Mi Band 4 - experience and comparison with MB2 - Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Guides, News, & Discussion

Mi Band 4 - experience and comparison with MB2 - Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Guides, News, & Discussion

I had a Mi Band 2 for about a year, combined with Notify & Fitness app it provided everything I needed or wanted. Except for the broken strap I didn't have any major issues with it, so I had no reason for an upgrade. But..once I saw the Fallout pip boy custom watch face for Mi Band 4, I was sold immediately Using Mi Fit app is mandatory for the time being, but frankly speaking it provides almost everything I need when combined with Mi Band 4 (with MB2 the functions are much more limited). So.. a short comparison:
- MB2 is smaller and less obtrusive. MB4 is taller and you can't really "hide" it. I would strongly prefer a more generic and flat band shape (like Honor Band for example).
- MB2 has "invisible" display, MB4 has clearly visible edges when the display is off
- MB2 doesn't have a lock screen function, but all it does in the shower is cycle through screens. MB4 gets unlocked by running water and can set/change some settings during shower.
- custom watch faces for MB4 are great, you can see all the stats with a quick glance
- starting/stoping a workout from the band itself is very convenient, also it displays real time stats on the band display during the workout
- steps, HR, sleep cycles seem to be about the same, I have no problems with MB2 or MB4
- Notify & Fitness app supports both, it is a must have for MB2 if you want to get most of it, but only optional for MB4. It's still a nice addition, so I'm using both N&F and Mi Fit. There seem to be no conflict when using both apps.
- Mi Band Tools is totally useless with MB4 (for me), it doesn't provide anything extra to Mi Fit (except custom watch faces). Integration with Sleep as Android doesn't work on my phone.
- Sleep as Android is next to useless for both bands, it ignores my night walks and counts them as a good sleep. I can't trust this app at all.
- Mi Fit and N&F (accurate analysis with 4.7 engine) provide quite accurate results (as far as I can say) with similar stats, detecting start/end of sleep automatically and night wake up periods correctly, no objections.
Functionally wise, and for my usage, it's not really an upgrade. But the new display and custom watch faces were worth the investment..

I was actually thinking of making a video comparing the Band 2 and 4, whether or not it's worth upgrading, I was pleasantly surprised by your thread
I had bought my MB2 back in October 2016, upgraded to MB4 about 3 weeks ago.
Never used, let alone heard of "Notify & Fitness," will definitely check it out later.
I agree with most of what you wrote, but I'll also give some of my insight.
- I didn't really notice the MB4 being that much bigger than the MB2, I'd compare the two bands' body-to-display ratio as picking up an "old" phone, with a 16:9 display, and a top and bottom chin, vs. a phone with no chins and notches. MB2 only had an "invisible display" in my opinion, because there was a larger air gap between the display and the top of the glass.
I'm super happy they went with an OLED display, despite the price - great contrast, and no wasted screen-on time!
- I usually had the Band 2 randomly vibrate when having failed to measure my heart rate in the shower, as the running water did indeed cycle thru the functions, however I've never had that or anything similar happen with the newer band (you could also enable the screen lock on it, however that only reduces the chance of it doing random things).
- I can't see any of the downloaded watch faces on my phone in the Mi Fit app (OP3T, with RR) (the placeholders are there, but they are blank, even when tapping on them, all I can see is their names), I also wish it would be a bit easier to create custom faces, though the band's been only out for like a month or two, I'm sure we'll get some AIO tools later down the road.
- Being able to start, monitor, and stop workouts from the band itself is indeed very convenient and useful (also, hooray for pool swimming finally being added), however I wish the real time (not the length of the workout) would be displayed with a bigger font, it's been real hard for me to see, even on full brightness.
- What's been bugging me is that now, on the MB4, you can 'Lift to Wake' even when DND is turned on, which wasn't a thing on the older one - which I preferred more. I know there's an option to disable the function from set time to another set time, but I wish there was a way to automatically have it turn off and then back on again.
- Being able to adjust brightness is a blessing, though I wish it wasn't hidden so deep within the settings. It would also be nice to be able to change the left and right swipe actions from the home screen - music playback controls have not worked more often than they had, and since I'm outside of China, I'm not able to use AliPay even if I wanted to, so that's just a wasted gesture, basically.
- The 'Weather' panel is nice to have, however it's not very accurate at all, I found myself checking the stock Google weather forecast on my phone - but that's just an 'unreliable' weather provider, which, along with most of the things I mentioned, could be changed via a simple software update.
- Lastly, it's kinda funny how when receiving notifications with special characters or emojis in it, the you just get a missing character - ⍰ - icon, but that's just nitpicking.
I was happy to see the new Mi Band 4's release price being almost exactly the same as the price I paid for my Mi Band 2 a few years ago (about 35 bucks).

Thank you for adding your experience. Just a few remarks to your comments, if you don't mind
- for custom watch faces you have to use 3rd party app or quite complicated manual setup with Mi Fit. I prefer N&F app as it works nicely with this great page https://amazfitwatchfaces.com/mi-band-4/top and it's basically a question of pressing the "use the face" button. I add interesting watch faces to my favorites while on a PC and then locate them quickly from N&F on the phone.
- if you want to have better (and automatic) control over MB4, I would suggest looking at Tasker and N&F app. You can turn on/off many settings based on different events, times etc., but it definitely isn't very user friendly (especially when you see both apps for the first time). Though once you get the grasp of them, you can have a lot of fun
- based on your Ali pay comment I assume you have Chinese version. Global one has music control for both directions. However I will probably never use it, so would definitely appreciate a customizable shortcuts to different actions. Hopefully future firmware release will contain it. Maybe if enough of us will send a feedback from Mi Fit app, they'll consider it..?
- weather is being said to be using Xiaomi servers with "automatically selected providers". I just disabled this item in the menu as my experience with inaccuracy is the same as yours. Using phone for such info is more convenient anyway.
- I hoped that they finally accepted the fact that people are using special characters around the world and could display them correctly in year 2019.. But so far we're out of luck. As a workaround you can disable notifications in Mi Fit and use those from N&F with "transliterate" feature (it replaces all special chars with standard ones). For Emojis there's a special custom FW version, but it's being said that it heavily drains the battery, so not sure how useful it is.
There are many videos comparing MB3 and MB4, but probably not a single one for MB2 vs. MB4 - I would certainly welcome one.. Btw. I paid ~40eur for the global version and full 2 years of warranty (Slovakia). Would be happier with lower price, but I didn't have the patience to wait for the shipping from China

_mysiak_ said:
Thank you for adding your experience. Just a few remarks to your comments, if you don't mind
[...]
There are many videos comparing MB3 and MB4, but probably not a single one for MB2 vs. MB4 - I would certainly welcome one.. Btw. I paid ~40eur for the global version and full 2 years of warranty (Slovakia). Would be happier with lower price, but I didn't have the patience to wait for the shipping from China
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I only watched like one video on using custom watch faces, they didn't mention N&F, didn't know that was an option, my mistake.
I have used Tasker a few times before, but honestly, it's not that big of a deal for me to go that far, it's just something new I need to get used to, and it's taking a bit. I also don't really see any difference between the "sensitive" and "normal" options at the 'lift to wake sensitivity' or whatever the option is called.
I wouldn't go as far as to flash some custom firmware just to have emojis show up, it's just strange to see them missing in 2015+4
I actually want to go out for a run, just so I'd be able to say something about the workout tracking - I've used it for a few days when going to and coming home from work by bike, but that's like a 5 minute ride, so nothing conclusive there - only problem is I'm a lazy ass, and I don't do any sports anymore, let alone go for a run every now and then, I still need to convince myself
Got my Band 4 on eBay from Germany, not sure about the warranty, I just bought whatever had the best date of arrival to price ratio (tbh, my wristband broke for my Mi Band 2, I thought I had some replacements at home but I didn't, so I was like whatever, I'll just upgrade now)

I hear you about being lazy (I like "not a sports person" term more )..today I went to work on foot for the first time (instead of the usual public transportation) just to test the workout feature for 25 minutes..

Lada333 said:
- I can't see any of the downloaded watch faces on my phone in the Mi Fit app (OP3T, with RR) (the placeholders are there, but they are blank, even when tapping on them, all I can see is their names), I also wish it would be a bit easier to create custom faces, though the band's been only out for like a month or two, I'm sure we'll get some AIO tools later down the road.
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I've just found that AmazFaces app populates the "My band displays" in Mi Fit app with 3rd party watch faces with preview (just click on "Download" in AmazFaces app and it magically appears in Mi Fit ). It's probably even quicker than using Notify & Fitness or Mi band tools.

