Is there a way to force the apps like Skype, Google Duo, Messenger and any other calling App to use the HAL3 instead of HAL1 when connecting to device's camera? I will explain you why. On a specific device usng Snapdragon 435 there is a very good working port og Google Camera. The device's stog camera is so bad that you show always blur image while talking to someone on video. I've activated api2 cam and I have amazing photos with GCam. They are better than on many iPhones. It's because the modules are good in the devices. I saw a string one day in a phone in the build.prop , saying something like " force.HAL1 Skype, Yahoo messenger " and a few other apps. Deleting and modifiying that didin't help at all. Where should I dig to get these triggers and bring the best of this phone?
I wrote here in the MAGISK section because there is a great module of swithichng to api2 and back, made by you developers. So I am pretty sure some of you could answer my question for sure. This will become a big change in the cameras of some budget phones...
Hello people,
I'm a long time Xiaomi-User.
I saw this phone for 300€ (used, but perfect condition) and decided to buy it and give it a chance.
If it would be not that great (for me, ofcourse), I'd sell it and buy the Mi 9, since I love MIUI.
But yeah, since I already ordered it, here are my questions:
1. Am I going to hate EMUI? (maybe someone has experience with both MIUI and EMUI)
2. How's the camera after all the updates? I watched YouTube videos but since most of the good videos are old, I thought I should ask here.
- low light?
- OIS working as it should?
- video stabilisation? are videos really that bad?
- selfie?
- other?
3. Battery should be good? Over 6 hours SoT possible?
4. Any other useful tips for me, as a newcommer to Huawei/P20 Pro? Some must have know-hows?
Thanks!
ermm.. bump?
chorba69 said:
ermm.. bump?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello. I will answer,of course with my personal opinions.
I work in IT,so I talk a lot on the phone,and I receive plenty of emails,I even browse 9gag a lot,Facebook,and still I get 1 day and a half of battery...so don't worry(but I also stopped from startup most of the apps,except the ones I want notifications from,usually messaging apps),and I manually Debloated it(you can uninstall system apps using ADB,without root and without unlocking the bootloader,so no problems with warranty - I just removed apps like Chrome,Google AI,google photos,google music,google Duo,google Drive).
I never used a Xiaomi,so I don't know how much you will like the interface,but it's easy to use once you get used to it.
You can even activate a drawer for apps if you don't like apps directly on home screen,notifications can be changed to "unread" instead of the default one with a dot on the app(I use unread,I like it better,so I know how many notifications I have per app).
Cameras are great(I hope your device is alright,since it's not new).
I have the european version with update 9.0.0.195
Cameras are really good with AI,and you have a Master AI slider,so you can disable it. An advice: after updating to latest version,wipe cache partition from Recovery(turn off the phone,then hold the volume + while turning it on,and do not release volume + button until it enters the recovery,then wipe cache partition).
After booting,just go to settings - apps - Camera - storage and wipe data for this app,so it will not use the old files from old version.
And an advice for photos with multiple people(doesn't matter if you use the selfie camera or back cameras).
When you're making group photos,with multiple persons,disable the portrait mode either by touching the little X besides the "Portrait mode",or by sliding to "Photo" mode. Because if portrait is enabled,it will focus on one person and blur the others...it seems it's not for multiple persons. Someone told me it's the same on Mate 20 Pro.
Video stabilization is not enabled when filming in 4K,but it works well with 1080p 60 fps(it's better on emui 9 than on emui 8).
Hope I helped. Cheers!
chorba69 said:
1. Am I going to hate EMUI? (maybe someone has experience with both MIUI and EMUI)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recently moved from Mi 6 to P20 Pro. I actually like EMUI more than MIUI.
First of all I'm a big fan of app drawer which is missing from MIUI and can be enabled in EMUI.
To my taste EMUI 9 looks (icons, settings order etc.) and works (animation smoothness, power management) better than MIUI 10.
Although both those things are only personal preference.
2. How's the camera after all the updates? I watched YouTube videos but since most of the good videos are old, I thought I should ask here.
- low light?
- OIS working as it should?
- video stabilisation? are videos really that bad?
- selfie?
- other?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a bad photographer, but even I manage to do some good pictures on P20 Pro. Night mode is great, and overall the camera software is way more polished than what I had on Mi 6. I can't compare difference in camera between EMUI 8 and EMUI 9 because I upgraded pretty much straight ahead.
3. Battery should be good? Over 6 hours SoT possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't usually check SoT, but overall battery life is great. On average I charge the phone every 36 hours (usually when ~20% left). With Mi 6 is was a bit less.
4. Any other useful tips for me, as a newcommer to Huawei/P20 Pro? Some must have know-hows?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. As already mentioned - Use debloat to uninstall apps that you don't need (use with caution).
