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Short story: I'm up for an upgrade on AT&T and I can't decide between the Captivate and the Focus. I like Android and its massive amount of customization but WP7 looks amazing and I have a gut feeling it will be a pretty big success going forward.
Long story: So I signed up with AT&T on a family plan back in September of this year and, since I had just moved back to the US, I decided to save my money and use my own phone from abroad. I made this choice mostly because smartphones on AT&T were still kind of expensive and the only two options at the time were the Captivate and the HTC Aria. And they pretty much offered zero desirable free phones (before smartphones you could get some great phones for free).
About a month later, my phone started freaking out on me and still continues to do so. The phone restarts itself randomly throughout the day; this is an issue because it's a Sony Ericsson phone so it goes to the Phone Mode/Flight Mode screen before actually starting so I've missed quite a few calls. Over time the phone has also started to have issues picking up any signal at all, so I've been forced to restart the phone every time (and it temporarily fixes the problem).
This whole thing became a big headache and I got worried I would have to shell out $300+ for a decent off-contract or unlocked phone. Luckily, since I didn't get a phone on my line, AT&T is saying that I am eligible for an upgrade and I've been looking online and I've found some great deals.
Two deals in particular: the gorgeous Samsung Captivate for free and the drool-worthy Samsung Focus for $50 (both on Amazon). Both of these prices apply for an upgrade, so now I'm trying to decide which one I want. I love Android and its insane customizations (and the TouchWiz UI is not that bad tbh) and its awesome features (Navigation being a huge plus). But I am very tempted to get a WP7 device; gaming looks to be MUCH better and the whole UI is quite handsome in addition to being just blazing fast. And I know I'll be kicking myself if WP7 grows into a killer OS while I'm still stuck on 2.2 (and at that point 3.0 will probably be out and Sammy will have a new flagship Android).
Now I ask you XDA-ers: which one should I get?
I hate doing this but...bump.
I'm in the same boat. What decision did you end up making, and do you have any regrets?
For me the trade offs between the two are the Focus with the LED Flash, 8gb mem, and WP7. And tehn the Captivate with no LED Flash, 16gb mem, and Android
BUMP
Im an Android guy but go with the Focus, Ive used one many times and its wonderful, ive been using WP7 since february and its come a long way, also I know there are some cool features coming in an update next feb.
Hi,
I have an Galaxy S7, ich find it not okay because we don't get much updates and get them also late. We shouldnt install custom rom or we lose our warranty. I think I cannot take it anymore.
I want to sell my S7 and buy Pixel or Pixel XL. I think Pixel 2 is very expensive for me. Do you think guys it is still a good phone in 2018?
I need 3-3.5 SOT and 12 hours standby in low signal. I don't use many social apps or play games. Camera is also very important for me. A new Google Pixel XL in 128 GB costs hier 370€.
Or do you guys have another suggestions for me?
Thank you very much.
It's not a huge upgrade. imo. Same ram, processor(exynos) might be better or similar. Similar camera results depending on the shot. Lastly, I liked expandable storage on my Samsung and AL the extra features. Wait until the 3 comes out and hen get the pixel 2 for a true upgrade experience.
I made this exact change and it's more of a side grade to be honest. Hardware wise the phones are very similar, though the Pixel is snappier. I really, really like the software experience on a Pixel however so for me it was a great choice. Bought the 32GB model in december for €330 and the S7 transfered to my wife
I think the Google Pixel is a good phone, as long as it works (which is applied to anything). Not sure if you're planning on buying a new or used one, either way be aware of the motherboard issue that MANY people are experiencing. Checkout this thread to learn more about it. There's also a link in my signature that takes you to Google Forums where a lot of people are complaining about the same issue.
From what I gathered the first gen Pixel that came out seems to be having those problems. The batch that came out later on in March of 2017 and later seems to be doing just fine. Needless to say, do some research and read up about it and more importantly try to find out, and if you decide to buy a Pixel find out when that phone was manufactured. Good luck!
I just did the same thing a week ago. My S7 was slow, hot, rebooting all the time, I could watch the battery percent count down. It was 14 months old and I had purchased it brand new. It also never gets updates because Samsung would rather release 15 phones a year then worry about software.
