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How the iPhone 7 is swinging me towards Apple.

This will probably a rant, but I don't really want it to be a rant, I like discussions better I really do. So I will talk about some of the reasons to support my claim in the title. If you feel like it please tell me how you feel about this situation.
So I've been using the Galaxy S7 Edge Exynos version since it came out, and before that the S5, and before that HTC One X. To be honest I almost went for the iPhone 6s because I was just sick and tired of all the software problems with the S5, background apps constantly draining battery and there's nothing you can do because most of the time it's Google Play Services. I was like, ok this time I'm moving over to Apple, but then the S7 came out with the curved screen and waterproofness and all that good stuff. I was seduced and got the S7 edge instead.
Today I don't regret my decision back then, I still like how the S7 matches up against the iPhone 6s. I love how it's waterproof because I like to wash it once in a while, it's a stupid reason but whatever... I love the screen and how it's impossible to see any pixels. I love the battery life (except the times when an app mysteriously drains battery in sleep). And I love the camera performance. However, with iPhone 7 coming out, the tides are turning fast.
Areas the iPhone is better than any android phone
1. The iPhone 7 is faster than any Android phone, and I don't see Android catching up. The single core performance of the A10 is just off the charts, nobody is even close to it, and nobody will be in the foreseeable future.
2. The iPhone 7 now has wide gamut display with ambient lighting awareness. While android fanboys are still obsessing with MOAR PIXELS. While I agree the iPhone COULD use more pixels, it's not a significant improvement going from 1080p to 2k. But it is a big improvement going from dumb static colors, which look harsh and terribly blue under most indoor lighting conditions, to dynamic and natural colors on the iPhone 7 and iPad Pro.
3. Android still has no high precision vibration motor like the Taptic Engine. The increase in precision delivers a qualitative change in how vibration helps UI experience. Android is still stuck with ancient rotational motors that can only give one type of long continuous vibration. I haven't tried the iPhone 7 home button. But the static trackpads on newer MacBooks are amazing, like you swear it's a perfect button with precisely the same actuation force everywhere, except they're static and you're not actually pressing anything down.
In comparison, capacitive buttons suck because they require no force to activate and it's easy to activate by accident. Hardware buttons are ok but the long button on Samsung phones can fail to activate when you press the side and not the centre.
4. Sapphire. I don't know if people forgot about it or what, the iPhone has sapphire camera cover glass ladies and gentlemen, did we just forget about that? Some Android manufacturers like Sony for some reason still think it's a good idea to use plastic. The durability of the iPhone camera hump is just much more reliable. Also the Home button is sapphire. Why is that important? Well because if you have hard dust particles on your phone, it won't immediately scratch unless force is applied, like when you press a button. This makes the buttons more vulnerable to scratches. The S7 still has plastic buttons, mine is already scratched up.
5. Actual hardware-based features, rather than software hacks. The perfect example for this is the selfie flash. While Android phones have been doing it for a long time, none has a custom display driver chip like the iPhone has. Why? Well because they can't afford it, Android phones use off-the-shelf components as much as possible to reduce cost. When a selfie flash is really needed, like with some Chinese phones, they just mount LED flashes in the front, which makes the front face of the phone ugly.
Another example of this is 3D touch. When this came out many Android fanboys were like, oh why can't you just long-press to do the same thing? Other examples include the aforementioned Taptic engine, dual tone flash, decent DAC and amp for headphone output, Multiple RGB ambient light sensors, and chip-based fingerprint encryption.
6. Honest, sincere software updates. My S7 Edge still has no palm rejection. Enough said. While the iPhone 5 can run the latest iOS 10.
7. Higher quality apps from the App Store. Tighter control over what apps are allowed and not allowed to do. Peace of mind that no app will drain your battery in the background.
8. Gaming performance. the iPhone not only has the fastest GPU, it also has Metal which is actually used by devs. While Android has Vulcan, it's pointless because nobody uses it anyway. Also most android apps are designed for mid-range android phones, which are much much slower than iPhones.
9. Design. As pretty as the S7 Edge is, it cannot match the attention to detail like the iPhone. The speaker holes aren't chamfered, the holes don't aline properly and it looks stupid. the USB port isn't centred which also looks stupid. When the best of Android can't compete with the iPhone, I think it is safe to assume no other Android flagship will come close in a long time. Also, the clock icon actually moves, so does the calendar.
10. Apple Watch. Android wear watches are just too big, they're gigantic, wtf guys? make a smaller watch! I have the Gear S2, it's great it's barely small enough, but it is also the smallest non-Apple smartwatch. Again, while the S2 looks great from a distance with the round screen and stuff, it's not water proof to 50 meters, you have the ancient and really bad classic watch band system which is impossible to install and uninstall unless you only use the band Samsung gives you. And there is no speaker, and the OS is much much much less powerful than Watch OS.
Areas where the iPhone is strong, but not necessarily the best
1. Sound quality. Yes the LG V10, V20 and a couple of Chinese phones have better sound quality than the iPhone. But most android flagships still suck in this department. Please don't say Viper, it's exactly the problem I was talk about. Software hacks will never be as effective as purposeful and quality hardware. When you have a weak ****ty amp no software will allow it to drive good headphones.
2. Screen. While we can all agree that Samsung has better screens, the same can't be said of other phones. Mostly because of ****ty calibration. Most android phones are horribly blue, with super high color temperature. Now with the iPhone 7, apple has two screen features Samsung doesn't namely wide gamut with proper color profile management, and awareness of ambient lighting condition.
3. Water proof. At this point only Samsung and Sony have the expertise to do this.
4. No headphone jack. I actually like this, even though I use a 3.5mm headphone. It's just more beautiful in design. A Chinese phone also did this a few months before to try to steal Apple's thunder so it's no longer exclusive to Apple. How do you listen to music while charging? Well there will always be some down sides to progress, the answer is simply you can't, not without a dongle of some sort. I do worry about the quality of the DAC in the adaptor they give you.
5. Battery life. the iPhone now has some of the longest battery life, other than crazy designs with like 5000mha batteries. Increasing battery size is just not the right way to increase battery life. Apple does the right thing by improving efficiency instead. Because bigger battery takes longer to charge, and using quick charge reduces battery lifespan, bigger battery also doesn't reduce power draw, which causes heating problems. Where as increased efficiency has no down sides (other than price, cost and difficulty).
6. Hardware silence switch. WTF Android manufacturers!? It's so useful! have one of these please! Why not! Because it doesn't look badass on the spec sheet?
Areas where Android is ahead
1. I am serious here, this has been a big problem for me for a long time. You can't freely arrange the icons in iOS. I get why Apple is doing this, because most people suck at arranging their home screens, most people are not good artists or designers. If you give them freedom they will just make their phone look lame and stupid. While I can agree with that decision from their perspective, I still wish I can customize my home screen.
2. No file system. So frustrating, so annoying. While I also hate how messy the android file system is, with all the apps making random folders everywhere it also bugs me as hell. Why isn't there a middle ground? Have a simple root directory with four folders that say Camera, Pictures, Music and Documents, with NO other folders? This is getting better with iCloud access and stuff so yea, it's not as bad as before.
The problem with Android at the end of the day, is there is no single device that can do enough things better than the iPhone. The iPhone is either the best or almost the best in just so many categories. You can get the V20 for best sound quality yes, you get no waterproofness, no stunning design, no best screen. You can get the Note 7, but you get bad sound quality, no new camera features, and bad software updates. You can get the Nexus 6P for good updates, but you get ****ty plastic construction (with metal shell), really bad sound quality, bad screen, and outdated camera.

