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Coming from a G2, I wanted to give you guys some insight of my initial impressions of the Doubleshot in Khaki...
THINNESS: The absolute first thing I noticed when I picked up this phone is how thin it is. It is remarkable how HTC can cram a keyboard into a phone this thin. It's only about 1mm thinner than my old G2, but wow what a difference it makes.
SCREEN: Definitely better than the G2, even though it's the same resolution and size. Somehow, it's a bit brighter and a bit sharper. Not anything extraordinary better, but the S-LCD makes a difference. It seems that under battery usage the screen takes up a good percentage. The S-LCD must take a lot more power than the G2 with its super TFT screen. I usually see the percentage for the screen around 50%.
BUILD QUALITY: This is where the phone starts to decline. The build is very solid and tight, but it feels very slick in the hand. Back cover is completely smooth. Every time I slip it in my pocket and take it out, I'm scared of dropping the phone. It's so thin that it's hard to grip. Difficult to slide the keyboard out as well, due to thinness. I wish there was some rubberized material around the phone, or soft touch finish on the G2. Even though it's a high end phone, the build still feels cheap. Apart from the few metal accents (such as around the rim of the phone), it's all plastic. Which makes me wonder why it's so heavy...
I have noticed that DUST does seem to get caught in the gap between the screen and the main keys. It could end up under your screen if you're not careful. It's understandable given the keys are actual buttons and not a part of the digitizer. Usually whenever I see dust starting to get caught, I take a piece of paper and just run the edge through the gap. It gets all the dust out.
SPEED: You can tell this phone is fast. Even on the stock rom, I knew this phone would be very fast. RAM seems limited though, with about 140mb for you to use once everything is loaded (stock rom). Curiously, benchmarks show much lower ratings than my old G2 OCed to 1.5 GHz. The phone is faster for sure though. Games to used to lag, no longer do. Even when running multiple apps, the phone does not slow down at all. Running a senseless rom, I have peak RAM anywhere from 275 up to 300MB free, with almost all background tasks killed, apart from a few essentials.
KEYBOARD: Oh boy, did HTC drop the ball on this one... Throughout all the android qwertys I have owned, this sadly has to be the worst. It will definitely take some time to get used to. Motorola Cliq>MyTouch 3G Slide>G2>MyTouch 4G Slide, in terms of keyboard rank for the phones I have used so far. The keys are fairly flat and have very little response and feedback. Very slick and hard to feel for. I appreciate the fact that the phone is so thin, but I'd rather have a slightly thicker phone phone to accommodate one of my main input mechanisms. With time, you can get used to anything though.
After spending a few days with the keyboard, I am glad to say it's much better. The first day or two felt terrible with this keyboard. Almost no feedback at all. But the more you use it, the more you pick up on the slight feedback YOU DO get from it. It's like trying to find the pulse on an old diabetic patient. The more you look for it, the more you will find it.
This may be personal grooming, but I've noticed that it's easier to type on the keyboard after having cut my nails than when they have grown out. It makes your finger a bit smaller and a little easier to feel for feedback, just saying...
SPEAKERPHONE: This speaker is much louder and deeper sounding than the one in the G2. Although it does get covered easily and the sound gets muffled out almost complete. This is a bad placement. For example, if you reach into you pocket to get your phone, your hand automatically covers the sound vent and then no one can hear your cool ringtone
Speakerphone still has the same flaws as I mentioned before. When playing a game in landscape mode, you do tend to cover the speaker when you're not paying attention. And then you wonder where the sound suddenly went and why it disappeared.
CAMERA: I haven't found a single scenario where this camera has not amazed me yet. It is truly stunning that a camera could be this good in a phone. Every time I have taken a picture with another phone, I always try to justify how bad it is, with the fact that it's only a camera phone and not a dedicated camera. But with the Doubleshot, I have to wonder at why I even need my camera for about 90% of my shots anymore. There has not been a single scenario where the camera has performed subpar so far. Flash is very good on this camera. Does not interfere with the photo quality at all. Usually the LED is placed so close to the camera lens, that it interferes with the image quality and actually makes the picture look worse. That was the case with every other camera phone that I have had. But not with this one.
HEADPHONE JACK: I have noticed that the headphone jack isn't ideally placed. It off to an angle if you look closely, and that could prove to be a wear issue on your buds, especially if the connector is a straight plug. It's much better to text with though, because it allows your fingers to get situated well around the phone when texting and have headphones plugged in at the same time.
BATTERY: There's no other way of putting it, the battery life is going to be bad. I'm not the kind of person that believes in toning a phone down to get better battery life, but with this phone you may have to. Realistically, with light-moderate use a user will get about 8 hours of run time before the battery is dead. The vast majority of users have said that the aftermarket Anker battery proves to be MUCH better vs stock.
My setup: 100% brightness, wifi always on, no mobile data, gmail push, pulse reader updates every hour, fancy widget GPS weather every 15 mins, and display on for collective time of 1 hour. I get about 10-12 hours on a charge (mainly because I don't use mobile data).
Will update this review the more I get acquainted with my new baby
I recently switched from a G2 as well and thought the same thing about the keyboard. After about a week you get used to it.
Sent from my HTC myTouch_4G_Slide using XDA App
gtmaster303 said:
...
SPEED: You can tell this phone is fast. Even on the stock rom, I knew this phone would be very fast. RAM seems limited though, with about 140mb for you to use once everything is loaded (stock rom).
...
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I know this is a review of first impressions, and I appreciate that window into what someone thinks coming from a different device. This is the first android cellular device i've owned (second device total - nook color being the other) and I have no basis of comparison. This device IS my entry to the smartphone scene, so posts like this give me great insight.
