Is it worth buying an S7 now in mid 2017? What do you guys think? I really have to upgrade to a new device. I passed on OnePlus5 because of the jelly effect, and all sorts of problems. The S7 is not flawless I know that, but I'm curious what recent users, or previous users think about it. Would you recommend buying it? I hope you guys can help me with this. Thanks in advance
ofcourse it is still worth it if you can get it for a decent price. Ill take a s7 over a Oneplus 5 any day due to the fact that you can add a sd card and of its water resistance and i really like the option to go with a non curved screen because they break to easy when dropped and the curved phones have terrible cases.
RiTCHiE007 said:
ofcourse it is still worth it if you can get it for a decent price. Ill take a s7 over a Oneplus 5 any day due to the fact that you can add a sd card and of its water resistance and i really like the option to go with a non curved screen because they break to easy when dropped and the curved phones have terrible cases.
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Yeah I found some decent prices, and they are still offering it in a lot of colours too, so no problem with the availablity. I haven't thought about the curved edges at all, but good point, thank you. I absolutely agree with you there, even though the S7 is slippery because of all that glass finishing. In my opinion the S7 is a great looking phone.
The sd card was another big reason for me, so I hope thats alright, thanks for mentioning it.
Do you have any tips on cases for this phone? Or dbrand skin?
Thanks for your answer tho Sir
I'd say it depends on the variant - if you can grab an exynos model, go for it, but avoid snapdragon variants because of the inferior performance and locked bootloaders. I was torn between the OP5 and an S7 (exynos) and decided to buy another samsung because I could get it for >200€ cheaper.
The performance, display and the camera still perform really well and I like some of the unique touchwiz features, such as always on display etc. Battery life is quite good too-I can get 4h of sot without even trying. Touchwiz is still there but is better than ever with nougat. The good news is that there is plenty of AOSP development going on, so if you don't like touchwiz or tw-based-roms, you have other options to choose from.
So, in my opinion, the exynos variants of s7 are well worth it, even in the mid-2017. Just don't overpay this phone-I got a barely used one for 300€, which I think is a good deal.
What's your budget btw? If money isn't a problem you could wait for a few months and get yourself a pixel 2...
And for the skin question: I can recomend slickwraps because they are cheaper than dbrand and cover the sides of the phone as well. I am using one right now and am in love with it. If you want more customisation options, you might want to go with dbrand though.
Tados99 said:
Yeah I found some decent prices, and they are still offering it in a lot of colours too, so no problem with the availablity. I haven't thought about the curved edges at all, but good point, thank you. I absolutely agree with you there, even though the S7 is slippery because of all that glass finishing. In my opinion the S7 is a great looking phone.
The sd card was another big reason for me, so I hope thats alright, thanks for mentioning it.
Do you have any tips on cases for this phone? Or dbrand skin?
Thanks for your answer tho Sir
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I have this Spigen Rugged Armor case, highly recommended
https://www.spigen.com/collections/galaxy-s7/products/galaxy-s7-case-rugged-armor-black
Takes 2 seconds to put on and take off
The S7 is a fine phone, but not exceptional. I had a Xiaomi Mi5 before it and I replaced it because of the rubbish software releases when it moved to Nougat. The Mi5 was lighter and sexier. the S7 is heavy and reliable like a family car but nothing really leaps out. Video is good, Stills camera is remarkably not sharp. S7 comes with the usual lorry load of bloatware. I use one of the battery saving modes.. its no where near as good as the Mi5 was on battery. so there you go, Strong and Stable
the\downslash\ said:
I'd say it depends on the variant - if you can grab an exynos model, go for it, but avoid snapdragon variants because of the inferior performance and locked bootloaders. I was torn between the OP5 and an S7 (exynos) and decided to buy another samsung because I could get it for >200€ cheaper.
The performance, display and the camera still perform really well and I like some of the unique touchwiz features, such as always on display etc. Battery life is quite good too-I can get 4h of sot without even trying. Touchwiz is still there but is better than ever with nougat. The good news is that there is plenty of AOSP development going on, so if you don't like touchwiz or tw-based-roms, you have other options to choose from.
So, in my opinion, the exynos variants of s7 are well worth it, even in the mid-2017. Just don't overpay this phone-I got a barely used one for 300€, which I think is a good deal.
What's your budget btw? If money isn't a problem you could wait for a few months and get yourself a pixel 2...
And for the skin question: I can recomend slickwraps because they are cheaper than dbrand and cover the sides of the phone as well. I am using one right now and am in love with it. If you want more customisation options, you might want to go with dbrand though.
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I can't afford the Pixel right now, so budget is a deal here. It's hard to tell you how much my budget actually is, because in my country prices could be a bit strange. But about 400 € - 450 €. If you have any other suggestions I welcome it, but I want a somewhat elegentish kind of phone, closer to high end, with great camera and battery life. I also like if a phone is durable, but thats not the most important thing at all. More like to be close to stock android. (I know TouchWiz is there, but it's still more stock then a Huawei for example)
Thanks for the tip on the chipset, I checked it, and it is Exynos Octa core. But I did not know thats a deal breaker so thanks for mentioning it really.
Tados99 said:
I can't afford the Pixel right now, so budget is a deal here. It's hard to tell you how much my budget actually is, because in my country prices could be a bit strange. But about 400 € - 450 €. If you have any other suggestions I welcome it, but I want a somewhat elegentish kind of phone, closer to high end, with great camera and battery life. I also like if a phone is durable, but thats not the most important thing at all. More like to be close to stock android. (I know TouchWiz is there, but it's still more stock then a Huawei for example)
Thanks for the tip on the chipset, I checked it, and it is Exynos Octa core. But I did not know thats a deal breaker so thanks for mentioning it really.
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Well, another option in that price range would be an Oneplus 3/3T. Oneplus doesn't sell them anymore, but you can get used ones for cheap. They are far more durable than the s7, battery life is superior and the performance is still top-notch, thanks to close-to-stock os. The only things that you are really missing out on compared to the s7 are camera and wireless charging.
LG G6 has dropped in price significantly as well so that might be another option to consider. I am not a big fan of their UI, but that's just me.
Regards.
the\downslash\ said:
Well, another option in that price range would be an Oneplus 3/3T. Oneplus doesn't sell them anymore, but you can get used ones for cheap. They are far more durable than the s7, battery life is superior and the performance is still top-notch, thanks to close-to-stock os. The only things that you are really missing out on compared to the s7 are camera and wireless charging.
LG G6 has dropped in price significantly as well so that might be another option to consider. I am not a big fan of their UI, but that's just me.
Regards.
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Problem is that I don't want to buy an used phone. And the camera is very important for me. But if One Plus would still sell them, I would have selected the 3T, because I am an OP fan really. But like this, that's not an option. I check if I can fimd any new ones, not from the original site. Thats on option.
Thanks tho!
Tados99 said:
Problem is that I don't want to buy an used phone. And the camera is very important for me. But if One Plus would still sell them, I would have selected the 3T, because I am an OP fan really. But like this, that's not an option. I check if I can fimd any new ones, not from the original site. Thats on option.
Thanks tho!
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Yeah, it cold be find to find a brand new one right now... In that case, the S7 is probably your best option. You might consider some of the other last-year-flagships as well, such as the HTC 10. Anyway, good luck with your purchace.
It's a pretty nice phone, I just got mine a few months ago.
