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your experiences with alcatel phones?

I am planning to buy this awesome phone
But I want to hear some user experiences, because I never have had an Alcatel before.
So....
- How is the service of Alcatel? Especially when it comes down to warranty
- Is this phone future proof? (talking bout the idol 3 5,5'')
- How about the support on XDA? ROMS, kernels, ability to root, unlock bootloader....
- Last but not least, if you had an Alcatel before, how was your experience with it?

Rene_ajax said:
- How is the service of Alcatel? Especially when it comes down to warranty
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Don't know it, sorry. It's my first Alcatel too.
- Is this phone future proof? (talking bout the idol 3 5,5'')
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No, I dont' believe. I may mistake.
- How about the support on XDA? ROMS, kernels, ability to root, unlock bootloader....
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Very good.
Root and TWRP available, bootloader unlocked. Few custom Rom (only 1) for the moment, but source code delivered juste some day ago, so... I do think the phone should get a intersting rom development.
- Last but not least, if you had an Alcatel before, how was your experience with it?
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Not concerned personnaly

I've owned an Idol 3 for about five weeks now (got it for $200 on Amazon Prime Day). It's everything I need in a handset, and I give props to Alcatel for making a prompt firmware update (in the U. S. anyway) available that addressed the Stagefright issue and significant bugs involving Google Voice and native SMS. I hope to get further updates to 5.1/Marshmallow, but even if that doesn't happen I'm more than satisfied.
I'm on T-Mobile in New Orleans, BTW.

so, at this point it is not sure if it gets updated to Android M?

Can you explain what you mean by "future proof" ? This phone has a 64 bit , Octa core, ARMv8 chip . In that respect, it has quite the latest hardware. The software it is running today - is clearly under-performing. But there is no guarantee that in future , a custom ROM (or a future Android version) , will not be able to take advantage of the latest instruction set, 64 bit architecture, and all 8 cores running simultaneously.

I think the key with considering a purchase of this phone is to keep expectations in check. It's not comparable to a flagship from one of the big name companies. The Nexus 6 I'm using has its faults, but it's way faster and smoother. It feels more solid. Plus it has the advantage of the enormous dev community and user base for ROMs, kernels, fellow users, all kinds of things. A phone like the Idol 3 is not likely to ever have more than a tiny fraction of that.
The Idol 3 is light, thin and has great whites and natural colors. Blacks aren't as deep as on some displays, but it's all tradeoffs. That light weight is worth something, too. It's one of my favorite features of the device. The sound from the speakers is surprisingly decent. I like the near stock Android ROM. Now that TWRP is available, it's simple to root. It's also plain, plasticky, occasionally sluggish. What the company's plans are as far as updating to 5.1.1 or M is anyone's guess. Same for whether or not there'll be ROMs, kernels and such.
It's a very nice phone for the money that should be usable for most as a daily driver. Just don't expect it to be something it's not.

maigre said:
I think the key with considering a purchase of this phone is to keep expectations in check. It's not comparable to a flagship from one of the big name companies. The Nexus 6 I'm using has its faults, but it's way faster and smoother. It feels more solid. Plus it has the advantage of the enormous dev community and user base for ROMs, kernels, fellow users, all kinds of things. A phone like the Idol 3 is not likely to ever have more than a tiny fraction of that.
The Idol 3 is light, thin and has great whites and natural colors. Blacks aren't as deep as on some displays, but it's all tradeoffs. That light weight is worth something, too. It's one of my favorite features of the device. The sound from the speakers is surprisingly decent. I like the near stock Android ROM. Now that TWRP is available, it's simple to root. It's also plain, plasticky, occasionally sluggish. What the company's plans are as far as updating to 5.1.1 or M is anyone's guess. Same for whether or not there'll be ROMs, kernels and such.
It's a very nice phone for the money that should be usable for most as a daily driver. Just don't expect it to be something it's not.
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Very good post and very true. It is a solid entry into the market at a good price. Re: upgrades... I emailed Alcatel and was told there are no plans to update to 5.1 OR 6. Not that they can't change their minds, but I'd say assume this is EOL for the phone's OS. That said, it's a good phone if you like 5.0 and can live with its bugs.
Sent from my secret lair in a hidden mountainside.

