Has that "Just works like it should" feel to it.
- Very clear call quality
- Second best phone gps I've used
-Cons:
- The screen washes out to a grey slab in direct sunlight
- Stock battery life is horrid
- "Electric Razor" ear screen can have some jagged edges and chafe your ear
- Battery door was a ridiculous design decision
- Very current gen hardware (doesn't mean a whole lot if you're not going to be riding this phone for the next two years, but a new day has dawned and it's name is "Multi-core")
- Stock external speaker/notification volume super weak
- odd placement of the number button on the keyboard (thanks iPhone for etching that into my brain)
- recessed power and volume buttons can be a bit tough to find.
- No internal storage (this is just ridiculous)
- Relatively weak GPU
There you have it. That's what I've come up with so far. At the moment, I'm leaning toward the Inspire, as so many of those issues can be (and have been) corrected through roms. In the end, I just don't really get the warm fuzzies from the Atrix. I feel like it's a brilliant set of components tied together with a really sorry software suite, and a manufacturer that doesn't really understand the strengths of their chosen platform, or the customers that choose it.
I will continue carrying both of the devices for the next couple days, but at the moment, the winner is most definitely the Inspire in my eyes. It just feels like it's been polished to a wonderful android flavored candy shine, and with the community behind it, there's really nothing I feel the device won't be able to handle for quite some time.
**Update 1**
The inspire's build quality is top notch. The screen is perfectly alligned and allows no notable give for me. There is also no more light bleed than you expect from an lcd panel, and none to the touch. The battery cover is a pain. Its actually so well fitted that you have to break it in over multiple removals in order to confidently take it off without breaking it. The sim cover fits nicely, and doesn't pose the same pain that the battery cover does. There is a slight raised edge in the center of the sim cover that takes it just out of flush. Its nigh unnoticable. Viewing angles on the inspire's slcd are fantastic. I can see it clearly in a near complete 180 degree angle, with little to no noticable color bleed. It obviously dims as you move from dead center.
The atrix is in the same boat with build quality for the most part. The phone has a good weight, metal rails down the side, well alligned screen, and mostly tight fitting components. I do have some issues here, though. Mainly with the back cover. As noted in my initial post, its very brittle, thin plastic. If you think I broke a sweat taking the inspires battery cover off, you should have seen me trying to get the battery on the atrix. I pulled the top clip free, and almost bent the cover in half fighting the mid phone clips. Also, the back cover on my atrix doesn't line up flush on one side. The last couple issues are the "creakynesss" of the handset. When I grip the phone tightly I can feel the plastic components giving, and settling into place. Not terribly bad, but noticable. The last issue is the fingerprint scanner. It's been pointed out in some reviews, but the scanner is off center on some devices and just looks shoddily thrown together and misalligned.
The atrix beautiful qHD screen also washes out and tints yellow when viewed at extreme angles.
**Update 2**
I've been using the Atrix today as my primary carry handset, and I must say PROPS to Motorola on this battery... I've been beating on it for all I can muster and with almost two full hours of HSPA+ web surfing, Angry Birds while waiting for my food, poking around in the marketplace, and trying out apps, the phone has dropped 25% of the battery in 7 hours of heavy use. I'm pretty damn impressed with that. My focus would be on the charger right now. I'll be going through the exact same process on the Inspire tomorrow to see how everything shakes out.
**Update 3**
I've been carrying my Atrix for the last two days, and I have to admit... It's amazing... I don't mean to sound disappointed, quite the contrary, but I was coming closer to making my decision, and now I'm struggling again.
New Revelations/Findings:
- The little hitches you sometimes see in games like Angry Birds, when scrolling and pinch zooming are all gone... Like, completely gone. That goes for every game/app i've played that is relatively intensive with animation or processing. The Inspire is definitely no slouch, but the performance edge is fully in the Atrix's court.
- The external speaker of the Atrix is LEGEND-(Wait for it)-DARY! I hopped on a conference call last night and it was right on the edge of being as good as the dedicated conference speakers at my office. Really outstanding.
- The screen is also really pretty. I, once again, had to run from hospital to hospital yesterday and while outside was able to see every color, icon, and word on my screen. It made me secure in the fact that no matter where I took the device, i would be able to rely on it 100%, and it would perform as well as I could ever ask for.
I've been using the anti-glare/anti-fingerprint Case-Mate screen protectors on both of the devices since i've purchased them, and these things just destroy the fidelity of the screen. I will be getting my Realook protectors tomorrow, and will get to experience a bit more vibrance from both screens.
I'm still fairly disappointed with the color reproduction of the qHD screen. It's really in your face when you have the two devices sitting side by side. The SLCD screen of the Inspire is much more natural looking.
MotoBlur is still a disappointment, but after setting up LauncherPro Plus and getting Beautiful Widgets, and exploring LauncherPro's new facebook widget (think FriendStream). It's become nearly a non-issue. I've been using ADW as well, and it's great, but the Atrix seems to love LauncherPro, and I love LauncherPro... Guess that's a match made in Android heaven.
My experience, for most part mirrors yours. I went from the Captivate to the Inspire to the Atrix. I kept the Inspire for about a week and immediately missed the screen on the Captivate.
The Inspire's screen is definitely sharp, but I like the contrast on the captivate. The black text sharpness on the Atrix is really good and very comparable to the Inspire and both beat the pants off the Captivate.
I'd have to disagree with the build quality of the Inspire. Yes, aluminum feels solid compared to the plastic on the Atrix and does give you that solid quality feeling, but I had the same plastic alignment issues with two Inspires I went through. The plastic parts just doesn't line up evenly with the aluminum. The battery door was never a problem with me because of the gaps were plastic met aluminum. I was always able to get my finger nails in two places to pull the cover off easily and without destroying the soft touch cover.
Call quality on the Inspire's headset speaker always sounded tinny and lack the volume of the Atrix. The loudspeaker is really, really weak on the Inspire. The Atrix's loudspeaker has surprisingly good range, I hear a semblance of bass when playing media.
Security wise, the fingerprint scanner is a really good feature on the Atrix, makes me wonder why no one has done it before on a mobile phone. So much faster to unlock securely without a passcode or drawing.
