[marcswede]

€100 or sek1000 to anyone who can root my ZTE axon 7. Preferably in the Stockholm area or Sweden. I just cannot do it myself

 

[MuZo2]

€100 or sek1000 to anyone who can root my ZTE axon 7. Preferably in the Stockholm area or Sweden. I just cannot do it myself

http://rootmygalaxy.net/root-zte-axon-7-install-twrp-recovery/

 

[RicardoB]

anyone use RAMOS mos1 max?
it is quite interesting.

I think I'll try one in a few months because the audio specs on paper are good but if you do let us know your review

 

[marcswede]

http://rootmygalaxy.net/root-zte-axon-7-install-twrp-recovery/

Thanks for your help but that guide doesn't work for the European model.

 

[pashhtk27]

Limited stock came of Vibe X3 on amazon.in
Bought it instantly. Since I'm leaving for college hostel soon, won't be able to play with it when it arrives but........hell yes, got it!!

 

[qazeqaz]

The LG v20 is pretty good at driving headphones. Seems better than my s7 edge.

 

[RishiGuru]

  @RishiGuru Thanks a lot for the great write up, really appreciate it! .... I really wanted to buy a Vibe X3 and was willing to extend my budget, but unfortunately it's discontinued (Amazon says 'Currently unavailable').

 
AFAIK Lenovo Vibe X3 is officially available in two countries only, China & India with full warranty. Please correct me if I am wrong.
 
Lenovo priced their flagship Vibe X3 at just US $294 in India which is amazingly 70 dollars cheaper than that of China!!! This level of aggressive pricing to usurp its competition, an all exclusive Amazon India availability, limited stocks and huge demand made this phone's availability almost nonexistent. However I was one of the lucky few who were able to buy this phone on the very month it got launch in India. It was Feb, 2016.  
 

  And X5max is out of my budget, and other than the audio, I feel it has become outdated imo.

 
The last time I saw Vivo X5Max on Amazon India was some ten months back. At that time it was selling at the same price of Lenovo Vibe X3!!! With an ever increasing pace of competition in smartphone space, new features included each year I find it amusing how the value of last year's flagship phone depreciates as it becomes an older generation. 
 
After using X5Max for almost 2 years, below listed are its pros and cons:
 
Pros
 
1) Awesome built quality, feels like curved out from single block of aluminium. On build quality alone I rate it higher than Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge or iPhone 5.
 
2) Amazing sound quality over earphones with built in Hi-Fi 2.0 audio architecture. To me it is the best I have heard on a phone and only Lenovo Vibe X3 can reach this lofty standard.
 
3) Comes with my favorite iMusic player. To me it is the best music player built for Android with support for lossless files like FLAC. It has like Neutron music app, just more user friendly.
 
4) Great 5.5 inch FullHD Samsung Super AMOLED display. In terms of display quality I cannot differentiate between S6 Edge & X5Max. This display is made for multimedia consumption with punchy, vivid colors & infinite blacks. Movies & photos look gorgeous on X5Max. But this display just like any other AMOLED display is not very accurate in color reproduction, it over-saturates any color to make it look vivid.
 
5) The slimmest phone in the world. You take it out of our pocket and it instantly gets recognition from bystanders. It is basically a two dimensional device, severely lacking the third dimension: Thickness. 
 
6) The best 13 MP rear camera with Sony Exmor sensor and 6P lens configuration I have yet experienced. For icing on cake you get a scratch resistant sapphire glass protection over the lens. Just awesome still photography.
 
Cons
 
1) Battery backup. The international version X5Max sold in India is slightly thicker at 5.1 mm to accommodate a slightly larger battery of 2300 mAh. Still a FullHD display and those hungry DACs & headphone amplifier gulps power pretty fast. Under moderate usage you will somehow able to make it last a day, but for heavy users like me you need to carry a power bank or else you will definitely run out of juice!!!
 
2) Single mono in-built speaker at the back. Very clean & crisp sounding but lacks in loudness.
 
3) Slow charging with support for only Qualcomm Quick Charge 1.0. Takes almost 2.5 hours to charge from zero to 100%.
 
4) Ships with Funtouch OS 2.0 overlay with Android Kitkat running at background. But user experience is very fluid, no lags and smooth performance.  
 
 
Quote:

  Vivo V3 and the newer V5 have an HD display and I believe FullHD is the minimum that a phone must have today. Getting a better display is one of the reasons I wanted to buy a new phone.
And I'm not willing to buy V3max as Vibe X3 will haunt me at the price point. :')
 

 
I agree. I am a multimedia guy and to me a FullHD, 5.5 inch display is a minimum requirement. Hence I bought Vivo V3Max which is an excellent phone for its price. It is even cheaper than Vibe X3 at INR 19k.
 
