What's next after your XZ3TC. - Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooti

Cheers all.
My tablet compact is very dear to me, but it's getting to the point where I have to consider my next move. Phablets won't cut it for me anymore, I can't go back to 6" phones. But apart from Samsung and Huawei, I don't see many quality devices in our range. Sony hit my sweet spot with the screen size, build quality, battery and waterproofing. Hard to move on.
What's your next device? Have you considered any?

I quite fancy the z4, yes it's bigger, but it's seriously good
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/tablets/best-android-tablets-uk-2016-3265118/
Sent from my SGP621 using Tapatalk

Interesting thread as I just got the z3 tablet today. After last few months moving from one tablet to another I think I've found the right one.
The nexus 9. My second current and soon to be former is terrible! Can't believe I'm saying this about a nexus but it really is bad. Performance is terrible. Ram management so bad and makes true multitasking non existent really.
Prior to this I had a Samsung tab pro 10.1. It was almost as bad as the nexus. Can't decide really. Think it was worst. Lag after lag after lag.
Anyway, so I was looking for something that I could settle on performance wise as well as build quality... and a great display. So far so good. After just one day I can see huge differences. 3 gigs of ram for true multitasking. No lags. I think I will hold onto this one for quite some time.
And the design and build quality is superb.

voyager_s said:
Interesting thread as I just got the z3 tablet today. After last few months moving from one tablet to another I think I've found the right one.
The nexus 9. My second current and soon to be former is terrible! Can't believe I'm saying this about a nexus but it really is bad. Performance is terrible. Ram management so bad and makes true multitasking non existent really.
Prior to this I had a Samsung tab pro 10.1. It was almost as bad as the nexus. Can't decide really. Think it was worst. Lag after lag after lag.
Anyway, so I was looking for something that I could settle on performance wise as well as build quality... and a great display. So far so good. After just one day I can see huge differences. 3 gigs of ram for true multitasking. No lags. I think I will hold onto this one for quite some time.
And the design and build quality is superb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you'll be happy with your purchase. The XZ3TC is the finest tablet I've owned and I'm surprised it wasn't better received. I suppose Sony need to reprimand the marketing department. The worst thing about the XZ3TC is the camera, and that's saying a lot IMO.
Interesting to hear that about the nexus, as I understand it is widely praised. Will stay away then.
If I can't find a suitable replacement for my XZ3TC, I'll simply by another and use that while waiting for the next one

Chima2 said:
I think you'll be happy with your purchase. The XZ3TC is the finest tablet I've owned and I'm surprised it wasn't better received. I suppose Sony need to reprimand the marketing department. The worst thing about the XZ3TC is the camera, and that's saying a lot IMO.
Interesting to hear that about the nexus, as I understand it is widely praised. Will stay away then.
If I can't find a suitable replacement for my XZ3TC, I'll simply by another and use that while waiting for the next one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well after three days it's all good i can say. Leagues ahead of my previous devices in terms of performance, build and battery life. Over 7 hours screen on time and counting with half brightness. Wow!
The camera seems OK. I don't really use cameras on tablets so it's never an issue.
I'm also surprised by the Nexus 9. I had such high hopes as I've had many Nexus devices previously. The Nexus 7 (2013) was the best tablet I had to date, so I was expecting a lot. I would say the most disappointing purchase I've ever made with the Nexus 9. That's how bad it turned out to be.
Screen and front speakers are both great. build is OK. But performance (where Nexus devices traditionally shine) is terrible. Battery life is also not very good.
I think it's fundamental to a few things.
A. 64 bit android needs more memory.
B. A quad HD display needs more capable hardware (again it comes down to ram)
C. 2 gigs of ram is not enough./
It is literally not possible to have any decent amount of apps in memory on the Nexus 9. Almost every app needs to be reloaded once you navigate away from it. Multitasking is terrible.
There are also lots of slowdowns, freezes and lags throughout the user experience. I've done factory resets, rooted and gone back to stock, you name it. Terrible.
Add to that, I stopped rooting nexus devices years ago. Precisely because they are so good out the box nowadays. Nexus 9 excluding that is.
But anyway. I am very happy with the xperia z3 tablet.

simple DONT change it.Wait till something better with new technology will come out!Don't waste your money dude to take something similar...This tablet is the most perfect piece of art till now! ?

I wouldn't replace my xz3tc for long.
There is no real alternative and the performance is more than enough.
zuz mobile / edge

I just shattered my screen at Ikea, bummed out. But ordered a screen via eBay from the UK. Taking it to a fixer shop this week. Hopefully the glass isn't crap, will post here when the glass is replaced. LCD is luckily just fine!
Been looking for a replacement for this device, but even with a shattered glass screen there is none. Sony did a damn fine job here.

Yes, I love my tablet - it is the right combination of everything and since the market is racing to the bottom to get sales I'm glad to see it is still well regarded two years down the line.

Related

considering getting my money back...

