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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Click to collapse
whats weird is many of mine country already gotten android 10 update , i didnt received any

Question Time to return

After spending just over a week with the FX3 pro think it's time to return it can't say I am blown away with it and don't feel it's a worthy successor to the FX2 pro
Battery life not that good having to quick charge at least twice to make it through the day ,
Camera has decent detail but colours are over saturated and not natural at all
Microscope lense is just pointless gimmicky lense and pretty useless in day to day use and hard to get a good in focus shot most of the time , detail quality reduces significantly when using zoom , again 10 bit photos is gimmicky when only the phone can display them at 10bit and when uploading to social media the quality is reduced to 8 bit anyway , performance for a SD 888 is disappointing this could be down to software optimization but stuttery web pages Facebook etc isn't grate and as mentioned Google feed is horrid considering its practically exact spec as the OnePlus 9 pro the bench marks are a lot less , maybe adaptive 120hz is to blame and not optimized correctly and even certain sites and apps just ain't optimized for high refresh rates , my 12 pro max with 60hz is smoother than 120hz on most social media and websites probably why apple have not jumped on the high refresh ban waggon admittedly swiping around the OS is a breeze but sadly that's were it ends , the chrome finish on the glossy black is just a step backward when most 2021 flagships are going for Matt finishes as the fingerprint and smudges are ridiculous on this device , sadly it's to many cons and that's just the major ones so will be retuning the device under my 28 day change of mind policy with the network , not being negative I'm sure most will be satisfied with the device but those things just make me think it's not worth the price tag that goes with it , and if you already have the X2 pro it's definitely not worth the upgrade yet

Wow what a shame that your journey with the FX3 turned out to be such a bad one.
I can't relate to most of your issues since my device is spot on from day 1
No lag or stutter and flawless benchmark scores, guess I am lucky and you got a Monday morning device.

Yes definitely or a Friday phone Lol should of known better than go with Chinese device , oh well on ward and upward

DoobyDroid said:
Yes definitely or a Friday phone Lol should of known better than go with Chinese device , oh well on ward and upward
Click to expand...
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Only reason for me was the SD888 since I've had it with the Exynos issues by Samsung.
I did get the S21 Ultra 512Gb version first but that was a disappointment as well. It was a step back for me after the FX2Pro
Now I'm thinking about importing a SD version of the S21 Ultra, just not sure if that could give other issues on the Dutch networks

Yr I was looking at 21 ultra but a Friend had it for couple weeks and sent back due to camera not that grate although it's had a few updates since release and looking over on the forum camera updates so possibly better now and although previous exynos chips have been a let down against SD I think this time around it's slightly better not on par quiet but nearly but now you have said that I'm having second thoughts lol it's that or the dark side 12 pro Max , or stick with the x3 pro and see what updates address

DoobyDroid said:
Yr I was looking at 21 ultra but a Friend had it for couple weeks and sent back due to camera not that grate although it's had a few updates since release and looking over on the forum camera updates so possibly better now and although previous exynos chips have been a let down against SD I think this time around it's slightly better not on par quiet but nearly but now you have said that I'm having second thoughts lol it's that or the dark side 12 pro Max , or stick with the x3 pro and see what updates address
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exynos 2100 is definitely not on oat with SD888 at least not with the S21 ultra. Had it for about a week and gladly returned it. My SD865 powered FX2Pro was performing much better compared to the Exynos powered S21U

I have no doubt" I'm just going on what bench comparison reviews I've seen yes still not as good but better than the S20 ultra's 990 was Vs 865 , Samsung slowly improving there chips , the one thing putting me of the 12 pro max is 60z going back from 120hz is horrid although I had the standard 12 prior to the x3 pro briefly after a few days you generally re adjust to 60hz as iOS is fairly buttery Smooth you do notice the odd stutter but what you loose in fluidnis you gain in battery so it's a question of trade offs and personal preference suppose camera samples do look better on the 12 pro max than s21 ultra more natural but does loose out to the s21 ultras video recording again it's what your willing to trade in one area to gain in another I personally very rarely even record video so not a big deal id rather have a better quick point and shoot cam, yes 21 ultra can do more and has multiple lenses and zooms but anything over 15x just starts to loose detail anyway so 108mp is pretty useless past that , decisions decisions one thing thought I'm really enjoying the 65w charging on X3 pro blazing fast and plugging in for 10 mins I'm good again for hrs I would definitely miss that if decide to exchange just wish the Sony 1 MK 3 was already out and I wouldn't have such hard time deciding as O2 have limited options to go for and nothing really new on the horizon for some time yet ,

patensas said:
Only reason for me was the SD888 since I've had it with the Exynos issues by Samsung.
I did get the S21 Ultra 512Gb version first but that was a disappointment as well. It was a step back for me after the FX2Pro
Now I'm thinking about importing a SD version of the S21 Ultra, just not sure if that could give other issues on the Dutch networks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't you just keep the x3 for another year? What do you not like about it?

latino147 said:
Why don't you just keep the x3 for another year? What do you not like about it?
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Click to collapse
I miss the OneUI from Samsung devices and only reason I switched was the bad Exynos chip.
I miss the feeling I've got from the FX2Pro and the fact it did feel a bit more polished compared tot the FX3Pro
However I'll stick with the FX3Pro for a while to see what Oppo can do for us with firmware updates. As mentioned the latest firmware crippled my device when it comes to battery and performance, hoping they will fix this.
With previous firmware my device scored over 800000 point running Antutu 9, the latest firmware somewhere between 650 and 700000
Now I know benchmarks don't mean **** and real-life performance matters but also in real-life the performance dropped with latest firmware.
So if Oppo finds a way to fix the performance and battery drain with next update I'm cool.
Other small glitches on software side I can live with ( or solutions can be found )

Yeah, OneUI is almost perfect. Very customizable, especially with good lock.
Performance (s10+) wasn't that great though. My wife's s20 is still very choppy with 120hz activated.
And the fingerprint scanner on the s10 and s20 are terrible.
Oh, they should also start improving charge speeds! I can never go back to a 25W charger!