XDA-ability of Huawei phones ;)

Hey guys,
smashed my phone this week :crying: and now I'm thinking about picking up the P9!
I wanted to have a little discussion about how easy it is to root/mod Huawei phones in general, since I never owned one before. I realize that the P9 is just coming out and we don't have all the information yet, but the general policy from Huawei should translate to the P9 - i think.
So for example, unlocking the bootloader kinda gimped the camera on my previous phone (xperia z3c). Is this common practice? Can you root huawei phones without unlocking the bootloader? How about xposed?
And how willing are the devs to work on these products.
Oh and do you guys think the P9 will get double tap to wake eventually? I haven't seen confirmation if it exists, but this should be such a basic and standard feature these days that it's unbelievable that the P9 doesn't have it?
cheers and have a great day!
Matt

So all of my experience comes from a cheapo 7" tablet called the Honor T1 which my wife had. That's a really old device though and not very popular.
Anyway it was rootable with a chinese tool (language was an issue for me obviously) but it had basically zero dev support (unsurprisingly)
My question is if that's what I have to expect with the P9^^

come on guys I don't exactly need all facts^^ But let's discuss, give me your opinions! I will probably get my P9 tomorrow anyway so I'm looking forward to modding our P9 exactly the way we want.

clouds5 said:
come on guys I don't exactly need all facts^^ But let's discuss, give me your opinions! I will probably get my P9 tomorrow anyway so I'm looking forward to modding our P9 exactly the way we want.
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I'll (mostly likely) be getting the P9 Plus but am doing so in the realisation that full custom ROMs are unlikely to come to this device and those that do will likely not not have full functionality. Only for this phone is this not a deal breaker for me. If it was a pre-requisite for me buying a new phone I'd have been looking at the new Samsungs or HTC.
I really hope you won't be disappointed that you won't be able to get you P9 modded the way you want it, but I fear you may be.

clouds5 said:
Hey guys,
smashed my phone this week :crying: and now I'm thinking about picking up the P9!
I wanted to have a little discussion about how easy it is to root/mod Huawei phones in general, since I never owned one before. I realize that the P9 is just coming out and we don't have all the information yet, but the general policy from Huawei should translate to the P9 - i think.
So for example, unlocking the bootloader kinda gimped the camera on my previous phone (xperia z3c). Is this common practice? Can you root huawei phones without unlocking the bootloader? How about xposed?
And how willing are the devs to work on these products.
Oh and do you guys think the P9 will get double tap to wake eventually? I haven't seen confirmation if it exists, but this should be such a basic and standard feature these days that it's unbelievable that the P9 doesn't have it?
cheers and have a great day!
Matt
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Click to collapse
Having owned four Huawei mobiles (P8, P8 Lite, Honor 6 and 4C) allow me to clarify some things for you:
Unlocking the bootloader is easy and won't effect any of the proprietary stuff (such as losing DRM keys, Bravia Engine on Sony devices). The bootloader once unlocked can also be re-locked pretty easily. I used P8 and unlocking bootloader didn't effected camera, sound, etc.
You can probably root Huawei devices without unlocking bootloader using Kingroot. Kingroot supports most of the Huawei devices and currently is also able to root Android 6.0 EMUI 4.0 devices. So I believe, Kingroot will add support for the P9 too.
Huawei devices lack development due to incomplete Kernel sources. I haven't the seen the face of stable Cyannogenmod for any of the Huawei devices I've owned. Honor 6 got CM 11 but was unstable for daily use. It's because of the Kirin SoC which has no good sources and is not development friendly. You won't find any spec sheet relating to any Kirin devices. Talking about Kernel sources, they're a mess and they won't even compile. Huawei releases some of the sources in order to be GPL compliant and if you try to compile AOSP, all proprietary stuff such as NFC, Fingerprint, IR Blaster (in this case) are extremely difficult to be run on custom ROM.
Since EMUI 3.1, almost all Huawei devices have double tap to wake feature. P9 should have it including off screen gestures and probably knock gestures.

