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So I just recently (a few months ago) figured out what rooting was and what you were capable of after doing so, and I have a new found love for my G1. However, I still want something new, because device-wise, I want something thinner. The G1 just isn't cutting it for me anymore.
I am looking into the Behold 2 and thinking about getting it tomorrow. Does anyone know if this phone is going to be an easy phone to root? I don't like what Samsung did to the UI (i.e., the "cube" and the QuickAccess buttons along the bottom that are ALWAYS there, taking up screen space) and figured, it would be an awesome phone if I was able to root it and put a new ROM on there.
Any info back on this would be greatly appreciated guys!
Thank you!
um no. The behold runs it's own OS. No way to ever put anything android on it, let alone "root" it. I don't even think samsung does updates on their own OSs. What you get is what you're going to have until you switch to a far superior phone.. like say the G1 also Android has some pretty slim phone coming out in the near future, are you under some sort of time restraint?
http://theunlockr.com/2009/11/18/how-to-root-your-samsung-behold-2-samsung-galaxy-in-one-click/
You might want to search more up on rooting the behold 2, I just googled that and it was the first thing i found.
sonikamd said:
um no. The behold runs it's own OS. No way to ever put anything android on it, let alone "root" it. I don't even think samsung does updates on their own OSs. What you get is what you're going to have until you switch to a far superior phone.. like say the G1 also Android has some pretty slim phone coming out in the near future, are you under some sort of time restraint?
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The Behold II is running Android, it's just customized like the Sense UI on the Hero.
dam it's going to be hard to get this shoe out of my mouth lol :O you know it's getting late when you fail @ google
nice save Anartic.
edit: and some of the "other" devices i spoke of pdadb.net / android 1.6 devices and of course the behold II is listed heh
If I were you, I would try and hold off a bit... lots of good ones coming out/already out that will be more customizable than that. Stick to HTC devices, since in turn you will have this community. As well, you will have far superior quality and reliability in the long run. Samsung makes some good phones, but you lose this community.
i know next year there will probably be some good devices coming out, but i don't want to wait. that's the problem. and even so, i have many friends who work in t-mobile retail stores so i always get the discount even if i'm not eligible.
it all depends on how much i can get the behold 2 for tomorrow. my friend already told me he would get me the mytouch for 149.99. if i was to get the behold 2 i'm thinking it would be the 199.99 price that current tmobile customers are eligible for. if its the 229.99 price, then i most likely wont get it and will get the mytouch.
but overall, i like the look of the behold 2 more than any of the current offerings from tmobile. my g1 runs good with cyans 4.2.5 rom.. its the fastest yet and getting better all the time. but the battery life is just damn awful and i can't deal with that anymore. and not to mention the behold 2 has a 5mp cam with flash. and that's something drawing me towards that phone. and also the 320MB RAM
I've never been a fan of samsungs.. all that graphical jazz gets in the way of usability imo.
Quite apart from that, I would be lost without my familiar bootloader/recovery system. It would be like losing a limb after all these years.
i have the behold 2 and the UI is terrible, really hurts usability. i'll write more details later, but i'll be flashing to stock android first opportunity i get.
Your basically exchanging a 1rst generation android phone, for another 1rst generation android phone that is running 1.5 (maybe 1.6, I can't recall). I would just wait man.... I really dont think a camera on a phone is more important. Why not wait a few months and get a stellar phone with a bigger processor and android 2.0. I really think it's a bad move on your part.
I took back the Behold II today and exchanged it for a myTouch. I had it for one day. Which shows you what I think about it.
Don't do it. I was in the same situation as you, I had the g1 since day one and got tired of it (and it's bulkiness), except that I switched to the Pre (which was good, but not Android) and gave my G1 away. I was with a dumbphone for a couple of months. So even though I plan on getting the Xperia X10, I couldn't live without a smartphone any longer..
But the Behold II is not a good phone. The UI changes are MAJOR. I know that they don't look major, before I got the phone I thought that the "touchwiz interface" was just the stupid cube. Don't use the cube, it's that simple right? Wrong. The entire screen is from the perspective that you are "inside the cube". So when you change screens, there is an animation of the cube moving. And it's not a simple "camera trick", because you can see your widgets moving as if they are on a 3D surface. It's kinda sorta cool, but it VERY LAGGY too....
This is the laggiest phone I've ever owned. You know how sometimes your G1 will be a little laggy when you bring up the app drawer? Well the Behold II does this every time. That's the worst thing, and why if I was Samsung I wouldn't have released the phone. Quite frankly, for the engineers it is embarrassing. I would be embarrassed to release this phone.
I'm cool with Android skinning... but they do more than just skin it. They have replaced most of the major applications (contacts, music, photos) with their own.... and what's crazy is that they are all worse than the android apps. Contacts can only be searched by first name... the music player is just awful, you can't get back to the main screen by bringing up the menu...
On all of the apps, when you bring up the menu, the buttons don't have icons. That doesn't hurt usability but it does show that Samsung didn't even want to pay designers to draw icons. It shows how little effort they put into this phone. It seems obvious that they didn't want to pay google for their apps so they made bad alternatives.
What this has done for me is open my eyes and make me realize how much I like stock android UI. It's really quite lovely once you're accustomed to it. I got the myTouch (which i'm loving so far) with the plan of still getting the Xperia X10... but I might not now. Not because the myTouch is so awesome, it is a 1gen phone after all.. but because I don't know if I want to leave stock android again.
Anyways, if you want another 1st gen android device, they are many good choices but the Behold II is not one of them. It'll will make me think twice about buying a Samsung product in the future because they obviously put no effort into this device other than to put their branding into it.
s15274n said:
Your basically exchanging a 1rst generation android phone, for another 1rst generation android phone that is running 1.5 (maybe 1.6, I can't recall). I would just wait man.... I really dont think a camera on a phone is more important. Why not wait a few months and get a stellar phone with a bigger processor and android 2.0. I really think it's a bad move on your part.
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it's 1.5 and won't get 1.6 even. samsung has no intent to upgrade this phone, ever.
And the camera, in my limited time, wasn't as great as advertised. Well, there are many reviewers out there who are more experts than I when it comes to camera, so I will take their word... but when I took pictures I had the same "shacky camera" problem that is typical of cell phone pictures.
mateo2 said:
it's 1.5 and won't get 1.6 even. samsung has no intent to upgrade this phone, ever.
And the camera, in my limited time, wasn't as great as advertised. Well, there are many reviewers out there who are more experts than I when it comes to camera, so I will take their word... but when I took pictures I had the same "shacky camera" problem that is typical of cell phone pictures.
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gotta agree here, im a long time samsung instinct owner(origional&S30) both were awful including the custom Ui.Upgrades always made other features broken, but now im a proud G1 owner w/cyan mod.
Just thought of a couple of others things. I buy my music from lala.com (great great service, highly recommended) and when I put my mp3s on the Behold II they all came up as "unknown" artist. I assumed there was something wrong with the mp3 tags and thought of maybe contacting lala and asking why they have bad tags... but then when I exchanged the Behold II and got the myTouch, the tags are just fine on the same mp3 files. So the Samsung mp3 player doesn't recognize these artist tags for some reason, who knows why. Terrible.
Also, the home screen UI doesn't "snap" in place. So you can literally stack widgets/icons on top of each other. For a neat freak like me, getting everything "in line" is annoyingly difficult.
Not everything is bad. The virtual keyboard was pretty good, maybe even better than stock android. But overall the phone is flat-out embarrassing. I will never buy another Samsung phone, ever.
Also, the GPS is awful. I only had it for a day, but Maps was never able to locate me. Ever. After I got the myTouch, it locked me in on the drive home.
mateo2 said:
it's 1.5 and won't get 1.6 even. samsung has no intent to upgrade this phone, ever.
