Vivo X50 Pro+ User Review - Vivo X50 Pro+ Guides, News, & Discussion

After nearly one month of use, I decided to write an initial review of Vivo X50 Pro+. The main reason is that Vivo as a part of the Chinese BBK Electronic concern is the least known brand in the west, and I believe unjustifiably.
There are three brands under BBK - Vivo, Oppo, and OnePlus. While the first two were at the beginning success only in the Indian market, the last one is well known in the west too. In fact, it was intended for the west and OnePlus phones were known to bring the most bang for the buck except for the average camera (supposedly no more).
And even Oppo made a great breakthrough with the last models. Only Vivo is left behind.
So why buying a Vivo phone if you are not from the east? And why buying X50 Pro+ exactly?
There are many good reasons for this. Let’s look at them closely.
Design
Even I have to admit I’m anything but a fan of the curved screen (my dream phone design is the Nokia 9.3 concept (https://www.phonearena.com/news/nokia-9-3-pureview-5g-concept-renders_id124342) I accept the reality for the time being and I really hope that that madness evaporates quickly. The curved screen is unpractical (distortion and false touches around the corner) but at least I managed to improve the phone outfit by buying a nice case for a few euros. I bought a model with the glass back (glass back is the second design failure I’m fed up with it’s heavy and fragile). There is a really stunning X50 Pro+ model with faux camel leather but then, I’m not yet prepared to go naked, exposing the back of the phone and especially all precious cameras to all unpredictable harsh situations. Hence I bought a really nice case instead of having an exceptional designed phone.
Display
OK, the part of the phone design is a display. X50 Pro+ comes with a nice E3 AMOLED panel with DCI-P3 color gamut, supporting 120Hz high refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate, and has a peak brightness of 1300nit It also supports HDR10+. The E3 means that the display adds 8% to energy efficiency and has reduced blue glare. Otherwise, it has vivid full colors and sharp picture, which is well seen even under the direct sun. It has a small unnoticeable hole for the front camera, adjustable refresh rate, automatic brightness control, night mode, and three adjustable manifestations: home screen, lock screen and always-on display. What I miss is a chance to put your email on the lock screen, you know, it might be helpful if you lose the phone.
Camera
It is a while when the Vivo camera has been the last time evaluated on DXO. And I’m yet to try the camera in all its functionality. But I’ve already had a chance to compare the shootings with the Huawei P40 Pro and I have to say that I’m impressed. The main sensor among the four is the GN1 camera of Samsung, which supports Dual PD and Tetracell technology, which has 50 million pixels, a single pixel of 1.2μm. The output is 12.5 million pixels, and the single-pixel is 2.4μm, which increases the light sensitivity by four times. ISOCELL GN1 has Samsung’s pixel isolation technology ISOCELL Plus, which uses a physical barrier to isolate the pixels so that more light is collected by the microlens and then absorbed by the pixel’s photodiode.*The result is higher color fidelity and higher sensitivity, bringing natural tones and shadows to high-resolution photography. There is a 13 megapixel portrait camera, which has an f/2.4 aperture, a focal length of 50mm, and a double zoom. The 8 megapixel sensor offers 5x optical and 60x digital zoom. Panoramic pictures, on the other hand, can be taken with the 8-megapixel wide-angle lens.*On the front side, there is a 32 megapixel front camera, which offers an f/2.4 aperture.
Battery
I must admit, I’m immodest as far as the battery is concerned. I came from the Huawei Mate 20X side, I had a 5mAh battery, I’m not a gamer, rather a surfing addict. But surprisingly I noticed that Vivo manages consumption rather well without compromising performance. I manage through a long day easily, usually, I have enough power for two consecutive days.
Hardware
As you might know, X50 Pro+ uses to date the last SoC of Qualcomm, the SM8250 Snapdragon 865 (7 nm+). My phone comes with the 256GB ROM 12GB RAM UFS 3.1. It is fast, reliable, and smooth. The 4G antennas cover all common world bands (exceptions are band 20 of EU and more exotic US bands - like TM 66, 71, V 13, 46, 48, 66 and ATT 14,29,30,66). It is understandable, the phone is meant for Asian markets. And it supports both SA/NSA 5G frequencies 1, 3, 41, 77, 78, 79. That means that it had to cover the most common 5G specter in EU (where it exist) and one 5G band from Sprint (41) for TM in the USA.
Otherwise, the X50 Pro+ has both VoLTE and WoWiFi enabled and it must support Netflix too (I don’t use it). The nice move from Vivo is Wifi 2.4 and 5 aggregation and smooth switching from wifi to mobile when needed.
Software and customization
As expected X50 Pro+ comes with a lot of Chinese applications hardly usable anywhere else. Most of them could be removed from settings, others are removable (and retrievable) with adb shell pm uninstall --user 0.
After thoroughly removing unwanted apps there are negligible Chinese traces remain. One is, for example, when you get deeper into the weather app, you eventually come to the pure Chinese site. Otherwise, the weather is from the Accuweather and very reliable.
The launcher is not bad even if it is not as polished as Huawei’s. It supports gestures, themes, and customization. For more customization, you have to get a theme editor, which functionality is more limited than Huawei’s one. You can replace the stock launcher with the custom one. I didn’t decide to replace it yet, it has some useful feathers. I want to mention that I prefer stock Calendar, Clock, Weather, Albums over the Google ones. And the overall design is nice, I just wanted material icons, which I prefer smaller though. You have a native voice recorder with the phone and really nice messages application, which I haven’t replaced with Google’s even than the last now got RCS in my country. Not to mention very useful note applications with text, voice, picture options, and even OCR which works surprisingly well with foreign languages.
So why switch from Huawei to Vivo?
I admired Mate 20x in the time of acquisition but after two years I started to believe in the combination of a smaller lighter phone together with a tablet when needed. But that is not the main reason. As we all know Huawei lost GMS support. I guess I could live without the majority of Google applications. But I strongly consider the phone as a tool which should be sufficient to replace payment instruments, cards, tickets, personal documents, and keys. In my opinion, this is the second most important role of phones besides getting information.
And all this is now jeopardized if you possess a Huawei phone. Vivo is a completely different story. The company is not in dispute with the US administration and the X50 Pro+ is completely capable to serve the purpose. Despite poor and misleading knowledge of a vendor I bought it from it has full GMS support and it matches CTS profile completely. Google Assistant works flawlessly as well as Google pay.

Thanks for the great review!
Can you post some low light photos in full resolution?

So it passed SafetyNet test?

Are you able to get volte when making calls and does tap to pay work for google pay?

maxant69 said:
So it passed SafetyNet test?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, totally.

Princevelyn said:
Are you able to get volte when making calls and does tap to pay work for google pay?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google pay works in stores without any problem.
Regarding VoLTE and VoWiFi I couldn't test it before because my operator doesn't support it. It says next year every year for about 5 years.
I borrowed a sim and try it but I couldn't enable either of them. I need more time to find out why.

From which store did you buy it?

dazed1 said:
Thanks for the great review!
Can you post some low light photos in full resolution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far I like Vivo X50 Pro+ camera but I haven't had much opportunity to test it in all possible circumstances yet. But I did a short comparison between photos taken with the Vivo and those taken with the flagship Huawei P40 Pro. Compared photos are attached, I tried to evaluate them. I'm not a professional photographer but some differences are obvious even for an amateur. But, please, make your own opinion about the results and I'll be glad if someone more skilled than me participates with his (hers) own comment about the results.
So these are my observations:
HV1 - standard cameras were used, Vivo expresses better dynamic range;
HV2 - standard cameras, better Vivo's dynamic range, but a thin cloud covered the sun during the second shot;
HV3 - thin fog in the valley - zoomed pictures, Huawei's camera has a larger zoom;
HV4 - wide shots - pretty equal results;
HV5 - standard cameras - equal results;
HV6 - Wide cameras - equal results;
HV7 - 5X zoom on both cameras - Huawei expresses better dynamic range;
HV8 - close pictures - more vivid colors from Huawei;
HV9 - standard cameras - better dynamic range from Vivo;
HV10 - wide cameras - better dynamic range from Vivo;
HV11 - zoom on both cameras - better dynamic range and sharpness from Vivo;
HV12 - normal shot in almost total darkness - brilliant exposure and sharpness from Huawei;
HV13 - night shot in almost total darkness - brilliant exposure and sharpness from Huawei;
HV14 - normal shot in almost total darkness - brilliant exposure and sharpness from Huawei;
HV15 - night shot in almost total darkness - brilliant exposure and sharpness from Huawei;
HV16- close objects in darkness - brilliant exposure and sharpness from Huawei;
HV18 - semidarkness with the normal shot - brighter but less sharp and with distorted colors picture from Huawei;
HV20 - semidarkness with the night shot - brighter but less sharp, less dynamic range and with distorted colors picture from Huawei;
I must add an explanation:
All pictures are taken on the point and shoot principle. I reckon that I could take a better full dark picture with X50 Pro+ if I would have really tried to keep my hands still that critical seconds when the picture has been developed. Another remark: X50 Pro+'s camera is really fast and that counts a lot, sometimes almost all. This Samsung's GN1 is a brilliant feature, it never made me wait to shoot under the daylight, as Huawei did. Just pointing and shooting, that's it. Maybe occasional lag and consequential shaking make Huawei daylight pictures what they are.
All four X50 pro+'s cameras were done their job taking into account that no phone camera right now is able to compete with Huawei's Leica and AIS configuration in a totally dark environment. I'm truly impressed.
Due to the limitation of the forum, I split pictures into 3 zips and will be posted separately.