The camera on the Inspire is better than the Atrix. The Inspire's pics come out with more contrast and better color. The Atrix has sharp images, but the color look a little washed out and there way more noise. Seems like Motorola wanted sharper images and turn down the noise reduction. Noise reduction is a big killer when it comes to image sharpness.
+1 just for referencing Barney Stinson.
Haha no, but really, this is a good comparison of the Inspire and the Atrix. I agree with most, if not all, of your pros and cons. I really can't help but emphasize the battery life though. I usually end up having to buy a spare battery and charger set for my smartphones, but it seems really unnecessary for the Atrix. If you're a power user, that's reason enough to pick the Atrix over the Inspire.
I agree almost 100%
I sit here with both phones still. I love the Inspire, and Gingerblur on the Atrix makes me love the Atrix.
The interwebz speed is what is forcing the Inspire as my daily driver at the moment.
I have gone through 3 atrix's already, when i have it, i want to sell it, as you can see in my signature, and when i sell it, i want one. thus #3....
I almost NEED to wait and see 4g... and this backhaul att speaks of....
And then there is the Samsung infuse/enfuse? idk... But they say when its dropped, it will most certainly have the capable speeds, as will the 2 other flagship "4g" phones.
I treat my phones with utmost care, as i usually am selling them for the new and next best thing, and want to ensure they can be purchased as a 10/10 quality. That being said, I will say the case-mate case i have on the inspire gives GREAT protection, but makes a big phone even bigger, the atrix with the bodyglove feels tiny in my hands after 2 weeks of driving the inspire... I recently sold another iphone4, and it reminded me of the atrix in my hands, not build quality, as you mentioned above, but size...
4.3 qHD would be a perfect mix for me, and I am sure is what is in store for future HTC devices... but for now, I am in the same dilemia many are.
to Inspire, or not Inspire and Atrix my way through the rough of it...
to the avg user, hdmi out is no biggie, but to the ub3r geek in me who likes to VPN home, CIFS mount shares, and stream, hdmi is a big deal....
oh woe is me.....
Today Inspire still drives me to and from.... CM7rc4 battery gets me through the day, even as an Exchange Admin with more email on touchdown then most people, including gmail push...
But that said, i come right back with the atrix could get me past a full day!
like the good old Blackberry days..
theres my 2 cents, thrown into the pot, both heads up...
~killster
I'm so sick of these threads.
Man_of_Leisure said:
I'm so sick of these threads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then don't read 'em... Problem solved.
Divinedark said:
Then don't read 'em... Problem solved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just like you have the right to create threads, I have the right to respond to them. If you don't like that, you want a blog, not a forum.
Man_of_Leisure said:
Just like you have the right to create threads, I have the right to respond to them. If you don't like that, you want a blog, not a forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are absolutely correct. I appreciate your need to contribute completely unrelated, and pointless reflections on your own worthless personal opinion in my thread. So many others that are trying to decide between these two devices will find your additions to the subject of this thread invaluable. I truly hope that you will continue to follow that urge to spout your own polished, self-important drivel in the rest of the threads on this forum. If you don't, you will effectively be robbing us of your wisdom.
I'm sorry that I wasted your time reading my relatively well researched and thought out comparison between two close competing devices on the same carrier. From this point forward I'll be sure to continue adding to the typical device war crap like "TEH ATRIX IS A$$" and what not. That should sate your thirst for informative and entertaining topics on this forum.
Again. I'm very sorry.
Man_of_Leisure said:
Just like you have the right to create threads, I have the right to respond to them. If you don't like that, you want a blog, not a forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 I'm pretty sure there's already at least fifteen threads about Inspire vs Atrix. I thank you for taking the time to compare both and noting their strengths and weaknesses but like I said, there's already a ton of these threads and they just repeat the same opinions/info.
Clienterror said:
+1 I'm pretty sure there's already at least fifteen threads about Inspire vs Atrix. I thank you for taking the time to compare both and noting their strengths and weaknesses but like I said, there's already a ton of these threads and they just repeat the same opinions/info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's true that there are a lot of posts that contribute this kind of information, but this one in particular was well thought out and written, and that helps provide a better reference for those interested. I also value those posts that say good things about devices. A lot of posts tend to complain about whatever device they're talking about. It's nice to have some good things to say in order to balance out the amount of user feedback.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
Yea... the majority of threads you see with this same general topic are basically just "The Atrix BLOWS!!!! I'm going back to my Inspire" blah blah blah. He was polite enough to explain his thoughts on the phone thoroughly, and go through his overall opinion on the phone over time, showing what has changed in his mind about each phone. Can kinda think of it more as a "phone review" than a "disgruntled customer".....
There are many Inspire / Atrix threads I've read but this one is a good, unbiased, well written everyday user experience. +1 for op.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Divinedark said:
I do have some issues here, though. Mainly with the back cover. As noted in my initial post, its very brittle, thin plastic. If you think I broke a sweat taking the inspires battery cover off, you should have seen me trying to get the battery on the atrix. I pulled the top clip free, and almost bent the cover in half fighting the mid phone clips. Also, the back cover on my atrix doesn't line up flush on one side. The last couple issues are the "creakynesss" of the handset. When I grip the phone tightly I can feel the plastic components giving, and settling into place. Not terribly bad, but noticable. The last issue is the fingerprint scanner. It's been pointed out in some reviews, but the scanner is off center on some devices and just looks shoddily thrown together and misalligned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery cover design is one of the things I really like about the Atrix. It is flexible on my phone, not brittle at all. It fits well and is a breeze to get on and off -- after the first time. The first time I was also a little scared and it caught at the middle a little. Since then, it is trivial to do. Of course, it spends most of its time covered by two layers of Otterbox Commuter in my case.
I have not noticed any creakiness -- seems very solid to me. It's reinforced by the Otterbox, so I might not ever notice anyway.
My fingerprint scanner doesn't seem to work at all. I get nothing but too short a swipe messages (works for me about 1 time out of 20). I have been assuming this is due it being placed down in a little hole by the Otterbox. I'm perfectly willing to give that up to get the extra protection and reduced slipperiness. My last unprotected phone (BB 9000) only made it a year before I dropped it many times including into 2 feet of water (don't ask, I need to be drinking to talk about it).
