Hi Everyone,
I thought I'd share some thoughts on this device after having purchased it yesterday afternoon.
I bought this phone because I felt it was the first device that gave me what I had been craving for a long time - an Android version of the iPhone 6s. I like the size, build and feel of the iPhone 6s/7, but not the software or the price.
I think I am in the minority of people who prefer a smaller handset, and even though Android devices tend to fit a lot more screen real estate into smaller bodies, I still feel that the 4.7in screen size is ideal for me.
The only phones that run Android of that size have been the Xperia compact line, and the Galaxy Alpha/A3 2016 models. There have been others, but only these have come close. Unfortunately, they have suffered compromised designs and specs that have left me wanting (I have owned them all, and this is my opinion which others are free to disagree with).
This new handset, however, has me ticking a lot of boxes.
- Size is fantastic. Just a little smaller than the iPhone 6s, and feels great in the hand. Premium materials, solid build quality, great ergonomics, clicky buttons, no camera hump.
- The display is good, not awesome, but vibrant and colourful without being too over the top. Can be tweaked to each user's preference, and gets both very bright and very dim.
- fingerprint scanner is fast and accurate.
- Camera is good, not amazing. An iPhone definitely trounces this setup, but I paid £280 sim free and my usage is not too demanding so it's absolutely fine for me. Daytime shots are actually very pleasant and I think here it punches above its weight; low light is where it struggles, but I feel that most shots at night are not too important for me so it's a compromise I'll happily make.
- Call quality is very good and it holds onto signal well in my area.
- Sound quality out of the side mounted speaker is actually surprisingly good, at least as good as an iPhone 6s. Headphone performance is also excellent .
- Performance has been nothing short of excellent. I feel we have reached a point where there are not that many tasks that we do that actually need a Snapdragon 821 to run smoothly - granted, some 3d games need serious power on tap to run at their highest settings on a quad HD screen, but with a 720p screen, the A3 2017 runs pretty much anything at best quality without delay or hiccup. And everyday operation is smooth as butter without any lag or slowdowns. Granted, this is very early days, but I am hopeful this will continue.
- Battery life is astounding. I charged it on Saturday night and hit 100% at 10.20pm. I took it off charger and only put it back on at 2% while writing this review and I had nearly 9 hrs and 30mins of screen on time over 1 day and 3 hours. That includes 64 mins of voice calls. Please note that I was home all day on Wifi, but still, I have never seen times like that, not least from a 2300 odd mah battery. Awesome. It also charges pretty fast.
- Other stuff - water proofing is great, finally have USB-C, charges really quickly with the included adaptive charging brick, finally has a blue light filter.
And now for the balance of the review:
- Slippery despite its size, so a case or a skin is advisable.
- 16gb of internal memory nearly broke the deal for me, but a 64gb card and some transferring of apps has left me with 3.8gb left to play with internally. Definitely not ideal and a very cheap move from Samsung, but I'm also hoping Nougat brings adoptable storage soon which will eliminate this as an issue (here's hoping!).
- No notification light is something I have to adjust to, but the always on display does help *somewhat* ( I prefer the light as it's something that alerts me from afar, whereas the display is on regardless of whether you have a notification or not).
- Camera as described above has some shortcomings.
- Usual Samsung software compromised with bloatware - lots of useless stuff on here that eats into that 16gb that I cannot delete (Microsoft suite, Samsung junk, usual duplicate apps that we all use the Google version of). I'll keep trying the usual routes to rid the phone of this but I may have to wait a while.
Other than these points, I am really pleased. It feels nice to have paid relatively little for a device that feels so premium. I know there are other phones at relatively low prices that kill this on specs (OP3, Axon 7, Honor 8, etc) but they are generally much bigger handsets, so for anyone looking at something smaller, this is a great buy.
TL;DR, it's great, buy one if you like small phones ?
