What would you replace a S7 with in 2019? - Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers

Hi there,
my S7 which is my one and only phone has currently reached the end due to repeated drops the hardware seems pretty damaged and not worth repairing anymore. It will still work for a couple of months but I need to replace it within the next 3 months I'd say.
Requirements:
- superb camera (at least as good as the one of the S7,8,9 or 10)
- Camera2 API
- rootable (I need magisk and xposed)
- ideally having a supported Custom OS available - any minimal one will do
- the size should not be much bigger than an S7 - I really don't like to handle those huge phones.
- must be available in Europe
I'm a very casual user, I don't play any games requiring great graphics power, I use gmail, whatsapp, facebook daily and listen to music.
The S7 / 8 / 9 / 10e are pretty close to each other price-wise here in Europe but I thin S10e is too new to have reliable Custom Roms and rooting solutions.
Can you recommend a phone to repalce it with keeping in mind the requirements I have for a phone?

Hello,
After the display of my S7 is broken I just bought my second S7: 1 year old and without any issues - looking like new - for 150€. There's no smartphone on the market better than the S7.
Gesendet von meinem SM-G930F mit Tapatalk

wolfloestoffel said:
Hello,
After the display of my S7 is broken I just bought my second S7: 1 year old and without any issues - looking like new - for 150€. There's no smartphone on the market better than the S7.
Gesendet von meinem SM-G930F mit Tapatalk
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my display is perfect but I have replaced the back of the phone twice already, and I guess it dropped so oftern it now has random reboots (definitely hardware related) so its time to replace it.
pricewise, an S7 slightly used can also be bought for about 150€ an S8 used for about 200€, S9 is used about 350€ and S10e is about 500€ new.
So I might well go for an S8 as its only slightly more expensive than an S7 and custom ROMs seem to be available for S8

Just be careful with the S8's if custom ROM's is on your list. I didn't follow it closely but I recall reading several times that the S8 can't be bootloader unlocked right away due to a timer, and some people have never had it become unlockable, even after trying all the tricks.

Note9
variant with Exynos processor (international version)
or
variant with Snapdragon processor and dual sim (9600 US version)
the others have locked bootloaders, and devs haven't figured out how to root.
only downside is curved screen edges, but Samsung isn't smart enough to figure out that is not ideal for the Note format.

gruuvin said:
Note9
variant with Exynos processor (international version)
or
variant with Snapdragon processor and dual sim (9600 US version)
the others have locked bootloaders, and devs haven't figured out how to root.
only downside is curved screen edges, but Samsung isn't smart enough to figure out that is not ideal for the Note format.
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Click to collapse
Thanks but Note 9 is about 650€ - way higher than say an Samsung S10e.
I'm busy researching obviously and will post my findigns here as well once I'm done.

ovizii said:
Thanks but Note 9 is about 650€ - way higher than say an Samsung S10e.
I'm busy researching obviously and will post my findigns here as well once I'm done.
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Click to collapse
I'm seeing Note9 on Amazon for $595USD. That's about 542€
I bought my Note9 many months before the Note10 release, and I see the Note10 release has NOT really caused much more of a drop to the Note9 price. Obviously these are all very expensive phoes, but the 10 has some design elements that many are not happy with.
I brought mine new on ebay for about $100 less than amazon.

Related

Would you recommend the Honor 8 ?