Any argument someone makes to me about iPhones gets countered with one single word:
iTunes.
If Apple would give us a proper navigable file system (WTF is wrong with drag-and-drop?) and the ability to customize the homescreen beyond wallpaper and where to put icons in that boring-ass grid, I'd be more interested. Customizable interface (ie: launcher), on-screen widgets, and the ability to use storage as STORAGE, and I'd be interested.
The iPhone is fine if you're looking for a smartphone. My Androids are computers I can fit in my pocket, that can do all sorts of things an iPhone can't.
And iTunes is the worst. Just awful.

This is an Android development/discussion site, not iPhone.
Thread closed.

Nomu S20 Smartphone - Review

I have used this device for the last week in place of my usual device, which is a Samsung Galaxy S7. Throughout the review I will compare the Nomu S20 to the S7, and other devices which I have owned in the past. It is important to note that, of course – the S7 is a far more expensive device and this will be reflected in my review.
The review will be split into the following sections:-
Initial Impressions
Build Quality and Ruggedness
Display
Day to Day Performance and Software
Benchmarks
Sound and Call Quality
Battery Life
Camera
Conclusion
Initial Impressions
The item comes in a rather plain brown box with the Nomu logo on the top. It contains a Charger, Cable and SIM tool. On first removing the phone from its protective bag, the first thing to strike you is how tough it looks and feel. The rubberised back looks very high end and gives a wonderful level of grip. This is the first way that you are reminded that this is no ordinary Smartphone, but one that has been designed to withstand more than your average level of knocks and bumps. There are a large number of videos you can find online of this phone having being pushed to its physical limitations and boy can it take a kicking. It is quite a weighty beast, but this really does give you confidence that it can handle being dropped or knocked and take it all in its stride. In short – it is built like a tank, but don’t let that lead you into thinking I am talking about an ugly device. It has an industrial beauty that wouldn’t look out place on the set of Blade Runner.
Build Quality and Ruggedness
With the Nomu S20 focussed very much in the “rugged” device space, you would expect it to be built exceedingly well, and that it is. With metal reinforced edges and a textured rubber back it feels to me very much like a premium device, more so than some flagship phones from large manufacturers that I have owned, for example the LG G3. There are removable flaps covering all the phones ports (SIM/SD, Charger, Headphone Jack) in order to ensure the phone is water and dust proof. I don’t have access to a lot of dust, but I have had the phone in the shower and left it dunked in the sink to test its waterproofing and can report that the device coped with it just as expected. Believe me this is no Sony Xperia Z, where the manufacturer tells you the device is waterproof but recommends you don’t actually use it in the water. My descriptions will not really do it justice though, I suggest you have a look at the following videos!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTnUpgfkOMg – Mentos and Cola!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOE1kvKe6ic – Smash it on a desk!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nom2agkfxjM – Try to destroy by any means necessary!
It is a little heavy for my tastes, however it needs to be in order to be able to take everything that is thrown at it in those videos, it is quite thick too – but considering you probably won’t need to bother with a case then it is pretty much the same as any other device once you include a decent protective casing.
Display
Impressive, very clear and very bright! 720p on a 5 inch screen is perfectly good enough resolution for watching TV and Movies on the go. The screen is very responsive to touch considering it appears to have a built in screen protector on it. I was tempted to remove it but I usually regret this type of thing as soon as I have done it as in my experience no matter what kind of glass is used on a display it eventually gets scratched. All in all I think the screen protector is a nice touch because they can be difficult to fit and for some phones difficult to find, so with the Nomu S20 you can be sure that your screen will be kept immaculate underneath
Day to Day Performance and Software
The MediaTek MT6737T SoC with 4 cores clocked at 1.5 Ghz is more than enough to handle everyday tasks at speed, I experienced little to no lag at any time when browsing even the most complex and advertising heavy websites or scrolling up and down my social media feeds. YouTube videos played promptly and I was easily able to throw these at my Smart TV. Sky Go was fine too and videos that were on my SD card played again without any hitches. I do not play games and did not attempt to use the Nomu but I don’t imagine it would struggle with Angry Birds, 3D games might be a bit of a stretch though.
It held a wireless connection as well as any other phone that I have owned and produced some good results on 4G speed tests, marginally slower and I mean very marginally slower than my S7 in the same places inside and outside the house.
The operating system seems very close to Vanilla Marshmallow and there is no bloat, not one item of bloatware and you cannot say fairer than that. There does seem to be some messaging customisation that I was prompted to try but it seem to be a direct translation from the Chinese language and I was not really sure what it was asking me, but it was easy enough to decline. The only bug I was able to find was with the battery monitor, with the graph not always displaying when you open this options through settings. Hopefully that will be resolve with an update.
Benchmarks
Antutu 38451
Geekbench Single Core 633
Geekbench Multi Core 1748
These scores are in line with the Samsung Galaxy S5 or the HTC One (M8) so flagship devices 2 or 3 years ago – pretty impressive for a ruggedised device that you can pick up for £120!
Sound and Call Quality
Call quality was no different to the S7 or any other device I have been happy with, I could hear the caller clearly using the handset speaker, loud speaker and my Bluetooth headset. I cannot imagine that there will be any problems in this area. Probably a good time to mention that the Nomu S20 supports all UK LTE bands which is not always the case with devices from new manufacturer.
The speaker. I haven’t mention it yet at all because if there was one thing on this device that really stood out it was the speaker. Waterproof and works underwater and boy, this thing is loud – really loud. I owned the HTC One (M7) with Boomsound and the Nomu S20 is much, much louder – very clear too. The speaker is rear facing rather than front facing but it makes little difference when it has this much oomph! I had to keep the volume down just a couple of clicks above mute during day to day use otherwise you ran the risk of making yourself jump with every notification. It truly is amazing.
Battery
A 3000 mAh battery + a 720p 5 inch screen = awesome battery life. Again very impressive for a device in this class, 22% battery left after 36 hours with 5 hours screen on time. This was with Bluetooth and GPS on, auto brightness with dynamic contrast turned on. I sync my emails and other messages all day long. Browsing, social media and phone calls all going on too – so there is no danger and I mean no danger of this phone letting you down during the day. Ideal for people who are working outdoors.
Camera
The camera is functional, good enough for a few quick pics for social media. I think I have been spoiled with recent devices so I wasn’t able to reproduce the quality of low light shot that I get with the S7 but that is to be expected on a device in this price range. To pack all this performance into such a tough device there was always going to need to be a little compromise somewhere and the camera might be that area.
Conclusion
The Nomu S20 would be a great choice as a daily driver for a builder or anyone else who works outside and needs something that is going to withstand a few knocks. Although the focus is on the rugged nature of the device it does not compromise in any area other than the camera as far as I am concerned. With its all day battery, shock proofing, dust and waterproofing it is going to survive under the harshest of circumstances and the industrial look ensures that it really plays the part. No bloatware and the ultra-powerful speaker are genuine highlights for me, the speaker would not be out of place on a phone at £400 and I know that vanilla Android is always welcome for a lot of users.
I only have one active SIM so I was not able to test the dual SIM functionality. The SD card I used in the device was 32GB and supported without issue but I cannot comment on whether it is able to support larger SD cards.

