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Hi!
I have been a heavy user of custom ROMs for more than three years now on all my Android devices. Lately, although I have a phone that not so long ago was still Samsung's flagship (the galaxy S4, I9505), the pictures I get with it really suck. A couple weeks ago, the phone could not detect my SIM card (pure hardware issue), so I re-installed the stock firmware and took it to the repair shop to get the warranty repair. They fixed it and I got my phone back. Just to make sure it was working fine, I decided to use the stock ROM for a while, and oh surprise: the camera takes much better pics in low light conditions or indoor than the same camera with any custom ROM app (usually AOSP-based, AOKP or CM-based). I tried to download the Google camera, and the low light pictures really suck. Then I tried a bunch of camera apps from the Play store, but I invariably got similar results to what I got with my custom ROMs.
That got me thinking. I'm no dev nor programmer, so I won't get technical, but it seems to me that there can be two reasons for the samsung app to work better:
- Either it has access to (proprietary) hardware drivers that other camera apps cannot access, and therefore it can get everything out of the camera hardware
- Or Samsung (which is not known to be great for its software) has developed a great camera software.
I would think it's something along the lines of the first reason. So does that mean I am either stuck with a ROM I cannot stand (Touchwiz is awful, has always been, and may always be) and a decent camera, or a decent ROM but a camera that is kind of useless when I'm indoor?
If so, how are the cameras on other similar phones (I'm thinking Nexus 5, Sony Xperia, etc.), running on custom ROMs compared to the stock camera apps? Is there also a noticeable difference, or is it just with Samsung?
I understood that you cannot run the Samsung camera apk on a custom ROM (even one on a Samsung phone), because the camera relies on some kind of Samsung proprietary framework.
Does this mean I should be looking for a phone that is running not only on open source software, but also open source hardware, does that even exist?
Anyone has noticed something similar? Am I the only one to be bothered by this?
I'll post here a couple pics taken in the same ambient light conditions. One with the Samsung camera (Auto setting), one with Google camera, and one with another camera app from the market (don't remember which one, but I tested about 15 of them and their results were quite similar).
Anyway, even if you don' have a solution to the problem but can point me to information that could help me understand how to choose my next phone, I would really appreciate. Thanks!
Cheers,
Fa
fabecoool said:
Hi!
I have been a heavy user of custom ROMs for more than three years now on all my Android devices. Lately, although I have a phone that not so long ago was still Samsung's flagship (the galaxy S4, I9505), the pictures I get with it really suck. A couple weeks ago, the phone could not detect my SIM card (pure hardware issue), so I re-installed the stock firmware and took it to the repair shop to get the warranty repair. They fixed it and I got my phone back. Just to make sure it was working fine, I decided to use the stock ROM for a while, and oh surprise: the camera takes much better pics in low light conditions or indoor than the same camera with any custom ROM app (usually AOSP-based, AOKP or CM-based). I tried to download the Google camera, and the low light pictures really suck. Then I tried a bunch of camera apps from the Play store, but I invariably got similar results to what I got with my custom ROMs.
That got me thinking. I'm no dev nor programmer, so I won't get technical, but it seems to me that there can be two reasons for the samsung app to work better:
- Either it has access to (proprietary) hardware drivers that other camera apps cannot access, and therefore it can get everything out of the camera hardware
- Or Samsung (which is not known to be great for its software) has developed a great camera software.
I would think it's something along the lines of the first reason. So does that mean I am either stuck with a ROM I cannot stand (Touchwiz is awful, has always been, and may always be) and a decent camera, or a decent ROM but a camera that is kind of useless when I'm indoor?
If so, how are the cameras on other similar phones (I'm thinking Nexus 5, Sony Xperia, etc.), running on custom ROMs compared to the stock camera apps? Is there also a noticeable difference, or is it just with Samsung?
I understood that you cannot run the Samsung camera apk on a custom ROM (even one on a Samsung phone), because the camera relies on some kind of Samsung proprietary framework.
Does this mean I should be looking for a phone that is running not only on open source software, but also open source hardware, does that even exist?
Anyone has noticed something similar? Am I the only one to be bothered by this?
I'll post here a couple pics taken in the same ambient light conditions. One with the Samsung camera (Auto setting), one with Google camera, and one with another camera app from the market (don't remember which one, but I tested about 15 of them and their results were quite similar).
Anyway, even if you don' have a solution to the problem but can point me to information that could help me understand how to choose my next phone, I would really appreciate. Thanks!
Cheers,
Fa
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So here come the pics. Of course XDA compresses them, but you'll get the idea.
Fa
That is the example difference between things that are built for the device over using open-source options. Software will always be better from the OEM. You see the same thing with HTC and Sony devices. Take the m7 and m8. They have great cameras as long as you use HTC Sense. Other wise all you get is a basic 4 mpx camera that sucks. If you want one that works the same no matter the rom then get a nexus. This is something OEM are doing to make people want to use their software
Thanks @zelendel,
A Nexus could be an option, but the screen size of the Nexus 5 was already too large for me (and so is my current phone, the Galaxy S4), so there's no way I'm getting a Nexus 6 (plus it's prohibitively expensive, at least here in Europe). When will Google make a Nexus mini or compact? That would rock, especially if they go the Sony way (not compromising too much on hardware features). The only downside of Nexus phone is their lack of MicroSD card slot, but that's off topic.
Anyway, what about the Google Edition phones? As I understand, they have the same hardware as their OEM counterpart (don't they?), but instead of running on proprietary stock ROMs, they ship with a pure Vanilla Android. Does this mean they ship with a camera that sucks, or is there some kind of tweak included to get the most of the camera with those editions, too? If so, would flashing that ROM help (if I can get my hands on it)? Unfortunately it seems the whole Google Edition concept has not gained a lot of traction (maybe because of the unavailability of the handsets in many places, maybe thanks to the OEM who did not play fair game and rather managed to get their crappy proprietary stock versions in the hands of customers), so I'm trying not to get too excited about this either.