Seems a lot of mixed scores hear are my results Antutu 9.0.5

patensas said:
I miss the OneUI from Samsung devices and only reason I switched was the bad Exynos chip.
I miss the feeling I've got from the FX2Pro and the fact it did feel a bit more polished compared tot the FX3Pro
However I'll stick with the FX3Pro for a while to see what Oppo can do for us with firmware updates. As mentioned the latest firmware crippled my device when it comes to battery and performance, hoping they will fix this.
With previous firmware my device scored over 800000 point running Antutu 9, the latest firmware somewhere between 650 and 700000
Now I know benchmarks don't mean **** and real-life performance matters but also in real-life the performance dropped with latest firmware.
So if Oppo finds a way to fix the performance and battery drain with next update I'm cool.
Other small glitches on software side I can live with ( or solutions can be found )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, may I know how the FX3 pro fares currently?
Planning to buy one or wait for the reno7pro/s21fe. Wanna move away from Xiaomi now. The 1+ 9pro does not have certain 5g bands i need

I am going to return it too in the end..battery life isn't that great and no root etc. Zoom pics not so sharp. But the other alternative is s21exynos but I doubt with fine tuning will go worse than my actual immortal s10 For the high temp I usually downcloak from kernel ..so i think it will be ok.
Chooo

Question Thinking about getting the ZenFone 8, is it worth it?

I am thinking about switching phones from my OnePlus 9. I like my OP9, but it is very glitchy for what it is supposed to be and really the only thing that impresses me is the WarpCharge feature. I am very fond of smaller phones, such as the ZenFone 8. I haven't purchased an ASUS device at all before, not even a computer.
Who has it and do you think it is worth even considering? My daily use consists of social media, internet browsing, and watching videos. It is very rarely that I download a game and play it on mobile. I also prefer somewhat swift updates, but have been an avid Motorola user before and was perfectly fine with their update timings.

I'm also in the same boat however 'm using Nord now..not very much satisfied with it..Oneplus really lost its glory now a days . Also 'm looking for compact phones..ZF8 seems to be perfect..would like to hear from real users..

I'm on the same boat except I'm using Xiaomi Mi 9T. Zenfone 8 looks like a perfect phone but I heard the thermals are bad and it gets hot af, like really hot.

I have it and the only down side is standby drain. Even after a few system updates my drain is about 50-100% higher than my op6. It's gotten better since the first version, but still not great.
I love it's form factor, GUI fluidity, Asus apps are great.
I haven't played any games so I can't really say anything about thermals.. never felt any temperature build-up.

andelf_x said:
I have it and the only down side is standby drain. Even after a few system updates my drain is about 50-100% higher than my op6. It's gotten better since the first version, but still not great.
I love it's form factor, GUI fluidity, Asus apps are great.
I haven't played any games so I can't really say anything about thermals.. never felt any temperature build-up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it last at least around 6-8 hours?

The screen isn't the best and the battery drains a bit too quick, but I'd say it's worth it. I like the stock ROM. The power button can be customised to perform two different actions, Game Genie shows CPU, GPU, battery, temperature and FPS, Optiflex speeds up apps and reduces battery usage. Also, didn't expect to find system performance modes, dt2w, dt2s or gestures, which, if drawn while the screen is off, launch apps.

Undead_Son said:
The screen isn't the best and the battery drains a bit too quick, but I'd say it's worth it. I like the stock ROM. The power button can be customised to perform two different actions, Game Genie shows CPU, GPU, battery, temperature and FPS, Optiflex speeds up apps and reduces battery usage. Also, didn't expect to find system performance modes, dt2w, dt2s or gestures, which, if drawn while the screen is off, launch apps.
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Click to collapse
How long does the battery last for you?

Undead_Son said:
The screen isn't the best and the battery drains a bit too quick, but I'd say it's worth it. I like the stock ROM. The power button can be customised to perform two different actions, Game Genie shows CPU, GPU, battery, temperature and FPS, Optiflex speeds up apps and reduces battery usage. Also, didn't expect to find system performance modes, dt2w, dt2s or gestures, which, if drawn while the screen is off, launch apps.
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Click to collapse
This opinion is very subjective and quite off.
The screen isn't the best? Maybe there are literally few phones with better screens but it's definitely among the very top. No idea what is wrong with it.
Battery drain? I get easily 6h SOT and whole day use. No issues at all. 8h during night eats me like 5-8 percent. The good is that all my smartwatches and earbuds are very stable and I get no disconnections like on Huawei flagship phones.
I can confirm that coming video in bright sun in 30 Celsius gets the phone hot, very hot. I think that's normal. And it's waterproof so I've just taken it underwater for 5s and it was back to normal.
If you can live with the cut out camera - this phone is brilliant.
I was using LG V30 and Huawei Mate 20 before this and I see no downsides. Everything is better than on those two. I like them all.

Kemez said:
This opinion is very subjective and quite off.
The screen isn't the best? Maybe there are literally few phones with better screens but it's definitely among the very top. No idea what is wrong with it.
Battery drain? I get easily 6h SOT and whole day use. No issues at all. 8h during night eats me like 5-8 percent. The good is that all my smartwatches and earbuds are very stable and I get no disconnections like on Huawei flagship phones.
I can confirm that coming video in bright sun in 30 Celsius gets the phone hot, very hot. I think that's normal. And it's waterproof so I've just taken it underwater for 5s and it was back to normal.
If you can live with the cut out camera - this phone is brilliant.
I was using LG V30 and Huawei Mate 20 before this and I see no downsides. Everything is better than on those two. I like them all.
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Click to collapse
Awesome reply! I believe I will be purchasing it to replace my OP9.