You can buy it from those lovely people at Gearbest http://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_490186.html?wid=11

Hi! Anyone here yet? Your phone still works fine? Did you have any problem with screen brightness in sunlight at the middle of summer?

Hi there, I owe MTT ideal (nomu s20 branded for MTT french company) and I can post some of my experiances here.
Lots words have beed saind about its features (notification LED for example ). I must add one annoying missing feateur: NFC. Yes, it misses it, so it's even worse than notificatoin LED absence.
Also I suffer from its rubber shield which is getting off the phone in its bottom left corner - that is REALLY annoying thing.
The third but not so serious problem is not so powerful battery as it might be expected - I must charge it every day and I am not using my phone really heavily.
That's all for the cons.
Phone supports 128GB SD card - I use it for music and works very well.
I also want to give a piece of advice for the other MTT ideal owners - phone can be rooted and TWRPed according to this post: [url]https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/nomu-s20-rom-root-solution-twrp-t3487307?nocache=1[/URL]
I think that MTT ideal ROM will work on s20 since those are the same devices. If someone is interested I may download ROM from my MTT and put it somewhere - there is no bloatware in it.

Tell us about your daily driver

So as the title suggests, let's hear about your current daily driver, how do you like it so far? What kinds of features do you appreciate most? What do you think is missing?
Also, let's talk about your least favorite devices as an added hono bonus.
Might as well get it started, my current daily driver is an LG V30, H933 to be exact. It's a very well rounded phone, and for up to 90% of the tasks, it's managed to replace my laptop. Battery life is more than enough for me, even with brightness set on auto and screen resolution on 2880 x 1440, the cameras are real nice, and the wide angle shooter is just addictive to mess with, great stock camera app too. Audio quality is superb, I just love the HiFi quad DAC and even the speaker is well above average imho. Finally as expected from any flagship, performance is great, and while activating battery saver mode does introduce a difference, for most tasks you still don't notice much lag.
I'm gonna say I appreciate the ip68 rating and the ruggedness of the phone, it's already taken a small drop and survived no problem, but that was enough motivation for me to get a UAG plasma case. I also put a screen protector on it initially, but dust kept accumulating around the edges and eventually making its way under the protector I got fed up and removed it. As long as you have a decent case that has raised lips both the front and rear glass should be fine, but now I never keep the phone in the same pocket as coin or keys.
Also it turns out that in case you damage the glass, it's quite cheap to replace (15 dollars from what I've heard).
As for phones I never see myself using as daily drivers, the latest iPhones certainly make the list. On top of almost complete lack of customizability and control over the phone, lackluster stock camera apps for (a photographer like me at least), and ridiculous pricing, Apple's desperation to sell their phones (or rather force them down your throat) is becoming pathetic. The 8 and 8 plus are rather fragile, and the iPhone X, while admittedly better, isn't better by much, and the worst part is that if you crack the glass on any of these phones, it'll cost so much to replace if you don't have apple care, you might as well just get a new device, which, in all likelihood, is exactly what Apple wants you to do. Between that, and introducing OS updates that intentionally throttle the performance of their older phones, whatever little appeal Apple's devices had, is now imho gone.
Another phone I would avoid is the Motorola moto z2 force/play, the plastic screen not only feels cheap, but is also very prone to scratches. The moto G5s plus is a better budget device than the play of you ask me.

Red magic 3 after a few days my opinion.

