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I have a SonyEricsson Xperia X1 which is starting to break down and I'm thinking of getting a new phone. The Desire Z is the only non-Xperia phone I found that has everything I need. How is it? Pros? Cons? Battery life? GPS?
Also, I'm new to Android because the Xperia X1 has WinMo. What are the drawbacks of Android? The pros I already know of. How's the freeware app availability and development? (I will never pay for an application.) How about the advanced user customization? (I liked that about WinMo. Registry editing and changing files.)
Thanks for any answers!
Here's my review of the Desire Z based on my review (note: this is my first mobile device with something better than WinMo 5.
It has a nice performance (unless you're running something like HTC Sense 3.0+ HTC Sense). The keyboard (if you use it) is very comfortable and it features a "search" and a "menu" key, plus 2 shortcuts, the only thing I would like is an extra row for numbers (but I'm already used to the soft keyboard so I rarely use it). I wish I could review the stock rom, but I removed it after 2 days (and this is my first android phone). Battery life is OK, I get 1 day of battery life with medium use (screen on for like 4 hours, nothing heavy running), however, I bought my phone used, so I think the battery should have been better if it was new. The camera is OK for taking casual photos, the flash does a very good job for taking in dark places, just don't expect "ultra sharp" quality. The speaker is very loud, however, I find myself most of the time putting my hands on the back of the phone to "bounce" back the sound to myself, as the speaker is on the back side.
As for android, there are a lot of free applications, however, the market sometimes has apps that are useless or malicious (although you'll usually only notice them after scrolling a lot down). There's also something called GetJar, where you can get apps for free every week legally (they call them "gold apps"). Most of the apps you'll need will be free (soft keyboards, launchers, email apps) and most of them will be free but will have a "pro" or "donate" version (usually the free ones will have ads, which I can easily ignore, as they're usually small.
Sorry for any typo, English isn't my main language.
Time has long since passed to ditch Winmo. The drawbacks to Android? There aren't any. Winmo is a joke for lag, memory leakage, instability, and crashing. Android is stable and fast; and enjoys huge support from manufacturers, developers, and the user community. There is no "registry" since that is a Windows invention. But there are hacks and mods for anything you would ever want to do, and much more. Trust me, make the move to Android, and you will never look back on Winmo (except to shake your head and laugh).
There are plenty of free or ad-supported apps on the Market, as far as most any utility you would need. And also good quality free games. But really, why such an adamant stance on paying for apps? What would be the big deal in PAYING for software, if its something well made, that you use frequently, and say costs $1 (less than a Euro). That amount of money is completely insignificant for me when spend on something useful like a good app. God forbid the people that develop software should be compensated for it, and motivated to create other quality software, and to continue supporting their apps with updates and bug fixes? User made freeware is fine an all, and there is certainly good stuff out there. But its not going to fill every hole or need.
The con with the DZ is that its over a year old. This is really old in smartphone terms. Good phones with hardware keyboards are indeed rare. But aside from the keyboard, the Z has really fallen far behind in terms of CPU, memory, and other specs. If you are really hung up on a hardware keyboard, and can get a good deal on a Z, then go for it. Otherwise, I'd use my money on a more current device.
Thanks for the replies, guys!
Yes, the physical keyboard is a must. It's so much easier and faster than virtual keyboards. If I have to write more than three consecutive letters, I'll flip the keyboard open instead of trying to write with the virtual one. I do a lot of writing with my phones. My work phone is a Galaxy S and I have tried pretty much every keyboard it has, but they're all equally horrible. The same with my Xperia. I blame my first ever smartphone, the Nokia Communicator 9500. It was huge and awkward, but it had the comfiest keyboard ever.
The Xperia X1 has otherwise 95% of what I need, but it's starting to physically break and it has become abominably slow and unstable. And it wasn't that great to begin with. In hindsight, I really should have bought a HTC phone (assuming there existed one with a physical keyboard at the time).
The reason I won't pay for apps is because what has happened to me quite a many times with both my phone and my computer. I buy a program or app I need, happily use it and after a month, discover that there has existed a free alternative the whole time that is actually better. Cue me being pissed off. I have learned my lesson and right now, there is no software on my phone that I paid for and the only software on my computer that actually costed money are the operating system and games. That doesn't mean I won't donate to the authors of the software afterwards.
The only experience I have with Android is via my work phone, but I don't know about how customizable it is, because the work phone has been heavily restricted.