2. Disable automatic power management for apps you want to run constantly (Settings -> Battery -> App launch).
3. Learn how to use the Camera app.
4. Don't expect for very fast Android updates (as MIUI user you should be familiar with that).
@exodus394 , @arty_a ,
first of all, thanks for your answers!
My P20 Pro arrived today and I'm still testing everything.
I'm pretty happy with everything except maybe the camera. I couldnt test it 100% but the photos I took with the phone, arent that great.
Especially the night mode. I could almost say, it's maybe 20% better than with normal mode.. I dont know, maybe I'm doing something wrong.
I used gcam (google camera) on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and the Night mode on gcam was like 50 times better than on P20 Pro, although Xiaomi doesnt have that good camera as P20 Pro has.
I already wiped cache via recovery and deleted cache+data from the camera app, but it's still not good.
Anything I could do wrong here?
I was thinking about debloating and will do it now.
@arty_a ,
what are the benefits of disabling the automatic power managment for apps?
If it's enabled, do I stop getting notifications for some apps? (like MIUI had a problem with)
And, what do you mena with "Learn how to use the Camera app"? Manual mode or something else?
Thanks again guys!
chorba69 said:
@exodus394 , @arty_a ,
first of all, thanks for your answers!
My P20 Pro arrived today and I'm still testing everything.
I'm pretty happy with everything except maybe the camera. I couldnt test it 100% but the photos I took with the phone, arent that great.
Especially the night mode. I could almost say, it's maybe 20% better than with normal mode.. I dont know, maybe I'm doing something wrong.
I used gcam (google camera) on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and the Night mode on gcam was like 50 times better than on P20 Pro, although Xiaomi doesnt have that good camera as P20 Pro has.
I already wiped cache via recovery and deleted cache+data from the camera app, but it's still not good.
Anything I could do wrong here?
I was thinking about debloating and will do it now.
@arty_a ,
what are the benefits of disabling the automatic power managment for apps?
If it's enabled, do I stop getting notifications for some apps? (like MIUI had a problem with)
And, what do you mena with "Learn how to use the Camera app"? Manual mode or something else?
Thanks again guys!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think there is something wrong with your unit. P20 Pro is the best at night and low light photos. I even took photos in environments where I barely could see something with naked eye,but the phone took a lot of details,more than I could see...no phone can do that better at the moment.
exodus394 said:
I think there is something wrong with your unit. P20 Pro is the best at night and low light photos. I even took photos in environments where I barely could see something with naked eye,but the phone took a lot of details,more than I could see...no phone can do that better at the moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Erm.. Can you upload maybe two photos? Normal and night mode?
Thanks!
chorba69 said:
Erm.. Can you upload maybe two photos? Normal and night mode?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok,I will do that in a few hours,the sun is still up right now.
chorba69 said:
what are the benefits of disabling the automatic power managment for apps?
If it's enabled, do I stop getting notifications for some apps? (like MIUI had a problem with)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly that.
In addition some apps can fail to autostart when triggered by other app (Waze + Spotify, AndroidAuto + pretty much everything). It's very annoying and frustrating when you run into it for the first time.
And, what do you mena with "Learn how to use the Camera app"? Manual mode or something else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just check all the settings and modes you have, like "Beauty" and "Light" in Portrait mode, Pro mode where you can control pretty much everything, "More" where you have the slow-mo and a lot of other stuff.
Regarding "Night mode" try using it when it's really dark, not just low lite situation, that is where it shows its full power.
Very interesting thread. My question has to do with security. Since we all know about the allegations that have been thrown at Huawei about not being a secure phone since it is manufactured in China, what steps can the average Joe take to make this phone more safe without installing a custom ROM. I've already done the de-bloating steps listed here. Thanks in advance
manfly9884 said:
Very interesting thread. My question has to do with security. Since we all know about the allegations that have been thrown at Huawei about not being a secure phone since it is manufactured in China, what steps can the average Joe take to make this phone more safe without installing a custom ROM. I've already done the de-bloating steps listed here. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I apologize in advance for being harsh.
First of all - if you want to learn about this stuff go do some research, I mean, at least 5 first pages of google, don't ask anonymous people on a forum.
One of the things you will learn is that main concern about Huawei are not phones but other, enterprise, products - cellular network controllers, servers etc. Spying on people over phones is cool but not efficient, spying over governments and enterprises over their backbone and communication infrastructure is very efficient and scary.
Now, let me split my answer into 2 parts:
1) If you are concerned over hardware, don't use a smartphone at all. All manufacturers either produce their phones in China or at least use some hardware produced in China. If the Chinese want to physically bug your phone they will, even if it's an iPhone.
