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[Q] Huawei or HTC? (odd question, sorry!)

Hi there quick questionif anyone can help I'd be so so grateful.
1:So I know a lot of this is subjective, but I'm in the very fortunate position of having an HTC One M8 and the Mate 7. I like them probably equally in terms of all of the things I have access to now, but I'm someone who is on Android for control and support (from XDA!)
I've noticed there's very very little about the Mat e7 on XDA, and Huawei in general to be honest. is this because they're still relatively new? Would it be fair to expect new roms/kernels lollipop etc to eventually come to this device? Or is the mate 7 a far more niche and limited device, and I'd be better off with my HTC in that respect? (For example, it feels like developers rush to make things work for popular devices, eg when the HTC M9 comes out Cyanogenmod, Carbon Rom etc will all be working on a veri=sion for that straight away, but the Mate 7 might not get that kind of attention?)
I'm very happy with the M8, it's just the fingerprint scanner and mega battery life are lovely on the Mate 7. I suppose basically the question is, is this a phone I can put my faith in enough to sell my HTC? I've barely even heard of Huawei :s If someone is either able to reassure me OR tell me I've got plenty to be worried about, either would be fantastic!
And maybe if anyone is able to comment on which phone they would choose, that might help me even more!
Cheers

For dev support, you can always rely on big names as samsung, lg, sony, motorola and htc. What you said is true -- there is little to no dev attention to the likes of huawei, lenovo, etc.
That said, I came from samsung tab and samsung note 2. The dev support was overwhelming. I flashed differnt custom rom every week just for the fun and thrill of using something new. But I got tired too.
Then I got the lenovo vibe z2 pro-- a relatively new monster of a phone too! But it does not even have a separate thread here in xda, and I could not even get a phone case locally! Lucke enough, my brother got my vibe z2 pro coz he loves the aluminum build so much and he will just continue to pay for it.
I have been eyeing the mate 7 since it was announced. Loved the unibody design, the humongous battery and the fastest fingerscanner in android! So when it was launched in the philippines about 2 weeks ago, I preordered and was the first owner officilaly in thr philippines! Thats how excited I am!
I was looking to have the silver color though, but only the gold one was released locally. Also the silver one is the 16gb/2gb combo. So for the future, its nice to get the 32gb/3gb combo.
I think it is somewhat guaranteed that the mate 7 would receive the loliipop update considering its the new flagship of huawei. I just dont know when.
Do I miss my old note? You bet I am! Inspite of touchwiz being bloated, there is so much you can do with it! Plus the spen has a while wide use and functionality I have never found in any phone!
For now, I am contented with my mate 7, unlocked and unrooted. I guess its the thrill of using something new. And for its many features, its definitely value for you rmoney.

Thinking about trading my S6 Edge for a Ascend Mate 7

I'm deciding if I should make the trade. The main reason is the battery. I found the S6 Edge battery is not enough for me (getting 3 SOT max and it does not last more than 10 hours). So I want to install a Stock ROM on it (is it possible?) and have "infinite" battery life with a good phone.
Any feedbacks on this decision?

Go for P8 Max. It also has 6inch screen, 4000mAh and 16mp camera. The specs are better than Mate 7.
I admit Mate 7 is a good phone but why settle for an old model when there is a new one. Plus, P8 Max has a more updated software, and can be upgraded to Marshmallow in the future.
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-TL10 using Tapatalk

The only advice I can think of is that if you like custom roms and rooting then you can't go wrong with samsung phones, i had a note 2 for 3 yrs and then got a mate 7 and i am a bit sorry as trying to root the phone has been a nightmare and i am VERY worried about bricking this phone..
the note 2 is ALMOST impossible to brick and the support for samsung is brilliant on this forum where as the mate even after one year is still iffy.
please don't get me wrong the Mate 7 is a fantastic phone but i am still very uncomfortable to root it as there are SO may opinions and different ways ... (

Mine runs rock solid rooted, still on kitkat.
Rooting is the best for it as you can strip out the google bloat from /system/app.
I've kept most of the Huawei extras but the launcher is rubbish and I installed Smart Launcher Pro. I also installed Viper4Android for awesome sound, poweramp for quality music playback UE. For convenience of screen use, kinscreen, and to help the battery and keep data use under control, leandroid. I also flashed in the Xperia kitkat keyboard through CWM and removed google keyboard.
An older version of xposed is installed with some modules.
All up, it runs well, battery lasts well and it's set up to suit me better. The hardware is good for the price. Connectivity is great.
Apart from the poor Huawei launcher, the Huawei software is actually quite good and even has built in tools to manage permission and memory residence.
The launcher is no big deal when you can just install another and set it as default even if not rooted.
Happy I got mine.