So Ive been playing with the nexus 10 since last friday. The device is nice, I like it. First, My device has light bleed. And my 1st replacement is worse than the original. I will see if my 2nd replacement is any better. In the meantime, I consider requesting a refund. I never thought of returning this before. However, the more I use it, I realized pure android is not what I expected. I have a note 10.1 so I compare this with the nexus.
First, I always thought touchwiz sucked. well, indeed it sucks (lags), but it has some cool features that pure android don't. FOr ex, the quick settings in touchwiz is more convenient with more options. like on touchwiz, when you touch "wifi", it will turn off and on immediately. On nexus 10, it will take you to the wifi settings. also I hate the space waste of the status bar.okay well, this is just a minor thing.
2nd, video player. The note plays just everything I throw at it. And the nexus don't. and you have to do a lot of modification to get it work. BS player can play them fine, but it is not fully supported yet so it crashes. and video quality on BSplayer is worse than other players like MX (but MX doesn't have sound playing mkv :/)
3rd, Apps. I know it's just too soon to complain but apps are not supported on the nexus 10 yet. Icons are blurry. apps lag on the nexus 10 because of too many pixels. I hope this will be fixed soon but considering there are many tablets out there that does not have 300 pixels per inch like the nexus. Not sure if ALL developers will adjust their apps to get it supported on the nexus any soon. I've got frustrated with the nexus so I found myself on my Note more.
4th, battery. well batter is not bad, but not good either. It's acceptable and I wish it could be better. ALso, slow charge (this might be fixed in near future thanks to the pogo but no one knows if it's gonna be released or not). average battery + slow charge. seems like a perfect combination...
I will make final decision on friday depending on the condition of my 2nd replacement. if it has worse light bleed then Im done with this. Too tired to send it back. I still want to keep it cause it's a nice thing to have. (oh and Im not interested in the ipad, that's why I didn't compare this with the ipad). SO yeah... anyone feels free to have opinion. I kinda need someone to convince me to keep it.
And i totally understand you.
Despite of that, i'm not gonna ask for refund, since this is the only android tablet quite usable, fluid etc.
Battery is quite disappointing, can't get more than 5.5 hours onscreen, can't understand how users get 8.X hours of this, wifi off? minimum brightness? Pointless.
Screen is, well, i though this screen would be on pair with cellphones, but it isn't, brightness, contrast, are not as good as were supposed. And light bleed, the thing many people say is in every single lcd display. Well, if a defective product is usual for you... despite 40% of the LCDs have it, ok, but it doesn't mean its usual.
The only thing that 'wowed' me was the sound, pretty amazing.
Btw i also love touchwiz in my galaxy S3, 0 lags there.
same here in all points, mine is going back too
In addition: the build quality is good on first impression but really really sucks in real!
I'm loosing Wifi all the time
The UI in the middle is just ridiculous
it's freezing and restarting
mkv's are lagging
in summary it's just disappointing after one week
Only thing that I'm not too "happy" about is the performance of some games on the Nexus 10. I was expecting GTA III to be easily playable on highest settings, but it runs at pretty low FPS, with the "Screen Resolution" setting being the biggest hit it seems, being tied to the extreme resolution of the Nexus 10. I was also very surprised with the performance of "Beats" (music game with DDR and osu! gamemodes). Something that looks "that" simple gives about 30-40 FPS somehow...
Aside from those 2 games though, everything else seems to run fine, performance wise. Kinda just want to get a controller and keyboard/stand for the N10, and I think it'll be perfect
I'll be keeping my Nexus 10 though Mainly because I want to try to get into Android Development, and so far the N10 seems to have the best specs of any Android tablet (currently).
Straf said:
And i totally understand you.
Despite of that, i'm not gonna ask for refund, since this is the only android tablet quite usable, fluid etc.
Battery is quite disappointing, can't get more than 5.5 hours onscreen, can't understand how users get 8.X hours of this, wifi off? minimum brightness? Pointless.
Screen is, well, i though this screen would be on pair with cellphones, but it isn't, brightness, contrast, are not as good as were supposed. And light bleed, the thing many people say is in every single lcd display. Well, if a defective product is usual for you... despite 40% of the LCDs have it, ok, but it doesn't mean its usual.
The only thing that 'wowed' me was the sound, pretty amazing.
Btw i also love touchwiz in my galaxy S3, 0 lags there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah the nexus 10 is the best android tablet you should buy at the moment, hands down. But my note doesn't have light bleed at all. and touchwiz only lags on the Note tablet. I have the S3 too and it doesn't lag.
rookiegenius said:
So Ive been playing with the nexus 10 since last friday. The device is nice, I like it. First, My device has light bleed. And my 1st replacement is worse than the original. I will see if my 2nd replacement is any better. In the meantime, I consider requesting a refund. I never thought of returning this before. However, the more I use it, I realized pure android is not what I expected. I have a note 10.1 so I compare this with the nexus.
First, I always thought touchwiz sucked. well, indeed it sucks (lags), but it has some cool features that pure android don't. the quick settings in touchwiz is more convenient with more options. also I hate the space waste of the status bar.okay well, this is just a minor thing.
2nd, video player. The note plays just everything I throw at it. And the nexus don't. and you have to do a lot of modification to get it work. BS player can play them fine, but it is not fully supported yet so it crashes.And those bluray rip mkv on the nexus 10 doesn't look as good as the note 10.1. (Im not talking about real HD movies you buy from google play but those mkv that you downloaded). those blu ray mkv's resolution is not high enough for a screen like the nexus. On the note, it looks smoother.
3rd, Apps. I know it's just too soon to complain but apps are not supported on the nexus 10 yet. Icons are blurry. apps lag on the nexus 10 because of too many pixels. I hope this will be fixed soon but considering there are many tablets out there that does not have 300 pixels per inch like the nexus. Not sure if ALL developers will adjust their apps to get it supported on the nexus.
4th, battery. well batter is not bad, but not good either. It's acceptable and I wish it could be better. ALso, slow charge (this might be fixed in near future thanks to the pogo but no one knows if it's gonna be released or not).
I will make the final decision on friday depending on the condition of my 2nd replacement. if it has worse light bleed then Im done with this. Too tired to send it back. I still want to keep it cause it's a nice thing to have. (oh and Im not interested in the ipad, that's why I didn't compare this with the ipad). SO yeah... anyone feels free to have opinion. I kinda need someone to convince me to keep it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheer up the Nexus is awesome. Mine has no bleed or any issues. Your first Nexus left a bad taste in your mouth. Get past it and you'll be good.
2. QQ Player for videos.
3. Apps will come with time.
4. Charge isn't great but any micro USB can charge it and that's a big plus.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda premium
Keeping mine as long as it lives.. totally love it.. havn't noticed any light bleed at all.. but then again im not looking for it tried playing asphalt 7 and nfs.. and both played fine.. but those types of games blow goats on a tablet.. so 100% happy
happy with nexus
I gotta say I'm pretty happy with this nexus tablet. I've never had a tablet before and besides spending limited time on my wife's iPad I never had a notion to get a tablet. I don't hamve the light bleed and my tablet shipped and arrived exactly when it was supposed to. So not negative to say other than the battery. I'm with the other guy. 5.5 hours is about all I can get. I can't wait for a case for this thing.
rookiegenius said:
yeah the nexus 10 is the best android tablet you should buy at the moment, hands down. But my note doesn't have light bleed at all. and touchwiz only lags on the Note tablet. I have the S3 too and it doesn't lag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what i meant with the lightbleed issue, not every single tablet leaks, here there are some users that, since they have so MUCH hope for this tablet, say that lightbleed is usual in every single tablet, and thats not truth.
And i repeat, i'm gonna keep this, but Google haven't done a good job with this. Problems, meh screen, poor performance (specially with chrome), no accesories, their shop was and is a mess.... And i say this after thinking that nexus 10 should be the device that makes android tablets take off. If i compare nexus 10 with other android tablets, it obviously is great, but not such a flagship (or ipad killer, as many people likes to say) as was spected.
Also coming from a Note 10.1. Overall, I like the Note 10.1 better. What the Note 10.1 lacks in resolution makes up with more vibrant display, better blacks, no backlight bleed, clearer sound, etc. Nexus 10 battery is not a concern since I was planning to use it as a desktop/laptop alternative but now I find out that HDMI output is laggy. Having reservations and thinking maybe I should hold off for Samsung's new tablet or updated Note 10.1 or just getting the Note II. They mistakenly shipped me a 16GB instead of 32GB so if the replacement unit that's coming Friday still has issues I'm probably going to ask for a refund.
I came from the Note 10.1 , personally, can't stand TW, and as far as the pulldowns go, you will see the same thing once the note 10.1 is updated to 4.2 which it does not have, "officially".
Personal opinion is the display is far superior on the Nexus 10, also standard micro usb compared to sammy connector.
I think the sound is better on the Nexus, but not by much.
I am one of the lucky ones, mine has no light bleed, although my note 10.1 had some, not bad but it was there.
So all and all I am happy with the Nexus 10, but it is a personal choice, IF I was currently going to have another tablet it would be the Note 10.1 or the new transformer.
just my .02
I would go Ativ tab 10.1 or surface pro before even considering a note 10.1 or infinity.
Tomatoes8 said:
I would go Ativ tab 10.1 or surface pro before even considering a note 10.1 or infinity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ativ Tab 10.1 is nice hardware but terrible UI with Windows 8 and weak app selection. Surface Pro is too pricey just for touch input. I can always upgrade to Windows 8 for $15 on my laptop but haven't bothered with the hassle since it doesn't really offer much.
Interesting thread...definitely makes me appreciate my N7 even more.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Watcher64 said:
I came from the Note 10.1 , personally, can't stand TW, and as far as the pulldowns go, you will see the same thing once the note 10.1 is updated to 4.2 which it does not have, "officially".
Personal opinion is the display is far superior on the Nexus 10, also standard micro usb compared to sammy connector.
I think the sound is better on the Nexus, but not by much.
I am one of the lucky ones, mine has no light bleed, although my note 10.1 had some, not bad but it was there.
So all and all I am happy with the Nexus 10, but it is a personal choice, IF I was currently going to have another tablet it would be the Note 10.1 or the new transformer.
just my .02
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IF I wasn't impressed with the N10, I would absolutely steer clear of Asus' Transformer line of tablets IMO. I bought the Prime (TF201) when it first came out & the Infinity Pad (TF700) after returning the latter. They both had the typical I/O sloppiness and general lag that proves the "it has 4 cores" argument is a poor one lol.
Bottom line - I've spent most of the day with the N10 and have been thoroughly impressed. If any issues do arise...its a Nexus so unlocking the boot loader to improve performance won't void my warranty...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I'm not totally enthralled by either. First one had dust laminated in the display and some backlight bleed. My new one has bleed in both the bottom corners, but it is slightly worse. Even at 0% brightness in a completely dark room I can still make it out, I mean it doesn't stand out, but I can still see the faintest outline. Idk if I will send it back. I really don't want to get one that has worse bleed. I may just put up with this minor inconvenience until next year when the n10 2 comes out.
A lot of the issues mentioned will be fixed with software or firmware updates. Remember this is the early adopter problem.
Also dev roms will crush bugs or improve battery, add features, etc.
I love my N10.
Have no light bleed, or maybe I do but did not notice anything.
Its extremely smooth.
Yes there is some wasted screen sapcd with the new UI but all will be fixed with custom roms.
And mist of the apps I was using on my iPad are available on market and look good for me.
All in all, within a couple of weeks this thing will be a monster.
I love this tablet. Zero backlight bleeding I can see during normal use, no dead or stuck pixels, amazing build quality, BEAUTIFUL display (I noticed how much better it was than my iPad 3s the instant money turned it on) . and great battery life. Certainly the battery doesn't last as long as the iPads (it has a smaller battery) but I got 9hours of screen on time today and 14 hours total surfing, playing the odd game or two, checking emails etc. The odd freezing issue will be fixed through an update I'm confident. Most of these issues are resulting from the fact that we are early adopters to a brand new device.
Return it if you're not happy with it. What's the point in announcing it to the rest of the community?
Makes no sense. Hope you're happy with whatever you get to replace it.

My experience with the HTC One..