( I quoted the RAM part because this is a function of the BLOAT in the stock ROM, if you cut out all the BS you can easily climb above 200 megs waiting and ready on boot. Don't forget a certain amount is not user accessible, due to being allocated for system use ( CPU/GPU etc...) But this is a first impressions thread, so not trying to take away from that, just trying to bring awareness )
gtmaster303 said:
Coming from a G2, I wanted to give you guys some insight of my initial impressions...
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good review, and I agree with all of it.
as others have said, you get used to the keyboard, and in the end it seems no worse (at least to me).
I recommend getting a case for this bad boy, helps with the slickness, and protects against damage. There is a thread in accessories forum that details various options. Well worth the 10-20 spent in my opinion.
Honestly, I warrantied three phones until I got one in which the keyboard gave me some kind of response. My keys actually click now.
Am I the only one who forgot about the keyboard as soon as I saw how fast it was?
Plus you didn't say anything about the camera. It is such a great improvement from what we had on the G2. I actually haven't come across a phone with a camera that can perfom as well as this in low light with no flash!
Also the front facing camera is something I always felt the G2 was missing right from the day I bought it. It makes skype so much more usable and makes sense in actually flashing a rom with the video gtalk app.
Plus let me be the first to mention this in the DS forum. I HATED WHERE THEY PUT THE SD CARD IN THE G2! FUUUUUU! It was so annoying to have to shut down your phone just to take out the card. I used to load up movies and series for when am on the go/on the road a lot on a seperate card. What is the "eject external card" for if I had to freaking yank out the battery just to get to it?!
Another thing to note is that as much as people may hate on the DoubleShot's earpiece I overlook that because now I have a fully visible notification LED,and not hidden behind a mesh which sometimes made it not clearly visible when outdoors...
The soft coating on the G2 too was a disadvantage as it was so much easier to pick up scratches and scuffs than the DS. Infact thanks to my worry that DS would suffer the same fate, I ordered the rubberised hard cover on the same day I ordered the DS.
The hinge on the G2 was a cool feature but when it finally got loose, I hated it more than I ever fancied it in the first place. I'm glad that the DS comes with a really tight slider which no amount of shock/fall could force it open.
The G2 got the 3 shortcut keys on the Keyboard, the DS got the home, menu and back buttons. Which imo makes me spend more time on the keyboard with the DS than the G2 coz am able to navigate faster and easier with the keyboard on it. I know you may not agree with me but that too makes the DS's keyboard feel more complete than that of the G2.
Another thing I felt was a bit of a failure on the G2 was the back of the top hinge which was stuck with adhesive which you had to peel off to expose the screws. For a device that is praised for its 'solid and partly metalic buid' I really didn't like the idea of using parts that were stuck to the external body with adhesive. I haven't pulled apart the DS yet, but at least the finish on the back part of the slider seems to be much better.
I don't hate the G2, it was an excellent phone, but there things about it that make me feel am much better off with the DS.
sent via a Phone Booth
gtmaster303 said:
BUILD QUALITY: This is where the phone starts to decline. The build is very solid and tight, but it feels very slick in the hand. Back cover is completely smooth. Every time I slip it in my pocket and take it out, I'm scared of dropping the phone. It's so thin that it's hard to grip. Difficult to slide the keyboard out as well. I wish there was some rubberized material around the phone, or soft touch finish on the G2. Even though it's a high end phone, the build still feels cheap. Apart from the few metal accents (such as around the rim of the phone), it's all plastic. Which makes me wonder why it's so heavy...
KEYBOARD: Oh boy, did HTC drop the ball on this one... Throughout all the android qwertys I have owned, this sadly has to be the worst. It will definitely take some time to get used to. Motorola Cliq>MyTouch 3G Slide>G2>MyTouch 4G Slide, in terms of keyboard rank for the phones I have used so far. The keys are fairly flat and have very little response and feedback. Very slick and hard to feel for. I appreciate the fact that the phone is so thin, but I'd rather have a slightly thicker phone phone to accommodate one of my main input mechanisms. With time, you can get used to anything though
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Disagree with the build quality, to be honest. I don't really mind the weight of the phone, it feels nice in the hand. Strong plastics are better to make a phone anyways because it isn't as easily deformed.
I definitely agree with the keyboard though. Coming from a Model M, I was expecting a little more from the keyboard. I almost *always* accidentally hit "B" when trying to hit the backspace. I wish the keyboard had *slightly* more raised keys as well as requiring a bit more force to get a key to register.
Limewirelord said:
Disagree with the build quality, to be honest. I don't really mind the weight of the phone, it feels nice in the hand. Strong plastics are better to make a phone anyways because it isn't as easily deformed.
I definitely agree with the keyboard though. Coming from a Model M, I was expecting a little more from the keyboard. I almost *always* accidentally hit "B" when trying to hit the backspace. I wish the keyboard had *slightly* more raised keys as well as requiring a bit more force to get a key to register.
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I don't mind the weight, it's just there's not enough metal to justify it. If it has that much plastic in it, it should definitely be lighter.
Overall, the phone is very well built. Solid but not as premium feeling as you would expect.
Coming from the G2 as well, I'd have to say the Keyboard is a lot worse as well. I actually wish they had the MT4GS's design similar to the G2's. I loved the way the G2 lifted up to slide.
gtmaster303 said:
BUILD QUALITY: This is where the phone starts to decline. The build is very solid and tight, but it feels very slick in the hand. Back cover is completely smooth. Every time I slip it in my pocket and take it out, I'm scared of dropping the phone.
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I'm gonna guess that you have the kahki one, then? I've had both and I can tell you, the khaki one is WAY slicker than the black. With the khaki one, I almost dropped it every time I pulled it out of my pocket. It was just so freakin' slippery everywhere. The black one is a more grippy, soft-touch kind of material and it's far easier to hold onto.