Kemez said:
This opinion is very subjective and quite off.
The screen isn't the best? Maybe there are literally few phones with better screens but it's definitely among the very top. No idea what is wrong with it.
Battery drain? I get easily 6h SOT and whole day use. No issues at all. 8h during night eats me like 5-8 percent. The good is that all my smartwatches and earbuds are very stable and I get no disconnections like on Huawei flagship phones.
I can confirm that coming video in bright sun in 30 Celsius gets the phone hot, very hot. I think that's normal. And it's waterproof so I've just taken it underwater for 5s and it was back to normal.
If you can live with the cut out camera - this phone is brilliant.
I was using LG V30 and Huawei Mate 20 before this and I see no downsides. Everything is better than on those two. I like them all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I said "not the best" I had two things in mind. First the backlight issue at 60 and 120 Hz. As for the second one, few days ago my Zf8 was on a desk together with my previous phone (Xperia 5 II). I think I had some web pages open on both at the time because the screens were mostly white. When I looked at them while standing and almost at a flat angle, I immediately noticed that the Xperia's screen was white as a sheet of paper, Zenfone's wasn't. I assumed the Xperia's screen can be viewed without distortion at wider angles.
I played one game which is locked at 30 FPS, CPU and GPU usage was 10-30%, temp stayed at 36-37C. Will try something more demanding and see if it can go over 40C during the weekend.
Edit: idle drain 0.5%/h, but Franco Kernel Manager shows 0.28% for some reason

Good topic to keep track of.
Right now i have a OnePlus 9 Pro and as i really like it I'm kind of done with big smartphones.
As i had the Pixel 5 before i was thinking about going back and then the ZenFone 8 came to my attention.
It's damn ugly but that's something that can be changed with a case or skin.
I'm in doubt about the camera's compared to the Pixel 5 but the reviews I've seen so far seems quite good, not the best but good and comparable to the OnePlus 9.
I also read that Asus's update policy is not very reliable.
Anyone can give their opinion about this parts?
Everything else about this phone seems really good!

After using the zenfone 8 and Pixel 5 I went for the Pixel 5 because of the insanely better battery life than on the zenfone 8
Zenfone 8 had a slightly better camera with gcam but overall I was more impressed with the Pixel 5

It is true that other phones may have better battery, the Mate 20 I have is much better but at the cost of unreliable smart devices connection.
I can't get 2 days of my normal usage out of any phone. If I go hiking and just have the phone with me the Zenfone will also last 2-3 days easily. For me 1 day is the requirement and Zenfone does it easily.
The cameras are really good and with gcam and the right settings in there it gives great, real to life pictures. The super wide camera has the same sensor as Pixel 5. The main and selfie are even better and newer.
And the main thing - here in Poland the Pixel is 290USD more expensive than Asus. At the same price I'd probably buy the Pixel as it is a more established brand and has better support.
People write here that ZF8 can be bad at getting updates but the initial month had 4 updates. Can't see anything wrong here.
If the ZF9 will be the same size and gets the flip camera I will 100% buy it.

Kemez said:
It is true that other phones may have better battery, the Mate 20 I have is much better but at the cost of unreliable smart devices connection.
I can't get 2 days of my normal usage out of any phone. If I go hiking and just have the phone with me the Zenfone will also last 2-3 days easily. For me 1 day is the requirement and Zenfone does it easily.
The cameras are really good and with gcam and the right settings in there it gives great, real to life pictures. The super wide camera has the same sensor as Pixel 5. The main and selfie are even better and newer.
And the main thing - here in EU the Pixel is 290USD more expensive than Asus. At the same price I'd probably buy the Pixel as it is a more established brand and has better support.
People write here that ZF8 can be bad at getting updates but the initial month had 4 updates. Can't see anything wrong here.
If the ZF9 will be the same size and gets the flip camera I will 100% buy it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pixel has a different sensor for the ultra wide. For the others i can't comment on that but it seems they are at least very close to each when it comes to picture quality.
It's so strange that the price difference in the world is so big. Here in the Netherlands the zenfone 8 is more expensive compared to the Pixel 5.

I can't say much on the phone as I've not used one yet, but from my own research and a friend whose ordered one, I can give me opinion. The specs are great, I think it exceeds in every category, but the camera. I don't the camera is as good as it could be, and maybe even the screen. The 120hz is real nice though. It's all personal preference really. I'm a Samsung guy but have been trying other phones because, well, why not. I'm by far not an expert, but I most certainly will share my opinion with you. My friend did mention that his tends to get hot, really hot. Keep that in mind.

Pollie81 said:
Pixel has a different sensor for the ultra wide. For the others i can't comment on that but it seems they are at least very close to each when it comes to picture quality.
It's so strange that the price difference in the world is so big. Here in the Netherlands the zenfone 8 is more expensive compared to the Pixel 5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The wide camera sensor in ZF8 is the same as main in Pixel. At least I read that.

KaydenMcCurdyTech said:
I can't say much on the phone as I've not used one yet, but from my own research and a friend whose ordered one, I can give me opinion. The specs are great, I think it exceeds in every category, but the camera. I don't the camera is as good as it could be, and maybe even the screen. The 120hz is real nice though. It's all personal preference really. I'm a Samsung guy but have been trying other phones because, well, why not. I'm by far not an expert, but I most certainly will share my opinion with you. My friend did mention that his tends to get hot, really hot. Keep that in mind.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Barely felt any heat so far. When exactly does it get hot for your friend?

We
Undead_Son said:
Barely felt any heat so far. When exactly does it get hot for your friend?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anything that runs the CPU/GPU high. You have to enable performance mode (or custom mode for max performance/temp limit) to let it get hot though. Case mitigates its feel to an extent.
And it can get burning hot, try it on any 3d game.

mestermagyar said:
We
Anything that runs the CPU/GPU high. You have to enable performance mode (or custom mode for max performance/temp limit) to let it get hot though. Case mitigates its feel to an extent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah that explains it, thanks

mestermagyar said:
We
Anything that runs the CPU/GPU high. You have to enable performance mode (or custom mode for max performance/temp limit) to let it get hot though. Case mitigates its feel to an extent.
And it can get burning hot, try it on any 3d game.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That really riddles me. So there are non gaming phones that do not get hot in similar settings? Especially during summer?

