I’ve got a Pixel 2 and was weighing the pros & cons of upgrading to a Pixel 3 vs the S9 and was curious if anyone has any comments on this.
On paper, the S9 seems to be a better phone with a great screen and SD support but was wondering what the practical differences are. It’s been a while since I’ve owned a Samsung phone and it always seemed there were little quirks that would drive you nuts. In many ways the Pixel 2 is sooo boring, everything seems to work or at least I’ve had no major problems.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S9 and have ordered a Pixel 3. The S9 is a nice phone but I am irritated by all the Samsung stuff installed which I never use. I keep getting notifications about Samsung app updates and I usually haven't a clue about the app concerned. It's as if there are two layers of software and services - Google and Samsung and the Samsung layer keeps fighting with the Google layer. I suppose in real terms it doesn't matter and you just use the apps you want to use. I just don't like it there is a whole ecosystem there in which I have no interest but can't get rid of. There are even two app stores, the Play Store and the Samsung Store. The default cloud service is Samsung and your phone settings, photos etc. are backed up to Samsung by default. You can, of course, install Google Drive and have things baked up to the Google cloud but it's up to you to switch off the Samsung syncing. Photos go into the Samsung Gallery app and while you can install Google Photos your photos don't sync with the Google Photos app unless you open the app after taking some photos and then they appear. You delete a photo from the Gallery and it is still in Google Photos. You delete it from Google Photos and it's still in Samsung Gallery. If you set up the S9 to save your photos to an SD card then Google Photos can't delete them to save space. Lots and lots of things like this. If you are remotely OCD you won't be happy.
Im stepping away from Sammy for a little. Tired of same thing. Plus some things just give errors, like google maps... Samsung has this problem.... I love the phones tho, best of everything in them. Like I said i just phone something new.
My grape with Pix 3 is that the screen is small. I dont care for speakers. Oddly to say this but i wish Little pixel had a notch.
I did not order mine yet as i want to play with both sizes and see if I can commit to either. I really hope i will like Pixel 3 display.
thats why i cant stand samsung phones.. love the hardware, but the software is just bloated with tons of stuff that someone like me.. slightly minimalistic, and OCD, cant stand. i even bought an unlocked galaxy phone and still all the stock samsung crap just kept fighting. the pixel 3, is far better, sure maybe not as fancy with the curved screen, or whatever, but simple, and easy is better in my opinion. also, all the edge functions from the galaxy, now have edge apps to use on the pixel.
Personal opinion here:
Had an s8 before and agree with what everyone said. Brilliant phone and amazing hardware however the software experience wasn't the best. Hate the fact there were loads of apps I couldn't get rid of and because of it most experiences weren't seamless as they should. Ended up rooting it and installing a rom that didn't have a lot of bloat but some problems still persisted as there isn't lineageos for the s8 and I much prefer vanilla android .
Have had a pixel 3 for 3 weeks now and I can tell you this is the best Android experience I've had up until now. Everything is super smooth and the Google integration is flawless . The camera is brilliant and the no frills os just works as it should. I think the only downside is the battery life but hey,can't have it all!
I came from an S8 and I love the Pixel 3 Experience so far. I also owned a OnePlus 6T - which I returned.
The camera is fantastic (especially noticeable to me when the subject is in motion).
Battery life is fine (4+hrs SOT over 17 hours to 5%), way better than my 2 year old S8.
I like the simplicity of Pure Android
I do really miss a ringer button in the notification shade, though I am sure I will get used to the change
I also HATE that they (Google) opted for their own proprietary charging - makes it more like Apple and harder to switch (I have a bunch of chargers that fast charged my S8, 6T and every other phone I've owned that don't work the same on the P3). HATE THIS.
After only a few days, I miss the 6T launcher - very Pixel-esque BUT better gesture controls. I miss the 6T's battery life too. I really didn't like having a hardware switch for changing between ringer modes. That and lack of wireless charging, a so-so camera and a couple of other issues led me to try the Pixel.
ckelly33 said:
I also HATE that they (Google) opted for their own proprietary charging - makes it more like Apple and harder to switch (I have a bunch of chargers that fast charged my S8, 6T and every other phone I've owned that don't work the same on the P3). HATE THIS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be fair, Google is using Power Delivery which is a USB spec. The others are the ones using proprietary technology: "Qualcomm has its Quick Charge technology in a number of handsets. OPPO and OnePlus offer varieties of VOOC. MediaTek has Pump Express." Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/usb-power-delivery-806266/.
Apparently the new Quick Charge 4.0 is PD compliant though - so if Samsung moves to that in years to come (I think they still use 2.0 in their phones) then QC4.0 chargers will be more 'universal'
Are you sure you have chargers that fast charge Samsung and OnePlus? Not that I've looked hard, but I haven't seen chargers that do both Quick Charge and VOOC (Dash Charge)
Could be wrong but I sent that 6T back to it's maker.
piccit said:
To be fair, Google is using Power Delivery which is a USB spec. The others are the ones using proprietary technology: "Qualcomm has its Quick Charge technology in a number of handsets. OPPO and OnePlus offer varieties of VOOC. MediaTek has Pump Express." Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/usb-power-delivery-806266/.
Apparently the new Quick Charge 4.0 is PD compliant though - so if Samsung moves to that in years to come (I think they still use 2.0 in their phones) then QC4.0 chargers will be more 'universal'
Are you sure you have chargers that fast charge Samsung and OnePlus? Not that I've looked hard, but I haven't seen chargers that do both Quick Charge and VOOC (Dash Charge)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
I was having the same debate with myself on what phone to get. I also really like the s9s hardware, but I just can't freakin stand Samsung's bloat infested annoying software. If Samsung had made an android one S9 I would have been all over that.
Went with the pixel 3 and really like it, but miss the sd card and headphone jack.
I had those phones too. I keep on trying to get rid of my S9 by switching to pixel2xl, op6, op6t, pixel3xl but I always return to S9 for many reasons:
* VR
* perfect size (for me)
* everyday use is just simpler than stock android (example: slide left or right to sms or call)
* amazing speakers
* dolby atmos and general sound experience
* dual Bluetooth headsets support (rare but useful for me)
* outdoor screen visibility
* flashing custom roms and kernels simpler than on Slot A/B phones
* all features (I need) are already builtin and only need root to be enabled by csc (network monitor+firewall, call recording, unknown numbers recognition...)
* wonderful camera
* s-health and its assistance
* with root, most of the bloatware can be removed
...etc
We can be angry toward samsung as we wish but we can also acknowledge that they also have really good practical flagships.
googy_anas said:
I had those phones too. I keep on trying to get rid of my S9 by switching to pixel2xl, op6, op6t, pixel3xl but I always return to S9 for many reasons:
* VR
* perfect size (for me)
* everyday use is just simpler than stock android (example: slide left or right to sms or call)
* amazing speakers
* dolby atmos and general sound experience
* dual Bluetooth headsets support (rare but useful for me)
* outdoor screen visibility
* flashing custom roms and kernels simpler than on Slot A/B phones
* all features (I need) are already builtin and only need root to be enabled by csc (network monitor+firewall, call recording, unknown numbers recognition...)
* wonderful camera
* s-health and its assistance
* with root, most of the bloatware can be removed
...etc
We can be angry toward samsung as we wish but we can also acknowledge that they also have really good practical flagships.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I stopped rooting but this above explanation is a reflection of my experience as well, so not repeating. It's just that I use the bigger plus or notes for bigger battery & screen. I keep coming back to Samsung for nitpicking stuff, even though I do not like Samsung for several other reasons.
scgf said:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S9 and have ordered a Pixel 3. The S9 is a nice phone but I am irritated by all the Samsung stuff installed which I never use. I keep getting notifications about Samsung app updates and I usually haven't a clue about the app concerned. It's as if there are two layers of software and services - Google and Samsung and the Samsung layer keeps fighting with the Google layer. I suppose in real terms it doesn't matter and you just use the apps you want to use. I just don't like it there is a whole ecosystem there in which I have no interest but can't get rid of. There are even two app stores, the Play Store and the Samsung Store. The default cloud service is Samsung and your phone settings, photos etc. are backed up to Samsung by default. You can, of course, install Google Drive and have things baked up to the Google cloud but it's up to you to switch off the Samsung syncing. Photos go into the Samsung Gallery app and while you can install Google Photos your photos don't sync with the Google Photos app unless you open the app after taking some photos and then they appear. You delete a photo from the Gallery and it is still in Google Photos. You delete it from Google Photos and it's still in Samsung Gallery. If you set up the S9 to save your photos to an SD card then Google Photos can't delete them to save space. Lots and lots of things like this. If you are remotely OCD you won't be happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you serious about how backing up to Google works on a Samsung phone? That really sucks. I'm even happier now that I don't have a Samsung phone.
jimv1983 said:
Are you serious about how backing up to Google works on a Samsung phone? That really sucks. I'm even happier now that I don't have a Samsung phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that the google photos app didn't sync only if opened is because it was hibernated by the system as it was detected as a high battery consuming app !