And the camera, in my limited time, wasn't as great as advertised. Well, there are many reviewers out there who are more experts than I when it comes to camera, so I will take their word... but when I took pictures I had the same "shacky camera" problem that is typical of cell phone pictures.
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umm actually you're wrong. they have stated that it will be upgraded to 2.0
Hey, I'm new here, and also new to smartphones. I was told to read up on this site to learn more about them. I bought a Behold II a couple days ago and its awesome. Now I realize its my first smartphone, so its probably in actuality not as awesome as I think it is, however I have spent plenty of time playing around with my friend's G1, and also a lot of time with the Cliq. So while this is this is the first I've ever owned, its not my first smartphone experience.
As for mateo2, its unfortunate that you had all those problems with the phone, but I've had it for about 5 days now and have not experienced all the problems you did. For instance, the app drawer has yet to lag in the 5 days that I've owned the phone. The home screens however do lag for about the first 5 seconds after you wake the phone up. This can be an annoyance to some, but it really is only about 5 seconds or so, and then its gone. I mean I can live with it.
Also, I disagree about the music player, I think it is much nicer than stock Android, the only problem is that the cover art doesn't transfer. It does on some, but on most it doesn't. So, hopefully there will be an update soon to fix that. I'm not quite sure what you're talking about with not being able to get back to the main screen by pressing menu. If you mean the home screen of the phone just hit home. If you mean the main screen of the music player you just swipe left or right.
Also, as someone else has said you are misinformed about the update, it will get updated to 2.0. Samsung has the update ready and is waiting on Tmobile to release it. It is mentioned in passing in the review or preview by Cnet I believe.
Contacts can only be searched by first name which may be an annoyance to some, but not really to me.
Also, the keyboard is much better than the stock Android's I have used. Some people have reported a lag that can be fixed by turning off the vibration feedback, I haven't had it lag noticeably yet though. The keyboard IS difficult to use in portrait mode however, so someone might want to get a keyboard replacement because of that. I only find that its difficult when I'm trying to do other things at the same time, like drive, so I'm going to keep the keyboard so I don't text and drive anymore lol.
The camera is the best I've seen on a phone. Better than the Behold my girlfriend has, better picture than the iPhone that my friend has (although not as quick), better than the Droid (from the short time I had with it, and also from reviews that I've seen of it). The flash can be too bright at times, but some time with the camera and you figure out how to work it properly and the pictures are really quite amazing for a phone.
If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them the best I can. Like I said earlier, I'm not as smart as you guys when it comes to these devices so you might ask me something that I have no idea how to answer haha. But, I plan on reading around this forum over the next couple of weeks to expand my knowledge. Hopefully it works, and I can root the thing without breaking it
Candiria92 said:
Hey, I'm new here, and also new to smartphones. I was told to read up on this site to learn more about them. I bought a Behold II a couple days ago and its awesome. Now I realize its my first smartphone, so its probably in actuality not as awesome as I think it is, however I have spent plenty of time playing around with my friend's G1, and also a lot of time with the Cliq. So while this is this is the first I've ever owned, its not my first smartphone experience.
As for mateo2, its unfortunate that you had all those problems with the phone, but I've had it for about 5 days now and have not experienced all the problems you did. For instance, the app drawer has yet to lag in the 5 days that I've owned the phone. The home screens however do lag for about the first 5 seconds after you wake the phone up. This can be an annoyance to some, but it really is only about 5 seconds or so, and then its gone. I mean I can live with it.
Also, I disagree about the music player, I think it is much nicer than stock Android, the only problem is that the cover art doesn't transfer. It does on some, but on most it doesn't. So, hopefully there will be an update soon to fix that. I'm not quite sure what you're talking about with not being able to get back to the main screen by pressing menu. If you mean the home screen of the phone just hit home. If you mean the main screen of the music player you just swipe left or right.
Also, as someone else has said you are misinformed about the update, it will get updated to 2.0. Samsung has the update ready and is waiting on Tmobile to release it. It is mentioned in passing in the review or preview by Cnet I believe.
Contacts can only be searched by first name which may be an annoyance to some, but not really to me.
Also, the keyboard is much better than the stock Android's I have used. Some people have reported a lag that can be fixed by turning off the vibration feedback, I haven't had it lag noticeably yet though. The keyboard IS difficult to use in portrait mode however, so someone might want to get a keyboard replacement because of that. I only find that its difficult when I'm trying to do other things at the same time, like drive, so I'm going to keep the keyboard so I don't text and drive anymore lol.
The camera is the best I've seen on a phone. Better than the Behold my girlfriend has, better picture than the iPhone that my friend has (although not as quick), better than the Droid (from the short time I had with it, and also from reviews that I've seen of it). The flash can be too bright at times, but some time with the camera and you figure out how to work it properly and the pictures are really quite amazing for a phone.
If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them the best I can. Like I said earlier, I'm not as smart as you guys when it comes to these devices so you might ask me something that I have no idea how to answer haha. But, I plan on reading around this forum over the next couple of weeks to expand my knowledge. Hopefully it works, and I can root the thing without breaking it
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well put man. i've had this phone since the day it came out, so, i guess a week now. and i'm liking it. it has taken some getting use to after having a G1 for over a year, but i am very glad i made this purchase and not the mytouch. the mytouch is great, but its missing things that this phone doesn't have. one of these days, hopefully soon, there will be a hack to where we can root this phone without it getting rid of the root at startup, because as of right now, that is what is happening. samsung has put a pretty tough security lock on this phone. hopefully someone can crack it soon.
Verizon contract is up in a couple weeks so I'm jumping to T-Mobile (costs less) and getting the Nexus 6. I just have a few questions.
Are there any weird quirks with the phone? Anything I won't find out by playing with the phone in store for 10 minutes? Is the phone as powerful as the specs say it is?
I saw some of the older battery life charts in the other thread and they aren't terrible. Is battery life still decent? I'm looking for 4-5+ hours of screen-on time ideally.
Does the "quick charger" that comes with it work well?
Tl;dr Do you recommend the phone?
It's a loaded post, which is why a lot of views, but nary a reply.
However ....
Your title to me is better than jumping on a N6, which could be disastrous to the phone.
If you have looked over the threads, you'll get varying opinions, and mostly IMO it depends on two things:
What they had/came from
What they expect out of the N6.
I will only speak for myself; I came from a VZ GNex I hung onto for 3 years - anything I may have gone to would be a worthy HW upgrade, however I want to tweak my phone when I'm ready to, and that means a Nexus.
I love the phone, it was a bit of a letdown, as I was already running 5.0 on my GNex, so the experience was to a larger, faster smoother phone than what I had. Other than that, I'm loving every minute of having it, plain and simple.
I have one other person who transitioned to one, and he loves it as well.
I'm not going to tell you to get it, you have to go play with it and decide for yourself.
To your specific questions:
quirks - no more so than any other phone, I haven't found any yet myself - most who post I think have to do with not knowing what they set in Lollipop, I've already had it for a bit, so I'm used to it.
Yup, its fast and powerful, whether or not you decide to go unencrypted is up to you, which goes to what you had and what you expect - are you going to unlock root, mod? You can enjoy this phone for quite a bit of time before maybe even needing a reason to go mod it.
Personally, I haven't yet, nor have a lot of members here (check the what rom are you running on VZ thread) because again, I haven't (other than wanting to change my softkeys) had a good reason (to me) to invest the time to do it.
I'm sure it will happen, but not right now. right now I'm just enjoying the hell out of having it.
Batt time is always subjective, whether or not we care to admit it. No two devices are going to run the same, have the same app load outs, some have different memory it appears, and some may actually (gasp) have a bad batt on arrival.