_mysiak_ said:
I've just found that AmazFaces app populates the "My band displays" in Mi Fit app with 3rd party watch faces with preview (just click on "Download" in AmazFaces app and it magically appears in Mi Fit ). It's probably even quicker than using Notify & Fitness or Mi band tools.
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I have completely abandoned the Mi Fit app (the only thing I'm losing out on, is syncing new watch faces, but I found one I like, not going to change it any time soon), I bought Mi Band Master, for like 3 dollars, it's working flawlessly for me.
I also purchased N&F, but I didn't quite like it as much, and some functionality (that was important to me, at least) seemed to be broken, so I stuck with MBM - they also have a modded mi fit apk which lets MBM authorize the band, so there's no need to have the Mi Fit app installed at all!
I'm really looking forward to what custom utilities we're going to get for this watch

Lada333 said:
I have completely abandoned the Mi Fit app (the only thing I'm losing out on, is syncing new watch faces, but I found one I like, not going to change it any time soon), I bought Mi Band Master, for like 3 dollars, it's working flawlessly for me.
I also purchased N&F, but I didn't quite like it as much, and some functionality (that was important to me, at least) seemed to be broken, so I stuck with MBM - they also have a modded mi fit apk which lets MBM authorize the band, so there's no need to have the Mi Fit app installed at all!
I'm really looking forward to what custom utilities we're going to get for this watch
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Just wondering - which feature was broken in N&F for you? I tried Mi Band Master as well, but didn't really like it (too simple charts, no activity tracking, overall just not enough details). N&F is able to work as standalone app now too, but I find Mi Fit tolerable and will keep it at least until they keep providing FW updates for Mi Band. All in all, I'm so glad that I did not go with Honor Band 5 (even if I like it's form factor and SpO2 sensor more). I would be stuck with Huawei app and many features wouldn't be working as I don't have EMUI phone..

_mysiak_ said:
Just wondering - which feature was broken in N&F for you? I tried Mi Band Master as well, but didn't really like it (too simple charts, no activity tracking, overall just not enough details). N&F is able to work as standalone app now too, but I find Mi Fit tolerable and will keep it at least until they keep providing FW updates for Mi Band. All in all, I'm so glad that I did not go with Honor Band 5 (even if I like it's form factor and SpO2 sensor more). I would be stuck with Huawei app and many features wouldn't be working as I don't have EMUI phone..
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My main reason for trying out apps other than the official Mi Fit was to have smart alarm functionality - where it wakes you up when you're in light sleep some time before your set alarm. That worked a lot better with MBM for me, also, I set an "emergency" alarm 1 minute after my Band goes off, in case it doesn't vibrate for whatever reason, on my phone, MBM actually rang an alarm, whereas N&F just started spamming notifications, lmao.
Mi Fit's weather provider was interfering with the one I set in N&F, it just kept reverting back.
Charts are indeed more simplistic, and there's no support for processing the workouts YET in MBM, but I just found it overall to stand a bit closer to my heart
Also, I couldn't really get N&F to work without having Mi Fit installed, but even knowing now, that it's an option, I still don't think I would switch over to it.

_mysiak_ said:
- Mi Band Tools is totally useless with MB4 (for me), it doesn't provide anything extra to Mi Fit (except custom watch faces). Integration with Sleep as Android doesn't work on my phone.
- Sleep as Android is next to useless for both bands, it ignores my night walks and counts them as a good sleep. I can't trust this app at all.
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Click to collapse
My Mi Band 4 arrived today. I was using the MB2 with Mi Band Tools due to the integration with Sleep as Android, and for notifications of several apps and calls.
Now with the MB4, I saw that the Mi Fit app seems to have the same functions (app and call notifications) and start to thinking about uninstall MBT.
My doubt is precisely regarding Sleep as Android since i would like to "track" my sleep.
You think that SaA is inaccurate? Do you know any other app better than that?
Also, what do you think about the steps measurements with the MB4? I know that for this price range we can't ask to much, but it doesn't seems very reliable (and let's not talk about the heart rate sensor because is even difficult to know).
Thanks

CMC_PUBLIKUM said:
My Mi Band 4 arrived today. I was using the MB2 with Mi Band Tools due to the integration with Sleep as Android, and for notifications of several apps and calls.
Now with the MB4, I saw that the Mi Fit app seems to have the same functions (app and call notifications) and start to thinking about uninstall MBT.
My doubt is precisely regarding Sleep as Android since i would like to "track" my sleep.
You think that SaA is inaccurate? Do you know any other app better than that?
Also, what do you think about the steps measurements with the MB4? I know that for this price range we can't ask to much, but it doesn't seems very reliable (and let's not talk about the heart rate sensor because is even difficult to know).
Thanks
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Click to collapse
Well, from my experience SaA doesn't register wake up times in the middle of the night. Not only brief ones (take a sip of water or go to the bathroom and back), but even if I literally walked around the house for tens of minutes (with my toddler). Mi Fit and N&F showed correctly this period as a break in sleep, SaA considered it as a sleeping time. If it can't register this kind of disruption, I question other stats as well. The need for manual start and stop of sleep tracking is annoying too.
Recently I noticed that Mi Fit sometimes stops sleep tracking prematurely or starts lately. With N&F I get very consistent results and fall asleep/get up times are very accurate as well. Regarding light/deep sleep stats..they are all assumptions and each app gives different results, even if you select different version of sleep analysis in N&F. I do not really trust any of those stats in absolute values, but they should be "good enough" to provide trends. So even if they give us wrong results, as long as they are consistently wrong, we can still benefit from them as we see change in usual patterns (I can easily identify nights when I drank more than I should just by looking at sleep charts ).
Personally I find steps counter very accurate, when I manually counted 100 steps, MB4 and MB2 showed 100 as well. Sometimes they register "false steps", but at the end of the day it makes maybe 5-10% of overcounting, so IMHO "good enough" again. For tracking of longer walks/runs I consider it spot on.
I compared HR measurements between MB2, MB4, semi-professional (blood pressure monitoring device) and professional equipment (EKG) and they all provided about the same values while resting. You can verify it easily manually, there is no need for an extra device. Optical sensors have limits and in extreme conditions (heavy/fast hand movements, sweaty skin etc.) they can't provide accurate results, but for day-to-day usage they should be "good enough". They aren't intended as professional devices anyway.
Long story short, I use only N&F now and trust provided data as accurate enough for my non-professional usage.

_mysiak_ said:
Well, from my experience SaA doesn't register wake up times in the middle of the night. Not only brief ones (take a sip of water or go to the bathroom and back), but even if I literally walked around the house for tens of minutes (with my toddler). Mi Fit and N&F showed correctly this period as a break in sleep, SaA considered it as a sleeping time. If it can't register this kind of disruption, I question other stats as well. The need for manual start and stop of sleep tracking is annoying too.
Recently I noticed that Mi Fit sometimes stops sleep tracking prematurely or starts lately. With N&F I get very consistent results and fall asleep/get up times are very accurate as well. Regarding light/deep sleep stats..they are all assumptions and each app gives different results, even if you select different version of sleep analysis in N&F. I do not really trust any of those stats in absolute values, but they should be "good enough" to provide trends. So even if they give us wrong results, as long as they are consistently wrong, we can still benefit from them as we see change in usual patterns (I can easily identify nights when I drank more than I should just by looking at sleep charts ).
Personally I find steps counter very accurate, when I manually counted 100 steps, MB4 and MB2 showed 100 as well. Sometimes they register "false steps", but at the end of the day it makes maybe 5-10% of overcounting, so IMHO "good enough" again. For tracking of longer walks/runs I consider it spot on.
I compared HR measurements between MB2, MB4, semi-professional (blood pressure monitoring device) and professional equipment (EKG) and they all provided about the same values while resting. You can verify it easily manually, there is no need for an extra device. Optical sensors have limits and in extreme conditions (heavy/fast hand movements, sweaty skin etc.) they can't provide accurate results, but for day-to-day usage they should be "good enough". They aren't intended as professional devices anyway.
Long story short, I use only N&F now and trust provided data as accurate enough for my non-professional usage.
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Click to collapse
Well, that was a very good explanation about what you think [emoji16]
Honestly, i never liked very much Mi Fit app and i still use Mi Band Tools because i need to spend (probably more than i wanted) time to figure out how everything works.

CMC_PUBLIKUM said:
Well, that was a very good explanation about what you think [emoji16]
Honestly, i never liked very much Mi Fit app and i still use Mi Band Tools because i need to spend (probably more than i wanted) time to figure out how everything works.
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Click to collapse
Mi Fit seems much better now, it used to be way worse. However I do not like the fact that it uses almost as much CPU as Android system itself. For no apparent reason it uses CPU all the time (albeit small utilization, but very consistent). One must ask what is it doing in the background.. So I rather uninstalled it.
If you have to learn how to use a new app, I'd suggest giving a chance to N&F. It can be overwhelming at first, but IMHO it's worth the time and money. Once you set it up to your liking it's really great.

