Database Develop

Leave a Review of your Honor 9 Lite to Win a Google Home Mini

{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Honor has recently been putting out some great new phones. Their budget lineup currently consists of the Honor 7X and the Honor 9 Lite. The Honor 7X is one of our favorite budget phones right now, and has even become the best selling phone in the Amazon unlocked phones category. The Honor 9 Lite has just recently launched in India and is quickly gaining traction due to its super low price.
If you own either of these phones, this is your chance to win a Google Home Mini. Leave a short review in the comments of this article, detailing what your thoughts are on your phone so far. Talk about the camera, performance, battery life, display quality, or anything that you feel is noteworthy.
Honor listens closely to the XDA community and takes your opinions seriously, so now is your chance to tell them what you think. We will pick one lucky reviewer to win a Google Home Mini!

A beauty behold !
It's been eight days I BOUGHT it
USED it for alot of time until now.
COLOR is Midnight Black (personally wanted this, although other colors were tempting too)
Things that necessarily require mentions:
Network Bands (4g,3g,2g)
The network strength is perfectly fine, the signal doesn't fool. It correctly takes the receptivity to the exact extent needed, you wont loose any even in remote areas. If an iphone user has a network strength like one bit in his notification bar, you too are having surely. So, here network isn't a problem with this phone.
The Weight
In today world, we could be of carrying any weights, but when it comes to the phones, the weight really matters. If it's above 180g, boy, take it in written, so much pain in hand, soo much when talking calls, soo much in holding it straight infront. Soo much in pocket too. This phone instead is only 149g, which is excellently lightweight. The utmost benefit would be for people who waited for a phone which had good specs and stands equal to others of its range aswell. For the lightweight phones preferring people, finally the wait is over
Body Built
A strong phone doesnt mean an awesome phone. A weak phone doesnt mean poor quality. Firstly, one should know there is no such thing like strong or weak in phones of major brands. It is purely specs that decide to the needs of people and make phones accordingly. This phone has Severely flaunting looks. Totally an eye catcher. The glass back is soo beautiful & makes you want to look at it rather than looking at the screen most of the time
Display Screen
The 18:9 ratio is more than you can ask for in this phone. I mean, you are getting a 428ppi screen, what more do you want expect that huge clarity and detail in this price range and phone screen This looks more crisp than the any other budget phones, i guarantee you baby, its 428ppi, you donno how good the screen gets when its 428. Most of the phones were 403ppi and looked already good enough. This is much better now.
Platform
You are not in line, like before a person or after a person. You are right next to each other, like holding hands. Which means, you are in such a thing called " Happiness comes in all sizes and quantities :victory:." Because, its HiSilicon Kirin 659 in all the phones of the honor budget class range. Which would benefit you highly in performing without causing any complexities. Games are good to play, if one knows how to tweak better, then it's kickass
Memory
4GB and 64GB, is more than enough and perfect. You wont require more for this processor and budget.
Camera
This is the core purpose of this phone. Damn, the photos are soo good, sooooo good that you will for the first time find yourself have a true "Wow" reaction on your face when you snap them. Selfies are great aswell. People mentioned alot in the comments session in major sellers websites that the nighttime shots are horrible in the rear camera. You should know one thing, you aren't carrying a DSLR or HandyCAM, its your phone. its primary utility was to communicate. You are wrong to expect it to do well in a lowlight location. Not even a DSLR with a flash can be capable of better picture quality. Even professionals use heavy lights for the good feel in a photo when movies are made. So, a phone you are expecting to do this night capable photography job is totally a myth. Think once, there is no point of expecting some heavy landscape photography over night. Even James Cameron would shoot his film in the day with soo expensive cameras. If still you arent happy then when it's night time you want to snap something, its not phone you require, that's surveillance camera you need to carry with yourself having night vision lens :laugh:
Sound
That's loud. You will be totally fine with it. Just as loud as it can fit in there. Music has clarity and crispness, bass isn't an element for music through speakers, earphones does the job well if someone needed bass.
Software
The Android 8.0 is soo well designed, it would understand your interests. Even would show you few that you wouldn't have imagined to find them in phone. There are all the modifications possibly existing in every popular custom ROM readily available in this honor phone stock ROM itself. The settings hold various toggles to change according to your liking. Below they are listed...
