[Q] Moto E as a music player and secondary phone - Moto E Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm considering buying a Moto E this Black Friday and I want some advice from owners of this device.
My daily driver is a Moto X 2013 16 GB running stock 4.4.4, rooted with Xposed. I'm absolutely in love with this phone and all Motorola has done in in it, but I can't use it everywhere. It's been stolen once already, and I've been looking for a phone to use when I'm going to places where it can be easily lost or stolen (currently using a very old phone with Froyo that can't even handle SwiftKey and averages 6 hours standby time). The Moto X doesn't have enough storage for all my songs, so I either have to carry a MP3 player with me all the time or only sync part of my library.
From what I've read, the Moto E looks like an inexpensive phone that fits both use cases. Also I'm dying for Android L and I need Xposed on my daily driver.
How is the audio quality with headphones? I don't need it to be excellent, but at least put some use to the 320 kbps MP3s.
How is the battery life for audio playback? I've read the battery drops quickly playing videos. Is that true with audio too? Does the phone become hot?
I don't need Dual SIM, but both models are the same price. Is there any advantage to the Single SIM variant (I'd guess it could have better dev support, quicker OTAs, longer battery life, better reception)?
Would you recommend it, or do you know better alternatives I might have missed?
edit: Comparing the two variants it looks like the Single SIM has more 3G bands that my carrier supports. That means better reception, right?

I say audio quality is not the best I don't think you can notice difference between flac & mp3

Vianna said:
I'm considering buying a Moto E this Black Friday and I want some advice from owners of this device.
My daily driver is a Moto X 2013 16 GB running stock 4.4.4, rooted with Xposed. I'm absolutely in love with this phone and all Motorola has done in in it, but I can't use it everywhere. It's been stolen once already, and I've been looking for a phone to use when I'm going to places where it can be easily lost or stolen (currently using a very old phone with Froyo that can't even handle SwiftKey and averages 6 hours standby time). The Moto X doesn't have enough storage for all my songs, so I either have to carry a MP3 player with me all the time or only sync part of my library.
From what I've read, the Moto E looks like an inexpensive phone that fits both use cases. Also I'm dying for Android L and I need Xposed on my daily driver.
How is the audio quality with headphones? I don't need it to be excellent, to the point where the difference between FLAC and MP3-320 is noticeable, but if it's low quality it kinda ruins it.
How is the battery life for audio playback? I've read the battery drops quickly playing videos. Is that true with audio too? Does the phone become hot?
I don't need Dual SIM, but both models are the same price. Is there any advantage to the Single SIM variant (I'd guess it could have better dev support, quicker OTAs, longer battery life, better reception)?
Would you recommend it, or do you know better alternatives I might have missed?
edit: Comparing the two variants it looks like the Single SIM has more 3G bands that my carrier supports. That means better reception, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.) Audio quality is OK,its not the audiophile quality though. However, I don't rely on android media lib for music decoding. I use Neutron and it has its own codec libs and yes, with good earphones, the diff is clear in lossless and mp3s esp low freqs. So if you do listen to lossless, that is the player recommended.
2.)Battery life is been great for me. It lasts better than any other I've used. I don't watch videos or play games much but for music its good. It does get hot though after continuous music playback.
3.) Single sim runs on stock Android so it will certainly receive updates before dual sim variant. That's totally depends on your personal choice and requirements.
4.) I can't comment on other devices in the segment as I haven't used any other.

pdpmoto said:
I say audio quality is not the best I don't think you can notice difference between flac & mp3
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Click to collapse
Would you happen to know how does it compare to other phones and dedicated music players?
That question on audio was poorly written by me. I clarified it a little.

You can go for a moto g 2..
!!better in everything!!

-Adarsh- said:
You can go for a moto g 2..
!!better in everything!!
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Click to collapse
And double the price.

tonibm19 said:
And double the price.
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Click to collapse
True

Related

Need advice about buying this phone

I am thinking of buying a phone for my dad. He's always used Nokias and hence I need a phone which would be easy to use. My main requirements are good voice call quality. This is very important as he has many calls in the day. Good battery life is also important. Is LG P500 recommended for a user like him. I can flash GB on the phone if it is available for this phone. Otherwise he is not going to do any tweaking, only use for calls and hopefully browse the net. He needs Yahoo messenger also.
He will also like having family photos on the phone and listen to old songs, hope the loudspeaker is also good.
Yeah, there's YM!, and the battery is good on stock but better on rooted phones (with the properly removed apps) About the sound, I think the quality's better with headphones on http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_optimus_one_p500-review-544p5.php#aq. If you're gonna flash a gb cm7 rom, I recommend either the stable build of mik (wait for the bug fixes on the latest) or void.forever.
The phone's voice quality is very good, no worries about that. Better battery life on Android 2.2, in my opinion. Depending on what kind of Nokia your dad used to own, he might be slightly disappointed with an Android smartphone (not the LG Optimus One in particular, but any other make) because he will get around 3 days of battery life at most. Y!Mess can be installed via Market. Photo storage and viewing won't be a problem, but a pleasure and the loudspeaker is decent: I'm listening to music in the loudspeaker while I'm driving and it is loud even in traffic, with the side window opened.
Still the best deal you can get for its price.
For better battery, your father will have to stick to froyo 2.2, which is more than sufficient for his usage.
Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
u can even check dell xcd 35 at the same range
The optimus one is a great phone for first time Android users. I bought one for myself, because it is a good price, and does what basic user needs. It does more when rooted and modded, but dont expect anything magical. Mine doesn't run well at 806mhz cpu speed, I have to clock it down to 768 for it to be optimized for general use. A cheaper phone with the same basic qualities would be the Optimus ME. I bought that phone for my father, and it is his first smart phone. It seems to run decently, but has some issues with running slowly after going to home page after using an app. I think that if you are able to root and overclock the optimus me, it would run/ perform a lot more desirably. As for the speaker, I think the Optimus ME and Optimus One are about the same. I too play music from the head set while driving, and I put the phone in a little cubby hole, which seems to amplify the music. All in all the Optimus one is a good Phone, but I would steer more towards the Optimus Me if your father isn't going to use many apps. The YM app a couple of news apps, maybe the gmail app, and the Optimus Me does great. However, once you get into games, performance needing apps, etc. the ME begins to show its limitations.
cooterkong said:
The optimus one is a great phone for first time Android users. I bought one for myself, because it is a good price, and does what basic user needs. It does more when rooted and modded, but dont expect anything magical. Mine doesn't run well at 806mhz cpu speed, I have to clock it down to 768 for it to be optimized for general use. A cheaper phone with the same basic qualities would be the Optimus ME. I bought that phone for my father, and it is his first smart phone. It seems to run decently, but has some issues with running slowly after going to home page after using an app. I think that if you are able to root and overclock the optimus me, it would run/ perform a lot more desirably. As for the speaker, I think the Optimus ME and Optimus One are about the same. I too play music from the head set while driving, and I put the phone in a little cubby hole, which seems to amplify the music. All in all the Optimus one is a good Phone, but I would steer more towards the Optimus Me if your father isn't going to use many apps. The YM app a couple of news apps, maybe the gmail app, and the Optimus Me does great. However, once you get into games, performance needing apps, etc. the ME begins to show its limitations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the detailed reply
Sent from GT-I9003 using XDA app.
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GT-I9003, XXKB3, Deodexed
Wave 2, 8530, Bada 1.2, DDKA1