So if you really can't take it and don't want a case, check on eBay for OEM black battery covers. The one I'm using now is the khaki phone with a black battery door. Still shiny and reflective bezels but a nice grippy battery door. Best of both worlds.
ryaninc said:
I'm gonna guess that you have the kahki one, then? I've had both and I can tell you, the khaki one is WAY slicker than the black. With the khaki one, I almost dropped it every time I pulled it out of my pocket. It was just so freakin' slippery everywhere. The black one is a more grippy, soft-touch kind of material and it's far easier to hold onto.
So if you really can't take it and don't want a case, check on eBay for OEM black battery covers. The one I'm using now is the khaki phone with a black battery door. Still shiny and reflective bezels but a nice grippy battery door. Best of both worlds.
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Wow, that's a great observation. Yes, I am using the khaki cover. I will see if I can switch with my friend because she has a case over her black one anyway
Thanks for the tip! You solved the issue exactly how I would've liked.
gtmaster303 said:
Wow, that's a great observation. Yes, I am using the khaki cover. I will see if I can switch with my friend because she has a case over her black one anyway
Thanks for the tip! You solved the issue exactly how I would've liked.
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I'm using the PowerMat Battery case. Gives it a nice weight, and grip. Only 10-20USD on T-Mobile.Com.
Sent from my HTC myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk
gtmaster303 said:
Wow, that's a great observation. Yes, I am using the khaki cover. I will see if I can switch with my friend because she has a case over her black one anyway
Thanks for the tip! You solved the issue exactly how I would've liked.
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No problem, glad to help. I never would have figured it out unless I'd owned both the khaki and black ones personally. It was pretty startling how much more slippery the khaki one was.
As I keep saying, this phone is a real beast. HTC needs to start listening to its consumer base again and give us vanilla Android and stop screwing us.
Delivered via candygram for Mr. Mongo.
I have added/updated the review to include the headphone jack and battery
gtmaster303 said:
BATTERY: There's no other way of putting it, the battery life is going to be bad. I'm not the kind of person that believes in toning a phone down to get better battery life, but with this phone you may have to. Realistically, with light-moderate use a user will get about 8 hours of run time before the battery is dead. The vast majority of users have said that the aftermarket Anker battery proves to be MUCH better vs stock.
My setup: 100% brightness, wifi always on, no mobile data, gmail push, pulse reader updates every hour, fancy widget GPS weather every 15 mins, and display on for collective time of 1 hour. I get about 10-12 hours on a charge (mainly because I don't use mobile data).
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Yep, anker is the right solution for someone that wants something better then the absolute fail the HTC battery represents.
If you want a perfect solution, Mugen is a better answer, but I personally run anker in one phone, both my stock batteries in the other, and the difference is drastically noticeable.
@ 1.7GHz with tv-out and using FPSE to emulate a playstation, I get just under 3 hours of steady gameplay before it starts to reduce performance at around 18% coming from anywhere between 95-100%.
I wouldn't be so mad at HTC about the battery issue if it just died fast, but the battery causes a significant amount of heat under heavier use, and that damages the device itself. That is unforgivable, even taking into consideration that HTC is not a battery company.
For someone using the device as a phone and minimal other use, the stock battery is likely -just- sufficient.
For anyone cracking open even a sliver of the machines potential it instantly becomes a liability, before any of the standard gripes about battery life on a phone.
(remember - dual core processor - it will eat more juice then a single core phone on avergage, but use less to get big jobs done)
Blue6IX said:
I know this is a review of first impressions, and I appreciate that window into what someone thinks coming from a different device. This is the first android cellular device i've owned (second device total - nook color being the other) and I have no basis of comparison. This device IS my entry to the smartphone scene, so posts like this give me great insight.
( I quoted the RAM part because this is a function of the BLOAT in the stock ROM, if you cut out all the BS you can easily climb above 200 megs waiting and ready on boot. Don't forget a certain amount is not user accessible, due to being allocated for system use ( CPU/GPU etc...) But this is a first impressions thread, so not trying to take away from that, just trying to bring awareness )
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I think people shouldn't harp on "free ram". In this environment its a good thing for memory to be used. Android was designed to be used on mobile devices. The way that it handles memory is much more efficient to say a PC running Windows. With a decent task manager or view you would see that while they are taking up memory (which is otherwise unused) they are not using any cpu cycles. This allows for a much more fast feeling and fluid experience.
Let's say I use Opera the browser, later I decide I want to watch youtube videos. When ever I decide to go back to Opera its being pulled from ram rather than internal or external storage.
When you really need the ram for an application, game, etc Android will automatically unload which ever inactive process it deems necessary.
I do agree that the stock rom comes with excessive bloatware and other unnecessary features. I use JKILO's deoxed rooted stock rom in which I absolutely remove all the bloat and extra features I don't need or use. Runs amazing now, no need for OC in my opinion.
The only thing that bothered me when I first got this phone were the random reboots stock sometimes had. Other than that the phone was and still is awesome especially coming from the old mytouch 3G.
revo420 said:
I think people shouldn't harp on "free ram". In this environment its a good thing for memory to be used. Android was designed to be used on mobile devices. The way that it handles memory is much more efficient to say a PC running Windows. With a decent task manager or view you would see that while they are taking up memory (which is otherwise unused) they are not using any cpu cycles. This allows for a much more fast feeling and fluid experience.
Let's say I use Opera the browser, later I decide I want to watch youtube videos. When ever I decide to go back to Opera its being pulled from ram rather than internal or external storage.
When you really need the ram for an application, game, etc Android will automatically unload which ever inactive process it deems necessary.
I do agree that the stock rom comes with excessive bloatware and other unnecessary features. I use JKILO's deoxed rooted stock rom in which I absolutely remove all the bloat and extra features I don't need or use. Runs amazing now, no need for OC in my opinion.
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Agreed, which is why task killers are so bad.
The reason I mentioned the RAM was because what is using it is as important as having it - when I said over 200 megs sitting waiting and ready was to show what was available for user consumption on the apps of THEIR choosing and not HTC or T-Mo.
