General Not a perfect phone, but exceptional for $500 - ZTE Axon 30

I have had my ZTE Axon 30 for about 3 weeks I think, maybe more like 2. I like it a lot. The only two quirks I've noticed is that the screen is not as responsive as I would like (might be the screen protector as I put it on before even powering the phone on, since I cracked my last screen), and sometimes the Facebook app will be jerky until I close it and restart the app. Haven't seen that on any of my last 5+ phones. My last phone was a Moto Edge S (G100) which was a pretty good phone, but a little smaller than I like. The battery life is pretty good on this phone, I usually get through a day of usage, but it's around 15% or less if I wait until bed time to actually plug it in. I'm overall happy with this phone, though the quick settings options in the notifications dropdown has certain parts not customizable like I want them to be (wifi calling and mobile data are permanent, huge buttons, and I would much prefer other options like airplane mode or bluetooth). The performance is very good, maybe a little lower than the Edge S, but still not bad. It's a good phone and I'm happy with it.
Sidenote: if anyone knows about a bug causing Facebook to be laggy sometimes until restarted and you know how to fix it, please let me know?

Here is my experience so far after a week of use. I don't care about cameras on a phone. So no feedback from me there.
It's pretty big but it's not bad to hold since it's not wide, just tall.
Performance is fast enough for me. I can watch and scroll through 5.7k 360 videos on the Insta360 app without lag at all.
The screen is pretty pretty good. Would have liked it to have higher nits for outside use. But won't complain much since 99.9% of the phones on the market have punch holes and notches....
The fingerprint sensor is very accurate and fast. Finally got a phone where it is actually useable. My previous 2 phones' fingerprint sensors were trash.
Smart Lock Trusted Places! How I missed this feature on the Mi 9T which only supported Bluetooth unlock and only with Xiaomi Bluetooth devices...
Related to the previous point, I wish there was an option to remove the 'Swipe screen to unlock' when the phone is unlocked with Smart Lock. The Mi 9T has this option in the Developer options but didn't find it on this one. It's just an annoyance having to swipe.
Speaking of Bluetooth, no issues so far. Did file transfers and use Sennheiser MW2 to listen to music. No disconnections at all.
The Always On Display does not work for me at all. Nada. Not a big deal for me since I don't use it but it should be fixed.
As HopelesRomantc91 mentioned, not all of the notifications icons are customisable. Torch, Bluetooth, Data and Wifi are big buttons that cannot be removed. The rest can be added, removed and re-ordered
It comes preloaded with some bloatware but it can be easily removed using ADB.
Since nobody mentions this in a phone review, although it also depends on the carrier, I had no problems with calls and also use dual SIM.
I wish it had the feature of applying dark mode for all apps like MIUI. The next best thing this offers is Read Mode which you can turn globally or per app. I use the latter to turn Apps that don't have a dark theme into greyscale. Helps a bit.
The touch sensitivity on the edge of the screen seems to be a bit 'rough'. When using the keyboard and pressing on the letters/buttons at the edge, most of the the time there is a delay with registering the touch. This has probably to do with the screen-edge mistouch prevention. I changed it to 0 but it still occurs. Maybe this can be fixed in a firmware update. I don't have any issues with the phone registering unintended touches when holding it even at 0.
Regarding gestures & motions, they all seem to work pretty well. I mostly use double tap to wake.
For some reason, the Z-POP feature in the settings under Feature is also named Mi-Pop in the Notification icon. I don't find it that useful.
No headphone jack sucks but it comes with the adaptor. I just leave the earbuds attached to it since I only use them for the phone. So it's just a straight plug in for me.
Last but not least is the battery/optimisation. It's pretty pretty good! I judge the battery by screen off time. I charged it to 90%, went to bed and left the phone on. Just DnD on. No power saver. 8 hours later it was still 90%! After that, I only used the phone every now and then since I was busy working. Around 3 hours later, this thing was still at 90%. Compared to the Mi 9T, the Axon 30 doesn't seem to suffer from constant wakelocks so when the screen is off, it is majority of the time in deep sleep. Pretty optimised. I checked with BetterBatteryStats. I don't use 5G. Oh and the charging speed is fast! From 20% to 90% in ~27min.
Overall I am satisfied with the phone.
That's it for now. If I remember something else or encounter anything else of interest, will post it here.

Google Play store does not automatically update the apps and doesn't show the notifications. Both settings are on. So I have to remember once in a while to open the Play Store and install the pending updates manually. Not sure if this is specific to this device or if it's a Google Play store bug but I never had this problem on previous devices.