I always wanted a phone with an small amoled screen and water proofing so i jumped ship from the huge mate 8 to witch i am comparing. I agree with your pros but i found: 1-the camera is average and lacking OIS (need very stable hands), 2- cannot use sd card as default storage (very handy on mate 8), 3- phone very slippery, 4- Design and Screen of a3 2016 seemed better (personal opinion), 5- no stutter but little slow (comparing to mate 8). Only lacks IR blaster to check all boxes but we can't have everything.
Great feedback, thanks guys.
You mentioned not display is good but not awesome, could you elaborate? Is issue clarity or something else? Thanks.
Sent from my Moto X using Tapatalk
mario24601 said:
Great feedback, thanks guys.
You mentioned not display is good but not awesome, could you elaborate? Is issue clarity or something else? Thanks.
Sent from my Moto X using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Coming from a larger phone with a quad HD screen, it's never going to look as dazzlingly sharp, but on a 4.7 inch screen 720p still looks great and it is perfectly sharp and clear - if you've ever seen an iPhone screen, this feels much the same. Colours can be adjusted to your preference - I prefer accurate rather than punchy, but you can set it to either or somewhere in between.
I've had everything from a galaxy s6 which has crazy high pixel density to a Moto x, and personally I prefer the 720p smaller screen because it's far more efficient and I don't notice the pixel density difference after an hour or two.
Hope this helps.
Sunil_Kaura said:
Coming from a larger phone with a quad HD screen, it's never going to look as dazzlingly sharp, but on a 4.7 inch screen 720p still looks great and it is perfectly sharp and clear - if you've ever seen an iPhone screen, this feels much the same. Colours can be adjusted to your preference - I prefer accurate rather than punchy, but you can set it to either or somewhere in between.
I've had everything from a galaxy s6 which has crazy high pixel density to a Moto x, and personally I prefer the 720p smaller screen because it's far more efficient and I don't notice the pixel density difference after an hour or two.
Hope this helps.
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Click to collapse
Thanks!
Sent from my Moto X using Tapatalk
Thanks for sharing this. I am also very happy with this phone so far. It's my second day with it, the battery is at 39% with 4h45 sot and 1d3h total since unplugged. In a night of 9 hours, the phone just lost 3%.
I have noticed though that wifi is constantly detected as running by betterbatterysats, even if it's turned off. Any idea how to fix this?
patci32 said:
I have noticed though that wifi is constantly detected as running by betterbatterysats, even if it's turned off. Any idea how to fix this?
Click to expand...
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Have you checked in Settings -> Connections -> Location?
There are some wifi settings behind it (in location method and improve accuracy) you can deactivate.
F157 said:
Have you checked in Settings -> Connections -> Location?
There are some wifi settings behind it (in location method and improve accuracy) you can deactivate.
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Click to collapse
Indeed, I didn't know. Thanks, I hope this works.
---------- Post added at 01:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:33 PM ----------
F157 said:
Have you checked in Settings -> Connections -> Location?
There are some wifi settings behind it (in location method and improve accuracy) you can deactivate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, could you please tell me if you use other settings to improve your battery life?
patci32 said:
Indeed, I didn't know. Thanks, I hope this works.
---------- Post added at 01:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:33 PM ----------
Also, could you please tell me if you use other settings to improve your battery life?
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Mm, nothing special yet, as I'm really happy with battery life so far.
What I did in the past with other devices is for example use the app greenify (needs root) to hibernate apps you don't want to run in the background.
Also, something that really helped me with my old s4 mini was to set mobile network to 2g, and only switch to lte once required.
And as always, use wifi instead of mobile network as often as possible, disable Bluetooth if not needed, etc.
£280?!?! That's highway robbery for a device with 720p, small battery and everything in budget-range. You get this, all the bells and whistles for £150 with a well known Chinese brand. Now I know why I'd never ever get a Slamsug.
iMaterial said:
£280?!?! That's highway robbery for a device with 720p, small battery and everything in budget-range. You get this, all the bells and whistles for £150 with a well known Chinese brand. Now I know why I'd never ever get a Slamsug.
