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So Ive been playing with the nexus 10 since last friday. The device is nice, I like it. First, My device has light bleed. And my 1st replacement is worse than the original. I will see if my 2nd replacement is any better. In the meantime, I consider requesting a refund. I never thought of returning this before. However, the more I use it, I realized pure android is not what I expected. I have a note 10.1 so I compare this with the nexus.
First, I always thought touchwiz sucked. well, indeed it sucks (lags), but it has some cool features that pure android don't. FOr ex, the quick settings in touchwiz is more convenient with more options. like on touchwiz, when you touch "wifi", it will turn off and on immediately. On nexus 10, it will take you to the wifi settings. also I hate the space waste of the status bar.okay well, this is just a minor thing.
2nd, video player. The note plays just everything I throw at it. And the nexus don't. and you have to do a lot of modification to get it work. BS player can play them fine, but it is not fully supported yet so it crashes. and video quality on BSplayer is worse than other players like MX (but MX doesn't have sound playing mkv :/)
3rd, Apps. I know it's just too soon to complain but apps are not supported on the nexus 10 yet. Icons are blurry. apps lag on the nexus 10 because of too many pixels. I hope this will be fixed soon but considering there are many tablets out there that does not have 300 pixels per inch like the nexus. Not sure if ALL developers will adjust their apps to get it supported on the nexus any soon. I've got frustrated with the nexus so I found myself on my Note more.
4th, battery. well batter is not bad, but not good either. It's acceptable and I wish it could be better. ALso, slow charge (this might be fixed in near future thanks to the pogo but no one knows if it's gonna be released or not). average battery + slow charge. seems like a perfect combination...
I will make final decision on friday depending on the condition of my 2nd replacement. if it has worse light bleed then Im done with this. Too tired to send it back. I still want to keep it cause it's a nice thing to have. (oh and Im not interested in the ipad, that's why I didn't compare this with the ipad). SO yeah... anyone feels free to have opinion. I kinda need someone to convince me to keep it.
And i totally understand you.
Despite of that, i'm not gonna ask for refund, since this is the only android tablet quite usable, fluid etc.
Battery is quite disappointing, can't get more than 5.5 hours onscreen, can't understand how users get 8.X hours of this, wifi off? minimum brightness? Pointless.
Screen is, well, i though this screen would be on pair with cellphones, but it isn't, brightness, contrast, are not as good as were supposed. And light bleed, the thing many people say is in every single lcd display. Well, if a defective product is usual for you... despite 40% of the LCDs have it, ok, but it doesn't mean its usual.
The only thing that 'wowed' me was the sound, pretty amazing.
Btw i also love touchwiz in my galaxy S3, 0 lags there.
same here in all points, mine is going back too
In addition: the build quality is good on first impression but really really sucks in real!
I'm loosing Wifi all the time
The UI in the middle is just ridiculous
it's freezing and restarting
mkv's are lagging
in summary it's just disappointing after one week
Only thing that I'm not too "happy" about is the performance of some games on the Nexus 10. I was expecting GTA III to be easily playable on highest settings, but it runs at pretty low FPS, with the "Screen Resolution" setting being the biggest hit it seems, being tied to the extreme resolution of the Nexus 10. I was also very surprised with the performance of "Beats" (music game with DDR and osu! gamemodes). Something that looks "that" simple gives about 30-40 FPS somehow...
Aside from those 2 games though, everything else seems to run fine, performance wise. Kinda just want to get a controller and keyboard/stand for the N10, and I think it'll be perfect
I'll be keeping my Nexus 10 though Mainly because I want to try to get into Android Development, and so far the N10 seems to have the best specs of any Android tablet (currently).
Straf said:
And i totally understand you.
Despite of that, i'm not gonna ask for refund, since this is the only android tablet quite usable, fluid etc.
Battery is quite disappointing, can't get more than 5.5 hours onscreen, can't understand how users get 8.X hours of this, wifi off? minimum brightness? Pointless.
Screen is, well, i though this screen would be on pair with cellphones, but it isn't, brightness, contrast, are not as good as were supposed. And light bleed, the thing many people say is in every single lcd display. Well, if a defective product is usual for you... despite 40% of the LCDs have it, ok, but it doesn't mean its usual.
The only thing that 'wowed' me was the sound, pretty amazing.
Btw i also love touchwiz in my galaxy S3, 0 lags there.
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yeah the nexus 10 is the best android tablet you should buy at the moment, hands down. But my note doesn't have light bleed at all. and touchwiz only lags on the Note tablet. I have the S3 too and it doesn't lag.
rookiegenius said:
So Ive been playing with the nexus 10 since last friday. The device is nice, I like it. First, My device has light bleed. And my 1st replacement is worse than the original. I will see if my 2nd replacement is any better. In the meantime, I consider requesting a refund. I never thought of returning this before. However, the more I use it, I realized pure android is not what I expected. I have a note 10.1 so I compare this with the nexus.
First, I always thought touchwiz sucked. well, indeed it sucks (lags), but it has some cool features that pure android don't. the quick settings in touchwiz is more convenient with more options. also I hate the space waste of the status bar.okay well, this is just a minor thing.
2nd, video player. The note plays just everything I throw at it. And the nexus don't. and you have to do a lot of modification to get it work. BS player can play them fine, but it is not fully supported yet so it crashes.And those bluray rip mkv on the nexus 10 doesn't look as good as the note 10.1. (Im not talking about real HD movies you buy from google play but those mkv that you downloaded). those blu ray mkv's resolution is not high enough for a screen like the nexus. On the note, it looks smoother.
3rd, Apps. I know it's just too soon to complain but apps are not supported on the nexus 10 yet. Icons are blurry. apps lag on the nexus 10 because of too many pixels. I hope this will be fixed soon but considering there are many tablets out there that does not have 300 pixels per inch like the nexus. Not sure if ALL developers will adjust their apps to get it supported on the nexus.
4th, battery. well batter is not bad, but not good either. It's acceptable and I wish it could be better. ALso, slow charge (this might be fixed in near future thanks to the pogo but no one knows if it's gonna be released or not).
I will make the final decision on friday depending on the condition of my 2nd replacement. if it has worse light bleed then Im done with this. Too tired to send it back. I still want to keep it cause it's a nice thing to have. (oh and Im not interested in the ipad, that's why I didn't compare this with the ipad). SO yeah... anyone feels free to have opinion. I kinda need someone to convince me to keep it.
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Click to collapse
Cheer up the Nexus is awesome. Mine has no bleed or any issues. Your first Nexus left a bad taste in your mouth. Get past it and you'll be good.
2. QQ Player for videos.
3. Apps will come with time.
4. Charge isn't great but any micro USB can charge it and that's a big plus.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda premium
Keeping mine as long as it lives.. totally love it.. havn't noticed any light bleed at all.. but then again im not looking for it tried playing asphalt 7 and nfs.. and both played fine.. but those types of games blow goats on a tablet.. so 100% happy
happy with nexus
I gotta say I'm pretty happy with this nexus tablet. I've never had a tablet before and besides spending limited time on my wife's iPad I never had a notion to get a tablet. I don't hamve the light bleed and my tablet shipped and arrived exactly when it was supposed to. So not negative to say other than the battery. I'm with the other guy. 5.5 hours is about all I can get. I can't wait for a case for this thing.
rookiegenius said:
yeah the nexus 10 is the best android tablet you should buy at the moment, hands down. But my note doesn't have light bleed at all. and touchwiz only lags on the Note tablet. I have the S3 too and it doesn't lag.
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Thats what i meant with the lightbleed issue, not every single tablet leaks, here there are some users that, since they have so MUCH hope for this tablet, say that lightbleed is usual in every single tablet, and thats not truth.
And i repeat, i'm gonna keep this, but Google haven't done a good job with this. Problems, meh screen, poor performance (specially with chrome), no accesories, their shop was and is a mess.... And i say this after thinking that nexus 10 should be the device that makes android tablets take off. If i compare nexus 10 with other android tablets, it obviously is great, but not such a flagship (or ipad killer, as many people likes to say) as was spected.
Also coming from a Note 10.1. Overall, I like the Note 10.1 better. What the Note 10.1 lacks in resolution makes up with more vibrant display, better blacks, no backlight bleed, clearer sound, etc. Nexus 10 battery is not a concern since I was planning to use it as a desktop/laptop alternative but now I find out that HDMI output is laggy. Having reservations and thinking maybe I should hold off for Samsung's new tablet or updated Note 10.1 or just getting the Note II. They mistakenly shipped me a 16GB instead of 32GB so if the replacement unit that's coming Friday still has issues I'm probably going to ask for a refund.
I came from the Note 10.1 , personally, can't stand TW, and as far as the pulldowns go, you will see the same thing once the note 10.1 is updated to 4.2 which it does not have, "officially".
Personal opinion is the display is far superior on the Nexus 10, also standard micro usb compared to sammy connector.
I think the sound is better on the Nexus, but not by much.
I am one of the lucky ones, mine has no light bleed, although my note 10.1 had some, not bad but it was there.
So all and all I am happy with the Nexus 10, but it is a personal choice, IF I was currently going to have another tablet it would be the Note 10.1 or the new transformer.
just my .02
I would go Ativ tab 10.1 or surface pro before even considering a note 10.1 or infinity.
Tomatoes8 said:
I would go Ativ tab 10.1 or surface pro before even considering a note 10.1 or infinity.
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Ativ Tab 10.1 is nice hardware but terrible UI with Windows 8 and weak app selection. Surface Pro is too pricey just for touch input. I can always upgrade to Windows 8 for $15 on my laptop but haven't bothered with the hassle since it doesn't really offer much.
Interesting thread...definitely makes me appreciate my N7 even more.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Watcher64 said:
I came from the Note 10.1 , personally, can't stand TW, and as far as the pulldowns go, you will see the same thing once the note 10.1 is updated to 4.2 which it does not have, "officially".
Personal opinion is the display is far superior on the Nexus 10, also standard micro usb compared to sammy connector.
I think the sound is better on the Nexus, but not by much.
I am one of the lucky ones, mine has no light bleed, although my note 10.1 had some, not bad but it was there.
So all and all I am happy with the Nexus 10, but it is a personal choice, IF I was currently going to have another tablet it would be the Note 10.1 or the new transformer.
just my .02
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IF I wasn't impressed with the N10, I would absolutely steer clear of Asus' Transformer line of tablets IMO. I bought the Prime (TF201) when it first came out & the Infinity Pad (TF700) after returning the latter. They both had the typical I/O sloppiness and general lag that proves the "it has 4 cores" argument is a poor one lol.