Not for the Mate 7. I have had nothing with issues with the screen on mine. Replaced 2 times by service center. There were lines across the screen that were brighter than the rest of the screen. Got the S6 a week ago.

XenSA said:
The only advice I can think of is that if you like custom roms and rooting then you can't go wrong with samsung phones......
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i agree, while i love the build quality of the mate 7 i cant stand the software. i "upgraded" from a nexus 5 and it just isnt the same. if the mate 7 came with a snapdragon soc rather than the huaweis proprietary soc it would truly be the best phone around. i suggest you wait, zte and other Chinese manufactures will be coming out with snapdragon 820 phablets this year.

droidbot1337 said:
i agree, while i love the build quality of the mate 7 i cant stand the software. i "upgraded" from a nexus 5 and it just isnt the same. if the mate 7 came with a snapdragon soc rather than the huaweis proprietary soc it would truly be the best phone around. i suggest you wait, zte and other Chinese manufactures will be coming out with snapdragon 820 phablets this year.
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What do you find so annoying about the software? I quite like the look and feel, very very stable and in my case it has even made up for the urge I normally have to flash roms, simply because there is no need. I appreciate that some may have had issues with the device but I guess you'll find that with every other device on the market.
I've had samsungs for quite a while before switching to the mate 7 and to be honest after so many years I got tired of Touchwiz with degrading performance or a CM alternative with poorer camera quality.
Instead of flashing one ROM after the other I find myself spending more time using the device enjoying its massive 6" screen [emoji1]
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-L09 using Tapatalk

kta said:
What do you find so annoying about the software?........
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i find it annoying that i cant fully control what i do with my phone. on my nexus 5 i was able to do many things that i now see is not possible with my mate7. yes, i as well love the massive screen but after playing with a few nexus 6p's i have become very jealous. this is how the mate 7 should be. all custom ui stuff should be an optional addon "feature". what makes things worse is that companies spend alot of time building this stuff which many often end up not liking.
look at motorola and sony. they have converted to damn near stock android. whatever customization is present fits nicely into aosp android. last night i installed the stock firmware for my mate 7 (B328) and its honestly..... meh! huawei really bastardized what is the best visual android update. they even managed to completely screw up the recent apps view. huawei should really consider this.
for now im just going to get over it and keep using my mate 7 as is. not fully happy but whatever. thankfully there will be a few full metal phablets with snapdragon 820 chips being released this year. i cant wait!

droidbot1337 said:
i find it annoying that i cant fully control what i do with my phone. on my nexus 5 i was able to do many things that i now see is not possible with my mate7. yes, i as well love the massive screen but after playing with a few nexus 6p's i have become very jealous. this is how the mate 7 should be. all custom ui stuff should be an optional addon "feature". what makes things worse is that companies spend alot of time building this stuff which many often end up not liking.
look at motorola and sony. they have converted to damn near stock android. whatever customization is present fits nicely into aosp android. last night i installed the stock firmware for my mate 7 (B328) and its honestly..... meh! huawei really bastardized what is the best visual android update. they even managed to completely screw up the recent apps view. huawei should really consider this.
for now im just going to get over it and keep using my mate 7 as is. not fully happy but whatever. thankfully there will be a few full metal phablets with snapdragon 820 chips being released this year. i cant wait!
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True, the Nexus 6p is very nice with an even better screen, although tiny smaller.
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-L09 using Tapatalk

Just switched my mate 7 out for a Nexus 6p - like many people on this thread while I thought the hardware was great (especially the battery life!), the iffy software and half assed updates got to me in the end (I came to the mate from a Nexus 5).
The 6p is spot on - shows what huawei can do when running Android as its meant to be. Battery life not so good as the mate 7, but plenty good enough. If you are coming from a high end phone like an s6 edge I'd say the 6p would be a better bet. As regards screen size... I'm not really noticing any reduction in what I can see on the 6p, but going down to 5.7 with a slim width does really help with holding the phone one handed.