The second packet is following.

piskr said:
The second packet is following.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And the third one..:laugh:

Thanks so much brother!

maxant69 said:
From which store did you buy it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's Trading Shenzhen ( https://tradingshenzhen.com/en/vivo-x50-pro-x50-pro-x50). Although it is from Hongkong It has a few EU offices, gives warranty (it works, I tried it for Xiaomi tablet), and delivers at least to EU duties free (global shipping) in about 3 weeks.

dazed1 said:
Thanks so much brother!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries. Should you have any questions just ask.

Princevelyn said:
Are you able to get volte when making calls and does tap to pay work for google pay?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That issue with VoLTE and VOWiFi - I'm still none the wiser so far...
Maybe someone with more experience could help. All indicators show that it works but actually, it doesn't.
Look at the attached pictures. I used 2 sims, one was mine and it doesn't support either VoLTE or VOWiFi, and the other is my wife's which supports both and has both activated (works with her phone).
And now take a look at settings. With my sim, both VoLTE and VOWiFi settings are missing (case it doesn't support any of them), and with other are shown and activated. The same it is apparent from Secret Phone Settings app.
But the fact is that in both cases when calling, radio falls back from LTE to 3g. Really weird.
I'll try to search Weibo, that's the only possible remaining source of advice that I could remember...

piskr said:
That issue with VoLTE and VOWiFi - I'm still none the wiser so far...
Maybe someone with more experience could help. All indicators show that it works but actually, it doesn't.
Look at the attached pictures. I used 2 sims, one was mine and it doesn't support either VoLTE or VOWiFi, and the other is my wife's which supports both and has both activated (works with her phone).
And now take a look at settings. With my sim, both VoLTE and VOWiFi settings are missing (case it doesn't support any of them), and with other are shown and activated. The same it is apparent from Secret Phone Settings app.
But the fact is that in both cases when calling, radio falls back from LTE to 3g. Really weird.
I'll try to search Weibo, that's the only possible remaining source of advice that I could remember...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that is the problem I am having with my vivo nex 3 and there is no support for volte, when I contacted vivo customer service they said that the Chinese rom version was not able to have volte enabled and that is only supported cdma carriers with volte. Thanks for the in-depth look though !!!

I new it! One of the very best phone cameras on the market right now: https://www.dxomark.com/vivo-x50-pro-plus-camera-review-aiming-for-the-top/

Finally we get much anticipated and more thorough review:
https://www.gsmarena.com/vivo_x50_pro_plus-review-2170p3.php
I have a few remarks though:
Importing X50 Pro+ is not such hassle;
Audio from mono speaker may not be superior (for mono not bad either) but dedicated hifi chip makes miracle and dominates both via wired and Bluetooth earpieces - in my opinion that's far more important;
Funtouch is far better, customizable and closer to stock than miui - miui on my tablet was so buggy that I was just lucky enough to have a chance to root it and totally replace the system with lineage;
Not to mention Oppo regarding camera, performance and customization - it's significantly behind X50 pro+;
And Xiaomi Ultra camera is not such surplus - check Dxomark analysis;
Huawei is another story but it is right now hit hard with lack of mobile services.

It works on TMobile 5g network in usa?

Yes, it works. Yesterday I had opportunity to test 5G on band 41 and it worked. T-Mobile uses this band aquared from Sprint.

How is battery life? How many hours screen on time?

Related

THIS ANDROID PHONE: Why won't ANY manufacturer make it???

A decade ago to yesterday, there's been so many developments in mobile technology....we used to see a release of 1 or 2 types of phones to suit certain markets/demographics. Now; rather than seeing this, it's generally unheard of, or extremely uncommon for a big manufacturer to release fewer than 6-10 different types of phones in a calendar year. So my question is this; with the market so heavily flooded with competition of making and selling the best smartphone and so much more variety and pricepoints to choose from, WHY in the BLUE hell can 1 manufacturer NOT make this?? ---
These are of course, my personal preferences and some features or functions I'm sure m,any of you can live without. But that's my point; these features/functions are NOT big changes or improvements, so living without is really not acceptable when all of these can be made and found on ONE device:
Screen/body size and type - Just give me something that looks vibrant, accurate AND is comfortable to operate in ONE hand
Not only that, just let it fit easily in and out of my pocket!
The trend has been pretty obvious - smart phones and screens are getting bigger! As a result over the last 5-6 years, screen sizes have become ridiculously large and now phablets are a 'thing'.
5" is probably the ideal screen size. The dimensions of my Huawei P10+ seem rather acceptable for me, at: 153.5 x 74.2 x 7 mm (6.04 x 2.92 x 0.28 in)
We should be championing better technology of 2K AMOLED or OLED screens and not falling back to cost cutting with crappy 720/1080p FHD TFT LCD types
LED Notification Light - I care about notifications without having to pick up[ my phone to check it!
Just give me something where I have control over the colour/intensity and frequency and stop locking these features away.
The LED notification light has shrunk from a large vibrant size to the pin-head size we can barely make out on phones that currently adopt it.
I'm in Australia and care about fast download speeds; so until 5G is here, give me band 28 - 700Mhz
My carrier and most phones support the 4G network, or Telstra's '4GX'. So I need a phone with the capability and to not offer it (or lock certain bands down) is preposterous.
DUAL SIM popularity is increasing and I want this capability for personal AND work purposes!
Dual-active! Not dual standy-by; because 2G is switched off in my country. Give me 3G/4G dual or 4G/4G with the abilty to switch off data (for 1 SIM) if I don't need or want it.
I have friends carrying 2 phones and one carrying 3 phones around, which IMO is utterly pointless. One truly 'smart' phone will do, thanks.
Technological advancements allow it, so why not make it? TWO sim slots with the microSD card that --DOES NOT-- take up a SIM slot: #separateslot
Is it really asking so much to have a dual SIM phone with microSD card slot as an extra slot for memory?
Seriously! You know what...If it is, then just give me inbuilt memory of 32GB bare minimum inside the phone itself. If one manufacturer can do it, all can.
Camera - High quality point and shoot in low light will no that can take a pretty decent video
12mp minimum rear-shooter with f1.8. Ideally I want to take 4K videos at 30fps as well with good stabilisation
I'm not a selfie-maniac, so anything from a 5mp and UP as a front shooter camera at f2 is fine for me
Every year I see these changes in camera types, megapixel and feature rich enhancements...yet my P10+ fails to take good quality sharp images in medium to low light. Some cameras like my P10+ over-saturate in post production...one of many adjustments manufacturers make within their apps. Just give me a pretty basic 12-13mp camera that is top of its class for taking brilliant sharp pictures in any light but also able to shoot good video at 30 or 60fps 1080p and 4k videos at least 30fps; nothing too fancy, just minimum expected these days.
Accessibility is everything - so give me what all-half decent phones have today...
Bluebooth (4.0 minimum)
NFC
WIFI 802.11ac, DLNA, WiFi Direct, Hotspot
All the sensors for smartphones; accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Wireless charging
Why are Samsung seemingly the ones ones who want to offer this?
I can go without, but don't see why so many manufacturers who do offer this, cut so many other corners on other features mentioned here
A newish OS without excessive bloatware
I'd be happy with Android 7 Nougat or 8 (Oreo). Take off the bloat and give me the basic apps required on the phone without locking them down
CPU/RAM - Just give me a chip which handles dual-active SIM's with battery efficiency
I'm happy with a 4GB amount of RAM. It doesn't need to be 6GB or above top of the line.
Look at Asus Zenfone 2 from 2015. It handled dual-active SIM slots using Intel Atom Z3580 Quad-core 2.3 GHz with GPU PowerVR G6430. I'd suggest 3 years on from this release, anything above this will do...as this is really, a bare minimum.
Can't forget about connectivity - the basic ports will do
- USB Type C (USB 3.0 idea) with fast charge capabilities
- 3.5mm headphone jack; even though I'm moving to a bluetooth ear or headphones, the port should still exist for users who want and need it
- REAR MOUNTED Fingerprint sensor
While I'm not fussed, I liked the idea of LG v20's fingerprint sensor which doubled as a power button. 2 in 1. Also hard to accidentally knock if it's in a case. I can't stand front facing sensors, it's much more easy and convenient to whip the phone out of your pocket and lock without having to get your thumb fiddling with front sensors.
Battery technologies and improvements have been made, so STOP giving us 3000mAh to 3200!
If Huawei and other manufacturers can do it, why can't all phones by 3600 to 4000mAh at minimum now?
Infrared (IR) blaster. WHY is this a dying art?!
If your phone can be used as a backup remote for your TV, set top box, air con years ago, then why is this economical option disappearing from phones? Include one!
If we truly want to make an all in one device and have it be really smart, give it an IR blaster, or even a sensor for learning other IR remotes.
I do not need me phone to
- Be an all metal design; if plastic helps boost the mobile/data signal then I'll just use a case on it!
- Be WATERPROOF; unlike all those idiots with videos on youtube, scratching, dropping, burning and swimming with their phones. DONT need it! Splashproof maybe.
- Be squeezed for a certain action to take place
- have a 99.5% "screen to body" ratio. This is silly, just give me a good screen!
- Have one over-the-top insanely expensive feature, like a 22mp camera; or 8GB of RAM
- Destroy all geeky benchmarks. Nope. Just perform standard or above average. One that performs will with multi-tasking apps, the occasional games and FHD video playbacks
So what do you think? Agree/disagree? If apps or key features like controlling certain pro camera features or changing the LED notification light colour is locked down, the manufacturer needs to open this up up their consumers who will want to use the phone in their own way. Googling phone by feature and popping these features in yields no results, and only 3 or 4 phones come fairly close. LG v20 and P10+ which has a faint LED light and lacks system root; only OS root.
/end rant
RoOSTA
No one likes the idea of a smartphone with those features?
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app
There's been hundreds of these posts/threads over the years. Everyone has their own idea of a perfect phone, most of which will differ completely to yours (There's several things i would have that you haven't mentioned and 4 things you don't want, i do).
Not sure what kind of answer you are expecting to a rant about phone specs on a hacking forum - This would be better directed at the actual manufacturers.
Perhaps that's the idea of a forum..? Shares thoughts, interests and ideas...and this is general smart phone discussion isn't it? Have you found sending a single request as a sole consumer to manufacturers has helped (and led to actual product development in the past) ? Don't think so.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app
My post still stands. Yes the iea of a forum is to share ideas - Yours is a rant.
And yes, i have made a change with a manufacturer (In vaping) by myself (In the correct place).
So share it?
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