[Q] Audio Quality Amaze/MT4G

Hey guys I've read some posts, reviews and watched some video samples of the Amaze and from what I can tell..it's true, the audio recording on this phone is horrible.
I wanted to ask if anyone from this forum could compare it to the MT4G?
That's the phone I am currently using now and want to know how does it measure up to the MT4G's audio recording when shooting video.
I ask because I record a lot of videos with my MT4G and it's important that the audio quality on the Amaze isn't less than my phone.
1080p would be awesome to have (mine has 720p) but I don't want to sacrifice audio quality.
So with that being said, could anyone tell me from personal experience whether it's worse or better when compared to MT4G?
Thanks a lot.
I would ask if you are so concerned for professional reasons and then I realized a pro would use a real camera...
Not trying to be a prick or anything. Just curious.
What is with the concern of how well the audio is recorded off your phones camera?
Turboboxer said:
I would ask if you are so concerned for professional reasons and then I realized a pro would use a real camera...
Not trying to be a prick or anything. Just curious.
What is with the concern of how well the audio is recorded off your phones camera?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because I don't own a point and shoot camera so I rely on my phone to do all the recording.
I have two kids, 5 and 4, and I record them all day, everyday.
So yeah I just don't want to sacrifice the audio quality for better video quality.
Cause if you have kids that young you should know the audio is the most important part!! They say some of the craziest things. Lol.
Anyway, thanks for asking though. I don't mind explaining. Do you have any thoughts here?
nguyendqh said:
Because I don't own a point and shoot camera so I rely on my phone to do all the recording.
I have two kids, 5 and 4, and I record them all day, everyday.
So yeah I just don't want to sacrifice the audio quality for better video quality.
Cause if you have kids that young you should know the audio is the most important part!! They say some of the craziest things. Lol.
Anyway, thanks for asking though. I don't mind explaining. Do you have any thoughts here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want good audio quality on a phone camcorder, you're not going to have any luck with HTC, put simply. The Amaze is a fantastic phone and video quality is among the best out there, but audio has never been HTCs strong point. If you're looking for great audio, I'd suggest looking into a Motorola device, though T-Mobile really doesnt support Moto anymore it seems. If you do go with Motorola, just know that video quality will not be the best on most, at least from what I've seen. The Razr looks solid on both fronts. Then there's the iPhone 4S, which undoubtedly has the best of both worlds. Either way, I'll stick with the Amaze. I love it in every way.
Sent from my LG-E739 using Tapatalk
nguyendqh said:
Because I don't own a point and shoot camera so I rely on my phone to do all the recording.
I have two kids, 5 and 4, and I record them all day, everyday.
So yeah I just don't want to sacrifice the audio quality for better video quality.
Cause if you have kids that young you should know the audio is the most important part!! They say some of the craziest things. Lol.
Anyway, thanks for asking though. I don't mind explaining. Do you have any thoughts here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AWESOME!!!! Way better answer than anything I could think of. I definitely see where you are coming from. Audio would be very important.
Not that I have taken a lot of video with mine yet but I have to say it does not sound any better/worse than my iPhone's ever did. Video is a ****load better though
Turboboxer said:
AWESOME!!!! Way better answer than anything I could think of. I definitely see where you are coming from. Audio would be very important.
Not that I have taken a lot of video with mine yet but I have to say it does not sound any better/worse than my iPhone's ever did. Video is a ****load better though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it's not like a horrible difference yeah? Well that's good.
I mean my biggest thing was whether it'll be worse than my current phone.
myTouch 4G.
That's really what I'm trying to get at.
I don't have a problem with my phone's current audio recording.
I just don't want to be downgrading. =P
sportsinger75 said:
If you want good audio quality on a phone camcorder, you're not going to have any luck with HTC, put simply. The Amaze is a fantastic phone and video quality is among the best out there, but audio has never been HTCs strong point. If you're looking for great audio, I'd suggest looking into a Motorola device, though T-Mobile really doesnt support Moto anymore it seems. If you do go with Motorola, just know that video quality will not be the best on most, at least from what I've seen. The Razr looks solid on both fronts. Then there's the iPhone 4S, which undoubtedly has the best of both worlds. Either way, I'll stick with the Amaze. I love it in every way.
Sent from my LG-E739 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can understand what you're saying, but my thing was just whether it's an audio downgrade from my current phone, the HTC myTouch 4G.
That's all. But thank you for the suggestions and yeah I'm not a big fan of Moto phones either.
Thank you.
What about Music quality?
How is the audio quality for music and video? I use my phone as mp3 player.
saulcho009 said:
How is the audio quality for music and video? I use my phone as mp3 player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The audio quality is very good. But not stellar. Much depends on the source. If you use badly compressed mp3 files and cheap earbuds don't expect much. The phone can play .flac files if you install a 3rd party player like PowerAMP. That combined with a good set of headphones (I'm using Klipsch, which are also very good but not stellar) then the audio quality is more than adequate.
marleyfan61 said:
The audio quality is very good. But not stellar. Much depends on the source. If you use badly compressed mp3 files and cheap earbuds don't expect much. The phone can play .flac files if you install a 3rd party player like PowerAMP. That combined with a good set of headphones (I'm using Klipsch, which are also very good but not stellar) then the audio quality is more than adequate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not that much of an audiophile but I do have good earbuds so I guess I should be set. Thanks
Why don't you take you're kids to a t-mobile and take some test videos too compare? Seems Luke that would be the easiest thing for you to do and you would not have to rely on any the opinion of someone else.
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using Tapatalk
As far as recording, the audio is just as good as my vibrant...take that as you may--I am not a huge video guy. Plus, once you record, you can edit the audio on your pc.
PowerAmp is the single, most important app for me...in the car, at work, everywhere, the output is amazing.
alexp162002 said:
Why don't you take you're kids to a t-mobile and take some test videos too compare? Seems Luke that would be the easiest thing for you to do and you would not have to rely on any the opinion of someone else.
Sent from my HTC Amaze 4G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a good idea there. Lol. I will probably do just that. Thanks.
Beats Audio
Do you know if Beats Audio will be in the Amaze anytime soon or in the dev posts?
audio seem ok to me...I had the SGS2 which only provides MONO audio, and audio quality seemed good . This phone provides mono and Stereo so I played around with it and when I put it on mono audio the sound quality is much better, but then again you get mono....So It might have something to do with the extra microphones trying to pick up extra sound and cutting out the background noise....Personally I feel the sound on the Amaze is much more clear with high treble, than the SGS2, is the only phone I can compare it to. sound on SGS2 was muffled a little. also the speakerphone on the back and front of the HTC device sound much less muffled than My SGS2, I have no experience with motrola or any other brank of phone.
IDB_2011 said:
Do you know if Beats Audio will be in the Amaze anytime soon or in the dev posts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We already got a couple of roms that have Beats Audio Hack. Check them out
saulcho009 said:
We already got a couple of roms that have Beats Audio Hack. Check them out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok Thanks...
nguyendqh said:
Sounds like a good idea there. Lol. I will probably do just that. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed a app from the marketplace called Volume+, it was less than 2 dollars. But you can go to the dev website and download it for free. It boost up the volume from the audio playing from the loudspeaker and headset. I don't know if it will boost the recorded incoming audio. To me I had the MT4G rooted with a sense 3.0 Rom and I already love this amaze. As long as your hand doesn't block the microphones on the phone it is fine. Plus for 15 dollars you can buy the adapter to hook up to your tv and watch the glorious 1080p via HDMI. Also my Amaze is all stock. Plus the reception and call quality is very good.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using XDA App
Audio Quality
keepzero said:
I installed a app from the marketplace called Volume+, it was less than 2 dollars. But you can go to the dev website and download it for free. It boost up the volume from the audio playing from the loudspeaker and headset. I don't know if it will boost the recorded incoming audio. To me I had the MT4G rooted with a sense 3.0 Rom and I already love this amaze. As long as your hand doesn't block the microphones on the phone it is fine. Plus for 15 dollars you can buy the adapter to hook up to your tv and watch the glorious 1080p via HDMI. Also my Amaze is all stock. Plus the reception and call quality is very good.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using XDA App
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Click to collapse
This may seem odd but I found that, to me at least, it sounds better with the "stereo recording" off. That's how my MT4G videos sound.
Anyway, volume is not the problem here. It's sound quality.
I get the best recording with an app called rec forge, mono, wav and 22khz sample rate. The stereo recording does not improve the fidelity of the sound. I have yet to try an external Mic.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using XDA App

Update, Fixed audio problems ?