Huawei ID It takes care of backing up all the contacts, messages, calender and necessary stuff to the cloud provided by Huawei.
Wireless & Networks Lte, VoLTE configurations can be modified, data usage with specific networked apps is added advantage.
Apps & Notifications Apps to uninstall or disable, enable is available. Default apps, App twin & notification mods such as network meter, etc are here too.
Battery setting In this option, there is a power saving mode that can give you more than 4days standby if stuck to only few basic utilities with the phone.
Display setting Eye Comfort which can exchange color of screen to cool, warm feel. Screen resolution modification which is only in honor that enables to reduce screen density which can result in great power save.
Storage setting You get around 52GB free out of 64GB internal space. The RAM Management is nice too. There is always somehow 2.4GB RAM remaning in 4GB available though around 13apps are in the multitasking window. The software of honor does the RAM allocation very well for tasks processing.
Security & Privacy Fingerprints soo fast (0.25sec), file safe to hide files, App lock, Screen Pinning.
Smart Assistance setting Double tap to wake screen or lock screen.
System setting inside here, there are data transfer, backup & restore, reset, update, etc.
Themes These look soo beautiful and give a punchy look to the phone.
The Magazine Lockscreen This is the best part of the phone when you unlock, the pictures are soo beautiful that just by looking at them, your mind strikes at wow which really is relaxing and refreshing all the time you want them.
Navigation Buttons the onscreen buttons can be exchanged places from right to left which is way convenient for southpaw's.
Battery & Power Consumption
The moderate usage of phone can last a whole day, from 100% in the morning, you can use the phone till next day until same time u charged if you are only on 4g data usage and checking messages, attending calls, by then your battery will be around 10%. In the night, the percentage of drop in non usage is only 2% which is super less. The charging time is alot, but there's something honor's very concerned about, it takes alot of time to charge because, the module of charge input itself is designed by honor in such a way it takes charge slowly (Not to mistake as snail slow) to not spoil the battery life. Hence, this doesn't heat up phone very much. It keeps cool and does its job CooL without messing around. It takes 2hrs15min for full charge. This is same with many mobiles, almost 2hr15min is common with most mobiles.
Wifi, bluetooth, GPS, OTG are all working flawlessly too.
Frankly speaking, cost is soo low, quality we get is really good, more than pleasing for the price we pay for.
Mentions that need to be considered:
I know the camera in our phone is enough capable to get the exact software enhancements i find in HonorV10 Camera app. I clearly see honor is trying to limit these enhancements for the sake people would fall dull that they invested double the price and got exactly the same software loaded in half priced model (which is ours). Sure, many people might question this out. But, Please, middle class people require somebody to bother them. It's us who suffer the loss or gain equally and still keep calm without having no other choices rather than to convince ourselves we cant get more, nobody cares. The rich complain, they sue, you bother them. We request, we ask things soo much, we are many & loud but unheard (-_-) , you have established soo well in our country market this time, the what we have lost (beauty, power, feel ) in xiaomi phones, we found in yours. Your phones made us feel alive. I felt soo good looking at my Honor 9 Lite, it was worth all the effort you put on. I didnt even buy a Xiaomi phone for myself until date, i felt like us were being played by that company. It didnt feel good. They sold cheap stuff with good software tweaks. It was Hugo Barra who designed software, only because of this Xiaomi phones were a hit. You lagged at it alot in the past until Honor 6X. I never bought any Xiaomi device, i loved the Honor 4x, but found there were no updates. But this time you came superawesome into the market, your software is wayyy better than Xiaomi in looks and feel, all that it finally require is bug fixes, proper tweaks to utilize the whole capacity of the hardware, you do everything from scratch and created us this antique designed masterpiece phones. You should be proud. All you require is massive tweaking in the software, thats all. The processor's are superb, the screen buttersmooth, sound clear crisp and loud. Its the tweaking that's missing. I really wish honor this time you keep alot of effort in giving us customers in the country who bought your phones a huge happy smile. Ask how?? Here's how, we like gifts, gift us like 2 or 3days before festivals an OTA update that solves all the bug issues in our honor phones and then look at the news, scroll down, check the comments session. You would be very well liked. We'd then even feel honored to have had you bothering us and all together. Straight outta heart, we would be TRULY overjoyed that you did care for us this time on.
Dear Honor,
The world is a happy place for as long you, atleast hereafter consider to help us better .​​