I picked up a Pixel and am absolutely loving it. I don't have 2 apps for everything (Samsung/Google). Everything works great, smooth, snappy. Yesterday i did a true SOT test with adaptive brightness turned on and i got 3h45m before it hit 5%. I use a lot of fitness apps and have Bluetooth on all day paired to my Wear OS watch. I absolutely love this phone but wouldn't mind a bigger screen. I will be getting a 2XL or 3 when my contract is up at the end of this year.
I'm not sure if I'd like to continue using Samsung, now that the snapdragon versions can't be bootloader unlocked anymore.
I find it extremely frustrating not being able to downgrade my OS from bad updates.
I'm also very frustrated not to be able to do full nandroid backups (including EFS).
Not having any custom roms is also very disappointing.
If exynos didn't have such bad idle battery life, I'd use exynos.
At this point, I think the only thing I'm attracted to on the samsung devices is the color from their amoled.
Good or bad, I'd like to hear you snapdragon users give your opinion on how happy you are with the current samsung snapdragon devices, what would be your ideal alternative device to samsung? And why?
Also, let me know if you're a generic user or hardcore enthusiast.
I've had a Note since the Note 4...which was an absolutely amazing device in my opinion. Most of the stuff I own are Samsung products...except for my laptop. They have quality products...but every year I find it harder to justify the price tag...considering all the competition there is now...amazing devices for much less. I currently have the Note 10 now but I don't really think I'll upgrade to the next one next year. Especially with how far OnePlus devices have come among other devices. Maybe the next Pixel will be worth the upgrade. I used to root, custom roms and all that as well. But, for me it's mostly the price tag that's turning me away from Samsung.
Back in the day of ****ty OEM skins, I was a crack flasher and used TWRP & TiBU almost daily. But Samsung One UI has come a long way since Touchwiz. I actually enjoy using the stock ROM and don't feel the need to immediately wipe it with something else. It already offers 95% of what I'd fix with a custom ROM. I honestly don't miss wiping it and starting all over with each new version of a custom ROM. All of my important files are stored in the cloud or email, and I don't use any apks that are unavailable outside of the Play Store, apk mirror or other web sites, so no need to backup those. I use Adguard which does a great job, so no need to root just for adblocking. I use CCSWE App Manager to disable bloatware that I will never use. My Note 10 battery lasts all day every day, so no need to flash tweaks/mods to eek out more juice. Overall, I really have no need to root anymore. But if I absolutely *had* to root my phone today, I'd probably go with something from OnePlus. I had a P2XL which was a great phone for its time, but the new Pixels are just meh imo. Their camera system is the only thing that sets them apart. The rest of the phone is underwhelming and overpriced for what you get.
Yeah Samsung screens are amazing, and so is there hardware. Example i was trying to WI-FI Direct Joker to my mates Huawei P20 or something can't really remember exact model around 7/8 mins in it was around 40% ish percent i had a phone call i had to run, so i came back 20 mins later used WI-FI direct again we must have got up to 60% this was well over ten mins he had to shoot see what I’m trying to say yeah Huawei, Apple and all the other manufactures are good,
But you can’t beat Samsung hardware. i WI-FI directed the joker it's 2.4 gig file size from my Tab S SM-T705 LTE which is 5 years old to my Note 9 in under 3 mins also my Tab S 8.4 picks up most Wi-Fi hotspots i work in a car park i have tried few year old iPhone and Huawei witch is last year’s model its co-workers phone they pick up eff all i would have to go out of the car park to pick up the hotspots while my Samsung Tab S from 2014 picks up all the free Wi-Fi networks Apple Huawei use trash hardware Samsung hardware Rocks!
People think yeah I’m paying half of what Samsung is charging but when it comes to little things that actually matter in real world usage that's where Samsung is leaps ahead of the competition.
Samsung Snapdragon bootloaders have been locked for years. I used the Note 8 as my primary device for 2 years, and have been using the Note 10+ since release date. The battery life just keeps getting better. I haven't had a reason to root since the Note 4. Android updates don't seem to change much in recent years, they mainly just make the overall system smoother. I've never felt like a previous version was better than the recent update. Overall, I'd rather give Samsung my money to keep making quality products with premium hardware. I also use Dex daily with my Surface Pro.