Keep in mind, my previous phone was a Moto X Pure, also this is the Exynos variant of the S7.
Battery life is about twice as long as what that phone was, I get an average of about 4-6 hours of SOT and with Nougat it should last fine on standby.
Display looks amazing, an AMOLED panel at a 2K resolution in a 5.1 inch phone looks super sharp and nice, gets bright outside.
Speaker pretty much sucks... It gets decently loud, but it's so easily to cover it by accident even with a case on.
The design of the phone is pretty and nice, it holds up very well in 2017. Sure it has big bezels and no curved screen (I have a flat S7), but it's still a solidly built phone that looks beautiful. But I have to say DO NOT USE THIS PHONE WITHOUT A CASE!!! The back is VERY slippery, one drop and that beautiful glass back will get shattered...
Fingerprint scanner is decently fast and accurate, only complaint is that the scanner is in the middle of the home button, I wish it was a concaved home button like on the iPhone.
The camera is very nice, can record 60 FPS at 1080P with video stabilization making your videos look good. Pretty decent in low light, The auto focus is SUPER fast, focuses instantly and the camera snaps pictures in an instant, double pressing for camera is quick and convenient. Front camera pretty much sucks tbh, not really possible to turn off all the dumb beauty features. Tons of camera modes to play around with, not much different in terms of the camera from my Moto X Pure.
Water/dust resistance, I haven't tested this and I don't plan to, basically all I can say is people please only consider this as a failsafe as in don't rely on it, like if your phone falls in water then you should go after it right away and the phone should be fine.... But if it's not, the warranty WILL NOT COVER IT!!! So go swimming at your own risk. Also, you can use the volume buttons to take pictures for underwater photography.
And lastly..... THE SOFTWARE.
Now.... What do I have to say about the infamous Touchwiz coming from stock android? Well, my first phone was an S3 (I had it before the MXP) so I kind of knew what to expect from Touchwiz in terms of features. And I can say this phone is just PACKED with lots of neat software features! I disabled the bloat, decided not to use a theme, used the default launcher, and the phone runs fine and works fine for me. Do I miss stock android? Not really, Touchwiz has a lot of added features that I wish Stock had, and small tweaks/changes that make the experience better in my opinion. Also, there are definitely small hiccups here and there with stutters, but it's nothing too bad tbh, apps open up nice and fast and the phone is always responsive, only thing that really sucks is the usage... RAM usage is kind of high even when your recents are cleared, and the storage available out of the box is kind of low so I would recommend a Micro SD Card if you take lots of pictures (though, those can slow your phone down keep in mind). I got about three software updates (all security) since May of when I got this phone, so updates don't seem to be too bad. But keep in mind it'll be ages until we see Android O on this phone, just a heads up. All in all, Touchwiz has grown up and refined its features instead of including a million features and being laggy (S5 and below), it's now simpler and more streamlined since the S6.
And that's all I have to say about the phone! I hope my review has helped someone out there looking to see if they want to buy a Galaxy S7.
I would say try to get the Exynos variant though if you can, I heard the Snapdragon one is horrible.
Depending on how much you find this phone for, I would definitely recommend it! It has a great display (one of the best), great camera (really can't go wrong with the camera), a beautiful design (no ugly ports for water resistance), good battery life (for the average user), and the software, is not all that bad IMO, though some people do swear against it lol.
Androidlover99 said:
It's a pretty nice phone, I just got mine a few months ago.
Keep in mind, my previous phone was a Moto X Pure, also this is the Exynos variant of the S7.
Battery life is about twice as long as what that phone was, I get an average of about 4-6 hours of SOT and with Nougat it should last fine on standby.
Display looks amazing, an AMOLED panel at a 2K resolution in a 5.1 inch phone looks super sharp and nice, gets bright outside.
Speaker pretty much sucks... It gets decently loud, but it's so easily to cover it by accident even with a case on.
The design of the phone is pretty and nice, it holds up very well in 2017. Sure it has big bezels and no curved screen (I have a flat S7), but it's still a solidly built phone that looks beautiful. But I have to say DO NOT USE THIS PHONE WITHOUT A CASE!!! The back is VERY slippery, one drop and that beautiful glass back will get shattered...
Fingerprint scanner is decently fast and accurate, only complaint is that the scanner is in the middle of the home button, I wish it was a concaved home button like on the iPhone.
The camera is very nice, can record 60 FPS at 1080P with video stabilization making your videos look good. Pretty decent in low light, The auto focus is SUPER fast, focuses instantly and the camera snaps pictures in an instant, double pressing for camera is quick and convenient. Front camera pretty much sucks tbh, not really possible to turn off all the dumb beauty features. Tons of camera modes to play around with, not much different in terms of the camera from my Moto X Pure.
Water/dust resistance, I haven't tested this and I don't plan to, basically all I can say is people please only consider this as a failsafe as in don't rely on it, like if your phone falls in water then you should go after it right away and the phone should be fine.... But if it's not, the warranty WILL NOT COVER IT!!! So go swimming at your own risk. Also, you can use the volume buttons to take pictures for underwater photography.
And lastly..... THE SOFTWARE.
Now.... What do I have to say about the infamous Touchwiz coming from stock android? Well, my first phone was an S3 (I had it before the MXP) so I kind of knew what to expect from Touchwiz in terms of features. And I can say this phone is just PACKED with lots of neat software features! I disabled the bloat, decided not to use a theme, used the default launcher, and the phone runs fine and works fine for me. Do I miss stock android? Not really, Touchwiz has a lot of added features that I wish Stock had, and small tweaks/changes that make the experience better in my opinion. Also, there are definitely small hiccups here and there with stutters, but it's nothing too bad tbh, apps open up nice and fast and the phone is always responsive, only thing that really sucks is the usage... RAM usage is kind of high even when your recents are cleared, and the storage available out of the box is kind of low so I would recommend a Micro SD Card if you take lots of pictures (though, those can slow your phone down keep in mind). I got about three software updates (all security) since May of when I got this phone, so updates don't seem to be too bad. But keep in mind it'll be ages until we see Android O on this phone, just a heads up. All in all, Touchwiz has grown up and refined its features instead of including a million features and being laggy (S5 and below), it's now simpler and more streamlined since the S6.
And that's all I have to say about the phone! I hope my review has helped someone out there looking to see if they want to buy a Galaxy S7.
I would say try to get the Exynos variant though if you can, I heard the Snapdragon one is horrible.
Depending on how much you find this phone for, I would definitely recommend it! It has a great display (one of the best), great camera (really can't go wrong with the camera), a beautiful design (no ugly ports for water resistance), good battery life (for the average user), and the software, is not all that bad IMO, though some people do swear against it lol.
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WELL! Thanks man for the long breakdown. In the end I bought the s7. Right now I'm using it. It is amazing, I really liking it so far. There are a bunch of stuff what I haven't tried yet, but we shall see! Thanks again for your breakdown!
Tados99 said:
WELL! Thanks man for the long breakdown. In the end I bought the s7. Right now I'm using it. It is amazing, I really liking it so far. There are a bunch of stuff what I haven't tried yet, but we shall see! Thanks again for your breakdown!
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No problem! Just saying my honest opinion on the phone, if you need anything just ask!
Related
Always curious to hear.
Got mine yesterday.
