Related
I purchased my SGS3 about 4 months ago from the middle-east.
I have a series of problems (possibly problems cause I am new to Android phones). I am listing them down here in hope that someone will tell me how to solve them.
The flash of blue
This happened once or twice about a month ago. Whenever I pressed the power button to unlock the phone, the complete screen went solid blue for a flash of a second and then I saw the flower on the home screen.
Is this a hardware issue ? Signs of failing hardware ?
The home screen redraw / lag issue
When I press the home button to exit an app, say Chrome, the screen re-draws itself. The icons take some time to show up back on the screen.
Initially I thought it was related to cache being full. However, cleaning it using ES Task Manager was of no help. The re-drawing continues.
I also disabled the SVoice on double-click home button. No
I saw a YouTube video which says that there is a bug fix but it is available only for UK phones.
Here is the video: /watch?v=5uYw3mVhiuY
Again, is it a failing GPU ?
The grainy screen
Title says it all. The screen seems to be grainy. The grains seems to be more visible under low brightness and on grayish backgrounds. I tested the screen using the screen tester that comes with ES Task Manager. When the color goes to whitish-gray, I can see the grains. They are in bands - horizontal and vertical.
Low quality display
This is not related to grainy screen. This is related to the pulling down of notification menu.
I happened to pull it down slowly while goofing around.
I noticed that the quality of the display gradually reduces as I pull it down. When my finger is near the last one-third of the screen, I see that blue color gets split into bands. A little further down, it looks like the background is some very low quality image.
The bit depth seems to be reducing, if that is a proper term.
Low RAM even on idle
Even when I use ES Task Manager to kill the apps, all I usually have remaining is 323 MB of the 800 MB of RAM that is there in the phone.
Why ?
Lag when opening settings
There is also a lag when I open different settings from settings menu.
If I click on the battery settings, there is a visible lag before the actual battery information pop up.
I know that was a lot of rant but being a beginner, I have no clue how to go about solving any of these.
Thanks for reading.
I hope you can help me solve most of these. If not, please let me know if I should return the phone to Samsung.
As for usage, very light use for casual gaming, web browsing, YouTube videos, reading books.
I haven't dropped the phone at all nor have I modded it in any way.
I have tested it using AnTuTu and it gives my phone 16000+ points. Does that indicate phone is fine ?
Basics read first.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2344125
Critical you read the first two posts .
[the reply has been deleted by the OP]
JJEgan said:
Basics read first.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2344125
Critical you read the first two posts .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, sir, you are basically saying that I must root the phone ?
littleandroidkid said:
So, sir, you are basically saying that I must root the phone ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No i am saying read and understand the basics first .as you dont have a clue
Then search for your problems .
Or take the phone to s service centre and let them see multiple problems .
Though your warranty is initially with the seller Samsung warranty is an extra limited warranty .
littleandroidkid said:
I purchased my SGS3 about 4 months ago from the middle-east.
I have a series of problems (possibly problems cause I am new to Android phones). I am listing them down here in hope that someone will tell me how to solve them.
The flash of blue
This happened once or twice about a month ago. Whenever I pressed the power button to unlock the phone, the complete screen went solid blue for a flash of a second and then I saw the flower on the home screen.
Is this a hardware issue ? Signs of failing hardware ?
this happens for everyone no matter what! this just appears randomly and this isn't any problem so far!
The home screen redraw / lag issue
When I press the home button to exit an app, say Chrome, the screen re-draws itself. The icons take some time to show up back on the screen.
Initially I thought it was related to cache being full. However, cleaning it using ES Task Manager was of no help. The re-drawing continues.
I also disabled the SVoice on double-click home button. No
it depends mostly on the background processes! the less they are, the less the lag will be.
I saw a YouTube video which says that there is a bug fix but it is available only for UK phones.
Here is the video: /watch?v=5uYw3mVhiuY
this firmware is way too old buddy! it's 4.0.4! we are already nearer to 4.3! the XXEMG4 and the later firmwares are the latest and there is much less lag when you press the home button like redrawing of apps.