Bottom line - I've spent most of the day with the N10 and have been thoroughly impressed. If any issues do arise...its a Nexus so unlocking the boot loader to improve performance won't void my warranty...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I'm not totally enthralled by either. First one had dust laminated in the display and some backlight bleed. My new one has bleed in both the bottom corners, but it is slightly worse. Even at 0% brightness in a completely dark room I can still make it out, I mean it doesn't stand out, but I can still see the faintest outline. Idk if I will send it back. I really don't want to get one that has worse bleed. I may just put up with this minor inconvenience until next year when the n10 2 comes out.
A lot of the issues mentioned will be fixed with software or firmware updates. Remember this is the early adopter problem.
Also dev roms will crush bugs or improve battery, add features, etc.
I love my N10.
Have no light bleed, or maybe I do but did not notice anything.
Its extremely smooth.
Yes there is some wasted screen sapcd with the new UI but all will be fixed with custom roms.
And mist of the apps I was using on my iPad are available on market and look good for me.
All in all, within a couple of weeks this thing will be a monster.
I love this tablet. Zero backlight bleeding I can see during normal use, no dead or stuck pixels, amazing build quality, BEAUTIFUL display (I noticed how much better it was than my iPad 3s the instant money turned it on) . and great battery life. Certainly the battery doesn't last as long as the iPads (it has a smaller battery) but I got 9hours of screen on time today and 14 hours total surfing, playing the odd game or two, checking emails etc. The odd freezing issue will be fixed through an update I'm confident. Most of these issues are resulting from the fact that we are early adopters to a brand new device.
Return it if you're not happy with it. What's the point in announcing it to the rest of the community?
Makes no sense. Hope you're happy with whatever you get to replace it.
Here is my LONG and slightly biased review of the 3 top devices right now.
I had a DNA, Nexus 4, and Note 2 all at the same time and here is a summary of my thoughts on how they compare.
The DNA and Note 2 were my personal phones, the Nexus 4 belonged to my company and was purchased for a tear down analysis. I got to use it for about a week.
I have been following the HTC J Butterfly ever since it was announced in Japan. Although I was 100 percent satisfied with my Note 2, I was quite intrigued with the phone's full 1080 progressive display. So many pixels crammed in 5" of screen real estate must be amazing I figured. I wanted to see if this phone would give me second thoughts and sway me away from my beloved Note 2.
Screen:
1. DNA
2. Note 2
3. Nexus 4
The crown jewel of the HTC DNA is the display, while quite amazing in person, it reminds me a lot of the iPhone 5's Retina display, just bigger. I know the DNA has a much higher ppi density, but in reality you really can't tell the difference once the resolution gets so high in a 4-5" screen. Only situation where I could clearly distinguish the difference was in text, and when zoomed all the way out and the texts are all microscopic but still legible if you put a magnifying glass to it.
The novelty of the 1080P screen wears out QUICK. I showed a few of my co-workers and friends/families and they couldn't really see what the big fuss was all about. They say their iPhone 4S/5 ect. looks the same. Oh well, I should have brought with me a magnifying glass to brag about the difference I suppose. Once the novelty wears off, the beautiful screen becomes more of a curse. A LOT of games/apps don't work right with the 1080p display. I know developers will eventually update their apps, maybe, to support the 1080p resolution but in the meantime it's a waiting game. I hate waiting...and it seems like I'm missing out on a lot of good games and apps while other phones get to enjoy it RIGHT NOW.
Next, The high ppi count combined with HTC sense lags this phone. You can tell it taxes the GPU/CPU pushing all those pixels. If you claim your DNA doesn't lag, then you either don't know what lag is, or never experienced a phone that is lag-free. The iPhone 5 is lag free, the Nexus 4 and Note 2 are "almost" lag free but those two still offer much smoother UI performance as a whole than the DNA.
The Nexus 4 screen is "nice" but it's nothing to write home about, nor is it super uber amazing like some Nexus fans might lead you to believe. The viewing angles and resolution are above average but the color is quite disappointing. Everything looks washed out and drab on the screen next to the DNA and Note 2, no real pop or anything to make it stand out. It reminds me a lot of the display on my LG G2X, just higher resolution.
Note 2's screen, don't be fooled by the "only" 267ppi count. This screen is by far one of the best displays I've seen on a smartphone, and I've had pretty much most all high end smartphones due to the line of work I do and frankly, my addiction. The lame background that Samsung loads on this phone default from the factory does not do the phone justice. I can see how a person would think the screen isn't anything special when they first turn it on. Com'on Samsung, load a high resolution default background to show off that beautiful screen, not some low resolution, plain blue background with a feather in the back.
This display is not like the other Samsung AMOLEDs of the past like the Note 1, Galaxy S, Nexus, Galaxy S3. Those are all Pentile matrix. Those are not comparable to the Note 2's screen.
The Note 2 is an RGB matrix OLED HD NON-PENTILE display, the highest resolution one that Samsung has ever put on a phone. And it's a spectacular display, which blows the other Samsung SuperAMOLED's out of the water. Everything looks sharper on a non-pentile display. Don't be fooled by the ppi count on AMOLED's when comparing pentile to non-pentile, the S3 might have a higher ppi density but the Note 2 offers a superior viewing experience. Text, images, ect. all look much more clear, sharper and cleaner on the Note 2.
It doesn't quite match the DNA's overall brightness and resolution but it's a solid, high resolution beautiful screen. Better than the Nexus 4's screen by far.
Camera:
Camera quality wise I would rank them as follows.
1. Note 2
2. DNA
3. Nexus 4
The Note 2 takes the best pictures in all light conditions, the DNA takes good pictures in good lighting but they produce a LOT of noise and it gets worse as the lighting drops. Noise is very apparent when you blow the picture up to 100 percent crop. The Nexus 4 is last place, I could not take a decent picture with that thing especially low light. The Note 2 takes really high quality pictures without a lot of noise, I am very impressed with it.
Build:
Build quality and feel.
1. Nexus 4
2. DNA
3. Note 2
I got to hand it to LG and Google on the Nexus 4, this thing feels like a million bucks in your hand. Glass front and back, rubber surround between. It just feels very premium. Like German Engineered. =) It just feels really good in your hand. Just don't drop it.
The DNA feels... Japanese. Very well built, gives the impression that it should last for a long time and fare well in drop survival . Doesn't quite match the Nexus for that extra premium feel. Very ergonomic to hold, I think it was my favorite thing about the DNA. It felt really nicely balanced in your hand for it's size.
Sadly the Note 2 feels like a GM product. Plastic, plastic, plastic. Even the simulated metal surround is just painted plastic. Upside is it's relatively light for it's size but don't expect it to have a premium feel to it, it's not bad, it's actually very solid but just not premium feeling like the other two. Feels better in the hand than the Note 1, which was kinda ridiculous and shaped more like a tablet. The Note 2 feels like a phone, just a large one. Not the most comfortable phone to hold for a long time one handed but definitely not that bad.
Software.
1. Note 2
2. Nexus 4
3. DNA
The Note 2 is on a whole different planet when it comes to functionality and software. I know many people scoff at Touchwiz and Sense, or any UI overlay that messes with the pure Android experience. I too was one of those people. My mind was blown when it came to the Note 2. It's been a month since I had my international Note 2, and about a week with my T-Mobile Note 2. I am still finding out new incredible things the software and S-Pen can do on this phone. Touchwiz is truly great on this phone, also it is butter smooth in operation. I can't believe I'm saying this but Touchwiz on the Note 2 makes pure Android 4.2 on the Nexus 4 seem rather lame and boring. It seems like Samsung really took their time, did their homework to really optimize the operation of their UI on this phone. Rooting and Installing custom roms is as easy as they get on the Note 2. Flash 1 simple file, and bam you got a custom recovery. Root and install custom roms and kernels till your hearts desire!
HTC Sense, now this is one beautiful looking UI. Unfortunately DNA is loaded to the gills with bloatware, OMG I've never seen so much bloat on a phone. You can tell the UI really taxes the phone's CPU and GPU. The performance definitely do not match the benchmarks. Don't get me started on unlocking the bootloader on this thing, have you guys seen the instructions? Seems more complicated than brain surgery with the risk of bricking your phone the whole process.
What can I say about the Nexus 4? It has pure 4.2 Android and is very smooth. On par with the Note 2. Pure Android feels sorta naked, with not much stuff to discover. It's plain jane, what pisses me off is Google decided to take out the AOSP browser and made Chrome the default browser. No flash support and performance isn't that great. I'm surprised that Chrome is actually pretty decently smooth on the Nexus 4 but still not as good as the stock AOSP browser. I did not like the on screen buttons which took a lot of screen real estate away.
I always found the S-Pen on the original Note kinda gimmicky, not so much on the Note 2. It is incredibly useful on the Note 2 and I find myself using it ALL THE TIME and I'm not a pen/tablet kinda guy. It's literally 10 times more accurate and functional on the Note 2 loaded with all kinds of great features. Air view is one of them and awesome!
Battery life:
1. Note 2
2. DNA
3. Nexus 4
Okay this is no contest. I am a HEAVY user with a lot of screen on time, I hardly charge my phones. The Note 2 gets me through the day with Heavy Usage, 10+ hours and I still have 25 percent reserve. Same type of usage, the Nexus 4 is dead in 3 1/2 hours flat The DNA is slightly better but still dead in about 4-5 hours of the same type of usage. With light to moderate use, the Note 2 got me through a weekend of camping with no charger in sight, that's with browsing the web, checking email, doing some work related stuff, streaming a few Youtube videos for my daughters. I would never attempt that with any other phone. Impossible with the Nexus or DNA. The Note 2's battery life is simply unbelievable. What's even better than the Note 2's amazing battery life? The ability to carry MORE if needed, since it's removable! The Nexus 4 battery blows! I'm at 60 percent just browsing the web on that thing for 45 minutes, hopefully with the next few updates Google will find a way to make the battery last longer.
Storage:
1. Note 2
2. DNA/Nexus 4
Again, No contest.
I had a 64GB Sandisk from my GS3, popped it into my Note 2 and now I have 80GB of combined storage. It's perfect for putting in literally my whole movie collection and mp3 songs on the go. My daughters could browse through the movie collection and find the ones they want to watch anywhere to keep them quiet, no need to plan ahead and only put in only 1 or 2 choices due to storage limitations. I could carry along more SD cards as I wish, basically limitless storage capacity is priceless to have.
After having owned and used all 3, I returned the DNA pronto.
There is absolutely no device that has satisfied me in all areas like the Note 2, it's basically the Swiss army knife of phones. It's a no contest comparing the DNA or Nexus 4 to the Note 2. They don't stand a chance. This is the ONE and ONLY device that has ever stopped my urge and yearning to try something different because I know there is no other phone out there that can measure up to it. Literally and figuratively.