Mine has ran terrific (remember again - what I had and what I expect), and the QC runs great to recharge if need be. I can say that I love not worrying about the batt right now on it daily, but that's for me and my usage.
Battery is fine and its quick. The fast charger works well. I'm not really a fan of them but its what it comes with. I came from a m8 which was a nice device but I like this one better.
Raikalo said:
Tl;dr Do you recommend the phone?
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My wife and I jumped from Sprint to T-Mobile, handing off our Evo 4G's when the Nexus 6 was released, and wouldn't look back. The Nexus 6 has been nothing short of awesome... the camera, speed, screen, everything - is awesome. We keep ours in thick iBlason "Armorbox" cases, and still enjoy our QI charging (I'm unsure how QI isn't a requirement in modern phones these days!). A lot of friends complained about the size, but those that got it anyway, ended up "getting over it" and now won't go back to the smaller screens, heh! It still fits nicely in my (male) jean pockets -- with the large case -- but you'd be hard-pressed to get it safely in female pockets (sorry ladies... you're not allowed to put stuff in the pockets!).
Quirks: one big thing jumped out at me, but isn't a big deal for most. The phone does have built-in RGB LEDs that sit underneath the top speaker, yet, they chose to block access to this functionality. I guess they reused the underlying board but didn't want the LEDs, but nonetheless, they are invaluable to me: I enjoy knowing if I have something waiting for me *without* having to look at the screen - whether while in bed, sitting on the desk, riding the bike, etc.! The plus, you can get at these LEDs if you're rooted. So... if that's possibly desirable to you, I'd recommend unlocking the phone as soon as you get it, so you can avoid the data wipe down the road. The Lightflow app can handle them quite well (though I believe it requires the "Pro" version, for a couple bucks). ...and as of now, the LEDs are "on or off" - no flashing... but hey, I'll take what I can get!
Oh, and not really related to the phone itself, but a Google-Nexus 6 quirk -- quite annoying at the time, for me -- Google's "My Tracks" app was broken for awhile (unable to acquire the GPS signal). There are a gazillion alternatives out there, but I'd been a long-time daily user of the app, and Google broke it!...for months. It was disappointing that they would break core app functionality on their *current* flagship device, for their own app, and choose to ignore it for such a long time. I think the 5.1 update fixed whatever problem they had, but that was a pet peeve.. On the plus side, I've enjoyed the feature-rich alternatives that I was forced to explore, ha!
We haven't messed with de-crypting ourselves, as the phones are super-duper-fast as-is, but we love them. These are our introduction to the Nexus world, and we love the fact that they no-bars-hold permit unlocking, and that the updates are, of course, front line.
Tl;dr I highly recommend the phone! Phone size is the only recurring complaint among friends.
Thank you everyone for the replies. Yes, battery life is subjective ...so long as most of the reviews say the battery is good enough, that's all I care about. First-hand reviews from users are always the best because I know everyone isn't just trying to sell me a phone . As far as the LEDs being unusable when not rooted, that isn't a big deal for me. My current phone (Razr Maxx HD, xt926 verizon) has the LEDs and fantastic battery life through various mods, but is simply not cutting it anymore for what I need. I've never heard of the My Tracks app, so I guess it's a good thing since I didn't know it was broken lol.
This will be my first Nexus phone... I have the Nexus 7 (2012) tablet that is currently running CM12 nightlies, so I'm familiar with the "Nexus experience" and Lollipop already. I like it quite a bit, but it did take a little getting used to. I was very much planning on unlocking and rooting the N6 immediately, but I'll play with it a bit and enjoy the stock experience first.
@vormund Do you like T-Mobile, now that you switched from Sprint?
@RW-1 Can you explain the encryption you're talking about a little more? This is the first I've heard of it.
Again, thanks everyone for the replies. I'm pretty much sold on the phone at this point.
Raikalo said:
Thank you everyone for the replies. Yes, battery life is subjective ...so long as most of the reviews say the battery is good enough, that's all I care about. First-hand reviews from users are always the best because I know everyone isn't just trying to sell me a phone . As far as the LEDs being unusable when not rooted, that isn't a big deal for me. My current phone (Razr Maxx HD, xt926 verizon) has the LEDs and fantastic battery life through various mods, but is simply not cutting it anymore for what I need. I've never heard of the My Tracks app, so I guess it's a good thing since I didn't know it was broken lol.
This will be my first Nexus phone... I have the Nexus 7 (2012) tablet that is currently running CM12 nightlies, so I'm familiar with the "Nexus experience" and Lollipop already. I like it quite a bit, but it did take a little getting used to. I was very much planning on unlocking and rooting the N6 immediately, but I'll play with it a bit and enjoy the stock experience first.
@vormund Do you like T-Mobile, now that you switched from Sprint?
@RW-1 Can you explain the encryption you're talking about a little more? This is the first I've heard of it.
Again, thanks everyone for the replies. I'm pretty much sold on the phone at this point.
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I am currently using MeanPop 2.11 on my Nexus 6 and it has a blinking LED light for notifications, a blinking red light for while your phone is charging and a green light for when the device is fully charged. I had the phone a couple of hours tops before I rooted it, so I can't really provide an opinion on the device out of the box. My brother is using a non-rooted Nexus 6 and he loves it as well. We both came from the Note Edge, but enjoy the Nexus 6 more than any device we have used up to this point. Out of the box, the device is encrypted (which some people have stated that their performance suffered compared to being unencrypted). You can easily unlock the phone and decrypt it. There is a solid guide for this in the development section. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or ask them here and I'll assist where I can.
slimc84 said:
I am currently using MeanPop 2.11 on my Nexus 6 and it has a blinking LED light for notifications, a blinking red light for while your phone is charging and a green light for when the device is fully charged. I had the phone a couple of hours tops before I rooted it, so I can't really provide an opinion on the device out of the box. My brother is using a non-rooted Nexus 6 and he loves it as well. We both came from the Note Edge, but enjoy the Nexus 6 more than any device we have used up to this point. Out of the box, the device is encrypted (which some people have stated that their performance suffered compared to being unencrypted). You can easily unlock the phone and decrypt it. There is a solid guide for this in the development section. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or ask them here and I'll assist where I can.
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That solves the LED issue. I will probably decrypt the device since I don't know why I would need it encrypted. Thank you. I will definitely message you with any questions, but I won't have the phone until closer to the end of April (24th or so), so it will be a bit yet. I'm just glad the phone is shaping up to be as great as I am expecting it to be.
Out of curiosity, what are the benefits of leaving the phone encrypted?
Raikalo said:
@vormund Do you like T-Mobile, now that you switched from Sprint?
@RW-1 Can you explain the encryption you're talking about a little more? This is the first I've heard of it..
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T-Mobile has been equal-to-or-better than Sprint in Tucson, AZ... their customer service is dreadful (store reps are absolutely useless), but if you're persistent, you usually come out alright - which I'm happy to do with the difference in cost (+$10 to join my sister's plan versus $30+ for Sprint's split... among the other (contract, discount, etc.) considerations! Data is hit-or-miss on the outskirts of the city, but so is Sprint (and ATT)...Verizon seems to have solid service out there, though...(then again, you pay for it!)...
Data speeds are almost always slower when compared to Verizon (a friend with Verizon did some speed tests with me...we're both usually LTE, but he'd consistently get 3-4x faster speeds...this probably varies greatly by locale and their networks), but it's sufficient for me. If you're one to watch Netflix or download a ton, it'll probably be quite the downgrade.. but me - I'm on wireless for any big data usage, so network-wise, I'm just mapping, a little music streaming, geo tracking and such.
Encryption: For the extra paranoid or those with ultra-sensitive information on their phones, perhaps?