Hey guys im looking to buy a new phone and for my budget i can get the Honor 8 , Sony X performance or the Galaxy S6 . Does the honor 8 have any bugs and would you recommend it over the other phones i listed ? Also how is the root ,rom , kernel support and is it easy to flash because i saw a guide for rooting with 12-13 steps including typing imei in huawei's site to get a code and so on .
Tarbruh said:
Hey guys im looking to buy a new phone and for my budget i can get the Honor 8 , Sony X performance or the Galaxy S6 . Does the honor 8 have any bugs and would you recommend it over the other phones i listed ? Also how is the root ,rom , kernel support and is it easy to flash because i saw a guide for rooting with 12-13 steps including typing imei in huawei's site to get a code and so on .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got mine on a black friday sale and I'm happy with it. but at full price I would consider something else.
This phone has the Kirin processor and you can root it but the custom rom's will be few because of the processor
The Galaxy S6 is a nice phone but the bootloaders are locked.
I don't know anything about the Sony.
If you have $400 for the full priced H8 I would recommend a used Nexus 6p or a One plus 3 for flashing customs roms and developer support.
If those phones are too big for your taste theirs also the HTC 9 and 10 to consider... they have a great developer community
Tarbruh said:
Hey guys im looking to buy a new phone and for my budget i can get the Honor 8 , Sony X performance or the Galaxy S6 . Does the honor 8 have any bugs and would you recommend it over the other phones i listed ? Also how is the root ,rom , kernel support and is it easy to flash because i saw a guide for rooting with 12-13 steps including typing imei in huawei's site to get a code and so on .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly how clsA said,it's a very good phone. It's fast and have a nice design. But it's Huawei after all, so the custom roms will be a problem. I would sugest you to look for OP3 or OP3T if you want a good development comunity. If you don't care about development too much and want a fu**ing nice looking phone i would recommend it xD
IDK what to say about S6 and Xperia X, as i know the S6 is bad in battery and Xperia X doesn't seems to be as good as the Honor 8.
Other phones to look : Axon 7, Nubia Z11,Xiaomi MI 5,Asus Zenfone 3 (No custom roms).
There are more but i dont remember them.
clsA said:
I got mine on a black friday sale and I'm happy with it. but at full price I would consider something else.
This phone has the Kirin processor and you can root it but the custom rom's will be few because of the processor
The Galaxy S6 is a nice phone but the bootloaders are locked.
I don't know anything about the Sony.
If you have $400 for the full priced H8 I would recommend a used Nexus 6p or a One plus 3 for flashing customs roms and developer support.
If those phones are too big for your taste theirs also the HTC 9 and 10 to consider... they have a great developer community
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Click to collapse
I have around 450 max for a phone and the Oneplus 3 would have been great because it was 430 dollars but now they only sell the 3T for about 500 and its an import so i think it will have taxes . I looked at the One M9 and the one thing i didn't like is that it is missing a fingerprint scanner and from reviews they say if your chosing between the M9 and S6 go for the S6 so idk . The HTC 10 is good but if i had the money for it (650$) i would have bought the S7 Edge .
Sheldd said:
Exactly how clsA said,it's a very good phone. It's fast and have a nice design. But it's Huawei after all, so the custom roms will be a problem. I would sugest you to look for OP3 or OP3T if you want a good development comunity. If you don't care about development too much and want a fu**ing nice looking phone i would recommend it xD
IDK what to say about S6 and Xperia X, as i know the S6 is bad in battery and Xperia X doesn't seems to be as good as the Honor 8.
Other phones to look : Axon 7, Nubia Z11,Xiaomi MI 5,Asus Zenfone 3 (No custom roms).
There are more but i dont remember them.
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Click to collapse
The Xperia X has the edge in performance over the H8 but it overheats when using the camera idk if sony fixed it or not.Axon 7 is pricey for me 600 dollars but its a great phone.The Xiaomi MI 5S is cheap and packs perfromance with the SD 821 but being a Xiaomi doesn't it have poor software ?
Tarbruh said:
Hey guys im looking to buy a new phone and for my budget i can get the Honor 8 , Sony X performance or the Galaxy S6 . Does the honor 8 have any bugs and would you recommend it over the other phones i listed ? Also how is the root ,rom , kernel support and is it easy to flash because i saw a guide for rooting with 12-13 steps including typing imei in huawei's site to get a code and so on .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just bought the Honor 8 after a long evaluation and endless comparisons (price for me was 320 EUR discounted, so really mid-range price territory).
The hardware is great and having such a fast fingerprint sensor is really awesome. Biggest two drawbacks for me are:
- the user interface: I don't like EMUI at all and it's pretty far from the Android standard, but you can use a custom launcher and hopefully an unofficial near-stock theme will be available soon;
- the screen: has a quite poor calibration and looks like a significant step back from my previous Sony Z1 Compact.
Sony devices are nice but heavily bloated. Also I was quite disappointed with my Z1 Compact camera: it looks like they didn't provide adequate support in the transition from KitKat to Lollipop and there was a performance degradation killing an otherwise interesting sensor. I haven't tried a Samsung since the death of my S3 due to eMMC failure and my experience with that device had not been stellar (given I did paid full price for it), but I have read that the UI has improved in the latest interations.
As for root and custom ROMs the thing is: while every device can be rooted one way or another, for a good custom ROM support you should consider only Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets (the Honor has a HiSilicon Kirin) and even in that case the proper support for camera and other advanced hardware features could be not easy. So you may root the Honor but don't expect an AOSP / LineageOS ROM to work properly (there is some work underway but if Huawei doesn't change its politics I wouldn't expect acceptable results).
As for me the only device I could have bought instead of the Honor was the HTC 10, but at a cost significantly higher.
P.S.: Xiaomi devices are interesting but most of them have limited LTE band support, so you may want to check against the bands used in your country (the GSMArena website has a great search tool you could take advantage of).
maxlnc said:
I just bought the Honor 8 after a long evaluation and endless comparisons (price for me was 320 EUR discounted, so really mid-range price territory).
The hardware is great and having such a fast fingerprint sensor is really awesome. Biggest two drawbacks for me are:
- the user interface: I don't like EMUI at all and it's pretty far from the Android standard, but you can use a custom launcher and hopefully an unofficial near-stock theme will be available soon;
- the screen: has a quite poor calibration and looks like a significant step back from my previous Sony Z1 Compact.
Sony devices are nice but heavily bloated. Also I was quite disappointed with my Z1 Compact camera: it looks like they didn't provide adequate support in the transition from KitKat to Lollipop and there was a performance degradation killing an otherwise interesting sensor. I haven't tried a Samsung since the death of my S3 due to eMMC failure and my experience with that device had not been stellar (given I did paid full price for it), but I have read that the UI has improved in the latest interations.
As for root and custom ROMs the thing is: while every device can be rooted one way or another, for a good custom ROM support you should consider only Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets (the Honor has a HiSilicon Kirin) and even in that case the proper support for camera and other advanced hardware features could be not easy. So you may root the Honor but don't expect an AOSP / LineageOS ROM to work properly (there is some work underway but if Huawei doesn't change its politics I wouldn't expect acceptable results).
As for me the only device I could have bought instead of the Honor was the HTC 10, but at a cost significantly higher.
P.S.: Xiaomi devices are interesting but most of them have limited LTE band support, so you may want to check against the bands used in your country (the GSMArena website has a great search tool you could take advantage of).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im in the same state of endless comparisons and watching reviews for phones . From reviews and speed tests the Honor 8 seems like a great deal , in app opening comparsion it was leading 15 to 5 againts the Iphone 7 Plus if 100% true in normal use its a pretty fast phone and is concidered as one of the best 400 dollar phones . My concern is the UI and support i will slap google now launcher but for support updates and so on its a Huawei after all and i don't have experience with them . Most of my root and rom adventures were made with my Galaxy S3 Neo because it came with Android 4.4.2 and never got an update and with the help of roms it had 6.0.1 from the S6 with an overclocked Kernel and slow motion camera mod. All of the reviews for the X performance say that Sony are asking too much (700$) for the flaws it has . I put a thread on the Sony forum but no response yet . For me the price is lower 430$ for the Xperia but if the bugs are not fixed by Sony its dissapointing . I really like the Galaxy S6 but after all its a 2015 model . Xiaomi MI 5s supports my 4G network but being a Xiaomi software wise i think its badly optimized.
Sheldd said:
Exactly how clsA said,it's a very good phone. It's fast and have a nice design. But it's Huawei after all, so the custom roms will be a problem. I would sugest you to look for OP3 or OP3T if you want a good development comunity. If you don't care about development too much and want a fu**ing nice looking phone i would recommend it xD
IDK what to say about S6 and Xperia X, as i know the S6 is bad in battery and Xperia X doesn't seems to be as good as the Honor 8.
Other phones to look : Axon 7, Nubia Z11,Xiaomi MI 5,Asus Zenfone 3 (No custom roms).
There are more but i dont remember them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the Honor 8 and have been using it for the last 3 months or so.
I'm not into all these tests but I know that the phone has stood up to everything that I have thrown at it and I use my phone allot.
If you want a good, solid phone that looks good and will be kept upto date for the next couple of years then get the Honor 8
My flat mate has got the pixel and after using it I really can't see how it's worth the extra couple of £100
John
In my mind, the only phones that are worth getting if you want to flash roms are OnePlus and Google, the rest are not worthwhile. These two phones are the only ones that will get great support on XDA. If this is your purpose then don't even bother considering any other brand, it's just a waste of your time. Even if it is available for other phones you run into hassle with losing warranty by unlocking bootloader and doing more steps than needed. It's better just to get a OnePlus where all the custom rom features are already built in.
If you can get the Honor 8 for $300 new or less and wants a good camera it's worth it. I'm very happy with the camera for still shots which is what I mainly bought the phone for. It's the best camera I've used outside of Samsung so far, I think the Huawei and Samsung are the tops right now for camera. It's better than the Nexus 6P in term of dynamic and colors. Also Huawei currently make the best fingerprint scanner, albeit on the back. The hardware is fast, but expect lots of thermal throttling while gaming.
You will have to deal with some goofy battery management which turns off notification and background running apps, although there is a way to fix this but you have to whitelist the apps in two different nearly hidden places in the settings, although the new Nougat updates is supposed to improve this.
In term of updates support, I think it's pretty poor, at least in term of speed. Many phones are already on Nougat before this one. I do like the fact they made the stock firmware publicly available. The main thing that hampers this phone is the software.
Hey there. I was in the dilemma you are right now two months ago when I bought the Honor 8. I'm not disappointed at all, in the past few years I've used almost every brand there is, HTC, Samsung s3, Lg G2, Sony z3 Compact, Moto G 1 and 2, Sony z3, z3+ and m5, and my last phone was the Huawei p9 lite, I was astonished as to how that "cheap phone" camera could beat my Sony z3+ that I loved so much. That's when I paid attention To Huawei, and man they're doing a great job. Yes maybe in development you won't be able to do much, if that's what you're looking for, maybe it's better to look elsewhere, but in terms of battery, daily use performance and heavy usage, camera, good looking phone, this is a great deal. I bought for 400 when it was released. A few weeks ago my brother got it at 330, which was like stealing haha. And I know this month it will get Nougat. Emui software will be better with the update, not saying it was bad but many disliked it, I'm fine with it to be honest. And Honor offers 2 years of support after the date of release. So you'll get Android updates until mid-2018.
Hope this helps.
I really don't recommend buying a phone at the moment, as u know it's a new year
New phones and chipsets are released and prices eventually will drop. I recommend waiting for couple of months if you can.
Regarding the Honor 8 itself, I know there's something about this phone makes you want it although u can just save a little and get axon 7 or 1+3 and it's not a perfect phone either it lacks some things like OIS for videos and 4K for video.
Other than that it offers a great camera you should check threads here for camera samples, it does take very great still images!
