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Please note this is my opinion and experience with the phone. I love trying all kinds of smart phones.
I wanted to love this phone...
Being a heavy google apps user and a lover of customization and android, I recently switched back to android from the iPhone 6 Plus (previous phones as well include Blackberry Passport, Note Edge, Note 3, LG G3, Oneplus One, Xperia Z1, Sharp SH-03G (Docomo), Ascend Mate 7 to name a few). The C5 Ultra caught my attention with it's good looks, 6" screen and Sony's boasting of it's great front and rear facing 13mp cameras. Both cameras sounded perfect for me to take photos of my 2 year old and family selfies with the front camera. After a week of use here are my thoughts:
Pros:
- Beautiful design - very sleek with edge to edge (sides have little to no bezel) glass on the front making this a tall looking phone
- Dual Sim - great when I travel overseas
- Separate MicroSD card slot - some manufacturers force you to use the second sim slot but not Sony
- Unlocked
- GPS accurate
- Wifi reasonably strong
- Call quality good
Cons
- Screen (Innolux) lacks contrast and does poorly with blacks, colours are dull and washed out. There is screen backlight bleeding especially around the bottom edges.
- Camera Images - What a disappointment. Perhaps mine is a dud but colors are dull, photos over exposed, highlights blown out, photos are not sharp, even taken in daylight.
- Camera Performance - It doesn't matter how beautiful photos are a camera CAN take if it CANNOT catch the moment. The lag on the phone is terrible. Camera app slow to open. Focus slow to acquire. Shutter terribly slow. After focusing on an object which is slow to do, I press the shutter and the camera tries to focus again then shoot taking more than a second to do so. Because of this I keep missing the moment even outside in broad daylight.
- Camera Software - Slow, occasionally crashes. Doesn't stay on the last setting you used if you reopen the app.
- Battery life - very disappointing. I am not a heavy user. I take maybe 10-15 photos, read some email, browse the web. Rarely watch videos or listen to music and the phone struggles to make it 12-13 hours. Charges very slowly whether plugged in via usb or directly into a wall.
- The iPhone 6 Plus battery and Blackberry Passport I previously had blow this away when it comes to battery.
- Phone performance - Occasional lag or stutter opening apps, swiping between home screens
- Auto brightness is very inconsistent, in an evenly lit room, it is constantly adjusting up and down brightness.
In case anyone is interested benchmark numbers here (It's the Non-verified score)
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Bottom line:
Visually a beautiful phone. Functionally a huge disappointment. The hype of a higher end or top mid range phone but not the same performance to back up the hype. Perhaps a lot of this, like the camera performance and the battery life and some OS performance can be tweaked and fixed with software updates. I love Sony products, and my house is full of Sony goods. Sony has a great name and reputation here in Japan but at the end of the day, Xperia phones still let me down and I end up going to solid phones from Samsung and LG. LG G4 on the way...
I feel u bro.
scpion said:
I feel u bro.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought about it a bit and I think it may be that I expected too much... ie coming from many so called "flagship" models I expected the C5 Ultra to perform like one (since it's pretty pricey), but it obviously didn't.
I'm going to ride with it for the rest of the week, trying some 3rd party camera apps and seeing if I can optimize the setup (or wait for a root and custom rom) to see if it would improve performance and battery life.
On the contrary, personally I feel it's punching above its weight.. It's relatively cheap here on contract. Other than the irritating problems I mentioned in my other thread, I think it's pretty ok. Battery have been great for me and performance decently fast. I never had high hopes for the cam anyway though I was hoping for a surprise this time round. Let's not forget the C series had always been a mid ranger.
It's a shame, really. The C5 is the best looking phone I've ever seen. If only the screen was better and the battery was larger I'd consider buying it.
It's even better looking than the Xperia Z5 series and has less bezel.
I'd love to put the hardware of the Z5 into the C5 ultra then it'd be the perfect phone.
I really hope developers will take up interest in this phone. As of now, there are basically nothing on the Web regarding this phone.. No reviews, not even accessories..
The Z5 range has recently been published on gsmarena. I was shocked to see the C5 looks WAY better than the expensive flagship Z5. Issue with the Z5 it looks the same as the Z2 and Z3, too much bezel.
I'm thinking of getting the C5 ultra for it's sexy looks and ultra thin bezel!
I hope a developer/modder can soon release a mod to make this phone output stereo sound. We just need output from the top speaker grill which will then give us true stereo speakers/sound.
The sound from this phone is pretty loud with audio+. Tweaking the white balance gives pretty decent colours as well. The colour just sucks straight from factory.
scpion said:
The sound from this phone is pretty loud with audio+. Tweaking the white balance gives pretty decent colours as well. The colour just sucks straight from factory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds good! I currently own the Sony Xperia Z3 D6633. The screen I have is better, sound is stereo, ram is 3Gb, camera is 21MP/video 4k and battery is more (3100mAh) vs 2900...
Should I purchase the C5 Ultra, in many ways it indeed is a downgrade. However, the beautiful design and large screen/thin bezel is a win and I'm thinking of buying one.
The main thing that concerns me is the large 6'' screen and small battery of under 3000mAh. Sony really should of made the battery at least 3500 mAh to power the large screen.
I'd like, if possible more feedback from other users with regards to battery life. Also, how are the black levels and viewing angles of the screen?
How would the camera compare say to a Samsung Note 5/Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and the LG G4?
First up, I really have no problem with the battery. The 29xxmah battery may sound small, I have no problem lasting a full day. I try to post screen shots later. I feel that sony has one of the best optimised system around.
