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Hey guys,
I'm thinking of buying this beast because of the camera capabilities (i want to hold off buying a DSLR a little longer), but also because of the spec to price ratio. As i've began researching, i found that it has numerous problems: bad GPS signal, burn in, LCD bleed . These things are scaring me, also i've noticed that a lot of US owners have all these problems, but only some EU owners have it.
My questions are :
1. Do EU owners have these problems too, and how many of you have it?
2. Is it still worth it? I've been searching a package deal with B&O "friend" but didn't find any. Only the LG G5 at around 460EUR. Did you receive headphones in your packaging?
3. Is the brick charger (wall charger) truly QC 3.0 compatible? As i saw its only 9V at 1.8Amps.
4. Are you happy with it? What don't you like about it?
Thanks in advanced.
Best regards,
Cristian
charris said:
Hey guys,
I'm thinking of buying this beast because of the camera capabilities (i want to hold off buying a DSLR a little longer), but also because of the spec to price ratio. As i've began researching, i found that it has numerous problems: bad GPS signal, burn in, LCD bleed . These things are scaring me, also i've noticed that a lot of US owners have all these problems, but only some EU owners have it.
My questions are :
1. Do EU owners have these problems too, and how many of you have it?
2. Is it still worth it? I've been searching a package deal with B&O "friend" but didn't find any. Only the LG G5 at around 460EUR. Did you receive headphones in your packaging?
3. Is the brick charger (wall charger) truly QC 3.0 compatible? As i saw its only 9V at 1.8Amps.
4. Are you happy with it? What don't you like about it?
Thanks in advanced.
Best regards,
Cristian
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1) T-Mobile was the first to sell the G5 so that's probably why there are more cases in us then in Europe. The only problem i Have is a bit of light bleeding. Also do not confuse burn-in (which is an oled display thing) with the image retention, they can seem similar but are differents.
2) Yep, here in italy on a famous site it costs around 400 euros, afaik there are no bundle with that module. I bought it in a shop and there were headphones.
3) Nope is QC 2.0
4) Yes, i'm happy with it, the only problem is the battery life, but the possibility to swap the battery is a great plus.
Killua96 said:
1) T-Mobile was the first to sell the G5 so that's probably why there are more cases in us then in Europe. The only problem i Have is a bit of light bleeding. Also do not confuse burn-in (which is an oled display thing) with the image retention, they can seem similar but are differents.
2) Yep, here in italy on a famous site it costs around 400 euros, afaik there are no bundle with that module. I bought it in a shop and there were headphones.
3) Nope is QC 2.0
4) Yes, i'm happy with it, the only problem is the battery life, but the possibility to swap the battery is a great plus.
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Thanks for the reply. How old is your G5? Did u try to loosen the screw from where u have the light bleed? Did you buy a QC 3.0 brick?
charris said:
Thanks for the reply. How old is your G5? Did u try to loosen the screw from where u have the light bleed? Did you buy a QC 3.0 brick?
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I bought it the 3rd of june, according to the serial it is from april.
Nope i haven't tried to loose that screw.
Nope, i don't need QC when i Have 2 more batterys
Its a good phone but......
i got it almost a week now and i just love it...no problems so far and the battery life is almost the same as my oneplus x was...so yeah i think it was a good buy especially for the camera
I have G5 for 2-3 months or so, I switched from Nexus 5 (regular, not 5X). What I love:
- camera - is great, I don't have many chances to test it though, but in that I take was great. N5 don't stand a chance
- speed - it's crazy fast
- battery - a lot of ppl complain about it, but for me is great. I can easly go through day and have 50% at the evening. I think it is because of great sleep mode, N5 was terrible, I always must charge it at the evening. Also battery life on 3G is great
- fast charge
What I don't like:
- lack of suport - don't get me wrong, you can root it and instal xposed, but AOSP would be nice. But to be true, only thing I'm missing is working "always on" display on custom dpi.
Build quality is ok to me, but I don't like it feel of it. It's not cheap materials, but it feels little bit fragile and I was affraid of camera lenses. Spigen Slim Armor is perfect to me.