So i have heard and saw that the audio through headphones on the lumia 800 has been hideous but the update was said to improve the quality. I was just wondering if anyone had any improvements ?
Someone said that syncing the songs through Zune makes the audio as good as any other device, can anyone confirm ?
If there are still problems, We should try to identify it; Codecs, The Jack (With it supporting TRRS, Could = problems), The Nokia player, Bit rate capping... If you have any other ideas on what it could be post them and i will add and maybe someone with the know how could look into it for us.
My opinion leans towards it being Codec and Player related, Maybe Zune optimizes/translates the music files into a format that the codec reads best, This being said i doubt Nokia would go to the trouble in using a specifically optimized codec versus the range of high quality lossless codecs available at no expense.
Does anyone know if the Lumia 800 plays .FLAC (one of the highest bit rates and quality music formats) ?
I use JVC HA-FX34 in ear headphones, I cant really say much about the earphone qulity side of problems but my Blackberry (Yeah i had one ) and my android tablet played 320Kbps Mp3's well, As far as my experience goes in producing bass these are up there, There is no song i haven't listened to where the bass hasn't been sufficient with these earphones. I Listen to alot of bass dependant songs too, Over 800 Drum and Bass and Dubstep songs between my two devices, That said when i get my Lumia (2 Days ) ill tell you if there really is something wrong with the bass after the update and to see if we can troubleshoot the remaining problems.
Audio quality seems fine to me. Rather average, but certainly not poor. I do hear some barely audible ticks through my headphones when nothing is playing, but haven't noticed them during playback. Some of the complaints about audio quality might be coming from those who dare to use the headphones supplied with the phone, as they are truly awful. The only real complaint I have is that button presses from my Sony headphones, which worked fine with my Titan, aren't recognized. Wonder if the music control / answer button works on any headphones other than the ones supplied.
Ricehead said:
So i have heard and saw that the audio through headphones on the lumia 800 has been hideous but the update was said to improve the quality. I was just wondering if anyone had any improvements ?
Someone said that syncing the songs through Zune makes the audio as good as any other device, can anyone confirm ?
If there are still problems, We should try to identify it; Codecs, The Jack (With it supporting TRRS, Could = problems), The Nokia player, Bit rate capping... If you have any other ideas on what it could be post them and i will add and maybe someone with the know how could look into it for us.
My opinion leans towards it being Codec and Player related, Maybe Zune optimizes/translates the music files into a format that the codec reads best, This being said i doubt Nokia would go to the trouble in using a specifically optimized codec versus the range of high quality lossless codecs available at no expense.
Does anyone know if the Lumia 800 plays .FLAC (one of the highest bit rates and quality music formats) ?
I use JVC HA-FX34 in ear headphones, I cant really say much about the earphone qulity side of problems but my Blackberry (Yeah i had one ) and my android tablet played 320Kbps Mp3's well, As far as my experience goes in producing bass these are up there, There is no song i haven't listened to where the bass hasn't been sufficient with these earphones. I Listen to alot of bass dependant songs too, Over 800 Drum and Bass and Dubstep songs between my two devices, That said when i get my Lumia (2 Days ) ill tell you if there really is something wrong with the bass after the update and to see if we can troubleshoot the remaining problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally I would never use my phone for listening to music. The problem with each and (nearly) every one of them is the DAC, which is generally cheaper and less efficient compared to the one that comes with dedicated devices (just with some actually, the Cirrus DAC of the 4S/latest gen Apple devices is quite crap). Also, if you're an audiophile WP7 is probably the worse choice ever since the OS doesn't support FLAC. Honestly that's not a big deal to me because I still have to find a phone sounding as good as any device with a Wolfson DAC. To my knowledge there isn't a way to troubleshoot hardware, which is the main issue here. This coupled with the limits of the OS (limited audio format support) should really make you think about getting serious and grab some good music player, like Cowon ones, or even Sandisk or Creative ones if you wanna go cheaper. The only drawback is that once you've tried some real good audio hardware you'll never be able to go back to the crappy quality of a phone.
Anyway if you really want to use your phone for your music (which I don't recommend) then you should really consider getting an Android, the hardware might be more or less the same **** but at least you can play every format and you have some almost decent EQ solutions. Just my 2 cents...
vnvman said:
Personally I would never use my phone for listening to music. The problem with each and (nearly) every one of them is the DAC, which is generally cheaper and less efficient compared to the one that comes with dedicated devices (just with some actually, the Cirrus DAC of the 4S/latest gen Apple devices is quite crap). Also, if you're an audiophile WP7 is probably the worse choice ever since the OS doesn't support FLAC. Honestly that's not a big deal to me because I still have to find a phone sounding as good as any device with a Wolfson DAC. To my knowledge there isn't a way to troubleshoot hardware, which is the main issue here. This coupled with the limits of the OS (limited audio format support) should really make you think about getting serious and grab some good music player, like Cowon ones, or even Sandisk or Creative ones if you wanna go cheaper. The only drawback is that once you've tried some real good audio hardware you'll never be able to go back to the crappy quality of a phone.
Anyway if you really want to use your phone for your music (which I don't recommend) then you should really consider getting an Android, the hardware might be more or less the same **** but at least you can play every format and you have some almost decent EQ solutions. Just my 2 cents...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never knew about DAC's, Did a little research on the Lumia's DAC and found that
It might, but most decent mobile DAC internally don't process above 600kbps or so (at least the zune HD does around there), though a bad studio also might use audio sources not upto the quality.
But I think there is noticeable noise with decent cans, even on a good audio source, at least with my ATH-M50s in a quiet area. Audio set to 5/30. It's noticeable every once in a while. Just a little bit of hissing after a song ends, and a little pop before the hissing stops. I'm using CD lossless rips (Zune converted to 256/320k) of Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, and Eminem CDs, for reference. If it was something like a recent Metallica CD, I'd blame it on the studio for sure .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bolded the relevant bits, Even at 600Kbps the audio should be more than decent, As for the Zune thing to the people who are complaining of ****e audio quality with the Nokia Music app, Make sure you have a 320Kbps .mp3 and have a listen i'd like some feedback please.
Back on topic, I'm 15 and you know how it is money is tight, Do you know of any stylish, cheap and good sounding audio players, Small and discreet would be a bonus, Nothing smaller than 4GB or a Micros SD slot would be nice too. £40/$63 Is probably the most i can afford.
Ricehead said:
Never knew about DAC's, Did a little research and found that
I bolded the relevant bits, Even at 600Kbps the audio should be more than decent, As for the Zune thing to the people who are complaining of ****e audio quality with the Nokia Music app, Make sure you have a 320Kbps .mp3 and have a listen i'd like some feedback please.
Back on topic, I'm 15 and you know how it is money is tight, Do you know of any stylish, cheap and good sounding audio players, Small and discreet would be a bonus, Nothing smaller than 4GB or a Micros SD slot would be nice too. £40/$63 Is probably the most i can afford.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A year ago I wanted to purge myself of Apple, so I sold my iPod and picked up an inexpensive Sony Walkman E Series for $65USD. I'm quite impressed with its size and performance.
Also, I would check your Zune settings before syncing music. By default Zune will compress anything above 192kbps down to save space on your device. Most of my collection is 256kbps or 320kbps mp3s so I unchecked that option.
Honestly I have to admit I've never tried CD rips on a WP7 device so I cannot tell if it's good or bad. I'll try that as soon as i get the phone. Anyway some issues with non-dedicated devices are e.g. the fact that generally they have some noise in the output due to the fact that they have a radio unit and a noisy cpu. I had a GS2 a while ago and that was really painful. Looking at the review on gsmarena it seems like the lumia has some problems with stereo crosstalk and tends to cut-off bass frequencies, so that may actually be a concern for someone listening to your kind of music I guess...
If you want a good player, both decent looking and powerful you may have alook at the Creative Zen X-Fi Style. Other options may be the Sandisk Sansa Clip+, with the same sound quality and half the price, but that's definitely not so fancy looking. Cowon devices are very good too, but some of them, especially the lower end ones have a pretty gimmicky interface and they're not exactly "hair-thin" or cool to look at, despite packing the best output quality and EQ (hardware based); anyway they also cost a bit more (around 100€), so they may not be your cup of tea. I have the C2 right now, it's rather plain and the interface is super-gimmicky and unituitive, but the the sound quality is worth it for me. It also has a very long lasting battery (almost 50 hrs) and has a microsd slot which is a pretty cool feature IMHO.