2) If you are concerned over software, then again, it's not only Huawei, pretty much any non-American manufacturer (Hauwei, Xiaomi, LG, even Samsung) can overnight push an OTA that will add "spying" software and I bet it will not be found immediately.
Now, if you are concerned about privacy and not security then:
1) If you use Apple or Google account you are already willingly give away a lot of your information to be processed by them.
2) If you have any social media account you do the same in addition to making parts of that information publicly accessible.
3) Regarding phone specific vendor (Huawei in this case) - don't use any vendor specific services (Huawei ID, built in Email app, AppGallery, etc.)
P.S. Custom ROMs can contain some "bad things" too.
Hi guys,
I just bought this phone and tried some custom rom, and it works perfectly!
I have just a couple of questions about the camera,
How can I know if, for example, the google camera port is using the telelens instead the main camera?
I just love to have the pixel experience on my mi8 but, I want also to be able to use all the cameras in my phone. I also searched the 4k60fps option in google camera or im ANXCamera but the maximum setting is 4k30fps.
I tried to learn something more in some thread and i found that many people talks about the impossible to access the second camera through the api2.
I'm honest, I don't have the knowledge to understand all that, so I'm asking you, did you know some guide that can help me out?
I just want to know if with an aosp rom is possibile to access the full potential of mi8 camera, nothing else. I wish I could use some google experience instead the miui but with a complete camera app.
Thank you
Thomas
It's taken some doing but I've been able to unlock and root my Bold N1. (bricked it 3 times before I figured it out, luckily I found all the tools/files I need to flash back to stock).
For Now I have it on the stock rom but rooted via Magisk.
My only issue is I NEED to replace the camera app. The phone is AMAZING for the price point (the screen alone is worth the price) but the camera is total garbage.
I was Hoping GCAM could salvage some of that for me.
So far I hear some folks have had luck with GCAM 6.1.20 but I haven't been able to. I can get it to install but the app crashes a few minutes after I load it up. And once crashes it won't start up again until I delete cache/data on the app.
I've been searching the net for a few weeks now looking for the best GCAM Port for Mediatek Helio P70 phones but so far no real luck.
I've tried using Magisk modules to force it (bricked my device and had to wipe to stock) tried to modify the build.prop (even though the phone is already camera2api enabled) needless to say that didn't work either.
Anyone find a good GCAM Port yet? I mean the phone is camera2api enabled out of the box so it shouldn't be so hard to find a good Port. The P70 is a popular SoC and with all those GCAM devs out there Im surprised this is so hard to find. Ive tried ports that say they're for a phone with the same SoC but they fail as well. (the realme 3 has the same SoC and a working GCAM Port but I can't get it running on my bold)
At this point the camera is the only thing stopping me from putting my iPhone x in a drawer and making this my daily driver.
Only real version I've found that work is this one...
Fairly old version.
Try Open Camera
kcasante said:
My only issue is I NEED to replace the camera app. The phone is AMAZING for the price point (the screen alone is worth the price) but the camera is total garbage.
I was Hoping GCAM could salvage some of that for me.
At this point the camera is the only thing stopping me from putting my iPhone x in a drawer and making this my daily driver.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if you found a working gCam app for the Bold N1, but if not, try using Open Camera (free with no ads in the Google Play store). For me, it totally has saved the Bold N1's photography and I actually prefer it over to gCam (which I used on an Essential Phone) due to all the different options and manual control.
One thing Open Camera cannot do, however, is make artifical bokeh ("portrait mode" on many phones). So I use Google Camera (also free with no ads in the Google Play Store; not to be confused with gCam, which is ported from the Pixel) and its Lens Blur function for that purpose. Otherwise I use Open Camera for everything else.
What is purpose of this prop? It appeared after android 10 update. I could not find any information about it but I cannot use second rear camera with any third party apps. I tried changing camera.aux.packagelist, vendor.camera.aux.packagelist, persist.vendor.camera.expose.aux, I also added persist.camera.expose.aux but apps still can't detect second rear camera. Does anyone know values of prop in the title?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: persist.vendor.camera.switch.aux=unknown
If you want to use the second cam on the rear you need different things:
1. A gcam that can switch between cams like the latest The_Dise version here: https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-the_dise/#apk1549
2. You also need the Magisk module to enable the auxiliary buttons. You can download this from within The_Dise's gcam or from here directly: https://f.celsoazevedo.com/file/cfiles/gcm1/dmgcaux_v1.zip
3. You need a ROM that can handle it. It didn't work on stock for me, but on Pixel Experience it works.
All and all it was not worth the trouble in my opinion, but I just wanted to test it. I think it has more purpose for the higher end phones with more different cams on their back.