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Thoughts about the Moto X Pure/Style after extended usage

The point of this post is just to share my thoughts about the direction Motorola has taken with flagships. After using this phone for more than a year I can conclude:
Besides near stock Android and Turbo charging, the phone is mediocre at best. I have never felt as good as what i felt with my previous flagships (a Oneplus One).
The Battery life is way below average. After using the phone for a year the battery has really started to show its age and its not lasting as long as it should.
Another annoying issue I noticed is the fact that Motorola implements almost the same design language for their lower end G series and X series. Apart from the size, someone who isn't a tech geek can easily mistake my Pure for a lower end Motorola phone. The new Z series has fixed this, but again it would be difficult for the uninitiated to tell the difference between a Moto Z Play and the more premium Moto Z. Samsung, LG, HTC, Xiaomi go to great lengths to ensure that their flagships stand out and look very different from the budget phones.
I dont think i need to mention the fact that ever since Lenovo has taken over, the update wait time has increased a great deal, new reports suggest that the Pure will only get Noughat in May 2017
The developers that choose to work on the Pure deserve a lot of credit, but the fact is that a lot of developers chose to develop for other devices rather than the Pure.
A lot of accessory manufacturers decided that the moto X Pure didn't deserve any attention. To find a decent case was not very easy, (I especially missed using a Spigen case) and the fact that there is not a single working tempered Screen glass protector proves this. (I know the Pleson works almost 100% but its not available freely in all countries neither is it perfect.)
In conclusion I'm pretty sure this will be my last Motorola phone simply because it would be smarter to spend a little more and get a Galaxy, and with phones like the Oneplus 3T it makes little sense to buy a phone like the Moto Z which is priced considerably higher.
Would love to hear from other people what they think and if they are going to stay loyal to Motorola.

Heavy weight
Easy to get heated

The point about sharing design with mid range Moto phones is dope. People often ask if it's a Moto X Play or a Moto G 3rd Gen and then we need to tell them it's X Style ??

Well ... I understand your point of view, but what I think is that you chose badly the device, since you found him "mediocre at best"
The points listed:
Comparing the most powerful AND STABLE 32-bit processor to the second in line of Qualcomm's 64-bit generation SOC's with new architecture and everything else, I believe to be extremely wrong, since after the SD810 fiasco the creation of the SD808 was the fix the company used (and i think it was a good one, but this is something mostly disagree with me '^^)
About the OnePlus One, it is really a beast phone with the SD801 (the 32bits GOD) and i understand that you had a remarkable experience with it, since i had (now it is with my girlfriend) an Xperia Z3 with the same SD801 as the OnePlus One i understand when you say it was a more fluid usage, since i think the same, but... I don't think you can compare something that is pretty stable with some new technology.
I never had any problems with the battery because i use as a normal phone and i play games only at home and waiting in lines (bank/medic/...), it gives me something next to 18 hours (stock ROM/kernel) of use with 3 hour SOT or 7 to 8 hours SOT when i use it to watch movies/series/animes in my bed, mostly at weekends. Through the week i unplug it from charger at 6:30, go to work, and at 18:00 i go back home (40 ~ 35% left), the weekend is always a mess for battery stats,
As for the design I don’t have much to say, because I find it very beautiful, and being same design language is a plus for me, i like to have a “invisible phone” in the croud, only people that asks me what is my phone should know the answer.
Now the two really bad points ...
As for Lenovo acquiring Motorola, I fully agree that it was dumb, at least it should keep Motorola working as it always did.
And the lack of smartphone accessories really is laughable
We can keep talking about it, but i really think is a good phone and the testing Nougat ROM's are amazing, i can't wait for the official Nougat update.

btw all samsungs look the same too, comapre new A series with S: very simmilar glass on glass design.
other than that, you're right there are some dissapoitments but it's not real flagship phone, it's more like very good mid-end device, It was never priced like a flagship so don't expect it to be real flagship - that's my opinion. OPO is a differen't story, they managed to get price down with other ways like it's distribution, services ect.

It is a flagship phone. Why would you think otherwise? SD 8xx, 5.7" 2K screen, 21 MP back camera, etc. Upon release the starting price for 16gb was $399, while most mid range phones hit at $250-$300. At this point, nearly 2 years later, it could be considered a mid range but that is because hardware moves forward.
As to my thoughts: I think this is a great phone, even now. I run unrooted stock and pretty much it is a Nexus device with a few extras for customization thrown via Moto apps. These apps are few and I appreciate that they add actual additional features and not just replicate what Android and Google actually does already. The phone runs smooth, has a good camera for good lighting, and handles everything I throw at it. I will admit that battery life could be better, but it is acceptable and at least the turbo charge makes up for this shortcoming. I don't regret this purchase, even if the update process is dismal.
Update: I have hit the end of my warranty period, so I unlocked the bootloader and rooted. I have applied my favorite rooted apps and settings (Xposed, amplify, Greenify, TiBu to disable/uninstall certain apps and services, BBS to track wakelocks, and AdAway) so hopefully I will see improved battery life.

I bought the phone 6 months ago and I love it. I always used to be a android tinkerer. But recently most of the features that I used to root for have become stock. All I really need in a phone is stock android (although I wish we would get updates sooner) and the front facing speakers (because anything else is stupid). While I will probably be buying whatever google has out when I decide that it is time to upgrade in a year or two. It isn't due to anything motorola did wrong in particular. I also tend to keep phones a long time and upgrade to a tried and tested phone (which 6 months ago was the moto x pure, getting great reviews.) I upgraded from the Galaxy Note 2, and this was a wonderful step up.