Even Nokia agree with the quality of the sound being poor, that's why they are updating it, anybody who believe that it ain't are just in denial, defending Nokia, god knows why, I hope they're getting paid for it. I hope the update solves it, would love if they added an equalizer.
sHaHiN786 said:
Even Nokia agree with the quality of the sound being poor, that's why they are updating it, anybody who believe that it ain't are just in denial, defending Nokia, god knows why, I hope they're getting paid for it. I hope the update solves it, would love if they added an equalizer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People who prefer lossless audio codecs and use $100+ headphones (aka audiophiles) might have that opinion, but not the average person. I'm no audiophile, but I am definitely more picky than the average person about sound quality. I can greatly appreciate the difference between low end headphones (the ones included with most devices or any that can be purchased for less than $40 generally) and even a mid-range pair ($40-$100). I have no problem with the Lumia 800. Sound quality isn't as good as my old Galaxy S that had a Wolfson DAC, but it's still acceptable and allows me to enjoy my music on the go. I definitely have no reason to defend Nokia. I haven't owned one since the days of dumbphones, I own three other high end phones, and I didn't even pay for my Lumia 800 as it was a gift.
Ricehead said:
So i have heard and saw that the audio through headphones on the lumia 800 has been hideous but the update was said to improve the quality. I was just wondering if anyone had any improvements ?
Someone said that syncing the songs through Zune makes the audio as good as any other device, can anyone confirm ?
If there are still problems, We should try to identify it; Codecs, The Jack (With it supporting TRRS, Could = problems), The Nokia player, Bit rate capping... If you have any other ideas on what it could be post them and i will add and maybe someone with the know how could look into it for us.
My opinion leans towards it being Codec and Player related, Maybe Zune optimizes/translates the music files into a format that the codec reads best, This being said i doubt Nokia would go to the trouble in using a specifically optimized codec versus the range of high quality lossless codecs available at no expense.
Does anyone know if the Lumia 800 plays .FLAC (one of the highest bit rates and quality music formats) ?
I use JVC HA-FX34 in ear headphones, I cant really say much about the earphone qulity side of problems but my Blackberry (Yeah i had one ) and my android tablet played 320Kbps Mp3's well, As far as my experience goes in producing bass these are up there, There is no song i haven't listened to where the bass hasn't been sufficient with these earphones. I Listen to alot of bass dependant songs too, Over 800 Drum and Bass and Dubstep songs between my two devices, That said when i get my Lumia (2 Days ) ill tell you if there really is something wrong with the bass after the update and to see if we can troubleshoot the remaining problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The update for the audio and camera is coming soon by the way, no eta's so far.
sHaHiN786 said:
Even Nokia agree with the quality of the sound being poor, that's why they are updating it, anybody who believe that it ain't are just in denial, defending Nokia, god knows why, I hope they're getting paid for it. I hope the update solves it, would love if they added an equalizer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what i can make out Nokia cant do anything to the firm/software to improve it, In my eyes they should make a revised version with as many bugs as possible fixed and offer a straight swap for your current Lumia.
gtg465x said:
Also, I would check your Zune settings before syncing music. By default Zune will compress anything above 192kbps down to save space on your device. Most of my collection is 256kbps or 320kbps mp3s so I unchecked that option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Noted, +1, Thank you
vnvman said:
Honestly I have to admit I've never tried CD rips on a WP7 device so I cannot tell if it's good or bad. I'll try that as soon as i get the phone. Anyway some issues with non-dedicated devices are e.g. the fact that generally they have some noise in the output due to the fact that they have a radio unit and a noisy cpu. I had a GS2 a while ago and that was really painful. Looking at the review on gsmarena it seems like the lumia has some problems with stereo crosstalk and tends to cut-off bass frequencies, so that may actually be a concern for someone listening to your kind of music I guess...
If you want a good player, both decent looking and powerful you may have alook at the Creative Zen X-Fi Style. Other options may be the Sandisk Sansa Clip+, with the same sound quality and half the price, but that's definitely not so fancy looking. Cowon devices are very good too, but some of them, especially the lower end ones have a pretty gimmicky interface and they're not exactly "hair-thin" or cool to look at, despite packing the best output quality and EQ (hardware based); anyway they also cost a bit more (around 100€), so they may not be your cup of tea. I have the C2 right now, it's rather plain and the interface is super-gimmicky and unituitive, but the the sound quality is worth it for me. It also has a very long lasting battery (almost 50 hrs) and has a microsd slot which is a pretty cool feature IMHO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Might get the Sansa has some good features and is super cheap, +1 for the input.
Lumia is lacking of bass, it's ok with monster purity, but with my Creative EP630 it's almost poor quality
sHaHiN786 said:
The update for the audio and camera is coming soon by the way, no eta's so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking forward to it
gtg465x said:
People who prefer lossless audio codecs and use $100+ headphones (aka audiophiles) might have that opinion, but not the average person. I'm no audiophile, but I am definitely more picky than the average person about sound quality. I can greatly appreciate the difference between low end headphones (the ones included with most devices or any that can be purchased for less than $40 generally) and even a mid-range pair ($40-$100). I have no problem with the Lumia 800. Sound quality isn't as good as my old Galaxy S that had a Wolfson DAC, but it's still acceptable and allows me to enjoy my music on the go. I definitely have no reason to defend Nokia. I haven't owned one since the days of dumbphones, I own three other high end phones, and I didn't even pay for my Lumia 800 as it was a gift.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you ever experienced such "problems" as described by other users before the update perhaps, or have you enjoyed it from the start.
As a random question to everyone, Do you know if Windows Phone 7.5 users will be able to update to WP8 or will there be a new range of phones.
Ricehead said:
Have you ever experienced such "problems" as described by other users before the update perhaps, or have you enjoyed it from the start.
As a random question to everyone, Do you know if Windows Phone 7.5 users will be able to update to WP8 or will there be a new range of phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's my understanding (read it a while ago) that major Windows Phone software updates are supposed to be compatible two devices back.
anseio said:
It's my understanding (read it a while ago) that major Windows Phone software updates are supposed to be compatible two devices back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not so the HTC HD2 running 6.5 was not upgrade able to WP7, Attached is a screenshot of a question from the answers.microsoft site, No WP8 for WP7.5 makes me a sad bunny.
Ricehead said:
Not so the HTC HD2 running 6.5 was not upgrade able to WP7, Attached is a screenshot of a question from the answers.microsoft site, No WP8 for WP7.5 makes me a sad bunny.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it's semantical, but the HD2 is/was not Windows Phone. It's Windows Mobile... a completely different OS.
And... yes... the HD2 is fully capable of running Mango with ease. It's just cannot be officially updated to it.
Ricehead said:
Have you ever experienced such "problems" as described by other users before the update perhaps, or have you enjoyed it from the start.
As a random question to everyone, Do you know if Windows Phone 7.5 users will be able to update to WP8 or will there be a new range of phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't received any firmware update, but I got the 8107 OS update the first time I plugged in my device so I never really used the phone on 7740 or whatever it was on previously.
I did try the headphones that came with the phone and audio quality with those was indeed awful, but that's something I expected and with my own headphones audio quality is fine (average for a modern smartphone).
Ricehead said:
Have you ever experienced such "problems" as described by other users before the update perhaps, or have you enjoyed it from the start.
As a random question to everyone, Do you know if Windows Phone 7.5 users will be able to update to WP8 or will there be a new range of phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it will, it has been confirmed that our handset will, can't find the link for it.
The link to confirm the audio issue is being dealt with: http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2012...bout-lumia-800-battery-life-audio-and-camera/
anseio said:
I know it's semantical, but the HD2 is/was not Windows Phone. It's Windows Mobile... a completely different OS.
And... yes... the HD2 is fully capable of running Mango with ease. It's just cannot be officially updated to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So really im just a dumbass because i didnt even realise there was a difference and that the lumia will be more than likely be able to run Apollo