My other choice was S7, and if I would be buying phone again, it also would be G5. I don't regret this choice.
I have for 5 months the EU model, no problem at all so far, no bleeding, no quality problems beside a small alignment problem with the battery cover when I swipe my finger I can feel it is not 100:% smooth with the rest of the body.
Other than that no problems at all and I sold my s7 after keeping both for 2 weeks testing which one to keep.
If the reason you want the G5 is to postpone your DSLR , then you have two options: V20 or G5. Assuming the V20 will not be release anytime soon in EU then G5 is your best choice.
I upgraded my G2 mainly for the camera. I was reading and watching videos like crazy trying to choose between the S7 Edge and the G5.
Eventually I chose the G5, bought it in Austria (H850) for ~650Euros 5 months ago.
It's not a perfect phone, far from it, but it also doesn't have any big issues.. it's the little things. Camera wise, it is awesome!
Why I chose the G5:
ISO: S7 max - 800, G5 max - 3200.
Exposure: S7 max - 10 seconds, G5 max - 30 seconds.
Wide angle: S7 doesn't have one, G5 is rocking one.
Sensor ratio: S7 uses a cr*ppy 4:3 , G5 is 16:9. Which just makes more sense to me as every screen I own is 16:9 (TVs, phones, monitors).
Resolution: S7 merely scratches 9MP when using 16:9, G5 almost doubles it with 16MP.
IR Blaster: S7 doesn't have one, G5 has it.
Removable battery is plus and minus.. It's smaller, but removable. I bought the battery+external charger kit from Amazon for 30$ and it's great to have, a must buy if you like going on trips.
Don't get it for the "friends" it was bound to fail, get it for the phone.
What I don't like:
Screen could be brighter, I hate the curved screen (all of them) as it prevents me from applying a good tempered glass screen protector.
Even when using a rectangle glass protector..something is off in the bottom right corner and it always opens a bit there.
Other than that, the phone is fast, reliable, battery is not bad nor stunning (I get around 3.5-4 hours SOT with about 30 hours of battery time).
And yes, supplied charger is 2.0 (which is also very fast), I don't think there were earphones in the box..
I'm looking to move on from the Z3v in the near future. I'm curious what phones others have moved on to. I'm looking at the Moto G4 Plus possibly with 4GB RAM and 64 GB on board.
I'm trying to keep my budget to <$300. Any ideas?
tbtregenza said:
I'm looking to move on from the Z3v in the near future. I'm curious what phones others have moved on to. I'm looking at the Moto G4 Plus possibly with 4GB RAM and 64 GB on board.
I'm trying to keep my budget to <$300. Any ideas?
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I moved onto the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, but that was because of a BOGO deal last year.
Are you locked down to Verizon or do you have another carrier? If I were you being on Verizon, I'd take advantage of this offer today: https://www.verizonwireless.com/smartphones/moto-z-play-droid/
The Moto Z is a truly modular phone that LG failed for its G5 to become. This is the Play version, but I'd rather much prefer the Force version as it has a bigger battery, better camera, and shatterproof screen tech. Either version comes with 32GBs, which isn't a problem to deal with when you can have expandable memory. It's not waterproof like the Z3v, but it's still splash resistant so I think streaming it in the sink won't do any harm if you want a quick clean. lol
GigaSPX said:
I moved onto the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, but that was because of a BOGO deal last year.
Are you locked down to Verizon or do you have another carrier? If I were you being on Verizon, I'd take advantage of this offer today: https://www.verizonwireless.com/smartphones/moto-z-play-droid/
The Moto Z is a truly modular phone that LG failed for its G5 to become. This is the Play version, but I'd rather much prefer the Force version as it has a bigger battery, better camera, and shatterproof screen tech. Either version comes with 32GBs, which isn't a problem to deal with when you can have expandable memory. It's not waterproof like the Z3v, but it's still splash resistant so I think streaming it in the sink won't do any harm if you want a quick clean. lol
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Appreciate the response. I have an S7 for work which I really like, and I'm tracking the Edge on Swappa. I do like this phone. Unfortunately, I am locked to VZ, and that Moto Z Play Droid offer, which I was on the verge of ordering yesterday, is for new lines only...so regular price is $17/mo ($408 total) and that is just too rich for what I consider a "compromise" phone. I can get a mint condition S7 on Swappa for $330 or so, which is clearly superior.
