Did I buy the right phone...n - Galaxy S 4 Active Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm currently on a Samsung SIII with KitKat (omnirom), but because my daughter's phone broke down it's going to her after I get my new phone. I wanted to buy a Nexus 5, but it's sold out in the Netherlands even though it's € 400,- instead of € 350,- Because I was in a hurry I opted for an S4-active. I had some water damage with a HTC HD2 in the past and this one is probably better equipped in that respect. I already read enough to avoid putting it under water on purpose.
But...
I did get a bit of a scare when I looked for custom ROMs in this thread. Why are there so few options? Is this phone so different?
Maybe I should have waited a bit longer or even try to get a Nexus 5 from Germany.
Can someone give me an advice what to flash when my phone arrives? I don't like all the Samsung bloatware and don't mind to run cyanogenmod.
Cheers

I find this phone to be an almost perfect match for me.
I don't take underwater photos, but I love watching online content while I take a bath. I would never do this with any other phone. It's decided to take a few dips in the tub with me, but just pulling it out and drying it off it doesn't miss a beat.
The lack of custom roms/kernals is a bit disappointing, but I find that with the safestrap and Google stock rom I'm able to reach an experience that I can enjoy.
The screen was a sell for me hands down. I hate the new pentile style screens that cause blurriness in the display. Despite many people telling me it's not humanly possible to tell on such a small screen. When I see a flat red/blue color on the normal S4 screen it looks absolutely disgusting (Think 540p resolution because of the 1:2 ratio of pentile to rgb)

Thanks for your elaborate reply. I went to the safestrap thread. Is this only for the AT&T version or is it for my international version as well?
You're talking about Google stock.. do you mean cyanogenmod?
I hope to hear more from you
Cheers

The limited ROM development is quite disappointing but I think it's because the market that would've normally bought this device had already largely bought the s4.
I use the CyanogenMod ROM. It works quite well. The camera works but it's unstable. LTE is great .
I agree with Celeste, the display is amazingly good, especially considering it is LCD based. The phone is also the only device I know of that combines both the features of Exynos 5 (which features the BIG.little CPU design) and LTE in one package.
Sent from my GT-I9295 using Tapatalk

I don't use Cyanogen, just the Stock Google 4.2 Rom that's in one of the development threads.
I haven't seen any of the features of most customized roms to be appealing enough to me, and I'm always afraid the features will end up adding larger overhead to the system.
I really enjoy 60fps content whenever I'm playing around and the jitter that happens whenever other processes get in the way of displaying the next frame always seem to irk me a bit.

I'm actually about to sell my active to buy a nexus 5, due to the limited rom development. Just waiting for the 32Gb model to reach Sweden.
I've got the international version as well, and as you've noted we don't have much to choose from - safestrap won't work for us. I run cyanogenmod and it mostly works, has a few quirks particularly when it comes to the camera that has me rebooting now and then. I don't think anyone can answer if you bought the right phone or not, it really comes down to if you can live with one of the existing roms or not - because there isn't likely to ever be many roms to choose from. This phone just didn't get a breakthrough and there just isn't enough users out there to get the development really going. The hardware is good, the screen is phenomenal, but that's not all there is to a phone for me.
Try out the roms, and if they don't scratch your itch... sell it and get something else.

Thanks for all the info...
I already have the files in place to flash when it arrives tomorrow.
I think I'm going to flash it to Google's
If only we would have the same deals as our German neighbours...
€ 350,- is still even much more than $ 350,-
They could at least have given us the 32 MB model for that price.
Otherwise I would have waited for the Nexus...

Related

How would you rate Liquid?

I'm thinking of getting an Acer A1. I live in Canada and have used a G1 before it arrived here, so i think it's time to upgrade. However Canada is lacking in the android department and if i get a phone like the Nexus One...although i can use it on my network, i will only get 2g speeds (which suck). So I was wondering for those of you out there who may have used a few android phones if you can answer a few questions for me to help me decide!
1) How does the hardware/feel of the phone feel compared to others? (acer tends to be lower build quality)
2) What is the highest android firmware version we have ported, I've read around that 2.1 is on it...but can someone confirm this?
3) Does anyone know if the nexus one is coming to canada anytime soon? Or the release date of the Sony x10? (this way i can wait for a more preferred phone)
Thanks in advance!
bgmrk said:
1) How does the hardware/feel of the phone feel compared to others? (acer tends to be lower build quality)
2) What is the highest android firmware version we have ported, I've read around that 2.1 is on it...but can someone confirm this?
3) Does anyone know if the nexus one is coming to canada anytime soon? Or the release date of the Sony x10? (this way i can wait for a more preferred phone)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used these Android-phones: HTC G1, HTC Hero, Sony Ericsson X10 (@work) and I have a Acer Liquid myself.
1/ The Liquid device feels a little more "plastic" then other current phones. Also read from alot of people that have dropped their phones in the floor and got problems with "leaking" displays. Dont have any problems with mine Liquid however...
2/ 2.1 is working on Liquid. Using 2.1 on my liquid without any big problems. Still a leaked dev-release that is modified, but it works well with the modifications Angio&Co have made to it.
3/ Dont know anything about release-dates, but I have to say: Dont expect Sony Ericsson X10 to be alot better then the other devices out there. To start with it is "already old" running Android 1.6. It also has the same amount of ram as Acer Liquid. The CPU runs on 1ghz and the Liquid runs on 768mhz, but the Liquid is still faster on starting apps and in respons (this may change to release of X10... but dont expect it...). The "only" things that makes X10 good is the bigger screen and the camera. But I would go for a N1 instead if I was going to buy a phone today...
hi, i'm from Italy and i get my Liquid only 2 month ago, but i can tell you that i'm very happy about my choice.
Before that phone, i had on Iphone 3GS but someone stoled it
Anyway... Hardware 8,5:
Good processor, IMPRESSIVE Touch screen, too plastic cover (not very impression of resistance)
Design 8: very beautiful black screen but the button of camera, volume and pause are placed not in correct mode because they are "descent" and when you are making a pic, often the finger slips to bottom.
Battery 4: only a day of autonomy
My opinion....is a great phone
i got it because is the only android i can get in 1900 3g band... (rogers dream and magic were more expensive to me, go figure, i live in colombia)
its really nice, very fast and i like the looks, its way better than 1st gen android phones, up there with the nexus and the milestone
Thanks for the feedback guys! Looks like I'm going to be going with the Liquid...at least until the N1 makes it's way to Canada! Thanks again!
bgmrk , be prepared for bad customer service. I really mean that, take a look at http://android.modaco.com/content/acer-liquid-liquid-modaco-com/302053/scary-liquidscary-screenhorrible-pictures/
Most of the people in that thread dropped their phones but some did not. Anyway, look and read some of the replies they got from Acer.
As long as I keep my phone alive and well and I don't have to deal with Acer then I say this: I love my Liquid.
MMMM i'm aware of the poor customer service from Acer, having my last laptop be from them. Thats one of the deciders in my choice. Acer products tend to have a low build quality, but thats what makes them cheaper. I'm willing to give it a shot though. Thanks for that link! it was a good read
it's a great device and the price tag is great for what you get, the price performance tag is the best of the whole market for now
I'm pretty happy with my Liquid right now. I initially wanted the black version, but I was sent the wrong one. I was going to send it back, but after a few days with it, I decided that I really wanted to keep it. Now, Acer isn't exactly known for phones, let alone smartphones, so I was a bit hesitant. I can tell you, the phone is much better in person than in screenshots. The build quality is pretty good, it does creak a little bit if twisted a little. The battery cover will NOT come off unless pried, a good thing. Currently, the N1 is the only device with better specs on the market. At a little less than $400, it's a great buy for an unlocked smartphone. The only complaints I might have are the external speaker, which really is bad, and the screen, although very good in clarity and quality, sometimes doesn't register. But, it could be the OS too. Anyway, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the device.
Overall I would give it an 8.5 out of 10.
bgmrk said:
MMMM i'm aware of the poor customer service from Acer, having my last laptop be from them. Thats one of the deciders in my choice. Acer products tend to have a low build quality, but thats what makes them cheaper. I'm willing to give it a shot though. Thanks for that link! it was a good read
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure if you read the blogs but the n1 is available to canadians. but afte a full 24hrs of research, i'm still highly interested in liquid. thanks for starting this thread. it has also helped me to decide.
ive had my Liquid since christmas. previously i was a winmo HTC user. ive got about 10 HTC devices at home.
i have to say im more than happy with the quality of the Liquid. i wasnt aware of any problems with the screen but after reading that link posted above i find it hard to believe that anyone would expect Acer to repair/replace a device under warranty that had clearly been dropped in such a way that the screen broke. idots in my opinion.
ive had experience of most of Acers smartphone/PDA devices in the past and was always of the opinion that they were pretty rubbish when compared to other manufacturers. the Liquid has changed my opinion of them though.
i love it!
The acer is the best phone with this price: very fast and nice system
I love my Liquid. I got it since January, and it's been great. I think it is the best looking Android phone out there.
I have a HTC Kaiser (aka Tytn II). It wasn't as great as most websites claim it is. You could say it was over-rated. But with Acer Liquid, it was the opposite. The reviews on the Liquid were mostly mixed but when you actually use it, it is quite good.
Now, i am hesitant to get phones of HTC. Two reasons. One is that HTC is slow to fix/update ROM's. The other one is UI customizations (Sense UI in HTC's case and Motoblur in Motorola's case). I think these customizations cause problems with apps. I download a lot of apps from the Market and see a lot of comments about the apps not working on HTC xxx or Motorola xxx. But they all worked fine on my Liquid. So, i prefer "vanilla" Android because i think most developers write for "vanilla" Android.
I see a lot of comments about apps not working on Nexus One, too, but it is different. Nexus One uses Eclair and it is newer than most Android phones out there so there are bound to be problems with apps written for pre-Eclair Android.
All in all, Liquid is a great phone!
Just got my Liquid a few days ago too. I use it with no data plan (wi-fi only) on T-Mobile in the U.S. I owned a myTouch 3G when it first came out, it feels snappier and has better specs than that device. The hardware buttons are a bit hard to fumble with, but no device is perfect. I'm impressed with the camera, 5MP, even has ISO 100-800 manual settings. If Acer follows through and gives us an updated 2.1 ROM for the A1, then they are well on their way to carving a slice of the Android pie.