I bought mine used last summer, upgrading from a Galaxy Note II. I'm a little disappointed in the battery life, but it gets me through most days. I agree about the lack of accessories and the slowing speed of updates. I'm also amazed at how well my Note II still stands up while running a custom MM Rom. I hope the X Pure works that well when it is that old.
But there are things that I really love about this phone too. I am amazed at how good the front speakers sound. I never thought I would care this much, but they are really good. I'm happy with the camera, since most of my photography is in good lighting conditions. This is my first phone with a camera that was good enough to not bother with a point and shoot. I'll move to a custom ROM if the updates stop altogether, but they haven't stopped yet. I'm happy that it still has a headphone jack, I use it all the time. Speed is fast enough to never annoy me, where my Note 2 was fast enough to rarely annoy me.
I choose this phone as an aging flagship instead of a midrange (Honor 5X, Asus Zenfone Laser 2, Moto G 3rd Gen) and I'm glad that I did.

Note2 versus Moto X Pure Edition
Znomon said:
I bought the phone 6 months ago and I love it. I always used to be a android tinkerer. But recently most of the features that I used to root for have become stock. All I really need in a phone is stock android (although I wish we would get updates sooner) and the front facing speakers (because anything else is stupid). While I will probably be buying whatever google has out when I decide that it is time to upgrade in a year or two. It isn't due to anything motorola did wrong in particular. I also tend to keep phones a long time and upgrade to a tried and tested phone (which 6 months ago was the moto x pure, getting great reviews.) I upgraded from the Galaxy Note 2, and this was a wonderful step up.
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smallmj said:
I bought mine used last summer, upgrading from a Galaxy Note II. I'm a little disappointed in the battery life, but it gets me through most days. I agree about the lack of accessories and the slowing speed of updates. I'm also amazed at how well my Note II still stands up while running a custom MM Rom. I hope the X Pure works that well when it is that old.
But there are things that I really love about this phone too. I am amazed at how good the front speakers sound. I never thought I would care this much, but they are really good. I'm happy with the camera, since most of my photography is in good lighting conditions. This is my first phone with a camera that was good enough to not bother with a point and shoot. I'll move to a custom ROM if the updates stop altogether, but they haven't stopped yet. I'm happy that it still has a headphone jack, I use it all the time. Speed is fast enough to never annoy me, where my Note 2 was fast enough to rarely annoy me.
I choose this phone as an aging flagship instead of a midrange (Honor 5X, Asus Zenfone Laser 2, Moto G 3rd Gen) and I'm glad that I did.
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Note 2 holdout here too . I'm just finishing up my first week since the upgrade and am quite pleased so far. I have the feeling that the MXPE is going to be a good low maintenance, long haul phone that I can get a few good years of service out of without too much hand-holding, just like with the Note. And with a nice, bright LCD screen instead of Led, I won't ever have to worry about burn-in or custom kernels to help correct green tint; pretty much everything just works. In fact, there's a ton of features that used to require a special app or a custom rom on the Note 2 that are built right in to the X, so there was a lot less effort required out-of-the-box to get everything to work, and on the stock Rom, no less! Even tethering works on the stock rom, which is something that I've never seen on any smartphone in my life.
Comparing the battery life of the two devices, I have yet to conclude any formal tests, but so far, the Pure Edition looks like it's going to be delivering 3-4 hours of screen-on time at best, while the Note 2 delivered as much as 4-5 hours on a good day. That said, I used that phone much more conservatively, so that could have something to do with it, but overall, the runtime of the Pure Edition isn't looking all that great. I think it's just got too much power for its own good, and when you combine that with a ludicrously-high screen resolution, (which demands more effort to render those high-resolution fonts and animations) it strains the CPU and GPU more. Time will tell if things improve after I settle in with it.

Overall I am happy with my X pure, though I share some of the others gripes.
Pros
-Screen
-Above average camera
-Good front camera with flash
-Good CPU, 3GB RAM
-front speakers
-no complaint on call quality
-Sd card slot - I have a 64GB card split as 20GB adopted and 40GB external
-moto ROM is near stock
-Moto features are well done (lock screen notifications)
-Simple unlock/root process
-GSM & CDMA = yes on VZ
-Quich charge 2
-understated design (I like it, others not as much)
- PRICE for these features unmatched
Cons
-Gets hot under load
-Battery life could be better - depends on how much I use it. GPS OFF helps. QC is a necessity with this phone
- lack of choice for accessories
- curved back - one handed is a chore and can't use on the table face up. It does feel nice to hold for a call though.
Other
- upgrade cycle has been slower than some would like. However it still exists at least. Other phones would be dead by now, this one is still alive.
Overall, Pros outweigh the cons and there is a lot for me to love about this phone.
I think I have been spoiled, because I'm finding it hard to find a device to upgrade to without sacrifices. The only phones I would consider are the Pixel and Moto G4 and one is expensive and the other underpowered.

well, i did the poll but i did it as a yes i would buy another, with condition of course.
i came from the original disappointed motorola fans, the Photon 4G fan. back then... it was the photon of the era. It had the ability to work as a PC, GSM capabilities, 4G wimax and at the time was the best performance with dual core 1 gigahertz and qHD. really a prime of a phone at that time compared to the S2 and the evo. cyanogenmod came out and did wonders on that phone because moto blur was so trashy. Then... the worst happened. Sprint ordered motorola to lock down the bootloader to 2.3.6 which is severely locked and no modifications were allowed to be done anymore. those who were lucky to not have 2.3.6 were able to mod to ICS but those who had 2.3.6 had to bootstrap the phone to work with cyanogenmod and that even was a piss poor attempt at making it work.
now i buy the moto x pure with alot of resentment from the photon but after hearing the reviews is when i bought it. after plagues of hardware problems with hte nexus 5 i simply needed a way to go back and the best device was the moto x. i was so sure i wanted this phone i custom ordered it (after reading rave reviews), i ordered the black leather with red accent 64 gig with 2 years protection. with over a year on this phone... i will admit i still love it.
there were a few hardware problems but i do have the 2 year protection and they did repair it for me... replaced the screen and the battery and wireless modules. i since then have not had problems with it (and believe they remedied the issues that i had with the older devices). i own an HTC M9, and my sister has the s7 edge. the only thing i like about the m9 is the dolby atmos and the carrier aggregation (hoping for a wireless update for the X). other than that... my phone is still superior despite older technology.
why?
i love my moto x because of the moto display. my absolute favorite! i also love the flash light and camera gestures.
the camera works great, signal is still better than most other phones, it barely crashes, the speakers still work very well, still speedy, turbo charge is still an amazing product and i bought the car charger for it. battery had 90 mins on screen time and still has 41% battery and i like the fact its unlocked gsm. i tried freedom pop a few weeks ago and i put that sim in. switched over quickly and it worked great then when i was done... i put my sprint sim back in and it worked just as great too.
the reason i dont see much to switch to however is because samsung, LG, and HTC hasnt really enticed me yet as to why their phone is better. samsung i have to see what will make them different... but LG really hasnt enticed me and im curious on what HTC does, though im not a metal phone fan (feel the feraday cage idea disintegrates the signal, IMO). Pixel is nice... but i simply dont have the money.
what would make me switch to another phone...
1) 4 gig of ram (preferably 6 gigs)
2) HPUE has to be baked in for Sprint LTE at a minimum but 5 channel aggregation would be amazing, AND GSM UNLOCKED
3) best camera software
4) minimum 5.5 inch screen
5) battery that will last for full 24 hours without need of charge or quick charge 4.0 with dual pol
6) shatter resistance and waterproof
for now... the moto x meets my demands without incremental improvements until i see whats next. hopefully a moto z successor that actually works on sprint