New update; 11.0.17_A2322G_EEA. Always on display is fixed. Automatic Play Store app updates and notifications still not working.

Hi guys...
I'm thinking of buying this phone. I was wondering, do you still get updates from time to time? Any word on some major ones, like Android 12?
Would you recomende it for about 375 EUR / 395 USD it costs at local retailer right now?

Dzombache said:
Hi guys...
I'm thinking of buying this phone. I was wondering, do you still get updates from time to time? Any word on some major ones, like Android 12?
Would you recomende it for about 375 EUR / 395 USD it costs at local retailer right now?
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Click to collapse
Last update was the one I posted in my last post so Security update is the one from December... I contacted ZTE support about a possible upgrade to Android 12 or at least more security updates. Their reply was that they don't have any information but that it might receive future updates because it is a newly launched phone.... Almost a year old.

MaCk0y7 said:
Last update was the one I posted in my last post so Security update is the one from December... I contacted ZTE support about a possible upgrade to Android 12 or at least more security updates. Their reply was that they don't have any information but that it might receive future updates because it is a newly launched phone.... Almost a year old.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought the phone in the meantime.
Had 2 updates after starting it, curently I'm on 11.0.8 Global version with security update from February.

Dzombache said:
I bought the phone in the meantime.
Had 2 updates after starting it, curently I'm on 11.0.8 Global version with security update from February.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess the EEA version has been abandoned earlier.

MaCk0y7 said:
I guess the EEA version has been abandoned earlier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know, but interesting that EEA has higher nominal version number (11.0.17), but older Android patch level...
Still hoping for Android 12, read somewhere it can be expected till the end of August. Now, is it info for CN or Global version, I don't know.
Btw, I feel like they didn't sell many units of this one globaly, although they marketed it decently and it got attention because of the under display cam and stuff. Seems like even on tech forums nobody has this model...

Dzombache said:
Don't know, but interesting that EEA has higher nominal version number (11.0.17), but older Android patch level...
Still hoping for Android 12, read somewhere it can be expected till the end of August. Now, is it info for CN or Global version, I don't know.
Btw, I feel like they didn't sell many units of this one globaly, although they marketed it decently and it got attention because of the under display cam and stuff. Seems like even on tech forums nobody has this model...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you're here, do Play Store apps update automatically for you and get notifications?

MaCk0y7 said:
Since you're here, do Play Store apps update automatically for you and get notifications?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried because I actualy prefer to update them manualy.
I can turn the options on, test and let you know...
Update: seems it doesn't work - I can see updates as waiting, but no update and/or notifications took place.

A thing I'm curios about...
One of the things I was happy about when I bought the phone was a 65W charger. The brick is quite compact but heavy (as the 65W probably should be), cable is USB-C to USB-C. Perfect for a universal charger.
But when I tried to charge my Lenovo laptop with it, nothing happened. The laptop also came with 65W charger (of course, much bulkier and with a longer cable).
I was really hoping I could use the ZTE brick on the laptop, mainly because I used my previous phone charger (Poco X3) and it worked although that one could deliver just 33W.
Any ideo why this happens?

Dzombache said:
A thing I'm curios about...
One of the things I was happy about when I bought the phone was a 65W charger. The brick is quite compact but heavy (as the 65W probably should be), cable is USB-C to USB-C. Perfect for a universal charger.
But when I tried to charge my Lenovo laptop with it, nothing happened. The laptop also came with 65W charger (of course, much bulkier and with a longer cable).
I was really hoping I could use the ZTE brick on the laptop, mainly because I used my previous phone charger (Poco X3) and it worked although that one could deliver just 33W.
Any ideo why this happens?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So when you plugin the ZTE charger in the laptop, it's not detected at all? Or is it detected, not discharging just not charging? Maybe it doesn't support any of the Output voltages/amps of the charger? Not really that knowledgeable in electricity. What output voltages/amps does it show on the Lenovo charger?

It's not detected at all.
Both of them show 20V - 3.25A - 65W.
For the 15V, 9V and 5V they have different A and W values.
Edit: just tried on my co-worker's laptop (also Lenovo, but different model), and it charges at full speed. His also came with a 65W charger originaly. So it seems to be some compitability issue, maybe USB-C port or something. Quite strange.

New update! I guess EEA version is not abandoned yet. 11.0.20 with June security update. Maybe we get Android 12 end of next year when Android 14 is out.