I guess I will have to go to my local phone shop, spend time there with different devices and see if some of them have less heavily customized skins than TouchWiz. That means I'll no longer go for a Samsung, which have been my only devices so far. The end of an era...
fabecoool said:
Thanks @zelendel,
A Nexus could be an option, but the screen size of the Nexus 5 was already too large for me (and so is my current phone, the Galaxy S4), so there's no way I'm getting a Nexus 6 (plus it's prohibitively expensive, at least here in Europe). When will Google make a Nexus mini or compact? That would rock, especially if they go the Sony way (not compromising too much on hardware features). The only downside of Nexus phone is their lack of MicroSD card slot, but that's off topic.
Anyway, what about the Google Edition phones? As I understand, they have the same hardware as their OEM counterpart (don't they?), but instead of running on proprietary stock ROMs, they ship with a pure Vanilla Android. Does this mean they ship with a camera that sucks, or is there some kind of tweak included to get the most of the camera with those editions, too? If so, would flashing that ROM help (if I can get my hands on it)? Unfortunately it seems the whole Google Edition concept has not gained a lot of traction (maybe because of the unavailability of the handsets in many places, maybe thanks to the OEM who did not play fair game and rather managed to get their crappy proprietary stock versions in the hands of customers), so I'm trying not to get too excited about this either.
I guess I will have to go to my local phone shop, spend time there with different devices and see if some of them have less heavily customized skins than TouchWiz. That means I'll no longer go for a Samsung, which have been my only devices so far. The end of an era...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The GPE device dont come with stock android completely. I have a GPE HTC M7 and the gpe software has some of the closed sourced drivers and such for things like Beats audio and the camera. As I run pure AOSP I wind up with a 4mpx camera that really sucks. While i agree alot of the newer devices have huge screens that make it almost pointless for me. The m7 is not bad at about 5in. But then again it doesnt have an SD card slot but comes with 32gb of storage which I think is plenty for my use. Part of me misses my old samsung devices but I made the mistake once of getting the one with the Samsungs chip and not the snapdragon which killed development.
zelendel said:
The GPE device dont come with stock android completely. I have a GPE HTC M7 and the gpe software has some of the closed sourced drivers and such for things like Beats audio and the camera. As I run pure AOSP I wind up with a 4mpx camera that really sucks. While i agree alot of the newer devices have huge screens that make it almost pointless for me. The m7 is not bad at about 5in. But then again it doesnt have an SD card slot but comes with 32gb of storage which I think is plenty for my use. Part of me misses my old samsung devices but I made the mistake once of getting the one with the Samsungs chip and not the snapdragon which killed development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright! Well, if I could find the GPE edition for my phone (I9505), then I would get all the camera features and none of the TouchWiz crap, which would already be quite an improvement over what I have now (complete TW stock). I guess another possibility would be to flash a stock based ROM that is rooted and from which I could remove all the bloatware...
OK, the hunt is on for a new ROM!
Cheers!
Fa
fabecoool said:
Alright! Well, if I could find the GPE edition for my phone (I9505), then I would get all the camera features and none of the TouchWiz crap, which would already be quite an improvement over what I have now (complete TW stock). I guess another possibility would be to flash a stock based ROM that is rooted and from which I could remove all the bloatware...
OK, the hunt is on for a new ROM!
Cheers!
Fa
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want all the features of the camera then yes I would run a stock de bloated rom. I used to run Samsung devices and you can remove most things which will give you the camera app which has all the best features.
When you hand your phone to granny to take a photo of you, can she get the job done? Rate this thread to express how you deem the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge's camera software. A higher rating indicates that the software is easy to use, fast, uncluttered, and inclusive of advanced features for when you need them.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
This and the lack of foreseeable root are really the only two negatives regarding this device. Google's apps are just superior at every corner.
Messenger is more sleek than Messages
Chrome is now as smooth as Internet, but scrolls faster, accesses all my stored passwords, can share history with my computer.
Google's keyboard doesn't shove my friends emails into regular typing like Samsung's.
Gmail is much more appealing than Email.
Contacts and Phone - does anyone know how to get Google's variants working on a Verizon S7e?
Love the phone, but am loving it so much more with each Google app I add to replace one from Samsung.
Software features of Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge are very neat. TouchWiz is overall very much improved and device has a great build quality. Multi Tasking Features are amazing, pop-up view windows, and single hand usage tweak by Samsung itself is responsive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K42A_PQLzHc
Waiting for tasting AOSP but it will kill many features
I'm about to return the phone due to software. TouchWiz is hell. I come from a Motorola and a Sony phone, those phones offered experiences close to stock Android with some added features.
Using this phone is incredibly complicated. The settings section is a mess and it crashes when you try to change the do not disturb options. The soft keys are just wrong. I have half of my ram consumed by Samsung apps and duplicate apps for everything.
The phone is just sad, this is not an android phone. I'll give it a shot for the weekend, otherwise I'm going to swap this for the HTC 10.
Now that I expressed my rage, could someone advice me on making this phone bearable?
pepinocho9 said:
I'm about to return the phone due to software. TouchWiz is hell. I come from a Motorola and a Sony phone, those phones offered experiences close to stock Android with some added features.
Using this phone is incredibly complicated. The settings section is a mess and it crashes when you try to change the do not disturb options. The soft keys are just wrong. I have half of my ram consumed by Samsung apps and duplicate apps for everything.
The phone is just sad, this is not an android phone. I'll give it a shot for the weekend, otherwise I'm going to swap this for the HTC 10.
Now that I expressed my rage, could someone advice me on making this phone bearable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too come from a Sony device, and I love the S7 Edge. Sony software is very stable, and "minimalistic" compared to Samsung, LG and Huawei's customization, but damn it, I'm not hating it. I owned the first Galaxy Note. Yeah, you want some buggy and laggy TouchWiz crap? Take a good look at how things used to be, and then come back to the S7 and tell what you think.