In the 2 years it has been out the update cycle has been slower than Samsung's Motorola did not deliver on the support side the main selling point they had with this device was it was going to be similar to the Nexus upgrade cycle well my warranty was up before the first update came out... In addition to the fiasco that is accessories for this phone I am really regretting not going with the LG v10

I don't know why everyone still complains about the accessories. This was never a mainstream device since it was completely carrier independent and sold unlocked. The previous Moto X (and Moto G) line was sold as both branded and unlocked so they were actually seen at pretty much any company that sold cellular service. For those looking for contract or payment plan pricing, they could get it from the carrier. With limited visibility, and the lack of payment plans through carriers the Pure was just not that popular. Companies that make accessories are going to focus on popular selling phones first as that is where they will make the most money... At least we have some options.

I sold my Moto X Pure to buy a Google Pixel XL.
If I were to sell the Pixel XL, then the Moto X Pure is the only phone I'd consider buying.
It was the best all-around phone I've ever had.
I'd even go with it over the new OnePlus 3 second edition or Galaxy S7 variants.
Regardless of price.
Moto Z. lmao what a stinker that phone is compared to Moto X Pure.
Unless you want pretty. Then you shouldn't even be on XDA if that's all you care about.

Interesting comments. I've been a Nexus owner for years, with the 6P being my prior phone. It became my prior phone due to the all too common Boot Loop of Death (BLOD) that seems to be impacting more and more owners. While Huawei did replace it with a refurb'ed model, not in mint shape like the one I sent, but it did come back with 128g instead of the 32g I sent. The battery is terrible as compared with the MXPE, I've been through most of the custom roms/kernels and nothing has really helped and I don't do social media nor play games on it. The built in features of the Moto really impressed me, they are actually functional and add value. The Moto Display is excellent as is the voice recognition of the Moto voice. The bluetooth stack seems to have issues (with me at least), my cell signal is a bit worse and the lack of updates is sad.
I've considered the Pixel, but the price is insane and after having the Pixel features on the 6P I'm happy with the Moto.
When I got my 6P back, it took about a week to change my sim back to it from the Moto, I put it back in the Moto the next day and don't plan on taking it out.

I've had several issues with my Moto X Pure:
1. Frequent static emanating from the headphone jack, which puts a real damper on quiet classical music. I've read on discussion boards that this is a known problem with jacks on the Moto X.
2. Failure to recognize SD cards. I'm now on my third card, and the phone is less than a year old.
3. The camera now fails to operate because of a "lack of disk space" -- although I have more than 24GB available.
Like you, I will never buy another Motorola phone.

Gourdman said:
I've had several issues with my Moto X Pure:
1. Frequent static emanating from the headphone jack, which puts a real damper on quiet classical music. I've read on discussion boards that this is a known problem with jacks on the Moto X.
2. Failure to recognize SD cards. I'm now on my third card, and the phone is less than a year old.
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1. This is interesting and must be sample-specific. I'm a pretty avid music listener and haven't had any problems with the headphone output on either of my MXPEs (had to RMA my first toward the end of the warranty period). I'd definitely notice and complain if there were any perceptible noise.
2. This one I do have experience with. I bought a brand new Samsung EVO 64 GB mSD card at the same time as the phone, and it gave me fits, but seems to work in other devices. Tried an older SanDisk I had laying around and it's worked fine.

ominousnimbus said:
1. This is interesting and must be sample-specific. I'm a pretty avid music listener and haven't had any problems with the headphone output on either of my MXPEs (had to RMA my first toward the end of the warranty period). I'd definitely notice and complain if there were any perceptible noise.
2. This one I do have experience with. I bought a brand new Samsung EVO 64 GB mSD card at the same time as the phone, and it gave me fits, but seems to work in other devices. Tried an older SanDisk I had laying around and it's worked fine.
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I've had issues with static, but only on some select 3.5mm plugs. I just figure it was that specific plug itself.
Have had no issues with my SanDisk plus. I use it as removable storage and not as adopted storage. But going back to your statement, I have owned a multiple phones and have noticed some don't play well with certain brands of cards but do well with others. I'm not sure why this is but it does happen.

I really hope I don't get SD slot troubles. My Note 2 did that and it drove me crazy. Maybe next time I should just shell out for a 64+ GB phone.

Times have changed
smallmj said:
I really hope I don't get SD slot troubles. My Note 2 did that and it drove me crazy. Maybe next time I should just shell out for a 64+ GB phone.
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Newer versions of Android (and their apps, along with the stock Rom apparently) are not nearly as frugal with the 16GB of storage as the Note2 was. I'm already at 7.8/9.6GB used with just a basic load of apps and data (music is on the card and camera photos are also directed to be stored there) on the MXPE.
For comparison, my Note2 has a massive load of software & data, plus a ton of camera photos, all on the main storage volume, and only 6.26GB out of the total 10.95GB available are used.
All that to say that 16GB used to be plenty, but "modern" software is just too bloated for that. If I do upgrade phones anytime in the next ~2 years, it'll probably be to a larger Moto X Pure Edition, but for now, that 64GB MicroSD card should be plenty adequate.

