I know it's hard to get unbiased responses from device specific forums, but I was wondering if anyone has any real world experience with both devices.
I've had the Honor 8 for a little over a week now and overall I am happy with it.
Things I like:
- design
- finger print location, responsiveness, and customized buttons
- battery life
- speaker quality (wasn't expecting much, so it was better than expected)
- EMUI, there are some things I'm not crazy for but there's a few useful features like intensive app notifications and some Huawei apps are solid enough to not delete
- no complaints about overall performance
Now the Axon 7 popped up on sale for a good price and I am thinking maybe I should go that route while I can still exchange the Honor.
The biggest thing keeping me tempted is the Snapdragon 820 vs the Kirin 950. I know the GPU is a bit weaker in the Honor but I wouldn't play any intensive games that would make it a breaking point.
So if anyone can answer any of these I would really appreciate it!
- Size: I never loved huge phones, but a lot of manufactures seem to have made it work. In pictures the Axon 7 doesn't look too much bigger than the H8, and it actually seems a bit more ergonomic to hold.
- Camera: I have an iPhone 7 for a work phone so this device's camera isn't the top priority. But for everyday shots here and there, can anyone tell me their impressions?
- Display quality: 1440p and AMOLED is nice, but doesn't really equate to a better display. The H8's LCD is pretty nice but color accuracy seems to be a bit all over the place. Hoping the Axon does a better job here.
- Speed: this is the biggest thing for me I suppose. How much of a noticeable difference there is (if at all) between the two phones. I imagine multicore scores don't really impact me as much for how I use the phone, but single core efficiency is important. The iPhone 7's speed has definitely impressed me, but still, I don't want to feel like I am going to a much slower device when swapping phones.
Sorry for the long post, just want to make sure I stick with the best bang for the buck. Thanks guys.
I have had the Axon 7 for a few months, and just got the Honor 8 yesterday. So I haven't had much time with the Honor 8, but I'll point out a few things. I have the Spigen rugged armor case on both, so they look very similar because of that.
1). Battery life on both is great IMO.
2). Axon 7 is definitely heavier, but doesn't look that much bigger. It does feel bigger though.
3). Auto brightness on the Honor 8 seems to go dim randomly and then slowly increase to the right brightness again.
4). My first impressions of the Honor 8 camera is that it is noticeably better. Especially in lower light.
5). The display on the Honor 8 is very nice. However IMO the Axon 7 display is excellent and of similar brightness.
6). The Honor 8 is very snappy. Axon 7 is snappier.
7). Axon 7 has double tap to wake. I wish it had double tap to sleep. I love both features, and one is better than none. Honor 8 has neither. I came from an LG V10 that had both.
8). Axon 7 has hardware capacitive keys that are not backlit. Bad choice IMO. Honor 8 has the onscreen buttons that I'm used to. I wish Axon 7 had an option to activate onscreen buttons.
Of course being used to the Axon 7 means that I'm biased with things that are different. When you have notifications on the statusbar at the top, on the Axon 7, it's the application's icon. On the Honor 8, it mixes them up a bit sometimes, for example including the senders picture on a FB messenger notification. IMO that can get confusing. Also, on the Honor 8, they're really small. Not sure why the Axon 7's seem so much larger when the screen is only 0.3" larger diagonally.
The Axon 7's front facing speakers will blow you away if you're used to an iPhone or the Honor 8.
Even though the Axon 7 gets lots of criticism for its software, I still feel it's closer to stock Android than the Honor 8. But when you go to settings, you get this "frequently used" setting tab that you cannot avoid. And it has nothing to do with frequently used - they just put a screenful of setting choices there, so I always switch to the other tab which has all the settings.
Thank you for the info! Lol, I just wish it made the decision easier for me.
But you bring up a couple main points I've been curious about.
How big does the Axon 7 feel compared to the H8? Huge phones turn me off, but the Axon seems decent considering it's 5.5"
And snappiness... is the speed with everyday use noticeable for you? I know you just got the device. This might be the biggest reason I lean towards the Axon 7.
