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I currently have a Charge and I love every aspect of it... except for the connectivity. I have a friend with a Droid X and he consistently gets better signal with it... when I have nothing he has 3g 2 bars, when I have 1x 1 bar he has 3g 3 bars etc. Also, the gps is absolute crap. I would look at the DX2 but its a derp... and I would be paying full retail so no bionic or razr for me.
Would the D3 be worth my time? All I know about it is that motorola makes superior antennas and such but the screen sucks compared to the charge.
YEs
I went from an Epic to the Droid 3, I would have to saw the Droid 3 was a worthwhile upgrade. Make sure you play with it at the store to confirm you dont mind the UI, I much prefer it over Touchwiz 3.0. Unless you use GoLauncher or ADW then that doesnt matter. Also check it out at the store to see if you dont mind the screen, if they dont have a droid 3 on display, the bionics is very similiar. Its all up to preference on some of that. (typed this in a hurry so I hope it makes sense)
anarchy4sale said:
I went from an Epic to the Droid 3, I would have to saw the Droid 3 was a worthwhile upgrade. Make sure you play with it at the store to confirm you dont mind the UI, I much prefer it over Touchwiz 3.0. Unless you use GoLauncher or ADW then that doesnt matter. Also check it out at the store to see if you dont mind the screen, if they dont have a droid 3 on display, the bionics is very similiar. Its all up to preference on some of that. (typed this in a hurry so I hope it makes sense)
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Click to collapse
Thanks. I HATE touchwiz and from what I've seen, Motoblur or whatever they call it would be a significant improvement. I personally use go launcher. Also Ive seen my friends' droid 1 and 2s and i think I would be fine with those. I will assume the D3 is very similar but larger (I like the size of my charge).
Okay I came from tbolt...but I love this phone the keyboard is so nice. Im a die hard aosp guy and I love the new motoblur the virtual keyboard is awesome...the battery life is decent on this phone too unlike all htc phones.
Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk
I have a droid 3 coming from a nexus one and despite the lag in speed, the return of the qwerty keyboard was a major plus for me. I can live with the touch screen only but its does not replace a tangible keyboard.
I have been using the DROID 3 for a few months now and I love it. Many people have complained about the screen and while it is not the best I've seen, it isn't as bad as it has been made out to be. I guess I figured if I wanted to watch a video in HD, why use a 4 inch screen? There were battery and data connectivity issues initially, but these have both seemingly been resolved with the last OTA update. The keyboard is fantastic, mostly because I can't stand using a virtual keyboard. As far as UI goes, the stock one isn't terrible, but I still am using A DW. That is until Hashcode finalizes his CM7 build (very close now).
Side note: The radio hack that they have for it making wired tethering and wireless hotspot work for free are also fantastic!
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App
For those of you stating decent battery life, are you turning off the GSM radio? I know that was a problem on my friends D2 where it wouldn't last a day because the GSM radio kept searching for a signal. I don't know if its on by default or if he managed to turn it on.
I don't like "decent" battery, seeing as its a 3g phone and 4g on the Charge sucks the battery hard, with a "decent" rating also.
...
I go 33 hours, and still had 34% left, with average usage.
512MB RAM sucks, but others are very good.
Root it and Rom it.
MavRom has the best battery life I've seen, I've had this phone since launch day. The keyboard is incredible and you can actually get REAL work done with it. I typed up a 200+ serial number spreadsheet the other day at work and only lost maybe 20% battery over the course of 4 hours, this was with MavRom.
As for the screen, you can't even see the pentile when playing videos and honestly I'm used to it already. 512MB of RAM hasn't been an issue for me, at all.
I got the D3 as a replacement for my D2. Only two complaints: increased size, and increased weight.
Other than that, this phone is AMAZING. Operating speed is faster, I believe the screen looks nicer (which may be because it is bigger), and my battery life has been much better than on my D2. I went to work today at 8am and came home at 9pm with battery still around 90%. Can't complain at all!!!
So got my Nexus 4 16GB during the week, its my first ever Nexus phone however have had a variety of Android phones from the HTC Desire right up to Galaxy S2, have to say I am not 100% sold on the Nexus.
I used to think skins where unnecessary but since getting the Nexus I have come to realise how much more user friendly they make things, simple things like pulling down the notification bar to put in aeroplane mode, orientation screen lock etc, or perhaps battery percentage up beside the battery?