Thx! Exactly the information I was looking for. This sounds good enough for me. I usually use stock roms with root/xposed and this should be possible on the P9. Good news about the bootloader as well.
The main reasons I used custom roms in the past was to improve performance and battery life. Both are basically not an issue anymore with current phones. And theming is built in anyway.

Any chance of custom roms?

As already been know, no custom roms were developed for Kirin proccesor?
Any chance for Honor 8 to receive one?
I like the phone, but not the UI...

We are working directly with Honor to get the proper assets needed for open development. It is a work in progress and we should know a lot more in the coming weeks.

If what the articles on XDA and what @svetius say are true, we should have all the required files to start building custom roms. Question is, with the recent release of N, are the to be provided Honor files going to be for M or N?

If anyone is interested, I have uploaded some documentation about the experience of developing custom roms to prior Kirin devices https://github.com/HiSilicon-Kirin/Documentation
It's pretty basic at the moment but if someone wants to read it you might find it helpful for future development.
COMI80 said:
As already been know, no custom roms were developed for Kirin proccesor?
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Thst's not true https://github.com/P8LiteDev/android_device_huawei_hi6210sft

Ok, my bad and I apologize .... and I rephrase - existing custom roms on previous Kirins are far from being fully functional.
But good news for future development and thanks everybody for replies.
As for the free lesson....

I have to buy a new phone soon as my z3c is experiencing touch problems (I'm out of warranty because i unlocked the bl...) plus there is no good development for it, and this honor 8 would completely meet my needs. but I'll wait first to see if good development for it will really arrive, otherwise will have to buy something else. really hope so though, also considering the amount of good advertising it is receiving in this forum!
i really like recent huawei phones, my gf has one (g8) which is very nice, but I've never got one myself because of the poor development i found for them.. so i hope some good devs will get this one in particular not too late and be able to properly work on it :fingers-crossed:

moly82 said:
I have to buy a new phone soon as my z3c is experiencing touch problems (I'm out of warranty because i unlocked the bl...)
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Not true, European laws state that if your phone is defective and you want to use the warranty, the OEM has to prove the malfunction was caused by your modifications. In most cases, unlocking the bootloader won't void your warranty. At least in Europe.
I've sent a few of my previous phones for repairs after flashing custom ROMs... And never had a problem. At least try, even if you want to buy the H8, your Z3c might be repaired regardless, and you would have a fully functional backup phone

COMI80 said:
Ok, my bad and I apologize .... and I rephrase - existing custom roms on previous Kirins are far from being fully functional.
But good news for future development and thanks everybody for replies.
As for the free lesson....
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Click to collapse
There was no big support that's why, but now honor is providing key devs anything they need to make the honor 8 great, let's hope for nougat

Lurdy said:
Not true, European laws state that if your phone is defective and you want to use the warranty, the OEM has to prove the malfunction was caused by your modifications. In most cases, unlocking the bootloader won't void your warranty. At least in Europe.
I've sent a few of my previous phones for repairs after flashing custom ROMs... And never had a problem. At least try, even if you want to buy the H8, your Z3c might be repaired regardless, and you would have a fully functional backup phone
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thanks, I know myself that is clearly true, but I have already tried, and they do not accept the in-warranty reparation, considering I am now blacklisted in their SW as last time I sent it for repair (again for a z3c famous and common defect on the magnetic port coming out, so nothing relevant to unlocking/flashing custom roms etc) they returned my phone not repaired because it was unlocked...