Tych0n said:
The Xperia X1 has otherwise 95% of what I need, but it's starting to physically break and it has become abominably slow and unstable. And it wasn't that great to begin with. In hindsight, I really should have bought a HTC phone (assuming there existed one with a physical keyboard at the time).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Xperia X1 was made by HTC.
Oh, well, something other than the X1, then, preferably something that used HTC's UI.
Tych0n said:
Oh, well, something other than the X1, then, preferably something that used HTC's UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i thought buying an HTC cellphone is reather better than other android cellphones for 2 things:
1- its tough... it doesn't break easily, even with tiny hinges holding the screen...
2- it has Sense UI...
but turns out, Sense UI really affects performance, even on stock unrooted, the phone was really slow... although HTC Sense offers great look... but no performance comparing to other UIs
—————
|RIROZIZO|
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May be, but it's been my favorite since I first saw it.
Riro Zizo said:
but turns out, Sense UI really affects performance, even on stock unrooted, the phone was really slow... although HTC Sense offers great look... but no performance comparing to other UIs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've only found the launcher (home screen and app tray, for the OP) itself to really be any effect on performance, and its easy enough to use an alternate launcher. And the lag on the Sense launcher is really not as bad as some make it out to be.
Its purely a matter of personal taste, of course. But my personal opinion is that Sense is a much more aesthetic, refined, and unified Android experience than AOSP, or other manufacturer skins.
Of course, the beauty of Android is that if you don't like Sense, you can always flash a more vanilla ROM, or something else like MIUI.
---------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:29 PM ----------
Tych0n said:
The reason I won't pay for apps is because what has happened to me quite a many times with both my phone and my computer. I buy a program or app I need, happily use it and after a month, discover that there has existed a free alternative the whole time that is actually better. Cue me being pissed off. I have learned my lesson and right now, there is no software on my phone that I paid for and the only software on my computer that actually costed money are the operating system and games. That doesn't mean I won't donate to the authors of the software afterwards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are just talking utilities and useful apps, I think you will be right at home on Android. I honestly can't think of any utilities that you HAVE to pay for. Many are either free, or have a paid premium version with extra features (or remove ads), if you like the free version and decide to pay.
Desire Z it is, then!
I can get one from two different places without a nordic keyboard for ~300€ or one with nordic keyboard for ~500€. Guess which one I'll buy...
I came to Android on the DZ from a WinMo phone. Best move I ever made, Android made my old WinMo (which I was happy with at the time) look like a laggy, clunky joke.
Welcome to Android !
Sent from my Desire Z running CM7.
If you want a qwerty-slider android phone I don't think you can do better than the DZ. My preferred rom is virtuous affinity - this give a smooth and very usable sense 3.5 experience. However, I would do think this phone is at the end of its lifespan. The built in ram and the single core cpu are going to limit how much further it can be pushed and I don't think we are ever going to see usable/smooth ics or sense 4 on this handset.
If you want a qwerty-slider android phone I don't think you can do better than the DZ - but I wish there was!! Come on HTC where's the quad core 4.7in HD qwerty-slider I want so badly
MaxWiz said:
If you want a qwerty-slider android phone I don't think you can do better than the DZ - but I wish there was!! Come on HTC where's the quad core 4.7in HD qwerty-slider I want so badly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This a million times! I'm astonished that there's so few sliders with full keyboards out there. The market is dominated by those goddamn slates. I've watched my friends write with the virtual keyboards of iPhones, Galaxies and whatever, and it always looks slow, clumsy and awkward. They even have to use predictive text input to compensate for the slowness. In contrast, writing with a QWERTY thumb keyboard is a breeze. The Desire Z is apparently pretty much the newest and best Android slider there is on the market, but it still has a WVGA screen, while pretty much every new slate has some HD-super-gizmo screen. What the hell? My Xperia has a WVGA...
But anyway, seeing as I can get a DZ for LESS (~300€) than I paid for my X1 (~450€), I'm happy even though it might not be the fastest and newest there is.
I'm a big fan of hardware keyboards too. I switched from the Motorola Droid to the HTC G2. I found the keyboard on the G2 to be not so good. Not sure if it's just because I got mine used on ebay and it was worn, but it doesn't look like it's worn out. I've noticed the keyboard tends to miss/duplicate keystrokes often. So I've been tending to use the on screen keyboard, which is really good. I think the on screen keys are bigger than on the droid so it's pretty easy to type on. But I found the hardware keyboard to be much slower to type on than the Droid.
jgummeson said:
I've noticed the keyboard tends to miss/duplicate keystrokes often.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That could be from wear. The keyboard of my X1 worked flawlessly in the beginning, now it duplicates and misses keystrokes all the time. It's still better than the virtual keyboards, though...