Which one should I buy? Samsung S9 or Honor 10?

Guys, I am planning to purchase a flagship recently, Samsung S9 was my favour before known Honor 10 from Honor hub of XDA ‘【The New Species in Color】Honor 10 makes Galaxy S9 looks boring！！！’. Honestly, the colour Aurora violet impressed me a lot. S9 looks a little bit boring (S9 still looks much better than iPhone 8) compared with Honor 10. Exclude the ID design, the specification of Honor 10 still not worse than S9.
It is no doubt the absolute performance of Kirin 970 is slightly weaker than Snapdragon 845 or Exynos 9810, but the high performance of 845 can do nothing exclude game! (Well, I’m not a gaming addict) In contrast, the NPU innovated in 970 is awesome, especially utilised for scene recognition and semantic image segmentation mode in camera. To illustrate this two AI technology, I quote the official explanation from Honor below:
The Honor 10’s AI camera was developed and supported by the NPU processor in the Kirin 970 chipset, which means it recognises 500+ scenarios in 22 categories real-time. It can pinpoint the outlines of various surrounding objects, like the sky, plants, people and waterfall, and identify their locations. This feature is supported by the industry-first Semantic Image Segmentation technology, which allows the Honor 10 to identify multiple objects in one single image. It is here where the Honor 10 stands out from the crowd at the first place. Furthermore, the industry-first Honor 10 features apply scene-specific parameters to each photo real-time when taking a picture, making every photo you take professional at just one click.
IT’S REALLY COOL!!!!
I’m sure there will be more AI utilizations in the future based on NPU. Currentlutilizationisation of new technology on the phone is much more rational than pursuing absolute performance blindly.
In the unlock aspects, S9 has iris recognition, facial recognition and fingerprint on the back. But I prefer the ultrasonic fingerprint on Honor 10 since it not only located on the front but also work with a wet finger. By the way, the facial recognition also present on Honor 10 lol…
And the battery of Honor 10 is 3400mAh which is more than 3000mAh in S9. I think Samsung is too conservative on both battery capacity and fast charge after the issue of Note 7, the small battery and outdated 18V fast-charging technology make S9 less attractive. Moreover, the SuperCharge of Honor provides 5V 4.5A = 22.5W keeps phone cool when charging compared with the high voltage 18W QC2.0 (9V 2A). The cool SuperCharge makes me feel more reliable than hot QC2.0, cause I always worry that my Galaxy S7 ‘Boom’ when I charging, it’s really hot!!!
Honor 10 has launched in China last week, ¥2599 (€340) for 64GB; ¥2999 (€391) for 128GB which is much cheaper than Galaxy S9 (nearly €1,000).
As the global launch event will be held on May 15th in the UK, I am so curious about the price. Here I listed some of the core specs of the two phones.
What price do you guys think this psychedelic new phone from Honor is going to be?
€400 or €500?
I have prepared €1,000 for S9 before, but now I think I can purchase two Honor 10 for me and my wife lol…
I would choose Honor 10.I just like huawei more.Price quality and specs ratio hands down for honor 10.
I would buy nokia 7 plus for superior build quality and stock android and faster updates and good battery
With Honor 10 in my hands for 4 days, I would say go buy it if you don't mind the over saturated camera, especially the overly airbrushed human faces in photos. So much for "AI camera"... I regretted my ¥2999.
Fair to say though the phone looks gorgeous and the notch can be turned off...
If I have another chance, I would rather wait for 1+6
haitaoh said:
With Honor 10 in my hands for 4 days, I would say go buy it if you don't mind the over saturated camera, especially the overly airbrushed human faces in photos. So much for "AI camera"... I regretted my ¥2999.
Fair to say though the phone looks gorgeous and the notch can be turned off...
If I have another chance, I would rather wait for 1+6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't you send it back ? Wtf
haitaoh said:
With Honor 10 in my hands for 4 days, I would say go buy it if you don't mind the over saturated camera, especially the overly airbrushed human faces in photos. So much for "AI camera"... I regretted my ¥2999.
Fair to say though the phone looks gorgeous and the notch can be turned off...
If I have another chance, I would rather wait for 1+6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, that sounds terrible! Can you post some inages, with and without AI. some faces, plants, landscapes/city images? that would be greatly appreciated!
"especially the overly airbrushed human faces in photos."
Ah, but that makes the images 'professional' apparently. I think I'll stick to a proper, straight set of images that I can post process, should I so choose, with photoshop...
If honor 10 will launch in India with base variant at 35k then there is no competition with oneplus 6. Everyone go for the oneplus 6 at 37k. Also honor has unspecified version of gorilla glass protection. But oneplus 6 has gorilla glass 5. Last time honor launched it's honor v10 that has some of the better specs with it's bigger battery and price at just 30k of 128gb variant and also the display quality.
"Can you post some inages, with and without AI. some faces, plants, landscapes/city images? ..."
Unfortunately I don't have much spare time during the day - but I will try but not very soon.
"but that makes the images 'professional' apparently"
I guess those PS effect automation is the so-called "intelligence" of current camera-hype. I just don't like the overexposed and airburshed fake faces - some might like it though.
Colleage of mine who has s8+ said to me the same thing. He owned Piexl 1 before and would go back to Pixel 3 (when out) solely for the camera department.
Apart from camera the fingerprint recognition of Honor 10 is hardly usable with dry hands - face unlock is fatastic though.
haitaoh said:
With Honor 10 in my hands for 4 days, I would say go buy it if you don't mind the over saturated camera, especially the overly airbrushed human faces in photos. So much for "AI camera"... I regretted my ¥2999.
Fair to say though the phone looks gorgeous and the notch can be turned off...
If I have another chance, I would rather wait for 1+6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I turn off the AI camera if I don't want the "intelligent" effect?
pasasa said:
Can I turn off the AI camera if I don't want the "intelligent" effect?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can, only partially. It has apeture, portrait and photo mode. In portrait mode you can set beauty level and photo mode has AI switch. I have set beauty level 0 and AI off - improving to some extent - but to me the photos are still overexposed and unnatual.
Selfie camera is more obvious even with beauty level 0.
BTW the phone was bought from China in a trip and I live in NZ so returning is a real challenge. I decided to keep it despite of the annoyances. I like the size and the looks of the body, dual sim functionality, and able to customise the UI to my liking...