Well, honor 8 should get custom ROMs

moly82 said:
I have to buy a new phone soon as my z3c is experiencing touch problems (I'm out of warranty because i unlocked the bl...) plus there is no good development for it, and this honor 8 would completely meet my needs. but I'll wait first to see if good development for it will really arrive, otherwise will have to buy something else. really hope so though, also considering the amount of good advertising it is receiving in this forum!
i really like recent huawei phones, my gf has one (g8) which is very nice, but I've never got one myself because of the poor development i found for them.. so i hope some good devs will get this one in particular not too late and be able to properly work on it :fingers-crossed:
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If you want to try an honor phone with Great Rom support look no further than the 5X (GR5) >> http://forum.xda-developers.com/honor-5x
Personally I will pass on the Honor 8 because of the smaller screen size and the kirin processor

yeah i did read about it in this forum but i prefer honor 8 because of the smaller screen I'm the opposite, don't like too big phones actually honor 8 would be even a little too big for me, but could buy it anyway and that's really the maximum size allowed for me processor will be fine as long as development will arrive, if not will probably buy a mi5

Can do a custom rom, but first need a firmware.

If I decide to get this phone, and support for custom ROM's becomes a thing, I feel like the best feature in custom ROM's would be tweaks to the Smart Key aka the fingerprint sensor. Just like with my OnePlus X, many custom ROM's let you set the alert slider for silence, vibrate, ring, or the default DND/priority notification toggle. So I feel like instead of only being able to set 3 functions to the Smart Key, tweaks would allow it to have more than 3 and set it for things that the system doesn't normally allow. That would be awesome in my opinion.

Previously till now, Kirin processor is always a deal breaker for me. I own a Honor 4X with CM12.1 installed.
No custom ROM avaliablity meaning only HUAWEI can provide future updates to us, that's not a good news.

honestly, i am also hesitant about the kirin processor.
i went on a mall last sunday to check the p9 which is most likely the same look except for the hardware and i dont know if i can really take something not close to vanilla android.. but im actually hopeful.. im confused.

yes chance for custom roms
we can expect custom roms for honor 8 in near future but developers work in their leisure time to build custom roms so wait until the kernel sources are released by huawei once they are released there will be different AOSP/cyanogen based ROMS for honor 8.
but never ask for ETAs:angel:

sagar emperor said:
we can expect custom roms for honor 8 in near future but developers work in their leisure time to build custom roms so wait until the kernel sources are released by huawei once they are released there will be different AOSP/cyanogen based ROMS for honor 8.
but never ask for ETAs:angel:
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It isn't the kernel source what's needed to build roms (although it's useful), but proper documentation from them.

Huawei nova has SD625, if u not want honor 8

Once they release proper files needed to start development, then we have pretty good devs out there who will start working on ROM immediately.

Custom ROM for Mate 9 Pro?

There are lots of interesting alt roms for the Mate 9. Has anyone developed (or be willing to develop) a custom rom for thr Pro? Pretty please!
The poor pro is being left behind... I realise this is largely because of limited geographic release but it's a great phone which deserves some attention. I'm not sure how ewsy/difficult it is to adapt the mate 9 custom roms for the Mate 9 pro... Or perhaps there are some Pro owner developers out there.
FYI I'm currently running LON-L29C636B225. Latest version appears to be B229.
Thanks in advance, and apologies if I missed something on this that has been posted already.

Did you tried to install a Mate 9 Rom?
Gesendet von meinem VKY-L29 mit Tapatalk

Blackball said:
Did you tried to install a Mate 9 Rom?
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No. I have asked on threads if a mate 9 rom would work on mate 9 pro and generally got a response of no or 'not sure'. Given that the correct region also seems to be important to make these roms work, I really didn't want to risk flashing a mate 9 image on my mate 9 pro in case of bricking. The twrp I flashed is also different from the standard mate 9 version.

I saw that KangVip build a rom for Mate9/pro...
http://club.huawei.com/forum.php?mod=forumdisplay&fid=2698&filter=typeid&typeid=4298

Isn't it just a different screen size/resolution? That shouldn't be a problem software size. I would imagine.

bejam said:
There are lots of interesting alt roms for the Mate 9. Has anyone developed (or be willing to develop) a custom rom for thr Pro? Pretty please!
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you should know that huawei phones will never have many if any custom roms. the few that have custom roms like the honor 8/P9 are loosing interest from the few devs that are trying to build roms. oreo might fix that but like i said, devs are loosing interest fast.
im waiting to see the pixel 2 and the LG v30. those will have great hardware and will have a huge custom rom support. never again huawei!

