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Bad performance and other good/bad things (P10 Plus)

I have been using P10 Plus (6/128 GB) for a day, and I am trying really hard to like it. I haven't found all the good/bad points yet but the list of bad things is already kind of outweighing the list of good things. Were my expectations really just too high?
These are really just my opinions, and you are free to disagree. Even I might change my mind if there are really good reasons to!
I might as well add that paid about $860 (in Norway) for my P10 Plus while Galaxy S8+ costs "slightly more" (about $1,000). I just feel like I got so little in return for the price I paid.
I have to decide by tomorrow anyway whether to keep this device or return it, and I am currently leaning towards returning it.
Thanks for any tips, advices, opinions, etc.
Good things:
Responsive fingerprint reader on the front side, unlocks screen pretty much instantly.
Has a nice shape (like an iPhone 7). No annoying sharp edges except at the bottom holes for connectors, where I support the device with my pinky finger.
Lots of camera settings.
My device luckily has UFS 2.1.
Pretty good WiFi speed (measured more than 200 Mbps during internet speed test).
The DAC's quality is okay (not very good). A little bit of noise when using my sensitive in-ear headphones, but it's very bearable. This is only a "good" point because it's an upgrade from my old phone.
Bad things:
I already found some sluggish menus on day one.
Somewhat bad performance when taking photos and shooting videos, even playing back videos I captured is somewhat choppy.
The device gets pretty hot during "normal" (in my opinion light) use, and really hot while charging and during "heavy" (in my opinion normal) use.
Seems like the battery drains more quickly than I expected as well (larger battery does not make it much or any better than P10) so that I still need to bring an extra battery with me if I intend to use mobile data and GPS.
The swiping on the fingerprint reader is a bit of a hit and miss because it might register a tap which means "back" (or exit).
Photos taken and saved as JPEG look bad. RAW images look quite a bit better but it takes seconds to save each image.
My GFXBench result is pretty bad compared to other devices.
Nitpicking:
The edge of the screen protector is so annoying I want to take it off. Note: If you do it, you might want to apply oleophobic coating.
I wish the fingerprint sensor indentation was a bit less deep, because it makes the swiping motion feel less comfortable. The screen protector is probably most of the reason though.
I was never able to transfer app data (only apps themselves) from my old device using any method suggested by Huawei. The thing that did work was a backup/restore using adb.
USB 2 is pretty slow after getting used to USB 3.
The device sometimes thinks that I am using a knuckle gesture when I am using the tip of my finger.

sometimes very laggy also. And some apps not compatible with the camera.

Turns out that I am stuck with this device due to the shop's no-return policy on phones. I might as well begin training my mind to like the device. Won't feel guilty about rooting and trying custom ROMs now either.
@patriotzhou I think after a couple days, I am noticing the stuttering less for some reason..

nougn said:
Turns out that I am stuck with this device due to the shop's no-return policy on phones. I might as well begin training my mind to like the device. Won't feel guilty about rooting and trying custom ROMs now either.
@patriotzhou I think after a couple days, I am noticing the stuttering less for some reason..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Camera send not so good to me, maybe I don't know how to use it

nougn said:
I have been using P10 Plus (6/128 GB) for a day, and I am trying really hard to like it. I haven't found all the good/bad points yet but the list of bad things is already kind of outweighing the list of good things. Were my expectations really just too high?
Bad things:
The device gets pretty hot during "normal" (in my opinion light) use, and really hot while charging and during "heavy" (in my opinion normal) use.
Seems like the battery drains more quickly than I expected as well (larger battery does not make it much or any better than P10) so that I still need to bring an extra battery with me if I intend to use mobile data and GPS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much this phone is unusable due these 2 things, battery life is poor as AF, and from my perspective, Huawei messed up EMUI 5.1 really hard.
Probably an update would fix it, but we don't have ETA yet.
I will return back the P10 Plus because I think is not worth it, and I will buy a Mate 9 Pro that is virtually the same device, but battery life is so much better.

@nougn Which firmware are you on? In terms of battery life the phone may not be the best, but from my experience its also not bad either. 6 hours DOT should be possible unless you are a heavy gamer. However what you said about the device getting hot that does sound like it may have faulty hardware, I'd be careful with that. You should grab an app monitoring CPU and battery temperatures. If you come to the conclusion that the device is getting warmer than it should I'd contact Huawei on the matter. What I find most bizarre is that you say the performance is laggy at times, I never experienced even just the slightest lag no matter what I do, it is smooth as silk in every situation. Maybe another indication for faulty hardware.......? On a side note: the price you paid seems really high, a lot of commercial seller on ebay offer it for a lot less than that... but anyhow if you really wanted to get rid of the device you could always sell it on ebay or something, no? So you're never actually "stuck" with a device

Craphead said:
@nougn Which firmware are you on? In terms of battery life the phone may not be the best, but from my experience its also not bad either. 6 hours DOT should be possible unless you are a heavy gamer. However what you said about the device getting hot that does sound like it may have faulty hardware, I'd be careful with that. You should grab an app monitoring CPU and battery temperatures. If you come to the conclusion that the device is getting warmer than it should I'd contact Huawei on the matter. What I find most bizarre is that you say the performance is laggy at times, I never experienced even just the slightest lag no matter what I do, it is smooth as silk in every situation. Maybe another indication for faulty hardware.......? On a side note: the price you paid seems really high, a lot of commercial seller on ebay offer it for a lot less than that... but anyhow if you really wanted to get rid of the device you could always sell it on ebay or something, no? So you're never actually "stuck" with a device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This device always works in high temperatures, and is really easy for it to get hot. Use the camera more than 3 minutes and it will start to feel uncomfortable on hand.
I had the same experience, poor battery life and device most of the time hot. I checked the temperatures and is around 30°C on stand by, and after some minutes of WhatsApp and news, it was reaching 40°C, which is not normal at all, when my previous phone was around 18°C on stand by and 25°C in normal usage.
I'm used to stick with cold devices and is one of the first things I noticed when I used this device, and is a pretty common problem among many users. Most of the people would say that is only "warm", but I had the Mate 9 as well, with the same specs, and trust me, it was an ice cube the whole time.