Also, the same gallery vs google photos double use happened to me on Oneplus6 and on every phone which has its own dedicated gallery app.
If you want to fully benefit from google photos app, just use it exclusively and don't forget to exclude it from battery optimization (battery impact?). Simple as that.
googy_anas said:
I think that the google photos app didn't sync only if opened is because it was hibernated by the system as it was detected as a high battery consuming app !
Also, the same gallery vs google photos double use happened to me on Oneplus6 and on every phone which has its own dedicated gallery app.
If you want to fully benefit from google photos app, just use it exclusively and don't forget to exclude it from battery optimization (battery impact?). Simple as that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never had Google Photos consume a lot of battery. Glad I have a Pixel 2 XL.
While rooting is a solution to the Samsung crapware, it trips the Knox flag and therefore voids your warranty. I've done my share of rooting and ROM installs on other devices, but those were either out of warranty or able to be restored back to a stock config to maintain warranty.
It's nice to have a phone where rooting and all that isn't necessary because it doesn't have much/any extraneous crap.
As I said, if Samsung had made a GPE/Android One version of the S9 I would have bought it over the pixel 3 for sure.
Hopefully the pixel 4 will bring back the jack and the SD card, keep the stereo speakers, and further reduce the bezels with no notch on the non-xl.
I currently have a s9+SM-G965U1 and on the fence about trading it for a pixel 3 xl. I love the s9 hardware, but hate the software side of it.
If I find a good enough sale on black Friday, or cyber Monday for a pixel 3 xl I think I'll pull the trigger on the switch
ckelly33 said:
After only a few days, I miss the 6T launcher - very Pixel-esque BUT better gesture controls. I miss the 6T's battery life too. I really didn't like having a hardware switch for changing between ringer modes. That and lack of wireless charging, a so-so camera and a couple of other issues led me to try the Pixel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed an app called Fluid Navigation on my Pixel 3. It replaces the Android Pie navigation with something much better and does not have any on-screen controls. You just swipe like on the iPhone XS. The big benefit is that you gain the extra screen space previously taken up with the Pie navigation controls. It requires an adb command to allow it to write to the system but once this has been done you can use it and switch back and forth very easily should you wish to. Lots of optins - a quick flick up from the bottom of the screen takes you home, a flick up and hold momentarily shows open apps. A swipe from the right edge goes back and a swipe and hold allows you to switch between the two most recent apps. All swipes are configurable. I have turned off audio feedback and just use haptic feedback. Very nice.
I have S8 at the moment and thinking if it is worth to switch to Pixel 3. I always liked pure Android but with Pixel 3 as it is I have a lot of doubts. I would like to the Pixel camera but overall hardware design is not nice with bad screen to body ratio and all the issues with RAM management people are complaining scare me. I suppose that Google is going to fix it at some point in time - probably later than sooner, but it should not be present at all for Android flagship.
So is it really worth to switch or not?
scgf said:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S9 and have ordered a Pixel 3. The S9 is a nice phone but I am irritated by all the Samsung stuff installed which I never use. I keep getting notifications about Samsung app updates and I usually haven't a clue about the app concerned. It's as if there are two layers of software and services - Google and Samsung and the Samsung layer keeps fighting with the Google layer. I suppose in real terms it doesn't matter and you just use the apps you want to use. I just don't like it there is a whole ecosystem there in which I have no interest but can't get rid of. There are even two app stores, the Play Store and the Samsung Store. The default cloud service is Samsung and your phone settings, photos etc. are backed up to Samsung by default. You can, of course, install Google Drive and have things baked up to the Google cloud but it's up to you to switch off the Samsung syncing. Photos go into the Samsung Gallery app and while you can install Google Photos your photos don't sync with the Google Photos app unless you open the app after taking some photos and then they appear. You delete a photo from the Gallery and it is still in Google Photos. You delete it from Google Photos and it's still in Samsung Gallery. If you set up the S9 to save your photos to an SD card then Google Photos can't delete them to save space. Lots and lots of things like this. If you are remotely OCD you won't be happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get the pixel 3. I just got it and I am Soo happy to be free of all the Samsung crapwear on my old s7 edge. I totally agree with you about the double ecosystem thing.
I had a s9 before..and the double apps from Samsung kill me..why do I need a email app if Gmail is included..why I need a calendar app (s-planer) if you can use Google calendar..why I need a Samsung photos app if Google photos is included..i could wrote forever more examples for this..now with the pixels 3 it feels so pure and homecoming..also the updates.. everyone say why Android phones had such a bad update circle for the software..I don't understand people why they buy other non Google phones ..
Just my 2 cents
Related
so I currently have an HTC One, and i love it, EXCEPT for one thing... the placement of the power button.
My hands arent that big, and the placement of the power button is horrible, at least for me it is.
So, if anyone has an LG G2 or has used one, Id just like to know from your experiences, is that single button on the back as cool as I think it is? or not. thanks!
kine42 said:
so I currently have an HTC One, and i love it, EXCEPT for one thing... the placement of the power button.
My hands arent that big, and the placement of the power button is horrible, at least for me it is.
So, if anyone has an LG G2 or has used one, Id just like to know from your experiences, is that single button on the back as cool as I think it is? or not. thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The back buttons are pretty cool I've gotten used to them. But I mostly just use the knock on feature which is amazing! My brother has the HTC one it's a great phone as well. But my g2 is better in just about every way not sure if it's worth upgrading though the next HTC one is about to come out soon
Sent from my LG-D800 using xda app-developers app
Right on bro, I appreciate the info.
I still might go with the LG G2. Cuz looking at the specs for the m8 makes me a sad panda.
O ya, forgot to ask in op but, the battery life on the LG is supposed to be awesome, is this true?
Thanks again bud
Battery life is ridiculous. Destroys any other android I've had. Even custom roms designed to save battery aren't as good as this. It's down to the 3000Mah beast inside it can go for ages. Also charges extremely quickly too!
And u can reorganize the menu buttons to your liking! (I prefer home button in the middle, menu on the left, back on the right)
Hope this helps
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk
Sent from my LG-LS980 using xda app-developers app
I hate HTC one
kine42 said:
so I currently have an HTC One, and i love it, EXCEPT for one thing... the placement of the power button.
My hands arent that big, and the placement of the power button is horrible, at least for me it is.
So, if anyone has an LG G2 or has used one, Id just like to know from your experiences, is that single button on the back as cool as I think it is? or not. thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's a review for you...
HTC one - It's a very stable device that has some time behind its belt and still has a big community of active devs and alot of users using the device in a STOCK FORM and ROOTED form and both love the device overall, and only flaws are things like you said, the button placement and the only other bad review i've seen about the HTC one is about the new way phone manufacturers are creating them, with a built-in battery and unable to add a external micro SD card.
My personal review of the two devices (as I have both).
HTC One M7 (AT&T Default Carrier)
If you might search around you would notice a thread by me where I messed my HTC one up and needed assistance to fix and get my device back to normal, and now it's running smooth and it is a great device to have, and has tons of options, customizations, and is a very good overall device via hardware, and software.
I am currently running Android 4.4.2 (KITKAT) on my HTC One (Stock Google Play Edition)...
My HTC One Device setup is...
DEVICE: HTC One M7 AT&T (Unlocked, Rooted, Bootloader Unlocked, S-OFF)
ROM: Android Revolution HD 61.0 by Mike1986 Google Play Edition.
MODS: Gravity Box [KK],
RECOVERY: TWRP v. 2.6.3.3
My overall thoughts of the device is, with the setup I'm running, I don't need any other phone... It's very fast, stable, and functional. Over any other devices I've been with or had none compare to the HTC One M7 that I'm currently running... I've had plenty of variety of devices from the Samsung galaxy S (2,3, and 4) devices, all of them rooted and non-rooted. I love the samsung S devices, but they don't even compare to the overall performance and comparison of the HTC One in my eyes, besides the fact that the S4 has a few things HTC dont with things such as Knox, and other different add-ons and features but then the Galaxy S devices dont have things the HTC one does like Beats Audio, and the speed hardware wise is much better with the HTC one then let's say the Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4.
Overall Rating:
Stock AT&T HTC One - 7.5/10.