Hi!
My iPhone 4 contract recently finished, and so a couple of weeks ago I acquired a HTC One X.
Most things work well - it's noticeably nowhere near as polished as the iPhone UI was, but I'm only on a 12 month contract, so I can live with it.
One thing that is really bugging me is that notifications on the iPhone caused the screen to turn on, which I found really useful. Is there the option to do this on the One X?
Also, can I make it repeat notifications x number of times if I don't immediately notice it?
Thanks in advance!
Thomas
At the moment, no on both counts. Whether there's an app to do it I don't know
I don't believe there's built-in functionality for those, but as you'll probably discover over time you can get into a lot more of the phone's inner workings and get the funtionality via apps — that's the beauty of Android.
Here are a couple to look at:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.igecelabs.android.MissedIt
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rageconsulting.android.lightflow
I'm confident you'll find more with a little sifting though.
As for the overall UI polish, this is an aside but I was a little disappointed too when I switched from my iPhone 4 to the One X. However, the moment I installed regular Android Ice Cream Sandwich (specifically one of the WIP Cyanogenmod 9 ports) I realised that HTC actually aren't that great at UI because almost every single change they make is for the worse.
Indeed, most parts of the phone look and feel better without HTC's add-ons. Even the menus look better, losing that weird 'breaking apart' effect HTC chose to use. The contact editing, messaging, etc is so much cleaner too, and everything like swiping between pages feels smoother. Here's a guide that shows what the more stock experience looks like:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc...android-4-0-ice-cream-sandwich-1043150/review
But that might be a step too far for you. It was my first ever time using a custom ROM and it only took me a few hours to get my head around and pull off, so it's up to you.
Thanks for the responses, I appreciate it!
It has been a while since I've flashed a new ROM on to a phone - I had a HTC TyTN II a few years ago (that was an awful phone) which I had a few custom roms.
I might start looking at custom roms soon. My brother has a Galaxy Nexus which I believe has the stock Android UI, so maybe I'll play around on that for a bit to see what it's like.
Thanks again!
Thomas
Sorry if this has already been asked, but how is the Samsung Glide? I have been using an HTC Status (ChaCha) for years, and just recently rooted. I liked the form factor and keyboard, but the internal memory was miserably limited, even after rooting and getting rid of bloatware, moving apps to SD, etc. The sound from the speaker was pretty poor too (I am aware that Beats audio can be installed to rooted phones ... have yet to try that) and putting the SD card slot underneath the battery is awkward. I have gotten a handle on Android's strengths and weaknesses (Gingerbread) so I will have a better idea of what to expect for my next phone. I definitely prefer a physical keyboard, and most Android based phones do not have one, or have poor specs. The Captivate Glide seems to measure up. I have read the specs GSM Arena gave on this phone,and it seems pretty good. It claims that it has Flash. Is this Adobe Flash, or something along the lines of HTC Status' Flash Lite? I definitely want Adobe Flash support, even if Adobe plans to end future support. I have an LG Neon lying around, a basic phone with a slide out keyboard ... it was okay, but for some weird reason only recognized one key input at a time, which made playing video games like Galaga miserable, even though the graphics were quite close to the arcade. I need to be able to press more than one key input at a time! I am also interested in Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean, neither of which would likely run very well on the Status, if they even can run. I have read of Glide users having a lot of problems with ICS. Should I wait for another phone with ICS preloaded, or just wait for a better Glide optimized ICS or Jelly Bean? Finally, how easy was it to root this phone? Rooting the Status was a real pain, as the HTC Dev software was getting me nowhere, by claiming the rom version is not supported ... even after the AT&T update. I bought the XTC Clip and couldn't get it to work, until a friend of mine got it working right (stick the flex cable in real tight in the SIM slot) and put on CWM and SuperUser. Somehow it did not unlock the carrier though. Anything like this for the Glide? How is the battery life?