Galaxo60 said:
when my previous phone was around 18°C on stand by and 25°C in normal usage.
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One has to keep in mind though that temperatures like that are impossible to reach in summer (unless its a very cold summer), the device can never be cooler than the air surrounding it

Craphead said:
One has to keep in mind though that temperatures like that are impossible to reach in summer (unless its a very cold summer), the device can never be cooler than the air surrounding it
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Click to collapse
Well, I'm talking about my room, which has air conditioning, and I just bought the P10 Plus and today I returned it back.
Problem solved, I got my money back, and I'm trying to see which phone to get, but pretty much I don' t like what I see in the market now.

Galaxo60 said:
This device always works in high temperatures, and is really easy for it to get hot. Use the camera more than 3 minutes and it will start to feel uncomfortable on hand.
I had the same experience, poor battery life and device most of the time hot. I checked the temperatures and is around 30°C on stand by, and after some minutes of WhatsApp and news, it was reaching 40°C, which is not normal at all, when my previous phone was around 18°C on stand by and 25°C in normal usage.
I'm used to stick with cold devices and is one of the first things I noticed when I used this device, and is a pretty common problem among many users. Most of the people would say that is only "warm", but I had the Mate 9 as well, with the same specs, and trust me, it was an ice cube the whole time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The standby drain is crazy and as you said the phone gets really hot when using the camera more than a few minutes.
Also one more problem is when the phone reach certain temperature the wide aperture effect in the gallery will stop working..
It's a pity since I like this phone in many ways and the camera is great.
But if Huawei don't fix it (very) soon i may be "forced" to sell it and get another one..
Almost regret that I sold my old Mate 8..
Sent from my VKY-L29 using Tapatalk

Bromsoket said:
The standby drain is crazy and as you said the phone gets really hot when using the camera more than a few minutes.
Also one more problem is when the phone reach certain temperature the wide aperture effect in the gallery will stop working..
It's a pity since I like this phone in many ways and the camera is great.
But if Huawei don't fix it (very) soon i may be "forced" to sell it and get another one..
Almost regret that I sold my old Mate 8..
Sent from my VKY-L29 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Today I returned my P10 Plus, for me there's no excuse to pay so much for a phone that has basic problems.
I will see if I get a Mate 9 Pro or any other phone, but I'm kind of picky when getting a new device.

Craphead said:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your advices! The current version is VKY-L29C432B150 (latest).
Sorry for the late response. I have been traveling for the past few days.
I decided to bring this phone with me on vacation to Japan where it is currently very humid and it feels like 33+ degrees C (91+ degrees F) in the sun. Trying to use mobile data, GPS and Google Maps is not exactly pleasant for my hand. The worst part is trying to take some photos because the device's temperature gets uncomfortably high for my hand. Will try to measure the temperatures next time I go out!
I am also really glad that I brought an extra battery, although the output of the extra battery (per port) is just enough (2.4A) to keep the device's battery percentage stable while using mobile data and GPS (goes up when idle).
I also guessed hardware defect, but it now seems like I am not the only one with problems. I really hope that Huawei can fix some things in the software, including the heat issue.

nougn said:
Thank you for your advices! The current version is VKY-L29C432B150 (latest).
Sorry for the late response. I have been traveling for the past few days.
I decided to bring this phone with me on vacation to Japan where it is currently very humid and it feels like 33+ degrees C (91+ degrees F) in the sun. Trying to use mobile data, GPS and Google Maps is not exactly pleasant for my hand. The worst part is trying to take some photos because the device's temperature gets uncomfortably high for my hand. Will try to measure the temperatures next time I go out!
I am also really glad that I brought an extra battery, although the output of the extra battery (per port) is just enough (2.4A) to keep the device's battery percentage stable while using mobile data and GPS (goes up when idle).
I also guessed hardware defect, but it now seems like I am not the only one with problems. I really hope that Huawei can fix some things in the software, including the heat issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should post your experiences in the battery thread, so it could have more visibility and people can start to acknowledge this, would be really nice from you to do it.
:good:

Different screens
The P10 plus has a IPS LCD screen
The Mate 9 pro has a AMO-LED screen
maybe that adds to the difference in SOT for the two Huawei devices...

ludensen said:
The P10 plus has a IPS LCD screen
The Mate 9 pro has a AMO-LED screen
maybe that adds to the difference in SOT for the two Huawei devices...
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Click to collapse
I'm sorry, but there is no way that the screen technology is the decisive factor between 3 and 6 hours SOT.

ludensen said:
adds to the difference
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Click to collapse
Galaxo60 said:
decisive factor
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Click to collapse
That's how you choose to read my post - but not what I wrote, IMHO
My point is to raise awareness about the different screen technologies, because I've seen more than one comparison where the two devices are said to use the same screen (probably because of same size and res.), but that is plain WRONG!

ludensen said:
That's how you choose to read my post - but not what I wrote, IMHO
My point is to raise awareness about the different screen technologies, because I've seen more than one comparison where the two devices are said to use the same screen (probably because of same size and res.), but that is plain WRONG!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand your point, but still having AMOLED display means nothing in 2017. You can see the HTC U11 with LCD and has pretty goddamn battery life. You can have the normal Mate 9 with IPS and also has a really nice battery life. Right now screen technologies are really mature and it doesn't influence much (or at all) what kind is on a phone.

@Galaxo60
Point taken

Came from S8, I used it for a couple of months and now Im using P10 Plus.
Im more than happy now with P10+.

I have had my P10 Plus for about 2 months now and I can tell you I get around 5 hours of SOT with 1-2 of gaming. The battery stays at 100% for about 15 minutes regardless what I do and then begins to drop. Somehow form 70% downwards it starts to really slow its discharge rate. You might worry about this but the honest truth is that I can make it at the end of each day (around midnight) with around 15-20% battery left. For me this is more than enough as I recharge my phone every night.
I would suggest you stop worrying about your phone dying on you and just start using it. Also use Phone Manager once a day and you'll be good to go.
Hope it helps.