Question Battery at Mi 11 Ultra

Hi guys.
I have small problem with my Mi 11 Ultra's battery
Usually I charge it to about 85% , then I use it until the battery level becomes about 15%
It gives me 5 hours and half of SOT with 60 frames !! Which is awful for me, I just suffer facebook , Instagram , TikTok and Clash Royal
So I am wondering , How many hours do you get in your Mi 11 Ultra ??
Any advice for me to do ?
My ROM is Global.

Seraj2211 said:
Hi guys.
I have small problem with my Mi 11 Ultra's battery
Usually I charge it to about 85% , then I use it until the battery level becomes about 15%
It gives me 5 hours and half of SOT with 60 frames !! Which is awful for me, I just suffer facebook , Instagram , TikTok and Clash Royal
So I am wondering , How many hours do you get in your Mi 11 Ultra ??
Any advice for me to do ?
My ROM is Global.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to charge mine everyday, difficult to get used to after years of my huawei 30pro lasting at least 2& 1/2 days. I am also using a p6 (non pro) and it gets about the same battery life as the 11 Ultra

tensux said:
I have to charge mine everyday, difficult to get used to after years of my huawei 30pro lasting at least 2& 1/2 days. I am also using a p6 (non pro) and it gets about the same battery life as the 11 Ultra
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am totally agree with you
It is hard to imagine but my J7 pro (2017) it compares to the ultra

Seraj2211 said:
I am totally agree with you
It is hard to imagine but my J7 pro (2017) it compares to the ultra
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But in what other things j7 can compare with 11 ultra?
Superb hardware and performance then u want battery can hold longer?
They already have Superb fast charging so nobody care about battery now
If u want phone with extra super long battery time, take something like function Nokia phone from 2000, u can live with 1 week without charging

hungragezone said:
But in what other things j7 can compare with 11 ultra?
Superb hardware and performance then u want battery can hold longer?
They already have Superb fast charging so nobody care about battery now
If u want phone with extra super long battery time, take something like function Nokia phone from 2000, u can live with 1 week without charging
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First,I only compared the battery between each phone.
Second, When you pay for flagship, you want an excellent experience.

Seraj2211 said:
First,I only compared the battery between each phone.
Second, When you pay for flagship, you want an excellent experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If u want to compares something, take other phone with the same spec, dont make funny comparition like that
2nd, the manufacter cant do anything now. People want flagship hardware, flagship performance, beauty and style design, but want battery last longer is almost impossible. So they try to make the charger as fast as possible. 30-45 mins for 5-6 hours of heavy use is balance solution

It's just crap for sure. I came from a K20 Pro Premium. 855+, 12gb ram, 512gb. Better battery life. The 888 is a trashy power hungry chip that serves as a heater. Honestly, if it wasn't for the stellar camera in the 11U, I'll be pissed off.

i get something like 8-9h sot with 60 hz no aod and full hd+

lambstone said:
It's just crap for sure. I came from a K20 Pro Premium. 855+, 12gb ram, 512gb. Better battery life. The 888 is a trashy power hungry chip that serves as a heater. Honestly, if it wasn't for the stellar camera in the 11U, I'll be pissed off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's mixture of 888 chip and powerful screen without adaptive screen property.
I'm thinking from this moment , What Should I do when the summer has come

mat.mark89 said:
i get something like 8-9h sot with 60 hz no aod and full hd+
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's very interesting result!!
What kind of users are you ?? Gamer , normal person ..etc ?
And which ROM is installed in your device

Seraj2211 said:
That's very interesting result!!
What kind of users are you ?? Gamer , normal person ..etc ?
And which ROM is installed in your device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
normal i suppose, social, telegram and camera, im using miui eu latest beta based on android 11

Seraj2211 said:
Second, When you pay for flagship, you want an excellent experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I briefly switched to an iPhone last year for 3-4 months after being an Android person my whole life. I had heard the experienced greatly improved on iPhone and you could not do things like change default apps and such so I thought id give it a try. The experience was terrible, and you cannot change default app for texting which was the biggest thing, but it had a hundred other minor annoyances as well. Anyway, the biggest thing I noticed was that I was coming from a OnePlus 9 Pro which had abysmal battery life, and was one of my reasons for switching. I always heard iPhone battery was actually pretty good and better on average than flagship Android phones. Well the iPhone 12 Pro battery was better than the OnePlus 9 Pro, but not by much. I actually thought it was pretty bad when I had been expecting good battery from what everyone had been telling me. But after switching back to Android and going with a Mi 11 Ultra, the 11 Ultra actually has better batter than my iPhone did. Probably 15-20% better battery life really. I heard the Mi Mix 4 was even better than the 11 Ultra in this regard even with a smaller capacity. So I am hopeful for newer flagships like the 12 Ultra when it comes out, but even the 11 Ultra is already better than what an iPhone gets.

Battery life has never been good on this phone. I used to have 5 to 6h of SOT at max but since MIUI 13 update it is even worse. I barely reach 5h now and battery drains really fast. This with the update policy of xiaomi who takes months to release ROMs and doesn't include all Chinese ROMs improvements and functionalities makes me go back to samsung or oppo... Really disappointing. The Mi 11 ultra is my second xiaomi phone but i think it will be the last

I don't know why for you is like this but with some tricks I get easily 7 to 8 SoT

And what arz those tricks?