I just bought a carrier unlocked version of this phone. It is the xt2115-1. Fastboot commands confirms it is boot loader unlockable. I have not yet unlocked it, or moved my SIM card to it, for that matter. I am coming from a Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite running PE Official, which I love, but the battery is almost toast after nearly 3 years, and my carrier Crickett Wireless keeps sending me messages that my XM8L is not supported after Feb '22.
So I got a pretty fair deal at Sam's Club on this phone ($219). I did look it up here to see how far development has progressed since it was released. I was disappointed to see, not much. Looks like nobody is able to access the /vendor mount and one other (it's late).
I would like to build PE (Pixel Experience) for this phone, but /vendor is pretty much required to do that. Has anyone succeeded in extracting this partition? Or has anyone figured out a reason why it cannot be extracted?
Anyway, I hope we can get some ROMs for this phone eventually. I will do all I can to assist, as I have built ROMs for a few phones, just not this one (or Android 11+). I would also like to eventually build Pitch Black Recovery for this phone, as PBR is the most easy to use recovery, and very powerful too. Just my opinion.
Yeah, just looking at the Sam's Club version of this phone as it is $25 off this weekend, and kind of bummed not much is available at this point. Crossing my fingers there will be some action on this front in the near future.
verbage said:
Yeah, just looking at the Sam's Club version of this phone as it is $25 off this weekend, and kind of bummed not much is available at this point. Crossing my fingers there will be some action on this front in the near future.
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So did you buy one? I still have yet to root mine, but hopefully will have time this weekend. I hate getting a new phone, especially when the one I had was brilliant! (Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite) Cricket Wireless kept sending me messages that my phone would no longer work on their nework after February, and at nearly 3 years old, the battery is getting tired (easily replaceable, but that doesn't make it compatible with Cricket, and probably AT&T as well). I might wall mount it and use it as a Home Assistant kiosk or something similar, at some point.
Yup, ended up picking up one and it will be a gift for my daughter for X-mas. And I'll probably pick up one for my wife, too, when it goes back on sale again. I have not played with it extensively yet, but it seems pretty impressive for the price. Then again, my daily driver is an LG G4, which was released back in 2015, so probably anything relatively modern will be impressive for me!
We are upgrading for the same reason as you--we use Tracfone with AT&T towers, and yeah, we have been receiving messages about the Feb 2022 deadline.
I think I might take the plunge, and go for a Pixel 6 myself though the base model is like $600. I am dreading the lack of a MicroSD slot, but the camera is apparently stunning. And there is guaranteed tons of custom development on it from the very start given that Google releases the source code for it immediately.
OnePlus is having a flash sale on the OP9 starting in a few hours, and the price will be $600, too, but if you sign up they will give you a $60 voucher bringing it down to $540. But the camera is apparently not as good as the Pixel 6. And I took a look at teardown/repairability info on both, and the Pixel 6 seems much more friendly in this regard.
verbage said:
Yup, ended up picking up one and it will be a gift for my daughter for X-mas. And I'll probably pick up one for my wife, too, when it goes back on sale again. I have not played with it extensively yet, but it seems pretty impressive for the price. Then again, my daily driver is an LG G4, which was released back in 2015, so probably anything relatively modern will be impressive for me!
We are upgrading for the same reason as you--we use Tracfone with AT&T towers, and yeah, we have been receiving messages about the Feb 2022 deadline.
I think I might take the plunge, and go for a Pixel 6 myself though the base model is like $600. I am dreading the lack of a MicroSD slot, but the camera is apparently stunning. And there is guaranteed tons of custom development on it from the very start given that Google releases the source code for it immediately.
OnePlus is having a flash sale on the OP9 starting in a few hours, and the price will be $600, too, but if you sign up they will give you a $60 voucher bringing it down to $540. But the camera is apparently not as good as the Pixel 6. And I took a look at teardown/repairability info on both, and the Pixel 6 seems much more friendly in this regard.
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I too wanted a Pixel 6 but the lack of MicroSD killed it for me. There are kernel sources available for this phone, both for A10 and A11. I have grabbed the A11 source code. I want to attempt to build PE for this device at some point. I am still getting used to it however, as I had it a full week before I moved my SIM card to it. The only thing I dislike about it so far is the shear size of it. Such a HUGE phone and much more heavy than my Mi 8 Lite. Something I will just have to get used to. Also, Android Auto is very slow to start and the screen must be on and unlocked before my auto's head unit even detects its presence. Very odd.