Some Guy's Review: Smartisan Nut R1 vs. OnePlus 6

Well, it has been sometime since I have done a Some Guy Review. It's actually been years, so let's see if I still got what it takes to review these 2 equally great phones.
As always, I have no brand loyalty or affiliation. I bought the phones with my own dime, so it's not like I am "hamming" it up for a company that sent me a free phone or swag. I'm neither Fanboy or iSheep, use both Apple products and Android on a daily basis. These our my observations based on "real world" usage. Although I'll refer to some stats and specifications, I won't AnTuTu or whatever you to death. With that, here's the tale of the tape:
OnePlus 6
Basic parameters
Dimensions
155.7x75.4x7.75 mm
Weight
6.2 ounces (177g)
Material
Glass
Colors
Mirror Black/ Midnight Black/ Silk White / Red
Operating System
OxygenOS based on Android™ Oreo
CPU
Qualcomm® Snapdragon 845 (Octa-core, 10nm, up to 2.8 GHz), within AIE
GPU
Adreno 630
Notification Light
RGB LED notification light
Vibration
Haptic vibration motor
RAM
6 GB / 8 GB LPDDR4X
Storage
UFS 2.1 2-LANE 64 GB / 128 GB / 256 GB
Sensors
Fingerprint, Hall, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, RGB Ambient Light Sensor, Electronic Compass, Sensor Core
Ports
USB 2.0, Type-C, Support USB Audio
Dual nano-SIM slot
3.5 mm audio jack
Battery
3300 mAh (non-removable) Fast Charging (5V 4A)
Buttons
Gestures and on-screen navigation support Alert Slider
Audio
Bottom-facing speaker
Noise cancellation support
Dirac HD Sound®
Dirac Power Sound®
Unlock Options
Fingerprint
Face Unlock
Connectivity
LTE/LTE-A
DL 4CA/256QAM, UL CA/64QAM, 4x4 MIMO
Supports up to DL CAT16/ UL CAT13 (1Gbps/150 Mbps) depending on carrier support
Bands
FDD LTE:
Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/18/19/20/25/26/28/29/30/32/66/71
TDD LTE: Band 34/38/39/40/41
TD-SCDMA: Band 34/39
UMTS(WCDMA): Band 1/2/4/5/8/9/19
CDMA: BC0/BC1
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Check carrier compatibility
Wi-Fi
2x2 MIMO, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4G/5G
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 5.0, support aptX & aptX HD
NFC
NFC enabled
Positioning
GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo
Display
Size: 6.28 inches (The corners of the screen are within a standard rectangle. Measured diagonally, the screen size is 6.28 inches in the full rectangle and 6.12 inches accounting for the rounded corners.)
Resolution: 2280 x 1080 pixels
Aspect Ratio: 19:9
Type: Optic AMOLED
Support sRGB, DCI-P3
Cover Glass: 2.5D Corning® Gorilla® Glass 5
Features
Adaptive Mode
Reading Mode
Night Mode
Lift Up Display
Camera
Rear Camera - Main
Sensor: Sony IMX 519
Megapixels: 16
Pixel Size: 1.22 µm
OIS: Yes
EIS: Yes
Autofocus: DCAF
Aperture: f/1.7
Rear Camera - Secondary
Sensor: Sony IMX 376K
Megapixels: 20
Pixel Size: 1.0 µm
Autofocus: PDAF
Aperture: f/1.7
Flash
Dual LED Flash
Video
4K resolution video at 30/60 fps
1080P resolution video at 30/60 fps
720P resolution video at 30 fps
Super Slow Motion: 1080p video at 240 fps, 720p video at 480 fps
Time-Lapse
Video Editor
Features
Portrait, Pro Mode, Panorama, HDR, HQ, Dynamic Denoise, Clear Image, RAW Image
Front Camera
Front Camera
Sensor: Sony IMX 371
Megapixels: 16
Pixel Size: 1.0 µm
EIS: Yes
Autofocus: Fixed Focus
Aperture: f/2.0
Video
1080P resolution video at 30 fps
720P resolution video at 30 fps
Time-Lapse
Features
Portrait, HDR, Screen Flash, Smile Capture, Face Beauty②
Multimedia
Audio Supported Formats
Playback: MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, WAV, FLAC, APE, OGG, MID, M4A, IMY
Video Supported Formats
Playback: MKV, MOV, MP4, H.265(HEVC), AVI, WMV, TS, 3GP, FLV, WEBM
Recording: MP4
Image Supported Formats
Playback: JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF
Output: JPEG
Smartisan Nut R1
Capacity and memory
LPDDR4X dual channel
UFS 2.1
6 + 64 version
6GB of memory
64GB body storage
6 + 128 version
6GB of memory
128GB body storage
8 + 128 version
8GB of memory
128GB body storage
8 + 512 version
8GB of memory
512GB body storage
8 + 1T version
8GB of memory
1TB body storage
Body size and weight
Height = 153.3mm
Width = 74.5mm
Thickness = 7.9mm
Weight = 170g
Processor platform
Qualcomm® SnapdragonTM 845 processor
10nm advanced process
Single core frequency up to 2.8GHz
AdrenoTM 630 graphics processor with clock speed up to 700MHz
Equipped with artificial intelligence engine (AI Engine)
Cellular network
Dual card dual standby full Netcom
All Netcom supports China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom
Support VoLTE high quality broadband calls
Support for three-carrier aggregation
Support for LTE B41 4x4 MIMO
Network standard Support band
4G FDD-LTE B1 / B2 / B3 / B4 / B5 / B7 / B8 / B12 / B17 / B18 / B19 / B20 / B25 / B26 / B28
TD-LTE B34 / B38 / B39 / B40 / B41 (Note: B41 supports 2535MHz-2655MHz band)
3G WCDMA B1 / B2 / B3 / B4 / B5 / B6 / B8 / B9 / B19
TD-SCDMA B34 / B39
CDMA BC0 / BC1 / BC6
2G GSM B2 / B3 / B5 / B8
CDMA 1X BC0 / BC1 / BC6
Dual card support and full Netcom
Dual Nano-SIM card slot, any card slot can be set as the main card
Dual card is not limited to operators, can be 4G in the network
Support mobile, China Unicom, Telecom 4G+/4G/3G/2G
Support dual-card dual standby VoLTE, support China Mobile, China Telecom VoLTE HD voice service
Support China Telecom dual card VoLTE standby
Note: The VoLTE service needs to be activated at the same time as the primary and secondary cards. If the secondary card is not activated, there will be no service, and the primary card will not be affected.
SIM card installation instructions:
Nut R1 mobile phone uses Nano-SIM card
Insert the card pin to eject the card slot
Two Nano-SIM cards can be placed
The Nano-SIM card obtained with the card cutter may cause a bad communication signal, and the resulting problem is not covered by Hammer Technology's warranty.
Wireless and network
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wireless network supporting 2.4 + 5GHz band
Support for WLAN 2x2 MIMO
Support WiFi Direct and WiFi Display
Bluetooth 5.0
GPS / Assisted GPS, GLONASS, Beidou Positioning System
Support wireless network positioning and cellular network positioning
NFC+eSE, support for card reading, card writing, card emulation and P2P mode
Battery and fast charge
Typical value 3600mAh
Support QuickCharge 4+ 18W fast charging
Support PD3.0 charging protocol
Support fast wireless charging, peak output power up to 10W
screen
6.17-inch In-Cell Full HD display
2242 x 1080 resolution, 403 ppi
Corning® 3rd Generation Gorilla® Glass
1500:1 contrast ratio (typical)
96% NTSC color gamut (typical)
Full coverage Display P3 wide color gamut
Support sunlight screen, clearer viewing under strong light
Support eye protection mode, reduce screen blue light
Support for adjusting screen color temperature
Support pressure sensing touch
Unlock and fingerprint
Fingerprint unlock
Rear capacitive fingerprint reader
Response speed of 0.17s
Up to 10 fingerprints can be entered
Support WeChat and Alipay fingerprint payment
Face unlock
Front camera face recognition
1024 feature dimensions can be detected
Face++ contempt face recognition algorithm
Rear camera
12 million pixels + 20 megapixel dual camera
Double high index flash
ArcSoft real-time background blurring algorithm
Almalence super resolution algorithm
TDK Invensense Video Image Stabilization Algorithm
HDR high dynamic range adjustment technology
Main camera
Sony IMX363 sensor
12 million pixels
1.4 μm large pixel size
ƒ/1.8 large aperture
6-piece lens
Support 4-axis optical image stabilization
Support Dual PD speed focusing
Secondary camera
Sony IMX350 sensor
20 million pixels
1 μm pixel size
ƒ/1.75 large aperture
6-piece lens
Front camera
24 million pixel four-in-one front camera
ƒ/2.0 aperture
ArcSoft background blur algorithm
AI real-time beauty algorithm
Video shooting
Front camera: 1080p FHD video camera, 30 frames per second
Main camera: 4K (resolution 3840 × 2160) video camera, 30 frames per second
1080p FHD slow motion video camera, 120 frames per second
Audio Player
AI intelligent noise reduction chip
Stereo surround sound release system
Types of Support audio file format Support audio decoding format
audio format MP3, AAC, AMR, DTS AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, MP3, NB-AMR, WB-AMR, DTS
Lossless format AIFF, ALAC(Apple Lossless), FLAC, APE, WAV, DFF, DSF ————
Video playback
Encoding Support audio encoding format Support video file format Details
HEVC (H.265) AAC-LC .mp4, .mkv, .webm, .ts, .3gp Support 1080P, 240 fps
up to 4K (4096X2160) resolution 60 fps
Main Profile 8 bit up to level 6
Main Profile 10 bit up to level 6
H.264 .mp4, .mkv, .webm, .ts, .3gp, .mov Support 1080P, 240fps
up to 4K (4096X2160) resolution
60fps up to Level 5.2 encoding
H.263 .mp4, .avi, .3gp, .mov Up to Profile 0, Level 70
MPEG-2 .avi, .mkv, .webm, .ts Up to 1080P, 30fps, Main Profile encoding
MPEG-4 .mp4, .mkv, .webm, .avi, .3gp, .mov Up Simple Profile Level 6 encoding
up to Advanced Profile Level 5 coding
VP8 AAC-LC, Vorbis .webm Support 1080P 120fps
up to 4K (4096X2160) resolution 30fps
Profile 0 (Main), Version 0-3
VP9 .webm Support 1080P 240fps
up to 4K (4096X2160) resolution 60fps
Profile 0 8-bit
up to level 5.1 Profile 2 10-bit
up to level 5.1
Xvid .avi, .mkv Advanced simple profile up to level 5
Sensors and algorithms
Gyro
Gravity sensor
Geomagnetic sensor
Ambient light sensor
Hall sensor
Ultrasonic proximity sensing algorithm
AI audio noise reduction algorithm
Touch and feedback
Support pressure sensitive touch technology
Linear vibration motor
Support 72 scenes, 21 vibration effects
operating system
Smartisan OS based on AndroidTM deep customization
Supported languages: Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, English, Japanese, Korean
Review to Continue on next post :good:
Review
Design
Looking at both phones, they're strikingly different, each with their pluses and minuses. Both are "notch" phones which absolutely does not bother me. I know some people have like nightmares about phone notches sneaking into their house at night and murdering their families... I do "not-ch". Hahahaha. Anyway, the OP6 goes with the curved rounded edges whereas the Nut R1, that's right "Nut" R1, goes with the candy bar straight rectangle look akin to Sony Xperia many iterations. Neither are revolutionary by any means, its just preference. The OP6 is definitely heavier by stats but feels more so in hand then the Nut R1. The OP6 is slightly larger too. Both not too large where its a must to use 2 hands all the time, but for my comfort, the Nut R1 feels better. Nut R1 goes with individual buttons for power, volume, etc. The OP6 has the rocker button for sound and the very impressive programmable slider button. The Nut R1 does have a special button on its left hand side but at least for me now (until maybe I figure a few things out) I can't change it to be used for something useful yet, so really it's a space waster. OP6 notch is larger as well. NOTCH!!!!!!!!!