It's the best you can get for the price with some small compromises
Let's start with not so good stuff before we get on to the great stuff!
I've got the 3GB variant and Midnight Black Color, I'm using it now for about 23 days.
Memory Management - Well the RAM/Memory management on this device is very aggressive, Here's how I was watching some dope stuff on YouTube and few Minutes in and I got a call and was talking for about 15 - 20 Mins and after the call ended, I was hoping the youtube app will be in the same state I left it! But, no The app was closed completely and I had to relaunch the app again, and also if you are running music in the background you get this stupid notification saying the app is running in the background and drains battery which can annoy anyone!
Hopefully, they will fix these in future software updates.
And (Not sure whether it's the Memory management or the app's problem), I'm running NOVA Launcher as default After 2 or 3 days, it automatically switched back to the default Launcher, well this only happened twice and after that, I didn't face this problem anymore, I thought it was worth mentioning.
Camera - Well the only thing that I felt weird was with the rear camera when I switched to Portrait mode or Wide Aperture mode It Changed the Resolution to 8MP, but the same with the front camera it was 13MP and there is no option to switch to 13MP, and maybe that's why most of the Tech YouTubers say the front cam of this device is good then the rear.
And also I wish it had EIS hopefully, in future software update we will get it!
It would really help the video quality!
Well, that's the things that annoyed me the most, now let's get to the good stuff!
Design and Build Quality - Well, you might have heard a lot about this, but the device screams Premium, They have nailed the design with this device, it's absolutely gorgeous and It's really light to hold tho, some people may like it, and people like me may want a heavy device (Personal preference).
OS and UI - Well it's really smooth didn't have any lag issues or any of such kind, it's snappy and didn't face any heating issues or so, the only thing is RAM management which I mentioned it earlier and apart from that, it's really good.
Battery and charging speed - I could easily get through a day, I have no complaints about the battery it's really good and I'm happy with it. From 20% to 100% the charging time it took was somewhere around 1hr 15 mins to 1hr 40mins, which is reasonable for a 3000mAh battery, it doesn't support fast charging but I don't think that's an issue as I can get a day's worth of battery and I have no complaints about it, But I did wish it had a Type - C port, it's fine not a big issues but it could've had a Type - C
Speaker and Headphone output - The speaker is loud and clear, there is no Distortion at full volume, there is a bit bass which you can feel and its' good but a finger can cover it and the whole sound can be lost, that's the only issue and that's the issue with all mono down facing speaker.
And for the headphone output, I don't own a premium headset, I have a cheap one and it worked fine with it, it was loud and clear.
Call and Network - Call quality was really good, No issues Tried with Jio, Vodafone and BSNL didn't face any issues, the receiver was able to hear me clear and loud and the data was also at a good speed and with 4G it didn't affect the battery much as I thought it would, Wifi Bridge is one of the really cool features and it works really good.
and Finally
Camera - Well I've already told the problem I faced apart from that I don't have any issues,
It focuses really fast and also takes photos really fast, it's super snappy! I really loved the quality of images that I got in this price segment.
The Pro Photo and Pro Video mode are really good if you know to use them well, There are several other modes The food mode is also good and Timelapse is awesome.
Well, the front cam in portrait mode does fail sometimes to recognize people's face if there are more than 2 persons in the shot, it just happens sometimes and not every time. And I wish it had a Slo-Mo Mode tho.
The images are of really good quality tho, good enough to post on Social Networking sites.
Conclusion - I think it worth the money I paid, It does have some minor issues which can be fixed via Software Update apart from that it's a really good device and I'm Lovin it.
PS - I had actually added images and since I'm a new member XDA doesn't allow new users to post links.

Not very impressed with the Honor 9 Lite.
I did online research and read lots of review on the Honor 9 Lite.
What convinced me was a comparison some reviewer did with his current daily driver, a 1+3t, and was, as he put it, 'pleasantly surprised'. Since my current daily driver is also a 1+3t I relented and bought one, the 3+32GB version.
After using the Honor 9 Lite I don't think it comes anywhere close to a 1+3t. Now I appreciate and understand that it is cheaper than my 1+3t (even at its current value) but I'm not very impressed, especially with the way EMUI 8 completely rapes Android stock ! I knew this going in but never realised to what extent EMUI restrict customisation.
Let me give examples.
1. First thing I always do with every phone i buy is disabled all apps I don't need/use. Some of the apps on the Honor 9 Lite are cooked in and without root cannot be disables, frozen or removed; e.g. Files, Huawei Mobile Service, Themes.
2. Next thing is to replace any homelauncher with my favourite 'Nova'. Well as soon as you do this on the 9Lite you get a pop-up message stating something like 'changing home launcher uses more battery'...What ? Anyway you can force it through and then just change the default home launcher to Nova. Then some of the EMUI widgets, like weather, don't work anymore. That's ok, I expected that, what I did not expect is for it to show up as available but when you try to add it to your homescreen you get a FC and Huawei launcher is back, in effect removing your default launcher you just set.
3. Huawei badges also obviously don't work under Nova; again as expected.
4. Next I fired up Chronus widget so i can get a replacement for the now non-working Huawei weather service (which at least you can disable). Chronus now does not update the alarm. So you set an alarm in clock but Chronus does not pick up the changee unless you go into chronus change something and save it. This was even after i loaded up Google clock and set alarm through that.
All the above works flawlessly in my Oreo based 1+3t.
5. Lag..yes it is a lot worse than my 1+3t, now like i said because of the price difference i did not expect the Kirin659 to be on par with the Snapdragon 821 but the lag difference was much more noticable on the Honor9 lite than i expected.
6. Since Nova was basically non functional I had to return to Huawei's own launcher.
7. No way of hiding status bar. By the way I also tried play store apps, like GMD Full Screen, but it did not work properly.
8. Battery life is one day on normal use.
9. Cameras are acceptable but no better than my single camera 1+3t.
Conclusion:
Not impresssed, it looks great, weight is spot on for me, size is also great so is the screen brightness, but everything else is nothing special and that EMUI8 man, it just restricts you from most customisation which is the reason we all love android. If i wanted restrictions i would have gone for an iphone.
Why should i have to unlock BL and root to be able to do simple things like use full immersive mode. I'd like to keep android pay functioning so don't want to unlock,root and battle with magidisk to hide root. I just want control back of my phone.
Anyway, thought i would put this together outlining my experience with the Honor 9Lite, hopefully yours will be better and find acceptable.