Yea.... i had the Defender for a day or so before i returned it for that one reason. Made it a bit more tricky to use the fingerprint reader. Found that too many times when i went to swipe (almost typed Swype in there... and no, not even on my phone. haha) my finger, it would wind up getting stuck with the outer soft casing of the Defender and either stop mid-swipe or skip part of my fingertip.
fingerprint scanner works great for me; when i first got it i thought it would be a useless novelty.
Slade8525 said:
fingerprint scanner works great for me; when i first got it i thought it would be a useless novelty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not saying it doesn't work great. It works phenomenally. The issue is that some cases.... or mostly the OtterBox Defender, has quite a large hole where the fingerprint scanner resides.... and part of that hole is surrounded by the soft silicon/rubber of the outer shell of the case, which can make trying to get a solid swipe across the fingerprint reader a bit of a pain.
This is a pretty good review. I too left for an inspire and couldn't be happier, but I can see why people like their Atrix. Having cm7 was the deal breaker for me but if roms aren't a big deal the Atrix might be a better fit. I also had two phones with extremely bad call quality issues but I hear that's more of an isolated thing.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App
I came from the captivate...to the atrix to the inspire and back to the atrix ...the only thing I miss from the inspire is htc sense
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
slimslim said:
There are many Inspire / Atrix threads I've read but this one is a good, unbiased, well written everyday user experience. +1 for op.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 great unbiased and amusing post. I was about to moan when I saw how long your post was, Divinedark but your well thought out/written comparison made me finish it without realizing it.
Well written OP. It's actually like two reviews of both phones and not just which beats which.
Thank you.

So I just used a 5x for the first time. Nexus 5 user here

Ps: big text incoming... I should write novels not Internet forum posts! Bear with me pls.
I've been kinda wanting to replace my Nexus 5 for a while now.
Things that annoy me are the battery that doesn't last that long - doesn't make it through the day if I happen to use it a bit more than the occasional message and photo. And the camera... I have taken freaking fantastic photos with this phone! Even though so many people complain, and fore sure there are way better cameras, Google Camera's HDR+ works wonders!
However.... Quite frequently I loose quick shots because the phone takes forever from 0 to Photo-snap! Focus is slow and unreliable...
Other than those two things, I really can't complain! Specially for the price! 400€ 32gb bright red model. Kinda cheap and unique as **** as you don't really see many screaming bright red phones around.
Still.... I want a reliable camera and a battery that lasts the day even when I use the phone at will.
So I started looking...
Galaxy S6 => awesome hardware! (even though the battery is kinda iffy) but failWiz makes it a no go for me!.. I was nearly going for it when I found out you can't even use alternative keyboards freely because Samsung's ram manager keeps pushing them out.
LG g4.. Meh camera ain't that fantastic, just has a great manual mode.
Nexus 6p ... Seems cool! But it's too big, and now that it's seemingly crappy internal structure design has been revealed... I'm not looking forward to pay over 630€ for a phone whose design had corners cut.
So I considered the 5x. Even though I hate the fake front speaker grill
It kinda checks all boxes.
But today, to my surprise I found one on exposition on a local electronics shop. First I was like "wow cool!" then after playing around with it for a while and comparing it to my N5 I was more like "Meh... Not paying 530€ for this."
The camera looks awesome, even though it didn't seem to snap pics that fast (was in low light ambient)
But it doesn't really perspire quality.
If it'd cost here the same it costs in the states, sure. Good deal!
But for this price... Doesn't seem worth jumping from the Nexus 5 to the 5x.
Did I miss something? What makes this phone fantastic?
I wanted to love it....but I walked away far from in love.
Yeah... Unless your N5 is crapping out, you really have no reason to replace it.
Only reason why I'm thinking the 5x is because after two years, it has some light wear and tear that drives my ocd nuts, as do a couple of hairline cracks at the sim tray and the volume rocker.
All I would expect from the 5 to the 5x is an improved camera, maybe slightly better battery, slightly improved SoC... And nexus imprint... Other than that, its the same phone. Which isn't a bad thing. The N5 was/is a great device, and if u add the above mentioned features, its worthy of a slightly bumped up price from it's predecessor
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Yeah mine is all cracked too (the plastic around it) and none of the cracks apparently related to falls o.o
First one was the between the audio-jack and the screen. One day... there was a crack there!.. awesome lol
Now there's another one bellow the volume rocker and one next to the sim-tray as well. Top notch built quality!! xD never complained cuz of the price...
The thing about the price bump is that the price bump in Europe isn't because of extra hardware, otherwise it would have the same bump in the States. No - it's most probably because google felt like joining the bandwagon of ripping off ppl in Europe! lol... Taxes? Sure there are more taxes here and import taxes, but not to cover that much difference in price I don't think.
So it makes it kinda hard to justify the price even if I was shopping for a phone from scratch, not for a swap.
If you want a fingerprint scanner and a better camera, but that's about it. Larger screen too. I really like my 5X, it replaced my S6 edge and I'm much more pleased with the 5X. My old man is using my original nexus 5, so I couldn't take that from him, but he's pleased with it.
I got used to using a fingerprint with the S6E and since Android pay wants a secure lock screen, it just made sense for me to get the 5X over finding another 5. But I'm in the States and it's cheaper here, so that helped with the decision too.
SrPintas said:
Yeah mine is all cracked too (the plastic around it) and none of the cracks apparently related to falls o.o
First one was the between the audio-jack and the screen. One day... there was a crack there!.. awesome lol
Now there's another one bellow the volume rocker and one next to the sim-tray as well. Top notch built quality!! xD never complained cuz of the price...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yeah... I have the one by the audio jack too lmao.
Nobody ever claimed the n5 had good build quality. It's always been described as feeling "cheap" and "plastic". I always thought mine might have came from minor drops until I read that virtually everyone has them lol.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
It's like an N5 that's improved in every way IMO. The downsides being it's physically larger and a bit more expensive.
Biggest improvements are battery life and the camera image quality.
However some examples of the more unexpected improvements that you notice once you start using the device for a while:
Charge speeds. I've not charged over night even once yet as a 30 minute charge is enough to get through a day (roughly 50%).
Skin temperature. This device stays much cooler than the N5 especially during lighter usage such as Streaming Netflix and browsing. Battery temperatures remain consistently cooler than the N5 at all times, especially gaming.