UPDATE 07/14 - Figured out the special button on the Nut R1! Boy was I wrong! This button along with some other button press combinations allows you quick access to 2 features that are only found on the Nut R1. The first is call "Idea Pills." Essentially, throughout your normal day, if you have to jot something down or need to make not of something, pressing and holding the button allows you to make a voice note. It then transcribes that note which then can be used in the note app, the calendar app or any host of other apps. You can make voice recordings all day then simply with a right to left swipe of the screen on the right hand edge, you can see all your notes and reminders. It's pretty cool. Of course, other button combos with this special button do other functions: with power button is screen shot, with up volume can turn on the phones flashlight and then with volume down + special button gives you direct access to a very slick and cool feature called "one step." One Step is a cut- paste drag & drop feature that lets you fairly seamlessly send messages, access your favorite apps & contacts, etc. while linking them to your pictures, notes, etc. There's a pre-loaded video that is in Chinese of course but you can idea by what the person is doing in the video. Awesome!
Verdict: Dead Heat - I favor the design of the Nut R1 slightly more however it having a Bixby button that right now I can't program sucks. OP6's slider button is awesome! Hard to pick a winner....
UPDATED Verdict: Nut R1 - Knowing the idea pills and one step feature now makes this phone a productivity champ with the special button... Bixby Button it is not!
Display
From the stats, both phones have similar resolutions. The OP6 of course has AMOLED FHD+ as opposed to the Nut R1's FHD+ IPS LCD. OP6 display is slightly larger (thus the slightly better pixel count). This is definitely one of the most subjective portions of the review. For me, even though the OP6 had the AMOLED Display and AMOLED is just better and we're supposed to just accept that. The Nut R1 out of box with no tweaking (like putting into different mode or putting sRBG on) looks truer. Whites look white and blacks look black. OP6 has a larger chin especially if you opted to lose the the virtual buttons on the Nut R1 for gestures. Both have a hide notch mode for the upper portion of the screen however the notch for the Nut R1 is significantly smaller. Both handle the notch differently for alerts. The Nut R1 acts as if it is one complete screen across the top opting to show the alerts with a void where the notch is as opposed to treating the before and after notch screen portions as 2 completely separate spaces like the OP6. I'm not 100% sure of which way I prefer but there's definitely a difference. The Nut R1 seems brighter in the sun although there's no lumen stats to compare which one should be brighter. The one failure that the Smartisan R1 does have is that the polarizer over the display was applied in the wrong direction or maybe is not there at all... what does that mean? Well, if you put on a pair of polarized sunglasses, guess what, black screen unless you angle the phone in an awkward position to see. I have reached out to Smartisan on this and awaiting their reply. Plan on trying a tempered glass screen protector to see if that helps.
UPDATE 07/14 - Tried tempered glass screen protector and it fixed the polarization issue! Even though I can never put one of these on without some dust or something getting caught under the screen. Ordering a few more so I can hopefully put one on cleanly. Talking to Smartisan, they're gonna send me some protectors too, just have to pay for shipping (as soon as they figure out how I can do that)! Still gonna say that the OP6 is the better display, however with a cleanly placed screen protector on it it makes it super hard not to change the verdict!
Verdict: OnePlus 6 - The Polarizer issue is a non-started for me as all my sunglasses are polarized. It's slightly better that I have Android Auto so I don't necessarily have to deal with it too much in the car. However, during an outside concert or festival, etc. so annoying to have to lift off my sunglasses just to use the phone. Stay tuned, this may change if there's a simple workaround. Otherwise, for inside use not having to deal with sunglasses, my preference is the Nut R1.
Camera
As I always try to state before diving face first into the shallow pool of phone cameras, I am not a fan of phone cameras as opposed to actual cameras. I went to school for photography so it is quite hard for me to say " this phone take better pictures than this phone..." Both / All, IMO, are grainy noisy messes compared to their actual camera counterparts. With that said, this is another area where I feel both phones are fairly equal. OP6 uses a 16M + 20M f/1.7f dual rear camera setup. The Nut R1 uses a slightly less spec'd 12M + 20M f/1.8 & f/1.75 setup. The Nut R1 however crushes the OP6 with its 24M f/2.0 front camera as opposed to OP6's 16M f/2.0 front camera. What's this all mean? Nothing.. We're talking about some small differences here with the rear camera setups. Spec-wise the OP6 is better, but a lot also goes into what software is processing the pictures for you. I will post some test shots in a later post. As far as the camera software themselves, both are fairly decent with their share of annoyances and/or postives. The Nut R1 requires you to rifle through the different modes to get to the setup menu, minor annoyance. The OP 6 software feels more basic though whereas the Nut R1 looks more professional. I am not going to make a judgement. I'll just post samples of each and let you tell me. For video, OP6 does let you shoot at 60fps for 4K. The built-in software for the Nut R1 only allows 30fps at 4K. Not a huge deal, I am sure the Nut R1 has the 60fps capability which may work with other camera softwares, it just not there out of the box. I don't necessarily do that mush video recording where the 4K difference is going to hurt me, but that's me... again your decision. I will update this section a little more after the the test shots as I dig deeper which both cameras.
Verdict: Is Still Out! - I'll let you look at test shots. I'll update and then maybe decide on which is better IMO.
Software / Essentials
This always the hardest section to write about as I could fill a book looking at both phones take on Android Oreo. Here's the thing, I'm gonna touch on what I feel gives a person interested in the 2 phones a good understanding and leave the details to anyone that wants to comment later. :silly: As most are aware OP6 runs OxygenOS, pretty vanilla take on Android Oreo without very major differences from what runs on the Pixels... It's definitely one of the better OS takes on Android out there. Styled nicely with great customization and unlocking capability for our developer community. Stable, nice however maybe a little boring. SmartisanOS on the Nut R1 is your quintessential chinese born ROM OS. High customization so much so that it can make your head spin. Strict focus on battery saving and notification light experience means you definitely have to do some tweaking to get things the way you like it.
What's the same between the two?
1. Both are fast. No lag to speak of. This ain't touchlagwiz
2. Both allow for 3rd party launchers fairly easily. Sometimes this is not so easy with china born phones but not in this case
3. As far as I can see, good support on updates... Got 2 so far from Smartisan, one as soon as I setup the phone and the other yesterday, fairly quick considering I only had it about 5 days. OP6 has had 2 updates. OnePlus has been notorious for supporting updates frequently when a new product launches but then dropping support for older models. They have vowed to change that but so far so good.
4. Both have Face Unlock & Fingerprint Unlock as well. I believe that OnePlus would contend that their Face Unlock is more secure and it probably is. The fingerprint scanner of the Nut R1 is huge making it very easy for scanning placement whereas the OP6 is a little undersized. Nut R1 used their branding as a functional part of the phone... quite clever!
What's Different?
1. SmartisanOS out of the box does not come with google services or play store, it is however very easy to install and get your favorite play store google apps cooking.
2. Google Pay does not work. This is standard for China Born ROMs and won't change until such time that Google Pay is allowed in China. I have a Gear S3 watch that I just setup Samsung Pay on as my workaround.
3. Notification Shade toggles off between either toggle buttons like your bluetooth, data, airplane mode, etc. or notifications shade... no stack like most are used to... not a big deal, but some might be bothered
4. No Notifications on the lock screen or at least I haven't figured out how yet. With face unlock being so fast, I never hardly see the lockscreen anyway.
5. Notifications in shade won't let you expand them in the shade.
6. Shade color and theme not changeable and it is white on Nut R1
7. Cannot change default messaging app on Nut R1. The default app is fairly nice and you can always install Android Messaging. Android messages does work just not as default
8. The Nut R1 (and actually any Smartisan phone) are not water resistant or water-proof. This was confirmed by Smartisan's Customer Service. Doesn't really bother me since I don't even try to get "waterproof" phones wet. $500 plus experiment whether your phone is waterproof or not, no thank you. At any rate, don't go jumping in a pool with the Nut R1 in your pocket! :crying:
Items Left to be Explored on the Nut R1
1. Smartisan says they support openSSL and that they have no issues with bootloader unlock. They said details are in the openSSL forum. Just don't know where that is... might be on their forum site which is immense.
2. Looks like Google Camera works and works well with this phone. Haven't tried myself yet but Smartisan Forums say you can just use the original apk download for google camera
3. Full battery life, connection strength and a host of other functionality items
VoLTE appears to work for me on TMobile, not wifi-calling though. Maybe it is wifi calling when on VoLTE and connected to wifi but it does not give indicator as such.
Of course, the big missing item from the OP6 is wireless charging. Nut R1 does have qi charging capability although the coil placement is slightly weird.
Geez, is that a lot... there is so much more but rather not keep on going. Please ask if you have questions!
Verdict: Nut R1 - You had me at Qi... why oh why did OP6 did you not include wireless charging on a glass backed phone. Although some may say bloat, there's cool stuff built into the Nut R1... plus whats looks to be the ability to unlock means let flashing begin! (Even though I'm not going to figure out how to do that anytime soon)
Cost & Value
