Database Develop

[Q] Nexus 6 vs Oneplus One

Hey guys,
So today was preorder day for the Oneplus one. I have an order in for both the Nexus 6 and a One Plus. I have not really decided which one I will keep. If I keep the Nexus, I will probably give the One plus to my little sister for her birthday (because she is still rocking an iPhone 4s).
I know all the specs of the two phones and there are certain details about the N6 I like over the OPO. For instance I like the curved screen on the N6 (like on the MotoX) and the wireless charging and the better camera. Both my brothers have OPO's and they love them.
But the price difference is HUGE! 350 vs 700. (Though to be fair I still like that I bought both of them for about the same price as a 128gig iPhone 6+.
Anyway, I was wondering if there was anyone out there that has gotten their N6 and also has a OPO that has any opinions on the matter.
Cheers!
CowboyNick

CowboyNick13 said:
Hey guys,
So today was preorder day for the Oneplus one. I have an order in for both the Nexus 6 and a One Plus. I have not really decided which one I will keep. If I keep the Nexus, I will probably give the One plus to my little sister for her birthday (because she is still rocking an iPhone 4s).
I know all the specs of the two phones and there are certain details about the N6 I like over the OPO. For instance I like the curved screen on the N6 (like on the MotoX) and the wireless charging and the better camera. Both my brothers have OPO's and they love them.
But the price difference is HUGE! 350 vs 700. (Though to be fair I still like that I bought both of them for about the same price as a 128gig iPhone 6+.
Anyway, I was wondering if there was anyone out there that has gotten their N6 and also has a OPO that has any opinions on the matter.
Cheers!
CowboyNick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I owned the OnePlus One. Price is awesome for the specs, but CM11S (At least 38R, the last verison I had before I sold it) is so buggy it's a deal breaker for me.

I also owned a OnePlus One. I was not impressed with the screen on it and the bugginess of CM11s. I tried swapping ROMs but overall the phone just didn't feel as solid as my Nexus 5. I ended up selling it and going back to my Nexus 5 until the Nexus 6 came out. After playing with a display Nexus 6 at T-Mobile yesterday, I think I'm going to pick one up. Keep in mind that it feels SIGNIFICANTLY bigger in hand than the OnePlus One, don't let anyone try and tell you otherwise. But if you think you can deal with the size, the Nexus 6 is a much better phone, in my opinion.

I hope to find out by 12\2 when my Cloud White 32gb is set to arrive From Motorola. I have been using a OnePlus One since July and to be honest it has been a great phone. Maybe I got lucky but I have bought and sold a Nexus 5, Note 3, Moto X 2013, Sony Z3 Compact and most recently a G3. Oneplus is just a great overall package. I have no reason to switch to the Nexus 6 but I just couldn't resist and my only hope is that battery life is better than the Nexus 5 as that really was the only downside of owning it.

radeon962 said:
I hope to find out by 12\2 when my Cloud White 32gb is set to arrive From Motorola. I have been using a OnePlus One since July and to be honest it has been a great phone. Maybe I got lucky but I have bought and sold a Nexus 5, Note 3, Moto X 2013, Sony Z3 Compact and most recently a G3. Oneplus is just a great overall package. I have no reason to switch to the Nexus 6 but I just couldn't resist and my only hope is that battery life is better than the Nexus 5 as that really was the only downside of owning it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, please let me know when you get the Nexus. Mine has not come yet, and my One plus wont be here for another four weeks, so If I like the N6 I think ill just cancel my OPO pre order.

Have both phones. 44S is solid stable. Oneplus has better battery life. The 6 is a great phone, just different. Still getting used to the size. I'm having a wifi issue with the nexus that is ticking me off. The phone shows connected, but there is major lag on the device navigating to pages. Turning it off and the pages come up as fast as you can click them on LTE. Don't have issues with any other device in the house. Toggling WiFi can help, bit the issue returns...

I have all three(including the Note 4) and if you want the best purchase for your money then go with the OnePlus One. It has the best battery life, the best performance at the moment since it's still on KitKat, and I feel I don't get significantly better experience on the Note 4 and Nexus 6 than the One. CM11 is a little buggy every update fixes bugs and Cyanogen Mod is dedicated to bringing Lollipop to the One in three months. Personally, I think the OnePlus One is the best phone you can get in 2014 at a very affordable price.

jairusz said:
I have all three(including the Note 4) and if you want the best purchase for your money then go with the OnePlus One. It has the best battery life, the best performance at the moment since it's still on KitKat, and I feel I don't get significantly better experience on the Note 4 and Nexus 6 than the One. CM11 is a little buggy every update fixes bugs and Cyanogen Mod is dedicated to bringing Lollipop to the One in three months. Personally, I think the OnePlus One is the best phone you can get in 2014 at a very affordable price.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bringing lollipop and a bunch of new bugs... CM was better when it was non caf

CowboyNick13 said:
Hey guys,
So today was preorder day for the Oneplus one. I have an order in for both the Nexus 6 and a One Plus. I have not really decided which one I will keep. If I keep the Nexus, I will probably give the One plus to my little sister for her birthday (because she is still rocking an iPhone 4s).
I know all the specs of the two phones and there are certain details about the N6 I like over the OPO. For instance I like the curved screen on the N6 (like on the MotoX) and the wireless charging and the better camera. Both my brothers have OPO's and they love them.
But the price difference is HUGE! 350 vs 700. (Though to be fair I still like that I bought both of them for about the same price as a 128gig iPhone 6+.
Anyway, I was wondering if there was anyone out there that has gotten their N6 and also has a OPO that has any opinions on the matter.
Cheers!
CowboyNick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screen on the N6 is NOT curved, just the back. Common misconception.

jairusz said:
I have all three(including the Note 4) and if you want the best purchase for your money then go with the OnePlus One. It has the best battery life, the best performance at the moment since it's still on KitKat, and I feel I don't get significantly better experience on the Note 4 and Nexus 6 than the One. CM11 is a little buggy every update fixes bugs and Cyanogen Mod is dedicated to bringing Lollipop to the One in three months. Personally, I think the OnePlus One is the best phone you can get in 2014 at a very affordable price.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That doesnt even apply to people on sprint or verizon.

Sold my OnePlus and note 3 for Nexus 6 and not looking back. Both were great phones with great batteries but I like having the latest greatest phone.
Ian B

OnePlus wins hands down but I have one caution, if you're on T-Mobile there is no band 2 or 12 support. If the OnePlus had that I wouldn't have even considered a new phone. Other than that the on plus is a awesome phone.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I feel that the OPO has a better battery life as well. But Turbo Charging... can't live without that now. It just charges so fast and impressive.

Well if you like the One + camera this has the same sensor with OIS which is good. The IMX214 is a good sensor so hopefully we can get devs to have the software follow.
Source:
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+6+Teardown/32877