I wouldn't put the fragile Nexus 4 at the top of build quality when the glass cracks easily. There's even been reports that temperature change (it being warn in your hand and then sat on a counter top) cracks it. Plastic is better build quality because it's built to last.
Thanks.. Well written comparison between the three phones and i think it's fair for the most part.
Highly biased towards the note 2 but that's your opinion
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda premium
Unless the DNA overheats or I use chrome, I don't see low framerate. I got it to overheat and used chrome at the same time today.
Wasn't pretty.
I wish people would stop calling low framerate lag. Lag is not even a relevant term.
LOL This sounded like a "Gather around kids, let me tell you about these phones, I had all 3!" "ooohhhhhhh aaaahhhhh"
Seriously though I have to agree with the OP on Touchwiz. I have a Note 10.1 tablet and I had a Galaxy SIII. I traded my S III to my sister for her upgrade so I could get the Note 2 on Verizon when it came out. Got tired of waiting and got the DNA. The DNA is a great phone, don't get me wrong, but after playing around with the S III and the Note 10.1 I found Sense to be just . . . boring. The whole 1080p thing really gets boring quick and I was just left with a skin that doesn't do all that much.
Today a friend was showing me that she bought the S III I recommended her to buy and I was showing her all these little things I liked and I kept having to say "no, my new one doesn't do that... but look at the screen!".
I carry 2 phones with me at all times. My Serious "work" phone (Verizon) because I need a phone that will work wherever I travel and my "Just for fun" phone (T-Mobile prepaid).
There is a lot I do like about the DNA, call quality is great, display really is amazing, I love the looks of it and it just feels reliable. So I made the decision that I'm going to keep the DNA on Verizon and instead I'm going to replace my Galaxy Nexus on T-Mobile with the Note 2. I think it makes sense, Verizon is my Reliable line and I think the DNA will be the most reliable PHONE, T-Mobile is my for fun line so I think the Note 2 will be the most fun phablet for it.
That's a whole bunch of hardware to carry around lol.
It really is an addiction LOL, I carry a manbag (IT'S NOT A PURSE!) with my Galaxy Note 10.1 and my Nexus 7 and my Bluetooth keyboard and a bunch of cables and a portable hard drive and chargers and then I carry my 2 phones around and I don't do **** with any of it. It's always a "Just in case" thing. It's that Ti and Ne kicking in.
People always slagged off Touchwiz but I tried Android on a phone in store in 2010 and I hated it, I then decided to go for the iPhone 4. When it came to the GS2 launching I had gotten so fed up of how restrictive IOS is that I sold my iPhone 4 and got the GS2 last year. It was so much better than the Android I used before and I messed around with lots of roms after people saying how stock is much better and I hated it, stock just lacked so many features that TouchWiz had. I also thought the apps Samsung had on the phone all just worked, where the stock apps felt rather dated. Then using the Note 2 in store I just the added functionality of the pen, especially being able to quickly write numbers down while on the phone without having to go through menus. PiP and the multiple windows open is just something I so badly want now and I loved how Samsung have improved TouchWiz so much since the GS2.
I would buy the Note 2 if the specs were more impressive, however the Mali 400 is a real let down, it struggled a bit on the GS2 and it would be even worse on the Note 2.
Though I've tried The Nexus 4 at work as my mate has one and I still think stock Android is **** compared to Touchwiz.
I truly appreciate this, thank you very much! I agree with everything you said as well (as far as the DNA and N2 go, I haven't used the N4). You've made the decision to return the DNA in for the Note 2 that much easier!
DNA has no screen stuttering when navigating the launcher or any of the apps... there will be some moments when its loaded up with apps that ive been using where it might have a very slight stutter but it usually corrects itself ... I personally love sense compared to anything else... the rest of my family all got GS III's and i hate touchwiz so much... the entire UI stutters from opening apps navigating screens and settings.. haven't played with a note II yet so i cant really go into detail with that...
Don't know what your whole family did to their S3's but I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in saying the S3 is quite smooth. Of course its not nexus 4 quick though
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
I had the note2 on T-Mobile for two weeks and now the DNA for one week. They are both great phones! Personally I don't care for sense or touchwiz, but then again that's why we are all here....you can get your android os anyway you like. I settled on the DNA because, I have always used HTC, even pre android, and think that they have the finest build quality in the android world. Also the note2 felt just slightly to big.
I think it really comes down to those little personal preferences when dealing with these power house phones! You won't be sorry with any of these.
I really wanted to like the S3, but nothing about it was 'woah' for me. It didn't look that good, and I didn't mind waiting to see what else was around the corner. So I got the DNA, and I'm blown away. I really don't care about comparing Touchwiz vs. Sense vs. Pure Android, because regardless of what skin I have, I'm going to either find an AOSP ROM or I'll be uninstalling all the bloat ware and using a different launcher.
The S3 is a good phone, and I would recommend it, but I love my DNA a lot more. The screen isn't a novelty for me really, its just beautiful and not Pentile.
The note2, I feel like that's not considered on the same category. I've never gotten to play with one, but if we are looking at $200 on contract, DNA is the way to go and not go to up for the Note2.
Pretty insightful, especially since I'm deciding between the DNA and Note 2. I haven't tested either phone in the store yet, but I plan on doing that soon. Swaying to the DNA because of the awesome design (IMHO) and the screen. Note 2 is looking good because of the removable battery and expandable storage. 6+GB of music will fill the DNA FAST since I can't really use cloud storage (NYC subway has no service). I have only 2 problems with the Note 2 from all the videos I've seen: 1. That sore thumb of a logo on the home button 2. Doesn't seem like the S-Pen works with AOSP roms like CM/AOKP/PA, based on what I've seen with the Note. Sort of a problem since I'm sure the S-Pen is a considerable amount of the final cost of the phone.
How clear would you say the screen on the Note 2 is? I've really only experienced the screen on my GNexus and a few of the first Galaxy S phones. I actually love my Nexus's screen, but at 5.5", I can't think of it being as nice.
Talked to a friend of mine who has tested both. He feels the Note 2 is no faster than the DNA even at lower resolution.
.torrented said:
DNA has no screen stuttering when navigating the launcher or any of the apps... there will be some moments when its loaded up with apps that ive been using where it might have a very slight stutter but it usually corrects itself ... I personally love sense compared to anything else... the rest of my family all got GS III's and i hate touchwiz so much... the entire UI stutters from opening apps navigating screens and settings.. haven't played with a note II yet so i cant really go into detail with that...
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Click to collapse
I agree here 100% I hated...HATED! Sense on my thunderbolt but this is a whole new sense.. I'd almost venture to say I prefer this newest sense to stock android... Just my input on that
This is very good thread, not biased at all to be honest. I was in love with the DNA display for the first few days, and guess what it wore off, lol. Now I can't tell a difference between 1080p and 720p lol. I now tell people hey you won't be able to tell after 2 days, lol.
I am about to go tomorrow to check out the note 2 and see if the narrow design fits my hands. I might switch it out but I am not going in with the mindset to pick one up, I however will be ready to exchange it if I am impressed. I am really tired of sense I like other launchers and for some reason they don't seem to run as fast on the 1080p screen.
Sense is so unproductive it looks nice but seriously why the hell do I have to go in to settings to change a wallpaper, the long press on home screen just lets you add widgets, so stupid. HTC seems to have made it worse.
I love the DNA but if I am as impressed by the note 2 I might exchange it out tomorrow.
---------- Post added at 06:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:05 AM ----------
adrynalyne said:
Talked to a friend of mine who has tested both. He feels the Note 2 is no faster than the DNA even at lower resolution.
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Click to collapse
Trust me unless your friend was a robot he wouldn't know. They are both fast phones, if someone says they can see the difference when they use it, they are most likely lying, lol.
I could be wrong but regarding battery category,
Is your Notes 2 using TMobile's network ? since Verizon's Note 2 is only available tomorrow, I guess the Notes 2 you own is GSM version.
Verizon's DNA is running on LTE.
So I would give it some kudos for running on LTE doing the heavy usage you had for 4-5 hours with 2020 mAH battery, (note 2 has a 1.5 bigger battery inside.)
Thanks for the review - and thanks for trying out phones that you know you are going to return. Helps everyone out when our carrier has to handle RMAs for people that want to try phones just to review them.
*sighs*
-D
Because I promised
Quick background: I've had iPhones until earlier this year when i took the plunge and nabbed an Unlocked Galaxy Nexus GSM, Great phone, but some things with it I just couldnt get past (16gb of storage and the EH audio amplification...Also i want fond of 4.2 on it) which lead me to search for another phone, Tried the Galaxy S3 but was disappointed and returned it, And now about a weekish or so ago I got myself the One X+, So lets delve into my opinion on the device for anyone on the fence
First Impressions, Build, Ergonomics and Screen
The build of the One X+ is fantastic, Far better than the S3 or Galaxy Nexus, it feels nice solid and most importantly for a $200-on-contract smartphone, premium, The grippy texture to the finish makes it a delight to hold and I never feel like im going to drop the bloody thing at the drop of a hat, The Capacitive buttons are also in my opinion much nicer than the hard button on the S3 (One of the major stumbling blocks with the S3 was the fact i found that button WAY too hard to work) Though I think the Galaxy Nexus' on screen buttons are still the most elegant solution... If I had one little complaint in regards to the ergonomics its that the volume buttons sit flush and undefined on the chassis of the phone, which has taken me a bit to get used to, Id prefer them to be raised a bit, but its a minor complaint. Overall the fit and finish of the phone is the best of any other phone I've ever owned, it feels solid and like its going to hold up to 2 years of use
Moving on, the screen is one of the most important bits of ANY smartphone and the One X+ doesnt disappoint, its easily got the nicest screen I've ever seen on a smartphone (And i did LOVE the AMOLED on my GNex so thats high praise!) its big, its bright, colors are saturated and the black level is nothing to scoff at, Albeit not as inky black as an AMOLED, Text is sharp and easily readable as well, and unlike the AMOLED screen on my GNex it doesnt chug my battery flat, it also stays looking nice even at lower brightness levels, The multitouch on it works well and accurately... Other nice things are the nicely beveled edges at the screen which makes swiping, say to another page of the homescreen or to move icons from one screen to another, a real treat and the fact it stays pretty clean and comes clean easily (Its not a fingerprint magnet the way my iphone or the S3 was, The S3 was actually terrible because i couldnt clean the fingerprints off worth a darn...)