Mini/Pro with SD to replace iPod? Yes/no?

Hi all,
what's it like when you stick one of those cards in your Android full of music? I have an iPod Classic 160GB and now I'd like a bigger screen and touch for easier use. But I've heard terrible things about these SD cards in Android phones. I don't care about screenshots with big numbers,
-what is it like in practical use?
-Does music transfer quickly?
-When you de-tach your phone does it freeze while the SD loads? (some crappy mp3 players do).
-What happens when you load your music player, does it freeze, does it freeze the first time after music transfer or ever time, how long does it freeze?
-Do you have to format your SD card because of normal phone use? How often?
-How do you find out how fast your phone can read the SD?
That's all I care about. I have a feeling the only way I'll find out is by spending a lot of money, getting angry and buying another iPod. The Touch is waaaaay too expensive in my view, I'm not paying for Apple's champaign parties with my money. 32-64GB is expensive, it's the 8GB people who get cheap devices not us audio lovers.
phoneyericsson said:
Hi all,
what's it like when you stick one of those cards in your Android full of music? I have an iPod Classic 160GB and now I'd like a bigger screen and touch for easier use. But I've heard terrible things about these SD cards in Android phones. I don't care about screenshots with big numbers,
-what is it like in practical use?
-Does music transfer quickly?
-When you de-tach your phone does it freeze while the SD loads? (some crappy mp3 players do).
-What happens when you load your music player, does it freeze, does it freeze the first time after music transfer or ever time, how long does it freeze?
-Do you have to format your SD card because of normal phone use? How often?
-How do you find out how fast your phone can read the SD?
That's all I care about. I have a feeling the only way I'll find out is by spending a lot of money, getting angry and buying another iPod. The Touch is waaaaay too expensive in my view, I'm not paying for Apple's champaign parties with my money. 32-64GB is expensive, it's the 8GB people who get cheap devices not us audio lovers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally have Live with Walkman, which about half year ago, was the same price as iPod Touch 4g 8GB.
Practical use...I am not sure what you mean about it. Android phones are regular smartphones: music player, internet, apps, calling, SMS etc.
Music transfer speed has never been problem for someone. If your computer has USB 2.0(quite likely), then it is the best you can.
On some phones, rechecking the music folders might take a bit of time to make sure player has all the music there is. Usually doesn't take more than 1-2 minutes, mostly less than that.
Freezing? Depends on phone, but Android phones are nowadays quite fast already, there is no freezing at all.
Seriously, who gives a **** about 1-1,5 sec freezing in the menu? Music doesn't stop anyway.
I have never formatted my SDcard and will never do it. It is not needed, the regular format(which should be FAT32, Android doesn't support others) works just great, you don't need anything else.
SD card speed depends on SD card, Class 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. Class 10 have highest speed, Class 2 slowest.
I have Class 4 SanDisk 16GB, works like a charm, higher speed is only needed if you move large files on your SDcard often. I have never experienced problems with SDcard speed.
By practical use, I mean good daily and constant use of a decent audio player. I have the feeling that many Android phones aim to play music and almost nothing else. I don't use spotify or google music or any of that. I use podcasts big time, I have over 10GB of podcasts alone. I see Sony's version of iTunes, Media Go is actually quite decent now. But practical as a full replacement for an iPod.
Music transfer...my Xperia Mini is OK, but have you seen an iPod? It's 2 songs per second...I've 25GB of music, it has to be fast. Also, I did try other brands of audio players and some of them spend 5 minutes (no joke) loading after music transfer, it was horrible. I actually smashed on it made me so angry, and I NEVER do that. I danced on the screen when I got another iPod. It did it every time even if I moved just 1 song.
By freezing, I mean when you enter the music menu. I just don't want my phone freezing every time it loads 25GB of music and 10GB of podcasts.
I've done a fair bit of research on the class type, XDA has some good threads also. I'm still unconvinced though. People keep posting crap about fast read/write speeds. Who cares, I'm interested in actualy use nothing else.
I highly recommend formatting your SD. Copy all the contents to a folder on your laptop/pc, format then copy back. I'm not joking, if you use different roms you will be SHOCKED at the improvement it makes. I don't mean a tiny improvment, I mean major. Your SD moves much faster, loading pics in your phone becomes instant again.
Your 16GB card works ok? Is that your full music collection?
Anyway, I just did some testing of favourite songs on my phone vs my iPod and bass is definitely better on iPod. I really want to give Android a shot though.
phoneyericsson said:
By practical use, I mean good daily and constant use of a decent audio player. I have the feeling that many Android phones aim to play music and almost nothing else. I don't use spotify or google music or any of that. I use podcasts big time, I have over 10GB of podcasts alone. I see Sony's version of iTunes, Media Go is actually quite decent now. But practical as a full replacement for an iPod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using stock music player all the time(Walkman on stock ROM, stock player on current, MIUI, ROM). Android phones do have music feature, even though most manufacturers are trying to improve other sides.
Live with Walkman is built for music lovers, with its dual speakers(bass is low, but for regular listening is quality fine), special Walkman(which actually misses own equalizer, but can be downloaded from Market).
phoneyericsson said:
Music transfer...my Xperia Mini is OK, but have you seen an iPod? It's 2 songs per second...I've 25GB of music, it has to be fast. Also, I did try other brands of audio players and some of them spend 5 minutes (no joke) loading after music transfer, it was horrible. I actually smashed on it made me so angry, and I NEVER do that. I danced on the screen when I got another iPod. It did it every time even if I moved just 1 song.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iPod's and other Apple products use own cabling system, which probably allows high speed transfer. Androids have microUSB port, which might limit it.
USB 2.0 supports maximal of 60 MB/s, Apple probably takes so much possible from it, as one their port is for everything.
phoneyericsson said:
By freezing, I mean when you enter the music menu. I just don't want my phone freezing every time it loads 25GB of music and 10GB of podcasts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For 35GB of music material, it might take some time first to check all the folders for music files and load metadata to the player and create cache(that is done only after every music collection change).
If music folders are the same, same cache is used and loading player will be fast.
2011 Xperia's have 1 GHz processor, shouldn't take long time for loading anyway.
phoneyericsson said:
I've done a fair bit of research on the class type, XDA has some good threads also. I'm still unconvinced though. People keep posting crap about fast read/write speeds. Who cares, I'm interested in actualy use nothing else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First time, placing all your music there might take a while, but later on, you don't add 10GB of stuff to SDcard at once, so that high speed might not be needed.
phoneyericsson said:
I highly recommend formatting your SD. Copy all the contents to a folder on your laptop/pc, format then copy back. I'm not joking, if you use different roms you will be SHOCKED at the improvement it makes. I don't mean a tiny improvment, I mean major. Your SD moves much faster, loading pics in your phone becomes instant again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I might give it a try, when I have time, even though I have no problems with speed at the moment.
Besides, what would formatting give me? The file system has to stay FAT32 anyway, because Android doesn't support another ones.
phoneyericsson said:
Your 16GB card works ok? Is that your full music collection?