Sorry if this has already been asked, but how is the Samsung Glide? I have been using an HTC Status (ChaCha) for years, and just recently rooted. I liked the form factor and keyboard, but the internal memory was miserably limited, even after rooting and getting rid of bloatware, moving apps to SD, etc. The sound from the speaker was pretty poor too (I am aware that Beats audio can be installed to rooted phones ... have yet to try that) and putting the SD card slot underneath the battery is awkward. I have gotten a handle on Android's strengths and weaknesses (Gingerbread) so I will have a better idea of what to expect for my next phone. I definitely prefer a physical keyboard, and most Android based phones do not have one, or have poor specs. The Captivate Glide seems to measure up. I have read the specs GSM Arena gave on this phone,and it seems pretty good. It claims that it has Flash. Is this Adobe Flash, or something along the lines of HTC Status' Flash Lite? I definitely want Adobe Flash support, even if Adobe plans to end future support. I have an LG Neon lying around, a basic phone with a slide out keyboard ... it was okay, but for some weird reason only recognized one key input at a time, which made playing video games like Galaga miserable, even though the graphics were quite close to the arcade. I need to be able to press more than one key input at a time! I am also interested in Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean, neither of which would likely run very well on the Status, if they even can run. I have read of Glide users having a lot of problems with ICS. Should I wait for another phone with ICS preloaded, or just wait for a better Glide optimized ICS or Jelly Bean? Finally, how easy was it to root this phone? Rooting the Status was a real pain, as the HTC Dev software was getting me nowhere, by claiming the rom version is not supported ... even after the AT&T update. I bought the XTC Clip and couldn't get it to work, until a friend of mine got it working right (stick the flex cable in real tight in the SIM slot) and put on CWM and SuperUser. Somehow it did not unlock the carrier though. Anything like this for the Glide? How is the battery life?
Hello DearestLeader (that's an interesting choice of nickname given the origin of the devices being discussed!)
There are a few threads reviewing the device. I've played with one prior to giving it (SGH-I927R) to my girlfriend, so I won't be able to comment on all aspects of the phone.
If you're buying outright, another, more expensive (500$ outright) model that might be worth looking into is T-Mobile USA's recently announced Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G (SGH-T699). Same screen, worse camera (5MP versus 8MP for the 927), DC-HSPA 42 instead of HSPA 21, and a Snapdragon S4 Krait SoC instead of a Tegra 2. And it does support AT&T bands as well.
The ICS update for the Glide was just pulled from Kies, which indicates another build is on its way, likely fixing the issues reported here.
Rooting is easy: switch the phone to download mode, install CWM with Odin, install superuser zip of your choosing.
Unlocking is easy provided you're rooted and know how to use a hex editor.
If you're with Sprint, they released a new qwerty physical keyboard android called Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE. Comparable stats to our glide but it does have ICS preloaded.
I came from a Sony Ericsson k850i and couldn't live without buttons so I grabbed the Glide. It had a rough start not being as popular as other devices. We didn't get an official otterbox case or get official cyanogen mods but in the last few months, devs/testers/community really banded together and we have quite the support. We may not have ICS 100% but the hardworking devs and testers will take care of that. JB seems like a dream but who knows, someone just may surprise us.
Like Darkshado said, rooting & unlocking is fairly easy. There are many guides in the development sub-forum. Battery life was crap on gingerbread but improves quite a bit when on ICS. The only problem I've ever had was very minor GPS finding issues but I don't use it extensively so it was negligible.
With the ICS update, the Captivate Glide is a spectacular device. :good:
There were several major issues with Gingerbread (compass orientation incorrect, general lag and instability, poor bluetooth audio quality and battery life, etc) but they've all been resolved by the update and the community.
The screen, while not the highest res (800x480) is AMOLED and looks great. The CPU, while not quad-core, is still plenty fast, and it has 1gb RAM. Onboard storage is pitiful, but add a 32gb SD card and swap /mnt/sdcard with /mnt/sdcard/external_sd, and your primary storage can become up to 64gb.
It's not LTE, but it is still pretty quick. On Rogers in Canada I get ~5mbit/s down and 2mbit/sec up, which is totally respectable.
It's also a very cheap device now, since it is somewhat dated. Honestly, I can't recommend another keyboard phone more highly.
My $0.02.
bottom line, captivate glide is best phone available with physical keyboard.
even before ICS, i was highly please with the performance.
camera pics are GREAT
until they come out with a quad core phone with a physical keyboard, the only other phone i'd consider right now is a galaxy note.
i love this phone :good:
Thanks for the replies!
I will have to stick with AT&T, as I am on my mother's plan and not only she but several other people I call or text regularly are on AT&T too.