Screen needs some tweaking to get the colours right. Contrast still slightly on the lower side. Viewing angle is ok. No where near the shocking level of gen 1 xperia z. Colour shift at a acute angle similar to N4 if u know what I mean. To me, I think it's acceptable. And it's really bright.
I dun take a lot of picture.. But from my finding, superior auto is a disaster in this case. Manual gives me good results. Details are good and noise keep to a minimum in low light. Pics with flash turns out great as well, surprisingly. The other phones u mentioned are all flagship class so it might be a bit unfair to do the comparison. They can point and shoot and give good results. This, u have to point, tweak, shoot.... Lol. Results are not half bad. At least the last settings are retained so u do not go back to the superior auto by default.
Then again, do not forget this is a "midranger". And let's not forget there is no such thing as a perfect phone.
---------- Post added at 02:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:39 PM ----------
I am typing this from my Z Ultra. Seriously, if they carry on the Z line in the Z ultra's design and power, I think sony will do much better..
Here u go. these are 2 sets of battery usage. I am getting rather good results from it. Google sync on, Lte all the way. Staminal mode on. Manual screen brightness is at just 15% and its really bright indoors. Outdoors usually at just 40% or auto brightness. This is a really bright panel. On down side, battery charging is pretty slow. Using a 1.5a charger, it take me around 3-4hrs to charge from around 15%. I never tried the supplied 850mah one... maybe I should..
Hey! Theres one more thing that I want to mention for the screen. It FREAKING flickers whenever it tries to play a video for the first 1 sec. It should be a software issue. The display sets have this problem, the set i changed have this problem as well.
Just got c5 ultra. Was trying to connect my 1tb ext hdd, but it always shows "usb storage removed" as soon as i connect it.. However once it did got connected properly and i was able to access files on it but only once and after that i am continuously having the above mentioned problem.. Anyone else tried this? Also i am having some wierd clock ticking voice from my hdd after connecting.. It works fine though on my note 4 without such voice..
Sent from my SM-N910G using XDA Free mobile app
the usb port doesn't have enough power to power your hdd. better don't use it. you might force the hdd to keep reading and might damage the hdd
^ Thanks for the feedback bro. I'm currently living in Dubai, UAE. It seems, unfortunately the phone is not yet released here.
However, it should be released anytime soon. I'm going to call the Sony agent at Jumbo Electronics and see when the phone is due to be released.
As I said before, I'm seriously considering selling my several month old Sony Xperia Z3 D6633 dual sim and getting the C5 Ultra. In many ways it is indeed a downgrade.
That said, I'm also an ex owner of the legendary Sony Xperia Z Ultra which had the massive 6.44'' screen which was gorgeous. My current Z3 on the other hand has a much smaller screen of only 5.2'' and Although the screen is better and brighter, I'm not happy with the smaller screen. It seems Sony will not release a successor anytime soon for the Z Ultra so as of now the nearest option is the C5 Ultra. Though slightly smaller than the Z Ultra, it's the nearest phone to compare.
May I also ask, how does the C5 Ultra screen compare to the Z Ultra. Please tell me it's as good as if not better.
Unsure about you, but the best on screen time I've had with my previous Z Ultra was 5 hours and 44 minutes! Not bad for a phone having almost 6.5'' in size and a 3000mAh battery...
I think I would prefer the Z ultra's screen over this, at least for now. I personally like how much we can adjust the screen contrast and colour on the Z. Colour adjustment can be make to be very close to my Z but C5 still lacks the deeper colours.. Dpi is smaller as well so I can see more things. Think the C5 dpi is at 480. It's a waste of screen estate. We seriously need development on this to make it a great device.
Yeah, the device is still too new. I'm sure that with some development and custom roms, it'll be even better. Sadly it'll take some time...
At least they've improved the sound quality and finally the output is better than previous models.
Then there's front and rear flash which the Z Ultra completely lacked.
I've seen many brand new C5 Ultra's for just £250 in ebay, around 300 euros. For a 6'' mid range device the price is fantastic...
How does battery life compare to the Xperia Z Ultra? How is the quality/sharpness of the camera? Image noise low and under control?
I usually get around a full day with 3-4hrs screen on time with Z ultra. C5, that kind of timing is usually when I am at around 40%. I never finish my day with a flat battery for C5. I dun play games. Just lots of browsing, Facebook and YouTube. Cam is a mixed bag. Most of the time, details and colours are pretty good. Sometimes overly exposed. Superior auto is a disaster though. But overall, good pics can be achieved with manual without much trouble.
Finally bought my C5 Ultra last night! Overall I'm satisfied with it and there is more good than bad.
Screen is actually great AFTER calibration. By default the whites and colours are dead. For me, white balance is as follows; Red 38, Green 49 & Blue 40. Colour as well as the white and blacks are great and not far off from my Xperia Z3. So bear in mind the display does need a good calibration to get decent results.
After going through some high quality pictures and full HD 1080P movies and animated cartoons, colour is strong and black levels do actually look great, screenshots below of Shaun The Sheep Movie. Viewing angles are brilliant.
Speed. Generally the device is fast and responsive. It does at times pause and there is a slight delay. However, this should be fixed in a future update and when we get root access and recovery!
Looks. This was the key reason I bought the device. Specification is high mid range, a step above the Xperia Z Ultra, however, I wasn't bothered with the specification, it's gorgeous looks lured me into buying the device! As internet photos show, the left/right side of the phone literally has no bezel, the stunning display stretches out right to the edges. The top/bottom of the phone are still thin and the upper part is mostly taken by the huge 13mp camera with it's flash.
The bottom of the screen is still pretty thin and compared to my Xperia Z3, though a bigger phone, the bottom bezel of the C5 Ultra is still thinner!