Understandably nowadays, a new phone comes out every month worth looking at. Apple manages to keep their values up because you only get 1 refresh per year without any other competition. Benefit of controlling the hardware and software in a closed system. Android on the other hand has 100's upon 100's manufacturers. From that, you basically have the newest phone with the latest gadgets. More RAM, more drive space, etc. In recent years, the rise of Chinese manufacturers has even added to the dilemma of phone value to the money paid out. Xiaomi, Smartisan, OnePlus, ZTE & Huawei just to name a few are offering quality phones at better prices making it hard to justify a $800+ flagship phone. Samsung can no longer keep trying to command iPhone prices for their phones and expect success. Even the mighty iPhone is starting to feel the pinch of the growing China manufacturing phone market. Apple made money off of the iPhone X, their first $1000+ phone, but not as successful as previous versions even with some new innovation. With that said, both the OP6 and Nut R1 are a decent investment for the hardware you're given at the price point under $700. Both Snapdragon 845, both dual camera, quick charge, etc. makes them compete at the level of LG and Samsung without having to look to lease from your carrier. Ultimately, this gives you freedom from your carrier to be truly contract free. The resell value of the Nut R1 is a little more dicey than OP6 given OP6's name recognition and availability here in the United States. Could I go on swappa and sell the Nut R1, maybe...? I know I can sell the OP6, but probably at a 20% loss. Neither phone is a no-brainer for resell so investing in either will need to be an investment to get away from being under your service providers thumb more than anything. Is that enough even at these prices points to justify in getting either one of these phones? That's definitely a question to consider... especially when the Android phone with max stats, new bell or whistle and the hype train is just a month away...
Verdict: Nut R1 - Ultimately it's cheaper... even when you take into consideration no water resistance value. Nut R1 does have Qi which is absent from OP6. If water resistance is the straw breaking the camels back, then of course OP6 is better. Not as many accessories for the Nut R1, which might be a blessing more than a curse. No proprietary fast charging meaning you have to get a special charger like OP6 (for the car in particular).
Ease of Everyday Use
This section is a little weird for most people so let me explain. We have all have interactions with technology on a daily basis. From the alarm that wakes you up in the morning, to the coffee maker that makes you coffee to even the toothbrush to brush your teeth with, there's hardly a space in modern life where technology isn't already taken a foot-hold. Sometimes the technology can be obtuse, hard to use, hard to understand and even harder to save you time. Others we just have to live with... like modern cars, with 133 years since deployed, they are conceptually the same... in other words, they still ride on the ground. Yes,we have self-driving cars, cars that run on hydrogen, etc. etc. but no flying cars? No cars that could hover? Much like the phone market, technology is starting to hit a wall where stats of operating speed, RAM and other such items which use to be the tantamount reason to buy a phone no longer matter. It's the bells & whistles making the ad campaigns. These whistles and bells ultimately are being added to make daily use easier and more productive besides providing a higher quality product (like phone cameras for instance). OP6 does this in one of the simplest way (complex is not always better), the slider button. The ability to move from silent to vibrate to sound on is such a great experience with the phone. Even though you can program the button to do whatever you want, the default setting maybe all you need. The beauty of the OP6 light interpretation of vanilla Android helps to give the phone a great user experience. Much like Apple (and don't throw any at me), the OP6 works great, the way it's intended to right from the packaging. Although the ability to tweak, bootloader unlocking and flash ROMing are present. It is hard to justify taking the time to do so with such a well-rounded phone already. The Nut R1 on the other hand is slightly harder to crack, pun intended. Because of its Far East roots, it provides extreme customization from day 1. Do most people want to spend 2 days to fully setup their phone? Probably not. However, the Nut R1 gains some distinct advantages with for daily use from this. From my experience, battery life is better on the R1 than the OP6 since it has a slightly smaller screen and a slightly larger battery. More so, the extreme customization helps the software do a better job at battery monitoring and apps in memory running leading to better battery life as well. Then there's one step and idea pills to through in the mix again. These 2 software "enhancements", bells and whistles, whatever... saves time and adds productivity into the phone. It's not without one caveat. You need to figure these features out on your own (unless you know Mandarin). OP6's water resistance helps out too... if and when you might be presented with the problem of having your phone out in rain. Both phones show that they can get the job done daily.
Verdict: Dead Heat - If only the OP6 had Qi or the Nut R1 was water resistant, my job of deciding would be easy. :good: Unfortunately, it isn't that way...
Overall & Summary
Verdict: Smartisan Nut R1 or maybe not... :silly:
In all honesty, it is hard for me to decide a clear winner here. I have both phones and I'm still not sure which one I'm gonna put up on swappa and get rid of. This tells me I like something about each that ultimately makes me not want to get rid of either. Usually when I do these reviews, there's a clear cut winner. For this one, I can truly say either one is a home run based on the specific use case you need. Want something to develop a ROM, bootloader unlock, go with the OP6. Need something to be productive daily with while you're on-the-go and not sacrifice any performance at a very reasonable price, then the Nut R1 should efintely be considered. Finally, need a phone with 1TB of storage... guess what, the Nut R1 is your phone. I really haven't talk to much on the fact that you can get the Nut R1 with the unbelievable amount of UFS 2.1 storage of 1TB. I did not get it in that option (wish I could have got the 512GB if I could have found it reasonably priced) as I don't need that much space plus the $1000+ price tag is just slightly to much for me . You on the other hand might be a photo taking, song downloading junkaholic with no problem throwing a $1000 down then 1TB is right in your ball park. Most articles hype the Smartisan Nut R1 for the 1TB and miss the truly great phone underneath. Same can be said about the OP6 in another way. Articles typically about the newest "flagship killer" OnePlus has to offer look at why it's not a "killer" because its missing this or that or whatever feature... Yes, I did the same for Qi charging... so I'm to blame too. I just feel this year more than ever with the OP6 design change to a glass backed phone is just inconceivable not to have Qi. However, I have found a way around that also to find another awesome phone. Really, the winner here is all of us. Smartisan and OnePlus prove that you can make a quality product with top specs at prices most can afford. Samsung should be scared... Once again, this is just some guys opinion.
Some Quick Samples From Nut R1
HDR ON
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
HDR OFF
BOKEH FEATURE
in the little time with the R1 i can say i prefer the HDR being off for most picture situations , and looking over pictures i took with my OP6 i had i think the R1 has a very (very very ) slight advantage. especially in Bokeh shots.
Excellent Review as well!
MixEvo said:
in the little time with the R1 i can say i prefer the HDR being off for most picture situations , and looking over pictures i took with my OP6 i had i think the R1 has a very (very very ) slight advantage. especially in Bokeh shots.
Excellent Review as well!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I believe for bokeh this is also correct from my shots so far. Can’t say about HDR. Gonna try google camera as I understand it has good compatibility
Very comprehensive review and lovely kid. Good job, OP.
jerryhou85 said:
Very comprehensive review and lovely kid. Good job, OP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks appreciate it!
Very good review, one of the more detailed ones i've seen, but you missed a tiny detail about the R1.
It's the first phone to ever have Dirac Panorama Sound and also it has 3 speakers (according to FoneArena).
And that TNT Worstation is also a bonus.
Myrmeko said:
Very good review, one of the more detailed ones i've seen, but you missed a tiny detail about the R1.
It's the first phone to ever have Dirac Panorama Sound and also it has 3 speakers (according to FoneArena).
And that TNT Worstation is also a bonus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I used to do a sound section but mine used revolve around whether the Bluetooth played fine with my car. Since upgrading to a head unit with android auto, I just worry about the compatibility with that system. Btw it works great with android auto. A lot of Huawei and even the pixel 2 xl have sucky compatibility with android auto. Since xda did an article on the Dirac, I kinda of left that out too. As far as the TNT, I knew about the feature but personally don’t have one to see how cool or not cool it is to comment. Thanks for reading. I think if others got a chance to see this phone in action they would buy it in a heartbeat. Smartisan said they support bootloader unlock too but said something about open source. I really didn’t find anymore then that. The translations of posts on their forum site can sometimes be hard to get the full meaning of the conversation. Thanks again!
Yeah, i forgot about XDA's article.
Anyway, i'm personally gonna wait a bit before buying a new phone. This seems like the best choice so far (especially the 1TB version), but i wanna see how stuff goes around here. If there would be custom kernels, xposed modules, custom ROMs, etc.
Thank you for the review and after read this i'm going to buy this phone, but i just worry about vietnamese display problem on chinese phone, some vietnamese text maybe not display right way, can you go to web address GENK.VN (sorry i can't post link) and take a screenshot about how this phone display vietnamese? thank so much
Pinokm412 said:
Thank you for the review and after read this i'm going to buy this phone, but i just worry about vietnamese display problem on chinese phone, some vietnamese text maybe not display right way, can you go to web address GENK.VN (sorry i can't post link) and take a screenshot about how this phone display vietnamese? thank so much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If only I hadn't boxed it up over the weekend... Sold it to someone so that I can move in to my next phone to review... sorry. Try smartisan on facebook messenger. They are quick to respond. :highfive:
mahst68 said:
If only I hadn't boxed it up over the weekend... Sold it to someone so that I can move in to my next phone to review... sorry. Try smartisan on facebook messenger. They are quick to respond. :highfive:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you link me to the correct Facebook page? Would love to ask about boot loader and treble support.
DQEight said:
Can you link me to the correct Facebook page? Would love to ask about boot loader and treble support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Start a conversation in Messenger: m.me/145041519488759