[Q] Moving on...(GNexus vs One S)

So I'm finally getting around to moving on. As much as I love my Nexus One, I'm in need of a new phone and with the deals coming up I don't know what to get. Being a "even more plus customer" (or whatever they call it now) I don't get those nice phone discounts so everything is relatively expensive. I have to buy it at full price
Today I saw the Galaxy Nexus was on sale for $400 which is really tempting. I know how great a phone it is, but its a little on the big side for me (ha). Then I saw Tmo's $100 trade in value and thought about using that to get a One S for $500.
The things that keep me away from the One S are that there is no removable battery, the possibility of bugs on the first release, and a locked boot loader. But it's such a beautiful device with an amazing camera that it's hard to resist. Money isn't really a big deal, but its a factor I'm considering. I could do a bit more with that $100.
Anyone else that has moved on, what made you switch?
Any recommendations about which phone to get or input in general would be great!
TL;DR: Need new phone, Galaxy Nexus or One S?
(not sure if this is in the right section, hope it is..)
no removable battery is a stopper for me
did you handle the dummy or do you have a working one where you are. the dummy was alot longer than wide. kinda like the n1 but an inch longer, or so it looked and felt. i didn't like it.
why not wait a couple weeks and see about the ssg3
rugmankc said:
no removable battery is a stopper for me
did you handle the dummy or do you have a working one where you are. the dummy was alot longer than wide. kinda like the n1 but an inch longer, or so it looked and felt. i didn't like it.
why not wait a couple weeks and see about the ssg3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used a dummy, I liked how it felt, but you brought up a good point. I should probably try the real thing.
I was considering the S3 but I'm concerned it's gonna take longer than I'd like to get to the U.S. and be too expensive. The deals to me were the reason I wanted to buy a new phone. Are you considering the S3?
I just came from a nexus one and went with the gnex. I absolutely love it. Removable battery and it being a nexus are the winning factors to me. Being a nexus and able to type 6 or so lines of text to flash the stock image and root with files straight from google are big factors for me. The phone is smooth as hell. The other ones will be tainted with sense and Samsung garbage.it is quite wide but I'm getting used to it quickly, after two days I can just about use the phone fully with one hand.
i am looking at the ssg3 or galaxy note, but fed up with tmo slow speeds in my area, Dayton Oh, and still stuck on a 2 year contract. I get .5 to 2mb most of the time. My wishes are dl speed at +5mb minimum, good signal strength at my house and work, 4.5 inch screen or bigger. I will root for apps and nandroid but may not continue flashing as these new phones have it all now--for me at least--
I posted on another thread getting 10-13mb dl with gnex on verizon at store, i know in two years most carriers will be lte capable, so the speeds are coming
yeah, i noticed a little bit of a service bump with the hspda+ on att in some spots in my area getting about 6mb down 2mb up where it used to be 3mb max on the n1. im perfectly fine with that amount of bandwidth, i dont need my phone to have the same service level of throughput as my home internet and chew through my battery. i wish the carriers could improve on the response time / ping now, who cares about bandwidth, its all marketing hype. give me a 22ms ping with 3mb down, not 300ms ping with 15mb...
those speeds would be acceptable to me for now, as in two more years we may see perfection on smartphones for most of us. as i have time maybe someone in the dayton area will get the unlocked version and post tmobile speeds here--
If you're fond of plain Android or CM - get Galaxy Nexus.
If you're one of those who flash Sense/MIUI on your N1 for functionality, and prefer it over plain Android - get One S.
There was already such a thread that I participated in, you can find my opinion there. Personally I can't stand plain Android for the reasons I laid out many times, and dislike ICS design.
Jack_R1 said:
If you're fond of plain Android or CM - get Galaxy Nexus.
If you're one of those who flash Sense/MIUI on your N1 for functionality, and prefer it over plain Android - get One S.
There was already such a thread that I participated in, you can find my opinion there. Personally I can't stand plain Android for the reasons I laid out many times, and dislike ICS design.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I found your thread. You bring up a good point about the development, but I feel either way I'll be okay. I do like my stock ICS, but I'm curious to see how the new sense is, maybe give it a chance. Although, I saw a development of Sense, Blur, and Touchwiz ports over in the Galaxy Nexus form. Made me think twice...
I tried to go to the t-mobile store and use a One S today, but they were closed by the time I got there D: Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on one soon.
One S is better then GNex in most ways but development. Built quality is amazing, screen is very nice, camera and camera app are also super. but right now you just cant do much with the phone besides running Sense....there are no 100% functioning ROMs or any mods YET.
I say screen quality is better on One S in terms of colors, but Gnex is very sharp and resolution is 720p
I have One S and thinking about trading for Gnex because I just hate sitting on stock ROM and waiting....but I am not 100% sure yet
The is just one flaw in One S design, the cool notification light is very cool, but its not visible from the sides.
/nod.
Just handed back the OneS. Until there's some decent Roms, the existing Sense stuff is very annoying. The camera on it is VERY impressive, build quality great too. Screen, same brightness as Nexus One (ie, very clear), but not /that/ bump up in rez. When there's some decent roms for it, I'd jump in and enjoy it, but for now, there's a lot that'll annoy you.