I did try out the phone at the AT&T store and it was nice. However, the sales rep said units sold after August 26th will not run Adobe Flash (the in store unit did not have it but was downloadable from Google Play and ran great). He did have people returning units for lack of Adobe Flash (I do not ask if these folks tried rooting or if they even bothered to download from Google Play). If Flash is good to go, without rooting (have to wait to see if there are no defects lor serious flaws like frequent unexpected reboots before rooting, as my warranty would be void) then I am getting one.
ericpeacock79 said:
bottom line, captivate glide is best phone available with physical keyboard.
even before ICS, i was highly please with the performance.
camera pics are GREAT
until they come out with a quad core phone with a physical keyboard, the only other phone i'd consider right now is a galaxy note.
i love this phone :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worse case you could probably sideload the Flash apk onto the phone.
Remember that root's not supposed to void your warranty, there were some XDA portal posts about this iirc. Either way its nothing that a DIY stock re-flash wouldn't solve.
I have to stick with AT&T for the same reason. I love this phone though, but I just can't get used to the physical keyboard. My girlfriend texts and uses my phone sometimes and she loves the physical keyboard though. Overall its a good phone and I would recommend it to anyone wanting an android with decent specs.
sent from my captivate glide running ICS (NardROM 0.4 Rooted)
I have the unlocked (and of course rooted) Samsung Galaxy Captivate Glide that I picked up used (but still in very good condition), and I can tell you that purchasing the phone (either old or new) is worth it, IMO. I like the fact that this phone have the hardware keyboard, decent organic LED screen, dual-core superscalar out-of-order Cortex A9 processor, and good 8MP camera. 4GB on-board storage didn't stop me from getting it. Loving this phone.
There is also few Android phone with the same hardward keyboard setup - try browsing through your favorite PC part internet store like Newegg as they sells both locked and unlocked smartphones nowaday too.
Sent from my SGH-I927 using xda app-developers app
You can also buy a Bluetooth keyboard that's originally made for ipods that I seen once, they work for Android too I'm sure if you really want or need a keyboard. I use my touchscreen more personally than my slider, except on chrome for some reason has a bug? And let's me use my screen keyboard maybe 20% of the time.. odd but lol
Samsung SGH-i927:
CWMR Touch v4.0.0.1
Keyboard fix
Superuser 3.2r3 ARM Optimized
Samsung SGH-i897:
A work in progress…
Stock & Rooted (need kernel and update)
hazard1nc said:
You can also buy a Bluetooth keyboard that's originally made for ipods that I seen once, they work for Android too I'm sure if you really want or need a keyboard. I use my touchscreen more personally than my slider, except on chrome for some reason has a bug? And let's me use my screen keyboard maybe 20% of the time.. odd but lol
Samsung SGH-i927:
CWMR Touch v4.0.0.1
Keyboard fix
Superuser 3.2r3 ARM Optimized
Samsung SGH-i897:
A work in progress…
Stock & Rooted (need kernel and update)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya I experienced that bug on chrome a well. Kinda sucks that the soft keyboard would not display.kept having to pull out the hardware one for quick searches. That's why I switched to dolphin.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I927R using xda app-developers app
I love this phone
I came from HTC g2 phone t-Mobile. I got this phone used off ebay in great condition. The company I work for is on att and I wanted a physical keyboard. Not too many to choose from. I use both on screen & physical keyboard equally. Rooting was a snap and am so happy with ics. Before ics I used dman's Inception v2 rom and loved it. Now I'm using nardrom 0.4 and hope dman comes out with a v3 rom. I'd recommend this phone to any one who likes the choice of a physical keyboard.
If you need a physical keyboard, GSM service, and want a powerful phone, there really aren't many other options. I say get it, I love mine.
I've been wondering about this myself. I love the Epic 4G, but I don't want to go back to Sprint, and I'm not too thrilled with Cricket (I don't love them nor hate them, they'll do for now). So I figure, get a Captivate Glide, unlock it, and go to Net10 or Straight Talk. The Captivate Glide appears to be a sort of unofficial successor to the Epic 4G, so it seems logical. Plus since its GSM I can take it with me whenever I travel outside the United States.
rogernizzLe said:
Like Darkshado said, rooting & unlocking is fairly easy. There are many guides in the development sub-forum. Battery life was crap on gingerbread but improves quite a bit when on ICS. The only problem I've ever had was very minor GPS finding issues but I don't use it extensively so it was negligible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I do use the GPS very extensively, so this is giving me pause in getting this phone.