I saw lots of comparisons too between that phone and others. Well in everyday usage there's no difference between it and a snapdragon 820 powered phone regarding opening apps and so .. The kirin 950 is pretty strong scoring 90K+ in antutu benchmark which is okay.. You shouldn't be worried about a game that won't run smoothly on it at the moment! But it's not the best developer friendly unlike snapdragon chipsets!
Beside all that it's a pretty phone ( sexy design, great camera, decent battery & good performance ) it has USB C and fast charging and the chipset supports Vulkan API which makes somewhat it future proof. Also about the EMUI, it can grow on you over time it has neat features not laggy as people might suggest it has theme engine too plenty of customizability and gestures, I don't see it lacking other than the looks of the pure android but that can be fixed by using nova launcher.
Bottom line, if u don't mind the UI and the development area ( it exists but it may take a while ) definitely go for it .. Otherwise u may consider saving or buying One Plus 3 if you're a flashaholic there are plenty of ROMs for the one plus, And a strong development community!
I have the FRD-L14 (64 GB USA version) for $340 total from Amazon. It has replaced my Sony Z3 Compact that I had for two years bought for $500. Tell you what the Honor 8 is worth the money. Fast and responsive. The 4 GB of memory is awesome since apps stay in memory so multitasking is mostly instant. 64 GB memory + 64 GB microSD = awesome. Camera is fast enough with good quality. The screen is the only downside compared to flagship phones costing $600+ but I came from the Sony Z3 Compact display so it's not a problem for me. Maybe I am also lucky but I don't have a blue-ish tint on certain reviews.
The best thing about this is it has Band 12 LTE for TMOBILE. I now have 3 bars of signal sitting in my office instead of 1 or zero or searching all the time. The HD Voice call is also super clear. The speaker phone, though, could be better. The fingerprint scanner is just as good as the Samsung or Apple. Two THUMBS UP. I would upgrade to the Honor 9-10 down the road assuming they keep the price competitive.
Price of Honor 8
Tarbruh said:
I have around 450 max for a phone and the Oneplus 3 would have been great because it was 430 dollars but now they only sell the 3T for about 500 and its an import so i think it will have taxes . I looked at the One M9 and the one thing i didn't like is that it is missing a fingerprint scanner and from reviews they say if your chosing between the M9 and S6 go for the S6 so idk . The HTC 10 is good but if i had the money for it (650$) i would have bought the S7 Edge .
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I just bought a Honor 8 from a dealer on ebay..paid $250....New but no box..
Exactly as the others say the Honor 8 is a great phone! It is fast, good looking and has a great camera! So in 2015 I was looking for a new phone to replace my old Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and this seller showed me the Honor 7 but it didn't really appeal to me that much (Mostly because of EMUI) and I decided to keep on using my S4 Mini.
But a few weeks ago I got the Honor 8 for 325€ (Discounted) even if I didn't really like EMUI that much I must say, it is better than I expected! Now there is a few things I still don't like in EMUI (Like the split Notifications and Shortcuts) but in the new EMUI 5 update that is currently being rolled out, it will just get a whole lot better and many of the things I find annoying is fixed
So would I recommend this phone? Yes I would definitivtly recommend this phone for someone who is looking for a great phone but still not to expensive, even though it doesn't have that many custom ROMS yet (Coming from someone who used Custom ROMS a lot previously) I think we will get more custom ROMS within a few months
Tarbruh said:
Does the honor 8 have any bugs and would you recommend it
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I've been using it since 1st December 2016 and I wouldn't recommend it, 'cause:
1. It has no system-level equalizer;
2. It has no system-level audio balance tweaker(?);
3. When using the app com.rubycell.pianisthd, the audio output is full of "clicks"; no longer with android 7
4. It's kirin-based, therefore "good luck" with custom roms.
edit:
I'm not gonna sell it any soon 'cause I can kinda live with it thanks to Poweramp, but come on, the audio subsystem of this phone is sh*t. You should only get it if you're deaf or for some reason you don't enjoy listening to music.
I apologize for being this rude.
The aesthetics are amazing and the performance is really decent. The software is mediocre, though it might be better with the Android & UI update--but that's been a slow process and I've yet to see the update myself.
The hardware is impressive and in many ways exceeded my expectations. The Kirin 950 opens apps quickly and the 4gb of what I believe to be DDR3 memory allows for multiple app usage without any trouble. DDR4 would be amazing, but it holds its own with what it has.
The GPU is only OK. It runs a bit hot when in 1080 mode, playing games like War Robots. 720 seems to cool it down a bit. No problems with older games like the GTA series, no problems with Real Racing 3 or the Riptide series.
Still, the 3d AnTuTu benchmarks combine for a score of about 20k, where as the OP3T is over 40k combined. Overall, my phone grabbed a 94,000. The overall for the OP3T is over 135,000. The difference in the score is due to the GPU and memory being slower than the OP3T's Adreno 530 and 6gb of DDR4. The Kirin 950 itself, holds its own against the Snapdragon 820 and 821.
The price point is all over the place in the US market. I picked mine up for $319.00, but I've seen them on shelves for $400.00 USD. At 300, it's not bad, but if you are going to hit the 400 mark, might as well go with the OP3T.
I have 2 weeks left to return mine, if I don't see the update by then, it will go back and I'll drop few extra for the OP3T. If I get the update and it feels smooth, I'll probably stick with it.
Would I recommend it? If you can get it for 300 USD or close to it, yes, it's a good phone for that price point. If you see it in your market and it is closer to 400, go for the OP3T. If you LOVE mods, regardless of price, go for the OP3T.
Note: The ZUK Z2 Pro is in the same price range, but I hear the software is awful and build quality questionable, that's why I didn't bring it up in comparison.
Note II: I've updated to B360 via Firmware Finder. So far the phone doesn't feel too much different, but there are changes. The UI is a bit cleaner, my benchmark went up by 6000 overall, but no change in GPU scores. The app drawer is laid out nicely, the notification bar looks better, the native sms message system is upgraded and more functional.
I have to stick with my original opinion. If you can get the phone for 300-ish USD, if you are OK with WYSIWYG, it's a solid, aesthetically beautiful device. If you are creeping into the 400.00 range, take a very serious look at the OP3T. Again, if you are a modder or love the bleeding edge, OP3T is your device.
PErsonally, I like it over the S7 Edge. Faster and smoother.
Handful of reasons the S7 Edge is the daily driver:
Larger screen
Better video and slightly better camera shots
Audio can be tweaked
Only major con is the ugly IOS skin on the Honor 8. Personally i like it a ton.
Sheldd said:
Exactly how clsA said,it's a very good phone. It's fast and have a nice design. But it's Huawei after all, so the custom roms will be a problem. I would sugest you to look for OP3 or OP3T if you want a good development comunity. If you don't care about development too much and want a fu**ing nice looking phone i would recommend it xD
IDK what to say about S6 and Xperia X, as i know the S6 is bad in battery and Xperia X doesn't seems to be as good as the Honor 8.
Other phones to look : Axon 7, Nubia Z11,Xiaomi MI 5,Asus Zenfone 3 (No custom roms).
There are more but i dont remember them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately the OP3 and OP3T have no microSD-cardslot.
You have to consider this.
the Honor 8 has the following advantages.
- fairly fast (Arm Cortex A72 CPU's) and due to a FHD-screen the gfx-perfomance is even slightly faster than e.g. the galaxy S5.
--> so many (older) high-end games run quite good.
- great screen (wide gamut LCD screen)
- IR-blaster
--> and reviewers don't mention this but the Honor's IR-blaster is both output AND input, which means it can "learn" codes from other remotes while the e.g. Samsung's can't.
--> works also good with other IR-blaster apps too.
- microSD-slot
- price compared to known-brand flagships and mid-range devices (bar the oneplus models)
--> the standard Honor 8 (32GB) has a great price/performance-ratio IMHO and there's usually some sale somewhere
--> got mine with a free 64GB card so it was even greater value for money
- camera is good for the price
--> great quick shortcut (with volume-keys or fingerscanner-button)
- EMUI has some nice tricks with the fingerprint-scanner
--> e.g. there's a "safe" to store private files which can be locked/unlocked with fingerprint
- bootloader CAN be unlocked and is fairly easy to root.
--> Huawei themselves supply the unlock codes which is great, isn't it?
- beautifull design. It looks great and the camera is completely flush
- mirrorcast (to non-Samsung TV's) works fine without rooting and tampering with the build.prop
disadvantages.
- it is VERY slippery
- not as fast as particularly Oneplus 3 (and 3T) which cost the same
--> Honor 8 premium cost the same as OnePlus 3/T and has the same internal storage capacity
- some people prefer QHD
--> this doesn't bother me personally but it might be a dealbreaker for some
- no EQ on the standard music app or anywhere else on the device
--> so you need another music-player if you really want this or other audio-enhancements.
- Samsung's still have better camera's for low-light photography especially the S6 (IMHO the S6 is even better than the S7 in this respect)
- no DLNA so you'll need an optional app for this. Though screencast works fine.
--> I tried the old Skifta-app myself from qualcomm and it works great. Unfortunately you have to look hard to find this though asit isn't on Play anymore.
IMHO the Honor 8 is a great little device. Sufficiently powerful and it has most of important points covered.
As for me, the SD-card slot, IR-blaster and the better deal (with a free 64GB card) were the main reasons to go for the Honor8 instead for the OP3T
There's probably a lot more that I haven't covered but I have my device just 4 days so I'm not a "pro" just yet
So I hope this is helpful.
LaserChicken said:
The aesthetics are amazing and the performance is really decent. The software is mediocre, though it might be better with the Android & UI update--but that's been a slow process and I've yet to see the update myself.
The hardware is impressive and in many ways exceeded my expectations. The Kirin 950 opens apps quickly and the 4gb of what I believe to be DDR3 memory allows for multiple app usage without any trouble. DDR4 would be amazing, but it holds its own with what it has.
The GPU is only OK. It runs a bit hot when in 1080 mode, playing games like War Robots. 720 seems to cool it down a bit. No problems with older games like the GTA series, no problems with Real Racing 3 or the Riptide series.
Still, the 3d AnTuTu benchmarks combine for a score of about 20k, where as the OP3T is over 40k combined. Overall, my phone grabbed a 94,000. The overall for the OP3T is over 135,000. The difference in the score is due to the GPU and memory being slower than the OP3T's Adreno 530 and 6gb of DDR4. The Kirin 950 itself, holds its own against the Snapdragon 820 and 821.
The price point is all over the place in the US market. I picked mine up for $319.00, but I've seen them on shelves for $400.00 USD. At 300, it's not bad, but if you are going to hit the 400 mark, might as well go with the OP3T.
I have 2 weeks left to return mine, if I don't see the update by then, it will go back and I'll drop few extra for the OP3T. If I get the update and it feels smooth, I'll probably stick with it.
Would I recommend it? If you can get it for 300 USD or close to it, yes, it's a good phone for that price point. If you see it in your market and it is closer to 400, go for the OP3T. If you LOVE mods, regardless of price, go for the OP3T.
Note: The ZUK Z2 Pro is in the same price range, but I hear the software is awful and build quality questionable, that's why I didn't bring it up in comparison.
Note II: I've updated to B360 via Firmware Finder. So far the phone doesn't feel too much different, but there are changes. The UI is a bit cleaner, my benchmark went up by 6000 overall, but no change in GPU scores. The app drawer is laid out nicely, the notification bar looks better, the native sms message system is upgraded and more functional.
I have to stick with my original opinion. If you can get the phone for 300-ish USD, if you are OK with WYSIWYG, it's a solid, aesthetically beautiful device. If you are creeping into the 400.00 range, take a very serious look at the OP3T. Again, if you are a modder or love the bleeding edge, OP3T is your device.
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Thanks for the long and explained point of view it seems that only on the honor 8 forum people comment on stuff like this because it made a thread on the x perfromance forum still 0 comments . The OP3T is a great phone and comes for about 470 dollars . Over the past few days i've got the conclusion that im not getting the honor 8 because its priced at 420 ish dollars and for and for the same price i can get the xperia which has the SD820 with a 1080p screen so it will perform 23 MP camera will fine compared to my current 12 or i can get for 460 the Zte Axon 7 also with SD820 2k display and amazing audio and if i go even higher i can get the S7 for 490 . But im thinking on not going too far for the S7 because the Xperia and Axon offer the same performance just losing on camera and ips sertification if i got with the axon but it has one of the best if not the best speakers and headphone output.
I just got a used one off of Amazon for $235. Honestly, I think it's worth that price, but I would recommend waiting for MWC at the very least. I only pulled the trigger on it right now because the only other phones in the price range I had (about $200 - $300), were the upcoming MOTO G5 series. I have been using a Moto E 2015, but I felt that since the Honor 8 had higher specs, a better design, a better camera, etc. that it was worth it.
Additionally, I think Huawei promised 2 years of support and the phone just came out, so we will definitely see Android O at the very least (which is pretty great).