Fingerprint sensor and ambient display: Together make it feel like you're interacting with the device in a whole new way. No need to use the power button ever.
How does the battery fair on a daily basis?
N5 is terrible even dose working it's magic while the phone is idling is not enough for it to make it alive in the evening if I use it a fair amount at some point during the morning.
SrPintas said:
How does the battery fair on a daily basis?
N5 is terrible even dose working it's magic while the phone is idling is not enough for it to make it alive in the evening if I use it a fair amount at some point during the morning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's awesome. I don't need to disable a single thing and my run times are similar to my N5 that had just about everything disabled.
It might only have an extra 400mAh but it feels like an extra 1000mAh. Part of that is because of Android 6.0 and Doze though.
Most of my results are in the 4-6 hours SoT range across 20+ hours. Lowest is 3 hours SoT across 20+ hours with weak signal mobile data usage and gaming. 50% manual brightness with most software features enabled.
Examples:
http://imgur.com/a/gVuT3
http://imgur.com/a/UhqdL
Sounds pretty good.
I rarely (never) see even 3h sot, much less 4 :'D
Sounds like I saw what the N5x has on offer pretty well.
The thing screwing it up is the EU price adjustment being even worse than it was with the N5
Ok, long post too... bear with me...
So, I had the exact same issues as you described. I loved my N5 and I've been using it daily for the past 2 years or so. The main reasons I wanted to change phones was battery life and the cameras, both rear and front facing. I do agree with you when you say that the N5 snapped some fantastic shots though. HDR+ really works wonders.
I considered a lot of options such as the Moto X Style/Pure, Nexus 6P, LG G4, Xperia Z5, Galaxy S6 or the OnePlus 2, but they're just too physically big. Can't carry around a phone that big. I'd have to buy new trousers because I wouldn't be able to fit it in any of my pockets
Also, Z5 and S6 are way too expensive and I find it morally wrong to spend so much money on a phone... personal thing...
After a lot of reading and thinking, I did get the 5X in the end. I'm in the UK so I paid slightly less than 530€ (£350 which is around 485€). I must say that I'm definitely happy with the upgrade.
As for the camera, when you say it doesn't perspire quality, you're completely wrong. The camera on this phone is FREAKING amazing, the quality is outstanding and the focus is lovely! The sensor captures a LOT of detail! I mean, A LOT OF DETAIL! Can't really say about the colours cause I'm colour-blind (lol), but I find them spot on (a little bit on the dark side perhaps but nothing to worry about, you can always bump up the brightness in edit mode). The aperture is quite good which makes the macro mode fantastic as well (depth of field related). Even though I got some decent shots with the original N5, this camera is on a completely different level, quality wise! As for speed, I find the camera app a little bit to slow at times but this is a software issue rather than an hardware one. The focus is fast and accurate. Most likely the app slow down will be addressed in a future app update.
Front facing camera is also quite decent. Wide angle is awesome for selfies and it also captures a lot of detail. Coming from the 1.3MP camera on the N5, this one is a welcome improvement, trust me!
As for battery life, don't get your hopes up. Don't get me wrong, battery usage is way better than the N5 and it does last a full WORKING day (which I wouldn't get out of the N5... I'm a very heavy user) but it's no Z3/Z5 compact. I'd say you can get 30/35% more usage time on the 5X. While it might not seem a lot but I've been getting a lot more Screen on Time and standby usage has also improved. I feel like doze works way better on the 5X than on the N5, probably due to the revamped hardware (note that always on sensors on the 808 SoC are much more battery efficient). Quick charge works wonders too! Charge it for 10/15 minutes and you're good for another 4/5h of usage. Perfect for when you have a night out, just charge it for 10 mins before leaving work and you're good to go!
Chipset-wise, while it might not seem a worthy upgrade, I have to say that the 808 performs exceptionally well. The 64bit architecture DOES MAKE a difference although by looking at the specs on paper you won't really tell. Even though my N5 was mostly snappy, it would lag and struggle at times. I've yet to experience that on the 5X and I have the exact same apps/setup I had on my N5. Definitely an improvement on performance too.
As for the rest, it's pretty much the same experience as the N5. Build quality, android experience, sound (no stereo speakers, bummer, but it's the same as the N5 so...), screen quality. I was happy with what I had and I'm happy with what I have now
By the way, two features I didn't care much for were the fingerprint sensor and the ambient display. While they may not be deal breakers, both things are quite a nice to have. Regarding the fingerprint sensor, its position is perfect and it works almost flawlessly! Also it's fast... like, insanely FAST! The ambient display helps battery and it works good, not great but good (doesn't always kick in perfectly). I'm guessing this could be addressed on a future software update as well. Again, it's not a deal breaker but it's definitely a great addition to an already good phone.
Sorry for the long post, hope it helps
Wow
Don't apologize for the long text! Not only I don't mind reading but that's exactly what I was hoping to find: someone in a similar situation!
I wasn't aware the price was lower in the UK! Neat... Might be worth importing if I travel or someone close does. Any chance of a insurance on purchase for damage or theft?
Oh and regarding what I wrote about it not traspiring quality. After I read again what I wrote I though it might be confusing because I didn't change subject. I meant the device itself, not the camera, when I wrote it didn't transpire quality and thus didn't feel worth the price.
Also jumping from a N5, where do you put the quality at? The one I used had a gigantic anti-theft alarm dongle glued to it's back so I couldn't really tell.
The vibration engine felt way better even though I could only test it by inputting a not-recognized finger print!
The buttons seemed very nice even though I've read bad things about them on several places
In norway you can get a carrier lock discount, witch makes the price of the phone itself the same as in the us. No option to do that where you are buying it?
SrPintas said:
Wow
Don't apologize for the long text! Not only I don't mind reading but that's exactly what I was hoping to find: someone in a similar situation!
I wasn't aware the price was lower in the UK! Neat... Might be worth importing if I travel or someone close does. Any chance of a insurance on purchase for damage or theft?
Oh and regarding what I wrote about it not traspiring quality. After I read again what I wrote I though it might be confusing because I didn't change subject. I meant the device itself, not the camera, when I wrote it didn't transpire quality and thus didn't feel worth the price.
Also jumping from a N5, where do you put the quality at? The one I used had a gigantic anti-theft alarm dongle glued to it's back so I couldn't really tell.