I was considering the honor 8 vs the axon but went fwith the honor 8. This was an "upgrade" from a nexus 6p. From a size standpoint I love the 5in screen on the honor. It looks just as good as as my 6p almost and the battery life is better. As for the speakers I agree that the axon will blow away pretty much anything else on the market. As for the speed the honor is noticable faster then the 6p abit for the gpu which is a bit slower however it is livewithable if you play games. After the upgrade to android 7 on the honor the entire device become snappier. Honestly you are a fan of the form factor I would stick with the honor as there really isnt anything better out at the moment plus it is rootable if you are into that.
OP, what market are you in and what is your local price point?
I'm in the U.S. The Axon 7 (not mini) is listed at 399.00 + tax. I bring the price up because it is so close to the OP3T's price point, 439.00. It's worth looking into if you are already close at 400 bones with the A7. 40 bucks to future proof?
Bit of comparison, 3-way:
RAM. The OP3T has 6gb of lpddr4, the A7 has 4gb of lpddr4, the H8 has 4gb lpddr3. I don't think you will see a big difference in daily use, but the DDR4 is certainly faster and more future proof.
CPU/GPU. The OP3T has a Snapdragon 821 w/Adreno 530, the A7 has the Snapdragon 820 w/ Adreno 530, the H8 has the Kirin 950 w/Mali T880. As far as benchmark goes, the 950 trumps the 820/821. The Adreno however, kills the Mali, so intended usage matters here, and can be a decision maker.
Storage. The OP3T comes with 64gb storage, at the opening price point, but I don't believe it's expandable. The A7 starts with 64gb, expandable. And the H8 opens with 64gb, expandable.
Aesthetics. The A7, to me, is uglier than an Alabama Lot Lizard. The OP3T, well, it isn't ugly, but it isn't a work of art. The H8 is gorgeous, balanced, sized well for the average hand, and more slippery than a wet bar of soap in an oil factory.
Battery. I can only speak for the H8. I don't take a charger with me and I don't run out of battery through out the day. I have Bluetooth running, connected to my watch and headphones. I have wifi and GPS on all day, I listen to podcasts and Spotify for nearly 8 hours daily. I play video games during lunch...No problem.
Modding. I don't really have to say it, the OP3 line has the attention of several talented devs...and a lot of mid-range support guys like myself.
Why don't I have the OP3T? Mostly, I'm out of my bleeding-edge modding phase. The H8 is solid, inexpensive and a thing of beauty. I'm still within my 30 day return period, but the Nougat update is acting nicely and I doubt I'll return it.
Wow, thank you for the replies.
I guess I read wrong, but I swore the 64gb variant of the H8 had 4GB of DDR4 memory. That was actually something I was interested with and definitely overlooked by a lot of people (most reviewers don't even specify ram type).
Does the 950 really out do the Snapdragon 820? I saw a few benchmarks that made me scratch my head. For CPU benches, Geekbench 4 seems to be the go to. I swear I saw some where the 820 in the A7 scores quite a bit higher for single core speeds.
And yeah, I'm not crazy about the design of the ZTE. A phone's design never turned me against it, but I appreciate a good looking device. The Honor definitely wins in the looks department.
Since I have the freedom to use my iPhone 7 work phone basically like a personal (too many customer/work calls made me have to get a 2nd phone), I don't want to go into big $$ for a secondary device. I wanted to stay about under $400.
The 64gb H8 I got for $320 and the A7 I can get for $350. Didn't want to jump out of that range too much.
I used to root phones and mess with roms a few years back but anymore something stable is fine for me. I haven't received the 7.0 update yet on the H8.
Thanks again!
The RAM in the 64gb H8 might be DDR4. I've seen both stated. What I can say is that it benchmarks like DDR3, so that's what I assumed it was. But maybe there is an app or adb command that can provide proof.
Benchmark apps, I think they are well intended, but not exactly a precise prediction of what daily use is like. I've had my scores change by significant numbers, just by running a benchmark twice. Heck, my overall AnTuTu jumped up 6k after I took the B360 update, via Firmware Finder. I take them with a grain of salt.