Mini review and damn impressed with the MATE-10

I got the Mate 10 last week (not PRO) and I'm very impressed with the phone, I've tried a lot of phones and this one is really hard to fault, the only thing is that it's not running stock Android, but with Nova Launcher on it, you can make it feel like it, so no biggy here, now the rest, damn impressed with it, amazing camera, had the S8+ before this one and in my opinion, the pictures are simply amazing... great 6" 2k screen, with the regular 16:9 aspect ratio, so no letter boxing when watching videos and because the bezels on the sides are very, very slim, it feels great in the hand too... headphone jack output quality is clear and loud, not as loud as the V30, but very close... IR blaster (missed these on phones), it's awesome when you are in the sofa chilling and the remote is gone on a mystical journey again and no where to be found, but hey, just use your phone to control your TV =D... And now the battery, wow, very impressed, never had a phone that lasted me a full day off the charger, I use my phone heavily, so I always had to top up my other phones around 3pm, after unplugging at 6am, with the Mate 10, I'm getting 8hrs SOT, enough to last me 18hrs off the charger, simply amazing battery beast.
If you are looking for a new phone, with top of the range specs and without breaking the bank, I recommend the Mate 10, right now the true flagship killer IMHO.

absolutely correct! im also getting around 8h SOT and i play alot of heavy games. first i though that the phone is draining battery fast but after seeing SOT i realized that it was just my illusion. the 12 core gpu drains the battery faster but actually not that fast. i have set the screen to 1080p mode and power saving toggle is turned on and the phone is still blazing fast even in heavy games. the camera in DxO mark scored 97 (100 in picture quality) and that is truly amazing. knowing that at this point i can respond to those note 8 and iphone x owners who brag about their phone being a camera topper and performance beast. in newer antutu 7 people say that kirin 970 already beaten up the SD845. if thats real then i dont know why would someone not get this phone. the audio quality is just jaw dropping. not to mention the powerful theme engine huehuehue.
also the charging speed is insane. 0 to 100% in just 80 minutes is awesome.

Saadkhalid786 said:
absolutely correct! im also getting around 8h SOT and i play alot of heavy games. first i though that the phone is draining battery fast but after seeing SOT i realized that it was just my illusion. the 12 core gpu drains the battery faster but actually not that fast. i have set the screen to 1080p mode and power saving toggle is turned on and the phone is still blazing fast even in heavy games. the camera in DxO mark scored 97 (100 in picture quality) and that is truly amazing. knowing that at this point i can respond to those note 8 and iphone x owners who brag about their phone being a camera topper and performance beast. in newer antutu 7 people say that kirin 970 already beaten up the SD845. if thats real then i dont know why would someone not get this phone. the audio quality is just jaw dropping. not to mention the powerful theme engine huehuehue.
also the charging speed is insane. 0 to 100% in just 80 minutes is awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I swap phones very often, every week or 2 weeks, but I don't know what to get now, because I'll feel like I've just downgraded and there will be nothing new to try, the only one I'm considering right now is the Mi MIX 2 or Essential phone, because of the narrow top bezel, but other than that, I know I'll have a worst phone compared to the MATE 10, so there is really no reason to get another phone, when the Mate 10 is this good. Oh well, guess I found the perfect phone for me, finally xD

This looks like as good as any place to add my thoughts on my ALP-L29 (Mate 10 non pro).. I'm not going to rattle specs, just highlight features I enjoy..
1 month in, 3 firmware updates thus far, unrooted and still content..
Design:
Though the idea of a glass sandwich makes for slippery surfaces, drops, constant fingerprints and extra weight, it is stunningly beautiful. The ergonomics are very good with no sharp edges, balanced perfectly and is one of the few devices with a symmetric design. The volume/power button placement isn't ideal though, I prefer a better separation or texture to identity what I'm pressing, and using these for screenshots is awkward. Thankfully there are several ways to bypass this minor issue. I use my device on a desk and appreciate the front fingerprint scanner location as well.
Hardware:
The inclusion of an ir blaster wasn't a feature I looked for, but find myself using frequently. My daughter constantly leaves the TV remote in odd places and I save stress/time just using my phone instead. I really enjoy the desktop mode, and the added functionality of the usb 3.0.. I travel frequently and am looking forward to leaving the laptop at home. The headphone jack was and is still a main reason I didn't choose the pro model. The rest of the hardware is as described, awesome battery life, great camera and blazingly fast fingerprint scanner..
Software:
Emui is different, not bad, but feels a bit heavy.. I forgive most of this due to its included theming, functions like gesture/voice controls and uniqueness over not just being another "android".. I still threw Nova on it because the stock launcher is too limited (as most stock launchers are). The updates have been regular, no rogue apps eating battery and everything has been super stable. There are flaws though. The non removable battery notifications of heavy apps is annoying, the knuckle gestures (while sometimes useful) rarely work as accurately as I'd like and there is performance optimization problems. I find small lags sometimes while scrolling, slight touch accuracy/unresponsiveness several times (across updates, maybe hardware related), and its aggressive ram/battery management sometimes reloads even single apps..
Being a phone:
At the end of the day this is a phone, and as a phone it works very well. I travel through Paris daily by metro, and signal strength has been good and keeps cellular connection better than my old phone. I don't miss messages or calls, though the mobile data cuts out a bit more than my last device which I find odd.. It'll have reasonable signal but doesn't try to keep poor mobile data connection, maybe to save battery?.. This happens as well with the switch between 2g/3g/4g, often preferring the lower band unless signals are ideal (toggling airplane mode helps coax it to grab the higher band). Call quality has been excellent, loud and no complaints about the microphone output.
Conclusion:
As I've stated, I'm very content, and recommend this device. It's a powerful flagship, great for media consumers, gamers, photo junkies and those who need a bit more productivity out of their device. It has stamina for a full days usage and charges in mere minutes for a few extra hours if needed.. The positives far outweigh any minor annoyances. This is the first device I haven't eagerly wanted to unlock, root and mod..

Not going to rehash what all the previous users have already stated. Even the little quirks can be ironed out with a little research and playing around with the numerous settings. Great phone! Highly recommended. I do believe that after many years of phones going in the opposite direction from what I wanted that I have finally found the one that ticks all the boxes for me! I cannot imagine another phone satisfying me as much...unless Huawei makes another one with all the same ports but with newer SOC's.

Op6 or p20pro?