(Not rooted, unlocked, Just brand new out the box coming from AT&T).
Rooted, Unlocked, S-OFF (mysetup): 9.2/10.
I rate the device out of 10 sections from software, performance, exterior, internals, speed, and build overall of the device, etc.
Now for my T-Mobile LG G2 (LG-D801) :
I purchased the T-Mobile LG G2 directly from T-Mobile about a month after it came out... When I first got the device, I knew it being brand new there was going to be some glitches and kinks in the device and software being that it was brand new and any new device that comes out, the first month or so always has some issues and has a updating coming shortly after, and I did receive some issues with the phone which I'll list and explain how to fix/and what temp fixes if your carrier hasnt sent out the fix yet.
LG G2 Issues I've faced.
- Screen Jump/Glitching:
My screen would jump around/glitch when I opened the app drawer with the home screen having the default background and the app drawer having mode set to Transparent background, when this is set the screen will jump and glitch around when you move to Page 2 of the App Drawer with these two settings set, LG already knows of the issue and it is suppose to be fixed in the next software update (which TMobile just got the update to 4.3 which did resolve some of the issues). But a fix for this issue to prevent it from happening is by changing the setting of the App Drawer background to a custom one or one of the default ones they provide and get it off of transparent, it seems that causes the glitch and it fixed after I did do this temp fix after goofing around with the device.
- Camera Lens:
The camera lens on the back of the LG G2, is very thin and not strong. A medium power flick with your finger will crack the glass. Be very careful with using the device to not drop or allow a pressure to be placed against the camera lens or the actual screen. It is not strong at all.
- Bloatware Apps (by Carrier & LG):
The bloatware that LG alone loaded this device up with is unreal. There is plenty pointless apps and features LG added with this device that I can promise you, you will never use it, unless your just looking around with the phone and want to learn about some of the things that it can do. LG did a good one with loading this device up to compete with other provide providers like Samsung coming out with Knox and Samsung Apps Center, etc... LG doesn't allow you to remove it either, but only Disable it, but even with disabling it, some still run due to other features require it. Then the carrier also loads up their known apps they include with devices as every carrier does (Besides if you purchased yours directly from Google Play Store).
- Knock On
There's been plenty of complaints that the knock on feature which is a feature I LOVE of the phone, is touchy where it doesn't want to work as they say it should with 2 knocks to turn on, and 2 knocks to turn back off, sometimes it takes alot more then two, and the pressure isnt always good that you need to use to turn it on.
- Sound Quality;
With headphones it sounds good but the playback speakers on the device are not that good. It isn't very loud at all even turned all the way up.
Now remember all this above is running a T-Mobile LG G2 (LG-D801) stock, out of the box device (Non-rooted, modified, etc).
My overall rating of the device...
Now because I said all this doesn't mean it's not a good phone... The phone is a EXCELLENT and a new device in the market that competes with the big guy's now like Galaxy S devices and iPhone.... The rear-key buttons, is a LOVE of mine when I thought I would hate it, but I LOVED IT, but it is actually amazing. Also some really cool features is the Multi-background feature, 3-Finger Slideaway, Multi-Window Tasking (best one I seen on a stock-device so far), etc.
The performance is a 7.5 because of the BLOATWARE and Pointless features installed that are not needed or even useful/helpful, You be better off without half the stuff. I say this because it sucks down the memory of the phone with all this crap, maybe leaving you 980MB of Memory left from the moment you power the device on the first time stock. If you disable all the features and uninstall the updates for them, it improves for about a additional +256MB of more Memory.
The camera on the device is very good, one of the best I've seen, Very Clear, with plenty of features to take the best shot of you doing anything you want, or need a photo of, and some cool little tweak features you can use to maake a badass photo shot, or others. Same goes for the Front Facing Camera, one of the best I've seen on a mobile device for clarity and overall status it's a good camera.
LGHome which is the G2's "home setup", as where Samsung Galaxy S device's have TouchWiz, The G2 has LGHome which is cool for people who don't want to root their phone but want to customize their device from the style of the phone, icons, app drawer, fonts, keyboards, messaging display and all. It comes with a Default Theme, and 2 other additional themes preinstalled. Which is very easy to manage and use and don't need no skills to know how, it's right under the phone settings options under Theme; You can download the Theme's directly from Google Play Store, or LG's Store (A Copy-Cat (not a very good one) version of LG's own Google Play Store and Samsung's "Samsung App Center" app) called LG Store which has a small-app store but just LG apps, includes sections: Keyboard, LG Home Themes, FontPacks, Messaging Themes, and more... (But you actually have to download this LGStore App from LG's website, It isn't available on Playstore and doesn't come with the LG G2).
The battery life is great, It lasts me all day long from 9AM-12MIDNIGHT for me is when and how long I use the phone for from disconnecting it from charger to plugging it back up when going to bed. I haven't noticed any issues but for those that don't know this, The battery life will BLOW, unless you do the correct way when first getting your LG G2 Device. Once you open your device and power it on for the first time (if brand new, out of the box) should come with about 50% battery, let it RUN and use the device until it completely DIES, 100% dead and powers off on it's own, do not turn the device back on, just plug the device onto your charger, and leave the device powered off and allow it to charge to 100% (I suggest a full 8 hours), once done, unplug the device and then power the device on again, and use it. I also suggest doing it one more time after the first initial charge, after you unplug it and power it back on after letting it charge for the first time for 8 hours (100%) let it completely die out again and power off on it's own, then do it one more time. This ensures the safety of your battery and the life of it. I know a friend of mine purchased the same exact device as I did, and his battery wouldnt last longer then 5 hours (4.5 hours to be exact) before hitting under 5% battery charge, because when he first got his device and instead of doing what I said, he powered it up, used it, once died, plugged it up, turned device back on, and left it on and used it while on charger instead of letting it actually powerup and charge 100% your battery, and overall his battery sucked ass. Where my battery last around 10-12 hours on a full-charge.
The HD Screen is Awesome also, Great GFX setup on the device... Photos are beautiful, Games are amazing, and overall is just good.
Overall Rating: 7.5-8 (STOCK OUT OF THE BOX EDITION)
Now if you ROOT your LG G2 and load it up with a Stock Google Play Edition ROM, or a Stock LG G2 Rom (4.3 or 4.4) LG/Carrier which there is plenty of options to choose, so that basically, your phone is a STOCK LG G2 without the bloatware and crappy apps provided by them, itll just have the features needed and overall (My recommendation, I rooted mine and ran a stock G2 ROM (without the extra LG apps, and Carrier Bloatware) to where it succeed well, and performance was AMAZING, much more RAM, less CPU usage, etc.
Rating: 9.5
I hope this helps.
djay1127 said:
Here's a review for you...
Overall Rating:
Stock AT&T HTC One - 7.5/10.
(Not rooted, unlocked, Just brand new out the box coming from AT&T).
Rooted, Unlocked, S-OFF (mysetup): 9.2/10.
Overall Rating: 7.5-8 (STOCK OUT OF THE BOX EDITION)
Now if you ROOT your LG G2 and load it up with a Stock Google Play Edition ROM, or a Stock LG G2 Rom (4.3 or 4.4) LG/Carrier which there is plenty of options to choose, so that basically, your phone is a STOCK LG G2 without the bloatware and crappy apps provided by them, itll just have the features needed and overall (My recommendation, I rooted mine and ran a stock G2 ROM (without the extra LG apps, and Carrier Bloatware) to where it succeed well, and performance was AMAZING, much more RAM, less CPU usage, etc.
Rating: 9.5
I hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow, yes, that was some GREAT information, thank you very much!
other than the camera lens being kinda iffy, I dont really even take many photos at all to begin with, I think Im going to wait for the g3, or the G Pro 2.
thanks again for the very informative reply though, much appreciated!
kine42 said:
wow, yes, that was some GREAT information, thank you very much!
other than the camera lens being kinda iffy, I dont really even take many photos at all to begin with, I think Im going to wait for the g3, or the G Pro 2.
thanks again for the very informative reply though, much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sugest taking a look at the LG G Flex ( I Currently Have One w/ T-Mobile ) stock, non-rooted, out of the box brand new. I currently love it too, my top fav phones are:
1st. LG G2
2nd. LG G Flex -- tied with first, i just received it yesterday in the mail.
3rd. Samsung Galaxy S4
4th. HTC One.
tekneekz said:
Here's a review for you...