_mysiak_ said:
Mi Fit seems much better now, it used to be way worse. However I do not like the fact that it uses almost as much CPU as Android system itself. For no apparent reason it uses CPU all the time (albeit small utilization, but very consistent). One must ask what is it doing in the background.. So I rather uninstalled it.
If you have to learn how to use a new app, I'd suggest giving a chance to N&F. It can be overwhelming at first, but IMHO it's worth the time and money. Once you set it up to your liking it's really great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you own or work at N&F? Just kidding [emoji38][emoji38][emoji38]
Mi Band Tools is much simpler but N&F made me curious. I'll give it a try.
Just 2 more things:
-if you uninstalled Mi Fit, you now use customs fw to the Mi Band 4?
-Do you use N&F also as an alarm clock?
I've been using Sleep as Android not only because the ability of sleep tracker (being it reliable or not), the challenges to make people improve their quality of sleep, the warning about bedtime (in order to sleep the hours we want), the smart wake time period, and, finally, the lullabies.
Basically it's an AIO, instead of having a "bunch" of apps.
Thanks, and sorry for the testament. [emoji16]

CMC_PUBLIKUM said:
Do you own or work at N&F? Just kidding [emoji38][emoji38][emoji38]
Mi Band Tools is much simpler but N&F made me curious. I'll give it a try.
Just 2 more things:
-if you uninstalled Mi Fit, you now use customs fw to the Mi Band 4?
-Do you use N&F also as an alarm clock?
I've been using Sleep as Android not only because the ability of sleep tracker (being it reliable or not), the challenges to make people improve their quality of sleep, the warning about bedtime (in order to sleep the hours we want), the smart wake time period, and, finally, the lullabies.
Basically it's an AIO, instead of having a "bunch" of apps.
Thanks, and sorry for the testament. [emoji16]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might seem that I have some profit from promoting N&F so much, but that's (unfortunately) not true. Just a happy user, spreading info around.
There are no custom FWs for MB4 (and probably never will be), so I'm still using only firmware provided by Xiaomi, just flashing it via N&F. I am subscribed to this topic on geekdoing.com, all the firmwares are listed there with download links. Be careful to wait for confirmation that newly released FW is stable and released in Mi Fit as well, one beta firmware bricked a few devices.
I tried smart alarm in N&F once or twice, but it worked just as a normal alarm (maybe because it was set up for 05:00 and there wasn't big enough time window to detect light sleep phase? ). As I don't need vibrations to wake me up, I'm sticking with standard alarm on the phone.
I am not discouraging you from using SaA, I was actively using it for years (even though purely as a sleep tracker), just that one should be aware of its possible limitations. It's still interesting app with some unique features and I really wish they fixed/improved sleep tracking with MB4. Sometimes I still track my sleep with sonar in SaA, I find it really fascinating that in ideal case they're able to detect even breathing. Just don't use it around dogs and small children, they are able to hear it

_mysiak_ said:
It might seem that I have some profit from promoting N&F so much, but that's (unfortunately) not true. Just a happy user, spreading info around.
There are no custom FWs for MB4 (and probably never will be), so I'm still using only firmware provided by Xiaomi, just flashing it via N&F. I am subscribed to this topic on geekdoing.com, all the firmwares are listed there with download links. Be careful to wait for confirmation that newly released FW is stable and released in Mi Fit as well, one beta firmware bricked a few devices.
I tried smart alarm in N&F once or twice, but it worked just as a normal alarm (maybe because it was set up for 05:00 and there wasn't big enough time window to detect light sleep phase? ). As I don't need vibrations to wake me up, I'm sticking with standard alarm on the phone.
I am not discouraging you from using SaA, I was actively using it for years (even though purely as a sleep tracker), just that one should be aware of its possible limitations. It's still interesting app with some unique features and I really wish they fixed/improved sleep tracking with MB4. Sometimes I still track my sleep with sonar in SaA, I find it really fascinating that in ideal case they're able to detect even breathing. Just don't use it around dogs and small children, they are able to hear it
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I thought that the fw upgrade option on N&F was for customs. If not, there's not much interest on having Mi Fit installed?!

CMC_PUBLIKUM said:
I thought that the fw upgrade option on N&F was for customs. If not, there's not much interest on having Mi Fit installed?!
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Click to collapse
N&F will flash any compatible firmware BIN file. I download the official FW and RES files, flash FW first, then RES and band is updated. Mi Fit does it automatically, with N&F you need to download and flash files manually.

Related

[Q] Smart band question?

Hello existing smartband owners/users,
Those who received Smart Band and are using it already, can you guys please let me know if it is good and worth getting one?
My Z2 comes with only noise cancelling headphones and no band. I like the concept of Smart Band but only disappointment is it is lacking display. I use Fitbit Force today and it is great. Now wondering if I should switch to SmartBand as I'll get Z2.
Questions:
1. Is Smart Band worth getting?
2. If 1st question is hard to answer, just tell me if you are extremely disappointed or extremely pleased with it as it is today in a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being lowest.
3. If you use Fitbit (any wearable for that matter), do you know if Lifelog works with other wearables?
4. Does Smart Band recognise that you are running/cycling/boxing/swimming without having to tell/update it?
Thanks in advance.
S

ksekhar said:
Hello existing smartband owners/users,
Those who received Smart Band and are using it already, can you guys please let me know if it is good and worth getting one?
My Z2 comes with only noise cancelling headphones and no band. I like the concept of Smart Band but only disappointment is it is lacking display. I use Fitbit Force today and it is great. Now wondering if I should switch to SmartBand as I'll get Z2.
Questions:
1. Is Smart Band worth getting?
2. If 1st question is hard to answer, just tell me if you are extremely disappointed or extremely pleased with it as it is today in a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being lowest.
3. If you use Fitbit (any wearable for that matter), do you know if Lifelog works with other wearables?
4. Does Smart Band recognise that you are running/cycling/boxing/swimming without having to tell/update it?
Thanks in advance.
S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any reply here? At least how is SmartBand? Is it good, bad or it plays no role or whatever? Thanks.

ksekhar said:
Questions:
1. Is Smart Band worth getting?
2. If 1st question is hard to answer, just tell me if you are extremely disappointed or extremely pleased with it as it is today in a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being lowest.
3. If you use Fitbit (any wearable for that matter), do you know if Lifelog works with other wearables?
4. Does Smart Band recognise that you are running/cycling/boxing/swimming without having to tell/update it?
Thanks in advance.
S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. For me, I feel it's too soon to tell. So far, it hasn't been life-changing but I'm enjoying it in my life.
2. Right now, I'd give it a solid 3. The band requires a lot on the app and it's not fully baked yet so I'm looking forward to future updates. One thing I was impressed about is the ability to update the firmware of the band itself so things that are lacking can eventually be improved in the future. Possibly my favorite feature is the vibrating for notifications. It's nowhere near perfect. Sometimes the band is vibrating for a long long time for certain apps' notifications or it notifies for silly little things. A little annoying but I have yet to miss a notification with the band. And I gotta say the band itself is mad comfortable. Had a bout with contact dermatitis but loosening it has cleared up that problem.
3. Dunno this one.
4. So far it only recognizes walking and running. It does it based on your stride and how fast you're moving and stuff. It's highly useless for me since most of my exercising is dancing. I take the measurements with a grain of salt. The app's supposed to update in the future with more tiles and stuff so we'll see.
Other notables, the smart wakeup is fun. Until you wake up so pleasantly only to see there's 10 minutes until your alarm goes off. I love/don't love this. The band is comfy but as a woman, I'm annoyed with the default black band and I'm eagerly awaiting the colored bands as well as some of the more fashionable concept bands. I hope they see the light of day otherwise I will have to fashion something of my own. The bookmark feature is something I will rarely use. As well as the weird tap to control thing. It's absolutely awkward to use.
And I think that's about all my impressions. And with none of the polish.

ksekhar said:
Hello existing smartband owners/users,
Those who received Smart Band and are using it already, can you guys please let me know if it is good and worth getting one?
My Z2 comes with only noise cancelling headphones and no band. I like the concept of Smart Band but only disappointment is it is lacking display. I use Fitbit Force today and it is great. Now wondering if I should switch to SmartBand as I'll get Z2.
Questions:
1. Is Smart Band worth getting?
2. If 1st question is hard to answer, just tell me if you are extremely disappointed or extremely pleased with it as it is today in a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being lowest.
3. If you use Fitbit (any wearable for that matter), do you know if Lifelog works with other wearables?
4. Does Smart Band recognise that you are running/cycling/boxing/swimming without having to tell/update it?
Thanks in advance.
S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. If you have a phone that is compatible with it ( 4.4 + BLE ) then it is definitely interesting, I have become addictive to the notifications, I used to miss calls and whatsapp messages with my phone in my pocket but not anymore, phone is always on silent and I get the buzz on my wrist. The activity tracking seems to be pretty accurate (steps), but there is about to be an explosion of fitness trackers hitting the market - it may be worth waiting a few months. The biggest drawback for me is lack of watch/time functionality, the notifications are great, the lack of alarm notification for non-Xperia phones is annoying, and Sony being Sony trying to prefer Xperia of other phones for functionality is going to be a pain.
2. 4, I've tried some other cheaper fitness trackers ( eg. MyKronoz for the watch function) and the quality of the smartband is very high compared to them
3. I'm not aware of it working with anything other than the sony smartband
4. Running yes, the others no. Sony appears to be releasing updates to lifeblogger that allows you to tell it you are doing these activities but only if you are using an Xperia phone ( I'm using galaxy note )
The lifeblog app is interesting - similar to Moves but not as accurate or intuitive ( location tracking, activity determination, location identification ), the location tracking for me is not accurate but the life tracking for sleep and phone based activities is becoming more engaging. There is also a tasker plugin to try and work around the lack of alarm notifications but i've not had the best of luck with it so far.