There is a thread I opened few months ago, have a look with the search function

few tricks might help.
always set the screen refresh rate to 90hz thru "setedit" app
brightness set to 75%, lower the better
turn off sync, Bluetooth and NFC if not needed
always use wifi for data and enable airplane mode if your sure no calls or text needed (there are social apps that might be used anyways to contact you)
set wallpaper to black, set icons to white only, no fancy color
turn off AOD
if you capture pictures or video for a long time, use airplane mode
if this tricks are a bummer, then this is the payment for having a flagship phone
indeed SD 888 is a device oven

battery is so bad on new update android 13
can i go back to android 11
thanks

Happy im still on miui 12.5.20, still to many probs on miui 13 for me.
I have really good battery time i think.

BigDisplay said:
Happy im still on miui 12.5.20, still to many probs on miui 13 for me.
I have really good battery time i think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you share download link please

Question X90 Pro+ vs Honor Magic 5 Pro

Looks like the much much better X90 Pro+ on first look.
Software Policy that promises 3 major android upgrades, 5 years of security updates vs nothing on Vivo (likely 1-2 major upgrades only). Caveat on MWC it was spotted with Android 12 out of the box - but the China OS version seems to be on Android 13. Very unlikely it will launch with Android 12.
Software stability/notificatins: Yeah Huawei/Honor isn't top but way better than Vivo.
Google: fully inbuilt on European model - no China OS spyware
Sensor: Yes it's only 1/1.12" but it has F1.6 vs F1.8 so the natural bokeh will be pretty identical. Amount of light per pixel even slightly better
Ultrawicde: a bit higher quality sensor,
Selfie sensor: much better.
Zoom: Identical but faster lens - so in theory also slightly better. F3.0 vs F3.5
Camera software: well Huawei has always been top...
Battery: 5100maH (Global version only, Chinese gets 5450) vs 4700 on X90..
Bluetooth: X90 Pro+ has 5.3 s 5.2 only on Huawei.
Wifi: some special Wifi 6 promised - but both miss Wifi 6e and Wifi 7 as it looks now
esim: Magic 5 Pro should come with e-sim and dual sim for Europe.
Price: 1200€ including VAT and warranty in Europa - price is for Germany.... (that's basically identical to China plus VAT)
Price in China: The 90 Pro+ has today dropped today with vouchers to 4500RMB on JD (quite a drop from once 6999RMB even tough it was available at 6000 right from the start - Magic 5 Pro starts at 7473RMB - don't know about discounts... Clearly in China the X90Pro+ is a bargain vs the Magic 5 Pro in price right now. S23 Ultra goes for around 78000 RMB in China for the 512GB version.
Biggest default for Magic 5 Pro: concering camera: no variable aperture! This will hurt exactly the same as on X90 Pro+. Likely Xiaomi 13 Ultra will have the better main camera due to variable aperture on the IMX 989.
Magic 5 Pro likely has small Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor only (however their face unlock should be safer - unlike Vivo that opens with a picture...)

I'm really enjoying the 2x f/1.6 zoom on the Vivo - using it more than the main camera at the moment

Haskren said:
I'm really enjoying the 2x f/1.6 zoom on the Vivo - using it more than the main camera at the moment
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand that if you want to shoot portrait, 50mm is the sweet spot, it's always been. But assuming you want to use the stock camera in portrait mode, do you really thing the main sensor at 1.9x (or even better disable the lens auto switching) vs the portrait sensor is worse?
I feel it's a tiny bit different but not really worse so I feel the 2.2x camera is a bit useless anyhow. But yeah I much rather have a main sensor with variable aperture if it uses such a big sensor and the honor fails this one as well. But the rest of the package to me is much much better than the Vivo.
Oh and I was wrong about the sensor. Read a wrong report. The zoom lens uses IMX 858 not the omnivision 64b as on that vivo. Both are using periscope 90mm however.

extremecarver said:
Looks like the much much better X90 Pro+ on first look.
Software Policy that promises 3 major android upgrades, 5 years of security updates vs nothing on Vivo (likely 1-2 major upgrades only). Caveat on MWC it was spotted with Android 12 out of the box - but the China OS version seems to be on Android 13. Very unlikely it will launch with Android 12.
Software stability/notificatins: Yeah Huawei/Honor isn't top but way better than Vivo.
Google: fully inbuilt on European model - no China OS spyware
Sensor: Yes it's only 1/1.12" but it has F1.6 vs F1.8 so the natural bokeh will be pretty identical. Amount of light per pixel even slightly better
Ultrawicde: a bit higher quality sensor,
Selfie sensor: much better.
Zoom: Identical but faster lens - so in theory also slightly better. F3.0 vs F3.5
Camera software: well Huawei has always been top...
Battery: 5100maH (Global version only, Chinese gets 5450) vs 4700 on X90..
Bluetooth: X90 Pro+ has 5.3 s 5.2 only on Huawei.
Wifi: some special Wifi 6 promised - but both miss Wifi 6e and Wifi 7 as it looks now
esim: Magic 5 Pro should come with e-sim and dual sim for Europe.
Price: 1200€ including VAT and warranty in Europa - price is for Germany.... (that's basically identical to China plus VAT)
Price in China: The 90 Pro+ has today dropped today with vouchers to 4500RMB on JD (quite a drop from once 6999RMB even tough it was available at 6000 right from the start - Magic 5 Pro starts at 7473RMB - don't know about discounts... Clearly in China the X90Pro+ is a bargain vs the Magic 5 Pro in price right now. S23 Ultra goes for around 78000 RMB in China for the 512GB version.
Biggest default for Magic 5 Pro: concering camera: no variable aperture! This will hurt exactly the same as on X90 Pro+. Likely Xiaomi 13 Ultra will have the better main camera due to variable aperture on the IMX 989.
Magic 5 Pro likely has small Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor only (however their face unlock should be safer - unlike Vivo that opens with a picture...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you should sell your Vivo X90 Pro Plus as you bought it anawares. You were probably forced to buy it by someone.
Certainly the Honor Magic 5 Pro is an excellent smartphone but the hardware seems to me to be on par with the Vivo X90 Pro Plus and certainly not superior. A big flaw is that they have lowered the charging speed from 100W to 66W. Reading your words, it almost seems to me that we are talking about a comparison between a Twingo and a Ferrari... so I wonder again, why did you buy the Vivo X90 Pro Plus since the specifications and potential problems related to the software and frequency of updates (on a device imported from China) have been known for some time?
You knew very well what you were getting into. Do yourself and all of us a favor. Sell your Vivo and buy Honor Magic 5 Pro.
There is a great forum here dedicated to that brand.

