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PURPOSE
So 1st and foremost, the plan here is to give you my experience with the LeEco Le Max 2 6GB version compared to some other recent flagship phones I have tried. Granted, I have only used the Max 2 for about 1/2 a week now and can say I have yet to fully break it in to find everything that may or may not be right / wrong with it. However, this will be a unbiased look and comparison. I'm neither a fanboy or sheep. No brand affiliation. Not a programmer either, just a pro-sumer Senior Member of XDA willing to get trolled, flamed, etc. for sharing a look at these 3 phones. Hopefully, I can give "the everyday guy / gal look" without getting bogged down in stats, variables or benchmarks. Here goes...
MY BACKGROUND
No one special. Just a guy that likes the latest tech... phones being at the top of the list. I am a nerd. No doubt about that. I think anyone that knows about XDA probably is to some extent. No brand loyalty. Recently, I have had the privilege to try out the following phones:
1. LeEco Le Max 2 6GB
2. HTC 10
3. Huawei P9 4GB
4. LG G5
5. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
6. Huawei Mate 8
7. Huawei Nexus 6P
8. LG Nexus 5X
9. Samsung Note 5
10. Apple iPhone 6s+
And probably some more, but these are the most recent. Does that make me qualified to make a review... Maybe. It does make me an idiot that likes new phones, though. I am always looking for something that meets my needs but also is a good phone. Currently with TMobile but have been with ATT, Verizon & Sprint at some point 20 years of using cell phones.
MY NEEDS
I drive about 40 miles everyday to work (yes, my work week is currently 7 days a week with a few occasional days off). So, with this in mind and where I drive. I need the minimum requirements:
1. Can Stream Music
2. Bluetooth is fully compatible with my 2016 vehicle
3. An equalizer of some sort since I have only switch out my new cars speakers for better ones and don't plan on changing or adding a better sound system.
4. Decent pictures when needed
5. Works with my Huawei Watch
6. Relatively not laggy - will sometimes do some ROM-ing or some customization but since I tend to get rid of the phones quickly I try not to void warranties or make it too non-stock
THE COMPARISON
I am looking at my experience with the Max 2 and the other flagships under/around these requirements and some normal stuff like battery, screen, snappiness, heat, speakers, etc. Here goes:
SOUND OVERALL
Lets start out by saying that I'm not a person that needs a phone that has good external speakers... I really have no use for them and as long as they are loud enough for notifications then I'm cool. Also, I am not a cross-training adventure workout junkie that requires 3.5mm in order to do everything with my phone... I state this now so that I clear the air with the Max 2 being one of the first phones not to have a 3.5mm jack and require a CDLA to 3.5mm adapter or CDLA USB Type C Headphones... I think the Max 2 may even come with the adapter and since I so don't give a brown matter from my butt about it, I haven't even taken it out of its packaging. Personally, the only time I use headphones is skiing and I have bluetooth wireless headphones built into my helmet... and like someone in the 21st century I realize I can have wireless headphones. :good: Now, my main sound experience with the Max 2 is bluetooth to my 2016 HR-V. It connects with zero issues, phone and bluetooth audio both work great. As a bonus, the built-in Dolby ATMOS makes my otherwise tinny speakers without equalization sound great. It also doesn't detract from the volume output like other similar apps... It allows me to blast bassy metal to offend anyone I want, which is a great double bonus situation for me. Nothing like driving by a church blasting GHOST and having the lyrics Hail Satan play loud, clear and rockin' hahaha. Seriously though, in recent memory, this is the only phone from 2016 flagships I haven't had to use a workaround app that drastically decreases the volume. Now I will say that the Dolby ATMOS setting works a little wonky and easily resets itself if you enter into the sound settings or back out of sound setting after enabling... once you know about this though, it is easy to workaround just by hitting home button instead. For the external speaker people, the Max 2 is super loud and the speakers do sound crisp... I think it is stereo speakers as well, if you care about those things... bass-wise, the speakers are not the best but not bad also... definitely as good as of not better than the HTC 10 or LG G5.
WINNER: NO DOUBT SO FAR IN 2016 - LeEco Max 2
BATTERY
From my experience so far, I have had decent battery life out of the Max 2. 3100 mAh does seem a tad small for this larger phalet... but I'm yet to say that its a problem for me. Of recent phones, LG G5 has the worse battery life with the HTC 10 being next in line, then S7 rounded out at the top with the P9... The P9 has a Kirin processor so lets toss it out. Out of the Snapdragons I will say that with my usage so far the Max 2 matches the S7 with battery life from my usage. Max 2 has fast charge as well which helps keep it on par with the other 820's. Just yesterday, I used the Max 2 all-day no recharging with 2 heavy usage periods for a total of 3 hours plus of screen on time playing Clash Royale. The rest of the day was standard usage of checking emails, looking at some news items, etc. It lasted the whole day from 8:30am until 1am in the morning with 15% left. This was on wifi the whole time as well. I feel this adequately meets my needs to last a whole day without recharge (which rarely happens since I always recharge when in my car) with moderate usage all day long.
WINNER: It's close to call but since its the larger phone and still performs well even though no wireless charging - LeEco Max 2
HEAT
I have yet to see a real heat spike with the Max 2. I have heard reports of heat but maybe this is with the 4GB version. Since the lack of need to flush RAM or actively manage memory more critically with the greater space, this may play a factor. Not a super nerdy tech guru on this so someone that understands this more may have to chime in. I have also yet to place it in a what I like to call, a pocket burning situation like at a concert were I'm using the camera a lot, there's high tower saturation causing the radio to work more, etc. I can say the phone barely heated up trying to download a 1.5GB update on LTE... so I guess that says something right? The only other phone that runs this cool is the P9 with it Kirin processor... all the 820's run a little hot when taxed so I would not be surprised if the Max 2 was the same if push to limits. I can say that I have gotten overheat warnings on the S7 when setting up the phone and downloading copious amounts of data.... and my first G5 overheated that it caused an internal malfunction causing me to have to replace the phone under warranty. The HTC 10 seemed to be the coolest out of the other 820's I have tried.
WINNER: Still is the P9 however out of the 820's - LeEco Max 2
SNAPPINESS
I have explained in some of my other reviews, I like to talk about performance in terms of snappiness with normal day to day usage with the phone rather than throw up meaningless to most people AnTuTu stats or whatever. I am going on out on a limp here and saying that the Max 2 dominates of course due to 6GB of RAM... it's like pitting a turbocharged version of a car vs. its not turbocharge version... more under the hood most of the time leads to better performance. No loading issues, no lag from app to app. What I can say is that EUI is a fairly nice GUI take on Android, better than EMUI, but not as nice as the new HTC 10 Sense / Stock like interface. I however did my standard change of porting over the sense launcher to the Max 2 which I just love... as far as getting use to how things work, there is a lot of configuration that can be done with notifications, much like Huawei's EMUI interface that might make it off putting to some... I lucked out and the aliexpress merchant I bought the Max 2 from pre-loaded the Google App Store when I got the phone. I since did 2 updates (one I downloaded and force flashed myself, the other was through LeEco's update system directly) and the app store continues to work fine.... There are redundant apps for email, calendar, message, etc. to google versions... however most of these are built well enough that you might not want or need the google versions. Notifications seem to work OK although some do not like that it does not litter the top of your screen with icons for every single notification.... rather it just typically puts an icon with "..." and a circle at the top... takes a little to get use to, but with a notification LED as well, I think this bypasses this small issue for some. :laugh: Also, people are starting to create ROMs for it and it is easily rootable albeit in Chinese at first, so you can definitely get more out of it with some tweaking.... haven't heard if they released Kernels yet. But it is only a matter of time given it popularity in China.
WINNER: Maybe just because of the 6GB but still... LeEco Le Max 2
DISPLAY
This to me is one of the areas much like sound where if it is not screwing up the way I use the phone then I care less about stuff like resolution. If someone can truly tell a load of difference between QHD, SuperHD, 1080p, etc. etc. good for you. Here what I can say. The Max 2 screen is great! Plus, its the largest compared to the other Flagships I have tried... forgot how nice it is to use a larger phone... It does not suffer from which ultimately made me get rid of the HTC 10 from the screen polarization being applied wrong causing you not to be able to use it outdoors with sunglasses on.... I know right... major f-up IMO that HTC 10 did... I couldn't see it in my car with sunglasses on, too annoying for me. Thankfully, don't have to worry about this with the Max 2 even with a tempered glass screen protector. Since it is somewhat screen related, I can say that the fingerprint sensor is something to be desired. Its slow, sometimes taking 3 tries for it to read properly... I have tried multiple times to reprogram and it does not help. Definitely the G5 and P9 beat it hands down when talking about rear facing fingerprint sensors... Even touchwiz laggy S7 sensor beats it. Hopefully, updates help with this. Like capacitive buttons it has, in the configuration I like with back button on left... apps button also reveals the control center feature on the Max 2... similar to Apples swipe up control center... not placing these toggles in the notification panel is a fresh take on using these toggles and I like it... Color balance seems good on the phone as well if you care about those things... No Always-On feature for the Max 2 either but not a huge deal with a configurable notification LED.
WINNER: The S7 still has the best "looking screen"; G5 has the best always-on screen - Max 2 is ok but not the best in this class of phones.... Does get bonus points for the control center feature and correctly orientated IMO capacitive buttons
PHONE DESIGN
The Max 2 is a good looking phone especially with a premium metal chassis... I do have to say that I had to get the "Gold" version of the phone since it was the only one available at this point in the 6GB Version... I use "gold" here loosely as like other can report... gold is actually rose gold... not that rose gold is bad, but a pinkish phone for a guy is not cool... No matter, I got a Matte black hard case today the covers the back and pretty much takes care of the covering most of the pinkish gold exterior.... I believe there will be other colors out there soon but I could not wait any longer... Camera and button placement is nice. Phone feels great in hand. Although bigger than the other 2016 Flagships, its not gargantuan either... doesn't feel like putting a tablet up to your ear like other phalets can feel like. Pretty thin too and not overly heavy. The biggest design issue is of course no SD Card add-on memory since the SIM tray only accommodates dual SIMs. At 64GB, this isn't an issue for me as I don't save a lot to my phone and jam pack it with needless stuff. The fingerprint sensor is in a good natural position albeit if it only worked on the first try... Its not like Megan Fox / Candice Swanepoel good looking phone rather more like Melissa Benoist / Kate Upton good looking. You ain't going to wake up after a long night of drinking and go "my god... what did I do..." but you are also not getting the top of the heap in design characteristics either. It's nice looking but not someone you'd use your "hall pass" on over your wife, if you get my point..." Notification LED work great and should be noted as not being blinding at night like others can be.... looking at you HTC 10... I like no 3.5mm jack since I don't use it anyway... less holes to get dirt into... in this case, having less holes to stick stuff into wins out!!! :silly:
WINNER: Still S7 for overall design, wireless charging, etc. - Your not bad Max 2, but pinkish gold is makes my balls instantly shrink!!!