It's all screen! Lighter, thinner than GS3. Feels more like a small, thin Note 2 which is a good thing to me. Not so bubbly as GS3. Screen is amazing. Bloatware is out of control. The back looks kind of like snake skin.
The speaker is much louder than GS3. So far, I love it. Haven't even tried the features yet!
Anyone else?:good:
Got mine yesterday as well. Extremely nice screen! Gorilla Glass 3 resists finger prints better then advertised in my opinion and the overall 5 inch display is incredible. Super zippy but yes, comes loaded with Samsung and AT&T Apps but this shouldn't be too surprising as Samsung did advertise there software quite a bit. Only natural they put there mark in it. On the flip side all this is easily fixable once a root is out but EVEN with this stuff the phone manages to handle it's memory well and work fast.
Overall I am glad I waited and after a couple of weeks I think there people freaking out are really gonna kick themselves for getting all worked up over stupid problems that are easily dealt with.
Got mine yesterday. see my bloatware thread.
Hardware is amazing and top notch. Software is so bloated and bogged down that, when combined with locked bootloader, I will strongly consider returning.
People might flame me for this, but even with the bloat disabled and using Nova launcher, my gs3 running slim bean is faster on everyday tasks.
Just hit 5% battery life and the phone just automatically reduced brightness to a point that I can barely use it, and phone won't let me crank it back up. Just way too much garbage.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337
WMguy said:
Always curious to hear.
Got mine yesterday.
It's all screen! Lighter, thinner than GS3. Feels more like a small, thin Note 2 which is a good thing to me. Not so bubbly as GS3. Screen is amazing. Bloatware is out of control. The back looks kind of like snake skin.
The speaker is much louder than GS3. So far, I love it. Haven't even tried the features yet!
Anyone else?:good:
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screen is mind blowingly good, i had a HTC one for 3 days before i got my GS4 and honestly the one was closer to the s4 then i thought it would be. the one had less bloat and it stutter a bit less (after freezing bloat my phone has gotten ALOT better). camera is awesome love the quality and wow this phone is so small for 5 inches. coming from a note 2 and a temporary lumia 920 this thing feels tiny and light, honestly one of the major selling points of the gs4 is it's bezel less design (imo). if bootloader stays locked for long i am selling it or trading it for the one or octa core version.... its a shame that the stock rom is so bloated, i traded the one back because i thought sammy software would blow htc out the water but it didn't . One more thing, the GS4 tv remote works 10000 times better then the htc one. htc could not sync to my sound bar or u-verse box no matter what i tried, the GS4 had that working in seconds. i have 3 remotes just for my bed room and the fact that i do not need them is a huge plus.
phositadc said:
Got mine yesterday. see my bloatware thread.
Hardware is amazing and top notch. Software is so bloated and bogged down that, when combined with locked bootloader, I will strongly consider returning.
People might flame me for this, but even with the bloat disabled and using Nova launcher, my gs3 running slim bean is faster on everyday tasks.
Just hit 5% battery life and the phone just automatically reduced brightness to a point that I can barely use it, and phone won't let me crank it back up. Just way too much garbage.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337
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You might need to play with the settings some more for the auto brightness settings. As for the lag, AOSP ROMs have always been faster (in my experience) to Touchwiz Roms. I'm going to put up with the stock Touchwiz for as long as I can before trying out the first releases of AOSP on the GS4. I'm hopeful we will see some crazy development action if it's true the Quad-core international version ROM's can easily be ported to the US versions and vice versa. The international GS3 had so much to chose from. I was perfectly happy on my GS3 using AOKP, but I'm sure I'm not going to regret moving over to the GS4. I had the same debate when switching from the GS2 to the GS3.
I dont get mine till tonight, but I found one in a best buy mobile store and was surpised at how much stuttering I saw just going through the homescreens.
Im hoping that when I disable all the eye tracking stuff that will all run better.
porkaysi said:
the GS4 tv remote works 10000 times better
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I'm sold
I tried the htc one remote control feature and liked it. Only thing I really liked, glad to hear the gs4 one is better. Definitely comes in handy.
How is the camera? Especially the dual shot feature(I feel I'll be using this alot )? And the other camera features?
SysAdmNj said:
I'm sold
I tried the htc one remote control feature and liked it. Only thing I really liked, glad to hear the gs4 one is better. Definitely comes in handy.
How is the camera? Especially the dual shot feature(I feel I'll be using this alot )? And the other camera features?
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just got the phone yesterday but i have not played with it a lot, studying for finals . but i did dual shot and it is cool and i could see it being fun to use. have not tried all the shooting modes but i am flying to NYC tonight and i plan on taking a bunch of photos and playing with the camera in depth over the weekend
SysAdmNj said:
I'm sold
I tried the htc one remote control feature and liked it. Only thing I really liked, glad to hear the gs4 one is better. Definitely comes in handy.
How is the camera? Especially the dual shot feature(I feel I'll be using this alot )? And the other camera features?
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Here are some photos I snapped this morning in challenging conditions: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oll6vneulv13mz6/TZcApg0pCD
Overall, better than Galaxy S3 by a decent margin. But I used to have an iPhone 5, and my initial impression is that the IP5 takes better pictures than the GS4, at least in these conditions. I feel like it was extremely rare that I got a bad photo out of that phone, even in a relatively dark room as in these pictures, but as you can see in my link, several of these are pretty bad.
porkaysi said:
just got the phone yesterday but i have not played with it a lot, studying for finals . but i did dual shot and it is cool and i could see it being fun to use. have not tried all the shooting modes but i am flying to NYC tonight and i plan on taking a bunch of photos and playing with the camera in depth over the weekend
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Click to collapse
Well good luck with that, and post some of the pics when you can
phositadc said:
Here are some photos I snapped this morning in challenging conditions: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oll6vneulv13mz6/TZcApg0pCD
Overall, better than Galaxy S3 by a decent margin. But I used to have an iPhone 5, and my initial impression is that the IP5 takes better pictures than the GS4, at least in these conditions. I feel like it was extremely rare that I got a bad photo out of that phone, even in a relatively dark room as in these pictures, but as you can see in my link, several of these are pretty bad.
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Your pics look pretty good to me. I'm viewing them on my 24" monitor at work though. Cute dog btw. I'm sure compared to the ip5 the gs4 will have better detail due to the higher resolution in normal conditions? Is there an exposure setting? Or other settings to help low light conditions?
SysAdmNj said:
Well good luck with that, and post some of the pics when you can
Your pics look pretty good to me. I'm viewing them on my 24" monitor at work though. Cute dog btw. I'm sure compared to the ip5 the gs4 will have better detail due to the higher resolution in normal conditions? Is there an exposure setting? Or other settings to help low light conditions?
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Now that I've taken a second look, I guess you are right that they are pretty decent, except for one of them. I'm so used to looking at things on a small screen that when I blow it up on a big monitor I expect it to be just as sharp on a big screen as it was on a small screen!
phositadc said:
Now that I've taken a second look, I guess you are right that they are pretty decent, except for one of them. I'm so used to looking at things on a small screen that when I blow it up on a big monitor I expect it to be just as sharp on a big screen as it was on a small screen!
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i agree. those pics you posted dont look that bad. that's the problem with the htc one camera (i own one) when you increase the resolution of the pic, the quality suffers due to only being 4mp. the gs4 is 13mp so it wont be as bad when you increase it's resolution (although there will still be some kind of quality drop off).
