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HTC Touch Pro Owners' Poll

Hey guys,
Although I am not among you, I think it would be extremely helpful/eye-opening to conduct a poll of all current HTC Touch Pro owners who have had their device for enough time to make an initial assessment of the device's quality. That means probably at least a week--but use your own discretion. Just a few suggested guidelines:
Don't let the initial euphoria blur your judgment
Think for a few moments before submitting a vote
Compare, if possible, the quality of the device to, say, that of an iPhone, if you've ever owned one or used it extensively, to provide a point of reference.
I look forward to hearing everyone's input!
-Steve

I think it would be helpful if you clarified what you mean by "device quality". Hardware, software, reception, screen, input, battery, performance, etc. Maybe you're asking for "all of the above", but at least it would help people approach it catagorically -- that way people can speak to specific things that have made an impression on them.

It's the best i've used, and the best there is on the market at this moment. I've shut off TF3D though and replaced it with Mobile Shell. Now using it with great pleasure.

With the exception of the "sleeve" and somewhat slow GPS, I am very pleased with my TP.

Great device, and i bet there is more to come with some updates in the near future. That's the reason I voted Above Avarage.
As far as functionality goes, it has all I want: telephone, mail, internet and navigation. Next to that there is a lot of software out there.
A few quircks here and there ofcourse. Like almost instant fixes with Google Maps...and 15 to 20 minutes GPS fixing time with Tom Tom 7.
Battery life could be better as well
I would have liked to add some today plugins into TF3D, or be able to add new tabs

fhsieh said:
I think it would be helpful if you clarified what you mean by "device quality". Hardware, software, reception, screen, input, battery, performance, etc. Maybe you're asking for "all of the above", but at least it would help people approach it catagorically -- that way people can speak to specific things that have made an impression on them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah; I was thinking about doing a categorical breakdown, but in the end, that would have taken a lot of polls.
I hope this is sufficient.

two big problems:
1. battery consumption
2. signal reception

othersteve said:
Yeah; I was thinking about doing a categorical breakdown, but in the end, that would have taken a lot of polls.
I hope this is sufficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, maybe not with the poll, but at least for any comments. I mean everyone has different needs and expectations for the device so it'll be hard to judge the poll accurately without seeing some objective testimony.
But what am I babbling about, here's some of my thoughts:
- Not the most solid handheled device I've had (my old iPaq hx4700 was a tank), but it comes very close and is definitely not a cheap build. Better than the Blackjack and some Blackberries, but I haven't spent very much time with those and I certainly don't know how well the TPro's build will last over time.
- WM6.1 isn't perfect, but then XDA is very active. Plus there are apps for just about anything you need. I spent some time with a Nokia N800, and while it's nice that Maemo is (almost) completely open-source -- which makes for an equally active community -- you're plain out of luck if no one is developing something you need. Namely, the software probably exists on standard Linux distros, but very little of it has been ported to Maemo. This is the same reason I decided not to jump on the Android bandwagon right away.
- Finally, I now have one device that does everything I needed my old devices to do. US phone (Nokia 6300), Japan phone (SE W43S), electronic dictionary (hx4700), internet device (hx4700/N800), mp3 player.
- Same observations as others: GPS is laggy, though not really an issue since I only use it as a pedestrian; battery life isn't impressive. I will probably buy a USB battery pack later.

So far v.happy, just need to solve the backlight issue when in call, and the Sim contacts list.

I've had my TP for almost 3 weeks now - it was one of the first on the market. I have used HTC qwerty based devices for several years now and this is by far the best device. I dearly loved my Tytn II but the hardware in this device is much better.
I own a 3G iPhone also and while this device is definitely a joy to use it is far from ever replacing my TP as my preference business device.
I decided to continue to run the 3D flow against other utilities but it's far from perfect - however developed with the correct user feedback it will be a great tool.
While 6.1 runs quite smoothly on the device the interface obviously lets the device down. I also have had a few lockups but no more than other devices.
The battery is pretty shocking to be honest. I use a scheduler to shut down BT and even the radio stack at night to preserve battery but to be honest if I were going away for anymore that 24 hours I would have to take a charger.
GPS has has been quick to locate a signal but I've encountered issues with TT6 \ and or Googlemaps. I currently run IGO8 and it runs very well.
Finally this device has a half-decent web browser on it - Opera mobile is great. IE mobile is a shambles.
Micro SD is essential - currently running an 8GB card with all my music, apps and vids. No idea why they left it off the Diamond - crazy in my opinion.
If anyone has any quick questions I'd be happy to answer them.

I was hoping by going with a non-American device (which has three times the processor of its American counterparts), I would have a more stable device. Overall, best phone I've ever had. A little disappointed that I need to soft reset every couple of days.
Don't regret it...leaps and bounds over my previous device.

Wow guys, thanks a ton for the feedback so far. This is extremely informative stuff to all of us prospective buyers. Personally, I'll be getting the phone through our Sprint corporate account, but as with everything that's a significant investment I have been trying to read up as much as possible on it beforehand to accurately set my expectations and prepare myself for problems that will need to be solved.
I use SPB Mobile Shell on my Mogul right now, and while I like it, I love the flair of TouchFlo3D... I just hope it is equally useful and quick (so far to that end it seems to be not quite as useful). I think I will try replacing the default contact manager on my Pro with Finger-Friendly Friends provided that will work all right. I also hope that the US release a month or so from now will see additional improvements in terms of software stability and speed (though probably not battery life).
Apart from that, I'm quite excited about everything I have read about the device. And I've always been a sucker for statistics, so having a poll on such an educated and active forum is of remarkable interest.
-Steve

The best device that I ever owned.
Like others I´m having some troubles with the GPS (reception time) and other issues like the screen going of of on a call.

So far I kinda like it.
Nevertheless I'll vote in the pole and give a complete feedback as soon as HTC repairs it (I have a sound problem...)