Update: I am bootloader unlocked, rooted via Magisk, and have Orange Fox recovery installed (not my favorite). I have also managed to get the /vendor partition pulled. I have discovered a few quirks.
- Apex Launcher cannot backup or restore data. Seems to be some sort of permissions issue. This worked fine before unlocking and rooting, so not sure what the connection could be at this point.
EDIT: Apparently this is a problem with A11 and Apex Launcher. But, my Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite can backup and restore Apex data in A11.
- Magisk can not find nor download any modules. A search always reveals nothing.
I will continue to research the issues at hand. I have wiped and restored from Google cloud numerous times (3 so far) and nothing seems to fix this.
So I have a question when you bootloader unlocked were you on Android 10 or android 11 cause I'm on 11 and my code shows on Motorola site as not eligible
Android version does not matter. Try a different email address. If that doesn't work reset your router and modem and it should cycle the IP address. I get that error alot and both of those have worked equally as well.
I really want to go back to a Pixel but I can't do the curved screens. I'm one of those people who actually puts his phones in a case and they don't work well with curved screens.
EDIT 10/6: Pre-ordered 7 Pro. The trade in for my 12 Pro Max with Best Buy was just too good to pass up, essentially makes the phone free once I find something to use the gift card for.
EtherealRemnant said:
I really want to go back to a Pixel but I can't do the curved screens. I'm one of those people who actually puts his phones in a case and they don't work well with curved screens.
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I use the Zizo Bolt with my Samsung N10+'s and it works very well. Occasionally causes cut/paste problems but going to landscape fixes that. Prevents accidental touches and keeps the phone undamaged. The curved screens absolutely need cases with -slightly- higher than display right/left edge guards or they will likely get destroyed.
Do Pixel's have any curve nested apps like Samsung ie One Handed Operation plus? Otherwise empty curves are sort of wasted space. I use both sides as app launchers and to control various switches.
At first I wasn't sure about the curve display but after a couple months I started to prefer curved over flat. Much easier to keep clean and great for vids. I don't even think about them now after over 2 years. Visually it took some adjustment for me... the visual cortex adapts and integrates.
It has a curved screen. The sneak peak during I/O made that clear.
I'd go back to a Pixel if it didn't suck. P6 was a f&[email protected]( disaster, and still is.
If you don't want a curved screen you can go for Pixel 7 instead of Pro. It has a flat screen!
hemstheworthy said:
If you don't want a curved screen you can go for Pixel 7 instead of Pro. It has a flat screen!
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It's rumored to have a 6.2" screen which is too small.
I guess Google doesn't want my business so I'll stick with OnePlus.
EtherealRemnant said:
It's rumored to have a 6.2" screen which is too small.
I guess Google doesn't want my business so I'll stick with OnePlus.
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One Plus seems to be putting out some good models. Google is more screwed up than Samsung and Sammy's pretty screwed up nowadays.
blackhawk said:
One Plus seems to be putting out some good models. Google is more screwed up than Samsung and Sammy's pretty screwed up nowadays.
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Yeah but OnePlus keeps screwing up the software and there isn't even an MSM Tool for the 10 Pro so if you brick it, which seems to be way too easy to do on OnePlus devices (I have done it multiple times on my 9 despite doing everything right when trying to flash a custom ROM and would have been in a situation if the MSM Tool wasn't available), you are screwed.
Additionally, they have been throttling CPU performance. My Geekbench single core score on the latest OOS 12 is around 800 which makes my 888 slower than the 865. They changed the way they do the throttle as well, it can no longer be disabled with a Magisk tweak. OnePlus' answer to all of us who are complaining about how unresponsive the browser and other operations can be? Toggle high performance mode to force the phone to use high clocks all the time, even when idle, at the cost of much higher power consumption and heat than if they just left the processor alone to begin with. They haven't released OOS12 kernel source that's usable either so no custom kernel around to fix it unless you flash to a custom ROM.
So yeah, I feel like I'm being forced to go back to iOS. At least Apple listens to feedback and fixes bugs, OnePlus doesn't even seem to care about that anymore, and Apple doesn't throttle their SoCs, has prompt updates (OnePlus has been giving India updates first and has been leaving EU and global a month behind and we were already multiple months behind China), and has incredible battery life without having to disable basically every premium feature in the phone.