So I was finally able to get my hands on the device late last night. First impression was what I had heard from the reviews, the phone is the best android phone ever built from a hardware perspective, and on par with the iPhone 5. What was sort of disappointing is I was expecting the One to beat the iPhone 5 in terms of hardware build quality, but it just felt on the same level as the iPhone 5.
Screen...was nice. My self hype got me to expect to be blown away by the 1080p Super LCD 3, but honestly it is just a sharp screen that is on par with the (sorry for this) iPhone 5. I am in no way saying the screen is bad, it is excellent. However the full 1080p vs full 720p on a phone is hardly noticeable, which was a bummer seeing that it was one of the highlighted specs on the phone. One gripe I had about my screen was that when it was off and I was in broad daylight, I could see blueish grid lines on the phone. I'm not sure if this is a defect that would rid itself after a replacement or just something that you can expect to see. But I have never seen it before and it bothers me.
Speakers! AWESOME. Best sound on a mobile device period. HTC got this one right and makes videos/gaming on with phone a pleasure. Plenty loud too. 10/10 on the speakers.
UI was blazing fast, however my return to Sense since HTC One X wasn't that great. While it is much faster, it also seems more complex. Getting around the phone was a bit confusing for a while with the funky menu style and Blinkfeed defaulted as the home screen. Plus only 2 capacity buttons is wacky! But I expect that to be fixed up once those custom ROMs start rolling out ready to be flashed.
Camera was good for my standards. I honestly don't take a lot of pictures, but from the shots I took they looked great. Plus with only 4 MP they take up less space on the memory which is good. I didn't try the Zoey feature out, seems like a gimmick to me, but what do I know??
Now performance...this is what disappointed me to the point that I returned it early this afternoon. While the UI is blazing fast and my everyday use apps ran pretty well, there were some games that lagged considerably when playing them. The game I noticed this first was Hill Climb Racer. This was the first eye opener since this game runs flawlessly with no lag at all on my Galaxy Note 2 and iPhone 5, but on the One it seemed to stutter and have difficult keeping up with the side scrolling (maybe its an app issue and needs an update). Call me picky but I am a big Hill Climb player so that drove me nuts. So I would say overall performance was good, but should be way better considering its the biggest baddest phone on the market now.
So I paid a visit to my local AT&T store to see about the blueish grid appearance on the screen, but the sales rep told me that was a normal finding (I am still skeptical). Then I went over to the demo unit and installed Hill Climb to see if maybe the stutter was a screen issue on my phone, but sure enough the same lag was present on the store unit. I ultimately decided to part ways with it and return it for a refund. This way I can see if I like the black when it becomes available, or just wait until the next big thing.
How is everyone else's experience with the One? Is the blue grid noticeable on your phones? And do you notice any lag in games like Hill Climb?
Its because the apps aka games are not optimized yet for the s600 most likely. Probably just wait for app developers to optimize it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Awesome. Returned a newly release device because a game hasn't been optimized for it. Forward thinker..
How is a screen on par with the iPhone 5, but slightly sharper? Apple lovers: oooh retina ZOMG!!! Android device with higher PPI: hardly noticeable, lol.
Unfortunately that is the price that is paid for latest and greatest hardware. Same problems I had last year with the S3. You are just going to have to wait for developers to catch up with the S600 cpu.
Also unfortunately for you you were comparing to the Note 2 which I feel has the best software compatibility of any highend phone released the past 6 months. Again that's most likely because the hardware it uses was released almost a year ago in the S3 international.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
oneinfour said:
So I was finally able to get my hands on the device late last night. First impression was what I had heard from the reviews, the phone is the best android phone ever built from a hardware perspective, and on par with the iPhone 5. What was sort of disappointing is I was expecting the One to beat the iPhone 5 in terms of hardware build quality, but it just felt on the same level as the iPhone 5.
Screen...was nice. My self hype got me to expect to be blown away by the 1080p Super LCD 3, but honestly it is just a sharp screen that is on par with the (sorry for this) iPhone 5. I am in no way saying the screen is bad, it is excellent. However the full 1080p vs full 720p on a phone is hardly noticeable, which was a bummer seeing that it was one of the highlighted specs on the phone. One gripe I had about my screen was that when it was off and I was in broad daylight, I could see blueish grid lines on the phone. I'm not sure if this is a defect that would rid itself after a replacement or just something that you can expect to see. But I have never seen it before and it bothers me.
Speakers! AWESOME. Best sound on a mobile device period. HTC got this one right and makes videos/gaming on with phone a pleasure. Plenty loud too. 10/10 on the speakers.
UI was blazing fast, however my return to Sense since HTC One X wasn't that great. While it is much faster, it also seems more complex. Getting around the phone was a bit confusing for a while with the funky menu style and Blinkfeed defaulted as the home screen. Plus only 2 capacity buttons is wacky! But I expect that to be fixed up once those custom ROMs start rolling out ready to be flashed.
Camera was good for my standards. I honestly don't take a lot of pictures, but from the shots I took they looked great. Plus with only 4 MP they take up less space on the memory which is good. I didn't try the Zoey feature out, seems like a gimmick to me, but what do I know??
Now performance...this is what disappointed me to the point that I returned it early this afternoon. While the UI is blazing fast and my everyday use apps ran pretty well, there were some games that lagged considerably when playing them. The game I noticed this first was Hill Climb Racer. This was the first eye opener since this game runs flawlessly with no lag at all on my Galaxy Note 2 and iPhone 5, but on the One it seemed to stutter and have difficult keeping up with the side scrolling (maybe its an app issue and needs an update). Call me picky but I am a big Hill Climb player so that drove me nuts. So I would say overall performance was good, but should be way better considering its the biggest baddest phone on the market now.
So I paid a visit to my local AT&T store to see about the blueish grid appearance on the screen, but the sales rep told me that was a normal finding (I am still skeptical). Then I went over to the demo unit and installed Hill Climb to see if maybe the stutter was a screen issue on my phone, but sure enough the same lag was present on the store unit. I ultimately decided to part ways with it and return it for a refund. This way I can see if I like the black when it becomes available, or just wait until the next big thing.
How is everyone else's experience with the One? Is the blue grid noticeable on your phones? And do you notice any lag in games like Hill Climb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's funny how you would return a phone due to the app not being optimized, it's difficult to have optimized for every device/manufacturer so your best bet is getting an iPhone since it won't have that problem.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
I had the blue grid thingy on my droid 3 as well. I just went outside and checked and yes I can see it while the screen is off if I concentrate. I thought it was just a thing with LCD screens. Doesn't annoy me any, and of course it's not visible with the screen on. only game I've tried was dead trigger, and it ran flawlessly, so I'm pleased. I stopped noticing performance increases after the OMAP4 to snapdragon s4 jump though, that was the last big one for me.
Yup, apps just aren't optimized for the 600 yet. If you want an example of that, download Dolphin Browser. Incredibly smooth on my One XL, but runs terribly on the One.
I think you made a poor choice in returning it just because some apps run poorly, but I suppose it's your call.
jamesklyne said:
Awesome. Returned a newly release device because a game hasn't been optimized for it. Forward thinker..
How is a screen on par with the iPhone 5, but slightly sharper? Apple lovers: oooh retina ZOMG!!! Android device with higher PPI: hardly noticeable, lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure Apple hit the sweet spot for sharpness, which is probably why it's hardly noticeable.
Cryosx said:
I'm pretty sure Apple hit the sweet spot for sharpness, which is probably why it's hardly noticeable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll argue that. Whereas the iPhone 5's display is amazing, when I walked into AT&T and saw the waterfall or stream picture on it [HTC One] (babbling brooke? lol) I definitely saw the difference.
jamesklyne said:
Awesome. Returned a newly release device because a game hasn't been optimized for it. Forward thinker..
How is a screen on par with the iPhone 5, but slightly sharper? Apple lovers: oooh retina ZOMG!!! Android device with higher PPI: hardly noticeable, lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you are the first company on the market to release a screen that has a high enough pixel density that the eye can't distinguish the pixels, the public is going to notice the drastic change. My point was that since most phones now have high enough pixel density where the eye can't see the pixels, a 400+ PPI on a phone screen doesn't produce the same "WOW" factor that the iPhone introduced when the retina display several years ago, which was disappointing since I was excited about the screen about the HTC One.
eddieruiz001 said:
It's funny how you would return a phone due to the app not being optimized, it's difficult to have optimized for every device/manufacturer so your best bet is getting an iPhone since it won't have that problem.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That wasn't the only factor going into the return. The blue grid when the screen is off bothered me, the wacky interface of sense 5 bothered me. I figured it might be best to hold off for a month or two and wait for later batches to come out. That way most apps will be optimized and maybe the screen grid will be gone, and I will be able to get it in black. Or there will be an even better phone out. Who knows!
oneinfour said:
When you are the first company on the market to release a screen that has a high enough pixel density that the eye can't distinguish the pixels, the public is going to notice the drastic change. My point was that since most phones now have high enough pixel density where the eye can't see the pixels, a 400+ PPI on a phone screen doesn't produce the same "WOW" factor that the iPhone introduced when the retina display several years ago, which was disappointing since I was excited about the screen about the HTC One.
That wasn't the only factor going into the return. The blue grid when the screen is off bothered me, the wacky interface of sense 5 bothered me. I figured it might be best to hold off for a month or two and wait for later batches to come out. That way most apps will be optimized and maybe the screen grid will be gone, and I will be able to get it in black. Or there will be an even better phone out. Who knows!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apple's NON HD Retina Iphone 5 screen isn't that great.
A 1080p 4.7 inch display, hmm now that's better.
But seriously, if your eyes can't tell the difference, doesn't mean we all have poor eyes
Dazog said:
Apple's NON HD Retina Iphone 5 screen isn't that great.
A 1080p 4.7 inch display, hmm now that's better.
But seriously, if your eyes can't tell the difference, doesn't mean we all have poor eyes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, I am not trying to say there isn't a difference, there is. My point is that the difference isn't as impressive the jump in pixel density that started in 2010. Geez, I should probably stop using "Apple" or "iPhone" in my posts since it seems to cause people to get unnecessarily defensive.
Dude u like iPhone better just admitted it lol
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
The "blue grid" is the digitizer for the capacitive touchscreen. It is normal, and almost all phones have this, except for the Optimus G, Nexus 4, and iPhone 5 which use in-cell touch sensing (which requires much more cooperation with the display manufacturer and might not be possible yet on such a high-density display).
See here:
http://anandtech.com/show/6330/the-iphone-5-review/15
In addition to just the air-adhesive interfaces introducing thickness and unavoidable Fresnel reflections, there’s also the traces from transparent conductors in the digitizer as well to think about. At present that material is Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), which is one of very few known transparent conductors and used inside every LCD. Because Indium is a relatively expensive rare earth metal, ITO traces are only laid down where they need to be on top of and below the glass substrate (for both transmit and receive layers of the digitizer), and the areas inbetween those traces are then filled with an index-matching space fill material to diminish their visibility. How well this space fill is done and how close the index is to ITO’s is one of the quality metrics of a digitizer to begin with, and often these rows and columns are visible under direct illumination either outdoors or with good eyes indoors.
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Click to collapse
Jeez, you couldnt have atleast used it over the weekend? Why didnt you just try a demo in the store and see if your favorite games work good on it or not?
Got mine from bestbuy this morning. I have 14 days to let this phone wow me so that I don't return it for the S4. So far I love the phone. Can't keep my hands off it so I don't know about battery life. The only issue I have is the button layout. I quickly replaced the stock launcher with nova.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
I'm sorry that you returned an amazing phone because of a game. I'll be getting one soon but I don't play games much so hopefully my experience is as good as yours was minus the game.
Dazog said:
Apple's NON HD Retina Iphone 5 screen isn't that great.
A 1080p 4.7 inch display, hmm now that's better.
But seriously, if your eyes can't tell the difference, doesn't mean we all have poor eyes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd honestly choose a 720p 4.7 inch display over a 1080p 4.7 if it meant better battery life and gaming performance.
Dazog said:
Apple's NON HD Retina Iphone 5 screen isn't that great.
A 1080p 4.7 inch display, hmm now that's better.
But seriously, if your eyes can't tell the difference, doesn't mean we all have poor eyes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is more to a display than PPI.
The iPhone 5 still has incredible color reproduction and viewing angles, along with in-cell touch and no gap between glass and display.
jamesklyne said:
Awesome. Returned a newly release device because a game hasn't been optimized for it. Forward thinker..
How is a screen on par with the iPhone 5, but slightly sharper? Apple lovers: oooh retina ZOMG!!! Android device with higher PPI: hardly noticeable, lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I picked mine up yesterday and I've switched from an iPhone 5. The screen is much better than the iPhone 5 and the build quality of mine is just as good and I would argue better with the design of the front screen.
ANYONE who returns this within 1-3 days hasn't given it a proper consideration. Ignore them.
Since I picked it up yesterday, many things have gone from "Not sure about this" to "This is great". The keyboard layout (switched to Swiftkey), the size, the app tray, and other areas take time to adjust to after half a DECADE+ of iOS use.
I have enjoyed every iPhone and advocated it strongly to my friends and family and I'm here to say that I am sure I will be keeping the HTC One as an iPhone replacement. Other people can argue which is better, but I wanted something innovative and different for the term cost of my upgrades.
As far as the camera goes, it won't take as good of a picture with a quick point and click in most circumstances but it is very powerful if you learn to use it properly and post edit down the captured light (lots) to a solid photo. It is a great camera, but I wouldn't say better...just different.

Tired of waiting... Is the Nexus 10 still one of the best tablets to buy?