Again, is it a failing GPU ?
The grainy screen
Title says it all. The screen seems to be grainy. The grains seems to be more visible under low brightness and on grayish backgrounds. I tested the screen using the screen tester that comes with ES Task Manager. When the color goes to whitish-gray, I can see the grains. They are in bands - horizontal and vertical.
can't answer this! i have no such problems.
Low quality display
This is not related to grainy screen. This is related to the pulling down of notification menu.
I happened to pull it down slowly while goofing around.
I noticed that the quality of the display gradually reduces as I pull it down. When my finger is near the last one-third of the screen, I see that blue color gets split into bands. A little further down, it looks like the background is some very low quality image.
The bit depth seems to be reducing, if that is a proper term.
this never happened to me and never been reported so far.
Low RAM even on idle
Even when I use ES Task Manager to kill the apps, all I usually have remaining is 323 MB of the 800 MB of RAM that is there in the phone.
Why ?
more free ram? try rooting and use greenify
Lag when opening settings
There is also a lag when I open different settings from settings menu.
If I click on the battery settings, there is a visible lag before the actual battery information pop up.
never happened to me! can't answer this either!
I know that was a lot of rant but being a beginner, I have no clue how to go about solving any of these.
Thanks for reading.
I hope you can help me solve most of these. If not, please let me know if I should return the phone to Samsung.
As for usage, very light use for casual gaming, web browsing, YouTube videos, reading books.
I haven't dropped the phone at all nor have I modded it in any way.
I have tested it using AnTuTu and it gives my phone 16000+ points. Does that indicate phone is fine ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
benchmarks vary second to second and they don't mean much.
have a good day :good:
I didn't see a thread to list any problems / issues that you have with the new TMO KitKat release, so I created this one! I'll start:
With the new version, I can't put Google Now on the main lockscreen. It is placed on the lockscreen to the right of the initial lock screen, but I have to swipe to see that, and I may as well just unlock the device, where the Google Now widget is on my home screen. With 4.3 I had that Google Now widget on the main lock screen.
For those who may not have used it, one can swipe left on the lockscreen and view widgets. More screens can be added, although the list of widgets available for the lockscreen is somewhat limited.
stevedebi said:
I didn't see a thread to list any problems / issues that you have with the new TMO KitKat release, so I created this one! I'll start:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HD 720/1080p MP4 videos (downloaded HD music videos) stutter occasionally and feel like they maybe slightly out of audio sync. Contrast seems lower and brightness seems to high, faces seem more washed out and seems not as high resolution as previous 4.3 and 4.1.2. I see more blocks and pixelation that I remember.
Beats Audio does not sound as good, less bass and lower highs make it sound noticeably worse especially on headphones.
Weird wallpaper issue when using my own wallpaper. After certain length of time in apps like chrome or newsstand, after exiting, the wallpaper, if not on BlinkFeed, is not extended all the way past the dock. There appears a shadow affect or crop issue were the scrolls bar is. If you scroll to right and back it fixes.
Poor battery life, but this could be an issue with certain apps like Google Plus (it just used my entire 500mb in a couple hours with no auto backup or photo backup).
A little sluggish in certain system menus that you wouldnt think it would be, cant remember which ones, could be while moving folders around.
When WiFi optimization is on, it frequently does not want to reconnect well after leaving a wifi area and returning. It shows connected but speed is very slow.
The HTC Messaging app contact photo issue from 4.3 has been fixed
Personally I think they restricted the memory requirement too much for phones with more than 1gb ram.
I would downgrade back to 4.3 but dont know how
Ive gone from 4.1.2 to 4.3 to 4.4.2 within only a few days so I was kinda familiar with how things worked on the previous versions before I updated to 4.4.2, plus I have OCD)
It's good to hear the 4.3 messaging contact picture bug is fixed. Too bad I won't be updating to 4.4. No flash. Lame
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
thevuman said:
It's good to hear the 4.3 messaging contact picture bug is fixed. Too bad I won't be updating to 4.4. No flash. Lame
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hadn't realized Flash didn't work. I don't really use it. It is odd, since the flash player is still installed on my device. Stupid Google...