I suspect it would make things a little more difficult for law enforcement, too... depending on backdoors and such? Actually, yeah, that looks to be the case!
After seeing the speed comparisons, I'd definitely switch over now, even though the phone is fast-as-can-be as it is, ha. One of these days maybe... but for now, it's a few more minutes in a already-crazy day.
slimc84 said:
I am currently using MeanPop 2.11 on my Nexus 6 and it has a blinking LED light for notifications...
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Thanks great to know, thanks for the info! +1 for a custom ROM. I think the reason Lightflow can't do it directly - with rooted stock - as it'd have to keep the phone awake. There well may be ways around that by now... I just wish they'd enable direct access without (there's just no good reason to take away a hardware feature... disabled by default, but come on! ).
vormund said:
T-Mobile has been equal-to-or-better than Sprint in Tucson, AZ... their customer service is dreadful (store reps are absolutely useless), but if you're persistent, you usually come out alright - which I'm happy to do with the difference in cost (+$10 to join my sister's plan versus $30+ for Sprint's split... among the other (contract, discount, etc.) considerations! Data is hit-or-miss on the outskirts of the city, but so is Sprint (and ATT)...Verizon seems to have solid service out there, though...(then again, you pay for it!)...
Data speeds are almost always slower when compared to Verizon (a friend with Verizon did some speed tests with me...we're both usually LTE, but he'd consistently get 3-4x faster speeds...this probably varies greatly by locale and their networks), but it's sufficient for me. If you're one to watch Netflix or download a ton, it'll probably be quite the downgrade.. but me - I'm on wireless for any big data usage, so network-wise, I'm just mapping, a little music streaming, geo tracking and such.
Encryption: For the extra paranoid or those with ultra-sensitive information on their phones, perhaps?
I suspect it would make things a little more difficult for law enforcement, too... depending on backdoors and such? Actually, yeah, that looks to be the case!
After seeing the speed comparisons, I'd definitely switch over now, even though the phone is fast-as-can-be as it is, ha. One of these days maybe... but for now, it's a few more minutes in a already-crazy day.
Thanks great to know, thanks for the info! +1 for a custom ROM. I think the reason Lightflow can't do it directly - with rooted stock - as it'd have to keep the phone awake. There well may be ways around that by now... I just wish they'd enable direct access without (there's just no good reason to take away a hardware feature... disabled by default, but come on! ).
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A wakelock is triggered with the flashing LED even in the custom Rom (burns 1-2% per hour that the LED is flashing). It's definitely worth having though. The ROM is solid and I haven't had a single issue with it yet.
After reading the benchmarking for encryption vs decryption, I'm definitely decrypting the phone when I get it. I'm not overly worried about the LEDs (does seem weird though that it's not like all of the other android phones I've had, where they just work, regardless of ROM). I'm in the middle of the East Coast where (according to coverage maps) 4G is more available, so I'll definitely run some speed tests and see how T-mobile's data speeds stack up on this side of the country. I really just need a fast browser with good, stable internet speeds. I won't complain if it's faster than 3G.
Hello I have been looking into buying this beautiful phone since I first seen it. I am in the US and will be buying it online to use on T-Mobile, I would like to know if anyone is here also using it and how is the reception? Do you get LTE? Also I've read in the roms section about a lithium and hydrogen version? Are they from different regions, what makes them different? I'm using a Mate 9 but am ready to own this phone.
sent from my rotary phone
This is phone ONLY ment for Chinese market.
I had it and here in Europe, I am on T Mobile as well but without LTE connection, and I had various problems with it, mostly about not localised and optimised software, very bad camera, handling (very slippery)...etc.About Roms, there are global roms and other roms and I found them pretty unstabile.
Literary, if you speak Chinese, then this is phone for you, if not, from my experiance, for that money better buy Samsung S8+.It is more serious product.
Before you start using Mi Mix you need to create MIUI account which is bounded with your phone number,so eventual reselling is another problem.
Anyway....it is beautiful device but for costs of a lot of headaches.
Here are the specs: http://www.mi.com/en/mix/specs/
The Network Bands supported are:
FDD-LTE: B1，B2，B3，B4，B5，B7，B8
TD-LTE: B38，B39，B40，B41
TD-SCDMA: B34，B39
WCDMA: B1，B2，B5，B8
GSM: B2，B3，B5，B8
CDMA1X/EVDO: BC0
Does your carrier support these?
The official Global Rom has all the languages, so no problem with the language (and it includes Google Play and it doesn't include any chinese-only apps)
There is a also a port of the LineageOS Rom and the RESURRECTION REMIX Rom.
The biggest problem is that you will not have any warranty, no service, no spare parts. If you are willing to resign from these for the best looking device, go ahead!
I can't speak for Tmo, but att I rarely get LTE but it is available, mostly HSPA+ though
The camera is a disappointment, but I was coming from a galaxy s6 so I was a little spoiled
If you are comfortable with flashing roms, I'm really enjoying the resurrection remix rom
It's a big usability improvement coming from the chinese stable rom
I have TMobile I get 4G I'm in NY my camera takes good pics I'm on the global stock MIUI rom and get insurance thru 3 party
jr313 said:
Hello I have been looking into buying this beautiful phone since I first seen it. I am in the US and will be buying it online to use on T-Mobile, I would like to know if anyone is here also using it and how is the reception? Do you get LTE? Also I've read in the roms section about a lithium and hydrogen version? Are they from different regions, what makes them different? I'm using a Mate 9 but am ready to own this phone.
sent from my rotary phone
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Click to collapse
I'm using this on MetroPCS and for the most part it has been very very solid for me. MetroPCS is basically the same network as Tmobile. On EpicRom I have LTE and my calls work just fine. Also, the version of Epic ROM I used had VoLTe support. Not even 100% on what it does but the option was checked off.
If you don't believe me just go to willmyphonework.net and type in Xiaomi Mi Mix and it will tell you exactly what carriers will work.
tin2404 said:
This is phone ONLY ment for Chinese market.
I had it and here in Europe, I am on T Mobile as well but without LTE connection, and I had various problems with it, mostly about not localised and optimised software, very bad camera, handling (very slippery)...etc.About Roms, there are global roms and other roms and I found them pretty unstabile.
Literary, if you speak Chinese, then this is phone for you, if not, from my experiance, for that money better buy Samsung S8+.It is more serious product.
Before you start using Mi Mix you need to create MIUI account which is bounded with your phone number,so eventual reselling is another problem.
Anyway....it is beautiful device but for costs of a lot of headaches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THIS GUY AGAIN, seriously though I actually have this phone on T-Mobile US, South Carolina Upstate area. It connects at 4G LTE in almost every place my wifes Samsung S7 Edge does. Durability wise you have to keep in mind its slippery and needs a case if for anything else to keep a grip on it. Screens fantastic, connections on par with US models and the storage /ram is unequalled currently. Had a mate 9 just before it and there really worlds apart. Now the camera is MEH, be prepared for that - its not bad just MEH. Everything else is really good, bonus it has built in equalizer for head phone playback [which means I didn't need to root it to put viper on].
I use the shipped Chinese official, google apps all installed with no issues. You can buy the S8+ if you want to step down in storage, ram and over all screen to phone. Personally the S8+ and the LG 6 are basically the same compromised high price devices. But its your money, both break fast when dropped also.
Haven't had a single head ache out of the Mi Mix or the MIUI [been using it on other devices for years]. Shoot me questions if you want.