S7 edge cpu faster than S8+

I use a S7 edge SM-G935F Exynos 8890 for trading on the go. I got a new S8+ SM-G955F Exynos 8895 and when I do simultaneous trades on both phones, the S7 edge is faster every time. Is this because the S7 processor is 2.6Ghz and the S8+ is 2.3Ghz. Just thought the new S8+ would execute faster.
If GHz matters, why aren't 2008 computers faster than 2017 computers? 2008 computers often have a higher GHz than 2017 computers.. Yawn...
Geekbench doesn't say the same..
Bonnie123 said:
I use a S7 edge SM-G935F Exynos 8890 for trading on the go. I got a new S8+ SM-G955F Exynos 8895 and when I do simultaneous trades on both phones, the S7 edge is faster every time. Is this because the S7 processor is 2.6Ghz and the S8+ is 2.3Ghz. Just thought the new S8+ would execute faster.
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Please remember that the operating system has been improved from update to update, the Galaxy 7 / Edge was not so from the beginning. Let it be at the performance or RAM managment. It has been constantly improved, I think after 1-2 firmware updates, the Galaxy S8 / + will get a similar performance leap.
Gesendet von meinem SM-A520F mit Tapatalk
I don't find the s8+ any different from the s7 edge I think it's true to say it's not really worth the upgrade from the s7 edge to the s8+. Don't get me wrong I like the s8+ just like I did the s7 edge
Side by side with my S8+ and S7E, the S8+ is faster and better at everything I have done. The display is noticeably nicer/brighter with better colors on the S8+. The display size to phone size ratio is obviously far superior on the S8+. Way more display, barely any bigger phone overall.
As far as apps, etc, the S8+ is just faster. I thought I would miss the hardware home button, but have not missed it at all. I rarely lock my phone so having the fingerprint scanner on the back has not been an issue.
Pictures are far superior on the S8+. I realize the most of the hardware is the same or close to the same in both phones, but the S8+ takes noticeable better pics. Especially low light pics, but all pics.
I really can't complain about the S8+. I only used my S7E for a few months once they bricked my Note 7, and the S7E was good. Not as good as my Note 7 was, but not that much of a downgrade. But the S8+ truly does make the S7E seem dated in several ways. These may be areas that most people aren't overly concerned about, and truly the S7E is a fine phone and could last many people several years of quality usage yet. But it is still not as nice as the S8/S8+. That is just how these things work - almost always newer versions will be better. I expect the Note 8 to have several enhancements that make it better than the S8+. As a long time Note phone user, I will be very tempted to sell my S8+ and get the Note 8, but for now I am very happy with what I have. And I kept my S7E as my backup phone so worst case scenario I have a very good phone in case I lose or break my S8+. Win/Win.
The S8Plus is faster than a speeding bullet (Exynos version)!
Your first post! Welcome to XDA!
3dMark also has the S8+ snapdradon version faster than even the S8+ with the exynos chip.
My S7E ran like a Honda missing half it's spark plugs. I am willing to say it's the worst phone I've ever owned and I have owned a loooooot.
Bonnie123 said:
I use a S7 edge SM-G935F Exynos 8890 for trading on the go. I got a new S8+ SM-G955F Exynos 8895 and when I do simultaneous trades on both phones, the S7 edge is faster every time. Is this because the S7 processor is 2.6Ghz and the S8+ is 2.3Ghz. Just thought the new S8+ would execute faster.
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I really hope you aren't trading any tech stocks.

[Q] Phone choice: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge vs Huawei Mate 10 lite

Dear Community,
I have been using a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge for the past two years without any significant issues, apart from a defective screen which got replaced and is now pink-ish near the bottom, and a noisy camera when focusing. Generally I like the device quite a bit, despite it being not officially supported under Android 8 Oreo. The only relatively significant drawback for me is the lack of a microSD card slot - my version is the 32GB one and is almost always out of enough (3-5GB) free space (this, of course, is largely my fault ).
I got a new Huawei Mate 10 lite as a present past week. The 64GB version with 4GB of RAM.
I am now in doubt whether I should upgrade to the newer (but cheaper and bigger) phone or stick with the SGS6 Edge I already like and feel as enough for my current and future (1-3 year) needs. Unfortunately I am afraid that I would have to choose only one of those devices, so any opinions, questions and advice are welcome.
This is the GSMarena comparison of the phones, and the photo quality comparison.
Thanks in advance!
Kind regards,
Nikolay

Huawei MediaPad M6 - Worthy of an upgrade?