Well if you read reviews like the XDA one: https://www.xda-developers.com/vivo-x90-pro-plus-review/
There is no mention at all about rotten software experience..I didn't dig through the forums to find this out. Plus In Taiwan the s23U is crazy expensive in comparison vs a China import of x90pro+ and I wanted a phone with great battery life and waited especially for 8gen2 for that. Not knowing vivo would mess that up due to a power hungry modem which clearly isn't x70.
The magic 5 clearly also hasn't x70 modem, nor does it seem to use fast connect at all. But honor/Huawei have great track record in sourcing battery efficient components. If that applies to magic 5 pro has to be seen.
Not being able to sell the x90pro+ for more than 500 euros in Taiwan I wait to be back in Europe and then exchange it against a phone with good software and battery life. Maybe s23U, if significantly cheaper maybe magic 5 pro. If until mid may it's clear that Pixel 8 would use a Samsung 3nm processor I may just wait for pixel 8 pro. Clearly nothing from BBK or Xiaomi cause they don't know how to do software and support.

extremecarver said:
Well if you read reviews like the XDA one: https://www.xda-developers.com/vivo-x90-pro-plus-review/
There is no mention at all about rotten software experience..I didn't dig through the forums to find this out. Plus In Taiwan the s23U is crazy expensive in comparison vs a China import of x90pro+ and I wanted a phone with great battery life and waited especially for 8gen2 for that. Not knowing vivo would mess that up due to a power hungry modem which clearly isn't x70.
The magic 5 clearly also hasn't x70 modem, nor does it seem to use fast connect at all. But honor/Huawei have great track record in sourcing battery efficient components. If that applies to magic 5 pro has to be seen.
Not being able to sell the x90pro+ for more than 500 euros in Taiwan I wait to be back in Europe and then exchange it against a phone with good software and battery life. Maybe s23U, if significantly cheaper maybe magic 5 pro. If until mid may it's clear that Pixel 8 would use a Samsung 3nm processor I may just wait for pixel 8 pro. Clearly nothing from BBK or Xiaomi cause they don't know how to do software and support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think even more you made an unconscious purchase. As many here will be able to confirm to you, buying imported smartphones or other devices coming from China is only advisable for very aware users or advanced users.
Vivo has always made great cameraphones, not battery phones. S23U has a battery that lasts longer but also has a much slower recharge and this in my opinion is a big flaw for those who use their smartphone a lot.
I think you should evaluate the purchase of Xiaomi 13 Pro which has excellent cameras (although not at the level of Vivo X90 Pro Plus) and a battery that lasts long enough but above all with a very fast recharge.
My previous smartphone was the Xiaomi 11T Pro and I can assure you that a 120W recharge completely solves any battery problems.

Nope I couldn't care much about charging. I need a phone that lasts as long as possible while being outdoors. No access to chargers.
And Xiaomi has horrible software and not great battery life either. And I need a decent tele and main camera. Don't care much about ultrawide. Plus I of course expect stable and functional software. I don't care about homescreen or widgets at all, as I'm fine with Nova

Is it possible to install Google Services on Honor phones?
Or even root and remove Chinese spyware?

mbfamily said:
Is it possible to install Google Services on Honor phones?
Or even root and remove Chinese spyware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honor will be available with global OS. Impossible on Chinese OS. And the price is nearly the same as jn China, unlike vivo and Xiaomi who ask for ridiculous prices

maxel77 said:
S23U has a battery that lasts longer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, Samsung is not better than Vivo in terms of autonomy. Yes, it can also give you 8-9 hours of screen time, and the next day only 5 - you'll never be sure of its battery life. Samsung has never been good at autonomy and batteries.
About honor. Not bad, but much more expensive than vivo, plus the main sensor gn2 against 989 is worse.
variable aperture is not an advantage - it's pure marketing, nothing more.
it also has a very very strange design with some kind of giant camera module. horror. Yes, and the appearance is not serious. Vivo has a very cool and at the same time strict appearance.
well, maybe he will take great photos, but what about the video recording in which the huawei and honor never knew how ...

b2rdetor said:
No, Samsung is not better than Vivo in terms of autonomy. Yes, it can also give you 8-9 hours of screen time, and the
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read the reviews - Samsung is 5% better on continous gamin/benchmark tests (as expected due to bigger battery), 20% better on surfing via Wifi, 40-50% better on standby and surfing via 4G/5G or calltime. It's not even a competition. The S23U crunches the X90P+ and other X90 series with ease.
Samsung used to be average - but that was due to their Exynos processors malperforming. Considering Samsung before more or less matched the competition with worse SOC was actually quite impressive. It's way better than Vivo X90 Pro+ in battery runtime (charging slower of course). And in the past the Galaxy S8+ was actually the best device for battery life too.
The GN2 will likely be used on Pixel 8 too. Should it come with 50MP on camera2api it will be the perfect sensor for gcam mods. Yes video was never a strong place for Huawei. But I'm also not impressed with Vivo either. It's not even confirmed it's GN2 just likely (due to size). However some sources claim it has an IMX878 sensor for the main cam. Nothing would be known so far about that sensor. Maybe the 878 will only come on the Magic 5 Ultimate (which will be China only).