My battery also seems to drain very fast, and I am not using the phone any differently than I did my galaxy S2, auto sync turned of and all the rest.
The camera while being 8mp acts like 5mp at best for some reason, Its not a patch on my SGS2, Ok I only take photos for instagram etc and its fine for that.
When you got your N4 did you instantly fall in love or did it take a while to grow on you? I'm not convinced yet.
But skins are so incredibly ugly and IMO they don't make the phone that much more user friendly (definitely not enough to justify their appearance and sluggishness). TouchWiz on the GS4 still looks like it's meant to run on Gingerbread and it causes random lag where no modern phone should have any trouble.
The quick settings in the notification bar are there, and I think it's just as good an implementation on stock because you can see more of your notifications at any one time. In TouchWiz they take up about half of the notification tray with quick settings, in stock a two fingered swipe or a tap in the top right corner will take you to them. You can edit them and make them easier to get to using a custom ROM, and while you may argue that you shouldn't have to do that it's ludicrously straightforward on a Nexus device.
A custom kernel should also fix your battery drain. I'm getting through a day without any issues and I'm perfectly happy with that. Currently my phone has had 1 day 1 hour of usage with 1 hr 30 minutes screen on time and 45% battery left. Note that the screen was on full brightness during this and Wifi and auto sync were left on.
When you say it acts like 5MP do you mean that the quality is crap or that it's literally taking photos at a 5MP size? If it's the first then that's true and there's really nothing that can be done. If it's the latter then open the camera, press anywhere on the screen to bring up the circle control, go to the settings option (the one that looks like a bunch of sliders) and change the picture size to 8MP.
Personally, I loved my N4 from the moment I got it. After calibration the screen was just about the best I'd seen (and I flashed it straight away, only used stock for a minute or two), it was the smoothest Android experience I had ever had and (unlike my HD2) everything just worked flawlessly for me.
Best phone I ever owned.
Flash a rom + kernel to get the features you're missing. If no likey, return and purchase other phone.
Tip: don't continue with praising skins of HTC or Samsung instead of aosp. Will only get you flamed..
Sounds about right. The best feature is being bland and featureless with the greatest potential to be customized. You are just at the most basic, boring, least impressive starting point. The rest is kind of up to you. Just my opinion.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
dweekie said:
Sounds about right. The best feature is being bland and featureless with the greatest potential to be customized. You are just at the most basic, boring, least impressive starting point. The rest is kind of up to you. Just my opinion.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd take this supposed 'blandness' any day over slow, sluggish and ugly OEM skins.
There are many things on this phone that make it great, such as the screen, silky smoothness and more. But first thing out of the box I was a bit disappointed as well because it has no battery percentage. It annoyed me because I can't tell how much battery life I have left unless I download a widget or pull down the bar. But, I ended up flashing the percentage mod, then flashing kernel, then a rom. Now I can't look back. Battery life got better, colors on my screen got even better and best of all I got a percentage on my battery.
If you compare the battery to something like GS3, this is better, so you might just have to let the phone settle in.
slugger09 said:
So got my Nexus 4 16GB during the week, its my first ever Nexus phone however have had a variety of Android phones from the HTC Desire right up to Galaxy S2, have to say I am not 100% sold on the Nexus.
I used to think skins where unnecessary but since getting the Nexus I have come to realise how much more user friendly they make things, simple things like pulling down the notification bar to put in aeroplane mode, orientation screen lock etc, or perhaps battery percentage up beside the battery?
My battery also seems to drain very fast, and I am not using the phone any differently than I did my galaxy S2, auto sync turned of and all the rest.
The camera while being 8mp acts like 5mp at best for some reason, Its not a patch on my SGS2, Ok I only take photos for instagram etc and its fine for that.
When you got your N4 did you instantly fall in love or did it take a while to grow on you? I'm not convinced yet.
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Click to collapse
Skins like Sense and TW only bloat the system. You will get use to the pure experience pretty quick and then you will grow to hate skins
I have always carried my devices naked (the device not me) and don't have any issues with the Nexus naked. It's a bit slippery but you will adjust to that quickly and hold the device a bit tighter.
The battery starts off horrid! It really takes several drain and recharge cycles for the battery to get up to par. Mine makes it through the day just fine now.