As explained above, the screen by default is lifeless, colours are wrong and whites are more warm. You will have to calibrate the white levels in order to get decent looking whites and other colours...
Camera. I've not had the time to fully experiment, however, it is decent and photos are sharp and clear. Others have mentioned the camera is slow especially if selecting the memory card to store the images. Completely wrong. I took several pictures last night, one after the other and other than a split second delay, it was ready to take the second and the third picture. it's fast and responsive, no lag whatsoever when taking photos whether you select the memory card slot or the internal memory.
The flash is VERY bright and even when using the light/torch mode, the light was excellent, stronger than my Xperia Z3.
Gaming. Aside from Ski Safari, I didn't try any other game. However, colours were great, whites were excellent and there was no lag or delays at all. Nice and smooth.
Whether surfing the web, gaming or using the camera, there was no sign at all of overheating, in fact, the phone never even got warm when using for long periods! So no need to worry about overheating or getting warm.
Body/Build quality. Although the rear of the phone is plastic, it's a very high quality plastic, very strong and it's appearance is good. The sides of the phone are a solid aluminium and the front is entirely glass. Build quality is very sturdy and overall excellent. There are no gaps around the phone/bezel and the sides are well put together. So far the best design I've ever seen from Sony.
I was actually going to wait and purchase the Xperia Z5. Once I saw the design was VERY similar to the current Z2/Z3 series I thought why buy the Z5 when it looks too similar to my current phone? I wanted something different, unique and affordable. This is where the C5 Ultra fits in, perfectly...
Battery. Unfortunately, since I've only just used the phone for several hours, I'm yet to comment on battery life. In fact, I've still not even charged the battery, not even once. Battery was around 61% when the phone was first turned on. After around 2 hours of on screen time, some wi-fi, phone calls, sms messages and camera use, battery is still around 22% .
Speakers/sound - I'd say decent but not loud. My Xperia Z3 having dual speakers was around 25% louder. That said, we can only pray that sooner or later, a developer can release custom sound for louder, clearer audio having dual loud speakers when listening to music, watching movies, gaming or simply when making a phone call. We simply need audio output via the upper earpiece to give us stereo sound. Lazy Sony, unfortunately didn't bother doing this...
Verdict. Based on the above, I'd give the phone 8.5/10 for overall use/features/looks/battery, etc.
Some screen shots of the phone and screen:
Say "cheese", then rate this thread to express how photos taken with the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge come out. A higher rating indicates that photos offer rich color (without over-saturating), sharp detail (with all subjects in-focus), and appropriate exposure (with even lighting).
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Here are some some daytime shots comparisons with an Lg G4. Just move the slider to view one photo or the other...
https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxt...html?uid=e13a233a-e5dc-11e5-a524-0e7075bba956
https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxt...html?uid=aba32694-e5dd-11e5-a524-0e7075bba956
https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxt...html?uid=cbcf4704-e5dd-11e5-a524-0e7075bba956
P.S. Sorry if they are out of place here. If so, admins feel free to delete this post.
thanks
the s7 seems to capture more detail and better color reproduction. pics on g4 seem very smooth, lacking detail.
icugotit2 said:
the s7 seems to capture more detail and better color reproduction. pics on g4 seem very smooth, lacking detail.
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Click to collapse
Actually, if you look at the first comparison, I do think the S7 Edge camera is too aggressive with contrast and sharpening (and it is less saturated than Samsung has accustomed us) - try right-click and open image in new tab too see the full resolution pics. The G4 got colors and setting more true too real life in that one, but still, those shortcomings from the S7E are not deal breakers and could be easily addressed with camera updates.
Wow! The Edge does so much better! Way to much brightness and less detail on the G4.
There is a bit too much sharpening on the third comparison on the Edge side, but it still looks better than the G4 that is kind of blurry.
VictorC said:
Actually, if you look at the first comparison, I do think the S7 Edge camera is too aggressive with contrast and sharpening (and it is less saturated than Samsung has accustomed us) - try right-click and open image in new tab too see the full resolution pics. The G4 got colors and setting more true too real life in that one, but still, those shortcomings from the S7E are not deal breakers and could be easily addressed with camera updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When looking at full screen colours on the cars are better on the g4 for picture number 1. However, I really feel the contrast and white balance are better on the s7. Case in the point the cloud overcast is not visible on the g4. The picture seems a bit hazy.
Or maybe its just me.
icugotit2 said:
Case in the point the cloud overcast is not visible on the g4. The picture seems a bit hazy.
Or maybe its just me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point. On the other hand, in the same picture the S7E missed the different colour of the sky/clouds at the end of the alleyway, trough the branches. The next comparison shows similar stuff - in the one with the statue - the G4 captures more of the color in the sky (actually closer to what it was in reality). While in the third one both are similar sky-wise.
Hi guys
finally got my S7 Edge last night. My main usage is photo. I did some tests against my Note 4. The S7 definitely shows much less details when you download pics to a computer! I did take photos of all kind and this morning under a nice sun, it is more evident. Branches on trees don't show much detail and look all blured when you zoom. I did see that last night when taking pictures of documentation with both phones. Text when zoomed at 100 per cent looked like a pixel jam on some pages with the S7 under artificial light when Note 4 camera showed tac sharp text.
However in poor light, the S7 is tremendous! But usually I sleep at night and that kind of photos is about 15 per cent of them all...