So I have a Note 9. Got into Call of duty and decided it was time to get something to play it on sice I was just beating on that battery. Looked at all the gaming phone's and ended up getting a Red magic 3 256gb, with 2 cases, dock, controller, screen protectors everything mind like new for $455. Not a mark on the phone.
First impression. This does not come packed like a cheap phone. You get flagship level packing here.
It's a big phone. But with the case on it. And my text 22 case it's just a hair bigger then my note 9. But it feels great in the hand. It's thicker but you can't tell it hides it well. I haven't felt a phone like this since my Droid DNA. Build quality is great and I was shocked at he nice it really was. I keep looking for that catch. Why this is not a $1,000+ phone. You can't tell. I wish the phone did not have the red accents on it and the logo on the back but since I got a case a little black vivid automotive vinyl and it looks amazing. The diamond camera lenses lets you know this is not a typical phone. The red switch on the side is a hint that it's packing some serious power.
Display. This can make it break a cheap phone. The display is 90hz and is butter. Play 90hz then play 60. You will then hate 60hz. Scrolling is smooth. Does it have the horrible cheap AMOLED display color shift? Nope looks great! Is it note 9 and 10 great? No. But it's a great display and not really trailing far behind the best.
Camera. Stock app is meh. No ois and all that. But the sensor is good. The foundation is there it just needs polish. Gcam app pics look great. Not the best but more then enough for the typical person. I will say the slow no blows my note 9 out of the water. The note 9 looks like trash why this phone looks very clear. That 1920fps is no joke. But I did notice my orange was a bit bighter and the note 9 was more accurate in color but looked grainy where this phone was extremely clear. And the difference between the 940fps and the 1920fps is amazing. Some of my slow mo videos look absolutely amazing and are so crisp and detailed I was blown away. It does 8k...low fps but it ties into the gamer aspect of my phone does 8k..at 15fps...what's your phone do 8k at? Mine doesn't... exactly. 15fps is more then 0.
Android. Is pretty much stock but with some tasteful additions. They respected Android and did not over do it. Runs smoothly and is what you would expect from a pretty much stock Android. Flip the switch and the game space starts. It pick games up automaticly and it's easy to add apps to it. Screen recording is very easy and works great. Settings are easy to adjust and mapping your shoulder buttons are as easy as dragging them to here you want them. Game space is great.
That fan tho! It works. It's not loud but some times you can hear it. If you screen record with the mic on you can year it in the video. But most of the time you won't notice it. I found my temps playing games and heavy benchmarking never hit over 40.6c even after a few hours of call of duty. It works great
Nubia is a name I never heard of. But Nubia is now on my list of phone's to watch. I will take a serious look at the red magic 4 and if they improve on this I will buy one. This phone is that good.
I really hope they offer an all blacked out version. With just the red button. Clean look till the RGB comes on. I love the look of it all blacked out in my case and the RGB on.
And for those who have Verizon. I have Verizon and not having band 13 sucks but I have always had 4g. I did notice that its slightly slower then my note 9. But still pulling good 4g speed and no issues. Put the Sim in and it worked great.
And those worried about updates. Most phone's don't get them anyways so who cares if they don't. I'm on Verizon so it's not like my phone updates have ever been fast.

bignazpwns said:
So I have a Note 9. Got into Call of duty and decided it was time to get something to play it on sice I was just beating on that battery. Looked at all the gaming phone's and ended up getting a Red magic 3 256gb, with 2 cases, dock, controller, screen protectors everything mind like new for $455. Not a mark on the phone.
First impression. This does not come packed like a cheap phone. You get flagship level packing here.
It's a big phone. But with the case on it. And my text 22 case it's just a hair bigger then my note 9. But it feels great in the hand. It's thicker but you can't tell it hides it well. I haven't felt a phone like this since my Droid DNA. Build quality is great and I was shocked at he nice it really was. I keep looking for that catch. Why this is not a $1,000+ phone. You can't tell. I wish the phone did not have the red accents on it and the logo on the back but since I got a case a little black vivid automotive vinyl and it looks amazing. The diamond camera lenses lets you know this is not a typical phone. The red switch on the side is a hint that it's packing some serious power.
Display. This can make it break a cheap phone. The display is 90hz and is butter. Play 90hz then play 60. You will then hate 60hz. Scrolling is smooth. Does it have the horrible cheap AMOLED display color shift? Nope looks great! Is it note 9 and 10 great? No. But it's a great display and not really trailing far behind the best.
Camera. Stock app is meh. No ois and all that. But the sensor is good. The foundation is there it just needs polish. Gcam app pics look great. Not the best but more then enough for the typical person. I will say the slow no blows my note 9 out of the water. The note 9 looks like trash why this phone looks very clear. That 1920fps is no joke. But I did notice my orange was a bit bighter and the note 9 was more accurate in color but looked grainy where this phone was extremely clear. And the difference between the 940fps and the 1920fps is amazing. Some of my slow mo videos look absolutely amazing and are so crisp and detailed I was blown away. It does 8k...low fps but it ties into the gamer aspect of my phone does 8k..at 15fps...what's your phone do 8k at? Mine doesn't... exactly. 15fps is more then 0.
Android. Is pretty much stock but with some tasteful additions. They respected Android and did not over do it. Runs smoothly and is what you would expect from a pretty much stock Android. Flip the switch and the game space starts. It pick games up automaticly and it's easy to add apps to it. Screen recording is very easy and works great. Settings are easy to adjust and mapping your shoulder buttons are as easy as dragging them to here you want them. Game space is great.
That fan tho! It works. It's not loud but some times you can hear it. If you screen record with the mic on you can year it in the video. But most of the time you won't notice it. I found my temps playing games and heavy benchmarking never hit over 40.6c even after a few hours of call of duty. It works great
Nubia is a name I never heard of. But Nubia is now on my list of phone's to watch. I will take a serious look at the red magic 4 and if they improve on this I will buy one. This phone is that good.
I really hope they offer an all blacked out version. With just the red button. Clean look till the RGB comes on. I love the look of it all blacked out in my case and the RGB on.
And for those who have Verizon. I have Verizon and not having band 13 sucks but I have always had 4g. I did notice that its slightly slower then my note 9. But still pulling good 4g speed and no issues. Put the Sim in and it worked great.
And those worried about updates. Most phone's don't get them anyways so who cares if they don't. I'm on Verizon so it's not like my phone updates have ever been fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is volte working?

suzook said:
Is volte working?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What he said? Put COD down and answer the freaking question!

SavageCat-TX said:
What he said? Put COD down and answer the freaking question!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is

Yeah volte for me on Verizon is working. Sorry been typically going 30+ and 0 I'm cod lol. Phone kicks ass.