tbtregenza said:
Appreciate the response. I have an S7 for work which I really like, and I'm tracking the Edge on Swappa. I do like this phone. Unfortunately, I am locked to VZ, and that Moto Z Play Droid offer, which I was on the verge of ordering yesterday, is for new lines only...so regular price is $17/mo ($408 total) and that is just too rich for what I consider a "compromise" phone. I can get a mint condition S7 on Swappa for $330 or so, which is clearly superior.
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Oh, it's always those fine print words that gets you. I forgot to even think that you have to get a new line to take advantage of the discounted price. If I read and knew about it, I wouldn't have recommended it to you.
For a mint condition S7, that's pretty good for $330. The flat version allows you better accessorizing like tempered glass and more variety of cases. Definitely make a go for it.
I tried out the LG G6 for a week. Then, I got on Ebay and I ordered a new, in box Z3v. Why? Because this phone cannot be beat. I'd move to AT&T and get a newer Xperia if it wasn't such a hassle or cost so much. After my screen kept registering a touch (after 3 years of working fine) I had to replace my original Z3v. I could keep the LG G6. It just wasn't $600 worth of improvement. In fact, the lack of the front facing stereo speakers was so annoying that that's what did it in for me. Maybe it was faster (I couldn't notice). Maybe it was on a newer Android version (There were a few neat improvements there.) Maybe it had a better camera (Again, after using Xposed to set my default auto to 20MP - I couldn't notice it.) Maybe it has better resolution (It must just be me but I couldn't see any improvement from full 1080 on the Z3v versus the LG G6. Maybe my eyes just can't see pixels any smaller than 1080).
So - to make a long story short- I walk into to Verizon to turn in my LG G6 before I couldn't and they were like "why?" And I was like because it's worse than what I replaced. I got what I had had on Ebay for $120 and I'm perfectly happy with it. They were like "What was it?" And I said a Sony Z3v and they were like "Yeah, you Sony people love your phones, don't you."
Yes, yes we do.
The front facing stereo speakers, flawless performance and still excellent battery life are hard to walk away from. Keeping it until another phone with stereo front facing speakers is available. Too bad people gave this phone such a bad rap an Verizon didn't support it. It was/is the perhaps the best phone Verizon possibly ever carried.
Sent from my D6708 using Tapatalk
pchain said:
The front facing stereo speakers, flawless performance and still excellent battery life are hard to walk away from. Keeping it until another phone with stereo front facing speakers is available. Too bad people gave this phone such a bad rap an Verizon didn't support it. It was/is the perhaps the best phone Verizon possibly ever carried.
Sent from my D6708 using Tapatalk
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I'm a bit surprised you haven't moved on yet. Battery life still holding up as great as what you had before?
GigaSPX said:
I'm a bit surprised you haven't moved on yet. Battery life still holding up as great as what you had before?
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Actually I'm surprised I haven't moved on yet too! The battery life is still good... I'm still getting about 5 hours screen on time. My phone is no longer waterproof however as a couple of the flap/covers are missing...lol. My options are a little limited on Verizon for a replacement... don't like Samsung curved edge devices and Moto mods are not my thing. G6 looks OK but my Z3v still works perfectly fine so I'm not sure I want to give up yet. Hoping the Pixel 2 or Note 8 will trip my trigger. What do you have now?
Sent from my D6708 using Tapatalk
pchain said:
Actually I'm surprised I haven't moved on yet too! The battery life is still good... I'm still getting about 5 hours screen on time. My phone is no longer waterproof however as a couple of the flap/covers are missing...lol. My options are a little limited on Verizon for a replacement... don't like Samsung curved edge devices and Moto mods are not my thing. G6 looks OK but my Z3v still works perfectly fine so I'm not sure I want to give up yet. Hoping the Pixel 2 or Note 8 will trip my trigger. What do you have now?
