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Android |OT| Now in 120hz
- Thread starter Deleted member 134
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- Tech/Gadgets
It gets worse. I paid with a best buy credit card and they said since it shows as delivered I can't charge back.... this thing is a mess.
edit: Customer live chat is going to send me a return label and process the refund. I wrote in there like 3 times to confirm that I'm sending a regular 4, not XL back and to confirm there will be no issues. At least now I have some written proof to stand on.
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That's ridiculous, definitely get the credit card company involved via a chargeback.
M30s.
-UFS Storage
-Amoled Screen
-Better camera capabilities(from photo samples I have seen the difference is there)
-Near equivalent performance to a SD660
-6000mAh battery on a samsung is gonna be an endurance beast
On another note:
GPU drivers for a movile device is interesting, to say the least. Gonna be extremely underutilized but it might be great for keep legacy movile titles afloat.
I bought a Pixel 4 with Google's Black Friday prices. Got the phone yesterday and everything is really nice, except that I hate face unlock as much as I was afraid I would. It actually works great, but I very strongly prefer unlocking via fingerprint scanner on the back of the device. There are many times during day the when I just want to read my notifications without opening my phone, but now if I'm looking at the phone at an angle and distance where I can read the notifications, the phone unlocks. It's annoying, but now I have to decide if it's more annoying to deal with that or to use a manual screen unlock every time I want to open my phone. Ugh.
Can anyone recommend a good premium Puzzle Quest clone that isn't full of microtransaction garbage?
There's a "skip lock screen" option you can turn off which makes it so face unlock will let you see your notifications, then you can swipe up afterwards to use your phone
It's called Motorola One because you only really get one update!
Bah dum tssss
So I am switching jobs and I get a new phone. I currently have the Pixel 4XL and debating on asking for a OnePlus 7T, Samsung Galaxy S10+, Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ or even a Pixel 4XL again (My wife would get my current one).
I feel like the S10+ or Note 10+ is the best decision but I have been on the Nexus/Pixel train for so long I am scared to leave pure Android. I also went with the Pixel 4XL because of being on Google Fi but that will no longer be the case. So the S10+ or Note 10 is the best call right?
Oh and overall, I have been pretty happy with the 4XL which is why I would consider it again. I think the only thing I am not 100% sold on is the face unlock.
I feel like the S10+ or Note 10+ is the best decision but I have been on the Nexus/Pixel train for so long I am scared to leave pure Android. I also went with the Pixel 4XL because of being on Google Fi but that will no longer be the case. So the S10+ or Note 10 is the best call right?
Oh and overall, I have been pretty happy with the 4XL which is why I would consider it again. I think the only thing I am not 100% sold on is the face unlock.
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I just bought a Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro to replace my ancient Nexus 6. The price is just too good to pass up for a phone with a SD855, AMOLED and no notch. In an ideal world, I'd have gotten the OP7 Pro but that one would've cost me twice as much.
Let's see how it goes. I've never used non-stock Android before. The Custom ROM scene for the phone seems pretty active since it's a popular device, but its unorthodox hardware (specifically the Under the display Fingerprint scanner) means several quirks haven't been ironed out yet. Hopefully there'll be official LineageOS builds of Android 10 by early next year.
Let's see how it goes. I've never used non-stock Android before. The Custom ROM scene for the phone seems pretty active since it's a popular device, but its unorthodox hardware (specifically the Under the display Fingerprint scanner) means several quirks haven't been ironed out yet. Hopefully there'll be official LineageOS builds of Android 10 by early next year.
My current phone has a Super AMOLED screen. How big of a downgrade is it to go to the regular LCD display in the Moto G7? How much improvement in the Super AMOLED screen in the Samsung A50 over the Moto G7? Would it be worth spending $100 or $150 more for the A50 over the Moto G7 just for the better screen?
Thanks for any feedback.
Thanks for any feedback.
I was apprehensive of MIUI at first but it works fine and MIUI11 update fixed the issues I had, like settings is now much much better and notifications seem to stick around now instead of disappearing. I see no point in flashing it, it's not worth it to me.
Massive. I don't think I can ever go back. Low light performance of OLED is just impossible to replicate on LCD and I like using phone in my bed watching videos and stuff or texting.
I liked going to a 120Hz LCD and felt that was an upgrade, but I can't imagine doing it without a framerate bump for smoothness
Thanks.
Yeah my phone is my streaming platform of choice and I watch a lot on it. That's why I'm so torn. I'm fine though using a 3DS, 2nd-gen Vita and Wii U. I watched several streams on my Game pad.
So I think I can deal with the quality drop for a $150 difference. The price is really the sticking point for me if it was less than a hundred I would go for the AMOLED no problem.