Sense/Software
This is my first experience with Sense and only the second Skinned android version I've used and I gotta say I'm in the group that likes Sense, I get the reasons folks dislike it, but I'm finding I actually prefer many aspects of it over stock Android, in particular I do like the messaging app on it which just seems to work a bit better than the one on my GNex, and I do rather like more than one of the widgets it comes with (The small 4x1 Weather + Clock widget for instance) but I do see how these things could drain the battery or processor... I like how it asked me after dismissing one tutorial if i wanted it to keep bringing tutorials up and when i said no it never brought up another one (Unlike Touchwiz which would NOT stop bringing up tutorials even after i told it to knock it off)
The music app has rapidly become my favorite music app, I just like it, I dont like Google Play Music and Doubletwist had its problems in my opinion (Namely it tended to mess up if someone sent me a text or called me and wouldnt resume playing until i completely exited it and reloaded it, Not to mention it did NOT play well with 4.2, also the random thing i had to toggle on and off a few times everytime i started played music or it just continued the same "random" assortment of songs from the last play through..) by comparison the Sense music app just works better, looks pretty attractive and is easy for me to navigate, Also the included ringtone maker is a VERY nice touch that removed the need to install an app to do so...
The phone and Calendar apps are also very very nice, far better than the stock Android counterparts.. I love how the lock screen works as well with only ONE complaint, I dont think theres a way to launch Google Now from the lock screen... (If you know a way please tell me)
Google Now is better than it was on the GNexus shockingly, it transcribes my voice a lot quicker and more accurately than my GNex ever did..
I pretty much disabled all the AT&T crapware on my One X+ as soon as I got it, and I recommend you do as well, I know from many reports here one of the apps will chew up your battery if you dont disable it so yeah, The only ATT App I have on there and use is the Visual Voicemail one, Beyond that theres a demo of Mass Effect Infiltrator installed which is actually nice, its a game I bought on a friend's iPad and while I liked the concept, their old iPad ran it like junk and i felt the game was more suited to a phone screen over a tablet, Im not sure I'll drop $3.99 to unlock the full version, but as a demonstration of what the Tegra 3 could do in terms of graphics I found it a lovely demonstration
The stock browser is pretty nice as well and supports flash, Performance on it is VERY good, Seems on par with my Flash-browser of choice on my GNex (Dolphin) theres a really stupid and annoying toolbar enabled by default but 5 seconds in the settings menu banishes it to nothingness, Of course for non-flash sites I use Chrome, but the stock browser is the nicest stock browser I've ever used
About the only complaint i can throw at Sense is the keyboard, Which is pretty bad for me personally, Lots of typing errors and problems... But to be honest thats a minor complaint given how many alternate keyboards there are for Android
Performance
Performance wise this phone is a powerhouse, I have not had any issues with it stuttering, slowing down or anything no matter how hard i push it, No games have had noticable framerate problems (The GNex had problems with a couple games I played) the interface works smooth and buttery and it definitely feels like the most powerful Android device I've owned, Flash works smooth and buttery and gives me no issues as well which is VERY nice
Gaming I havnt found a single game it cant run perfectly(Albeit, i havnt done TOO much gaming on it)
As for other performance, the radio and antenna seem to be excellent, Unlike the S3 my One X+ doesnt hop on and off between HSPA+ and LTE every 2 seconds schizophrenically (Which made my S3 lose 20% of its battery in a 20 minute long errand and signalled the final nail in the coffin that lead me to return it), My One X+ hasnt lost connection even when I've taken it to the places I know have poor coverage so I'm quite happy with that bit of it
LTE performance will vary on your area but I get around 8mbps in my house (Which is 2-bar bordering the edge of LTE territory) to a high of 36mbps i got when i was out of the house at a 4-bar LTE location, Which is certainly nothing to scoff about, Wi-Fi works well for me, and I've yet to notice any problems with my Wi-Fi dropping at night or when its been locked for a long time like other users have reported...
Call quality is excellent, People are loud and clear, The speakerphone is also the first one i've found i can actually USE in a car and hear the person...
Camera
I'm the worst person to ask about camera quality on smartphones, For what I use them for even the "Bad" Galaxy Nexus camera was great for me, I carry my EOS 7D with me just about everywhere so if I want to take a nice picture I will pull that out instead..
That said, the cameras are very nice, I love how responsive it is with pretty much no shutter lag, it focuses quickly and very accurately and tends to do a good job with exposure as well, Photos have a good amount of detail to them and skintones are rendered pleasingly, Theres plenty of artsy filters if thats your thing as well, Only complaint is the focal length of the front facing camera seems a bit long for a self portrait, i have more problems framing it than with other smartphones I've owned, But the quality is also far superior to the other phones I've had
The stock sound effects for it are REALLY FREAKING ANNOYING however
Audio Quality
Obviously one big reason I picked up the One X+ was to get something with better audio quality than the GNex, The GNex isnt THAT shabby, but it does lack "oomph" and struggled to drive even my mobile headphones (I had to have it cranked to 100% all the time to get them decently audible and even then it was eh...) Volume+ helped a bit but 4.2 broke Volume+ leaving me in a bit of a rut...I also personally felt it made the phone sound "Strained" at times to deliver the volume i desired... The external speaker was also frequently barely audible, I usually heard the phone vibrating over the actual ringer...
Thankfully the One X+ is worlds apart from the GNex in that department, The external speaker is LOUD and easily heard, its also of surprisingly good quality and is actually one of the best little built in speakers I've heard, it also has a good amount of "depth" to it and renders low frequencies admirably for what it is, Overall the external speaker impressed me
But that pales in comparison to the headphone output, Which has simply left my jaw on the floor and exceeded my expectations, the headphone output is easily the best I've heard of any smartphone or MP3 player I've owned, it has exceptional clarity and detail to it with or without the Beats optimizations on... Speaking of those optimizations I was actually shocked I liked them and I did find they made a very noticeable difference in the output quality, Now note... they are simply a set of equalization curves they may not work for everyone due to differences in music and headphones... but in my case they've worked well and further enhance the music and video watching experience
For the record I've tried my One X+ with three sets of headphones, a set of Shure IEMs, a pair of Klipsch Image Ones and a pair of Sennheiser HD280s, Only the HD280s gave it a bit of trouble... they still sounded good, albeit not to their full potential (For the record the HD280s are a set of cans that REALLY need something meatier than a smartphone to drive them..) My primary music listening is Rock and Metal, with a bit of electronic, pop and other things thrown in there for good measure, So far I havnt found anything that the One X+ doesnt excel at playing back
Oh and the headphone output will also go VERY loud, I dont even turn it up past halfway except with a couple very low volume songs i have...
Battery Life
And now onto the massive elephant in the room whenever folks talk about the One X+... Battery life... The best way I've found it is "Jekyll and Hyde"... Let me explain
Use the phone normally, for phone calls, text messaging, maybe reading a webpage or checking email and the battery life is superb, Even some light gaming, like a little Cut The Rope or some such and the battery is VERY good and should easily get most folks through a day, Even watching a youtube video or two, either using the Youtube app or the stock browser and desktop youtube website doesnt excessively drain the battery...
....But fire up say, Mass Effect Infiltrator and watch your battery life burn...
Which seems very "No crumb sherlock" but it was definitely surprising to me after coming from the Galaxy Nexus where the screen, not the processor, was the worst offender to my battery life, Which simply means it didnt much matter what i did on the GNex if it involved the screen, the battery was going to drain at the same rate
Truthfully in my experience, the One X+ is as good as the S3 I had, Primarily because of that aforementioned issue the S3 had with staying connected to a tower, Its actually equal to my GNex's stock battery as well, which is very impressive considering this phone is packing LTE and a Quad Core processor in its svelte package
In terms of numbers, according to GSam my average battery life is 14h 40m, The most I've run it for was 16h with almost 3 hours of screen on time, To me, this is perfectly fine considering the rest of the phone and for most folks, you should easily be able to get through the day without a problem, I am connected to Wi-Fi pretty much all day, but even using LTE didnt seem to impact the battery life all that much...
Now a note, I dont really try for battery saving either... I have my phone syncing to gmail, syncing to google now, location services on, GPS on, i have that little weather widget thingy i mentioned up above on too which uses battery.. Screen is fixed at 33% brightness.. I just use it, like i usually use it, so a mixture of a bunch of things depending on what im doing that day...
One nice thing I also noticed is unlike the GNex, when the battery hits 20% its not a panic moment, 20% on my GNex meant "Find a charger in 20 minutes or im dead, Jim", on my One X+ 20% means i still have a few hours left and theres no need to rush... Which is nice, I had to buy an extended battery for my GNex, for this? I dont really feel I need one (I might get a battery case however)
Do I wish it had a 3500mah battery? Of course, But it doesnt, and thats fine, For me its an acceptable sacrifice
Quick Comparison To Other Phones For AT&T and Why I Didnt Buy Them
Galaxy S3, I technically actually bought one of these and returned it, theoretically it has better battery life, but only a dual core phone, also it runs TouchWiz which i found naggy annoying and way too like iOS for my tastes, it has a MicroSD slot, but that just adds an extra $20 to the price tag to get a 32gb card (and if you want 64gb you're looking at an extra $60 to that price tag) , not built as well and ergonomically it was a pain in my hand and i constantly felt i was about to drop the dumb thing when i was using it, in my case the battery life was completely atrocious because it could NOT hang onto a signal and would scizophrenically bop between HSPA and LTE every 2 seconds which made doing things on it virtually impossible, I also didnt feel it was all that fast over the GNex running 4.1 (At the time however, the S3 only had 4.0 so.. I guess this isnt entirely fair) Also I feel the blue color looks like someone colored it with a Bic pen... Really my ownership of the S3 went from initial jubilation over a brand new shiny smartphone to finding problem after problem before i even got home with the darned thing...
Galaxy Note II, Bigger screen, bigger battery, cool S Pen features, but it runs TouchWiz which I consider worse than Sense and the ergonomic problems I had with the S3 are even worse because of it, its also a bit too big to fit in my pocket comfortably and I was way too worried Id end up dropping it, I tried it out in the store even and it just wasnt comfortable for me, and a bunch of the things i just rattled off about the S3 are likely true about the Note as well... So yeah
LG Nexus 4, Better processor, stock Android 4.2, better battery life (I think?) and a great price ($350 no contract) however it only has, at best, 16gb of storage and that just wasnt working for me as it was, Plus theres no LTE on it as well which is a negative when you have LTE available where you live
Summary/TL;DR
Overall the One X+ is easily my favorite smartphone on the market right now, I'm immensely happy with my purchase and I dont see another phone I'd rather have right now, it would be my number one recommendation to anyone looking at a phone on AT&T, it just has a great combination of features and in my opinion the only real big drawback is the so-so battery life, But even then I'd call the battery life "Average" and not bad, The only phone I've seen with truely spectacular battery life is the Droid Razr Maxx HD.. Which isnt available on AT&T... Personally I can live with the battery life, Im never too far from an outlet and even if i was, the phone seems to do just as good as most of the other smartphones I've owned, I've tried so hard to find little problems with it and honestly, I gave up, I'm really not having problems with it (Well except the bloody keyboard..) and just constantly finding new things to love about it...