Display under magnification.

bignazpwns said:
Display under magnification.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://www.frequencycheck.com/carr...im-td-lte-256gb-nx629j/t-mobile-united-states
Can some one confirm I selected the right phone based upon this thread? I thought THIS phone was it but now not sure. Might be close enough to run by Tmo (USA) and get a second opinion.
Why do these phone makers market a phone to a country with not enough coverage! (rhetorical question)

SavageCat-TX said:
https://www.frequencycheck.com/carr...im-td-lte-256gb-nx629j/t-mobile-united-states
Can some one confirm I selected the right phone based upon this thread? I thought THIS phone was it but now not sure. Might be close enough to run by Tmo (USA) and get a second opinion.
Why do these phone makers market a phone to a country with not enough coverage! (rhetorical question)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T mobile you should be good. I don't know what bands they use but on on Verizon with no issues so you should have even more band support then me with t mobile. Usually phones don't work well with Verizon

SavageCat-TX said:
https://www.frequencycheck.com/carr...im-td-lte-256gb-nx629j/t-mobile-united-states
Can some one confirm I selected the right phone based upon this thread? I thought THIS phone was it but now not sure. Might be close enough to run by Tmo (USA) and get a second opinion.
Why do these phone makers market a phone to a country with not enough coverage! (rhetorical question)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works for me...

Ordered by RM3s last night. Excited and nervous at the same time.

I paid the extra $6 to have it shipped faster and arrived in 3 business days. I ordered LATE on Black Friday 2019 and had it in my hands on Wednesday.
First, let me provide a bit of history. I'm play PUBG a lot. I'm not on a squad mainly due to lack of the ability to setup a schedule to play with teammates to learn behaviors and work out strategies so I'm forced to play solo. I have been playing on an iPhone 6S plus. The phone did fine on I was hoping that a larger screen would help and WOW what an improvement the size makes (yes, size does apparently matter). The screen of the RM3s is larger than the entire screen and bezels of the iPhone 6S plus. I understand the brightness is only like 400nits or something like that. It's plenty bright enough for me. This was a concern previously but not now.
Buttons: The buttons have a solid clicky feel. I like them. The lock button and the volume rocker are close together so I keep hitting the volume down button. I suspect this might be an issue when my wife calls me and I've accidentally turned down the volume. My iPhone only had one button along the right side of the phone so the extra buttons will take some getting used to.
Face Unlock: This is new to me. With my wife's Note 9, she can lift the phone and it'll detect the movement and unlock. I THINK with the RM3s, you have to push the button on the side to activate the face scanner. Doesn't bother me but it might someone else.
PUGB Mobile: The bootup times for PUBG are effectively the same between the RM3s and the iPhone 6s Plus, we are talking millisecond differences. The iPhone is 4-5 years old and I bought it new. Not sure if this is a testament to Apple technology or not. As I understand UFS 3.0, you primarily see the benenfits when loading large files. My guess here is PUBG has a lot of little files so the performance benefits for loading times of PUGB are a marginally improvement over UFS 2.0. I mention this as I was considering the Samsung S10+ but the screen is smaller than what I wanted to buy.
First MINOR Gripe: Just to prove I'm being objectionable here, I would like to have had the charge port off center like the headphone jack is. I love that the ROG2 can be charged using the side port. When playing games in landscape mode, the cords would be balanced in your hands. That said, there is a freaking 5000mAh battery in this thing so I an easily play several classic matches and not have an anxiety that my battery will be dead before I get home.
Speakers: this was not a big factor for me as when I'm gaming I'll have on headphones but I like to play music or watch YouTube while cooking dinner. The speakers do not disappoint. Are they the best things on earth? Of course not. Are they an improvement over the iPhone 6s Plus? Oh hell yeah. While I am not an audiophile, this speakers are pretty damn good. They get loud. At the volume level of zero, clicking the volume up rocker once makes the speaker loud enough to listen to while working at your desk (w/o a headset). Any louder and my wife will immediately come tell my to turn it down. While the ear piece doubles as a speaker, the volume balance between the two is pretty good. The OnePlus 7t (the other phone I was considering) has a dedicated speaker so I'm sure it sounds perfectly balanced. If I want a higher quality speaker, I'm going to rely on a dedicated unit. Same goes for my TV, computer, or media center, etc. Use the right tool for the job.
Size and Weight: I don't think the phone is big but rather it is long (and I like it "tall" - using tall here for obvious reasons). It does NOT feel heavy and actually feels lighter than my iPhone 6s plus (plus case weight). I will be ordering a silicone case for the RM3s but I doubt it'll had any significant heft. The phone feels solid and not cheap but any means. Perhaps the lack of rear glass and the use of metal cuts down on the weight?
Air Triggers/Bumpers: In a word, "FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!" They are better than what I had hoped for. Before I found out about the RM3s, I considered getting the OnePlus 7t and ordering button attachments from Amazon. The air triggers/bumper buttons respond immediately and without any lag. The finger unlock can also be programmed for a 3rd button. No clue yet what to use for that except maybe the revive button but since I primarily play solo, I'll probably program it for the scope or the exit button while in the vehicle. The beauty of the button is I can stack the icons in PUBG and the center button will activate the applicable button (in a vehicle, the unlock sensor becomes the exit button, outside of the vehicle, it activates the scope or perhaps the reload. So many choices. The placement isn't super easy to tap during extreme game play but after developing some muscle memory, it'll end up being a great addition.
It came with a pre-applied screen protector. I had heard mixed comments about whether or not it would come with one. As a result, I did order one with the phone so I guess I'll put it in a drawer. Of course when I need it, I wont be able to find it, I'll order another one, and then I'll find the one in the drawer. :/
The LED on back is pretty slick (albeit a gimmick but I like flashy lights). You can configure it for a multitude of things, There is an app with the phone to control the LED behavior. I also really like how the LED can flicker when playing music and for notifications. When playing music, I place the phone face-down so the sound from the speakers are bounced back from the counter which amplifies the sound (and you an see the LED).
Storage Space: Mine is the 128GB version. After signing in and before installing any apps, only 11% was used. No complaints there at all. I activated developer mode and then enabled OTG support, connected my OTG adapter and then attached a 512GB jump drive. The phone had no issues reading the contents. If I end up filling up the 128GB, it'll be easy to off load data so no concerns for me here.
Charge: When I unboxed the phone, the battery was around 80% (this is very normal). I placed on charge while I ate lunch, came back and it was 100%. 5000mAh battery. Awesome.
UI: My wife has a Samsung Note 9 so my experience with Android is limited to the time I've used her phone and the Samsung UI (can I say I hate curved screens? They look great but the usability is severely limited IMO.) and her phone feels heavy. I don't know what "bloatware" or "stock android" looks like but I've heard that the UI of the RM3s is very close to stock Android. I like what I am seeing. In all honesty, I like OnePlus's UI better visually speaking. I know you may be saying you can install Nova Launcher but the RM3s launcher cant permanently change to use a different launcher. Even if I can't install a 3rd party launcher, coming from iOS, I'm used to only effectively being able to change the wallpaper so I'm already have more customization options now. The stock live wallpaper is pretty cool.
ROOT: I do not have any plans to ROOT the phone or unlock the bootloader. I also thought I'd never leave iOS but I've seen the errors of my ways so we'll see what happens. I did see in Developer Options there is a slide switch to unlock the bootloader. Nice!
Phone: I stuck my Tmobile sim card in an Tmobile immediately detected the phone needed some carrier updates. After applying them, I made a single call. It connected quickly. I did not pay attention to if it was connecting using VoLTE. After the initial test call, I removed the SIM. My case hasn't arrived yet so I'm waiting to use the phone. Once I make the official switch, I'll add a reply on the phone call since no one on YouTube mentions how it works as a phone. ?