Hows the sound quality of the internal speaker?
Greetings
LordK

The only problem of the internal speaker is that the volume is a little bit low (compared to my colleagues' blackberrys)

Rated it Above Average!
I am using the TP for 2 weeks now. I've experienced the 'broken glass' screen and the grey-screen once.
The device is pretty quick and TF3D works nice although there are some moment when it does something completely different than what i wanted it to do.
Issues i like to see solved:
- Album cover view in TF3D music tab
- Fix for lag with TomTom
- Battery usage
Things I love:
- Memory
- Speed
- Screen
- Keyboard

I've had mine 3 weeks so far, upgrading from my beloved HTC Universal. It's a great machine but I'm not blind to it's faults, I Like Touch Flo a lot but it's just a thin layer over old ugly windows mobile.
As powerful as it is it just isn't as responsive as an iPhone, way too sluggish, expect the usual windows mobile pauses and spinning wait cursor.
The screen is too small, I liked my big screened Universal but the screen is such high quality it goes some way to making up for being small (it really is crisp).
The keyboard is ok but it's a thumbboard, I won't be knocking out the emails I used to on it. The slide action is distinctly wobbly to me, not bad, but not the decisive slide movement I expected. The onscreen keyboard is surprisingly usable much more so than the bigger IPhone one.
Memory is fantastic, loads of it, I never bother shutting things down which I was always doing on the universal.
Lockups, yup a disappointing number but a definate improvement on the universal.
GPS, not really a problem, it seems fast, but as far as I can see tomtom5 doesn't initialise the built in gps reciever so I start googlemaps, get a fast lock then switch to tomtom I notice tomtom6 has an option for built in GPS.
Lack of headphone socket is a crazy omission, it's driving me crazy and was almost a factor in not buying it, it's only 10 quid for an adaptor but just something else to carry.
The opera browser is pretty good and responsive but the icons it uses are way too chunky considering the screen is so small, talking of chunky, the menus are all pretty huge, I found how to make the start menu smaller but most menus now eg messaging, need arrows at the top and bottom to scroll the duplo vision menus into place. Also needed a hack to get googlemail working and is so small that almost every site needs a zoom to read it whereas I found I could read a lot of sites on the iPhone without zooming.
I also hate the mini sd card being hidden inside the case, it makes changing cards a pain, I'd also rather have an sd card, for the sake of a little bit bigger unit.
I never considered the IPhone because it has no physical keyboard and it was unable to run GotoMyPC but the difference between the IPhone and the Touch Pro is responsiveness, given it's a more powerful machine it's a damning indictment of windows mobile that it's so sluggish.

I just hope that there's an Android rom released for the Raphael. I'll be getting the ATT Touch Pro (or is it still considered the 'Fuze'?) when it's available as I've been drooling over the TP for a long time now. I'll deal with WM6.1 as long as I have to, but I really like Android, and would switch to it in a heartbeat.

veljko.m said:
two big problems:
1. battery consumption
2. signal reception
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Vote 1 from me
Touch flow is nothing to write home about either.
using people favorites and Active Sync hates the photos you asign to them so that becomes a waste of time.

Note 3 - my review

I recently upgraded from the iPhone 5s to the Galaxy Note 3.
This phone is a revelation and I want to try and give some indication why.
I have been using iPhones for many years with a detor to Android every few months (itchy feet!).
Whilst Android is clearly the more technically advanced platform, I always end up dumping the Android phone a few weeks later and returning to the iPhone.
Why ? mainly for two reasons. 10 years ago we used to say that a phone is mainly for phone calls. Internet was a limited and frustrating experience. Today I realise that I only use my phone 5% for calls, the rest is email, general messaging and browsing. The keyboard and user experience therefore become very important.
Apple software engineers really "get" user experience. I don't know how they do it but the keyboard on the iPhone is psychic. My typing is terrible but it manages to mostly get the right keys and if not, do the correct word substitution. It must estimate if you hit between two keys then pick the best letter in the context of the word you were typing or something like that. And then the word lookup is terrific and terribly accurate
Now Android keyboards gave me much worse typing. Not only that, but the word substitution was not automatic (no way of setting it). I could never get used to clicking on the correct word substitution after practically every word. This whole keyboard thing made me feel like chucking every Android phone in the bin after a few weeks (aka to ebay).
Recently, epiphany! I discovered whilst testing an Android phone, that savvy users actually never used the default keyboard (duh!). I found that SwiftKey app was pretty popular, installed it and bing!, now I had 95% of the apple keyboard experience.
That's the thing about Apple, you see it works great out of the box. Android you need to fiddle with it, and for many users they just don't have time or want to do this.
Step in the Note 3.
Ok, now the keyboard is great. I don't know whether it's the latest version of Android or a Samsung developed keyboard but many of the issues have been solved out of the box. One other thing though, due to the size of the screen they have taken the liberty of adding a fifth row of keys, the numeric ones. Genius! You know how frustrating it is when you are typing in passwords or email addresses with a mixture of letters and numbers, always having to flick between numeric and letter keyboards. Now problem solved. For the first time it seems an Android keyboard is better then the Apple one!
The other thing that frustrated me was the speed. Despite having better specs, Android phones have always had the occasional stutter. This can occur anytime, when scrolling, opening an app, etc.
The Note 3 seems 99.9% free of this. Again not sure if this is software development or brute force.
So whilst we are on the subject of brute force let's talk specs. The Note 3 has 3gb of memory, a quad core snap dragon 800 cpu running at approx. 2.3Ghz and a Adreno 300 GPU (yes, thats right, a graphics co-processor). The screen is a full HD 1920x1280 and is an AMOLED with Gorilla glass 3. AMOLED was invented by Samsung and its simply the highest contrast phone screen you can get. IPS screens, as used by the iPhone, have slightly more accurate colours and a slightly brighter maximum brightness, but the contrast on an AMOLED is quite striking. As well as 32gb of internal storage it has a microSD card. I put in a 64gb one so now I have 96gb of storage. Note that with Android you can install apps on the external card if you want, which is very useful.
This spec approaches many full computers!
Completing the specs it has a truly monster 3200MAh battery and a removable stylus built into the body. A stylus you say, back to the Pocket PC ? not quite, this is a whole new technology. For taking notes (aka the phone name) or drawing, its really very good. It also has a switch on it for a pop up menu and other fun.
Lets talk about the elephant in the room, the size. Samsung have been crafty here, the screen size is 5.7", only 0.7" bigger then the S4 but of course a world different from the iPhone 5. Samsung do have phones with bigger screens (e.g. the Mega) but in this bracket have clearly restrained themselves, e.g. compared to say the HTC One Max , Sony Xperia Z Ultra, etc.
This has paid off. The screen is larger and much more comfortable to use then a smaller screen, but due to the extreme thinness, lightweight and minimised bezel of the device, does not feel gigantic in the hand.
Its a personal taste thing and you have to push yourself to even try a device of this size. But the danger you run is that there is no going back. Even 5" screens look pokey, let alone the iPhone 5.
It fits fine in a jean pocket and you get use to it faster then you would think.
The main reason for me trying this in the first place was to attempt to replace both my iPhone 5s and iPad mini, which I take to work every day, with one device. Also cutting the need for two contracts. On a side note I have 4G contracts from EE and vodafone. Again its something you don't think you need, but once you have you can't go back to 3G. The EE network is more mature and has better coverage, I assume Vodafone will come up to the same coverage in time.
Lastly lets talk accessories. Samsung just get this much better then anyone else. There are all sorts of things, from charging backs (so that you can use wireless charging) to docks and headphones. However the key breakthrough is the S-View wallet type cover. This has a window in to allow the phone to show status reports of phone calls and texts as they come in, without having to open the cover. The phone is "cover aware" and formats a small square window to fit this window. It also switches on when you open the flip cover and switches off when you close the flip cover. This is just sheer genius. It sounds simple but it raises the functionality to a whole new level. The final piece of genius is that the cover replaces the back of the phone, so it doesn't add much to the bulk (although it does clverely add a less then 1mm overhand to protect the sides).
Samsung has always made excellent phones, but its no use denying that its basic design has been influenced heavily by the iPhone 3, which it has kept to slavishly.
With the Note 3 Samsung has finally carved its own genuine innovation into the market and created something quite special which is going to permanently change the direction of phone development.
Put it this way, Apple will be responding to this either this or next year, and not the other way round.
Its not surprising that this is one of the world's best selling phones. A busy central London Vodafone shop told me recently that Samsung had long ago overtaken Apple with sales volume, especially the S4, but now the Note 3 is their best seller. No surprises there.