Anyone try the Nexus 4?

I've had my Note since November 2011 (well a Note as I lost one and proceeded to buy another one). I still love the phone, the screen size is great and the white Note still gets a lot of attention over a year later (most people call it or actually think it's the mini ipad). Well I just successfully ordered a 16gb Nexus 4, now I am trying to decide if I will give it as a gift and keep the note or try something new. Does anyone have both and can tell me the pros and cons?
I like the Notes screen size, sd card slot, TW and honestly that it's still a unique device however I like the specs on the Nexus 4, NFC, wireless charging, and LED light. I feel the note is actually better looking than the Nexus and although I heard the Nexus has great build quality it will just got lost in the sea of black phones versus my white Note. I am not too concerned with the 16gb, I used to have a 16gb iphone and never ran out of space. I honestly am torn, I am not sure if some of the new features outweigh the screen size, uniqueness, and TW? Any other opinions? I realize they will be bias in the Note section.
Also any comparison on cameras, I love how great the pictures come out on my Note in the dark. My friends with iphone 4 and iphone 4s always want me to use my camera since it takes such better pictures than their phones when the flash is on, I wonder how the nexus 4 camera compares to the original Note camera?
BTW don't care about removeable battery or the spen, I barely ever use it.
I suffer from a severe upgradeitis, and since Nexus 4 is actually affordable (which couldn't be said about the GNex), I am jumping ship and getting myself one. I will probably suffer because of the smaller screen (I really got fond of Note's size), and I loathe the lack of microSD slot, but I love everything else about the N4.
I am with the N4...
You'll suffer for:
smaller screen
less vivid colors
lower quality of the camera
spen (if you use it frequently)
You'll like:
Google updates
smaller screen (will let you use it with one hand)
your wallet
led notifications
project butter full compliancy
impressive response
PolishDude said:
I've had my Note since November 2011 (well a Note as I lost one and proceeded to buy another one). I still love the phone, the screen size is great and the white Note still gets a lot of attention over a year later (most people call it or actually think it's the mini ipad). Well I just successfully ordered a 16gb Nexus 4, now I am trying to decide if I will give it as a gift and keep the note or try something new. Does anyone have both and can tell me the pros and cons?
I like the Notes screen size, sd card slot, TW and honestly that it's still a unique device however I like the specs on the Nexus 4, NFC, wireless charging, and LED light. I feel the note is actually better looking than the Nexus and although I heard the Nexus has great build quality it will just got lost in the sea of black phones versus my white Note. I am not too concerned with the 16gb, I used to have a 16gb iphone and never ran out of space. I honestly am torn, I am not sure if some of the new features outweigh the screen size, uniqueness, and TW? Any other opinions? I realize they will be bias in the Note section.
Also any comparison on cameras, I love how great the pictures come out on my Note in the dark. My friends with iphone 4 and iphone 4s always want me to use my camera since it takes such better pictures than their phones when the flash is on, I wonder how the nexus 4 camera compares to the original Note camera?
BTW don't care about removeable battery or the spen, I barely ever use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking about getting one, but i don't like the hardware. Smaller screen and it's actually thinner than the Note, but it looks like a damn brick. Most of you don't care about these things, but i do
My Nexus 4 arrives December 10th. For me, I'm going to miss the screen the most on the Note which I still think is one of the nicest to look at. My wife has the One X which everyone tells me is the best display on a phone, but we both prefer the colours and general impression of the Note, even if they are unnatural.
Biggest reason for the purchase is that I'm tired of Samsung's BS with software updates and closed-source platform. I want the latest version of Android when it's released, not months later. I use aosp anyway, have never liked TW.
Things I expect to like about the Nexus are the smaller size (I don't know why but after a year of having the Note I'm starting to find its size prohibitive more often than I used to) , LED notification, proper Butter, software updates and general speed.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
None of you is bothered by the lack of an SD card slot? To me, this is definitely a showstopper along with the non-removable battery (iPhone style for the lose).
My main concern about the Nexus 4 is that it is just generic Android. I don't like the bloat around the other implementations such as TouchWiz, but there's a couple of dealbreaker bugs in stock Android that Samsung, HTC etc have fixed. I don't know why Google haven't.
In particular the Email client can't work with Exchange when offline. Deleting emails on the device leaves them all on the server still, even after connection is established and sync run. Makes it pretty useless for managing emails on a commute. Samsung, HTC and even Motorola have fixed this problem, but it's still in the base Android and has been since at least ICS and possibly HC. Google don't seem interested.
It gets even worse with Imap, where it puts all the emails you've deleted back on the device once you sync. Again HTC and Motorola have fixed this, although Samsung has this problem.
Seems a basic issue, but means I won't recommend these devices for corporate use until it is fixed.
Nick
I don't care about non-removable battery, I only take out my battery if I need to access my SIM or SD card, so not a big deal for me.
Lack of SD slot and puny internal memory is a bummer for sure, but I've decided I can live with that. In return, I get stock android experience without the need of using custom ROMs (and let's face it - while CM10 for the Note is awesome, it has its issues), I'm always up to speed with new Android releases (instead of waiting for CM to catch up), awesome hjardware, and great looks. Fair tradeoff in my opinion. I will mourn the lack of SD slot and lack of FM Radio, but I'll deal with it. I got my Note last year only because it was carrier-subsided, and I couldn't afford to buy an unlocked GNex.
Got the phone in, so far I rooted it. I need to play around with it for a bit before I decide which phone I want to keep.
Yes I bought 3 nexus 4 mobile phones really amazing phones hyper fast feels good gonna rom it rip it root it to the max.... This baby will blast off!!!!
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
I too have the nexus 4
Sold my galaxy note
And yes there's a difference in size but you get use to it
It's amazingly fast and already with 4.2.1
I'm rented by the price but lack of micro sd ruins it. Out of the 16 gig you will be lucky to have access to 11gig, as with other phones. I love my music and have a lot of roms on board so 11g is nothing.
From the man in your attic...
Can I just ask around a question, real quick. What's all that speed for? (casual) gaming?
Nexus 4 for me is the Android version of an iPhone, and unfortunately I am not meaning it as a compliment. As someone already stated in this topic, no sd card, no removable battery just means that if you want to take lots of pictures, videos, get your off-line Navigation with the entire Europe Maps (about 3.7GB) on your device there is not much left for anything else. I have seen a review where they state that only 12,3GB are available for the end user. That might be OK for some people, but I am not one of them.
Another thing is that if you want to use it a gamers phone, with this storage and HD games now available you will be able to get 3, maybe 4 big games in it, which is not something I would call ground breaking.
Last but not least, the battery in the phone will loose its charge over time. I am not a type of person to carry with me extra batteries and swap them around, but after some time everyone notices that their battery is not what it used to be. Specially when you want to buy / sell a second hand phone, being able to change the battery for a new one and enjoy your phone as when it was unpacked is something that Nexus 4 users will not be able to experience without getting their hands dirty and probably voiding the warranty of the device.
Sound Problems?
Does anyone here suffer from the Earpiece Defect in Nexus 4 that got mentioned in Mashable?
http://mashable.com/2012/11/25/google-nexus-4-defect/
Kortxero said:
None of you is bothered by the lack of an SD card slot? To me, this is definitely a showstopper along with the non-removable battery (iPhone style for the lose).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the OP doesn't care, but for me this is the showstopper (which would only change if a reasonably priced 64gb model came out). As others have said, this is the iPhone of Androids, and not in a good way. The lack of removable battery gets me as well as I use my phone so much that I need either two batteries or an extended battery.
But the pros are Butter, good updates etc. But personally ill stick with the Note until the Note 3 (or something better arrives), mainly through choice than cost.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app
iyousif said:
Does anyone here suffer from the Earpiece Defect in Nexus 4 that got mentioned in Mashable?
http://mashable.com/2012/11/25/google-nexus-4-defect/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I have a the distortion going on. Like, for the quality of the speaker to be good and not have any type of audio artifact, I need to keep the volume at 30% at all times. Anything higher, and certain pitches starts distorting/cracking. I guess one "fix" for this would be to change the kernel code to restrict the volume range of the speaker so that the maximum would be much lower. It could be the case that the kernel is actually overdriving the speaker module which results in the distortion. Whatever it is, it is definitely annoying to hear the edges of a person's voice gets distorted.
It's like they opted to use the cheapest POS speaker module they could find with an extremely limited range. The speaker on the Galaxy Note is a world better.
I have both....the screen size is something to get used to without a doubt. It is so tiny, but it is bearable. The constant updates from Google makes this phone worth it seeing how Samsung is a POS when it comes to releasing sources.
I'm also seeing some banding on the screen. Not sure if it's because of the screen or due to the image used (low bit).
I have an RMA on the way soon and will compare how the newer unit fares.
As NickC42 pointed out, I don't like stock Google android for few of these nitpicking stuffs -
1. Does not support speed dial? Hello Google!!??
2. Email/Calendar clients are white background black text. Why can't they have optional reverse color?
3. Oh I didn't know about those Exchange Email annoyances - total dealbreaker.
Sent from GNote.
willstay said:
As NickC42 pointed out, I don't like stock Google android for few of these nitpicking stuffs -
1. Does not support speed dial? Hello Google!!??
2. Email/Calendar clients are white background black text. Why can't they have optional reverse color?
3. Oh I didn't know about those Exchange Email annoyances - total dealbreaker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.Install custom rom/mod
2.Install inverted gapps
3.No single issue with exchange.
All this can be solved in 10 mniutes. This is Android. Want everything out of the box? Buy iPhone.
My reasoning was why I do not like stock Android aka Nexus. If I have to install custom ROM, it defeats purpose of buying a Nexus device.
Edited: Ask yourself ahalford why do people buy Nexus device? Because they get update from God Google on day one. What is use of that update if it never fixes few of the basic things?
Edited 2: Maybe you have iPhone hidden inside your secret stash and know it enough to recommend to other people. How about giving us out of the box experience one gets from iPhone?
Sent from GNote.