[Help] Phone review regarding [CLOSED]

Hey guys,
I am interested in buying this phone but I can see mixed reviews on gsmarena and a lot of other sites.
Can some of you please provide the pros & cons associated with this phone?
Thanks in Advance.

banjara said:
Hey guys,
I am interested in buying this phone but I can see mixed reviews on gsmarena and a lot of other sites.
Can some of you please provide the pros & cons associated with this phone?
Thanks in Advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you want from this phone? What do you want to do with it?
Iff you want to useit like phone with this super batery 4000ma is an super phone.
I do not play games on the phone. GPS IGO Primo super ok, Agenda more then enough, useit like stick for 8,16,32 gb super ok, useit on this forum super ok , watch movies super ok, listem music super ok, doing your own custom rom super ok, lanterna, compass super on, camera ok for me, record your call super ok ......

I want to use it as a regular phone for everyday usage. Little bit of everything you mentioned there

banjara said:
I want to use it as a regular phone for everyday usage. Little bit of everything you mentioned there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then is a very good phone. :good:
I comandet another one for my wife. Must come from china any time now. I have this phone for 8 month and he never dissapointed me, and LiFe ROM for 7 month. Works fine.

stympy said:
Then is a very good phone. :good:
I comandet another one for my wife. Must come from china any time now. I have this phone for 8 month and he never dissapointed me, and LiFe ROM for 7 month. Works fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your positive responses.
I will wait for few more reviews and then will make up my mind.

I'd say it depends where you live.
Pros:
- Battery life. There is not even competition. +2 hours of web browsing, 4 hours of watching movies, 4 hours of playing music, 1 hour of youtube HQ video watching, navigation software for 45min, some sms and calls, some emails. Both SIM cards on, one with 3G. Data connection on all the time.Google, whatsapp,viber,facebook sync on. Wifi was off even. Did all of this in 16 hours of time, and as you see, all of it require screen on and the web browsing+Youtube typically uses a lot of radio power., and ended up with 55% of battery left. My girlfriend on an S3 did about the same and it took out all her battery + again 40% of battery after recharge.
I typically do 1 hour of web browsing, some emails + whatsapp + viber + 1 hour of Youtube video, and an hour of music. In the evening, I have 70-75% left so my biggest problem is to recharge or let it go another day
This was my main reason for buying this phone and so far, it has not let me down.
- Performs well. Not the fastest on the market, but it performs well, stable, applications are fast. I don't use it for games, but I did install Ingress to test, and my performance was not worse than an HTC M8... For the normal use, as you and stympy are planning, it's more than sufficient.
- Price : under $250 is a bargain for what it has to offer you
- Modifications : it's pretty easy to flash your phone with a new ROM
- Magnetic case recognition : it's a stupid little thing, but I got a MOFI magnetic case with it, which automatically turns the screen on/off if you open/close the case (even unlocks it). I got instantly used to it, and love the feature. Only seems to work on stock ROM though...
- Back camera : works well, fast, and takes good quality pictures. Lot of filters in built-in SuperCamera app.
Cons:
- 3G Signal quality. That's why I'm saying it depends on where you live. If it's in a city, and you are almost always there, with good 3G, no problems. But if you go places where the signal coverage is less, then 3G is gone really fast. (I compared to other phones, and while they typically have 2-3 bars on 3G, I'm already falling back to G(Edge). This might be because the Chinese version lacks 900Mhz 3G support, and if I flash a modem with 2100-900Mhz, my second SIM card doesn't work anymore (and not sure if it really does 3G 900).
However, the 2G signal on both SIM1 and SIM2 is holding the same as any other phone I compared it with.
Also, sometimes 3G H+ speed is all of a sudden capped at 30 or 50K/s, switching the data connection off and on again solves it, but it can be annoying. Might be related to my modem version too...
- MTK related issues: this chipset has some issues that can be solved, but you need to be a bit of a tweaker to do it. Mainly GPS and modem require some problem solving. Right now my modem is good enough, and my GPS gets a fix in under 20 seconds, but out of the box, my GPS didn't work well at all, and I had bad call quality.
- ROM support: the device isn't that popular outside China and Russia, so English ROMs are not updated that frequent. KitKat ROM available but unstable. The Chinese ROMs are well maintained and pack a lot of extra features (VIBE, Stock) as compared to ROW, but I don't speak Chinese Coming from an HTC phone, I'm used to a lot of XDA support, frequent CyanogenMod updates and fixes and so on. I might have been spoilt
- Community support : XDA has the basic forums for this phone, but nothing compared to 4PDA. So if you read Russian or Chinese, there is a lot out there. For English speakers, it's hard to find answers to some questions. However, a lot of issues you might encounter are typically chipset issues for MTK6589, and what works for other phones with this chipset, usually also works for the P780.
- Heavy : if you have an S2 right now, and switch to this one, it will feel like a brick in your pocket. You get used to it straight away, but if you pick up another phone like S2 or S3, they feel like they weigh nothing
- Front camera : only 0.3M, and that is really noticeable. Quality of front camera pictures is ..well...bad. Selfies are not worth it, and video chat is ok but was better on my 4 year old HTC phone. People notice that quality is low when video chatting with them.
Interesting software for this phone:
- Keeping my screen on while using the phone (Smart Reading) : standard in VIBE, but on other ROMS, I have Gravity screen which works a lot better actually.
- XPosed+GravityBox support : tweak your phone any way you want
- Lenovo SecureIt : nice features, and although I think I don't need it, it's quite good. Chinese version even better (with built-in ad blocker!), but I don't understand it
- Lenovo PowerManager : great tool for monitoring your power consumption, with a lot of features like freezing apps, and detailed overview and estimations are pretty accurate (I also use GSAM because it gives me better statistics)
- MobileUncle tools : you cannot have this phone without this app. It lets you tweak everything, like GPS settings, Headset volume (because the default max. volume is too silent for me), and so many other settings no other tool gives you access to. It is a must.
- SuperCamera and SuperGallery (built-in) : really great apps, camera has many features and takes great pictures (main camera that is)
Conclusion : if you know what rooting and flashing is, and have no problem doing that, then this phone is awesome. It's an ok phone out of the box, but tweaking it turns it into a great phone. You will probably have to overcome some nasty issues you wouldn't get on an HTC or a Samsung.
If that is ok for you, go for it and you'll not regret it. Given the low price, if it really, really doesn't work out, you're not out $600 at least...
I just love, love, love that I never have to worry about using it a lot and running out of battery. Even after using it to charge my girlfriends S3, there's plenty juicy left

I wish I could thank your post more than once. Thanks a lot for such awesome review :thumbup::thumbup:
I wanted a phone for my wife which should be hassle free. I have ripped my s2 with custom roms, kernels and modems but wifey doesn't appreciate if I try to do the same on her phone.
There are few issues mentioned by you which would need tweaks and without them it's daily operations will be affected e.g. call quality.
So this phone is a no go for me. Will have to look at Samsung or the sony ones. Moto g is another good option.
Anyways, thanks again for taking time to thoroughly enlighten me. Appreciate it.