Mega pixels don't really mean much if you are not developing poster sized photos. Try using HDR mode and see if you like the photos better.
My .02
Did you not even do any research before getting this phone?? This is vanilla android and most people get this phone for that reason. If you are used to some added skins like Thouchwhiz, Sense, or Motoblur and like that, you should have stuck with one of those phones. Otherwise, root the phone and get to modding and theming or install a cost rom that is feature rich.
slugger09 said:
So got my Nexus 4 16GB during the week, its my first ever Nexus phone however have had a variety of Android phones from the HTC Desire right up to Galaxy S2, have to say I am not 100% sold on the Nexus.
I used to think skins where unnecessary but since getting the Nexus I have come to realise how much more user friendly they make things, simple things like pulling down the notification bar to put in aeroplane mode, orientation screen lock etc, or perhaps battery percentage up beside the battery?
My battery also seems to drain very fast, and I am not using the phone any differently than I did my galaxy S2, auto sync turned of and all the rest.
The camera while being 8mp acts like 5mp at best for some reason, Its not a patch on my SGS2, Ok I only take photos for instagram etc and its fine for that.
When you got your N4 did you instantly fall in love or did it take a while to grow on you? I'm not convinced yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
1. The airplane mode is there. Just swipe down the notification bar with TWO fingers. Then you get lots of toggle-settings including the airplane mode. The orientation screen lock is not there though. HOWEVER; installing custom ROMs will most likely ADD many more features in the toggles area (like orientation) and so forth.
2. For battery drain, try flashing a custom kernel, such as Franco.Kernel. Not only does it improve battery, but you may calibrate your screen (his app includes a preset for lovely colors + deep blacks), and much more. If you want you can undervolt/overclock as well. Note that you can have a custom kernel while still keeping the STOCK rom installed (default andoird 4.2.2 for example).
I personally enjoy stock android (so I haven't installed a ROM), but i felt francos kernel REALLY improved the device. The battery is improved (doesnt drain as much, nor does the phone heat up as much as before). Also the colors of the screen turned really wonderful aftering being calibrated to 2.2gamma.
Basicly, if you are unhappy, look into some ROMs and kernels. You can find almost anything you want :good:
Different strokes, different folks.. OP gave it a shot and gave an honest, un-smug opinion... It is what it is. Some people just like the gloss on top.. Nothing wrong with that.
slugger09 said:
So got my Nexus 4 16GB during the week, its my first ever Nexus phone however have had a variety of Android phones from the HTC Desire right up to Galaxy S2, have to say I am not 100% sold on the Nexus.
I used to think skins where unnecessary but since getting the Nexus I have come to realise how much more user friendly they make things, simple things like pulling down the notification bar to put in aeroplane mode, orientation screen lock etc, or perhaps battery percentage up beside the battery?
My battery also seems to drain very fast, and I am not using the phone any differently than I did my galaxy S2, auto sync turned of and all the rest.
The camera while being 8mp acts like 5mp at best for some reason, Its not a patch on my SGS2, Ok I only take photos for instagram etc and its fine for that.
When you got your N4 did you instantly fall in love or did it take a while to grow on you? I'm not convinced yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Instant love with the N4. Sold it away after a couple of months, went around owning other phones like the iPhone 5, Note 2, GS3, Xperia ZL. Have now come back to the N4. But then again, I knew what I was getting into coz I had the GNex before this.
The point of stock android, is not that it offers features other skins dont. What makes it attractive is that it offers a solid, no BS foundation to which you can add tweaks and functionality suited individually to YOU. You say you want Airplane mode in quick settings, maybe battery percentage next to the battery? Guess what there is a tweak for that and much more. But what happens when you are on TW and you dont want to look like an idiot waving you hands all over the screen in public? Sure you can disable that, but it doesnt mean its gone. Still cramping the software and taking up space. Again, this is just an example. As for battery drain, try kernels like Franco or Trinity. Install BBS and cull out the rogue apps.
You said its your first nexus. Stick around, read and you'll find out what a great piece of hardware this is in perfect sync with the software.
Definitely the best android phone I've owned, coming from a one x and one s and those were great devices as well. Only problem I see is the battery..I leave school with about 10-30% usually around 3 but other than that I love this phone
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
styckx said:
Different strokes, different folks.. OP gave it a shot and gave an honest, un-smug opinion... It is what it is. Some people just like the gloss on top.. Nothing wrong with that.