Advice on P20 vs Pixel 2 cameras

Hello,
Most of the reviews are very focused on P20 Pro while P20 isn't that popular. In my country I can get the P20 a bit cheaper than a Pixel2 and probably prices will drop after P30 release.
Aafter looking at the P20 it has some advantages:
+ screen without Pulse With Modulation
+ fingerprint scanner on the front can help with unlocking the phone more easily when on my desk
+ battery seems pretty good
+ fingerprint scanner gestures so that the nav bar can be removed. Not sure how good it works in this way.
As for downsides:
- notch which I find annoying on phones can be reasonably disabled via software
- camera bump
- back glass easy to break and slippery
Huawei seems to be doing pretty good in the software updates department also. I do not game intensive games, I do not root or use custom roms.
Pixel 2 has the advantage of another almost 2 years of updates, metallic back, stereo speakers. But also disadvantages as old design, amoled with PWM, limited customization options in Software.
My main concern is how are the cameras of P20 vs Pixel 2? I will use the phone to take pictures and I want a good camera.
Any drawbacks of P20?
Thank you very much for your time.
Hello!
Take the P20. Here a few reasons.
Huawei promised to roll out 2 Major-Android-Updates. So Android Q will come to us.
The P20 has 2 Lenses (color/monochrom). So you can shot real monochrom pictures without any filters.
Sometimes the Master-AI is helpfull, sometimes not. But you can disable it with 2 taps.
There's some kind of instant on-screen-translator within the Camera-App and it works a lot better than googles on-screen-translator. It can also read QR-Codes and recognize different objects thanks to AI.
You can record SloMo-Vids with 960 fps, which is quite funny.
The Pro-Mode is incredible. You can control everything.
The P20 UI is highly customizeable. Thousands of Themes are available and you can create one on your own.
And here some of my Pictures.
I hope my opinion is helpful.
Thank you very much for your time and detailed answer. I was not really aware of the 960 fps recording but reading more about it (https://forum.xda-developers.com/huawei-p20-pro/help/truth-960-fps-slow-mo-t3789574) seems not that good.
Thank you again.