banjara said:
I wish I could thank your post more than once. Thanks a lot for such awesome review :thumbup::thumbup:
I wanted a phone for my wife which should be hassle free. I have ripped my s2 with custom roms, kernels and modems but wifey doesn't appreciate if I try to do the same on her phone.
There are few issues mentioned by you which would need tweaks and without them it's daily operations will be affected e.g. call quality.
So this phone is a no go for me. Will have to look at Samsung or the sony ones. Moto g is another good option.
Anyways, thanks again for taking time to thoroughly enlighten me. Appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, well, I described the worst case scenarios here, and maybe scared you too much
I had my phone 5 minutes and flashed it already, causing a lot of the issues described. I went from Chinese to ROW (almost bricking it in the process btw), and immediately tried to get 900Mhz 3G working, which was problematic.
Right now, my girlfriend is actually jealous of my phone, and whenever she uses it, is loving it. It took me indeed some time to get there, but now it's all good.
ROMs like Life are excellent, and well supported. For me personally, it's not what I was looking for, but maybe for you it's all you need.
Installed Cyanogen om my girlfriends phone, but she hated it, although it worked better and was superior to the stock ROM.
So in terms of buying it for your girlfriend, I'll tell you what my girlfriend (dis)likes:
Pros:
- Big screen that is very good quality
- Nice design
- Magnetic case
- Doing stuff on it all day and have enough battery
- Fast
- 2 SIM cards for calling everybody
- Auto beautify function on camera (not that she needs it, but it's quite amazing how well it works )
- record a call
Cons:
- a bit heavy
- the data connection issues (sometimes when switching from WIFI to data or when data seems capped, you have to switch off/on data and it's annoying)
- the bad front camera for selfies and mirror app for checking makeup and video chatting
- never an excuse to not call me because the battery was dead
As an alternative, if you are really looking into another one, the OnePlus One is being released starting from $300. It's high end hardware (similar to S5 and HTC One), partnered with CyanogenMod, but for a ridiculous low amount of money.Only downside is no SD card, but the 64Gb model is supposed to cost only $50 more...
If I had to choose right now between my P780 and another phone...I'd still choose my P780. Yes, I don't like the 3G being a bit iffy, I don't like the bad front camera, but I love all the rest. And it's cheap. And soon a modem for it might be released that gives excellent 3G results.
Right now, after my modding and flashing, I have a really stable phone (had to reboot it 1x in the last 3 weeks and that was partially my fault ), good call quality, does whatever I want how I want it. It's just a bit more difficult to get to that point...
For me, being able to install different ROMs and battery life are crucial, and I'm happy with it.
Would I recommend it to my girlfriend? Yes and no. Yes because she'll be happy with it, but it's more of a geek phone that you have to hack and maintain a bit more than another model to get/keep it in good shape.
Good luck

As you mentioned it would require some hacking to make it perfect, and that's where my wife won't allow me to touch it. If I was buying it for myself, it would be a different story altogether.

Very conflicted about whether to buy the Le Max 2

Having a very hard time deciding whether to buy this phone or get a simple Redmi Note 4X.
Seeing how little real world performance difference there appears to be between the two is kind of turning me off to this phone because of it's seemingly numerous issues. I don't plan on doing a whole lot of heavy tasks/gaming per say so I'd imagine the SD 625 could handle my needs very well. I plan on flashing custom roms and not keeping stock.
Things I like about the Le Max 2:
Screen
Camera - Fairly important to me and I understand the 4x's camera is awful
Performance - Would be nice to have but doesn't seem completely necessary
Things I dislike about the Le Max 2/Concerns:
Dead fingerprint readers galore? I've read about flashing FW but the threads seem to have mixed results. - Added a poll to this thread to possibly figure out what my chances of a bad/dead fp reader are.
Seen two reports of data on the 3g 1900mhz PCS band not working - very important to me
Have to carry a USB C to 3.5mm adapter around - not a big deal, just slightly annoying.
Battery Life is average/below average
Camera bump - easily scratch lens
Bezel around the screen isn't my favorite
Cost of the 4X is around ~$210 CAD, le Max 2 is ~$270 CAD. Open to all thoughts, and suggestions.

I would only go for RN4X if you truly are a "battery freak" haha. It's not a bad device, but despite the better battery, it loses in everything to LM2.
Also, since you mentioned that you'll be using Custom ROM, keep in mind that you'll have even worse camera on RN4X.
LM2 has it flaws like average battery and problematic FP sensor, but I still believe it's an amazing option. To be honest, I bought mine last week from Gearbest and I'm still waiting for it to arrive.
If you don't mind smaller screen size, Zuk Z2, Mi5/Mi5s and Honor 8 are also good options and you'll have top specs and good battery.

I just bought and sold note 4x and bought le max 2. Note 4x even though has a lower spec . cpu it feels more polished and fluid . For note 4x there are 2 camera sensors used in the production. Sony one is okayish ,but samsung one is plain bad. I have a 10 mo daughter, i sold it just because i use the camera alot.
Le max 2 battery is an issue though... Get ready to carry round a powerbank. If you have specific questions let me know.

Le Max 2 battery is not that bad it's pretty good consider it got 2k screen. Battery charge really fast maybe need to recharge one time per day. It's just a little big and bulky if you don't like big size phone and FP is problematic, you will be lucky if its not dead. Still for 64Gb/4Gb ram less than $200 it's steal.

well i can get 4 hrs sot, which is bad compared to note 4x 's min 7 hrs. If you are not in to VR there is no point of 2K screen... in that case Le pro 3 becomes more attractive ...
Yes it has SD820, and min4 gb ram but the software is so sluggish it feels way less powerful... Yes you can flash a custom 7.1.2 rom and it will fly but your camera and battery life gets worse...

The fact that there are basically no good ROMs for this phablet should scare you a lot more than whether the fingerprint scanner works or not.
Official ROMs are rife with unneeded software and their UI is reminiscent of iOS which I personally loathe, while open source ROMs struggle with many features, like speakerphone mode (which basically doesn't work), camera functions (no 4K, broken flash, broken focusing), lags and very low recording volume.
Also, like mentioned above, this phone has a very weak battery for its QHD screen.
God, fingerprint sensor. The most useless and insecure feature of any smartphone.

Here's my objective review. Earlier in the year I sold off my OnePlus 3T in anticipation of the OnePlus 5. I set out to look for placeholder phone that I could use in the meantime, a best bang for the buck phone. For $196, I couldn't find a better than the Le Max 2. After further research, I became weary about buying it, but after a proper assessment, it appeared that the fingerprint reader issue wasn't as widespread problem. The threads in question are old, don't get that many new complaints or replies anymore for that matter, usually the same group of people looking for a solution. Also, people keep confusing the actual hardware defect, with the fact that you need to use one of the newer modems (23S or the recommended 419D) for the fingerprint reader to function properly on many of custom ROMs.
I personally bought two of the US variant, the gray 4GB/64GB X829 from Banggood. As expected, the fingerprint readers on both phones worked, and continue to do so. The fingerprint reader is not fast as the one found on the OnePlus 3T, but I've yet to see another phone that has one that's even as fast. You'll be on the home screen within a second of placing your finger on the reader. As far as the accuracy goes, it's actually been really accurate, but I mostly attribute that to the fact that the case I use helps in aligning my finger dead center on the reader. Speaking of case, I bought a black one from banggood that's similar to the Spigen Rugged Armor that I love, and it complements the black bezels of the Le Max 2, so I'm over that small annoyance. Check the picture out.
I wasn't a fan of the stock ROM, but it's usable, but if you want a reliable Marshmallow alternative, I recommend Small EUI, but the Nougat ROMs have come far along, especially this last week, to where I have flashed them on both my Le Max 2's and are now my daily drivers. In that case, I would recommend Resurrection Remix.
Performance was always great, similar to my old OnePlus 3 in the early days, but the battery life on the Le Max 2 has improved greatly on Resurrection Remix I get 5 hours and 30 minutes of screen on time with moderate use. I don't play any android games, but I do watch plenty of video podcasts on YouTube, do a lot of school research on chrome for my essays, use Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, and Tidal often. Check the pictures.
Objectivity aside..
I would recommend this phone to you, especially if you like to flash things and tinker. In fact, I like this phone so much, that I wouldn't mind skipping the OnePlus 5 this time around, and I'm close to adding the Le Max 2 to the list of best phone's I've ever used, joining the OnePlus One, OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3T, because of its price to performance ratio, XDA community, and feature set. The IR blaster comes in handy, the QHD display is great, I actually prefer it to the one on the LG V20 because the one I had for a little while had some wicked light bleeding because of the ticker display, the camera is actually pretty good too better than the one on the Le Pro3 which I also had for a little while last year. I wouldn't record in 4K without a gimbal or tripod though, but I did the same with my OnePlus 3T.

Anything less than snapdragon 820 is garbage. This phone is cold, fast, and cheap. Any issue can be fixed with a new Rom

unrafa said:
Anything less than snapdragon 820 is garbage. This phone is cold, fast, and cheap. Any issue can be fixed with a new Rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fix camera (basically totally broken with LOS/RR) and speakerphone mode (broken with LOS) with a new ROM, huh? Two paramount features of any smartphone.

birdie said:
Fix camera (basically totally broken with LOS/RR) and speakerphone mode (broken with LOS) with a new ROM, huh? Two paramount features of any smartphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude, tone it down a little, you're worse than my little sister in exaggerating things... The camera works, it's no where near "totally broken" or unusable... Also, Lineage OS is not the end all be all as far as ROMs go with this device, so let's not paint a picture here with broad strokes. There are plenty of well supported ROMs for the Le Max 2, and progress is being made. I now get 5 hours and 30 minutes of screen on time on RR with 15% to spare. I couldn't say the same two weeks ago...