Sent from my D6708 using Tapatalk
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I have the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. The S8/S8+ curves are perfection because the S7 Edge's are way too curvey, but I guess I'll wait to upgrade later.
That's pretty great you still have 5 hours of SOT. I'm not getting anywhere near that unless I just watch movies on my S7 Edge because of how poorly optimized Samsung is with their software. I only find it problematic that the Z3v can't go into Marshmallow because the 801 chips are supposed to be able to do it. Doze mode is really helpful with that.
The Note 8 is a definite must with all its bells and whistles. The Pixel 2 is something I would have to see when they announce it because the Pixel 1's design language looks bland. The G6 seems like the reasonable upgrade from the Z3v, but the UI is different for my taste and you have to be weary of LG's bootloop issue.
I've moved on to the Note 8.
I have the S8+, but the edges and corners are too rounded. The extras, like the dual camera, more RAM and the Spen are great. I definitely love the form factor of the Note 8 over the S8+.
I am NOT a fan of the beveled edges! And the lack of stereo speakers is tough to take on such expensive models that are otherwise so feature rich.
Meanwhile, I am buying new batteries, adhesive gaskets and glass backs for both Z3Vs, which are in brand-new shape.
AddictedToGlass said:
I've moved on to the Note 8.
I have the S8+, but the edges and corners are too rounded. The extras, like the dual camera, more RAM and the Spen are great. I definitely love the form factor of the Note 8 over the S8+.
I am NOT a fan of the beveled edges! And the lack of stereo speakers is tough to take on such expensive models that are otherwise so feature rich.
Meanwhile, I am buying new batteries, adhesive gaskets and glass backs for both Z3Vs, which are in brand-new shape.
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Aha, I've moved onto the Note 8. Once on the Note, I don't think I could ever go back to another smartphone. The S Pen is a jewel and the form factor is definitely a step up above the S7 Edge I had before and the S8/S8+. Albeit it is quite a tall phone though.
My Z3V is just sitting on my desk, reverted to factory image and all. Why buy new parts in repairing it though?
The batteries have crapped out. To replace them is a nightmare that involves removing the glass back with a heat gun. On videos I've seen, the adhesive gasket is unsalvageable. And since the back is glass, I figure there is a good chance of breaking it.
The parts are cheap, and both of my Z3Vs are in perfect shape with their boxes.
I'm fondly recalling my z3v while I enjoy writing this post with the S pen on my Noto 8. Ressurection of the Z3V is really all about the stereo speakers!
I found a Metro PCS K20 Plus scattered in pieces down by the river one morning last summer. The screen had a million cracks, and it was just in terrible condition. I found the battery 25 feet or so from the phone... anyway, I put it all back together, and amazingly it worked, AND it was network unlocked! My phone had just been lost/stolen, so it was a welcome find. It's a snappy phone, more responsive than my BLADE Z MAX or Sensa LTE and the battery lasts forever. So I've wanted to get a new screen for it, but for the longest time they were around $60. Some were cheaper but with no frame and why glue a new screen to a busted up ... well, rest of the phone? But I was at Best Buy recently and I noticed that the Simple Mobile LG Grace looked a lot like the K20 Plus. After watching some repair videos of both phones I realized they were identical in design, except for silver highlights - not gold, and the LG Grace has less RAM & ROM, and weaker camera (but all these things can be swapped from the K20). So I went ahead and bought the LG Grace for $49.99, swapped out the motherboard, fingerprint sensor and camera and my now my K20 is brand new again! Also, a brand new higher capacity battery (2800 mAh instead of 2700 mAh). 100% working. So if you've got a busted screen, just buy an Lg Grace. It's the same amount as a new screen, plus you'll get a new body and free higher capacity battery. Took about an hour and very simple. Hope this helps someone out.
Thanks for posting your findings. I'm sure this will be handy for some. I have 2 of these that I passed down to my daughters and they are banged up as a result. I "upgraded" to the Stylo 4 but since the bootloader is completely locked up, I want my beloved K20 back. This phone blows the Stylo out of the water 100x.