CAMERA
Another big deal for some but not really a huge concern for me is the camera on smartphones... Personally and I have gone over the reasons time and time again, I went to school for photography and have used some really great cameras, film and digital. So when you start looking at smartphone cameras, even in 2016, it is still hard to compare to the output of an actual camera. With that said, there is no real gimmick with the Max 2... looks to be an alright camera that I will post examples later of. Doesn't have "superpixels", low light lens, dual lens, etc, etc. etc. It will take pictures decently and in most cases that's all you need it to do. I can say that it does have one of my major pet peeves when it comes to the camera app in video mode... no focus lock.... honestly who uses always on auto focus in video mode.... looks like a bad wedding video... when you are recording something that you are a fixed distance away, like a concert lets say, you don't need for it to re-focus... it annoying. So, I am going to cut this section short and just say, the Max 2 has a camera, its nothing special and if you are ok with a no gimmick no frills nexus like camera than its absolutely fine for what its supposed to do.... :highfive:
WINNER: S7 for low-light, G5 for wide angled, P9 for dynamic range; HTC 10 for camera app & Max 2 for no frills OK no gimmicks camera
CONCLUSION
For my daily usage case, the Max 2 is great! When you consider that it outperforms in most cases phones that are $200 - $400 more than what it costs... It tends to soften the negatives. I think for me the greatest of which is the current functionality of the fingerprint sensor... I hate struggling to get it to read than having to still punch in a pin when it fails. Besides this, all the othe negatives are minor. Camera - its really ok just nothing special. Color - if you can wait, you can get a more manly color unless you want to go with the 4GB version (you can get different colors now). EUI - definitely not as big of a learning curve as EMUI but it does take a little bit of commitment to get use to all the customization you can do. Looks like LeEco plans to release updates frequently since there has been at least one since it released in May... Yeah, it doesn't have a headphone jack... grow up and get with the 21st century... hahaha. To get a 6GB phone, under $500, 64GB internal is not too shabby. Would it be stellar with a SD Card add-on, yep it sure would but I can make do without having the SD Card in most cases unless I really started ROM-ing and backing up TWRPs with it.... I think if you are looking for a good, well performing phone at a good price with some decent specs and killer sound, this does the trick, most definitely. Could it be better, you betcha... but I can say that for any of the 2016 Flagship phones. Lastly and as always, this is just Some Guy's Opinion... :good:
Good review, makes it sound really awesome. My experience is very different.
I have the 6GB version and its regularly becoming warm.
Sound is ok, but Huawei Mate 8 is a different class altogether (better).
As a mid level budget phone the Eco Max 2 is very clearly on the cost performance side.
But I think the battery softens its advantage.
The hardware specs on the Max 2 are all top class, but there is definitely muuuch room for improvement. On the paper the network is Cat 12, but tell you the truth in daily usage it doesnt differ speed to Huawei Mate 8. Same for the user experience speed.
Also its not funny if the phone reboots occasionally
LeTV has fixed some of the issues with the upcoming EUI 5.8 release, but they need to do more !!
If you are thinking about getting it and tweaking it for your local marcet you have to do little homework with Google playstore etc. Its a gadget for geeky power users, but not mainstream user, to many changes required.
EverPing said:
Good review, makes it sound really awesome. My experience is very different.
I have the 6GB version and its regularly becoming warm.
Sound is ok, but Huawei Mate 8 is a different class altogether (better).
As a mid level budget phone the Eco Max 2 is very clearly on the cost performance side.
But I think the battery softens its advantage.
The hardware specs on the Max 2 are all top class, but there is definitely muuuch room for improvement. On the paper the network is Cat 12, but tell you the truth in daily usage it doesnt differ speed to Huawei Mate 8. Same for the user experience speed.
Also its not funny if the phone reboots occasionally
LeTV has fixed some of the issues with the upcoming EUI 5.8 release, but they need to do more !!
If you are thinking about getting it and tweaking it for your local marcet you have to do little homework with Google playstore etc. Its a gadget for geeky power users, but not mainstream user, to many changes required.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny mine never rebooted once. No heat even under load. No big modifications to get google play. Mine was stock and able to OTA... Google Play just took a simple APK download and agreeing to "unknown sources." Yes, its not a consumer mainstream phone outside of China... however doing a review on XDA, pretty much means its a review for a more "geeky" crowd easily capable of simple APK downloads from shared sources mentioned at least 10 different times in 10 different posts in this forum. The Huawei Mate 8 succeeds because of Kirin... however of 820's and at this price point, its hard to beat... maybe only by OP3 once they figure out the RAM Management. The camera is better on the Mate 8 but it's not as good as the P9... Plus all in all, its just as difficult to install the Play Store on the Mate8 & P9... both phones I owned and sold, as I was able to get just as good as and somewhat better phone for $200 to $300 cheaper. In the states, all these phones max out our 4G LTE networks so seeing any major difference between the P9, Mate8 and the Max 2 in modem performance is minor. Once again, OGO
Thanks for the feedback, maybe I am just unlucky this time. The apk's I downloaded from apkmirror etc don't seem to work on my Chinese version max 2. I also tried Xiaomi installer version 2, Opengapps, LeTV Playstore zips for same.
I think in terms of price LeTV has found a sweet spot in the marcet, but overall the software quality is just not there yet. However the upcoming update will fix some of it.
Hi,
Thanks for the review. Could you tell me if it has MHL ?
Regards
I tried with my MHL-Adapter, which is working fine with LETV LE 1 (X600). Didn´t work ...
Ok, thanks for the info. MHL is so usefull when you want to see a film at the hotel...
I think it should have MHL (I might have found this hint in some descriptions) but actually it is not working (for me?)...
Having been in IT, the first thing you learn is most problems are usually user problems. Most of the issues that I have come up against are problems of my own doing. For example, some thing may not work because I deleted a necessary file in my quest to remove Chinese Le-bloat. So it has been trial and error. I installed the CM 13 yesterday, but didn't like the tinny sound the speakers were making. Went back to the dev 5.8 stock, installed Google play and a few apps and it's running like a charm. I have not experienced any overheating issues. This phone does everything that one does with a phone very well. I sure you can find an individual that does intense things on their device, but for the average user that surfs the web, watches you tube, plays a few games, sends/reads email and IM's others, this phone is hard to beat. This morning I had an antutu of 140491, which is pretty good considering I only have the 4/32 GB version. Can you say fast phone?!
Hi,
I may add a comparison to a phone that can be considered as the direct competitor to the Le 2 Max : the One+ 3.
There is one area where the Le 2 Max clearly wins : it's the display. I don't care about 2k or FHD. It's hard to tell the difference in real life anyways. But I'm talking about brightness and legibility in sunny daylight conditions. And there, there is no question : the Le 2 Max is superior to the OP3, even after OP3 released the new display drivers that improves things on the brightness side...
And the 0.2" more is a nice addition too... Really noticeable when you used the LeEco for several days and you then go back to OP3
But apart from that (which is really important I admit it), the Le 2 Max is lagging behind in almost every other aspect...
BATTERY LIFE : OP3 wins without a question...In really heavy usage (GPS + BT active +display on all the time) I get about 3h45minutes of battery life with the LeEco... and about 5h30 in the same conditions with the OP3. That's almost 50% better battery. Think the 2K display has a cost unfortunately
SNAPPINESS : the LeEco is OK. But once you compare it to the OP3, the overall feeling is clearly pointing into the OP3 direction !!! And just install a custom ROM like Tipsy, and your device seems to fly, when the Le Eco seems to walk
HEAT : under the heavy usage conditions I described before, the LeEco gets mildly hot. It's much cooler than the Nexus 5 used to be in the same conditions( where it lasted about 1h40 on battery !). But the OP3 is simply almost cool. On that side, OP3 wins...
SOUND : I admit that I don't give a **** about sound coming from the speakers. But on phone calls OP3 clearly wins. On Le 2 Max I have a "ghost sound". I seem to hear everything I am saying to the other person like he has a loudspeaker on. Doesn't happen on OP3.
CAMERA : I am not a great camera user. But both deliver pictures that are good enough for me. But I must say it's difficult to tear them apart
FINGERPRINT SCANNER : it's adictive to use on OP3 because fingerprint is recognized in a fraction of a second and is ALWAYS recognized. I cannot count the times I left my finger on the finger print scanner for seconds before it decided to consider it has to recognize a finger... and then I would say about 30% of the time it doesn't recognize my finger print on first attempt, and about 15% of the time it doesn't recognize it at all so I have to fire it up with the power key and pattern.
DEVELOPMENT : It seems LeEco has no intention at all to consider those phones as an important part of their business. Look at their website : they're ahrdly advertised. Go to their forums : there no activity. An official from LeEco shows up about once every 3 weeks. All in all, discussion and support are simply dead. All tehy keep saying is "Stay tuned, we have a lot to unveil"... but no date nor nothing ! And after 4 months of phone existence what do we have : a tweaked Stock ROM and a CM13 build that is obviously not really actively developped. After 3 weeks of existence, OP3 has tweaked stock ROM, CM13 and 3 derivatives, 3 or 4 AOSP derivatives and just recevied multi ROM... So all problems may have a fix some day... There's really little hope to have that with LeEco
Even CM13 builders doesn't publish their github source which would allow to work on other ROM's...
PERFORMANCE : not that I really care about benchmarks... as I am convinced that 3k or 4k points in Antutu will go unnoticed in real life. But on the OP3 if I run several Antutu tests in a row, I have only a really slight variation in results It goes from 142k to 136-138k on 3rd/4th pass. On x820 results vary from 140k (generally on first pass) and then sink to 110k (sometimes even less) on third/fourth pass... And that sounds really weird to me : maybe there's a throttle on the phone ?