So I am a little disapointed in that regard with the S7. Videos are great, but photos lack of details. I don-t understand why Samsung has choosen to reduce the number of pixel in place of opting for a
---------- Post added at 09:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:44 AM ----------
Hi guys
finally got my S7 Edge last night. My main usage is photo. I did some tests against my Note 4. The S7 definitely shows much less details when you download pics to a computer! I did take photos of all kind and this morning under a nice sun, it is more evident. Branches on trees don't show much detail and look all blured when you zoom. I did see that last night when taking pictures of documentation with both phones. Text when zoomed at 100 per cent looked like a pixel jam on some pages with the S7 under artificial light when Note 4 camera showed tac sharp text.
However in poor light, the S7 is tremendous! But usually I sleep at night and that kind of photos is about 15 per cent of them all...
So I am a little disapointed in that regard with the S7. Videos are great, but photos lack of details. I don-t understand why Samsung has choosen to reduce the number of pixel in place of opting for a bigger sensor like Panasonic did with the CM1. I would have loved to see a CM2! Their 20MPx was producing better results than most dedicated cameras!
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(just realized that the site does not show original pîcs... so you cannot zoom...)
Anyway out of some software bugs with the S7 (Samsung mail crashed in loops and Play Store kept saying data in background need to be activated when they were already... each time solved by a restart, the S7 is a nice piece of technology.
:good:
Phil
Took a picture of our new Pup, first picture using the the S7 edge.
Impressed with how awesome it came out, just used a tool to blur the background around him.
It's confirmed that samsung uses 2 camera sensors ( again ) .. if anyone can post comparisons of two sensors (sony vs. samsung) is greatly appreciated.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Those of us coming from less than spectacular cameras, such as me (HTC one m8), I'm finding the camera incredibly awesome. I got this phone mainly for the camera. The focus is super quick, the color reproduction is very good and I do enjoy the pro more the Galaxy S7 offers.
Were this pictures taken with manual or auto mode on G4, since my son had a G4 and it's auto mode really sucks.
Getting excited .. wish it's 18th now that I can take my hands on this beast..
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Loss of detail in normal/good light conditions vs Note 4 / S5
S7 camera looks a bit over sharpened for my taste at the same time there is more details in every picture (shooting raw will be a solution for this).
Colors looks better and more realistic on the S7 (not knowing how the original scene looks), but the first shot is a bit too much contrast.
Overall the S7 is the better camera in this shootout.
pogi.paul0119 said:
It's confirmed that samsung uses 2 camera sensors ( again ) .. if anyone can post comparisons of two sensors (sony vs. samsung) is greatly appreciated.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i saw an article in GSM arena wherein they compared the Sony and Samsung Sensors and theres no much difference.. they are both good in different aspects
Front facing camera focus issue
Anyone else have issues with the front facing camera not focusing?
Here are two pictures as examples, one with the front facing and the other with the rear camera
This shooter is top notch. Love the Pro mode. That's the killer app I've been waiting for from Samsung or Android. The manual controls are easy to toggle and the snappy hardware enhances the experience.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
Please Samsung, ease down on the artificial image sharpening: youtube.com/watch?v=OR5UziCqXew
Have anyone tried 10 sek shutter by hand? Is it possible to hold it still enough?
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After the successful launch event in London in May, Honor has launched its 2nd flagship device of year 2019 as part of Honor 20 Series, mainly the Honor 20 Pro and Honor 20 along with an affordable Honor 20 lite or Honor 20i on June 11 in India at a launch event in Delhi.
Here are full specifications of the device for quick overview of the feature in case anyone missed it earlier.
Please check this link as full specification is quiet a big and will take up entire page here.
Now let’s start the Honor 20 review. This is my detailed personal review about the Honor 20 unit which I received from Honor as a review unit.
Design- Many may feel that Honor 20 design is nothing new, in fact we are seeing this since Honor 8 era but Honor has not stopped its innovation and HONOR 20 takes that trend to the next level with a mirror glass back that creates subtle patterns and highlights that shine and move alongside different lights and is famous for Dynamic Holographic design which really looks incredible and eye catching. With nearly side bezel-less design, very minimal lower bezel and the punch hole camera set up, Honor was able to give us 91.7% screen to body ratio which gives nearly full screen view and best possible viewing experience. Phone really looks premium and can beat up any flagship design even in half price.
Another impressive design of Honor 20 includes a Side-Mounted Fingerprint Sensor. Initially, I was not fan for front mounted FP sensor as I was used to rear FP sensor mainly for unlocking and clicking photos but then gradually started liking the front FP sensor as it is easy to unlock without even lifting the device, found other of clicking pictures. With Honor 20 side-mounted FP scanner, I am getting used to it but gradually started liking it as response is very fast and accurate. I can unlock my phone even before I start counting to get that milli-second feel.
Display- Honor 20 is packed with fairly large but in trend screen size of 6.26 inch and offers a full view display, thanks to the Punch hole camera design which enables the nearly full screen display. A FHD+ IPS LCD screen with 2340X1080 resolutions gives a brighter and better display with equally good viewing experience. Display supports the 16.7 M colors and equipped with 412 PPI. Overall, the looks way better than my preview phones majorly due to full view display and accurate positioning of front camera which doesn’t hampers the display or any viewing experience while gaming, watching videos or live streaming etc. Display is bright enough to have a better readability under sunlight at full brightness. If you have automatic brightness enabled or have kept it on half way, you may feel some discomfort only under the direct sunlight and not under the bright condition, but this is same with every IPS panel.