And yeah, Samsung is a no go for me since the Note 5. Swore that would be my last Samsung and as long as they encrypt the bootloader on Snapdragon variants, I will stick to that.
I guess I better start saving for that 14 Pro Max......
EtherealRemnant said:
Yeah but OnePlus keeps screwing up the software and there isn't even an MSM Tool for the 10 Pro so if you brick it, which seems to be way too easy to do on OnePlus devices (I have done it multiple times on my 9 despite doing everything right when trying to flash a custom ROM and would have been in a situation if the MSM Tool wasn't available), you are screwed.
Additionally, they have been throttling CPU performance. My Geekbench single core score on the latest OOS 12 is around 800 which makes my 888 slower than the 865. They changed the way they do the throttle as well, it can no longer be disabled with a Magisk tweak. OnePlus' answer to all of us who are complaining about how unresponsive the browser and other operations can be? Toggle high performance mode to force the phone to use high clocks all the time, even when idle, at the cost of much higher power consumption and heat than if they just left the processor alone to begin with. They haven't released OOS12 kernel source that's usable either so no custom kernel around to fix it unless you flash to a custom ROM.
So yeah, I feel like I'm being forced to go back to iOS. At least Apple listens to feedback and fixes bugs, OnePlus doesn't even seem to care about that anymore, and Apple doesn't throttle their SoCs, has prompt updates (OnePlus has been giving India updates first and has been leaving EU and global a month behind and we were already multiple months behind China), and has incredible battery life without having to disable basically every premium feature in the phone.
And yeah, Samsung is a no go for me since the Note 5. Swore that would be my last Samsung and as long as they encrypt the bootloader on Snapdragon variants, I will stick to that.
I guess I better start saving for that 14 Pro Max......
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A sad state of ball dropping screwups when an Apple starts looking like a viable alternative.
The only flagship Samsung I would recommend is the Note 10+ N975U1. The Beast is a sublime work horse that just keeps running. New can be had loaded with Android 10, but forget trying to root this variant. It runs well stock though.
After that Samsung started going downhill, more hype than meat. If Samsung had a good new flagship it be in my hand.
Between Google Android 11/12, Samsung's no SD card and other insanities, I went with my second new N10+; twins. The one in my hand will be 3 yo this September, current load is 2 yo.
No detectable display degradation of any kind in spite of thousands of hours of use. It looks and runs like new. The only repair has been a replacement battery, due for another soon as it's heavily used. It's a dual drive 1.5tb machine that doesn't run out of ram.
It's a snappy fast phone that's still fun and fulfills its mission. I'm good for another 2-3+ years. Whatever... I'm not buying the hype or the junk.
blackhawk said:
A sad state of ball dropping screwups when an Apple starts looking like a viable alternative.
The only flagship Samsung I would recommend is the Note 10+ N975U1. The Beast is a sublime work horse that just keeps running. New can be had loaded with Android 10, but forget trying to root this variant. It runs well stock though.
After that Samsung started going downhill, more hype than meat. If Samsung had a good new flagship it be in my hand.
Between Google Android 11/12, Samsung's no SD card and other insanities, I went with my second new N10+; twins. The one in my hand will be 3 yo this September, current load is 2 yo.
No detectable display degradation of any kind in spite of thousands of hours of use. It looks and runs like new. The only repair has been a replacement battery, due for another soon as it's heavily used. It's a dual drive 1.5tb machine that doesn't run out of ram.
It's a snappy fast phone that's still fun and fulfills its mission. I'm good for another 2-3+ years. Whatever... I'm not buying the hype or the junk.
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I was on iOS from 2017 until 2021. Had the 8 Plus, XS Max, and still have my 12 Pro Max lying here. The lack of customization for notifications bugs me and the annoyance of having to manually sign apps to sideload them was obnoxious but I can live without customization and sideloading if I have a device that just performs well. Apple's hardware is solid too, I didn't have a single hardware issue with any of them.
I can't bring myself to buy anything but new flagships. I would just feel like I threw money away if I went to an older device, even if it's stable. This is obviously a psychological issue, I have many of those lol, but it is what it is. The OnePlus works fine on OOS11 for the most part but again, I can't bring myself to be okay with not running Android 12. I am actually pretty annoyed with some issues with the Indian ROM I flashed on here though so I may just decide to stick with OOS11, root it, and disable the performance throttling either with a custom kernel or by the Magisk module I mentioned because I would probably be able to accept that tradeoff but I always get FOMO whenever a new update comes out.