ALL IN ALL : I'd love to keep the LeEco because of it's display. But considering all the "cons" it has, I am afraid it will soon join an ad site for used devices And that's a shame because with a little support from it's manufacturer, it would be THE device to keep
So LeEco : if you hang around here sometime, show us some love and release official device trees.
Well said and your comments are spot on @NexusPenguin
Le needs to release kernel sources to their phones to survive in this industry. They absolutely do not want to go down Xiaomi's footsteps.
If they don't release device trees, most people will simply not buy their Le Max 3 or whatever they release next. Simple to earn bad-will and buey themselves to ground.
it is definitively fast but....
Dear jim262,
it is really fast. With Google Keyboard app, not debloated and after autoupdate to EUI 5.8.016S mine had a Antutu v6.2.1 of 139.159
But:
- I Need a international ROM
- why can´t the user decide wether he want´s the LeTV Software on it or not? So debloate that phone. I don´t want a fixed button on the Screen wich leeds to Chinese Websites. Unfortunately I can´t speak/read Chinese.
- The cam should have more Software ability to take pics with lower size. Actual it doesn´t allow less than 8 MP`s
jim262 said:
Having been in IT, the first thing you learn is most problems are usually user problems. Most of the issues that I have come up against are problems of my own doing. For example, some thing may not work because I deleted a necessary file in my quest to remove Chinese Le-bloat. So it has been trial and error. I installed the CM 13 yesterday, but didn't like the tinny sound the speakers were making. Went back to the dev 5.8 stock, installed Google play and a few apps and it's running like a charm. I have not experienced any overheating issues. This phone does everything that one does with a phone very well. I sure you can find an individual that does intense things on their device, but for the average user that surfs the web, watches you tube, plays a few games, sends/reads email and IM's others, this phone is hard to beat. This morning I had an antutu of 140491, which is pretty good considering I only have the 4/32 GB version. Can you say fast phone?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LeTvNewby said:
Dear jim262,
it is really fast. With Google Keyboard app, not debloated and after autoupdate to EUI 5.8.016S mine had a Antutu v6.2.1 of 139.159
But:
- I Need a international ROM
- why can´t the user decide wether he want´s the LeTV Software on it or not? So debloate that phone. I don´t want a fixed button on the Screen wich leeds to Chinese Websites. Unfortunately I can´t speak/read Chinese.
- The cam should have more Software ability to take pics with lower size. Actual it doesn´t allow less than 8 MP`s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the roms are international roms with the ability to select language when you start.
Yeah, the phone is not a Galaxy S7 killer but I don't think we ever had such a device ~$250 on the market. Oneplus One might have been the only thing that came close but now their devices cost ~400€.
It doesn't have any real weaknesses, only a few things like the camera and software are mid-to-high end.
Clearly we'll see a drop in smartphone prices in the coming years, users won't pay 700€ anymore if you can get the latest for less. And these cheap manufacturers will catch up to Samsung and co. eventually.
mahst68 said:
PURPOSE
So 1st and foremost, the plan here is to give you my experience with the LeEco Le Max 2 6GB version compared to some other recent flagship phones I have tried. Granted, I have only used the Max 2 for about 1/2 a week now and can say I have yet to fully break it in to find everything that may or may not be right / wrong with it. However, this will be a unbiased look and comparison. I'm neither a fanboy or sheep. No brand affiliation. Not a programmer either, just a pro-sumer Senior Member of XDA willing to get trolled, flamed, etc. for sharing a look at these 3 phones. Hopefully, I can give "the everyday guy / gal look" without getting bogged down in stats, variables or benchmarks. Here goes...
MY BACKGROUND
No one special. Just a guy that likes the latest tech... phones being at the top of the list. I am a nerd. No doubt about that. I think anyone that knows about XDA probably is to some extent. No brand loyalty. Recently, I have had the privilege to try out the following phones:
1. LeEco Le Max 2 6GB
2. HTC 10
3. Huawei P9 4GB
4. LG G5
5. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
6. Huawei Mate 8
7. Huawei Nexus 6P
8. LG Nexus 5X
9. Samsung Note 5
10. Apple iPhone 6s+
And probably some more, but these are the most recent. Does that make me qualified to make a review... Maybe. It does make me an idiot that likes new phones, though. I am always looking for something that meets my needs but also is a good phone. Currently with TMobile but have been with ATT, Verizon & Sprint at some point 20 years of using cell phones.
MY NEEDS
I drive about 40 miles everyday to work (yes, my work week is currently 7 days a week with a few occasional days off). So, with this in mind and where I drive. I need the minimum requirements:
1. Can Stream Music
2. Bluetooth is fully compatible with my 2016 vehicle
3. An equalizer of some sort since I have only switch out my new cars speakers for better ones and don't plan on changing or adding a better sound system.
4. Decent pictures when needed
5. Works with my Huawei Watch
6. Relatively not laggy - will sometimes do some ROM-ing or some customization but since I tend to get rid of the phones quickly I try not to void warranties or make it too non-stock
THE COMPARISON
I am looking at my experience with the Max 2 and the other flagships under/around these requirements and some normal stuff like battery, screen, snappiness, heat, speakers, etc. Here goes:
SOUND OVERALL
Lets start out by saying that I'm not a person that needs a phone that has good external speakers... I really have no use for them and as long as they are loud enough for notifications then I'm cool. Also, I am not a cross-training adventure workout junkie that requires 3.5mm in order to do everything with my phone... I state this now so that I clear the air with the Max 2 being one of the first phones not to have a 3.5mm jack and require a CDLA to 3.5mm adapter or CDLA USB Type C Headphones... I think the Max 2 may even come with the adapter and since I so don't give a brown matter from my butt about it, I haven't even taken it out of its packaging. Personally, the only time I use headphones is skiing and I have bluetooth wireless headphones built into my helmet... and like someone in the 21st century I realize I can have wireless headphones. :good: Now, my main sound experience with the Max 2 is bluetooth to my 2016 HR-V. It connects with zero issues, phone and bluetooth audio both work great. As a bonus, the built-in Dolby ATMOS makes my otherwise tinny speakers without equalization sound great. It also doesn't detract from the volume output like other similar apps... It allows me to blast bassy metal to offend anyone I want, which is a great double bonus situation for me. Nothing like driving by a church blasting GHOST and having the lyrics Hail Satan play loud, clear and rockin' hahaha. Seriously though, in recent memory, this is the only phone from 2016 flagships I haven't had to use a workaround app that drastically decreases the volume. Now I will say that the Dolby ATMOS setting works a little wonky and easily resets itself if you enter into the sound settings or back out of sound setting after enabling... once you know about this though, it is easy to workaround just by hitting home button instead. For the external speaker people, the Max 2 is super loud and the speakers do sound crisp... I think it is stereo speakers as well, if you care about those things... bass-wise, the speakers are not the best but not bad also... definitely as good as of not better than the HTC 10 or LG G5.
WINNER: NO DOUBT SO FAR IN 2016 - LeEco Max 2
BATTERY
From my experience so far, I have had decent battery life out of the Max 2. 3100 mAh does seem a tad small for this larger phalet... but I'm yet to say that its a problem for me. Of recent phones, LG G5 has the worse battery life with the HTC 10 being next in line, then S7 rounded out at the top with the P9... The P9 has a Kirin processor so lets toss it out. Out of the Snapdragons I will say that with my usage so far the Max 2 matches the S7 with battery life from my usage. Max 2 has fast charge as well which helps keep it on par with the other 820's. Just yesterday, I used the Max 2 all-day no recharging with 2 heavy usage periods for a total of 3 hours plus of screen on time playing Clash Royale. The rest of the day was standard usage of checking emails, looking at some news items, etc. It lasted the whole day from 8:30am until 1am in the morning with 15% left. This was on wifi the whole time as well. I feel this adequately meets my needs to last a whole day without recharge (which rarely happens since I always recharge when in my car) with moderate usage all day long.
WINNER: It's close to call but since its the larger phone and still performs well even though no wireless charging - LeEco Max 2
HEAT
I have yet to see a real heat spike with the Max 2. I have heard reports of heat but maybe this is with the 4GB version. Since the lack of need to flush RAM or actively manage memory more critically with the greater space, this may play a factor. Not a super nerdy tech guru on this so someone that understands this more may have to chime in. I have also yet to place it in a what I like to call, a pocket burning situation like at a concert were I'm using the camera a lot, there's high tower saturation causing the radio to work more, etc. I can say the phone barely heated up trying to download a 1.5GB update on LTE... so I guess that says something right? The only other phone that runs this cool is the P9 with it Kirin processor... all the 820's run a little hot when taxed so I would not be surprised if the Max 2 was the same if push to limits. I can say that I have gotten overheat warnings on the S7 when setting up the phone and downloading copious amounts of data.... and my first G5 overheated that it caused an internal malfunction causing me to have to replace the phone under warranty. The HTC 10 seemed to be the coolest out of the other 820's I have tried.
WINNER: Still is the P9 however out of the 820's - LeEco Max 2
SNAPPINESS
I have explained in some of my other reviews, I like to talk about performance in terms of snappiness with normal day to day usage with the phone rather than throw up meaningless to most people AnTuTu stats or whatever. I am going on out on a limp here and saying that the Max 2 dominates of course due to 6GB of RAM... it's like pitting a turbocharged version of a car vs. its not turbocharge version... more under the hood most of the time leads to better performance. No loading issues, no lag from app to app. What I can say is that EUI is a fairly nice GUI take on Android, better than EMUI, but not as nice as the new HTC 10 Sense / Stock like interface. I however did my standard change of porting over the sense launcher to the Max 2 which I just love... as far as getting use to how things work, there is a lot of configuration that can be done with notifications, much like Huawei's EMUI interface that might make it off putting to some... I lucked out and the aliexpress merchant I bought the Max 2 from pre-loaded the Google App Store when I got the phone. I since did 2 updates (one I downloaded and force flashed myself, the other was through LeEco's update system directly) and the app store continues to work fine.... There are redundant apps for email, calendar, message, etc. to google versions... however most of these are built well enough that you might not want or need the google versions. Notifications seem to work OK although some do not like that it does not litter the top of your screen with icons for every single notification.... rather it just typically puts an icon with "..." and a circle at the top... takes a little to get use to, but with a notification LED as well, I think this bypasses this small issue for some. :laugh: Also, people are starting to create ROMs for it and it is easily rootable albeit in Chinese at first, so you can definitely get more out of it with some tweaking.... haven't heard if they released Kernels yet. But it is only a matter of time given it popularity in China.