Well, I bought this device as my ex-device was quite old enough(I was using grand 2 as my daily driver).Next,when I was searching for new devices,I was looking for a device which is better in all aspects(camera,looks,sound,performance,signal quality) and also in a moderate price.Then I stumbled across Honor 9 Lite.It was the old phone in my budget range which was able to cater to my demands.It looks gorgeous as ever.The glass body,its colour (I got the Sapphire blue one) and its modern looks with minimal borders made me order the phone without even checking for other details(I already knew it supports 4G and fingerprint sensor) .When I got the phone,I found that it is not too heavy but is indeed slippery due to glossy back,so I applied the cover to increase friction and to prevent falling .
These are the following pros and cons of the phone I found:-
PROS
1.Camera->Both the front and back cameras are awesome and can even capture good amount of detail even in low light condition.Maybe the 4 cameras(2 in pairs does the trick)
2.Android OS->Being latest is the best.This device packs with Android Oreo which many 2017 flagships like S8(they got it but Samsung removed the OTA update) haven't recieved properly
3.Processor->I haven't heard about this processor's name earlier but was shocked by its insane frequency(greater than 2 Ghz) so I decided to do an Antutu benchmark and found that this processor's performance is comparable with Snapdragon 625.
4.Display->Display is awesome.Nothing to say about it
5.Battery->Battery life is a bit-tad low (It lasts 9 hrs for me),so I need to charge atleast once a day.No fast charging support and no USB C was a dissappointment
6.Storage and Ram management-Plenty of Ram(3 GBs) and storage(around 22 GBs),so no complaints there

Software (ease of use, features, etc)

When you hand your phone to granny to take a photo of you, can she get the job done? Rate this thread to express how you deem the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro's camera software. A higher rating indicates that the software is easy to use, fast, uncluttered, and inclusive of advanced features for when you need them.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

TBH miui is getting boring, and there are many time when I am unable to find some settings I have to relay more on search option

I have purchased this for a family member of mine. Presently I am using it for a day or two for testing to see if everything is working fine within the return window.
MiUi is out right intolerable for me who loves custom ROM and using Z2 Plus (SD820/4GB).
But I kind of appreciate Xiaomi for their update commitment for their devices running MiUi.
UI is good enough for some one who is a completely non technical person.
Battery backup is excellent, so are their overall tuning. Yes there are some issues but their update cycle is dependable to get continued update for fixing any such.
But there are complaints, even from those users.
UX look and feel issue (China Factor)
How on earth MiUi Dev's think everyone likes Chinese bubbly design language?
Look at Oppo, they are Chinese to start with but Oxygen OS is getting so much love from rest of the world. Look at Samsung with their UI. So much different from stock android but loved around the world.
Can't they have a different UI which rest of the world will like?
Complicated Navigation
MiUi is getting complicated with its settings layout. Things are embedded so deep, it's problematic for non technical users for find their way around.
Getting Old and Boring
Once again another complain I am hearing from non technical user of MiUi. New device doesn't give new feeling anymore since the UI is kept same for half a decade now.
Similar issue what non technical users are reporting.
Like for example, my family member who would be using this device refused to upgrade from Samsung On8 (J7) to this year's On8 (J8) since everything looked same. Even though underneath, it's a completely different device.
Ads and privacy issues
Yeah they recover their cost from ads but it's utterly objectionable when they are showing adult ads without any specific option to toggle or filter such ads.
Lastly why do they need so much permission for ads? Our privacy too matters.. You really don't need so much personal information for showing ads.
No notch Support for MiUi
MiUi isn't yet notch compatible. Simply it's a cut in display. Nothing else. Notifications bar needs to optimised for this Notch. But judging from their MiUi agresive update cycle, hopefully we can have a better notch management.
Thanks.