Galaxy Note 4 wishlist

1. Display calibration no worse/better than S5 LTE-A
2. Metal body (antennas should be behind the plastic, glass or other material, but not metal, so did HTC, Apple and Sony, otherwise the connection will be very bad)
3. No PWM
4. Isocell camera (like S5), with fixed oversaturate and rosiness in some situations. Or big BSI sensor (second priority) with good optics
5. OIS
6. Aspherical lenses
7. Waterproof

How about faster updates, less bloatware, and better design
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Faheemarif252 said:
How about faster updates, less bloatware, and better design
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good updates. 1-3 moths. faster than sony, lg, htc and others
less bloatware? wut?
that you need to catch the virus:
1. find bad site with virus
2. dowload apk
3. allow all rights
Also, most viruses need root right
design is good

Bring back Page Buddy plskthx.
Would also appreciate it if this was the year Samsung realised that a 4x4 grid on a 5.7"+ screen is a ridiculous waste of space.

4GB RAM.
onslaught86 said:
B
Would also appreciate it if this was the year Samsung realised that a 4x4 grid on a 5.7"+ screen is a ridiculous waste of space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? You're complaining about stock Touchwiz on a forum dedicated to modifying your own device to improve it? Surely by now you know the meaning of a custom launcher...

ShadowLea said:
4GB RAM.
Really? You're complaining about stock Touchwiz on a forum dedicated to modifying your own device to improve it? Surely by now you know the meaning of a custom launcher...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you want 4GB RAM?? You don't need 4GB RAM, the Note 3 doesn't need 3GB RAM but Samsung added it. Android is more than capable of running smoothly on 2GB RAM! I'd like to see a 2K display, live video broadcast like the Xperia Z1, not too bothered about the camera because I don't print my pictures out so megapixels mean nothing, less bloat, the ability to remove bloat as we wish, a more premium feel....less plastic lol

speedyjay said:
Why do you want 4GB RAM?? You don't need 4GB RAM, the Note 3 doesn't need 3GB RAM but Samsung added it. Android is more than capable of running smoothly on 2GB RAM! I'd like to see a 2K display, live video broadcast like the Xperia Z1, not too bothered about the camera because I don't print my pictures out so megapixels mean nothing, less bloat, the ability to remove bloat as we wish, a more premium feel....less plastic lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because I refuse to pay a full 700 euro for hardware pretty much identical to what the Note 3 already has. The 805 is not spectacular, and as much as 2K is lovely, it's still not worth the additional 400 quid over a new Note 3. Samsung isn't Apple.
No, Megapixels means nothing. The sensor quality, on the other hand, could use a siginificant improvement!

No Knox
If it will be the same as note 3
It will be my last samsung
After thr s1 2 3 4
Note 1 2 and 3
Im sick and tired of samsung
Its gonna be a htc or sony or even a nexus

ShadowLea said:
Really? You're complaining about stock Touchwiz on a forum dedicated to modifying your own device to improve it? Surely by now you know the meaning of a custom launcher...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But of course! I use one - I have no choice, after all.
It would be nice to have that choice. The Touchwiz launcher does everything right for my needs except grid size and a dynamic calendar icon. There's a couple of very good third party launchers that riff on Touchwiz, but the real thing has certain advantages - I loved Page Buddy on my Note II, and that's something no third party launcher has replicated yet. The mods of the stock launcher to increase the grid size tend to break all of the Samsung widgets.
That, and it's just bad form. Most casual users are going to keep the stock setup, and 4x4 icon grids are so...2007.

Hope they improve the audio on the Note 4.
Hope they beef up the speaker, and even use the same one as is used on the Note 2, speaker on the back again would please me.

onslaught86 said:
But of course! I use one - I have no choice, after all.
It would be nice to have that choice. The Touchwiz launcher does everything right for my needs except grid size and a dynamic calendar icon. There's a couple of very good third party launchers that riff on Touchwiz, but the real thing has certain advantages - I loved Page Buddy on my Note II, and that's something no third party launcher has replicated yet. The mods of the stock launcher to increase the grid size tend to break all of the Samsung widgets.
That, and it's just bad form. Most casual users are going to keep the stock setup, and 4x4 icon grids are so...2007.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They killed Page Buddy entirely in 4.2.2... (and since Note 3 came with 4.3...)
The Note 3 never had the app, just the (annoying) suggestions bar that pops up under notifications when you plug in your headphones.
Hm, the only widget I've noticed a lack of functionality on is the Calendar one, but I prefer Today instead (I hate big white blocks, I prefer a sleek black 40% opacity look). Which others do not work?
Now on that last part, I fully agree. Fixed grids are more Apple's terrain than anything that uses Android. Imagine how that looks on the 12.2" NotePro.... >.<
JCM800 said:
Hope they improve the audio on the Note 4.
Hope they beef up the speaker, and even use the same one as is used on the Note 2, speaker on the back again would please me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd rather they didn't. With the speaker on the bottom, I can use the screen whilst playing music as it lies on the table. Doesn't works quite so well when the speaker is lying on the table... Muffles it an awful lot. Back-set speakers are useless.
For instance. Laying it on the pillow whilst watching a film in bed. Can't hear a bloody thing with the speaker projecting the sounds into the pillow.....
In fact, I think we'd all rather have it on the front...
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk 2

dogan2010 said:
No Knox
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have slim to no chance of that happening, knox is for enterprise BYOD policies. Expecting it to disappear is going to be futile
dogan2010 said:
Im sick and tired of samsung
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats nice, but lets see how you feel with the other devices
dogan2010 said:
Its gonna be a htc or sony or even a nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean HTC and Sony with their irreversible unlocks? HTC with S-ON that restricts what partitions you can flash. Sony which in their unlock process irreversibly erase DRM device keys? AFAIK the Nexus is the only one of those 3 devices that has easy unlock/relock.
And this is just to be extra clear. Samsung Knox does not restrict you from doing anything to your device. All it does is flip a flag and remove knox secure containers which you have probably never even used and prevent you from having knox secure containers on a device that has been hacked up. If you actually have a need for knox containers you would not be modifying your device. As for the warranty implications try making a warranty claim with a htc-devunlocked/soff device or an unlocked sony device.