@Travisholt92
ninjasinabag said:
@Travisholt92
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I already have a new screen, just need another rear camera and rear speaker then I can thoroughly test these pie builds. At least Bluetooth audio still works.
Screen - $28.99 USD
Bought a few of them over the years, works well!
Hi all,
For the last few months I've been waiting to upgrade my phone and I came to the conclusion that the mate 20 pro offer the best in term of price/value compared to P30 pro and S10/S10+.
I contacted an official Huawei retailer where I live and he told me the mate 20 pro is finally available with official warranty, I asked him about the screen gluegate issue and he told me many units were sold and there was no issues.
With that being said should I go for it and assume the newer batches don't have this issue?
In worst case scenario the screen will be replaced for free under warranty.
I purchased my Mate 20 Pro about a month and a half ago, and I've overall been very pleased with the device. I, too, bought the phone because it has everything I'm looking for in a smartphone at an affordable price.
Many have sung the praises of this phone and I concur. Overall, it's great. Battery performance amazing, the screen is beautiful to look at and the phone is snappy in every regard. I enjoy the stereo speakers of the phone, they're loud, clear and have some underlying bass, but they do not get as loud as the S9/S10 speakers. The earpiece is also significantly weaker than the bottom-firing one, delivering the high tones whereas the bottom-firing speaker has both louder volume and carries the bass.
The battery life is consistent and gets me around 7-8 hours of SOT with about 2 hours of off-screen Youtube Vanced playback. That's absolutely stellar. And when you eventually run out of battery after a long day or two, the supercharge charges the phone incredibly quickly, but the phone gets really warm in the process.
The optical fingerprint reader is good most of the time, but really finnicky at other times. I set up the 3D face unlock and never looked back, but having both options for unlocking the device makes it incredibly convenient.
The ergonomics of the device are great as well. The placement of the buttons is perfect, the phone feels good in the hand - and it's quite nice to look at as well.
At 750 USD which was the price I got the phone for, I'd say it's a great deal - especially when a S10+ is about 1000 USD. You aren't giving up much in terms of quality (screen and speaker quality) but you'll get amazing battery life in return and $250 to spend on whatever else you like.
Thanks a lot for the feedback
Well in terms of price it's around the S10E but way cheaper than S10+, I was thinking the E was my safest option but I'd give up a lot compared to mate 20 pro so the E is out of the way for me.
I assume u didn't face any problems regarding the screen green tint which is my biggest concern.
I think I'll go for the mate 20 pro and hope for the best, wish me luck.
I forgot to mention that only the exynos varient is available in my region for the S10 series. So I guess that's one more reason to get the mate 20.
I've had my Mate 20 Pro for about 3.5 weeks now and it's had absolutely no screen or build quality issues. If you go for the Twilight version, get a case as it's slippery without.
Sent from my Mate 20 Pro using Tapatalk
aindow said:
I've had my Mate 20 Pro for about 3.5 weeks now and it's had absolutely no screen or build quality issues. If you go for the Twilight version, get a case as it's slippery without.
Sent from my Mate 20 Pro using Tapatalk
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Thanks for the feedback.
I think i'm gonna get the black version, and i'm gonna buy a case either way.
I bough mine 2 weeks ago, new, a black unit with BOE (free app device info hw can tell you whether the screen is BOE or LG, supposedly LG screens are prone to having issues, personally, I think that was just early units) display for $690 on ebay. Very happy with the phone. Followed the guide to uninstall hisearch. Phone has updated since but hisearch didn't come back, it was so annoying trying to swipe down the notifications and accidentally triggering hisearch. Unlike my previous phones, typical cases don't seem to protect the screen well enough. I bought the official flip case (the one with the small window on the front cover) because I'm worried about the edges of the screen, regular cases don't seem to have a lip big enough to protect them well. It's a little inconvenient but worth the trade off IMO. It's a popular phone so there is a decent case selection and reviews of cases are easy to find.