Overall Rating: 7.5-8 (STOCK OUT OF THE BOX EDITION)
Now if you ROOT your LG G2 and load it up with a Stock Google Play Edition ROM, or a Stock LG G2 Rom (4.3 or 4.4) LG/Carrier which there is plenty of options to choose, so that basically, your phone is a STOCK LG G2 without the bloatware and crappy apps provided by them, itll just have the features needed and overall (My recommendation, I rooted mine and ran a stock G2 ROM (without the extra LG apps, and Carrier Bloatware) to where it succeed well, and performance was AMAZING, much more RAM, less CPU usage, etc.
Rating: 9.5
I hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there GPE rom for G2?
Hi!
I have been a heavy user of custom ROMs for more than three years now on all my Android devices. Lately, although I have a phone that not so long ago was still Samsung's flagship (the galaxy S4, I9505), the pictures I get with it really suck. A couple weeks ago, the phone could not detect my SIM card (pure hardware issue), so I re-installed the stock firmware and took it to the repair shop to get the warranty repair. They fixed it and I got my phone back. Just to make sure it was working fine, I decided to use the stock ROM for a while, and oh surprise: the camera takes much better pics in low light conditions or indoor than the same camera with any custom ROM app (usually AOSP-based, AOKP or CM-based). I tried to download the Google camera, and the low light pictures really suck. Then I tried a bunch of camera apps from the Play store, but I invariably got similar results to what I got with my custom ROMs.
That got me thinking. I'm no dev nor programmer, so I won't get technical, but it seems to me that there can be two reasons for the samsung app to work better:
- Either it has access to (proprietary) hardware drivers that other camera apps cannot access, and therefore it can get everything out of the camera hardware
- Or Samsung (which is not known to be great for its software) has developed a great camera software.
I would think it's something along the lines of the first reason. So does that mean I am either stuck with a ROM I cannot stand (Touchwiz is awful, has always been, and may always be) and a decent camera, or a decent ROM but a camera that is kind of useless when I'm indoor?
If so, how are the cameras on other similar phones (I'm thinking Nexus 5, Sony Xperia, etc.), running on custom ROMs compared to the stock camera apps? Is there also a noticeable difference, or is it just with Samsung?
I understood that you cannot run the Samsung camera apk on a custom ROM (even one on a Samsung phone), because the camera relies on some kind of Samsung proprietary framework.
Does this mean I should be looking for a phone that is running not only on open source software, but also open source hardware, does that even exist?
Anyone has noticed something similar? Am I the only one to be bothered by this?
I'll post here a couple pics taken in the same ambient light conditions. One with the Samsung camera (Auto setting), one with Google camera, and one with another camera app from the market (don't remember which one, but I tested about 15 of them and their results were quite similar).
Anyway, even if you don' have a solution to the problem but can point me to information that could help me understand how to choose my next phone, I would really appreciate. Thanks!
Cheers,
Fa
fabecoool said:
Hi!
I have been a heavy user of custom ROMs for more than three years now on all my Android devices. Lately, although I have a phone that not so long ago was still Samsung's flagship (the galaxy S4, I9505), the pictures I get with it really suck. A couple weeks ago, the phone could not detect my SIM card (pure hardware issue), so I re-installed the stock firmware and took it to the repair shop to get the warranty repair. They fixed it and I got my phone back. Just to make sure it was working fine, I decided to use the stock ROM for a while, and oh surprise: the camera takes much better pics in low light conditions or indoor than the same camera with any custom ROM app (usually AOSP-based, AOKP or CM-based). I tried to download the Google camera, and the low light pictures really suck. Then I tried a bunch of camera apps from the Play store, but I invariably got similar results to what I got with my custom ROMs.
That got me thinking. I'm no dev nor programmer, so I won't get technical, but it seems to me that there can be two reasons for the samsung app to work better:
- Either it has access to (proprietary) hardware drivers that other camera apps cannot access, and therefore it can get everything out of the camera hardware
- Or Samsung (which is not known to be great for its software) has developed a great camera software.
I would think it's something along the lines of the first reason. So does that mean I am either stuck with a ROM I cannot stand (Touchwiz is awful, has always been, and may always be) and a decent camera, or a decent ROM but a camera that is kind of useless when I'm indoor?
If so, how are the cameras on other similar phones (I'm thinking Nexus 5, Sony Xperia, etc.), running on custom ROMs compared to the stock camera apps? Is there also a noticeable difference, or is it just with Samsung?
I understood that you cannot run the Samsung camera apk on a custom ROM (even one on a Samsung phone), because the camera relies on some kind of Samsung proprietary framework.
Does this mean I should be looking for a phone that is running not only on open source software, but also open source hardware, does that even exist?
Anyone has noticed something similar? Am I the only one to be bothered by this?
I'll post here a couple pics taken in the same ambient light conditions. One with the Samsung camera (Auto setting), one with Google camera, and one with another camera app from the market (don't remember which one, but I tested about 15 of them and their results were quite similar).
Anyway, even if you don' have a solution to the problem but can point me to information that could help me understand how to choose my next phone, I would really appreciate. Thanks!
Cheers,
Fa
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So here come the pics. Of course XDA compresses them, but you'll get the idea.
Fa
That is the example difference between things that are built for the device over using open-source options. Software will always be better from the OEM. You see the same thing with HTC and Sony devices. Take the m7 and m8. They have great cameras as long as you use HTC Sense. Other wise all you get is a basic 4 mpx camera that sucks. If you want one that works the same no matter the rom then get a nexus. This is something OEM are doing to make people want to use their software
Thanks @zelendel,
A Nexus could be an option, but the screen size of the Nexus 5 was already too large for me (and so is my current phone, the Galaxy S4), so there's no way I'm getting a Nexus 6 (plus it's prohibitively expensive, at least here in Europe). When will Google make a Nexus mini or compact? That would rock, especially if they go the Sony way (not compromising too much on hardware features). The only downside of Nexus phone is their lack of MicroSD card slot, but that's off topic.
Anyway, what about the Google Edition phones? As I understand, they have the same hardware as their OEM counterpart (don't they?), but instead of running on proprietary stock ROMs, they ship with a pure Vanilla Android. Does this mean they ship with a camera that sucks, or is there some kind of tweak included to get the most of the camera with those editions, too? If so, would flashing that ROM help (if I can get my hands on it)? Unfortunately it seems the whole Google Edition concept has not gained a lot of traction (maybe because of the unavailability of the handsets in many places, maybe thanks to the OEM who did not play fair game and rather managed to get their crappy proprietary stock versions in the hands of customers), so I'm trying not to get too excited about this either.
I guess I will have to go to my local phone shop, spend time there with different devices and see if some of them have less heavily customized skins than TouchWiz. That means I'll no longer go for a Samsung, which have been my only devices so far. The end of an era...
fabecoool said:
Thanks @zelendel,
A Nexus could be an option, but the screen size of the Nexus 5 was already too large for me (and so is my current phone, the Galaxy S4), so there's no way I'm getting a Nexus 6 (plus it's prohibitively expensive, at least here in Europe). When will Google make a Nexus mini or compact? That would rock, especially if they go the Sony way (not compromising too much on hardware features). The only downside of Nexus phone is their lack of MicroSD card slot, but that's off topic.
Anyway, what about the Google Edition phones? As I understand, they have the same hardware as their OEM counterpart (don't they?), but instead of running on proprietary stock ROMs, they ship with a pure Vanilla Android. Does this mean they ship with a camera that sucks, or is there some kind of tweak included to get the most of the camera with those editions, too? If so, would flashing that ROM help (if I can get my hands on it)? Unfortunately it seems the whole Google Edition concept has not gained a lot of traction (maybe because of the unavailability of the handsets in many places, maybe thanks to the OEM who did not play fair game and rather managed to get their crappy proprietary stock versions in the hands of customers), so I'm trying not to get too excited about this either.
I guess I will have to go to my local phone shop, spend time there with different devices and see if some of them have less heavily customized skins than TouchWiz. That means I'll no longer go for a Samsung, which have been my only devices so far. The end of an era...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The GPE device dont come with stock android completely. I have a GPE HTC M7 and the gpe software has some of the closed sourced drivers and such for things like Beats audio and the camera. As I run pure AOSP I wind up with a 4mpx camera that really sucks. While i agree alot of the newer devices have huge screens that make it almost pointless for me. The m7 is not bad at about 5in. But then again it doesnt have an SD card slot but comes with 32gb of storage which I think is plenty for my use. Part of me misses my old samsung devices but I made the mistake once of getting the one with the Samsungs chip and not the snapdragon which killed development.
zelendel said:
The GPE device dont come with stock android completely. I have a GPE HTC M7 and the gpe software has some of the closed sourced drivers and such for things like Beats audio and the camera. As I run pure AOSP I wind up with a 4mpx camera that really sucks. While i agree alot of the newer devices have huge screens that make it almost pointless for me. The m7 is not bad at about 5in. But then again it doesnt have an SD card slot but comes with 32gb of storage which I think is plenty for my use. Part of me misses my old samsung devices but I made the mistake once of getting the one with the Samsungs chip and not the snapdragon which killed development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright! Well, if I could find the GPE edition for my phone (I9505), then I would get all the camera features and none of the TouchWiz crap, which would already be quite an improvement over what I have now (complete TW stock). I guess another possibility would be to flash a stock based ROM that is rooted and from which I could remove all the bloatware...