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Please could you elaborate on one of these phones that you can get for £150? I'm pretty clued up but if I've missed something I'd be keen for you to share what you've found for myself and the community - my mother needs a new phone so if you've seen something better than the A3 for less I'd love to buy it
Sunil_Kaura said:
Please could you elaborate on one of these phones that you can get for £150? I'm pretty clued up but if I've missed something I'd be keen for you to share what you've found for myself and the community - my mother needs a new phone so if you've seen something better than the A3 for less I'd love to buy it
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Which stats are you looking for? Battery? Screen res? SoC power?
Compare, with €150 phones, battery, res, SoC, well anything really part from 10 mm in size.
iMaterial said:
Which stats are you looking for? Battery? Screen res? SoC power?
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Well I'm referring to your comment that you could get a better phone for £150, so I guess I'm wondering what phone you are saying is better for that price...
The battery life of the A3 is epic, the PPI is still perfectly decent (720p on 4.7 inches is still perfectly usable and arguably 1080p is unnecessary) and the SoC is both fat and frugal.
So really I'm wondering whether you can get something the same or better for less money
I'd be happy with an alternative with same form factor. Any recommendations? The A3 still not available in US.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
mario24601 said:
I'd be happy with an alternative with same form factor. Any recommendations? The A3 still not available in US.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
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4.5 to 4.7" screen, 720p res. 2015 - today, only 4-5 options comes up.
http://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2015&nHeightMax=135&nDisplayResMin=921600&fDisplayInchesMin=4.5&fDisplayInchesMax=4.7
Only A3, Sony X and Z5 compact, Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro has enough RAM, battery and goodies. LG Spirit and Alcatel Idol 3 only has 1 GB and 1.5 GB RAM, not really a viable option.
Sunil_Kaura said:
Well I'm referring to your comment that you could get a better phone for £150, so I guess I'm wondering what phone you are saying is better for that price...
The battery life of the A3 is epic, the PPI is still perfectly decent (720p on 4.7 inches is still perfectly usable and arguably 1080p is unnecessary) and the SoC is both fat and frugal.
So really I'm wondering whether you can get something the same or better for less money
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The Redmi 4 Pro can be had for €150 and its battery life is Epic also, the Redmi 3 Pro is way better than A3 and Redmi 4 Pro, with 720p but alas 5". Redmi note 3 is also really good, for even less than €150. Samsung is priced at least £100 than it should, but the same can be said about Sony and Apple also.
iMaterial said:
4.5 to 4.7" screen, 720p res. 2015 - today, only 4-5 options comes up.
http://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2015&nHeightMax=135&nDisplayResMin=921600&fDisplayInchesMin=4.5&fDisplayInchesMax=4.7
Only A3, Sony X and Z5 compact, Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro has enough RAM, battery and goodies. LG Spirit and Alcatel Idol 3 only has 1 GB and 1.5 GB RAM, not really a viable option.
The Redmi 4 Pro can be had for €150 and its battery life is Epic also, the Redmi 3 Pro is way better than A3 and Redmi 4 Pro, with 720p but alas 5". Redmi note 3 is also really good, for even less than €150. Samsung is priced at least £100 than it should, but the same can be said about Sony and Apple also.
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I agree the Xiaomi phones are compelling - my main issue is the fact that they are all grey imports - many purchasers have reported that they do not get any warranty support whatsoever, they generally require a more experienced android user to side load the Google play store, and they have sketchy android skins which have also been reported to spy on their users.
Don't get me wrong, Touchwiz (or Grace UI as it's now known) is not exactly great, but I'd rather know I can walk into a Samsung store and get a problem fixed than rely on a Hong Kong based website for support.
I think it's only fair to compare this phone to what can be had in Europe, and in that regard, it blows the Sony X Compact, Alcatel and others out of the water.
And given its build quality and design, it's good value compared to phones that retail for double this cost.