Good news. I'm still hoping for the end of August...
Now, playing with the settings, I saw a strangely named "tiny screen display" setting under "Display" options. I must admit, took me a few minutes to realize it's about UDC (under display camera) area.
How did you set yours (if you changed it at all)? I tweaked mine so it is hardly visible on white, but then again it is still quite noticable on other colors.

Haha never knew what that setting was and never tried it.

Yeah, I think I got it after the last update. Quite sure it wasn't there when I got the phone.
Here's how it looks...

MaCk0y7 said:
New update! I guess EEA version is not abandoned yet. 11.0.20 with June security update. Maybe we get Android 12 end of next year when Android 14 is out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Global just got 11.0.9 with June security patch.

MyOS12.0.16_A2322 (with Android 12 I believe) was rolled out for the Chinese version Axon 30 5G on 2022-08-02 according to this support page: https://www.ztedevices.com/cn/supports/zte-axon-30-5g/
Not sure how long it will take to hit the other markets...

Related

Problems with the Mi Max?

Hi, I'm thinking about getting the Mi Max and I'm hoping you would be able to answer some of my questions.
1. I heard there are some connectivity issues.
2. Does is have gorilla glass 3 or 4?
3. Does it bend?
4. Is the build quality good?
5. How durable is it?
Are the any more issues that are not listed on here?
Cheers,
Jeff
What exactly do you mean by "Does it bend"? Is there any phone that does that by design? How can a phone made of metal possibly bend & still work? If I'm reading this right, you need a belt pouch for this phone, if thats what you are asking. Keeping this phone in the pocket is not a great idea. Although I dint find any difficulty so far except when getting in & out of my jean pockets when inside the car.
I kept reading & hearing about these connectivity issues but never experienced it right from day one. When you get an android phone just do a factory reset, if possible twice.
Read my detailed comparison review over @ http://c.mi.com/in/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=10869&page=1&extra=#pid149561
Forget the gorilla 3/4/5 nonsense. I'd say just get it esp the 64 or 128GB Helium instead of the 32GB Hydrogen.
Its a steal for the performance & battery combo that this phone gives you. Tempered glass is not easily available atleast in India but easily procured online via ebay or aliexpress or gearbest.
The only issue on this phone is VoLTE(works only on MIUI so far) & MIUI itself regardless of whether 7, 8 or 9. So far I found RR5.7.3 to be the most stable & best performer followed by CM13-6.0.1(other than the few reboots i experienced while navigating via Maps/Waze/Here, its pretty stable). VoLTE works only on MIUI which sucks donkeys balls & has too many usability issues & bugs to be a daily driver. Its a great phone all around. I got around the VoLTE issue by using a modem which can route my calls & data via an app & happily use RR5.7.3. If I have to use VoLTE on the phone then I'll put it on sMIUI8 on my Kenzo. MIUI, while it has its good parts & moments, is too ****ty & downright irritating overall to be put on my dear Hydrogen.
P.S. I'm buying a Helium next. Its better to stock up on this phone. Such good hardware is hard to come by. Since Kenzo also has official CM support, its only a matter of time before hydrogen/helium also makes it to the official list. After that its gonna be RR or AICP all the way to never look back again.
What's the difference between helium and hydrogen?
romdroid. said:
What's the difference between helium and hydrogen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Common, read some please.
veerragavan.n said:
What exactly do you mean by "Does it bend"? Is there any phone that does that by design? How can a phone made of metal possibly bend & still work? If I'm reading this right, you need a belt pouch for this phone, if thats what you are asking. Keeping this phone in the pocket is not a great idea. Although I dint find any difficulty so far except when getting in & out of my jean pockets when inside the car.
I kept reading & hearing about these connectivity issues but never experienced it right from day one. When you get an android phone just do a factory reset, if possible twice.
Read my detailed comparison review over @ http://c.mi.com/in/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=10869&page=1&extra=#pid149561
Forget the gorilla 3/4/5 nonsense. I'd say just get it esp the 64 or 128GB Helium instead of the 32GB Hydrogen.
Its a steal for the performance & battery combo that this phone gives you. Tempered glass is not easily available atleast in India but easily procured online via ebay or aliexpress or gearbest.
The only issue on this phone is VoLTE(works only on MIUI so far) & MIUI itself regardless of whether 7, 8 or 9. So far I found RR5.7.3 to be the most stable & best performer followed by CM13-6.0.1(other than the few reboots i experienced while navigating via Maps/Waze/Here, its pretty stable). VoLTE works only on MIUI which sucks donkeys balls & has too many usability issues & bugs to be a daily driver. Its a great phone all around. I got around the VoLTE issue by using a modem which can route my calls & data via an app & happily use RR5.7.3. If I have to use VoLTE on the phone then I'll put it on sMIUI8 on my Kenzo. MIUI, while it has its good parts & moments, is too ****ty & downright irritating overall to be put on my dear Hydrogen.
P.S. I'm buying a Helium next. Its better to stock up on this phone. Such good hardware is hard to come by. Since Kenzo also has official CM support, its only a matter of time before hydrogen/helium also makes it to the official list. After that its gonna be RR or AICP all the way to never look back again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
OK. After a few months, I've one more gripe, with the Mi Max, is its sun light visibility which leaves a lot to be desired in bright sunlight even in winter. Ok forget the winter sunglare, even fluorescent light is causing a reflection. I dint notice it at all but after I recieved the Kenzo its become very apparent although not debilitating its hard to miss or not notice or feel the difference in visibility between the kenzo & hydrogen. I still standby my earlier post though. This is the only phone that can blast though the day with almost everything switched on including mild hotspot usage, it'll still get you though the day. Without hotspot you've to slowcharge it either through the night or fastcharge it in the morning. Thats how good this phone's battery backup is. I use navigation everytime i get into the car. So my GPS is always on while travel{navigating} except perhaps when I'm travelling by cab. So Helium is next in the list but only when they release the Global Dev version though.
With the sad demise of sMIUI, Now the only solution/option is xiaomi.eu if you want VoLTE. I want call record & autosync with cloud more than anything. VoLTE is just a bonus. So any Xiaomi phone I unlock ASAP & move to xiaomi.eu or GlobeROM(mi-globe.com) [which is based of xiaomi.eu BTW].

