by "Monkey B" (monkeyb)
Published 02/12/2017 at 22:10
by "Monkey B" (monkeyb)
Published 02/12/2017 at 22:10
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STARS: 1
Been some recent discussion on phones lately which was of interest to me since I’ve also been looking since the Moto died and the boy broke his Nexus 6 screen (he’s getting my Nextbit). One of the phones I was interested in because of it’s reasonable cost and what I considered to be a pretty nice slab of hardware was the Honor 8. I bit on one for $319 on sale (MSRP $399) direct from Honor/Huawei with some extras to boot.
I received it Friday afternoon, was back to using the Nextbit Robin in less than 24 hours. I liked the hardware, and enjoyed the fingerprint sensor more than I thought I would...but the software was wretched. I read some negative remarks about it, one Oppo member even mentioned hating it in Zoidbergs thread IIRC. I had issues trying to migrate my settings to it using 3 methods, all to the same result. Could only migrate contacts and around 10 apps using connect. After that I tried again with just using my Google account, same. Then using Huawei’s own phone to phone app, same...I almost stopped and boxed it up then but carried on.
After Manually installing my apps and setting things up I started to discover why the software was so disliked. It’s supposedly a copy of Xiaomi’s copy of iOS. It’s needlessly more complicated, interferes with apps, doesn’t play nice with Nova launcher and tries far too hard with “features” I found annoying. Any notification customization app is essentially rendered useless, such as the calendar app I use that docks permanently there. Speaking of notifications, some apps wouldn’t show up at all, like Words with Friends.
It’s disappointing since I consider it to be pretty nice hardware...with a decent camera too but the software was easily the worst I’ve ever experienced so it’s already boxed to go back. 15 day return policy, customer service was U.S. based and easy to deal with. I blame Samsung for companies doing too much to Android making others follow suit. Motorola does it right with a basic stock experience with a few of their own features as does my Nextbit. If more followed this approach Android would be better received by those switching from iPhones, especially the cheaper offerings, if they just let the basic look/feel be as I find it extremely easy and fluid.
Ordered a OnePlus 3t tonight, supposed to get it in around a week. I’ve read good remarks on Oxygen OS as well as the hardware. We’ll see...if it doesn’t fit I’ll suck it up and get the Pixel. For anyone wondering why not just get it I’m trying to stay in the $400 range.
"bob and john" (bobandjohn)
02/12/2017 at 22:14, STARS: 0
whats a sony Z3 going for these days? I’ve had mine for almost 3 years now and its been a fantastic phone the whole time.
"Nibby" (nibby68)
02/12/2017 at 22:18, STARS: 1
"hike" (hike15)
02/12/2017 at 22:24, STARS: 0
Why no Moto Z Play?
"Spoon II" (Spoon_II)
02/12/2017 at 22:25, STARS: 0
I still can’t recommend the Asus Zenfone enough. The Ultra one has crazy specs too https://www.asus.com/lifestyle/zenfone/
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
02/12/2017 at 22:25, STARS: 1
There’s only one acceptable phone
"Monkey B" (monkeyb)
02/12/2017 at 22:28, STARS: 0
Oneplus shares it’s genes with them (company spun off from) But I know little about the Oppo.
"404 - User No Longer Available" (toni-cipriani)
02/12/2017 at 22:30, STARS: 0
I’m iffy about their build quality. Friend had a Zenfone 2 Laser, nothing but trouble. SIM slot problems are very well documented.
"404 - User No Longer Available" (toni-cipriani)
02/12/2017 at 22:31, STARS: 0
I second this motion. VERY solid phone, and if you get the Incipio case, it can give a flip phone a run for the money for battery life.
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
02/12/2017 at 22:33, STARS: 2
Well, the Oppo is what gives a blogger their power. It’s an energy field created by all living cars. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.
"404 - User No Longer Available" (toni-cipriani)
02/12/2017 at 22:33, STARS: 0
The only phone that really interests me now is the Mercury:
But then my Priv is running fine so I’m not really planning to replace it, as long as it gets Nougat soon.