SavageCat-TX said:
I paid the extra $6 to have it shipped faster and arrived in 3 business days. I ordered LATE on Black Friday 2019 and had it in my hands on Wednesday.
First, let me provide a bit of history. I'm play PUBG a lot. I'm not on a squad mainly due to lack of the ability to setup a schedule to play with teammates to learn behaviors and work out strategies so I'm forced to play solo. I have been playing on an iPhone 6S plus. The phone did fine on I was hoping that a larger screen would help and WOW what an improvement the size makes (yes, size does apparently matter). The screen of the RM3s is larger than the entire screen and bezels of the iPhone 6S plus. I understand the brightness is only like 400nits or something like that. It's plenty bright enough for me. This was a concern previously but not now.
Buttons: The buttons have a solid clicky feel. I like them. The lock button and the volume rocker are close together so I keep hitting the volume down button. I suspect this might be an issue when my wife calls me and I've accidentally turned down the volume. My iPhone only had one button along the right side of the phone so the extra buttons will take some getting used to.
Face Unlock: This is new to me. With my wife's Note 9, she can lift the phone and it'll detect the movement and unlock. I THINK with the RM3s, you have to push the button on the side to activate the face scanner. Doesn't bother me but it might someone else.
PUGB Mobile: The bootup times for PUBG are effectively the same between the RM3s and the iPhone 6s Plus, we are talking millisecond differences. The iPhone is 4-5 years old and I bought it new. Not sure if this is a testament to Apple technology or not. As I understand UFS 3.0, you primarily see the benenfits when loading large files. My guess here is PUBG has a lot of little files so the performance benefits for loading times of PUGB are a marginally improvement over UFS 2.0. I mention this as I was considering the Samsung S10+ but the screen is smaller than what I wanted to buy.
First MINOR Gripe: Just to prove I'm being objectionable here, I would like to have had the charge port off center like the headphone jack is. I love that the ROG2 can be charged using the side port. When playing games in landscape mode, the cords would be balanced in your hands. That said, there is a freaking 5000mAh battery in this thing so I an easily play several classic matches and not have an anxiety that my battery will be dead before I get home.
Speakers: this was not a big factor for me as when I'm gaming I'll have on headphones but I like to play music or watch YouTube while cooking dinner. The speakers do not disappoint. Are they the best things on earth? Of course not. Are they an improvement over the iPhone 6s Plus? Oh hell yeah. While I am not an audiophile, this speakers are pretty damn good. They get loud. At the volume level of zero, clicking the volume up rocker once makes the speaker loud enough to listen to while working at your desk (w/o a headset). Any louder and my wife will immediately come tell my to turn it down. While the ear piece doubles as a speaker, the volume balance between the two is pretty good. The OnePlus 7t (the other phone I was considering) has a dedicated speaker so I'm sure it sounds perfectly balanced. If I want a higher quality speaker, I'm going to rely on a dedicated unit. Same goes for my TV, computer, or media center, etc. Use the right tool for the job.
Size and Weight: I don't think the phone is big but rather it is long (and I like it "tall" - using tall here for obvious reasons). It does NOT feel heavy and actually feels lighter than my iPhone 6s plus (plus case weight). I will be ordering a silicone case for the RM3s but I doubt it'll had any significant heft. The phone feels solid and not cheap but any means. Perhaps the lack of rear glass and the use of metal cuts down on the weight?
Air Triggers/Bumpers: In a word, "FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!" They are better than what I had hoped for. Before I found out about the RM3s, I considered getting the OnePlus 7t and ordering button attachments from Amazon. The air triggers/bumper buttons respond immediately and without any lag. The finger unlock can also be programmed for a 3rd button. No clue yet what to use for that except maybe the revive button but since I primarily play solo, I'll probably program it for the scope or the exit button while in the vehicle. The beauty of the button is I can stack the icons in PUBG and the center button will activate the applicable button (in a vehicle, the unlock sensor becomes the exit button, outside of the vehicle, it activates the scope or perhaps the reload. So many choices. The placement isn't super easy to tap during extreme game play but after developing some muscle memory, it'll end up being a great addition.
It came with a pre-applied screen protector. I had heard mixed comments about whether or not it would come with one. As a result, I did order one with the phone so I guess I'll put it in a drawer. Of course when I need it, I wont be able to find it, I'll order another one, and then I'll find the one in the drawer. :/
The LED on back is pretty slick (albeit a gimmick but I like flashy lights). You can configure it for a multitude of things, There is an app with the phone to control the LED behavior. I also really like how the LED can flicker when playing music and for notifications. When playing music, I place the phone face-down so the sound from the speakers are bounced back from the counter which amplifies the sound (and you an see the LED).
Storage Space: Mine is the 128GB version. After signing in and before installing any apps, only 11% was used. No complaints there at all. I activated developer mode and then enabled OTG support, connected my OTG adapter and then attached a 512GB jump drive. The phone had no issues reading the contents. If I end up filling up the 128GB, it'll be easy to off load data so no concerns for me here.
Charge: When I unboxed the phone, the battery was around 80% (this is very normal). I placed on charge while I ate lunch, came back and it was 100%. 5000mAh battery. Awesome.
UI: My wife has a Samsung Note 9 so my experience with Android is limited to the time I've used her phone and the Samsung UI (can I say I hate curved screens? They look great but the usability is severely limited IMO.) and her phone feels heavy. I don't know what "bloatware" or "stock android" looks like but I've heard that the UI of the RM3s is very close to stock Android. I like what I am seeing. In all honesty, I like OnePlus's UI better visually speaking. I know you may be saying you can install Nova Launcher but the RM3s launcher cant permanently change to use a different launcher. Even if I can't install a 3rd party launcher, coming from iOS, I'm used to only effectively being able to change the wallpaper so I'm already have more customization options now. The stock live wallpaper is pretty cool.
ROOT: I do not have any plans to ROOT the phone or unlock the bootloader. I also thought I'd never leave iOS but I've seen the errors of my ways so we'll see what happens. I did see in Developer Options there is a slide switch to unlock the bootloader. Nice!
Phone: I stuck my Tmobile sim card in an Tmobile immediately detected the phone needed some carrier updates. After applying them, I made a single call. It connected quickly. I did not pay attention to if it was connecting using VoLTE. After the initial test call, I removed the SIM. My case hasn't arrived yet so I'm waiting to use the phone. Once I make the official switch, I'll add a reply on the phone call since no one on YouTube mentions how it works as a phone. ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You absolutely can permanently change the launcher.