It's good that you found something you are happy with though. I haven't been totally happy with a phone since the HTC U11 although I will say the 12 Pro Max was close and if it wasn't for the fact that my cheap MVNO doesn't have a carrier bundle on iOS which cost me 5G access, I probably would have just stuck with it. Since I held onto it though and paid in full for my 9, I have a $650 trade in value which will probably drop to $450-$500 when the 14 models drop in the fall which makes the price tag much easier to swallow.
I have some hope OnePlus may get it right with Android 13 so I'm going to see how that goes but if not, and no other viable options (has to have compatibility with all US carriers, has to have an unlockable bootloader, has to have at least a 6.4" screen that's not curved, and has to have at least 8GB of RAM), it's back to Apple.
EtherealRemnant said:
I was on iOS from 2017 until 2021. Had the 8 Plus, XS Max, and still have my 12 Pro Max lying here. The lack of customization for notifications bugs me and the annoyance of having to manually sign apps to sideload them was obnoxious but I can live without customization and sideloading if I have a device that just performs well. Apple's hardware is solid too, I didn't have a single hardware issue with any of them.
I can't bring myself to buy anything but new flagships. I would just feel like I threw money away if I went to an older device, even if it's stable. This is obviously a psychological issue, I have many of those lol, but it is what it is. The OnePlus works fine on OOS11 for the most part but again, I can't bring myself to be okay with not running Android 12. I am actually pretty annoyed with some issues with the Indian ROM I flashed on here though so I may just decide to stick with OOS11, root it, and disable the performance throttling either with a custom kernel or by the Magisk module I mentioned because I would probably be able to accept that tradeoff but I always get FOMO whenever a new update comes out.
It's good that you found something you are happy with though. I haven't been totally happy with a phone since the HTC U11 although I will say the 12 Pro Max was close and if it wasn't for the fact that my cheap MVNO doesn't have a carrier bundle on iOS which cost me 5G access, I probably would have just stuck with it. Since I held onto it though and paid in full for my 9, I have a $650 trade in value which will probably drop to $450-$500 when the 14 models drop in the fall which makes the price tag much easier to swallow.
I have some hope OnePlus may get it right with Android 13 so I'm going to see how that goes but if not, and no other viable options (has to have compatibility with all US carriers, has to have an unlockable bootloader, has to have at least a 6.4" screen that's not curved, and has to have at least 8GB of RAM), it's back to Apple.
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Android 9 may be the best. Haven't played much with the Android 10 N10+ but noticed Karma Firewall lost it's valuable logging feature due to it.
My old free copy of WPS Office works in both version as do most of my trusted overlay apps.
Android 9 and above are all reasonably secure unless you do something stupid. No malware on this 2 yo Pie load yet.
I use Poweramp as my player, just my music files alone are over 225gb.
An SD card is mandatory. I can do a full reload with no internet connection; the SD card is the data drive which is backed up redundantly. Even has all my apps as installable copies, no Playstore needed. So a factory reset isn't that big of a deal if I have to... anytime, anywhere.
Only the DCIM folder (backed up regularly to the data drive), the download folder and the installed apps go on the internal memory. No cloud anything needed or wanted other than Gmail.
So the hardware and firmware aren't my prime consideration, why should they be? It was a step learning curve to optimize these devices. Them fulfilling their mission is my primary consideration. I'm an Android pragmatist, I got out of the Samsung/ Android hype loop over 6 years ago. If not proven good, I'm not using it.
Got lucky with the N10+... always wanted a Note.
Firmware upgrades and updates (apps as well) can and do break things. No need to constantly be chasing the loose ends they create, so I don't.
Pretty much solid play time... that's the plan
Pro version will have a curve screen ... that is a problem with most manufacturer now
i am not a fan of curve screen too.. i went to get p6 and it is ok at first then it has bugs soon after .. another pain is for countries which is not officially sold, it wont be able to use VoLTE and VoWiFi. Need to root and modify the xml ... ah well cant say much about that since it is not official sold.
Seems like OP also is not so great now since they are under OPPO now and Sammy is just too expensive now with more or less not so exiting tech.