Got Flash working
I got flash working on my kitkat by using the following instructions:
http://www.cultofandroid.com/49840/install-flash-player-android-4-4-kitkat/
I realized today that the zoom bar for the camera is gone, so now a pinch is required.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
Two issues I'm having:
- When I connect to my external speaker via bluetooth, my wifi speed drops tremendously. Didn't happen before.
- My screen keeps randomly turning on. It's very annoying. Can't find a reason or a setting that could be causing it.
Also (this one isn't really a "bug"), when I plug in my phone, the screen turns on. I remember previous HTC phones used to do this, but they stopped it with the One, which I liked. But unfortunately it's back now
My picture quality is way down with this update. On 4.3 I had the stock camera app and the Nexus 5 camera app on it and they took great photos and corrected the faint purple hue I'd get sometimes. On 4.4 there is tons of noise and color hues even in bright lit rooms! So I'm back on 4.3 for now and the camera is great again.
Battery life is worse for me
After 5 days with KitKat now, battery life has not improved. I used to burn at about 3-3.5% / hour in a normal day on 4.3 JB. It is now around 4.5-5% / hour. The battery use screen on Sense does not offer any helpful information either. Now, BetterBatteryStats is unable to collect partial wakelock information (it can with root, which I don't have).
BBS does allow me to see that my CPU is in deep sleep about 7 out of the last 8.5 hours. That doesn't seem right. I can't see any apps that would be waking it that much and I have only had screen on for 15-20 minutes reading email, etc. It seems like something is hold the CPU awake, but BBS won't tell me any more.
I have turned off Blinkfeed and Auto sync and it made no difference. I am starting to disable apps now.
Any other suggestions on how to troubleshoot this? (preferably without rooting)
rjkmadison said:
After 5 days with KitKat now, battery life has not improved. I used to burn at about 3-3.5% / hour in a normal day on 4.3 JB. It is now around 4.5-5% / hour. The battery use screen on Sense does not offer any helpful information either. Now, BetterBatteryStats is unable to collect partial wakelock information (it can with root, which I don't have).
BBS does allow me to see that my CPU is in deep sleep about 7 out of the last 8.5 hours. That doesn't seem right. I can't see any apps that would be waking it that much and I have only had screen on for 15-20 minutes reading email, etc. It seems like something is hold the CPU awake, but BBS won't tell me any more.
I have turned off Blinkfeed and Auto sync and it made no difference. I am starting to disable apps now.
Any other suggestions on how to troubleshoot this? (preferably without rooting)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turn off automatic sync for all applications, shut off GPS (set location status to medium or low).
stevedebi said:
Turn off automatic sync for all applications, shut off GPS (set location status to medium or low).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I had already done both of those.
Keep pushing the suggestions. I am trying to see if I can correct without a factory reset.
Well, I seem to have fixed my battery drain issues. I did a factory reset and started from scratch. *gah*
I did do an adb backup before, but it wouldn't restore. So, the upside is I can setup everything from scratch and add apps, etc. one at a time.
no more option to set lockscreen wallpaper......sux
HTC 1
Got the OTA update to L on my 6833. Yes, it has made the already smooth animation slightly smoother but otherwise what is there? The power widgets are gone, I had to install third party Power Toggles app. The new notification swipe down is annoying, having to swipe up when waking device is annoying. The status bar colors are inconsistent. The menus look childish looking.
Without being dramatic, did Sony take all this time to make sure it ran without crashing? Because I notice very few changes (not even improvements, just any changes) on the UI. I must be missing something.
more than that:
can only set one volume at a time.
either portrait or auto, you can't force landscape like in KK.
animations are fluid, but the functionality isn't. My opinion is, if the device has extra power that it can use to make things animate, slide and fade all over the place, better to put that extra power into making the device perform faster. Anyone here who prefers prettier animations instead of faster functionality?
low resolution screenshots in the recents screen. wat. Seriously... wat? Also, the way they've made it it is faster to just go to the apps screen and open whatever app i want, instead of waiting for the recents screen to load and then scroll awkwardly through the programs... Also, you can only see three recent apps. On a device with 6" of screen. three. think about it.