Also, most Xiaomi phones don't come with NFC (no android pay), some don't have scratch resistant glass, no quick charging, etc
The A3 also uses a processor built on the 14nm process which is up to date technology, whereas the Xiaomi phones at that price point use outdated processors like the 650 and 616.
The 14nm process is what gives the A3 it's great battery life without needing a 4000mAh battery and heavier construction.
A final point - check out the videos of the Redmi note 3 bend test - not encouraging! (I will add the Redmi 3 pro did significantly better though which is good progress).
Sunil_Kaura said:
I agree the Xiaomi phones are compelling - my main issue is the fact that they are all grey imports - many purchasers have reported that they do not get any warranty support whatsoever, they generally require a more experienced android user to side load the Google play store, and they have sketchy android skins which have also been reported to spy on their users.
Don't get me wrong, Touchwiz (or Grace UI as it's now known) is not exactly great, but I'd rather know I can walk into a Samsung store and get a problem fixed than rely on a Hong Kong based website for support.
I think it's only fair to compare this phone to what can be had in Europe, and in that regard, it blows the Sony X Compact, Alcatel and others out of the water.
And given its build quality and design, it's good value compared to phones that retail for double this cost.
Also, most Xiaomi phones don't come with NFC (no android pay), some don't have scratch resistant glass, no quick charging, etc
The A3 also uses a processor built on the 14nm process which is up to date technology, whereas the Xiaomi phones at that price point use outdated processors like the 650 and 616.
The 14nm process is what gives the A3 it's great battery life without needing a 4000mAh battery and heavier construction.
A final point - check out the videos of the Redmi note 3 bend test - not encouraging! (I will add the Redmi 3 pro did significantly better though which is good progress).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Redmi 4 Pro that I bought for a friend in Jan has the 14 nm Snapdragon 625. I can agree that it might lack a few finishing touches, but I could buy it for €150 inc shipping from aliexpress and get it in 7-9 days. But it's half the price, and I know the Adreno is a better GPU than the Mali.
Both on the Xiaomi and the Slamsug, first thing I would do it TWRP and LAOS ROM, they can keep their crap TW and MIUI, can't stand it.
Never the less, it shouldn't be 2x the price for something that is almost inferior in some points and better on others. Esp not in 2017, maybe some years ago, but every day there are better and better phones for under €200, like the Moto G5 and such, only problem is they are so damn big, and big phones are 99/100 new that are coming out, these days, sadly.
iMaterial said:
The Redmi 4 Pro that I bought for a friend in Jan has the 14 nm Snapdragon 625. I can agree that it might lack a few finishing touches, but I could buy it for €150 inc shipping from aliexpress and get it in 7-9 days. But it's half the price, and I know the Adreno is a better GPU than the Mali.
Both on the Xiaomi and the Slamsug, first thing I would do it TWRP and LAOS ROM, they can keep their crap TW and MIUI, can't stand it.
Never the less, it shouldn't be 2x the price for something that is almost inferior in some points and better on others. Esp not in 2017, maybe some years ago, but every day there are better and better phones for under €200, like the Moto G5 and such, only problem is they are so damn big, and big phones are 99/100 new that are coming out, these days, sadly.
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Can't disagree there - it's frustrating how few phones there are under 5 inches available.
I will say though that besides the Xiaomi phones which look to have a nice build, the Moto G4 is very cheap feeling, as are most of the other phones available here in that price bracket, so I would happily pay a little more for a nice looking and premium feeling device.
If the Samsung we're £220 I think it'd sell by the bucket load as £20-40 above phones like the G4 would likely tempt many up, but at £280 I agree that it's a harder sell for the lay person.
I'm looking at from the other side - it's a mild compromise from an S7 or a iPhone 6s/7 , but it's half the price, rather than double that of a cheaper device.
And it absolutely looks and feels as good as a £5-600 phone.
Sunil_Kaura said:
Can't disagree there - it's frustrating how few phones there are under 5 inches available.