The only reason I'd caution against it for some folks would be if they were really intending to play intense 3D games on the thing constantly, Because thats going to murder your battery stupidly fast... And people who do need VERY good battery life are best looking at a different phone as well, or considering a battery case for it...
I gotta give it to you, Kenji, that's like one of those high-end-in-depth reviews one would read from many of tech sites...nicely approached and couldn't find many typos I'm sure people looking to buy 1X+ Will find it helpful, thanks, as you promised
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
Dottcent said:
I gotta give it to you, Kenji, that's like one of those high-end-in-depth reviews one would read from many of tech sites...nicely approached and couldn't find many typos I'm sure people looking to buy 1X+ Will find it helpful, thanks, as you promised
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I do my best, I was worried it was WAY too long but I wanted to be as complete as possible and make sure I mentioned everything I could think of
I was also concerned I was going to catch flak for railing on the S3 and Galaxy Nexus
KenjiS said:
Thank you, I do my best, I was worried it was WAY too long but I wanted to be as complete as possible and make sure I mentioned everything I could think of
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Click to collapse
I'd say 99% of us enjoy reading positive reviews of our fave devices, so the longer the read and more in-depth info the better.
KenjiS said:
I was also concerned I was going to catch flak for railing on the S3 and Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You posted in the right device thread so you'll only get positive criticism here
Sent from my HTC One X+ using xda premium
I found the radio in the SGS3 to be pretty poor myself. HTC seems to make phones that can catch and hold a signal when you're out in the boonies and I've only found Motorola radios to be better. And the better it can keep a signal, the less battery you loose so all the better!
As for dumping on the SGS3 and the Note 2, you are preaching to the choir here Kenji, but your review puts it through the same paces as the bigger tech blogs. We like our HOX+ here and, while you can always argue for the Samsung phones because they are good in many ways, they're just not "right" for folks like me.
Thanks guys
I'm kinda regretting not applying when one of the Android blogs recently put up a Google+ Post saying they were looking for writers
As a side note, I installed Swiftkey, I'm enjoying it, though im really not used to auto correction (It DOES work very well in this instance because its learning some of the stuff i type)
Second note is that today's battery life is currently at 2.5 hours screen on, 13 hours 18 minutes total, 17% left (Roughly another 2-3 hours standby/light usage for me) I really have to say the battery life is not atrocious and thats more than enough to last me the day obviously (Took it off the plug at 9:30 this morning, its now almost 11 at night..) That included some Radiant Defense in there (Not the most demanding game, but i enjoy it! Its a shame Neon Defense which was my favorite now doesn't function 100% right because OpenFeint is no more... At least thats what im assuming is the problem...)
I wonder if my lack of using Facebook/Twitter on my phone is why im getting such great battery life..
Anyways, my only debate is to sell my Galaxy Nexus (Which likely will cover what i paid for my One X+) or keep it around as a modding toy...
Now this is me being VERY bad with my battery:
Basically nothing but Youtube and PlagueInc for 3.75 hours.. Not really sure how many other phones would beat this (Even my GNex with the extended battery might, MIGHT have gone to 5 or 6 doing this, but still, Thats with a 3500mah extended..)
Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
besides color, i think everything else is what i looked for in a phone.
I love it!!
Compared to my S6 Edge+ I am just not feeling it
Came from S6E+ - everything is better (especially microsd and camera focus)
I really like the feel and look of this device. Reminds me of the days when the first iPhone 4 came out (yeah that feeling)
First phone in ages that got me realy exited, and after a week of usage,, still amazed!
LOVE IT !
I hate to say it but I'm actually not that much in love with the s7 edge. Coming from a note 5 I can't tell the upgrade. Maybe I'm just a note fanboy but something seems to be missing for me.
Coming from a Note 4, this thing feels great (but Note 4 was nice). This is an upgrade in everyway, except for no S pen, which i did not use too much. This phone should last me a while, lovin it.
chavist said:
I hate to say it but I'm actually not that much in love with the s7 edge. Coming from a note 5 I can't tell the upgrade. Maybe I'm just a note fanboy but something seems to be missing for me.
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Click to collapse
Is it the S-Pen, maybe?
I am loving it. In fact I haven't felt this way about an Anrdroid Phone since the HTC EVO 4G back in 2010.
have the stealth black 935F version, really nice! the only thing I would change is the Samsung logo under the grill.
of course you will really love it! its a $870 phone
The only thing impressive about this phone is the battery life. Not feeling the love.
Coming from a Nexus 6p,it is a good phone. I would actually change and go with the regular s7 but I don't want to give up the 600mah in battery life. This battery is bigger than the 6p but it seems to last longer than the 6p.
I don't love it yet, but there's a definite attraction that could develop into something over time. Then of course after a while the excitement will fade and everything will just seem stale and mundane. Maybe I should get another phone to see on the side to keep things fresh.
I may be writing this prematurely, as mine is on order and should be here early next week. But I've been using the S6 for the past year, and the S7 edge seems to solve the few problems I had with the S6. I've read all the reviews I could find, and my needs for a larger battery and the SD card make this phone almost perfect.
Getting mine on the 18th,kinda feel excited seeing more positive. Yay.. hope i wouldn't get the lemon though.. lol
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
subcon959 said:
I don't love it yet, but there's a definite attraction that could develop into something over time. Then of course after a while the excitement will fade and everything will just seem stale and mundane. Maybe I should get another phone to see on the side to keep things fresh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is always my fear. I already have a iPhone 6S as my daily driver that gives me no problems and a Nexus 6 that I rarely use because the 6S is so much faster. I'm afraid that if I get the S7 and compare it to the 6S speed wise I'm just going to be disappointed with the purchase. To be honest I've played with the S7 like 4 times at different stores and every time my 6S feels faster but I miss Android and the S7 Edge looks so much better. Just today I almost walked out the door with a S7 Edge at Target only because I was told that I could stack a $100 upgrade giftcard with the $100 preorder giftcard and Gear VR. I guess they figured out that you can't stack the giftcards so I walked out the store empty handled. $200 in Target giftcards and Gear VR would have sealed the deal.
So now I wait to see the G5 (I want the IR blaster, on screen buttons) is any good but it all depends on price. Then you have the HTC 10 but I'm not holding my breath. If those disappoint it looks like iPhone 7 and maybe a Nexus towards year end. The current Nexus 6P is dropping now but I already have a Nexus 6.
I LOVE THIS PHONE. Even TouchWiz, I can't believe it. I actually love TW now.
Coming from the Note 4, the width of this Galaxy S7 Edge is near perfect. Still features a big beautiful display but it doesn't feel like you're palming a small tablet. On top of that it's a beautifully crafted device. Easy to pickup and a joy to hold in your hand. Not to mention it's fast. Everything is fast. Opening the camera is fast. Multitasking. No lag. The app drawer snaps open. The camera hardware / camera app and fingerprint scanner also score high marks in my book. Camera pro shooting mode is the camera app I've hoped Samsung would have given us for some time. I suppose better late than never. Fingerprint scanner is every bit as nice as Apple's. I hated having to swipe down on the button and I ruined my first prints because I still thought that was how it was done. I realized you just set your finger down and it reads it. Done. Whether it's to unlock the phone, input a password or use Samsung Pay it's easy the way it should be. Special shoutout to the guys who brought back the S5's expandable MicroSD and waterproof exterior design. Aside from root, this beast covers all my bases.
Re: Battery, I've spent the whole weekend fiddling with it and syncing all my data so I'm not even thinking about battery life, screen on time, etc. At the end of the week I'll have a better idea of how the battery fares. For now, way too early to call.
PURPOSE
So 1st and foremost, the plan here is to give you my experience with these 2 phones. Granted, I have only used the Axon 7 for about 3 days now and can say I have yet to fully break it in to find everything that may or may not be right / wrong with it. However, this will be a unbiased look and comparison. I'm neither a fanboy or sheep. No brand affiliation. Not a programmer either, just a pro-sumer Senior Member of XDA willing to get trolled, flamed, etc. for sharing a look at these 2 phones. Hopefully, I can give "the everyday guy / gal look" without getting bogged down in stats, variables or benchmarks. Here goes...
MY BACKGROUND
No one special. Just a guy that likes the latest tech... phones being at the top of the list. I am a nerd. No doubt about that. I think anyone that knows about XDA probably is to some extent. No brand loyalty. Recently, I have had the privilege to try out the following phones:
1. Axon 7
2. OnePlus 3
3. HTC 10
4. LeEcco Le Max 2
5. Huawei P9
6. LG G5
7. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
8. Huawei Mate 8
9. Huawei Nexus 6P
10. LG Nexus 5X
11. Samsung Note 5
12. Apple iPhone 6s+
And probably some more, but these are the most recent. Does that make me qualified to make a review... Maybe. It does make me an idiot that likes new phones, though. I am always looking for something that meets my needs but also is a good phone. Currently with TMobile but have been with ATT, Verizon & Sprint at some point over 20 years of using cell phones.
MY NEEDS
I drive about 40 miles everyday to work (yes, my work week is currently 7 days a week with a few occasional days off). So, with this in mind and where I drive, I need the minimum requirements:
1. Can Stream Music
2. Bluetooth is fully compatible with my 2016 vehicle
3. An equalizer of some sort since I have only switch out my new cars speakers for better ones and don't plan on changing or adding a better sound system.
4. Decent pictures when needed
5. As a nerd, I like to "mesmerize" people with a pay with your phone app like Apple Pay or Android Pay
6. Works with my Huawei Watch
7. Relatively not laggy - will sometimes do some ROM-ing or some customization but since I tend to get rid of the phones quickly I try not to void warranties or make it too non-stock
THE COMPARISON
I am looking at my experience with the OnePlus 3 and the Axon 7 under/around these requirements and some normal stuff like battery, screen, snappiness, heat, speakers, etc. Here goes:
SOUND OVERALL
There is not too many times when I do a review comparison where 1 phone just crushes the other... and I don't mean like crushing an empty aluminum beer can in your hand crushing... I mean like BigFoot crushing late model junk cars at the end of a Monster Truck Rally Crushin'.... 'Mericaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! Sorry got carried away there a second. Honestly, how phone manufacturers cannot include a system-wide sound equalizer with all the other STUPID GUI tweaks and bastardizations they do to Android especially is beyond me in 2016. Most people are transitioning to bluetooth headphones or have bluetooth in their cars and for the most part use streaming services to/for music. Yes, there is the occasional dude with the $1000 plug-in headphones that also plugs into a in-line $2000 DAC that only listens to download Loseless Quality Music with the Music App that came with the phone.... with a show of hands, how many fall into this category??? Then why pray tell is this the only music equalization most manufacturers are catering too on their phones (Apple included)? I don't know just wanted to rant a little. With that said though, the inclusion of Dolby ATMOS without having to root on the Axon 7 plus its dual stereo forward facing speakers makes this a non-competition. Yes, you could add ViperATMOSBeatsDon'tcare Mod.zip to a rooted TWRP OnePlus 3... but why should I have to? Why can't some system-wide equalizer be included Mr. FlagShip Killer? Look at their own Community Forum and its one of the most active requests since the OnePlus 3 came out (along with actually using all the RAM the phone has)... Good Work ZTE!!! I'm sure for all you headphone people too that the AXON 7 would dominate even though I have zero to judge that on since I have never taken either the OnePlus 3's headphones nor the AXON 7's headphones out of the box.