Is the camera overrated?

I have the P40 pro so no I’m not trolling here, honest!
One of the main reasons I went with the P40 was the camera, and after a week or so with it I am impressed, just not blown away in the same way I was a year ago with the P30 pro. It is good just not as good as I was expecting and in most every day scenarios the pixel or current iPhone are better (IMO)
Certainly I am not seeing what a lot of reviewers have that’s for sure.
How is everybody else finding theirs?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I find Samsungs offering, s20 ultra, better in camera, at least in my eyes.
I don't like skin tones from p40. Look a bit unnatural
Στάλθηκε από το ELS-NX9 μου χρησιμοποιώντας Tapatalk
Honestly speaking I also feel the camera a bit overrated.... Yes, its very good - but the competitors have stepped up and deliver a comparable experience and image quality... Only the 5x optical zoom remains, at least comparing it some of the competitors....
jor1ge said:
I find Samsungs offering, s20 ultra, better in camera, at least in my eyes.
Στάλθηκε από το ELS-NX9 μου χρησιμοποιώντας Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would not go that far :laugh:
Seriously though I have recently sold my S20 Ultra, for every day photos of people and pets i.e. anything that might not be perfectly still I just could not trust it. It is 100% software IMO, I just do not think that Samsung get it. Otherwise I really liked the Ultra, but a camera I can trust is an important feature, does not have to be the best.
Back to the P40 pro, it has got me thinking as to how many 'sponsored' reviews are out there? Or more likely a lot of reviewers are more worried with buildings or how sharp that street sign looks at 50x zoom i.e. not real world stuff.
Competitors, namely the S20 have had a few software upgrades that have optimised the camera. Oneplus users have also reported much better camera performace follwing an update.
I would wait until Huwaei releases a couple more updates (in China they have released at least 2 more already); no doubt it should come optimised out of the box but this is the case with all manufacturers.
I believe the camera produces an excellent photo in 80% of the photos I take when I am not really focused in getting the best shot possible (point and shoot style) - the not so good ones has mostly to do with bad framing, inadequate composition, not holding still, subject moving too fast, etc.
It is also worth learning about all the options in the camera inteface and play around with them, I have improved the quality of my shots by making the most of the things I can change in the UI; you will not get a better PRO mode on any other camera in my opinion. I have also learnt, for example, that disabling the AI in some scenarios produces better and more natural shots. Switching off beautification mode helps with the skin tone, etc... If you cannot be bothered with that, with actually toggling options and seeing what works best in different scenarios and what works best for you, then maybe it is not the best phone for you.
The only mode where I think I was disapointed to an extent is the night mode but I do not think that it is a hardware problem. I think it is a colour calibration issue which can be rectified at software level.
At the end of the day we see things differently and have different tastes in photography. I like the Huwaei style and that is why I have chosen it (the pre-order gifts have also gave it a push and of course the challenge of modding it to allow for GMS to work - that is why we are all here right?).
I am sure the camera will be improved with a few more tweaks to the software, especially the night mode.
So far I am really happy with the phone and especially with the camera; I would not say that it is overrated but perhaps your expectations were much higher than mine!
Cheers,
L.
rainchuva said:
... you will not get a better PRO mode on any other camera in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, that just means that other PRO modes are even worse than our P40 Pro's PRO mode.
I regard the PRO mode as an unbearable nuisance. It had been a fully-fledged catastrophy with the P20 Pro - and Huawei didn't learn a single lesson since then.
We've got such a capable camera system - totally crippled by that "Pro" mode making every non-newbee boil with rage. :/
Just a few short examples:
Huawei provided the option of locking some settings, so they won't change after restarting the camera. I can lock Exposure compensation (EV), Autofocus mode and White balance - but I cannot lock ISO, Metering mode and Manual focus!
ISO: High ISO values cause grainy pictures, thus I wish to keep my ISO as low as possible. One of the most important settings. And Huawei doesn't allow locking that.
Metering: Spot metering ist the way to go if you don't do just point-and-shoot. Full range metering (default) calculates a kind of brightness average - resulting in lighter parts of the picture burning out. This is not recoverable (not even with RAW files), the details are gone forever. That's why we better use a bright spot for precise metering, even if the whole picture gets a bit darker. Darker parts can be saved, burned out parts are gone forever. And Huawei doesn't allow locking the metering mode to spot!
Manual focus: Manual focus is just unusable (thus not being able to lock it doesn't mean the end of this world).
But: To be able to manually focus, I need to press on AF, choose Manual focus. Then a focus bar appears almost in the middle of the screen, covering the picture, forcing me to use the tip of my finger on the picture, thus I don't see great parts of the motif anymore. Then I am unable to focus correctly because there is NO MEANS for helping me focus, like focus peaking, just NOTHING. I can just watch the tiny picture getting more and less blurry and guess where I could set the focus to achieve a half-way sharp picture. In the end, the finished photo shows I guessed wrong. I don't see any details while focusing, I cannot switch to an enlarged display for being able to set the focus correctly. Just guess, just hope somewhere in the middle between two blurry settings could be somewhere near sharp.
Plus: The focus bar disappears after 4 seconds. So it you need some more time, the bar is gone, you need to tap AF again. And if you wish to tap the bar while it just disappeared, your whole focus setting is also gone because your finger hit some part of the picture as the focus bar isn't there anymore - and focuses on the part you just accidentally tapped. It's unbelievably stupid.
That's why manual focus is just a pain in the you-know-where with almost no practical use at all.
And we really, really need manual focusing with that shallow depth of field due to an aperture of 1.9, especially for close range shots.
Had been that way with the P20 Pro, didn't improve at all over time.
And that's just a few reasons why that "Pro" mode isn't much more than a useless toy.
Sorry to say, sincerely. I really, really hope it gets better. :/
I am still happy about the "Pro" mode being there - because it provides some BASIC means (like choosing ISO and metering mode); but that's no PRO features, that's basic features which should be present with all "non-pro" modes anyway.
It has been a while since I had the P30 Pro but I remember that being on a par with the Pixel 4 and iPhone 11 pro which right now the P40 is not (other than at full zoom) I am talking the main camera here mostly.
Don't get me wrong in most conditions it is infinitely better than the Exynos S20 Ultra I had I am just talking about vs. the very best, I got the P40 pro for the camera so it really has to excel to make the other workarounds worth it.
arsenal74 said:
It has been a while since I had the P30 Pro but I remember that being on a par with the Pixel 4 and iPhone 11 pro which right now the P40 is not (other than at full zoom) I am talking the main camera here mostly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about telling a bit more? Do you like the color of the glass covering the camera lenses better with the iPhone? Do you dislike the rectangular shape of the telephoto lens? Or what?
So please go into detail, show comparison photos, FULL resolution, accompanied with EXIF data, point at the differences.
the pricing is totally wrong the camera is average to pretty good depending on how you use it, but P30 pro is found at 400 euro atm while they try to sell this turd GMS-less for 1000 euro + watches etc. instead should've been priced competitively at the price of Poco Phone outside of China
vandal4e said:
the pricing is totally wrong the camera is average to pretty good depending on how you use it, but P30 pro is found at 400 euro atm while they try to sell this turd GMS-less for 1000 euro + watches etc. instead should've been price competitively at the price of Poco Phone outside China
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would be very kind of you if you had anything to say about the topic. I am pretty sure there's some dedicated forums for anything else.
Also, it would be very kind of you if you could put a little effort into discovering the use of punctuation marks and capital letters. Those tricky little things indeed are a great help for making your post understandable, saving other users a bunch of time otherwise needed for reading your posts again and again - in despair for finding logical blocks allowing to extract some meaning, if any.
Simply put: If you've got nothing to say, just don't. And if you've got something to say, please adhere to some basic rules of communication and mutual understanding, preferably refraining from the use of swear words.
A GREAT start would be showing us some comparison pictures of the same subject taken at the same time from the same position, taken with P40 Pro, P30 Pro and Pocophone, accompanied with EXIF data.
Thank you.
the most useless post for 2020 good one junior
I have just received an update (Three network - UK). Has anyone played with the camera after the update and noticed any improvements?

Categories

Resources