The problem isn't that today's TouchWiz is bad, because it's not even close to being bad. It's just you that can't adapt to TouchWiz, so you curse at it and make sure to tell us what you think. TouchWiz isn't close to being "stock Android", and it's your own fault if you even thought that to begin with, but it's smooth, quick and there aren't any huge bugs (that I'm aware of). The camera software is awesome, the battery is awesome, the display is awesome, the design is awesome, but I guess you don't like the looks of the "notification center" and the Settings-app? You can theme those, and I recommend you install the "Material Design" theme from the theme store. It's free. You can also remove the annoying "Quick connect" thingy in the notifications by tapping "edit" and then disable it there (at the bottom). Then install Nova Launcher or Google Now Launcher.
The real issue here though is that you think there are too many options. Think about it. I get it. I really do, but this is such a first world problem that I can't even... :laugh:
But alright, I've already mentioned the themes and stuff, so give me/us some more details on exactly what's annoying you, and we'll see if it's easily changeable.
I luv it samsung s7 egde
Came from a HTC m8, and I do like the phone. As much as I use to rag on my girlfriend about her wanting samsung...they did right by me on it with waterproof alone. I did want the 10 though but this phone is keeping me content
Hi guys, I'm a jailbroken iPhone 6S+ user. I'm currently a slave to Apple's ecosystem (iPad, Apple TV, Watch but not a Mac) I apologize for the wall of text below, but I know you guys are always glad to give a helping hand.
I've been using iOS since the iPod Touch 2G, taking a break for a couple months only in the Galaxy S3 days, which was my first and only android experience. Many iOS users are in the same boat as me.
Android was a whole different thing back then. Nowadays, when I see the curved, bright and saturated screen of an S7 and how well it pairs with the material design, I feel like I'd love to give that a spin. My problem is that I've been fed constant complaints on behalf of android users, using different handsets and at different times. Here are my main concerns:
I've always heard that, after a "honeymoon" period, almost without fail, all android handsets start to experience stuttering, freezing, rebooting, framerate drops, etc. (maybe one of those at a time, sometimes all of those are common occurrences) does this happen? This is the most important one for me, because if there's something that none of my iPhones ever suffered from, was reduced performance.
Software glitches which are mostly hardware-specific. I've visited the 6P subreddit, only to find a plethora of people complaining about the camera app freezing or crashing, some focus issue I believe as well, or maybe just reduced performance in other parts of the OS (which is the purest form of android). I've also heard that Samsung's bloatware, although only a fraction of what it was back on the S3 days, still causes the phone to feel sluggish at times. Haven't heard about Huawei or HTC bloatware, but I have watched reviews which mentioned some lag here and there.
Software updates. The whole ordeal of having to choose a phone thinking about whether it will get updates in the future or not is pretty sad. I know that Nexus phones are guaranteed to get updates for two years I believe, but as I stated before, visiting the 6P subreddit, I've seen people complain about Google updating the OS but leaving bugs unresolved for several iterations of it. How do you handle this when choosing a phone?
Customization. If there's one area that I've been always convinced Android was leaps and bounds ahead of iOS was this. However, as a jailbroken iOS user, I find that I get most of what you guys can get out the box, but in a prettier package. As in, jb tweaks are very tightly integrated and always match the OS look and feel. In Android, you work with apps or, after rooting, with "modules" I think they're called. How do these differ from JB tweaks (stability-wise as well)? How different is the process of waiting for root vs waiting for a JB? Is rooting as necessary as jailbreaking?
Lastly:
Apps. I am aware of the differences in general app quality when comparing the App Store and the Play Store. Big names such as FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc are mostly the same. But when you start digging a little bit deeper, you find that there's a big difference in not only availability, but also variety and polish. At least, that's how my experience was and what I tend to hear from Android users. How's the Play Store these days? Has this changed a bit?
I apologize once again for the wall of text. If you could answer each point with one or two lines I'd be immensely grateful. Honestly, since these points are big question marks in my head right now, I wouldn't even know what handset to look into, because I don't want to be unpleasantly surprised later on. Android screens though... Damn. Most of them are sexy.
Anyway, thank you very much for your time. Any help is deeply appreciated.
Stuttering/Freezing. You might find this on some low-end devices but the "flagship" devices that I've used haven't suffered from this. This would generally be caused by lower end hardware (lower clocked CPU and lower RAM).
Software glitches. I own the 6P and have never had the camera crash or freeze, never had any software issues with this phone actually. Samsung phones are pretty well known to suffer from being sluggy, this is due to their Touchwiz UI which hogs quite a bit of RAM. The HTC devices I've owned haven't had this issue. Can't speak for Huawei's own UI. The Huawei 6P uses pure Android, I don't notice any real lag issues on this phone.
Updates. If you want guaranteed software updates your best bet is a Nexus. I've noticed no major bugs on the 6P apart from a 4G bug that was specific to an Australian carrier but that was patched pretty quickly. There have been things in Android that people label as bugs that haven't been patched immediately though. Even if you choose a device that may not be updated officially you will very often be able to update via a custom ROM, custom ROMs are often developed for devices long after official support has stopped.
Customization. Android is definitely far ahead in terms of customisation. Most people find customisation via a custom ROM (a customised version of the OS, sometimes based on the stock OS, sometimes based on AOSP (Android Open Source Project or "pure Android"), sometimes based on something like CyanogenMod). A ROM will almost always have extra features and tweaks, these features are usually very well implemented and tie in very nicely with the OS. When speaking about modules you'd be referring to Xposed Modules which are used with the Xposed Framework. Xposed basically opens up a lot of customisation ability, it requires root, it can be used on a stock ROM with root or with a custom ROM. There are a plethora of modules available, too many to even begin to list, the best way to see what they can achieve is to look in our Xposed Modules section. As for root in general, you don't generally need to wait for root like you would with jailbreaking. Having root access is also far more flexible than jailbreaking, you can pretty much do anything with your phone, you have full access to the otherwise blocked system partition. Root methods will vary from device to device but you'll usually need an unlocked bootloader. The easiest devices to root and modify are the Nexus devices, they're designed to be tinkered with, development phones first and foremost.