zephiK said:
I feel that the OPO has a better battery life as well. But Turbo Charging... can't live without that now. It just charges so fast and impressive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but if you don't need to charge then the turbo charger isn't as important. Of I find myself needing a little boost for good measure on the one plus a charge while I shower before going out for the night always gets me enough juice and then some.
Man itd be nice if the one plus had those bands I need.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Nexus 6 VS One Plus One
Hey Guys,
So here goes my story...
I ordered my One Plus (during the preorder with no Invite) maybe a week after I ordered my Nexus 6 and got the OPO two days before my Nexus arrived. However, at that time I refrained from opening the OPO because I didn't want to lose the resale value of the OPO. In the end the chrome N on the back of the Nexus fell of and I decided to open the OPO to compare the two. I decided to keep the OPO and return the Nexus, below are some of the reasons I made that choice.
I opened the Nexus 6 and was stunned by the phone. Watching the videos and reading reviews you get a sense of the size of the phone, but never having held it before this I was not really sure what to expect. This phone is HUGE. I was stunned by the build quality and the size. I loved the curved edges of the screen and the resolution was amazing. I was okay with the size because it could still fit in my (skinny) jeans pockets, but I was not in love with it. I was originally gunning for the Cloud white, but couldn't get my hands on it. Got the Midnight Blue in 64 gig and ended up loving the color. I loved the color until I touched the back of the phone and realized that my fingerprints got everywhere. Seriously, this phone is a smudge magnet. However, since I am not a fan of cases, this was something I could live with.
Similarly opening the box of the One Plus One I was very impressed. The packaging was very nicely done. I know it does not have any impact on how the phone is used, but it is a very nice presentation that I appreciated none the less. The phone itself has very nice build quality. It does not have as many curves and subtleties as the Nexus, but I like the way it feels in my hand and equals the 6 in quality, even if it is a simpler design.
I used the Nexus 6 for three weeks and am on my sixth day with the One Plus. Here are my impressions of the devices after that period mainly focusing on what stands out during MY use of them.
Ergonomics:
As far as the feel of the Nexus 6 is concerned at first I was worried about how big it was. I was coming from a 4 inch screen of the iPhone 5 and was a bit scared about how it was going to work. After three weeks I was no longer worried about it. I have gotten used to it. However, I was not sold on the 6 inch screen. It was never 100 percent comfortable for me to use and I always had to use two hands. I have hands on the smaller size, but not freakishly small, however I was always scared to use it one handed, even just opening up my twitter feed and scrolling through gave pause because I was afraid to drop it and crack that beautiful screen. One thing that I found particularly difficult was texting. If I were in bed with the phone above my head, it was so hard to text because the screen was so wide. My fingers did not have enough range of motion to hold the phone in a secure way and also reach the outer edges of the screen to reach letters such as A or L, O and P. It was a weird experience that I remedied by installing the Swype keyboard app and condensed the keyboard to one side of the screen.
Using the One Plus One immediately felt more comfortable. It seems to fit my hand better and I am a huge fan of the “sandstone” texture of the back. I can use it more easily with one hand and am able to text using one hand as well.
Screen and Media Viewing Experience:
As for that Nexus 6 screen. What can I say. It is beautiful. The colors are great and its sharp as a tack. I loved watching videos on it and reading kindle books on it. It was noticeably sharper than the OPO's 1080p screen. It's not a day and night difference, and if the two weren't sitting next to each other on the table, I probably would not have noticed anything. But when the two phones are next to each other you can tell which one has a higher resolution display. I used the Nexus to watch a lot of youtube videos and loved the experience. With the front firing speakers, this was a great media consumption device. I loved being able to use this instead of my computer or tablet to watch videos and read books or news articles. Six inches was a great size to view everything on.
The One Plus One also has a great screen. The colors are accurate and it is very pleasing to look at. I can watch youtube videos here also, however the overall experience is not as nice because the speakers are not forward firing. Though they have great volume, the speakers are not as good to use as the Nexus simply because of their orientation. With this phone I am more predisposed to watch videos on my tablet or TV. Reading is a very similar experience and I have no problem reading for more than an hour on either device.
Usability:
This section is where the One Plus really starts to pull away. For those who don’t remember the specs (lets be real though, I’m just putting them here so we can all revel at the fact that both of these phones have more power than my current work computer) the Nexus 6 sports the new quad-core Snapdragon 805 clocked at 2.7 GHz with 3 gigs of ram while the One Plus One has the one generation older quad-core 801 chip clocked at 2.5 GHz with the same amount of ram. For reference my “vintage” 2012 Macbook Air has a 2GHz i5 intel chip with 4 gigs of ram.
I don’t know if I had a bad Nexus (or a spectacularly good One Plus), but it always felt like the Nexus was taking a tenth of a second more to think about the things it wanted to do. The One Plus, on the other hand feels zippier in everything I do. I don’t do crazy things on the phones. I twitter and Facebook and tinder a lot, but just opening these apps seemed to take a fraction of a second longer on the Nexus 6. If that were the only issue, then it would be less of a deal breaker than an annoyance, but I felt (at least on my particular phone) that the Nexus – and maybe Lollipop - had stability issues. Every now and then – maybe three times a week – the phone would do something weird which would require a restart to remedy. For instance on the last day I had the phone I was trying to open the phone app which is in my Dock on the very bottom of the screen. However, every time I pressed the app it would open something else that was in my dock instead. So instead of opening the phone, it would open up the messaging app or the email app. It happened like ten times in a row after I would get into the wrong app and press the home button. It required a complete reboot, then it would function normally. It was a weird thing that happened intermittently. However, It required a reboot a few times a week (this is what leads me to believe that maybe I had a defective unit?)
The One Plus, so far, has not had any stability issues (maybe because Kit Kat is much more mature than Lollipop). It is great and feels significantly faster than the Nexus. Everything I want it to do it does on command without hesitation. I think this more than anything else is the reason I decided to keep the One Plus instead of the Nexus, it just feels better to use.
One thing that I did like better about the Nexus (and even my old iphone) was the scrolling ability. The One Plus one just does not have as good scrolling in apps such as facebook or twitter. The Nexus has great sensitivity and response. The One Plus feels like it’s a generation behind with its scrolling capabilities.
I also liked Lollipop over Cyanogen Mod Kit Kat because 5.0 has beautiful themes. Material Design is something that I already miss going to the One Plus and I cant wait for the 5.0 Cyanogen Mod update. The one feature I really miss is lock screen notifications. I had that on my iPhone and on the Nexus, but will have to wait for 5.0 on the One Plus.
Camera:
Another area that was very important to me was the Camera. I am not a professional photographer, but I love taking nice pictures. I am a DSLR guy and used to try to tote mine around whenever I could. However, now that camera phones have gotten so good I have been doing so less and less, just using my phone camera for the majority of my day to day shooting. The iPhone 5 camera was great for me. I used it all the time (for snapchat and Instagram) and loved the low light shooting characteristics.
The Nexus 6 camera was great. It was sharp and I loved that it shot video in 4k, making for great impromptu jam session with my brother. When the light was good the camera produced sharp and vibrant images. It was great for anything I wanted to snapchat or Instagram. and even candid’s that I wanted for later, which I what I usually use my phone camera for. However, lowlight shooting was awful. I couldn’t get lowlight images at all. Living in NYC there are streetlights everywhere, but even in that environment I was not able to get any good nighttime shots that are even useable for snapchat (for which I have very low critera). Even compared to my two year old iPhone, it was awful. The front facing camera was doubly bad. Everything that I took with the front facing 2mp camera was poorly exposed and very soft. There was no definition to the shots and it was very splotchy.
Having the same sensor (but without optical image stabilization) I was not holding out much hope for the One Plus One. However I was pleasantly surprised with its low light shooting capabilities. In places where the Nexus was just unable to get any kind of image (often producing just a black shot with different intensities of light) I was able to get useable shots with the One Plus. The front facing camera is ten times better than the Nexus 6 camera.
Battery Life:
Here is another place that the One Plus pulls away from the Nexus. The battery life on the One Plus is phenomenal. One reason I got rid of my old iphone was that the battery life was down to four hours. I was literally carrying around a charger with me wherever I went because it wouldn’t last half a day. Now the OPO will last me 1.5 days of regular use. For me regular use is about 3.5 hours of screen on time. I will last from 7 am until about noon the next day. This is amazing battery life. I never have to worry about it. With the Nexus I would get about 2.75 hours of screen on time. This translated to a day of use. If I unplugged my phone at 7 am, I would be at 5 percent battery around 10:30 pm. Normally this would be okay, unless I was going out with my friends at night and had to stay out past midnight (which I normally do on weekends). With turbo-charging this was largely a non-issue. However, psychologically I don’t really like plugging in my phone for fifteen minutes and then unplugging when the batter is not full. I hate the feeling that I am ruining the battery (even if that’s not how batteries work anymore…). Personally having a great battery like the One Plus One is a huge win and is one thing I don’t have to worry about. It makes my life less stressful (I understand that this is a side affect of being too dependent on technology and am working to fix this in myself, haha).
Conclusion:
All in all I liked the Nexus 6. It was a good “pocket internet device” however as something that I want to use every day, I was not in love with it. And thus, comes the OPO trump card. Its price. If I was in love with the Nexus I would have had no problem spending $771 on the phone. However, I was not in love with it, so paying that much for a phone I didn’t love was out of the question. Futhremore, the thought of paying more than double the price of the One Plus One ($361) which I liked better was Ludacris. So in the end it was an easy choice.
I tried to like the Nexus 6. I did love the screen and the experience I had while I was watching youtube. I love material design and lock screen notifications. I loved being able to talk to the phone (“OK Google”) when the screen was off. In the end, however, it fell short. The One Plus One is a great phone and I am smitten with it. It offers everything I want for a very low price and that is why I am keeping it.
Sorry for that long rant, and hope some of you stick around to read the whole thing.
Cheers,
CBN