Also... what is the point of having screenshots, anyway? icons are faster, easier to distinguish, take fewer resources and smaller area on screen.
I agree fully on the recent apps screenshots. The blurry images are embarrassing and don't at all go with the clean/sharp theme of everything else. I don't understand why they've made it low res, can't be for performance given no restraint or need anywhere else. Bizarre!
There is over-prettying. For example, the stupid screen swipe up to unlock (after hitting the power button already), the sparkles are just so unnecessary, it is one of the few places the phone actually seems to struggle pulling off the effect.
At the moment my biggest problem is with Yahoo Mail. The account does not seem to auto-sync despite all the settings being correct and even when I force the sync manually the notifications don't show. I've uninstalled and reinstalled, most likely Yahoo to blame, their webmail is always breaking but never ever had a single issue before with KK. This is problematic because it is effectively no longer push email, I have to manually check 50 times a day.
My biggest annoyance is the inability to reclaim the Google search bar area in the Home Screen. I don't want that search button, why can't I use that space, and why a stupid dot to represent the pages of the Homescreen when I only have 1.
Is there actually anything different/new on the backend? My issues aren't severe enough to go back to KK (yet) but seeing what I see, I would have no problem whatsoever buying an Xperia Sony will not upgrade beyond KK.
jess91 said:
Got the OTA update to L on my 6833. Yes, it has made the already smooth animation slightly smoother but otherwise what is there? The power widgets are gone, I had to install third party Power Toggles app. The new notification swipe down is annoying, having to swipe up when waking device is annoying. The status bar colors are inconsistent. The menus look childish looking.
Without being dramatic, did Sony take all this time to make sure it ran without crashing? Because I notice very few changes (not even improvements, just any changes) on the UI. I must be missing something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you about small changes. I even face some strange problems in my WiFi. the mac address haven't change, but I can't connect to my work WiFi protected network. Sometimes it connects in limited status. One of my friends which updated his Ultra has this problem too.I could connect it to my laptop adhoc wifi netwrok, but for one time. it even can't connect to that network anymore. I rolled back to my stock 14.4.A.0.133 backup. and a'm waiting to fixes from sony.
Agree with you guys. And that stock greenish blueish greyish statusbar color pisses me off! Anybody knows how to change that color?
Quite pathetic attempt by a mod to bury this thread by moving it to this section. If negative feedback on L bothers you so much, delete the thread and censor it outright. Sad day for xda.
Hi All, I got my honor 10 yesterday and been happy with it so far and still exploring all the features.
As I start to transfer my apps from my old phone I noticed snapchat doesn't resize correctly with the notch along the top. So if you hide the notch, the snap chat menu still goes up so you can only see half the buttons (half on the screen, half off because the notch is blacked out.
With the notch on, you can see the buttons ok. I also noticed, if somebody has a long name or puts text along the top of their snapchat, the notch hides it. It appears to do this with the notch on or off and both in full screen mode and not.
Just wondering if anybody else has experienced it with any other apps and if there is a way round it. I personally prefer to have the notch disabled.
See picture, as you can see, the top buttons and hello message is cut off with the notch.
thorpe1992 said:
Hi All, I got my honor 10 yesterday and been happy with it so far and still exploring all the features.
As I start to transfer my apps from my old phone I noticed snapchat doesn't resize correctly with the notch along the top. So if you hide the notch, the snap chat menu still goes up so you can only see half the buttons (half on the screen, half off because the notch is blacked out.
With the notch on, you can see the buttons ok. I also noticed, if somebody has a long name or puts text along the top of their snapchat, the notch hides it. It appears to do this with the notch on or off and both in full screen mode and not.