[thoughts] What the S5 needs to do before April 11th to earn my money

Well, THAT happened 10 hours ago........
The launch for the S5 came and my enjoyment faded pretty quickly. You can see from my track record in my signature that I've been a pretty loyal customer of Samsung for quite some time now, and this may be the first Galaxy launch that I won't have a pre-order in the system. Other than stepping away from the Galaxy line to pick up the Atrix 4G, the first mass produced phone with a fingerprint scanner, coincidentally, I've enjoyed only Samsung phones for the last 4 years. The "premium version" of the S5 was supposed to be 5th in line, what with the 20MP camera, metal body, G-Note 3 battery size, 5.25" screen - you've seen it all and read it all, it didn't show up today. Now unless Samsung is about to pull the biggest stunt they've ever pulled, the Unpacked5 event is in the books and we're not getting anything more than what we got today.
Is there any positive that came out of this event? Sure! USB 3.0 is a big thing for me as I have lots of 3.0 gear and want that from my next phone, it's dust and water resistant, cool fingerprint scanner providing it works flawlessly unlike the one on the iThing, updated TouchWiz which (try not to judge) I actually like a little bit, the wearables, the bigger focus on health, better processor, camera, and connectivity, but then comes the let downs, especially for S4 owners. Same 1080p screen at almost the same size, same 2GB of memory, almost the exact same front camera, soon to be the same OS (again, I like TW so I'm sticking it out on 4.3 until the TW 4.4.2 comes out), same plastic body that I don't necessarily mind, but would have appreciated a little change other than just putting dimples in the back cover, and probably worst of all to me, they're offering it in a 16GB format again after what they just did to us who pre-ordered and / or early adopted the S4, sticking us with next to nothing for internal space because they believe everyone has kids and needs to have likely a ton of space dedicated to a kid mode with pre-installed games and crap. I'm single and not looking for that anytime soon!!! It's like they claimed to listen to their customers but only those who are married, have children, want a "modern glam look," whatever the hell that means, and work out enough to bring their phone with them while exercising!
Damn that's a lot of negatives so far. So what can Samsung do between now and launch to earn my money short of releasing their ultra premium version that was supposed to exist but doesn't, and calling this one the S5 Neo? Let's take a look, and please, feel free to help me add to this list!
Ship the phone with an unlocked bootloader - I know, fat chance, right? But if you don't want people complaining about lack of storage, let us kill it off as we see fit! I also know it isn't up to Samsung on this, the carriers are the ones being douchebags about it, but Samsung put their foot down with them previously by stopping them from dictating all the individual revisions when they launched the SIII, making them all the same shape and size, so why can't they force their hand on this in the sake of making even the smallest group of their customers happy - those that truly use the phone for what it was meant for!
Negate the 16GB version - this is obvious, why the hell is this even a thing anymore with Samsung.... just get rid of it if you're not going to slim down this ridiculously large ROM of yours! Ship with the 32GB at minimum and announce the 64GB as well. iThings do this as a standard now, and while iSheep love to keep their music on their device and we have this little thing called external storage and another little thing called Google Music, we don't have to, but seriously, cut the crap and ditch the 16GB model!
Allow us to remove certain features we just aren't going to use, EVER - as I stated already, I don't have kids and don't need a Kids Mode. If you aren't going to let us root the thing AND aren't going to launch it with more than 16GB, let me get rid of the damn Kids Mode. Or the health features. Or anything else I decide useless or unnecessary. When looking at pics of the camera settings on the S5, I'm able to download more features as I see fit - why not make some of this crap downloadable and not don't ship it with the device? Why not make an Aroma-like installer when you first boot it and say "hey, would you like all of this crap or just some of it?" like any PC software does when it installs something - Typical or Custom installation. Sounds like I'm asking for a lot here, but really, I'm asking to not be forced a lot that I really won't use. And before you comment that if I don't need it, don't buy it in the first place, there are so many things I love about my S4 and TouchWiz that I'm not planning to part with in order to have "a phone," my N7 has a purpose and it isn't so I can keep the screen on when I need it just by looking at it. It does great for playing movies on a trip but not for letting me change the channel of my big TV when I want to watch a blockbuster movie....
Ship with at least the S805 processor for crying out loud - if you're not going to blow us away with something new and powerful, at least ship it with the very latest processor this time from Qualcomm. The 800 has been out for months, the 801 is obviously an incremental update over the 800, and the 805 isn't that much better, but at least give us the goods instead of just going along with the same processor found in the N5 and G-Note 3. I don't think we've heard which one for sure will be included, but from what I've read, so far they say it's the 800 or the 801. EDIT - it's the 801, confirmed by Qualcomm....
Include wireless charging in the box - I shouldn't have to say this, wireless charging is now old technology, the SIII had the capability but not the attention or love needed for Samsung to just release the official cover, the S4 cover took 3 months to post online for sale, and with all the competition shipping their phones with it included, why aren't we able to get it without paying $50+ for it? I used a 50% off coupon to get it for $25, but that's $25 more than I should have spent after being let down on a promise that the SIII was supposed to be able to do it on a phone with nearly useless internal storage....
Sell us some legit accessories this time, namely a car dock - I'm always impressed when people recognize me from my review on the only working car dock for the S4 since Samsung decided to screw around with the whole thing and make my Infuse dock useless. It worked on the Skyrocket and SIII, and would have fit the S4 except it wasn't possible to get the thing working properly by charging and outputting dock audio on it, so it's collecting dust in a box right now. Sure, I get it, you want to sell me something new instead of letting me use the same one for my last phone, and that's different than what you are doing (or didn't do?) with the wireless charging cover, but in this situation, you're not even selling me one! The S4 sold tens of millions of devices, did you stop and think that maybe ONE of them would be going in a car and being used for playing music or navigating that owner safely from one place to another?
?
?
?
That's all I got for now, I'm sure we can come up with more and while I highly doubt Samsung is listening to people like me, one of their 200M customers (I'd like to think I counted 4 times for buying 4 iterations of the Galaxy line), there's always a chance someone is listening. I bet they'll listen when they're trying to figure out why the sales figures are going to be monumentally lower this go-round, that's for sure!!!
A note to fanboys of all kinds, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, iThing, etc - let's keep it clean here, please. You haven't heard me bash anyone else here, even Samsung really, so please don't get this thread locked on me. I'm sure you have witty comments like Nokia and HTC have today, with their "Samesung," "Buyers Remose," and even the most original ones like telling me that you're disappointed or this phone is ugly.... As if we haven't seen those comments before. Be original if Samsung isn't, post something relevant to the discussion if you're going to post at all! I don't waste my time on writing this stuff to insult others, so don't do it to insult me. If you were never considering buying it, you don't have any reason to comment on here because nothing you're going to say will come across as helpful to myself or others. If you were considering buying it or even, dare I say switching from another brand, or actually will be buying this phone - let's discuss intelligently your reasons why!
