[aertus]

New GSM Arena XZ1 video review, though it seems to be just be based off the official review on the site.

Takeaways for me were: 1) Phone is MOSTLY metal unibody, EXCEPT for top and bottom, which are plastic and 2) The audio on headphones is good but not great.

LG V30 for me then. lol (IF unlocked version is T-Mo VoLTE-certified of course.)

Don't get the top & bottom plastic thing. What? If HTC (and I think LG with the V30?) can make their flagships ALL metal unibody, why can't the rest? They say oh it's cuz of antenna issues. I call BS though cuz the HTC phones are known for great call quality. lol

htc10 has antena lines on the outside. there is no way around really you do need it for better reception i dont think sony will cheap out on something that stupid.

 

[aertus]

Good to know!

Hmm. That's not good that some say it can cause issues. I've never heard that. But I don't really follow-up much on it anyway.

yeah im probably just being chicken but like i really do want FP on my phone so im really tempted to just do it since you're not unlockiing bootloader or anything crazy like that.

 

[InfyAsiX]

New GSM Arena XZ1 video review, though it seems to be just be based off the official review on the site.

Takeaways for me were: 1) Phone is MOSTLY metal unibody, EXCEPT for top and bottom, which are plastic and 2) The audio on headphones is good but not great.

LG V30 for me then. lol (IF unlocked version is T-Mo VoLTE-certified of course.)

Don't get the top & bottom plastic thing. What? If HTC (and I think LG with the V30?) can make their flagships ALL metal unibody, why can't the rest? They say oh it's cuz of antenna issues. I call BS though cuz the HTC phones are known for great call quality. lol

Metal phones need some way of allowing signal. I don't trust GSMArena's audio tests and reviews, they've been wrong with bad representations of audio in the past.

 

[RockStar2005]

htc10 has antena lines on the outside. there is no way around really you do need it for better reception i dont think sony will cheap out on something that stupid.

Ok, so why can't Sony do that instead of issuing phones with plastic top & bottoms then? Seems to me they already cheaped out. lol Again, if HTC (and I think LG on the V30??) can do it, Sony could too.

 

[InfyAsiX]

my friend who really knows his stuff says it does NOT void warranty. Becuase you're not unlocking the bootloader just flashing firmware.

This is the same way to enable to the fingerprint scanner which I've been trying to do with my Sony X but honestly I hear it can mess up your phone so i never bothered. Others who say they are noobs say it was very easy to do.

Technically you've modified the phone beyond the manufacturer's original regional support. If the brand offers cross region warranty than this probably won't apply. If they don't they could make it difficult, but like I mentioned there's an officially supported reason to have have it done too.

It isn't hard. Just follow some instructions. The risk is if the process gets interrupted midway for any reason such as power outage, software crash or accidental disconnection the phone may be hard bricked.

Ok, so why can't Sony do that instead of issuing phones with plastic top & bottoms then? Seems to me they already cheaped out. lol Again, if HTC (and I think LG on the V30??) can do it, Sony could too.

Different methods and design. You'd need some real tests to know how effective each implementation is.

 

[RockStar2005]

Metal phones need some way of allowing signal. I don't trust GSMArena's audio tests and reviews, they've been wrong with bad representations of audio in the past.

I dunno, but I owned the M8 and now the 10, and the audio quality on both has been FANTASTIC, just like with the Sony phones I've had. So to me using plastic or even the hybrid metal/plastic stuff Sony uses is still a cheap way of saving money IMO.

Yeah I mean some reviews on the XZP's and the XZ1's audio have been very good, but I dunno. Still, that Donny guy who I linked/quoted in here said the XZP was only superior vs. his $300 Walkman AHO (Automatic Headphone Optimizer) was turned on. So I guess we have to keep that in mind.

 

[InfyAsiX]

I dunno, but I owned the M8 and now the 10, and the audio quality on both has been FANTASTIC, just like with the Sony phones I've had. So to me using plastic or even the hybrid metal/plastic stuff Sony uses is still a cheap way of saving money IMO.

Oh signal as in radio reception such as phone, WiFi and bluetooth. It's not related to wired audio quality.

 

[RockStar2005]

Oh signal as in radio reception such as phone, WiFi and bluetooth. It's not related to wired audio quality.

Yeah but I mean it does relate to call signal strength too doesn't it??

 

[InfyAsiX]

Yeah but I mean it does relate to call signal strength too doesn't it??

Oh you mean call quality. I meant about the level of signal loss. So if the radio is always working harder to compensate for loss that comes at a cost to battery power. If the loss is higher than typical you can still get good call quality, but not compared to a phone with less loss when the reception to the tower is bad.

 

[RockStar2005]

Oh you mean call quality. I meant about the level of signal loss. So if the radio is always working harder to compensate for loss that comes at a cost to battery power. If the loss is higher than typical you can still get good call quality, but not compared to a phone with less loss when the reception to the tower is bad.

Yeah lol.

So are you saying that HTC's configuration or setup is inefficient or bad?

 

[InfyAsiX]

Yeah lol.

So are you saying that HTC's configuration or setup is inefficient or bad?

I don't have any experience with them to know. I just know that metal degrades signal so something has to be designed to help that. The effectiveness has to be tested to be proven. There has been cases of noticeable signal issues on phones in metal.

 

[RockStar2005]

I don't have any experience with them to know. I just know that metal degrades signal so something has to be designed to help that. The effectiveness has to be tested to be proven. There has been cases of noticeable signal issues on phones in metal.

I C. Ok. Well aertus said the HTC 10 has antenna lines on the outside. Isn't that what Apple did once though and it ended up being a problem?

Aertus? lol Is the HTC 10 antenna set up good or bad?

 

[aertus]

im not sure but there is no way around it if you're using full metal. i know the XZ had better signal for doing certain plastic.


what does everyone think of the new pixel 2 phones?

 

[RockStar2005]

im not sure but there is no way around it if you're using full metal. i know the XZ had better signal for doing certain plastic.


what does everyone think of the new pixel 2 phones?

Ok.

It looks alright I guess. It has its own look. I wouldn't say I'm crazy about it though.

My sister got the LG V30 yest from Verizon in silver/titanium. I helped her configure it. VERY nice! I'm most likely gonna buy it. Unlocked one comes out on 10/27. Prob get that one cuz it's cheaper. T-Mo one is $800. lol I'm pretty confident unlocked one will have VoLTE too. But not sure on the new 600 MHz/Band 71 thing. Locked one on T-Mo will, but have to see about unlocked. One guy on XDA said he was confident that LG would get FCC certification for it on the unlocked one before 10/27 though. We'll see.

 

[aertus]

pixel2 is the best phone actually as far as software goes. it definitely wont win design awards which was an issue with the first one. but its going to be getting 3 year software updates and security updates being the only one to do that. Its also teh first to support E-sim paving the way for a day where we dont have sims at all.


also i think im realizing what the lack of volte is doing. outside i get 33 mbps or somewhere in the 20s. But inside it struggles to hit 10mbps speed do you think it has to do with volte?