I will say though that besides the Xiaomi phones which look to have a nice build, the Moto G4 is very cheap feeling, as are most of the other phones available here in that price bracket, so I would happily pay a little more for a nice looking and premium feeling device.
If the Samsung we're £220 I think it'd sell by the bucket load as £20-40 above phones like the G4 would likely tempt many up, but at £280 I agree that it's a harder sell for the lay person.
I'm looking at from the other side - it's a mild compromise from an S7 or a iPhone 6s/7 , but it's half the price, rather than double that of a cheaper device.
And it absolutely looks and feels as good as a £5-600 phone.
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There are so many on this forum and in other places that airs the same frustration, so few options for a mobile ca 130mm lenght and 4.5 - 4.7" screen (720p at least), that I'm starting to wonder if we should do something about it, maybe talk to so manufacturer to make at least 1-2 phones under 5"
The Redmi 4 Pro I used for a few weeks felt no worse in build than the Iphone 6 or 6S I have tried a few times, both in metal around 140 - 145mm size. But for €310 I can get a Xiaomi Mi 5 with 820 and have €100 in change over. I have never held a Moto G, last Motorola I have tried was the 4.3" Razr Maxx and it felt solid as a rock.
The J5 goes for around €180-190 here and I see no reason why this smaller, entry level A3 shouldn't be priced in a similar fashion. These days due to deaths in the family and such I'm so poor that €100 is more than I can spare and my Android mobile that I have now is from 2012 or so, single core with 512 MB RAM and I hate every minute when I'm using it. I'm lucky to have been given a 2009 Sony Ericsson C901 as my main caller.
Just my 1¢ (It used to be 2¢, but due to the recession I've had to make cutbacks)
---------- Post added at 07:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:16 PM ----------
What annoys me a lot is also that this A3 is bigger than the A3 (2016) and the battery is only 50 mAh bigger. They could easily have put a 2500 - 2800 mAh battery in this one, just like the Sony Z3, Z5 or X compact, which is 5 mm smaller.
My last perfect phone was the original moto x. I still use it. I am not a power user but the X just needs lil more power but on cm13 it's not bad.
I don't even mind going with old phone as long as has some custom roms to improve performance.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
Hi. Anyone coming from F1? Care to share your experience?
The screen is the first thing that comes to mind, it's way better here. F1 screen was ok for IPS honestly and if you are afraid of burn ins and want to use max brightness all the time maybe it's better choice.
Battery life on Mi9T is obviously better. I can easily go two days. SD730 has pretty much same CPU performance but it's a lot more power efficient than 845. The GPU is a lot worse, like half as powerful but I don't play games so I don't really care, your experience might be different if you do.
Overall appearance of the device is a lot nicer. It's a very good looking phone while Poco looks like the plastic brick it is with a huge notch. Again just like the display if you care about long term durability maybe Poco is better. Glass breaks and if you put them in a case it doesn't matter how they look but if you care about looks there is no contest. Glass and metal sandwich phone looks really nice. This really does feel and look like a flagship phone.
The camera is also better. Maybe selfie camera is worse, I don't really use it but main camera is really good and it can take a lot more detail and you have a fun super wide camera as well. Gcam works really well too and it's just the beginning, it should get even better. I'm very satisfied.
Overall I think it's a minor upgrade. If you're happy with poco, honestly I'd stick with it until next year. I needed a phone with more LTE bands than poco had so I made the switch and I'm happy. Installed poco launcher too and it's just a better experience imo. Maybe get the mi9t pro version for a decent upgrade but that's seemingly pretty expensive. If K20 pro works for you go with that. Zenphone 6 looks good too but these were outside of my budget. I paid $330 for 128GB Mi9T shipped total with taxes etc and I'm honestly very satisfied, couldn't do better.
@HockeyLan
Thanks a lot for the input. I'm getting married and tight on budget lol that's why I can't consider Mi9tpro
I went from F1 to 9T as well.