:good:
FM radio..
In Slovenia in past month we have major electric blackdown becouse of mother nature - no internet no nothing.. but FM radio did work.. on my S2 I could still listen what is happening, but on newer device.. bljah.. must have tool which cost them 1 euro cent per device..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
I agree with all you say. Particularly about wireless charging, and accessories which get launched with fanfare and then never see the light of day. The other thing they could do is to put one of the new gear items in the box too. That would be a good sweetener. Lol.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk
NO KNOX!!! Or forget about Custom ROMs and warranty.
redzion said:
FM radio..
In Slovenia in past month we have major electric blackdown becouse of mother nature - no internet no nothing.. but FM radio did work.. on my S2 I could still listen what is happening, but on newer device.. bljah.. must have tool which cost them 1 euro cent per device..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you know it doesn't ?
Two points here:
1. I see you are American, and that in the US the carriers **** in their customers' heads when it comes to freedom. The international S4 has an unlocked bootloader, it has been like that since the original S.
2. The Snapdragon 805 isn't available yet, sadly.
And why isn't 2GB of RAM enough? I have 300+ apps here, 9 accounts syncing and available RAM never goes below 700MB.
I'm going to point something out to everyone here that wants Samsung to get rid of security features such as locked bootloaders or Knox.
We are the minority. Do you Expect Samsung to tailor to us and risk the average consumer's information and safety so people can run an AOSP build or a custom kernel?
Ship the phone with an unlocked bootloader - I know, fat chance, right? But if you don't want people complaining about lack of storage, let us kill it off as we see fit! I also know it isn't up to Samsung on this, the carriers are the ones being douchebags about it, but Samsung put their foot down with them previously by stopping them from dictating all the individual revisions when they launched the SIII, making them all the same shape and size, so why can't they force their hand on this in the sake of making even the smallest group of their customers happy - those that truly use the phone for what it was meant for!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I'm not excusing the US carriers for doing this, but why do you think they try to steer people away from rooting and unlocking the bootloader? People mess up, brick their phone, and then try to do a warranty claim on them. They're protecting their profits, and as a business you cannot blame them for that. Anyone else here would do the same thing to retain profits. And what do you mean "use the phone for what it was meant for?" The phone is meant to be a mobile multimedia cellular device, which in fact still does on the software it ships with no problem.
Negate the 16GB version - this is obvious, why the hell is this even a thing anymore with Samsung.... just get rid of it if you're not going to slim down this ridiculously large ROM of yours! Ship with the 32GB at minimum and announce the 64GB as well. iThings do this as a standard now, and while iSheep love to keep their music on their device and we have this little thing called external storage and another little thing called Google Music, we don't have to, but seriously, cut the crap and ditch the 16GB model!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do agree with this, I don't see too much point of the 16gb version. Still at least gives you a start of 10gb of storage at least.
Allow us to remove certain features we just aren't going to use, EVER - as I stated already, I don't have kids and don't need a Kids Mode. If you aren't going to let us root the thing AND aren't going to launch it with more than 16GB, let me get rid of the damn Kids Mode. Or the health features. Or anything else I decide useless or unnecessary. When looking at pics of the camera settings on the S5, I'm able to download more features as I see fit - why not make some of this crap downloadable and not don't ship it with the device? Why not make an Aroma-like installer when you first boot it and say "hey, would you like all of this crap or just some of it?" like any PC software does when it installs something - Typical or Custom installation. Sounds like I'm asking for a lot here, but really, I'm asking to not be forced a lot that I really won't use. And before you comment that if I don't need it, don't buy it in the first place, there are so many things I love about my S4 and TouchWiz that I'm not planning to part with in order to have "a phone," my N7 has a purpose and it isn't so I can keep the screen on when I need it just by looking at it. It does great for playing movies on a trip but not for letting me change the channel of my big TV when I want to watch a blockbuster movie....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can disable features you don't need. But just because you decide a feature you think is useless or unnecessary, does not translate to everyone else will think this too. I like the kids mode feature, I've got kids and nephews that get my phone somehow all the time.(Anyone with kids can attest to that too! ) I'm sure people will love this feature.
Ship with at least the S805 processor for crying out loud - if you're not going to blow us away with something new and powerful, at least ship it with the very latest processor this time from Qualcomm. The 800 has been out for months, the 801 is obviously an incremental update over the 800, and the 805 isn't that much better, but at least give us the goods instead of just going along with the same processor found in the N5 and G-Note 3. I don't think we've heard which one for sure will be included, but from what I've read, so far they say it's the 800 or the 801.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is Qualcomm's area right here, ARM cpus are following the development of x86 cpus. Meaning it's reached a point now where development for ARM cores is slowing down, tremendously. We probably won't see any groundbreaking ARM cpu's come out for maybe at least a year or so now, took x86 cpus years to show good and cost effective performance gains.
Include wireless charging in the box - I shouldn't have to say this, wireless charging is now old technology, the SIII had the capability but not the attention or love needed for Samsung to just release the official cover, the S4 cover took 3 months to post online for sale, and with all the competition shipping their phones with it included, why aren't we able to get it without paying $50+ for it? I used a 50% off coupon to get it for $25, but that's $25 more than I should have spent after being let down on a promise that the SIII was supposed to be able to do it on a phone with nearly useless internal storage....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now you're just being greedy.
Sell us some legit accessories this time, namely a car dock - I'm always impressed when people recognize me from my review on the only working car dock for the S4 since Samsung decided to screw around with the whole thing and make my Infuse dock useless. It worked on the Skyrocket and SIII, and would have fit the S4 except it wasn't possible to get the thing working properly by charging and outputting dock audio on it, so it's collecting dust in a box right now. Sure, I get it, you want to sell me something new instead of letting me use the same one for my last phone, and that's different than what you are doing (or didn't do?) with the wireless charging cover, but in this situation, you're not even selling me one! The S4 sold tens of millions of devices, did you stop and think that maybe ONE of them would be going in a car and being used for playing music or navigating that owner safely from one place to another?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do agree with this, but also at the same time there are 100s of other companies making accessories that Samsung does not make.