Little rant to get it out of my chest...

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

Considering buying this phone

Hey guys I've been researching about new phones since my asus zenfone 2 broke last month. So far I have only found these phones to my liking because I hate screens bigger than 6 inch and/or phones that are taller than 149 mm,: A2 lite, redmi6, redmi 7A and Nokia 5.1 plus
out of all these only nokia and a2 lite seems to be the best bang for buck, since I couldnt try nokia 5.1 plus anywhere in my coutnry : turkey, I decided to get A2 lite. I would buy 7a but the brand Redmi on the bottom of the phone is even more distracting than notch. Maybe if you have knowledge should I wait for A3 lite, if it will be less than 6 inch that is ?
My concerns are these:
- is the notch distracting when using, I have never used a notched phone before?
- for how long will this phone get updates, and is the android 9 experience stable?
- I have small hands and I wonder if this phone will be too large
I use this phone for about 4 months now. I received it with Android Oreo, but right out of the box I was prompted with the Android Pie 9.0 with April Update. The phone worked flawlessly except:
- a problem with UHC-1 SD card that was constantly unmounting and mounting that was fixed by a Class4 standard SD Card, apparently there is a problem with the power management for the UHC sd cards.
Pictures are awesome - former Sony camera user so I love the quality, the phone battery is great, 2 days minimum between charges.
The phone slightly heats up when used heavily but that is not a problem. Also gets a little warm while quick charge.
The screen notch is not a problem to be honest. It's like a normal FHD display without losing the upper part to the status bar, now with the icons placed to the left and right of the notch.
A new problem appeared this month, with the July update, when you rotate the screen from landscape to portrait the screen kinda blinks and then the animation continues.
Signal is good, wi-fi speed is ok, 4g works ok. Android 9 is stable so far for me, except the new glitch.
The big form factor of the device is not a problem to be honest, for small hands there are a few options. For example if you can't reach the status bar, you can enable the fingerprint swipe that brings notifications down and back up. From left to right, I think any small hands can reach.
Also for the accessories, the iPhone XR screen protector works just fine. And cases are cheap and good.
TheoXSD said:
The big form factor of the device is not a problem to be honest, for small hands there are a few options. For example if you can't reach the status bar, you can enable the fingerprint swipe that brings notifications down and back up. From left to right, I think any small hands can reach.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the exact problem I was looking an answer for, thanks for the detail. I really find it hard to reach for the notifications.
One last question: will this phone get the android 10 update when released?
comstok said:
This is the exact problem I was looking an answer for, thanks for the detail. I really find it hard to reach for the notifications.
One last question: will this phone get the android 10 update when released?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Android One project make the manufacturer to give 2 major updates and monthly security updates. Until now, every 20th of the month we get the current month security update and some bugfixes.
This phone already got a major update which is Pie. So the last major update will be Android Q so yeah, Mi A2 Lite is on the Android Q update list.
TheoXSD said:
Yes. Android One project make the manufacturer to give 2 major updates and monthly security updates. Until now, every 20th of the month we get the current month security update and some bugfixes.
This phone already got a major update which is Pie. So the last major update will be Android Q so yeah, Mi A2 Lite is on the Android Q update list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you think the A3 lite will be like this or bigger like 6.2 inch etc ?
comstok said:
Do you think the A3 lite will be like this or bigger like 6.2 inch etc ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mi A3 specs here: https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_a3-9769.php