OK, the hunt is on for a new ROM!
Cheers!
Fa
fabecoool said:
Alright! Well, if I could find the GPE edition for my phone (I9505), then I would get all the camera features and none of the TouchWiz crap, which would already be quite an improvement over what I have now (complete TW stock). I guess another possibility would be to flash a stock based ROM that is rooted and from which I could remove all the bloatware...
OK, the hunt is on for a new ROM!
Cheers!
Fa
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want all the features of the camera then yes I would run a stock de bloated rom. I used to run Samsung devices and you can remove most things which will give you the camera app which has all the best features.
When you hand your phone to granny to take a photo of you, can she get the job done? Rate this thread to express how you deem the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge's camera software. A higher rating indicates that the software is easy to use, fast, uncluttered, and inclusive of advanced features for when you need them.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
This and the lack of foreseeable root are really the only two negatives regarding this device. Google's apps are just superior at every corner.
Messenger is more sleek than Messages
Chrome is now as smooth as Internet, but scrolls faster, accesses all my stored passwords, can share history with my computer.
Google's keyboard doesn't shove my friends emails into regular typing like Samsung's.
Gmail is much more appealing than Email.
Contacts and Phone - does anyone know how to get Google's variants working on a Verizon S7e?
Love the phone, but am loving it so much more with each Google app I add to replace one from Samsung.
Software features of Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge are very neat. TouchWiz is overall very much improved and device has a great build quality. Multi Tasking Features are amazing, pop-up view windows, and single hand usage tweak by Samsung itself is responsive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K42A_PQLzHc
Waiting for tasting AOSP but it will kill many features
I'm about to return the phone due to software. TouchWiz is hell. I come from a Motorola and a Sony phone, those phones offered experiences close to stock Android with some added features.
Using this phone is incredibly complicated. The settings section is a mess and it crashes when you try to change the do not disturb options. The soft keys are just wrong. I have half of my ram consumed by Samsung apps and duplicate apps for everything.
The phone is just sad, this is not an android phone. I'll give it a shot for the weekend, otherwise I'm going to swap this for the HTC 10.
Now that I expressed my rage, could someone advice me on making this phone bearable?
pepinocho9 said:
I'm about to return the phone due to software. TouchWiz is hell. I come from a Motorola and a Sony phone, those phones offered experiences close to stock Android with some added features.
Using this phone is incredibly complicated. The settings section is a mess and it crashes when you try to change the do not disturb options. The soft keys are just wrong. I have half of my ram consumed by Samsung apps and duplicate apps for everything.
The phone is just sad, this is not an android phone. I'll give it a shot for the weekend, otherwise I'm going to swap this for the HTC 10.
Now that I expressed my rage, could someone advice me on making this phone bearable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too come from a Sony device, and I love the S7 Edge. Sony software is very stable, and "minimalistic" compared to Samsung, LG and Huawei's customization, but damn it, I'm not hating it. I owned the first Galaxy Note. Yeah, you want some buggy and laggy TouchWiz crap? Take a good look at how things used to be, and then come back to the S7 and tell what you think.
The problem isn't that today's TouchWiz is bad, because it's not even close to being bad. It's just you that can't adapt to TouchWiz, so you curse at it and make sure to tell us what you think. TouchWiz isn't close to being "stock Android", and it's your own fault if you even thought that to begin with, but it's smooth, quick and there aren't any huge bugs (that I'm aware of). The camera software is awesome, the battery is awesome, the display is awesome, the design is awesome, but I guess you don't like the looks of the "notification center" and the Settings-app? You can theme those, and I recommend you install the "Material Design" theme from the theme store. It's free. You can also remove the annoying "Quick connect" thingy in the notifications by tapping "edit" and then disable it there (at the bottom). Then install Nova Launcher or Google Now Launcher.
The real issue here though is that you think there are too many options. Think about it. I get it. I really do, but this is such a first world problem that I can't even... :laugh:
But alright, I've already mentioned the themes and stuff, so give me/us some more details on exactly what's annoying you, and we'll see if it's easily changeable.
I luv it samsung s7 egde
Came from a HTC m8, and I do like the phone. As much as I use to rag on my girlfriend about her wanting samsung...they did right by me on it with waterproof alone. I did want the 10 though but this phone is keeping me content
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 Lenovo Zuk Z2 Pro, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Lenovo Zuk Z2 Pro is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Overclocking it makes everything even more considerable keeping up with newer phones but still so beautiful
IP certification would be perfect
I'm gonna post this here; I sent this originally as a private message since someone was asking about buying a Z2 Pro, and I figured a "here's kinda how it is as of September 2017" roundup might be useful for others looking at buying one, or trying to decide between the Pro and Plus.
So I own a Z2 Pro, and after several months of trying various options for custom and factory ROMs for it, and then getting a regular Z2 Plus for my wife, and setting THAT up...
Frankly, if I were going to get one now, I'd get the Z2 Plus Z2132 instead. Bigger battery, MUCH better custom ROM community with more stable & official builds, official TWRP, better-supported camera... to me, the extra $150 for the Pro has only meant more headaches trying to get something stable to work as a daily driver with regular security updates - and the AMOLED screen, UFS vs eMMC internal storage speed, and supposedly better camera haven't really ended up being as much of a difference as I thought. Yeah there's more storage & RAM, but... for daily use, at least on Nougat, 4GB RAM / 64GB storage is still plenty.
ZUI (factory firmware) issues:
Long story short, the official ZUI is an annoying mess for me, even with root (I use Magisk so I can have root utilities like Titanium Backup but still keep playing Pokemon Go with my wife)... the dialer and settings and built-in calendar app and lots of things still have Chinese showing up around the edges even when the system is set to English. Trying to disable built-in apps and use Google Dialer & Contacts doesn't quite work right, you can't actually install something like OpenGapps but have to piecemeal it together with packages from apkmirror or similar, and Google contact sync stops every week or two without warning - since I need contact, calendar, and email sync to work for business purposes, that's a show-stopper for me.
Seems like the Plus gets updates to ZUI before the Pro does, by a couple weeks.
Custom ROM issues:
The Pro camera really only looks & performs great under ZUI. It's not Camera2 HAL compatible and, unless Lenovo decides to pursue that with their own sources, never will support fancy HDR+ modes or zero shutter lag with Google Camera apps. AEX recent builds are starting to get really close to stock ZUI quality, since they imported & shimmed the ZUI camera blobs somehow, but some others like Mokee might still accidentally mechanically jam your camera trying to enable OIS. Ouch.
The U-Health app on stock ZUI is the only thing that can talk to the heart rate/blood-oxygen sensor on the back of the phone under the flash. Nobody has got U-Health working under a custom ROM since it requires the ZUI framework and integration with Lenovo's user login ecosystem. But the step sensor is apparently generic and supported by Google Fit, so if you just want to see if you're hitting 10K steps per day, you're all set. All the other sensors (gyro, orientation, proximity, magnetic, GPS/GLONASS, pressure, gravity, etc.) seem to work fine in custom ROMs.
You'll hear a lot about the "blue LED of death" - that's a hard freeze, the screen goes blank and the notification LED goes blue (with a 50% duty cycle, which looks different than just being "on"). You can restart from there by holding the power button for 8-10 seconds, so don't panic. Unfortunately, it seems to be reeeeeally easy to hard freeze the phone by doing some things with Bluetooth, or entering/exiting deep sleep (like if I have a clock alarm and a calendar reminder or two that would all go off simultaneously, and it's plugged in to charge, trying to wake itself up and play all those notifications at the same time has actually made it freeze instead and I've slept through an alarm that never went off) or other stuff that involves switching CPU states too much... I don't know. It seems like, at the end of the day, the stock (ZUI) thermal-engine.conf might have something to do with it... it sets super-low limits for temperatures, and the CPU ends up throttling, and it'll try to crash out perhaps as a safety measure instead of getting too hot... or maybe the constant state-switching leads to instability. Anyway, it's not too hot. They're just being super-conservative. Not sure. You can pull a different thermal config that'll ease up a lot, get you better benchmarks, and still isn't actually putting the hardware at risk.
