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I know Stoner's got one and hopefully a couple of others - if so what do think?
a few points first:
1) I drowned mine 4 weeks ago. I revived it with the ol' bowl of rice trick (it was dodo'd until left in rice for 12hrs)
2) since the drowning I cant charge it while it is "ON", only when turned of OFF.
3) I bought a replcement USB charge port (£10, eBay. You try doing that with an iphone 😉 ) and fitted it which didnt solve the problem.
4) I sent it back to the eBay seller from which I bought it to see if he could reflash the ROM to check it wasnt a firmware fault. It came back with the Xtreme 1.2 ROM on it - that's an Android 5.1 lollipop build, replacing the 4.4 Kit kat ROM it came with
5) Still didnt charge while ON. SO I have assumed now that I knackered something on the main board.
6) it's not the end of the world really. I schedule the phone to auto OFF at midnight and it comes back on again automatically at 6am. So it's fully charged each night.
I also have a spare battery to take with me (phone back pops of nice and easily, quick swap out), I've also bought a battery charge dock (comes with another spare battery) again for not a lot from eBay so that I'm fully covered.
Anyone owning a new one really wont have to do all that, but it's worth knowing that getting spare batteries and a desktop charger are so cheap and easy.
On to the phone.
I use mine with a silicone bumper. Without it, the back is quite slippy. But still tactile and useable. And v smart looking.
The screen is responsive and bright.
Sound is OK, volumes all seem fine. Nothing really to comment. Earphone quality is v good.
Hardware buttons are positive and responsive.
Soft buttons are not illuminated until after youve pressed them which is a bit silly, but reduces battery usage I guess. It means until youve learnt exactly where they are on the bottom bezel, you can miss them with your fingers a bit.
The 4.4 ROM was perfectly good, although I put the google now launcher on the phone as the OEM launcher was a bit basic.
The 5.1 ROM is excellent. A really good roll out of a ROM from a 3rd party, and it even updated OTA to 1.3 the other day without a snag.
http://www.tfandroid.es/ControlServlet?action=4&detalle=1&subDetalle=1&downloadId=53
No hassles with Google Play compatibility.
4G has been lightening fast. Astonishing. if you regularly move between the shires and weak signal areas (EDGE, maybe 3G if you are lucky, then it drops to GPRS etc) and then into the bright lights with wall-to-wall 4g, you might have to get used to flicking between signal preferences to get the best balance of speed and reliability in each area. Its not dissimilar an issue than Ive had with all smart phones, but this being my first 4G phone its more noticeable that you have to manage your signal pref.
The camera has been very good too. Wifi connection is as stable as any other phone Ive known. Sometimes you might have to turn it off and on again if things go slow, but its v rare, and probably as much a DHCP problem as the phone itself.
NFC works. But phone is not Qi charge compatible
Stuffed a 32Gb SD card in it, and no probs. Havent tried it with a second SIM yet, but I think allthepies might have.
So all in, Im happy with the phone. Annoyed with myself for drowning it. It really has no water protection - but then doesnt say it does, and that's the trade off for an easy removing back for battery changes, so do take care if you are out and about. I have bought a waterproof pouch for it for when Im on the bike or mountain walking/rambling.
I will shortly buy a second for Mrs Stoner.
I've got one too (based upon Stoner's original post).
Very happy with it, haven't drowned it yet 😉
4G is mega quick, I've had speedtest show 73Mbps download 😯
As it's dual SIM then I use SIM #1 for my legacy Tesco SIM which does calls and txts. I've set SIM #2 up for data and I've got an EE 4G SIM in there with a 100Gb/month allowance ( their current Christmas offer for 2 months given a £10 topup). Obviously you could just use one SIM and do everything off that.
I'm still on the stock Kitkat 4.4 ROM which came with the phone (although the seller is now shipping phones with the Extreme ROM [lollipop] which Stoner has got running).
Camera is good, battery life excellent. Came with a plastic screen protector and silicone bumper, I've fitted both.
Recommended.
I've got an htc one m7 (just over 2 years old). Is this phone a considerable upgrade?
poor show 🙁I will shortly buy a second for [s]myself and pretend to[/s] Mrs Stoner [s]that the old one is really hers[/s]
The thought only briefly passed my mind 🙂
I'll survive with the charging issue of my making. If I don't I'll just buy a replacement.,they're so cheap.
Hmmm tempting. Got an iPhone 5 right now that's OK but I suspect a larger screen would help my eyes 🙁
I'd like a 6 Plus but seeing as they're going for much more money I may give this a try as it's not exactly a lot of money.
My only worry is that I'll hate Android - but I'm guessing things have moved on since I last tried one 4 or 5 years ago!
It's as good as any for the jump to a decent operating system from ios.
One early review mentioned slow charging.... noticed it?
As ever it's always a good idea to use a v good quality charger and cable.
Ive used an app called Ampere to test the charge rate of each charger in the house (I think I have 6 or 7) and they ranged from a few hundred milliamps to nearly an amp.
I use ampere.
The difference in charging current between different cables and chargers is crazy.
The difference in charging current between different cables and chargers is crazy.
Yeah - ampere is good. My phone does between 300 and 1850mA depending just on cable choice 😯
Sharkbait i've just jumped from iOS to Android and finding it okay. I like not having to use iTunes but do miss iMessage.
I've got one.
I love it. Great screen. Quick. Performs well.
Cost me £130 from Antelife.com with a screen protector and silicone case. Cheaper now I'd imagine.
I did manage to turn it into Chinese language phone by installing an over the air update....that prompted a rebuild of my PC to Win 10 to see it, and me learning all about scatter files, flashing phones (needrom.com) etc. That was my gaff though.
It did have a bit of malware on it, Running Lookout, AdWare and Malware Bytes regularly now to ensure no future issues.
Wouldn't stump up many hundreds for a Samsung etc in the future.
Stuart
Those who bought off eBay .... who did you use?