droidbot1337 said:
you should know that huawei phones will never have many if any custom roms. the few that have custom roms like the honor 8/P9 are loosing interest from the few devs that are trying to build roms. oreo might fix that but like i said, devs are loosing interest fast.
im waiting to see the pixel 2 and the LG v30. those will have great hardware and will have a huge custom rom support. never again huawei!
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Based on your response, why did YOU yourself even bother purchasing a Huawei device when you knew that rom development was going to lack?
I already knew for months before purchasing mine that ROM development was going to be small or basically non existent and I've been a ROM flasher for many many years, this is the first device I've ever own that I didn't have to root or even flash a ROM, seems you're pretty much unsatisfied because you can't flash any custom ROMs compared to other devices

XERO_Racer said:
Based on your response, why did YOU yourself even bother purchasing a Huawei device when you knew that rom development was going to lack?
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my only huawei devices have been the mate 7 which i bought brand new and a gifted bartered honor 5x and honor 8. i got rid 2 of them as soon as i could. the honor 5x is the only one i still have due to it having a snapdragon soc and a big custom rom selection.
had someone warned me about the mate 7 i would have not bought it but lesson learned. as i have stated many times, huawei hardware is great but their software is complete ****! thankfully huawei is becoming less popular on xda due to them going back on their word about providing major updates for 2 years.
to each their own i guess. you can stick with your huawei devices but most will never take hauwei serious for good reasons. LG v30 FTW!!!

droidbot1337 said:
my only huawei devices have been the mate 7 which i bought brand new and a gifted bartered honor 5x and honor 8. i got rid 2 of them as soon as i could. the honor 5x is the only one i still have due to it having a snapdragon soc and a big custom rom selection.
had someone warned me about the mate 7 i would have not bought it but lesson learned. as i have stated many times, huawei hardware is great but their software is complete ****! thankfully huawei is becoming less popular on xda due to them going back on their word about providing major updates for 2 years.
to each their own i guess. you can stick with your huawei devices but most will never take hauwei serious for good reasons. LG v30 FTW!!!
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Little bit of V30 fanboyism there?
EMUI 5.0 has never been a hiccup for me it's infact the best UI I have experienced so far alot better than 4.0.
Sucks to be you, should've done the research if you knew what you were getting yourself into but you learned it the hard way, but each to their own.
I rather have a device that rarely anyone knows about VS a phone or a brand that everyone knows, have fun with your V30, cuz I'm pretty content where I'm at, no need to go batsh** over what ROM has marginally better battery life or what kernel provided better performance or signal strength with modem files. TBH at least some credibility is due for them for actually polishing up EMUI, if they didn't care this brand wouldn't get far ?

Blackball said:
I saw that KangVip build a rom for Mate9/pro...
http://club.huawei.com/forum.php?mod=forumdisplay&fid=2698&filter=typeid&typeid=4298
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Click to collapse
Great - I didn't know about this one! The only challenge for me is the Chinese forum. I know I can google transalte but it is still a bit of a struggle - especiall;y to post questions etc.
I was hoping that some of the custom versions for the Mate 9 could easily be adapted for the Pro. I guess the Pro is a mainly Chinese audience. Depsite these ROMs being based on EMUI, I was pleased of late to see that more of them are coming out. Just not for the pro!
I also notice that the kernel source has been released. Although those experimenting are still experiencing some issues with it. https://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-9/how-to/kernel-source-t3639912
But hopefully this means renewed iinterest from developes for an ASOP ROM for both mate 9 and the Pro!

Mate 9 and custom Roms?

I was thinking of getting Mate 9, and i just noticed that there are not much development of custom roms like other devices such as LG and samsung, is there a reason or just the mate series not getting much attention?

Shady282 said:
I was thinking of getting Mate 9, and i just noticed that there are not much development of custom roms like other devices such as LG and samsung, is there a reason or just the mate series not getting much attention?
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First and second both.
Reason - You can build working boot from kernel sources. But camera will not work.
And Mate 9 has not much developers.
But in defense of phone I can say that it is great device. We are able to root and Magisk, install every stock ROM, rebrand between localizations, use Xposed. Stock ROMs are good, quick and have many useful functions.