Performance- Well, there is no second thought about the performance that you can get from this device. With Latest flagship Kirin 980 Processor. There is no deny that performance will be optimal for end user but sometimes few things are good on paper but not in real life, but Honor 20 is truly optimized with Magic 2.1 (for some they may refer as EMUI 9.1) and doesn’t lag at all. I have played Asphalt 8 and Fortnite and did not feel any lag or frame drop and games were launching quickly and were able to perform as per the expectation. Yet to test the same with PUBG but don’t think that will have any issue as well as Fortnite game size is huge compared to PUBG. I was able to get constant 30 FPS for Fortnite and waiting for update to support the 60 FPS and similar constant 30 FPS in Asphalt 8 with highest visual quality. So, from gaming perspective, I do not see any challenge and games runs smooth on this device without a problem. From Application launch point of view, apps launches very fast and user do not notice much delay or lag if they have selected the right settings in developer mode and disabled the screen animations. I personally did not face much delay while launching or switching across applications. Also, I noticed one improved in Magic UI 2.1 and Honor 20 that apps remain in memory for longer time but yes, the social media apps refresh immediately they are switched to, from any other app after some time. This was the behavior in default mode and I did not even enable the performance mode. No changes were made to the battery setting for app launch and they all were by default (system selected) except WhatsApp, Tapatalk , XDA and Telegram. So, if you are looking for a device which will give you the optimal performance without hurting your pocket, look no further and can go for Honor 20.
7nm Kirin 980 AI Chipset with Dual-NPU couple with 6 GB of RAM is doing the wonders here and device is one of the best I have used in terms of performance and fluidity.
Battery - Honor 20 comes with 3750 mAh battery with which, I was able to get around easilve over 30 hours of regular usage with multiple social media apps, dual Facebook, messenger, WeChat and WhatsApp and exchange applications which always runs in background and among the top battery consumer for all along with some time on gaming, YouTube, Gmail, Chrome, Skype For Business, Hotstar live streaming etc. still I was able to pass my entire with phone without suffering for battery issue by end of my day and only connect charger the next day (my regular routine as I connect to charge my phone only around at 07.00 AM in the morning and then leave for office). If I don’t play games or live streams, I was able to get around 30+ hours of usage with still around 18-25% left.
On an average I was able to get around 8-9 hours of SOT with my usage pattern.
Honor claims for 50% charging in 30 minutes and in my test this just works fine as I was able to charge 49% in 30 minutes and in random usages, I was still able to charge around 40-43% with Mobile data/Wi-Fi on.
Audio- I personally found that Honor 20’s volume is loud enough to be able to hear at full volume and audio is crispy clear. I used the phone with Honor’s Bluetooth headset and could enjoy the music and movies very well without any problem. There is inbuilt Histen sound effect feature as well which works only with a physically connected headset. Though, since Apples started the norm of removing the audio jack and many others are following the trend, Honor 20 lacks a headphone jack but it comes with a type-C to 3.5 mm jack dongle which you can listed to feel the same traditional way of music on headset and can vary the settings via Histen effect to be able to listen the music in your favorite mode.
Also, Honor 20 come up with 9.1 Virtual Surround feature which you can feel while gaming like Fortnite or others or watching a movie and using the Histen sound effect.
Camera- Honor 20 is equipped 4 camera setup which seems to be a norm in 2019 now and comes with 48 MP Sony IMX586 with F/1.8 aperture, 16 MP Super wide-angle camera with F/2,2 aperture, 2 MP Depth camera and 2 MP Macro camera.
48 MP main camera- it is Sony IMX586 lens and supports AI Ultra clarity mode and AIS. It also supports the AIS super night mode which is cool and in my personal experience which clicking few shots with night mode, I was amazed by the level of details I could see in the pictures.
16 MP Wide angle camera- with F/2.2 aperture and 117-degree super wide angle it really does wonders sometime to capture a larger area in smaller frame. I used 1X, 2X zoom and wide angle and really started liking it for few images where it was necessary to click a relatively bigger area. It also supports the Distortion correction.
2MP Depth assist camera – comes up with F/2l,4 aperture and supports h=in providing the bokeh effect.
2 MP Macro camera- with F/2,4 aperture, it supports a macro photography and gives the optimal results at 4cm distance from object. Results may vary person to person and object to object and light conditions. I got different results with different objects and light condition.
32 MP Selfie camera- I am not a selfie lover so did not explore much but I am sure it does well as I have seen the better results with relatively inferior camera from Honor. I clicked few selfies and was surprised to see the results and details in the image, you can turn off the beauty mode to get more details of object. Come up with F/2.0 aperture it does support the AIS and I really liked few images I clicked even with bit moving objects still the results were good. It supports AIS Super night mode, AI Color mode, AIS and AI mode.
Videos- Rear camera supports up to 4K resolution with EIS and front camera supports up to 1080P recording with EIS. You also get slow motion video with up to 960 FPS.
This review is incomplete if I do not touch the camera part or include camera review here. I am using this device for a week now and only got a couple of days to go out to explore the camera. Probably, I will be posting more images next week when I will be out of town to explore another city and click some memories. Yes, I am breaking up with my old phone and carrying this beauty on my next travel to Europe. As Honor 20 series tagline says #YouDeserveBetter yes, This is the one you deserve and you will not regret. BTW, I am not good at photography, still tried some hands on it this time and I was really happy with the image quality and really loving the camera. I tried all the modes available and Night, Super Macro and Super Slow motion with 32X (960 FPS). I was able to capture few night shots, which I personally feel was better than my expectation (did not used any tripod and taken random images) and I am hoping I will be able to share few more quality clicks next week with all the modes. This was my first phone supporting the wide-angle mode and I really liked it and taken few shots. Not a selfie lover so did not bother my front camera much to click myself.