EpicMikeNC said:
Well I do use the GPS very extensively, so this is giving me pause in getting this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on the Rom you are using for GPS. I have found GB to work great with the GPS but ICS is a little lack luster as it connects but only after about 10 minutes. Please be patient as a lot of people have mixed results and I am curious with CM9 or possibly CM10 with GPS once those roms are out of alpha.
JB
dudejb said:
Depends on the Rom you are using for GPS. I have found GB to work great with the GPS but ICS is a little lack luster as it connects but only after about 10 minutes. Please be patient as a lot of people have mixed results and I am curious with CM9 or possibly CM10 with GPS once those roms are out of alpha.
JB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah okay. See the most I was going to do to a Captivate Glide when I get it would be to root it. So basically if I root it I should go ahead and get a rom, preferably the one you mentioned (GB), until something better comes along. I have no problem waiting, and if GB is a good fix in the meantime, well problem solved.
GB is not a rom per say but I meant Ginger Bread which is what it has installed by default. There are many GB Roms available I recommend OSIMOOD but I am sure many will recommend others. I have never had an issue with GPS on any of the available Gingerbread Roms. Only people that had issues with GPS and GB are not in North America and then you will have to do some tweak for it to work. Some have got that working and some have not. I am sure that is where you saw many posts on GPS for the glide having issues. Just go back and see those posts as to where the people are from. ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) on the other hand has some issues where it can take a long time to connect but as I said before some people are working on this.
JB
I use gps all the time on my Glide. The most issues I've had is a few time I've had to turn gas off and back on 2 or 4 times in a row.
But that only happened a few times in 5 months.
This ia using both the stock GB and the stock ICS , and after rooting ICS.
Overall, i would give GPS on my Glide 9.5 out of 10
Sent from my SGH-I927 using xda app-developers app
dudejb said:
GB is not a rom per say but I meant Ginger Bread which is what it has installed by default. There are many GB Roms available I recommend OSIMOOD but I am sure many will recommend others. I have never had an issue with GPS on any of the available Gingerbread Roms. Only people that had issues with GPS and GB are not in North America and then you will have to do some tweak for it to work. Some have got that working and some have not. I am sure that is where you saw many posts on GPS for the glide having issues. Just go back and see those posts as to where the people are from. ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) on the other hand has some issues where it can take a long time to connect but as I said before some people are working on this.
JB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see. So when I get a Glide, I can either leave it alone (let it stay on GB and not update it to ICS), or root it to stock GB. If I do the latter then I can get roms made just for the GB.
Disclaimer: This is rant, a civilized one, if you disagree with me, you are welcome to illustrate me but offenses are not appreciated.
This phone is great, but it refuses to be acceptable as a daily driver.
Developers are the best people in the world, they do what they do with no return at all sometimes, but the software (the lack of a good kernel base) makes it really hard to enjoy. I could never get more than 4.5 hours of SOT on any ROM, whereas stock would give me at least 5.5; however stock software is a bad joke for the Android base and the camera output is nerve wracking...
The CDLA headphones are a must, no one likes the dongle and it seems that (due to broken kernel) no dev was able to figure out this one (clarifying again that I don't blame them). So my options are to get used to carry the dongle or to the crack and pop from the CDLA ones... hmmmmmm......
I see the exact same story as with the Amazon phone, on its time, the Amazon phone had a really good thing going here in XDA, but the bootloader was never unlocked and the momentum was lost. I had to let go on my Fire phone....
For the LePro3, many great options are at hand at the same price, I'm looking heavily right now at the LG G5 from the $200 custom rom on eBay, WAY BETTER camera (like 10X times better), about the same battery life if you compare custom ROM of LePro3 vs stock of LG G5, and I have to admit that although I dislike LG's interface, it is tolerable.
Also, the LeEco servers (including the one that supports OTAs) has been down for at least 3 days (that I have tried myself), like seriously, we know the company is nearly in bankruptcy although still having customer support working, but the fact that security updates have halted and servers are down, tells me that there is something wrong going on.
At $200 dlls that I got the phone for, it is still not worth it for *me*.
My Moto Z play was $450 with a hasselblad camera mod that I was able to sell to get $100 in return, so for $350, I would still take yet another Moto Z Play at the current price, with way lower specifications, than taking a LePro3 for $200.