CowboyNick13 said:
Hey Guys,
So here goes my story...
I ordered my One Plus (during the preorder with no Invite) maybe a week after I ordered my Nexus 6 and got the OPO two days before my Nexus arrived. However, at that time I refrained from opening the OPO because I didn't want to lose the resale value of the OPO. In the end the chrome N on the back of the Nexus fell of and I decided to open the OPO to compare the two. I decided to keep the OPO and return the Nexus, below are some of the reasons I made that choice.
I opened the Nexus 6 and was stunned by the phone. Watching the videos and reading reviews you get a sense of the size of the phone, but never having held it before this I was not really sure what to expect. This phone is HUGE. I was stunned by the build quality and the size. I loved the curved edges of the screen and the resolution was amazing. I was okay with the size because it could still fit in my (skinny) jeans pockets, but I was not in love with it. I was originally gunning for the Cloud white, but couldn't get my hands on it. Got the Midnight Blue in 64 gig and ended up loving the color. I loved the color until I touched the back of the phone and realized that my fingerprints got everywhere. Seriously, this phone is a smudge magnet. However, since I am not a fan of cases, this was something I could live with.
Similarly opening the box of the One Plus One I was very impressed. The packaging was very nicely done. I know it does not have any impact on how the phone is used, but it is a very nice presentation that I appreciated none the less. The phone itself has very nice build quality. It does not have as many curves and subtleties as the Nexus, but I like the way it feels in my hand and equals the 6 in quality, even if it is a simpler design.
I used the Nexus 6 for three weeks and am on my sixth day with the One Plus. Here are my impressions of the devices after that period mainly focusing on what stands out during MY use of them.
Ergonomics:
As far as the feel of the Nexus 6 is concerned at first I was worried about how big it was. I was coming from a 4 inch screen of the iPhone 5 and was a bit scared about how it was going to work. After three weeks I was no longer worried about it. I have gotten used to it. However, I was not sold on the 6 inch screen. It was never 100 percent comfortable for me to use and I always had to use two hands. I have hands on the smaller size, but not freakishly small, however I was always scared to use it one handed, even just opening up my twitter feed and scrolling through gave pause because I was afraid to drop it and crack that beautiful screen. One thing that I found particularly difficult was texting. If I were in bed with the phone above my head, it was so hard to text because the screen was so wide. My fingers did not have enough range of motion to hold the phone in a secure way and also reach the outer edges of the screen to reach letters such as A or L, O and P. It was a weird experience that I remedied by installing the Swype keyboard app and condensed the keyboard to one side of the screen.
Using the One Plus One immediately felt more comfortable. It seems to fit my hand better and I am a huge fan of the “sandstone” texture of the back. I can use it more easily with one hand and am able to text using one hand as well.
Screen and Media Viewing Experience:
As for that Nexus 6 screen. What can I say. It is beautiful. The colors are great and its sharp as a tack. I loved watching videos on it and reading kindle books on it. It was noticeably sharper than the OPO's 1080p screen. It's not a day and night difference, and if the two weren't sitting next to each other on the table, I probably would not have noticed anything. But when the two phones are next to each other you can tell which one has a higher resolution display. I used the Nexus to watch a lot of youtube videos and loved the experience. With the front firing speakers, this was a great media consumption device. I loved being able to use this instead of my computer or tablet to watch videos and read books or news articles. Six inches was a great size to view everything on.
The One Plus One also has a great screen. The colors are accurate and it is very pleasing to look at. I can watch youtube videos here also, however the overall experience is not as nice because the speakers are not forward firing. Though they have great volume, the speakers are not as good to use as the Nexus simply because of their orientation. With this phone I am more predisposed to watch videos on my tablet or TV. Reading is a very similar experience and I have no problem reading for more than an hour on either device.
Usability:
This section is where the One Plus really starts to pull away. For those who don’t remember the specs (lets be real though, I’m just putting them here so we can all revel at the fact that both of these phones have more power than my current work computer) the Nexus 6 sports the new quad-core Snapdragon 805 clocked at 2.7 GHz with 3 gigs of ram while the One Plus One has the one generation older quad-core 801 chip clocked at 2.5 GHz with the same amount of ram. For reference my “vintage” 2012 Macbook Air has a 2GHz i5 intel chip with 4 gigs of ram.
I don’t know if I had a bad Nexus (or a spectacularly good One Plus), but it always felt like the Nexus was taking a tenth of a second more to think about the things it wanted to do. The One Plus, on the other hand feels zippier in everything I do. I don’t do crazy things on the phones. I twitter and Facebook and tinder a lot, but just opening these apps seemed to take a fraction of a second longer on the Nexus 6. If that were the only issue, then it would be less of a deal breaker than an annoyance, but I felt (at least on my particular phone) that the Nexus – and maybe Lollipop - had stability issues. Every now and then – maybe three times a week – the phone would do something weird which would require a restart to remedy. For instance on the last day I had the phone I was trying to open the phone app which is in my Dock on the very bottom of the screen. However, every time I pressed the app it would open something else that was in my dock instead. So instead of opening the phone, it would open up the messaging app or the email app. It happened like ten times in a row after I would get into the wrong app and press the home button. It required a complete reboot, then it would function normally. It was a weird thing that happened intermittently. However, It required a reboot a few times a week (this is what leads me to believe that maybe I had a defective unit?)
The One Plus, so far, has not had any stability issues (maybe because Kit Kat is much more mature than Lollipop). It is great and feels significantly faster than the Nexus. Everything I want it to do it does on command without hesitation. I think this more than anything else is the reason I decided to keep the One Plus instead of the Nexus, it just feels better to use.
One thing that I did like better about the Nexus (and even my old iphone) was the scrolling ability. The One Plus one just does not have as good scrolling in apps such as facebook or twitter. The Nexus has great sensitivity and response. The One Plus feels like it’s a generation behind with its scrolling capabilities.
I also liked Lollipop over Cyanogen Mod Kit Kat because 5.0 has beautiful themes. Material Design is something that I already miss going to the One Plus and I cant wait for the 5.0 Cyanogen Mod update. The one feature I really miss is lock screen notifications. I had that on my iPhone and on the Nexus, but will have to wait for 5.0 on the One Plus.
Camera:
Another area that was very important to me was the Camera. I am not a professional photographer, but I love taking nice pictures. I am a DSLR guy and used to try to tote mine around whenever I could. However, now that camera phones have gotten so good I have been doing so less and less, just using my phone camera for the majority of my day to day shooting. The iPhone 5 camera was great for me. I used it all the time (for snapchat and Instagram) and loved the low light shooting characteristics.
The Nexus 6 camera was great. It was sharp and I loved that it shot video in 4k, making for great impromptu jam session with my brother. When the light was good the camera produced sharp and vibrant images. It was great for anything I wanted to snapchat or Instagram. and even candid’s that I wanted for later, which I what I usually use my phone camera for. However, lowlight shooting was awful. I couldn’t get lowlight images at all. Living in NYC there are streetlights everywhere, but even in that environment I was not able to get any good nighttime shots that are even useable for snapchat (for which I have very low critera). Even compared to my two year old iPhone, it was awful. The front facing camera was doubly bad. Everything that I took with the front facing 2mp camera was poorly exposed and very soft. There was no definition to the shots and it was very splotchy.
Having the same sensor (but without optical image stabilization) I was not holding out much hope for the One Plus One. However I was pleasantly surprised with its low light shooting capabilities. In places where the Nexus was just unable to get any kind of image (often producing just a black shot with different intensities of light) I was able to get useable shots with the One Plus. The front facing camera is ten times better than the Nexus 6 camera.
Battery Life:
Here is another place that the One Plus pulls away from the Nexus. The battery life on the One Plus is phenomenal. One reason I got rid of my old iphone was that the battery life was down to four hours. I was literally carrying around a charger with me wherever I went because it wouldn’t last half a day. Now the OPO will last me 1.5 days of regular use. For me regular use is about 3.5 hours of screen on time. I will last from 7 am until about noon the next day. This is amazing battery life. I never have to worry about it. With the Nexus I would get about 2.75 hours of screen on time. This translated to a day of use. If I unplugged my phone at 7 am, I would be at 5 percent battery around 10:30 pm. Normally this would be okay, unless I was going out with my friends at night and had to stay out past midnight (which I normally do on weekends). With turbo-charging this was largely a non-issue. However, psychologically I don’t really like plugging in my phone for fifteen minutes and then unplugging when the batter is not full. I hate the feeling that I am ruining the battery (even if that’s not how batteries work anymore…). Personally having a great battery like the One Plus One is a huge win and is one thing I don’t have to worry about. It makes my life less stressful (I understand that this is a side affect of being too dependent on technology and am working to fix this in myself, haha).
Conclusion:
All in all I liked the Nexus 6. It was a good “pocket internet device” however as something that I want to use every day, I was not in love with it. And thus, comes the OPO trump card. Its price. If I was in love with the Nexus I would have had no problem spending $771 on the phone. However, I was not in love with it, so paying that much for a phone I didn’t love was out of the question. Futhremore, the thought of paying more than double the price of the One Plus One ($361) which I liked better was Ludacris. So in the end it was an easy choice.
I tried to like the Nexus 6. I did love the screen and the experience I had while I was watching youtube. I love material design and lock screen notifications. I loved being able to talk to the phone (“OK Google”) when the screen was off. In the end, however, it fell short. The One Plus One is a great phone and I am smitten with it. It offers everything I want for a very low price and that is why I am keeping it.
Sorry for that long rant, and hope some of you stick around to read the whole thing.
Cheers,
CBN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very informative, thanks!
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Some Guys 24-Hour Review: Nokia 9 Pureview