3 starts. There's no 4K 30 FPS or Full HD 60 FPS recording option, and I know the sensor is capable of it.

The first things to do with your realme x2 budget king

First, I strongly believe that sub $300 phones can do almost everything you'll ever need
in your Android phone as Budget phones keep getting better and better.
Realme x2 is the latest proof of this and it took me some time to research to come to
this conclusion from this thread
I was about settling for Mi 9 Lite (Mi CC9) when the global version of X2 came out
and it turns out that the only thing I will miss is IR blaster, which is not a deal-breaker
when you compare it to the things I could gain with Realme X2 over it.
I just ordered Realme X2 Global version (8/128G) here for $279 with free shipping which is fast.
You could even get a better deal with 11.11 festival around the corner but this is a great
value. And as my tradition is, I always discuss the first things I do with a new phone.
BOOTLOADER UNLOCK
This one is still a mystery on how to unlock the bootloader but a mystery I am determined
to find an answer to before my phone arrives in about 2 weeks.
TWRP, ROOT, AND MAGISK
I am not sure how much bloatware is in X2 Global version but I usually use phones
with root access so, I will have to get that.
I am a bit worried about the poor Dev community response to this great phone but I am
not perturbed bc it is still a new phone.
ALL KINDS OF TEST
I don't usually believe in antutu benchmarks but I'll add the test for others who will love to see it.
I am a real-life day to day usage test kind of person. Wifi download speeds, file copy and write speeds,
LTE download speeds, multiple SOT test, multiple battery drain/Charging test, NFC test, Gcam, Photos and
videos, inbuilt mic recording quality, GPS test, Bluetooth tests, OTG test etc.
SD730G is here to stay and will still be a 2020 budget king SoC contender so, you cannot go wrong with
Realme X2

Good post.
What some people don't realise that the difference between 730G and 855+ SoC is very minor and you can't feel it in your every day use. But for some reason people are willing to pay $200-$300 more for a 855+ device
Also the new hyp about over 100MP cameras is pretty riddiculous. Taking 100MP photos everyday is just so unpractical and more often than not, it would distort the quality of the photo.
I am pretty hopeful that the dev community will pick up once the device is a little older e.g. in 6 to 8 months time. We should be able to unlock the bootloader and get custom ROMs for it.

Jeanz Sensation said:
Good post.
What some people don't realise that the difference between 730G and 855+ SoC is very minor and you can't feel it in your every day use. But for some reason people are willing to pay $200-$300 more for a 855+ device
Also the new hyp about over 100MP cameras is pretty riddiculous. Taking 100MP photos everyday is just so unpractical and more often than not, it would distort the quality of the photo.
I am pretty hopeful that the dev community will pick up once the device is a little older e.g. in 6 to 8 months time. We should be able to unlock the bootloader and get custom ROMs for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The main beef I had with realme marketing strategy was the close proximity of X2 and X2pro
The X2pro took out the shine from X2 a bit as I strongly believed that X2 is a better all-round phone
than Redmi Note 8pro. They should have given it 3 - 6 months Gap before marketing the pro version
Xaiomi selling Mi Note 10 with (SD 730G) way higher than X2 is a great marketing Advantage for
Realme X2 which is not doing too badly on the megapixels count race. Megapixels don't count
all that much (ask Pixel and iPhone) good sensors and software are way more important.
Once the dev community picks up, you can even tweak this phone to get an improved
performance and software experience.
I am not interested in spending an extra $150 - 250 for SD855 it makes no sense to pay that
to get 4k 60fsp that I may not ever use as 4k30fsp is large enough. It's like paying more to
get a more power-hungry processor, Power draining 90Hz and stereo speaker when I
consume all my media with headset or Bluetooth, Yeah! I'll pass, not a heavy gamer and even if I do, SD730G can game heavy. The real-life difference is so minute and insignificant. Unfortunately, some people still buy phones only antutu benchmark scores

Like Bolumstar said, Realme killed the x2 when they released the x2pro almost immediately. A quick search of realme x2 on google, and all you will see is realme x2pro. It was really annoying cos this is a great around phone. 730G is as good as it gets for me. Anything higher is like killing an ant with a sledgehammer. What exactly am I gonna do with 108mp camera? Take a picture of the solar system? 64mp is already crazy enough. 108mp is madness.
I have the China version and I can't wait to install the global rom on it. I'm hoping on all the tech guys here to come up with some instructions on how to go about. Thanks

we can install the global rom on the CN version?