Other china phones? that is another story
blackhawk said:
Android 9 may be the best. Haven't played much with the Android 10 N10+ but noticed Karma Firewall lost it's valuable logging feature due to it.
My old free copy of WPS Office works in both version as do most of my trusted overlay apps.
Android 9 and above are all reasonably secure unless you do something stupid. No malware on this 2 yo Pie load yet.
I use Poweramp as my player, just my music files alone are over 225gb.
An SD card is mandatory. I can do a full reload with no internet connection; the SD card is the data drive which is backed up redundantly. Even has all my apps as installable copies, no Playstore needed. So a factory reset isn't that big of a deal if I have to... anytime, anywhere.
Only the DCIM folder (backed up regularly to the data drive), the download folder and the installed apps go on the internal memory. No cloud anything needed or wanted other than Gmail.
So the hardware and firmware aren't my prime consideration, why should they be? It was a step learning curve to optimize these devices. Them fulfilling their mission is my primary consideration. I'm an Android pragmatist, I got out of the Samsung/ Android hype loop over 6 years ago. If not proven good, I'm not using it.
Got lucky with the N10+... always wanted a Note.
Firmware upgrades and updates (apps as well) can and do break things. No need to constantly be chasing the loose ends they create, so I don't.
Pretty much solid play time... that's the plan
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Click to collapse
Yeah I went back to OOS11 last night and I'm going to stick with it for a bit. It seems to work pretty well although I'm annoyed at the discovery that the module that was posted to alter the CPU throttling doesn't actually seem to work fully even on OOS 11.2.10.10. I don't want to go any older than that though so I guess it is what it is at this point. Games definitely are smoother at least. Still not as smooth a iOS though...
I wouldn't mind having an SD card again. I have gotten used to not having one but it does get annoying having to back up my OnePlus backups to the PC when I have to factory reset and then move them back. In the time it took to copy from the PC back to the phone last night, I was able to floss and brush my teeth. When I got back to the computer, the bar was at the very end.
This phone will work for now on OOS11. I really hope that OnePlus listens with OOS13 because I really don't want to buy another phone but being stuck on Android 11 isn't going to be enough for me.
cruzzmz said:
Pro version will have a curve screen ... that is a problem with most manufacturer now
i am not a fan of curve screen too.. i went to get p6 and it is ok at first then it has bugs soon after .. another pain is for countries which is not officially sold, it wont be able to use VoLTE and VoWiFi. Need to root and modify the xml ... ah well cant say much about that since it is not official sold.
Seems like OP also is not so great now since they are under OPPO now and Sammy is just too expensive now with more or less not so exiting tech.
Other china phones? that is another story
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Yeah it's not a great situation for the Android ecosystem as a whole right now really. I may just suck it up and get a 7 Pro. I really don't want to go back to iOS. I have an iPad, that's enough iOS for me.
EtherealRemnant said:
Yeah I went back to OOS11 last night and I'm going to stick with it for a bit. It seems to work pretty well although I'm annoyed at the discovery that the module that was posted to alter the CPU throttling doesn't actually seem to work fully even on OOS 11.2.10.10. I don't want to go any older than that though so I guess it is what it is at this point. Games definitely are smoother at least. Still not as smooth a iOS though...
I wouldn't mind having an SD card again. I have gotten used to not having one but it does get annoying having to back up my OnePlus backups to the PC when I have to factory reset and then move them back. In the time it took to copy from the PC back to the phone last night, I was able to floss and brush my teeth. When I got back to the computer, the bar was at the very end.
This phone will work for now on OOS11. I really hope that OnePlus listens with OOS13 because I really don't want to buy another phone but being stuck on Android 11 isn't going to be enough for me.
Yeah it's not a great situation for the Android ecosystem as a whole right now really. I may just suck it up and get a 7 Pro. I really don't want to go back to iOS. I have an iPad, that's enough iOS for me.
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This is why I committed to using the N10+'s for likely another 2-3+ years by buying a second new running on Android 10. Both will likely never be upgraded beyond 10.
Not for everyone but I absolutely wuv this Note. At this point it's optimized very well and is just a gorgeous beast of a work horse. Using a SD card as the data drive adds a layer of protection and redundantly to the device. With a mobo failure or a system crash the data drive will likely be untouched.