Yeah, after a day of using MIUI 11 it's not awful and it's chock-full of nifty features.
Camera seems pretty disappointing though. Photos are soft, even blurry, noisy and overprocessed. I sideloaded a GCam port and it's immediately leagues better.
Overall I'm just happy to have flagship specs on a phone with modern features. I loved my Nexus 6 but using a phone with a SD855 shows me just how slow that N6 really is.
Also, the phone feels tiny, which is a weird thing to say about a 6.4" phone, but every phone feels tiny compared to the behemoth that is the Nexus 6. I kinda miss the more square form factor. This phone is tall and narrow and feels kinda cramped.
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Is there a good way (app?) to backup a phone's internal files to an external SD card? Thanks for any responses.
I'm gonna rant a bit concerning MIUI. I'm gonna hide it behind to avoid clogging the thread. It's mostly venting.
I've used stuff like this to move stuff from and onto my phone. It's super useful and quick. Also if you have TWRP you can use it to create full backups of your phone, includying System and Data.
EDIT: I realize now that maybe I misunderstood your question. Are you talking about your own files, like photos and downloaded files, or are you talking about backing up your system storage to SD?
I'm starting to find a few blemishes with MIUI that are kind of annoying. None of them are a big deal individually, but when you add them up, they can sure be frustrating.
For example, I'm running Android 10. Cool. Very few phones run it other than Pixels and OnePluses. But some of the features of Android 10 I was looking forward to the most are disabled in MIUI 11.
For example, Android 10 features interactive seek bars in the persistent notifications for Media Apps. That's super duper useful and something I've wanted for years. But it's disabled in MIUI.
Android 10 offers native support for both the Xbox One controller and the Dualshock 4. Those controllers could be paired in older versions of Android of course, but now you get access to more advanced features like the touchpad on the DS4. But for some reason Xiaomi blocked the DS4 from working with the PS4 Remote Play app. For fucks sake!
MIUI is notorously agressive when killing apps and shoving them off RAM. This is actually not that bad, since battery life is amazing as a result and the phone is so fast that Apps relaunch instantly annyway. And we all know how Android can be about apps draining battery in misterious ways. It's actually kind of comforting to now that apps like Facebook will be kept in line out of the box. But the downside is that Apps that I want doing stuff in the background kinda don't work. Google Photos won't sync unless I manually open the app and wait for everything to sync. I tried turning up the battery optimizations for it but it still won't sync in the background.
No support for mirroring the display on a Chromecast. In 2019!
The phone has a feature called Dual Apps which is the sort of added value I actually like. It allows you to run separate instances of the same app with different accounts. It's very useful if you want to have two Whatsapp accounts each tied to a different phone number since the phone is dual SIM. I wanted to use this feature for the Primevideo App. By default, all Amazon apps will login to the same account automatically. If you switch accounts in one, it'll switch accounts in all of them. I have hundreds of books that I've purchased throughout nearly a decade in my Kindle app, tied to an Amazon US account. I also have Amazon Prime on my Amazon Mexico account. So I can't use one without getting logged out of the other. With Dual Apps I was hoping I could keep the Kindle app and Primevideo App separate, and it does work, but only if you use Xiaomi's default MIUI launcher, for some bizzarre reason. Since I'm using Nova, Dual Apps will just plain not work.
If I'm casting an App like Netflix or YouTube to the Chromecast, I lose the ability to control volume on the phone (Alarms, media, notifications) until I disconnect from the Chromecast. As in, the volume slider will not show up at all, and pressing down or up on the physical buttons will only control the volume of the TV I'm casting to. This actually worked fine in MIUI 10 for the brief time I used it but now it's broken.
Full screen gestures kinda don't play nice with Nova Launcher, though to be fair, stock Android's gestures are probably even worse at this.
For example, I'm running Android 10. Cool. Very few phones run it other than Pixels and OnePluses. But some of the features of Android 10 I was looking forward to the most are disabled in MIUI 11.
For example, Android 10 features interactive seek bars in the persistent notifications for Media Apps. That's super duper useful and something I've wanted for years. But it's disabled in MIUI.
Android 10 offers native support for both the Xbox One controller and the Dualshock 4. Those controllers could be paired in older versions of Android of course, but now you get access to more advanced features like the touchpad on the DS4. But for some reason Xiaomi blocked the DS4 from working with the PS4 Remote Play app. For fucks sake!
MIUI is notorously agressive when killing apps and shoving them off RAM. This is actually not that bad, since battery life is amazing as a result and the phone is so fast that Apps relaunch instantly annyway. And we all know how Android can be about apps draining battery in misterious ways. It's actually kind of comforting to now that apps like Facebook will be kept in line out of the box. But the downside is that Apps that I want doing stuff in the background kinda don't work. Google Photos won't sync unless I manually open the app and wait for everything to sync. I tried turning up the battery optimizations for it but it still won't sync in the background.