Just frickin' awesome. After having the Note this "cheap" plastic feels luxurious
Got mine today. Coming from an LG Optimus G. Here's a few thoughts.
1. I really like the keyboard. But since I've been a swiftkey user for a long time that's no surprise.
2. Screen is very good. Wish it was a little brighter when using auto brightness, but it is very good nonetheless.
3. Maybe I'm just not that picky, but I don't notice any lag. At least not anything bad enough to complain about.
4. Seems to charge pretty fast with the included 2 amp charger.
5. It might be plastic, but I can tell you I like the light weight and the feel in my hand better than my LG Optimus G...
6. I thought the 'swapped' menu and back buttons would bother me. But to be honest, I kind of like it better...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
I have a few questions,
1. Does the speaker have 'stereo sound' like the HTC one? Can you hear the base? What about hooking up to the headphone? Does it sound better than S3?
2. Anyone here uses Allshare cast? I have a Samsung LED Smart TV that I stream movies directly from my phone to the TV with a touch of a button on the S3. It does have occasional lags, however. Does the S4 do the same?
3. Does the S4 have the same amount of ringtones like the S3?
JasonJoel said:
6. I thought the 'swapped' menu and back buttons would bother me. But to be honest, I kind of like it better...
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Click to collapse
I actually really like the button setup. When I got my first smartphone like three years ago, it was a Blackberry, and it had a similar button arrangement. It went [PHONE][MENU][HOME/SELECT][BACK][END CALL]. My current Galaxy S2 is [MENU][HOME][BACK][SEARCH]. So the S4 will be the same as I am used to, and I will appreciate not having to get used to a new setup.
two issues.
1)wifi keeps on disconnecting... very annoying
i have another device on the same wifi, but it's not disconnecting at all.
2) RAM. even if i clear everything, i'm at 1.2GB ish.. i always notice the homescreen widgets refreshing themselves due to low RAM.
anyone else?
everything else is fine.
speedy, beautiful screen, good speaker, very nice camera, etc.
Speaker is very good; coming from S2
Bloat... Blah
Android without root, is like a day without sunshine.
fargonaz said:
Android without root, is like a day without sunshine.
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This is a great comment! I agree 100%.
rsmolen said:
This is a great comment! I agree 100%.
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I honestly dont feel a need to root with the One S4 I can see being pretty much the same. Too me stock is way more boring =/
This phone is so damn good that I thought it deserved a thread for some love. The usual threads are popping up with all the complaints and things, but I am just... enamored with this phone so far. I love it WAY more than my Note 7 (and I was a huge Note 5 fan). My favorites things so far:
-Removable battery is so slick with that button to pop off the back cover!
-Software is really, really nice. Android 7 is amazing and the LG skin doesn't do much of anything to ruin it.
-Fingerprint scanner is blazing fast and accurate and the knock code to wake is great when device is on a flat surface.
-Screen is awesome. I don't care about what the numbers say about color accuracy - it looks phenomenal to my eyes.
-The second screen is something I use so much now that I'd have trouble leaving it. Handy, eye-catching, etc.
-The phone is stunning. I've had many people asking me what it is and commenting on how nice it looks. I'm running it with no case so far because I just can't bring myself to hide this thing.
-IR blaster: as much as I didn't care when I didn't have one, I really love having it now!
-Manual mode on camera: the adjustments you can make to shutter speed and things are awesome, especially since you can see the affect it has live on your screen. I'm learning more about manual photography this way!
-Battery life is incredible. It helps that I was on the V10 for a couple week and that was abysmal, but I think it's been about on par with the Note 7 for me so far.
-Memory card slot with the 256GB card (Thanks, Samsung!).
-Stock launcher is actually usable... I've been a Nova Prime user for years and now I don't think I need it.
-Audio: WOW! My Westone 3's are getting used to their full potential finally. The Note 7 just didn't cut it. Volume is high and powerful, and the audio quality is amazing.
What are you guys' favorite features? Use this thread to generally just bask in the awesomeness of this phone. For me, it's easily the best of 2016 (ESPECIALLY for $672 through Verizon!).
My only complaint is this:
WTH is the stylus?
They see fit to put one on a low-mid range phone, but, omit it from their flagship device?
Seriously, WTH makes these decisions, SMH........
This phone is awesome, but, moves like this just proves once again that the corporate think tanks are tone deaf/have their heads firmly positioned in their backside........
They've kept the removable battery, expandable storage, I-R Blaster, why stop there?
They should up the ante & include a stylus, the timing couldn't be better, perhaps next year.......
Sent from my elsa using XDA Labs
My music player in the second screen isn't working. Is there anyway around this issue?
Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk
mrcarterac said:
My music player in the second screen isn't working. Is there anyway around this issue?
Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do the buttons show?
Yes the buttons do show.
Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk
I thought this was an appreciation thread...that lasted long.lol
Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk
pencil316 said:
I thought this was an appreciation thread...that lasted long.lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking the same thing. This is supposed to be an appreciation thread!
pencil316 said:
I thought this was an appreciation thread...that lasted long.lol
Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Valid point :good: So,I'll try to steer the thread back,since I was the 1st one going the opposite direction:
I'm in agreement w/the OP,this is an all-around great phone.
I actually like LG's U/I,it has a lot of features anyone would like,this is the high points for me,just off the top of my head:
1) Double-Tap to Wake/Sleep
2) Customizable Navigation bar (How cool is that?)
3) Hide the Navigation Bar on a per-app basis
4) Removable Battery/I-R Blaster (Samsung,you're damn fools for leaving these behind)
5) 2nd Display,'nuff said..............
6) Display/Build Quality/Overall Performance are tops,equal or better than anything on the market today.
7) Camera is fast to focus & shoot,pix look great to me,others I've shared with say the same.
I like the second screen better than I did the Edge function on the Note 7. My battery life has been nothing short of phenomenal. I just spent over twenty minutes on the phone... wifi calling... and the battery dropped 1%. I like the bottom firing speaker over the back firing one on the Note, and for my ringing, worn out ears, the bluetooth audio is great. One day I'll have to plug in to check out the DAC.
KOLIOSIS said:
My only complaint is this:
WTH is the stylus?
They see fit to put one on a low-mid range phone, but, omit it from their flagship device?
Seriously, WTH makes these decisions, SMH........
This phone is awesome, but, moves like this just proves once again that the corporate think tanks are tone deaf/have their heads firmly positioned in their backside........
They've kept the removable battery, expandable storage, I-R Blaster, why stop there?
They should up the ante & include a stylus, the timing couldn't be better, perhaps next year.......