Apps. In the early days of Android, and even up until a few years ago, the Play Store really lacked in terms of availability and quality. The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in both areas though, there's a wide variety available and the quality has become top notch.
In summing up, it looks like the worries you have are misconceptions commonly held by Apple users.
As a former board level apple technician who used the first ever apple products in kindergarten nearly 30 years ago, I must say I can't even use an iPhone. With all respect, most of your thoughts are not accurate.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using XDA-Developers mobile app
Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Lenovo Zuk Z2 Pro, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Lenovo Zuk Z2 Pro is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Overclocking it makes everything even more considerable keeping up with newer phones but still so beautiful
IP certification would be perfect
I'm gonna post this here; I sent this originally as a private message since someone was asking about buying a Z2 Pro, and I figured a "here's kinda how it is as of September 2017" roundup might be useful for others looking at buying one, or trying to decide between the Pro and Plus.
So I own a Z2 Pro, and after several months of trying various options for custom and factory ROMs for it, and then getting a regular Z2 Plus for my wife, and setting THAT up...
Frankly, if I were going to get one now, I'd get the Z2 Plus Z2132 instead. Bigger battery, MUCH better custom ROM community with more stable & official builds, official TWRP, better-supported camera... to me, the extra $150 for the Pro has only meant more headaches trying to get something stable to work as a daily driver with regular security updates - and the AMOLED screen, UFS vs eMMC internal storage speed, and supposedly better camera haven't really ended up being as much of a difference as I thought. Yeah there's more storage & RAM, but... for daily use, at least on Nougat, 4GB RAM / 64GB storage is still plenty.
ZUI (factory firmware) issues:
Long story short, the official ZUI is an annoying mess for me, even with root (I use Magisk so I can have root utilities like Titanium Backup but still keep playing Pokemon Go with my wife)... the dialer and settings and built-in calendar app and lots of things still have Chinese showing up around the edges even when the system is set to English. Trying to disable built-in apps and use Google Dialer & Contacts doesn't quite work right, you can't actually install something like OpenGapps but have to piecemeal it together with packages from apkmirror or similar, and Google contact sync stops every week or two without warning - since I need contact, calendar, and email sync to work for business purposes, that's a show-stopper for me.
Seems like the Plus gets updates to ZUI before the Pro does, by a couple weeks.
Custom ROM issues:
The Pro camera really only looks & performs great under ZUI. It's not Camera2 HAL compatible and, unless Lenovo decides to pursue that with their own sources, never will support fancy HDR+ modes or zero shutter lag with Google Camera apps. AEX recent builds are starting to get really close to stock ZUI quality, since they imported & shimmed the ZUI camera blobs somehow, but some others like Mokee might still accidentally mechanically jam your camera trying to enable OIS. Ouch.
The U-Health app on stock ZUI is the only thing that can talk to the heart rate/blood-oxygen sensor on the back of the phone under the flash. Nobody has got U-Health working under a custom ROM since it requires the ZUI framework and integration with Lenovo's user login ecosystem. But the step sensor is apparently generic and supported by Google Fit, so if you just want to see if you're hitting 10K steps per day, you're all set. All the other sensors (gyro, orientation, proximity, magnetic, GPS/GLONASS, pressure, gravity, etc.) seem to work fine in custom ROMs.
You'll hear a lot about the "blue LED of death" - that's a hard freeze, the screen goes blank and the notification LED goes blue (with a 50% duty cycle, which looks different than just being "on"). You can restart from there by holding the power button for 8-10 seconds, so don't panic. Unfortunately, it seems to be reeeeeally easy to hard freeze the phone by doing some things with Bluetooth, or entering/exiting deep sleep (like if I have a clock alarm and a calendar reminder or two that would all go off simultaneously, and it's plugged in to charge, trying to wake itself up and play all those notifications at the same time has actually made it freeze instead and I've slept through an alarm that never went off) or other stuff that involves switching CPU states too much... I don't know. It seems like, at the end of the day, the stock (ZUI) thermal-engine.conf might have something to do with it... it sets super-low limits for temperatures, and the CPU ends up throttling, and it'll try to crash out perhaps as a safety measure instead of getting too hot... or maybe the constant state-switching leads to instability. Anyway, it's not too hot. They're just being super-conservative. Not sure. You can pull a different thermal config that'll ease up a lot, get you better benchmarks, and still isn't actually putting the hardware at risk.
Custom ROMs:
LineageOS 14 - there isn't a current build. I mean, there IS, and theoretically work is still being done on it, by a couple different people (long story and some drama involved there...) but there's no daily driver with working sound and no progress reports being made in XDA forums.
Mokee 7 - continues to be a thing (based on LineageOS sources), but... I don't know, it's all nightlies in terms of stability (at least when I tried it). Everything mostly works, it's just crashy. Wouldn't recommend. However, the maintainer is a guy whose name you'll see a lot: SY/Siyang. He's basically THE guy on the Lenovo Chinese forums responsible for building Z2 Pro ports of various custom/aftermarket ROMs like Resurrection Remix, AICP, Flyme, MIUI, HydrogenOS, etc. Apparently being a kernel developer means you know how to play around. But that's all it really is; playing around - he doesn't actively maintain any of them, just kinda builds them & throws them out there, but isn't in it to do active bug fixes. He also includes 3-4 packages of Chinese bloatware that involve some kind of adware/affiliate marketing to try and make some money - I don't begrudge him that, and you can disable/freeze them, but it's still not "clean".
MIUI/Flyme/HydrogenOS - I think they're all Android 6 (MM) based, so I haven't looked into them. Built by Siyang.
AICP - Built by Siyang. This was actually pretty good, but it crashed out on me with an alarm set twice and I was late for work. Ditched.
Resurrection Remix - Built by Siyang. This was also pretty good, but the 5.8.4 builds have problems. 5.8.3 was best, but got blue LED a couple times and ditched it too, not interested in moving backward in security patches.