So now the processors are too fast to be practical so they throttle them?
Even though the N10+ doesn't have the thinner cpu chipset form factor or the fastest memory it runs almost as fast as the S22U in normal usage.
With the N9 the lag vs N10+/N20U/N22U is quite noticeable. The S22U has a huge battery and less SOT than the N10+. Weights a full display cracking ounce more too.
For what?
If you listen to all the hype the latest Androids sound wonderful... until you think it through and realize what is important for your device to fulfill its mission. That's why a well designed/built 3 yo model running on 2.5 yo firmware can still effectively compete with the newest phones.
blackhawk said:
This is why I committed to using the N10+'s for likely another 2-3+ years by buying a second new running on Android 10. Both will likely never be upgraded beyond 10.
Not for everyone but I absolutely wuv this Note. At this point it's optimized very well and is just a gorgeous beast of a work horse. Using a SD card as the data drive adds a layer of protection and redundantly to the device. With a mobo failure or a system crash the data drive will likely be untouched.
So now the processors are too fast to be practical so they throttle them?
Even though the N10+ doesn't have the thinner cpu chipset form factor or the fastest memory it runs almost as fast as the S22U in normal usage.
With the N9 the lag vs N10+/N20U/N22U is quite noticeable. The S22U has a huge battery and less SOT than the N10+. Weights a full display cracking ounce more too.
For what?
If you listen to all the hype the latest Androids sound wonderful... until you think it through and realize what is important for your device to fulfill its mission. That's why a well designed/built 3 yo model running on 2.5 yo firmware can still effectively compete with the newest phones.
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The annoying thing about the throttling is that it's not necessary. I have used a custom ROM on here and they don't have any of the throttling and it's no problem. Sure, the device gets a bit warmer under load, but it's not dangerously hot, we are talking like 42-48C, well within all normal tolerances. People ***** about their devices being warm and everyone suffers for it. Unfortunately every custom ROM I have tried has issues ranging from a stuttering UI to broken NFC and the fingerprint reader being off center so after the last attempt flashing a custom ROM resulted in a brick, I just went back to OOS and stayed there. Maybe it is time to try again though, I will run OOS11 for a few days and see if I can get used to it.
Honestly I really like my Pixel 3 XL, it's just too slow and lacking in RAM for me to make it my daily driver. The memory is more the issue than the Snapdragon 845 honestly.
P3XL was a great phone, i used it until it went dead last year. Then i went for p6 in hope for a better support and features as promised but then again ...
anyway p6 suffers from bugs since first update and i think still until now it has not been sort out yet. The thing i like about pixel is you can still flash it via fastboot and the image it officially available in the support page.
Just that if the country is not an official country that sell pixel then you will be stuck with no VoLTE and VoWiFi and that is a hassle
EtherealRemnant said:
It's rumored to have a 6.2" screen which is too small.
I guess Google doesn't want my business so I'll stick with OnePlus.
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After Carl Pei left Oneplus started going down and now they are one of the worst companies under Oppo and the phone OS, design, and specs are not that good!
hemstheworthy said:
After Carl Pei left Oneplus started going down and now they are one of the worst companies under Oppo and the phone OS, design, and specs are not that good!
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My OnePlus 9 has better specs across the board than the Pixel 6 besides the cameras. OOS12 is terrible but I don't mind OOS11 so if OnePlus goes back to their roots with OOS13 like they are promising, I may stick around, and besides, the custom ROMs for this device are pretty good so I can just as easily just stick to those.
Qualcomm > Samsung and I don't see that changing with the 7 series.
EtherealRemnant said:
I really want to go back to a Pixel but I can't do the curved screens. I'm one of those people who actually puts his phones in a case and they don't work well with curved screens.
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I think the non-pro Pixels are a better value anyways, seeming as this launch won't be too different to the Pixel 6s apart from minor upgrades like a new SoC with moderate performance increase.
razercortex said:
I think the non-pro Pixels are a better value anyways, seeming as this launch won't be too different to the Pixel 6s apart from minor upgrades like a new SoC with moderate performance increase.
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I can't go from a 6.55" screen to a 6.2" screen though. Honestly I would rather have a 6.7"-6.10" screen. I could go from 6.55 to 6.4 but with them shrinking the screen size on the 7, it's a nonstarter.