I keep seeing these great deals on the Nexus 10. Although it's an old tablet it is well received and still seems to be among the best available. After deciding to wait for the new version, it keeps getting pushed back and who knows when it will actually be available? I think I may just go with the original N10 as my Asus TF300 is absolutely driving me nuts. It's nearly unusable at times... if it's doing any kind of app update or sync, forget it, it's unusable. I am rooted and on a custom ROM and still have issues. I was fed up and need a replacement now. Should I stick with the N10 or maybe look into some other tablets... Budget is around $300...
Yeah its still a good tablet if you can get it for a decent price. I love mine, although it does have its flaws for sure. But if my tablet suddenly turned into a stack of $300 bills I am not sure I would buy it again. I would probably look at maybe a Sony Tablet Z.
The reason i say this is that the N10 is not a perfect device. For a start the battery is not the best. On 4.3 I would eek out 8 hours with very conservative use and low brightness. On 4.4 that has dropped to 6-7 hours on a very good day. The battery issue is mainly due to the chipsets used, which is a dual core A15 and Mali T604 graphics. Both of these are pretty power hungry compared to newer chipsets. Newer CPU's have lower powered cores which handle mundane tasks and conserve power. Also, the graphics use up 1GB of the system memory, so really you only get 1GB for system RAM and not 2GB like most tablets. Kitkat 4.4. had to be gimped on the N10 mainly due to the N10 not have enough grunt to run certain aspects of 4.4 like the translucent bars and ART without stutter. Another thing is its not a tablet to be held in portrait mode due to the design. It should be held in landscape mode at all times. It just feels way better held like that.
Don't get me wrong I love my N10, especially the design. Its definitely the best tablet in terms of ergonomics I have used. The screen is still fantastic and the speakers being on the front are really great and go to a decent level. Performance is also really good being vanilla android and all with no bloatware.
So I do love my N10 but its not perfect, but I can live with its faults. But if I was to buy another tablet tomorrow I would definitely look around at the competition.
Warren_Orange said:
Yeah its still a good tablet if you can get it for a decent price. I love mine, although it does have its flaws for sure. But if my tablet suddenly turned into a stack of $300 bills I am not sure I would buy it again. I would probably look at maybe a Sony Tablet Z.
The reason i say this is that the N10 is not a perfect device. For a start the battery is not the best. On 4.3 I would eek out 8 hours with very conservative use and low brightness. On 4.4 that has dropped to 6-7 hours on a very good day. The battery issue is mainly due to the chipsets used, which is a dual core A15 and Mali T604 graphics. Both of these are pretty power hungry compared to newer chipsets. Newer CPU's have lower powered cores which handle mundane tasks and conserve power. Also, the graphics use up 1GB of the system memory, so really you only get 1GB for system RAM and not 2GB like most tablets. Kitkat 4.4. had to be gimped on the N10 mainly due to the N10 not have enough grunt to run certain aspects of 4.4 like the translucent bars and ART without stutter. Another thing is its not a tablet to be held in portrait mode due to the design. It should be held in landscape mode at all times. It just feels way better held like that.
Don't get me wrong I love my N10, especially the design. Its definitely the best tablet in terms of ergonomics I have used. The screen is still fantastic and the speakers being on the front are really great and go to a decent level. Performance is also really good being vanilla android and all with no bloatware.
So I do love my N10 but its not perfect, but I can live with its faults. But if I was to buy another tablet tomorrow I would definitely look around at the competition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Almost Everything Warren_Orange has said is true to certain degree. The screen is still fantastic compared to newer tablets even though it may not be #1 anymore in terms of quality. Yes, ram on the nexus 10 is a little scarce due to the high screen resolution but its not a deal breaker by any means. KitKat has vastly improved ram management on this device and it is a night and day difference. Battery life could certainly be better and don't even get me started on the insanely long charging times lol.
A few things I would kindly disagree with is that "the processor in the N10 doesn't have enough power for 4.4." I think the features missing from 4.4 on the N10 has more to due with fact that its using an exynos processor and not snapdragon or some other mainstream chip. Exynos chips tend to be more locked down with their drivers and less compatible than other popular chipsets. I haven't come across one app or game that my n10 couldn't run or struggled with. If anything it seems like Google hasn't totally optimized this tablet to its fullest potential on the software end. Also I think the N10 is fine held in portrait mode. It just feels little odd at first if you're not used to a 16:9 tablet.
Like Warren_Orange said, the N10 isn't prefect but its still a great tablet. One thing I would recommend if you decide to purchase it (and are comfortable with) is root it, install a ROM like SlimKat Official build 3 and over clock the CPU and GPU (overclocking the gpu will be the most beneficial to help cope with the screen resolution while overclocking the cpu is totally optional as it already has two powerful A15 cores) while at the same time undevolting. This helps tremendously with the overall performance of the device and other gripes associated with it.
Good luck with your decision! And if you get the chance, please post back and let us know what route you decide to take. We're more than happy to help with more questions that may arise.
Well I love my N10! The battery life isn't that bad. I can usually get close to 10 hours with apps that don't tax the gpu. The charging time does stink... 5 hours is too long. All in all, I've been enjoying mine since last May. Just buy an N7 for now to hold you over to the next 10 incher is released. Purchased one for my wife and she loves it.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
I would definitely buy again, no questions asked.
I don't know what everyone else's problems with the battery life are, I get 1.5-2 days worth of use with mine including leaving it on all night unplugged. Even if the battery life is a "problem" for some, just plug it in each night anyhow and you're good to go.
The screen is phenominal on this thing, the front facing speakers are great as well. There's also plenty of developer activity, and a somewhat minimal amount of people having issues with their devices. The two biggest weak points that people seem to have in terms of having to return it are screen light leak, and the battery occasionally going from ~20% suddenly to 0%. Both of which, are fixed easily by Samsung via a return.
Outside that, I still really like mine, so I say buy one. Especially if you're going to be paying $200 less than what I paid for mine ($499?)
No complaints on battery life from me. The high-res display is what sells this thing, and as an added bonus it has front-facing speakers and is super lightweight. My only complaint is the finicky Wifi; depending where I am in the house, the Wifi becomes dog slow despite a strong signal.
If you can find a good deal on Nexus 10, then yes it's a worthy purchase.
I just got the Nexus 10 as a gift yesterday. So far I am liking it. I have had a rooted nexus 7 32gb first gen since it came out and I love that one. I am trying to decide whether to root the nexus 10 or not. I am sure that the other roms are better for battery life than stock.
Joe
Get a case with the magnet deal allowing it to sleep. Then set wireless to shut off when in sleep mode. This will help allot with battery life. I always charge mine when powered down (mostly overnight) that helps with charging speed some.
I have had the N10 awhile now, running ThunderKat 4.4.2 ROM and Kernel. No complaints here.
jfed said:
I just got the Nexus 10 as a gift yesterday. So far I am liking it. I have had a rooted nexus 7 32gb first gen since it came out and I love that one. I am trying to decide whether to root the nexus 10 or not. I am sure that the other roms are better for battery life than stock.
Joe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root it add the recovery of your choice then install Viper4Android, Onandroid, Xposed framework and at least it's Gravity box module. All of which can be found by searching XDA.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
I have been a flash whore with the nexus 7 so I thought I knew what I was doing but what you just suggested to me I have not clue about the other stuff other than the recovery lol I will have to look it up and learn how to do all that.
Thanks.
Joe
ObsoleteSoldier said:
Well I love my N10! The battery life isn't that bad. I can usually get close to 10 hours with apps that don't tax the gpu. The charging time does stink... 5 hours is too long. All in all, I've been enjoying mine since last May. Just buy an N7 for now to hold you over to the next 10 incher is released. Purchased one for my wife and she loves it.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With PoGo charger it only takes 2 hours, they are really cheap too. Also charges while you use it as well.
I love this tablet. I'm starting to think some people have N10s that were shipped with lemon batteries or something, if I use it occasionally I can go 3-4 days before charging with about 6 hours screen on time. Today (NCAA tournament baby) I abused the tablet all day and still got over 18 hours with 7 hours of screen on time, and it's sitting here hovering around 15%. Virtually all of those 7 hours were with the brightness at about 50% streaming video. Having said that, I got mine in November 2012 and am pretty anal about charging habits. This IS my first tablet, so maybe I'm not expecting as much out of my battery as other users?
I don't think I'll be purchasing the 2014 Nexus 10 (if it ever arrives), the current gen is every thing I need from a tablet and more. I suppose there are now newer tablets with better specs, but would it affect the utility it provides me? I think not.
If you are a spec whore, don't get this tablet. If you are looking for a top notch tablet with decent development that is currently selling for a relatively cheap price tag, GET IT!
Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk
I read that Google is dropping the 10" for a new 8".
Sent from my Nexus 10 using xda app-developers app
Go for it. Even though i have an android phone or a pc when i get to home my nexus 10 is the only device i use, except for texts and alarm If you know what you can expect from a tab and you consider buying a nexus 10 i can tell you wont regret.
3DSammy said:
Root it add the recovery of your choice then install Viper4Android, Onandroid, Xposed framework and at least it's Gravity box module. All of which can be found by searching XDA.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the post, will look into those two as been running pretty vanilla here for awhile.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
Lamski said:
I keep seeing these great deals on the Nexus 10. Although it's an old tablet it is well received and still seems to be among the best available. After deciding to wait for the new version, it keeps getting pushed back and who knows when it will actually be available? I think I may just go with the original N10 as my Asus TF300 is absolutely driving me nuts. It's nearly unusable at times... if it's doing any kind of app update or sync, forget it, it's unusable. I am rooted and on a custom ROM and still have issues. I was fed up and need a replacement now. Should I stick with the N10 or maybe look into some other tablets... Budget is around $300...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're still interested, there's a seller on ebay that is listing a brand new 32GB N10 for $300: http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/116766/ebay---32gb-samsung-nexus-10-10-android-tablet
I've had N10 for 4 months, it goes alongside my N4 of 14 months and N7 of 20 months.
I use my N7 on long haul flights for space and battery reasons, N10 in hotels and home, N7 when really moving around a lot like on a bike and when going between meetings as it fits in a trouser pocket. My N4's with me all the time.
The N10's battery life really sucks, battery charging is slow, BUT I just use it in proportion to my other devices and I got the Pogo cable, when its not moving around its connected to the Pogo cable, that keeps on top of demand and I've NEVER had flat battery turn off problems. When I'm in situations with high mobility and not expecting much plug-in time I'm using my N7 which lasts longer and charges faster. N10 does say a trans-continent 5 hour flight fine but say California to Europe it can't but a N7 can with possibly an external USB slim battery top-up.
The N10 and N7 bluetooth tethering seamless flawless reliable to the N4 so I got phone and tablet online all the time when on the go.
The N10 absolutely best features are it's display 1st, outstanding, and then its speakers being stereo and forward facing so you can actually sit on your laptop or on desk, etc and sit and watch it would headphones and its just a pleasure.
My N10 crashes in certain situations, so I simply avoid those situations. Its camera doesn't work reliably for say Skype... so I use my N7 or N4 for that.
Just so long as you don't have too high an expectations, don't expect perfection, and use it in contexts which fits its limitations, then for the <$300 figure use it and enjoy. If you limit its use to contexts it should last enough years and betya you can replace its battery with a guide in a couple of years to re-life it if you wanted.
You can spend as much $ buying 1 device which aims to be better but 2 or 3 devices are better, particular as if say you're watching Hulu on you N10 and when annoying commercials (who needs a car anyway) come on just pick up your N7 and check your email, so "multi-window" by other means.
Notice how my N7 is coming to 2 years and still used? Because the big-screen graphics stuff is on the N10 and the battery-hog situations avoid the N10 and go to N7. I think that's the way to go. The idea of one perfect tablet never happens, plus it sucks if it breaks and its all you got.
I got one of these dual USB chargers and the Pogo cable makes all the difference.
Good stuff guys, thanks for all the great info. I did decide to get one as there was a good deal last week. however the 32GB model for $300 is a great deal and if I knew it was coming I would have waited one more week. I received it yesterday and so far so good. Everything I expected so far except the stock email client's hyperlinks aren't clickable. I had to switch to another email client app. I will look into the pogo plug but I'm not sure if I really need it.
I'm still playing with it but the performance so far is as expected and far exceeds the TF300 it is replacing.
Lamski said:
Good stuff guys, thanks for all the great info. I did decide to get one as there was a good deal last week. however the 32GB model for $300 is a great deal and if I knew it was coming I would have waited one more week. I received it yesterday and so far so good. Everything I expected so far except the stock email client's hyperlinks aren't clickable. I had to switch to another email client app. I will look into the pogo plug but I'm not sure if I really need it.
I'm still playing with it but the performance so far is as expected and far exceeds the TF300 it is replacing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is the light bleed on your unit mate?
Cheers,
M
mark.m.moran said:
How is the light bleed on your unit mate?
Cheers,
M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't notice any obnormal light bleed when playing with various brightness settings. Where are you typically seeing the light bleed?