...which brings us to AEX (AOSP Extended) - this is the only working Nougat ROM being actively developed & maintained for the Z2 Pro as of this writing that's stable for daily driver use, but it's REALLY good. @davidevinavil has done a fantastic job and is very responsive on the XDA forums. Since he's just using the same thermal-engine.conf as ZUI it doesn't score as high as possible on benchmarks, but you can grab the one from void23's kernel and use that (void hasn't updated his kernel for AEX 4.6 yet and doesn't seem to plan to with the release of Oreo "real soon now", so I don't recommend actually using his kernel anymore).
Works well with Magisk (for root, root hiding, and making Google Play Store like your weird-ass Chinese OEM phone, etc.), supports OMS/substratum themes, has current security patches, generally non-crashy, and camera quality is pretty good (both the built-in camera app, and with Open Camera and CameraNextModV7). F2FS support for /data & /cache might work, but the dev doesn't use those (even though, in theory, it makes a notable difference since the Pro has UFS instead of eMMC 5.2 storage) so plan on using ext4 for everything. Haven't tried device encryption yet, but if I were going to, it would be on this one.
Custom Kernels:
Void kernel - Void23 did some nice work based on AEX 4.5, and some people successfully use it with other ROMs as well. It works best with most current AEX 4.5, but from the reading I've done I wouldn't use it with 4.6. However, you can grab his thermal-engine.conf file from his installer package, and put it into /system/etc/ of a clean AEX 4.6 install and that'll give you a little more headroom before CPU/GPU/chipset throttling occurs.
TWRP:
There's a few, but @davidevinavil has the only 3.1.1 release, and it works the best as far as I can tell. There's a 3.1.0 release on the zukfans.eu German language forum (reasons...) that mostly works well but sometimes can't install some ROMs, and a Chinese release of 3.1.0 by wzsx150 that seems to work best for installing all the Lenovo forum ports by Siyang plus has a few extra goodies (like rebooting directly to EDL/port 9008 mode for QPST/QFIL flashing). As much as I'd love to have my /data partition encrypted, I haven't bothered testing lately. I'm guessing best compatibility would be using AEX and @davidevinavil's TWRP, but haven't actually tested. Again, F2FS is hit or miss.
But you know what's even better about @davidevinavil and AEX for the Z2 Pro? It's essentially a port of his work on AEX for the Z2 Plus! And on the Z2 Plus, it's only one of many actively supported and maintained custom ROMs! And there's an unofficial EAS-enabled version of AEX on that phone, so that bigger battery will go even farther!
So yeah. I like being able to quickly run a nandroid backup & restore and all, and have more room for video files & music, but as far as actual daily driver quality of life... not sure if the extra $150+ is worth it for the Pro, especially when you have the same CPU/GPU and bigger battery on the Plus. The every-so-slightly nicer camera seems to actually be a problem that delays getting working custom ROMs, and the other differences don't translate into noticeable daily quality of life improvements for me - I mean it's not like the plus is SLOW by any stretch. But it's got more RAM & storage, and USB 3 transfer speed, so if you use it as a glorified thumb drive a lot, or tend to load up lots of movies/music, then maybe it's worth it. And the AMOLED screen is pretty.
Oh, and there's a LOT more protective cases for the Z2 (plus) than the Z2 Pro.
So there you go. If you have any other questions about daily life with a Z2 Pro, feel free to ask me!
---------- Post added at 02:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:09 PM ----------
It's fast, and it's working pretty well for me, but it took a LOT to get to where it's actually a reliable daily driver for work.
I have owned mine for 15 months and paid $400. If I broke it right now I would buy another one for the $260 it is selling at.
Got it 25 months so far, since October '17, bought 215€. In my eyes, it is like a the OnePlus 3 6/128 of its time, except the silly multilanguage chinese "stock" rom in which I have stucked yet (a modified MM version). I was about buying a new phone and change battery, root-rom-kernel etc at this one, and just change battery, root-rom-kernel etc this one. Decided to stay because even at 50€ more , it's impossible to find anything else equipped with just OIS, 6 GB ram, amoled, UFS, though I'd expected to be able to buy much more, such as >=8 ram, cooling, macro & wide, as we are two years after.
Sooo no. One more year will be good enough with it. That's the only (main) device I have kept for more than 10 months What more could I want? :angel: :highfive: :victory:
Hello again everyone,
Interesting conversation I want to have with users here; which Android skin do you like most and why?
Obviously AOSP != what Pixels run.
What if a future Honor device ran Android One/Go? Would that be enough to convince you buy one? What if Kirin hardware was still used even with Android One?
What do you like and not like about EMUI?
Really want to get your all's input and feedback.
AOSP has always been my favorite, primarily because it adheres to Google's design standards, and theoretically allows OEMs to deliver faster updates overall.
Skins like EMUI deter from Material Design a fair bit, and it makes it fragments the experience in that sense. It looks too much like iOS, but honestly, I don't mind it too much, because the features it brings with it are actually useful rather than bloat (I'm not saying EMUI is exempt from bloat). Overall, it's a good stock experience, but not something I'd run.
AOSP is also very flexible with projects here on XDA, and it allows for the ease of development and synchrony.
The code is generally cleaner than the additional stuff that OEMs add, and there usually a performance benefit. Skins usually overdo it (I'm looking at you Amazon), and it detracts from what we come to expect from Android itself.
And finally, I'm not sure why, but devices that ship with AOSP-esque ROMs generally feel more premium. Probably because there is less useless garbage.
Those are just my quick thoughts. I hope Honor puts the feedback to use
EMUI tries too much to be like ios. EMUI doesnt incorporate Googles material design. EMUI needs to follow Android design guidelines and features. The share menu looks and functuion like IOS why? We need a better lqauncher. the icons are ios inspired.
Miui und EMUI feel like the interpretation of a 13 years old fan boy of how his phone should work and look like. While AOSP looks much more mature in total feel.
I switched from a phone running Near-AOSP Android 7.1 and now 8.0 to my first EMUI 8.0 device.
EMUI 8.0 on my Mate 10 Pro is a flaming piece of sh*t.
I don't even care about the design. Yeah, it looks like iOS puked all over Android KitKat after a drunken stupor - but that can mostly be remedied with a custom launcher and/or an EMUI theme.