Realistic options for a replacement to the Moto X Pure

So I am getting sick of the battery life of this device and charging twice a day just to get by... the QC helps but it isn't always a viable option for someone who is on the road/travels a lot. I am probably going to go back to my Moto G 2015 for the time being as I could get a full days use most of the time on a single charge and just selling my MXPE.
But now the question comes up as what to replace it with... Moto G 5th gen, Blu Pure XR, ZTE Axon 7 Mini, or ???
My requirements are simple, or so I think...
1) 4+ hours SOT, preferably 5+, in mixed signal environment of WiFi/LTE/3G and sometimes without the best signal strength (for reference, I currently get about 2.5 hours on MXPE)
2) 5.2"-5.7" screen with 1080p minimum resolution
3) Stock Android, "near" stock, or simple UI (no TouchWiz, EMUI, ZenUI, or other bloated UI) that allows easy use of replacement launcher
4) 64GB internal storage or 32GB internal+microSD
5) 3GB or more of RAM
6) Full AT&T network compatibility (GSM 850/1900 and LTE Band 2/4/5/12/17 and optionally 29/30)
7) Nougat or Marshmallow with a Nougat upgrade "guaranteed"
8) 3.5mm headphone jack
9) Dual band WiFi - 2.4 & 5Ghz
10) $300USD or less
Would be nice, but not essential...
1) Unlockable bootloader (implies root/custom recovery/ROM development community)
2) Front facing speakers
3) NFC
4) USB 3.0
Absolute no no's are Samsung, Asus, or Huawei/Honor devices.
What else fits these requirements that I am not considering?

I believe the one phone that comes to mind that would fit most of your requirements is the Axon. I took a break from the MXPE (when it flew off my roof and died a horrible death in a rain storm) and had the Axon 7 (normal size) for about a month. You will get NEAR 4 hours of SoT, a qhd screen, 5.5 inches, relatively light for metal body. Unlockable bootloader and decent dev for it, last I checked. Things that bothered me/ pissed me off were that DTTW was laggy and slow, the actual cell service seemed to be really bad, possibly because of the full metal body phone, and the biggest annoyance - no backlit capacitive buttons, so you were left sort of blind in the dark trying to hit buttons. There is also no way through the build.prop to enable the on-screen buttons to bypass the issue at night, last I checked.
LG V20 could be an option too since it has a bootloader unlock now, 3.5-4.5 hours of SoT. I think it has a bottom bezel speaker though, which is a little weird, and as always the LG software has complaints. The dev is good enough to get around that though.
I'm in the same boat as you though. I've been looking pretty hard to find a new phone and the V20 is the only one I am really considering right now.

Get the OnePlus 3T it meets all your needs I get easily 6 to 7 HR sot

datchico305 said:
Get the OnePlus 3T it meets all your needs I get easily 6 to 7 HR sot
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Would love to... tell me where I can get a new OP3T for under $300... That one is a hard stop requirement.
@xgerryx Same for LG V20 and Axon 7 (which never goes on sale, although the Mini does often), the $300 price point is a big deal

This phone has been a little disappointing. It's good, but definitely not great. It's a night and day difference from the Galaxy S3 I was using, but I wish I had held out a little longer for the SD 820 phones instead of buying in 2015.
It sounds like you've already got a pretty inclusive list for phones that are sold in the US and meet your requirements.
I just checked swappa, and if you're willing to go used, the OnePlus 3 is starting to get down towards the price point you're looking for. It has the same size battery as the MXP, and between the more efficient SoC than this godawful 808/810 generation and an FHD AMOLED I'd think you should get better screen on time out of it. It's a OnePlus so it has loads of good development, so you'll have all kinds of kernel/rom/tweaking available to really squeeze every erg out of it.

jason2678 said:
This phone has been a little disappointing. It's good, but definitely not great. It's a night and day difference from the Galaxy S3 I was using, but I wish I had held out a little longer for the SD 820 phones instead of buying in 2015.
It sounds like you've already got a pretty inclusive list for phones that are sold in the US and meet your requirements.
I just checked swappa, and if you're willing to go used, the OnePlus 3 is starting to get down towards the price point you're looking for. It has the same size battery as the MXP, and between the more efficient SoC than this godawful 808/810 generation and an FHD AMOLED I'd think you should get better screen on time out of it. It's a OnePlus so it has loads of good development, so you'll have all kinds of kernel/rom/tweaking available to really squeeze every erg out of it.
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That actually could be an option... I will investigate further.

acejavelin said:
Would love to... tell me where I can get a new OP3T for under $300... That one is a hard stop requirement.
@xgerryx Same for LG V20 and Axon 7 (which never goes on sale, although the Mini does often), the $300 price point is a big deal
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If you happen to be SUPER interested in the V20, I have seen some go for like 310-320 on Swappa in good to mint condition. You gotta hound the seller though and keep track of it all damn day for when the price drops. Not an awesome experience but I'm waiting for the same thing myself.

xgerryx said:
If you happen to be SUPER interested in the V20, I have seen some go for like 310-320 on Swappa in good to mint condition. You gotta hound the seller though and keep track of it all damn day for when the price drops. Not an awesome experience but I'm waiting for the same thing myself.
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I'm not really interested... TBH, my experience with non-Nexus LG Android devices has been... well... lets just say less then wonderful.
Although I would have to say that the LG enV from years ago probably ranks up there as my favorite phone of all time, back when you could actually get DAYS of usage out of a cell phone on a single charge. I remember I would charge it twice a week. lol

acejavelin said:
I'm not really interested... TBH, my experience with non-Nexus LG Android devices has been... well... lets just say less then wonderful.
Although I would have to say that the LG enV from years ago probably ranks up there as my favorite phone of all time, back when you could actually get DAYS of usage out of a cell phone on a single charge. I remember I would charge it twice a week. lol
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Yea I agree. After my terrible experience with the buggy LG G4, I'm very skeptical about going back again. At the same time I am running out of companies to try out! Haha. Gotta circle back eventually, especially on Verizon.