Still worthy?

Hi all.
When this device was launched it was my dream device, but that's more than a year ago. I've been running with the XZU for some time, and am seriously considering making the jump to the Z3TC. As far as I can tell, there's no stronger actor in the same segment in today's market when I consider manufacturer, software, guarantees etc - even the dev scene has some small manner of activity.
After seeing that there was no Z5 Ultra at IFA, I think I need to get this device - but I'd like to hear from users and others if there's any reason not to get it at this point (q3 2015)?
I'll be using this as my main driver, meaning also as a phone. I know the latest Huawei MediaPad can do some of what this tab can, and I'm hearing the nes Sammy tab can make phones too. But Sony's waterproofing and form factor has got me hooked, what say you xda?
Most used tablet I have ever owned. LTE did it for me. No more hunting Wifi.
And I agree about the form factor. Battery life rocks too.
I've been a phablet user since the Note. I moved to the Nexus 6 earlier this year and in August traded it for the Z3TC.
My main use is reading and watching videos. I don't take a lot of pictures or make/receive phone calls. With the N6 and other smartphones there was still too much scrolling around webpages. So it was the right time to make the jump to a small and light tablet which could be carried around all day without worrying about battery life.
I tried the Tab S 8.4 earlier in the year (before the lollipop release) and returned it. The Chrome browser was too laggy, I didn't try or want to use another browser. I was a bit worried about the performance coming from a Nexus 6 but so far have been amazed at how smooth everything is. I'll be holding on to mine for a long time.
I had a Z3 last year and I missed the magnetic charging connector, now I have it back on the tablet. I can use it in a dock beside the bed and at work and with magnetic adapters in the car.
The display isn't as good as the Tab S amoled display, noticeable when watching videos in a dark room. But it feels a lot better in the hand and I prefer the on screen buttons and placement of the speakers.
I just bought mine a week ago. after 8 years of iPhone!!
It's a great size and really good looking!
If you plan to put a custom rom on it you should be careful! My camera does not focus with CM12.1/crDroid.
the sony software sucks but what can you do?.. hehe
It's still a great device and it is my only device now. It's not a real phone though but it works. Headset is recommended
Thanks for the answers, folks!
I dived in and bought myself one too. Have to upgrade my dataplan as soon as it arrives. I couldn't wait until march for the Z5 Ultra which is somewhere down the pipeline. A bit nervous about the rooting process but overall super excited.
I'm thinking about taking the plunge on this too. My second gen Nexus 7 is really starting to show it's age, but I love the seven inch form factor. What I don't understand is all the different variants of this device. I live in Asia, and probably won't get the 4G model, but do want root. My big question is I would like a travel case like my Nexae had...silicone with overleaf cover. It is my sofa device, so only leaves home when I travel. I hate those sloppy covers like everyone has on their iPads with a few cheap elastics in the corners...ugly, heavy, and just bad design. Does anyone do anything like this that for thiis for this device?
https://www.asus.com/Tablet-Accessory/Nexus_7_Travel_Cover