Sent from my elsa using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can supply your own stylus easy and cheaply. If you want note quality stylus, this phone probably would've been $50 more expensive to get a wacom digitizer. Or maybe more. I'm quite sure LG wouldn't get the economy of scale price on a wacom digitizer or similar to get a similar feature set and experience on this phone. Just get a good high quality capacitive stylus. But I kind of agree. For how big this phone is, I wouldnt have minded a mm thicker at ALL! make room for a stylus similar to note, get rid of the camera hump and some of the paranoia about breaking camera protective lens, and probably a couple hundred extra milliamps on the battery. That easily would've justified the phone's asking price minus the $200 promotion and free bang and Olufsen earphones. With the promotions I bought this going in thinking it would make and excellent portable camera, audio recorder for special events and the DAC is much much better than I thought. So would've been a nice mini tablet with top of the line features to keep in backpack or car. And the features I just mentioned are extra special because of the swappable battery. Adds longevity for the auxiliary uses besides a phone. I'm still up in the air about who wins as the daily driver because the screen is awful at ~9000k. I figured out a way to help is to leave comfort view on low or medium. Quite sure the Kelvin is closer to 6500k. This phone is friggin' awesome though. It's going to be a tough decision. I just took my note4 apart and fixed the GPS issues that plagues so many users. Was actually easy. Plus the note4 has the much preferred AMOLED display not to mention it looks accurate and the camera is still hella good. And can't forget the s-pen. But the V20 blows it out of the water with the loudspeaker, ESS Sabre 9218 DAC coupled with headphones. Kind of glad I'm ha I g this problem. I love the note4 but LG unexpectedly blew me away with the sum of the parts, and some of the parts are top of the line which can't be ignored. Note4 has custom recovery and root also. That's a plus for the note4 also. But if and when the V20 gets root, I have a feeling the V20 will tip the scales with root privileges. Touchwiz has to be xposed to death to get it the way I like it, a couple of other custom touches I added on my own, fingerprint unusable on note4 with case and LG UI isn't all that bad. Much better than all previous phones I've played with. But yeah. Thanks LG. THE V30 needs top tier binned AMOLEDS, wacom digitizer with stylus, keep the same DAC, no camera hump and don't mind an extra mm or two for that, bigger battery. I mean c'mon. This has to be the biggest 5.7" phone out there. What's a couple mm extra thickness to make Samsung and the note series have BETTER competition? And think about it guys. How much extra SOT we would've got with the theming, of which we can pick black themes and this monster probably could've pulled close to 10h SOT on the best of days and probably 6h minimum on the worst. Keep it up and keep adding features. And a damn led. Or make the second screen amoled with option to make a digital notification light.
Just picked up at my local T-Mobile, they only got one and the girl who worked there was pissed that I called to reserve it lol. Quick history on my phones: LG G3, G4, V10, Nexus 6p when my V10 got the boot loop of death.
This V20 is crazy fast and buttery smooth! I'm stunned at the difference to the V10 and it's on par with a new (not loaded up) 6p. Screen is great, 2nd screen is so much better this time around! I'm actually using the stock launcher! I've never used one (Nova) but it's really good!
Overall, it's really a major improvement!
Hello,
I got the S8+ a few days ago, and it definitely feels better in the hand, but to me the overall experience is about the same. Certainly, some things are improved but not feeling it is worth $850 upgrade- the S7E is really good and still is working well for me. What are your thoughts? what do you think are the killer features that are that much better than the S7e?
thanks,
aaronc_98 said:
Hello,
I got the S8+ a few days ago, and it definitely feels better in the hand, but to me the overall experience is about the same. Certainly, some things are improved but not feeling it is worth $850 upgrade- the S7E is really good and still is working well for me. What are your thoughts? what do you think are the killer features that are that much better than the S7e?
thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To early to tell but I am getting double the battery life without having to disable anything. That in itself is worth it to me. Also, my S7edge would get real slow and I would have to do a hard reset to fix it. Even now it takes forever for my S7e to boot up and work smoothly. I just feel that the S8 plus beats it hands down. I am not to excited about the screen real estate though. Most apps are not optimized for the new screen ratio so with the exception of the OS most apps make it seem like you have bezels and if you run it in full screen it cuts part of the screen off.
Reminds me when wide screen TVs were coming in. The tech is there but software will need to catch up and not sure if the new aspect ratio will catch on.
But the battery and performance are enough of a difference for me to justify it. The S7e was a solid phone but this one beats it out so far for me.
I'm on the Sprint Galaxy Forever plan and since I didn't root the S7e I had nothing to lose but some time.
My S7 Edge lagged so much. Going to the S8+, its so smooth! I'm loving this phone!!
Thanks, my S7E is still performing rather well except for battery. My S8+ battery has not been performing as well as some of you but that may because of my app choice and only a few cycles.
Appreciate the opinions...
Sent from my SM-G955U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Sirdragonx said:
To early to tell but I am getting double the battery life without having to disable anything. That in itself is worth it to me. Also, my S7edge would get real slow and I would have to do a hard reset to fix it. Even now it takes forever for my S7e to boot up and work smoothly. I just feel that the S8 plus beats it hands down. I am not to excited about the screen real estate though. Most apps are not optimized for the new screen ratio so with the exception of the OS most apps make it seem like you have bezels and if you run it in full screen it cuts part of the screen off.
Reminds me when wide screen TVs were coming in. The tech is there but software will need to catch up and not sure if the new aspect ratio will catch on.
But the battery and performance are enough of a difference for me to justify it. The S7e was a solid phone but this one beats it out so far for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree with Sirdragonx, my S8+ gets better battery life, the camera is better than the S7 and the screen real estate is well worth the upgrade?
Sent from my SM-G955U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Same here, i thinks its worth the upgrade. Im not a fan of the s7e's home button which scratches easily.
dmbfan13 said:
My S7 Edge lagged so much. Going to the S8+, its so smooth! I'm loving this phone!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah. my s7 edge is really slow and lagging after I updated to nugget. just like those people with iphone said after the update on their phone, phone gets really slow and lagging. maybe they do this on purpose to make people upgrade to a newer phone.
I agree that the S8+ is not a "big" of an upgrade over the S7Edge as maybe I've been used to in upgrading phones in the past. There are a a few little things and the upgraded hardware should make for a better overall experience, but this is not a huge upgrade really plus I've had some issues like half of my fast wireless chargers that worked just find with the S7 Edge won't work with the S8+ for some reason. But I have noticed that so far the S8+ seems to be a little snappier and the battery life seems somewhat improved. The "bigger" screen though doesn't really seem to be much of an upgrade - it's not really that much bigger at all, just a little longer which actually sometimes gets in the way or looks worst than on the S7Edge due to a lot of apps not really built to take advantage of it.
IMO it is an upgrade. I'm very happy! Looking forward to Dex thanks to the USB C. I love the longer screen, it makes reading stuff much more enjoyable. The speaker sounds much better too I think.
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
I too went from S7e to S8+. It wouldn't have been worth it for the full $850, but after AT&T's $360 for the Next trade-in, Best Buy's $100 pre-order refund, the $50 gift card Best Buy gave me for having me come in two days early because of their erroneous "Ready for pickup" announcement, and the $25 AT&T promotion I'm getting, I do think it's worth the $315 it's costing me to upgrade my phone along with my Gear VR.
Definately worth it to me.
S7e:
-Scratches easy gorilla 4
Rarely had keys in so i assumed it scratched from pocket carrying.
-Got dead pixels (twice)
-Battery drained
-Got too hot
I could keep going but im sure you all know. Loving the S8+.
I'm coming from an S7 Edge on Sprint to an S8+ on Verizon. I wouldn't say it's "worth" the upgrade but we can all agree it's a better spec phone. Software wise it's not that much different, I guess you get bixby with a dedicated hardware key.
Things I don't care
- Bixby, let alone a dedicated hardware button for it.
- Finger print sensor location
- Losing of physical home button
The big screen is great, it's a nice looking device. Those of us that always want the latest flagship, yea it's an upgrade.
I upgraded from the S7, which was my first Samsung/Android smartphone, having been using iPhones since their initial launch.