WINNER: AXON 7 BigFoot- Crushing OnePlus 3 Grave Digger.
BATTERY
People get bent out of shape nowadays about the "wall hugger" syndrome... this is the need to re-charge your phone more than once, twice, 3-times etc. per day and being attached to a charger constantly. Well, we only have ourselves and technology to blame. Battery technology has yet to progress to a point that adequately matches all the other advances cell phones have made... I can remember in the 90's getting my first Li-ion Battery Cell Phone and was like "WOW!!! I can charge this anytime I want, days of battery life, no need to discharge the whole phone before recharging and no need for extra batteries..." Fast forward almost 30 years... AND its the same type of battery... So no phone truly wins here until technology gets better. This too along with our need for skinny things... women, cocktails, bank account, soda, etc. have phones getting increasingly skinnier without ever considering what it has do with the battery is disturbing. If only we could get back to the simpler times of a bagphone, then the battery could be as big as you want it... AHHH, the simpler times. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Really though, the batteries on both phones perform very similar in my use. The place where they differ the most is the charging. For OnePlus 3, you have to use their proprietary DASH Charge as oppose to QuickCharge 3.0. This means you can only buy OnePlus 3 chargers (or some not trustworthy knock offs) to take advantage of feature... it's not so bad now that they made the car charger available again on their website and the phone comes with a wall plug with the feature... it's just a departure from the standard many others are using and requires new accessory purchases... basically a OnePlus Money Grab.... DASH Charge is slightly faster but not enough for anyone but a battery loving neophyte to really take notice.
WINNER: AXON 7 - Sorry QuickCharge 3.0 Industry Standard beats proprietary DASH Charge even though DASH Charge is slightly faster.
HEAT
Not going to spend much time here. Both phones run Snapdragon 820's. Both phones are metal... guess what... they get hot under stress... so no winners here, only losers. Neither had to be powered off for getting too hot though, like my S7 needed to when I was doing its initial setup... so there's that. :good:
WINNER: Both or None... They get hot under processor stress and in the dreaded "At an event and have your camera constantly on then stick it in your pocket only to have 3rd degree burns on your thighs or butt" Test
SNAPPINESS
Neither phone I have taken the time to Mod or root or stare at compassionately... but both perform really well like they should. Now, let the 6GB vs. 4GB debates begin!!! First, it is well known that even after 2 updates, the OnePlus 3's RAM management is still wonky and does not fully utilize all that RAM. No matter. I can't see an advantage yet. Yes you could AnTuTu-whogivesapoop test them all day. I rather just talked about how using the phone feels. Neither have extensive bastardizations over stock android so neither grinds the phone to a halt like TouchWizCement does. I run the BETA of Sense 8 Launcher for All Android Phones on both. Both phones perform well with it. I have played Pokemon GO! on both along with Clash Royale... both run fine. GPS works good on both and locks in fairly quickly. It isn't the best I have seen but not the LG Worst either Until there's another processor to look at, I think most manufacturers are taking full advantage of the limits of the 820. Throwing RAM at it doesn't dramatically do anything either. I guess it good to always have it in your back pocket if needed.
WINNER: ONEPLUS 3 - Simply because it has more RAM, no real-world experience proves it faster. Fanboy Benchmarkers withstanding
************DISCLAIMER / NEWSFLASH************* FOR IT PEOPLE FROM NEW JERSEY AND/OR GENERAL KNOW-IT-ALLS
YES... One can easily claim that RAM on the face of it has nothing to do with Snappiness since no present day Android phone fully utilizes 4GB let alone 6GB of RAM... The point to be made here is that the OP3 although having more RAM has no advantage in snappiness over an AXON 7. With that said, since both phones cost the same, neither phone is snappier, why not pick the one with more RAM based on stats alone... for this particularly on the face of it unrelated category? Furthermore, there has been many tests of the OP3 that show that RAM in a way DOES influence its snappiness when compared to 4GB phones... not because of the amount of RAM but by OP3's RAM MANAGEMENT. Lastly, although it may seem like a marketing ploy now for OP3 to have 6GB of RAM since it is not needed since it is not utilized.... I have kind of heard this argument before... when phones had 1GB of RAM and 2GB phones were introduced, then when 3GB phones were introduced, etc. etc. and from basically every iSheep out there, that more RAM does not necessarily make a phone better or faster. Albeit true for the most part for Apple because they spend a vast amount of time developing their RAM Management and have iOS lock down, for Android and what seems to be a lack of development on this front, RAM amounts increase to handle the sloppiness of the RAM Management and/or lack of focus on developing this overlooked section of the phone's programming. Basically, OP3 moves the needle for better or worst towards 6GB at the same price as 4GB... more is more in this one scenario only...
DISPLAY
Not much to mention here either. Both have good displays. On paper, the AXON 7's is better. I would say that the average person not knowing that one has higher resolution than the other would have a hard time calling it out. Color reproduction is about the same on both as well. Neither have a "always-on" feature which would have been nice. Both have LED's for notifications. Here's where once again you just have to stick with the stats and say....
WINNER: AXON 7 - higher stats mean better screen right!!!!???
PHONE DESIGN
Wow! a bit to talk about here. Let's start on both phones exterior features and design. Both are designed well. Definitely not ugly by any stretch of the imagination. The AXON 7 was designed with help from BMW and significantly improves on the previous generation iteration, like having actual speakers in both of the speaker grill looking forward facing top and bottom of screen. I do have the gold AXON 7... the color isn't the greatest but I wasn't going to wait for the gray one to come out to test it... I might return the gold for a gray if they become available in my return window. The OnePlus 3 is a pretty phone too. It doesn't have a firm like BMW attached to it, but one feels they did a good job of improving on the OnePlus 2 design without getting away from their bread and butter core design elements. With that, I love the alert slider... call me an isheep but I feel to this day that it is the single greatest design advantage the iPhone has had over any Android phone for years now. Although not as perfectly functional as Apples is, the OnePlus 3 is a great feature. Both have excellent fingerprint readers. Very fast. For my use case, a front facing fingerprint reader is better. That's my use case, in a cradle, in my car, that I get in and out of while sometime leaving my phone in the cradle, makes the front facing reader slightly more convenient. NFC chip and camera placement good on both as well. AXON 7 does have one design characteristic that I found annoying and I noticed while playing Clash Royale.... the power button is on the right side of the phone near the center. While playing and trying to drag drop to the top of the screen, you can easily inadvertently toggle the on/off button, this might be the button is overly sensitive or just my clumsiness. OnePlus 3 scores some extras too with swapstyle cases... Why can't other phone manufacturers take notes here. I think it is great that I can get relatively cheap exclusively designed nice looking cases for my OnePlus 3... for the AXON 7, I'm stuck with Chinese knock off cheesy poop designed cases with TPU raining from skies... I need a case and sure the first thing that comes to mind when I get a nice looking professionally designed by BMW phone is to put it into a TPU trashcan of a case because 0.0 (zero point zero) cases by ZTE are available or even look worthy of residing on the phone.... yep, I so love it. AXON 7 does step it up with one thing, SD card compatibility. More storage... sure I can use that anytime...
WINNER: TIED - OnePlus 3 would have won here, but not having SD Card capability is just dumb... especially since you used the space for a dual SIM.
*********************ADDITIONAL DESIGN DISCUSSION************CAPACITIVE BUTTONS ON THE AXON 7**********************
Purposely I left this discussion out about the capacitive buttons on the AXON 7. WHY? You may ask. At first, like many, when I heard that not only does the AXON 7 only have capacitive buttons without the option to toggle to turn them off for on-screen buttons, the buttons themselves do not light up, did make me a little worried. But to not buy a phone based on a untested worry is just fear mongering at it best, plus I bought my AXON 7 from Amazon so that I could easily return it if I hated it. Well, surprisingly the capacitive button "issue" is really just a bunch of hype... yes, I do think that OP3 has the advantage here with the toggle for on-screen and that its buttons light up. However, the AXON 7 does provide a on-screen button solution although it is way more sloppy looks wise then OP3's. The whole light up button thing to me can be excused by what was an intentional design choice by ZTE. So, unlike the OP3 which has its all app and back buttons spread out along the bottom of the display, the AXON 7 distinctively has its all-app and back buttons crowded towards the center closer to the central home button. Why do this? Well, from my use in dark rooms and at night, it makes not seeing the actual buttons not an issue. Let me explain further. I know from muscle memory that the home button is in center of the bottom of screen... pretty easy to hit in a completely dark room unless I'm drunk that is... being able to do this on muscle memory then in turn with a slight adjustment to the right, makes it easy to hit the back button (setup for right hand in the AXON 7's setting) and same to the left with the all apps button. If the buttons were spaced out like OP3's without lights then it would be an issue... but in this case and what I hope is design answering function, the AXON 7 doesn't have an issue... once again to me, maybe not you.... hahahahaha
CAMERA
I have done a couple of these reviews and every time I point out that I am not a big fan of cameras on phones. I went to school for photography and movie making back when film was still used. Have seen lenses that cost more than my current house and have seen Ansel Adams original prints first hand. So, it makes me a camera snob... thus, my opinion of on phone cameras is that they are all Bantha PooDoo. However, improvements are made with every new phone and even though innovations have seem to slow in favor of the pixel wars... one day they might be great.
Looking at both and later I will put up some similar shots from both, each phone have decent cameras. The OnePlus performs better in low light especially however I would not count the AXON 7 out in the cold as I feel that the AXON 7's low light difficulties might be able to be corrected with feature updates. The AXON 7 does have it's ripoff version of a "live photo" that works pretty decent plus some decent scenario modes that just work better for pictures I may take. The OnePlus 3's camera software is just basic with good custom manual settings. The AXON 7 has manual mode as well. Like I said, I will upload some similar shots from each and you can decide.