Pros:
- better display that is easier to see in direct sunlight
- better build, less edges
- takes better pictures, videos too
- can do AOD if you prefer that
- easier to unlock imo with the on-screen fingerprint
Cons:
- worse speaker, it's louder but has less low frequency volume
- no notification LED, the one up top is useless tbh
- the xiaomi.eu rom I'm using is laggy at times, but this is solely a software issue
A wash:
- performance is the same, i ran tests with both next to eachother, as long as the storage isn't used too much, as the Poco has a faster storage
- battery life is similar for me, I was using different OS' so I can't really say
Overall I would say this is definitely an upgrade for the right price.
@In_a_state
Thanks a lot for the info. Helps me alot.
Do you use chrome? If so does the phone get warm or hot?
I use TugaBrowser for years now as I like its gestures and tabs placement.
The phone doesn't get warmer than the Pocophone, I'd argue it's a bit cooler.
One more miscellaneous point: I prefer the Pocophone case as it's a tad grippier, and looks a bit better to me. The matte case of the Mi9T hides the lovely black back completely and also has upper and lower cuts - the Poco case was more of a full phone case which I prefer.
In_a_state said:
I use TugaBrowser for years now as I like its gestures and tabs placement.
The phone doesn't get warmer than the Pocophone, I'd argue it's a bit cooler.
One more miscellaneous point: I prefer the Pocophone case as it's a tad grippier, and looks a bit better to me. The matte case of the Mi9T hides the lovely black back completely and also has upper and lower cuts - the Poco case was more of a full phone case which I prefer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'm pretty oversensitive when it comes to phone heating up so you made my choice a lot easier.
I usually use the phone caseless as I'm mostly indoors person.
I switched From PocoPhone F1 to Mi 9T Global.
I had Poco, which my wife still uses, and now I have Mi9t.
Build: Mi9t feels nicer, but it also heavier, I would say Poco is a lot easier to handle.
Performance: pretty much the same, won't notice any difference.
Battery life: the same, had some problems on Mi9t depending on the Miui version, but both around 9/10 hrs sot
Screen: Depends, amoled has nice blacks, Lcd has nice whites. Using mi9t's dark mode didn't have much advantage on battery life to be honest. Also it seems I can't completely disable adaptive brightness, while it's set to manual it also increases brightness in direct sunlight, but not every time, so I would call it buggy.
Touch: Mi9t for sure, Poco had problems with it and was never completely fixed
Fingerprint: Poco all the way, in-screen fps are just bad, and I'm not even using it on Mi9t
Camera: Mi9t has better stock camera, but if you like to use Gcam, then Poco all the way. Poco's gcam ports work like a dream, better than any other phone I had, feels like a native camera app.
Conclusion: I would say, no need to upgrade, better wait until a new phone arrives.
---------- Post added at 09:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 PM ----------
HockeyLan said:
The screen is the first thing that comes to mind, it's way better here. F1 screen was ok for IPS honestly and if you are afraid of burn ins and want to use max brightness all the time maybe it's better choice.
Battery life on Mi9T is obviously better. I can easily go two days. SD730 has pretty much same CPU performance but it's a lot more power efficient than 845. The GPU is a lot worse, like half as powerful but I don't play games so I don't really care, your experience might be different if you do.
Overall appearance of the device is a lot nicer. It's a very good looking phone while Poco looks like the plastic brick it is with a huge notch. Again just like the display if you care about long term durability maybe Poco is better. Glass breaks and if you put them in a case it doesn't matter how they look but if you care about looks there is no contest. Glass and metal sandwich phone looks really nice. This really does feel and look like a flagship phone.
The camera is also better. Maybe selfie camera is worse, I don't really use it but main camera is really good and it can take a lot more detail and you have a fun super wide camera as well. Gcam works really well too and it's just the beginning, it should get even better. I'm very satisfied.