Help yourself and download these apps
Power Toggles
ACDisplay
Simple Control
Fingerprint Quick Action
Pixel Launcher
Modify the DPI to 300 via ADB
Download Google Camera (2.7) , Phone, Contacts etc from APKMirror
I am enjoying all the benefits from stock ROM plus emulated stock Android experience. =D
I bought this phone at what I thought was a steal for the hardware I was getting. I knew the company was unknown in the US and would likely not support the phone for long (if at all). I've flashed many Roms and played with this phone more than any other than perhaps my Nexus 6. Its a great phone overall with pretty decent developer support. I regret nothing.
Jose-MXL said:
Disclaimer: This is rant, a civilized one, if you disagree with me, you are welcome to illustrate me but offenses are not appreciated.
This phone is great, but it refuses to be acceptable as a daily driver.
Developers are the best people in the world, they do what they do with no return at all sometimes, but the software (the lack of a good kernel base) makes it really hard to enjoy. I could never get more than 4.5 hours of SOT on any ROM, whereas stock would give me at least 5.5; however stock software is a bad joke for the Android base and the camera output is nerve wracking...
The CDLA headphones are a must, no one likes the dongle and it seems that (due to broken kernel) no dev was able to figure out this one (clarifying again that I don't blame them). So my options are to get used to carry the dongle or to the crack and pop from the CDLA ones... hmmmmmm......
I see the exact same story as with the Amazon phone, on its time, the Amazon phone had a really good thing going here in XDA, but the bootloader was never unlocked and the momentum was lost. I had to let go on my Fire phone....
For the LePro3, many great options are at hand at the same price, I'm looking heavily right now at the LG G5 from the $200 custom rom on eBay, WAY BETTER camera (like 10X times better), about the same battery life if you compare custom ROM of LePro3 vs stock of LG G5, and I have to admit that although I dislike LG's interface, it is tolerable.
Also, the LeEco servers (including the one that supports OTAs) has been down for at least 3 days (that I have tried myself), like seriously, we know the company is nearly in bankruptcy although still having customer support working, but the fact that security updates have halted and servers are down, tells me that there is something wrong going on.
At $200 dlls that I got the phone for, it is still not worth it for *me*.
My Moto Z play was $450 with a hasselblad camera mod that I was able to sell to get $100 in return, so for $350, I would still take yet another Moto Z Play at the current price, with way lower specifications, than taking a LePro3 for $200.
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rivethead23 said:
I bought this phone at what I thought was a steal for the hardware I was getting. I knew the company was unknown in the US and would likely not support the phone for long (if at all). I've flashed many Roms and played with this phone more than any other than perhaps my Nexus 6. Its a great phone overall with pretty decent developer support. I regret nothing.
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I have to agree with rivethead23 I got the Pro 3 and immediately flashed the Turbo Destroyer rom on it and have never had any regrets
I also bought an LG G6 and I found it was no upgrade to the Pro 3 and ended up returning it.
My advice is to Flash the Turbo EUI 21S v20 rom and Nova launcher with Nova Google companion and you get the best experience from this device
rivethead23 said:
I bought this phone at what I thought was a steal for the hardware I was getting. I knew the company was unknown in the US and would likely not support the phone for long (if at all). I've flashed many Roms and played with this phone more than any other than perhaps my Nexus 6. Its a great phone overall with pretty decent developer support. I regret nothing.
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Pretty much this.
I'm using the phone on stock 26s, pretty heavily customized though: Magisk, Xposed, Viper, GravityBox, Tasker, stock android/Google apps like Dialer Contact Messages Calendar Keep Hangout Gmail etc., Nova Launcher with companion, PlayerPro and VLC, Brave browser... I removed all Chinese bloatware, and stock apps I don't need anymore like Contact, Message, Music, Video, Browser, Launcher, LIVE, lots of LeEco apps, etc. Disabled all stock extra memory optimizations to let Android deal with memory. Splash and bootanim without Chinese. Etc.
It works really great, battery is still really good (I often have 5 or 5.5 hours SoT at the end of the day), I customized a lot of things to make it exactly how I wanted it. So far, the best device I owned, and one of the cheapest...
ZeblodS said:
Pretty much this.
I'm using the phone on stock 26s, pretty heavily customized though: Magisk, Xposed, Viper, GravityBox, Tasker, stock android/Google apps like Dialer Contact Messages Calendar Keep Hangout Gmail etc., Nova Launcher with companion, PlayerPro and VLC, Brave browser... I removed all Chinese bloatware, and stock apps I don't need anymore like Contact, Message, Music, Video, Browser, Launcher, LIVE, lots of LeEco apps, etc. Disabled all stock extra memory optimizations to let Android deal with memory. Splash and bootanim without Chinese. Etc.