PURPOSE
So 1st and foremost, the plan here is to give you my first 24-Hours experience with the Nokia 9 PureView compared to some other recent flagship phones I have tried. Granted, I have only used the Nokia 9 for about 24-Hours now and can say I have yet to fully break it in to find everything that may or may not be right / wrong with it. However, this will be a unbiased look and comparison. I'm neither a fanboy or sheep. No brand affiliation. Not a programmer either, just a pro-sumer Senior Member of XDA willing to get trolled, flamed, etc. for sharing a look at this phone. Hopefully, I can give "the everyday guy / gal look" without getting bogged down in stats, variables or benchmarks. Here goes...
MY BACKGROUND
No one special. Just a guy that likes the latest tech... phones being at the top of the list. I am a nerd. No doubt about that. I think anyone that knows about XDA probably is to some extent. No brand loyalty. I have had the privilege to try out the following phones:
1. Samsung S10 128GB / 8GB
2. Google Pixel 3 XL
3. Xiaomi Mi 9 Global Version 64GB / 6GB
4. iPhone XS Max
5. Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro Transparent Global
And probably some more, but these are the most recent. Does that make me qualified to make a review... Maybe. It does make me an idiot that likes new phones, though. I am always looking for something that meets my needs but also is a good phone. Currently with TMobile but have been with ATT, Verizon & Sprint at some point 20 years of using cell phones.
MY NEEDS
I drive about 45 miles each way everyday to work (yes, my work week is currently 7 days a week with a few occasional days off). So, with this in mind and where I drive. I need the minimum requirements:
1. Can Stream Music
2. Android Auto / Apple CarPlay Compatible w/ My 2018 Honda
3. An equalizer of some sort since I have only switch out my new cars speakers for better ones and don't plan on changing or adding a better sound system.
4. Decent pictures when needed
5. Relatively not laggy - will sometimes do some ROM-ing or some customization but since I tend to get rid of the phones quickly I try not to void warranties or make it too non-stock
THE COMPARISON
I am looking at my experience with the Nokia 9 and the other flagships under/around these requirements and some normal stuff like battery, screen, snappiness, camera & software. Here goes:
BATTERY
This has been a hot topic as of late as the larger phones continue to dominate this field (duh... larger phone mean more room for larger battery), however 3340 - 3800 mAh batteries seemed to be the "standard" for phones the size of the Nokia 9. During setup, from 100%, I tortured it setting up all my apps from scratch while on AC-wireless connection... then after all the app downloading, logging apps in and setting up further. I would say a good 5 to 6 hours of heavy use on Wifi drained it to 56% battery... decent performance given the amount of hammering on it I was doing. If normal day away from home is 12 hours with normal use, I feel it goes the distance... Is it a battery champ like the iPhone XS Max, no. Is it one of the better phones in its group like the S10 and Xiaomi Mi 9... you bet. I feel Android One has everything to do with it... More on Android One later.
SCREEN
At a 5.99" OLED at 18:9 aspect, I do feel that the forehead and chin on the phone is a little circa 2017 - 2018. With that said, I do feel it is more pleasant than "Mein Fuhrer" mustache going on with the Pixel XL 3... so much so I had to toggle no notchiness in the developer settings. The "Little Mac" swing and a miss punch out on the Samsung S10 is definitely not my cup of tea ... I found it annoying for one and the fact that they have graphics to swirl around it to make that much more noticeable is even more unsettling. As for the actual screen itself, the colors, brightness and clarity is awesome albeit small especially if you toggle down the screen size in settings... with that, it is a little difficult to manage photos properly with the size of screen. Not impossible but it can try your patience... but the screen itself is definitely better than the Xiaomi Phones and the Pixel 3 XL... the S10 still has the nicest screen but Samsung is getting me annoyed with the continue elongation of the phone... soon it will have a 76:5 aspect ratio... and will look like a Hershey Bar... btw Samsung, don't take design cues from a candy bar company... just sayin'
THE FINGERPRINT SCANNER
Probably the most controversial item on the Nokia 9. Yes it is not great.... I would place it below the scanner in the S10 & Xiaomi Mi 9 but better than the Mi 8.... Pixel 3 XL , you don't count with your don't rock the boat rear sensor... which of course is super fast. Honestly, this tech is not ready for prime time on any of these phones. The S10 comes with a plastic screen protector that makes it hard at first to register the scanner. I felt like I pressing my finger through the display. It did start working decently at about a 90% success rate, after programming fingers a few different time. The Nokia 9 is definitely 75% at best with just one scan of each of my thumbs... as mentioned in different threads, going to add a second scan of each thumb to see of that improves... I feel though that Nokia HMD will patch it to make it slightly better. With facial recognition available, although not as secure, helps for getting into the phone and really the finger print is only needed for the different apps requiring. There's a learning curve for sure to get it to work well but the same goes for the S10... Definitely, not the "deal breaker" everyone's trying to paint... it's the price of new technology
SOFTWARE
Android One to me, besides the Pixel 3 XL and the iPhone XS Max, is in a class of android that Samsung and Xiaomi can't touch. Vanilla Stock Android (for the most part) is a breath of fresh air. Everyone is creaming in their pants that One UI is so much better TouchWiz for Samsung. When your yardstick is the garbage that was TouchJizz, saying One UI is better without qualifying it further is not a great state of affairs. I personally did not find it "that much better" and was immediately looking to replace the launcher with the pixel launcher or similar iteration immediately. I feel as soon as they take away the google assistant screen to the left on the homepage, its a failure... that's of course is a personal preference. Bixby blows... kill him/her off Samsung... and have Bixby take Siri with them... Google Assistant, the swipe left news screen should NEVER be removed... if it happens, then google and android lose a customer for life... just saying... can't wait for timely security updates that will never come to Samsung. Xiaomi on their own do a great job to update. not much to say about their interface other than like most Xiaomi phones... notifications can sometimes be a pain to get to work right due to aggressive battery savings. Xiaomi also does not have the assistant screen to the left :crying: replaced easily with pixel launcher... the S10 was not as easy... could not just use pixel launcher from apkmirror and had to buy action launcher to mimic. The experience of as close to vanilla android on the pixel 3 xl and the nokia 9 just can't be touched. The 6GB phone rocking the 845 performs IMO better than the 855 8GB S10. Even the Xiaomi Mi 9 feels faster than the S10, 845 or 855.
CAMERA
Ok, camera... or as you all know cameras when speaking about any of these phones except you, you "one-eyed monster" pixel 3 xl. Although I haven't put it through the regiment of use cases, The Pentacular camera explosion that is the Nokia 9 is something I'm digging. If your looking for a point and shoot and send master class phone, get the iPhone 8 XS Max, Google Pixel 3 XL or the Xiaomi Mi 9 in that order. For me, Samsung always supposedly has good cameras in their phones but being a person that went to photography school, shot professionally and still cares about the pictures they take... the software non-sense that the S10 does with pixel smoothing, HDR, etc., etc. makes everything no genuine. The other phones too suffer from this at times as well. Don't get me wrong... Night Shot on the Pixel 3 XL is a feet of software magic... quite frankly, google needs to share this tech with other OEMs to make the sustainability of Android that much better. But if your looking for a genuine picture with great image detail and the ability to adjust in-box, the Nokia 9 excels. Yes, you pay for it in processing time. Are you going to want to take this phone to Monaco to caught a F1 car in motion... hell no, but if you want on par caliber shots with a DSLR with RAW Images on outdoor, standard to semi-low light situations... I don't believe there's a camera that compares... for the price... and that leads to...
VALUE FOR YOUR DOLLAR
Although not the cheapest phone, at $600 USD (pre-sale pricing, $700 now), you get a lot of phone for the dollar. The only better value is you just want to go the point, shoot and send route is the Xiaomi Mi 9 at about $530 USD. As always, Samsung at over $800 is not worth it. Not worth it for camera, not worth it for software, design, etc. Samsung Pay to me is the only thing Samsung uniquely has that I wish every phone did. The Pixel 3 XL which I was able to get around $550 was a good value too, but is barely worth it north of $600 buying new. Yes it has the best single shooting camera of practically any phone in its class, but I feel it doesn't run as smoothly as the Nokia 9 with the extra 2GB RAM increase. Of course, Apple cost to value is in a different class... yes the phone is $1100... but you'll also be able to probably sell it in 2 years for $600 as well. Try that with an android phone and you'll get laughed at that it retains 60% value after 2 years. The Nokia 9 packs the right amount of stuff to make it a great value IMO. It would be a slam dunk of course if it had a SD 855 as opposed to 845 but it would be probably $100 more expensive without adding much value. Android One is wonderful and a great choice. Wireless charging (OnePlus, you can't add wireless charging, are you just dumb or what at this point?) The 5 cameras is a great gimmick and works as advertised. Everyone expecting the world out of a $600 phone... it has a better camera then phones $200 - $500 more than what it costs. Can you shoot in a pitch black room... no? Why are you? You creep... you spying on me... it is a little weird
OVERALL
The Nokia 9 is not the phone for everyone. It's the phone for a person that want great value in a phone capable of taking amazingly detailed photos in its price category. Can you point, shoot, send... sometimes. Does the fingerprint reader work ok? Sometimes. Is it a phone pushing some new hardware envelopes in a cost affordable package? Always! The fingerprint reader hate is just that... hate without a 100% justification. Is it an annoyance, it can be... does it overshadow the value of this phone for those of us wanting more from their phone cameras, absolutely not. It is also by no means cutting edge on design... but it doesn't have to be sporting 5 cameras... chins and foreheads are nice when done tastefully (look at Angelina Jolie... maybe not 2019 Angelina maybe circa 2005 Angelina :highfive: ) It not an ugly phone is all I'm saying. Can the big boys in the cell phone game learn something from the once dominate Nokia (actually HMD) is that innovation is needed to remain relevant... think if Apple put 5 cameras on its next phone (would never happen) but what if it did. They'd be like "The Job-biness is Back at Apple" "Apple, the innovators again" and a multitude of other stupid headlines. Lets face it, this phone has a gimmick, a fairly great one but gimmick nonetheless. Will it catch on? Is it years ahead of its time? It just maybe. As always, this is just Some Guys 24-hour Opinion....... :good:

Great first 24 hour impressions

Camera question
Thanks for the review, mine arrives March 18 and looking forward to the camera. The processing time has been mentioned all over the place but I am still unclear as to whether the processing time prevents you from taking the next shot. For example, I would most likely always shoot raw with the full depth turned on. I am more interested in being able to take the next exposure quickly than looking at the last shot on the phone's screen. So, wondering how quickly one can take the next shot.
Thanks!

jhw61032 said:
Thanks for the review, mine arrives March 18 and looking forward to the camera. The processing time has been mentioned all over the place but I am still unclear as to whether the processing time prevents you from taking the next shot. For example, I would most likely always shoot raw with the full depth turned on. I am more interested in being able to take the next exposure quickly than looking at the last shot on the phone's screen. So, wondering how quickly one can take the next shot.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From experience it doesn't keep you from taking the next shot... I haven't done it with say more than 2 or 3 shots though... don't know how far it will let you go and tell you it can't process anymore. The processing is not unbearable either.... its just kids nowadays, if it isn't ready in 1.5 seconds, time to troll Nokia on a phone that is at least trying to change things up.... :victory:

Why is this phone getting crapped on so hard?

Every forum or YouTube videos I watch, all I see is people hating on this phone. I am actually pretty surprised, but how much negativity there is for the Pixel 4 line.
Android police poll, is heavily in the "hell no not buying" as #1
Two big tech forums I belong too, it's like 70% saying no way.
What's the deal?
I have a 64GB Clearly White 4XL on order. I go back to owning, the Nexus-One, Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Motorola Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, Pixel 2 XL, and Pixel 3 XL. And yes I agree, the Pixel 4 XL could have been better, for the price at least do better than OnePlus, give us 8GB RAM, a larger battery of at least 4,000mAh, a brighter display for outdoor use, go easy n the large forehead bezel, like have the thickness if possible. But saying that, I buy the Nexus Pixel line for the software and monthly security updates.
I am interested in seeing the full blown real reviews this week.

For a few reasons:
1. Not priced like a Nexus / 3a
2. No fingerprint sensor
3. Lack of Ultrawide 3rd camera
4. Small battery
5. Removal of Ultrawide front facing camera
6. Removal of front facing speakers
7. Big top bezel for Soli
8. Soli gimmick
9. Removal of unlimited original photo upload
10. No big leap in camera hardware
11. No surprises since it was leaked all over the place
12. Only 6 GB of RAM (finally)
13. Only Snapdragon 855 instead of 855+ processor
Having said all that, I still have one on preorder.
Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Kusanagi Fire said:
For a few reasons:
1. Not priced like a Nexus / 3a
2. No fingerprint sensor
3. Lack of Ultrawide 3rd camera
4. Small battery
5. Removal of Ultrawide front facing camera
6. Removal of front facing speakers
7. Big top bezel for Soli
8. Soli gimmick
9. Removal of unlimited original photo upload
10. No big leap in camera hardware
11. No surprises since it was leaked all over the place
12. Only 6 GB of RAM (finally)
13. Only Snapdragon 855 instead of 855+ processor
Having said all that, I still have one on preorder.
Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3,9, and 12 are the disappointment for me. But that price thooooo, they could have gotten more attention if only they priced it right.
Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Kusanagi Fire said:
For a few reasons:
1. Not priced like a Nexus / 3a
2. No fingerprint sensor
3. Lack of Ultrawide 3rd camera
4. Small battery
5. Removal of Ultrawide front facing camera
6. Removal of front facing speakers
7. Big top bezel for Soli
8. Soli gimmick
9. Removal of unlimited original photo upload
10. No big leap in camera hardware
11. No surprises since it was leaked all over the place
12. Only 6 GB of RAM (finally)
13. Only Snapdragon 855 instead of 855+ processor
Having said all that, I still have one on preorder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4 may be an issue for me but everyone's usage is different so I'll wait to see my personal results before I make a final judgement.
6 is a big one for me. Before the 4XL was officially announced, I was aiming to switch from my OnePlus 7 Pro so I could get front facing speakers. I always end up blocking the bottom speaker when watching stuff in landscape mode.
10 could be a reason for me but not too much since I know it's going to be better than my current OnePlus 7 Pro.
12 is similar to my point for reason 4 (wait until I can test myself). Users say Android 10 is RAM hungry so hopefully that 6 GB is enough.
13, Even though it's a slight upgrade, it would have been nice to get the + variant of the processor.
All other reasons I don't mind too much.
But yeah I do think the phone is getting a bit too much hate.

Honestly, just the fact that last year's Pixel 3 got discounted on Black Friday combined with the fact that the 4 isn't a massive leap in hardware / doesn't check some of the minimal requirements like 8 GB RAM, 855+, and Ultrawide camera (granted, there's not much more ground to cover these days) is reason enough for this phone to get tons of hate.
Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Today Flossy admitted that he's been using the 3XL all along. He complained about that one much the way he will complain about this one in the full review. He'll says it's too expensive and many other things. Despite that he'll probably end up making it his work phone just as he did the previous Pixels. I wrote about this elsewhere but a search on Youtube will probably be able to find the dude from Unbox Therapy doing a pertinent video. He was in a suite in Vegas with a bunch of other young millionaires, Brownlee for example. The whole video was what is everyone carrying in their pocket, what was the phone they chose to use. The Pixel tied the iphone with few other phones mixed in. Brownlee had both. It wasn't because they were reviewing it, that was well past review time. It was the phone that millionaires who have tried everything and can afford anything decided they wanted in their pockets. There's a message there.
I do get it, the phone is too expensive for the specs, only a mother could love the looks, it's missing feature X and Y. But I'm sure that I'll enjoy using it in the day to day more than any other phone I could buy. It's always been that way. I couldn't make friends with the 3XL, the notch just killed it for me so I got a 6T. Nothing wrong with that phone but the next thing I knew I was picking up a 3AXL, should have been a downgrade, it was by the numbers. Wasn't long before I realized I wasn't going to use the 6T anymore and gave it to one of my grand kids. I've been using the 3A since.
Let the haters hate and enjoy your purchase. Flossy begin his quick look with talk of giving it a fair trial before he hung it, 5 minutes later he was giggling like a schoolgirl. The Pixel does that...

I agree with most here, the Pixel 4 XL could and should have been better;
- 8GB RAM
- 4,300mAh battery ( like the Note 10+ )
- Brighter display on par with the Galaxy S10 line
- Reduce the forehead bezel, to like half the size if possible, or actually do the Note 10 hole punch, and forget the faceID stuff, and keep the fingerprint scanner.
But it's funny, recent phones that I kept the longest last few years has been the Nexus or Pixel. Yeah I'd get bored with them, then I pick up the latest Samsung Galaxy whatever, and within in a few weeks already regret not having the Pixel. One time I went for the iPhone 7 Plus, when it was the hot new phone, and I was bored with my Nexus 6P, wow what a bad decision, not even a month later ran back to the Nexus, mainly because iOS is a Fischer Price kids OS, and totally blows, feels like a decade old operating system. Or I got the Note 5 at launch, was so happy to have that badass phone, but then I tried to turn it into a Nexus, deleting all the Samsung stuff, and downloading every Google app and setting defaults, and tried to make the Note 5 a Nexus Note LOL, where the phone I traded in for the Note 5 was the Motorola Nexus 6, and that thing was just so smooth, so cool, I regretted getting the Note
Point, the Nexus or Pixel phones, may be ugly, and not have the wham bam cool features, but using it day in day out, I just find them most comfortable and a joy. They are simple, they are minimalist, but they just work, and have a special thing about them.