Overall I think it's a minor upgrade. If you're happy with poco, honestly I'd stick with it until next year. I needed a phone with more LTE bands than poco had so I made the switch and I'm happy. Installed poco launcher too and it's just a better experience imo. Maybe get the mi9t pro version for a decent upgrade but that's seemingly pretty expensive. If K20 pro works for you go with that. Zenphone 6 looks good too but these were outside of my budget. I paid $330 for 128GB Mi9T shipped total with taxes etc and I'm honestly very satisfied, couldn't do better.
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Click to collapse
Agree, Zenfone 6 ticks most of the boxes for a perfect smartphone...
Just migrated from the Poco F1 to this and I don't regret it one bit. The Poco just looks horrendous with that massive notch.
i sold the pocophone and was planned to buy an mi9t pro but got scammed and got a mi9t instead. the whole phone seems better and i love the screen and the build quality but also the pop up camera. amoled is definitely better and battery life on dark mode is great. only one almost unnoticiable downgrade is the cpu and it is only revelant in games ( used to play resident evil 4 on dolphin emulator and snapdragon 845 was faster ) but i haven t played the game for long times. not that much. i don t regret switching, i can only observe there is not an immense activity in development for this phone here on xda.
I too went from Poco to Mi9T and I am generally pleased with the change. However I still have to see if I can sell the Poco on eBay to recoup some of the cost.
The stock Poco was a good phone for me and I prefer the rear finger print sensor. For my use I didn't need great processor power so I didn't notice any difference in performance between the two phones.
Comparing stock cameras then the Mi9T is better. The Mi9T has a notification LED as such but it is on the top and around the pop up selfie camera and you can only see it lit up from looking down on the top of the phone so not very handy. I like the ambient display and it's good to be able to see the time and a notification at a glance. I say notification singular, as it doesn't seem to be able to show any other notifications except for Gmail. I am grateful to have NFC capability again as I find using this with Google Pay is very convenient for me.
If the Poco had an ambient display and NFC I think I couldn't justify the change of phone to myself. At the end of the day a lot depends on what the individual needs his phone to do most of the time.
I went from the Poco
I do not regret my purchase
Nice amoled display. No notch. All notifications in statubar
For me same performance for a mormal use. I'm not a gamer ...
Better stock camera
I just regret the Poco notifications led
Same battery life
So finally we have another Poco launching soon in India.
Its nothing but a rebranded Redmi K30 starting with a price tag of Rs. 15999.
As an F1 user what are your thoughts on X2?
Is it worth putting money on if someone is using F1 and wants to upgrade?
Or its a another waste attempt by Xiaomi to compete with already few months old Realme X2?
Should we keep our hopes on for F2 or X2 Pro with supposedly SD865 chipset or move our faith to Realme with the likes of Realme X2 Pro and upcoming X50 5G?
For me, disappointing. Not just because it's a rebrand of Redmi K30, but also because of the specs. They're not that impressive, given the fact that we were waiting 1,5 yrs for a new phone (which isn't even new) Thought, I like the 120Hz display and big battery. Cameras are unnecessary for me (having a quad set-up).
So I'll rather stick with my F1 until they release a truly new smartphone or "flagship killer"
In conclusion, this one is a waste of money if you own F1. It's better to invest in other Xiaomi phones or wait for F2 or X2 Pro. I wouldn't necessarily lose hope in Xiaomi (or POCO).
Not worth it, with gcam or camera will take better pictures and the cpu on f1 is stronger.
It's cheap (in India, at any rate)
Processor seems a downgrade vs the F1
"Master of speed?" Not so much
Why bother with the 120hz screen when the processor won't support highest settings on most games?
Camera looks decent, from the first look
Not an upgrade from the F1
Let's see if they can do any better with the F2 (whenever that emerges)
Its a different phone all together. I don't think it's meant to be upgrade or successor of f1, as its design philosophy differs.