AS I have clicked more than 500 Images and its difficult to upload all here but have selected around 60 images and you can check here. I am not a photographer and doesn't click great pictures.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sJLKnCmKF6i5kUR3C2O0wDZWmXWkb7fs?usp=sharing
Software/UI- EMUI is not new to me, have been using it for years now. Honor 20 comes with Magic UI but there is not much difference in terms of UI and looks. This is my first phone with Magic UI but I have hands on Magic phone, so this was not much change for me. UI looks similar and a familiar one but is optimized on top of Android 9 and hardware and works like a charm. No unexpected slowness or lags noticed and scroll, navigation, options are easily accessible and provides all the required features.
Conclusion- Due to the ongoing situation of Huawei/Honor with US ban, things were shaken up initially but every day we are hearing one or the other positive news. Many of them could be rumors but still there are some trusted sources which give some positive information and who know this ban might end up soon and we see Huawei/Honor back in business again. Even though with such uncertainty, if we see the astonishing sell of Honor 20 series since its launch, it shows the trust of user on the brand and Honor/Huawei has not let down the customers and are providing the updates, coming up with trending features. Overall, in my opinion and usage of Honor 20 till date, even though going through a tough time but yet managed to do well across markets, Phone is incredible with mesmerizing eye catching design, ticking all the boxes to be your preferred phone for camera, performance, design and long lasting battery which supports supercharging and gives you entire day of battery juice with just few minutes or charging. 4 cameras set up is really doing well and gives you incredible image quality with details and color saturation. No compromise on the performance or design either and side mounted fingerprint scanner is a welcome move giving you a new yet a comfortable experience.
Brilliant review enjoyed it
Could you please check does Honor 20 have Dual Band GPS?
Hi all
I have been debating with myself for awhile rather get the xperia 1 3 or the oneplus 9pro, also considering the op9 or nokia 8.4 although I know specs are downgraded from first two.
Do u have any insights for me?
thx in advance
the-light said:
Hi all
I have been debating with myself for awhile rather get the xperia 1 3 or the oneplus 9pro, also considering the op9 or nokia 8.4 although I know specs are downgraded from first two.
Do u have any insights for me?
thx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can assure you that you won't be disappointed if you choose Xperia 1 III. I think I don't have to polish the quality, it's a Sony the display is superb as always. Camera is a masterpiece, especially in manual. If you know what you're doing then you shot photos you couldn't with any other and the colours are the most realistic you can get. Performance is outpacing all other phones. I didn't have any lags, hesitation or slowdown ever. Multi-tasking is a killer, doesn't matter how many apps you use simultaneously, apps won't crash. I replaced my Xperia 1 and I didn't regret it. Not to mention that my Xperia 1, Xperia xz premium, xperia z3 still run like new I don't have any pros or cons regarding the other phones you mentioned.
LaceeWearsPrada said:
I can assure you that you won't be disappointed if you choose Xperia 1 III. I think I don't have to polish the quality, it's a Sony the display is superb as always. Camera is a masterpiece, especially in manual. If you know what you're doing then you shot photos you couldn't with any other and the colours are the most realistic you can get. Performance is outpacing all other phones. I didn't have any lags, hesitation or slowdown ever. Multi-tasking is a killer, doesn't matter how many apps you use simultaneously, apps won't crash. I replaced my Xperia 1 and I didn't regret it. Not to mention that my Xperia 1, Xperia xz premium, xperia z3 still run like new I don't have any pros or cons regarding the other phones you mentioned.
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Click to collapse
Thank u for the reply. it is helpful
If you're into this kind of bleeding edge device; either way you'll be disappointed, just less with this one I think.
Reasoning: Android is just becoming more like IOS on both the hard and software side.
DRM, lack of sdcard port (why I decided to pick the 1III over the 9P), locking down systems as much as possible.
Funny enough that ain't whats killing the 1III or the 9P, these companies share more source code than most, it's the tiny community which might have made it worth for me to get the S22 Ultra instead.
I did get a terrific deal tho; €888 for a snapdragon 888, how fitting.
I don't know about OnePlus, but my Xperia has a definite "beta" feel that never goes away.
What the Sony really has going for it is:
Fast CPU burst speed launches apps quickly
microSD card for old apps and some apps not from Google Play Store
Solid feel
Stereo speakers and headphone jack
Fast WiFi 6
Quick camera button
Long battery life
Water resistant
Notification LED
Very fast USB connection
Not so good:
Some people have problems with phantom screen and fingerprint touches
Fingerprint reader will false-positive a LOT
Minimal carrier support, if any. Cellular reception is not the best.
Minimal CPU cooling, quick throttling
Dated camera quality, worse camera software
Very "stock" Android, and that's a bad thing for Android 11 and 12. Google's recent work is a dumpster fire.
microSD crippled for recent Google Play Store apps (see previous item)
Several gigabytes of setup shovelware on some models. The downloads have to be cancelled to get started.
Rough software and some bad updates. Can be frustrating to use.
Flashlight is dim
4K screen resolution is restricted to a few uses
The Sony by my experience excellent.
A few sites to confirm this.
https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/sony-xperia-1-iii
Sony Xperia 1 III | EISA – Expert Imaging and Sound Association
eisa.eu
Sony Xperia 1 III - TIPA
Xperia 1 III utilises expertise of engineers from Sony’s Alpha cameras. It offers four focal lengths, including the world’s first Variable telephoto lens paired with a Dual PD sensor– reaching up to a focal length of 105mm from 16mm, as well as delivering 12MP and RAW formatted images. Each lens...
www.tipa.com
Very happy with mine. Been a champ. Learn to yield the camera and you will be trated with excellent images.
Led notification
3.5 connection
12/256 config on the base model + sd-card support
4k FLAT screen - no notch or punch-hole
Great camera hardware - excellent manuel controls - 4k 120fps
Great battery
Stereospeakers with punch and good balance
Also a great looking phone beautifully buildt.