xgerryx said:
Yea I agree. After my terrible experience with the buggy LG G4, I'm very skeptical about going back again. At the same time I am running out of companies to try out! Haha. Gotta circle back eventually, especially on Verizon.
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NEVER AGAIN!!! I refuse to drop $140 plus taxes and fees (realistically $160) for the service level I get now for $72 per month. Plus the limitations on devices, I would have to buy at least one new phone and/or go under contract. Nope, not happening. (Can you tell I have a grudge against Verizon, lol)

I would look around swappa for a OnePlus 3 or 3t it's worth it no bugs lag free and monthly updates it's already on nougat 7.1.1 and the beta builds they offer are great as well and development is great lots of greats ROMs and kernels and unlocking bootloader will not void warranty

TBH...I think you will have a hard time meeting all of your requirements right now. The market looks pretty dismal which is very unfortunate. I personally will hold out a little longer. I'm really looking hard at what Nokia/HMD are coming up with and hoping their roadmap for US devices includes a mid range device soon. So far their line up seems decent and if they are true to their word about expedient updates for Android, and they will sell devices with unlockable bootloaders at decent prices, I'll be sold.

moving to a galaxy s8 plus, comes tomorrow

unitz0mbie said:
moving to a galaxy s8 plus, comes tomorrow
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Like @acejavelin stated, Samsung is not an option, and I agree with him. Yes they have great hardware for the most part, but a less powerful processor running vanilla, our near vanilla Android will run just as well considering the lack of heavy handed UX. I will admit the phone looks great hardware and looks wise, but I personally don't like the look and feel of Samsung TW.

unitz0mbie said:
moving to a galaxy s8 plus, comes tomorrow
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Sammie's are to bloated... Every Samsung devices we have ever had has been problematic... Hope you enjoy yours though but I would never spend that kind of money on a phone.

I have a moto g5 plus as well, its pretty good. It's fast and smooth. Screen and camera are good too, but obviously not as good as the X style.

Yes mxpe battery sucks. I have to charge 2-3 times a day and am not even a heavy user. I know its more than your actual budget but better wait, save a bit more and probably the price will drop also and go for a OP 3T.

i know your problem man.. but why don't you wait for a nougat update?? why not? maybe they might fix up the battery drain issue!
there are barely very less phones which have dual front facing speakers.. market has got very saturated.. all look for flagship but they just don't think that having a good speakers is also a part of flagship project!
as per my personal opinion... this phone is just the best phone ive ever used (till 2015) but in upcoming era you will see more and more features
i will recommend you to wait and not hurry up to get a phone...
if you need a pure stock surely get nexus but just wait for new nexus phone.. maybe they might consider it as a flagship and the value might be cheap??
anyways if you're just asking for all the requirements my opinion (AXON 7) not just only for dual front facing speakers but also for the processor(sd 820),storage(64gb,6gb ram) expandable ovbio (256gb)
plot twist: has hybrid sim XD
but im legit that it'll be upgraded to android 'O'
but it cost around $350
think man.. public reviews are also good
it meets all the requirements but is as costly as mxpe

Sagar_1401 said:
i know your problem man.. but why don't you wait for a nougat update?? why not? maybe they might fix up the battery drain issue!
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Nougat can't "fix" our battery issue... Radio and display panel are hardware issues and that's where 75% of all battery drain is. It isn't even issues, it's just how much power they use normally. The SD808's radios are terribly inefficient, and the display panel uses more power than some small towns. If you think Nougat is going to noticably improve active use time, your kidding yourself.
To be honest, I might just pull my old Nexus 5 out if the drawer and switch to it... The battery life can't be much worse.
The sound aspect is less important. FF speakers are nice, but as long as I can hear a YouTube video in an average room and turn the ringer up enough u don't care.
I bought the MXPE as an upgrade to my G 2015 and it was on sale for under $250, and for the most part it is, I just didn't realize how bad the battery was, it is easily half of my G.

I got Axon 7 after X and can't be happier. I've had the A7 since August. Has the front speakers i wanted, nice beautiful Samsung screen. Battery is definitely better then X. Software was buggy at the beginning but they have improved it a lot. Axon 7 has been getting a lot of updates, doesn't mean it'll continue, we were the 1st ones to receive 7.0 with the exception of Google devices, and we are the only ones so far (afaik) to receive 7.1.1 with also the exception of Google devices.
It has its flaws but i love the phone. For the money you can't beat it. It's on sale now on newegg for $330.

still worth buying Pixel 2? [June 2018]

I need a new phone. I've been on a Note 4 for a while now, and it has reached its end-of-life. Done tons of research, and even when compared against the latest-and-greatest, the Pixel 2 still reviews well. It seems to be exactly what I am looking for. Even though the announcement of the Pixel 3 is right around the corner, it will mostly likely be late Oct / early Nov before consumers can get them in hand anyway. Five months is a long time, and I'm kind of ready to make a move now.
Is the Pixel 2 still the way to go? Do I have to bite the bullet and get another Samsung and get an s9? (I'm on AT&T btw, and I'm really really sick of having a carrier locked phone and waiting on AT&T to add bloatware to all the updates).
Would I be stupid to get the Pixel 2 today? Talk me into it / talk me out of it.

You'd be stupid to go Samsung again, that's for sure.
The Note 4 was arguably Samsung's peak for the Note line, and the S7 Edge the peak for their S line. Sure the new designs are fancy, but are fragile, and Samsung are horrendous when it comes to updates.
I'd suggest looking into a OnePlus 6 especially if you're sick of being carrier locked. Cheaper and more powerful than the Pixel 2, better in every way aside from speakers and camera if they are important to you.
That being said, I miss my Pixel 2 XL for the software as it's so damn smooth, but I do not miss the abysmal screen (Note 4 screen is better). So if you go Pixel 2, definitely get the smaller one with the nicer Samsung screen.