Just wondering if anybody else has experienced it with any other apps and if there is a way round it. I personally prefer to have the notch disabled.
See picture, as you can see, the top buttons and hello message is cut off with the notch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you should try updating the emui software, it helps with the notch (on instagram, haven't tried snapchat) using the on screen navigation buttons helps resizing as well
theleosanjaya said:
you should try updating the emui software, it helps with the notch (on instagram, haven't tried snapchat) using the on screen navigation buttons helps resizing as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am fully up to date. Upon further usage, I noticed it happens in other apps too. Instagram is actually a lot worse. It resizes length ways ok however not the correct size width ways. Most notably on stories so you can't see the first left and end right part. Looking online there's a lot of people complaining from Huawei and Samsung users (dating almost 3/4 months ago)
It appears to be an issue with the higher resolution android phones which app developers have been slow to fix. Hopefully, phone and app developers will come up with some kind of fix soon. Quite annoying as everything works flawlessly on iphones
Try changing the dpi on dev setting or play around with display view Setting for now until it get fixed
Doesn't work regardless of what combination of settings I have. Looks like there's a serious lack of compatibility with android devices at the higher resolutions. Annoying!
I have the exact same issue and I'm happy someone is discussing it, man I felt like I'm alone
I have noticed this same issue when using my Honor 10. I have not found a solution for it yet.
Hey everyone,
This will be a Thread for collecting all the kinds of bugs and other issues you might have encountered.
I talked to the german FB group and talked about them sending them a collection of bugs etc from the community. They gave me an email address (from the communication team) where i can send it to once everything is done.
They will then proceed to send the information to the people developing for axon 7 (A2017G in this case). Of course it's not guaranteed that they will definitely fix all the issues. But it's worth a shot imo.
So at first it's important that bugs have the most importance in this thread since those have to be fixed in order to get an enjoyable oreo experience.
BUT you can also post any features you want to have back (examples are daydream, screen color calibration)
To get things finally started, here are the issues that i gathered so far from this thread:
-SD card mounting issues (SD card doesn't stay mounted after reboot)
-Increased battery drain (mixed opinion, some say it's worse, some say it's the same as nougat)
-Preinstalled apps which are uninstallable (like Accuweather, WPS Office) reinstall themselves after reboot
-Events set in Google calendar don't show a notification
-Bluetooth audio developer options (LDAC, 32bit, 96khz, etc) do not stick
-screencast not working on some miracast devices
-Panorama has lower vertical resolution (approximately 1900px while Nougat had 2800px)
-Charging sound file is missing (now it uses error sound file when connecting/disconnecting USB which sounds really annoying)
Missing Features that you wish to come back or added:
-Screen Color Calibration
-Daydream (which might come back since how they worded it to be temporarily disabled)
-Camera2 api not yet fully implemented
-Vulkan API (was present in Nougat, now removed in Oreo for unknown reason)
-Screen lock app (shortcut in quick settings to lock the device)
-Option to remove Carrier name in status bar
-Dark Mode option (preferably true black background for the while UI like quicksettings menu, settings menu etc for max SOT.)
-More sorting options for stock music player (by title number etc instead of by alphabetical order)
-ZTE Toolbox app
I'm sure there is more. But this is what i have found so far as of now. If there is any more issues you encountered, please post them so i can add them to the list.
Also if i missed any additional info for the issues above, please feel free to tell me.
- Dark mode option
- further dimming option (lowest brightness still too bright)
- screen off toggle/widget
1. Screen cast still won't work well, I never get it connected to miracast since nougat and they didnt fix it on oreo, all my other devices work so good with the same miracast.
2. Battery drain faster than nougat or I think this even worse than oreo beta build B01.
Feature:
- The alphabetical order on music folder for stock music is still annoying. No one hopes listening music from A to Z based on title.