I'm mostly considering battery life and everyday camera.
I'm typing from my op6 but I might return it as it has terrible battery life, everything else is fab.
What are your thoughts?

Considering batter life and camera performance its most probably the P20 pro. But if you want to install custom roms and have a great developer scene you should stick with the OP6.
BTW I've never heard the op6 had a terrible battery life really.

Thx, have the stuttering and cursor latency been fixed?
Lots of complaints on the op forum.
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/...ve-battery-life.837232/page-124#post-18580171
I for one have 4h sot doing very light tasks.
Might be due poor reception as well.

varignet said:
Thx, have the stuttering and cursor latency been fixed?
Lots of complaints on the op forum.
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/...ve-battery-life.837232/page-124#post-18580171
I for one have 4h sot doing very light tasks.
Might be due poor reception as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery is the best ive ever had... IVE been up for over an hour checking email and something on ebay and im still at 100%... as far as the camera. its also great and will get better with upcoming updates..

freddyttt said:
Battery is the best ive ever had... IVE been up for over an hour checking email and something on ebay and im still at 100%... as far as the camera. its also great and will get better with upcoming updates..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose you're referring to the p20pro
any problem issue anything? I for instance remember people having issue with the cursor latency and after a bit of digging it seems it was solved with v110 or 120 of the firmware.
Would you overall recommend it?

varignet said:
Thx, have the stuttering and cursor latency been fixed?
Lots of complaints on the op forum.
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/...ve-battery-life.837232/page-124#post-18580171
I for one have 4h sot doing very light tasks.
Might be due poor reception as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With 4h of very light tasks, on P20 Pro you'll end up with 50% battery remaining or even more. With heavy usage (a full day in 4g,high accuracy location always ON, 2 hours of music streaming, 30 mins of heavy gaming, taking pics etc...) I got 4-5h of sot with 15-20% left.
The screen latency was fixed with updates. I overall recommend it! If you're looking for great battery and a great camera in a smartphone, this one is the best right now. Some review adresses poor camera performance, but in real life it's outstanding: zoom, low light and the large amount of setting makes it the most versatile camera out there.

varignet said:
I'm mostly considering battery life and everyday camera.
I'm typing from my op6 but I might return it as it has terrible battery life, everything else is fab.
What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very tough one that.
Camera is better on the p20 pro besides video which is superior on the oneplus 6
Battery is a tough one, the p20 pro has a huge battery but at the same time it's not the most efficient device in the world, i average about 8 hours SOT per full charge, where as with my oneplus 5 i used to average 10 hours maxing out one time with a mental 14 hours SOT, the pro simply can't beat that, with that being said though the oneplus 6 hasnt upgraded it's battery afaik so it would probably even out with the p20 pro or perhaps be worse.
in regards to software, with a few tweaks the p20 pro is a very well customized device with all the options you'll ever need.
The oneplus is really minimal which is superb for pace, but you'll have more ROM's to flash than you'll know what to do with.
Aftermarket development is totally one sided with the Oneplus 6 getting a lot of attention and some great developers whereas the p20 has erm ? 2 i think
CPU / GPU: Oneplus 6 hands down, the 845 is a crazy processor which will never slow down plus it's very efficient and seldom overheats, you'd have to throw a lot at it.
The P20 on the other hand gets warm at times when very little is going on.
If i had the choice now? I think i'd probably get the oneplus 6 although i'd probably be looking over the fence at the p20 pro, it's camera is just amazing.
Depends what you want pal, i don't think theres a wrong decision here, they're both great devices.
Just to confuse you even more, why don't you wait for the pixel 3 xl, it's looking decent.

P20 Pro is definitely the one to get if you're looking for great battery life+cameras, I've heard about the battery issues on the OP6 too, OP pushed an update that disabled the always on display because of poor battery life the P20 Pro should fare much much better. Definitely get the P20 Pro if you can, it's just a better phone overall, speakers are top notch, performance is great and the chin is smaller in person, haven't had any issues so far.

varignet said:
I suppose you're referring to the p20pro
any problem issue anything? I for instance remember people having issue with the cursor latency and after a bit of digging it seems it was solved with v110 or 120 of the firmware.
Would you overall recommend it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes p20 pro... my short lists of phones
v30
s9+
note8
op6
u12+
ive got zero regrets choosing this phone. the battery and camera are amazing. the Op6 was in the running until i looked at phots posted from real users and NOT professional review sights. I use Nova pro and glance plus to handle my notifications and AOD. in short. amazing. love the blacks(screen) this phone produces.

Sample indoor low light

7 things I wish I knew before buying the K20 Pro

This isn't a rant, just things which I've noticed of considerable concern.
Hi, just a full disclosure. I bought a K20 Pro Chinese rom from Aliexpress, waited 3 months and watched a lot of reviews. I'm english speaking, so none of these issues were brought up in the video's I watched.
1) The speaker at the bottom is too easy to cover, as a right hand user. I cannot comfortably watch videos in portrait mode without accidentally concealing it.
2) The camera reflects its own infrared on closeup images of shiny objects.
https://imgur.com/9iCMfut
3) The display is not sharp. This clarity is comparable to the Galaxy S3, you can see the pixels individually and quite vividly. This makes icon edges appear blurry. I'll put this down to the low resolution, as compared to my 2k display of the Galaxy Note 5.
https://imgur.com/rExaM1Z
4) The display is very thin. Having come from the Galaxy Note 5, I'm used to a wider phone. But this is much to small to consume media in vertical form.
5) The battery life isn't great. It lasts a day, and only a day with medium use.
6) Gestures in Android 9 are broken. Specifically the 'recents gesture' and the 'go back'. I only had about a 10% success rate with the 'recents gesture', it just didn't want to work. Whereas the 'go back' gesture works a bit too well and I was constantly going back accidentally as you can swipe from either side.
7) MIUI is not good. I personally do not find it enjoyable to use.

Three months is a long time. I was getting impatient and got it after 30 days. I'll say I agree with the speaker being easy to cover, that being said you can just turn the phone upside down.