WINNER: TBD
CONCLUSION
So, what can I conclude? Both phones are awesome... Both have plus and minuses. I don't think there's a clear hands down winner and would not want to argue that point. I can only tell you that beyond everything else that the lack of a system-wide equalizer for sound just annoys little brown stinkies out of me. My commute to work is a big part of my day sometimes 7 days a week. I want to listen to Sirius XM app and Google Play Music so it sound great in my car. I want to set some equalization that make it sound awesome then forget it is even there. Not constant resetting of bass boost, tweaking sound to have it all reset again and again. Why provide a basic equalizer in Google Play Music on the OnePlus 3 that always has the bass setting reset when a call comes in, you switch to a new app or the crappy RAM Management software kicks it out of memory even though you locked it into memory on the all apps screen? That just pains me... If OnePlus does listen to their customer base, maybe just maybe they will add one in a future OTA update. Who knows. Having had the original AXON, I have to say that this phone is definitely an improvement and is worth checking out if you liked the original. I am still a little off-put by the fact that ZTE has done very little to support this phone with accessories like cases and stuff making me hit Aliexpress for the Oscar the Grouch specials that they have there. Could you survive with either one of these phones as your next new phone... of course! Hopefully, this little review will help you out in that decision. Lastly and as always, this is just Some Guys Opinion...
:highfive:
Newsflash - Having 6gb of RAM doesn't make a phone more snappy than a 4gb phone... people need to stop thinking this...4gb is more than enough RAM for even the most hardcore user...6gb is just a gimmick for sales.
gparmar76 said:
Newsflash - Having 6gb of RAM doesn't make a phone more snappy than a 4gb phone... people need to stop thinking this...4gb is more than enough RAM for even the most hardcore user...6gb is just a gimmick for sales.
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Newsflash- didn't say it did but with proper RAM management it COULD in theory be more snappy if it kept more apps in memory not requiring them to be reloaded. Also if the phones are the same price why not have more. Was pretty much my point. It makes no difference but higher quantity wins out. Your argument is the same for better displays 1080p is good enough why would you need more? Because they can and do... Snore
mahst68 said:
Newsflash- didn't say it did but with proper RAM management it COULD in theory be more snappy if it kept more apps in memory not requiring them to be reloaded. Also if the phones are the same price why not have more. Was pretty much my point. It makes no difference but higher quantity wins out. Your argument is the same for better displays 1080p is good enough why would you need more? Because they can and do... Snore
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lol...why don't you read what you wrote...Snappiness -OP3 simply because it has more RAM.
All I'm saying is you're wrong...the OP3 could very well be "snappier" but it sure as hell isn't because it has 6gb of memory... memory management issues or not...the only time RAM would take away from a modern day smartphone's speed or cause heavy lag would be if it had very low amount of RAM (512mb or 1gb)....even 2gb phones run great on Android M...most high end phones that have 3 or more GB of memory never use all of it...you could load up 250,apps simultaneously and you would never use 4gb of memory...trust me I've tried and I'm using the OP2...most if not ALL issues related to lag these days or just spotty performance in the UK is related to the OS and how the OEM implemented it...heavy skinning, bloatware, etc etc.
gparmar76 said:
lol...why don't you read what you wrote...Snappiness -OP3 simply because it has more RAM.
All I'm saying is you're wrong...the OP3 could very well be "snappier" but it sure as hell isn't because it has 6gb of memory... memory management issues or not...the only time RAM would take away from a modern day smartphone's speed or cause heavy lag would be if it had very low amount of RAM (512mb or 1gb)....even 2gb phones run great on Android M...most high end phones that have 3 or more GB of memory never use all of it...you could load up 250,apps simultaneously and you would never use 4gb of memory...trust me I've tried and I'm using the OP2...most if not ALL issues related to lag these days or just spotty performance in the UK is related to the OS and how the OEM implemented it...heavy skinning, bloatware, etc etc.
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Bra- I know you guys in the UK think you invented English language but...
The whole paragraph explains that neither the Axon 7 or the OP3 is faster or more snappy. In so much as this is true, why not have 6GB of RAM if it doesn't cost more. Thus exactly what I wrote rather than the trainwreck you wrote :
WINNER: ONEPLUS 3 - Simply because it has more RAM, no real-world experience proves it faster. Fanboy Benchmarkers withstanding
Which simply means in headlines, newsflashes or whatever else makes you feel like you are telling someone that you're important that when 2 phones perform the same, might as well have the one with more stuff, regardless if it helps or not...
I prefer that I pick who puts words in my mouth and it turns out you're not one of them
mahst68 said:
Bra- I know you guys in the UK think you invented English language but...
The whole paragraph explains that neither the Axon 7 or the OP3 is faster or more snappy. In so much as this is true, why not have 6GB of RAM if it doesn't cost more. Thus exactly what I wrote rather than the trainwreck you wrote :
WINNER: ONEPLUS 3 - Simply because it has more RAM, no real-world experience proves it faster. Fanboy Benchmarkers withstanding
Which simply means in headlines, newsflashes or whatever else makes you feel like you are telling someone that you're important that when 2 phones perform the same, might as well have the one with more stuff, regardless if it helps or not...
I prefer that I pick who puts words in mouth and it turns out your not one of them
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"BRA" It was spell check that changed UI to UK... would have thought that was clearly evident...but alas...
And I know what he was implying...bra...lol...aren't bras worn by women? Maybe you mean Bruh?
gparmar76 said:
"BRA" It was spell check that changed UI to UK... would have thought that was clearly evident...but alas...
And I know what he was implying...bra...lol...aren't bras worn by women? Maybe you mean Bruh?
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Nope I meant to call you "bra" and spell check had my back. Bruh is for my bruhs. "Bra" is for someone exactly like you because since you must wear them since you're a little biatch... Trolling flaming gnome. Go get in line for Harry Potter and have a nice day BRA
mahst68 said:
PURPOSE
So 1st and foremost, the plan here is to give you my experience with these 2 phones. Granted, I have only used the Axon 7 for about 3 days now and can say I have yet to fully break it in to find everything that may or may not be right / wrong with it. However, this will be a unbiased look and comparison. I'm neither a fanboy or sheep. No brand affiliation. Not a programmer either, just a pro-sumer Senior Member of XDA willing to get trolled, flamed, etc. for sharing a look at these 2 phones. Hopefully, I can give "the everyday guy / gal look" without getting bogged down in stats, variables or benchmarks. Here goes...
MY BACKGROUND
No one special. Just a guy that likes the latest tech... phones being at the top of the list. I am a nerd. No doubt about that. I think anyone that knows about XDA probably is to some extent. No brand loyalty. Recently, I have had the privilege to try out the following phones:
1. Axon 7
2. OnePlus 3
3. HTC 10
4. LeEcco Le Max 2
5. Huawei P9
6. LG G5
7. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
8. Huawei Mate 8
9. Huawei Nexus 6P
10. LG Nexus 5X
11. Samsung Note 5
12. Apple iPhone 6s+
And probably some more, but these are the most recent. Does that make me qualified to make a review... Maybe. It does make me an idiot that likes new phones, though. I am always looking for something that meets my needs but also is a good phone. Currently with TMobile but have been with ATT, Verizon & Sprint at some point over 20 years of using cell phones.
MY NEEDS
I drive about 40 miles everyday to work (yes, my work week is currently 7 days a week with a few occasional days off). So, with this in mind and where I drive, I need the minimum requirements:
1. Can Stream Music
2. Bluetooth is fully compatible with my 2016 vehicle
3. An equalizer of some sort since I have only switch out my new cars speakers for better ones and don't plan on changing or adding a better sound system.
4. Decent pictures when needed
5. As a nerd, I like to "mesmerize" people with a pay with your phone app like Apple Pay or Android Pay
6. Works with my Huawei Watch
7. Relatively not laggy - will sometimes do some ROM-ing or some customization but since I tend to get rid of the phones quickly I try not to void warranties or make it too non-stock
THE COMPARISON
I am looking at my experience with the OnePlus 3 and the Axon 7 under/around these requirements and some normal stuff like battery, screen, snappiness, heat, speakers, etc. Here goes:
SOUND OVERALL
There is not too many times when I do a review comparison where 1 phone just crushes the other... and I don't mean like crushing an empty aluminum beer can in your hand crushing... I mean like BigFoot crushing late model junk cars at the end of a Monster Truck Rally Crushin'.... 'Mericaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! Sorry got carried away there a second. Honestly, how phone manufacturers cannot include a system-wide sound equalizer with all the other STUPID GUI tweaks and bastardizations they do to Android especially is beyond me in 2016. Most people are transitioning to bluetooth headphones or have bluetooth in their cars and for the most part use streaming services to/for music. Yes, there is the occasional dude with the $1000 plug-in headphones that also plugs into a in-line $2000 DAC that only listens to download Loseless Quality Music with the Music App that came with the phone.... with a show of hands, how many fall into this category??? Then why pray tell is this the only music equalization most manufacturers are catering too on their phones (Apple included)? I don't know just wanted to rant a little. With that said though, the inclusion of Dolby ATMOS without having to root on the Axon 7 plus its dual stereo forward facing speakers makes this a non-competition. Yes, you could add ViperATMOSBeatsDon'tcare Mod.zip to a rooted TWRP OnePlus 3... but why should I have to? Why can't some system-wide equalizer be included Mr. FlagShip Killer? Look at their own Community Forum and its one of the most active requests since the OnePlus 3 came out (along with actually using all the RAM the phone has)... Good Work ZTE!!! I'm sure for all you headphone people too that the AXON 7 would dominate even though I have zero to judge that on since I have never taken either the OnePlus 3's headphones nor the AXON 7's headphones out of the box.
WINNER: AXON 7 BigFoot- Crushing OnePlus 3 Grave Digger.
BATTERY
People get bent out of shape nowadays about the "wall hugger" syndrome... this is the need to re-charge your phone more than once, twice, 3-times etc. per day and being attached to a charger constantly. Well, we only have ourselves and technology to blame. Battery technology has yet to progress to a point that adequately matches all the other advances cell phones have made... I can remember in the 90's getting my first Li-ion Battery Cell Phone and was like "WOW!!! I can charge this anytime I want, days of battery life, no need to discharge the whole phone before recharging and no need for extra batteries..." Fast forward almost 30 years... AND its the same type of battery... So no phone truly wins here until technology gets better. This too along with our need for skinny things... women, cocktails, bank account, soda, etc. have phones getting increasingly skinnier without ever considering what it has do with the battery is disturbing. If only we could get back to the simpler times of a bagphone, then the battery could be as big as you want it... AHHH, the simpler times. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Really though, the batteries on both phones perform very similar in my use. The place where they differ the most is the charging. For OnePlus 3, you have to use their proprietary DASH Charge as oppose to QuickCharge 3.0. This means you can only buy OnePlus 3 chargers (or some not trustworthy knock offs) to take advantage of feature... it's not so bad now that they made the car charger available again on their website and the phone comes with a wall plug with the feature... it's just a departure from the standard many others are using and requires new accessory purchases... basically a OnePlus Money Grab.... DASH Charge is slightly faster but not enough for anyone but a battery loving neophyte to really take notice.