I switched to the S7 from the iPhone 6 Plus. I loved the big screen but hated the way the phone felt in my hand. That coupled with the fact the device was only 16gb made the thing useless.
I went for the smaller of the S7 devices has I hadn't had the best experience with the 6 Plus. But as soon as I saw the S8+ I knew that I'd be getting a larger screen in a device that wasn't uncomfortable to use.
That's worth the upgrade alone to me. Just wish the borders of the screen didn't have this red tinge on white!
The number one reason for me is that I no longer feel like throwing the phone against a wall due to touch sensitivity. I would always have to reset the phone in my hand to use the keyboard or hit buttons. Not an issue on the S8+. Also, everything is more responsive - even on the Day 1 installing stuff. The S7E would basically die when installing and would be utter tar after a few days without a reboot.
There are a lot of little things that are better. I'll go 36 hours on a charge where I barely got 24 on the S7E (my use case is different - I mostly use push email, Spotify, Listen Audiobooks playing constantly throughout the day. Maybe a hour of phone calls a day. I have no friends who are social, so no texts)
My S7E was lagging despite my efforts to keep it clean and performing well. Battery life was probably the biggest advantage the S8+ has over the S7E. I'm pretty impressed with how far TW has come along also - I would be using it if they offered vertical scrolling in the app drawer. So far I think the S8+ is a worthwhile upgrade - and it costs me $5/mo less at AT&T than I was paying for my S7E.
I have come to only upgrade my Samsung devices every other generation. And then I upgrade my other Sony / Nexus whatever device every other year from that again, so I have a new toy every year. That's pretty much all I can afford of these not too cheap flagship phone models, hehe.
That is, I've always been a Note-guy, and I had Note II and Note 4, and had the Note 7(6) ordered last fall, but we all know what happened then, and when they came with a 6.2 inch screen on the S8+ now, it wasn't really a question, I had to have it.
But I won't get S9 when that comes, and I will certainly see to Note again, since I have to say that I think that 6.2 inch screen is way to narrow and small. My old Note 4 screen appears bigger when they lay besides each other, and that was somewhat disappointing.
aaronc_98 said:
Hello,
I got the S8+ a few days ago, and it definitely feels better in the hand, but to me the overall experience is about the same. Certainly, some things are improved but not feeling it is worth $850 upgrade- the S7E is really good and still is working well for me. What are your thoughts? what do you think are the killer features that are that much better than the S7e?
thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With respect and zero confrontation I think only you can answer your own question. :good:
I made the change. The S8+ is no Note 7 so in my case I am not excited about the change BUT I do like the S8+ it certainly has its + points. Now when the Note 8 is released................
Ryland
Ryland Johnson said:
With respect and zero confrontation I think only you can answer your own question. :good:
I made the change. The S8+ is no Note 7 so in my case I am not excited about the change BUT I do like the S8+ it certainly has its + points. Now when the Note 8 is released................
Ryland
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I just was wondering what you guys were thinking where the killer features over the S7 Edge... As I'm not completely feeling it...
Sent from my SM-G955U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
dmarco said:
I have to agree with Sirdragonx, my S8+ gets better battery life, the camera is better than the S7 and the screen real estate is well worth the upgrade?
Sent from my SM-G955U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the same camera as the s7 edge. Just worked on the wide aperture.
Also the aspect ratio is different and most apps and videos will show black bars and when changing its too big. Eventually the software will catch up, but why release a half finished product. Heck even the Bixby assistant don't work fully...
That's the reason I didn't upgrade. It's nice to look at, about it.
Sent from my MHA-L29 using Tapatalk
Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Honor 7X, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Honor 7X is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Honor made a phone with impressive phone with great build quality at such price range without any doubt.
Hands on to Honor
Coming from Samsung galaxy S7 Edge and LG v20 ( sold all flagship phones because of family issues ) i can say i am in love with this phone. Really nice display. Crisp and sharp. Good battery life with normal usage. Overall very happy with Honor 7X
I got this mobile recently. I am in love with this mobile. Camera is great and overall smooth performance. Battery has power saving mode for running more than 30 hours, with full charge
fast and reliable for daily use
Came from a Nexus 6P of two years and I love this phone!!
Love how easy EMUI theming is and I can make it look like stock android if I want to all without rooting and without the slowness that I found substratum can cause.
Easily getting 5+ hours of SOT on a daily basis; and only time I've noticed any sort of lag is when I haven't used the phone while sleeping; it unlocks quickly via fingerprint but the first app i open takes a second longer to open then its back to it's snappy self.
Love it! Thing is a beast!
Joined the crowd today with the Mate SE, WOW! What a Great Phone!
Sure, it's not a flagship, but it feels like one! and if it does most of what you *really* need, with such a great price, It's astounding really. I've spent some time Mate SE vs MI A1. It's subjective of course, but the SE has all the US bands, bottom line, if I'm out in the boonies, I want the best odds of being able to make that call.
Have been using it for an hour and did app updates, map downloads, etc. Hasn't heated up at all, cool as could be. Very Happy with this choice!
Just got this phone cuz my Galaxy Note broke, and i needed something ASAP. Although i didn´t expect too much from a phone in this price range, I´m still bothered by the mediocre camera, and a poor display with horrible view angles. I´ll keep it for a bit, the build quality seems decent, but that´s all.
Just got it 2 weeks ago. Good bye all other budget phones. It rocks
My Galaxy S7 committed suicide about three weeks ago and still having payments on it and trying to get out of AT&T without having to get into more payments this was an AMAZING choice. does everything i need it too and some. works way better than my S7 IMO, One week of use and i love it!
I wish I had heard of this company before buying all these second hand Samung/Motorola phones through craigslist just to save money, when I can buy a comparable phone brand new for a price that is cheaper. This phone is just an improved version of the Honor 7X.
My review is based off replacing a Samsung Note 4 and my work phone is a Galaxy S7.
Battery:
The battery life is superb on this. Seeing how my Note 4 had all this bloatware and these Samsung extras out of the box. The Note 4 couldn't even last through out the day with constant usage. This phone lasts through out the day, set it down without charging it for the night and it still has power.
Battery life is about the same as the S7, though.
Design:
Doesn't feel like a cheap, cricket phone. Feels like it has some weight, some heft to it. I am also impressed by the fingerprint technology on the back of the handset. It is much better and responsive then what the Galaxy S7 has. I never had to 'retry' my fingerprint as if it didn't register it.
Communications:
Haven't noticed any difference in terms of call quality or signal. Yet, my carrier is AT&T. The only concern is that the phone doesn't support 5G Wi-Fi.
Camera.
Unless something was wrong with my Samsung Note 4, this camera is much better than the Note, but similar to what the S7 has, or maybe even less.
Display:
I can't tell if this is part of the android or part of Huawei, but there are animations in the display which are interesting. From where you can see the display brightness slider move automatically to where texts seem to 'bounce' when you scroll through them. There is little bloatware and I like the drawer design of the apps. Screen is also bigger than my Note 4.
Also some people state the charging cable is different, yet my cord that charges my samsung phones can charge this phone.
At the end of the day, this phone can do everything a $1,200 phone can do.
Just bought new one from amazon, I will give my review very soon.