Samsung is not going to tailor the phone just for one person or a small group, they're doing it for what they believe are the best choices for their devices. Looking at their track record of the Galaxy line up, I'd say they've got it down pretty good.
Why do u need a 2k screen on a 5" device? It eats battery life, it bogs down cpu and gpu performance for something that your eyes can't notice. I cant even see a pixel on my s4.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk
My wishlist for S5 -Premium
1. 5.2" inches screen in body-size of S4. It's not too hard if they look at LG G2.
2. Radio FM, and playable via loudspeaker.
3. Good camera in low light condition.
4. Smaller bezel, by aluminum.
5. QHD display.
6. Better performed in drop-test, maybe
7. Keep removable battery + external SDcard.
8. Snapdragon 805 or Exynos 64bit octa-cores.
9. Only 1 "main" international version, both have LTE-A, 4K video rec etc...
10. Wireless charging included.
11. Ram 3G
12. At least 32 GB internal memory, like Note 3.
13. Fingerprint inside screen.
14. Max brightness at 600nit, like Note3.
15. Flash Xenon for camera and flash led for Camcorder.
16. 120 fps video recording at 1080p
17. Not too heavy. <150g.
18. Clearer audio recording, noise reduction.
19. Stereo sound on louder speaker like HTC One.
20. A better earphone with improved DAC
21. Sapphire glass for screen and camera lens.
22. Dust and water resistant is good, but I hope it will not affect the bezels.
23. Remove Samsung logo in the front and rear. Just Galaxy.
24. Note 3 fake leather still better than this S5C, or aluminum body.
25. Working, interchangeable for S-pen or any stylus pen, docking, etc
26. Front camera 5MP, rear 18MP
27. Hot plugged battery, SIM and microSD card without restart phone.
28. Include an projector like Galaxy Beam
29. USB 3.1
30. Removable and downloadable all bloatware, Knox, gesture...
31. 3000 mAh battery
32. New flat Touchwiz, it's still ugly.
33. Touchwiz fully runnable in ART and compatible with any pixel density.
34. Free lags, especially open the contacts/dialer must be faster.
35. Dual boot Android & WP, maybe triple with Ubuntu or GPE rom.
36. Update firmware at least 24 months, not like i9300.
37. Not too many versions in worldwide.
38. For some sharing features like Galaxy Beam, Samsung should share this app to works on other Android devices, (now we only have Android Beam).
The same for SS smart watch, smartTV....
39. Still support Adobe flash (it's not SS or GG obligation, but I hope it).
40. Improved airview and air gestures in smarter way than before (Example: hover finger on the links help user preview link, not zooming like now). Open the API for all the sensors function and support the developers to create much good app based on them.
dandroid13 said:
Two points here:
1. I see you are American, and that in the US the carriers **** in their customers' heads when it comes to freedom. The international S4 has an unlocked bootloader, it has been like that since the original S.
2. The Snapdragon 805 isn't available yet, sadly.
And why isn't 2GB of RAM enough? I have 300+ apps here, 9 accounts syncing and available RAM never goes below 700MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When kitkat was being written all the engineers had to use a smart phone with only 512 mb of RAM.
This will be moot tho with TouchWiz which is the most bloated god awful software on Android. 2gb IS enough yet the s4 still suffered from lag.
With the newer processors not being available yet Samsung should have focused on design. They put zero effort into that. This will be their first flop in the galaxy line. And by flop I mean by their standards. It will still sell millions.
Sent from my VS980 4G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
fernando sor said:
When kitkat was being written all the engineers had to use a smart phone with only 512 mb of RAM.
This will be moot tho with TouchWiz which is the most bloated god awful software on Android. 2gb IS enough yet the s4 still suffered from lag.
With the newer processors not being available yet Samsung should have focused on design. They put zero effort into that. This will be their first flop in the galaxy line. And by flop I mean by their standards. It will still sell millions.
Sent from my VS980 4G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have minimal lag here, but even Nexus can lag, it's not just TW or Sense.
adichandra said:
Why do u need a 2k screen on a 5" device? It eats battery life, it bogs down cpu and gpu performance for something that your eyes can't notice. I cant even see a pixel on my s4.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is so true. people just want a better spec sheet not realizing going above 1080p will actually lower benchmarks particularly with the s800 and 801 being the only SoC available now. To get something you probably wont even notice you will be sacrificing just about everything else performance wise.
---------- Post added at 01:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------
dandroid13 said:
I have minimal lag here, but even Nexus can lag, it's not just TW or Sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Come on It was a pretty common bug on the s4. I have a Samsung tab note 10.1 and it lags considerably.
I've had numerous HTC phones over the years and sense has been toned down quite a bit. sense 3.0 was a system draining nightmare.
I really don't think you can compare a straight android ROM to A samsung rom and say with a straight face this makes no difference on performance or lag.
Just compare the size of a nexus 7 rom to any s4 rom.
fernando sor said:
Come on It was a pretty common bug on the s4. I have a Samsung tab note 10.1 and it lags considerably.
I've had numerous HTC phones over the years and sense has been toned down quite a bit. sense 3.0 was a system draining nightmare.
I really don't think you can compare a straight android ROM to A samsung rom and say with a straight face this makes no difference on performance or lag.
Just compare the size of a nexus 7 rom to any s4 rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, the Note 10.1 is slow, but the problem isn't how light or heavy the ROM is, the lag happens because the Java-based Android Runtime isn't a optimized as iOS, for example.
dandroid13 said:
Sure, the Note 10.1 is slow, but the problem isn't how light or heavy the ROM is, the lag happens because the Java-based Android Runtime isn't a optimized as iOS, for example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's actually dalvik at runtime. Dalvik virtual machine and kitkat is optimized quite well.
When you add a huge amount of code on top of that of course it will change the performance.
Sent from my VS980 4G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
fernando sor said:
It's actually dalvik at runtime. Dalvik virtual machine and kitkat is optimized quite well.
When you add a huge amount of code on top of that of course it will change the performance.
Sent from my VS980 4G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, but it'll never be as good as iOS or WP, sadly.
Anyway, here's a closer look at the new TW, and, you guys can kill me, but I really like it. http://www.phonearena.com/news/New-...z-what-changed-with-Samsungs-software_id53163
dandroid13 said:
Sure, but it'll never be as good as iOS or WP, sadly.
Anyway, here's a closer look at the new TW, and, you guys can kill me, but I really like it. http://www.phonearena.com/news/New-...z-what-changed-with-Samsungs-software_id53163
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually that's a matter of opinion. My nexus 7 2013 and HTC one run as well as any iOS device I've played with. And they're of course other factors such iOS locked down system, boring home screen, no widgets, tiny screen etc.
Sent from my VS980 4G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Saw today a tweet from O2. 661 Euro. That is a lot of money. Think I have to pass.
anubius said:
Saw today a tweet from O2. 661 Euro. That is a lot of money. Think I have to pass.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn.