No support for mirroring the display on a Chromecast. In 2019!
The phone has a feature called Dual Apps which is the sort of added value I actually like. It allows you to run separate instances of the same app with different accounts. It's very useful if you want to have two Whatsapp accounts each tied to a different phone number since the phone is dual SIM. I wanted to use this feature for the Primevideo App. By default, all Amazon apps will login to the same account automatically. If you switch accounts in one, it'll switch accounts in all of them. I have hundreds of books that I've purchased throughout nearly a decade in my Kindle app, tied to an Amazon US account. I also have Amazon Prime on my Amazon Mexico account. So I can't use one without getting logged out of the other. With Dual Apps I was hoping I could keep the Kindle app and Primevideo App separate, and it does work, but only if you use Xiaomi's default MIUI launcher, for some bizzarre reason. Since I'm using Nova, Dual Apps will just plain not work.
If I'm casting an App like Netflix or YouTube to the Chromecast, I lose the ability to control volume on the phone (Alarms, media, notifications) until I disconnect from the Chromecast. As in, the volume slider will not show up at all, and pressing down or up on the physical buttons will only control the volume of the TV I'm casting to. This actually worked fine in MIUI 10 for the brief time I used it but now it's broken.
Full screen gestures kinda don't play nice with Nova Launcher, though to be fair, stock Android's gestures are probably even worse at this.
I've used stuff like this to move stuff from and onto my phone. It's super useful and quick. Also if you have TWRP you can use it to create full backups of your phone, includying System and Data.
EDIT: I realize now that maybe I misunderstood your question. Are you talking about your own files, like photos and downloaded files, or are you talking about backing up your system storage to SD?
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Regarding miui on Xiaomi, have you tried using a custom miui rom like miui.eu or you can even use something like Pixel experience on alot of Xiaomi phones.
Yeah, I think I'll eventually end up switching to a Custom ROM.
Evolution X 3.4 seems to be the best regarded one, but reading through the XDA threads it seems to be really buggy still. Specially the Fingerprint scanner seems to be a common issue with all these ROMs.
I dealt with quirks and bugs for over 4 years of using Custom ROMs on my Nexus 6, so I can live with that, but I was hoping for a clean, no fuss out of the box experience for once.
Miui.eu I think is basically MIUI with the bloat and restrictions removed and seems to be almost bug free. Worth a shot to try that. They do weekly builds I believe also.
Oh, I didn't realize Miui.eu is a customized version of MIUI. That's bound to be less buggy than the AOSP ROMs. I'll certainly be looking into that!
Yeah, if I recall correctly miui actually originally started as a miui.eu custom rom before Xiaomi adopted it as it's official rom, so you are getting MIUI at it's best with that rom.
Anyone have any good recommendations for a second Android phone? I basically need a phone to use WhatsApp and text messages & some light browsing and I don't want to use my everyday phone to contact certain people.
I'm in the UK, and am looking for a cheap option (cheaper the better to be honest), but one that I can keep running for a year or so.
Any ideas?
I'm in the UK, and am looking for a cheap option (cheaper the better to be honest), but one that I can keep running for a year or so.
Any ideas?
Thanks, I think the 2.2 is closest to my budget.
I do have an old Nexus 6p I can get hold of, do you think that would b a better bet (It would't cost me anything)?
Not sure if you've made this decision yet, but I think S10+ or Note 10 is the best choice. I've had my S10+ since Black Friday and it's truly an amazing phone. I purchased this after owning a OnePlus 6T for a year and I had a Nexus 6p before that which I absolutely loved.
I really wanted to stay with stock android but the Pixel 3 XL did not do it for me. The OP6T is very close to stock and the price was right so opted to go in that direction. I had a decent experience with OnePlus but wanted to move away from it. I looked at the Pixel 4 XL and again, I wasn't terribly impressed. I ended up with the S10+ and I'm glad I did.
OneUI is actually pretty good and that was really my biggest fear. OneUI 2 is coming at the beginning of next year and will incorporate some of the new Android 10 stuff so I'm excited for that. I will say that it can be difficult to find certain settings in the menu but I just abuse the search function and it works well enough. The in-screen fingerprint reader might not be the fastest thing around it certainly gets the job done which is great if you're not a fan of face identification.
So is there any way outside of setting streaming quality to "very high" on Spotify to make it sound better? I don't know why, but if I play a song on Apple Music and the same song on Spotify I get such a huge difference in quality it's rather shocking. There's way more clarity and a wider soundstage using Apple Music over Spotify and I don't really know why. I'm using Sennheiser Momentum's 3.0 so it's not like it's a codec issue or something like that.