The vibration engine felt way better even though I could only test it by inputting a not-recognized finger print!
The buttons seemed very nice even though I've read bad things about them on several places
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got the 32Gb by the way, 16Gb is £300 although I wouldn't recommend 16Gb to anyone given the fact that there's no micro sd slot...
It is possible to get an insurance, yes. I guess it's something like £12/mo but I don't know what it covers (probably 1 screen replacement, theft I don't know... check carphone warehouse for more details). Also, I don't know if you'll be able to do it since you don't live in the UK.
Quality wise, I'd say if you feel like the N5 has a cheap build quality, you'll have the same opinion about the 5X. This phone doesn't have an aluminium unibody neither it does have gorilla glass 4. It is not an iphone 6s/htc m9/6P/etc, they had to cut costs somewhere I guess. It won't win any design awards either, that's for sure. Having said that, if you feel ok with the N5, you'll notice no difference handling the 5X. If you (because you're upgrading to a new device) expect the new phone to have a more premium feel (as "they" put it and has been taunted pretty much everywhere...) you won't get that from the 5X.
Vibration engine is sometimes annoyingly loud and tbh, not quite strong. But does the job I guess, I feel it vibrating in my hand and in my pocket, I've yet to miss a call cause I didn't feel it vibrating plus, I don't think that will be a reason to/not to buy the phone.
The button are, well, buttons... I've seen people complaining about the N5 having ceramic buttons and the 5X plastic ones. My thought about that is... who cares? Because of the fingerprint sensor I'm using a power button a lot less and the volume rocker has a rather nice position as it's placed towards the centre rather on the top of the phone. I find it convenient because the headphone jack is on the bottom so, when listening to music, my phone is faced down in my back pocket and I can easily adjust the volume without hassle.
In my opinion, I don't really care about aluminium unibody bull****. It gives a premium feeling, ok that's fair enough, if you're into that. Although if you're into that, you'll probably, won't be looking at the 5X Also, I rather have a phone that won't give me an heart attack when (notice the "when" rather than "if"!) I drop it
I'm there with you.
"Premium" quality comes with ups and downs.
I'm a but into design so I like a good looking device just like I nice a well designed car.
However I also drop em once in a while xD Nexus has proven incredibly durable (think I'm lucky too), I doubt a S6 or iPhone would survive some of the drops the n5 did.
When i asked about quality and feeling I didn't mean to compare with the more design oriented devices. But compare it with the N5 and other plastic chassi phones. The 5x sure is plastic, but it felt more "solid" in my hand than the N5. But I can't be sure cuz of the alarm dongle that was stuck to it.
On the buttons... So what if the n5 has ceramic?... Nice touch, but they are have some play. 5x's seemed more solid even if not "clickier" like most people seem to like
HabueN said:
In norway you can get a carrier lock discount, witch makes the price of the phone itself the same as in the us. No option to do that where you are buying it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish. But so far no carrier has it or has announced anything regarding it
SrPintas said:
How does the battery fair on a daily basis?
N5 is terrible even dose working it's magic while the phone is idling is not enough for it to make it alive in the evening if I use it a fair amount at some point during the morning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried replacing your original phone battery? Mine was getting pretty bad and I replaced it with a new one bought off ebay a month ago. I now comfortably get a day and a half of moderate use. SOT time around 3.5 hours and doze is doing wonders compared to Lollipop. When kept overnight (11:00 pm to 6:00 am) the battery loses only 3% and I will take that any day!
I think people need to understand that a lithium ion battery will start falling down in performance considerably when approaching its life limit. Now comparing to the N5X I don't consider it worth the upgrade but will most likely switch to the next Nexus in October 2016.
sshariff said:
Have you tried replacing your original phone battery? Mine was getting pretty bad and I replaced it with a new one bought off ebay a month ago. I now comfortably get a day and a half of moderate use. SOT time around 3.5 hours and doze is doing wonders compared to Lollipop. When kept overnight (11:00 pm to 6:00 am) the battery loses only 3% and I will take that any day!
I think people need to understand that a lithium ion battery will start falling down in performance considerably when approaching its life limit. Now comparing to the N5X I don't consider it worth the upgrade but will most likely switch to the next Nexus in October 2016.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've thought about it. But kinda dozed off the idea when I didn't know which battery to choose =P
I replaced the battery on my N5 two months ago so I speak out of experience. It has gotten better but 5X's battery still performs better than a new battery on my N5.
Battery life is never linear as it depends on each person usage. I personally have everything on all the time... I rely heavily on Google's services like location tracking, location based reminders and I "need" a always-on data connection. Given this premise, my battery is bound not to last as long as other peoples' but I think starting to turn features off in order to preserve battery is not the way to go. I want to fully experience my phone and I'm aware that may cause battery drains. That's why I have a power bank ;pp
Regarding design, I'm very picky too, trust me. I do, however prefer minimalistic designs and both the N5 and 5X suit my design obsession. Again, this is also a matter of personal taste...
SrPintas said:
Also jumping from a N5, where do you put the quality at? The one I used had a gigantic anti-theft alarm dongle glued to it's back so I couldn't really tell.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Won't ask any questions, and if u answer, I'll say I never knew u. Lol
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
H0tep said:
Won't ask any questions, and if u answer, I'll say I never knew u. Lol
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahahahah xD
It was in exposition in a major electronics shop and stuck to the counter with an alarm dongle and "chain" cable.
Didn't really use it at home or something with the dongle still attached xD

On the fence about buying a Nexus 6P; Convince Me

On the fence; convince me.
So, still rocking the nexus 5, but it's time to upgrade since the mic is giving out (my fault for being rough replacing the screen without a heat gun lol).
I know I want a nexus device but I'm not sure if I want to super-size my screen. I've never owned a "phablet", in fact I used to dislike them, but now that they're more common place I might reconsider. My hands are average if not on the larger side so I'm sure I'd get used to it, but do I want to? One handed use is nice when necessary, but is it ever absolutely necessary?
The beefier speakers, cpu, ram, battery, and screen (AMOLED) are all turn-on's. But I want to now how the transition was for all of you, be it to the nexus 6, Note, 6p, or whatever other device was your first big screen phone. Any regrets, big or small? Will you ever down size? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Stop worrying. Once you go phablet, you want want to go back. Plus, front facing mothereffing speakers! I rock the piss out of my nexus 6 and the speakers are just so, damn, good. Back on the size subject, you adapt to the size very fast and I hear the 6p is a narrower device than my N6, so I say go for the 6p.