It works really great, battery is still really good (I often have 5 or 5.5 hours SoT at the end of the day), I customized a lot of things to make it exactly how I wanted it. So far, the best device I owned, and one of the cheapest...
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Is 26s an official update? I've only received 21s ota on my x727
darkmuck said:
Is 26s an official update? I've only received 21s ota on my x727
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It's the latest Chinese stock ROM for x720.
ALSO RANT:
Well the issue is with android itself, there is no real AOSP phone, i don't get why manufaturers just don't put AOSP on phone and be done with it, i guess target for android phones are geeks, at least this kind of android phones. I wanted dual sim phone, but now i think i will manage some woraround and go ios, as bad as it is, OS is much more polished and unified.
Even Moto with almost stock android still does not get direct google updates, it is just bad design.
BTW i use pro3 as daily, i get 8 + hours SOT with stock firmare, i managed to get ACR to work quite good, DND to work quite good, but still, default apps, like browser does not work, google integration is crap, even with launcher 3, missing pulldown is a joke and google services crash quite often so ... meh, but still better then my gs4 with new battery and lineage
Oh and also the ambient light sensors sets screen too dim for me at night, until now I had opposite problem with all the other phones i had.
I also have galaxy s7 at hand to use and in my opinion samsung android is even worse.
The main issue is there is really no Android OS, no phone with AOSP, which is only real Android OS, only ****ton of phones with more or less molested OS.
BTW my budget was 1100usd for a phone, i still chose pro3 and I still think, despite it's flaws, for me, it is best choice, which is sad, but it is reality, we can't change it, reality is reality. I will try z2 force with battery pack if they sell it officially in Czech, but I don't expect much.
Oh my I thought I was the only one with the headphone issue
Hmm my Le Pro 3 is coming soon... But I'm more likely to just sell It while it's new and make some $$$ of it. Seeing this rants and all... AOSP/lineage is a must for me, same as Oreo.
Just gonna buy OP5 to replace my Bacon. Maybe that jelly pentile so not exactly FHD, POS display won't be so bad...
FunkyRasta said:
Hmm my Le Pro 3 is coming soon... But I'm more likely to just sell It while it's new and make some $$$ of it. Seeing this rants and all... AOSP/lineage is a must for me, same as Oreo.
Just gonna buy OP5 to replace my Bacon. Maybe that jelly pentile so not exactly FHD, POS display won't be so bad...
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These rants are about things that we would like to have on the device and are inevitable, like the fact that we knew that there was no headphone jack and that the CDLA headphones are not perfect on custom software, we knew it and still took the chance, not the phone or dev's fault.
Other than that, the phone is amazing, you should give it a go, I don't think you can get too much money out of it, this is the wrong phone to re-sell for higher.
Also, you have a very specific example from other people in this thread, which is, you might like stock software which gives you the best battery life for the device.
Jose-MXL said:
These rants are about things that we would like to have on the device and are inevitable, like the fact that we knew that there was no headphone jack and that the CDLA headphones are not perfect on custom software, we knew it and still took the chance, not the phone or dev's fault.
Other than that, the phone is amazing, you should give it a go, I don't think you can get too much money out of it, this is the wrong phone to re-sell for higher.
Also, you have a very specific example from other people in this thread, which is, you might like stock software which gives you the best battery life for the device.
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I pretty OK with using adapter, no problem with me. I ordered it from China so when it gets to Europe it is worth more. I certainly would not lose money on it.
The only things that worry me are uncertain future of Oreo on this device and overall stability. I currently manage over 4 hours SOT with my OnePlus One.... Why this thing with 4070 Mah (thousand f-ing more) does 4.5 H or slightly more ? With newer SoC, screen etc. Stock software is a no-go for me. Android 6.0 is a no-go for me. So I rely on custom ROMs and dev support. At least dev support here is great!
Coming from Nexus and Nexus 5x, I was used to having so many roms and kernels. Getting LP3 was a big big jump and I did not like it in early days when no roms were available.
Now with more than enough roms and solid kernels, I do not miss anything. Omni Rom gives me 9 hrs of screen on time for my usage. It does not feel/act different than roms I used before.
The only problem was the camera performance. But with Google Camera port, that is no longer a problem now.