Who is thinking of upgrading to the MediaPad M6?
https://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_unveils_mediapad_m6_in_84_and_108_varieties-news-37711.php
The Kirin 980 and bigger battery are nice but the camera seems the same and the fingerprint sensor has been removed?!
Also still no dual SIM LTE version and the 8.4 is only available in Champagne Gold.
https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=9747&idPhone2=9092#diff-
Not enthused...
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
Given the software upgrade support for the M5, I don't think I'll be upgrading... terrible to still be sat on 8.0 when 9.1 is available for their flagship phones. Why aren't they offering the same support for their tabs?
littleash88 said:
Given the software upgrade support for the M5, I don't think I'll be upgrading... terrible to still be sat on 8.0 when 9.1 is available for their flagship phones. Why aren't they offering the same support for their tabs?
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Depends on your region ... most people outside the US already have 9.0 on their devices. At least in Germany we have 9.0.1 with security patch of June.
AndDiSa said:
Depends on your region ... most people outside the US already have 9.0 on their devices. At least in Germany we have 9.0.1 with security patch of June.
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UK mate. The lost and forgotten country! Suppose I'll just have to wait it out...
littleash88 said:
UK mate. The lost and forgotten country! Suppose I'll just have to wait it out...
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I'm in the UK and I have 9.01
mightywhites29111971 said:
I'm in the UK and I have 9.01
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Oh... Cellular or WiFi? If Cellular, what network?
littleash88 said:
Oh... Cellular or WiFi? If Cellular, what network?
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It's WiFi I am afraid.
Flavio said:
Who is thinking of upgrading to the MediaPad M6?
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While the M5 that I have is a fantastic device that I really like, I definitely will not be buying another MediaPad because of the lack of upgrades on the US marketed version.
I am happy with my M5 Pro (10.8), so I will not upgrade that, but I am thinking of replacing my Mate 10 with a M6 8.4 now that the CPU is on high end smartphone level. Only downside is that I cant have a big cover or it will not fit in my pocket any more.
P.S: I already have Android 9 on my Mate 10 and M5 Pro, so I have no reason to complain. Also I dont know a single important feature why I would need Android 9 and so far I have not seen any important features in Android 10 either. The important step was Android 8 to be able to set app permissions.
I have the M5 8.4 NA version and I have the M6 8.4 on order directly from China so obviously the Chinese version. Not enthused about the "gold' with white bezel but it isn't a deal breaker. Fingerprint reader is kinda a bummer but once again isn't huge. Honestly the Kirin 980 makes up for all of it. Scoring nearly double the 960 in Antutu is no joke and there are no other options for other high power tablets besides the Tab S4 and soon to be released Tab S5 and those will be like $600-$700. The 980 is somewhat comparable to the 855, a little behind but it obliterates every other CPU out there (besides the Exynos that will never make it to NA probably).
So yeah not too stoked about gold/white or no FP reader but there are no other options,z especially at this price point. For some reason Samsung and everyone else want a TON for a high end CPU in a tablet. $300US is very reasonable. I guess the one pro is symmetrical bezels, the large bottom bezel on the m5 8.4 triggers my OCD when in landscape.
Clienterror said:
I have the M5 8.4 NA version and I have the M6 8.4 on order directly from China so obviously the Chinese version. Not enthused about the "gold' with white bezel but it isn't a deal breaker. Fingerprint reader is kinda a bummer but once again isn't huge. Honestly the Kirin 980 makes up for all of it. Scoring nearly double the 960 in Antutu is no joke and there are no other options for other high power tablets besides the Tab S4 and soon to be released Tab S5 and those will be like $600-$700. The 980 is somewhat comparable to the 855, a little behind but it obliterates every other CPU out there (besides the Exynos that will never make it to NA probably).
So yeah not too stoked about gold/white or no FP reader but there are no other options,z especially at this price point. For some reason Samsung and everyone else want a TON for a high end CPU in a tablet. $300US is very reasonable. I guess the one pro is symmetrical bezels, the large bottom bezel on the m5 8.4 triggers my OCD when in landscape.
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Where do you buy the M6 for $300? The cheapest on AliExpress is closer to $340 and the LTE 128GB version (the one I would have wanted) is $470.
But since it is not dual sim I have decided to get a Mate X, at least if the early reviews are not as disastrous as they were for the Galaxy Fold.
I made a quick wooden mockup yesterday and it is smaller than the Mate 20X when folded (so easier to hold) and unfolded the screen area is comparable to the M6. It is a lot of money but it's a hobby and hobbies cost money.
mightywhites29111971 said:
I'm in the UK and I have 9.01
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Me too, on the 8" wifi version.
Is anyone concerned about the absence of international ROM on M6? I gather that Google apps like Play store are no go on the new comer. Seems not much success in installing the Google framework in it from Chinese user forums.
awtchan said:
Is anyone concerned about the absence of international ROM on M6? I gather that Google apps like Play store are no go on the new comer. Seems not much success in installing the Google framework in it from Chinese user forums.
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Hey @awtchan, does this effectively mean that all the google-related apps wont install, even if you pull the apks from other sources like apkpure? The MediapadM6 is basically the only decently powerful tablet these days that's priced well. And it has a headphone jack and outstanding speakers from what I've read.
There is no way I'd buy a Samsung S5e or S6 tablet.
jauling said:
Hey @awtchan, does this effectively mean that all the google-related apps wont install, even if you pull the apks from other sources like apkpure? The MediapadM6 is basically the only decently powerful tablet these Zdays that's priced well. And it has a headphone jack and outstanding speakers from what I've read.
There is no way I'd buy a Samsung S5e or S6 tablet.
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From what I understood, users on Mainland China are struggling to try get Google Store up and running but all efforts have failed so far. The usual outcome is forced crashing Google Play. One can still install certain Google apps through alternative sources but they are limited. For example, they still can't use Facebook, Maps and Whatsapp.
The advice from users is to wait for international version to come out but no one knows when. However, I've made an enquiry with a seller on Aliexpress and I was told 'it's OK to use Google Store on it' (in Chinese). I'd give much grain of salt to that.
In short, it's a bit risky to buy now.
My wife needs a replacement for her Samsung tablet and I was heading toward getting another Huawei product. But not now. What other options are there besides another Samsung which she does not want.
reubenray said:
My wife needs a replacement for her Samsung tablet and I was heading toward getting another Huawei product. But not now. What other options are there besides another Samsung which she does not want.
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Sit and wait, thats what I'm doing. If you can't wait... then your choices are pretty limited for Android tablets. The M5 is decent, but old. Same for the Mi Pad 4.
Same here. Waiting for the Play Store to be added, then will buy it.
I would but Android is farrrr too restrictive for me I got my M5 as a replacement for a Windows laptop, it's a much nicer piece of hardware but the software let's it down so much.. maybe one day we will get Windows 10 on ARM..
Silly things spoil it for me, like the touchpad scrolling not being smooth, the complete lack of palm rejection there, how it's impossible to turn off the shift space shortcut.. Also usb 2.0 is ridiculous, I use my action camera and wanted this to watch the videos off, usb2.0 is far too slow (plus with windows I could transcode to hevc using hardware acceleration, no reason why this tablet can't do it just no software to do it)