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Click to collapse
Agreed. Btw if anyone thought my posts were meant to be insulting or rude they weren't, they're just my opinions on OEM skins.
OP should check out the Power Toggles app on the Play Store for notification bar toggles, works just like Sense type toggles with customizability.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.painless.pc&hl=en
Yes I think it just needs a few tweaks here and there, not going to the extent of a custom ROM just a kernel etc, first need to work out how to unlock the bootloader and root
Nigeldg said:
Agreed. Btw if anyone thought my posts were meant to be insulting or rude they weren't, they're just my opinions on OEM skins.
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Nah not at all. I posted my thoughts without even reading the rest of the replies. I'm just so used to people taking a licking for daring to not like a Nexus I just assumed maybe OP got a little heat. Apparently it was rather civil.. :good: :laugh::victory:
I love mine, came from a phone with htc sense, and sense was one of the things that killed "skins" for me. That being said yeah there's pluses and minuses to both. Stock Android is just as capable but your going to have to dig and get some apps from the market to get all the features oems put in their skins. I prefer it that way, I can pretty much make my phone perfect to me. I really feel like with an oem skin you don't get the full customizing experience, and that's why I like raw android. However it's not for everyone. Different strokes for different folks
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Phones should come with a 24 hour buyers remorse warranty. Just return it if you're not satisfied. Though, if you're willing to follow the rabbit down the rabbit hole, I'm sure you'll be in awe on how much you can do with Android, let alone the Nexus 4.
slugger09 said:
Yes I think it just needs a few tweaks here and there, not going to the extent of a custom ROM just a kernel etc, first need to work out how to unlock the bootloader and root
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if u really want to unlock the bootloader, you should do it right away, and before actually using the phone, because unlocking it would erase all your personal data (like a phone reset). or you can back up ur phone.
rooting is super easy. 1st, install custom recovery, 2nd, flash supersu zip, and done.
I really love mine, picked it up over a month ago. I thought LTE would be my major gripe but my carrier supports the N4's DC-HSPA radio so in most areas I can get up to 22-23 mbps download speeds where the S3 was getting around 30 on LTE in the same areas (although much better upload speeds). I'm pretty happy with that considering my older HSPA phone was only getting 6-7 max.
I was strongly considering also owning an LTE phone too since I still haven't used my upgrade yet, but I've played with both the One and the S4 and I simply disliked the button layouts of both phones. I'm going to hold off until one of the OEM's releases a flagship that stays closer to the standard layout. The new Xperia phones do, but they're using basically the same hardware as the Nexus 4 anyway which would basically be a sidegrade+LTE and not a significant upgrade. Looks like my final hopes for owning two phones is going to rest with Motorola or Nexus 5 now. I'm very satisfied with this for now though.
My iphone4 is crapping out on me and its time for something new. The only current phone with a slide out is the lg enact, and reviews on it arnt good. The specs are about the same as the d4 which appears to be a better phone. My work phone is a samsung s5 and while i love it, i hate digital keyboards and i dont really need this big of a powerhouse. All I use my phone for is webbrowsing, facebook, spotify/pandora, gps, email, snapchat and call/txt. Is the d4 capable of these things? My i4 isnt capable of running facebook or spotify without loads of lag/freezing.
droid 4 can do some multi tasking but ive never used spotify/pandora so i cant really comment on how thatd work however i do usually torrent stuff while browsing the web on firefox and maybe listen to music at the same time with everything going fairly smooth. obviously it wont be as good as an s5 but should be alright
D4 actually performs pretty reasonable as long as you keep the bloat out. CM11 and Slimkat are the most upto date rom options, both are stable for daily use I've been using Slimkat 8.8 (4.4.4) with apex launcher and a few background services like skype/kik/snapchat installed with only 320/838mb RAM usage on boot. Battery life isn't great because the Droid 4 only has a 1785mAh battery, but generally I have enough battery to get through the day.