ShadowLea said:
They killed Page Buddy entirely in 4.2.2... (and since Note 3 came with 4.3...)
The Note 3 never had the app, just the (annoying) suggestions bar that pops up under notifications when you plug in your headphones.
Hm, the only widget I've noticed a lack of functionality on is the Calendar one, but I prefer Today instead (I hate big white blocks, I prefer a sleek black 40% opacity look). Which others do not work?
Now on that last part, I fully agree. Fixed grids are more Apple's terrain than anything that uses Android. Imagine how that looks on the 12.2" NotePro.... >.<
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thankfully, the devices that had it got to keep it. Frustrates me that, of all the features Samsung has in their very robust software suite, they canned the one I liked the most, which has no third-party replacement.
The special thing about Page Buddy was that it was context sensitive and users defined, so I could have all of my stylus-related apps immediately available when I needed them, and hidden when I didn't - the same goes for music widgets. This is, I feel, a concept with enormous potential that has yet to be properly realised. Thanks to its removal, I use the S Pen less on the Note 3 than I did on the Note II.
The Page Buddy notification service is useless precisely because it isn't user-defined, and the system is not quite clever enough to only suggest apps that make use of a connected headset or the S Pen. I suspect they removed Page Buddy because it was confusing for many end users. Air Command is at least somewhat useful, being contextual, but without being able to set my own shortcuts, much less so than Page Buddy was. I'd much rather have shortcuts to my own apps than Sfinder and Pen Window (Pen Window had so much potential, it's just terribly thought out).
I have some hope for the return of similar features to Page Buddy. The Toolbox feature in the S5 is customisable, and I expect it to be in the Note 4.
As for the widgets, the stock weather widget and a number of Splanner widgets aren't available on third party launchers (although I'm fundamentally opposed to having two clocks on one screen anyway). Many of the other widgets, such as Assistive Light, suffer from formatting issues outside of the Touchwiz launcher, and end up distorted or with broken text. Nova's option to disable widget padding helps with this, however.
Aesthetically, I really enjoy the stock Touchwiz launcher, particularly the way it handles text and shadows. It's only the icons and colours that are somewhat offputting now (Notably the static date on the Spanner icon), Touchwiz has come a long way. There's also the general failure to take advantage of screen real estate, but that's not a Samsung-specific issue -and automatically opening apps in multiwindow view helps a lot.
If you've ever taken a look at some of Pantech's high end Korea-only devices, their approach to UI & UX is superb - there's an option to switch between 4x4 & 5x5 grids. Give me that & I'll be a lot happier. There's an Easy Mode, why not a Pro Mode?

I want only metal body and waterproof. That will be gr8

ShadowLea said:
Because I refuse to pay a full 700 euro for hardware pretty much identical to what the Note 3 already has. The 805 is not spectacular, and as much as 2K is lovely, it's still not worth the additional 400 quid over a new Note 3. Samsung isn't Apple.
No, Megapixels means nothing. The sensor quality, on the other hand, could use a siginificant improvement!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm well aware Samsung isn't apple. If you don't want to pay £700....get it on contract, and if you aren't old enough to get it in contract then get your mum or dad to get it for you because no matter what, it is pretty safe to say that regardless of the specs of the Note 4, you're gonna be looking at paying around £6-700 and to provide an alternative option for you, if you don't want to be paying £6-700 then I suggest you get the LG G3 or the HTC One M8 or try your luck and see if you can find the Oppo find 7.

Oh, and whilst we're at it, would prefer it if they fixed the location reporting, too. Mine for the last two months thinks I'm in the arse end of Serbia. It's bloody creepy.
speedyjay said:
I'm well aware Samsung isn't apple. If you don't want to pay £700....get it on contract, and if you aren't old enough to get it in contract then get your mum or dad to get it for you because no matter what, it is pretty safe to say that regardless of the specs of the Note 4, you're gonna be looking at paying around £6-700 and to provide an alternative option for you, if you don't want to be paying £6-700 then I suggest you get the LG G3 or the HTC One M8 or try your luck and see if you can find the Oppo find 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm principally opposed to buying a phone on a contract. Too often I have to deal with customers who bought their device on a contract, have to pay 60 quid a month, and have become unemployed as a result to the economic crisis. Now they want out, after two months. For free and be allowed to keep their phone, to boot. Morons. Think ahead for once in your life. (Them, not you.)
Not to mention devices bought through a provider, or at all, in the Netherlands is about 200 euro more expensive than buying it open market in Germany. Anyone buying it in the Netherlands is an idiot.
I can't exactly swap to another brand. Samsung and T-Mobile would not be very happy with me if I did.....
The price in itself is not the issue. I bought a 900 quid NotePro. I own a Note 3, S5, S4, two S3's and a Note 2. Still not the issue. The value for money in relation to the previous device is the issue. Minor, mostly cosmetic, updates to a device and then asking the full price, that's Apple's style.
onslaught86 said:
Thankfully, the devices that had it got to keep it. Frustrates me that, of all the features Samsung has in their very robust software suite, they canned the one I liked the most, which has no third-party replacement.
The special thing about Page Buddy was that it was context sensitive and users defined, so I could have all of my stylus-related apps immediately available when I needed them, and hidden when I didn't - the same goes for music widgets. This is, I feel, a concept with enormous potential that has yet to be properly realised. Thanks to its removal, I use the S Pen less on the Note 3 than I did on the Note II.
The Page Buddy notification service is useless precisely because it isn't user-defined, and the system is not quite clever enough to only suggest apps that make use of a connected headset or the S Pen. I suspect they removed Page Buddy because it was confusing for many end users. Air Command is at least somewhat useful, being contextual, but without being able to set my own shortcuts, much less so than Page Buddy was. I'd much rather have shortcuts to my own apps than Sfinder and Pen Window (Pen Window had so much potential, it's just terribly thought out).
I have some hope for the return of similar features to Page Buddy. The Toolbox feature in the S5 is customisable, and I expect it to be in the Note 4.
As for the widgets, the stock weather widget and a number of Splanner widgets aren't available on third party launchers (although I'm fundamentally opposed to having two clocks on one screen anyway). Many of the other widgets, such as Assistive Light, suffer from formatting issues outside of the Touchwiz launcher, and end up distorted or with broken text. Nova's option to disable widget padding helps with this, however.
Aesthetically, I really enjoy the stock Touchwiz launcher, particularly the way it handles text and shadows. It's only the icons and colours that are somewhat offputting now (Notably the static date on the Spanner icon), Touchwiz has come a long way. There's also the general failure to take advantage of screen real estate, but that's not a Samsung-specific issue -and automatically opening apps in multiwindow view helps a lot.
If you've ever taken a look at some of Pantech's high end Korea-only devices, their approach to UI & UX is superb - there's an option to switch between 4x4 & 5x5 grids. Give me that & I'll be a lot happier. There's an Easy Mode, why not a Pro Mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still think 5x5 is also too small on 5.7".. I'm using 8x6...
I do agree there should be a pro mode. Just let us set the grid size ourself, it's not too difficult to program.
Thankfully, there's an alternative app for most things. I've taken to using eWeatherHD, Flashlight+ (The older version of the app still lets you use a widget to toggle the light without launching the app. Look for 1.56), Today calendar widget and ofcourse the irreplacable Zooper Widget for pretty much everything
I don't get how they managed to mess up Pen Window so badly. It's a direct rip-off of from the Wacom Wheel on an Intuos. Except that one has a modifiable full wheel that can be modified to do everything from shortcuts to button combos to actions. And it had several layers, so you could set one slice to open a launch menu with 8 apps. And another slice to actions. Another to share options, etc. They should have used that, it had year and years of research into it.
The Page Buddy on the Note 3 is hilarious. It keeps suggesting my SMS app as the first app to use, even though N7player is running 100% of the time I have my headphones plugged in. It only detects times opened, not amount of time used.
Though frankly Touchwiz being more like Vanilla Android would be perfectly fine, too. Just as long as they don't force MagUX on us... Oh sure, it's lovely if you have a US device. 90% of the apps for it aren't available for non-US users, though. So you have 8 blocks that simply remain empty because only about 3 apps work. Yay...