SecurePhone 2021

Hi All,
2021 is here and I'm concerned about my privacy (finally).
I'm looking for a phone with good specs, capable of being run on Verizon in the US, and won't break the bank. ($500 is my ceiling)
I've looked into this year's budget offerings but been slightly disappointed with them enough to avoid them. What seems to be the best bet is a 1 or 2 year old flagship device.
I used to root and rom until vzw started locking the bootloaders on their Samsung lineup. I unfortunately went to iPhone a few years later, but now that I'm turning out to be more privacy minded over convenience, I've returned to the idea of purchasing an android to flash a custom privacy minded rom.
As I've been out of the game for so long and my preliminary research has been unfruitful, I waned to ask if you could point me in the direction of a few phones and roms that would run on verizon.
Thanks in advance!
jonnyboiii
You could get a used Note 10+ but it probably be around $650 from a reliable source like B&H Photo. Note 9's are less.
I go for something running on Pie as Q and up are screwed to hell in my opinion. With Pie you can use the freeware app Karma Firewall to lock it down as all it's features like logging are fully functional.
Between Samsung and Android the last year has not had many good offerings.
If I had to replace my 10+ now I be very tempted to go with another 10+... that's how bad the newer models/OS's are. I don't recommend any of the new Samsung phones as my overall impression of them is they're unacceptable.
blackhawk said:
You could get a used Note 10+ but it probably be around $650 from a reliable source like B&H Photo. Note 9's are less.
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Been looking into that phone in particular; perhaps I should go into the subforum Q&A, but...
It looks like there are no ROMs really available for the Note10. I could only find one ROM and some recoveries in the subforum. Didn't there used to be subforums for carrier specific models?
Apart from the Pinephone, is there a privacy-minded ROM that you know of? Just needs to be able to run on some decent phones.
jonnyboiii said:
Been looking into that phone in particular; perhaps I should go into the subforum Q&A, but...
It looks like there are no ROMs really available for the Note10. I could only find one ROM and some recoveries in the subforum. Didn't there used to be subforums for carrier specific models?
Apart from the Pinephone, is there a privacy-minded ROM that you know of? Just needs to be able to run on some decent phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It can be a little hard to find:
Samsung Galaxy Note 10+
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ is a 6.8" phone with a 1440x3040p resolution display. The Exynos 9825/Snapdragon 855 chipset is paired with 12GB of RAM and 256/512GB of storage. The main camera is 12+12+16MP and the selfie camera is 10MP. The battery has a 4300mAh capacity.
forum.xda-developers.com
I'm on a AT&T stock 10+ 512 gb/Pie. Don't get the 5G variant but the 512 gb variant running on Pie is sweet. I recommend you stay on Pie.
Q and 11* are fqcked up and you will take a performance/functionality hit.
A very fast/stable, rock solid phone. 6o hz screen refresh rate but a drop dead gorgeous display.
No 3.5 mm jack so you'll want a pair of Buds+ or Buds Pro for it.
I simple use Package Disabler Pro, Karma Firewall and settings to lock it down. No force reloads due to malware yet.
I don't root and with this phone running on Pie it's not needed. Be nice but most likely be a time gravity well for me.
* the newest phones have faster ram and cpu but Android 10 and 11 handicap the faster hardware by using more cpu cycles. If you're tired of the Apple trip I'd stick with Pie

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