Good point. I usually am the same way with benchmarks. People rating a phone off of app launching speed tests drives me a bit nuts too.
"Hey, YouTube loaded faster on this 4.7" 1080 device than this 5.5" 1440p phone, even though the latter has to load more content and pixels. First phone,bel faster phone." *sigh*
Just for confirmation, this screenshot is from the Hihonor website. LPDDR3.
Interesting. Wonder if it's region related. Anandtech's review lists ddr4, and while a typo could be assumed, they even comment on it.
"The Honor 8 does make the jump to LPDDR4 RAM, although it’s unlikely this will improve performance because the Kirin 950 and its quad-core GPU are not bandwidth limited."
Anandtech is usually pretty accurate, but who knows?
I downloaded to 7.0 just a few minutes ago. Didn't dig in much, but it seems like a pretty well thought out update.
Unless the CPU/GPU are being held back by memory bandwidth, which Anandtech says isn't the case for the Honor 8, then the only difference would be better battery life and less heat produced with LPDDR4. Since the Honor 8 has good to excellent battery life in general and phones don't overheat because of the RAM (so far as I've ever heard at least) if it does have LPDDR3 it's not making much of a difference.
I'm not sure at what rate memory consumption is growing on Android phones, but with 4 GB of RAM I'm only seeing about half of it used by applications. I don't play any intensive 3D games though, so I can't say how much those use while running. But I'd guess you'll probably be OK with 4 GB for probably at least a year and a half or two years from now. And you will probably want to upgrade because of new hardware features, faster CPU/GPU, software updates, etc by the time 4 GB just isn't cutting it anymore.
The Axon 7 and OP3 were the two other phones I was contemplating before getting an Honor 8 (well those two and the Moto X 2016 which ended up not ever coming into existence and the Pixel which ended up costing more than twice what I wanted to spend configured how I wanted it). The Axon 7 had some complaints in the reviews (back in August) about the Lock Screen Notification bell thing, being slippery in the hand, and the navigation buttons being too close together, and concerns about software updates. The OP3 had no Micro SD card and I wasn't comfortable being capped at 64 GB of space (I'm using ~47/96 GB available in my Honor 8, so it would have been fine in retrospect) and was out of stock in the beginning of October when I wanted to buy one. The Honor 8 I'd heard bad things about EMUI 4.1, how slippery in the hand it was (with a glass back!), and was concerned about software updates. But the Sapphire Blue is super pretty and I could see/feel one in person at a nearby Best Buy and have it that day without sales tax or shipping. So the Honor 8's what I ended up going with and I'm happy with it.
If 3D performance is important to you I'd go with the Axon 7 or OP3T. They're both a LOT faster at it. If custom ROMs and modding are important to you I'd go with the OP3T. There's a much larger active community working on it.
And if you go with the Honor 8 or Axon 7: Get a case. I've never held an Axon 7, but people who have say it's as slippery as the Honor 8 (which is to say very).
The A7 doesn't feel much bigger. But the screen looks bigger. I think it's because it has less wasted space above and below the display. So it feels a little bigger, but I think if the proportions of space above and below the display were equal, it would feel much bigger. Luckily that's not the case. Keep in mind that I came from the LG V10, and that felt like a big phone. It was gigantic. But I loved that phone.
As for snappiness, I have also seen the benchmarks. But not until after I had made my judgement. Purely anecdotal. When I got the H8, it seemed fine to me. Nice and snappy. A few hours later I went to the A7 to see if I had a certain app installed that I would also put on the H8. So I went to the app drawer and started scrolling through. That's when I noticed how fast the A7 is. I have Nova Prime on both, so it shouldn't be a difference between ZTE and Honor launchers.
Not sure if I messed up or not, but I set the Google Clock alarm for 5am. It never went off, and it was gone from the statusbar this morning. I'll have to experiment more. H8 has a "protected apps" section that may be why this happened. I just went in there and changed it so that the Google Clock is protected. And the Google Calendar widget was still displaying as if the current day is yesterday, so I just went in and protected that too. I'll see if that changes things. BTW, the A7 has aggressive power management issues as well.