I don't even care that the settings menu feels like it was organized by someone trying to hide their porn collection inside a labyrinth of subfolders back in the 90s. It's stupid, but you get used to it.
I *do* care about the insane amount of things that Huawei/Honor actively broke, removed or replaced with ****tier versions of the same thing.
That things that don't work is staggering:
* Many widgets don't reliably update, they simply die after a while and never show new information. Even Google Widgets are affected, like Google News & Weather.
* Notifications are unreliable. If you don't use an app for a while, don't expect to get any more notifications until you open it - even after fully whitelisting it from everything. I missed several important Facebook Messenger messages because of this. And if Do Not Disturb is enabled, notifications aren't just silenced, they frequently simply disappear into nowhere.
* Some apps simply can never show notifications when in the background on EMUI for more than half an hour, no whitelisting possible.
* Forget about running apps in the background long term, they are frozen eventually, regardless of your settings. And, no, not via Android Doze but via Huawei's own battery management that has all the surgical precision of a sledgehammer.
* You can't disable many system sounds. They also ignore the do not disturb setting and play full volume regardless (like the battery charging sound).
* You can't enable "Do not disturb" for x minutes/hours - that was removed for no reason at all.
* The AOD is essentially useless, it only supports Huawei's own apps, nothing else.
* Lock screen messages can't be expanded or interacted with - the arrow to expand them exists but doesn't do anything.
* You can't even set WiFi connections as metered, the feature was removed - you can't limit background traffic for those connections in EMUI. Forget about ever using a mobile or otherwise metered hotspot with EMUI.
* AdGuard doesn't survive a network connectivity change. When it reconfigures the VPN connection the battery manager kills it, regardless of whitelisting. The only workaround is to never let it reconfigure.
* You can't configure your billing cycle. If it doesn't start at the beginning of the month you are out of luck. One of the many, many native Android features that were simply removed in EMUI with a sledgehammer for no sane reason at all.
* You can't reliably set default apps or even launchers, EMUI loves to reset them back to default randomly. So you launcher of choice decided to roll out an update on the Play Store? Time to enjoy Huawei's launcher again from now on ...
* The same goes for many settings, even in Huawei's own apps - many settings just don't "stick" and are reset after some hours or weeks.
* By default the battery management eventually even stops Chrome from running in the background. Which is the sole WebView provider - breaking just about anything that uses WebView. Insane. At least here the manual whitelisting works as a workaround.
* The camera shortcut was moved from the power button to the volume button for no sane reason, which means it doesn't work when you listen to anything or when the screen is on.
* It has a ludicrous amount of Bluetooth compatibility issues. You though Bluetooth on Stock Android could be iffy? It's compatibility heaven compared to what Huawei somehow managed to do with it.
* Huawei removed Google's Smart Lock and replaced it with ... Huawei Smart Unlock, which currently *only* supports Bluetooth unlock, nothing else, and naturally doesn't even do that reliably.
* You enjoy "OK Google"? Well, Huawei has "OK Emy" as the only assistant capable of waking the phone. It literally has exactly two features (find phone, make a call) and the only semi useful one does not work - at all.
It's the dumbest, most infuriatingly, most idiotic take on Android I have ever experienced.
I still *love* the hardware of the Mate 10 Pro. It's near perfect for me: It's beautiful, fast, great display, amazing build quality and the best battery life and fastest fingerprint sensor of any current flagship.
But I hate EMUI's guts after a couple of months with it. And I really, really tried to like it.
Seriously, why anyone would prefer EMUI over AOSP, or pretty much any other Android skin, is beyond me.
I just miss an Android experience that just works and that I don't feel like I'm constantly fighting. I still love Huawei's hardware, but I'll avoid future EMUI phones like the plague.
freibooter said:
Seriously, why anyone would prefer EMUI over AOSP, or pretty much any other Android skin, is beyond me.
I just miss an Android experience that just works and that I don't feel like I'm constantly fighting. I still love Huawei's hardware, but I'll avoid future EMUI phones like the plague.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just trying to understand users. Some like features from skins that AOSP doesnt offer.
Really appreciate what was stated. I too wish notifications on the lockscreen were improved. Hope to continue the trend to make improvements with EMUI and listen to our users
[email protected]_USA said:
Just trying to understand users. Some like features from skins that AOSP doesnt offer.
Really appreciate what was stated. I too wish notifications on the lockscreen were improved. Hope to continue the trend to make improvements with EMUI and listen to our users
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Click to collapse
Please try a stable custom rom like Omni ROM and you will understand that most people here on XDA just want good developer support. AOSP doesn't have features but it is designed well and less in your face like EMUI. And those that are here on XDA probably root it and install a custom ROM that is based on AOSP with added features without the cartoon like UI that some custom skins like Samsung, Huawei, LG provide.
syl0n said:
Please try a stable custom rom like Omni ROM and you will understand that most people here on XDA just want good developer support. AOSP doesn't have features but it is designed well and less in your face like EMUI. And those that are here on XDA probably root it and install a custom ROM that is based on AOSP with added features without the cartoon like UI that some custom skins like Samsung, Huawei, LG provide.
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Click to collapse
I've personally used custom ROMs through my android history of close to 2 dozen devices. AICP, DU, AOSPA, LOS, Slim, RR, etc etc. been apart of the XDA community for close to 8 years.
I really want to support the dev community and have a passion for it. :good:
[email protected]_USA said:
Which Android skin do you like most and why?
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Click to collapse
I prefer pure Android itself over OEM's skins. Why? It is not only the cleanest, but it's also way smoother and i have also nothing to complain about AOSP. One example (of many out there) could be Huawei Nova which I've owned. It was way smoother with LOS 14 and also had much better battery backup. It might be featureless compared to OEM's skins, but how many of us actually use all the features implemented by OEM? I personally don't.
Sometimes simplicity is the best.
What if a future Honor device ran Android One/Go? Would that be enough to convince you buy one?
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Only Honor ones? Anyway, yes, that'd convince me. I don't care about Android One program, but I do care about AOSP.