Hey elanzer. Thanks for the feedback! Do you have any experience running music applications such as the ones i listed? Also, is the bsttery removable? Ive seen mixed things in regards to this. If so Id be interested in seeing if there is a upgradable battery option to get a little more juice in there.
apmorgan93 said:
Hey elanzer. Thanks for the feedback! Do you have any experience running music applications such as the ones i listed? Also, is the bsttery removable? Ive seen mixed things in regards to this. If so Id be interested in seeing if there is a upgradable battery option to get a little more juice in there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery is labeled non-removable by motorola but you can still remove it with tools and install a replacement battery, there's an extended battery by mugen available too.
Since the Droid 4 has a MicroSD slot, I don't use anything like pandora/spotify because I just put my music on a 32gb SD card and play it with Apollo, but I can't see why it hasn't worked. I've used some streaming audio in the background while doing other things without issue.
Ive had my Droid 4 since it come out, Ive recently starting using iheartradio/slacker/di.fm music apps with only the occasional glitch/lock up, i think most of them were caused by too much crap running, im looking at updating to slimkat or cm11 to see if there are any improvements over stock, i hate to get rid of this phone because i cant find any new phones with a tactile keyboard as i too dislike touchscreen typing, only thing that is holding me back from updating to custom rom is ive read that 4g lte isnt working and thats a no go for me
im using cm11 (4.4) and i have 4g lte with verizon that works just fine
from my understanding lte wont work with any other carrier so just verizon so i say its pretty safe to use 4.4
as for the battery you can get a slightly extended one (gold) for 14-15 dollars or the mugen brick which is about 90 dollars the model of the battery is eb41 so you can search for that
if you buy gold or mugen they should come with the screwdriver required to make the change since there are 2 screws holding the plates on the phone
additional stock batteries probably wont have the tools with them
Let me ask a question, cause its bothering me; I had an N5 and loved it, the no-crap android os is what I want. Unfortunately I had to go through all kinds of hoops and do all kinds of crap to get it to last me a full day with no charge, I changed kernels and kernel settings, etc. and usually had to throw it on a charger to get through the day and periodically would hose my phone due to under-volting which was hit or miss anyway.
I picked up an invite for a 64G OnePlus and it was insane, its like I got double the battery life and did nothing, no kernel, just the stock CM. I lusted for the N6 and got it last week. Man its big, but I'm loving it, but......wtf is the issue with the battery? I'm reading other stories and I have not been able to really benchmark mine, I got the phone Fri. and have not had a normal day yet, but I'm starting to get a little worried. I had wake up notifications, LED blinking and the same amount of wake ups as I usually have. But I don't think theres anyway I'm getting 5ish sot. Why? Whats so different? Is it me or the device? I can live with 4ish sot, nothing less and I don't want to **** around with kernels again. I'm still in my 14 day return, but so don't want to. I'm rooted, custom recovery, don't want to flash a rom (well maybe CM when available) and did not feel a need to decrypt, but maybe thats the answer. Anyway, any additional thoughts?
I just think that the nexus 6 panel is very power hungry. 5 hrs sot is kind of what I have been getting. It kills me that the note 4 has the same processor and same battery yet gets better battery life.
jm700wx said:
I just think that the nexus 6 panel is very power hungry. 5 hrs sot is kind of what I have been getting. It kills me that the note 4 has the same processor and same battery yet gets better battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But I figured the Moto like peek feature would be less power then a full wake up like it was doing on the One. I want to keep this phone, I actually did the unthinkable and tried the IP6+, just to give it the benefit of a doubt, I got it on a Fri. morn and brought it back Mon.
Any chance of software fix from Google? I know there is not a clear answer, but I'm wondering what the xda-gods are thinking, hence my questions.
jackpollard said:
I actually did the unthinkable and tried the IP6+, just to give it the benefit of a doubt
....
but I'm wondering what the xda-gods are thinking,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have likely offended the xda-Android-dogs by your sacrilegious act described above!!! You need to smash up a brand new IP6+ as a sacrifice to atone for this act! You infidel!
:silly:
On a serious note, OnePlus is running a custom OS, with a custom kernel and all the goodies that we Nexus users have to make changes to get. One+ is already running the optimized OS. I'd say that is why it gets better battery life than stock Lollipop.
Hi guys,
Happy New Year to all! Seems like my first resolution for 2017 will be to get a new phone as my LG G3 decided to die a few days after Christmas while on vacation... lovely, as it was to be my only way of taking pictures! Anyway, I'm looking for a cost-effective replacement phone (I'm in Australia for reference). My preference would have been a Pixel phone, but they retail north of 1000 AUD for the entry-level 32GB non-XL Pixel here, which is just too expensive for my liking. Alternatively I would have considered the S7/S7 Edge, but just a few months before release of the S8 I'm not willing to pay full price for it.