WINNER: Maybe just because of the 6GB but still... LeEco Le Max 2
DISPLAY
This to me is one of the areas much like sound where if it is not screwing up the way I use the phone then I care less about stuff like resolution. If someone can truly tell a load of difference between QHD, SuperHD, 1080p, etc. etc. good for you. Here what I can say. The Max 2 screen is great! Plus, its the largest compared to the other Flagships I have tried... forgot how nice it is to use a larger phone... It does not suffer from which ultimately made me get rid of the HTC 10 from the screen polarization being applied wrong causing you not to be able to use it outdoors with sunglasses on.... I know right... major f-up IMO that HTC 10 did... I couldn't see it in my car with sunglasses on, too annoying for me. Thankfully, don't have to worry about this with the Max 2 even with a tempered glass screen protector. Since it is somewhat screen related, I can say that the fingerprint sensor is something to be desired. Its slow, sometimes taking 3 tries for it to read properly... I have tried multiple times to reprogram and it does not help. Definitely the G5 and P9 beat it hands down when talking about rear facing fingerprint sensors... Even touchwiz laggy S7 sensor beats it. Hopefully, updates help with this. Like capacitive buttons it has, in the configuration I like with back button on left... apps button also reveals the control center feature on the Max 2... similar to Apples swipe up control center... not placing these toggles in the notification panel is a fresh take on using these toggles and I like it... Color balance seems good on the phone as well if you care about those things... No Always-On feature for the Max 2 either but not a huge deal with a configurable notification LED.
WINNER: The S7 still has the best "looking screen"; G5 has the best always-on screen - Max 2 is ok but not the best in this class of phones.... Does get bonus points for the control center feature and correctly orientated IMO capacitive buttons
PHONE DESIGN
The Max 2 is a good looking phone especially with a premium metal chassis... I do have to say that I had to get the "Gold" version of the phone since it was the only one available at this point in the 6GB Version... I use "gold" here loosely as like other can report... gold is actually rose gold... not that rose gold is bad, but a pinkish phone for a guy is not cool... No matter, I got a Matte black hard case today the covers the back and pretty much takes care of the covering most of the pinkish gold exterior.... I believe there will be other colors out there soon but I could not wait any longer... Camera and button placement is nice. Phone feels great in hand. Although bigger than the other 2016 Flagships, its not gargantuan either... doesn't feel like putting a tablet up to your ear like other phalets can feel like. Pretty thin too and not overly heavy. The biggest design issue is of course no SD Card add-on memory since the SIM tray only accommodates dual SIMs. At 64GB, this isn't an issue for me as I don't save a lot to my phone and jam pack it with needless stuff. The fingerprint sensor is in a good natural position albeit if it only worked on the first try... Its not like Megan Fox / Candice Swanepoel good looking phone rather more like Melissa Benoist / Kate Upton good looking. You ain't going to wake up after a long night of drinking and go "my god... what did I do..." but you are also not getting the top of the heap in design characteristics either. It's nice looking but not someone you'd use your "hall pass" on over your wife, if you get my point..." Notification LED work great and should be noted as not being blinding at night like others can be.... looking at you HTC 10... I like no 3.5mm jack since I don't use it anyway... less holes to get dirt into... in this case, having less holes to stick stuff into wins out!!! :silly:
WINNER: Still S7 for overall design, wireless charging, etc. - Your not bad Max 2, but pinkish gold is makes my balls instantly shrink!!!
CAMERA
Another big deal for some but not really a huge concern for me is the camera on smartphones... Personally and I have gone over the reasons time and time again, I went to school for photography and have used some really great cameras, film and digital. So when you start looking at smartphone cameras, even in 2016, it is still hard to compare to the output of an actual camera. With that said, there is no real gimmick with the Max 2... looks to be an alright camera that I will post examples later of. Doesn't have "superpixels", low light lens, dual lens, etc, etc. etc. It will take pictures decently and in most cases that's all you need it to do. I can say that it does have one of my major pet peeves when it comes to the camera app in video mode... no focus lock.... honestly who uses always on auto focus in video mode.... looks like a bad wedding video... when you are recording something that you are a fixed distance away, like a concert lets say, you don't need for it to re-focus... it annoying. So, I am going to cut this section short and just say, the Max 2 has a camera, its nothing special and if you are ok with a no gimmick no frills nexus like camera than its absolutely fine for what its supposed to do.... :highfive:
WINNER: S7 for low-light, G5 for wide angled, P9 for dynamic range; HTC 10 for camera app & Max 2 for no frills OK no gimmicks camera
CONCLUSION
For my daily usage case, the Max 2 is great! When you consider that it outperforms in most cases phones that are $200 - $400 more than what it costs... It tends to soften the negatives. I think for me the greatest of which is the current functionality of the fingerprint sensor... I hate struggling to get it to read than having to still punch in a pin when it fails. Besides this, all the othe negatives are minor. Camera - its really ok just nothing special. Color - if you can wait, you can get a more manly color unless you want to go with the 4GB version (you can get different colors now). EUI - definitely not as big of a learning curve as EMUI but it does take a little bit of commitment to get use to all the customization you can do. Looks like LeEco plans to release updates frequently since there has been at least one since it released in May... Yeah, it doesn't have a headphone jack... grow up and get with the 21st century... hahaha. To get a 6GB phone, under $500, 64GB internal is not too shabby. Would it be stellar with a SD Card add-on, yep it sure would but I can make do without having the SD Card in most cases unless I really started ROM-ing and backing up TWRPs with it.... I think if you are looking for a good, well performing phone at a good price with some decent specs and killer sound, this does the trick, most definitely. Could it be better, you betcha... but I can say that for any of the 2016 Flagship phones. Lastly and as always, this is just Some Guy's Opinion... :good:
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Thanks a lot this is thorough.. Impressive stuff
I really like my Le Max2. It's not perfect, but no phone is. It is certainly a fast and powerful phone. No lag and handles everything I throw at it with ease. Antutu scores of over 140K are crazy in a $230 device!! I am enjoying its audio output and have been mostly very impressed with the photos I have taken so far. The fingerprint scanner is very fast and reliable for me. I quite like eui as it is fairly light and has some very useful features, especially for power management (I have generally been getting 5 to 7 hours SOT). This is my first 2K display phone, and the clarity is fantastic. The black levels are good, and the colours are vibrant. Probably my main criticism of the phone is the viewing angles and max brightness level of the display. Colour shifting is pronounced when viewing at any angle much off straight, and the max brightness is just OK - I would like to be able to crank it up a fair bit more at times.
kanagawaben said:
I really like my Le Max2. It's not perfect, but no phone is. It is certainly a fast and powerful phone. No lag and handles everything I throw at it with ease. Antutu scores of over 140K are crazy in a $230 device!! I am enjoying its audio output and have been mostly very impressed with the photos I have taken so far. The fingerprint scanner is very fast and reliable for me. I quite like eui as it is fairly light and has some very useful features, especially for power management (I have generally been getting 5 to 7 hours SOT). This is my first 2K display phone, and the clarity is fantastic. The black levels are good, and the colours are vibrant. Probably my main criticism of the phone is the viewing angles and max brightness level of the display. Colour shifting is pronounced when viewing at any angle much off straight, and the max brightness is just OK - I would like to be able to crank it up a fair bit more at times.
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Anything special you did to improve fingerprint response
Mine does work but it becomes unresponsive if not used for a while but after first unlock the consecutive ones are fast
Which rom are you on?
Did you never had any fingerprint problem?
[email protected] said:
Anything special you did to improve fingerprint response
Mine does work but it becomes unresponsive if not used for a while but after first unlock the consecutive ones are fast
Which rom are you on?
Did you never had any fingerprint problem?
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I am currently using the Parasite debloated version of S19. I have also used Cuoco92, stock Chinese 17S and 19S, and Indian 16S. Haven't had the slightest problem with fingerprint on any of them. I always register two with the same finger (my right index) and the other with my left index. I'd say it is 99% accurate - it really only misses if I put my finger in at a very weird angle or move it too much. Fast too, not instant but pretty near it - less than a count of one.
kanagawaben said:
I am currently using the Parasite debloated version of S19. I have also used Cuoco92, stock Chinese 17S and 19S, and Indian 16S. Haven't had the slightest problem with fingerprint on any of them. I always register two with the same finger (my right index) and the other with my left index.
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So you never have problems like the fingerprint doesn't recognize the first touch?
Or after all night standby the fingerprint takes a few seconds to unlock?
Do you think my fingerprint problem is hardware?
I bought it like 2 weeks ago I can return?
But it's a really good phone for the price
Only things that annoy me is fingerprint and lack of custom rom support both of which letv is to blame
[email protected] said:
So you never have problems like the fingerprint doesn't recognize the first touch?
Or after all night standby the fingerprint takes a few seconds to unlock?
Do you think my fingerprint problem is hardware?
I bought it like 2 weeks ago I can return?
But it's a really good phone for the price
Only things that annoy me is fingerprint and lack of custom rom support both of which letv is to blame
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Honestly never. Scanner has been rock solid for me. What ROM are you on?
Hello to all,
I've been eyeing this device and while I want the Sony Xperia X, something tells me to abandon that ship and buy the Axon Mini 7. Tell me guys what would be your top three most liked things about this device and why. Aside from the obvious of course. I've heard the sound is amazing for one. Tell my or let me know what I'm about to buy this week. It's one Android that I've yet to test out nor have I tested it in a store or laid eyes on it in person. Help is much appreciated.
Dconn1975 said:
Hello to all,
I've been eyeing this device and while I want the Sony Xperia X, something tells me to abandon that ship and buy the Axon Mini 7. Tell me guys what would be your top three most liked things about this device and why. Aside from the obvious of course. I've heard the sound is amazing for one. Tell my or let me know what I'm about to buy this week. It's one Android that I've yet to test out nor have I tested it in a store or laid eyes on it in person. Help is much appreciated.
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Click to collapse
Dear Undecided
I have had this device since Christmas and use it as my daily device. Here are a few reasons why I love it and was glad to have jumped boat from HTC (The M9).