Seriously thinking of taking the plunge and buying

Hello I have been looking into buying this beautiful phone since I first seen it. I am in the US and will be buying it online to use on T-Mobile, I would like to know if anyone is here also using it and how is the reception? Do you get LTE? Also I've read in the roms section about a lithium and hydrogen version? Are they from different regions, what makes them different? I'm using a Mate 9 but am ready to own this phone.
sent from my rotary phone
This is phone ONLY ment for Chinese market.
I had it and here in Europe, I am on T Mobile as well but without LTE connection, and I had various problems with it, mostly about not localised and optimised software, very bad camera, handling (very slippery)...etc.About Roms, there are global roms and other roms and I found them pretty unstabile.
Literary, if you speak Chinese, then this is phone for you, if not, from my experiance, for that money better buy Samsung S8+.It is more serious product.
Before you start using Mi Mix you need to create MIUI account which is bounded with your phone number,so eventual reselling is another problem.
Anyway....it is beautiful device but for costs of a lot of headaches.
Here are the specs: http://www.mi.com/en/mix/specs/
The Network Bands supported are:
FDD-LTE: B1,B2,B3,B4,B5,B7,B8
TD-LTE: B38,B39,B40,B41
TD-SCDMA: B34,B39
WCDMA: B1,B2,B5,B8
GSM: B2,B3,B5,B8
CDMA1X/EVDO: BC0
Does your carrier support these?
The official Global Rom has all the languages, so no problem with the language (and it includes Google Play and it doesn't include any chinese-only apps)
There is a also a port of the LineageOS Rom and the RESURRECTION REMIX Rom.
The biggest problem is that you will not have any warranty, no service, no spare parts. If you are willing to resign from these for the best looking device, go ahead!
I can't speak for Tmo, but att I rarely get LTE but it is available, mostly HSPA+ though
The camera is a disappointment, but I was coming from a galaxy s6 so I was a little spoiled
If you are comfortable with flashing roms, I'm really enjoying the resurrection remix rom
It's a big usability improvement coming from the chinese stable rom
I have TMobile I get 4G I'm in NY my camera takes good pics I'm on the global stock MIUI rom and get insurance thru 3 party
jr313 said:
Hello I have been looking into buying this beautiful phone since I first seen it. I am in the US and will be buying it online to use on T-Mobile, I would like to know if anyone is here also using it and how is the reception? Do you get LTE? Also I've read in the roms section about a lithium and hydrogen version? Are they from different regions, what makes them different? I'm using a Mate 9 but am ready to own this phone.
sent from my rotary phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using this on MetroPCS and for the most part it has been very very solid for me. MetroPCS is basically the same network as Tmobile. On EpicRom I have LTE and my calls work just fine. Also, the version of Epic ROM I used had VoLTe support. Not even 100% on what it does but the option was checked off.
If you don't believe me just go to willmyphonework.net and type in Xiaomi Mi Mix and it will tell you exactly what carriers will work.
tin2404 said:
This is phone ONLY ment for Chinese market.
I had it and here in Europe, I am on T Mobile as well but without LTE connection, and I had various problems with it, mostly about not localised and optimised software, very bad camera, handling (very slippery)...etc.About Roms, there are global roms and other roms and I found them pretty unstabile.
Literary, if you speak Chinese, then this is phone for you, if not, from my experiance, for that money better buy Samsung S8+.It is more serious product.
Before you start using Mi Mix you need to create MIUI account which is bounded with your phone number,so eventual reselling is another problem.
Anyway....it is beautiful device but for costs of a lot of headaches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THIS GUY AGAIN, seriously though I actually have this phone on T-Mobile US, South Carolina Upstate area. It connects at 4G LTE in almost every place my wifes Samsung S7 Edge does. Durability wise you have to keep in mind its slippery and needs a case if for anything else to keep a grip on it. Screens fantastic, connections on par with US models and the storage /ram is unequalled currently. Had a mate 9 just before it and there really worlds apart. Now the camera is MEH, be prepared for that - its not bad just MEH. Everything else is really good, bonus it has built in equalizer for head phone playback [which means I didn't need to root it to put viper on].
I use the shipped Chinese official, google apps all installed with no issues. You can buy the S8+ if you want to step down in storage, ram and over all screen to phone. Personally the S8+ and the LG 6 are basically the same compromised high price devices. But its your money, both break fast when dropped also.
Haven't had a single head ache out of the Mi Mix or the MIUI [been using it on other devices for years]. Shoot me questions if you want.
Thank you all for your posts they have been helpful. I definitely wouldn't buy another Samesung ever again. I do love rooting and romming my phones, I have been following the ROM section and yesterday when I checked up on it I seen the additions of lineage and RR both I ran on my Nexus 6P and OnePlus 3T. Those were a big deciding factor for me because I can't live without my aosp, and now with the reassurance of LTE working I think I will be jumping in on this beast.
sent from my rotary phone
Nicolfa said:
THIS GUY AGAIN, seriously though I actually have this phone on T-Mobile US, South Carolina Upstate area. It connects at 4G LTE in almost every place my wifes Samsung S7 Edge does. Durability wise you have to keep in mind its slippery and needs a case if for anything else to keep a grip on it. Screens fantastic, connections on par with US models and the storage /ram is unequalled currently. Had a mate 9 just before it and there really worlds apart. Now the camera is MEH, be prepared for that - its not bad just MEH. Everything else is really good, bonus it has built in equalizer for head phone playback [which means I didn't need to root it to put viper on].
I use the shipped Chinese official, google apps all installed with no issues. You can buy the S8+ if you want to step down in storage, ram and over all screen to phone. Personally the S8+ and the LG 6 are basically the same compromised high price devices. But its your money, both break fast when dropped also.
Haven't had a single head ache out of the Mi Mix or the MIUI [been using it on other devices for years]. Shoot me questions if you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed.
But good for you...wait when he try to enter to VR world with Fiit vr2s as I did.
I hope and I am sure he will "understand" all "boxes and houses" and content inside.
tin2404 said:
This is phone ONLY ment for Chinese market.
I had it and here in Europe, I am on T Mobile as well but without LTE connection, and I had various problems with it, mostly about not localised and optimised software, very bad camera, handling (very slippery)...etc.About Roms, there are global roms and other roms and I found them pretty unstabile.
Literary, if you speak Chinese, then this is phone for you, if not, from my experiance, for that money better buy Samsung S8+.It is more serious product.
Before you start using Mi Mix you need to create MIUI account which is bounded with your phone number,so eventual reselling is another problem.