1) just turn device upside down.
2) weird thing indeed
3) pretty okay for the price, not best display ever, but not uncomfortable to me..
4)there's a choice here, if you make it too wide, you make it hard to use with a single hand...
5) pretty great here, I don't know what you call "medium use", but here I'm getting all day long (lasting around 25% in the end of it) with 7 hours of screen on... I consider it as hard use. It is not great compared to what, exactly?
6)never used it, can't opine...
7)I used to be a vanilla guy, miui stock is just awful for me. But, xiaomi.eu rom is pretty great, I believe you could give it a try. It is just what miui should be...
Cheers

I wasn't pleased too when i went from Galaxy s8 to one plus 5t about the display but you will get used to it believe me , it's a good display you will not notice any pixel after some time , almost every phone nowadays comes in FHD+ except high end Samsung , besides it's 6'4 inch it's really big
---------- Post added at 09:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 PM ----------
And you're completely wrong about the battery life maybe you have a faulty unit because the battery is amazing I'm getting 7 to 9 SOT

In my opinion:
1) Agree with you, but although I always (almost) use headphones it doesnt bother me. But, you can flip the phone to avoid this scenario...
2) Never noticed.
3) It is really not an ultra sharp display, but it is far from S3, which was ~300ppi, K20 is ~400ppi. Amoled pentile will hardly give an sharp display on FHD+ displays.
4) You are a long time whitout upgrading, thin phones are a trend since 2018. Last decent 16:9 phone was Huawei Mate 10.
5) Luckily you didnt buy other phones as this one have a great battery life on today standards.
6) It is necessary some time to get used and increase accuracy on gestures.
7) Having had mainly Samsungs, LGs, Motos, Huaweis and Xiaomis, I think MIUI is on par with EMUI (Huawei) and better than Samsung/LG/Moto.
Edit: Item 5. According to GSMArena, battery on K20 stands ~45% longer than Note5 for video playback. ~15% more for talking time, and ~25% more for browsing.

I don't know if the K20 Pro is different from the Mi 9T Pro but i can't agree on the unsharp display. Maybe with a magnifying glass but it is as sharp as any other phone i had before including my P30. Same for the battery life, i can easily hit 10 hours SOT in a day without having to charge it. Tried gestures, works well for me. The thin display isn't as good for videos, yes but overall it's quite nice to use/ handle. Also i'm okay with MIUI. It looks pretty nice and got some good customization options and it's certainly better than EMUI. But i can agree on it being a bit weird to use if you're used to stock Android.

Thanks for your positive feedback.
Someone suggested that I just rotate the phone 180 degrees to avoid covering the speaker, how does one enable this rotation in miui?
A suggestion was made about miui.eu, I plan to flash this when the 7 day unlock period expires.
Regarding the battery, it's just not revolutionary. Sitting around the 1 day mark. Has anyone had any positive battery life improvements using a custom kernel?

Turbine1991 said:
This isn't a rant, just things which I've noticed of considerable concern.
Hi, just a full disclosure. I bought a K20 Pro Chinese rom from Aliexpress, waited 3 months and watched a lot of reviews. I'm english speaking, so none of these issues were brought up in the video's I watched.
1) The speaker at the bottom is too easy to cover, as a right hand user. I cannot comfortably watch videos in portrait mode without accidentally concealing it.
2) The camera reflects its own infrared on closeup images of shiny objects.
https://imgur.com/9iCMfut
3) The display is not sharp. This clarity is comparable to the Galaxy S3, you can see the pixels individually and quite vividly. This makes icon edges appear blurry. I'll put this down to the low resolution, as compared to my 2k display of the Galaxy Note 5.
https://imgur.com/rExaM1Z
4) The display is very thin. Having come from the Galaxy Note 5, I'm used to a wider phone. But this is much to small to consume media in vertical form.
5) The battery life isn't great. It lasts a day, and only a day with medium use.
6) Gestures in Android 9 are broken. Specifically the 'recents gesture' and the 'go back'. I only had about a 10% success rate with the 'recents gesture', it just didn't want to work. Whereas the 'go back' gesture works a bit too well and I was constantly going back accidentally as you can swipe from either side.
7) MIUI is not good. I personally do not find it enjoyable to use.
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Click to collapse
hmmm no way its comparable , fyi i still have mine retired S3 , a sammy user since galaxy S , size wise k20 pro its pretty standard , note series i is always consider a bigger size phone , similar one perhaps might be mi max ? battery seem good so far , sorry but older sammy phones model, battery life always fail me , gestures , never use , maybe i am old school , miui does take a while to get used to , just throw in a poco launcher ,never like miui messy home screen , and the price you paid for a sd855 , not sure what country you are from , a samsung comes with exynos chipset most of the time , cant expect top quality hardware in all aspect ?

1. This issue isn't exactly exclusive to the K20 Pro, many devices have bottom firing speakers, not really and issue for me. I am also right handed and I rarely cover the speaker when using it in landscape.
2. You can avoid the infrared reflection issue by switching to manual focus.
3. Imo the display is fine. You are just coming from a phone with a QHD display (you should have done your research before buying)
4. The display is supposed to be taller and the fact that its taller make its naturally narrower for its size (6.39") The aspect ratio (18:9) on the K20 Pro is is used on all modern flagships now as it is better suited to the portrait content that is consumed on a smartphone. and as for "This clarity is comparable to the Galaxy S3" either your device is faulty or you're just talking crap. The galaxy S3 has a pixel density of 306 ppi and the K20 Pro's display has a pixel density of 403 ppi which is more than a noticeable difference
5. Most people have reported great battery life. I have gotten 2 days on a single charge before and in some cases getting over 10 hours of screen on time unless you game then of course it wont last as long.
6. I haven't had any issues with MIUI gestures, they work perfectly fine for me.
7. I love MIUI, this is my first Xiaomi device. When I first ordered the device I didn't think I'd like MIUI and thought I would end up switching to a custom rom like Pixel Experience or Lineage but I learned to love it. MIUI has the best gestures, it looks awesome, it is well optimised and performs great with great battery life.
I did a considerable amount of research before buying. Some of the issue you have stated were mentioned like the bottom firing speaker, the display being FHD+, the infrared reflection wasn't an issue on your note 5 because the note 5 doesn't have laser autofocus (which can be disabled) this isnt really an issue its just an extra feature on the K20 Pro which you don't have to use.
The K20 Pro is far cheaper than any other current flagship out there, so you cant expect it to have all the same flagship features. They obviously had to save money in some areas, for example the display is FHD+ unlike some Samsung, LG, Sony and OnePlus devices which have QHD Displays, Gorilla Glass 5 instead of 6, no wireless charging, the type-c port is only USB 2.0, no IP rating when this devices has been proven to be considerably water resistant