acefile1031 said:
we can install the global rom on the CN version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope so. Hardware is the same, so it is possible to install Global on it... I think so.

acefile1031 said:
we can install the global rom on the CN version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unfortunately you cant?

acefile1031 said:
we can install the global rom on the CN version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No for now but when custom Recovery and Roms comes out you will be able to do that

uninstalling apps store browser and wallet app through adb command is also very convenient

It's here people! And it is gorgeous
Original EU version 8/128G
I am loving it. Got the latest update and the
Night mode is legit

macmilla said:
730G is as good as it gets for me. Anything higher is like killing an ant with a sledgehammer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You said it. Totally agree. I'm a Pixel 3a user (which has the even "worse" 670), and I definitively don't think that I will need even a Hertz more of CPU. And I'm surely not the "average user" person.
I'm thinking of actually buying this for my mother or give her the Pixel 3a and take this one, but I think I kinda fall in love with the Pixel experience right now (also if Android 10 is pretty buggy IMHO).

the_wing said:
You said it. Totally agree. I'm a Pixel 3a user (which has the even "worse" 670), and I definitively don't think that I will need even a Hertz more of CPU. And I'm surely not the "average user" person.
I'm thinking of actually buying this for my mother or give her the Pixel 3a and take this one, but I think I kinda fall in love with the Pixel experience right now (also if Android 10 is pretty buggy IMHO).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Pixel 3a is a rip-off in comparision. BTW. it is not all about performance, the 730G is much more efficient.

Realme x2 is a great phone. On the processor you have already said enough, the cost difference with the slightly more powerful processors is too much not to consider the best 730g of these.
Obviously the performance of a smartphone is not the result of the soc alone, but the X2 is the set of these, of a good amount of ram, 8GB in LPDDR4X, a UFS 2.1 internal storage, a super amoled FHD + display with a readability spectacular in all light conditions and with any reading angle. I use it with a Samsung V3 512 GB sd card and the file transfer from the internal storage to the latter is very fast. the connectivity sector is also excellent, good wifi and LTE reception, excellent bluetooth, completed by the presence of the NFC. as for energy consumption it is easy to spend praise, I read the battery drain on the forum, well I have no knowledge of it, I have always used the Ampere widget on the home to keep the current constantly under control and so far I never had having seen a smartphone consume only 100 mh at rest between 350 and 700 in use, even heavy. To this must be added the VOOC recharging speed which is really fast and unimpeded, I explain, with the redmi you have the quick charge which should give almost the same performance, but from personal experience I know it is not so, while I loaded with a charger quick 3 the phone became a stove, temperatures between 45 and 50 degrees, throttling and reducing the charging current from 3200 m to just 1500. The Realme quietly charges with temperatures of only 30 ° at 3400 mh and drops only on '86% of the battery at 1500 as rightly needs to be.
I now come to what I think is a huge mistake that all average users make when they choose to buy one phone over another. The first question is: "How many megapixels does the camera have?"... In my opinion, a smartphone is a smartphone, it could even have six thousand megapixels, it can never, ever have the performance of a camera, even simply of average price . Photography is not done with megapixels, but with good quality optical lens, with shots chosen through optical and non-digital zoom, with lighting reading systems for choosing the right exposure times and apertures... The smartphone in my opinion it is enough that you make decent pictures of your daughter's birthday and pictures of the holiday and that's it. I give an example... How many of us really want to go around in the dark countryside to photograph the stars with the astrography function??? Because only in this way the stars are photographed, without optical noise of city lights, and I add with exposure times that they would like a tripod that follows the rotation.
The Realme as a photographic sector also decently answers with the camera stock. It has a bit too much saturation in the colors, but if like me you are content to take "normal" photos, giving up slowmotion, night photos, just look for a decent gcam that allows you to set the white control in the settings, AWB, and the HDR+ options and it becomes spectacular. Obviously this makes it clear that the photo hardware is excellent and a bit more effort than Realme would be enough to improve the software and the stock camera would be enough.
So far I have always had mid-range smartphones, starting with the legendary OnePlus One, going from Redmi Note 5 Pro and Redmi note 7. everyone has endured shameless modding, the One has seen six versions of android and hundreds of roms, and it scared me a little the fact that the Realme X2, both, we hope, because new, and because as has been said above was overwhelmed by the Realme X2 Pro, it still didn't have a good community dev. Instead I must say with great satisfaction that even as it is, stock, with a bit of debloat from adb, with AdGuard that removes the ads from the browsers, with Sd Maid pro that keeps it clean thanks to the scheduler, I don't even feel the lack in the slightest of custom roms and, even for the first time, even root.
Of course if there would be everything it would be easier, but, which I do not understand, Realme seems to put stakes to unlock the bootloader, in my opinion or give it a chance without detracting from the phone reducing it category in the security environment or not. ..
But this is a strategy speech and we will see how much will be exceeded by the spread of the telephone. In fact I am convinced that the development community is regulated by the demand and the offer, the more we will be the owners of the device the more modding demand there will be and the more we will have ...