The first big thing is the sound quality, it sounds amazing in the palm of your hand. My wife has the Galaxy S7 edge and yes, that phone is loud, but not clear and not stereo and poor for using for media not through headphones. The Dolby Atmos is perfect and can be tuned to your own liking.
The second best thing is the fact that it works brilliantly with most if not all apps from the play store. It's a good device and will soon be upgraded to Android 7.1.1 Nougat so it will be running the most up-to-date software.
Third thing is the options of alternative launchers. In my opinion, this device seems to want to customised. The software blends well with all the launcher's I've tested (and trust me I've put them all though their paces)
Now to tell you about the cons.
Battery isn't that amazing but will last a good day with medium usage. It will die quickly with heavy graphics games and powerful hi Def video. But this is quashed with the fact the power brick with the device charges it dam quickly. Take that if you put the device in charge at say 20% and go have dinner, it will be at least up to 90% by the time youve eaten.
The processor can be slow sometimes but that's all I can say having never had any issues with it. Seems to run just fine with me.
Memory is upgradable via a micro SD card and it supports up to 128gb extra (rumoured to extend to 512gb with the update)
Its a really excellent and well designed device...personally in my opinion, so much better then it's competition and so deserving of much more attention and exposure. Get this over the Sony any day.
That's what I needed to hear! Get this one over the Sony any day plus that the software is smooth. Then there is that premium sound. I know the battery life isn't going to be like my Moto Z Play so I'm prepared for that. That's exactly what I was after and you helped me decide on getting it. I appreciate you brother.
Dconn1975 said:
That's what I needed to hear! Get this one over the Sony any day plus that the software is smooth. Then there is that premium sound. I know the battery life isn't going to be like my Moto Z Play so I'm prepared for that. That's exactly what I was after and you helped me decide on getting it. I appreciate you brother.
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Mind that you still cannot root it /unlock BL
Great phone but has hiccups.
[/I]
Dconn1975 said:
Hello to all,
I've been eyeing this device and while I want the Sony Xperia X, something tells me to abandon that ship and buy the Axon Mini 7. Tell me guys what would be your top three most liked things about this device and why. Aside from the obvious of course. I've heard the sound is amazing for one. Tell my or let me know what I'm about to buy this week. It's one Android that I've yet to test out nor have I tested it in a store or laid eyes on it in person. Help is much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---------- Post added at 03:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:37 PM ----------
Had my axon 7 mini about four weeks now and installed the firmware upgrade shortly after opening the box.
Whilst this is possibly one of the best phones available at the moment it does "or at least mine" have a few hiccups, first the screen froze displaying a picture of the web page I was viewing, it was several hours before I managed to get the phone to reboot, this has happened again twice.
Another hiccup is the phone will randomly reboot, I was texting when this happened the first time since then it has rebooted itself twice whilst no action was taking place I.e just sitting on the table.
Called their hotline "not in uk" advice is it could be an app issue, but ALL apps are optimised on boot up, next backup, factory and reinstall, can't see that working, if it's an app problem you're just re-installing the problem.
Apart from that it's a great phone.
Stock camera app is better than the other camera app I have purchased from the store, no bloatware and only essential apps installed.
I purchased this phone from Amazon (Im in the UK)
Owned the phone for 6 months now,
Here is my long review.
The Axon 7 Mini overall is a great phone for the price I paid for, there are Lots of pros and lots of cons with this phone.
- It has a beautiful 5.2 inch screen which is enjoyable to use, very responsive and no problems at all.
-The fingerprint scanner at the back is honestly one of the best scanners I have personally used, sometimes (Very little) it likes to play about such as if I am at the gym and very sweaty, it will not recognise my fingers (Not a big deal for me though) but overall a great scanner.
- The look and feel of the phone is beautiful, I have had some compliments from friends who ask me what phone it is and Then they like to hold it and touch it. The phone itself feels very strong and looks fantastic, it really does stand out from other phones especially with front facing Speakers!
- The Speakers on the phone are one of the loudest speakers on a phone out on the market today, If I am watching a video and the volume is half way, it is Still very loud for me which I love!, it uses Dolby Atmos which sounds crystal clear once turned on (Although their are disadvantages which I will discuss later) Listening to music is great on this device.
-The selfie and the back camera on this phone are great in daylight conditions but when light starts to get darker they are not so great. the selfie camera is a great quality camera if you are out and about and there is plenty of daylight, no lag at all, beautiful quality, same with the back, but when it comes to evening and night time, that's when the camera's really lack quality, The pictures aren't the best which is all I can say although ZTE Released an update I believe in January which included a Night mode setting which isn't really great. I would not recommend this phone if anyone is interested in mainly picture taking. If, like me you like to take pictures with friends out and about then and now, then This camera is good enough.
-The interface of the phone is Great to use, it has lots of gestures and motions to play around with, this includes answering calls by laying your finger on the scanner, speech volume control on videos (Do not use it) glove mode (Which honestly is fantastic!) and more!
-At first when I started using this phone, completely no jitter or no lag at all, once I started downloading apps and using more RAM that's when the phone starts to act up, freeze or even shuts down apps (Which I really hate!) This doesn't happen all the time but it is starting to happen more especially with Facebook and Snapchat.
-Voice quality is excellent, nothing bad to say, does what it is meant to do
-It has the option of fitting 2 sim cards, or 1 sim card and 1 SD Card (which is my option).
- The battery isn't great, although the phone comes with fast charging which I cannot complain about! I regularly use the phone day to day (not too heavy) and I am confident I do not have to take my charger with me, usually listening to music, using Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat and a few more apps. Although if you are a heavy user of this phone, I do recommend taking your charger with you everywhere you go. in terms of battery levels this is probably the worst phone I have owned.
-The phone I believe still has some bugs in it, this includes using Dolby Atmos, I like to use my bass higher in my music but when I do, the slider resets to 50%, everything resets after either locking the phone or closing the Dolby atmos app (Not impressed!)
My final statement is that if you can afford to purchase the bigger brother (Axon 7) then honestly go for that one, more RAM, 2K Screen, better snapdragon processor, you name it. I was on a tight budget which is Why I purchased this phone but still a great purchase.
Honestly I could go on forever about this phone.
half decent phone but with snail pace updates
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 Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
i must say im a little annoyed the back of the phone vibrates when using speakers (music/audio), but overall happy with my purchase!
i am pretty happy with the phone. i definitely feel like i got what i paid for. performance is great. size is perfect. build feels strong. screen is plenty sharp. battery life is great. i like the design a lot more than i thought i would. i've found that i actually prefer the fiberglass to metal. all around a very functional device, even for a power user like myself.
camera is good enough. i am coming from an s8, so i know where this camera is lacking. it is not as bad as the nay-sayers are nay-saying. it's easy to get lost in the fine details coming from something like an s8, but ultimately if you care that much about photography you should be carrying a camera. the distortion mentioned elsewhere is there, but only under certain circumstance. the distortion will only be an issue if you need pictures of brick walls or checkerboards to be accurate. it is not apparent with everyday people/pet/place pictures. selfie camera is good. the wide angle on it makes selfies much easier than ever before.
i expected the speakers to be louder, based on some reviews and specs i saw, but they are definitely loud enough. the stereo sound is very clear, meaning i don't have to crank it up to hear as much. s8 was a hair louder, but sound quality was terrible on s8 (like, 'shame on you' terrible, sammy).
android O is fantastic. i call it a step in the right direction. power management seems to have taken a large step forward.
i wish the theming platform was more extensive. most of the themes only provide a wallpaper. i would like to darken the menus (like settings) to save my eyes. i have no idea why android is still defaulting to bright, bright white after all these years. bad for the eyes, and the battery.
all-around love is at a 9/10.
I give it 4 stars.. I still have the Z5C in my mind, except for that disgraceful SD810. To me, the XZ1C doesn't feel or look as good as the Z5C did. It looks bigger and heavier than I expected. The buttons are not as clicky as I wish they were. Other than that, I love it. There's nothing that comes even close to it today.
Best smartphone for me.
Fits my small hands.
Fast, not much bloatware. It feels as responsive as the first pixel phone. I'm impressed.
I'm really glad that SONY brought back the flagship phone in a compact body.
I've previously owned a Z3c, and I loved it. I then went on to a Samsung phone (GS7), and now I'm glad to be back using a SONY compact phone.
I really appreciate that SONY made key improvements over the Z3c. No more plastic flap to access the usb port, louder speakers, and better camera.
It's close to being the perfect phone, to me.
Pros
+good size
+Very good battery life
+Nice figerprint placement
+Nice screen
+Good speaker
+Nice design sim slot and sd card slot( no need paper clip)
+ Ip65/68
+ Very durable( dropped mine 2m accidently and survived)
+Love the dedicated camera button but very hard to not shake the camera when pressed
+Nicely placed nfc symbol
+Phone stays cool
+3.5mm jack
Cons:
-3.5mm jack is not loud enough
-speakeris good for music but not human voice
-microphone didn't work well in loud area
-Cant slow down vibration
-Fingerprint not always recognized
-Small electicity when charging near top
-nofm radio
-noir blaster
-noremoveable battery
-nodual sim
-notall preinstalled software can be disabled
-updateis not for everyone
-worsesignal than other flagship
-nogalileo support g8441 sg
-left and right of the screen is less sensitive(potrait mode)
After having this phone for a while I think I'm ready to do a summary.
Pros:
+Great performance, especially in 3D intensive games thanks to 720p
+Pixel density is good enough that it doesn't bother me. About the same as iPhones and the colors are very nice for a LCD panel
+Stereo speakers are balanced enough, sound pretty good. Not as loud as some other phones but loud enough for me.
+Fingerprint scanner is fast! (See cons)
+Strongest build of any phone I've owned. This thing feels indestructible even without a case.
+Looks are very subjective but I think this phone looks awesome
+Battery lasts forever, I get about 8h sot with heavy use
+Just the right size, every inch of the screen is in thumbs reach
Cons:
-Camera just doesn't cut it for a flagship. 960fps recording is next to useless, you can only record a few seconds of slow mo at a time, and the timing is very hit and miss (Seems to be a random delay sometimes). Low light performance is terrible. Now RAW support. In usual Sony fashion the camera is the worst part of the hardware.
-3D scanner is just pointless bloat.
-Fingerprint scanner is too fast. It's almost impossible to just check your lockscreen
-Sony's firmware getting dumbed down. We need double tap to wake on this phone. There was zero reason to drop this feature. The fact that core Oreo features like fingerprint gestures are missing on the first phone to launch with it kind of sucks.