WINNER: AXON 7 - Sorry QuickCharge 3.0 Industry Standard beats proprietary DASH Charge even though DASH Charge is slightly faster.
HEAT
Not going to spend much time here. Both phones run Snapdragon 820's. Both phones are metal... guess what... they get hot under stress... so no winners here, only losers. Neither had to be powered off for getting too hot though, like my S7 needed to when I was doing its initial setup... so there's that. :good:
WINNER: Both or None... They get hot under processor stress and in the dreaded "At an event and have your camera constantly on then stick it in your pocket only to have 3rd degree burns on your thighs or butt" Test
SNAPPINESS
Neither phone I have taken the time to Mod or root or stare at compassionately... but both perform really well like they should. Now, let the 6GB vs. 4GB debates begin!!! First, it is well known that even after 2 updates, the OnePlus 3's RAM management is still wonky and does not fully utilize all that RAM. No matter. I can't see an advantage yet. Yes you could AnTuTu-whogivesapoop test them all day. I rather just talked about how using the phone feels. Neither have extensive bastardizations over stock android so neither grinds the phone to a halt like TouchWizCement does. I run the BETA of Sense 8 Launcher for All Android Phones on both. Both phones perform well with it. I have played Pokemon GO! on both along with Clash Royale... both run fine. GPS works good on both and locks in fairly quickly. It isn't the best I have seen but not the LG Worst either [emoji14] Until there's another processor to look at, I think most manufacturers are taking full advantage of the limits of the 820. Throwing RAM at it doesn't dramatically do anything either. I guess it good to always have it in your back pocket if needed.
WINNER: ONEPLUS 3 - Simply because it has more RAM, no real-world experience proves it faster. Fanboy Benchmarkers withstanding
DISPLAY
Not much to mention here either. Both have good displays. On paper, the AXON 7's is better. I would say that the average person not knowing that one has higher resolution than the other would have a hard time calling it out. Color reproduction is about the same on both as well. Neither have a "always-on" feature which would have been nice. Both have LED's for notifications. Here's where once again you just have to stick with the stats and say....
WINNER: AXON 7 - higher stats mean better screen right!!!!???
PHONE DESIGN
Wow! a bit to talk about here. Let's start on both phones exterior features and design. Both are designed well. Definitely not ugly by any stretch of the imagination. The AXON 7 was designed with help from BMW and significantly improves on the previous generation iteration, like having actual speakers in both of the speaker grill looking forward facing top and bottom of screen. I do have the gold AXON 7... the color isn't the greatest but I wasn't going to wait for the gray one to come out to test it... I might return the gold for a gray if they become available in my return window. The OnePlus 3 is a pretty phone too. It doesn't have a firm like BMW attached to it, but one feels they did a good job of improving on the OnePlus 2 design without getting away from their bread and butter core design elements. With that, I love the alert slider... call me an isheep but I feel to this day that it is the single greatest design advantage the iPhone has had over any Android phone for years now. Although not as perfectly functional as Apples is, the OnePlus 3 is a great feature. Both have excellent fingerprint readers. Very fast. For my use case, a front facing fingerprint reader is better. That's my use case, in a cradle, in my car, that I get in and out of while sometime leaving my phone in the cradle, makes the front facing reader slightly more convenient. NFC chip and camera placement good on both as well. AXON 7 does have one design characteristic that I found annoying and I noticed while playing Clash Royale.... the power button is on the right side of the phone near the center. While playing and trying to drag drop to the top of the screen, you can easily inadvertently toggle the on/off button, this might be the button is overly sensitive or just my clumsiness. OnePlus 3 scores some extras too with swapstyle cases... Why can't other phone manufacturers take notes here. I think it is great that I can get relatively cheap exclusively designed nice looking cases for my OnePlus 3... for the AXON 7, I'm stuck with Chinese knock off cheesy poop designed cases with TPU raining from skies... I need a case and sure the first thing that comes to mind when I get a nice looking professionally designed by BMW phone is to put it into a TPU trashcan of a case because 0.0 (zero point zero) cases by ZTE are available or even look worthy of residing on the phone.... yep, I so love it. AXON 7 does step it up with one thing, SD card compatibility. More storage... sure I can use that anytime...
WINNER: TIED - OnePlus 3 would have won here, but not having SD Card capability is just dumb... especially since you used the space for a dual SIM.
CAMERA
I have done a couple of these reviews and every time I point out that I am not a big fan of cameras on phones. I went to school for photography and movie making back when film was still used. Have seen lenses that cost more than my current house and have seen Ansel Adams original prints first hand. So, it makes me a camera snob... thus, my opinion of on phone cameras is that they are all Bantha PooDoo. However, improvements are made with every new phone and even though innovations have seem to slow in favor of the pixel wars... one day they might be great.
Looking at both and later I will put up some similar shots from both, each phone have decent cameras. The OnePlus performs better in low light especially however I would not count the AXON 7 out in the cold as I feel that the AXON 7's low light difficulties might be able to be corrected with feature updates. The AXON 7 does have it's ripoff version of a "live photo" that works pretty decent plus some decent scenario modes that just work better for pictures I may take. The OnePlus 3's camera software is just basic with good custom manual settings. The AXON 7 has manual mode as well. Like I said, I will upload some similar shots from each and you can decide.
WINNER: TBD
CONCLUSION
So, what can I conclude? Both phones are awesome... Both have plus and minuses. I don't think there's a clear hands down winner and would not want to argue that point. I can only tell you that beyond everything else that the lack of a system-wide equalizer for sound just annoys little brown stinkies out of me. My commute to work is a big part of my day sometimes 7 days a week. I want to listen to Sirius XM app and Google Play Music so it sound great in my car. I want to set some equalization that make it sound awesome then forget it is even there. Not constant resetting of bass boost, tweaking sound to have it all reset again and again. Why provide a basic equalizer in Google Play Music on the OnePlus 3 that always has the bass setting reset when a call comes in, you switch to a new app or the crappy RAM Management software kicks it out of memory even though you locked it into memory on the all apps screen? That just pains me... If OnePlus does listen to their customer base, maybe just maybe they will add one in a future OTA update. Who knows. Having had the original AXON, I have to say that this phone is definitely an improvement and is worth checking out if you liked the original. I am still a little off-put by the fact that ZTE has done very little to support this phone with accessories like cases and stuff making me hit Aliexpress for the Oscar the Grouch specials that they have there. Could you survive with either one of these phones as your next new phone... of course! Hopefully, this little review will help you out in that decision. Lastly and as always, this is just Some Guys Opinion...
:highfive:
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Thanks but no thanks... You actually didn't influence my thoughts. More like 1 step forward, 1 step backward, your pros fit both phones matched your cons
Sent from my SM-A9000 using Tapatalk
Thanks for your comparison! Not sure why people are so arrogant or condescending. Appreciate your effort writing this up so some of us can make a better decision.
ashburton said:
Thanks but no thanks... You actually didn't influence my thoughts. More like 1 step forward, 1 step backward, your pros fit both phones matched your cons
Sent from my SM-A9000 using Tapatalk
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That's the whole point. Too many so called "real" reviews online do not give an honest opinion and are influenced by the author getting free stuff, free phone, etc. My point is to not make you say "hey I need to go get one of these phones now" but rather "I did know that and didn't know this... now I do." Thanks for reading!
Charkol said:
Thanks for your comparison! Not sure why people are so arrogant or condescending. Appreciate your effort writing this up so some of us can make a better decision.
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Yep!! You got the point exactly. I'm not here to "influence" anyone into making a decision. I'm not a ZTE or OP3 salesperson. Just laying out real world facts as I see them (Thus the title of the post). Too many blog reviews make phones out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread or the bottom layer of poop in an unattended bird cage (like the stuff stuck to newspaper on the bottom). The fact of the matter is that these people tend to be influenced in other ways (monetarily, free stuff, etc.) to make or break a review. Just because I posted in the AXON 7 forum, does not mean that the AXON 7 wins every category automatically. The AXON 7 is a good phone but not without some flaws, same with the OP3. It's knowing what flaws you can live with and which ones you can't that should influence your decision rather than Some Guys Opinion hahahahahaha :highfive:
Post some stats of battery life comparison. I highly doubt the A7 gets better battery than the OP3.
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mahst68 said:
Nope I meant to call you "bra" and spell check had my back. Bruh is for my bruhs. "Bra" is for someone exactly like you because since you must wear them since you're a little biatch... Trolling flaming gnome. Go get in line for Harry Potter and have a nice day BRA
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I'm an American and am embarrassed to read what you wrote.
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darkjedi said:
I'm an American and am embarrassed to read what you wrote.
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You are an American?
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darkjedi said:
I'm an American and am embarrassed to read what you wrote.
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I am too but he stopped commenting so there's that. Sorry I know it was very lame
brickedvice said:
Post some stats of battery life comparison. I highly doubt the A7 gets better battery than the OP3.
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Didn't say it did actually.... I said it performed similarly. I also said that the OP3 actually charges faster. Why did I pick the AXON 7 then.... well, that's the question isn't?
Oh wait... it's right there in the Battery paragraph if you only took time to read thoroughly... thanks!
I guess, that the snappiness of the OnePlus 3 isn't only because of more Ram, but also because of the much slimmer Oxygen OS.
I didn't receive my OnePlus 3 so far, but even when it's faster, I think I can't live without those awesome speakers of the ZTE Axon 7.
mahst68 said:
Didn't say it did actually.... I said it performed similarly. I also said that the OP3 actually charges faster. Why did I pick the AXON 7 then.... well, that's the question isn't?
Oh wait... it's right there in the Battery paragraph if you only took time to read thoroughly... thanks!
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Your review was kind of big b.s that's why no time to waste on reading all of it. Do a better job next time. Thanks!
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Cypher_01 said:
I guess, that the snappiness of the OnePlus 3 isn't only because of more Ram, but also because of the much slimmer Oxygen OS.
I didn't receive my OnePlus 3 so far, but even when it's faster, I think I can't live without those awesome speakers of the ZTE Axon 7.
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Yep. I wish I could get past the sound thing. Unfortunately it consumes about an hour of my day everyday if not longer. You'll enjoy the OP3. Great phone!!
brickedvice said:
Your review was kind of big b.s that's why no time to waste on reading all of it. Do a better job next time. Thanks!
Sent from my Nexus 6P using XDA-Developers mobile app
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Why is it a bs review? Explain