"Monkey B" (monkeyb)
02/12/2017 at 22:34, STARS: 0
I bought one of their tablet/phone combo things for my parents and hated the software. It was also cheap, and lasted accordingly. I imagine spending more gets you more with Asus, but if the software is similar to that one it’s not a fit for me. My Asus made Nexus tablet was nice though and I’ve had an Asus Chromebox going on 5 years.
"Monkey B" (monkeyb)
02/12/2017 at 22:42, STARS: 0
Not sure, but getting good spec Sony stuff can be a pricey endeavor. They do make my favorite TV’s, but I have zero experience with their phones because they have little presence here in the states...and I don’t see much about them in the Android community. I remember their propensity to add a lot of proprietary stuff to their MP3 players etc. years ago though so I assumed the phones are similar.
"Monkey B" (monkeyb)
02/12/2017 at 22:46, STARS: 0
my parents sucked at smartphones so I had to put them back on an old flip phone. I had to fix something every week when they had one...Mom blamed Pop for doing it but I told her if she can’t fix it she’s no better at it. Plus, she always waited for him to go to the bathroom to do the blame/fix this move. I almost wish smartphones were never a thing and we were still using these.
"Monkey B" (monkeyb)
02/12/2017 at 22:49, STARS: 0
My last 3 Moto phones weren’t good. My Moto X 2014 was replaced within months, and both my wife’s and mine didn’t get much over a year without issues. After the Lenovo buyout the customer service was about the worst I’ve ever received so I won’t get another.
"Nibby" (nibby68)
02/12/2017 at 23:05, STARS: 2
show your parents this
"Spoon II" (Spoon_II)
02/12/2017 at 23:40, STARS: 0
Oh snap, I’ve luckily been trouble-free so far
"gergey - Wishes vette was Datsun" (gbergey)
02/12/2017 at 23:41, STARS: 0
I’ve got a OnePlus 3, I think you’ll like the 3T, great build quality, nice screen, nice camera, very smooth to use (6GB of RAM!?) but mediocre battery life. I considered a few other phones including the Xiaomi Mi 5, but a lot of the lesser-known Asian phones don’t necessarily support the right bands for 4G/LTE to work with Canadian cell service providers
"Spoon II" (Spoon_II)
02/12/2017 at 23:42, STARS: 0
I can respect that! On the plus side, I’ve heard nothing but good things about the OnePlus series, so hopefully that works out for you!
"Monkey B" (monkeyb)
02/13/2017 at 00:09, STARS: 0
what can you tell me about the OS? I’ve read good things, but am a big fan of a “naked” Android. Think it’ll be close? It’s dimensions are just slightly bigger than my Nextbit (5.5" > 5.2") I don’t have much concerns regarding hardware quality as that is easy to report/review.
"gergey - Wishes vette was Datsun" (gbergey)
02/13/2017 at 00:26, STARS: 0
I had a Nexus 5 previously, it’s very lightly re-skinned and relatively easy to customise, it uses the Google Now launcher by default. You can change what the buttons do, rearrange which one does what and set actions for double taps and long presses, change what the alert slider does, easily change the colour temperature of the screen, use the camera in a fairly comprehensive manual mode,
"Out, but with a W - has found the answer" (belg)
02/13/2017 at 00:42, STARS: 0
Talk about different experiences: I’ve now got mine for about two weeks and couldn’t like it more. Did you update it to EMUI 5 (Android 7)? The previous version was a wretched bit of software, but it’s a lot closer to stock Android now.
"Monkey B" (monkeyb)
02/13/2017 at 01:07, STARS: 0
Nougat yet?
"gergey - Wishes vette was Datsun" (gbergey)
02/13/2017 at 01:13, STARS: 1
Yep, I’ve had 7.0 for a while now, and I’ve been getting monthly security updates too
"Monkey B" (monkeyb)
02/13/2017 at 01:21, STARS: 0
Nice! I have a strange feeling I’ll like this one...I was mixed on the honor but the price let me try.