Anyway, I just did some testing of favourite songs on my phone vs my iPod and bass is definitely better on iPod. I really want to give Android a shot though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, 16GB works fine(14,8GB available due to difference in manufacturing and file systems, 1000-1024 difference). And no, music is about 2-3 GB from it, I don't keep all the music on my phone, only the music I like at some point, old songs are deleted.
I also got few videos/films(Family Guy ) to look, when I am bored sometimes or can't sleep in evening. Screen is small, but it isn't that bad for films.
I have an Mini Pro with a 32GB Sandisk Class 4 SD.
It works fine, no freezes at all. The only problem is the sound of it is not THAT good, i have never listened to an Ipod, but my phone cant handle much bass without distortion. I'm currently using PowerAMP player, its fantastic and you can configure it to make your music far better than the stock player and the "limiter" option fix the distortion problem.
I think its a good idea to use an external DAC (Fiio E17 example) if you like to listen to a perfect music with your perfect headphone.
EDIT: I have currently 8GB of music on my SD and PowerAMP loads it very fast.
Dv2y said:
I have an Mini Pro with a 32GB Sandisk Class 4 SD.
It works fine, no freezes at all. The only problem is the sound of it is not THAT good, i have never listened to an Ipod, but my phone cant handle much bass without distortion. I'm currently using PowerAMP player, its fantastic and you can configure it to make your music far better than the stock player and the "limiter" option fix the distortion problem.
I think its a good idea to use an external DAC (Fiio E17 example) if you like to listen to a perfect music with your perfect headphone.
EDIT: I have currently 8GB of music on my SD and PowerAMP loads it very fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it even possible to use DAC on android phone? Is there a driver for it?
Sent from my SK17i using xda premium
I don't know about that driver ^^
I've ordered a 32GB on ebay (half the price of in the shops and unused, good seller) and am waiting for it to arrive in the next few days. I've practiced sending about 20 favourite songs to my 2GB card using Media Go. The transfer is way slower than iTunes, but like the guy at the top ^^ said, perhaps after the cache is created on the phone it will all move faster...the load time after that was about 15 seconds...not bad at all. My iPod classic takes about 10 seconds but I'm happy so far.
I can't wait to test the new SD. I'll report back on how it goes. Media Go has finally come of age I think, it's very capable now. I'm testing different music apps on my phone and so far I like DoubleTwist the most - for easy of use though Poweramp has probably the best audio I've heard. I also recommend trying the megabass.zip that's available on here.
urra901109 said:
Is it even possible to use DAC on android phone? Is there a driver for it?
https://code.google.com/p/android/i...rs&colspec=ID Type Status Owner Summary Stars
Seems its not yet. ):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1616761
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the links.
After extensive effort, don't bother trying to replace an iPod with an Android anything yet! What a joke. If you like iPods keep them...I've tried so many devices over the last 6 years and really they (for me) still got nothing on iPods...
HElp?
Someguyfromhell said:
I have been using stock music player all the time(Walkman on stock ROM, stock player on current, MIUI, ROM). Android phones do have music feature, even though most manufacturers are trying to improve other sides.
Live with Walkman is built for music lovers, with its dual speakers(bass is low, but for regular listening is quality fine), special Walkman(which actually misses own equalizer, but can be downloaded from Market).
iPod's and other Apple products use own cabling system, which probably allows high speed transfer. Androids have microUSB port, which might limit it.
USB 2.0 supports maximal of 60 MB/s, Apple probably takes so much possible from it, as one their port is for everything.
For 35GB of music material, it might take some time first to check all the folders for music files and load metadata to the player and create cache(that is done only after every music collection change).
If music folders are the same, same cache is used and loading player will be fast.
2011 Xperia's have 1 GHz processor, shouldn't take long time for loading anyway.
First time, placing all your music there might take a while, but later on, you don't add 10GB of stuff to SDcard at once, so that high speed might not be needed.
I might give it a try, when I have time, even though I have no problems with speed at the moment.
Besides, what would formatting give me? The file system has to stay FAT32 anyway, because Android doesn't support another ones.
Yes, 16GB works fine(14,8GB available due to difference in manufacturing and file systems, 1000-1024 difference). And no, music is about 2-3 GB from it, I don't keep all the music on my phone, only the music I like at some point, old songs are deleted.
I also got few videos/films(Family Guy ) to look, when I am bored sometimes or can't sleep in evening. Screen is small, but it isn't that bad for films.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use my XM only for listening to music or texting...so all the roms i tried either are for performance or some particular use....
CAn u suggest me a good rom only for Music?
I've got a mini pro with a 64gb sdxc card, poweramp as music player. Most points have been addressed before.
However you have to keep one point in mind. The phone plays decent enough audio on the go, with background noise and all other factors that come into play. Yet the ipod still has much better audio quality (use it with proper headphones and enough impedance and the difference is quite obvious) and I fear that's hardware related, no decent audio hardware in the phone. I have an external dac, but let's be honest why would i carry that around, it's as big/inconvenient as carrying an extra ipod around, given the choice I'll take my ipod with me.
For the price the phone has cost me, I'm pleased with it, small enough so don't have to carry an ipod around if I don't want to. The audio quality could however be better, and there's imho no software solution possible.
By the way; file transfer speed might be annoying, but how often are you going to be transferring several gigs of music? You put most of your collection on there once, or might change a few times. No point transferring flac or anything around that size to the phone.
Kinda off topic, but what sort of performance are you getting with the 64GB card? Are there any problems with compatibility? Would you mind running some speed tests on the card and posting the results?
Yeah what make of card have you got and were from. Looking 64gb for utorrent
Sent from my SK17i using xda app-developers app
serialkillazzs said:
Yeah what make of card have you got and were from. Looking 64gb for utorrent
Sent from my SK17i using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for the late reply, didn't really see the first question and haven't had much time lately. I've got a Sandisk card of amazon.de. I'm not allowed to post links unfortunately. Anyway back when I bought it, it had a lot more good reviews. It's been replaced by another product in the mean time.
Does it still work yes, without fault almost. The only downside is that every time I add files via USB (pc), it causes a reboot verifying card integrity (only one reboot, so that's something I can live with). That might be because of the way the card is formatted, operating system I've used, still need to check into that.
I'm currently running a test for the read/write speeds, will post that later on.
---------- Post added at 02:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------
Ok so I've got some test results. Didn't test the entire card, just let the tests run for 10 minutes.
Read average 12.7 MegaBytes/S
Write average 8.6 MegaBytes/S
So not quite the class 10 it's labelled to be, pretty much knew that it was just a bit too slow. Did record video on it though without any hiccups.
I have a mini pro, paired with a 16gb kingston class 4 sd card and a Brainwavz M1 headphones, with this mix y just ditched my ipod touch of 16gb.
It's not my entire library but it's enough for my needs, I strongly recommend to buy the Poweramp music play app, it's a heavy improvement from stock music players. BTW this phones have fm radio a impossible feature in any apple device.
I would recommend the change, but it's up to you, if you want to move large data files or a large amount of data I strongly recommend to buy a micro sd to standard sd adapter and a class 10 card.
cheers