onslaught86 said:
The special thing about Page Buddy was that it was context sensitive and users defined, so I could have all of my stylus-related apps immediately available when I needed them, and hidden when I didn't - the same goes for music widgets. This is, I feel, a concept with enormous potential that has yet to be properly realised. Thanks to its removal, I use the S Pen less on the Note 3 than I did on the Note II.
The Page Buddy notification service is useless precisely because it isn't user-defined, and the system is not quite clever enough to only suggest apps that make use of a connected headset or the S Pen. I suspect they removed Page Buddy because it was confusing for many end users. Air Command is at least somewhat useful, being contextual, but without being able to set my own shortcuts, much less so than Page Buddy was. I'd much rather have shortcuts to my own apps than Sfinder and Pen Window (Pen Window had so much potential, it's just terribly thought out).
I have some hope for the return of similar features to Page Buddy. The Toolbox feature in the S5 is customisable, and I expect it to be in the Note 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can replicate these features with gmd spend control (use the launchpads and setup your own apps to use, voila custom page buddy for spen) and tasker (use tasker to detect headphones plugged in and run gmd spen launchpad on detect, simple), it would be nice if these options where built into a 3rd party launcher or touchwiz, in the meantime it does work.
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app

edited

Knox and knox free versions of note 4 !!!

I want No Knox, unlock bootloader, easy root by default, no triangle, custom status, etc, i want freedom.
If not it will be my last samsung phones. Only reason why i bought 2 note3 was because i know i could root it with knox 0. but i cant put custom kernels. So i think that next time will be an nexus.
Also sammy has crappy quality, power, volume, home buttons get bad in time. You need back to kill and gravity box to unlock screen without buttons
And finally NO 2k resolution, we need way to powerfull gpu, cpu gor that. Crap, even my S2 has double frames in games then note3, don't belive me? Try it yourself with FPS Meter. I want 720p device.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