Why not go with 5x
fingerprinted said:
Why not go with 5x
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's between the 6p and the 5x for me, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for the jump in size.
mikehunt22 said:
I hear the 6p is a narrower device than my N6, so I say go for the 6p.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to hear, I kinda thought the 6 was a little uncomfortable to handle with its size and design. Plus I prefer the more square design of the 6p over the roundness of the 6.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
I came from Galaxy S6, no regrets. I did own the Note 4 before that but after you make the adjustment you'll like having a larger screen.
I came from a Moto X 2014. The device feels huge but very premium and thin. The camera and screen are insanely good. I ended up returning it because when playing music through the aux it would stop randomly. Idk if it was hardware or software but it was annoying. The speakers are good as well but each sound a bit different. I assume it's what sits behind each speakers that gives it the effect that one is louder than the other. I also had weird stutters with apps like instagram, snapchat, and the settings menu. Ultimately I don't think I'll repurchase the device because of its size. I had it for a week and got used to making adjustments to handle a big device but it's so much easier for me to manage my Moto X 2014.
I also have the 5x sitting on my desk. I don't think I can justify the price to upgrade from my Moto X 2014 so that one will also be returned. You might want to check it out. It's more of the workhorse of the two and feels really good in the hand.
You get used to the phone being big for the most part. I was using a phone with a 5 inch screen temporarily after having a samsung note 3 and I did like how much easier it was to handle the phone but at the same time I missed the bigger screen. You need to decide yourself which is more important to you so you don't have buyers remorse.
Just buy my old N6. You'll love it. It's nowhere near as awesome as my 6P, but you'll love it. Yup.
You will adapt to its size after a hour or so of use. You will begin to realize that it isn't even that huge anymore.
Get another Nexus 5 for $100 on Ebay and enjoy life.
I'd love to share my thoughts about this phone with you. I have a lot and I also come from the Nexus 5 and skipped the Nexus 6 entirely because of its size. So strap in...
I was also on the fence back in mid October. I just couldn't make the jump yet. The 5X didn't seem like much of an upgrade to me. It just seemed like they remade the 5 again. I'm not here to argue specs with anyone, but personally, I wasn't too impressed. I was impressed with the 6P specs though. That felt more right in the way of an upgrade. I didn't really need an upgrade, but the screen is slightly raised on my N5. It clicks when you press the right spot. It does not impact functionality at all and it's been like that about 6 months now. I got my N5 brand new on launch, so it held up pretty well I'd say. I have a lot of friends who (despite my best efforts) are with the dark side and recently got the 6+ and 6S+ iPhones. They all justify the size of the phone with the real estate for gaming and movies. I get that, I do. I'd much rather game and watch movies on my 55" HDTV then on my 24" in the bedroom. After playing some games and checking out Netflix on their phones, I did like the bigger size in that sense. That being said, I got the phone delivered to me on November 9th and I am still getting used to it. If you've ever held a 6+, that is what you can expect. I compared my 6P to a buddies 6+ and they are exactly the same size.
My best advice to you (and anyone else in a similar situation) would be to be please, please, please, please, please do not let the threads in the 6P General forum scare you. There's a lot of threads about a lot of defects and issues. They have already acknowledged and addressed these issues and aside from a few bad eggs, from what I've seen the RMA's that have been going out have been better. I have 0 issues with my device. Everything is cut and lined up properly. All flush. Nothing is loose or raised. I decided to make the jump and was ready to order from Project Fi the moment I finally got my invite from them. That happened on 10/16/2015. I ordered the 32gb graphite. I love the overall look and feel of it way more than the N5 which I could not get enough of at launch. The build quality of the phone is amazing. The weight of it and the metal touch make it feel extremely high quality. That's the one thing I always thought Google could take a lesson from Apple in. Despite my opinion on Apple and iOS, I could always appreciate the build quality of the iPhones. They felt so solid and great to hold. None of my phones gave me the same satisfaction as iPhones did. I never had one, but I've played with my friends. It always felt so legit while my phones always felt like cheap lightweight plastic toys. Google finally stepped up in that sense. I have had mine since the 9th of November and so far I have not had a single issue as found in this forum. The phone still sits completely flush on the front or back. No wobbling when you press one of the edges. No bends, the back glass hasn't spontaneously cracked. Everything works 100%. It's solid. It's legit.
The feel is phenomenal. The first thing you will notice is the feel of the aluminum. It feels great. No, I mean great. Amazing, even. The one downside being that it is slippery. Keep a good grip on it. Don't try to balance it on your leg or clothes when you're sitting down. It'll slip. Besides that though? The first time you leave you phone idling in a cool room and pick it up. Oh man, I was not prepared for that. I would compare it to flipping your pillow over to put your face on the cool side. You get the same satisfaction. It's refreshing, every single time. 10/10 would recommend. You don't get that with the N5, no sir.
The next thing that I noticed right away was the haptic feedback. As soon as I pressed the home button I giggled like a schoolgirl. I don't know if my N5 had a defective motor (known issue, I know), but it never, ever felt like that. It feels so much crisper, cleaner and a lot more tight. My N5 kind of sounds and feels loose and rattly. Another thing I love, which isn't really a selling point...at all is that when you listen to the haptic feedback in a dead-quite room, it makes a neat sound. The vibrations just feel deeper and sharper. I can't get enough.
My screen is perfect. Not a single issue. There is no color or hue defects at all. There is no raised edges. Everything is 100% in this department. As mentioned earlier, it is awesome for movies and gaming if that is your thing. I don't really game much besides N64 emulators and as far as videos and movies goes, Netflix and YouTube is pretty much all I use.