People that complaining this and that get off the tread and sold the thing its your choice. Everything work well except the FP, many of custom roms if you like flashing them. So nothing to bitter about.

rickyx32 said:
There are plenty of well supported ROMs for the Le Max 2, and progress is being made.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are basically four ROMs for this phone: two stock, Chinese and Indian, and two open source, RR and LOS. Other ROMs are for people who don't care about the security and safety of their bank accounts and private lives. I wonder how on earth one can trust a ROM created by a random John Doe from God knows where. Will you trust a ROM created specifically by me? Well, then, why do you advocate for the similar ROMs distributed via xda-dev forums?

birdie said:
There are basically four ROMs for this phone: two stock, Chinese and Indian, and two open source, RR and LOS. Other ROMs are for people who don't care about the security and safety of their bank accounts and private lives. I wonder how on earth one can trust a ROM created by a random John Doe from God knows where. Will you trust a ROM created specifically by me? Well, then, why do you advocate for the similar ROMs distributed via xda-dev forums?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the "other Roms" you mentioned are from the same dev of RR. So, if you don't trust them, you can't trust RR.
Also, if you follow your logic, only the Chinese and Indian ROMs are trustable, cause both RR and LOS were made by "a random John Doe from God knows where".
Stop being so paranoic. Every one can discover everything about your life these days. It's not a ROM that will change that.
Peace.:angel:

"Everyone" cannot access my bank account or siphon my information behind my back.
LeTV/RR/LOS all have a reputation to keep and they are represented by real people with real accounts/identities - conversely random Doe Johns here at xda-dev may disappear without a trace in an instant. But I guess you may give me your banking account information if you're so confident, no? Then what the fecking fock are you talking about?

birdie said:
"Everyone" cannot access my bank account or siphon my information behind my back.
LeTV/RR/LOS all have a reputation to keep and they are represented by real people with real accounts/identities - conversely random Doe Johns here at xda-dev may disappear without a trace in an instant. But I guess you may give me your banking account information if you're so confident, no? Then what the fecking fock are you talking about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do raise a good point, and I can't argue against that concern. It's been years since I heard anyone else raise that concern, but I do wonder just how feasible it is to do today and if there have been any cases of this kind of theft within the XDA community.

Convince me to get the mate 20 pro (vs pixel 3 xl/ op 6t)

Hey,
After an upgrade of my HTC U11+. A bit stuck to be honest on which one to go with as they all have big pluses and minuses. I think my ideal phone would be the mate 20 pro hardware with pixel software.
Will give my pro's and minuses below, please feel free to comment and advise as you see fit.
Mate 20 pro
++ Big battery
+ Not bad price wise (especially with the free watch)
+ cameras
+ nice colours
- Lack of updates??
Pixel 3 XL
++ best software
+ great camera
+ great update support
+ great speakers
-- average battery life
-expensive
Oneplus 6T (based on rumours
+price
+Smooth UI
+good support
- camera probably wont be as good as the other 2
-speakers wont be as good
+/- battery in the middle

Out of these three I'd definitely go with the Mate 20 Pro. the Pixel is boring and too ugly and no features at all (I wouldn't consider it at all unless I absolutely need their camera) , OP6 is just cheap price but is missing wireless charging, QHD display, IP68, stereo speakers, camera will be just average, AOD display, desktop mode, raise to wake, knuckle gestures, secure face unlock, etc. But if you don't care about those, the OP6 will be faster/smoother than Mate 20 pro and maybe their underdisplay implementation could be a little bit faster but we'll see

I'm going through the same motions so can't "convince" you, but here are some additional thoughts.
*Pixel QC is still sub par. Quite a few hardware inconsistencies popping up. You won't see this with Huawei
*Pixel 3 speakers and haptics are FAR better
*Huawei software is bad for reasons people don't extrapolate upon
Question marks behind software updates should be removed. This is definitely a negative mark against Huawei.
Lockscreen is abysmal. Unable to expand, reply, or interact with any notifications
Background app restrictions are seriously annoying. Google photos will randomly not backup like your using an iphone. Services like android messages for PC, Mightytext, or Pushbullet will randomly stop working, Dropbox background sync won't work consistently, etc.
Huawei still isn't a brand developers seem to pay attention to, so bugs (think odd aspect ratio bugs) will take longer to get fixed.
*6T should be immediately disregarded unless cost or ROM support are of concern. Imagine you know this already.
Huawei hardware is beautiful, but the software and updates is a serious downer. (not just because it's a skin - EMUI looks fine visually imo) Ultimately, I think the ugly 3XL is still the better device for most..

No bootloader unlock, no root, no mods, no roms vs oneplus and pixel unlimited development..

tsoureki said:
No bootloader unlock, no root, no mods, no roms vs oneplus and pixel unlimited development..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm really hopeful that we'll at least get root...... I've preordered the Mate 20 Pro and will be selling my Pixel 2 xl, hope I don't live to regret it! Worst case scenario I'll sell it and switch...

Well Pixel XL 3 is trash. I returned mine after 2 days.
Oneplus 6T is a bang for buck type of phone
Mate 20 Pro I'm having issues getting one imported
Probably didn't help much but aye.

Goronok said:
I'm going through the same motions so can't "convince" you, but here are some additional thoughts.
*Pixel QC is still sub par. Quite a few hardware inconsistencies popping up. You won't see this with Huawei
*Pixel 3 speakers and haptics are FAR better
*Huawei software is bad for reasons people don't extrapolate upon
Question marks behind software updates should be removed. This is definitely a negative mark against Huawei.
Lockscreen is abysmal. Unable to expand, reply, or interact with any notifications
Background app restrictions are seriously annoying. Google photos will randomly not backup like your using an iphone. Services like android messages for PC, Mightytext, or Pushbullet will randomly stop working, Dropbox background sync won't work consistently, etc.
Huawei still isn't a brand developers seem to pay attention to, so bugs (think odd aspect ratio bugs) will take longer to get fixed.
*6T should be immediately disregarded unless cost or ROM support are of concern. Imagine you know this already.
Huawei hardware is beautiful, but the software and updates is a serious downer. (not just because it's a skin - EMUI looks fine visually imo) Ultimately, I think the ugly 3XL is still the better device for most..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great post, and for these reasons Huawei don't deserve £899 for their phone as pretty as it is. when the honeymoon period wears off you'll be noticing that lack of software support. I'm still debating getting a M20P myself, it would be easier if Huawei stepped their game up with software support and allowed the users to bypass background closures.

mwatson said:
Great post, and for these reasons Huawei don't deserve £899 for their phone as pretty as it is. when the honeymoon period wears off you'll be noticing that lack of software support. I'm still debating getting a M20P myself, it would be easier if Huawei stepped their game up with software support and allowed the users to bypass background closures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you hit the nail on the head regarding honeymoon period. I had (2) P20 Pro's and I loved the hardware/camera, but quickly became annoyed with the fact that EMUI just doesn't "work" as an android phone should. After using MIUI 10 on a Mix 2s for a few weeks, I would say that Xiaomi's derivative feels more natural to use. /sad

Goronok said:
*Huawei software is bad for reasons people don't extrapolate upon
Lockscreen is abysmal. Unable to expand, reply, or interact with any notifications
Background app restrictions are seriously annoying. Google photos will randomly not backup like your using an iphone. Services like android messages for PC, Mightytext, or Pushbullet will randomly stop working, Dropbox background sync won't work consistently, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know if these issues are still there in the Mate 20 Pro? That and Android Auto (connecting to a head unit) are very important to me. I don't believe that worked correctly on previous Huawei devices either.

arghness said:
Do you know if these issues are still there in the Mate 20 Pro? That and Android Auto (connecting to a head unit) are very important to me. I don't believe that worked correctly on previous Huawei devices either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had someone on Reddit confirm that the lockscreen is still the same. Some have said it is a bug, but seems working as intended to me. (Been a "bug" since EMUI 8.1)
I haven't inquired about backgrounding issues. Not much point. This has been a thing with EMUI since day 1. (And other China OEMs too)

Thanks for the replies very helpful. I know the mate 20 pro is the best out of the bunch its whether i can live with EMUI. I had this in the past with samsung s6 edge, loved the phone but hated the software and ended up getting rid of it very quickly. I think if the pixel was £100 cheaper or had a bigger battery i would 100% go with that for the software experience.
The decision would be so much easier if they allowed bootloader unlock and custom roms would solve half the issues! Still no closer to the decision.
A couple of extra points
Mate 20 curved screen will be a pain for glass screen protectors so thats a -
Still cant work out if the UK model is single sim or dual sim! (says its micro sd expandable so is that where the extra sim goes)

I think the camera will be just as good as the pixel...in some ways better because of the wide angle lens etc. The pixel 3 probably will be the best point and shoot but I don't think either will dissapoint you

I've bite the bullet and pre ordered the mate 20 pro.
What really turned the tide for me is 2 videos on youtube, 1 a speed comparison against the note 9 and it smashed it, which proved to me it wont be a laggy crappy software (mostly)
and 2nd a battery drain test which it got nearly 7 hours of SOT which was 2 hours better than the note 9 and 3 hours more than most of the others.