I sold my note 5 and for the huawei mate 7, it hasn't arrived yet...I paid 250 for it, however I'm a tad concerned now , have I made a unwise decision .I did it so I could give huawei a chance and I'm seeing and hearing negatives.

psn1819 said:
I sold my note 5 and for the huawei mate 7, it hasn't arrived yet...I paid 250 for it, however I'm a tad concerned now , have I made a unwise decision .I did it so I could give huawei a chance and I'm seeing and hearing negatives.
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Well, all phones have their negative sides. I love this phone because of the big screen and long battery life. It has a decent camera. It doesnt lag when playing games.
Give it a chance and I hope you will love this phone too. If ever your Mate 7 still runs on KK just leave it be. Lots of bugs in LP.
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-TL10 using Tapatalk

I'm confused ...is the stock lollipop rom buggy ...how can that be lol? Did I jump the gun a bit selling the note 5? Are they're any stable cutom roms you could recommend. I just want it to last me a while and be a wise investment is all...I'm usually fine but this will be my first huawei anything and now a bit ehh lol

psn1819 said:
I'm confused ...is the stock lollipop rom buggy ...how can that be lol? Did I jump the gun a bit selling the note 5? Are they're any stable cutom roms you could recommend. I just want it to last me a while and be a wise investment is all...I'm usually fine but this will be my first huawei anything and now a bit ehh lol
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To each his own I guess, but Lollipop is running super stable on my Mate 7.
Custom ROMS are not really an option on this device, there's pretty much no development going on, just have a quick look at the development sub forum and you can easily tell there's not so much going on there.
Make sure that if yo need to upgrade your device try following the official path first, allowing the phone to update itself to LP 5.1.1. If for some reason you don't get the updates just make sure you follow the instructions properly to update with an official ROM from Huawei's website and you should be just fine [emoji6]
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-L09 using Tapatalk

psn1819 said:
I'm confused ...is the stock lollipop rom buggy ...how can that be lol? Did I jump the gun a bit selling the note 5? Are they're any stable cutom roms you could recommend. I just want it to last me a while and be a wise investment is all...I'm usually fine but this will be my first huawei anything and now a bit ehh lol
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I did have lollipop running on mine for a while, and to be fair it was OK. However, it did seem to be missing some things that were included in KK - the carrier aggregation toggle, and after a hard reset it lost the motion control gesture settings etc.
Hence my point about it being glitchy. The other things that I found annoying is the EMUI customization made it difficult to access some of the underlying android screens (such as data usage etc). Also, I found that Google Voice when used in the USA would not dial out with the correct caller ID and number due to Huawei dialer I couldn't change. The other thing is that it is a bit laborious to change ROMs - you've got to download this, incremental update that, flash this to go back to the start etc.....a bit of pain really and one I couldn't really work out why it was necessary - again points to Huawei releasing all sorts of different confusing updates worldwide some of which were not complete.
Don't get me wrong, fundamentally there's nothing wrong with the phone - its just not a good tinkerers phone, nor is is well supported - none of the ported over more 'pure android' roms have yet been able to make the fingerprint sensor operate and can have iffy result with bluetooth etc.

Mate 9 .... Future Development

I love my Nexus 6 but I am having some battery issues, I have always wanted a better camera and I need more storage than the 32gb I currently have.
I have been looking at the Mate 9 since early fall and then somewhat spur of the moment ordered one from Amazon (I get a year to pay for it) yesterday. It should arrive tomorrow. Unfortunately, as I have poured through the Mate 9 forums for the last 24 hrs I have found not much development as I hoped for.
I then looked at the comparable new phone forums like the OnePlus3T and saw a crap load of development.
Input would be greatly appreciated!
What is the likelihood of development being stepped up for the Mate 9 in the coming weeks / months?
Any thoughts from the perspective of buying a OnPlus3T 64gb (twice my current memory) vs staying with the Mate9 (and having almost 200gb right off the bat -- 64gb plus my 128 sd card)?
I guess if the thought is that there is little chance of significantly further development for the Mate 9 I might rather try the alternative.
Thanks!!!!