Xperia 1 ii vs Pixel 5

I have an Xperia 1 ii which I do really like, I've always enjoyed Sony phones and I really like the look and feel of it. The long display is great for me, the storage (plus option of an SD card) is good and the battery is OK.*
I am by no means an expert photographer but the camera on a phone is one of the main draws for me on a phone. Whilst I have been able to capture some nice shots on my Xperia, I have found the point and shoot camera to be very hit and miss and definitely lacking either under artificial light or at night. It certainly feels like a stepdown from the camera on my old P20 Pro.
Given this, I am considering trading in my Xperia and switching to the Pixel 5, predominantly*for the camera and also taking advantage of the Bose preorder offer. From what I can see, the main downgrades would be a stepdown in processor, smaller screen and reduction in storage size (with no SD option). The latter could be a slight barrier as I am currently using 122GB of storage on my Xperia (I like to keep a fair chunk of music offline) so this would basically max out the Pixel.
It would be helpful to hear the views of any Xperia and/or Pixel owners or just any community experts who know a lot more than me!

Well, considering you've used the 1ii, you know that the form factor and processing power are quite good. You won't get either on the Pixel. The camera on the Pixel may be better set up for point and shoot, yes. I've found the 1ii's point and shooting abilities to be good, and of course you lose some of the benefits of manual RAW tweaking if that is up your alley. Further, the 1ii has a telephoto lens, while the P5 lacks one entirely, so if you like zooming in on stuff the Sony is the way to go. And there is absolutely no way you can store 122GB of music on a 128GB Pixel. Remember, a number of GB are taken up by the system (and then your apps).
As a former Pixel user, the Xperia has a different feel for its photos, being more neutral, for instance, but I've come to enjoy it. That said, the Pixel camera gets better night mode results. Still, a port of GCam is in the works (WHEN it may come is up in the air). Once it eventually comes out, the advantages of the Pixel will be available on the 1ii (so, let's go Arnova!)
(There is a GCam 5 you can check out, linked in some other posts, though I've found it to be hit or miss stability wise.)

nebula9 said:
Well, considering you've used the 1ii, you know that the form factor and processing power are quite good. You won't get either on the Pixel. The camera on the Pixel may be better set up for point and shoot, yes. I've found the 1ii's point and shooting abilities to be good, and of course you lose some of the benefits of manual RAW tweaking if that is up your alley. Further, the 1ii has a telephoto lens, while the P5 lacks one entirely, so if you like zooming in on stuff the Sony is the way to go. And there is absolutely no way you can store 122GB of music on a 128GB Pixel. Remember, a number of GB are taken up by the system (and then your apps).
As a former Pixel user, the Xperia has a different feel for its photos, being more neutral, for instance, but I've come to enjoy it. That said, the Pixel camera gets better night mode results. Still, a port of GCam is in the works (WHEN it may come is up in the air). Once it eventually comes out, the advantages of the Pixel will be available on the 1ii (so, let's go Arnova!)
(There is a GCam 5 you can check out, linked in some other posts, though I've found it to be hit or miss stability wise.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for the feedback. I have been following the Gcam thread for the Xperia 1ii having been very excited about it but it doesn't appear to be imminent any time soon (that's not a criticism at all, the guys trying to develop it sound amazing) so I'm wary about waiting more months to see if that comes good. I think I might pre order a Pixel and if I'm not enjoying it in the first 14 days, return it and go back to the Xperia.

Tmel14 said:
Thanks a lot for the feedback. I have been following the Gcam thread for the Xperia 1ii having been very excited about it but it doesn't appear to be imminent any time soon (that's not a criticism at all, the guys trying to develop it sound amazing) so I'm wary about waiting more months to see if that comes good. I think I might pre order a Pixel and if I'm not enjoying it in the first 14 days, return it and go back to the Xperia.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can check out the Gcam 5 thread. I find that it works pretty well (the MGC variant), but only for the main and selfie cameras. You may need to fiddle with the settings for best stability and results, though.