Next up is the front facing speakers. The front facing speakers. The front facing speaks blew me away. Coming from a Nexus 5? Absolutely blew my mind. I had both phones, one in my left hand one in my right. I opened YouTube on both and I opened up 'Who Are You' by The Who on both. I played it first on my N5, rooted with V4A installed and finely tuned. My thoughts? "OK, sounds pretty good. Yeah." I had my Viper settings to my liking and that's what I was used to. The very second I pressed play on the 6P I had the biggest grin on my face. It was so LOUD and the sound was coming right at me! You know how when you hold the Nexus 5, half of the time you cover the speaker holes with your hand? It was just the way you held it and the placement of the speaker? Especially in landscape when trying to watch a video... I hated that sooooo much. I love these speakers so much. Some people here say the sound quality is bad, but I haven't noticed that at all. No crackling or popping. Nothing sounds distorted or washed out, but there are others out there a lot more judgmental in those regards than myself.
USB Type-C. Now when I mentioned earlier than I am still getting used to the phone, this is primarily what I mean. I cannot seem to shake the habit of slightly twirling the cable and looking down at it to make sure it's facing the right direction before plugging it in. You don't need to do that anymore, just plug and go. If I don't think about it and just go to plug in, I find myself doing that almost every time.
The buttons. The buttons are nice. They have a clean, crisp click when you press them. Almost like a snap. I like the way the power button is textured. It feels nice when you slide your finger over it. While on topic of the power button, I love the double press to access camera feature. I can't tell you how many pictures I missed (animal or insect that got spooked) waiting to open my N5 camera, even from the lockscreen. Even if the 6P is idle, a quick double press of the power button and the camera is open instantly. It's so fast, I'm blown away every time. I still haven't got used to that either. Oh and the 240 FPS is so cool, just make sure you do it in well lit places otherwise it comes out grainy. I don't want to go as far as to say potato quality, but you'll see what I mean if you try in a dimmer setting.
The only, and I mean only beef I have with the buttons is the placement. I am left handed. The way I hold and use all of my phones is that I primarily support my phones with my right hand and use my left for scrolling, reaching across the screen, zooming, etc. As a result, I got into the habit of using my right hand for single handed use. It just doesn't feel right to use only my left hand with my phones. It's awkward and just not natural for me. So when I want to take a screenshot, I do have to use both hands. My right thumb and then my left hand for the power button, otherwise I end up capturing a bug report. I can take screenshots one handed if I use my left hand, but I just don't do that, ever. Other than that I have no issues with that. I do not have any rattling from them during normal usage or movement of the phone. They do slightly rattle if I shake the phone quite hard. However having button rattle ONLY when I shake it hard enough to see if they rattle is not a turn of for me, at all.
The battery. I am honestly so incredibly impressed with the battery, I cannot even begin to tell you. On my Nexus 5, I would take all sorts of measures to improve battery life as well as screen on time. Granted I did have some things working against me like the Viper drivers and things of that nature, but I would keep the brightness around 50%, usually slightly under. NFC, location, etc. was all off and I was pretty impressed with 3-3.5 hours of screen on time, per charge. With my 6P I get 6 hours of screen on time every single charge. That is with the screen at 100% full brightness at all times. Nothing is turned off either. This is with the phone bare stock. It isn't unlocked or rooted, it is completely factory stock plus about 80 or so user apps installed. At least an hour of YouTube throughout the day, probably more. I also stream Spotify sometimes, not too much though. Aside from that just web browsing. XDA, Facebook, Google+, things of that nature. As far as the brightness goes, I'm not too worried about burn in as I never got any on my Galaxy Nexus and I had that for almost 4 years. The idle drain is insane. I went an entire work day without my phone. I left it in the car and at the end of the day when I went back, it was at 99%. 8 hour shift on full bars LTE. I often find myself using the phone and after so long I'm like yeah it's about time to charge it before it dies. Since I'm used to the Nexus 5 and all, but I pull the shade down and see like 40% left and I can't help but laugh. I love it. Love love love it.
Now as far as the size goes. If that's all you're worried about... Do yourself a favor and go order the phone right now. Just do it. I was so against it myself, but you do get used to it. You really do. Eventually you get the hang of using it one handed no problem. You kinda have to tilt it in towards your palm so you can reach your thumb across to the furthest corner, but that's only if you happen to need to press whatever is in the furthest corner. Texting in landscape was a bit of a curve as well. I don't have huge hands, but I don't have small girly hands either. That's a lot of phone to cover. Instead of just resting it in your fingers, you kind of have to set it further back on your fingers to cradle it. That way you have a bit more reach with your thumbs. It took some getting used to, but now I can text one handed, or landscape with no issues. Believe me though, when you first try you will probably say nope, this isn't happening I am returning it. Don't. You get over that. Really, you do. Everything else about this phone will make you fall in love before you are inconvenienced by the size even once. Seriously, pull the trigger. You want to and you know it, stop kidding yourself. I just got used to the size though, I didn't really fall in love. I would say if they made a phone with the same specs and they found a happy medium between the N5 and the 6P as far as size goes, I'd surely downsize and get it. Not until this phone put in it's 2+ years though. I wouldn't ever send it back to get a smaller screen now that I actually have it.
I have no real complaints with any aspects of the phone. It's been so great I honestly haven't even wanted to unlock or root it yet. Now that Cataclysm is available- and a user over in that thread commented that with systemless root he was able to successfully add cards and complete purchases with Android Pay, I may reconsider. Solid phone and a solid experience using it. Like you said, you have slightly larger hands, so you certainly will acclimate to the size of the phone in little to no time. I hope I could answer some of your questions about the device and alleviate some of your concerns! Let me know if you have any other questions!
tl;dr - Do it and welcome to the 6P forums.
It's OK to sit on the fence. Just make sure not to sit on the phone... It will bend.
6P imo is the best android phone you can buy right now, its a full package, much easier to hold than the N6 too
Jimmy_Noname said:
So, still rocking the nexus 5, but it's time to upgrade since the mic is giving out (my fault for being rough replacing the screen without a heat gun lol).
I know I want a nexus device but I'm not sure if I want to super-size my screen. I've never owned a "phablet", in fact I used to dislike them, but now that they're more common place I might reconsider. My hands are average if not on the larger side so I'm sure I'd get used to it, but do I want to? One handed use is nice when necessary, but is it ever absolutely necessary?
The beefier speakers, cpu, ram, battery, and screen (AMOLED) are all turn-on's. But I want to now how the transition was for all of you, be it to the nexus 6, Note, 6p, or whatever other device was your first big screen phone. Any regrets, big or small? Will you ever down size? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'd be surprised how quickly you get used to it. I went from a smaller screen to the OnePlus One and it was a pretty big jump, but I was used to it within a few hours. Now I have the 6P. You won't want to go back to a smaller screen.