Axon 7 USA 4GB/64GB vs. OnePlus 3 USA 6GB/64GB - Some Guys Review

PURPOSE
So 1st and foremost, the plan here is to give you my experience with these 2 phones. Granted, I have only used the Axon 7 for about 3 days now and can say I have yet to fully break it in to find everything that may or may not be right / wrong with it. However, this will be a unbiased look and comparison. I'm neither a fanboy or sheep. No brand affiliation. Not a programmer either, just a pro-sumer Senior Member of XDA willing to get trolled, flamed, etc. for sharing a look at these 2 phones. Hopefully, I can give "the everyday guy / gal look" without getting bogged down in stats, variables or benchmarks. Here goes...
MY BACKGROUND
No one special. Just a guy that likes the latest tech... phones being at the top of the list. I am a nerd. No doubt about that. I think anyone that knows about XDA probably is to some extent. No brand loyalty. Recently, I have had the privilege to try out the following phones:
1. Axon 7
2. OnePlus 3
3. HTC 10
4. LeEcco Le Max 2
5. Huawei P9
6. LG G5
7. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
8. Huawei Mate 8
9. Huawei Nexus 6P
10. LG Nexus 5X
11. Samsung Note 5
12. Apple iPhone 6s+
And probably some more, but these are the most recent. Does that make me qualified to make a review... Maybe. It does make me an idiot that likes new phones, though. I am always looking for something that meets my needs but also is a good phone. Currently with TMobile but have been with ATT, Verizon & Sprint at some point over 20 years of using cell phones.
MY NEEDS
I drive about 40 miles everyday to work (yes, my work week is currently 7 days a week with a few occasional days off). So, with this in mind and where I drive, I need the minimum requirements:
1. Can Stream Music
2. Bluetooth is fully compatible with my 2016 vehicle
3. An equalizer of some sort since I have only switch out my new cars speakers for better ones and don't plan on changing or adding a better sound system.
4. Decent pictures when needed
5. As a nerd, I like to "mesmerize" people with a pay with your phone app like Apple Pay or Android Pay
6. Works with my Huawei Watch
7. Relatively not laggy - will sometimes do some ROM-ing or some customization but since I tend to get rid of the phones quickly I try not to void warranties or make it too non-stock
THE COMPARISON
I am looking at my experience with the OnePlus 3 and the Axon 7 under/around these requirements and some normal stuff like battery, screen, snappiness, heat, speakers, etc. Here goes:
SOUND OVERALL
There is not too many times when I do a review comparison where 1 phone just crushes the other... and I don't mean like crushing an empty aluminum beer can in your hand crushing... I mean like BigFoot crushing late model junk cars at the end of a Monster Truck Rally Crushin'.... 'Mericaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! Sorry got carried away there a second. Honestly, how phone manufacturers cannot include a system-wide sound equalizer with all the other STUPID GUI tweaks and bastardizations they do to Android especially is beyond me in 2016. Most people are transitioning to bluetooth headphones or have bluetooth in their cars and for the most part use streaming services to/for music. Yes, there is the occasional dude with the $1000 plug-in headphones that also plugs into a in-line $2000 DAC that only listens to download Loseless Quality Music with the Music App that came with the phone.... with a show of hands, how many fall into this category??? Then why pray tell is this the only music equalization most manufacturers are catering too on their phones (Apple included)? I don't know just wanted to rant a little. With that said though, the inclusion of Dolby ATMOS without having to root on the Axon 7 plus its dual stereo forward facing speakers makes this a non-competition. Yes, you could add ViperATMOSBeatsDon'tcare Mod.zip to a rooted TWRP OnePlus 3... but why should I have to? Why can't some system-wide equalizer be included Mr. FlagShip Killer? Look at their own Community Forum and its one of the most active requests since the OnePlus 3 came out (along with actually using all the RAM the phone has)... Good Work ZTE!!! I'm sure for all you headphone people too that the AXON 7 would dominate even though I have zero to judge that on since I have never taken either the OnePlus 3's headphones nor the AXON 7's headphones out of the box.
WINNER: AXON 7 BigFoot- Crushing OnePlus 3 Grave Digger.
BATTERY
People get bent out of shape nowadays about the "wall hugger" syndrome... this is the need to re-charge your phone more than once, twice, 3-times etc. per day and being attached to a charger constantly. Well, we only have ourselves and technology to blame. Battery technology has yet to progress to a point that adequately matches all the other advances cell phones have made... I can remember in the 90's getting my first Li-ion Battery Cell Phone and was like "WOW!!! I can charge this anytime I want, days of battery life, no need to discharge the whole phone before recharging and no need for extra batteries..." Fast forward almost 30 years... AND its the same type of battery... So no phone truly wins here until technology gets better. This too along with our need for skinny things... women, cocktails, bank account, soda, etc. have phones getting increasingly skinnier without ever considering what it has do with the battery is disturbing. If only we could get back to the simpler times of a bagphone, then the battery could be as big as you want it... AHHH, the simpler times. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Really though, the batteries on both phones perform very similar in my use. The place where they differ the most is the charging. For OnePlus 3, you have to use their proprietary DASH Charge as oppose to QuickCharge 3.0. This means you can only buy OnePlus 3 chargers (or some not trustworthy knock offs) to take advantage of feature... it's not so bad now that they made the car charger available again on their website and the phone comes with a wall plug with the feature... it's just a departure from the standard many others are using and requires new accessory purchases... basically a OnePlus Money Grab.... DASH Charge is slightly faster but not enough for anyone but a battery loving neophyte to really take notice.
WINNER: AXON 7 - Sorry QuickCharge 3.0 Industry Standard beats proprietary DASH Charge even though DASH Charge is slightly faster.
HEAT
Not going to spend much time here. Both phones run Snapdragon 820's. Both phones are metal... guess what... they get hot under stress... so no winners here, only losers. Neither had to be powered off for getting too hot though, like my S7 needed to when I was doing its initial setup... so there's that. :good:
WINNER: Both or None... They get hot under processor stress and in the dreaded "At an event and have your camera constantly on then stick it in your pocket only to have 3rd degree burns on your thighs or butt" Test
SNAPPINESS
Neither phone I have taken the time to Mod or root or stare at compassionately... but both perform really well like they should. Now, let the 6GB vs. 4GB debates begin!!! First, it is well known that even after 2 updates, the OnePlus 3's RAM management is still wonky and does not fully utilize all that RAM. No matter. I can't see an advantage yet. Yes you could AnTuTu-whogivesapoop test them all day. I rather just talked about how using the phone feels. Neither have extensive bastardizations over stock android so neither grinds the phone to a halt like TouchWizCement does. I run the BETA of Sense 8 Launcher for All Android Phones on both. Both phones perform well with it. I have played Pokemon GO! on both along with Clash Royale... both run fine. GPS works good on both and locks in fairly quickly. It isn't the best I have seen but not the LG Worst either Until there's another processor to look at, I think most manufacturers are taking full advantage of the limits of the 820. Throwing RAM at it doesn't dramatically do anything either. I guess it good to always have it in your back pocket if needed.
WINNER: ONEPLUS 3 - Simply because it has more RAM, no real-world experience proves it faster. Fanboy Benchmarkers withstanding
************DISCLAIMER / NEWSFLASH************* FOR IT PEOPLE FROM NEW JERSEY AND/OR GENERAL KNOW-IT-ALLS
YES... One can easily claim that RAM on the face of it has nothing to do with Snappiness since no present day Android phone fully utilizes 4GB let alone 6GB of RAM... The point to be made here is that the OP3 although having more RAM has no advantage in snappiness over an AXON 7. With that said, since both phones cost the same, neither phone is snappier, why not pick the one with more RAM based on stats alone... for this particularly on the face of it unrelated category? Furthermore, there has been many tests of the OP3 that show that RAM in a way DOES influence its snappiness when compared to 4GB phones... not because of the amount of RAM but by OP3's RAM MANAGEMENT. Lastly, although it may seem like a marketing ploy now for OP3 to have 6GB of RAM since it is not needed since it is not utilized.... I have kind of heard this argument before... when phones had 1GB of RAM and 2GB phones were introduced, then when 3GB phones were introduced, etc. etc. and from basically every iSheep out there, that more RAM does not necessarily make a phone better or faster. Albeit true for the most part for Apple because they spend a vast amount of time developing their RAM Management and have iOS lock down, for Android and what seems to be a lack of development on this front, RAM amounts increase to handle the sloppiness of the RAM Management and/or lack of focus on developing this overlooked section of the phone's programming. Basically, OP3 moves the needle for better or worst towards 6GB at the same price as 4GB... more is more in this one scenario only...
DISPLAY
Not much to mention here either. Both have good displays. On paper, the AXON 7's is better. I would say that the average person not knowing that one has higher resolution than the other would have a hard time calling it out. Color reproduction is about the same on both as well. Neither have a "always-on" feature which would have been nice. Both have LED's for notifications. Here's where once again you just have to stick with the stats and say....
WINNER: AXON 7 - higher stats mean better screen right!!!!???
PHONE DESIGN
Wow! a bit to talk about here. Let's start on both phones exterior features and design. Both are designed well. Definitely not ugly by any stretch of the imagination. The AXON 7 was designed with help from BMW and significantly improves on the previous generation iteration, like having actual speakers in both of the speaker grill looking forward facing top and bottom of screen. I do have the gold AXON 7... the color isn't the greatest but I wasn't going to wait for the gray one to come out to test it... I might return the gold for a gray if they become available in my return window. The OnePlus 3 is a pretty phone too. It doesn't have a firm like BMW attached to it, but one feels they did a good job of improving on the OnePlus 2 design without getting away from their bread and butter core design elements. With that, I love the alert slider... call me an isheep but I feel to this day that it is the single greatest design advantage the iPhone has had over any Android phone for years now. Although not as perfectly functional as Apples is, the OnePlus 3 is a great feature. Both have excellent fingerprint readers. Very fast. For my use case, a front facing fingerprint reader is better. That's my use case, in a cradle, in my car, that I get in and out of while sometime leaving my phone in the cradle, makes the front facing reader slightly more convenient. NFC chip and camera placement good on both as well. AXON 7 does have one design characteristic that I found annoying and I noticed while playing Clash Royale.... the power button is on the right side of the phone near the center. While playing and trying to drag drop to the top of the screen, you can easily inadvertently toggle the on/off button, this might be the button is overly sensitive or just my clumsiness. OnePlus 3 scores some extras too with swapstyle cases... Why can't other phone manufacturers take notes here. I think it is great that I can get relatively cheap exclusively designed nice looking cases for my OnePlus 3... for the AXON 7, I'm stuck with Chinese knock off cheesy poop designed cases with TPU raining from skies... I need a case and sure the first thing that comes to mind when I get a nice looking professionally designed by BMW phone is to put it into a TPU trashcan of a case because 0.0 (zero point zero) cases by ZTE are available or even look worthy of residing on the phone.... yep, I so love it. AXON 7 does step it up with one thing, SD card compatibility. More storage... sure I can use that anytime...
WINNER: TIED - OnePlus 3 would have won here, but not having SD Card capability is just dumb... especially since you used the space for a dual SIM.
*********************ADDITIONAL DESIGN DISCUSSION************CAPACITIVE BUTTONS ON THE AXON 7**********************
Purposely I left this discussion out about the capacitive buttons on the AXON 7. WHY? You may ask. At first, like many, when I heard that not only does the AXON 7 only have capacitive buttons without the option to toggle to turn them off for on-screen buttons, the buttons themselves do not light up, did make me a little worried. But to not buy a phone based on a untested worry is just fear mongering at it best, plus I bought my AXON 7 from Amazon so that I could easily return it if I hated it. Well, surprisingly the capacitive button "issue" is really just a bunch of hype... yes, I do think that OP3 has the advantage here with the toggle for on-screen and that its buttons light up. However, the AXON 7 does provide a on-screen button solution although it is way more sloppy looks wise then OP3's. The whole light up button thing to me can be excused by what was an intentional design choice by ZTE. So, unlike the OP3 which has its all app and back buttons spread out along the bottom of the display, the AXON 7 distinctively has its all-app and back buttons crowded towards the center closer to the central home button. Why do this? Well, from my use in dark rooms and at night, it makes not seeing the actual buttons not an issue. Let me explain further. I know from muscle memory that the home button is in center of the bottom of screen... pretty easy to hit in a completely dark room unless I'm drunk that is... being able to do this on muscle memory then in turn with a slight adjustment to the right, makes it easy to hit the back button (setup for right hand in the AXON 7's setting) and same to the left with the all apps button. If the buttons were spaced out like OP3's without lights then it would be an issue... but in this case and what I hope is design answering function, the AXON 7 doesn't have an issue... once again to me, maybe not you.... hahahahaha