Custom ROMs:
LineageOS 14 - there isn't a current build. I mean, there IS, and theoretically work is still being done on it, by a couple different people (long story and some drama involved there...) but there's no daily driver with working sound and no progress reports being made in XDA forums.
Mokee 7 - continues to be a thing (based on LineageOS sources), but... I don't know, it's all nightlies in terms of stability (at least when I tried it). Everything mostly works, it's just crashy. Wouldn't recommend. However, the maintainer is a guy whose name you'll see a lot: SY/Siyang. He's basically THE guy on the Lenovo Chinese forums responsible for building Z2 Pro ports of various custom/aftermarket ROMs like Resurrection Remix, AICP, Flyme, MIUI, HydrogenOS, etc. Apparently being a kernel developer means you know how to play around. But that's all it really is; playing around - he doesn't actively maintain any of them, just kinda builds them & throws them out there, but isn't in it to do active bug fixes. He also includes 3-4 packages of Chinese bloatware that involve some kind of adware/affiliate marketing to try and make some money - I don't begrudge him that, and you can disable/freeze them, but it's still not "clean".
MIUI/Flyme/HydrogenOS - I think they're all Android 6 (MM) based, so I haven't looked into them. Built by Siyang.
AICP - Built by Siyang. This was actually pretty good, but it crashed out on me with an alarm set twice and I was late for work. Ditched.
Resurrection Remix - Built by Siyang. This was also pretty good, but the 5.8.4 builds have problems. 5.8.3 was best, but got blue LED a couple times and ditched it too, not interested in moving backward in security patches.
...which brings us to AEX (AOSP Extended) - this is the only working Nougat ROM being actively developed & maintained for the Z2 Pro as of this writing that's stable for daily driver use, but it's REALLY good. @davidevinavil has done a fantastic job and is very responsive on the XDA forums. Since he's just using the same thermal-engine.conf as ZUI it doesn't score as high as possible on benchmarks, but you can grab the one from void23's kernel and use that (void hasn't updated his kernel for AEX 4.6 yet and doesn't seem to plan to with the release of Oreo "real soon now", so I don't recommend actually using his kernel anymore).
Works well with Magisk (for root, root hiding, and making Google Play Store like your weird-ass Chinese OEM phone, etc.), supports OMS/substratum themes, has current security patches, generally non-crashy, and camera quality is pretty good (both the built-in camera app, and with Open Camera and CameraNextModV7). F2FS support for /data & /cache might work, but the dev doesn't use those (even though, in theory, it makes a notable difference since the Pro has UFS instead of eMMC 5.2 storage) so plan on using ext4 for everything. Haven't tried device encryption yet, but if I were going to, it would be on this one.
Custom Kernels:
Void kernel - Void23 did some nice work based on AEX 4.5, and some people successfully use it with other ROMs as well. It works best with most current AEX 4.5, but from the reading I've done I wouldn't use it with 4.6. However, you can grab his thermal-engine.conf file from his installer package, and put it into /system/etc/ of a clean AEX 4.6 install and that'll give you a little more headroom before CPU/GPU/chipset throttling occurs.
TWRP:
There's a few, but @davidevinavil has the only 3.1.1 release, and it works the best as far as I can tell. There's a 3.1.0 release on the zukfans.eu German language forum (reasons...) that mostly works well but sometimes can't install some ROMs, and a Chinese release of 3.1.0 by wzsx150 that seems to work best for installing all the Lenovo forum ports by Siyang plus has a few extra goodies (like rebooting directly to EDL/port 9008 mode for QPST/QFIL flashing). As much as I'd love to have my /data partition encrypted, I haven't bothered testing lately. I'm guessing best compatibility would be using AEX and @davidevinavil's TWRP, but haven't actually tested. Again, F2FS is hit or miss.
But you know what's even better about @davidevinavil and AEX for the Z2 Pro? It's essentially a port of his work on AEX for the Z2 Plus! And on the Z2 Plus, it's only one of many actively supported and maintained custom ROMs! And there's an unofficial EAS-enabled version of AEX on that phone, so that bigger battery will go even farther!
So yeah. I like being able to quickly run a nandroid backup & restore and all, and have more room for video files & music, but as far as actual daily driver quality of life... not sure if the extra $150+ is worth it for the Pro, especially when you have the same CPU/GPU and bigger battery on the Plus. The every-so-slightly nicer camera seems to actually be a problem that delays getting working custom ROMs, and the other differences don't translate into noticeable daily quality of life improvements for me - I mean it's not like the plus is SLOW by any stretch. But it's got more RAM & storage, and USB 3 transfer speed, so if you use it as a glorified thumb drive a lot, or tend to load up lots of movies/music, then maybe it's worth it. And the AMOLED screen is pretty.
Oh, and there's a LOT more protective cases for the Z2 (plus) than the Z2 Pro.
So there you go. If you have any other questions about daily life with a Z2 Pro, feel free to ask me!
---------- Post added at 02:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:09 PM ----------
It's fast, and it's working pretty well for me, but it took a LOT to get to where it's actually a reliable daily driver for work.
I have owned mine for 15 months and paid $400. If I broke it right now I would buy another one for the $260 it is selling at.
Got it 25 months so far, since October '17, bought 215€. In my eyes, it is like a the OnePlus 3 6/128 of its time, except the silly multilanguage chinese "stock" rom in which I have stucked yet (a modified MM version). I was about buying a new phone and change battery, root-rom-kernel etc at this one, and just change battery, root-rom-kernel etc this one. Decided to stay because even at 50€ more , it's impossible to find anything else equipped with just OIS, 6 GB ram, amoled, UFS, though I'd expected to be able to buy much more, such as >=8 ram, cooling, macro & wide, as we are two years after.
Sooo no. One more year will be good enough with it. That's the only (main) device I have kept for more than 10 months What more could I want? :angel: :highfive: :victory:
Hello again everyone,
Interesting conversation I want to have with users here; which Android skin do you like most and why?
Obviously AOSP != what Pixels run.
What if a future Honor device ran Android One/Go? Would that be enough to convince you buy one? What if Kirin hardware was still used even with Android One?
What do you like and not like about EMUI?
Really want to get your all's input and feedback.
AOSP has always been my favorite, primarily because it adheres to Google's design standards, and theoretically allows OEMs to deliver faster updates overall.
Skins like EMUI deter from Material Design a fair bit, and it makes it fragments the experience in that sense. It looks too much like iOS, but honestly, I don't mind it too much, because the features it brings with it are actually useful rather than bloat (I'm not saying EMUI is exempt from bloat). Overall, it's a good stock experience, but not something I'd run.
AOSP is also very flexible with projects here on XDA, and it allows for the ease of development and synchrony.
The code is generally cleaner than the additional stuff that OEMs add, and there usually a performance benefit. Skins usually overdo it (I'm looking at you Amazon), and it detracts from what we come to expect from Android itself.
And finally, I'm not sure why, but devices that ship with AOSP-esque ROMs generally feel more premium. Probably because there is less useless garbage.
Those are just my quick thoughts. I hope Honor puts the feedback to use
EMUI tries too much to be like ios. EMUI doesnt incorporate Googles material design. EMUI needs to follow Android design guidelines and features. The share menu looks and functuion like IOS why? We need a better lqauncher. the icons are ios inspired.
Miui und EMUI feel like the interpretation of a 13 years old fan boy of how his phone should work and look like. While AOSP looks much more mature in total feel.
I switched from a phone running Near-AOSP Android 7.1 and now 8.0 to my first EMUI 8.0 device.
EMUI 8.0 on my Mate 10 Pro is a flaming piece of sh*t.
I don't even care about the design. Yeah, it looks like iOS puked all over Android KitKat after a drunken stupor - but that can mostly be remedied with a custom launcher and/or an EMUI theme.
I don't even care that the settings menu feels like it was organized by someone trying to hide their porn collection inside a labyrinth of subfolders back in the 90s. It's stupid, but you get used to it.
I *do* care about the insane amount of things that Huawei/Honor actively broke, removed or replaced with ****tier versions of the same thing.
That things that don't work is staggering:
* Many widgets don't reliably update, they simply die after a while and never show new information. Even Google Widgets are affected, like Google News & Weather.
* Notifications are unreliable. If you don't use an app for a while, don't expect to get any more notifications until you open it - even after fully whitelisting it from everything. I missed several important Facebook Messenger messages because of this. And if Do Not Disturb is enabled, notifications aren't just silenced, they frequently simply disappear into nowhere.