Based on my testing, the Pixel 4 produced better quality photos in almost every setting that wasn't perfectly lit. Sony grabs amazing detail in perfect lighting, but only in raw.
Unfortunately the two phones are apples and oranges. One's a manual shooter while the other's a point and click. Neither one is great at doing the other, seeing as Sony's post-processing is downright garbage. Gcam on the Sony would be nice, but it seems like development on this phone is completely dead. We don't even have a recompiled kernel yet, let alone a working Gcam 7.x.
Just know that the Pixel 5 will not have a 2x zoom lens. That's a big downgrade from the Pixel 4, where it made a huge difference.

nebula9 said:
Well, considering you've used the 1ii, you know that the form factor and processing power are quite good. You won't get either on the Pixel. The camera on the Pixel may be better set up for point and shoot, yes. I've found the 1ii's point and shooting abilities to be good, and of course you lose some of the benefits of manual RAW tweaking if that is up your alley. Further, the 1ii has a telephoto lens, while the P5 lacks one entirely, so if you like zooming in on stuff the Sony is the way to go. And there is absolutely no way you can store 122GB of music on a 128GB Pixel. Remember, a number of GB are taken up by the system (and then your apps).
As a former Pixel user, the Xperia has a different feel for its photos, being more neutral, for instance, but I've come to enjoy it. That said, the Pixel camera gets better night mode results. Still, a port of GCam is in the works (WHEN it may come is up in the air). Once it eventually comes out, the advantages of the Pixel will be available on the 1ii (so, let's go Arnova!)
(There is a GCam 5 you can check out, linked in some other posts, though I've found it to be hit or miss stability wise.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just for information, Pixels also can shoot in RAW. Even my old Pixel 3 can do it.
---------- Post added at 02:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:16 AM ----------
YandereSan said:
Based on my testing, the Pixel 4 produced better quality photos in almost every setting that wasn't perfectly lit. Sony grabs amazing detail in perfect lighting, but only in raw.
Unfortunately the two phones are apples and oranges. One's a manual shooter while the other's a point and click. Neither one is great at doing the other, seeing as Sony's post-processing is downright garbage. Gcam on the Sony would be nice, but it seems like development on this phone is completely dead. We don't even have a recompiled kernel yet, let alone a working Gcam 7.x.
Just know that the Pixel 5 will not have a 2x zoom lens. That's a big downgrade from the Pixel 4, where it made a huge difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm exactly the same experience on my Pixel 4XL against Xperia 1 and 5 (apart from RAW part which is missing on those Sony phones). My Xperia failed to deliver good photos at not perfect light condition. Night shots were unusable without using a tripod. And yes, Sony's post-processing seems simply doesn't exist which is not wise idea when it comes to tiny lenses of smartphones. I guess that inability to implement proper post-processing led Sony to these fully Manual control camera-phones with reference to creativity etc . That's just pathetic, sorry.

Looking at current S20 and potential P30

I've got an S20 but will have to return it due to these ridiculous financing (leasing, let's be honest) plans that exist now. The price I'd have to pay to keep it or even an open box S20 or something is way more than what I can get a new P30 for. I've been studying the specs a lot, and it comes down to a few simple things, the question I have is quite simple...
In looking at the P30 or P30 Pro...
- Night mode or any effects based photography is of no use to me. I take photos at night to take photos at night, I don't want to see light where there isn't any.
- I'm a photographer and filmmaker and primarily use DSLRs and pro cameras so mobile phone trickery to create on the fly effects are truly pointless to me.
- If I've ever taken a photo with zoom over the last 15 years it's been to read something or see something a far distance away. Again, I'm old fashioned, but without glass, zoom isn't zoom, and 3x..5x.. we're not talking leaps and bounds here.
- I prefer a phone that shoots 24fps, that's the filmmaker in me talking, but again, I'm not doing any of my serious filmmaking projects with a phone so this is more pointless pickiness than necessity.
- I need smooth operations in the UI and OS. I don't like the OneUI look, feel, or immersion into the phone with Samsung's software everywhere, gallery is a nightmare of trendy effects and "story-telling" photo arrangement modes.
- I do like the latitude and just what the raw camera can do on the P30 vs the S20. Normal and manual mode is all I shoot and in those in specs and good samples, the P30 seems to do far better than the S20.
Questions:
1. Would you maybe just find a way to keep the S20?
2. For my needs, I don't really have any use for the far more expensive P30 Pro, do I?
Thanks to anyone who can help me out. Am I missing something? The P30 being better for MY needs given the financial and tech elements is what my research is telling me.