Thank you all for your posts they have been helpful. I definitely wouldn't buy another Samesung ever again. I do love rooting and romming my phones, I have been following the ROM section and yesterday when I checked up on it I seen the additions of lineage and RR both I ran on my Nexus 6P and OnePlus 3T. Those were a big deciding factor for me because I can't live without my aosp, and now with the reassurance of LTE working I think I will be jumping in on this beast.
sent from my rotary phone
Nicolfa said:
THIS GUY AGAIN, seriously though I actually have this phone on T-Mobile US, South Carolina Upstate area. It connects at 4G LTE in almost every place my wifes Samsung S7 Edge does. Durability wise you have to keep in mind its slippery and needs a case if for anything else to keep a grip on it. Screens fantastic, connections on par with US models and the storage /ram is unequalled currently. Had a mate 9 just before it and there really worlds apart. Now the camera is MEH, be prepared for that - its not bad just MEH. Everything else is really good, bonus it has built in equalizer for head phone playback [which means I didn't need to root it to put viper on].
I use the shipped Chinese official, google apps all installed with no issues. You can buy the S8+ if you want to step down in storage, ram and over all screen to phone. Personally the S8+ and the LG 6 are basically the same compromised high price devices. But its your money, both break fast when dropped also.
Haven't had a single head ache out of the Mi Mix or the MIUI [been using it on other devices for years]. Shoot me questions if you want.
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Indeed.
But good for you...wait when he try to enter to VR world with Fiit vr2s as I did.
I hope and I am sure he will "understand" all "boxes and houses" and content inside.
tin2404 said:
This is phone ONLY ment for Chinese market.
I had it and here in Europe, I am on T Mobile as well but without LTE connection, and I had various problems with it, mostly about not localised and optimised software, very bad camera, handling (very slippery)...etc.About Roms, there are global roms and other roms and I found them pretty unstabile.
Literary, if you speak Chinese, then this is phone for you, if not, from my experiance, for that money better buy Samsung S8+.It is more serious product.
Before you start using Mi Mix you need to create MIUI account which is bounded with your phone number,so eventual reselling is another problem.
Anyway....it is beautiful device but for costs of a lot of headaches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh you're back. Good.
Yeah he's back lol.
jr313 said:
Hello I have been looking into buying this beautiful phone since I first seen it. I am in the US and will be buying it online to use on T-Mobile, I would like to know if anyone is here also using it and how is the reception? Do you get LTE? Also I've read in the roms section about a lithium and hydrogen version? Are they from different regions, what makes them different? I'm using a Mate 9 but am ready to own this phone.
sent from my rotary phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go for it. It's one of the best device I've ever owned.
Don't worry about it when people say that they are having trouble with softwares that are not "localised or optimised". They don't know what they are talking about. The ROM is not really an issue at all, just flash to third party ROM like EPIC Rom, or you can use Xiaomi's Global Rom.
And don't be misguided, you don't need a MI account to use any Xiaomi device, that includes the MI MIX.
This is my second Xiaomi phone and I'm running off the stock Chinese Rom which I have no issue with. There's no need to create a MI account to use this phone.
Here is my opinion->
- The phone is great in build quality with the most premium material(ceramic);
- It has huge amount of storage(I have 256GB);
- It has a lot of RAM(6GB for me);
- It has the best Android iteration - MIUI;
- It has quite some innovations brought at once in terms of tech;
- It has great battery life;
- It is too big;
- It has the worst camera I've had for quite some time;
I will stick to mine for the good reasons, but really regret for the camera.
Make your math and good luck.
P.S.
If you buy one, install Camera FV or some other app. You will get far better shots.
P.S.2
Don't mind the comments about that this is for chinese market only, or the MIUI account is bad....etc. The phone works perfectly on most places(but still do a check for your country) and MIUI is great performer with lot's of cool stuff. I am using their system since my Samsung Galaxy Nexus
The problem with MIUI is not that it doesn't perform well.
It may still be on Android 6 and it is missing the enhancements of API 24 and API 25 but it has other additional features that compensate for this.
The problem is that it is closed source and you cannot know what the code does in the background, and whether it sends data back home. But thank god, there are now ports of LINEAGE and RESSURECTION REMIX roms. So no reason not to get the device from a software perspective.
Well, you got a lot ppl here telling you some good, some, but here my 2 cents. I love the phone! I love the big screen, I dont use the camera so I dont care, I like the call quality. Its cool being that there is no earpiece yet, you can still hear the ppl youre talking to. You may have to turn the volume all the way up in certain situations, but its fine. I love the fluidity, moving around the phone is very snappy, I never have any issues. I do play Pokemon Go, a lot, and that isnt as smooth as it is on the iPhone, but its not bad. It did freeze on me when I dropped a lucky egg and went through to try and evolve as many Pokemon as I could. The battery life is the BEST IVE EVER HAD on a phone before... well, maybe the battery life on the Nokia Lumia 1520 was better, but I cant recall. Now, EMUI as a whole isnt bad, it really isnt! I am currently using stock, chinese ROM. and as far as I know, im on the latest firmware. But, as soon as I get my hands on a Windows based computer, im going to root it and install a custom ROM. Ive heard Epic is supposed to be the best, but im the type of guy that will flash a few ROM's before I settle. I could go on and on about this phone as a daily driver, but, I really do like it. If you have any specifics, hit me up and id be more than willing to answer your questions. But long story short, I love the phone.
Don't do it!
You're gonna get addicted, especially to the screen and build materials! Have seen tear-down videos, and even the inside is beautiful! I rotate to different phones often and you will find yourself wanting when using phones after this one. Questions will subconsciously creep into your head when you go back to a different phone; ie. "why is there a bar at the top of this phone?""why does the back of this phone scratch so easily?" Its like seeing a slice of the future in a dream and then waking up to a disappointing reality as you grab that iOS or Pixel device. You've been warned.
...
I recently picked one up, I have the Chinese Rom version, 256gb 6gig of ram. I've been using it for a month now in CA and NY and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this is the best device I have ever owned, hands down, nothing comes close. I honestly haven't had a issue with the camera but I don't take many shots with the phone so I don't care. As for MIUI I really like it, as a 1st time user of it, it has a very different feel and look to regular stock android which is very refreshing to me. You end up purchasing one, you will not regret it.
I've also had the phone great phone but I'm one of those people who likes to change phones every few months.
MIUI was great to use and if you get board just us a different launcher, now only thing you need to know if your staying on Chinese build is disabling a few power saving features to get push notifications like what's app, email etc
My only issue letting it go was I wanted the 7.0 to use 2 app support and I really didn't like the notification tray, tried exposed but couldn't change it the way I wanted. Again this will probably not bother you but overall it's a great phone once you fiddle around the software.
Sent from my MHA-L09 using Tapatalk
Pros and cons
I've had my Mi Mix (International stock rom, 6gb, 256gb) for a few days. I got it on sale on Gearbest for $606! Here's some pros and cons so far:
Pros:
-I'm on AT&T and I get 4g LTE all the time in my area.
-Insane amount of storage. I can't imagine ever maxing this thing out.
-A very good screen (though not as colorful or as sharp as what you'll find on Samsung's new phones).
-Excellent performance (though again, not quite as snappy as the S8+, which my wife owns).
-The most beautiful device I have ever held! Pictures do not do it justice. It is simply exquisite.
-The camera is plenty good for my purposes (taking pictures of my kids when we're on outdoor adventures).
-Watching videos and playing games on that bezel-free screen is awesome!
Cons:
-MIUI does have a bit of a learning curve.
-You have to change battery and notification settings quite a bit to get push notifications working properly (though this only takes 15 minutes to do).
-I had issues with text messages for a couple days before I found a fix. Now they work perfectly.
-The phone is very slippery.
-Ceramic, while very scratch resistant, shatters easily. (I'm using the provided leather case most of the time.)
-Despite the tiny bezels, the phone is still big and heavy. There's no way to make a 6.4 inch screen feel small in the hand.
-Call quality, while adequate, is nowhere near as clear as on my Moto Z or my wife's S8+. It sounds like the other person is on speaker phone.