Why open new threads like this always and mess up the entire forum... Even for a single new update if there is only a monthly security update
kevinmcmurtrie said:
I don't know about OnePlus, but my Xperia has a definite "beta" feel that never goes away.
What the Sony really has going for it is:
Fast CPU burst speed launches apps quickly
microSD card for old apps and some apps not from Google Play Store
Solid feel
Stereo speakers and headphone jack
Fast WiFi 6
Quick camera button
Long battery life
Water resistant
Notification LED
Very fast USB connection
Not so good:
Some people have problems with phantom screen and fingerprint touches
Fingerprint reader will false-positive a LOT
Minimal carrier support, if any. Cellular reception is not the best.
Minimal CPU cooling, quick throttling
Dated camera quality, worse camera software
Very "stock" Android, and that's a bad thing for Android 11 and 12. Google's recent work is a dumpster fire.
microSD crippled for recent Google Play Store apps (see previous item)
Several gigabytes of setup shovelware on some models. The downloads have to be cancelled to get started.
Rough software and some bad updates. Can be frustrating to use.
Flashlight is dim
4K screen resolution is restricted to a few uses
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wifi 6 really is fast No other phone can do this. At my workplace they couldn't believe how is this even possible
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I've even reached 2,6Gbps download speed once. Sadly, I didn't taka a screenshot
Apart from the dim flashlight, I didn't face any of those issues. This phone really is a beast Can't imagine that I'd buy any other manufacturer's phone.
I had a lot of Flagships in my hands. For 1 year ago a had a s21, s22 , S22 Ultra, Zfold3 , Mi11 Ultra, Mate/P 40 Po... I can easily say that 1||| is not the best at all but...
Beautiful und one hand useful
Camera with a bit of knowledge is the best in the terms of colours and really really to convey the real atmosphere and mood of the scene. Hey this is not a flat and too bright Samsungs way. Other like a hand painted Huawei and Pixel way.
And up to 5 zoom ist the best because ist not so dependent from various constant zoom cameras. It have a variable zoom and this make a lot of difference.
Also is a lot more agile and smooth than Samsung in terms of software.
I have never had a One+ device but with the Chinese i find always annoying flaws.
I don't understand why people are comparing this phone so much with other phones.
The sole reason I bought this phone is because it offers a very unique featureset.
I wanted a fingerprint scanner on the side or back.
Can find lots, but typically only in higher-end models.
I also wanted wireless charging.
Also lots, but typically only in budget models.
I wanted a flat screen, no curved edges.
Removes a lot of phones too.
I preferred a headphone jack and notification LED (if possible).
Removes even more phones.
With all these requirements there is literally no other phone available.
None
I couldn't care less about camera quality, yet I bought it.
Me? I'm happy with it. But unless you want some specific features that only this phone offers I just would not recommend it because it's, imo, WAY too expensive compared to the competition.
You should not buy this phone because you want a "flagship model", you're better off with OP, Samsung, Google or Apple (dare I say it).
I will admit that Sony devices are unicorns, so you can buy it for the hipster factor I guess.
Here is a simple test with a simple printed paper I did with my camera and the S23U, the situation of the camera is much worse than the S23 because of the ISO and because is using the complete frame in the shot, so you see complete edge to edge lens sharpness
M6 MKII: ISO 500 @ 22mm f/5.6, image occupy the entire frame to better check edge to edge sharpness, you can see edge to edge sharpness, its a pity greedy Canon discontinued this fantastic travel camera...
S23U: ISO 50 @ 50mpx, not possible to occupy the entire frame because of the distance it does not focus, so part of the frame is occupied and this could be an advantage to the S23U but it is not in practice because just moving a bit from the center it loses sharpness a lot and even worse detail because of the heavy noise correction.
Versions in REALRAW and PRO: EXPERTRAW pictures are much sharper than PRO... Come on Samsung, what are you doing?
I did not post the 12mpx shot because is not a fair comparison and in this phone having the 50mpx option who will shot in 12mpx when using the normal lens...
FRAMING USED FOR S23U
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The files are in the attachment for the size and you can make a comparison on your screen, is easy to see why a camera make a big difference, much better sharpness edge to edge, much better detail compare to the S23U because S23U apply heavy noise correction in its sensor and the quality of lens edge to edge of the S23U is by far really bad like any camera phone.
This is a very very simple comparison because to be fair we need to buy the target, even if I shoot with the phone when I don't have my camera, I prefer to do all my travel and home videos with the phone.
Why ISO 500 and not 100 it's native ISO?
The difference is even greater than shown here if so. This Canon lense? Pretty sharp as you can see on the interactive blur chart even on the edges at f/5.6, sweet. The Samsung can't match that...
blackhawk said:
Why ISO 500 and not 100 it's native ISO?
The difference is even greater than shown here if so. This Canon lense? Pretty sharp as you can see on the interactive blur chart even on the edges at f/5.6, sweet. The Samsung can't match that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to do it at ISO 500 as worst case, at ISO 100 it will be even better.
I added more shots with a bigger target printed in laser to fill the frame of the S23U, the shot of M6mkII is at ISO 3200 (no noise reduction) and the 12mpx and 50mpx of S23U with EXPERTRAW, the lens of S23U are not able to resolve correctly 50Mpx moving a little out from the center, much worse in higher mpxs, so this camera at 200mpx is useless because of the lenses not able to resolve and the noisy sensor.
If you check the chart, at 50Mpx the lens resolves well in the center, moving a bit from the center aberrations start to appear.
At 12mpx the lens resolution is acceptable center to border, with much less aberrations compared to 50mpx but still we see the cheap glass used.