Unfortunately, Google will never win because nothing is ever good enough for people and they will always complain about something.

techrider6262 said:
Unfortunately, Google will never win because nothing is ever good enough for people and they will always complain about something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This!
6GB RAM - My 3xl has 4 and I have ZERO problems running whatever. People need to learn that it's not necessarily about big specs, it's more about optimization. The 4's will run very smoothly with 6. Just because the S10 has 8, and the note has an option of 12 doesn't mean that does anything to speed up the phone.
128GB storage - This option is the same price as the s10 with that same storage. Maybe Google should add a third option with 256? Would that make some of you happy? It would be even more expensive though. But, again, same price as the s10.
Battery - My 3xl has a smaller battery and I get no less than 20+ hours with heavy use. Typically, I'll get 24+ hours on it. With the 90 Hz display being an as needed, I doubt the battery will last less than my 3xl.
Ultrawide camera - I DO have to agree here that it should have that. I know Google's camera's are amazing and this one will definitely be as good as the iPhone or Sammy's, but the ultrawide addition to camera shots would have been nice.
Removal of free original size photo backups - Sooo, Apple NOR Samsung, NOR any other OEM that I'm aware of ever offered this. I'm a system engineer and cloud architect. I'm here to tell you that the amount of storage and bandwidth required for unlimited originals for millions of users is INSANE. You have any idea how much this costs Google? There was no way that would ever last. It's $1.99 and $2.99 per month for the extra storage to keep original backups, plus you get other benefits. Also, grab Google Surveys app and you'll make more than the cost here by far every month. Get over it.
The front facing speakers - Definitely not happy about this. They could have fit the bottom speaker I bet. At least there's still stereo.
Anyway, anyone who wants to hate, please save us all from it and go elsewhere. This phone will be amazing and I'd put it up against ANY other smartphone. It'll be smoother and has release day updates and OS's.
Every year there are people trolling the new pixel (even the Samsung S7 edge though) threads for a couple months after release. It's incredibly stupid. If you don't like the phone, why are you here?

I haven't had time to watch the all reviews yet, but is the 4 XL battery life at least on par with the 3 XL's, or please don't tell me it's actually worse?
My Pixel 3 XL battery life is mediocre, not great, not horrible, I would like better, but certainly not worse, but could makedo with the same battery life. If the 4 XL has worse and less battery life than the Pixel 3 XL, then I need to cancel my preorder.

Zorachus said:
I haven't had time to watch the all reviews yet, but is the 4 XL battery life at least on par with the 3 XL's, or please don't tell me it's actually worse?
My Pixel 3 XL battery life is mediocre, not great, not horrible, I would like better, but certainly not worse, but could makedo with the same battery life. If the 4 XL has worse and less battery life than the Pixel 3 XL, then I need to cancel my preorder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm trading in my 3xl for the 4xl and I believe the battery life will be the same or better.
It has a larger battery so even the smooth display shouldn't hurt it too much.
The reviews so far today have trashed the 4 but pretty much everyone agreed that the 4xl should be fine.
I'm excited even if the changes are not dramatic from 3xl.

Zorachus said:
I haven't had time to watch the all reviews yet, but is the 4 XL battery life at least on par with the 3 XL's, or please don't tell me it's actually worse?
My Pixel 3 XL battery life is mediocre, not great, not horrible, I would like better, but certainly not worse, but could makedo with the same battery life. If the 4 XL has worse and less battery life than the Pixel 3 XL, then I need to cancel my preorder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From The limited reviews and tweets that I have seen, it seems to be holding its own. Averaging between 4 and 6 hours of sot, from the initial reviews. But I'm sure that that will get better, over time, as it learns your usage. Definitely getting through a whole day though, and that's all that's important

I suppose a rooted 4 XL with the Franco kernel and his app Naptime, would extend battery life too?

Zorachus said:
I suppose a rooted 4 XL with the Franco kernel and his app Naptime, would extend battery life too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, these days the only reason I root is for custom kernels, and adaway

If the battery optimization time is the same as the 3XL then none of the reviewers have attained their final screen on time yet.

First reviews are out and they say battery life is horrendous, especially on the 4. I'll pass. Too expensive for too many compromises.

I have Android 10 running on my OG Pixel XL and have zero problems with it on an older chipset and 4 GBs, but I'm sure the extra 2 GBs will be beneficial/noticeable regardless.
I suppose the people complaining the loudest fall into 1 of the following 2 categories: trolls/iphone fanbois or people who don't feel the upgrade from the 3 (or any of the last gen phones) -> 4 is worthwhile. While that's a valid concern, it's worth noting that in recent years the yearly revision has become less substantial in recent years. I've held off for 3 years so going from the OG XL to 4 XL will be a massive improvement and something I'm greatly looking forward to.

msaitta said:
I have Android 10 running on my OG Pixel XL and have zero problems with it on an older chipset and 4 GBs, but I'm sure the extra 2 GBs will be beneficial/noticeable regardless.
I suppose the people complaining the loudest fall into 1 of the following 2 categories: trolls/iphone fanbois or people who don't feel the upgrade from the 3 (or any of the last gen phones) -> 4 is worthwhile. While that's a valid concern, it's worth noting that in recent years the yearly revision has become less substantial in recent years. I've held off for 3 years so going from the OG XL to 4 XL will be a massive improvement and something I'm greatly looking forward to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every phone I've pre-ordered, it always starts the same way. Everyone has something to complain about before they even have the phone in their own hands. After awhile, the complaining, for the most part, dies down, and people realize they love the device. What boggles my mind is, why come to the forum to complain? Nobody forces an individual to buy the phone, let alone pre-order it. Instead of focusing on the negative, focus on the positives.

I'm going to vent a little bit...
I'm an older guy (48) and I've been doing tech and gadgets for over 20 years now. I love this site and have participated on and off for many years. There is a problem growing online and it is only going to get worse. The system here isn't equipped to counter a growing troll problem, so we all fall prey to the effects. Every aspect of the online consumer space is being manipulated by "troll farms" and it is obliterating the signal-to-noise ratio in everything from entertainment to personal devices. Across the board, every device is eventually portrayed to have some fatal flaw rendering it inferior. When in actuality, it can adequately perform the primary task and may only fall short in a single aspect depending on a very specific need that varies individually by consumer.
I used to participate here rather frequently, then I began to only stop by during a device's release to gauge anticipations and thoughts. Every year the noise has increased. Not just here though, almost every forum beyond a certain size has the same issue. Online sources and articles are not immune and are populated with extremely vocal "detractors" in the comment sections, they rally with a frequency and voracity that no ordinary working person could maintain. The methods used by professional trolls is complex, and unfortunately, PROFITABLE.
Without giving too much personal information, my wife WAS a partner in one of the largest PR firms in the U.S., and I can tell you that troll farms and bogus self-cross-referring review sources are real. Her firm never participated, but they could see it coming and now there's an entire "dark" branch of marketing and PR that has arisen (some would say re-emerged) that essentially has the ethics model of the old cigarette industry with the agility of a modern digital campaign.
So if you're wrestling with specs, don't kill yourself searching for the ultimate device. You can do three things and I promise you'll be as happy as you can be.
If you really care about what you're going to buy ,to the point that it may cause a devastating case of buyer's remorse you should:
- First, make lists. Make a list of what's important, make a list of what specs make your tech-feels tingle, make a list of devices and start prioritizing and crossing off.
- Second, do a one afternoon search (not one second longer) of trusted reviews and ignore very tilted reviews.
- Third, and this is crazy... Go to a store, look at the physical functioning device and play with it.
This should be an extra separate step, but whatever, I'm not going back to edit...
- Buy what you want and be prepared to return it within 30 days and pay a restocking fee. Don't like the fee? Too bad, that's life... If you don't like something you may have to pay to return it, it's the world we live in.
This should be one more step too. Damn, I really messed up.
- Unless you are doing ongoing development NEVER revisit the topic of purchasing and specs. Go and enjoy your device and every once and a while keep up with updates and new features. There's a whole life to live out there, so don't waste your energy spec-gazing or griping with trolls.
Online communities are becoming less valuable to me every day because of the noise, it's unfortunate.