Things I like about Lenovo Vibe X3
 
1) Top notch sound quality over earphones/ headphones. To me only Vivo X5Max was able to reach this level of SQ. Beats ZTE Axon 7, LG G5 with B&O dac module, LG V10, LeEco Le Max and Vivo V3Max hands down.
 
2) Fearsome headphone drive capability/ amplifier gain by any smartphone standards. 
 
3) The most accurate 5.5 inch FullHD IPS display I have ever seen on a smartphone. The LCD covers the whole 100% of NTSC color gamut with incredible 1500:1 contrast ratio. In terms of color reproduction I feel this phone is second to none with great viewing angles. You see natural colors and blacks are really deep.
 
4) The best front firing stereo speakers every to adorn in a phone. Beats even ZTE Axon 7 for sound quality, not loudness.
 
5) Awesome battery backup, can even last for 1.5 days under heavy usage.
 
6) I really like the widescreen cinematic experience with Lenovo TheaterMax + Dolby ATMOS + AntVR headset experence. Makes watching movies so much fun with stereo sound.
 
7) Great VFM products but doesn't skip on product quality.
 
8) Comes with IR blaster and acts like a remote control.
 
Things I like about Vivo V3Max
 
1) Very powerful Snapdragon 652 SoC coupled with 4 gigs of RAM. Any heavy graphic intensive game runs butter smooth on V3Max. Heavy lifter here. 
 
2) Fast charging. 0 to 100% in 1.5 hours flat.
 
3) Built quality seems slightly better in V3Max over Vibe X3.
 
4) Very good battery backup, easily lasts for a single day under heavy usage.
 
5) The 13 MP main camera in V3Max is much better than 21 MP shooter of Vibe X3. Proof that higher MP count does not equates to better picture quality.
 
6) Comes with my favorite iMusic player. Vibe X3 just has Google play music installed.
 
7) Single mono speaker, though loud and clear. Cannot match Vibe X3 level audio quality.
 
8) Sound quality over earphones is pretty good with dedicated AKM AK4375 chip. I will say ZTE Axon 7 & V3Max sounds almost same with same sound signature. Both uses dacs from AKM. Vibe X3 is significantly better than both.
 
9) For India, have specific inbuilt VoLTE support. Free 4G Reliance JIO connections with unlimited free talktime & free data works like charm. Vibe X3 does not support the VoLTE feature. 
 
Quote:

  Limited stock came of Vibe X3 on amazon.in
Bought it instantly. Since I'm leaving for college hostel soon, won't be able to play with it when it arrives but........hell yes, got it!! 

 
Welcome to Lenovo Vibe X3 club. Great audio quality guaranteed.

 

 

[punks15]

Im torn between iphone 6/6s or galaxy s7.... Those sounds good?

 

[artpiggo]

Im torn between iphone 6/6s or galaxy s7.... Those sounds good?

No without external dac. Buy dragonfly black or aqua.

 

[flachunter]

Okay, after my Vibe X3 got lost in limbo (never arrived, I could only process a refund for 25% of the price I paid for it. damn) I saved up money for a few months and decided to get me an LG V20.
This thing is literally the bomb. Amazing sound quality! I haven't had the need to tweak the sound output at all: my Degauss Labs Howl perform amazingly with default GoneMAD settings and gets better with small tweaks, although less articulate in a small proportion.
The only things I dislike are the device's UI (not to my taste, my brother seems to love it though) and the fact that volume changes in steps of 5 instead of 1.
Are there any music player apps out there which make full use of the DAC yet?

 

[gustav29]

Okay, after my Vibe X3 got lost in limbo (never arrived, I could only process a refund for 25% of the price I paid for it. damn) I saved up money for a few months and decided to get me an LG V20.
This thing is literally the bomb. Amazing sound quality! I haven't had the need to tweak the sound output at all: my Degauss Labs Howl perform amazingly with default GoneMAD settings and gets better with small tweaks, although less articulate in a small proportion.
The only things I dislike are the device's UI (not to my taste, my brother seems to love it though) and the fact that volume changes in steps of 5 instead of 1.
Are there any music player apps out there which make full use of the DAC yet?

if you go with poweramp you can set volume steps to a 100. One out of many nice features of the poweramp app.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[dadme]

Thanks for your help but that guide doesn't work for the European model.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/axon-7/how-to/guide-install-twrp-unlock-bl-flash-t3517379
 
What changes are you made on Axon 7 mini? I have Axon 7 A2017U version, and i want to improve sound somehow. Even in HiFi mode it doesen't sound better than Meizu MX4 Pro, just louder. No EQ, no crap Dolby, just pure bit audio, but something is missing, on my Senhheiser HD250 Linear II.