An android developer's first contact with iOS

Hi long time xda fellows. Just wanted to share with you some of my thoughts
Brief Intro
This is just my personal thoughts and it only may apply to me so please don't feel offended by this article. Well, I am developing android apps for a few years now, doing this for a living. Developing various project for my clients most of the time I came across projects which involved "Make it work on android as it works on iOS" and I ended up with the same thing "I need to get an iPhone for testing". I finally took the step 4 months ago and purchased a used iPhone 5 16 GB. The reason was for getting an older version were pretty obvios: I did not wanted to spent too much money on a device which will be used primarily for testing. Iphone 5s was too expensive and 5C was basically an 5 with plastic body.
I am very picky when it comes to my daily driver device. I have owned in the past many devices, my first acceptable device was Galaxy S1 (oh, the lag of android 2.3), then went for Galaxy Nexus (which was quite a good device and I still own it and runs pretty acceptable), Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 3, LG G2. Given the fact that I have small hands, I found G2 to be quite impressive: such small bezels, pretty acceptable firmware, good camera, great form factor and battery life... until I noticed the slippery back which was the main reason to get rid of it. I can't really understand why producers tend to get this shiny plastic as back-cover which offers zero grip. All the time I had the impression it will slip from my hands. I love the back material on black Nexus 5 and I hope they'll continue to use it on the next model. The Note 3 was quote a near perfect phone, contrary to many, I liked the fake leather back as it gave me good enough grip, the touchwiz isn't that bad, stylus was working very good but, after trying to get used to its form factor for 2 months I had to give up. It was simply to uncomfortable for me use, most of the time I found myself needing to use it with one hand and couldn't. Just try to put the shopping list on it and hold the note in one hand and the grocery basket in the other and then check what you buy. But this really comes to personal preference since I gave it to my wife and she says she'll never want a smaller device.
So back to main idea, I purchased a used iPhone 5 for around 350$ while iPhone 5s it is being sold in my country for around 900$. Since I got rid of Note 3, I told myself that if I paid for it, I should use it, so I started using iPhone 5 as a daily device. This means two gmail accounts, calls, skype and instagram.
First impressions:
Where is my notification light ? After years of getting used to it I find it a bit hard to live without. Many say it is not needed but to be frankly I prefer to look at the phone on my table to see if I missed something rather than waking the screen up. Not to mention that I recently released JeFeel app on Google Play and I receive a lot of Instagram notifications. For each of them my iPhone's screen wakes up.Not great for battery life I suppose. Let be honest, how much would a blinking led cost for production ? one cent? Not to mention the other cool things like RGB LEDs on most of the android devices which can be configured to know exactly what notification you received by the color it shows.
What's with this small text size ? Went to Settings to make it bigger and it seems that the Dynamic Font size only works on some of Apple's apps and the rest simply ignore it. I have good eye view and I really find it too small to comfortable read it. Might be because of only 4 inch of diagonal or something. It was a small relief to find the Bold setting which makes things a bit better. Not to mention browsing reddit funny pictures was not that fun.
After being spoiled for years with SwiftKey keyboard, with multiple language support, swipe, fantastic auto correct, I found to iOS keyboard horrible. The auto correct gives me more trouble than helping me so in the end I disabled it. Also to press 2-3 keys to get to things like comma "," or numbers/symbols I find it far from ergonomic. Basically these were my main three things I did not like, coming from android
After three months of usage
Well, believe it or not I got used to the small text size and now I find it acceptable. Still, the screen size is too small to do serious browsing or email answering. I find the keyboard to be still a pain to use. However, I noticed a lot of other things: * I like the notification center and how notification are shown on lock-screen. Swiping a notification opens the app to which it belongs to without the need to unlock. I like how when I read an email on my computer, the notification from lockscreen gets dismissed. Quite cool.
Control center is handy and I use it mostly to toggle auto rotate lock and media volume. Is great that I can access it from anywhere but sometimes I simply open it by mistake when browsing a webpage in landscape orientation
I like how auto brightness works and it really is pleasant for my eyes.
I like the fact that there is a physical button on front, I am definitely not a fan of using the Power button. On android I specially developed StandBy Touch Advanced app to deal with putting the phone to sleep without reaching the Power key. I took a look at iOS SDK and couldn't find a way to do it so I suppose this is not allowed. I have to say inhere that many Android offered quite a nice way of waking the phone from standy by: LG has KnowckOn, HTC has something similar, OnePlus one has it, if I recall well Sony too... Double tap to wake is way more convenient than searching for power key, especially on tall devices. i5 is not the case since it is easy to reach, but I use the Home key a lot to wake the device.
I am not a big fan of metal and I never use cases, I find it slippery and cold, however given the size of the iPhone, it is easy to hold it and never had the feeling that I drop it.
Battery life is not so great, I charge it every day.However it seems to be dropping constantly and I haven't noticed any battery drain (GooglePlay services drain rings a bell on android ?) I am 95% of the time in WiFi coverage and I did a test: I disabled the Cellular data, since WiFi is always on and have found that the battery life has improved a lot. So even if data is not used, I suppose that the cell module is active, most likely waiting to do a quick switch if WiFi turns to be poor. I would have preferred an option to keep it disabled until actually leaving the WiFi area. This things make me miss tools like Tasker on Android.
I like the screen and color reproduction. There is no back-light bleed and colors look real enough for me. Best LCD screen I had. Also the resolution is more than enough for 4" and I don't miss 1080p from android
iOS feel more smooth, I remember not resetting the phone for about 2 months and it was as smooth as in day one. Transitions are smoother, rotate is smoother, app switching is smoother. I like it, I feel that it's more polished than android and even the screen seems more responsive to touches.
some apps seem better on iOS, with more attention to details. My last app JeFeel relies a lot on instagram so I am using it quite a lot to check followers and pictures. Instagram for iOS is easier to use, easier to reload, I don't know, it just feels better. I also like TapaTalk more and some other apps like Reddit pics browser, skype, dolphin browser and so on. I sure miss FireFox since is my browser on PC and I would have loved to have bookmarks sync but since I don't to that much browsing, I'm ok with Dolphin/Safari. A special mention goes to Safari for reading mode (or how it is called) when it renders the text from the page at big size, making it easier to read. Great feature.
As android developer I rely on Google services: Maps, GMail, Google+, Drive and some apps are working ok, some are bad. The biggest disappointment is the Gmail app which is more ergonomic and nicer on Android. No contact pictures, no swipe to delete, I miss these features. Also the rendered text in emails is quite small, so it's good enough for email checking if you don't have many emails.
I haven't changed my ringtone yet because from what I saw I need iTunes for that... well that sucks.
Ah the camera, I don't think I made so many pictures with a phone. I know the camera is not top of the chart, but the form factor of the phone actually made it easier for me to take it out and grab a quick picture. Note 3 had a great camera but getting it out of the pocket, 2 hands needed to use it... You know where I'm going to.
I also like the silent toggle on the left size, very convenient but I would have preferred a visual notification on status bar, that is on, like on android.
As for widgets and stuff, on my android I initially did all sort of customizations and widgets but in the end I started to install more apps, drag shortcuts around and it became a mess. Basically I ended up with a grid of icons, just as the iOS launcher is. So for me, the lack of widgets is not a negative point
I don't like the dialer, seems so... I don't know... limited. No contacts photos on Recents/Contacts list makes it look boring. I also have like a 1-2 seconds delay between the moment I pick up and the moment the caller hears me, that is annoying and does not happen with same SIM on other phones
Unfortunately after 4 months of usage my iPhone's camera started to fail. Sometimes it worked sometimes it just shown black screen. After a few more days I have realized that the screen glass on top of the phone was raised 1-2 milliliters above the frame. I went to a service center (since no warranty) and they glued it somehow back, and now the screen is ok, but the camera still does not work. One nice addition was discovering that I can disable the whole camera feature, so I did and it disappeared from apps and Control Center. I guess that is the only customization of Control center hehe.
Since the camera is not working and I don't want to put any more money on this iPhone, I don't know how long I will be using it, probably until Nexus X or Moto X+1 is released. Or why not, IPhone 6. But overall I can say that the experience with iOS was not as bad as expected. Probably it has to do with me not using so many widgets and apps. I don't remember how many times I have flashed android phones with so many custom ROMs in order to achieve a better phone. Indeed on android you get more freedom, you install custom ROMs and kernels and you squeeze some more performance but this sometimes comes with the cost of bugs and instability. This is the beauty of android, you can customize it, want a toggle of auto rotate, you have it on a custom ROM, want different screen calibration, want to hide on screen buttons, want... you get the point. On iOS you are limited, you can't customize too much and after a while I guess you just get used to it. Unfortunately Android OEM's have started to implement various techniques that will detect rooting/bootloader unlock and will void warranty. We all know the famous Knox trigger on Samsung devices, so installing a custom ROM is starting to get harder and harder without voiding warranty.
Another point I'd like the mention is updates. On android things are starting to catch up, but still with updates through carriers and all the delays, after an android version is released you need to wait for 3-6-never months for an update. Of course this is not available for nexus line. The updates are primarily for flagship devices as previous year devices will take even longer to receive an update. This really forces me to look for a nexus when I get an android device and I sure hope they will get it right this time and not make cuts on screen quality or battery size as on previous models. Motorola seems to be doing quite a good job on updates and I hope they will continue to do so in the future. Android L seems like a really big change and I think it will start to catch up on next year's flagships, so mostly on Q2 2014 but given the skinning of frameworks like TouchWiz/Optimus/and others I somehow doubt the user will see too much material changes. I hope performance will improve since I can see small lag here and there even on latest models. As for iOS8 it seems promising, the new keyboard support will allow fixing one of my major annoyances, also battery statistics will offer more info on apps battery usage. I am curious to see how widgets on Notification center will be received but seeing Apple opening is a good thing. I am also keeping an eye on their Swift language and might start learn it since ObjectiveC was never ever on my taste. I really like the swipe on screens to go back, that is implemented on some apps and I am really curious to see how on bigger screen sizes, reaching the top left of the screen for Back option will fell file. I sometimes feel the need of a Back button. I fear that on 4.7 and 5.5" iPhone one handed usage will be hurt by having hard times to reach Back within an app.
So in the end, is iOS that bad ? It depends, for me, when I use the OS for a few seconds to launch apps that I am using, it does not matter so much what OS it is, as long as its fast and reliable. I find iphone 5 to be fast and smooth and it's a device 2 years old. I bet Iphone 5s with his TouchId and 64bits would have a bigger impact on me and to be honest I am starting to see phones with screen bigger than 4"... too big. It would be interesting to find myself buying iPhone 5S as my next phone.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post, hope I haven't bored you too much.