Dusty Rhodes said:
I'm going to vent a little bit...
I'm an older guy (48) and I've been doing tech and gadgets for over 20 years now. I love this site and have participated on and off for many years. There is a problem growing online and it is only going to get worse. The system here isn't equipped to counter a growing troll problem, so we all fall prey to the effects. Every aspect of the online consumer space is being manipulated by "troll farms" and it is obliterating the signal-to-noise ratio in everything from entertainment to personal devices. Across the board, every device is eventually portrayed to have some fatal flaw rendering it inferior. When in actuality, it can adequately perform the primary task and may only fall short in a single aspect depending on a very specific need that varies individually by consumer.
I used to participate here rather frequently, then I began to only stop by during a device's release to gauge anticipations and thoughts. Every year the noise has increased. Not just here though, almost every forum beyond a certain size has the same issue. Online sources and articles are not immune and are populated with extremely vocal "detractors" in the comment sections, they rally with a frequency and voracity that no ordinary working person could maintain. The methods used by professional trolls is complex, and unfortunately, PROFITABLE.
Without giving too much personal information, my wife WAS a partner in one of the largest PR firms in the U.S., and I can tell you that troll farms and bogus self-cross-referring review sources are real. Her firm never participated, but they could see it coming and now there's an entire "dark" branch of marketing and PR that has arisen (some would say re-emerged) that essentially has the ethics model of the old cigarette industry with the agility of a modern digital campaign.
So if you're wrestling with specs, don't kill yourself searching for the ultimate device. You can do three things and I promise you'll be as happy as you can be.
If you really care about what you're going to buy ,to the point that it may cause a devastating case of buyer's remorse you should:
- First, make lists. Make a list of what's important, make a list of what specs make your tech-feels tingle, make a list of devices and start prioritizing and crossing off.
- Second, do a one afternoon search (not one second longer) of trusted reviews and ignore very tilted reviews.
- Third, and this is crazy... Go to a store, look at the physical functioning device and play with it.
This should be an extra separate step, but whatever, I'm not going back to edit...
- Buy what you want and be prepared to return it within 30 days and pay a restocking fee. Don't like the fee? Too bad, that's life... If you don't like something you may have to pay to return it, it's the world we live in.
This should be one more step too. Damn, I really messed up.
- Unless you are doing ongoing development NEVER revisit the topic of purchasing and specs. Go and enjoy your device and every once and a while keep up with updates and new features. There's a whole life to live out there, so don't waste your energy spec-gazing or griping with trolls.
Online communities are becoming less valuable to me every day because of the noise, it's unfortunate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely this. It's pretty darn clear that some people in the crowd are trying to spike the punch. Don't obsess over the minutiae, don't allow yourself to be herded just because it seems like sentiment is tilted one way. Figure out what you want out of a phone (is an ultra-wide camera REALLY make/break for you, or are you only thinking that because XYZ said to?). Put your hands on the device by visiting a Best Buy or carrier store. And lastly, recognize that software learns your habits (battery life after a few days won't tell you what long-term battery life means) and also gets updated (features get added, functionality becomes improved).
Be aware of the echo chamber effect and do your best to make up your own mind about the worthiness of a phone.

Question A bit underwhelmed

Had the pixel 7 for 4 days now and not that impressed with it
Actually thinking about going back to my OnePlus 7 Pro
The charging is poor on it and generally scrolling on webpages menu etc its no better than my oneplus
Dont know maybe I will persevere with it and it will get better
Got the pixel 7 on a killer deal with 5g coming from 4g with EE - I literally got the phone for free but not feeling it
Anyone else not buying into the hype?

So I've had the phone for the better part of a month and my takeaway from owning the device is that whilst is not the best or does it have any killer features that stand out above any other phone I've used. It does everything that it does really very well
The auto brightness is basically perfect.
The camera is reliable, it's not the best. The video is a bit lacking, but everything else about it is very good.
Is probably not the fastest at navigating between apps and multitasking but when I use the device it's reliably smooth in operation.
The battery isn't as good as my previous device, Poco F3, however, it gets me through the day and it's reliable in battery drain.
Notifications work unlike MIUI
Signal is much better compared to my 7T Pro
I can use speaker phone in my car and the other side can hear me clearly, couldn't do this on the 7T or F3
The screen is accurate and well balanced
I could go on
The phone doesn't have anything amazing that will make you want to go out and buy it or talk about how amazing it is, but once you just use it day in day out as the tool phones are now, it becomes the best phone I've used as a package.

roughavoc said:
So I've had the phone for the better part of a month and my takeaway from owning the device is that whilst is not the best or does it have any killer features that stand out above any other phone I've used. It does everything that it does really very well
The auto brightness is basically perfect.
The camera is reliable, it's not the best. The video is a bit lacking, but everything else about it is very good.
Is probably not the fastest at navigating between apps and multitasking but when I use the device it's reliably smooth in operation.
The battery isn't as good as my previous device, Poco F3, however, it gets me through the day and it's reliable in battery drain.
Notifications work unlike MIUI
Signal is much better compared to my 7T Pro
I can use speaker phone in my car and the other side can hear me clearly, couldn't do this on the 7T or F3
The screen is accurate and well balanced
I could go on
The phone doesn't have anything amazing that will make you want to go out and buy it or talk about how amazing it is, but once you just use it day in day out as the tool phones are now, it becomes the best phone I've used as a package.
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Thing is my oneplus is a better phone than the pixel
I am not trying to downplay the pixel its just for a new phone/upgrade its not what I thought it would be
If it works for you great and I genuinely mean that
Going to give it a few more days but I can honestly see myself switching back I miss the fluidity and charging speed of my oneplus

I only got the P7 because the carrier I'm with would only give me a better deal if I got a new phone. It's been nearly 3 months and still haven't used it other than to take pictures and see how it runs lol. It's a quirky thing.
I do have plans for it down the road, once it's rooted with a custom ROM, but won't be using it as a primary device. 128 GB without an SD card slot was what killed it for me. I know most phones don't have the slot these days, but with specs similar enough to my S10 with 512 GB and the card slot, I've just stuck with using that. I know the P7 has a better battery and charges faster, but the extra storage is more important for what I need. Not bad as a back-up device though.

I have a pixel 7 after almost 3 years with the OnePlus 7pro and I was the same... OxigenOS have a lot more stuff than pixel except for the exclusive stuff. I was missing my OnePlus a lot and hold this P7 for a month or more... After that I went back to the OnePlus and noticed the quality of the phone. OnePlus felt so cheap in my hand and idk, it was not the same. So yes I understand your feeling about OP7pro it was a hell of a phone but , I think pixel 7 is just more premium feeling and a "mature OS" nut fun but mature.

Oneplus have a great deal on the 11 at the moment I can get £180.00 trade in on the 7 pro plus - free buds plus if I link my device and a 5% student beans I have got the price down £400 very tempting

I went from the OnePlus 6t to the pixel 6 and I kinda felt the same way. I knew it was a better phone in theory with higher specs and all, but the 6t had a better screen to me and seemed faster in charging and smoothness at first. However, the camera on the pixel was waaaay better and I was happy with that trade off. Fast forward a year and I got a good trade in deal from the pixel 6 to the 7 and it is a way better screen than my 6. Not much else other than slightly lighter in the hand with better weight distribution (6 was top heavy). It is a much better overall experience though and I love a couple of features I've only found on pixels like the ability to copy text from your recent apps slider, amazing speech to text, and I will say the scrolling speed/smoothness has gotten way better with time. I think the software needs a bit of time to smooth out.

I came from the OP8. I did like the phone, but got really tired of the hit or mostly miss camera. I know there are better camera phones than the P7, but I'm not buying a phone I can't root plus I really like the smaller size. The OP11, IDK, like another said, my P7 does everything I want and does it really well. Also there's the whole Chinese and Spyware thing.

I get what everyone is saying!! I came from a Pixel 3XL. The 7 didn't blow me away, but works very efficiently. At least I can unlock my bootloader now.

roughavoc said:
or does it have any killer features that stand out above any other phone I've used.
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That depends on if you use your phone as a phone, once you get used to not receiving spam calls and having call screening there is no going back.
Also the speech recognition is faster and more accurate than any device on the market.
Thing is phone's have been fast enough for years and you won't notice a huge difference between modern devices.

gap30 said:
Had the pixel 7 for 4 days now and not that impressed with it
Actually thinking about going back to my OnePlus 7 Pro
The charging is poor on it and generally scrolling on webpages menu etc its no better than my oneplus
Dont know maybe I will persevere with it and it will get better
Got the pixel 7 on a killer deal with 5g coming from 4g with EE - I literally got the phone for free but not feeling it
Anyone else not buying into the hype?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in the same situation, upgraded from my oneplus 7 pro. I agree that the screen was better on the oneplus and looking at a spec sheet it is obvious that it is the better screen. Other than that and charging speed everything is better on the pixel 7. The NFC is more reliable, better sound quality, better networking, camera and so on. I think it is worth the upgrade if you do not mind the screen. I rarely ever used the dash charge and mostly stuck to slower charging for over night so I do not have issues with the charging and the battery lasts me the whole day anywaay.