lordkiller347 said:
1. This issue isn't exactly exclusive to the K20 Pro, many devices have bottom firing speakers, not really and issue for me. I am also right handed and I rarely cover the speaker when using it in landscape.
2. You can avoid the infrared reflection issue by switching to manual focus.
3. Imo the display is fine. You are just coming from a phone with a QHD display (you should have done your research before buying)
4. The display is supposed to be taller and the fact that its taller make its naturally narrower for its size (6.39") The aspect ratio (18:9) on the K20 Pro is is used on all modern flagships now as it is better suited to the portrait content that is consumed on a smartphone. and as for "This clarity is comparable to the Galaxy S3" either your device is faulty or you're just talking crap. The galaxy S3 has a pixel density of 306 ppi and the K20 Pro's display has a pixel density of 403 ppi which is more than a noticeable difference
5. Most people have reported great battery life. I have gotten 2 days on a single charge before and in some cases getting over 10 hours of screen on time unless you game then of course it wont last as long.
6. I haven't had any issues with MIUI gestures, they work perfectly fine for me.
7. I love MIUI, this is my first Xiaomi device. When I first ordered the device I didn't think I'd like MIUI and thought I would end up switching to a custom rom like Pixel Experience or Lineage but I learned to love it. MIUI has the best gestures, it looks awesome, it is well optimised and performs great with great battery life.
I did a considerable amount of research before buying. Some of the issue you have stated were mentioned like the bottom firing speaker, the display being FHD+, the infrared reflection wasn't an issue on your note 5 because the note 5 doesn't have laser autofocus (which can be disabled) this isnt really an issue its just an extra feature on the K20 Pro which you don't have to use.
The K20 Pro is far cheaper than any other current flagship out there, so you cant expect it to have all the same flagship features. They obviously had to save money in some areas, for example the display is FHD+ unlike some Samsung, LG, Sony and OnePlus devices which have QHD Displays, Gorilla Glass 5 instead of 6, no wireless charging, the type-c port is only USB 2.0, no IP rating when this devices has been proven to be considerably water resistant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 to all of this except 7.
MIUI does have some plus points, but for me, nowhere near enough to compensate for it's bad points. The only thing I miss is MIUI gestures.
I bought the phone knowing I'd be going to custom ROMs as soon as the bootloader could be unlocked.
With a good custom ROM, I cannot fault the phone for it's price point.

I gotta say that I think the battery life is absolutely insane (I came from a jailbroken iPhone X, but had tons of Xiaomis etc before). I charge it every evening but sometimes I just dont, because I got 60+ % and it jsut doesnt feel right.
I use the MIUI 11 ROM from xiaomi.eu, and I really loved MIUI since MIUI 6/7. I enjoyed some extra features(really great dark mode, always on display, dual apps, ...) and the visual look of it. As far as I know there are already quite a lot of roms with stock android for the phone.

Robbo.5000 said:
+1 to all of this except 7.
MIUI does have some plus points, but for me, nowhere near enough to compensate for it's bad points. The only thing I miss is MIUI gestures.
I bought the phone knowing I'd be going to custom ROMs as soon as the bootloader could be unlocked.
With a good custom ROM, I cannot fault the phone for it's price point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You say it doesn't compensate for its bad point. If you're gonna say something like that then maybe you should enlighten us on what those bad points are.

lordkiller347 said:
You say it doesn't compensate for its bad point. If you're gonna say something like that then maybe you should enlighten us on what those bad points are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My main issues are
Data Harvesting - on a worse scale than Google
Ads - which are convoluted to turn off, though it's supposed to be easier in MIUI 11
Bloatware - There is an immense amount of bloat, most of which cannot be removed. Compare the running services of a freshly booted phone running MIUI with, say, an AOSP ROM and see the vast increase MIUI is running, the majority if which you have no idea what or why.
It was developed to be, and still is to some degree, an iOS clone.
There were others and if I were to revert back to MIUI I'd remember what they were.

Turbine1991 said:
Thanks for your positive feedback.
Someone suggested that I just rotate the phone 180 degrees to avoid covering the speaker, how does one enable this rotation in miui?
A suggestion was made about miui.eu, I plan to flash this when the 7 day unlock period expires.
Regarding the battery, it's just not revolutionary. Sitting around the 1 day mark. Has anyone had any positive battery life improvements using a custom kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you own the indian variant or chinese? Apparently the indian has a lower quality display, that could explain why some people aren't finding that themselves, because I own the chinese and its pretty damn clear; Even comparing it to friends S9/S10's and latest iPhones.

The screen doesn't seem pixelated to me. Perhaps you're used to higher resolution displays. I've upgraded from the OnePlus 5 and haven't seen a reduction in image quality.
Gestures work fine for me. I didn't need an adjustment period, they were pretty intuitive and back works pretty much every time (with no accidental back swipes), while recents works like 9/10 times.
I don't have a problem with covering the speaker. When watching YouTube I grip the phone by the middle section with one hand, I don't hold it with both hands like when you play games.
Battery life isn't extraordinary, but it's decent compared to my OnePlus 5.
You can debloat most MIUI ROMs using the Xiaomi ADB/Fastboot tool.

Looking forward to trying miui 11. It's not officially available yet to Chinese rom users outside China.