Anyway....it is beautiful device but for costs of a lot of headaches.
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Oh you're back. Good.
Yeah he's back lol.
jr313 said:
Hello I have been looking into buying this beautiful phone since I first seen it. I am in the US and will be buying it online to use on T-Mobile, I would like to know if anyone is here also using it and how is the reception? Do you get LTE? Also I've read in the roms section about a lithium and hydrogen version? Are they from different regions, what makes them different? I'm using a Mate 9 but am ready to own this phone.
sent from my rotary phone
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Go for it. It's one of the best device I've ever owned.
Don't worry about it when people say that they are having trouble with softwares that are not "localised or optimised". They don't know what they are talking about. The ROM is not really an issue at all, just flash to third party ROM like EPIC Rom, or you can use Xiaomi's Global Rom.
And don't be misguided, you don't need a MI account to use any Xiaomi device, that includes the MI MIX.
This is my second Xiaomi phone and I'm running off the stock Chinese Rom which I have no issue with. There's no need to create a MI account to use this phone.
Here is my opinion->
- The phone is great in build quality with the most premium material(ceramic);
- It has huge amount of storage(I have 256GB);
- It has a lot of RAM(6GB for me);
- It has the best Android iteration - MIUI;
- It has quite some innovations brought at once in terms of tech;
- It has great battery life;
- It is too big;
- It has the worst camera I've had for quite some time;
I will stick to mine for the good reasons, but really regret for the camera.
Make your math and good luck.
P.S.
If you buy one, install Camera FV or some other app. You will get far better shots.
P.S.2
Don't mind the comments about that this is for chinese market only, or the MIUI account is bad....etc. The phone works perfectly on most places(but still do a check for your country) and MIUI is great performer with lot's of cool stuff. I am using their system since my Samsung Galaxy Nexus
The problem with MIUI is not that it doesn't perform well.
It may still be on Android 6 and it is missing the enhancements of API 24 and API 25 but it has other additional features that compensate for this.
The problem is that it is closed source and you cannot know what the code does in the background, and whether it sends data back home. But thank god, there are now ports of LINEAGE and RESSURECTION REMIX roms. So no reason not to get the device from a software perspective.
Well, you got a lot ppl here telling you some good, some, but here my 2 cents. I love the phone! I love the big screen, I dont use the camera so I dont care, I like the call quality. Its cool being that there is no earpiece yet, you can still hear the ppl youre talking to. You may have to turn the volume all the way up in certain situations, but its fine. I love the fluidity, moving around the phone is very snappy, I never have any issues. I do play Pokemon Go, a lot, and that isnt as smooth as it is on the iPhone, but its not bad. It did freeze on me when I dropped a lucky egg and went through to try and evolve as many Pokemon as I could. The battery life is the BEST IVE EVER HAD on a phone before... well, maybe the battery life on the Nokia Lumia 1520 was better, but I cant recall. Now, EMUI as a whole isnt bad, it really isnt! I am currently using stock, chinese ROM. and as far as I know, im on the latest firmware. But, as soon as I get my hands on a Windows based computer, im going to root it and install a custom ROM. Ive heard Epic is supposed to be the best, but im the type of guy that will flash a few ROM's before I settle. I could go on and on about this phone as a daily driver, but, I really do like it. If you have any specifics, hit me up and id be more than willing to answer your questions. But long story short, I love the phone.
Don't do it!
You're gonna get addicted, especially to the screen and build materials! Have seen tear-down videos, and even the inside is beautiful! I rotate to different phones often and you will find yourself wanting when using phones after this one. Questions will subconsciously creep into your head when you go back to a different phone; ie. "why is there a bar at the top of this phone?""why does the back of this phone scratch so easily?" Its like seeing a slice of the future in a dream and then waking up to a disappointing reality as you grab that iOS or Pixel device. You've been warned.
...
I recently picked one up, I have the Chinese Rom version, 256gb 6gig of ram. I've been using it for a month now in CA and NY and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this is the best device I have ever owned, hands down, nothing comes close. I honestly haven't had a issue with the camera but I don't take many shots with the phone so I don't care. As for MIUI I really like it, as a 1st time user of it, it has a very different feel and look to regular stock android which is very refreshing to me. You end up purchasing one, you will not regret it.
I've also had the phone great phone but I'm one of those people who likes to change phones every few months.
MIUI was great to use and if you get board just us a different launcher, now only thing you need to know if your staying on Chinese build is disabling a few power saving features to get push notifications like what's app, email etc
My only issue letting it go was I wanted the 7.0 to use 2 app support and I really didn't like the notification tray, tried exposed but couldn't change it the way I wanted. Again this will probably not bother you but overall it's a great phone once you fiddle around the software.
Sent from my MHA-L09 using Tapatalk
Pros and cons
I've had my Mi Mix (International stock rom, 6gb, 256gb) for a few days. I got it on sale on Gearbest for $606! Here's some pros and cons so far:
Pros:
-I'm on AT&T and I get 4g LTE all the time in my area.
-Insane amount of storage. I can't imagine ever maxing this thing out.
-A very good screen (though not as colorful or as sharp as what you'll find on Samsung's new phones).
-Excellent performance (though again, not quite as snappy as the S8+, which my wife owns).
-The most beautiful device I have ever held! Pictures do not do it justice. It is simply exquisite.
-The camera is plenty good for my purposes (taking pictures of my kids when we're on outdoor adventures).
-Watching videos and playing games on that bezel-free screen is awesome!
Cons:
-MIUI does have a bit of a learning curve.
-You have to change battery and notification settings quite a bit to get push notifications working properly (though this only takes 15 minutes to do).
-I had issues with text messages for a couple days before I found a fix. Now they work perfectly.
-The phone is very slippery.
-Ceramic, while very scratch resistant, shatters easily. (I'm using the provided leather case most of the time.)
-Despite the tiny bezels, the phone is still big and heavy. There's no way to make a 6.4 inch screen feel small in the hand.
-Call quality, while adequate, is nowhere near as clear as on my Moto Z or my wife's S8+. It sounds like the other person is on speaker phone.
-The camera, while fine for me, would never be good enough for my wife (she has a blog and needs professional-quality images, which she really can get with her S8+).
All in all, the pros definitely outweigh the cons FOR ME. But they might not for everyone. I hope this helps.

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