gap30 said:
Had the pixel 7 for 4 days now and not that impressed with it
Actually thinking about going back to my OnePlus 7 Pro
The charging is poor on it and generally scrolling on webpages menu etc its no better than my oneplus
Dont know maybe I will persevere with it and it will get better
Got the pixel 7 on a killer deal with 5g coming from 4g with EE - I literally got the phone for free but not feeling it
Anyone else not buying into the hype?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had my pixel 7 since late November, and I'll never buy another. I regret trading in my Galaxy S20fe for this turd of a phone. Google has locked down so much of the stock OS it's ridiculous. Very Apple -like. If I want that garbage I'll just buy an iphone.
But by far the most miserable part is the awful--and I mean TRULY, epically horrifically bad--fingerprint sensor. It's hands down the worst I have ever seen on any phone.

jasongw said:
I've had my pixel 7 since late November, and I'll never buy another. I regret trading in my Galaxy S20fe for this turd of a phone. Google has locked down so much of the stock OS it's ridiculous. Very Apple -like. If I want that garbage I'll just buy an iphone.
But by far the most miserable part is the awful--and I mean TRULY, epically horrifically bad--fingerprint sensor. It's hands down the worst I have ever seen on any phone.
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I can't comment on the OS because I just got the phone and rooted it right out of the box, but Samsung phones are fairly limited themselves IMO not to mention with tons of bloat. I went from an Honor View 10 to an S10(because ATT blocked my V10 from service last year) and the s10 is crap in comparison and has very restrictive OS.
Do you have a screen protector? Did you rescan your fingerprints after? Lots of issues have been reported for those who haven't rescanned after a screen protector install, even changing brands I would recommend it.
GL

I bought this in December after accidentally destroying the screen of my OnePlus 7 Pro. It's everything I loved about that phone, with the bonus of NOT having a curved screen. Best phone ever? Nah. But a damn good and reliable phone? Absolutely.

You need to give Pixels some time, as the software is supposed to be intuitive and adapt to your usage. Also, I think some people coming from a different OEM don't realize Pixels are pure android with no frills, so they don't always "wow" you right out of the box. Pixels aren't for everybody, but those of us who love our Pixels tend to be happy with them and enjoy special features that others may not get due to carrier software manipulation, etc.
At the end of the day, all devices are subjective and it just depends on what you're looking for. Don't like the Pixel? Cool. There are thousands of other options out there. Go find your happy place.

Pixels can run grapheOS, others phones can't. That's me reason to keep pixel phones.

I regret trading in my P3 for this phone

The OS is cleaner and it has some nice functionality, but even my Xiaomi mi 10 that I traded from feels like a better phone. And the battery life, which was the only reason I gave up the mi 10 (which had dropped to 60% battery), is **** on the pixel 7.

cannot talk about the OS, i immediately switched to LineageOS as i'm used to that.
i tend to agree to the general feeling, underwhelming it's a good summary for this device.
in my overall experience, it's a barely good device which could've been great if they wanted to.
Screen: 5/10
mediocre screen... it only looks good on darker colors, lighter ones look terrible with visible rainbow effects at very little movement.
minor, almost imperceptible, flickering on static images.
i completely fail to understand why pixel 7 has so many positive reviews about the screen.
thankfully xda and other reviewers made interesting insights about this issue, sadly we as the customers got a indecent panel.
Battery life: 8/10
usually allows me to do 5h of screen usage with ~50%, which is more than enough for me, just in time to put in charge for the next day.
Camera: 7/10
i expected more, considering the reviews.
i've tried it a few days on stock and gcam but i really don't see why all the praises.
anyway it delivers more than i actually need and care.
front camera is actual ****, really bad for video calls.
About the rest:
fingerprint sensors, odd enough, works ok for me: it always recognize my fingerprint. it's just a tad slow which isn't great.
stereo audio balance is weird.
i'll always complain about 3.5" mm audio jack lack.

57op said:
i'll always complain about 3.5" mm audio jack lack.
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It also doesn't have digital to analog conversion, soost USB-C to 3.5mm converters won't work.

Question Upgrade, yes no?

Good evening,
I have been using the Google Pixel 6 for more than a year and am basically satisfied with it. However, I think that an upgrade is necessary. Would the Pixel 7(a) be recommendable here? The only thing that has bothered me about Pixel 6 is dark scenes in videos. Black pixels are lit up in a funny way and yet you can't see much in the videos. Otherwise, I am also open to other brands with good price-performance ratio.
I am grateful for any advice and opinion!

Welcome to XDA.
In general the improvements from year to year aren't that much; not much bang for the buck unless you get a really good trade-in deal.
I'm still using my Note 10+ and in many ways it's superior to the newest Samsung's and not much slower in actual normal usage. Nitpicking over a couple pixels for a cam upgrade isn't worth all that trouble. Pro cam shooters rarely upgrade their cam every year or two...
Bottom line; depends how deep your pockets are.
If you don't upgrade expect to replace the battery soon, routine maintenance, no big deal.

blackhawk said:
Welcome to XDA.
In general the improvements from year to year aren't that much; not much bang for the buck unless you get a really good trade-in deal.
I'm still using my Note 10+ and in many ways it's superior to the newest Samsung's and not much slower in actual normal usage. Nitpicking over a couple pixels for a cam upgrade isn't worth all that trouble. Pro cam shooters rarely upgrade their cam every year or two...
Bottom line; depends how deep your pockets are.
If you don't upgrade expect to replace the battery soon, routine maintenance, no big deal.
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Thank you very much for your opinion!
In the Google Telegram channel I got recommended that I wait until October for the Pixel 8. Let's see what that brings, except for the unnecessary built-in fever thermometer.

I replaced my P6 with a P7 after it was accidentally damaged beyond repair. I can barely tell the differance. The phones seem to drop in price quite a bit about 3 or 4 months after their release, so if you can wait til the end of January most of the early bugs will have been worked out and the price will have dropped by at least $100.

poit said:
I replaced my P6 with a P7 after it was accidentally damaged beyond repair. I can barely tell the differance. The phones seem to drop in price quite a bit about 3 or 4 months after their release, so if you can wait til the end of January most of the early bugs will have been worked out and the price will have dropped by at least $100.
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You benefit by waiting not only in a reduced price but by seeing if any unsolvable hardware bugs are present. I would give it 6 months. Use independent reviews here, on utube and Reddit to better guage the actual performance and any issues that crop up with the device.
Look at the mess some of the S23U owners are having with the banana shaped optical blurring with their main cam. It's not just Samsung, both Android hardware and firmware are more shake & bake then ever. When people are in a big bad hurry... mistakes happen. Sit back, observe then pick the device that will best fullfill your mission if you have that luxury. A good flagship should last you many years.

Just upgraded to the Pixel 7 from the 4xl. Only real improvements I see is less bezel, updates install faster, and slightly better camera. May return the 7 and stick with the 4xl a bit longer.

PuffinNugz said:
Just upgraded to the Pixel 7 from the 4xl. Only real improvements I see is less bezel, updates install faster, and slightly better camera. May return the 7 and stick with the 4xl a bit longer.
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Do the Google phone vs phone vid search. A 2019 flagship can hold up well to the newer phones. Replace battery as needed and keep rollin.

PuffinNugz said:
Just upgraded to the Pixel 7 from the 4xl. Only real improvements I see is less bezel, updates install faster, and slightly better camera. May return the 7 and stick with the 4xl a bit longer.
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I've never used the 4xl but I like its lens spec. With newer Pixels I'd rather not resort to digital zoom for avoiding distortion. 7 Pro answers that but only if prices drop enough.

SmilingPeace said:
Good evening,
I have been using the Google Pixel 6 for more than a year and am basically satisfied with it. However, I think that an upgrade is necessary. Would the Pixel 7(a) be recommendable here? The only thing that has bothered me about Pixel 6 is dark scenes in videos. Black pixels are lit up in a funny way and yet you can't see much in the videos. Otherwise, I am also open to other brands with good price-performance ratio.
I am grateful for any advice and opinion!
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Click to collapse
I had a Pixel 6 since they were announced and was very happy with it except for the fingerprint reader. I work with wood a lot and it seems to screw up my fingerprint mightily. I basically abandoned the fingerprint reader and just used a PIN. When the Pixel 7 arrived, I traded-in my Pixel 6 and got a Pixel 7. I am very happy with face unlock and that I don't have to deal with the fingerprint reader anymore. I can't say anything about the 7A, but the Pixel 7 screen is very much like the Pixel 6. In fact, I think of my Pixel 7 as a "Pixel 6, refined." There might not be enough difference in the screen to make it worth it. Same with the cameras. Again, this relates only to the Pixel 7, not the Pixel 7A.

I went from the 6 to 7. It was a lateral but very needed upgrade. Much more stable.

I plan to get a 7 real soon as I found a nice deal on it. Leomgrass color

LLStarks said:
I went from the 6 to 7. It was a lateral but very needed upgrade. Much more stable.
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No need to wait I guess if I found a good deal yea? I mean wait till later this year for the new one