Turbine1991 said:
Looking forward to trying miui 11. It's not officially available yet to Chinese rom users outside China.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
xiaomi.eu is the way to go

Okay, real talk
point 5 is straight up trolling?
I have to charge mine like once in 2 days and you're talking about not great battery life - what the hell
A full charge gets me like 11 sometimes even 12 hours SoT with medium/normal usage (youtube, spotify, browsing, mails etc. - basically everything except games).
Do you game all day long or what?
what battery life do you expect anyway? Theres not many devices which can even last that long as the K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro does (with somewhat similar pefomance obviously)

NZ Razer said:
Do you own the indian variant or chinese? Apparently the indian has a lower quality display, that could explain why some people aren't finding that themselves, because I own the chinese and its pretty damn clear; Even comparing it to friends S9/S10's and latest iPhones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OP must have a defective unit (battery, display). There is no way the display is 'poor' quality, compared to my 6T its much sharper and vivid. Battery life is also one of the best I have seen (less than 2% discharge overnight) I have been playing games on Dolphin, PPSSPP, etc and a full charge can easily last 4+ hours, and that's using emulators which are extreme battery hogs. Xiaomi have been pretty transparent about how and when they collect our data by giving us optout options nearly everywhere, which is something I cant say about other shady companies out there who are in the same line of business. Besides, data harvesting and adds can easily be tackled by debloating/flashing EU rom, where the 1st done doesn't even need root.
Finally coming from OOS the MIUI can be a pain to use but now I am beginning to like the features that it offers, for example, full-screen mode and gestures which I never thought would make my life so much easier. All in all this phone has been a wonderful upgrade for me and I couldn't be any happier.

Turbine1991 said:
Looking forward to trying miui 11. It's not officially available yet to Chinese rom users outside China.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
whats weird is many of mine country already gotten android 10 update , i didnt received any

General s21 Ultra G998U1 Opinions - Android 11 vs. 12

Opinions are like a-holes, so I thought I'd stay in character & post mine.
This is my first Samsung. Until now, 9 of 10 phones I've owned have been Moto - I used to work for the company and got stuck on them (even when they went to Google then Lenovo). All phones have been rooted since 2010 when I got my first Droid Razr. It's been about 6 years since I've been cutting edge - my last phone was so incredibly reliable I got stuck on it. I've never owned an iPhone & never will. This past December my house decided to overhaul our devices, so I got the s21 Ultra for ~850 USD after discounts. I've been on Verizon since 1999.
My primary uses for owning a mobile device are directly related to the Windows & Linux experiences I have in my life. I want something with maximum horsepower, something I can lock down the best I can, tweak, web/text/data etc., a cutting edge camera, quick & easy 24/7 webdav, and seamless connection/configurability to my NAS. I don't play games (yet) and don't use any social media apps. My machines have to do exactly what I say, quickly, and look good doing it.
There are plenty of people here who could flesh out the technical better than I, but the reason I wanted to share my thoughts here is because I absolutely love this phone & cannot stop talking about it. I love the feel of it, the weight, the screen, the speed & the camera. When I take the few extra seconds to frame & configure a shot, the photos/videos dust the iPhones everyone else uses in my house. One of the things I don't hear many talk about with this phone is how it feels in your hand & on your face when you're actually on a call. Never have I held such a quality device - it's less like a slab and more like a monolith. Anyone who has spent that extra money on say, a car, can attest to this. I really believe I got what I paid for and that's such a terrific feeling I seldom feel anymore.
So when I got the phone I flashed it out of the box to A12 XAA 4BUKF before I even simmed it. Because root was not available, I used ADB AppControl (phenomenal software) to tweak & script the changes I made. I am one of the lucky ones who was able to run 12 with minimal issues. After reading some of the thoughts on 12, I flashed back to A11 XAA 4AUJ7 to test it. Here are my general thoughts on Android 11 vs 12.
Quick notes: I do not use Bixby, I kept only the Samsung apps I ended up liking such as Gallery, Camera, Calculator, Keyboard & Voicemail. I ditched all the rest. I use Signal for texting, Edge for browsing and a few older misc. apps/widgets for everyday stuff.
FunctionEdgeCommentsData SpeedsTie80-150mbps 5G in the NW suburbs of ChicagoCall QualityTieBloatTieBoth are loaded with garbage. If for whatever reason I was restricted in my abilities to adb into this phone, I would not own it.Camera12• The stock camera app produces superior pictures on 12 imho, but both require manual iris intervention before every shot.
• If memory serves me right, the stabilizer "click" when you tilt the phone is not present like it is on 11. Can someone on 12 confirm this?Processing Speeds1111 is smoother and slightly faster.OneUI12• Real close but 12 edges out 11 because of the 85% charge option & ability to add an image to the peek/always on screen.
• Again I am one of the lucky ones as both were equally stable
*** As a new Samsung user, I'm floored by the customizability of OneUI and I love it. I could write pages about the changes I made in here. Bravo Samsung.Battery11Distant first place. The battery on 11 feels nearly twice as good. I get just at/under two days on a 100% charge with moderate use.Overall Personal Preference12But I am staying on 11 for now because of the battery, unfortunately. There is just no comparison.
*** Flashing this phone has been a seamlesss experience and not once has it *****ed at me about a single thing.
After weeks of research, attached are the apps I've frozen which produce no drain. I went much further than this, but reverted back to this in the end due to some perceived drain. Here are some pictures & a video I've taken with the stock app just for giggles - view settings can be changed to thumbnails using the icon on the top right of the page. These are untouched outside of the phone.
Outstanding phone, best I've ever owned, and I'm going to keep it for years. I would love to hear some counterpoints on what I've listed here.

Hi, thanks for the detailed review. Is that Exynos or Snapdragon?

ssj100 said:
Hi, thanks for the detailed review. Is that Exynos or Snapdragon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally. Snapdragon.