* Some apps simply can never show notifications when in the background on EMUI for more than half an hour, no whitelisting possible.
* Forget about running apps in the background long term, they are frozen eventually, regardless of your settings. And, no, not via Android Doze but via Huawei's own battery management that has all the surgical precision of a sledgehammer.
* You can't disable many system sounds. They also ignore the do not disturb setting and play full volume regardless (like the battery charging sound).
* You can't enable "Do not disturb" for x minutes/hours - that was removed for no reason at all.
* The AOD is essentially useless, it only supports Huawei's own apps, nothing else.
* Lock screen messages can't be expanded or interacted with - the arrow to expand them exists but doesn't do anything.
* You can't even set WiFi connections as metered, the feature was removed - you can't limit background traffic for those connections in EMUI. Forget about ever using a mobile or otherwise metered hotspot with EMUI.
* AdGuard doesn't survive a network connectivity change. When it reconfigures the VPN connection the battery manager kills it, regardless of whitelisting. The only workaround is to never let it reconfigure.
* You can't configure your billing cycle. If it doesn't start at the beginning of the month you are out of luck. One of the many, many native Android features that were simply removed in EMUI with a sledgehammer for no sane reason at all.
* You can't reliably set default apps or even launchers, EMUI loves to reset them back to default randomly. So you launcher of choice decided to roll out an update on the Play Store? Time to enjoy Huawei's launcher again from now on ...
* The same goes for many settings, even in Huawei's own apps - many settings just don't "stick" and are reset after some hours or weeks.
* By default the battery management eventually even stops Chrome from running in the background. Which is the sole WebView provider - breaking just about anything that uses WebView. Insane. At least here the manual whitelisting works as a workaround.
* The camera shortcut was moved from the power button to the volume button for no sane reason, which means it doesn't work when you listen to anything or when the screen is on.
* It has a ludicrous amount of Bluetooth compatibility issues. You though Bluetooth on Stock Android could be iffy? It's compatibility heaven compared to what Huawei somehow managed to do with it.
* Huawei removed Google's Smart Lock and replaced it with ... Huawei Smart Unlock, which currently *only* supports Bluetooth unlock, nothing else, and naturally doesn't even do that reliably.
* You enjoy "OK Google"? Well, Huawei has "OK Emy" as the only assistant capable of waking the phone. It literally has exactly two features (find phone, make a call) and the only semi useful one does not work - at all.
It's the dumbest, most infuriatingly, most idiotic take on Android I have ever experienced.
I still *love* the hardware of the Mate 10 Pro. It's near perfect for me: It's beautiful, fast, great display, amazing build quality and the best battery life and fastest fingerprint sensor of any current flagship.
But I hate EMUI's guts after a couple of months with it. And I really, really tried to like it.
Seriously, why anyone would prefer EMUI over AOSP, or pretty much any other Android skin, is beyond me.
I just miss an Android experience that just works and that I don't feel like I'm constantly fighting. I still love Huawei's hardware, but I'll avoid future EMUI phones like the plague.
freibooter said:
Seriously, why anyone would prefer EMUI over AOSP, or pretty much any other Android skin, is beyond me.
I just miss an Android experience that just works and that I don't feel like I'm constantly fighting. I still love Huawei's hardware, but I'll avoid future EMUI phones like the plague.
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Just trying to understand users. Some like features from skins that AOSP doesnt offer.
Really appreciate what was stated. I too wish notifications on the lockscreen were improved. Hope to continue the trend to make improvements with EMUI and listen to our users
[email protected]_USA said:
Just trying to understand users. Some like features from skins that AOSP doesnt offer.
Really appreciate what was stated. I too wish notifications on the lockscreen were improved. Hope to continue the trend to make improvements with EMUI and listen to our users
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Please try a stable custom rom like Omni ROM and you will understand that most people here on XDA just want good developer support. AOSP doesn't have features but it is designed well and less in your face like EMUI. And those that are here on XDA probably root it and install a custom ROM that is based on AOSP with added features without the cartoon like UI that some custom skins like Samsung, Huawei, LG provide.
syl0n said:
Please try a stable custom rom like Omni ROM and you will understand that most people here on XDA just want good developer support. AOSP doesn't have features but it is designed well and less in your face like EMUI. And those that are here on XDA probably root it and install a custom ROM that is based on AOSP with added features without the cartoon like UI that some custom skins like Samsung, Huawei, LG provide.
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I've personally used custom ROMs through my android history of close to 2 dozen devices. AICP, DU, AOSPA, LOS, Slim, RR, etc etc. been apart of the XDA community for close to 8 years.
I really want to support the dev community and have a passion for it. :good:
[email protected]_USA said:
Which Android skin do you like most and why?
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I prefer pure Android itself over OEM's skins. Why? It is not only the cleanest, but it's also way smoother and i have also nothing to complain about AOSP. One example (of many out there) could be Huawei Nova which I've owned. It was way smoother with LOS 14 and also had much better battery backup. It might be featureless compared to OEM's skins, but how many of us actually use all the features implemented by OEM? I personally don't.
Sometimes simplicity is the best.
What if a future Honor device ran Android One/Go? Would that be enough to convince you buy one?
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Only Honor ones? Anyway, yes, that'd convince me. I don't care about Android One program, but I do care about AOSP.
What if Kirin hardware was still used even with Android One?
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No, then I wouldn't consider it. The reason I've bought Huawei Nova was because it had Qualcomm, otherwise I wouldn't have bought any Huawei. Qualcomm is popular and easier to develop for (correct me if I'm wrong). IMO, this is one of the reasons why XDA forums for Huawei are dead.
What do you like and not like about EMUI?
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Things I like:
Lockscreen - I really like how the lockscreen looks, especially with a cool wallpaper. I'd choose this lockscreen anytime over AOSP's one as I like that's not "blurred", that I can see the wallpaper properly on a good screen. It just looks gorgeous. The widgets which can be accessed from the bottom is also nice. Would've been nicer if we could also choose own actions for that widgets.
White-blue themed - I love this man. I've always wanted this kind of theme.
Things I don't like:
Phone Manager - Man, this is just bull****. Apps are getting killed even after disabling the options in Phone Manager to not kill them. It's the most annoying thing. It's known that task killers are harmful for Android, yet that's what you're doing. Just let Android handle the things how it was meant to, it doesn't need task killers or some kind of RAM management. I also don't like the fact that battery stats is implemented in that and after removing Phone Manager, you no longer can see the battery stats, and if I remember properly, the option to block calls is also gone. That virus scanner is another ****. I mean, come on... It would have been so much better without this ****, Phone Manager. It's not only a bloatware, but it's also harmful.
Kernel - it's a mess. Just few examples: root scanner and some other protection which I don't remember right now (was related to rw system if I'm not mistaken), some configs in defconfig with "HISI" in the name are enabled on Nova which has Qualcomm. On top of this, you're providing the kernel as tarball making it hard to remove your **** for someone which is not pro, like me. I'm not the only one who said that your kernels are a mess.
Dark notification panel - Why black? Just why? Why didn't you make it white-blue themed just like the rest of the skin? It would have looked so much better. Dark one just doesn't make sense IMO when EMUI is white-themed. I'd have understood if EMUI was black themed, but it isn't.
Bloatware - removable, but still.
Privacy - I care so much about this and I doubt about it on EMUI, no matter what you would say. I haven't checked, but I'm sure that's possible to check out if there's something going on in the background. It's not like you would be the only OEM doing it though.
Screen Recorder - it's laggy and you better wouldn't have added it. I've recorded my Nova's screen when I've been on AOSPExtended even when gaming and there's no lag when I'm watching the recorded video. It was same on LOS, but I think it was slightly better on AEX. I haven't tried to record screen through terminal command on EMUI though, so I don't know if it could be better.
There were more things I like / don't like at EMUI, but right now nothing else cross my mind.
I had a list with things I like and I don't like in an app on my Nova and there were more things, but I've forgot what I've wrote there. Since it's broken, I can't access it, but I think I had a backup of that app made with Titanium Backup, so maybe I'll grab it through TWRP and restore it on my old phone to check.
I remember though that on the list I don't like was persistent notifications and seeing 0mb at apps in Developer Options > Running services, but when I've tried the last update they were actually solved (persistent notifications were really persistent and I could see the proper RAM usage at apps).
Why I won't buy Huawei anymore as of now:
I'd say that the percent is 99%.
EMUI - already listed some things I don't like and some of them are annoying af. As I've said, I have nothing to complain about AOSP, no annoying things or whatsoever.