Given that this is a first-impressions thread, I thought it might be good to see just how much the carrier-level Bloat had an effect on that experience.
Definitely good counsel to let Android handle the RAM, and keep that management out of the userspace level.
I guess the geek gods were feeling benevolent last week when they allowed me to participate in an HTC One X for AT&T early release. Of course I had to convince the guy at the AT&T company store that it wasn’t stolen and I really did need a micro-SIM card for it. But once that was taken care of it was all systems go for several hours of ‘getting my geek on’.
For those of you who don’t know me, I have been mucking about with smartphones since smartphones began. My first true smartphone was the HTC Wizard and the One X is device number eight. I am a retired senior moderator and have been beta testing ROMs and other software for over 10 years. Let’s just say I am not a young buck who loads his phone with music and wears out the screen sending text messages. I am a business user who relies on the phone for work, family and on occasion throwing birds at pigs while trapped on airplanes.
So these are my first impressions after about 48 hours use, some good, some odd, some not so good. Sorry HTC you asked for my honest opinion!
First off, this phone is THIN! Perhaps too thin for some users, my previous phone was also very thin, I put a case on it so it was easier to hold, I plan to do the same here once cases become available. The gorilla glass screen is almost bezel free, only the smallest amount of case is visible on the sides. The top and bottom have just enough bezel for the front facing camera and the speaker, truly an amazing piece of engineering. The case material (a proprietary super plastic that feels like metal) is matte on the front and back while smooth on the sides giving a very finished quality look and feel. The volume rocker is on the right, Micro-USB is on the left and 3.5mm port is on top next to the power button. Also on top is the micro-SIM tray slot and its associated pin hole. HTC ships a SIM tray tool with the phone but a paperclip works just fine.
The case is one piece with no removable doors (save the SIM tray), the battery is non-replaceable and there is no SD card slot. Now before you start cussing HTC for not making the battery replaceable or providing a SD slot, the device is designed to be as thin as possible and the only way to do that was to sacrifice those items. Thinking about it, I have never replaced the battery in any of my devices anyway and rarely have I used more than the included 10GB of storage. HTC has also partnered with DropBox giving each One X user 23GB of cloud storage for a year at no cost. I have no idea what will happen after the year expires but by then I will be getting a new device. For the record, the device has 16GB of user storage; however, only about 10GB is actually usable.
As a long time custom ROM user one of the first things I normally do is root and ROM a new device. If nothing else just to get rid of the bloatware, in the case of the One X this almost isn’t needed as the bloatware is minimal with only 12 apps that may be considered boat. The stock ROM is smooth, runs a quadrant score of 4800 and has little to no lag. Sure the stock ROM lacks the icons and color normally found in a custom ROM but for a stock ROM it is very good. I don’t need to tell you the OS is Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3) and Sense 4.0 is onboard, you read that months ago. What I can say is that the Sense experience is significantly improved even over 3.6, the panes move easily and smoothly. As always with HTC there are a myriad of clock choices, weather widgets and other gadgets to occupy your screens. Quite by accident I stumbled upon this interesting bit, if you drag an app icon onto another app icon a folder will be created with both icons included. This may be an ICS function I hadn’t read about or a Sense 4.0 bonus, in either case it’s a great way to save space.
I would love to tell you that battery life is off the charts awesome but alas having only had the thing for 48 hours or so, it is too early to pass judgment. My first blush impression is about 10 hours of moderate use, but that may prove to be way off base… more on this after a week or so.
The superLCD screen is absolutely the best screen I have used. I can be out in the bright sun and read the display easily, the gorilla glass is rounded where it meets the bezel making the transition very clean while also making it easy to feel the edge of the glass. And what is better to put on that display than pictures you have taken with the new camera. HTC went to extremes to make sure this camera is the focus (see what I did there?) of the device. Not only does it stick out the back of the case (remember what I said about too thin?) but it takes simply beautiful pictures. The shots I have seen and taken look more like they came from a DSLR or high end point and shoot than a phone. Image processing is handled by a dedicated HTC chipset relieving the dual S4s of the task. Burst mode is probably my favorite new toy, I can now capture objects in motion and select the best frame to save. The shutter is much more responsive as well, no more push………wait……wait some more….. snap. I missed a lot of good shots waiting for the shutter on my previous HTC phone. As good as this camera is I suspect that DropBox space is going to fill up fast!
In summary; this is a very well thought out device that I am proud to own and use. HTC has taken in what we the users have told them and made a flagship device that surpasses expectations.
Russ741
One quick question: What do you think about the camera lens? Do you think it will scratch easily without using case?
fsrkewd said:
One quick question: What do you think about the camera lens? Do you think it will scratch easily without using case?
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With or without a case the lens protrudes so the chance of scratching is not mitigated by a case. A little bit of common sense care should be enough to protect it.
Great review - thanks! Can you confirm whether or not there's an FM radio built in? I've heard conflicting reports, but none from someone who actually has the phone.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium
Some cases actually do put a lip around the edge of the lens lens, preventing it from touching wherever the phone is.
Your review was amazing, btw.
cbasse said:
Great review - thanks! Can you confirm whether or not there's an FM radio built in? I've heard conflicting reports, but none from someone who actually has the phone.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium
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Good question, wish I had a better answer. The application isn't there to test so I can't say for certain if the radio is there or not.
vioalas said:
Some cases actually do put a lip around the edge of the lens lens, preventing it from touching wherever the phone is.
Your review was amazing, btw.
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True, but the lens area is much larger than other phones so I'm not sure even a case lip will be that effective. Thanks for the complement.
I have used this device for the last week in place of my usual device, which is a Samsung Galaxy S7. Throughout the review I will compare the Nomu S20 to the S7, and other devices which I have owned in the past. It is important to note that, of course – the S7 is a far more expensive device and this will be reflected in my review.