5[Strogino] said:
First and second both.
Reason - You can build working boot from kernel sources. But camera will not work.
And Mate 9 has not much developers.
But in defense of phone I can say that it is great device. We are able to root and Magisk, install every stock ROM, rebrand between localizations, use Xposed. Stock ROMs are good, quick and have many useful functions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh thank you for your reply. :good:
can please explain what does the "rebrand between localizations" means? because i ve been reading it everywhere but not able to understand what does it mean and its purpose? and does that void warranty?
Also, someone told me on a forum that if you bought huawei from a specific region like Europe and you are using it outside of europe, as in not european simcard, you will not receive updates ? only until you use a sim related to where you bought the phone from? is this related to the "rebrand between localizations" ?

You are correct there is a few variants, Chinese normally get update faster believe it's running beta 8.0 atm
I have had many flagships in past 5 years, all oneplus, s7, s8, LG g5, 6p,
Pixel is my backup phone.
If you can get the mate 9 at a good price I swapped mine for an iPhone 7, as don't like Apple and prefer big screens.
It's a cracking phone.
The os is on par with oxygen imo.
Screen is great 1080p,
Battery life is exceptional 7hours sot out and about.
Rooted and using magisk for Android pay.
Ohhh and has stereo speakers

sutty86 said:
You are correct there is a few variants, Chinese normally get update faster believe it's running beta 8.0 atm
I have had many flagships in past 5 years, all oneplus, s7, s8, LG g5, 6p,
Pixel is my backup phone.
If you can get the mate 9 at a good price I swapped mine for an iPhone 7, as don't like Apple and prefer big screens.
It's a cracking phone.
The os is on par with oxygen imo.
Screen is great 1080p,
Battery life is exceptional 7hours sot out and about.
Rooted and using magisk for Android pay.
Ohhh and has stereo speakers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely fantastic battery life and fast phone! ?

grinch247 said:
Absolutely fantastic battery life and fast phone!
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Click to collapse
+1 Great phone! I am running stock longer than any rom in 10 years! Think about all the things you can do in your life without constantly tinkering with a phone :laugh:

Shady282 said:
Oh thank you for your reply. :good:
can please explain what does the "rebrand between localizations" means? because i ve been reading it everywhere but not able to understand what does it mean and its purpose? and does that void warranty?
Also, someone told me on a forum that if you bought huawei from a specific region like Europe and you are using it outside of europe, as in not european simcard, you will not receive updates ? only until you use a sim related to where you bought the phone from? is this related to the "rebrand between localizations" ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rebrand between localizations means that you are able to buy Chinese model MHA-AL00 with Chinese ROM and rebrand to world ROM and vice versa.
Models are same by hardware.
About sim and updates - yeah, problem still exists. To get updates quickly after they released need phone with proper region/localization and proper sim.
So, I live in Russia and have Russian operator's sim. I bought European Mate 9 cause Huawei doesn't sell Mate's series in Russia (Russia is C10 in Huawei customization). My chances to get update on my MHA-L29C432 faster than European owners are very small. Fortunately, it is not problem to me.
P.s. I told that chances are small but they are not null. Huawei rolls on some ROMs to all after some time (about month)

sutty86 said:
You are correct there is a few variants, Chinese normally get update faster believe it's running beta 8.0 atm
I have had many flagships in past 5 years, all oneplus, s7, s8, LG g5, 6p,
Pixel is my backup phone.
If you can get the mate 9 at a good price I swapped mine for an iPhone 7, as don't like Apple and prefer big screens.
It's a cracking phone.
The os is on par with oxygen imo.
Screen is great 1080p,
Battery life is exceptional 7hours sot out and about.
Rooted and using magisk for Android pay.
Ohhh and has stereo speakers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh but a lot of users reported that huawei does not have a good customer support in case of issues with the phone and such. is it true?
What about updates? do you expect getting oero and so on OS ? since there are not a lot of custom roms?
tho i didn't like the fact the regional update lock based on the sim card region you are using.
but i love the good SOT.