-Sony's support is garbage and they talk to you like you're an idiot.
-Crippled bootloader. Sony haven't been kind with DRM this time. There isn't even a warning on their website about what this can do to your camera. I think that is unnecessarily cruel on their part.
I agree with almost everything above but about the fingerprint. If I want to check notifications but without unlocking it, u just use another finger. Very simple man...
The thing that really annoys me is that Sony still didn't fix the Smart Lock blank bug. But I'm having doubts at this point: this is probably a Google problem, since One Plus users also had this bug for months but then a Google update solved the problem...
This phone is unique. All newer phones is biger and biger and never stop to grow. Biger screens with biger consumation. Biger battery. And total uncofortable for dynamic usage. Only Sony make phone for dynamic people. Bravo!
Good small phone with some big firmware issues
A bit of history:
Nexus 4: Loved this phone and was very sad when it jumped out of my pocked and shattered on the garage floor
Galaxy S5 (Exynos): I hated this phone with a burning passion. It is huge. Touchwiz is absolutely awful. There are some good ROMs out there, but you get weird issues, (like the one ROM where the camera would crop images to a square in portrait mode), and random crashes. The final straw was when I turned off the phone at a movie (completely off, not just screen-off), and discovered that the battery had dropped from 40% to 11%, over two hours, while off. It then crashed on the homescreen, and did it's best impression of a hot-plate. That being said, it is a seriously well built, solid, indestructible phone, physically.
I immediately ordered this phone, and have had it for two weeks. I am in the US, which seems to have received the September firmware update in the third week of January. I put the latest GEL firmware on it over the weekend, which swapped some problems for others.
Xperia XZ1 Compact:
Pros:
size - it's ridiculous this is considered a "compact" phone, but it's a nice size. I read a lot of ebooks on my phone, so was a bit worried I might not like going back to a smaller phone, but I could still go smaller, if such a thing existed. I do admit, though, that the keyboard is slightly cramped in portrait orientation.
build quality - Feels solid, other than the screen - see "Mehs"
industrial design - I like the look. "It's very square," is a common comment, but I like that it's different from every other phone.
stock ROM - it's not perfect, but I feel no need to replace it. It's rather shocking that I haven't even felt the need to root it
headphone jack - missing it would probably not be a dealbreaker, but I would have looked at alternatives a lot more
firmware is close to stock
Cons:
firmware update situation - WTF Sony? (for the record, I am in the US) Since we got the September update in January, does this mean we get the October one in July?
the camera is absolutely awful. Not just bad. It's awful.
Bluetooth - streaming to a speaker works fine. Definitely some issues with control and media information with the headset in the car. GEL firmware seems to have helped a bit, and I'll try tweaking the AVRCP version in the Developer settings, like suggested in one of the posts
wifi - The US firmware has problems with things like walls, doors, windows, people and air, getting between the phone and the WAP. GEL firmware seems to have fixed all of the problems, but this should be in the released firmware.
Smartlock - oh, that's what all of the "SmartLock screen is blank" messages mean. SmartLock works fine with the US firmware. With GEL, not only is the settings screen for it blank, it doesn't work at all - not even if previously set up. That being said, I'll take wifi that stays connected when I breathe out a bit too hard, over not having to put in my pin code when I pick the phone up.
Mehs:
The screen is very mushy. It moves a lot when you press it. I thought it had to be my imagination, at first, but you can see reflected light warp around your finger when you touch the screen, if you put the phone on a stable surface. I got used to it, but it was disconcerting at first.
Bezels are not bad, could be smaller - especially wehn compared with other current phones. I've gotten used to having on-screen button again, but there is plenty of room to have them off-screen in the gap to the bottom speaker.
stock apps - these are never ideal, but they are easy to find and get rid of with ADB. Most are unobtrusive, but Facebook, and that Xperia News thing had to go
fingerprint reader - I don't use it, so I don't care much. I hear it works great if you have non-US firmware
merged storage - The build-in storage is big enough, so I don't miss it much, but it's weird that it's only accessible through adb (I hear - haven't gone looking for it, yet)
non-replaceable battery - technically, this is not good, but I have never wanted to replace the battery on a previous phone, so...
The Xperia firmware is close enough to stock that I don't feel an immediate need to replace it, or even root it. It seems that one of the reasons to stay with official firmware is the DRM-signed drivers. What are these for other than the camera? I supposed going from pixellated, mis-coloured **** for pictures to blurry, mis-coloured **** is technically a degradation, but I already wouldn't want to use the camera for anything other than a necessary snap of a car license plate.
Anyway. I like the phone. I am mostly happy with it and have no intention of retrieving the Galaxy S5 back from my son. The hardware is solid (is the camera problem HW or SW?). User experience of the software is good. My runner-up when purchasing this was the Essential PH-1, and I don't feel like I should have gone for that one instead. At least, yet. I can't recommend the XZ1-Compact 100%, but for somebody who wants a small phone, doesn't need a camera and can live with the firmware issues, it is definitely worth looking at. If you don't live in the US, or the idea of flashing your firmware doesn't freak you out, it seems that Sony releases regular updates. Hopefully in the next month or two, they can release a firmware that can do both SmarkLock and wifi, at the same time.
snwokeep said:
A bit of history:
Nexus 4: Loved this phone and was very sad when it jumped out of my pocked and shattered on the garage floor
Galaxy S5 (Exynos): I hated this phone with a burning passion. It is huge. Touchwiz is absolutely awful. There are some good ROMs out there, but you get weird issues, (like the one ROM where the camera would crop images to a square in portrait mode), and random crashes. The final straw was when I turned off the phone at a movie (completely off, not just screen-off), and discovered that the battery had dropped from 40% to 11%, over two hours, while off. It then crashed on the homescreen, and did it's best impression of a hot-plate. That being said, it is a seriously well built, solid, indestructible phone, physically.
I immediately ordered this phone, and have had it for two weeks. I am in the US, which seems to have received the September firmware update in the third week of January. I put the latest GEL firmware on it over the weekend, which swapped some problems for others.
Xperia XZ1 Compact:
Pros:
size - it's ridiculous this is considered a "compact" phone, but it's a nice size. I read a lot of ebooks on my phone, so was a bit worried I might not like going back to a smaller phone, but I could still go smaller, if such a thing existed. I do admit, though, that the keyboard is slightly cramped in portrait orientation.
build quality - Feels solid, other than the screen - see "Mehs"
industrial design - I like the look. "It's very square," is a common comment, but I like that it's different from every other phone.
stock ROM - it's not perfect, but I feel no need to replace it. It's rather shocking that I haven't even felt the need to root it
headphone jack - missing it would probably not be a dealbreaker, but I would have looked at alternatives a lot more
firmware is close to stock
Cons:
firmware update situation - WTF Sony? (for the record, I am in the US) Since we got the September update in January, does this mean we get the October one in July?
the camera is absolutely awful. Not just bad. It's awful.
Bluetooth - streaming to a speaker works fine. Definitely some issues with control and media information with the headset in the car. GEL firmware seems to have helped a bit, and I'll try tweaking the AVRCP version in the Developer settings, like suggested in one of the posts
wifi - The US firmware has problems with things like walls, doors, windows, people and air, getting between the phone and the WAP. GEL firmware seems to have fixed all of the problems, but this should be in the released firmware.
Smartlock - oh, that's what all of the "SmartLock screen is blank" messages mean. SmartLock works fine with the US firmware. With GEL, not only is the settings screen for it blank, it doesn't work at all - not even if previously set up. That being said, I'll take wifi that stays connected when I breathe out a bit too hard, over not having to put in my pin code when I pick the phone up.
Mehs:
The screen is very mushy. It moves a lot when you press it. I thought it had to be my imagination, at first, but you can see reflected light warp around your finger when you touch the screen, if you put the phone on a stable surface. I got used to it, but it was disconcerting at first.
Bezels are not bad, could be smaller - especially wehn compared with other current phones. I've gotten used to having on-screen button again, but there is plenty of room to have them off-screen in the gap to the bottom speaker.
stock apps - these are never ideal, but they are easy to find and get rid of with ADB. Most are unobtrusive, but Facebook, and that Xperia News thing had to go
fingerprint reader - I don't use it, so I don't care much. I hear it works great if you have non-US firmware
merged storage - The build-in storage is big enough, so I don't miss it much, but it's weird that it's only accessible through adb (I hear - haven't gone looking for it, yet)
non-replaceable battery - technically, this is not good, but I have never wanted to replace the battery on a previous phone, so...
The Xperia firmware is close enough to stock that I don't feel an immediate need to replace it, or even root it. It seems that one of the reasons to stay with official firmware is the DRM-signed drivers. What are these for other than the camera? I supposed going from pixellated, mis-coloured **** for pictures to blurry, mis-coloured **** is technically a degradation, but I already wouldn't want to use the camera for anything other than a necessary snap of a car license plate.
Anyway. I like the phone. I am mostly happy with it and have no intention of retrieving the Galaxy S5 back from my son. The hardware is solid (is the camera problem HW or SW?). User experience of the software is good. My runner-up when purchasing this was the Essential PH-1, and I don't feel like I should have gone for that one instead. At least, yet. I can't recommend the XZ1-Compact 100%, but for somebody who wants a small phone, doesn't need a camera and can live with the firmware issues, it is definitely worth looking at. If you don't live in the US, or the idea of flashing your firmware doesn't freak you out, it seems that Sony releases regular updates. Hopefully in the next month or two, they can release a firmware that can do both SmarkLock and wifi, at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice review.
Camera problem is fixed in the new firmware. That said I've noticed that you have to keep the camera extreamly still to beable to get a good picture. Best with tripod.
I registerted an account on the Sony forum to raise the issue of firmware rollout, thinking that someone from Sony might actually read it. Both of the threads I started were deleted by the moderator as 'unhelpful'.
Smartlock is alegedly fixed in Oreo 8.1.
Thanks
Didgesteve said:
Nice review.
Camera problem is fixed in the new firmware. That said I've noticed that you have to keep the camera extreamly still to beable to get a good picture. Best with tripod.
I registerted an account on the Sony forum to raise the issue of firmware rollout, thinking that someone from Sony might actually read it. Both of the threads I started were deleted by the moderator as 'unhelpful'.