The review will be split into the following sections:-
Initial Impressions
Build Quality and Ruggedness
Display
Day to Day Performance and Software
Benchmarks
Sound and Call Quality
Battery Life
Camera
Conclusion
Initial Impressions
The item comes in a rather plain brown box with the Nomu logo on the top. It contains a Charger, Cable and SIM tool. On first removing the phone from its protective bag, the first thing to strike you is how tough it looks and feel. The rubberised back looks very high end and gives a wonderful level of grip. This is the first way that you are reminded that this is no ordinary Smartphone, but one that has been designed to withstand more than your average level of knocks and bumps. There are a large number of videos you can find online of this phone having being pushed to its physical limitations and boy can it take a kicking. It is quite a weighty beast, but this really does give you confidence that it can handle being dropped or knocked and take it all in its stride. In short – it is built like a tank, but don’t let that lead you into thinking I am talking about an ugly device. It has an industrial beauty that wouldn’t look out place on the set of Blade Runner.
Build Quality and Ruggedness
With the Nomu S20 focussed very much in the “rugged” device space, you would expect it to be built exceedingly well, and that it is. With metal reinforced edges and a textured rubber back it feels to me very much like a premium device, more so than some flagship phones from large manufacturers that I have owned, for example the LG G3. There are removable flaps covering all the phones ports (SIM/SD, Charger, Headphone Jack) in order to ensure the phone is water and dust proof. I don’t have access to a lot of dust, but I have had the phone in the shower and left it dunked in the sink to test its waterproofing and can report that the device coped with it just as expected. Believe me this is no Sony Xperia Z, where the manufacturer tells you the device is waterproof but recommends you don’t actually use it in the water. My descriptions will not really do it justice though, I suggest you have a look at the following videos!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTnUpgfkOMg – Mentos and Cola!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOE1kvKe6ic – Smash it on a desk!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nom2agkfxjM – Try to destroy by any means necessary!
It is a little heavy for my tastes, however it needs to be in order to be able to take everything that is thrown at it in those videos, it is quite thick too – but considering you probably won’t need to bother with a case then it is pretty much the same as any other device once you include a decent protective casing.
Display
Impressive, very clear and very bright! 720p on a 5 inch screen is perfectly good enough resolution for watching TV and Movies on the go. The screen is very responsive to touch considering it appears to have a built in screen protector on it. I was tempted to remove it but I usually regret this type of thing as soon as I have done it as in my experience no matter what kind of glass is used on a display it eventually gets scratched. All in all I think the screen protector is a nice touch because they can be difficult to fit and for some phones difficult to find, so with the Nomu S20 you can be sure that your screen will be kept immaculate underneath
Day to Day Performance and Software
The MediaTek MT6737T SoC with 4 cores clocked at 1.5 Ghz is more than enough to handle everyday tasks at speed, I experienced little to no lag at any time when browsing even the most complex and advertising heavy websites or scrolling up and down my social media feeds. YouTube videos played promptly and I was easily able to throw these at my Smart TV. Sky Go was fine too and videos that were on my SD card played again without any hitches. I do not play games and did not attempt to use the Nomu but I don’t imagine it would struggle with Angry Birds, 3D games might be a bit of a stretch though.
It held a wireless connection as well as any other phone that I have owned and produced some good results on 4G speed tests, marginally slower and I mean very marginally slower than my S7 in the same places inside and outside the house.
The operating system seems very close to Vanilla Marshmallow and there is no bloat, not one item of bloatware and you cannot say fairer than that. There does seem to be some messaging customisation that I was prompted to try but it seem to be a direct translation from the Chinese language and I was not really sure what it was asking me, but it was easy enough to decline. The only bug I was able to find was with the battery monitor, with the graph not always displaying when you open this options through settings. Hopefully that will be resolve with an update.
Benchmarks
Antutu 38451
Geekbench Single Core 633
Geekbench Multi Core 1748
These scores are in line with the Samsung Galaxy S5 or the HTC One (M8) so flagship devices 2 or 3 years ago – pretty impressive for a ruggedised device that you can pick up for £120!
Sound and Call Quality
Call quality was no different to the S7 or any other device I have been happy with, I could hear the caller clearly using the handset speaker, loud speaker and my Bluetooth headset. I cannot imagine that there will be any problems in this area. Probably a good time to mention that the Nomu S20 supports all UK LTE bands which is not always the case with devices from new manufacturer.
The speaker. I haven’t mention it yet at all because if there was one thing on this device that really stood out it was the speaker. Waterproof and works underwater and boy, this thing is loud – really loud. I owned the HTC One (M7) with Boomsound and the Nomu S20 is much, much louder – very clear too. The speaker is rear facing rather than front facing but it makes little difference when it has this much oomph! I had to keep the volume down just a couple of clicks above mute during day to day use otherwise you ran the risk of making yourself jump with every notification. It truly is amazing.
Battery
A 3000 mAh battery + a 720p 5 inch screen = awesome battery life. Again very impressive for a device in this class, 22% battery left after 36 hours with 5 hours screen on time. This was with Bluetooth and GPS on, auto brightness with dynamic contrast turned on. I sync my emails and other messages all day long. Browsing, social media and phone calls all going on too – so there is no danger and I mean no danger of this phone letting you down during the day. Ideal for people who are working outdoors.
Camera
The camera is functional, good enough for a few quick pics for social media. I think I have been spoiled with recent devices so I wasn’t able to reproduce the quality of low light shot that I get with the S7 but that is to be expected on a device in this price range. To pack all this performance into such a tough device there was always going to need to be a little compromise somewhere and the camera might be that area.
Conclusion
The Nomu S20 would be a great choice as a daily driver for a builder or anyone else who works outside and needs something that is going to withstand a few knocks. Although the focus is on the rugged nature of the device it does not compromise in any area other than the camera as far as I am concerned. With its all day battery, shock proofing, dust and waterproofing it is going to survive under the harshest of circumstances and the industrial look ensures that it really plays the part. No bloatware and the ultra-powerful speaker are genuine highlights for me, the speaker would not be out of place on a phone at £400 and I know that vanilla Android is always welcome for a lot of users.