I've had it since the day after Prime Day. Love it. My only complaint is some of the bloatware. I also find the organizations of Settings in EMUI somewhat annoying. (It's like 4 clicks to get to the screen where you can choose a new wifi network.) Overall, this is a great phone and an incredible value.
Phone still going strong. My only major issue is that GPS is horrible with this phone. From Waze to Google Maps, the signal isn't consistent and drops when it comes to GPS. Never experienced anything like this, and it's been like this day one.
Great cpu performance. great battery life.
Poor audio output. Volume boosting apps don't work.
Rooting was easy, reverting... still need to wade through that.
Screen replacement wasn't too difficult, cheap (and cheap quality) parts on ebay. BEWARE! The battery pack is a gel pack that's glued on to the chassis. I ripped the battery open trying to remove it and had to order a new one.
The chassis is FLIMSY. After disassembling the phone to replace the screen, I saw that 1. the back cover is a flimsy bit of plastin (plastic or tin) and 2. the main chassis itself is a weak and flimsy bit of cast pot metal. This phone will bend and break very easily, which is what I suspect caused the screen to break so easily.
Overall, great performer, the sound issue may be addressed with newer Android, the chassis is in need of serious reinforcement.
The Honor 7X was one of the best budget phones of it's time. For under $200, this phone is a really great deal.
Thought I'd share my initial impressions on the Oppo Ace2 since it has not gotten much coverage. I also owned the Red Magic 5G for a week before selling it.
I'm coming from a Oneplus 6 and have owned a lot of other Android devices, off the top of my head these include the Nexus 4, OnePlus One, Asus Nexus 7, Samsung Tab Pro 8.4, Galaxy S7 Edge, Huawei Nexus 6P, LG v20, Lenovo ZUK Z2, Mediapad T5, Red Magic 5g etc.
Let's start with the Red Magic 5G. I ordered this a few months ago off tradingshenzhen, it got to me fast enough and the price was fair, but their customer support was not very good (I will not be ordering from them again cause of this https://i.imgur.com/2qd4zPM.jpg). They'll get your phone to you and offer one year warranty but don't expect them to be nice or helpful in the event you dont like your phone or have any issues.
Either way, here my notes on the phone:
Software
I got the Chinese version of the phone. I found the software experience to actually be very good despite this, ignoring the fact that there were some chinese apps that I didnt understand. I'm sure if I removed these few apps I would have had a very good software experience. The software felt very smooth and stable. There were some pretty cool features, but not a ton. Experience felt close to stock android, but lightly skinned with the right theme after some setting up. It didnt come with play store, I just had to install the playstore from apk, chrome and google keyboard then I had an experience not all that different from my OnePlus 6. My red magic 5g got a lot of updates in the time I had it, with big change logs, I'm not sure if global rom users will get that same experience since these types of phones seem to get better support in China.
Display and Body
This is where my mind was blown. That 144hz screen is beautiful and smooth. This was definitely what I loved about the phone most. However, I had my gripes with this screen. For one the, bezels were huge, and the corners were too rounded (meaning less screen). They were so rounded that it was distracting to me, almost as much as having a notch.. This might be a gross exaggeration but I hope it gets my point across. As for the large bezels, it feels like they used the "gaming phone" identity as an excuse to cut corners here with bezel size. It bothered me that there's so much potential screen space being wasted with those large unused bezels. Now the body has very nice comfortable shape, so I don't have anything against that, but it is kind of big, and it is pretty heavy. It felt very premium and nice in hand, but at the same time, it was not comfortable to one hand for long periods of time, it's size and heft also made it a little unwieldy for one handing. This is the main reason I ended up selling this phone. I would often find myself going back to my oneplus 6 instead of using my new phone cause it was just way more comfortable to use with one hand.
Battery and Misc
Microphone was good according to those that I called, speakers sounded fine to me, werent bad at all. They were stereo speakers, one bottom firing and one in the ear piece, which was nice. Battery was meh. For a 4500mah battery phone, it died very fast. Battery felt about the same as my much older oneplus 6 in it's current state.. Around 6-7 hours of screen on time with regular use (not gaming). With gaming I got around a little more than half that. It charged at a decent speed, not slow but not astonishingly fast. My Red magic 5g benchmarked around 595k on Antutu, so it was very fast. The fan was barely audible in it's intelligent mode or whatever it's called. Personally I think the fan is pointless, and that good thermal design makes a much bigger difference. I loved having the shoulder triggers for gaming. playing games like codm, pubg, etc were great experiences. I sunk hours into these games even though I dont tend to really do any smartphone gaming. I don't really like that manufacturers are trying so hard to make phones into "gaming phones" cause they are still just phones at the end of the day. If anything I would like to have a good value flagship (or flagship killer) with shoulder triggers, it doesn't need to be a "gaming phone". For instance, I think the oneplus 8 (or pro) but with a flat screen + shoulder triggers would be the perfect and ideal phone for me.
I also ordered the Realme X2 Pro but the seller (realme's aliexpress store) cancelled this order due to shipping issues. Then I ordered the Poco F2 Pro but GearBest hadn't shipped it out even after 3 weeks so I cancelled the order. Finally I ordered the Ace2 off Giztop and this was a much better experience. Order placed Friday, shipped out Monday, then received next week Monday (today). The Ace2 was discounted to $589.99 and I got a further 4% discount with the GTRE4 code. Shipping was $30 (DHL) and duties/brokerage was $37, so I paid a grand total of around (roughly) $632. Not bad. The shipping, handling, duties and fees all together were still less than Canadian tax (13%). Canadian retailers sell phones like the Poco F2 pro for around $580 (USD), after taxes that's $655, not even including shipping costs. Much better to wait a little for longer shipping and buy from outside of Canada it seems. So let's talk about this phone.
First and foremost, I'd like to note I do get buyer's remorse (like I did with my red magic 5g), but I've never had any issues post-purchase rationalization. If I don't like something, I don't try to justify it, especially where phones are concerned and having owned so many different devices, both good and bad. For example, the LG V20 was my most expensive purchase and easily the phone I hated most out of all the devices I've owned. I had already paid for it, so I stuck with it even though I hated it for at least a year, before finally getting my current oneplus 6. The LG V20 was so bad that I thought my much older nexus 6p was wayyy better, I wanted to go back to it so bad but I had already handed it down to my mom. While I liked the red magic 5g, I didn't like it enough to keep it and ended up selling it at a loss. My point here is, that these are just my opinions, but I do try to be as unbiased as I can be. I bought the Ace2 knowing that I would sell or return it if I didnt like it, like I did with my Red Magic 5g, so I didnt have my hopes high or any plans to keep it if I wasnt happy with it.
Setup
The unboxing experience was very basic, like any other Chinese smartphone so I will skip this part, but it does come with a pre-applied screen protector and a surprisingly nice clear case. I thought it would be a cheap clear case that looked nasty on the phone.
First thing I did was update the phone's firmware, then do a full factory reset. I set it up fresh, uninstalled what chinese bloat I could (there was a lot), installed playstore with the first apk I found, then using that I installed chrome + google keyboard. After turning on the app drawer, and dark mode I felt I had a very usable experience similar to what I had on my oneplus 6. I hate migrating phones, but the experience here wasnt too bad, I downloaded and used oppo's phone clone app from my oneplus 6, it connected the two phones with direct wifi and copied 30 gigs of data over in around 15min. I did not get much control in what gets copied over but it was still a very simple and hassle free process that I could appreciate.