One more:
I don't know if it's just me, but I have a bug where the download manager won't download anything for a long time despite having stable internet connection. This affects Play Store app downloads and downloads other than Chrome (since Chrome has its own download manager it seems). Basically, if I want to quickly download an app or update them, the initialisation starts but it keeps waiting for stuff to download. It won't abort with an error, it just sticks to the spinning circle. In the notification bar you won't see the download arrow animation, which should be there actually. But if I lay down my phone for a while and then pick it up, it may start downloading normally. It's very annoying, you can imagine m
ChiDi9901 said:
One more:
I don't know if it's just me, but I have a bug where the download manager won't download anything for a long time despite having stable internet connection. This affects Play Store app downloads and downloads other than Chrome (since Chrome has its own download manager it seems). Basically, if I want to quickly download an app or update them, the initialisation starts but it keeps waiting for stuff to download. It won't abort with an error, it just sticks to the spinning circle. In the notification bar you won't see the download arrow animation, which should be there actually. But if I lay down my phone for a while and then pick it up, it may start downloading normally. It's very annoying, you can imagine m
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know what you mean. But it's not a bug from oreo. I had this too on nougat. Sometimes it still happens. But not as often as it used to be. Dunno what fixes it sadly, but thats probably an issue of play services messing up something since the axon 7 isn't alone. Many other devices have this problem as well sometimes. It comes and goes randomly.
And as you said, chrome and other apps with their own download manager don't seem to have these issues. Again, it's probably play services doing something wrong. Not sure tho, just a guess as play services had many problems in their history
macmobile said:
- Dark mode option
- further dimming option (lowest brightness still too bright)
- screen off toggle/widget
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean with dark mode? Like amoled substratum themes? Or like night light?
Poor wifi and 4g reception. This has been my main problem with this rom.
GodOfPsychos said:
What do you mean with dark mode? Like amoled substratum themes? Or like night light?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quick settings, status bar and system settings are all unbearably white. Due to Google's safety measures you can't even use a third party filter anymore.
On Nougat you could change the quick settings to gray at least and use a third party filter for all the rest. On Oreo, no chance at all. What a bad user experience!
So why even bother with a system update, if it doesn't let you adjust the display brightness to your liking anymore?! And I haven't even mentioned the usefulness of an all white UI on an AMOLED screen (Battery!?).
Panorama has lower vertical resolution.
Nougat approx 2800px
Oreo approx 1900px
Signal issues
Hd calls work with incoming but call does not connect for outgoing
Band switching issue band keeps switching thats the main reason for battery drain on 4g
My network is Jio 4g in India
It works in band 3 5 and 40
3 and 5 bands work together but they wont work well with 40 that is they keep switching from one to other with internet connecting and disconnecting
So i switched off band 40 using network signal guru app with magisk root permissions and everything works fine except slow internet speed and persistent hd call issue
Can anyone make solution for band issue
If there is a possiblity to reduce the heat generated during simple tasks.
I had most of those issues: significantly worse battery life, camera freeze when using RAW capture, when I reseted the phone, everything is back to normal, maybe battery is like 5-10% worse than nougat but not sure. Can't say anything about the missing features. I want them too, but most of wanted a Stock + UI and now we complain ? vanilla Android lacks many features like it or not. Hope they release some future firmware update to fix any issues and update the security bulletin.
alexvv said:
I had most of those issues: significantly worse battery life, camera freeze when using RAW capture, when I reseted the phone, everything is back to normal, maybe battery is like 5-10% worse than nougat but not sure. Can't say anything about the missing features. I want them too, but most of wanted a Stock + UI and now we complain ? vanilla Android lacks many features like it or not. Hope they release some future firmware update to fix any issues and update the security bulletin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You had most of these because i used the same thread your post was in as well about the freezing raw capture with stock cam.
But you are the first and only one who had this happen with the camera. So far nobody else reported having the same issue.
alexvv said:
I had most of those issues: significantly worse battery life, camera freeze when using RAW capture, when I reseted the phone, everything is back to normal, maybe battery is like 5-10% worse than nougat but not sure. Can't say anything about the missing features. I want them too, but most of wanted a Stock + UI and now we complain [emoji39] vanilla Android lacks many features like it or not. Hope they release some future firmware update to fix any issues and update the security bulletin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never ever wanted Stock Android. Stock is the least customizable iteration of Android. So who could want this kind of user experience? People who think Google knows what's best for you? Ridiculous!