[DISCUSSION] Worth buying the Axon 7?

There are lots of people wondering whether to buy the Axon 7 or go for a competing phone with similar price point and features *cough op3T*. This usually ends up on different QnA threads asking for the same thing: is it worth buying? And the result is a myriad of answers with different, opposing views. So here are the facts. If a fact isn't too factual, feel free to comment about that.
So, let's cover the basics:
CAMERA: 20MP Samsung with OIS. Good at high lighting conditions. Films at [email protected] and supposedly [email protected] (Motorola Camera seems to be able to record at that speed). Rather bad at low light. Has improved quite a bit on Nougat anyways. I suggest you search for comparisons to draw your own conclusions. No idea about the front 8MP shooter, but I'd say it's not too good. Has RAW support. The camera app has its fair share of manual control sliders (I personally love the white balance slider, no "Cloudy" nonsense). Seems to have a high amount of postprocessing on the image though, so again, look at comparisons.
RAM: As of now I'm using less than 2GB, only XDA open, some apps like Whatsapp on the background. It's more than enough to drive anything, probably for the next couple of years or so. And usually people don't need 20 apps at the same time...
BATTERY: Your mileage may vary. There are lots of comments about it on the real life review thread, but it really depends on your usage. It's not spontaneously explosive, so that's a bonus
SCREEN: Samsung AMOLED 1440P panel. enables Daydream, which is good. No always-on support, possible to do through an app but you might have battery drain. One thing that is important to mention is that games work worse than on a 1080P screen. And not by a small margin. With root you can use wm size 1080x1920 to get more FPS on games, but you have to root.
NOTIF LIGHT: Not the end of the world, but ZTE decided to save some cents by using only red and green. so no blue for us...
SPEAKERS & SOUND: The speakers are really well mounted, they fire the sound at you and not the wall beside you. They are pretty good. Especially with Dolby Atmos. Pretty loud, but as someone said, a dollar store Bluetooth speaker will be louder than any phone's ½ cm²'s speakers.
The sound is really good when you use the AKM DAC. The problem with it is that it only works on some apps. For example the only player capable to use it that I know of is the totally BS stock music player. Supposedly the DAC works with every music player, but it's only at 48KHz at the moment (the stock app does [email protected]). Some say that the DAC is truncated to 16 bit of the 32 that it should support. And when you use the Snapdragon DAC the sound is different, but it's not bad anyways. Dolby Atmos helps on YouTube for example, and on movies, since it has the dynamic equalizer thingy you can adjust your headphones' output as you like. Also adds Surround Virtualizer which is awesome
CAPACITIVE BUTTONS: Best description: Too close together, lacking backlight. They're pretty doe They're reversible as well (back on the right, Recents on the left
BUILD: You may or may not like the design, that's your own taste. But the build quality is good. In theory the phone's screen should resist corner hits since the screen is separated from the borders. ZTE offers you one free screen change though, so as long as you can claim the warranty it won't be a problem. No water protection. It's only open on the headphone jack and the USB C. the speakers have small holes and a very thin cloth covering the hole.
FINGERPRINT SCANNER: It's a good placement. No wasted area on the front. Front mounted ones are more comfortable but you get used to it.
PERFORMANCE: Considering 1440P it's flawless. The SD820 chips are likely to be cheap binning processors though. They are still very nice
UI: Maybe too obtrusive on international version. Considering this is a flagship it should have some more updates. That's not necessarily good since they add a pair of things, fix one or two bugs and break another pair of things... (like Whatsapp and Play store). Everything gets fixed eventually. The update to N was fast. Too fast on the US version where they had a ton of bugs...
Consider custom ROMs too.
DEVELOPMENT: there's a fair share of ROMs for every version. Unlocking the device is a little risky and tedious though. TBH doing what we do here on the Axon is very limited by ZTE, they even removed fastboot on Nougat. But our cozy community fixed those things
SERVICEABILITY: Hopefully you won't need to... But be aware, it's really hard to find replacement parts. It's easier to get another broken Axon and "Frankenstein the parts that work" until you get something useable. Disassembling it is not hard and not risky. The only part which is hard to take out is the battery, but it can be extracted with care. ZTE offers a pretty massive warranty for phones other than the chinese one too.
So again: I'm probably not right on everything. Some things may be influenced by using this thing. But it's the best I could do, and it's definitely better than picking between the opinions of those who think that 1440p is useless and those who think that 1080p is uglier.
I have a question regarding the SD820. What do you mean when you say they are likely to be cheap binning processors?
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
troy5890 said:
I have a question regarding the SD820. What do you mean when you say they are likely to be cheap binning processors?
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Overclocking the cpu could lead to errors.
But the whole reading process of the binning is not cleared right now. You have to check many things like your kernel and rom and just on a fresh reboot etc.
Finally it doesn't matter, because the overclocking abilities of the SD 820 are limited anyways.
Choose an username... said:
SPEAKERS & SOUND: The speakers are really well mounted, they fire the sound at you and not the wall beside you. They are pretty good. Especially with Dolby Atmos. Pretty loud, but as someone said, a dollar store Bluetooth speaker will be louder than any phone's ½ cm²'s speakers.
The sound is really good when you use the AKM DAC. The problem with it is that it only works on some apps. For example the only player capable to use it that I know of is the totally BS stock music player. Some say that the DAC is truncated to 16 bit of the 32 that it should support. And when you use the Snapdragon DAC it's not a day and night difference anyways. Dolby Atmos helps on YouTube for example, and on movies, since it has the dynamic equalizer thingy you can adjust your headphones' output as you like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it is true that only the stock player uses the DAC. In fact, I believe all players use the DAC.
I have confirmed this with VLC and PowerAmp. Switching between Standard and Super in Sound settings gives a notable improvement.
This is for the headphones of course.
joaste said:
I don't think it is true that only the stock player uses the DAC. In fact, I believe all players use the DAC.
I have confirmed this with VLC and PowerAmp. Switching between Standard and Super in Sound settings gives a notable improvement.
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Click to collapse
Using Poweramp on Android MM shows it using 192KHz on the Snapdragon DAC and on Android N it shows 48KHz on whatever DAC...
troy5890 said:
I have a question regarding the SD820. What do you mean when you say they are likely to be cheap binning processors?
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Click to collapse
Low binning quality means that the CPU is not able to achieve stability at lower voltages. This in turn results in bad overclocking capabilities. But these lower quality CPUs are cheaper and some asian OEMs buy those
I'm not sure if they're all bad quality. To be honest I don't even know what quality they are. But it's a 400 dollar phone, let's face it
Choose an username... said:
Using Poweramp on Android MM shows it using 192KHz on the Snapdragon DAC and on Android N it shows 48KHz on whatever DAC...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that's just an issue with poweramp interpreting the info from the DAC. On the forums for the alpha/beta builds, the dev seems to take requests for this kind of thing.
In any case, the sound is notably different when switching from Standard to Super in settings.
SilentEYE said:
Overclocking the cpu could lead to errors.
But the whole reading process of the binning is not cleared right now. You have to check many things like your kernel and rom and just on a fresh reboot etc.
Finally it doesn't matter, because the overclocking abilities of the SD 820 are limited anyways.
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Click to collapse
I see, so overclocking the kernel makes the processor unstable with these SOC. I always wondered because on the HTC 10, you could overclock the SD820 higher than 2.26 ghz when the axon 7 is overclocked.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
I can see the value of overclocking in a none mobile device, but this is a cell phone which runs on a battery. The ideal situation would be max performance with minimal power consumption. It's a balancing act of sorts. I see no benefit in overclocking a cell phone, other than perhaps benchmark scores or bragging rights.
gpz1100 said:
I can see the value of overclocking in a none mobile device, but this is a cell phone which runs on a battery. The ideal situation would be max performance with minimal power consumption. It's a balancing act of sorts. I see no benefit in overclocking a cell phone, other than perhaps benchmark scores or bragging rights.
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I can understand that. I typically overclock the kernel if I need some extra juice for emulation, but there's only a small difference when I do so.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
gpz1100 said:
I can see the value of overclocking in a none mobile device, but this is a cell phone which runs on a battery. The ideal situation would be max performance with minimal power consumption. It's a balancing act of sorts. I see no benefit in overclocking a cell phone, other than perhaps benchmark scores or bragging rights.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol no that's not the full picture.
Binning determines the minimum voltage at which the processor will be able to work without errors at a given frequency.
Voltage = Joule's Law = heat. If you're able to get the stock 2.15 GHz clock and lower the voltage you'll be able to run your CPU at less heat and it will throttle less. Also your battery consumption should be marginally less. And you have the option to overclock the cpu some.
So if you get a Slower processor it should come with more voltage than a Faster processor. They will run differently since the Slower processor will need to throttle down on heavy loads. Supposedly the difference is in the 200 mV i think.
joaste said:
I think that's just an issue with poweramp interpreting the info from the DAC. On the forums for the alpha/beta builds, the dev seems to take requests for this kind of thing.
In any case, the sound is notably different when switching from Standard to Super in settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never tried switching to Standard, that's a good idea. I'll edit the OP later.
I'll see the forums, I actually have poweramp beta
Choose an username... said:
I never tried switching to Standard, that's a good idea. I'll edit the OP later.
I'll see the forums, I actually have poweramp beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great. Let me know what you find. I am on the beta too and only briefly looked at the forum when I installed it, but saw a lot of requests concerning specific DACs.
joaste said:
Great. Let me know what you find. I am on the beta too and only briefly looked at the forum when I installed it, but saw a lot of requests concerning specific DACs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I searched some about the Axon 7's support, and it might seem that the DAC worked on Marshmallow but the hi-res support is not even possible on Nougat, just like with a ton of other phones. I'm unsure whether the DAC is being used or not - there's this one guy that practically confirms that it is not used, but i'm unsure.
I think I'm going to cross out that line for now. It is true though, Standard sound has very different sound. Don't know whether it's only the DAC or also some software effects on top of that though. no way to be sure
I have thought of putting a thermometer against the DAC to test if it is working or not. But I hope I won't have to disassemble it again, it's the 3rd time already
Choose an username... said:
I searched some about the Axon 7's support, and it might seem that the DAC worked on Marshmallow but the hi-res support is not even possible on Nougat, just like with a ton of other phones. I'm unsure whether the DAC is being used or not - there's this one guy that practically confirms that it is not used, but i'm unsure.
I think I'm going to cross out that line for now. It is true though, Standard sound has very different sound. Don't know whether it's only the DAC or also some software effects on top of that though. no way to be sure
I have thought of putting a thermometer against the DAC to test if it is working or not. But I hope I won't have to disassemble it again, it's the 3rd time already
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are completely right. I was just looking at that earlier and even posted the error on the PowerAmp forum (that hiRes mode doesn't kick-in). I was still on the 703 alpha build. I updated to the 704 where HiRes is in the Ouput settings menu, but it seems not to be supported (any change results in a pop-up message on the bottom of the screen saying tha it failed and fell back to OpenSL ES mode).
However, as you say as well, the sound is different when switching in the settings of the Axon 7. We're probably not getting (with PowerAmp at least) all we could with the combo. I unfortunately don't have the tech knowledge to see any further on this issue. Logs would be needed probably to see if the DAC is being used.
Since this is a thread about 'worth buying the Axon 7', I'm in the market for a new phone. My free Samsung J320A from AT&T lacks some features I want (stereo speakers, better screen) and because the apps I like, won't work properly with it. (No compass, no 802.1ac, etc.)
I really like the enhanced version, 6/128 GB RAM/ROM with Force Touch on the ZTE site (wish it was gray). And was hoping someone would talk me out of buying it and recommend something else with the same (or close to) features and price-point. Spending upwards of $700 - $900 for a 'flagship' phone is not for me.
Thanks.
I am inclined to disagree with assuming the Axon uses a slower binned chip. ZTE put this phone out to get their foot into the US market and the impression I get is they wanted to get away from the Chinese knockoff stereotype.
Since before I got interested in this phone I've been following their business news and they have been doing anything they can to smell like roses here.
Pauli Urethane said:
Since this is a thread about 'worth buying the Axon 7', I'm in the market for a new phone. My free Samsung J320A from AT&T lacks some features I want (stereo speakers, better screen) and because the apps I like, won't work properly with it. (No compass, no 802.1ac, etc.)
I really like the enhanced version, 6/128 GB RAM/ROM with Force Touch on the ZTE site (wish it was gray). And was hoping someone would talk me out of buying it and recommend something else with the same (or close to) features and price-point. Spending upwards of $700 - $900 for a 'flagship' phone is not for me.
Thanks.
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Click to collapse
How much does it cost?? 6GB ram is totally unnecessary. 128 GB storage is a lot, but you also have SD card support as long as you don't use dual sim, and that's a plus. And the axon 7 is ~330 USD on Ebay on some places. I think you should go for the vanilla version
At any rate if you buy the enhanced version from china you can put it a skin, there are some good skins available. Can't recall the name though
jawz101 said:
I am inclined to disagree with assuming the Axon uses a slower binned chip. ZTE put this phone out to get their foot into the US market and the impression I get is they wanted to get away from the Chinese knockoff stereotype.
Since before I got interested in this phone I've been following their business news and they have been doing anything they can to smell like roses here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been trying the OPPO way of seeing the binning, but it seems to be only for Krait CPUs

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