As opposed to what ? Samsung ? Pixel 2 still had several years of guaranteed updates and a smoother software interface with less bloat. I could understand MAYBE if you said an iPhone as most businesses are starting to use iOS and Apple supports their software for several years but against a Samsung that's just a joke.

My $0.02., develop your own pros/cons list as no one knows what's more important to you, than you. Example, I absolutely hate lag in software, probably an unhealthy amount... I also enjoy a headphone jack, but that's less important than software to _me_. At the end of the day, no phone is better at software and camera than the Pixel 2 (I have non-XL, coming from a Samsung Galaxy S3) and that's what I think ultimately creates the Pixel appeal because literally every time you use your phone, in an app, to take a pic, etc, you get that top-of-the-line software experience. How much does Samsung's superior hardware matter when apps lag or freeze and frustrate the user or they're running a 6-month old security patch level?
Also got mine 50% off during Verizon's Black Friday deal last year, figured the savings was worth the locked bootloader. Then we got an unlock method anyways in December so win-win, half price + unlocked BL now. Is the P2 worth full price to you? Who knows. But good luck whatever path you choose!

istrikerx said:
You'd be stupid to go Samsung again, that's for sure.
The Note 4 was arguably Samsung's peak for the Note line, and the S7 Edge the peak for their S line. Sure the new designs are fancy, but are fragile, and Samsung are horrendous when it comes to updates.
I'd suggest looking into a OnePlus 6 especially if you're sick of being carrier locked. Cheaper and more powerful than the Pixel 2, better in every way aside from speakers and camera if they are important to you.
That being said, I miss my Pixel 2 XL for the software as it's so damn smooth, but I do not miss the abysmal screen (Note 4 screen is better). So if you go Pixel 2, definitely get the smaller one with the nicer Samsung screen.
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I love my Pixel 2, but honestly the reason I bought it was because of the camera and because I thought there would be more rom development by this point, but mostly for the camera. I came from a oneplus 3t and I loved that phone so much. The development community was large and very active, and the phone's hardware was awesome.
If it wasn't for the Pixel 2's camera, I would've much rather upgraded to a newer oneplus device or even stuck with my 3t. But seriously, imo forget samsung and there locked ass bootloaders and stupidly overpriced phones.

I ditched Samsung (S6) finally last month and got the Pixel2. I am not much of a ROM flasher but root is very important to me. I was dreading going down in resolution but haven't regretted it once.

Is there any reason NOT to get the Pixel 2? What other phone is popular enough to receive continual updates, and easy to find accessories? Gives fast performance without lag-inducing bloat-ware?

I have an AT&T brand Note 8 and i really like the phone (wish i would have bought the unlocked version). But i like to root and flash roms occasionally and I'm pretty limited on the Note 8. Lucky me my work takes me all across Texas and i just happen to be where AT&T don't have service so i bought the Pixel 2 direct from Google and I'm loving it. I'm running it on Verizon. Super easy to unlock bootloader and root. I've only had it for about a month now and have only did one update (the June update) that got a little confusing but i figured it out (i downloaded it myself from Google instead of doing the ota). Personally, i think the camera on the Note 8 is better than the Pixel 2 camera, but i have both phones so i can always take pictures with the Note and it syncs to my Google photos and i have the pic on both phones. I do feel like the Pixel runs a lot smoother than the Note though. If you buy a Pixel, I'd suggest buying straight from Google so you don't have to worry about the bootloader, although i know carriers bundling things in makes it hard to pass up.

I believe it is still going strong and worth a buy.
Personally I don't the notch design which everyone is copying from Apple now.

In fact I bought one three weeks ago and I'm very happy with it. It's already running Android P DP3. I have considered a Huawei P20, but in the end went with the Pixel 2, mainly because of the fast updates and stock Android (I came from a Nexus 5X)
No regrets!

Meh not that many accessories...
mellojoe said:
Is there any reason NOT to get the Pixel 2? What other phone is popular enough to receive continual updates, and easy to find accessories? Gives fast performance without lag-inducing bloat-ware?
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Well, gotta disagree a little with you on the bolded section. The P2 just isn't sold in large enough numbers to get the choices in accessories like the mainstream iPhones, S9, etc. Otterbox Defender series only has 2 colors for crying out loud...
Edit: a word

It could be a winner for you if that's what you want...luv mine!

Personally I would wait and buy a cheaper, last year's phone in the meanwhile.
Pixel 2 series is great, but you still have to make hard compromises. If you want the 2018 screen quality, go pixel 2; if you want a 2018 battery life and screen size, go XL. But to me these 3 things are essential to a phone (ok maybe not the screen size). Considering the price being top of the lines even compared to an iPhone, and it is a 2017 phone (sort), I would wait.
Plus I got a feel that Pixel 3 may come with wireless charging and other technologies that would make using a phone more convenient. While Pixel 2 is just, with great camera. Not an important factor to me personally.

I just got it coming from a Huawei mate 10
Honestly its a great phone . I got the small version cuz I have a U11PLUS plus as my daily big screen phone. And it's awesome they have all these goodness in such a small phone can be handled one hand
At the moment u11plus plus 128gb and 6gb ram is going for 600$ ish on eBay. If u don't care about updates I would advice u to go with it. The camera with gcam performing better than the pixel believe it or not and the battery is the best in the market. Colours of amazing silver or red are phenomenal, nothing else comes close even the copycat p20 pro