---------- Post added at 08:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 AM ----------
And if you go with the Honor 8 or Axon 7: Get a case. I've never held an Axon 7, but people who have say it's as slippery as the Honor 8 (which is to say very).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is. I was able to find the same model case for both, so they both look at least somewhat similar in their cases. And they're no longer slippery. Unfortunately both beautiful phones may as well be ugly plastic ones now.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXTROW1/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXS2BQW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
IMO both phones are great - I just need to get used to some of the differences that Honor has included in EMUI. Neither of my phones have Nougat, so that should hopefully change both for the better. They are different though. And both have SD card slots. This is why One Plus was never an option for me, nor would iPhone, nor would any of the Nexus phones have ever been. Even the Pixel.
Honor 8 is snappier than OnePlus 3 (not the T version):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvRFaIEUba0
OnePlus 3 is snappier than Axon 7:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvRFaIEUba0
Games aside, honor 8 is much snappier than Axon 7.
Axon 7 has much better audio though.
Games aside, honor 8 is much snappier than Axon 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on a benchmark. Some phones cheat on those.
I didn't run any benchmarks. I'm just saying that my perception was that the A7 is quicker than the H8 when scrolling through the Nova app drawer with the grid size altered from default to be 5x6.
Just ran a simple test. Opened FB on both, and opened a web page on both. H8 won. That was after clearing apps using the multitask button. Opened Google Play on both, A7 won. Opened Google Maps on both, A7 won.
Probably not a great test though, since between the time I made my last post earlier, my A7 has been updated to Nougat and the H8 is still on Marshmallow.
The Honor 8 is a great phone... If you're content with EMUI. If you're looking for a custom roms the Axon 7 has more. The GPU on the Axon 7 is far superior to the Honor 8 (which means it'll last longer performance wise), but the CPU on the Honor 8 is substantially better than the SD820.
The Axon 7 has better built in speakers and a better display than the Honor 8.
Overall the only real difference comes to whether or not you can stand EMUI for as long as you have the phone. If you want functioning Lineage, the Axon 7 is the better choice.
One other thing that may be a minor point worth thinking about is the quick charging.
I haven't tried the included adapter yet. But since this does not have a Qualcomm chip, it is not Quick Charge compatible. So Honor has its own method of accomplishing the same thing. If you're like me and various family members have Qualcomm based devices, you may have invested in a Quick Charge 2.0 or 3.0 portable charger, wall charger, car charger. I have done that with all 3 of my examples. None of these are going to charge the H8 quickly. It would be nice if there were a single non-proprietary standard.
Hi All,
2021 is here and I'm concerned about my privacy (finally).
I'm looking for a phone with good specs, capable of being run on Verizon in the US, and won't break the bank. ($500 is my ceiling)
I've looked into this year's budget offerings but been slightly disappointed with them enough to avoid them. What seems to be the best bet is a 1 or 2 year old flagship device.
I used to root and rom until vzw started locking the bootloaders on their Samsung lineup. I unfortunately went to iPhone a few years later, but now that I'm turning out to be more privacy minded over convenience, I've returned to the idea of purchasing an android to flash a custom privacy minded rom.
As I've been out of the game for so long and my preliminary research has been unfruitful, I waned to ask if you could point me in the direction of a few phones and roms that would run on verizon.
Thanks in advance!
jonnyboiii
You could get a used Note 10+ but it probably be around $650 from a reliable source like B&H Photo. Note 9's are less.
I go for something running on Pie as Q and up are screwed to hell in my opinion. With Pie you can use the freeware app Karma Firewall to lock it down as all it's features like logging are fully functional.
Between Samsung and Android the last year has not had many good offerings.