If I could unlock the bootloader and root it, it would be perfect but even as is, it's a great phone. If you use a smartwatch, be prepared to dig deep into battery settings to enable push notifications. The supercharger works great but I prefer just regular charging. I haven't seen any proof that supercharging is bad, it's just my reasoning to charge it slower to preserve the great battery life in the long term. I don't change phones often so seeing how well newest gen cameras perform was a bit of a surprise.
This is the first phone I've ever returned in my life. The battery life is atrocious. There is no way on the unlocked US version to turn off 5G once you're connected to Verizon. With a full bar of 5G at my home with the S21 I was getting 57 megs on the speedtest app. I put the sim in my old phone (Note 10) and on 4G the identical test at the same location got 157 megs (Triple the speed of the crappy 5G).
The pictures felt crappy compared to the Note 10. The S21 was noticeably heavier than the Note 10 also. I looked it up and the larger Note 10 is 3 grams lighter but surprisingly it was very noticeable. Sooo, the Note 10 is made of glass, the S21 is made of plastic and the Note 10 is lighter... The S21 is also a mm thicker than the Note 10 but feels way thicker than that.
The side buttons were moved all to the right side on the S21 so if you're right handed and want to take a screenshot with the buttons, good luck. It's not easy. You have to use a gesture or switch to your left hand.
So to summarize:
1) Note 10 has larger screen and smaller battery but lasts way way way longer and is lighter.
2) The new 5G S21 is getting speeds 1/3 the speeds the Note 10 is getting on 4G at the same location on the same test.
I really wanted to like the S21, but it felt like a real downgrade.
I'm trying to return mine due to the poor camera but I'm yet to hear anything back from Samsung.
Wow. This camera is amazing, after having owned the utterly horrid S20 Ultra , and my battery lasts 1.5+ days with pretty good usage. Sorry you two aren't as happy w yours.
I didn't realize when I bought mine that the US version's bootloader can't be unlocked. Going to be returning it because of that.
OP, I feel your pain.
No SD card slot and I loathe the rounded corner display.
It be a downgrade from my 10+ in many ways.
Samsung, is that all you got?
I traded my S20+ for the S21 base for the $700 credit. I like the smaller screen little easier to use, but the screen definitely is not as nice. I did not miss the edge screen either.
I returned my S21 Ultra and picked up a Note 20 Ultra instead. The lack of SD card and no root yet killed it for me. The camera is a little better at zoom and macro shots on the S21 but that's about it. I got the Note and had the bootloader unlocked the next morning.
did you guys return all the accessories with the phone?
Misterxtc said:
I returned my S21 Ultra and picked up a Note 20 Ultra instead. The lack of SD card and no root yet killed it for me. The camera is a little better at zoom and macro shots on the S21 but that's about it. I got the Note and had the bootloader unlocked the next morning.
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The phone just came out. How can you expect it to be rooted already?
Root wasn't the main reason but it did add to my decision. I ordered the phone not expecting root. I prefer the display and storage options on the Note and yes root. Plus with rumors of this being the last Note series along with the spen support on the 21 swayed me even more to return it. No regrets here at all.
Weighed up my options after using the S21 for 10 days or so.
Coming from an S10e, at first it felt really weird, that little bit of extra height felt huge!
Starting to warm to it and I really like the adaptive refresh rate, feels so much better than the S10e.
Main concern was the display, Uniformity etc, but the unit I have looks fairly good! took me a little by surprise - Few things I'll eventually get use to, color shift and brightness shift when holding it at certain angles, but thats always going to be the case with a bigger newer OLED Display.
So no, i'll be keeping it and sending the S10e for trade.
Returning my standard S21 due to an intermitent fault.
When people phone me they can't hear me when I answer.
Samsung UK is going to send a replacement once they receive my phone back.
gumbyx84 said:
The phone just came out. How can you expect it to be rooted already?
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Yeah, I expect to be able to root a device I get on day one. Dev friendly manufacturers are out there.
Yes, I returned mine. Also first time ever that I return a phone. The battery life makes it useless... Everything else is awesome I don't know what to buy now... I want a phone with great camera that's isn't bigger. Might end up with an iPhone, but really prefer Android