What if Kirin hardware was still used even with Android One?
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No, then I wouldn't consider it. The reason I've bought Huawei Nova was because it had Qualcomm, otherwise I wouldn't have bought any Huawei. Qualcomm is popular and easier to develop for (correct me if I'm wrong). IMO, this is one of the reasons why XDA forums for Huawei are dead.
What do you like and not like about EMUI?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Things I like:
Lockscreen - I really like how the lockscreen looks, especially with a cool wallpaper. I'd choose this lockscreen anytime over AOSP's one as I like that's not "blurred", that I can see the wallpaper properly on a good screen. It just looks gorgeous. The widgets which can be accessed from the bottom is also nice. Would've been nicer if we could also choose own actions for that widgets.
White-blue themed - I love this man. I've always wanted this kind of theme.
Things I don't like:
Phone Manager - Man, this is just bull****. Apps are getting killed even after disabling the options in Phone Manager to not kill them. It's the most annoying thing. It's known that task killers are harmful for Android, yet that's what you're doing. Just let Android handle the things how it was meant to, it doesn't need task killers or some kind of RAM management. I also don't like the fact that battery stats is implemented in that and after removing Phone Manager, you no longer can see the battery stats, and if I remember properly, the option to block calls is also gone. That virus scanner is another ****. I mean, come on... It would have been so much better without this ****, Phone Manager. It's not only a bloatware, but it's also harmful.
Kernel - it's a mess. Just few examples: root scanner and some other protection which I don't remember right now (was related to rw system if I'm not mistaken), some configs in defconfig with "HISI" in the name are enabled on Nova which has Qualcomm. On top of this, you're providing the kernel as tarball making it hard to remove your **** for someone which is not pro, like me. I'm not the only one who said that your kernels are a mess.
Dark notification panel - Why black? Just why? Why didn't you make it white-blue themed just like the rest of the skin? It would have looked so much better. Dark one just doesn't make sense IMO when EMUI is white-themed. I'd have understood if EMUI was black themed, but it isn't.
Bloatware - removable, but still.
Privacy - I care so much about this and I doubt about it on EMUI, no matter what you would say. I haven't checked, but I'm sure that's possible to check out if there's something going on in the background. It's not like you would be the only OEM doing it though.
Screen Recorder - it's laggy and you better wouldn't have added it. I've recorded my Nova's screen when I've been on AOSPExtended even when gaming and there's no lag when I'm watching the recorded video. It was same on LOS, but I think it was slightly better on AEX. I haven't tried to record screen through terminal command on EMUI though, so I don't know if it could be better.
There were more things I like / don't like at EMUI, but right now nothing else cross my mind.
I had a list with things I like and I don't like in an app on my Nova and there were more things, but I've forgot what I've wrote there. Since it's broken, I can't access it, but I think I had a backup of that app made with Titanium Backup, so maybe I'll grab it through TWRP and restore it on my old phone to check.
I remember though that on the list I don't like was persistent notifications and seeing 0mb at apps in Developer Options > Running services, but when I've tried the last update they were actually solved (persistent notifications were really persistent and I could see the proper RAM usage at apps).
Why I won't buy Huawei anymore as of now:
I'd say that the percent is 99%.
EMUI - already listed some things I don't like and some of them are annoying af. As I've said, I have nothing to complain about AOSP, no annoying things or whatsoever.
Huawei support - this is a joke IMO. Lemme give examples. Huawei Nova came with Marshmallow (EMUI 4.1). You've updated it to EMUI 5 and even today it doesn't have a rollback update to go back to EMUI 4.1. Basically, people are stuck with EMUI 5 and obliged to accept your new changes which may not like. There's no full EMUI 4.1 firmware on Firmware Finder and the only way to go back to EMUI 4.1 is to unlock the bootloader, install TWRP and restore a backup of EMUI 4.1, only if you're lucky to get one from someone else. When I've asked Huawei support about rollback update, they've said about going to service. Well, **** that.
Second example is about the kernel source. You've uploaded EMUI 5 kernel source for a Chinese model of Huawei Nova and there was no EMUI 5 kernel source uploaded/mentioned for CAN-L11 and the other models. I've asked several times Huawei support about publishing the source for CAN-L11 and I've been told the same thing always. After a long time (couple of months), I've seen that there was a new category on their opensource website, with EMUI 5 kernel source for CAN-L11 and other models. I've downloaded it and compared it with the first EMUI 5 kernel source released which was for a Chinese version and I was surprised to see that's the ****ing same source code. Basically you've uploaded the same source after a long time and made a new category on your website where you've added the rest of the models at one source when you could mention the compatible models from the beginning or editing your website...
The kernel is a mess - already said it before...
Kirin chipsets - I've never used one and i would never use one.
XDA support - kinda all Huawei phones are dead on XDA. Some of the things listed before should be helping this.
That's pretty much all I had to say. If you're really looking into making changes, then I'll also be looking forward to those changes. I hope you're actually willing to make changes and that this thread won't be useless.
I'd really consider Huawei again if it's gonna have AOSP / Android One and Qualcomm chipset.
PS: Just noticed that there was a typo ("bloatwait" instead bloatware lol). I'm sorry if there's more typos/mistakes. I've wrote on my old phone which is a Galaxy S Advance with 4 inch screen and the keyboard is small...
I have used every single OEM based distro since the beginning of android. I have to say that out of all of them Sense was the one I liked the best. Here are my reasons why.
1. They had their own style (original Sense versions) They didn't copy anyone else. This is a big deal really. I personally am not a fan of material design. It looks very childish and unprofessional.
2. Added features that didn't bog down the UI (Hey Samsung)
3. They didn't add useless features just because everyone else did.
Now these things have changed as of late and I wouldn't use the new HTC sense (was part of their beta group at one time. They didnt listen)
With people using things like custom launchers, icon packs, themes and wallpaper apps like KLWP the over all UI of the OS really doesnt matter as its almost never seen. I mean how many times does someone really go into settings outside the first time setup? The notification shade is the major thing of the underlying OS that people see the most.