I only have one active SIM so I was not able to test the dual SIM functionality. The SD card I used in the device was 32GB and supported without issue but I cannot comment on whether it is able to support larger SD cards.
You can buy it from those lovely people at Gearbest http://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_490186.html?wid=11
Hi! Anyone here yet? Your phone still works fine? Did you have any problem with screen brightness in sunlight at the middle of summer?
Hi there, I owe MTT ideal (nomu s20 branded for MTT french company) and I can post some of my experiances here.
Lots words have beed saind about its features (notification LED for example ). I must add one annoying missing feateur: NFC. Yes, it misses it, so it's even worse than notificatoin LED absence.
Also I suffer from its rubber shield which is getting off the phone in its bottom left corner - that is REALLY annoying thing.
The third but not so serious problem is not so powerful battery as it might be expected - I must charge it every day and I am not using my phone really heavily.
That's all for the cons.
Phone supports 128GB SD card - I use it for music and works very well.
I also want to give a piece of advice for the other MTT ideal owners - phone can be rooted and TWRPed according to this post: [url]https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/nomu-s20-rom-root-solution-twrp-t3487307?nocache=1[/URL]
I think that MTT ideal ROM will work on s20 since those are the same devices. If someone is interested I may download ROM from my MTT and put it somewhere - there is no bloatware in it.
Preface: I am posting this here because I think it will be buried otherwise, and I want it to reach as many people as possible, since personally I wish I knew all of this before buying it.
…And kind reminder: If you feel you are an HTC combatant, please click the Back button and save yourself, and probably myself, from getting aggravated.
This review was prompted because I feel like swimming in a sea of superficial “reviews” online, which are mostly advertisements rather than real reviews, and a lot of peculiarities are unearthed only after the device is used for a sufficiently lengthy period of time.
The HTC U Ultra, in my humble opinion, is a double-edged sword (one of the edges is pointed towards the owner, sadly).
The screen is spacious at 5.7” and even though the phone is very large it can be managed in one hand, if you make a concerted effort. The overall size is exacerbated by the 2nd screen on top, which is reasonably useful, i.e. not utterly pointless.
The screen is a very good IPS-variety screen, with moderate brightness (visible enough in bright daylight). Note that the Oreo update, I believe, did considerably increase the maximum brightness, which could be very useful when the need comes, but absolutely not recommended for long-term use because of the borderline insufficient battery capacity. At least, the option to blast out the brightness in a pinch is there.
Performance is overall very good to great, games play well, day-to-day internetting, newsfeeding, facebooking, vibering (or whatever messaging app floats your boat) is great, and so is the multitasking.
The sound from the bundled headphones is outstanding (in combination with the proprietary HTC USonic EQ shenanigans), provided you like deep sub-bass and high brilliance without muffling the vocals (as I do). The sound is definitely V-shaped. The downsides of the headphones are that (a) they don’t have volume buttons, which, given the size of the phone and the inherent difficulty related to getting it out of the pocket to increase or decrease the volume, is moderately frustrating, (b) they are of the USB-C variety, which means you can’t simply plug them into most other phones or HiFi devices, and means that (c) you can’t charge your phone and use the headphones simultaneously, which, however, I wouldn’t do, since I would like the battery to have as longer life as possible, given the difficulty of replacing it (1 – the phone is a glass sandwich which means I can’t just pull the battery out and slap a new one in; 2 – HTC service centers, at least where I live, are few and far between, and 3 – the availability of spare batteries and the costs related to replacing the battery leave a lot to be desired). A negative too is that there is no USB-C to mini-jack adapter in the box, which means you have to buy one, which is easier said than done - a lot of those being sold do not work with the HTC U Ultra (unless you use apps such as Sound About or tinker with the OS) and the original HTC adapter is very hard to buy anyway, most places listing it as out-of-stock. Let’s not forget that routinely plugging cables into the USB-C connector on the phone (one for charging, another for USB-C headphones) will surely shorten the already-not-that-great durability of the said USB-C connector on the phone (and again the glass sandwich which makes it hard to replace said USB-C connector comes to mind). Also, here in Bulgaria people are not buying phones every year and the probability of me being at a place where someone could lend me their USB-C charger to top up my battery midday or mid-party are close to nil, so I have to carry my USB-C cable too.
The battery is not for power users. At 3000 mAh it is not well-suited to the power requirements of that huge and very high resolution screen (2560x1440 + 160x1040, that’s a lot of pixels). Overall, I get 3.5-4.5 hours of screen-on time from a full charge over one day, with some gaming and camera use. If you don’t use the stock camera (the phone automatically maxes out the screen brightness in the stock camera app, and you cannot turn it down, very dumb idea), don’t play games, and use the phone only on WiFi and not on 3G/4G, probably 5 to maximum 6 hours of screen-on time would be possible.
The digitizer of the phone uses snap-to-grid which cannot be switched off which is in effect when the finger is moving slowly. I tried very very hard to figure out the purpose of this seemingly dumb idea, and couldn’t find any sensible reasons for it, and also could not find any other phone with that function. I wonder why... The result is that some games, which require very precise finger movement, are much harder to play on the HTC U Ultra than on any other phone I have tried (granted I have not tried any other HTC phone).