Phil750123 said:
I've bite the bullet and pre ordered the mate 20 pro.
What really turned the tide for me is 2 videos on youtube, 1 a speed comparison against the note 9 and it smashed it, which proved to me it wont be a laggy crappy software (mostly)
and 2nd a battery drain test which it got nearly 7 hours of SOT which was 2 hours better than the note 9 and 3 hours more than most of the others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hehe same thinking bud, yeah also saw some videos and pic comparisons on YouTube especially the mrwhosetheboss and i believe we should give the Huawei a go, like u said it's definitely blowin the note in most aspects and free watch is definitely a good bonus

misiokicio said:
Hehe same thinking bud, yeah also saw some videos and pic comparisons on YouTube especially the mrwhosetheboss and i believe we should give the Huawei a go, like u said it's definitely blowin the note in most aspects and free watch is definitely a good bonus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yer the watch did help me decide.
What i dont get in the UK is its 899 sim free, the pixel 3 xl 64gb is around 850 yet all the contracts for the huwaei are coming out about £5 a month less, also helped me decide.

Phil750123 said:
yer the watch did help me decide.
What i dont get in the UK is its 899 sim free, the pixel 3 xl 64gb is around 850 yet all the contracts for the huwaei are coming out about £5 a month less, also helped me decide.
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Click to collapse
See i went with sim free but what got me here is 50 quid more for mate, and free watch and charger is 250, so basically mate is working out 200 quid cheaper and 6gb ram vs the 4 and this massive battey, when pixie 3 battery is sitting at 3400 compared to my pixel 2 xl 3500 with a smaller screen? Impulse buy but hey, if we somehow hate it, or cant get used to it... Swap or sell after few months right? It aint a new car xd

It's very easy : get the pixel 3 and then youll want to get the mate 20 Pro for sure!

Preorderd mine today. Can't wait to finish a day without worrying at all about the battery. That's the feature I'm most excited about, since every phone, at this price, seems to have a great camera and screen. Really not that excited that I'll get to open youtube a half a second faster than other phones. Also, EMUI can be improved with apps and themes.

xtrocata said:
Preorderd mine today. Can't wait to finish a day without worrying at all about the battery. That's the feature I'm most excited about, since every phone, at this price, seems to have a great camera and screen. Really not that excited that I'll get to open youtube a half a second faster than other phones. Also, EMUI can be improved with apps and themes.
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Click to collapse
Pretty excited about this as well, I'm pretty sure I will still average about 6000 mah a day, I almost always charge from like 50 to 90% using wireless charging while at work but for the days I forgot to wireless charge, the fact that even if I get home with less than 5% and just plugging it in for like 15 minutes (instead of like 40 minutes like my note 9) and being back to like 40% to finish the day is amazing.

I agree

General I'm mad at OnePlus right now

I know nobody from OnePlus gives a damn anymore and I'm just here ranting to no one. But I just need to express my anger somewhere.
I'm a proud owner of the OnePlus One, part of the first bunch of invites, served me for 4 years and still works to this day, the battery is just a bit dead. Then I bought he 5T which is in my opinion one of the best phones ever made for my purposes. I don't do photos, I'm an IT admin that just needs a pocket PC that has plenty of utilities available and the 5T had everything i need.
After 5 years of service the 5T even though it is still working, just dies on me at 25% probably because of the 3rd party battery and also has general slowness and gets stuck sometimes but overall it has a metal body, headphone jack, read ceramic fingerprint and ACTUAL OxygenOS 10.0.1
I literally just opened the box of the 10T and I find myself with a brick of plastic that apparently from what I've seen in the videos it doesn't even withstand water (which the 5T does veeeery well even if not officially rated) that doesn't have an headphone jack.
Started messing with it and i found myself in a situation that made me start thinking if i should send it back or not. Here's a brief list:
I cannot unlock the phone unless i first double tap and then the fingerprint sensor is available while with the 5T i can literally touch the rear ceramic sensor and it instantly unlocks while turned off, which increases significantly the unlock time and pisses me off even further.
The bottom navigation buttons are not customizable like they where with 10.0.1, I set the square button to lock the phone with a long press, now i cannot do it since it instead opens split screen app that I NEVER use.
The Oneplus shelf is now available from a top scroll down on the status bar ( WHAT THE F***??????) and instead of the shelf now we have F****** Google Discovery page that you cannot even disable if you want to and from what I've seen some people handled to hide with an app made for Oppo's ColorOS.
The pattern lock on the lockscreen is way too high, i understand the sensor is at the bottom but there are literally 5cm available where only the emergency contact button is (not even at the middle of the gap which triggers my OCD) I have big hands but still have to reach the top and it's hella annoying.
For some reason it is now illegal to have circle app icons since you cannot choose that shape, but there is some weird ass other shape, go figure
Settings app got completely butchered, i can't find anything and, for instance i still didn't find the parallel apps and pocket mode and why the hell are the icons and fonts so big in there, what is the purpose??
Why are all Google Apps picking up the wallpaper color and changing their theme, it looks like garbage, I just want it black i tried every way and unticked the option but still doesnt work they are all pink-reddish It's disgusting, why am i not allowed to set it black??
Where is the advanced power menu option??? I want to be able to select the boot to recovery and boot to bootloader option not just the lame poweroff and reboot
If you go to the task manager, you press "close all" the phone decides which apps to close to "have optimal performance". ***** i clicked close all to actually close all, if i wanted you to decide what to close I'd have clicked that... This is pure idiotism. It even trolls you because you click it and closes everything except the current opened app and reopens that one....
Where are the ROMs ??? The list of devices on the site stops at the 9 pro https://www.oneplus.com/support/softwareupgrade and then there is the Nord series. I want the Official ROM zip.
What's funny is that my best friend bought one too and when it arrived 2 days ago he found that the power brick had the type C connector broken inside.
Now I'm sitting here thinking if i should pack it and send it back.
This is disappointing af. I need good specs and easy root with stock android, am I asking too much here ?

Both Android OS (since Pie) and phones (Samsung at least) have taken a dive from 2019.
I'm still running stock Note 10+'s one on 9 the other 10. I see nothing new I like. I absolutely demand expandable storage and good SOT. I'm set for another 2-3+ years.
Meh, give it das boot and find something that fulfills its mission for you.
Lots of older models including some that are new, unused. My last N10+ I bought was one of those. Unlike a used phone the factory sealed ones will be loaded with the OS version at time of manufacture. If you hate 11 and especially 12 as much as me, it's a no brainer. My N10+'s will likely never be upgraded... they run very well as is. Anything from Pie up is reasonably secure unless you do something stupid.

We feel your OnePlus pain since they and most OEM's have been trending downward! Not a good sign of things to come....
Return would be one of your options....
Cheers

The advanced boot menu and the original version bootloader of oneplus 5 is the best for advanced user.
My oneplus 5 is still working (battery is replaced once) but the price of oneplus 10t is very attractive.

LuisCarlosHK said:
The advanced boot menu and the original version bootloader of oneplus 5 is the best for advanced user.
My oneplus 5 is still working (battery is replaced once) but the price of oneplus 10t is very attractive.
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Click to collapse
That's ColorOS for you. If you really want pure OOS (11 and below), get a 9 pro/8 Pro/8T

I feel your pain. This ColorOS/Oxygen rom totally sucks. But I'm going to keep mine because there is no such specification on the market for this price (Snapdragon 8+ Gen, 16GB RAM, 256GB storage for $650). I hope someone will create custom roms (KOSP, YAAP) in the future.

Bought and used the 10 Pro for about 2 months and sold it.
Bought the Nothing Phone 1 and used it for 1 month....will probably pack it and sell it off soon
Been using the 10T for 3 days......can't comment yet
But overall i'll keep my 9 Pro and as soon as i get pissed with the 10T, i'll just move my sim back to the 9 Pro and i'm good to go.
Suggest you look at the 9 Pro as it's considered a year old device and it's way cheaper compared to when it first launched. Also there are loads of custom ROM for the 9 Pro now.

So i saw several reviewers mention OP10T 's performance is worse compared to other sd 8+ gen 1 phones like IQOO9T etc. Some speculate it's due to OnePlus locking cpu frequencies. Any OP10T owner that runs benchmarks, plays heavy games can comment on this?

i9100g user said:
So i saw several reviewers mention OP10T 's performance is worse compared to other sd 8+ gen 1 phones like IQOO9T etc. Some speculate it's due to OnePlus locking cpu frequencies. Any OP10T owner that runs benchmarks, plays heavy games can comment on this?
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Click to collapse
It's well-known by this point that OnePlus throttles the SoC since the 888. If you want full performance, you have to toggle performance mode in battery settings. Keep in mind that doing so will have a massive battery penalty as it stops the little cores from down clocking.