Am I missing a setting or is there some kind of hack to this? Is Spotify deliberately serving a lower quality under "very high" on mobile in some weird forced data saving mode or something? Can I force a hidden function to get an "extreme" quality?
Am I missing a setting or is there some kind of hack to this? Is Spotify deliberately serving a lower quality under "very high" on mobile in some weird forced data saving mode or something? Can I force a hidden function to get an "extreme" quality?
Awesome, yeah I ended up going with the S10+. Haven't received it yet but it seemed like the best choice.
There's several apps in the Play Store for that purpose. I used one called Parallel Spaces for a while for Prime Video and it worked fine, though it was ad supported and the ads were kinda intrusive.
Just got an Mi9t and loving it so far. First Android phone. Was a Windows Phone loyalist until they basically threw in the towel years ago, then was on an iPhone for a few years. It was fine and after WP I kinda just wanted a phone that "worked" but wow iOS is boring.
Any general app recs? Using Spark for my email accounts and actually really like their Smart Inbox. I normally hate those kind of features. Looking for a good Calendar app now. Using Nova Launcher but a little annoyed there are no badges in the free version.
Any general app recs? Using Spark for my email accounts and actually really like their Smart Inbox. I normally hate those kind of features. Looking for a good Calendar app now. Using Nova Launcher but a little annoyed there are no badges in the free version.
I'm glad you're enjoying your Mi 9T. It's probably the best value on Smartphones right now. It's ridiculous how well built and premium this phone feels and how well it performs. It even has features you don't find in a lot of flagships twice the price, like Dual GPS that let's you use Google's new AR Google Maps navigation. It's incredible.
If there's an app on Android that is worth full price is Nova in my opinion. Pocketcasts used to be another but they went free recently.
I like Pocket for saving long articles for reading later. It's also on iOS but I feel it works better on Android since it can sync in the background and it's also easier to directly send stuff from Chrome or any browser to your account to sync.
Google Photos is also fantastic if you're not using it already.
I've been using SwiftKey as my keyboard for over half a decade and I always come back to it. Google keyboard has gotten much better but SwiftKey is just unmatched when it comes to seamlessly switching between languages.
I'm not a fan of Widgets but the one app that I've consistently used as a widget is Tick Tick. It's a simple to do list app but it works well, syncs between devices and their website and the widget is very customizable.
The only other Widget that I use is the "At a Glance" widget which is part of the main Google App. You might recognize it as the stock Pixel launcher Widget.
If you have a Chromecast, there's a great App called Videostream that allows you to seamlessly stream content from your PC to your Chromecast.
SolidExplorer is probably the best File manager on Android, though the pro version isn't free.
Finally I use Action Dash as a more fully featured alternative to Digital Wellbeing.
Ah, and finally, I can't really recommend using Gcam enough. I really don't like the way pictures look when using the stock camera app. GCam is almost miraculous and Night Sight works very well. I can link the port that I'm using if you'd like.
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Kind crazy to think we went from notchless, to notch, to this in a couple of years.
The notch is the worst thing to ever happen to smartphones and I'll be so glad to see it go.
Unfortunately it seems we're still in for another year of obnoxious interruptions to the most important part of the display. I suspect 2020 will be the year of the punchole. And some manufacturers like Oneplus and Xiaomi seem to be regressing in that department.
Shame that the 9T has no wireless charging. Really like that on my Mi9.
Thanks for this! Ended up paying for Nova and am loving it. Got Pocketcasts, too.
I like Google Photos, but for some reason it keeps giving me notifications to enable "group by face", an option that isn't in my app? It's weird.
I have a few widgets I'm toying with. At A Glance is one of them, another is just Microsoft To-Do (I'm still pretty heavily in the MS ecosystem). Having a list up front and center helps me actually get them done.
I'm not at all familiar with ports or anything and couldn't find Gcam on the store. What do I need to do to get it?
IIRC it takes a few days for Google Photos to go through your contacts and populate the "sort by face" section. It should eventually show up.
Technically, GCam is only for Google's Pixel phones, and only if you have those phones can you download it from the Play Store. However, given how much Gcam can enhance the cameras on most modern Android phones, you can find ports for almost any device. Here's a port for the Mi 9t. This is a slightly older version of Gcam but it should bring most of the enhancements with it. You might have to fiddle with the setting a bit but other than that just download the APK and install.
I'm using this port of the newest version (7.2) on my Mi 9T Pro, and it should work on your phone as well, though given they have a slightly different sensor, you could use the other one I linked if 7.2 gives you problems.
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