The body of the phone is pointless, a.k.a. pretty. (To me it’s not even that pretty, apart from the logo-less fully black front glass, which I adore. But I digress.) That possibly resulted in the less-than-needed battery capacity and the fact that the phone seems extremely fragile. There is no wireless charging (which I personally don’t need) as an excuse for the glass back. HTC couldn’t even manage to make the sandwich seamless, you can definitely feel ridges where the glass meets the metal, and this even makes the phone uncomfortable to hold for prolonged periods of time. The saving grace (ironic as it may be) is that the hard-plastic case provided in the box makes the phone much more comfortable to hold and much less slippery, whilst also possibly protecting the glass back from shattering when dinged. This hard-plastic case almost entirely defeats any and all prettiness goals there may have been, so why not just make it out of that material, at that increased thickness, and then you could even cram in that much-needed larger battery… Oh, right, every other maker’s phones are made of glass too; prettiness above utility (certainly not my thing).
The second screen has some useful perks, such as having a “widget” of most used contacts or most used apps (then why have a dock too, hmm…), you can pick up the phone and the second screen will activate so you can glance at the time, battery charge, etc., you can activate the flashlight or control your music app from it. Also, and something that I particularly like, incoming notifications pop up on it, which means they don’t pop up over what you are currently doing. Yay!
There are problems with the fingerprint scanner (On Nougat, at least, have not used it since the Oreo update). Sometimes it just refuses to do any scanning but still activates the screen when touched. You are then required to enter your PIN to unlock the phone and then the scanner would work again as if nothing ever happened.
The vibration motor does not vibrate, it buzzes instead. I’m not attempting a pun or a joke, it is indeed a buzz. This feels super cheap, even compared to my 5 year old LG Optimus G Pro (great haptic feedback!). I thought it was a fault of my unit initially. Then I spoke to other owners of Ultras. Thankfully, I got used to it. That does not mean I don’t dislike it anymore.
The screen is not calibrated to sRGB standard but something much wider in terms of color gamut (allegedly DCI-P3, I don’t have instruments to test, or maybe and most probably they just wanted it to be “like Samsung”…). This cannot be corrected anywhere in the OS (you can correct the white point, though, which is good). If you like eye-popping colors you’re in luck, and conversely, if you like more natural colors – you’re certainly out of luck. The reds, especially, are rather eye-watering. On the other hand, the screen has very high clarity with no appreciable over-sharpening, rather high brightness (after Oreo update), low minimum brightness thus can easily be used in pitch black environments, and very little color inversion when viewed at angles (e.g. when showing your friends your awesome photos and videos). Of course, as any IPS screen, it is the brightness which rapidly drops when the phone is tilted, but the picture does not become yellowish or purplish, or grey instead of black. Which is very good.
The sound from the rather inaptly named BoomSound speakers is anything but Boom. The Xiaomi Redmi 4X (~ EUR 100) or the Huawei P8 Lite (2015) easily trounce it in terms of sound quality (especially bass). The sound is also rather imbalanced, most of it coming from the bottom firing speaker (which is also very easy to inadvertently cover and mute whilst holding the phone horizontally). At least it is rather loud, can create a sense of spaciousness when held horizontally and overall it is not “bad” like on many other phones I’ve heard. What is not good at all, however, is that it has an undefeatable volume ramp-up curve, which means that any sound is produced with the volume being gradually increased in the beginning, omitting the initial attack. For songs, such as for example Brain Stew by Green Day, this could be rather hilarious (or to me, rather aggravating). Unsurprisingly then, there is no attack from most notification sounds. So, the good thing is the phone’s notifications could never startle you which means you won’t get a heart-attack if you forgot to reduce your notification volume. Yay… I guess…? Nah, this is just plain dumb and awful.
I wish HTC engineers knew what “centering” means. Then the capacitive buttons wouldn’t have been in the places where I least expect them to be during my day-to-day use of the phone. They are not in the middle of the chin centrally, they are not in the middle of the chin vertically, they are just simply not in the middle of anything. I thought I’d easily get used to that. I was wrong. Their sensitivity zones are also barely extending beyond their graphical symbols. Thus, I have to depress them with my entire thumbs to make sure I’ll catch them. Sneaky bastards. Even turning on the constant backlighting of the buttons does not help as much as I thought it would.
The capacitive scanner/homebutton is also a double-edged sword – easy to use when you want to, but also very easy to accidentally touch and activate when you don’t want to – especially during heated gaming this stinks a lot.
The camera may not be obliterating any DxOMarks any time soon, but to me it is really really good. For one, the wide aperture, combined with the OIS, means you get good night and indoor shots, which I sorely desire. It is fast to snap a picture, it can be activated with a double-click of the power button, it shoots great and reasonably stable 4K video, and even more stable FullHD video if you can sacrifice the clarity of 4K. Great sound recording too! (for the videos) Overall, the camera experience feels “flagship”. Also, given that the phone is with a Snapdragon 821, Google’s ported cameras work pretty well (mind you, there are bugs, sometimes the apps just close, sometimes they don’t produce the intended results, if any at all). When using Google’s ported camera apps the HDR photography results are quite phenomenal (at least to me) and even a lot better than the stock camera app (which is very good to start with) especially for high-contrast and night-time/indoor shots. Also, portraits come out pretty stunning (provided the app doesn’t crash, of course, but that’s not a fault of the phone).
A caveat is that both the front and back cameras of the phone are very prone to flares. It certainly looks like the image is being reflected by something inside (the lenses or the sensor assembly, I have no idea which exactly) and then this reflection gets picked up by the sensor. For instance, at night when shooting shops’ neon signs, I can easily see the vertically flipped ghost flares of those signs. I, personally, am not overly bothered and find those flares more interesting than troublesome, though. Some surely might not.
All in all, it is the high-quality spacious screen (side note: a 5,8” 18.5:9 screen has ~5 cm2 smaller area than a 16:9 5.7” screen, not counting the 2nd screen on the Ultra too), the awesome headphone sound, the great camera quality and experience that make this phone worth the ~ EUR 275, provided you can live with its shortcomings, which are quite a few in my view. You’d be really hard pressed (I’m pretty sure it is impossible but maybe the ZTE Axon 7 could do the trick) to find such a screen, such sound or especially such a camera on any other phone retailing for ~ EUR 300 brand new. At its original price I’d never buy it, though.