Absolutely! I would recommend the Pixel 2 to anybody who asked I haven't even had any reason to want the XL - I've just got the 5" Pixel.
The software is essentially bloat-free (if you use the Google apps) and the experience is as polished as that of the iPhone.
(I'm not a fan of the iPhone but anybody who's used an Android can't deny on most phones the platform is bloated and a little half-assed in places.)
Plus, if you're big into getting the latest Android versions - we get the Android betas first (and they're supported for 2 years.)
And, once the 2 years are up, if you haven't got a new phone by then, I'd imagine there would be a ton of custom ROMs and such for the phone.
I'm planning on developing some ROMs for the Pixel 2 but I haven't for the moment because I have no reason to; the software is the best I've experienced, so I have no reason to mod the phone. (This is probably why there isn't much in the way of development going on for the phone)
In my opinion, the camera is excellent; I don't use it that much but when I do, it's fast, the quality is fantastic and I have trouble faulting it.
Finally, the battery life is great. As a student, I don't use my phone all day but relatively speaking, I'm quite a heavy user and I get about 3 hours more screen time than most others. Plus, as the phone charges to upwards of 80% in about 45 minutes, battery isn't really an issue. (5-10 minutes at an AC outlet can usually get it up to 20%.)
TL;DR: Particularly if you buy a phone for utility (rather than as a fashion statement), this phone is brilliant. It's the best Android device I've ever owned and, I think, one of the best on the market.
If you want something that looks a bit more flashy, I'd suggest the Pixel XL, though.

The give-a-friend 15% offer is making this pracitcally a no-brainer for me. That brings a brand new direct from Google Pixel2 to $550. That's basically the same price as low end or older model phones. Looks like I'll be picking one up. Thanks for the advice.
Feel free to add any more thoughts, tho, cause I'm sure as we get closer to the launch of the 3, more people are going to be asking for opnions on the 2 as a budget-friendly option.

jerryhou85 said:
I believe it is still going strong and worth a buy.
Personally I don't the notch design which everyone is copying from Apple now.
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Let me correct you sir. Copying from Essential ph-1, not apple. Apple copying that design from Essential ph-1. Get it right.

ivanov13 said:
Let me correct you sir. Copying from Essential ph-1, not apple. Apple copying that design from Essential ph-1. Get it right.
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Ahh, I see. Learned that recently, thanks.
This year Pixel 3 should be the choice if I want to change my phone again.

edwinek said:
In fact I bought one three weeks ago and I'm very happy with it. It's already running Android P DP3. I have considered a Huawei P20, but in the end went with the Pixel 2, mainly because of the fast updates and stock Android (I came from a Nexus 5X)
No regrets!
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Click to collapse
me too, I bought my pixel 2 (128GB) using a 20% coupon, used to have a nexus 5x, huge improvement

Why so quiet here?

Isn't it strange?
The S10e has highly favourable reviews and is supposed to become one of the best selling phones, maybe it could sell even better than the S10.
But it's very quiet around here with not much discussion compared to other phones.
And personally I've never seen an S10e in person even though I've seen plenty of S10 & S10+.
The S10+ Q&A forum has thousands of posts already, and there's 341 here.
So what's happening?

I would say s10e people go see s10 or s10+ forums as there is not much difference.

The S10e is ultimately the third tier device in the S10 line. Enthusiasts are more likely to be the ones to develop for devices in general, and enthusiasts are more likely to go for the first or second tier options.
We may get a small amount of development ported over from the other devices, but odds are this is about the amount of participation we're going to see here.

Maybe because people are satisfied with it. I honestly have no complaint about this device

Because it's locked down... Not much we can do really.
I'm very happy with this phone tho. Don't even need root anymore really....custom kernel would be nice but not likely to see that for long time if ever.
Good old locked af Sammy phones.

wywywywy said:
Isn't it strange?
The S10e has highly favourable reviews and is supposed to become one of the best selling phones, maybe it could sell even better than the S10.
But it's very quiet around here with not much discussion compared to other phones.
And personally I've never seen an S10e in person even though I've seen plenty of S10 & S10+.
The S10+ Q&A forum has thousands of posts already, and there's 341 here.
So what's happening?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right, brother.
I've been a oneplus user for the past three devices, and this s10E really got my attention.
I ordered a G9700 version from ebay, should come next week
Surprised though there's little talk about it here.
What about TWRP? hmm
Could even survive without magisk nowadays as long as I use themes such as swift installer or even substratum ones.
This device seems unique for what it can offer, almost the same as their big brothers. With such a compact design,
Let's rock it!

jasons1004 said:
Because it's locked down... Not much we can do really.
I'm very happy with this phone tho. Don't even need root anymore really....custom kernel would be nice but not likely to see that for long time if ever.
Good old locked af Sammy phones.
Click to expand...
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Not if you have the Exynos version ...

You guys have got valid points, however, even the Accessories section (which has nothing to do with being locked down) is super quiet.
The S10 and S10+ are locked down too, yet they still have big communities.
My worry is that the S10e is selling maybe nowhere near as well as people were expecting, possibly even a flop. This will be a problem for future official or non-official support.

No idea.
Major weirdness.

wywywywy said:
You guys have got valid points, however, even the Accessories section (which has nothing to do with being locked down) is super quiet.
The S10 and S10+ are locked down too, yet they still have big communities.
My worry is that the S10e is selling maybe nowhere near as well as people were expecting, possibly even a flop. This will be a problem for future official or non-official support.
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I don't remember where I read the news but I saw that S10+ and S10e both are outsellIing S10. I think this forum just needs more time

I typically get the highest model available when I purchase phones but there was a few things that made me get my s10e. The main thing is that I despised curved screen phones. That's why I've been away from Samsung for years now. Finally is that I do not want to deal with the experimental in screen finger print sensor.
After getting the s10e, The only downside is the absurdly narrow screen. While the screen size is actually larger than my older LG V20 actual usable screen space is less and I feel it when playing puzzle games. Other than that I never thought that I'd be so happy on a non rooted phone. I pretty much destroyed my LG V20 on sprint by installing the best rom that was available and which got rid of lots of things like visual voicemail and many other features.

esqueue said:
I typically get the highest model available when I purchase phones but there was a few things that made me get my s10e. The main thing is that I despised curved screen phones. That's why I've been away from Samsung for years now. Finally is that I do not want to deal with the experimental in screen finger print sensor.
After getting the s10e, The only downside is the absurdly narrow screen. While the screen size is actually larger than my older LG V20 actual usable screen space is less and I feel it when playing puzzle games. Other than that I never thought that I'd be so happy on a non rooted phone. I pretty much destroyed my LG V20 on sprint by installing the best rom that was available and which got rid of lots of things like visual voicemail and many other features. I mainly root to have access to free wifi hotspot and to my surprise, my s10e has no problems getting. There is absolutely no reason to root this device anymore.
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One word: ads. After being pushed onto an S8 when my OP6 broke, I couldn't believe how many ads there are spamming all over the place. It felt unusable. Adaway really spoiled me. At that point I rooted my S8 with Nougat.
There are still some drawbacks to rooting an SD S8 (random crashes and 80 percent battery), but it's still worth it IMO. Enough so that I didn't upgrade to the 10e, even though I like my wife's overall.
Oh, and Titanium Backup too.