Looking to buy the A3 in 2021. Thoughts?

Hey there
A bit late to the party here. I am looking to get a A3 to replace my current phone. I have a POCO M2 PRO as my current phone, however i am VERY dissatisfied with it. Look into the A3 cuz its the only small phone i was able to find. Lemma know if this is a good idea. Oh and if you know about any small/compact/comfortable phone that doesn't break the bank, let me know in the comments.
peace✌
If you are going to flash a rom on it right away then go ahead, using this phone stock is like alpha testing.
Berserker_boi said:
Hey there
A bit late to the party here. I am looking to get a A3 to replace my current phone. I have a POCO M2 PRO as my current phone, however i am VERY dissatisfied with it. Look into the A3 cuz its the only small phone i was able to find. Lemma know if this is a good idea. Oh and if you know about any small/compact/comfortable phone that doesn't break the bank, let me know in the comments.
peace✌
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also bought this phone in 2021 based on the very same reasons as yours. This is the only phone I could find with decent dev support (easy to unlock, root, custom roms to choose etc.), size (I was using an Xperia X Compact, so size is still an issue for me but there wasn't any smaller with comparable features.) and specs. I unlocked and flashed los with microg even before putting my sim card. (And the sad story is this is the second one I bought bucause I lost the first one second day )
Using stock since fall 2019, works great until today, would buy again.
Go with another one.
In my experience, a11 stock is very good. 2 days without full charge and 8-9 hours of SOT. Smooth and fast. The secret is optmize the app configuration. Remove useless app. But first... Don't use official Facebook app. Obviously it's my opinion and my experience. But i'm quite sure that the user with bad experience. Are user with bad use of your device. And my phone stats can confirm what i say
Berserker_boi said:
Hey there
A bit late to the party here. I am looking to get a A3 to replace my current phone. I have a POCO M2 PRO as my current phone, however i am VERY dissatisfied with it. Look into the A3 cuz its the only small phone i was able to find. Lemma know if this is a good idea. Oh and if you know about any small/compact/comfortable phone that doesn't break the bank, let me know in the comments.
peace✌
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my opinion, if I had to change my Mi A3 now, I'd go with a Motorola Moto G 5G Plus, which has more or less the same A3 stuff, with a better display, 5g, better battery but it's also slightly bigger and heavier.
The only thing I don't know is about the software, on the xda page there are very few threads and nobody's talking about major problems with software, I might give it a try if I get sick with Xiaomeme software updates
Phil_gloves said:
In my opinion, if I had to change my Mi A3 now, I'd go with a Motorola Moto G 5G Plus, which has more or less the same A3 stuff, with a better display, 5g, better battery but it's also slightly bigger and heavier.
The only thing I don't know is about the software, on the xda page there are very few threads and nobody's talking about major problems with software, I might give it a try if I get sick with Xiaomeme software updates
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That motorola has an IPS screen with SD765, so not really comparable
But I think this 720p AMOLED screen is crappy (EVEN if it makes this phone faster), but you cannot find a decent 1080p at the smallish 70-72mm width that's not costing an arm and a leg (Sony Xperia 5).
Wait 7 days for the new Poco.
I think that mi a3 is one of the best mid range phone... So i will change it... Only for an high range phone... Probably a pixel... Or a top xiaomi... Also oppo seems very good phones...
wetito said:
In my experience, a11 stock is very good. 2 days without full charge and 8-9 hours of SOT. Smooth and fast. The secret is optmize the app configuration. Remove useless app. But first... Don't use official Facebook app. Obviously it's my opinion and my experience. But i'm quite sure that the user with bad experience. Are user with bad use of your device. And my phone stats can confirm what i say
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How were you able to get good battery life on stock Android 11? Please help me. The battery life sucks on Android 11 on this phone.
Sometimes the ota updates are not successful. So an hard reset can solve much problems. I don't use fingerprint and always on display because drain a lot of battery... I have disabled much of Google apps that are not indispensable for my use... I have limited the background use for some apps... With this optimization i'm very satisfied. But are specific s for my use (social+music streaming... And sometimes YouTube vanced). I hope my post can help you (i'm italian so my English is not perfect)
Best buy of the week! I'm seriusly considering to sell my mia3 at this prince to buy it! Is's an old model... But not the hardware