Smartlock is alegedly fixed in Oreo 8.1.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. If this is fixed, I'm glad I didn't try the camera before I switched the firmware to the latest. If I need to carry a tripod, I may as well take the point-n-shoot, instead. I'll try some non-stock camera apps tonight during my son's soccer practice to see if I can get any improvement. Good to hear that SmartLock is coming back in 8.1. Looks like we should get it in the next month or two.
Hi there all, sorry if I post in the wrong section.
I really into this phone because only Sony that offers compact size phone nowaday. I want to go for xz2 compact but the price still high besides I really doesn't like the design of xz2 compact, so this phone is only my option or stay with my mi5 longer with awful GPS. But I want to ask before decide to go for it.
1. Is it worth buy this phone right now? Because I read some WiFi problems with the phone firmware and still no fix til now. I don't really care about gaming, I just need fast, all functional phone with compact size and good GPS performance.
2. Is it true that Sony phone especially this phone will lose the camera quality if we unlock bootloader and install root? Cause I can't live without root. I use root for some adblock and kernel tuning.
Thank you very much everyone. I'll really appreciate any answers.
Ad.1 If you buy it and have constant problems with WiFi - just replace/return it. Most of people doesn't have any problems. I had it on a few FW versions (let's say for 2-3 months) on 5GHz but it's perfectly working now. Some people could have hardware fault in their phones because their problem differ from mine and looks like FW independent.
Ad.2 If you really need root - it's not the best phone for you (and I think all Treble Android 8 phones). There are difficulties after root, you can read about it in root threads. I myself was thinking I need root, too. Because I've always had a rooted phone. But XZ1c and Android 8 are really good stuff so after a few months I've just forgot about a root. The only thing I need to let go was easy ad-blocking, but there are other moethods for this.
I'm really happy with my XZ1c and I don't see any other phone I could buy right now.
Battery life after 2 and half year
XDA_RealLifeReview said:
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 Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Impressive battery life ! 7h 30min of games or movies with some 20 percent battery or second type of using, around 60+ hours standby with some hours of calling, LTE, lot of apps... Never freezed, scuttering or something else.
From christmas 2017 of buying, until this day as primary phone/daily user, i tested battery with command adb shell dumpsys battery, take a look on photo.
Some recommendations ?
I love this xz1c since one year i have it ,good batterylife, great multitasking/photos etc, but for me who is dualshock 4 android player, it's the massive - because of high input lag over bluetooth and no otg support = no controller with otg , but it doesnt change anything of those many qualities that phone has
still my fav phone, bought some new ones but keep coming back to this phone, even to day it is a capable phone.. long live the king
I come back to say that my first xz1 compact still works after 3 years but the screen popped out ahah, insane device!!
asseforlife said:
I come back to say that my first xz1 compact still works after 3 years but the screen popped out ahah, insane device!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Screen is popping out of the frame too. Tried different adhesives but all fails after few days. Did you try anything?
rsk_kelkar said:
Mi pantalla también se sale del marco. Probé diferentes adhesivos pero todos fallan después de unos días. ¿Intentaste algo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ORIGINAL screen adhesive from Ebay: https://www.ebay.es/itm/254942940651
Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Huawei P20, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Huawei P20 is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
I like so many things about P20 and few don't, P20 pro is not worth the money even if it 3 cam or highest rated on DxO , I got Sony A7 full frame mirrorless which no future phone can match at least for next five years
Good: Dual SIM as standard with most UK retailer
Design, front fingerprint reader
8.1 out of box
Huawei's customer service
Dolby Atmos
Reasonable price and even better with £320 Bose headphones
4 GB ram is not flagship class but acceptable
Bad: poor IP rating
No autofocus front cam with wasted megapixel (24 MP) what's the point ?
No FM radio
No infrared
Screen resolution is ok but screen quality is not on par with Sony, Samsung, LG or HTC
main snapper is too good on paper but in actual test I found not much visible improvement compared with last year's model
Given the size of battery , the battery life will dafinatly not better than P20 pro, Mate 10 pro, OnePlus 5, or Galaxy S9
Given the scenario I will go with Huawei mate 10 pro
onlinejobwork said:
I like so many things about P20 and few don't, P20 pro is not worth the money even if it 3 cam or highest rated on DxO , I got Sony A7 full frame mirrorless which no future phone can match at least for next five years
Good: Dual SIM as standard with most UK retailer
Design, front fingerprint reader
8.1 out of box
Huawei's customer service
Dolby Atmos
Reasonable price and even better with £320 Bose headphones
4 GB ram is not flagship class but acceptable
Bad: poor IP rating
No autofocus front cam with wasted megapixel (24 MP) what's the point ?
No FM radio
No infrared
Screen resolution is ok but screen quality is not on par with Sony, Samsung, LG or HTC
main snapper is too good on paper but in actual test I found not much visible improvement compared with last year's model
Given the size of battery , the battery life will dafinatly not better than P20 pro, Mate 10 pro, OnePlus 5, or Galaxy S9
Given the scenario I will go with Huawei mate 10 pro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Full Huawei range
Know everything about HiSilicon Kirin 970 and it's full characteristic, be sure & proud on your chosen device
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12195/hisilicon-kirin-970-power-performance-overview
onlinejobwork said:
Full Huawei range
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just found out that device sold by retailer like Voda, EE, cpw does have micro SD slot and NOT have dual SIM
onlinejobwork said:
Just found out that device sold by retailer like Voda, EE, cpw does have micro SD slot and NOT have dual SIM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is this confirmed somewhere? Does anybody sell it dualsim in the UK?
I preordered mine from cpw and will surely return it if it's not dualsim as it's a dealbreaker for me.
varignet said:
is this confirmed somewhere? Does anybody sell it dualsim in the UK?
I preordered mine from cpw and will surely return it if it's not dualsim as it's a dealbreaker for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, Carphonewarehouse one is NOT dual SIM , big disappointment
---------- Post added at 04:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:45 AM ----------
varignet said:
is this confirmed somewhere? Does anybody sell it dualsim in the UK?
I preordered mine from cpw and will surely return it if it's not dualsim as it's a dealbreaker for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confined , I got mine yesterday and it's not dual SIM
Anyone else having serious lag in Google maps?
Previously: Huawei messed something up in the past on P10 and map on satellite mode worked like s**t but they fixed on Emui 8.
However now on my P20 everything is slow and freezes in Google Maps, will check logcat for anything strange.
paul678 said:
Anyone else having serious lag in Google maps?
Previously: Huawei messed something up in the past on P10 and map on satellite mode worked like s**t but they fixed on Emui 8.
However now on my P20 everything is slow and freezes in Google Maps, will check logcat for anything strange.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have any issues with Maps on my P20 paul678, Satellite view does however take 2-3 seconds to load but is fine after that.
paulrod said:
I don't have any issues with Maps on my P20 paul678, Satellite view does however take 2-3 seconds to load but is fine after that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me the map itself is ok, scroll/pan/zoom works pretty well.
The problems appear when pressing the top search..that takes some time to react and a similar problem when doing a long press to drop a pin and then try to open the bottom sheet that contains details.
Can you check to see if you have problems with the above mentioned scenarios?
Love this handset overall. Battery life is great, camera is great, screen is great, sound is great (which was a big bone of contention with me coming from LG V20!).
Please add section on real-life review for Audio Quality! Both speaker and headphones (wired and wireless!).
P20 Lcd Problem(yellow screen where the navigation buttons are)
Hi Xda
First of all i want to say that the lcd screen looks great BUT i replaced my device for a third time but still no luck... The screen on the virtualbuttons is yellowish then the rest of the screen... Its the screen just above the touchbutton or on the virtual navigation buttons... Does someone has this also please comment, thank you!
Ieozt38 said:
Hi Xda
First of all i want to say that the lcd screen looks great BUT i replaced my device for a third time but still no luck... The screen on the virtualbuttons is yellowish then the rest of the screen... Its the screen just above the touchbutton or on the virtual navigation buttons... Does someone has this also please comment, thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I deactivated the on screen buttons a while ago, find more convenient using the multifunctional home button. I had the impression of yellow on the buttons bar also before, more a software issue to me.
2
bolof2 said:
Hi, I deactivated the on screen buttons
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its still yellow without the screenbuttons i just wanted to explain where the yellowish area is located. Received 3rd device still problem occurs, im switching to iphone x
I replaced my Zuk Z2 Pro with the P20. French n°1 telecom company made a price mistake and sold it for 249€ for about 15 minutes. It was the perfect occasion to change my phone.
Pros :
- Screen. Quality is just under the Z2 Pro AMOLED, but it's nice, big, reactive.
- Battery. It lasts way longer than what became the Z2 Pro battery
- Power. Obviously, nowadays, every phone allows you to do everything quickly when you're not into gaming
- Quality. The phone looks like it's perfectly build.
- Huawei offers, in France, the Freebuds with the phone (12 weeks to receive them, so I don't know if they are good)
- Bundle is nice : silicon case and noise reduction earphones (I don't like them, but
Cons :
- EMUI. I've been on custom ROMs over the last 5 years, and, OMG, it's very hard to be on a OEM ROM with so many limitation. Simply expand notification on the lockscreen or skipping a track with Vol+ or - is impossible. It induces erratic behaviour in some apps (no notifications from Telegram, even if all parameters are the same than Whatsapp), etc...
- Locked bootloader. I missed the news of Huawei preventing unlocking after the 25th of July. I hope there will be a solution soon for that.
- The charger. Every other charger than a SuperCharge one will charge the phone veeeeeeeeery slowly. My car charger, 2,1A, can't even charge the phone when Waze is on... My QC3 power bank becomes almost useless. As soon as the battery of the P20 will last less than a day, I will be annoyed. I hope it will never happen.
- Size : it's 4mm higher than the Zuk Z2 Pro, and it's 4mm too much. To fit in my pocket, the perfect size is 145mm.
- Phone Clone did not work with my Zuk Z2 Pro, it was a pain to import all the datas
- No SD card : risk of losing everything if the telephone is lost or whatever. To retrieve datas from one phone to another, SD Card is the most practicle
I'm waiting for the Mi 8 SE to be released in France with the right LTE frequencies, or an equivalent phone. I'll then sell my P20.
Excelente!
paul678 said:
For me the map itself is ok, scroll/pan/zoom works pretty well.