Android Go is really pointless unless you plan on lowering the specs of the honor devices. They lose functionality which is pointless if the hardware good enough for the standard version.
As for the chip. Well really that will only matter if the team puts in the time to help developers with documentation for working with the chip. This is the reason for the support of qualcomm chips. They have gone out of their way over the years helping developers with documentation and apis for working with the chips. You provide this and it will help alot.
I want to say Aosp will make you guys a Huge hit all around the globe. Especially if you bring Aosp over One flagship and one budget phone.
Personally i love emui. But market more oriented to Aosp
I'd take the Nokia approach to this matter. Since Huawei uses their AI mostly in the camera app, I'd love if there was an honor flagship running android one software and Huawei / honor camera app. Also, the background user data analysis for better battery and resource optimisations, claimed to be in EMUI 8 are being implemented in android P, so it's a win win for both the company and the customers
For those that are claiming aosp is the way to go atop and think about this. Samsung is the biggest Android oem and it is not because it get aosp. It's because of the features that touch Wiz offers that Google doesn't. Aosp really is bare bones enough that it can be compared to running Linux on a pc. It works but not as full featured or as well as something built for the hardware.
zelendel said:
For those that are claiming aosp is the way to go atop and think about this. Samsung is the biggest Android oem and it is not because it get aosp. It's because of the features that touch Wiz offers that Google doesn't. Aosp really is bare bones enough that it can be compared to running Linux on a pc. It works but not as full featured or as well as something built for the hardware.
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Click to collapse
Completely agree with you man, but Honor doesn't really have much hardware differentiation like Samsung has infinity displays and S pen. All other EMUI features like Knock gestures are barely used and features like app twin can be done using a third party app like parallel space. But the benefits that Android one like ROM offers, like smoother UI experience and enabling faster updates with little to no feature exclusions. So I beg to differ in my opinion that OEM skin (EMUI) offers any benefits over Aosp.
iamsabresh said:
Completely agree with you man, but Honor doesn't really have much hardware differentiation like Samsung has infinity displays and S pen. All other EMUI features like Knock gestures are barely used and features like app twin can be done using a third party app like parallel space. But the benefits that Android one like ROM offers, like smoother UI experience and enabling faster updates with little to no feature exclusions. So I beg to differ in my opinion that OEM skin (EMUI) offers any benefits over Aosp.
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But see android one is a watered down version of android really. To be honest honor software is over all crap. I'm not sure who they ha E writing the software but they should be demoted.
zelendel said:
But see android one is a watered down version of android really. To be honest honor software is over all crap. I'm not sure who they ha E writing the software but they should be demoted.
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I was just stating my opinion and I truly believe android one or stock android, for that matter, make a midrange phone, with lesser CPU power and RAM, perform equal to Honor / Huawei's 2017-18 flagship, the View 10 or the Mate 10 pro, running EMUI, and having better battery backup. I agree that EMUI is okayish to an extent because it is better than any other custom skins except Oxygen OS, but fragmenting the UI into region based firmware is a completely useless thing to do, considering that it slows down updates, takes more human resources to develop updates to separate regions and not to mention that they state regional feature prioritisation as the reason, but most of the basic features are common and they just add bloat like Paytm integration in Indian version and stuff like a separate Huawei app store on the international version, which is essentially useless because of all the stocks being updated either through the playstore or OTAs. Just My Opinion and I speak only for myself.
iamsabresh said:
I was just stating my opinion and I truly believe android one or stock android, for that matter, make a midrange phone, with lesser CPU power and RAM, perform equal to Honor / Huawei's 2017-18 flagship, the View 10 or the Mate 10 pro, running EMUI, and having better battery backup. I agree that EMUI is okayish to an extent because it is better than any other custom skins except Oxygen OS, but fragmenting the UI into region based firmware is a completely useless thing to do, considering that it slows down updates, takes more human resources to develop updates to separate regions and not to mention that they state regional feature prioritisation as the reason, but most of the basic features are common and they just add bloat like Paytm integration in Indian version and stuff like a separate Huawei app store on the international version, which is essentially useless because of all the stocks being updated either through the playstore or OTAs. Just My Opinion and I speak only for myself.
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It won't make it equal to a flagship, it will just make a mid range not suck as much.
zelendel said:
It won't make it equal to a flagship, it will just make a mid range not suck as much.
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Exactly my point. But when you take a powerful midranger like a Nokia 7+ and compare it with an honor flagship running EMUI, say a View 10, I agree that the raw power of the CPU or the SoC would make the flagship open apps much quicker and load much faster, but since we are talking about UI experiences, we must touch the issues like memory management, resource allocation, battery optimisations, etc. I'd say based on my usage that once the apps are loaded onto memory on both phones, I find switching apps and multitasking a bit smoother on the stock android (android one) and with very comparable battery sizes (3800 vs 3750 mAh), the Nokia 7+ provides a bit more extended D battery life on heavy usage. Light to moderate usage yields very much the same battery life of around 7.5 - 8 hrs SoT, but think of what honor phones with flagship specs could achieve with android one or stock android. I'd say that at this point, with very comparable hardware on almost all flagships, UI makes a lot of difference and I think EMUI, though providing a lot of features and is almost as fast as android one, I'd say the extra features added only weigh it down in terms of raw performance.
Pure Android is always better choice over other custom UIs. It is fast, smooth and lag free.
It is fine even if it doesn't have some customizations that other UIs offer.
EMUI memory management makes some apps does not work properly.
[email protected]_USA said:
Hello again everyone,
Interesting conversation I want to have with users here; which Android skin do you like most and why?
Obviously AOSP != what Pixels run.
What if a future Honor device ran Android One/Go? Would that be enough to convince you buy one? What if Kirin hardware was still used even with Android One?
What do you like and not like about EMUI?
Really want to get your all's input and feedback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem wid skin like emui is, OEMs take longer to bring android updates. More the skin is close to stock android more easier it is to give timely updates.
Honor itself has pathetic record in rolling out updates, that's the thing i dislike about emui