Overall love

Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Xiaomi Mi 5, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Xiaomi Mi 5 is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

Very good phone for the price, now i have to remove the bloatware to get a perfect phone.

I'm in love since i got it, really amazing device, but like all says, i need to remove the bloatware, but still being a monster.

Deleted

Have had the phone for a couple of days now, and I really like the phone, but there is a few problems.
- Still some Chinese text here and there
- Unable to connect to PC. Device not recognized by two win10 computers.
- Lock screen, unable to turn of the roll of Chinese pictures.
- Play Store, unable to update or download via mobile network, only via wifi
- Clock widgets tend to not being synchronized with phone clock. They stop showing correct time

These are very unique type of Mobiles that i ever see in mobile market. Here in Pakistan Xiaomi Mobiles are coming Soon. The first look i explored on the internet was quite amazing. I am keeping its rank after i phone luxury looks and feel.I will definitely buy this phone if prices would not so high.

killbox said:
Have had the phone for a couple of days now, and I really like the phone, but there is a few problems.
- Still some Chinese text here and there
- Unable to connect to PC. Device not recognized by two win10 computers.
- Lock screen, unable to turn of the roll of Chinese pictures.
- Play Store, unable to update or download via mobile network, only via wifi
- Clock widgets tend to not being synchronized with phone clock. They stop showing correct time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I can solve some problems for you.
Lock screen roll of pictures. Normally you can disable it if you put a wallpaper for lockscreen. Or to click on the small icon in the top right corner of your lockscreen.
Play Store, not able to download on mobile network. You need to disable the download limit in the settings of the "downloads" app.

Love the phone, thought the build quality was excellent BUT my daughter dropped it and the case has split. I dropped my htc one, galaxy s, nexus 4 and a whole host of other phones a 100 times and there was no problem. Really disappointed
Only other major issue is the phone gets locked out "this phone has been lost" many many times a day. Sometimes i cannot use it for hours at a time because activation does not work.

jac33au said:
Love the phone, thought the build quality was excellent BUT my daughter dropped it and the case has split. I dropped my htc one, galaxy s, nexus 4 and a whole host of other phones a 100 times and there was no problem. Really disappointed
Only other major issue is the phone gets locked out "this phone has been lost" many many times a day. Sometimes i cannot use it for hours at a time because activation does not work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a real bummer to hear hope that you can get it fixed somehow.
Do you mean that the glass back had split?

Guids said:
That's a real bummer to hear hope that you can get it fixed somehow.
Do you mean that the glass back had split?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When she dropped it, it hit the top right corner. The metal body is VERY weak apparently (see bend tests), so soft it pushed in. So now the back glass panel on that corner is separated from the aluminium frame. It always felt fragile, the glass is so smooth is slides off even grippy surfaces! BUT it is meant to be a flagship top of the market phone so i did expect more. This is the problem when one of the largest smart phone producers doesn't sell in the internet exclusion zone (Australia & NZ). No repair centres, no accessories in stores probably no warranty. Long wait for new cables, cases and anything else.
I'm starting to see LOTS of software issues now too, MIUI has always been that way though. Be good when some custom roms come out. I guess you get what you pay for. It's no Galaxy s7, HTC one or LG that's forsure.
Buyers remorse right now haha...
Oh, 3 days old too... (not my daughter, the phone )

Having brands like Samsung, LG and others ask so much for their flagship phones is not an excuse, they sometimes cost 4 times less to build than they sell for.
But thinking you actually get a top of the line phone for prices like these (not talking about the prices those online import shops ask for the devices when you're not living in asia, but the actual prices Xiaomi sells the phones for) there has to be some compromise... this time it's mainly the build strength.
The moment you get this phone, GET A CASE asap! You don't want to break it when accidentally sitting on it :'(
Want a less break prone version? Get the 128 ceramic version.
Got the phone damaged? YouTube hugo barra tearing a mi5 apart, good reparability.
Love this phone! But you have to handle it like a Chinese vase!
Sent from my MI 5 using XDA-Developers mobile app

Love this phone. I was skeptical at first as their past phones were less than stellar imo but the specs at this price point was too good to pass up.
Have had it for around 2 weeks now, and though still minor quirks with software here and there, all around very happy and haven't run into any major issues.
Great battery life as well. As to be expected, the body is quite fragile but as I'm very careful with my belongings, I don't think I'll be dropping it *knock on wood*
The Mi 5 will be replacing my S7 - call me crazy, but the only downside (only taking into consideration features I use) I've found so far is that the camera is obviously worse. No biggie since I always bring my DSLR for any proper events, and this way I can save some money.