It's never going to be comparable to the OnePlus, for a start because it's powered by a Kirin SoC which is a brilliant chip in itself but not widely documented.
Doesn't bother me one bit though, the device runs smooth as butter and I stopped tinkering years ago, jailbreaking, rooting, the lot. I'm happy with it as is.
Sent from my MHA-L29 using XDA Labs

Governa said:
It's never going to be comparable to the OnePlus, for a start because it's powered by a Kirin SoC which is a brilliant chip in itself but not widely documented.
Doesn't bother me one bit though, the device runs smooth as butter and I stopped tinkering years ago, jailbreaking, rooting, the lot. I'm happy with it as is.
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Exactly as I feel. If you want to have fun modifying your phone, go for the OnePlus, or a Samsung.
If you just want a great phone to use, stick with the Mate 9. You can't do better - at least until this year's new phones come out. And they will have to be brilliant to beat the Mate 9.

Ever since getting the honor note 8. I've been nothing but Huawei/Honor and nothing else. And haven't felt the need to root them.
Honor note 8
Honor 8
Huawei mate 9
Sure there a few quirks. But def a fresh of new air after living with Samsung and LG and everything else under the sun. Since androids inception. Gone through countless devices since the HTC hero and rooted every single one. Now don't even care anymore cause the crap just works now. Lol.
The mate 9 is a fantastic device that nobody will buy. ( Ie normal people )
What do u need root for. ?

spiritcrusher33 said:
Ever since getting the honor note 8. I've been nothing but Huawei/Honor and nothing else. And haven't felt the need to root them.
Honor note 8
Honor 8
Huawei mate 9
Sure there a few quirks. But def a fresh of new air after living with Samsung and LG and everything else under the sun. Since androids inception. Gone through countless devices since the HTC hero and rooted every single one. Now don't even care anymore cause the crap just works now. Lol.
The mate 9 is a fantastic device that nobody will buy. ( Ie normal people )
What do u need root for. ?
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I guess not so much just needing root ( for things like Titanium Backup [wouldn't even need that if there isn't any ROMs being developed], some Tasker functions, kernel tweaking , to name a few)
Granted I could do without most
BUT ... there are some little things that are made nice with Custom ROMs (esp just a plain ole AOSP ROM or maybe some Lineage based ROMs like Res Remix)
Ultimately though the Mate 9 is really nice ...... now I think I gotta decide whether I wanna keep the Mate 9 with 4gb ROM / 64 gb (and my 128 gb microSD card) ...... OR ........ the Mate 9 Pro with 6gb ROM / 128gb internal (and not use my microSD)
Any thoughts? I've had the Mate 9 for about 36 hrs ,,, get the Pro to try Wed

I'm guessing performance wise the 9 and pro are nearly identical except for the ram difference so I guess it all comes down to screen size. I'm more a the bigger the better kind of guy so I went with the normal mate 9. But since you can get your hands on both, see which size is more fit for you.

Yep, screen size wins it for me. But hey whatever floats your boat.
Sent from my MHA-L29 using XDA Labs

Custom ROM for Mate 9 Pro?

There are lots of interesting alt roms for the Mate 9. Has anyone developed (or be willing to develop) a custom rom for thr Pro? Pretty please!
The poor pro is being left behind... I realise this is largely because of limited geographic release but it's a great phone which deserves some attention. I'm not sure how ewsy/difficult it is to adapt the mate 9 custom roms for the Mate 9 pro... Or perhaps there are some Pro owner developers out there.
FYI I'm currently running LON-L29C636B225. Latest version appears to be B229.
Thanks in advance, and apologies if I missed something on this that has been posted already.

Did you tried to install a Mate 9 Rom?
Gesendet von meinem VKY-L29 mit Tapatalk

Blackball said:
Did you tried to install a Mate 9 Rom?
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No. I have asked on threads if a mate 9 rom would work on mate 9 pro and generally got a response of no or 'not sure'. Given that the correct region also seems to be important to make these roms work, I really didn't want to risk flashing a mate 9 image on my mate 9 pro in case of bricking. The twrp I flashed is also different from the standard mate 9 version.