I agree root was not necessarily so far. I am using Adguard VPN ad blocking, used ADB to remove bloatware and add some 3rd apps for gestures and other improvements. All ok for now.

root is no longer needed for blocking advertisements. you can use, Blokada, adhell3, Disconnect Pro and private Dns. I use Disconnect Pro in combination with Adguard dns. Dns over tls. perfect combination for adblocking with 0% battery drain

Xda isnt Poppin like it used to and the phone is so good, there's really nothing to complain about or anything. Ppl are just enjoying their phone
Sent from my SM-G970U1 using Tapatalk

I really wish I could use a custom ROM on this. I don't like using stock ROMs and haven't on a single smartphone I've owned... including my first, the Samsung Captivate. I'm currently in love with Resurrection Remix.

Not much to complain about so far. I was getting a bit fed up with the increasingly large screens and weight, so I decided to go for the 10e and so far it is a great phone.

Phh just ordered an s10e, that's great news for any aosp lovers.

There's not much to do having the Snap SoC(ks)
Still waiting for the promised supper-dupper night mode update, 4 months since purchasing my unlocked S10e and that's too long. Samsung is bombarding the market with so many cheap "A" models now, that they're forgetting their obligations to the owners of top priced galaxy 'battleships' or 'flagships',... whatever.
I like the S10e, but I'm beginning to regret not waiting for the OP7 Pro, they seem to be on top of updates/upgrades. I think I'll give OP7T Pro a try when it gets released in the fall.

mzsquared said:
There's not much to do having the Snap SoC(ks)
Still waiting for the promised supper-dupper night mode update, 4 months since purchasing my unlocked S10e and that's too long. Samsung is bombarding the market with so many cheap "A" models now, that they're forgetting their obligations to the owners of top priced galaxy 'battleships' or 'flagships',... whatever.
I like the S10e, but I'm beginning to regret not waiting for the OP7 Pro, they seem to be on top of updates/upgrades. I think I'll give OP7T Pro a try when it gets released in the fall.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got around the night mode thing by installing a dark theme and using night mode for all my Google apps. Gives me about 85% night mode for everything.
Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

should i buy an s9+ ? modding situation?

hello everyone, recently i had some connector-related problems with my s7edge so i'm about to buy my next phone.
i think that, in this "hardware overkill era" (personally i think that from circa 2018 the effective changes in speed became very small and unnoticeable in terms of usage; apps open just a tiny little faster ), choosing a good used it's better than ever. since i don't have much to spend (gotta apply for masters ya know) i was thinking about getting a s9plus or a OP6t. that is because i like a lot the design of both the phones and the different functions (from water resistance, qi charge, better photos and nice notch/slide-less design by s9p to the in-display fingerprint sensor and veeeery nice software of the op6t ). I really wish there was something around 250/300€ with the functions of both but couldn't find it, and since i can actually buy a still premium phone like those for just 250, probably i'll just stick with one of them. which one?
i’d really like to get a stock aosp/pixel experience with the samsung but can't find a good rom, should i choose the op6t? what is the actual modding situation from the inside?

Honestly, just as I'm looking around for info about root for Android 10 on the S9+, Its depressing me quite a bit. Seeing that this phone isn't that old, and yet, there's so little activity for it and its non + variant. It's really surprising when In the past I had far less popular and expensive phones, and there were A LOT more people working on custom ROMs and a bunch of other stuff, when they were far older than this phone currently is. Don't get me wrong, there is people working on it, but not many.
I'd definitely look for a different phone at this point if you want a new one.

ReapersDeath said:
Honestly, just as I'm looking around for info about root for Android 10 on the S9+, Its depressing me quite a bit. Seeing that this phone isn't that old, and yet, there's so little activity for it and its non + variant. It's really surprising when In the past I had far less popular and expensive phones, and there were A LOT more people working on custom ROMs and a bunch of other stuff, when they were far older than this phone currently is. Don't get me wrong, there is people working on it, but not many.
I'd definitely look for a different phone at this point if you want a new one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I remember the days, i have the s10+ unlocked version (U1) and i upgraded to android 10 and honestly not that hyped about it either. I still have my Note 3 and Note 4 and play with them because i miss the rooting and my freedom to do whatever i wanted with MY phone.
This trend where we can root and unlock will come to an end just like Apple killed jailbraking Samsung is slowly following Apple like a little sheep started with phone jack to locking bootloaders for them rooting is cancer that needs to be eradicated asap.
I bought the s9+ from amazon last week the G9650 and plan on rooting it later because i miss it that much but i'm staying on Pie (9) for a while longer

I wondered about this too and the most plausible explanation is that many of the great Devs aren't from 1st world nations and the phones can be pricey for them to get hold of to produce ROMs etc.
This is especially holds true since high end mobile phones are $1000+ now and their monthly pay might be a couple of hundred.

Honestly I think modding is no longer that fun like before with many security updates to android that complicates
and dicourages hobbyist developer..nowadays it will cost a lot of effort and money for developers just to come up with something..

Wanna play with admin rights and do whatever you want with a smartphone like the good old days ?
Buy a OnePlus device and enjoy.
Stay away from Samsung.

If you care about modding go with oneplus or a pixel device. Stay far away from Snapdragon Samsung devices.