Do tell. IIRC, you also have this phone.

SavageCat-TX said:
Ordered by RM3s last night. Excited and nervous at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SavageCat-TX said:
I paid the extra $6 to have it shipped faster and arrived in 3 business days. I ordered LATE on Black Friday 2019 and had it in my hands on Wednesday.
First, let me provide a bit of history. I'm play PUBG a lot. I'm not on a squad mainly due to lack of the ability to setup a schedule to play with teammates to learn behaviors and work out strategies so I'm forced to play solo. I have been playing on an iPhone 6S plus. The phone did fine on I was hoping that a larger screen would help and WOW what an improvement the size makes (yes, size does apparently matter). The screen of the RM3s is larger than the entire screen and bezels of the iPhone 6S plus. I understand the brightness is only like 400nits or something like that. It's plenty bright enough for me. This was a concern previously but not now.
Buttons: The buttons have a solid clicky feel. I like them. The lock button and the volume rocker are close together so I keep hitting the volume down button. I suspect this might be an issue when my wife calls me and I've accidentally turned down the volume. My iPhone only had one button along the right side of the phone so the extra buttons will take some getting used to.
Face Unlock: This is new to me. With my wife's Note 9, she can lift the phone and it'll detect the movement and unlock. I THINK with the RM3s, you have to push the button on the side to activate the face scanner. Doesn't bother me but it might someone else.
PUGB Mobile: The bootup times for PUBG are effectively the same between the RM3s and the iPhone 6s Plus, we are talking millisecond differences. The iPhone is 4-5 years old and I bought it new. Not sure if this is a testament to Apple technology or not. As I understand UFS 3.0, you primarily see the benenfits when loading large files. My guess here is PUBG has a lot of little files so the performance benefits for loading times of PUGB are a marginally improvement over UFS 2.0. I mention this as I was considering the Samsung S10+ but the screen is smaller than what I wanted to buy.
First MINOR Gripe: Just to prove I'm being objectionable here, I would like to have had the charge port off center like the headphone jack is. I love that the ROG2 can be charged using the side port. When playing games in landscape mode, the cords would be balanced in your hands. That said, there is a freaking 5000mAh battery in this thing so I an easily play several classic matches and not have an anxiety that my battery will be dead before I get home.
Speakers: this was not a big factor for me as when I'm gaming I'll have on headphones but I like to play music or watch YouTube while cooking dinner. The speakers do not disappoint. Are they the best things on earth? Of course not. Are they an improvement over the iPhone 6s Plus? Oh hell yeah. While I am not an audiophile, this speakers are pretty damn good. They get loud. At the volume level of zero, clicking the volume up rocker once makes the speaker loud enough to listen to while working at your desk (w/o a headset). Any louder and my wife will immediately come tell my to turn it down. While the ear piece doubles as a speaker, the volume balance between the two is pretty good. The OnePlus 7t (the other phone I was considering) has a dedicated speaker so I'm sure it sounds perfectly balanced. If I want a higher quality speaker, I'm going to rely on a dedicated unit. Same goes for my TV, computer, or media center, etc. Use the right tool for the job.
Size and Weight: I don't think the phone is big but rather it is long (and I like it "tall" - using tall here for obvious reasons). It does NOT feel heavy and actually feels lighter than my iPhone 6s plus (plus case weight). I will be ordering a silicone case for the RM3s but I doubt it'll had any significant heft. The phone feels solid and not cheap but any means. Perhaps the lack of rear glass and the use of metal cuts down on the weight?
Air Triggers/Bumpers: In a word, "FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!" They are better than what I had hoped for. Before I found out about the RM3s, I considered getting the OnePlus 7t and ordering button attachments from Amazon. The air triggers/bumper buttons respond immediately and without any lag. The finger unlock can also be programmed for a 3rd button. No clue yet what to use for that except maybe the revive button but since I primarily play solo, I'll probably program it for the scope or the exit button while in the vehicle. The beauty of the button is I can stack the icons in PUBG and the center button will activate the applicable button (in a vehicle, the unlock sensor becomes the exit button, outside of the vehicle, it activates the scope or perhaps the reload. So many choices. The placement isn't super easy to tap during extreme game play but after developing some muscle memory, it'll end up being a great addition.
It came with a pre-applied screen protector. I had heard mixed comments about whether or not it would come with one. As a result, I did order one with the phone so I guess I'll put it in a drawer. Of course when I need it, I wont be able to find it, I'll order another one, and then I'll find the one in the drawer. :/
The LED on back is pretty slick (albeit a gimmick but I like flashy lights). You can configure it for a multitude of things, There is an app with the phone to control the LED behavior. I also really like how the LED can flicker when playing music and for notifications. When playing music, I place the phone face-down so the sound from the speakers are bounced back from the counter which amplifies the sound (and you an see the LED).
Storage Space: Mine is the 128GB version. After signing in and before installing any apps, only 11% was used. No complaints there at all. I activated developer mode and then enabled OTG support, connected my OTG adapter and then attached a 512GB jump drive. The phone had no issues reading the contents. If I end up filling up the 128GB, it'll be easy to off load data so no concerns for me here.
Charge: When I unboxed the phone, the battery was around 80% (this is very normal). I placed on charge while I ate lunch, came back and it was 100%. 5000mAh battery. Awesome.
UI: My wife has a Samsung Note 9 so my experience with Android is limited to the time I've used her phone and the Samsung UI (can I say I hate curved screens? They look great but the usability is severely limited IMO.) and her phone feels heavy. I don't know what "bloatware" or "stock android" looks like but I've heard that the UI of the RM3s is very close to stock Android. I like what I am seeing. In all honesty, I like OnePlus's UI better visually speaking. I know you may be saying you can install Nova Launcher but the RM3s launcher cant permanently change to use a different launcher. Even if I can't install a 3rd party launcher, coming from iOS, I'm used to only effectively being able to change the wallpaper so I'm already have more customization options now. The stock live wallpaper is pretty cool.
ROOT: I do not have any plans to ROOT the phone or unlock the bootloader. I also thought I'd never leave iOS but I've seen the errors of my ways so we'll see what happens. I did see in Developer Options there is a slide switch to unlock the bootloader. Nice!
Phone: I stuck my Tmobile sim card in an Tmobile immediately detected the phone needed some carrier updates. After applying them, I made a single call. It connected quickly. I did not pay attention to if it was connecting using VoLTE. After the initial test call, I removed the SIM. My case hasn't arrived yet so I'm waiting to use the phone. Once I make the official switch, I'll add a reply on the phone call since no one on YouTube mentions how it works as a phone. ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bignazpwns said:
So I have a Note 9. Got into Call of duty and decided it was time to get something to play it on sice I was just beating on that battery. Looked at all the gaming phone's and ended up getting a Red magic 3 256gb, with 2 cases, dock, controller, screen protectors everything mind like new for $455. Not a mark on the phone.
First impression. This does not come packed like a cheap phone. You get flagship level packing here.
It's a big phone. But with the case on it. And my text 22 case it's just a hair bigger then my note 9. But it feels great in the hand. It's thicker but you can't tell it hides it well. I haven't felt a phone like this since my Droid DNA. Build quality is great and I was shocked at he nice it really was. I keep looking for that catch. Why this is not a $1,000+ phone. You can't tell. I wish the phone did not have the red accents on it and the logo on the back but since I got a case a little black vivid automotive vinyl and it looks amazing. The diamond camera lenses lets you know this is not a typical phone. The red switch on the side is a hint that it's packing some serious power.
Display. This can make it break a cheap phone. The display is 90hz and is butter. Play 90hz then play 60. You will then hate 60hz. Scrolling is smooth. Does it have the horrible cheap AMOLED display color shift? Nope looks great! Is it note 9 and 10 great? No. But it's a great display and not really trailing far behind the best.
Camera. Stock app is meh. No ois and all that. But the sensor is good. The foundation is there it just needs polish. Gcam app pics look great. Not the best but more then enough for the typical person. I will say the slow no blows my note 9 out of the water. The note 9 looks like trash why this phone looks very clear. That 1920fps is no joke. But I did notice my orange was a bit bighter and the note 9 was more accurate in color but looked grainy where this phone was extremely clear. And the difference between the 940fps and the 1920fps is amazing. Some of my slow mo videos look absolutely amazing and are so crisp and detailed I was blown away. It does 8k...low fps but it ties into the gamer aspect of my phone does 8k..at 15fps...what's your phone do 8k at? Mine doesn't... exactly. 15fps is more then 0.
Android. Is pretty much stock but with some tasteful additions. They respected Android and did not over do it. Runs smoothly and is what you would expect from a pretty much stock Android. Flip the switch and the game space starts. It pick games up automaticly and it's easy to add apps to it. Screen recording is very easy and works great. Settings are easy to adjust and mapping your shoulder buttons are as easy as dragging them to here you want them. Game space is great.
That fan tho! It works. It's not loud but some times you can hear it. If you screen record with the mic on you can year it in the video. But most of the time you won't notice it. I found my temps playing games and heavy benchmarking never hit over 40.6c even after a few hours of call of duty. It works great
Nubia is a name I never heard of. But Nubia is now on my list of phone's to watch. I will take a serious look at the red magic 4 and if they improve on this I will buy one. This phone is that good.
I really hope they offer an all blacked out version. With just the red button. Clean look till the RGB comes on. I love the look of it all blacked out in my case and the RGB on.
And for those who have Verizon. I have Verizon and not having band 13 sucks but I have always had 4g. I did notice that its slightly slower then my note 9. But still pulling good 4g speed and no issues. Put the Sim in and it worked great.
And those worried about updates. Most phone's don't get them anyways so who cares if they don't. I'm on Verizon so it's not like my phone updates have ever been fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using Nova launcher prime with zero issues on my 3 and 3s.
If you wanna chat get the USB port location for gaming you can pick up a dock for the phone from RM. I got one the added a micro SD card slot to it. The dock is pretty nice overall.