-The camera, while fine for me, would never be good enough for my wife (she has a blog and needs professional-quality images, which she really can get with her S8+).
All in all, the pros definitely outweigh the cons FOR ME. But they might not for everyone. I hope this helps.
Hi all, ready to move on from my Nexus 6. Would love some pro's/con's from this community on how happy I'd be to make this switch. I've ready G5S plus give great bang for buck and has a good modding community which is a must have for me.
Any thoughts on making the G5S + my primary phone??
All I can say is I love mine and I came from a Nexus 4.
You calling it "moving on" rather than an upgrade is pretty accurate. It's an upgrade overall, but not as much as you might think for a 3-year newer model. You need to realize that the Nexus 6 was a $700 phone (when first released) and the G5S Plus is a $300 phone. The improvements with the G5S Plus is that it's 64-bit hardware, even though the stock ROM is 32-bit and most people highly suspect the Oreo update (if it ever comes) will also be 32-bit. Because it's not a Nexus, the G5S Plus has a microSD slot so you have the potential to have a lot more storage, but the camera hardware is not great (despite the fancy dual lens). The camera works out if flash a 3rd-party 64-bit ROM and use the Google Camera, but I can't do that (see below). On the US model there is no NFC, so no AndroidPay (I didn't care, but some might).
My personal experience with unlocking/rooting/ROMing the two phones has been very different when I thought it would be far more similar (since they're both Motorola). The best way to describe the process with the G5S Plus is kludgy, and it's not all that easy to go back to stock since there are no official, signed stock images for the G5S Plus. Stock updates (even security updates) are few and far between. This just isn't a Nexus. The Nexus 6 had a lot more 3rd-party development options and support, and the G5S Plus has now been out long enough that what you see here now is probably all we're going to get. I haven't had much luck with the existing 3rd-party ROMs working well with my carrier (Sprint). The ROM features seem to mostly work fine, but the carrier settings don't work at all on Sprint, and when I try to change them I completely lose my mobile signal and don't get it back until I reset network settings. This makes it highly questionable how successful I'll be with these 3rd-party ROMs when roaming, even just locally in the USA. I have no faith in these ROMs working when roaming internationally. The reason why I'm encountering the same problem with all of these 3rd-party ROMs is I'm pretty sure all of them are using the same base from the same developer. So if you're like me and have a problem with any of these ROMs, you'll likely have the same problem with all of them.
Overall? I wish I'd gotten the Pixel 2 XL. But although I can afford to pay $1000 for a phone, I'm not going to because that's just ridiculous. I've looked around...thoroughly. There just isn't really anything out there any better featured that doesn't at least cost $700, so I'm still using the G5S Plus. I may be a little more limited than you because I'm Sprint (CDMA) whereas people on GSM networks might have more options. I've had to go back to stock rooted 7.1.1, which isn't horrible but not really ideal (and not what I'm used to with the Nexus 6). But I can't successfully get the G5S Plus back to stock unrooted to even take security updates, so I'm on the October security patch. When the stock Oreo update is released, I don't see me being able to take that either. I'm hoping that development community here will put out a flashable stock Oreo ROM then, but then I'll still be in the same boat with OTA Oreo security patches. This is a very capable phone with some nice features, but if you liked being a flashaholic on the Nexus 6, I wouldn't necessarily expect the same experience on the G5S Plus.
FYI, I'm not a developer, but far from being a noob. I've been rooting/ROMing/modifying Android devices (HTC, Samsung, Motorola) since the Froyo days. I would have to rank this phone as the most difficult Android device I've owned to do all that.
I can tell a slightly more upbeat story.
Migrated from a Nexus 6P which I loved dearly, but after spending a small fortune on battery replacements realised it was time to call it a day.
I am very pleased with the Moto. Honestly? I see very little functional difference between this and the 6P in my use case. The screen is slightly smaller. From a Nexus 6 it would be more noticeable I suspect. I recovered the real estate by turning off the nav bar and using fingerprint swipe gestures (which are nice once you get used to them). It is fast and fluid in use and I genuinely don't see anything different in use from the 6P from the end user's perspective. I use my phone mainly for work and the intertubes so not fussed about the camera. When I point it at things what ends up on the phone looks vaguely like what I pointed the phone at. That fulfils my criteria although I have recently started tinkering with some of the hacked GCam apps from the Pixel just for the "because I can" factor.
Internetpilot is right, the development scene is a fraction of what you'd see on a Nexus or Pixel. However, as a long standing flashaholic from the very early days of Android (HTC Magic anyone?) I found myself more than happy with rooted stock for a long time. Moto's stock rom is bloat free and works extremely well. I did try a couple of custom roms early on and found them not as smooth or stable as the stock one, so reverted and ran stock for about six months until very recently.
Internetpilot is right in that it is very difficult to get the thing back to a stock state once you start tinkering. I was in a similar boat whidh meant I couldn't accept OTAs. This was what finally prompted me to try the custom ROM scene again. It has improved in leaps and bounds since last year. Currently running Pixel Experience Oreo and it is rock solid. It's been a keeper for me. But it is worth bearing in mind that if you root then you will be on your own and probably end up forced down the custom ROM boat as I have. It would be a lot easier if Moto had flashable stock images, but it's not a show stopper if your plan was basically to go custom from the get go.
I can't agree with Internetpilot hat it's any major difficulty to unlock, root and flash. You go to Moto's website, you get an unlock code, you unlock your bootloader, you flash TWRP and away you go. Not significantly different from the process I've done on most phones I've had since the HTC Magic days. I've had Sonys that were more grief than this.
I can't speak for any of this CDMA stuff as I am not transatlantically challenged . I've had no problems with my own network provider (Vodafone UK) or roaming on any rom. But if you're stateside clearly that's something you'd need to consider. It's worth also noting that most of the community are in developing countries eg India where this phone has quite a bit of a foothold.
But generally this is a lot of phone for the money. It's a good time for the low-mid range Android phone market. I chose this phone because I didn't want to pay stupid money for a top end device and I really didn't like the 18:9 form factor. The Moto is generally the same form factor as my beloved 6P and the price is right. Now if you have a bit more to spend, the Oneplus 5T looks interesting and perhaps might have a more Nexus-like community. Other options in the Moto's price range include the Honor 7X which I might well have bought instead if it'd been available when I bought the Moto. I am also intrigued by some of the Xiaomi devices. But the tl;dr version? The Moto is highly commended. Would buy again.
Wow, thank you both for your elaborate remarks, really helpful and exactly what I was looking for. So yes I've been rotting for awhile as well (since HTC Eris) and have had some pleasant and less than pleasant experiences. Some earlier Moto droids were obv torture to get unlocked, while the Nexus 6 was certainly quite the opposite.
I'm disappointed to hear dev is so sparse, as the usual spots (Android Police, Auth, 9to5Google, etc) all said this was the best phone to look at for modding after Pixel 2 & OnePlus given it's ease of unlock and robust community. Honestly I find such great value in the ability to unlock, root etc that I do plan on doing so right away and it heavily influences my purchase decision. I suppose if I wanted just one locked in phone experience I would just go to an IPhone, but I want to be able to customize.
From a hardware perspective, I appreciate both viewpoints. Yes don't like the thought of losing screen real estate but not sure what the alternative is as other options I've looked at are 18:9. Played with the 2 XL today and was shocked at the lack of screen space in landscape. Web browsing already is limited given ads in landscape and it seems even worse in the 18:9 ratio. As to software, Internetpilot certainly makes me wary as I'm on VZW, another CDMA. Personally I've generally had a good experience with my network relative to friends of mine on Sprint, but persisting network issues concern me as I also want a smooth experience when on a different rom.