Huawei support - this is a joke IMO. Lemme give examples. Huawei Nova came with Marshmallow (EMUI 4.1). You've updated it to EMUI 5 and even today it doesn't have a rollback update to go back to EMUI 4.1. Basically, people are stuck with EMUI 5 and obliged to accept your new changes which may not like. There's no full EMUI 4.1 firmware on Firmware Finder and the only way to go back to EMUI 4.1 is to unlock the bootloader, install TWRP and restore a backup of EMUI 4.1, only if you're lucky to get one from someone else. When I've asked Huawei support about rollback update, they've said about going to service. Well, **** that.
Second example is about the kernel source. You've uploaded EMUI 5 kernel source for a Chinese model of Huawei Nova and there was no EMUI 5 kernel source uploaded/mentioned for CAN-L11 and the other models. I've asked several times Huawei support about publishing the source for CAN-L11 and I've been told the same thing always. After a long time (couple of months), I've seen that there was a new category on their opensource website, with EMUI 5 kernel source for CAN-L11 and other models. I've downloaded it and compared it with the first EMUI 5 kernel source released which was for a Chinese version and I was surprised to see that's the ****ing same source code. Basically you've uploaded the same source after a long time and made a new category on your website where you've added the rest of the models at one source when you could mention the compatible models from the beginning or editing your website...
The kernel is a mess - already said it before...
Kirin chipsets - I've never used one and i would never use one.
XDA support - kinda all Huawei phones are dead on XDA. Some of the things listed before should be helping this.
That's pretty much all I had to say. If you're really looking into making changes, then I'll also be looking forward to those changes. I hope you're actually willing to make changes and that this thread won't be useless.
I'd really consider Huawei again if it's gonna have AOSP / Android One and Qualcomm chipset.
PS: Just noticed that there was a typo ("bloatwait" instead bloatware lol). I'm sorry if there's more typos/mistakes. I've wrote on my old phone which is a Galaxy S Advance with 4 inch screen and the keyboard is small...
I have used every single OEM based distro since the beginning of android. I have to say that out of all of them Sense was the one I liked the best. Here are my reasons why.
1. They had their own style (original Sense versions) They didn't copy anyone else. This is a big deal really. I personally am not a fan of material design. It looks very childish and unprofessional.
2. Added features that didn't bog down the UI (Hey Samsung)
3. They didn't add useless features just because everyone else did.
Now these things have changed as of late and I wouldn't use the new HTC sense (was part of their beta group at one time. They didnt listen)
With people using things like custom launchers, icon packs, themes and wallpaper apps like KLWP the over all UI of the OS really doesnt matter as its almost never seen. I mean how many times does someone really go into settings outside the first time setup? The notification shade is the major thing of the underlying OS that people see the most.
Android Go is really pointless unless you plan on lowering the specs of the honor devices. They lose functionality which is pointless if the hardware good enough for the standard version.
As for the chip. Well really that will only matter if the team puts in the time to help developers with documentation for working with the chip. This is the reason for the support of qualcomm chips. They have gone out of their way over the years helping developers with documentation and apis for working with the chips. You provide this and it will help alot.
I want to say Aosp will make you guys a Huge hit all around the globe. Especially if you bring Aosp over One flagship and one budget phone.
Personally i love emui. But market more oriented to Aosp
I'd take the Nokia approach to this matter. Since Huawei uses their AI mostly in the camera app, I'd love if there was an honor flagship running android one software and Huawei / honor camera app. Also, the background user data analysis for better battery and resource optimisations, claimed to be in EMUI 8 are being implemented in android P, so it's a win win for both the company and the customers
For those that are claiming aosp is the way to go atop and think about this. Samsung is the biggest Android oem and it is not because it get aosp. It's because of the features that touch Wiz offers that Google doesn't. Aosp really is bare bones enough that it can be compared to running Linux on a pc. It works but not as full featured or as well as something built for the hardware.
zelendel said:
For those that are claiming aosp is the way to go atop and think about this. Samsung is the biggest Android oem and it is not because it get aosp. It's because of the features that touch Wiz offers that Google doesn't. Aosp really is bare bones enough that it can be compared to running Linux on a pc. It works but not as full featured or as well as something built for the hardware.
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Completely agree with you man, but Honor doesn't really have much hardware differentiation like Samsung has infinity displays and S pen. All other EMUI features like Knock gestures are barely used and features like app twin can be done using a third party app like parallel space. But the benefits that Android one like ROM offers, like smoother UI experience and enabling faster updates with little to no feature exclusions. So I beg to differ in my opinion that OEM skin (EMUI) offers any benefits over Aosp.
iamsabresh said:
Completely agree with you man, but Honor doesn't really have much hardware differentiation like Samsung has infinity displays and S pen. All other EMUI features like Knock gestures are barely used and features like app twin can be done using a third party app like parallel space. But the benefits that Android one like ROM offers, like smoother UI experience and enabling faster updates with little to no feature exclusions. So I beg to differ in my opinion that OEM skin (EMUI) offers any benefits over Aosp.
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But see android one is a watered down version of android really. To be honest honor software is over all crap. I'm not sure who they ha E writing the software but they should be demoted.
zelendel said:
But see android one is a watered down version of android really. To be honest honor software is over all crap. I'm not sure who they ha E writing the software but they should be demoted.
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I was just stating my opinion and I truly believe android one or stock android, for that matter, make a midrange phone, with lesser CPU power and RAM, perform equal to Honor / Huawei's 2017-18 flagship, the View 10 or the Mate 10 pro, running EMUI, and having better battery backup. I agree that EMUI is okayish to an extent because it is better than any other custom skins except Oxygen OS, but fragmenting the UI into region based firmware is a completely useless thing to do, considering that it slows down updates, takes more human resources to develop updates to separate regions and not to mention that they state regional feature prioritisation as the reason, but most of the basic features are common and they just add bloat like Paytm integration in Indian version and stuff like a separate Huawei app store on the international version, which is essentially useless because of all the stocks being updated either through the playstore or OTAs. Just My Opinion and I speak only for myself.
iamsabresh said:
I was just stating my opinion and I truly believe android one or stock android, for that matter, make a midrange phone, with lesser CPU power and RAM, perform equal to Honor / Huawei's 2017-18 flagship, the View 10 or the Mate 10 pro, running EMUI, and having better battery backup. I agree that EMUI is okayish to an extent because it is better than any other custom skins except Oxygen OS, but fragmenting the UI into region based firmware is a completely useless thing to do, considering that it slows down updates, takes more human resources to develop updates to separate regions and not to mention that they state regional feature prioritisation as the reason, but most of the basic features are common and they just add bloat like Paytm integration in Indian version and stuff like a separate Huawei app store on the international version, which is essentially useless because of all the stocks being updated either through the playstore or OTAs. Just My Opinion and I speak only for myself.
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It won't make it equal to a flagship, it will just make a mid range not suck as much.
zelendel said:
It won't make it equal to a flagship, it will just make a mid range not suck as much.
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Exactly my point. But when you take a powerful midranger like a Nokia 7+ and compare it with an honor flagship running EMUI, say a View 10, I agree that the raw power of the CPU or the SoC would make the flagship open apps much quicker and load much faster, but since we are talking about UI experiences, we must touch the issues like memory management, resource allocation, battery optimisations, etc. I'd say based on my usage that once the apps are loaded onto memory on both phones, I find switching apps and multitasking a bit smoother on the stock android (android one) and with very comparable battery sizes (3800 vs 3750 mAh), the Nokia 7+ provides a bit more extended D battery life on heavy usage. Light to moderate usage yields very much the same battery life of around 7.5 - 8 hrs SoT, but think of what honor phones with flagship specs could achieve with android one or stock android. I'd say that at this point, with very comparable hardware on almost all flagships, UI makes a lot of difference and I think EMUI, though providing a lot of features and is almost as fast as android one, I'd say the extra features added only weigh it down in terms of raw performance.
Pure Android is always better choice over other custom UIs. It is fast, smooth and lag free.
It is fine even if it doesn't have some customizations that other UIs offer.
EMUI memory management makes some apps does not work properly.
[email protected]_USA said:
Hello again everyone,
Interesting conversation I want to have with users here; which Android skin do you like most and why?
Obviously AOSP != what Pixels run.
What if a future Honor device ran Android One/Go? Would that be enough to convince you buy one? What if Kirin hardware was still used even with Android One?
What do you like and not like about EMUI?
Really want to get your all's input and feedback.
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Problem wid skin like emui is, OEMs take longer to bring android updates. More the skin is close to stock android more easier it is to give timely updates.
Honor itself has pathetic record in rolling out updates, that's the thing i dislike about emui