 

[RishiGuru]

  Okay, after my Vibe X3 got lost in limbo (never arrived, I could only process a refund for 25% of the price I paid for it. damn) I saved up money for a few months and decided to get me an LG V20.
This thing is literally the bomb. Amazing sound quality! I haven't had the need to tweak the sound output at all: my Degauss Labs Howl perform amazingly with default GoneMAD settings and gets better with small tweaks, although less articulate in a small proportion.
The only things I dislike are the device's UI (not to my taste, my brother seems to love it though) and the fact that volume changes in steps of 5 instead of 1.
Are there any music player apps out there which make full use of the DAC yet?

 
Sorry to know about your loss. How much did you end up paying for Lenovo Vibe X3? Were you importing from China?
 
I am impatiently waiting for LG V20 to get launched in my country. Very positive reviews throughout net but i need to hear it first.

 

[eio]

V20 is great but it lacks current drive (might not suitable for low impedance, mid/low sensitivity headphones), and its crosstalk is quite high.

 

[rikk009]

   
I was truly excited about LG G5 with B&O Hi-Fi Plus (AFD-1200) module during launch. Later I had the chance to audition and found B&O module to provide a definite improvement in G5's audio quality through 3.5 mm audio output. 

 
Internally B&O module ships with the new ESS Sabre ES9028C2M (DAC) with 129 dB SNR, 2 dB improvement over its previous generation ESS Sabre ES9018. We find ES9018 in Vivo X5Max & Lenovo Vibe X3. 
 
The newly released ESS Sabre 9602 headphone amplifier can also be found in this B&O module. The previous ESS Sabre 9601 of X5Max had very good SNR of 122 dB, but severely lacked in amplification department. Hence Vivo in X5Max had to use it as I/V converter and the job of amplification was given to Texas Instruments OPA1612 acting as a headphone amplifier. However with Sabre 9602, ESS was able to dramatically improve the amplification capability while keeping the SNR at 122 dB. 
 
To have a more clear picture below are the audio paths:
 
Vivo X5Max "HiFi": Snapdragon 615 --> ESS Sabre ES9018-K2M (DAC) --> ESS Sabre ES9601 (I/V conversion) --> TI OPA1612 (Headphone amplifier) --> 3.5mm audio jack
 
B&O Module (LG G5 ): Snapdragon 820 --> ESS Sabre 9028C2M (DAC) --> ESS Sabre ES9602 (Headphone amplifier) --> 3.5mm audio jack
 
-------------------------------
 
Coming to the topic of subjective analysis of LG G5 + B&O module, I used X5Max as the marker. In regards to sound quality I found both to be neutral sounding. ESS dacs are generally neutral sounding, but  B&O has a slightly softer tonal behavior of the two. Both produces crisp & clear sounding highs while mids on B&O are less clinical. But where B&O mostly suffered where the lows and repeatedly I felt it lacked the drive to produce that hard hitting & accurately timed lows. X5Max have more driving power of the two, and is more suitable candidate to drive audiophile grade earphones. However you can forget using the big headphones with B&O as my Sennheiser HD 598 sounded anemic at best while with X5Max there was a slight improvement in driving capability. 
 
Nonetheless it was clear to me as both X5Max & B&O are designed to be paired with earphones not big headphones. Better get a Lenovo Vibe X3 if you want real driving capability plus audio quality. In the end of the near three hour audition, I had to give the crown back to X5Max. With B&O you will get equal treatment in mids & highs but lows are where X5Max shine. For example with my Fiio EX1's I can feel X5Max was producing a more accurate & bottomless bass and those 13 mm drivers are really working to produce more thrust. Not so with B&O.
 
Later one renowned Chinese audiophile website measured & reveled the LG G5 with B&O module is able to produce a maximum output level of - 5 dB, while that of X5Max was higher at -1.4 dB. So now I know X5Max have more driving force than B&O module but nonetheless it was a good try from both LG &  B&O. 

 

So what's the successor to Vibe X3? I vowed not to buy a Lenovo after poor experience with quality but might give it a chance if audio output is good.