Any one tried downgrading to Nougat?
Tried official update.zip. Downgrade FAILS!
This package is for "ailsa_ii" devices; this is a ""
(My device only received official updates, never a custom ROM or root)
Yerry said:
Any one tried downgrading to Nougat?
Tried official update.zip. Downgrade FAILS!
This package is for "ailsa_ii" devices; this is a ""
(My device only received official updates, never a custom ROM or root)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't downgrade with the official update.zip
Also this is the wrong thread to post this. This thread is for bugs found in oreo.
I appear to be having poor quality sound when playing audio though the main speakers. There's a hissing sound.
GodOfPsychos said:
You can't downgrade with the official update.zip
Also this is the wrong thread to post this. This thread is for bugs found in oreo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree on both of your statements. here is why:
1. It is possible to downgrade, but not with all official update.zip that exist (I succeeded in the meantime!)
2. It is a bug in the Oreo rom that the device type is not set, preventing majority of old update.zip to run since they check the device type
I am missing the stock Nougat 'lock screen' option in the Quick options menu. I am using an app to soft lock the screen at the moment which works but am not sure at all why they removed it in first place.
I am also missing the Messaging and Phone customization options available in Nougat, including the different message bubbles types and the background change settings. It is now simply white and blue and you couldn't change it.
I have had a hard time fixing the Notification problem Oreo brought to many apps, including system, resulting in oversleeping for alarm clock app not working at all. This may not be a particular problem of ZTE directly since apparently it is an Oreo issue but I still don't understand why so many notifications have been forced to the swipe-down menu without default option to disable them. Like "this and this process running in the background" and using default notification tone for every single thing happening to the phone. Adjusting settings in Android System notification modes solved some problems but delayed or not showed at all certain notifications like SMS messages or alarm clock not working - even though these were specifically made to pop and make sound.
Battery life for me varies. It may be up to 10-12 hours if I don't do almost anything and just keep it in stand-by to 3-4-5 hours if I use the screen, some browsing and listening to music. Screen-on-Time in general is up to 2-3 hours in best case scenario. Also sometimes for no apparent reason I see the battery percentage going down like every few seconds by 1 percent and with no use of anything special, just the screen. Overall I could rate it (a little) worse than Nougat considering that I've now gone through all Power settings and disabling anything I don't need per app.
I can only congratulate ZTE for making Dolby Atmos now working on both earphones and front speakers at all times, including with custom player equalizer running at the same time as Dolby Atmos. It never worked for me and was also accompanied with various bugs on all 6, 6.1, 7 and 7.1.
The "choose what your SD card should do" on every restart is pretty bad and I strongly prefer the Nougat behavior when it simply worked. Maybe adding a Setting - "do not ask again" or an option in the System Settings where you can change the status of the SD card on the go would work better than unmounting it every time. This causes many issues with file managers, players and different other apps with files located on the SD card. I hope they re-work it.
Finally, I noticed that Ultra Power Saver works in a much worse way than it did on Nougat. It kind of goes into another OS mode upon return from which it does not start apps that are set to auto-start upon reboot. The Nougat style of simply black-and-whit-ening the screen and turning off any data was so much better and didn't return the phone in a half-functioning state when connected to the charger. Also at 15% as I adjusted it, the middle power saving function (Power Saver or so) does not seem to be at least visibly working so the battery keeps draining as fast as if it was not on.
So, in short - dark(er) Quick Menu, getting back Nougat default app customization options, fixing the SD card message upon every reboot, not forcing TouchPal to be default keyboard or in use even if another keyboard is chosen, or disabling both, and possibly working on better battery life would be all amazing. I still think ZTE did a great job with 8.0 and am happy they finally released it to us.
The phone was frozen and restarted several times.
After that, fingerprint doesn't work and I had to reconfigure fingerprint record.