This brings me to the P9, which is currently on sale here bringing its price to roughly half of the Pixel/S7 Edge (600 AUD), and given a major point for me is camera/picture quality, it is a serious contender. My main concern however is the rather heavy-handed EMUI skin. Are there any P9 users around here who generally prefer stock-ish Android and who have switched to the P9? What's your feeling around EMUI? As long-term users, did you get accustomed to it? Things like the notifications shade and the recent apps are making me cringe a little, partly because they seem much less practical than the default implementation in Android, and partly because.... they look like an iPhone
Are there any apps available to make EMUI look more like stock? I'd unlock the bootloader and root this thing if I buy it, so I'm thinking things like xposed modules? I'd also be fine flashing a stock-based custom ROM, but would rather avoid stock-based/CM/Lineage ROM as I'd like to keep full camera functionality.
Also - unrelated question, but are people generally happy with battery life on the P9? I'm a light/medium user and the 2 hours of screen on time I'd routinely get on the G3 would be okay most days, but obviously short for days of heavy use. I seem to be reading that 4-4.5 hours of SOT is standard, is that what people experience?
My fallback plan would be to get a ZUK Z2 to tide me over until this year's phones.
Thanks for reading!
I got a zuk z2 pro after initially moving from Windows Lumia 950. The hardware for price was awesome but the software on it was a nightmare so I sold it and switched to P9.
First I used Nova launcher which was great as Emui didn't have an app draw.
Now I am beta testing Nougat Emui 5 which is a lot better and closer to stock although still stuck with the Icons.
Currently Nova crashes with my widgets so until that is fixed I am keeping with standard launcher, actually now I am used to it I may just stay using it.
Sent from my Hauwai P9 EVA-L09 using Tapatalk
I used a Nexus 5 for 2 years , S6 for 1 year and now I have a P9 (HTC 10 for some weeks,other phones only a few days).
Emui is something new . For me,it feels like a new, fresh experience.
I'm done with stock android. If I buy a flagship device,i want some features . The phone is fast (feels faster than HTC 10,S6,etc) .
For me ,it's better than stock android. S6 had the features,but it was laggy (s7 is the same). P9 has the features but it's also fast.
For me it's BAD, but not the EMUI by itself. It's bad because it's poorly made. No double tap to wake up the screen, no wave to wake up but there are ton of other useless motion controls.. Even Knuckle gestures that pretty sure no one is using (or 5 people at most)... Notes app doesn't sync with Gmail. No Reminders app. Don't like the colors, even in the Nougat update. Black with dark blue is so ugly (to me) that if I knew this would be enough to skip this phone. One of my biggest problems - can't turn off the haptic feedback, everytime I am using google search the phone vibrates and drives me crazy, and of course is draining battery. The worst part of the Phone is the updates, mine is still with 1 September security patch, it's January now... Flagship not getting monthly security patches in 2016-2017 is a joke, especially with the raising virus attacks. Took them too long to update to Nougat - another flaw. Everything else - Screen, build quality, camera is pretty damn good. Battery is pretty good to 5 hours without any problem and on Nougat most people get 6 and more hours.. Software is the biggest flaw.
Yes you can make it more Stock like - take a look at the themes here that some good people are making. No need of another Launcher. They are great and make the phone at least look better. And they will be released for EMUI 5 too. I won't suggest installing launchers, at least I had really bad experience, my phone started lagging so much I had to factory reset it. And I asked many people, they had the same problem after installing another launcher. This is my opinion and my experience. To be honest, if I knew how I will feel with this phone, I was going to get me S7. My advice is just wait for S8... Or LG G5 right now is on great price in most countries, great phone, would take it everyday instead of Huawei... It's your money and your decision after all.
Thanks guys for all the valuable feedback. I gave it a good thinking and eventually went to buy the P9 last weekend. I'll be writing up some more thorough thoughts about it when I get a chance, but so far I'm quite satisfied. It's very fluid overall, and I have 61% battery left as I write this with 1.5 hours of screen on time - at this stage my G3, also with a 3000mah battery, would be close to throwing in the towel already!