extremecarver said:
Looks like the much much better X90 Pro+ on first look.
Software Policy that promises 3 major android upgrades, 5 years of security updates vs nothing on Vivo (likely 1-2 major upgrades only). Caveat on MWC it was spotted with Android 12 out of the box - but the China OS version seems to be on Android 13. Very unlikely it will launch with Android 12.
Software stability/notificatins: Yeah Huawei/Honor isn't top but way better than Vivo.
Google: fully inbuilt on European model - no China OS spyware
Sensor: Yes it's only 1/1.12" but it has F1.6 vs F1.8 so the natural bokeh will be pretty identical. Amount of light per pixel even slightly better
Ultrawicde: a bit higher quality sensor,
Selfie sensor: much better.
Zoom: Identical but faster lens - so in theory also slightly better. F3.0 vs F3.5
Camera software: well Huawei has always been top...
Battery: 5100maH (Global version only, Chinese gets 5450) vs 4700 on X90..
Bluetooth: X90 Pro+ has 5.3 s 5.2 only on Huawei.
Wifi: some special Wifi 6 promised - but both miss Wifi 6e and Wifi 7 as it looks now
esim: Magic 5 Pro should come with e-sim and dual sim for Europe.
Price: 1200€ including VAT and warranty in Europa - price is for Germany.... (that's basically identical to China plus VAT)
Price in China: The 90 Pro+ has today dropped today with vouchers to 4500RMB on JD (quite a drop from once 6999RMB even tough it was available at 6000 right from the start - Magic 5 Pro starts at 7473RMB - don't know about discounts... Clearly in China the X90Pro+ is a bargain vs the Magic 5 Pro in price right now. S23 Ultra goes for around 78000 RMB in China for the 512GB version.
Biggest default for Magic 5 Pro: concering camera: no variable aperture! This will hurt exactly the same as on X90 Pro+. Likely Xiaomi 13 Ultra will have the better main camera due to variable aperture on the IMX 989.
Magic 5 Pro likely has small Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor only (however their face unlock should be safer - unlike Vivo that opens with a picture...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello , my lovely friend . Can i ask you again why you bought such a bad phone like the X90 pro plus ? what are you trying to prove here? I know i risk getting blocked soon because of you . Can you please tell me why on earth you still use the x90 pro plus? we got your point , its sh*t , you hate it . You are the only guy here who has this opinion .even so we respect that. Why do you use this phone if its so dissapointing to you ?

vendetta17 said:
Hello , my lovely friend . Can i ask you again why you bought such a bad phone like the X90 pro plus ? what are you trying to prove here? I know i risk getting blocked soon because of you . Can you please tell me why on earth you still use the x90 pro plus? we got your point , its sh*t , you hate it . You are the only guy here who has this opinion .even so we respect that. Why do you use this phone if its so dissapointing to you ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sad thing is that he bought it thinking it was a battery phone but he is also complaining about photo quality even if in many comparisons Vivo is better than S23U.

maxel77 said:
The sad thing is that he bought it thinking it was a battery phone but he is also complaing about photo quality even if in many comparison Vivo is better than S23U.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He is complaining about battery , camera , design , modem , google services ( everybody knows the problems with chinese phones) . How is that possible ? How is that even being tolerated every single day its beyond my power of understanding . I get it peoples got opinions , i like criticism as long as its constructive and realistic . But he is literally aberrating . Im ready to be banned right now . Banned for speaking in the name of 99% of this forum .

mbfamily said:
Is it possible to install Google Services on Honor phones?
Or even root and remove Chinese spyware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it should be even preinstalled on the global variant. They're saying 5G is also possible so I don't see the problem to release the phone with Playstore or Google apps.

extremecarver said:
Read the reviews - Samsung is 5% better on continous gamin/benchmark tests (as expected due to bigger battery), 20% better on surfing via Wifi, 40-50% better on standby and surfing via 4G/5G or calltime. It's not even a competition. The S23U crunches the X90P+ and other X90 series with ease.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
reviews? seriously? what about the owners?
reviews have never been true about samsungs (I owned a samsung for a long time and I will not return to this hell again). the reality is that today it will give out 8 hours of screen, like vivo x90pp, and tomorrow under the same conditions it will be only 5...
I'm sure the honor will be more autonomous, as they install high-quality batteries and optimize the firmware kernel well, but definitely not Samsung
Samsung is not a competitor for vivo at all in all parametres, except maybe with a s-pen

vendetta17 said:
Hello , my lovely friend . Can i ask you again why you bought such a bad phone like the X90 pro plus ? what are you trying to prove here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as you can read above it rates the phone based on reviews and not actual usage or even owner reviews on forums