On the phone itself, Only thing going for it is 120Hz which I'm not sure how much of real life diff it will make. I think the vanilla K20 might be better deal due to notch less AMOLED screen and zoom camera. If k20 gets a rate cut, I would pick k20 over x2 anyday.
Poco F1 users won't go for Poco X2, period.
There is nothing better in the X2 compared F1 except 120hz. Not even Samoled.
There is a reason why F1 was priced at 20k rupees and X2 is 16k rupees.
Upgrade can only b considered if there are:-
-Samoled with/without 120hz
-flagship grade processor
-telephoto lens
-traditional fingerprint is faster than under display
-no more ugly notches, waterdrop is okay
-plz no fancy face unlock/ir camera if its not 100% safe like iphone's face id
-battery is always gud on xiaomi devices
-lotsa dev support just like F1
-doesnt matter if it ships with miui as long as we can flash PE.
-stereo speakers or not its okay
Keep the poco line vry clear, if phones like X2 are launched under poco brand users wil get confused.
I hope this clears the air.
Will stick with the F1 and also have realme 5 as back up device and a Asus Zenfone 3 ultra and lg g6 and a LG v30 so not looking for anything yet.......
If it's not a flagship CPU inside (and it isn't...), then I couldn't care less.
The X2 isn't the successor to the F1, but more of a teaser. Yes, it's just a rebranded K30, but as per interviews, this is not the F2. A real successor will come out, just no info yet when.
Hopefully it's not a rebranded K30, but more of an upgrade to the F1. I do hope they bring back the infrared face unlock. And I'm glad they still have the sd slot (that's what kept me from upgrading to the K20 Pro/Mi 9T pro last year).
---------- Post added at 03:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:26 PM ----------
Here's my take on the X2 and the upcoming F2. If they can keep most of the stuff from the X2 like the camera, SD Slot, keep a jack, 4500mah battery, faster charging speed, the 120hz display (I'm fine with LCD just to keep costs down, and some gaming monitors with high refresh rates are still LCD and are fantastic, so it's fine). Then maybe keep the plastic back from the F1 (not a fan of glass, especially since the K30/X2 has a glass/plastic combo that isn't nice since it may likely just compromise the structure of the phone specially with falls. Note that the sides of the phone are plastic and not metal, which is bad news for integral structure as not only will the glass possibly break easier, but the plastic may break too.). Or they could go the kevlar route like the last time, or something different like the papaya leather of the concept one phone.
Also, keep the infrared face unlock. That's one of the best features of the F1 (my opinion). I don't mind the notch, so long as notifications are better implemented. Also, have a notif light.
I thought Poco brand was exclusively for Flagship device in budget, until this X2 launched. X2 seems like a mid-range device, They are just using the brandname to get most out of K30 series. Indian users prefer Redmi Note series for mid-range. X2 isn't worth it, people would rather spend it on K20 which offers AMOLED display with same processor.
I'll stick with F1 for sure ! i'm so disappointed .. i almost sold my F1 .. lucky i didn't !
chazy chaz said:
I'll stick with F1 for sure ! i'm so disappointed .. i almost sold my F1 .. lucky i didn't !
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Heee i sold it to S10 , will switch if they made poco x2 maybe with pro version with SDM 855 or 865
Xiaomi should've put a 855 (or at least 765g) instead of spending in that useless glass/aluminium body.
The whole purpose of Pocophone/Poco is offering flagship performance at midrange/low midrange price so using glass body is opposing that purpose. Glass body adds no performance and increases cost. Even waterproofing would have had some practical purpose.
Another thing to mention is regarding camera: should've put a telephoto lens rather than macro and depth sensor. Its much more useful.
Rear mounted fingerprint scanner is much better than side mounted one with a protective casing on.
I am waiting for f2 ,this x2 is not worth to upgrade .
I don't really consider X2 as the successor of F1. More like a spin off. Kinda like mid-range Galaxy phones like A series
In my opinion its defiantly not an upgrade from F1. I still loves my bery.