As to the financial point, agreed on both sides. Certainly bang for the buck kind of phone. There are better out there but I too can't stomach the thought of dropping a grand on these, just seems a bridge too far given where the prices were just a few years ago. But at the same time I really don't want to have a phone that is nothing but hassle and constant re-flashes. I'd like to find a rom that is stable, supported and simply support it and continue on.
Well, I thank you both for the time and opinions, really helpful to be sure. Internetpilot I'll certainly dig for other posts with similar concerns but if you care to share some you've come across I'll def have a look.
Thanks again to the both of you.
To clarify a bit -- the phone is no more difficult to unlock, root, and ROM than the Nexus 6. However, the reason I gave it my "most difficult" award (haha) out of all the phones I've owned, is that gaining root on a device that isn't very well supported in the 3rd-party development arena doesn't really do you much good if you can't unroot just as easily. I can't get SuperSU working on this device, so I had to resort to Magisk (which is new to me -- I've always used SuperSU) and when I perform the unroot option via the Magisk Manager app, I end up with a "bad key" error on the bootloader screen and the ROM won't boot. The same thing happens if you try to restore all the original stock partitions via TWRP. Restoring any one of the boot, recovery, and one other partition that I can't remember results in the same "bad key" error. It's gotten to the point that even though I want to get it back to stock unrooted so I can grab the latest OTA security update (and eventually get the stock Oreo update when it's released), I really hate to mess with it. It's not because I think I'm going to brick it -- it's just I know I'll end up spending hours without a phone while trying to get passed that stupid "bad key" error, and then when I finally do that, my data partition will re-encrypt so I'll lose everything and have to set the phone up all over again. Since I'm trying to get it back to stock unrooted, I can't just easily restore my apps/data with Titanium Backup (because I don't have root), so everything is either gone or all messed up, so it's a huge pain in the posterior. Both versions of TWRP we have available for this phone don't reliably backup/restore the data partition either, so you can't rely on TWRP to backup everything if you want to mess around with flashing other ROMs, etc. That's what I mean by most difficult out of all the devices I've owned. When a new ROM is released, you really have to think twice before just backing everything up and flashing it to try it. You just might end up without a working phone for 3 or 4 hours before you get everything restored back to a working state.
I don't think you'll have a problem with Verizon. I know several people who are running 3rd-party Oreo ROMs on this phone on Verizon and they don't have the same issues I do with the carrier settings blowing everything up. It just seems to be Sprint. And to clarify my problems on Sprint, the stock rooted (and unrooted) ROM works flawlessly on Sprint. I can change the carrier settings, update my PRL, even use the "secret" dial codes to change APN settings, etc. But I can't do any of that on any of these 3rd-party Oreo ROMs. The carrier settings default to Global (which strangely works on Sprint's CDMA network), but I can't change Preferred Network Type to "LTE", can't turn on data roaming, can't change the CDMA roaming mode, and can't update the PRL or device config. Like Loccy said, all of the development on this phone is from India where the phone is very popular, so they probably don't know anything about Sprint. But even with these ROMs working fine on Verizon, how long will they be updated/supported? The Moto G6/G6 Plus is likely going to be released during the Summer, and that will probably fizzle the minimal development that the G5S/G5S Plus currently has. I think Moto is going to likely support this phone longer than the 3rd-party development community will.
Yeah, those are all great points. I agree with the heart of your contention in that I absolutely love tinkering with my phone, trying new ROMs, seeing what sort of added and better features I can apply to my device, making it mine instead of having some company tell me what to do with my device. But conversely I absolutely dread those lost days when something doesn't go right and you spend days and weeks scouring the forums and doing research just to get your phone to what you deem to be an operable state. Certainly that can be part of the fun of owning a device like this but with multiple kids, job, and other life stuff getting in the way and not being an engineer by trade or anything technology related it does become a bit of a hindrance at times. I suppose I just want my cake and to eat it too, but that's not the landscape that Android lives in right now.
I also take your point that this is a mid range device that has Hardware limitations and a development community that will only support it for so long. I'd like to make a choice that has a little more longevity built into it like the 4+ years I got out of my Nexus 6.
I think I may actually go for a verizon pixel to xl give it all these conversations, can get one on payment for less than 500 out the door. While I absolutely recognize that I will probably greatly miss having total control over my device, I really like the Android software landscape and it still offers a much richer customization experience than does an iPhone.
Look, really appreciate all your feedback and thoughts. Will let you know some months down the road if the decision was a good one. Cheers.
Hi there. I've been out of the loop for a while. Still rocking the XZ1 compact (until Sony or someone else comes out with something small, sleek, and square again). Because of my general lack of knowledge and fear of losing any of the things mentioned in the title of post... I haven't done any updates. I'm still using Android 8.0.0
As many of you likely know the US version shipped with the fingerprint reader disabled, requiring use of non-us firmware to enable it. However in order to take advantage of Vo-LTE/Wi-Fi Calling/T-Mobile band 12... you basically had to combine a couple different firmware together to both keep the fingerprint reader and have the calling features simultaneously.
Obviously if there is a way of retaining root, wifi calling (as well as Vo-LTE and band 12 support) for T-mobile USA, and functioning fingerprint reader... I would love to update this device. I'm even open to third party ROMs provided I don't lose any device functionality.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I'm not terribly well versed in all of this but have been able to root every one of my devices and unlock their fullest potential with the help of individuals at XDA.
Thanks in advance.
I am pretty sure i saw mention in one or more of the custom rom threads here specificlly mention a version for volte on the forum here u could check those threads see if someone else have had a simaller qeustions in the past.
also look for mention of the fingerprint scanner is working or not.
Sorry i am pretty new at this mysellf i am sure u will find what your looking for there.
Same thoughts here. I moved onto another phone but was thinking about updating this one to Lineage and using it again, which would require flashing a new firmware. But mine is on 8.0 with everything working (T-mobile VoLTE and wifi calling, fingerprint reader, camera via DRM patch, and Magisk with safetynet passing and Google Pay working). It's been a while but I remember having to jump through some hoops to make that all work and would hate to mess any of it up.
jrbmed08 said:
Same thoughts here. I moved onto another phone but was thinking about updating this one to Lineage and using it again, which would require flashing a new firmware. But mine is on 8.0 with everything working (T-mobile VoLTE and wifi calling, fingerprint reader, camera via DRM patch, and Magisk with safetynet passing and Google Pay working). It's been a while but I remember having to jump through some hoops to make that all work and would hate to mess any of it up.
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Yeah I love this phone (or rather I hate the look/shape/size of all the phones out today) so I'm afraid to jeopardize anything. I've debated buying another one for tinkering with.
POMF2K said:
Yeah I love this phone (or rather I hate the look/shape/size of all the phones out today) so I'm afraid to jeopardize anything. I've debated buying another one for tinkering with.
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I just can't handle the size of almost anything out there today, plus I refuse to buy anything without a headphone jack until there are no more options for me. I actually dislike the square shape because it's more uncomforable to hold though. I switched from the XZ1c to a Pixel 2 because my husband got a cheap phone when we switched carriers, but I never should have given up the XZ1c. Ended up hating the dongle life and traded in the Pixel 2 for an S10e. I love everything about the S10e except it's just too big. Lately the S10e's battery has been going downhill, and I ended up getting an iphone 12 mini for work and loving the size, so I've been thinking about switching back to the XZ1c. But I tried for a few days and had a few issues with the older version of Android...and that brings me to why I'm here in the same boat with you. Hope we can figure it out.