The problems appear when pressing the top search..that takes some time to react and a similar problem when doing a long press to drop a pin and then try to open the bottom sheet that contains details.
Can you check to see if you have problems with the above mentioned scenarios?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have exactly same problems as you describe, but to be noted: I did not update the phone since I first started it so... that might be the problem because it is urging me to update like every day (and the fix might be in some later build)....
OlaffLudwig said:
I have exactly same problems as you describe, but to be noted: I did not update the phone since I first started it so... that might be the problem because it is urging me to update like every day (and the fix might be in some later build)....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol should probably update
I never thought of this as a "flagship" phone and honestly it isn't. It's an expensive mid-range device.
As far as rating from 1 (worst) to 5 (best)
1. Screen - 5 Sharp and colorful. I like this display, I think Huawei phones with LCDs are top notch screens, their Amoled screens they use are not so much.
2. form/size/ - 4 Perfect size for those who aren't looking for a large device- People coming from Samsung Note, and Pluses, iPhone pluses- look elswhere, this phone will feel significantly smaller. Still not 5 though. The aspect ratio is just kinda weird. I actually wish if was wider a bit, because using it landscape mode in navigation, half the screen is gone with the GPS GUI with the map is only 1/3, same issue with lots of other apps. This problem isn't only this phone specific, many other phones narrowing down their display size, like its some sort of a trend now, I'm not very happy about it.
3. Operating system - 2 While it has improved over the last couple of years, EMUI is still laggy. I can't pinpoint the real issue, since I'm not a developer but it seems like touch /sensitivy issues. I saw some complains regarding dead areas/less sensitive spots on some Huawei devices, and it seems like a recurring problem on more than just one model. There is also that sense of lacking fluidity. Anyone who used pure Google Android or near stock, or iOS or even Touchwiz will notice a sense of disconnect between touch input and reaction time in EMUI, and sometimes hang ups and delays, other times it's reacting too fast . It's hard to demonstrate, because even if someone would make a video, it's more of a feeling kinda thing, while using the device, a video wouldn't really show the issue.
There is also a sense of incompatibility while using even popular apps, whether they lag at some point or the app has to be restarted or even crash. Or have the app work as intended and then suspended in memory, return and the app would lag or just hang up, forcing me to quit and restart.
This happened to me more than once, and not only on the P20, but on an older Honor device. I have to blame EMUI because Chinese phones running near stock Android but similar hardware (or even weaker chipset) does not exhibit the same behavior.
4. Camera (rear) - 4.5 Can't give 5, because after a month of using this phone, there are time when the camera also lags, gets frozen or behaves erratically. To be on the positive note, this happens rarely, but it happens I'd say 1 out of 30 times the camera is launched. This might be a combination of apps loaded in the background while the camera is launched /re-launched or the phone is putting apps to sleep and just can't react quickly to user input, I don't know. Otherwise when it works, it makes remarkable shots, very "Instagram worthy" ones, although some people will probably turn off the AI to produce more realistic shots instead of Lord of the Rings style fantasy scenery. Jokes aside, the camera on this can be easily match the top flagships of 2018 phones, although personally I still prefer Samsung phone cameras work . And just for reference, I don't like iPhone _____cameras either (insert any iPhone since 2010), with their yellow/brownish tint applied on everything and under or over exposed shots and no control over anything user unfriendliness.
5. Camera (front)- 3. I don't really use it much, but the few times I tried it, it's made for selfie maniacs with all beauty modes, even with the beauty mode off, it still looks like it applies something. Blonde hair can show up as reddish for some reason, other times people I took selfies with noticed, that their eyebrows were missing. Funny as it sounds, the phone tries to Photoshop you aggressively without your consent, depending on the lighting conditions, but otherwise the selfie camera I'd rate it average, because it's more of a trend, even the newest iphones produce selifes, that are love it or hate it, depending on what the user is looking for.
6. Battery: - 4. By 2018 standards, it's average to very good. I see some people complain about 4-5 hours of screen on time, others report up to 8. I personally got about 5-6hrs and standby time is amazing. I'm sure EMUI has an aggressive power management, which may save plenty of battery life, but I suspect it may be also the culprit some of the issues regarding system performance and app management.
6. Overall : - 3.75 out of 5. After using several phones in 2018, including cheap budget phones to the iPhone X and back to mid range, this phone is no way and no how a flagship phone. It's a an expensive top-mid-range device. It's neither anything special, nor mediocre. Recommended for people coming from Apple and have absolutely zero skill using an Android. I also think, it's overpriced, especially right now (2019 January).
* Extra note: The vibrator. Very 2013-ish. Huawei needs to learn to implement a better taptic engine. iPhones are unbeatable in it, probably their best feature. The buzzing feel just don't cut it anymore. As I heard Pixels have them well, and some of the newer Motorola phones have it well done and they are cheaper. It gives a whole new dimension to the device to have a good haptic feedback. This phone buzzer/vibrator just feels kinda cheap and obsolete.
I agree with dollarpapa, P20 is a decent phone but nothing remarkable really. I bought it 6 months ago for a beefy price tag of 545 euros, it costs around 450 euros now. The main reason I picked p20 at that time was the camera, it was the 2nd best rated camera according to dxomark and bunch of youtubers.
My thoughts in brief:
1. Camera: Really good at night. Not great during the day.
2. Screen: pretty bright and crisp, however Amoleds are always more appealing.
3. Battery: very good.
4. UI: garbage. Like others have mentioned, there is a minor touch lag that kills the smoothness compared to say og Pixel.
5. Speed: the storage is really fast, that means apps open up really quick. Memory management is horrible, worse than og Pixel.
Overall I'd say don't buy this phone in 2019 unless you want it only for night time pictures. A decent alternative is Galaxy S9 without sacrificing much in terms of camera quality. For performance, I'd go with Pocophone f1,but the camera will be much worse.
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 , all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
My short review of redmi K20 Pro / Mi 9T Pro in croatian language (there are video and photo samples): https://android.bswireless.hr/2019/09/xiaomi-mi-9t-pro-odnosno-redmi-k20-pro-najpovoljniji-mobitel-s-najbrzim-snapdragon-procesorom/
I've had and used this device (9T Pro 6/128 Black, M1903F11G) for a bit over a week now. My previous phone was almost 5 years old (HTC M8), so for me this is a huge upgrade in every way. It is fast and beautiful and takes great pictures even in difficult conditions. Finally I have an AMOLED screen again and it is gorgeous.
I have not unlocked, rooted, modded the device yet. Running MiUI 10.3.3.0 PFKEUXM. I plan to keep it stock for a month or so just to make sure that any gripes I might have with MiUI are not just a matter of getting used to. I will probably put Lineage OS on it.
All in all I love the device a lot. It looks good and feels good in the hand. I have not used other modern devices, so I can't really compare. Instead I will list nags / negative things, then you can decide whether these are things you care about.
- Pop-up camera.
This feels like it would be a weak point, as it is the only moving part. It probably also makes it less dust and water proof.
I don't use face unlock and I don't take selfies, so I don't care too much about this. I like that the screen has no notch in it.
- It does not have stereo speakers.
Dual front facing speakers on the M8 were much better, but came at a cost of screen real estate.
I care about this a little bit, but for media I mostly use headphones anyway and for alarms, notifications, etc.. this does not matter.
- Finger print scanner response is inconsistent.
Most of the time it works very quickly (less than half a second) but sometimes it takes longer or I have to lift my finger and try again.
This is my first device with FPS so maybe this is normal. I like the idea of FPS on the back (Motorola, LG, ...) but I can't tell from experience whether this is actually better.
- The FM radio has no RDS and the reception is not very good.
I am probably one of the few people that care about FM radio.
- Lack of SD card slot
...but with 128GB internal storage that should not be a problem. On other devices that did have SD card slots I have always used them to expand internal storage, never as removable storage.
love it!
touch of jobo said:
This is my first device with FPS so maybe this is normal. I like the idea of FPS on the back (Motorola, LG, ...) but I can't tell from experience whether this is actually better.
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I had a fingerprint scanner on the back on my previous phone and this is one of the main reason I wanted to switch to a phone with a fingerprint scanner under the screen.
I use my phone a lot at work and most of time it’s lying on the desk, so each time I wanted to either use my phone, check message/mails or anything else, I had to grab the phone and put my finger on the back in order to unlock it and that was very inconvenient, especially when you do this 50/100 times a day.
Now I only have to put my finger on the screen and that’s it, don’t even have to move the phone, I like it much better, even though fingerprint scanner under the screen is not as quick as the one on the back.
Love it. I handed some devices with notch and I couldn't stand it. It may look strange but even the asymmetric bezels in mi 9t pro hurts my brain. Lol.
Switched from a Huawei P20 Lite to European MI 9T PRO and it's a huge improvement.
PRO's
- no notch
- better display
- updated hardware (resolves tasks much faster)
- better camera
- larger battery
CON's
- no expandable memory
- MIUI still strange to me (would've loved stock like OnePlus)
Overall I love it
Sent from my Mi 9T Pro using Tapatalk
In the middle of switching from a Mi Max 3. Not fully switching until I can unlock and root it.
Pluses -
LIttle bit faster than the Max but not enough that I'd not go back.
Better camera.
Cons -
No sd slot. First phone I've had without and not sure I like it.
Tiny screen. The Max series has been perfect for me and this is a major decider as to whether I keep it as I read a lot of pdfs and movie watching.
Unknown - battery life. Tiny battery in comparison and I'm used to 13+ hrs SOT so this could be another decider.
Meh - amoled isn't as much of an improvement as I'd been expecting after 2 years with lcd.
Had a zte zmax pro for years... talk about an upgrade! i did days of research, and continuously went up and up the chain of cost until I felt like I landed at the sweet spot for price and modern performance with the Mi 9T Pro. Just before ordering I realized AMOLED has "OLED" in it :highfive:. I live in the US so after showing coworkers they were shocked. One even commented how they basically paid 3 times as much for a phone that is similar (at best) than mine. Yup :victory:
Overall am amazed by the quality and performance as you can imagine. Now just looking for a daily driver to stick with. So far MIUI isn't bad, but I'd like to see whats out there. Thanks to the devs who continue to work on what they love, and allow us to use our devices to their fullest potential.
Love it too
all I need is no notch and it does , that's all
For the price, phone is really great . It's super fast, quality is good. My main complaint is lack of sd card slot, but it's not really big problem