This is a nice test to do in any phone to understand if the phone brands are able to resolve the mpx they promote, in the case of Samsung is able to resolve 50mpx in the center only.
M6 was shoot at ISO 3200 without noise reduction and it destroys the S23U camera in any aspect and the difference is pretty big. (we didn't include color rendition here because the situation of S23U could be much worse)
The pictures in the attachment
CONCLUSION: if you want to do simple point and shoots with low quality glass and a sensor with noticeable noise reduction, use the phone.
Right there, that looks the smudging effect seen on the S23U. It's present on the N10+ at times as well... generally more widespread in the image though.
blackhawk said:
Right there, that looks the smudging effect seen on the S23U. It's present on the N10+ at times as well... generally more widespread in the image though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That could be caused by the noise reduction in the sensor because it has lot of noise, the pixel pitch of S23U is half of the size of the M6 sensor.
citytrader said:
That could be caused by the noise reduction in the sensor because it has lot of noise, the pixel pitch of S23U is half of the size of the M6 sensor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Odd it's just that one spot. Just saying... You start testing cams invariably it gets to be a pain rather than what it's suppose to be, a pleasure.
blackhawk said:
Odd it's just that one spot. Just saying... You start testing cams invariably it gets to be a pain rather than what it's suppose to be, a pleasure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct and for the pleasure I have the M6, a real pleasure... everyone that likes photography should try a mirrorless DSLR in any brand they like to see the difference.
You and some others have mentioned realraw. Is this Samsung expert raw that is branded with some other name in other countries? I search for a realraw apk and couldn't find any so assuming it is expert raw you did your tests with?
PhilMorin said:
You and some others have mentioned realraw. Is this Samsung expert raw that is branded with some other name in other countries? I search for a realraw apk and couldn't find any so assuming it is expert raw you did your tests with?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is my mistake, is EXPERTRAW not realraw, I corrected the original post.
For the people that want check sharpness and to do their own testing printing the chart, I will attach the PDF that is better printed in A3 or around that size.
It almost seems like some (very few) people are trying to replace their main camera with a cell phone camera.... lol....
joewoo said:
It almost seems like some (very few) people are trying to replace their main camera with a cell phone camera.... lol....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, it really depends on your needs. The best camera is the one you have with you.
I have a Canon R6 with a 70-200mm and other lenses but I definitely don't have this on me all the time while I have this phone with me at all times and so I still want to get the best out of it, hence why I also use a mix of stock cam 12mp, stock 50mp and GCAM.
Knowing the strengths and limitations of each tool / mode is how you can get better result. For example, using 50mp mode I frame more than I need so I can then crop and avoid part of the edge softness. Still end up with a file that's more detailed than the 12mp. For everyday though gcam 12mp is good enough.
But when I went to shoot at a friend's wedding of course the phone is out of the question and I used the R6. But when travelling and hiking, I challenged myself to travel light (got tired of carrying heavy gear around all the time) and managed to get very good results that did some very fine prints for our home. Again, I'm not selling my travel pictures online etc. So having the top quality isn't always necessary. In the end for social media sharing and small prints at home you should usually be fine with phone pictures.
It really depends on the intended purpose of your pictures (or willingness to carry heavy gear around) so I don't think it's fair to say that one is better than the other. In terms of pure quality of course dslr will win but there are many other considerations to be had.
Everyone knows a professional camera is going to take better pictures than any cell phone camera. So what's the point of all this? Nobody is gonna lug their main camera around with them everywhere they go. But the S23U does take greaat pictures at 12 mpx and with telephoto 3x and 10x. It also makes phone calls, has social media, stream movies and plays games which is something your DSLR will never be able to do. Nobody here bought the phone thinking they were getting a DSLR quality camera. I don't really give two chits because the phone does what its been designed to do. If you were expecting a DSLR in a phone well sorry you are disappointed because no phone cameras are ever going to match the quality of $5000 DSLR and lenses.
Paul_Deemer said:
R in a phone well sorry you are disappointed because no phone cameras are ever going to match the quality of $5000 DSLR and lenses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with the point of PhilMorin, you can buy a new camera expending usd 700 with a weight of less than 600grs and a quality far superior than any phone, if you buy an used camera you pay much less...
There are lot of places that compares phone cameras with DSLR...
citytrader said:
I agree with the point of PhilMorin, you can buy a new camera expending usd 700 with a weight of less than 600grs and a quality far superior than any phone, if you buy an used camera you pay much less...
There are lot of places that compares phone cameras with DSLR...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The heavier pro cams are better shooters; better and more handholds, more weight means more inertia and helps keep the cam steady, better control layout/controls and view finder. Pro cams are a joy to shoot with and it's a press pass in itself
Doubles as a weapon when in hand especially with a 70-200 f/2.8 on it.
blackhawk said:
The heavier pro cams are better shooters; better and more handholds, more weight means more inertia and helps keep the cam steady, better control layout/controls and view finder. Pro cams are a joy to shoot with and it's a press pass in itself
Doubles as a weapon when in hand especially with a 70-200 f/2.8 on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL! I'll try running before I start hammering at someone with that setup. Makes for quite an expensive weapon
PhilMorin said:
LOL! I'll try running before I start hammering at someone with that setup. Makes for quite an expensive weapon
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Click to collapse
I've shot in Philly's bad sections. I hold it by the lens base next to my chest. Basically a 5# hammer. Rather slam it into someone's face than have it stolen. Jogging only works if you see them coming as they tend to be lazy
Had some bangers come up to me at a fair once. Turned out all they wanted to do is pose, that was interesting. Be friendly but be prepared...