Here is my Real Live Review:
I've bought a Xiaomi Mi 5 Pro 128 GB (at tradingshenzhen.com)
I've unlocked bootloader, TWRP, rooted, and installed Mi 5 Global Developer Rom 6.5.30 (recently updatet itself to MIUI 8 6.8.11)
The Hardware looks and feels nice. Only negative point I could mention: After some days of use I recogniced a clicking sound when I softly push the center of the backside glas (ceramic).
The Software in my opinion can compete with Samsung (there I have the direct comparison) and other brands. In some Points it's better, in some points it's a little behinde the concurence.
My impressions in detail:
Positive:
+ An amazing feauture added in 6.8.11 is the "Dual Apps" function in the settings menu. If you have dual sim, thats a extreamly important feauture. Otherwhise you cannot use WhatsApp on both Numbers. Whit MIUI 8 you can. And this whitout using WhatsApp clones as WhatsAppGB (which I used bevore MIUI 8). (I don't know if other DualSim Devices have this feauture)
+ I've bought the Nillkin Backcover (black) and the Nillkin Flipcover. (Dark Grey) Both are great but the Flipcover is quite glossy, what I dont like.
+ I've bought an USB-C to USB 3 (female jack) cable to connect external storage (for TWRP-Backup etc.) and other devices. I wasn't able to save the TWRP-Backup direct on the external storage, so I made an internal backup and copied it to an external fat-harddrive. The main thing is, that I have an external backup (whitout MicroSD-Cardslot a little challange)
+ IR Sensor to controll HiFi and TV! ZaZa remote is my favourit App to use it.
Negative:
- No possibility to distinguish the SMS-Inbox of the two mobilenumbers. Sure, there is this little "1" or "2" behind the date. But what I would like to see is a "Dual App" for the Messages-App, a possibility to filter the messages by mobilenumber or two tabs on top of the Display where I can choose the two SIM-Cards. Anything like that would be verry nice!
- MIUI don't give me the possibility to add an App-Link into two different folders on the homescreen =(
- No support of ExFat formated storage via USB-C (nor NTFS or HFS+) Any tip to solve this is verry welcome!
- E-Mail App does allow me to add different arriving IMAP and outgoing SMTP server but have NO possibility to add a different login for these two servers. A verry important feauture for me. (My Samsung was able to make this difference). Any hint is verry welcome! I've tried some other E-Mail Apps but didn't find one that can handle all my needs.
- No MicroSD Cardslot. You could say it's not necessary when you have 128GB internal storage, but for example the backup-process would be easyer with it.
Fazit:
Alltogether I am happy with my new device. It is, what I was looking for. The devices helps me to disassociate Job and Personal contacts whitout a second mobile. In some Videos i've seen, that it is more or less repairable and the replacement parts are available in the "bay", an important criterion I guess.
Edited:
When I was writing text, I had this annoying red lines under words which weren’t known by the System. I wasn’t able to find a menu-point to switch them off. My search engine helped me out with this Link. You have to open an adb shell and enter „settings put secure spell_checker_enabled 0“. With „settings put secure spell_checker_enabled 1“ you can switch them back on, if needed.

short mi5 review
Really happy with mine after 3 months, had a bit of pain getting off the vendor rom and figuring out all of the battery optimizations and over zealous permissions.
Once I sorted all of that threw the google now launcher (app drawer back ,Yuss !) on it and very happy. Super snappy after my nexus 5x and the camera is great. Low light could be better but you just use the HHT low light mode and its all good. Battery life is great, I am usually at around 40% after a full day. used a nilikin case from the start and love it, the size and weight is perfect.
The rear fingerprint sensor on the nexus was way better but the mi5 but that is mostly positioning, in my opinion rear sensor wins. Great phone and very happy with it, the only issue was software niggles which are getting better and better.

Loving mine too. Really impressive phone for the price.

I have the phone with international ROM, camera is very good. But it has some bugs.. Like Bluetooth and Gmail connection which sometimes fails and always connected to Mi stuff which i dont like.Its not that fast either, im thinking to try out the nexus 5x because its in the same price region.
Sent from my MI PAD using Tapatalk

onestyle said:
I've bought a Xiaomi Mi 5 Pro 128 GB (at tradingshenzhen.com)
I've unlocked bootloader, TWRP, rooted, and installed Mi 5 Global Developer Rom 6.5.30 (recently updatet itself to MIUI 8 6.8.11)
The Hardware looks and feels nice. Only negative point I could mention: After some days of use I recogniced a clicking sound when I softly push the center of the backside glas (ceramic).
The Software in my opinion can compete with Samsung (there I have the direct comparison) and other brands. In some Points it's better, in some points it's a little behinde the concurence.
My impressions in detail:
Positive:
+ An amazing feauture added in 6.8.11 is the "Dual Apps" function in the settings menu. If you have dual sim, thats a extreamly important feauture. Otherwhise you cannot use WhatsApp on both Numbers. Whit MIUI 8 you can. And this whitout using WhatsApp clones as WhatsAppGB (which I used bevore MIUI 8). (I don't know if other DualSim Devices have this feauture)
+ I've bought the Nillkin Backcover (black) and the Nillkin Flipcover. (Dark Grey) Both are great but the Flipcover is quite glossy, what I dont like.
+ I've bought an USB-C to USB 3 (female jack) cable to connect external storage (for TWRP-Backup etc.) and other devices. I wasn't able to save the TWRP-Backup direct on the external storage, so I made an internal backup and copied it to an external fat-harddrive. The main thing is, that I have an external backup (whitout MicroSD-Cardslot a little challange)
+ IR Sensor to controll HiFi and TV! ZaZa remote is my favourit App to use it.
Negative:
- No possibility to distinguish the SMS-Inbox of the two mobilenumbers. Sure, there is this little "1" or "2" behind the date. But what I would like to see is a "Dual App" for the Messages-App, a possibility to filter the messages by mobilenumber or two tabs on top of the Display where I can choose the two SIM-Cards. Anything like that would be verry nice!
- MIUI don't give me the possibility to add an App-Link into two different folders on the homescreen =(
- No support of ExFat formated storage via USB-C (nor NTFS or HFS+) Any tip to solve this is verry welcome!
- E-Mail App does allow me to add different arriving IMAP and outgoing SMTP server but have NO possibility to add a different login for these two servers. A verry important feauture for me. (My Samsung was able to make this difference). Any hint is verry welcome! I've tried some other E-Mail Apps but didn't find one that can handle all my needs.
- No MicroSD Cardslot. You could say it's not necessary when you have 128GB internal storage, but for example the backup-process would be easyer with it.
Fazit:
Alltogether I am happy with my new device. It is, what I was looking for. The devices helps me to disassociate Job and Personal contacts whitout a second mobile. In some Videos i've seen, that it is more or less repairable and the replacement parts are available in the "bay", an important criterion I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your review.
What are the features of the e-mail app that make it superior to other e-mail apps such as Gmail, Cloud Magic or Blue Mail ?

Just updated to Miui V8.. I will watch out for bugs.
Sent from IPhone 7

@onestyle, TWRP backup by OTG works fine, I use pendrive and I did not see any problems.
Wytapatalkowane z Mi 5

lapocompris said:
Thanks for your review.
What are the features of the e-mail app that make it superior to other e-mail apps such as Gmail, Cloud Magic or Blue Mail ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've listet the eMail App as an negative point, so no superior things. The point is, that I was looking for a Mail App which chould cover my needs some years ago, and didn't found one. When I bought the Mi5 I just tried the wrong apps. BlueMail works great for my needs, thanks a lot for the hint!!! Cloud Magic I wasn't able to configure a different SMTP login (the function is existent, but it didn't accepted my server).
---------- Post added at 12:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:14 PM ----------
maroko1980 said:
@onestyle, TWRP backup by OTG works fine, I use pendrive and I did not see any problems.
Wytapatalkowane z Mi 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, that its working with your config. Could you tell me/us which version of TWRC you are using? Maybe my cable is the problem, where did you got yours? Kind regards