Sent from my Nexus 6P
Try it and probably never look back!
I had a Nexus 5X until my 6P came in. Trust me, it's night and day and although the size difference is VRY noticeable, it's not unbearable. You're getting a lot of phone for a rock bottom price. NOT saying the 5X was bad at all, actually quite different. I just wanted the extra screen real estate.
I came from an N5, had the same phablet reservations. But after seeing what Google did with the 5X, it wasn't quite what I was hoping it would be. I love the 6P!
Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P
Rado_vr6 said:
I had a Nexus 5X until my 6P came in. Trust me, it's night and day and although the size difference is VRY noticeable, it's not unbearable. You're getting a lot of phone for a rock bottom price. NOT saying the 5X was bad at all, actually quite different. I just wanted the extra screen real estate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Returned my 6p for a 5x and could not be happier. The 6p is a very big and long phone.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

2 months on, how are you loving the ultra-tall/wide display?

Are you liking the extra space? Or do you find it too tall?
to me the size is great ...
many people complian about the finger print reader location , but i have no issues with it . my fingers auto-pilot to it now
I love it. This phone just looks too beautiful to put a case on but I sadly have to anyway.
Despite some minor issues, I do love the size of my s8+ and wouldn't want it any smaller. I like the YouTube movies in ultra wide etc etc.
Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G955F met Tapatalk
It's perfect ! I'm not sure I want to go back to a 16:9 ratio
Taller is bad for the s8+. It does not fit well in hoodie pockets and falls out too easily because of it. Bad idea.
The S8+ is so much more easier to use one-handed than my previous big phones. It also seems better balanced in terms of weight distribution. I always felt like I could drop my Note7/S7e if I didn't hold them "just right" where I don't have that sense of fear with the S8+.
I still look at it the same way as I first got it haha. I love it! Since I got used to the new ratio, 16:9 phones look too wide now. Many people made a big deal out of the finger print sensor placement, but when muscle memory kicks in, it's really not an issue. It's nice to see my phone already unlocked right when I lift it up.
Like it. Thinking of oneplus 5 though....
I deplete my battery just staring at my screen. I'm always trying to think of something to do on my phone just to give me an excuse to look at it. I wish my tv looked this damn good! Love the size!
Love the phone S8+, but what a horror to carry around. You can't just put it in your back pocket, cause of it may damage when you sit, cause of it's length. So it's not exactly a perfect 'mobile'. All so feels a little on the flimsy side build wise.
Oliver Aa said:
Love the phone S8+, but what a horror to carry around. You can't just put it in your back pocket, cause of it may damage when you sit, cause of it's length. So it's not exactly a perfect 'mobile'. All so feels a little on the flimsy side build wise.
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S8+ can't be too much worse than the standard S8, where Jerryrigeverything gave the phone a stellar review for durability.
Love the shape and size of the S8 - makes my old S7e look FAT!!!
First time I went with the smaller phone. I really love it. Since most things I do are reading and typing the added vertical space really helps a ton. I configured bixby button to toggle fullscreen to get even more content in the screen.
The exact opposite of what computer displays do. And I think it's the right direction. Most web content is vertical so are text and documents. And the ultra slim bezels are just beautiful to look at. Makes my 3t look really old in comparison :silly:
Loving it so far.
Lol at comments. Im gonna write something else. Far best phone ive used so far. Got original screen protector from Samsung to prevent thoes scratches people getting.
Im generaly getting around 5 hours SOT on heavy use 4g internet or 6-7 hours when mixed used when i dont watch video stuff - but when i do watch some of the video i got 7 to 8 hours tops. So battery considering 5.8 screen is satisfying.
I would like too get ram managment better thou. Mostly got 1,6 gb of ram available (with 500 mb reserved) even with disabled apps from Package disabler pro. That thing didnt do much better if on. movies plays superb there. Samsung internet browser best out there so far. And ive tested quite a few. android skin UI is improved, and me saying that who comes from Sony flasgships with one of the best android UI,s there is sure a compliment to samsung. Camera is like "this phone dont know how to make bad photo lol". I have little kid and so far after 3000 photos, i actually deleted 3 or 4 of them cause of bad quality, everything else were great. When it comes too sound quality, thats where samsung shines now too. Output is very strong. I was dj for years and i was into music production, and the output is really clear and very powerfull. Samsung really did exellent job there.So generaly, phone is really good, i just wish to get more free ram available. (all 1,5 - 2 gbs is most then enough for all heavy users.)
Phone suprisingly works well in one hand use. i can do roll down with my middle size hand easy.
Is it just me or this phone completely trash? Or Samsung fanboys can't admit it? I pre-ordered this phone day one. Been using for 2 months and has been lagging,crashing,freezing, restart at random times. One time I tried to pay with Samsung pay and restarted. The battery is trash and get depleted quickly by listening to music. The only going for this is beautiful infinity display. I replace this with OnePlus 5 real soon.
Dont like it. Too skinny and wrong aspect ratio. My s5 felt like a bigger screen due to the proper aspect ratio even tbough it was technically a lot smaller.
S3, Note 1, S4, Note 2, S5, Note 3, Note 4, S6 Edge+, S7 Edge and now S8... Beast of allll beasts... no one comes close.. Samsung all the way!!!
Sent from my Samsung SM-G950F using XDA Labs
Nope, I still wish the top was chopped off to be 17:9 or really 16:9. Super tall does nothing for me except make the phone harder to hold and drop down notification shade.
---------- Post added at 01:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:51 PM ----------
AT&Tsucks said:
Is it just me or this phone completely trash? Or Samsung fanboys can't admit it? I pre-ordered this phone day one. Been using for 2 months and has been lagging,crashing,freezing, restart at random times. One time I tried to pay with Samsung pay and restarted. The battery is trash and get depleted quickly by listening to music. The only going for this is beautiful infinity display. I replace this with OnePlus 5 real soon.
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I wouldn't say mine is complete trash but I do wish the phone was shorter. Not wider, just shorter.
Battery life is kinda bad compared to my S7 Edge was in the beginning.
Patiently waiting for Pixel 2.

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