CAMERA
I have done a couple of these reviews and every time I point out that I am not a big fan of cameras on phones. I went to school for photography and movie making back when film was still used. Have seen lenses that cost more than my current house and have seen Ansel Adams original prints first hand. So, it makes me a camera snob... thus, my opinion of on phone cameras is that they are all Bantha PooDoo. However, improvements are made with every new phone and even though innovations have seem to slow in favor of the pixel wars... one day they might be great.
Looking at both and later I will put up some similar shots from both, each phone have decent cameras. The OnePlus performs better in low light especially however I would not count the AXON 7 out in the cold as I feel that the AXON 7's low light difficulties might be able to be corrected with feature updates. The AXON 7 does have it's ripoff version of a "live photo" that works pretty decent plus some decent scenario modes that just work better for pictures I may take. The OnePlus 3's camera software is just basic with good custom manual settings. The AXON 7 has manual mode as well. Like I said, I will upload some similar shots from each and you can decide.
WINNER: TBD
CONCLUSION
So, what can I conclude? Both phones are awesome... Both have plus and minuses. I don't think there's a clear hands down winner and would not want to argue that point. I can only tell you that beyond everything else that the lack of a system-wide equalizer for sound just annoys little brown stinkies out of me. My commute to work is a big part of my day sometimes 7 days a week. I want to listen to Sirius XM app and Google Play Music so it sound great in my car. I want to set some equalization that make it sound awesome then forget it is even there. Not constant resetting of bass boost, tweaking sound to have it all reset again and again. Why provide a basic equalizer in Google Play Music on the OnePlus 3 that always has the bass setting reset when a call comes in, you switch to a new app or the crappy RAM Management software kicks it out of memory even though you locked it into memory on the all apps screen? That just pains me... If OnePlus does listen to their customer base, maybe just maybe they will add one in a future OTA update. Who knows. Having had the original AXON, I have to say that this phone is definitely an improvement and is worth checking out if you liked the original. I am still a little off-put by the fact that ZTE has done very little to support this phone with accessories like cases and stuff making me hit Aliexpress for the Oscar the Grouch specials that they have there. Could you survive with either one of these phones as your next new phone... of course! Hopefully, this little review will help you out in that decision. Lastly and as always, this is just Some Guys Opinion...
:highfive:
Newsflash - Having 6gb of RAM doesn't make a phone more snappy than a 4gb phone... people need to stop thinking this...4gb is more than enough RAM for even the most hardcore user...6gb is just a gimmick for sales.
gparmar76 said:
Newsflash - Having 6gb of RAM doesn't make a phone more snappy than a 4gb phone... people need to stop thinking this...4gb is more than enough RAM for even the most hardcore user...6gb is just a gimmick for sales.
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Newsflash- didn't say it did but with proper RAM management it COULD in theory be more snappy if it kept more apps in memory not requiring them to be reloaded. Also if the phones are the same price why not have more. Was pretty much my point. It makes no difference but higher quantity wins out. Your argument is the same for better displays 1080p is good enough why would you need more? Because they can and do... Snore
mahst68 said:
Newsflash- didn't say it did but with proper RAM management it COULD in theory be more snappy if it kept more apps in memory not requiring them to be reloaded. Also if the phones are the same price why not have more. Was pretty much my point. It makes no difference but higher quantity wins out. Your argument is the same for better displays 1080p is good enough why would you need more? Because they can and do... Snore
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lol...why don't you read what you wrote...Snappiness -OP3 simply because it has more RAM.
All I'm saying is you're wrong...the OP3 could very well be "snappier" but it sure as hell isn't because it has 6gb of memory... memory management issues or not...the only time RAM would take away from a modern day smartphone's speed or cause heavy lag would be if it had very low amount of RAM (512mb or 1gb)....even 2gb phones run great on Android M...most high end phones that have 3 or more GB of memory never use all of it...you could load up 250,apps simultaneously and you would never use 4gb of memory...trust me I've tried and I'm using the OP2...most if not ALL issues related to lag these days or just spotty performance in the UK is related to the OS and how the OEM implemented it...heavy skinning, bloatware, etc etc.
gparmar76 said:
lol...why don't you read what you wrote...Snappiness -OP3 simply because it has more RAM.
All I'm saying is you're wrong...the OP3 could very well be "snappier" but it sure as hell isn't because it has 6gb of memory... memory management issues or not...the only time RAM would take away from a modern day smartphone's speed or cause heavy lag would be if it had very low amount of RAM (512mb or 1gb)....even 2gb phones run great on Android M...most high end phones that have 3 or more GB of memory never use all of it...you could load up 250,apps simultaneously and you would never use 4gb of memory...trust me I've tried and I'm using the OP2...most if not ALL issues related to lag these days or just spotty performance in the UK is related to the OS and how the OEM implemented it...heavy skinning, bloatware, etc etc.
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Bra- I know you guys in the UK think you invented English language but...
The whole paragraph explains that neither the Axon 7 or the OP3 is faster or more snappy. In so much as this is true, why not have 6GB of RAM if it doesn't cost more. Thus exactly what I wrote rather than the trainwreck you wrote :
WINNER: ONEPLUS 3 - Simply because it has more RAM, no real-world experience proves it faster. Fanboy Benchmarkers withstanding
Which simply means in headlines, newsflashes or whatever else makes you feel like you are telling someone that you're important that when 2 phones perform the same, might as well have the one with more stuff, regardless if it helps or not...
I prefer that I pick who puts words in my mouth and it turns out you're not one of them
mahst68 said:
Bra- I know you guys in the UK think you invented English language but...
The whole paragraph explains that neither the Axon 7 or the OP3 is faster or more snappy. In so much as this is true, why not have 6GB of RAM if it doesn't cost more. Thus exactly what I wrote rather than the trainwreck you wrote :
WINNER: ONEPLUS 3 - Simply because it has more RAM, no real-world experience proves it faster. Fanboy Benchmarkers withstanding
Which simply means in headlines, newsflashes or whatever else makes you feel like you are telling someone that you're important that when 2 phones perform the same, might as well have the one with more stuff, regardless if it helps or not...
I prefer that I pick who puts words in mouth and it turns out your not one of them
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"BRA" It was spell check that changed UI to UK... would have thought that was clearly evident...but alas...
And I know what he was implying...bra...lol...aren't bras worn by women? Maybe you mean Bruh?
gparmar76 said:
"BRA" It was spell check that changed UI to UK... would have thought that was clearly evident...but alas...
And I know what he was implying...bra...lol...aren't bras worn by women? Maybe you mean Bruh?
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Nope I meant to call you "bra" and spell check had my back. Bruh is for my bruhs. "Bra" is for someone exactly like you because since you must wear them since you're a little biatch... Trolling flaming gnome. Go get in line for Harry Potter and have a nice day BRA
mahst68 said:
PURPOSE
So 1st and foremost, the plan here is to give you my experience with these 2 phones. Granted, I have only used the Axon 7 for about 3 days now and can say I have yet to fully break it in to find everything that may or may not be right / wrong with it. However, this will be a unbiased look and comparison. I'm neither a fanboy or sheep. No brand affiliation. Not a programmer either, just a pro-sumer Senior Member of XDA willing to get trolled, flamed, etc. for sharing a look at these 2 phones. Hopefully, I can give "the everyday guy / gal look" without getting bogged down in stats, variables or benchmarks. Here goes...
MY BACKGROUND
No one special. Just a guy that likes the latest tech... phones being at the top of the list. I am a nerd. No doubt about that. I think anyone that knows about XDA probably is to some extent. No brand loyalty. Recently, I have had the privilege to try out the following phones:
1. Axon 7
2. OnePlus 3
3. HTC 10
4. LeEcco Le Max 2
5. Huawei P9
6. LG G5
7. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
8. Huawei Mate 8
9. Huawei Nexus 6P
10. LG Nexus 5X
11. Samsung Note 5
12. Apple iPhone 6s+
And probably some more, but these are the most recent. Does that make me qualified to make a review... Maybe. It does make me an idiot that likes new phones, though. I am always looking for something that meets my needs but also is a good phone. Currently with TMobile but have been with ATT, Verizon & Sprint at some point over 20 years of using cell phones.
MY NEEDS
I drive about 40 miles everyday to work (yes, my work week is currently 7 days a week with a few occasional days off). So, with this in mind and where I drive, I need the minimum requirements:
1. Can Stream Music
2. Bluetooth is fully compatible with my 2016 vehicle
3. An equalizer of some sort since I have only switch out my new cars speakers for better ones and don't plan on changing or adding a better sound system.
4. Decent pictures when needed
5. As a nerd, I like to "mesmerize" people with a pay with your phone app like Apple Pay or Android Pay
6. Works with my Huawei Watch
7. Relatively not laggy - will sometimes do some ROM-ing or some customization but since I tend to get rid of the phones quickly I try not to void warranties or make it too non-stock
THE COMPARISON
I am looking at my experience with the OnePlus 3 and the Axon 7 under/around these requirements and some normal stuff like battery, screen, snappiness, heat, speakers, etc. Here goes:
SOUND OVERALL
There is not too many times when I do a review comparison where 1 phone just crushes the other... and I don't mean like crushing an empty aluminum beer can in your hand crushing... I mean like BigFoot crushing late model junk cars at the end of a Monster Truck Rally Crushin'.... 'Mericaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! Sorry got carried away there a second. Honestly, how phone manufacturers cannot include a system-wide sound equalizer with all the other STUPID GUI tweaks and bastardizations they do to Android especially is beyond me in 2016. Most people are transitioning to bluetooth headphones or have bluetooth in their cars and for the most part use streaming services to/for music. Yes, there is the occasional dude with the $1000 plug-in headphones that also plugs into a in-line $2000 DAC that only listens to download Loseless Quality Music with the Music App that came with the phone.... with a show of hands, how many fall into this category??? Then why pray tell is this the only music equalization most manufacturers are catering too on their phones (Apple included)? I don't know just wanted to rant a little. With that said though, the inclusion of Dolby ATMOS without having to root on the Axon 7 plus its dual stereo forward facing speakers makes this a non-competition. Yes, you could add ViperATMOSBeatsDon'tcare Mod.zip to a rooted TWRP OnePlus 3... but why should I have to? Why can't some system-wide equalizer be included Mr. FlagShip Killer? Look at their own Community Forum and its one of the most active requests since the OnePlus 3 came out (along with actually using all the RAM the phone has)... Good Work ZTE!!! I'm sure for all you headphone people too that the AXON 7 would dominate even though I have zero to judge that on since I have never taken either the OnePlus 3's headphones nor the AXON 7's headphones out of the box.
WINNER: AXON 7 BigFoot- Crushing OnePlus 3 Grave Digger.
BATTERY