I saw that KangVip build a rom for Mate9/pro...
http://club.huawei.com/forum.php?mod=forumdisplay&fid=2698&filter=typeid&typeid=4298

Isn't it just a different screen size/resolution? That shouldn't be a problem software size. I would imagine.

bejam said:
There are lots of interesting alt roms for the Mate 9. Has anyone developed (or be willing to develop) a custom rom for thr Pro? Pretty please!
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you should know that huawei phones will never have many if any custom roms. the few that have custom roms like the honor 8/P9 are loosing interest from the few devs that are trying to build roms. oreo might fix that but like i said, devs are loosing interest fast.
im waiting to see the pixel 2 and the LG v30. those will have great hardware and will have a huge custom rom support. never again huawei!

droidbot1337 said:
you should know that huawei phones will never have many if any custom roms. the few that have custom roms like the honor 8/P9 are loosing interest from the few devs that are trying to build roms. oreo might fix that but like i said, devs are loosing interest fast.
im waiting to see the pixel 2 and the LG v30. those will have great hardware and will have a huge custom rom support. never again huawei!
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Based on your response, why did YOU yourself even bother purchasing a Huawei device when you knew that rom development was going to lack?
I already knew for months before purchasing mine that ROM development was going to be small or basically non existent and I've been a ROM flasher for many many years, this is the first device I've ever own that I didn't have to root or even flash a ROM, seems you're pretty much unsatisfied because you can't flash any custom ROMs compared to other devices

XERO_Racer said:
Based on your response, why did YOU yourself even bother purchasing a Huawei device when you knew that rom development was going to lack?
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my only huawei devices have been the mate 7 which i bought brand new and a gifted bartered honor 5x and honor 8. i got rid 2 of them as soon as i could. the honor 5x is the only one i still have due to it having a snapdragon soc and a big custom rom selection.
had someone warned me about the mate 7 i would have not bought it but lesson learned. as i have stated many times, huawei hardware is great but their software is complete ****! thankfully huawei is becoming less popular on xda due to them going back on their word about providing major updates for 2 years.
to each their own i guess. you can stick with your huawei devices but most will never take hauwei serious for good reasons. LG v30 FTW!!!

droidbot1337 said:
my only huawei devices have been the mate 7 which i bought brand new and a gifted bartered honor 5x and honor 8. i got rid 2 of them as soon as i could. the honor 5x is the only one i still have due to it having a snapdragon soc and a big custom rom selection.
had someone warned me about the mate 7 i would have not bought it but lesson learned. as i have stated many times, huawei hardware is great but their software is complete ****! thankfully huawei is becoming less popular on xda due to them going back on their word about providing major updates for 2 years.
to each their own i guess. you can stick with your huawei devices but most will never take hauwei serious for good reasons. LG v30 FTW!!!
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Little bit of V30 fanboyism there?
EMUI 5.0 has never been a hiccup for me it's infact the best UI I have experienced so far alot better than 4.0.
Sucks to be you, should've done the research if you knew what you were getting yourself into but you learned it the hard way, but each to their own.
I rather have a device that rarely anyone knows about VS a phone or a brand that everyone knows, have fun with your V30, cuz I'm pretty content where I'm at, no need to go batsh** over what ROM has marginally better battery life or what kernel provided better performance or signal strength with modem files. TBH at least some credibility is due for them for actually polishing up EMUI, if they didn't care this brand wouldn't get far ?

Blackball said:
I saw that KangVip build a rom for Mate9/pro...
http://club.huawei.com/forum.php?mod=forumdisplay&fid=2698&filter=typeid&typeid=4298
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Great - I didn't know about this one! The only challenge for me is the Chinese forum. I know I can google transalte but it is still a bit of a struggle - especiall;y to post questions etc.
I was hoping that some of the custom versions for the Mate 9 could easily be adapted for the Pro. I guess the Pro is a mainly Chinese audience. Depsite these ROMs being based on EMUI, I was pleased of late to see that more of them are coming out. Just not for the pro!
I also notice that the kernel source has been released. Although those experimenting are still experiencing some issues with it. https://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-9/how-to/kernel-source-t3639912
But hopefully this means renewed iinterest from developes for an ASOP ROM for both mate 9 and the Pro!

Is the One plus 6 a worthy replacement for a Huawei P20 Pro?

4 months in owning my first Huawei device and I already miss stock android. I've had Oneplus phones in the past and i have absolutely love them. So would you say the Oneplus 6 is a worthy alternative to the P20 Pro?

If you've owned them before and you know you like the feel of the OS, then I think you're the only one that can answer that question. There are some things you'll trade off, but you'll get stock(ish) OS, and faster updates.

JJICKRSA said:
4 months in owning my first Huawei device and I already miss stock android. I've had Oneplus phones in the past and i have absolutely love them. So would you say the Oneplus 6 is a worthy alternative to the P20 Pro?
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Probably yes, based on what you want. If you'd like to sacrifice your camera (not so much) for a stock and improved OS, fast updates and large community support, well, go on!