EtherealRemnant said:
It's well-known by this point that OnePlus throttles the SoC since the 888. If you want full performance, you have to toggle performance mode in battery settings. Keep in mind that doing so will have a massive battery penalty as it stops the little cores from down clocking.
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Ah gotcha i haven't used a one plus device in 6 years, my 10T will arrive in two days. I'm fine with the battery penalty since if i am gaming i usually have a charger around and that ridiculous charging speed makes up for it. I also have a pelteir cooler if performance mode makes it heat up. Looks like a good custom kernel would go a long for this device.

seanwlk said:
I know nobody from OnePlus gives a damn anymore and I'm just here ranting to no one. But I just need to express my anger somewhere.
...
This is disappointing af. I need good specs and easy root with stock android, am I asking too much here ?
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Click to collapse
You have summed this up for me so well. You are not alone. I still consider the 5T to be the best overall phone OnePlus has ever created. At the time, it beat all the flagships for 50% of their price. Easy root and dev friendly. Bulletproof too. Mine still works but my son lost it. It was HEAVY daily use for 5+ years until then.
I moved on to the OP7TP5GMcLaren (after trying the 8 pro and sending it back). It was slightly annoying for bootloader because I had to submit to oneplus to get the unlock code (before they found the bypass) but still worked. No custom roms but it was actually a decent experience and still handles games and dev tasks quite well.
Now I'm holding my 10T and I'm not sure if I should wait or send it back and wait. This fake oxygenOS ain't it. IF I return this phone, I will pick up the Redmi k50 (gaming or ultra) to hold me over. They have good specs at similar pricing but I will take a hit on band coverage. Which might be worth it at this point. I want to at least give this a week but so far, nothing has blown me away. I do like how much it feels like the 5T in hand. But it does not feel as premium as the 7TP/8P. I like the flat screen. I'm trying to love the things I like to be patient.
I don't blame oneplus for all of it, Android in general is still pretty buggy for being on version 12 - but I'm not heading to iOS so I'm here.
I might unlock bootloader, root and just skip otas forever. Breaking Netflix/drm is not ideal.
I will pitch in on OP10T crowdfunding for devs to get their hands on phones to work with

There is a "fast unlock". Seems to work well. Sleep->unlock by fingerprint on the scanner

Appreciative said:
There is a "fast unlock". Seems to work well. Sleep->unlock by fingerprint on the scanner
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that but it doesn't help much.
I still didn't return it but I'm about to throw it on the wall every time I tap "close all" in the task manager since it doesn't actually kill all apps but decides by itself that the current app I'm using has to be still opened.
Plus i can't live without notification LED and didn't find a single app that emulates it decently. Only one that does something is "Always on edge" but works randomly and more half the times doesn't work at all

They don't care at lie at any moment.

As someone with a 8T im scared. I don't know what to do anymore, my 8T is fine for now but then what? I don't see any MSM tools for the 10 Pro or the 10T. Go with a pixel? I'm actually just considering a iPhone for the first time since the 3GS. Been with android for over 10 years, i'm tired.

I appreciate the candor of OP @seanwlk , and can agree that the industry has become very hostile to the types of people like us who frequent XDA and mod our phones. I also place at the top of my list the requirement to have an easy unlocked bootloader to root.
That being said, I can't help but sense a little over the top reactions from everyone in the forums as well as YouTubers complaining about OnePlus. Full disclosure I have been using OnePlus since the 3T, but I am not a 1+ employee or shill, and I too was frustrated initially and tried out the Pixel 6 before returning it and coming back to 1+. The alternative besides 1+ and Pixel is the Sony Xperia. But the Xperia is way overpriced and overheats, plus is a hassle to root. But it is a great looking phone, and has expandable storage and a headphone jack.
Reasons I returned to OnePlus and rejected Pixel (caveat: both being equal in terms of bootloader unlock and rooting support)
Gestures. Screen off media controls, flashlight, three finger screenshot, ect....have tried Motorola, Essential, HTC, Sony.....OnePlus does it the best IMO. Didn't realize how much I used these and would miss them
Only Android to have an alert slider (and yes I know the 10T doesn't, but they recently revealed they don't plan on keeping it permanently removed. Dumb move IMO to remove it at all, but at least they will be bring it back). This is a big reason I went with the 10 Pro
Hands down, the best fast charging, both wired and wireless. Didn't realize how much it
Other small tweaks, like the native ability to hide status bar icons, the OnePlus font, layout of settings.
Also, I personally don't understand the hate for the influences of ColorOS. I find the larger UI is easy to press and navigate, especially from the notification shade when out and about in sunlight. I don't mind the "new" OOS. But again, to each their own.
seanwlk said:
I literally just opened the box of the 10T and I find myself with a brick of plastic that apparently from what I've seen in the videos it doesn't even withstand water
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's why I went with a 10 Pro: Metal and IP68, plus it has the alert slider which the 10T doesn't.
that doesn't have an headphone jack.
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Click to collapse
Most phone companies started doing this 5 years ago after Apple started the insanity, not a OnePlus unique complaint
I cannot unlock the phone unless i first double tap and then the fingerprint sensor is available while with the 5T i can literally touch the rear ceramic sensor and it instantly unlocks while turned off, which increases significantly the unlock time and pisses me off even further.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Super easy fix I used awhile back --> Oxygen AOD Mod
The bottom navigation buttons are not customizable like they where with 10.0.1, I set the square button to lock the phone with a long press, now i cannot do it since it instead opens split screen app that I NEVER use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm I didn't realize people still preferred buttons instead of gestures (which I prefer). To each their own
The Oneplus shelf is now available from a top scroll down on the status bar ( WHAT THE F***??????)
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Click to collapse
Totally can disable this in the settings....
and instead of the shelf now we have F****** Google Discovery page that you cannot even disable if you want to and from what I've seen some people handled to hide with an app made for Oppo's ColorOS.
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Click to collapse
I am sure someone has a Magisk module that disables this. Also, why not just use the GOAT launcher Nova?
For some reason it is now illegal to have circle app icons since you cannot choose that shape, but there is some weird ass other shape, go figure
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nova solves all of this.....lets you use Legacy icons and disable the "Reshape" BS that Android now does to icons.
[*]The pattern lock on the lockscreen is way too high, i understand the sensor is at the bottom but there are literally 5cm available where only the emergency contact button is (not even at the middle of the gap which triggers my OCD) I have big hands but still have to reach the top and it's hella annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the placement of fingerprint reader on the 1+9 I agree it's a little lower than I would have liked, but it's not that bad, right? I just decided to get used to it since I couldn't change it. Didn't ever really bother me. And now I use the 10 Pro which is placed higher
Why are all Google Apps picking up the wallpaper color and changing their theme, it looks like garbage, I just want it black i tried every way and unticked the option but still doesnt work they are all pink-reddish It's disgusting, why am i not allowed to set it black??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was under the impression this is a toggleable option to turn on/off
Where are the ROMs ??? The list of devices on the site stops at the 9 pro https://www.oneplus.com/support/softwareupgrade and then there is the Nord series. I want the Official ROM zip.
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Agree it is dumb they don't have the OTAs available. Hopefully they're just late to post? OxygenUpdater is my current workaround.
I need good specs
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The specs we have in flagships are so overpowered for most tasks IMO. Unless someone is a major mobile gamer.....but that is not me at all, nor most I suspect
easy root with stock android
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How "stock"? Because I used the Pixel 6 for a week and was seriously underwhelmed with the lack of features....especially not having screen off gestures and such.....stock Android is lacking IMO
Plus i can't live without notification LED and didn't find a single app that emulates it decently. Only one that does something is "Always on edge" but works randomly and more half the times doesn't work at all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another super easy fix if a notification dot is mandatory feature to you --> aodNotify

Appreciative said:
I might unlock bootloader, root and just skip otas forever. Breaking Netflix/drm is not ideal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Netflix breaking due to bootloader unlock or root is extremely easy to remedy, a TON of forum posts with Zygisk and USNF....

JrkSoldierX said:
As someone with a 8T im scared. I don't know what to do anymore, my 8T is fine for now but then what? I don't see any MSM tools for the 10 Pro or the 10T. Go with a pixel? I'm actually just considering a iPhone for the first time since the 3GS. Been with android for over 10 years, i'm tired.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Scared of what?
Not sure why you mention MSM tools and then immediately suggest Pixel, as it's Tensor chip is Exynos which means no MSM type tool since that is Qualcomm only
What makes you want to go to iPhone?

Also, the Exynos modem in the Pixel 6 was terrible with reception for both WiFi and cellular. Another big reason I returned it besides the ones I mentioned

centifanto said:
Netflix breaking due to bootloader unlock or root is extremely easy to remedy, a TON of forum posts with Zygisk and USNF....
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Click to collapse
I tried that. I tried a modified usnf also. I didn't have any success but that really isn't the deal breaker for me anyway. It was lack of msm, fake OxygenOS (which could be remedied in time with real msm for devs), and the general navigation and features of this "OxygenOS". The charging was great. Nothing else stands out enough. Never Settle indeed.
I'm waiting for OnePlus to stop playing their "we emailed the return label" game. It appears to be something that happens to many people when they want to return a phone. The return label never arrives to email and some get harassed into keeping their phone after it misses the return window. I have a few more days left. Each day they say it will arrive within 24 hours

Better Mobile App

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