bignazpwns said:
I'm using Nova launcher prime with zero issues on my 3 and 3s.
If you wanna chat get the USB port location for gaming you can pick up a dock for the phone from RM. I got one the added a micro SD card slot to it. The dock is pretty nice overall.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I uninstalled and reinstalled and now have the option. It wasn't there before.
When I'm back at the computer, I'll update my original post.
Thanks for the feedback to the dock. I almost ordered it but wanted to the try OTG adapter from my wife's Note9 first.
Thanks guys!

SavageCat-TX said:
Well, I uninstalled and reinstalled and now have the option. It wasn't there before.
When I'm back at the computer, I'll update my original post.
Thanks for the feedback to the dock. I almost ordered it but wanted to the try OTG adapter from my wife's Note9 first.
Thanks guys!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice! Really great phone. I don't understand the complaints about buggy sw. I have zero issues. I did enable aod(root). Wish I could add the weather on the aod too.

Assuming AOD is always On Display, is that only on when charging (screen saver)?
No issues with bugs here either. It's been very stable.

SavageCat-TX said:
Assuming AOD is always On Display, is that only on when charging (screen saver)?
No issues with bugs here either. It's been very stable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, not screensaver. It's always on. There's a substratum overlay to enable it.

This is the closest I could find to AOD.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/red-magic-3/help/phone-display-t3945086/amp/

SavageCat-TX said:
This is the closest I could find to AOD.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/red-magic-3/help/phone-display-t3945086/amp/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you rooted?
I have AOD working with root.

[Review] Oppo Ace2 and Red Magic 5G Initial Impressions

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?