Reading the threads about battery lifes with screenshots it's ace clear too. S23U is way better than the x90pro+. Vivo gets 7-8 hours only with wifi, s23U gets 10-12 hours on WiFi for DoT. Some people even squeezed 14 hours out of s23U.
With mobile data all day without WiFi and consuming 2-3 GB lucky to get 6-7 hours from x90. If bad reception and using the camera I've had 4 hours only over 12 hours use.
There's a battery thread here and besides me no one posted screenshots from accubattery...
As I often said, it's clear the modem/firmware is the culprit. It can easily be verified by using both s23u and x90pro+ as hotspot and download a big file. X90pro+ goes down 5% every 20minutes. Vs 3% on s23U. 3G call time and standby see Dxomark, clearly better than Vivo. If you are on wifi all day or don't use much mobile data the difference is much smaller. Changing Vivo stock camera for gcam saves a lot of battery too (stock camera literally sucks the battery empty in no time).
The last firmware update improved the modem slightly, so when surfing news websites/text the consumption is better now. When watching YouTube or high resolution video on X90pp over mobile data it's still munching battery like crazy (I even tested that very close to a cell tower at -70db reception, cannot get much better).
If reception is really bad, meaning -110db or less the X90pp drains like crazy but keeps the connection where my reference (Huawei p30 pro) would often drop the network. at least with screen off and for background data I would prefer a more battery conservative strategy. Not sure how S23U behaves, but X90pp even in the least power balanced network mode is a real battery sucker. Meaning while being outdoors I have to put it in airplane mode or switch of mobile data to make it a day. Same use case my p30pro would hold up nearly two days (yeah much brighter screen in sunlight makes a difference too, but much less than the modem).
Yeah because of bigger cooling x90pro+ will drain faster under load in benchmark tests, but in normal use neither phone gets close to overheating plus x90pro+ allows this overheating anyhow only for benchmark apps (57° measured for example by toviworks YouTuber, vs 43° on s23U). Without benchmark mode the X90pp actually throttles already at 32° so much earlier (throttling to around 80% max speed)...
And yes, the notifications problem on the X90pp clearly plays its part too. With vivo.pem killing google FCM removing it all apps under high battery use are uncontrolled. No way to have a strategy like besides FCM push only every 120seconds allow apps to pull stuff. Deep sleep therefore is much better on Samsung where there is an intelligent deep sleep management. That explains the standby numbers.
How good will be the honor magic 5 pro? They already more or less stated that they use their own modem, even Bluetooth and WiFi won't be fastconnect 6900 like on X90pp (7800 on s23U which has better battery saving too vs 6900), but Huawei/honor have a good track record. I doubt they reach x70/fastconnect 7800 efficiency however. And unlike origin OS they have a decent sleep management.

extremecarver said:
Reading the threads about battery lifes with screenshots it's ace clear too. S23U is way better than the x90pro+. Vivo gets 7-8 hours only with wifi, s23U gets 10-12 hours on WiFi for DoT. Some people even squeezed 14 hours out of s23U.
With mobile data all day without WiFi and consuming 2-3 GB lucky to get 6-7 hours from x90. If bad reception and using the camera I've had 4 hours only over 12 hours use.
There's a battery thread here and besides me no one posted screenshots from accubattery...
As I often said, it's clear the modem/firmware is the culprit. It can easily be verified by using both s23u and x90pro+ as hotspot and download a big file. X90pro+ goes down 5% every 20minutes. Vs 3% on s23U. 3G call time and standby see Dxomark, clearly better than Vivo. If you are on wifi all day or don't use much mobile data the difference is much smaller. Changing Vivo stock camera for gcam saves a lot of battery too (stock camera literally sucks the battery empty in no time).
The last firmware update improved the modem slightly, so when surfing news websites/text the consumption is better now. When watching YouTube or high resolution video on X90pp over mobile data it's still munching battery like crazy (I even tested that very close to a cell tower at -70db reception, cannot get much better).
If reception is really bad, meaning -110db or less the X90pp drains like crazy but keeps the connection where my reference (Huawei p30 pro) would often drop the network. at least with screen off and for background data I would prefer a more battery conservative strategy. Not sure how S23U behaves, but X90pp even in the least power balanced network mode is a real battery sucker. Meaning while being outdoors I have to put it in airplane mode or switch of mobile data to make it a day. Same use case my p30pro would hold up nearly two days (yeah much brighter screen in sunlight makes a difference too, but much less than the modem).
Yeah because of bigger cooling x90pro+ will drain faster under load in benchmark tests, but in normal use neither phone gets close to overheating plus x90pro+ allows this overheating anyhow only for benchmark apps (57° measured for example by toviworks YouTuber, vs 43° on s23U). Without benchmark mode the X90pp actually throttles already at 32° so much earlier (throttling to around 80% max speed)...
And yes, the notifications problem on the X90pp clearly plays its part too. With vivo.pem killing google FCM removing it all apps under high battery use are uncontrolled. No way to have a strategy like besides FCM push only every 120seconds allow apps to pull stuff. Deep sleep therefore is much better on Samsung where there is an intelligent deep sleep management. That explains the standby numbers.
How good will be the honor magic 5 pro? They already more or less stated that they use their own modem, even Bluetooth and WiFi won't be fastconnect 6900 like on X90pp (7800 on s23U which has better battery saving too vs 6900), but Huawei/honor have a good track record. I doubt they reach x70/fastconnect 7800 efficiency however. And unlike origin OS they have a decent sleep management.
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It looks like you have a defective phone. because I don't see anything like that on my phone. Of course, the mobile network consumes more energy, but not by that much. Here are the numbers for you. Watching videos through YouTube Wi-Fi - consumption is about 350mAh on average, which will give about 13 hours of screen if we only watch YouTube. Now 4g. consumption is about 450mAh, which will give more than 10 hours of screen. Yes, as I wrote, the mobile network on any phone consumes more. But what you described suggests that you most likely have a phone defect. I was recently on the road for about 1.5 hours. All this time there was an extremely unstable 2g3g4g network, the phone was constantly online - I needed the Internet and it constantly switched between bad networks. Moreover, two GPS navigators were continuously turned on, between which I switched. as a result, the phone sat down by a little more than 20% giving out 1.5 hours of screen time. that is, nothing like what you described on my copy is simply impossible. Well, except that I will use the phone for two days.
I do not argue that competitors will be even more energy efficient, but vivo is very good in terms of autonomy in any conditions. I highly doubt that an external modem will be better than a modem in SOC. But this needs to be tested. At least so far, no one has been able to do it.
About notifications - here I agree. Very strange behavior on different phones. It seems to be the same firmware, the same applications, the same settings, and on one phone all notifications work and even on a dark theme, and on the other they can fail even on a white theme. Everything works fine for me even with smart battery management. But I always reset the phone after purchase and install all applications from markets - I can’t stand phone cloning programs. perhaps this is the reason.

The Magic5 Pro is looking impressive for sure.
I was interested in the 4 Pro last year but ultimately did not buy it because it had an IMX766 main cam which can be found on midrange phones. And without OIS at that... Not good. The Magic5 Pro looks like a significant upgrade.