General advice on buying this phone

So, I'm in a market for a new phone, and my current best bet is the xiaomi mi 10T pro. Now, since it's locked on my local telecom provider network, I can get it with a new 2 year contract, so no returns possible. Reading tons of reviews, and user experiences, I came to conclusion that it's a great hardware phone with a really crappy sowtware. The phone I cvan get has a MIUI12 version, but they can't say is it 12.0 or 12.5.
What are my concerns? I see that the biggest issues is car bluetooth connectivity, and WiFi connectivity. Both major issues for me.
I have a 2012 renault Scenic that doesn't use android auto, but a proprietary (arkamys and tomtom) system. If the phone comes with android 10, and I don't install any updates until a less buggy version of android 11 MIUI comes out.. should I be ok? Or if the system is android 11 out of the box.. Should I expect constant problems and simply avoid the phone? Are all xiaomi phones running MIUI12.5.1. affected?
Custom ROMs are not an option because that would void the 2 year warranty.
thank you
The Mi10T Pro is an excellent choice that gets better with every update.
I actually hated this phone a lot when I bought it due to the auto screen dimming being too harsh, so I also bought a Samsung Galaxy 20 FE 5G, then a P30 Pro, then a Poco F2 Pro and finally a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (& I tested them all equally) What I found was I hate under screen fingerprint sensors (the side mounted fingerprint sensor detection on the Mi10T Pro is instant) and despite the camera arrays on all the other phones being 'on paper' better I found the Xiaomi phone 'on average' took better shots. Also video recording is night and day better than all the other phones I tested with very little shimmer and balance correction/focus when the light started to get low.
As for MIUI I have never had an issue apart from the woefully lacking security updates but hopefully now I've manually updated to 12.5.5 (I was on Jan 2020 update waiting for an EU 12.5.1 from 12.1.1) updates should come quicker (& it's very stable)
As for connectivity I have not encountered any issues with Bluetooth streaming or connecting to headphones but I do not have the accessories you connect to.
Lastly the prices for these phones should drop like a stone as they have just announced the Mi11T & Pro so you may find it cheaper to buy one used after the Mi11T & Pro is released.
So.. you say I should go for it...Current price is around 270$.. Don't believe it will drop that much... more likely it will get taken out of the offer.
the main negative aspect of this phone is the camera... i came from lg v20 because it was the latest flagship phone with the infrared feature. a five years old phone still takes better pictures then the 10t pro... you rarely use the 108mp cam because the software sucks. so you are stuck with 13mp... also, this phone is missing some basic features like you cant plug and play using type-c to hdmi output....but for the price, is definitely a nice cheap phone to have for work maybe lol. or use it as a universal remote haha
I came from a huawei P7 phone...gone to samsung A30... Anything is better than A30. I don't need any special bells and whistles.. just that the bluetooth connectivity works, and GPS signal is stable..
paul999 said:
the main negative aspect of this phone is the camera... i came from lg v20 because it was the latest flagship phone with the infrared feature. a five years old phone still takes better pictures then the 10t pro... you rarely use the 108mp cam because the software sucks. so you are stuck with 13mp... also, this phone is missing some basic features like you cant plug and play using type-c to hdmi output....but for the price, is definitely a nice cheap phone to have for work maybe lol. or use it as a universal remote haha
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Change the Format to 3:4 in the drop down menu in Miui camera to have the pixel binned 27MP resolution.
So...I'm not getting any viable information here. If I get this phone, and keep it on android 10, ignoring updates, will the Bluetooth and WiFi work normally, and glitch free?
creborn said:
So...I'm not getting any viable information here. If I get this phone, and keep it on android 10, ignoring updates, will the Bluetooth and WiFi work normally, and glitch free?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The wifi and Bluetooth are basic things that will work just right but it depends also on the devices which they connect to.

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