People get bent out of shape nowadays about the "wall hugger" syndrome... this is the need to re-charge your phone more than once, twice, 3-times etc. per day and being attached to a charger constantly. Well, we only have ourselves and technology to blame. Battery technology has yet to progress to a point that adequately matches all the other advances cell phones have made... I can remember in the 90's getting my first Li-ion Battery Cell Phone and was like "WOW!!! I can charge this anytime I want, days of battery life, no need to discharge the whole phone before recharging and no need for extra batteries..." Fast forward almost 30 years... AND its the same type of battery... So no phone truly wins here until technology gets better. This too along with our need for skinny things... women, cocktails, bank account, soda, etc. have phones getting increasingly skinnier without ever considering what it has do with the battery is disturbing. If only we could get back to the simpler times of a bagphone, then the battery could be as big as you want it... AHHH, the simpler times. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Really though, the batteries on both phones perform very similar in my use. The place where they differ the most is the charging. For OnePlus 3, you have to use their proprietary DASH Charge as oppose to QuickCharge 3.0. This means you can only buy OnePlus 3 chargers (or some not trustworthy knock offs) to take advantage of feature... it's not so bad now that they made the car charger available again on their website and the phone comes with a wall plug with the feature... it's just a departure from the standard many others are using and requires new accessory purchases... basically a OnePlus Money Grab.... DASH Charge is slightly faster but not enough for anyone but a battery loving neophyte to really take notice.
WINNER: AXON 7 - Sorry QuickCharge 3.0 Industry Standard beats proprietary DASH Charge even though DASH Charge is slightly faster.
HEAT
Not going to spend much time here. Both phones run Snapdragon 820's. Both phones are metal... guess what... they get hot under stress... so no winners here, only losers. Neither had to be powered off for getting too hot though, like my S7 needed to when I was doing its initial setup... so there's that. :good:
WINNER: Both or None... They get hot under processor stress and in the dreaded "At an event and have your camera constantly on then stick it in your pocket only to have 3rd degree burns on your thighs or butt" Test
SNAPPINESS
Neither phone I have taken the time to Mod or root or stare at compassionately... but both perform really well like they should. Now, let the 6GB vs. 4GB debates begin!!! First, it is well known that even after 2 updates, the OnePlus 3's RAM management is still wonky and does not fully utilize all that RAM. No matter. I can't see an advantage yet. Yes you could AnTuTu-whogivesapoop test them all day. I rather just talked about how using the phone feels. Neither have extensive bastardizations over stock android so neither grinds the phone to a halt like TouchWizCement does. I run the BETA of Sense 8 Launcher for All Android Phones on both. Both phones perform well with it. I have played Pokemon GO! on both along with Clash Royale... both run fine. GPS works good on both and locks in fairly quickly. It isn't the best I have seen but not the LG Worst either [emoji14] Until there's another processor to look at, I think most manufacturers are taking full advantage of the limits of the 820. Throwing RAM at it doesn't dramatically do anything either. I guess it good to always have it in your back pocket if needed.
WINNER: ONEPLUS 3 - Simply because it has more RAM, no real-world experience proves it faster. Fanboy Benchmarkers withstanding
DISPLAY
Not much to mention here either. Both have good displays. On paper, the AXON 7's is better. I would say that the average person not knowing that one has higher resolution than the other would have a hard time calling it out. Color reproduction is about the same on both as well. Neither have a "always-on" feature which would have been nice. Both have LED's for notifications. Here's where once again you just have to stick with the stats and say....
WINNER: AXON 7 - higher stats mean better screen right!!!!???
PHONE DESIGN
Wow! a bit to talk about here. Let's start on both phones exterior features and design. Both are designed well. Definitely not ugly by any stretch of the imagination. The AXON 7 was designed with help from BMW and significantly improves on the previous generation iteration, like having actual speakers in both of the speaker grill looking forward facing top and bottom of screen. I do have the gold AXON 7... the color isn't the greatest but I wasn't going to wait for the gray one to come out to test it... I might return the gold for a gray if they become available in my return window. The OnePlus 3 is a pretty phone too. It doesn't have a firm like BMW attached to it, but one feels they did a good job of improving on the OnePlus 2 design without getting away from their bread and butter core design elements. With that, I love the alert slider... call me an isheep but I feel to this day that it is the single greatest design advantage the iPhone has had over any Android phone for years now. Although not as perfectly functional as Apples is, the OnePlus 3 is a great feature. Both have excellent fingerprint readers. Very fast. For my use case, a front facing fingerprint reader is better. That's my use case, in a cradle, in my car, that I get in and out of while sometime leaving my phone in the cradle, makes the front facing reader slightly more convenient. NFC chip and camera placement good on both as well. AXON 7 does have one design characteristic that I found annoying and I noticed while playing Clash Royale.... the power button is on the right side of the phone near the center. While playing and trying to drag drop to the top of the screen, you can easily inadvertently toggle the on/off button, this might be the button is overly sensitive or just my clumsiness. OnePlus 3 scores some extras too with swapstyle cases... Why can't other phone manufacturers take notes here. I think it is great that I can get relatively cheap exclusively designed nice looking cases for my OnePlus 3... for the AXON 7, I'm stuck with Chinese knock off cheesy poop designed cases with TPU raining from skies... I need a case and sure the first thing that comes to mind when I get a nice looking professionally designed by BMW phone is to put it into a TPU trashcan of a case because 0.0 (zero point zero) cases by ZTE are available or even look worthy of residing on the phone.... yep, I so love it. AXON 7 does step it up with one thing, SD card compatibility. More storage... sure I can use that anytime...
WINNER: TIED - OnePlus 3 would have won here, but not having SD Card capability is just dumb... especially since you used the space for a dual SIM.
CAMERA
I have done a couple of these reviews and every time I point out that I am not a big fan of cameras on phones. I went to school for photography and movie making back when film was still used. Have seen lenses that cost more than my current house and have seen Ansel Adams original prints first hand. So, it makes me a camera snob... thus, my opinion of on phone cameras is that they are all Bantha PooDoo. However, improvements are made with every new phone and even though innovations have seem to slow in favor of the pixel wars... one day they might be great.
Looking at both and later I will put up some similar shots from both, each phone have decent cameras. The OnePlus performs better in low light especially however I would not count the AXON 7 out in the cold as I feel that the AXON 7's low light difficulties might be able to be corrected with feature updates. The AXON 7 does have it's ripoff version of a "live photo" that works pretty decent plus some decent scenario modes that just work better for pictures I may take. The OnePlus 3's camera software is just basic with good custom manual settings. The AXON 7 has manual mode as well. Like I said, I will upload some similar shots from each and you can decide.
WINNER: TBD
CONCLUSION
So, what can I conclude? Both phones are awesome... Both have plus and minuses. I don't think there's a clear hands down winner and would not want to argue that point. I can only tell you that beyond everything else that the lack of a system-wide equalizer for sound just annoys little brown stinkies out of me. My commute to work is a big part of my day sometimes 7 days a week. I want to listen to Sirius XM app and Google Play Music so it sound great in my car. I want to set some equalization that make it sound awesome then forget it is even there. Not constant resetting of bass boost, tweaking sound to have it all reset again and again. Why provide a basic equalizer in Google Play Music on the OnePlus 3 that always has the bass setting reset when a call comes in, you switch to a new app or the crappy RAM Management software kicks it out of memory even though you locked it into memory on the all apps screen? That just pains me... If OnePlus does listen to their customer base, maybe just maybe they will add one in a future OTA update. Who knows. Having had the original AXON, I have to say that this phone is definitely an improvement and is worth checking out if you liked the original. I am still a little off-put by the fact that ZTE has done very little to support this phone with accessories like cases and stuff making me hit Aliexpress for the Oscar the Grouch specials that they have there. Could you survive with either one of these phones as your next new phone... of course! Hopefully, this little review will help you out in that decision. Lastly and as always, this is just Some Guys Opinion...
:highfive:
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Thanks but no thanks... You actually didn't influence my thoughts. More like 1 step forward, 1 step backward, your pros fit both phones matched your cons
Sent from my SM-A9000 using Tapatalk
Thanks for your comparison! Not sure why people are so arrogant or condescending. Appreciate your effort writing this up so some of us can make a better decision.
ashburton said:
Thanks but no thanks... You actually didn't influence my thoughts. More like 1 step forward, 1 step backward, your pros fit both phones matched your cons
Sent from my SM-A9000 using Tapatalk
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That's the whole point. Too many so called "real" reviews online do not give an honest opinion and are influenced by the author getting free stuff, free phone, etc. My point is to not make you say "hey I need to go get one of these phones now" but rather "I did know that and didn't know this... now I do." Thanks for reading!
Charkol said:
Thanks for your comparison! Not sure why people are so arrogant or condescending. Appreciate your effort writing this up so some of us can make a better decision.
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Yep!! You got the point exactly. I'm not here to "influence" anyone into making a decision. I'm not a ZTE or OP3 salesperson. Just laying out real world facts as I see them (Thus the title of the post). Too many blog reviews make phones out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread or the bottom layer of poop in an unattended bird cage (like the stuff stuck to newspaper on the bottom). The fact of the matter is that these people tend to be influenced in other ways (monetarily, free stuff, etc.) to make or break a review. Just because I posted in the AXON 7 forum, does not mean that the AXON 7 wins every category automatically. The AXON 7 is a good phone but not without some flaws, same with the OP3. It's knowing what flaws you can live with and which ones you can't that should influence your decision rather than Some Guys Opinion hahahahahaha :highfive:
Post some stats of battery life comparison. I highly doubt the A7 gets better battery than the OP3.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using XDA-Developers mobile app
mahst68 said:
Nope I meant to call you "bra" and spell check had my back. Bruh is for my bruhs. "Bra" is for someone exactly like you because since you must wear them since you're a little biatch... Trolling flaming gnome. Go get in line for Harry Potter and have a nice day BRA
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I'm an American and am embarrassed to read what you wrote.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
darkjedi said:
I'm an American and am embarrassed to read what you wrote.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
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You are an American?
Sent from my Nexus 6P using XDA-Developers mobile app
darkjedi said:
I'm an American and am embarrassed to read what you wrote.
Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
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I am too but he stopped commenting so there's that. Sorry I know it was very lame
brickedvice said:
Post some stats of battery life comparison. I highly doubt the A7 gets better battery than the OP3.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using XDA-Developers mobile app
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Didn't say it did actually.... I said it performed similarly. I also said that the OP3 actually charges faster. Why did I pick the AXON 7 then.... well, that's the question isn't?
Oh wait... it's right there in the Battery paragraph if you only took time to read thoroughly... thanks!
I guess, that the snappiness of the OnePlus 3 isn't only because of more Ram, but also because of the much slimmer Oxygen OS.
I didn't receive my OnePlus 3 so far, but even when it's faster, I think I can't live without those awesome speakers of the ZTE Axon 7.
mahst68 said:
Didn't say it did actually.... I said it performed similarly. I also said that the OP3 actually charges faster. Why did I pick the AXON 7 then.... well, that's the question isn't?
Oh wait... it's right there in the Battery paragraph if you only took time to read thoroughly... thanks!
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Your review was kind of big b.s that's why no time to waste on reading all of it. Do a better job next time. Thanks!
Sent from my Nexus 6P using XDA-Developers mobile app
Cypher_01 said:
I guess, that the snappiness of the OnePlus 3 isn't only because of more Ram, but also because of the much slimmer Oxygen OS.
I didn't receive my OnePlus 3 so far, but even when it's faster, I think I can't live without those awesome speakers of the ZTE Axon 7.
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Yep. I wish I could get past the sound thing. Unfortunately it consumes about an hour of my day everyday if not longer. You'll enjoy the OP3. Great phone!!
brickedvice said:
Your review was kind of big b.s that's why no time to waste on reading all of it. Do a better job next time. Thanks!
Sent from my Nexus 6P using XDA-Developers mobile app
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Why is it a bs review? Explain

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