Two noticeable drawbacks, the lack of OIS for a phone supposedly focused on photography is annoying, and the 3D performance is definitely very middling. I did know this going in though so it certainly is no big surprise.
Hi
Battery life on the P9 is way better than the G3 (I had one that sadly died as well). P9 is also much smoother and doesn't heat as much as the G3 did.
EMUI is OK. Takes a bit more time the first day to set things up, because some things are buried a bit deeper in the settings. If you're worried about the look... There's a good theming community with some really good "stock android" themes available. Pair that with something like Nova launcher and you won't even notice it's there.
The camera is indeed excellent.
I also came from the G3 to this phone. I am loving it. I was ready to unlock/root/custom after reading all the professional reviews slamming EMUI. It took a bit of getting used to, but 7 months later this remains the first Android phone I have not rooted. I haven't even given it a factory rest to combat slow-down, and battery life remains excellent.
There is a customer skin in this: (https://forum.xda-developers.com/p9/themes/theme-material-vui-t3429075) thread which provides a nice stock look to icons and notification bar. I missed the app drawer for about 2 days then just got a folder page set up and organised. On balance it doesn't take me any longer to get to where I want to go.
About my only complaint is that even with my White-list protecting certain apps from being killed, they still do not seem to perform as they did on the G3. These are automation apps like IFTTT which I used to auto arm/disarm my home security when I arrive leave.
cooldoud said:
Hi guys,
Happy New Year to all! Seems like my first resolution for 2017 will be to get a new phone as my LG G3 decided to die a few days after Christmas while on vacation... lovely, as it was to be my only way of taking pictures! Anyway, I'm looking for a cost-effective replacement phone (I'm in Australia for reference). My preference would have been a Pixel phone, but they retail north of 1000 AUD for the entry-level 32GB non-XL Pixel here, which is just too expensive for my liking. Alternatively I would have considered the S7/S7 Edge, but just a few months before release of the S8 I'm not willing to pay full price for it.
This brings me to the P9, which is currently on sale here bringing its price to roughly half of the Pixel/S7 Edge (600 AUD), and given a major point for me is camera/picture quality, it is a serious contender. My main concern however is the rather heavy-handed EMUI skin. Are there any P9 users around here who generally prefer stock-ish Android and who have switched to the P9? What's your feeling around EMUI? As long-term users, did you get accustomed to it? Things like the notifications shade and the recent apps are making me cringe a little, partly because they seem much less practical than the default implementation in Android, and partly because.... they look like an iPhone
Are there any apps available to make EMUI look more like stock? I'd unlock the bootloader and root this thing if I buy it, so I'm thinking things like xposed modules? I'd also be fine flashing a stock-based custom ROM, but would rather avoid stock-based/CM/Lineage ROM as I'd like to keep full camera functionality.
Also - unrelated question, but are people generally happy with battery life on the P9? I'm a light/medium user and the 2 hours of screen on time I'd routinely get on the G3 would be okay most days, but obviously short for days of heavy use. I seem to be reading that 4-4.5 hours of SOT is standard, is that what people experience?
My fallback plan would be to get a ZUK Z2 to tide me over until this year's phones.
Thanks for reading!
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Using Nougat Beta I find EMUI 5.0 to be much more tolerable, as it is much closer to stock than 4.x, but also resembles iOS more than before which isn't great.
My biggest annoyance is its cloning of MiUI which, while understandable for a Chinese brand, is impractical. MiUI wastes very large amounts of screen space due to its obsessive "Top half=graphic, bottom half=details" design. Lots of screens have trivial graphics that have only a small amount of useful information, yet they're expanded to take the whole top half of the screen.
My only real annoyance is the stock features it replaces with versions that have fewer features. Case in point, the data usage monitor. Instead of taking the stock version and improving it, it seems Huawei built it from scratch because it can't do several things the stock version can do. Its interface in 4.x is ugly, in my opinion (also very MiUI), but even in 5.0 where it resembles stock, it isn't stock. You can't, for instance, check data usage for the previous month. You also cannot change the day of the month on which the monthly counter resets.
Considering it has the ability to cut off after you surpass a limit, it's clearly still designed with managing bills in mind, like its stock counterpart, yet they assume everyone's billing period resets on the 1st of the month.