Software
I'm going to start with this phone's biggest weakness. So the software is.. a mixed bag. Say what you will about the design, but ColorOS and oppo launcher are really well optimized. ColorOS has really come a long way from what it used to be. I tested a bunch of different launchers on this phone but I ended up going back to the oppo launcher cause it was just wayyy smoother and responsive. I wish that's all I had to say about the software but there's a lot more to say.. like how bloated this phone comes. Just random chinese apps everywhere. Most of them can be uninstalled off the bat, but the rest need a little more work to get rid of, including ADB and a little research. I actually think I would have liked coloros a bit more than oxygenos had this been a global version and came with less bloat. It's just a big hassle that I'm sure nobody wants to deal with after getting a new phone. The software experience here is great- if you're chinese. If you're not, you have a whole lot of work to do to get it somewhere good. On the other hand, I thought coming from oxygenos I thought this would be a complete downgrade, but much to my surprise there are a lot of things it actually does better. There are way more features, yes I mean useful ones, it feels smoother and more responsive for some reason (the animations are way quicker and smoother). I think ColorOS isn't actually that bloated once you get rid of the apps you don't need (using ADB where you need to). OxygenOS is great and used to be way ahead of it's time, but I feel the other choices available have caught up while OxygenOS hasn't really gone anywhere. My OnePlus 6 barely gets updates and is slow to get them when it ever even gets any. I've noticed that's a common occurrence with OnePlus devices, you get a lot of quick updates when your device is still a new release, but then it gets put on the backburner as new devices come out.
Display
This display is amazing, it's breathtaking. Side by side with my oneplus 6 it looks and feels like an upgrade in every way. The colors are better, and the smoothness is so satisfying, every bit as much as the 144hz display I had on my red magic 5g, which further leads me to believe anything above 90hz isn't really worth the price premium and battery cost. The punch hole was a little distracting at first since I wasnt used to it, but I quickly got used to it and dont even notice anymore. It's a very small punchole and is a nice upgrade from the big notch my oneplus 6 had. I would rather have this punch hole then the huge top bezel (and lost screen space) the red magic 5g had any day. I didn't realize this until I had the red magic 5g in my hand and wish I realized this sooner. The whole point of notches and punch hole I think is to give us more screen where we used to have bezel, and this is something I appreciate a lot more now. One of the biggest things for me here is that the screen is flat. I'm soo glad that I didn't have to compromise with curved edges. After owned an s7 edge, I never want to deal with that again. I know they aren't as bad as they used to be, but I still think it's silly to have to compromise with how the light reflects off of curved edges, the accidental touches or touch rejection, finding screen protectors that work, etc. If flat screens are cheaper I dont see why more manufacturers dont choose to go this route on their budget flagships at least (looking at you mi 10 non pro and oneplus 8 non pro).
Body
This phone is very solid and quality feeling. It doesn't have any super outstanding premium feeling that a higher end flagship might give you, but it does not feel cheap at all. The body is your typical metal frame, gorilla glass 5 sandwhich build. I have to say though, I love this two tone color on the back. It's like a black/navy type color that looks really elegant and sexy in my opinion. I hate oreo shaped camera modules but this is the one phone that I think it actually looks good on because of it's simple minimalist design. My favorite part of this phone is the weight and size. It's almost the same as my oneplus 6, in both weight and size, but has a larger screen. To me, that's amazing, because looking at all the new SD865 phones released this year it felt like I was going to have to give up the light weight and compact size of the oneplus 6 to upgrade to a "better" phone. It's one of the smallest and lightest Snapdragon 865 phones available and it IS the smallest and lightest one available with a flat screen, which exactly what I wanted. It just feels soooo comfortable in hand compared to anything else I've recently used. They really nailed the comfort aspect with this phone. I had no idea this was going to matter so much to me until I used the red magic 5g for a week (which isnt even that big or heavy for a gaming phone, there are worse offenders out there like the black shark 3). I can see why some people really want smaller phones now. For me, I like having a big screen, so it's not smaller phones that I want, but phones that have better screen to body and weight ratios.
Sound
Now here's where I found a nice surprise. Good stereo speakers. Never thought I would ever care about having this. I'm a headphone guy, and phone speakers always suck anyways so why would I care (so I thought). These are by far the best phone speakers I've ever heard, and they somehow blew me away even though I've never cared about how good the speakers on a phone were. They get very loud, and they sound very full. Even at the loudest volume setting where I expected the fidelity to deteriorate, it still had nice clear, smooth, full sounding stereo audio. I saw someone on reddit asking for a phone recommendation with good stereo speakers, apparently it was a must for him, and I didn't get why until now. I no longer feel the need to grab my headphones when I want to watch a youtube video, the stereo experience on this is just much better. There is still a con to be talked about however, no headphone jack. Having a headphone jack would have been nice, and even cooler if the phone came with a nice DAC (pretty much the only thing LG does right in their phones). Not a huge deal for me, I would be using bluetooth or a USB DAC anyways if it didnt come with a good internal DAC but it does make things less convenient in a pinch.
Battery and Performance
Well, it has a snapdragon 865, haven't had a single hiccup yet. Phone is blazing fast as expected. Coloros is well optimized too. Battery is good too, I will report screen on times soon. Much better than my red magic 5g so far from what I can tell. The main star of this show though is that 40w wireless charging and 65w wired charging. Charging cable that it came with is kind of short but the phone charges so fast I don't think it matters. 4000mah might seem small compared to alternatives, but coloros is surprisingly very efficient with it, even with 90hz on and all the chinese bloat it came with. Im surprised they managed to fit a battery this size and a 40w wireless charging coil in such a compact and light phone (relative to similar spec phones).
Closing thoughts
I think this is what the OnePlus 8 should have been, and I hope for others that this is what the Realme X3 pro is going to be if not better. There are a lot of things more expensive oneplus 8 is missing out on here, like the 65w charging, wireless charging, flat screen, etc. The only thing I think it has going for it is that it seems like a nicer build/quality phone with better software. I think the Poco F2 pro on the other hand is a solid contender because it actually comes with global software, has a huge battery + great screen on time, has a decent camera and will have a big developer community. I ultimately ended up passing up on this phone because it doesnt have 90hz, wireless charging, 65w charging, doesnt support very many frequencies, has a slower face unlock and cause its a pretty heavy phone (so not as comfortable), but this phone will make sense as a better choice for many others that have different priorities. Pick what suits you and your needs best. All in all, this is a very underrated phone that doesn't get talked enough about outside of Asia. I think if you're interested in the Ace2, feel it fits what you want well at a price that you think is good that you shouldn't be afraid to buy it. It's a great phone and it's worth it. Just note that you may need to do some extra work to make the software experience good for you because of the chinese bloat (as you would need to with any chinese rom phone anyways). Not to say that the software is bad, it's very good software that's just marred by all the extra chinese stuff it comes with that most of us probably dont want or need.
If there's anything more you guys would like to know about any of the phones that I own or have owned please let me know. I'll try to answer them the best I can. Would love to see some form of an Ace2 community grow but I won't be surprised if it's just me even months later.
Inspiring
I think that based on your detailed review (That I read before on reddit) I’m convinced to purchase this phone, the only android experience I’ve had was an old samsung s7 edge so I’m convinced that the ace 2 will be smooth, so one question: can you guide me on how to debloat the phone once I get it?