@burnxtc the one counterpoint that helps null Android is Samsung's going chintzy and removing the SD card slot. That combined with the new Google Android OS's new forced encryption and scoped storage the S21U is more Apple than Android.
Samsung hasn't been firing on all cylinders for way over a year. The N10+ was the last homerun flagship release Samsung made... in my opinion.
​

burnxtc said:
Totally. Snapdragon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting that you also notice the "processing speeds" to be a bit slower with 12. I definitely noticed it with the Exynos here (have owned it since pretty much release). Since 12, I've also observed issues with:
Picture in Picture, Split Screen etc - Refresh Rate drops to 60Hz (EXYNOS)
Hi there, I'd not noticed this before the Android 12 update, but refresh rate appears to drop from 120Hz to 60Hz when using Picture in Picture or Split Screen views. Can anyone else reproduce this please? You can confirm this by going into...
forum.xda-developers.com
And certainly animation "jitteriness" not infrequently has suddenly become noticeable where it didn't really exist on 11.

ssj100 said:
Interesting that you also notice the "processing speeds" to be a bit slower with 12. I definitely noticed it with the Exynos here (have owned it since pretty much release). Since 12, I've also observed issues with:
Picture in Picture, Split Screen etc - Refresh Rate drops to 60Hz (EXYNOS)
Hi there, I'd not noticed this before the Android 12 update, but refresh rate appears to drop from 120Hz to 60Hz when using Picture in Picture or Split Screen views. Can anyone else reproduce this please? You can confirm this by going into...
forum.xda-developers.com
And certainly animation "jitteriness" not infrequently has suddenly become noticeable where it didn't really exist on 11.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The refresh rate stuff is definitely something missing from my review. I am all eyes when I've read about it on this forum and learning much more about it.

ssj100 said:
Interesting that you also notice the "processing speeds" to be a bit slower with 12. I definitely noticed it with the Exynos here (have owned it since pretty much release). Since 12, I've also observed issues with:
Picture in Picture, Split Screen etc - Refresh Rate drops to 60Hz (EXYNOS)
Hi there, I'd not noticed this before the Android 12 update, but refresh rate appears to drop from 120Hz to 60Hz when using Picture in Picture or Split Screen views. Can anyone else reproduce this please? You can confirm this by going into...
forum.xda-developers.com
And certainly animation "jitteriness" not infrequently has suddenly become noticeable where it didn't really exist on 11.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The forced encryption maybe but certainly the scoped storage is sucking away cpu cycles for nothing. It's like air drag on a jet fighter, you can jam in bigger engines but the drag is still there slowing it down and burning more fuel.
For what? I like my Androids fast and loose.

burnxtc said:
The refresh rate stuff is definitely something missing from my review. I am all eyes when I've read about it on this forum and learning much more about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a big problem on all variable rate displays. All suffer from reduced color rendering to a greater or lesser degree.
Display reliability has also dropped it seems. That's a big reason I decided on buying a second N10+, probably the best display out there for color rendering, still. It slaughters the Apples too.
Still waiting for the newest model reviews but don't expect the color rendering index to increase much or at all; variable refresh rate displays are extremely hard to color calibrate, just too many variables. They are smooth but eat power. My SOT is 7-12%@hr with a 4300 mAh battery using 35-50% manual brightness. Ram usage almost never exceeds 5.3gb so it's snappy. The memory is roughly 20% less efficient than what you have.
So where's all the battery going on the newer models?
So pick your poison. For me it was choosing a phone over 2 years after it was first released. I have 2 N10+'s, the oldest will be 2.5 yo in March.
A Snapdragon variant 512/12gb running on Pie.
Current load will be 2 yo in June, still fast and stable, security isn't an issue. Only repair was a battery replacement back in April 2021. It looks and runs like new, zero detectable display degradation in this heavily used device. It's a beast. The reliability, display quality, battery life (trade offs: no 5G, variable refresh rate, and slower cpu/memory), form factor (7mm thick), SD card slot, the device is just stunning, and fun to use are some of the factors that made me go with a second one. I have twins...

blackhawk said:
It's a big problem on all variable rate displays. All suffer from reduced color rendering to a greater or lesser degree.
Display reliability has also dropped it seems. That's a big reason I decided on buying a second N10+, probably the best display out there for color rendering, still. It slaughters the Apples too.
Still waiting for the newest model reviews but don't expect the color rendering index to increase much or at all; variable refresh rate displays are extremely hard to color calibrate, just too many variables. They are smooth but eat power. My SOT is 7-12%@hr with a 4300 mAh battery using 35-50% manual brightness. Ram usage almost never exceeds 5.3gb so it's snappy. The memory is roughly 20% less efficient than what you have.
So where's all the battery going on the newer models?
So pick your poison. For me it was choosing a phone over 2 years after it was first released. I have 2 N10+'s, the oldest will be 2.5 yo in March.
A Snapdragon variant 512/12gb running on Pie.
Current load will be 2 yo in June, still fast and stable, security isn't an issue. Only repair was a battery replacement back in April 2021. It looks and runs like new, zero detectable display degradation in this heavily used device. It's a beast. The reliability, display quality, battery life (trade offs: no 5G, variable refresh rate, and slower cpu/memory), form factor (7mm thick), SD card slot, the device is just stunning, and fun to use are some of the factors that made me go with a second one. I have twins...
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Click to collapse
That is absolutely incredible, I had no idea the N10+ was that right on the money - "Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect." No wonder they're still fetching that price.
Curious, did you do the battery replacement yourself & was there any degradation to the "structure" after you got it done? I've done batteries on a dozen phones/tablets, but taking my Samsung apart looks really daunting.

burnxtc said:
That is absolutely incredible, I had no idea the N10+ was that right on the money - "Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect." No wonder they're still fetching that price.
Curious, did you do the battery replacement yourself & was there any degradation to the "structure" after you got it done? I've done batteries on a dozen phones/tablets, but taking my Samsung apart looks really daunting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like it's square display corners, only the N20U has those too but that damn cam hump. In person the square corners look so much better.
Being raised on CRTs, I'm sick of rounded corners
The Zizo Bolt case mates perfectly with the 10+ making it easier to use and has great drop protection... so I knew casing the second one be easy. These corner hitters need a case. The spen's Smart Capture and bt shutter release are hard to live without once you use them. Deciding took some time.
It was between the N10+ and the N20U as the SD card slot is mandatory for me. In the end the trouble free and snappy fun nature of the 10+ won out. Never thought I would have done that in 2019, thought for sure I be wanting the next Samsung flagship in 2022. Ummm, thanks Samsung?
Had a shop do the replacement as I was intimidated too. I watched and learned. Use a little anhydrous isopropyl in a syringe to help loosen the double sided tape on the rear cover (and heat) and battery. Not bad if you take your time and have the right tools... easy does it, no rush.
Get the OEM rear cover seal or a good aftermarket one. Lol, never test if it's water tight even with the factory done one.
In the end I realized I could do a better job myself, but that in person demo really helped a lot. And yeah, I was a menace, asking questions... got my money's worth