If I had to replace my 10+ now I be very tempted to go with another 10+... that's how bad the newer models/OS's are. I don't recommend any of the new Samsung phones as my overall impression of them is they're unacceptable.
blackhawk said:
You could get a used Note 10+ but it probably be around $650 from a reliable source like B&H Photo. Note 9's are less.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been looking into that phone in particular; perhaps I should go into the subforum Q&A, but...
It looks like there are no ROMs really available for the Note10. I could only find one ROM and some recoveries in the subforum. Didn't there used to be subforums for carrier specific models?
Apart from the Pinephone, is there a privacy-minded ROM that you know of? Just needs to be able to run on some decent phones.
jonnyboiii said:
Been looking into that phone in particular; perhaps I should go into the subforum Q&A, but...
It looks like there are no ROMs really available for the Note10. I could only find one ROM and some recoveries in the subforum. Didn't there used to be subforums for carrier specific models?
Apart from the Pinephone, is there a privacy-minded ROM that you know of? Just needs to be able to run on some decent phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It can be a little hard to find:
Samsung Galaxy Note 10+
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ is a 6.8" phone with a 1440x3040p resolution display. The Exynos 9825/Snapdragon 855 chipset is paired with 12GB of RAM and 256/512GB of storage. The main camera is 12+12+16MP and the selfie camera is 10MP. The battery has a 4300mAh capacity.
forum.xda-developers.com
I'm on a AT&T stock 10+ 512 gb/Pie. Don't get the 5G variant but the 512 gb variant running on Pie is sweet. I recommend you stay on Pie.
Q and 11* are fqcked up and you will take a performance/functionality hit.
A very fast/stable, rock solid phone. 6o hz screen refresh rate but a drop dead gorgeous display.
No 3.5 mm jack so you'll want a pair of Buds+ or Buds Pro for it.
I simple use Package Disabler Pro, Karma Firewall and settings to lock it down. No force reloads due to malware yet.
I don't root and with this phone running on Pie it's not needed. Be nice but most likely be a time gravity well for me.
* the newest phones have faster ram and cpu but Android 10 and 11 handicap the faster hardware by using more cpu cycles. If you're tired of the Apple trip I'd stick with Pie
I feel like there's no more major development in smartphones besides maybe higher screen resolutions, higher camera MP, fancy new fingerprint sensors and gimmicky things like folding phones. Have we simply run out of ideas? Has the portable handheld internet computer reached perfection?
Android has the MS syndrome, faster cpu's and memory are being hamstrung by the needless extra cpu cycles of a bloated OS.
Android Q and 11 are a mess.
Manufacturers are releasing high dollar phones with no micro SD card slots. Personally I'd like dual micro SD card support; 2 tb of storage be nice, 3 or above optimum.
Samsung seems obvious to the global recession sinking big bucks into their Fold folly, meanwhile neglecting their historically profitable lines.
End result for me is I have zero intentions of buying a new flagship phone from the current lineup even after 2 release cycles
3's a charm... don't bet on it this time.
Will Android 12 be the next W10 or even worse?
For the foreseeable future I'm in a holding pattern with the Note 10+/Pie because of slim pickens. Meh, whatever.
blackhawk said:
Will Android 12 be the next W10 or even worse?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're definitely not ready for Android 12. There just isn't enough to justify a new major release - Android 11.1 is a much better idea.
I bought one for a family member. I ha e s21 ultra. I think the a52 is a fantastic device. It hardly feels any different to my s21. A few things missing (dex, wireless charging, 100 million x useless zoom etc). For $350 it's outstanding.
To be frank, I was close to chose A52 over S20 FE but S20 FE just head the things that were more important to me and at a given price, the best choice.
However, as someone who used A50 for the last two years, I would recommend anyone to go with A52, rather than A70+ (whatever people say, A50s get much bigger improvement and power with each version than A70s which are more expensive for less gain)
Sentelin said:
To be frank, I was close to chose A52 over S20 FE but S20 FE just head the things that were more important to me and at a given price, the best choice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was also choosing between the A52 and the S20 FE.
Picked the A52, it came down to four things:
Price, I could comfortably afford the S20 FE 4G max.