Edit: Specifically I'm hoping to upgrade to Lineage because it seems to be the most up to date of the available ROMs. From what I'm reading, I *think* all we need is an international firmware and the ROM. Not sure if we still need to swap a file in the firmware with the US one.
jrbmed08 said:
I just can't handle the size of almost anything out there today, plus I refuse to buy anything without a headphone jack until there are no more options for me. I actually dislike the square shape because it's more uncomforable to hold though. I switched from the XZ1c to a Pixel 2 because my husband got a cheap phone when we switched carriers, but I never should have given up the XZ1c. Ended up hating the dongle life and traded in the Pixel 2 for an S10e. I love everything about the S10e except it's just too big. Lately the S10e's battery has been going downhill, and I ended up getting an iphone 12 mini for work and loving the size, so I've been thinking about switching back to the XZ1c. But I tried for a few days and had a few issues with the older version of Android...and that brings me to why I'm here in the same boat with you. Hope we can figure it out.
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I've never been a fan of Samsung build quality. But there's something to be said for the development community on more popular devices.
Sony is supposed to be bringing back the compact line. I don't know if it will have the same clean lines but I think they learned their lesson with the "soap bar" look of the xz2. That might work for other manufacturers but I think it's safe so assume the Japanese aesthetic is what keeps Sony fans loyal to the brand.
What do you think of the iphone 12 mini? From a software standpoint I hate all things apple but I've always been impressed with apply build quality. I actually got my girlfriend one of those SE models last summer to replace her dying 7 or 8. Figured it was small and pocketable, better pics than most android phones, and with a nice small screen the battery life would be great. I even thought I might grab one for myself to play around with. Total miss on Apple's behalf. Took it back in less than a week for horrible battery life. And she is much less picky about battery life than I am.
Honestly that's why I'm still using the 3 or 4 year old Sony. I don't like phones that don't fit in my pocket, don't like overly effeminate round edges, I don't want to pay $1000 for a phone, and I really can't stand batteries that die quickly. At this point I don't even know what brands to look at. I always thought about one plus, but those are huge. Pixels are pretty ugly. So I'm sitting here with an outdated phone... but love the look and it gets the job done.
@POMF2K
Like ur reading my mind hahaha love the compact series sadlly the xz1 compact is the last of its kind.
It also saddens me how there barelly any life here this part of the forum when i see other pieces of **** phones with a gazillion pages and hundred difrent roms.
Thinking we will never see anything like this again and that rumor a couple of months ago about a new compact had a leak and looks more like there budget serie L.
Don't know how everyone feels about xiaomi but it seems the MI 11 mini is happening. If I read it right, it's still going to be close to a pixel 3/5 in size. I bought a MI pad 4 and couldn't be bothered with the MI UI but it seems most xiaomi have a ton of development support and mine even came with an unlocked bootloader(on MSM Xtended now).
I'm currently using Bliss on my xz1c and it hits all the boxes for me. Great battery life, great performance and tons of customizations. Fingerprint works and I'm rooted but I don't use Google Pay and don't have volte on my plan(Cricket) so I can't help you there.
AlexKarimov said:
Don't know how everyone feels about xiaomi but it seems the MI 11 mini is happening. If I read it right, it's still going to be close to a pixel 3/5 in size. I bought a MI pad 4 and couldn't be bothered with the MI UI but it seems most xiaomi have a ton of development support and mine even came with an unlocked bootloader(on MSM Xtended now).
I'm currently using Bliss on my xz1c and it hits all the boxes for me. Great battery life, great performance and tons of customizations. Fingerprint works and I'm rooted but I don't use Google Pay and don't have volte on my plan(Cricket) so I can't help you there.
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Yeah dont support china how people stil do is beyond me (this is not a race thing)
Bliss really that good ? have you happend to also tried other roms if yes what did u think of those?
Wish I could use Xiaomi but they never have US LTE bands. It's a shame because they make some nice devices and have good community support. I hate that they would call a phone of that size "mini" though, since the Pixel form factor is still too big. Kinda feels insulting to those of us who want an actually mini phone.
@POMF2K I adore the form factor of the iphone 12 mini. The combination of square sides with rounded corners looks unisex to me (although I'm a woman and wouldn't mind a slightly feminine look). The screen is small enough for me to reach all corners with one hand even without bezels. Gestures on iOS are pretty easy to learn and use. Dislike the notch but it's not a dealbreaker. I upgraded from my work iphone 8 and miss the fingerprint reader but otherwise prefer it for being slightly smaller (especially narrower), and the low-bezel look is quite pretty. Battery life kind of sucks. I'd say it's on par with the SE. But since it's not my primary device, I don't sweat it too much.
S10e as my daily driver has generally been good for me except slightly too big, mediocre battery life, and I can't root it. But at the same time I've come to appreciate the amount of customization possible with Samsung's UI and their own apps (Good Lock etc.). I *almost* don't miss rooting (although I miss having better control over wakelocks, apps that run at boot, etc.). So currently my plan if nothing else works out is to replace the battery and run that phone into the ground before I finally have to decide what to get next. Hard decision between the next mini iphone (if there is one) which has the form factor I want but I'd be giving up Android, fingerprint scanner, headphone jack, SD card, etc....and whatever the smallest Android phone I can find is.
mstrnemo said:
Bliss really that good ? have you happend to also tried other roms if yes what did u think of those?
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I really like it but we might have different priorities. The things that drew me to it were the GPS(was a big concern for work) and the customization. Bliss uses SODP based GPS and it works just as good as stock but faster. The ROM is also very smooth and fast and there are instructions for VOLTE users in the first few posts.
CONS: It hasn't been updated since September so I'm sitting on the 9/5/20 security patch but I don't know if that should bother me. Also, I have a UI freeze every so often if I open a text message from the lock screen but a quick UI restart from the power menu fixes it. Since changing the text app to open a quick reply instead of the full app, the freeze is so seldom I usually forget about it.
I have a second xz1c that I got a deal on so I mainly use it to test any ROM before I use it on my main, so I have that option without jeopardizing my existing setup(cheating, I know). That being said, I have used quite a few of the ROMs.
Tested extensively:
AEX Pie and Q: Q was my favorite ROM until updates stopped and the last build didn't have functioning GPS. I loved everything else about it. Stable, fast and enough customizations to satisfy me. When it stopped, I rolled back to AEX Pie and loved it as much. GPS works great and plenty of customizations. Only con with it is cell signal drops every now and then and has to be rebooted one to several times.
Crdroid Pie: was my first custom ROM. Great ROM. No complaints on this one other than I jumped on the wagon and wanted to try the new Q ROMs(didn't have 2nd phone then).
Crdroid Q: Haven't tested as a daily driver but it seems to be a very stable ROM.
CONS: I might put all Q(except Bliss) in this. There is a modem notification that activates on start up. Data won't connect if preferred is LTE but 3G works fine. There's a work around in the settings to connect in 3g on boot and automatically switch over to LTE but it hasn't been reliable for me. I'm on Cricket Wireless in western US so maybe that has something to do with it.
Havoc Q: Great ROM here as well. More customizations, very stable and great battery life. Fingerprint worked on all Q ROMs so far but Pie was so long ago, I don't remember.
Haven't tested extensively:
Lineage 16 and 17: Tried 17 briefly when I was desperate for a GPS solution. It was smooth and stable but not to my taste so I didn't stay with it.
11 ROMs: All are still on first or 2nd version. Enough draw backs that I'm not moving to them yet.
I hope that was helpful. Sorry I can't answer some of the more important questions(VOLTE, WIFI calling and data bands) but if you asked in the ROM threads, you'd probably get the exact answers you're looking for.
This person on Reddit found the proper mix of .sin files to get FP, VOLTE, Wifi calling and MMS working for the XZ1C. Its the guide I used and everything works fine. I used the US Android 9 image from Xperifirm and the 'custom UK' image for vendor and system sin files.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SonyXperia/comments/7433id/_/dnvum20