But, if you want off-the-charger longevity, a screen with realistic colors, really good speaker sound, durable body and good ergonomics, this is certainly not your phone, even at its current price.
To me it is quite the bipolar experience – sometimes it overjoys me with its sound or camera chops, sometimes it makes me want to smash it against the wall for its absurdly stupid quirks (Which I believe someone thought were “good design ideas”. No, they are not good at all.)
So it is quite the paradoxical one – it can be both extremely good value and extremely bad value, depending on what you want. Hopefully my personal observations can help you make your own well-informed choice.
Love it or hate it. I don’t see any middle ground.
Glad to see another bulgarian with htc u ultra. I thought that i am alone. Reading the title i expected another rant against htc but in fact the review is very good and completely confirms what i observed for the 5 months with this phone. I am not fan of games and the good screen, headphone sound quality and camera are very important for me so i am quite happy with this phone. I am not so heavy user so battery lasts between 1 and 3 days (usually 2) and i also have power bank with me supporting quick charge so battery life is not a problem for me. Generally i am quite happy with the phone at that price but definitely would not pay the initial price which was over 500 eur. Regarding the type c to 3.5mm adapter - i bought original one from here and it is working very good:
http://www.citytel.bg/adapter-htc-from-3-5-mm-to-usb-type-c-dc-m321
Great review, I agree with most of yours notes. I just wanted to add, IMO - currently there is no better phone for the price it goes these days.
Agree with some fancts, bottom line is at the current price, you cant get anything better.
The Speaker of this phone is pure cancer. My old Galaxy s6 and my business(forced) Iphone SE were way better. I'm not even able to hear Music while cooking etc. IT just fu*** the ears. This is without a doubt the worst phone I've ever bought. I really should have bought the honor 7x
I am a HTC Combatant and die hard, but your review is clear and very honest. Thumb Up! All the negative point you gave really need to be reviewed and improved by HTC. I'm facing the same issues. Overall I like the phone for my everyday use..
Thanks. This honest review will definitely help
FatManYelling said:
The Speaker of this phone is pure cancer. My old Galaxy s6 and my business(forced) Iphone SE were way better. I'm not even able to hear Music while cooking etc. IT just fu*** the ears. This is without a doubt the worst phone I've ever bought. I really should have bought the honor 7x
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had an Honor 8 for six months. It was awful. Just didn't like it. Camera, interface, sound... The U Ultra is a far superior phone for a similar price.
You Sir should do phone reviews. very detailed, objective and honest review!
Thank you!
Hello, I own a Moto G4 Plus and I'm going to replace it very soon. Your review helped very much, as I can't decide between a HTC U Ultra and a Moto G6 Plus, as they both retail for the exact same price currently, at least here, in Romania. On one hand, the U Ultra is closer quality to a flagship, has a nice screen, good processor (maybe a bit old, I'll admit it) and a very good camera, at least when compared to competitors from the same year. On the other hand, the G6 Plus has near stock Android, treble support, a very easy to unlock bootloader, and still has a nice screen and decent camera and processor. I really cannot decide between those, as I am looking at the U Ultra's shortcomings as potential deal breakers. What would be your recommendations? Thanks!
For me its no brain picking the right phone.I would allways buy older flagship instead of similar placed midranger.
Yeah Ultra have some bad things battery is short-ish but all other things are beter.Build quality,sound on headphones is awesome,phone is fast no lags,slowdownds or anything like that.Camera is good and screen is ok for me.
But ur the one who needs to pick.
Only thing questionable now is Android Pie.
Thank you for this review. I ordered HTC U Ultra yesterday. Price was pretty cool - 200€. Can't wait to test it!
So as the title suggests, let's hear about your current daily driver, how do you like it so far? What kinds of features do you appreciate most? What do you think is missing?
Also, let's talk about your least favorite devices as an added hono bonus.
Might as well get it started, my current daily driver is an LG V30, H933 to be exact. It's a very well rounded phone, and for up to 90% of the tasks, it's managed to replace my laptop. Battery life is more than enough for me, even with brightness set on auto and screen resolution on 2880 x 1440, the cameras are real nice, and the wide angle shooter is just addictive to mess with, great stock camera app too. Audio quality is superb, I just love the HiFi quad DAC and even the speaker is well above average imho. Finally as expected from any flagship, performance is great, and while activating battery saver mode does introduce a difference, for most tasks you still don't notice much lag.
I'm gonna say I appreciate the ip68 rating and the ruggedness of the phone, it's already taken a small drop and survived no problem, but that was enough motivation for me to get a UAG plasma case. I also put a screen protector on it initially, but dust kept accumulating around the edges and eventually making its way under the protector I got fed up and removed it. As long as you have a decent case that has raised lips both the front and rear glass should be fine, but now I never keep the phone in the same pocket as coin or keys.
Also it turns out that in case you damage the glass, it's quite cheap to replace (15 dollars from what I've heard).
As for phones I never see myself using as daily drivers, the latest iPhones certainly make the list. On top of almost complete lack of customizability and control over the phone, lackluster stock camera apps for (a photographer like me at least), and ridiculous pricing, Apple's desperation to sell their phones (or rather force them down your throat) is becoming pathetic. The 8 and 8 plus are rather fragile, and the iPhone X, while admittedly better, isn't better by much, and the worst part is that if you crack the glass on any of these phones, it'll cost so much to replace if you don't have apple care, you might as well just get a new device, which, in all likelihood, is exactly what Apple wants you to do. Between that, and introducing OS updates that intentionally throttle the performance of their older phones, whatever little appeal Apple's devices had, is now imho gone.
Another phone I would avoid is the Motorola moto z2 force/play, the plastic screen not only feels cheap, but is also very prone to scratches. The moto G5s plus is a better budget device than the play of you ask me.