SoC, S720G is weaker compared to the Exynos but it's not as dramatic of a difference as with the S720G vs the S855 or S865 and it's way more battery efficient.
S20 FE's digitizer issues, I'm not spending that much money to have a subpar experience with ghost touches.
Software support, the A52 just launched with Android 11, it'll get one more Android version and a year more of security updates.
I also went for the A52 LTE, I don't care about 5G and the SoC difference wasn't nearly enough to justify the extra cost of the A52 5G.
VonSparq said:
I was also choosing between the A52 and the S20 FE.
Picked the A52, it came down to four things:
Price, I could comfortably afford the S20 FE 4G max.
SoC, S720G is weaker compared to the Exynos but it's not as dramatic of a difference as with the S720G vs the S855 or S865 and it's way more battery efficient.
S20 FE's digitizer issues, I'm not spending that much money to have a subpar experience with ghost touches.
Software support, the A52 just launched with Android 11, it'll get one more Android version and a year more of security updates.
I also went for the A52 LTE, I don't care about 5G and the SoC difference wasn't nearly enough to justify the extra cost of the A52 5G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is, I don't care about SoC Exynos990 does more than a fine job for me (including gaming, some of which are demanding games, with barely any noticeable difference in performance ) , battery is holding off the entire day which is another thing that is more than enough, considering everything.
Digitizer issues never experienced, as far as I am concerned those are defects a few units had and the majority didn't.
I am not getting hung up on Android OS, since it's covered 3 versions (until android 13), which by that time I will be replacing the phone anyways, with an upgraded model. Or in case I don't for some reason, there will be polished and much better kernel optimized custom roms on XDA that will likely keep up to the latest Android version.
And I had a chance to test A52 in comparison to my choice, guess what? S20 FE 4G just fairs much better, despite so-called subpar SoC and etc in every area. (not benchmarks and etc, the actual real experience). And as for security updates, they will be roll out as part of Google play OS upgrades, pushed from Google mainstream pipeline, so you will never have to worry about security upgrades - even if we don't get major OS updates past 3 Android versions, security updates are no brainer
There is however caveat to all of this. A52 is an incredible budget phone that I would recommend to everyone who is on the verge of buying (especially for those who are upgrading from A50-51). It cuts pretty close to high end model for really affordable price
Hi, I am looking for a smartphone with a display that is at least 7 inches and relatively affordable.
I was hoping to get a Honor X30 Max but that is only for Chinese market. I saw that Huawei had a Mate 20X but that is quite old at this point.
Is there any alternative at this point, or any credible rumor about a similar device coming to European/US markets soon? Thanks.
You can still get a new Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Plus SM-N975U 256GB (FACTORY UNLOCKED) for $800. 4G, 12gb ram variant.
Running on Q. Got one about 3 months ago, it's my second one.
Though its AMOLED display is fixed at 60hz, it's color rendering exceeds many of the newer phones. Supports up to a 1tb SD card.
You can buy used ones for less but you need to be careful, lots of scamming going on.
blackhawk said:
You can still get a new Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Plus SM-N975U 256GB (FACTORY UNLOCKED) for $800. 4G, 12gb ram variant.
Running on Q. Got one about 3 months ago, it's my second one.
Though its AMOLED display is fixed at 60hz, it's color rendering exceeds many of the newer phones. Supports up to a 1tb SD card.
You can buy used ones for less but you need to be careful, lots of scamming going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, not a 7+ inches though. Although not sure how much difference 6.8 vs 7.2 would make in real life.
dieffequ said:
Thank you, not a 7+ inches though. Although not sure how much difference 6.8 vs 7.2 would make in real life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An AMOLED vs LCD though make a huge difference. The curved screen takes away some space on the R/L but it has other uses with Samsung's. The spen is also very handy to have mostly for Smart Capture and as a remote shutter release.
It's a 2yo phone but I wasn't pleased with how Samsung or Android 11/12 are evolving so I stuck with what works. It's a fun phone.
Whatever you get, get a good case for it...