[Oxy]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

How are Oppo phones w.r.t to manufacturer level OS customisation updates? Do Oppo phones get upgrades (not just bug / security fixes) over long term - like oneplus?

I'm looking to buy the first phone for my kids. Obviously the phone will be mostly used for gaming.

There are gaming centric phones available now. Check out the Asus Rog Phone 2 for example (it's a huge bulky phone though). Nothing beats it when it comes to gaming. Else check out phones that have the Snapdragon 730G processor (it's optimised for gaming). Of course the high end Snapdragon 855 series processors would handle games very smoothly.

As for Oppo, I am currently using the Reno 10x Zoom (purchased in June 2019). Though I am getting regular security updates, it's still on Android 9 with Color OS 6 which is a bit annoying. But Color OS 7 based Android 10 is supposed to be coming soon and that promises to be a massive upgrade as per this:

https://youtu.be/vG_IapLT2WQ

[aadya]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

Phone: wife's Galaxy M30, Android 10, on Airtel network, VoLTE enabled. SIM2 is BSNL.

Query - people calling her on Airtel frequently complain of "user busy" tone. This did not happen on the older Lenovo phone. I tried disabling "smart dual SIM" which forwards calls to the other SIM if one is unavailable, but there is no change.

This is a sim issue popping up infrequently in airtel. It happened to two sims of my wife and one sim of mine within the first three months of airtel launching 4g. Mine was resolved with the airtel showroom person activating some option in my new sim.

My wife's sim has to be changed twice befor the problem disappeared.

[atnyia]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

From posts here, I see that One Plus phones run stock Android and are getting updates over long periods
...

1) OP doesn't run on Stock Android. It runs on Oxygen OS, which is close to stock android.
2) If you prioritize frequent updates and clean experience, nothing beats OP as of now.
3) Also, OP phones will not slow down with age.

OP is not extraordinary in one aspect, you have Nokia with faster updates, Asus RoG for gaming, Galaxy for display & camera performance. However, what makes it compelling is its versatility. It'll be in top 3 in every aspect.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Originally Posted by atnyia

I have traded in my Poco F1 for a Redmi K20 Pro.
In my view, Poco wasn't the flagship-grade, but the K20 pro is. It does feel like an upgrade over

Does it have NFC? ANT+? Dedicated MicroSD?

Is the charge type-C or micro USB?

Specifications are inconsistent between Flipkart, Amazon and Gsmarena.

Originally Posted by atnyia

1) OP doesn't run on Stock Android. It runs on Oxygen OS, which is close to stock android.
2) If you prioritize frequent updates and clean experience, nothing beats OP as of now.

Thanks for this info.
The reno2Z looks more attractive than 7T, in VFM terms. But noticed a remark somewhere that its processor is holding up OS upgrade to Android v. 10 equivalent for color OS.

[PetrolRider]

Friends!
I need some information regarding smart phones from certain manufacturers like OPPO & co, Xiaomi etc.

Lately, getting a lot of news that phones, even high-end flagships from these makers show unwanted advertisements in their phones. There are some YouTube videos on how to disable full screen (seriously?) unwanted adds, but they still claim to have commercials in notification area.

How true is the news? I understand, in case of free apps and free services, there are commercials to recover cost, but commercials in a fully paid flagship handset is beyond my comprehensions.

I am in market for a mid range phone (30k-40k zone) and would love to run away from such handsets that might (?) undercut their competitions with such cheap tactics.

Could you guys let me know, how rampant is the practice and what all handsets are using these means in mid to higher mid range? Thankfully neither wife' OP6 nor my 2.5 year old LG has these.

[revvharder]

Originally Posted by PetrolRider

Friends!
I need some information regarding smart phones from certain manufacturers like OPPO & co, Xiaomi etc.

Lately, getting a lot of news that phones, even high-end flagships from these makers show unwanted advertisements in their phones. There are some YouTube videos on how to disable full screen (seriously?) unwanted adds, but they still claim to have commercials in notification area.

It is absolutely true Had 2 Xiaomi phones but as I don't update my phone's, in one of the set there was no ads but in the other they are pretty aggressive in pushing ads and not only ads but sometimes pretty vulgar ads used to appear in the notification area and since then migrated to Samsung and there is no Xiaomi device in family since then and as much as attractive price at which the phone is offered but I don't want ads in my phone and no matter what I was unable to remove ads and sold it within 6 months. Don't know about other brands but even realme will be pushing ads from next updates so I request Realme users not to update UI if you don't want ads.

[tbppjpr]

No ads in Motorola devices. AFAIK Nokia are also ad free.

Wonder why people choose Chinese origin devices like MI, Oppo etc which are subsidised by the Chinese govt and purpose of selling these devices is to collect data on the servers of the Chinese govt without consent of the users.

It's better idea to trace any signs of suspicious data transmission activity for few days before setting up account or storing any sensitive information or data in the smartphones. There are apps available for the tracing network activities, but beware of the Chinese apps for the same purpose.

[PetrolRider]

Originally Posted by revvharder

It is absolutely true Had 2 Xiaomi phones but as I don't update my phone's, in one of the set there was no ads but in the other they are pretty aggressive in pushing ads and not only ads but sometimes pretty vulgar ads used to appear in the notification area ...
even realme will be pushing ads from next updates so I request Realme users not to update UI if you don't want ads.

Thank you revvharder.
Simply unacceptable. I believe, they should put a disclaimer on the phone cover, mentioning if that particular device is open to commercials. But, considering our consumer friendly country, it would never happen.
I will stay away from these 2 brands from now on.

Interesting though, Oppo is pushing it for Realme, but has excluded Oneplus.

Originally Posted by tbppjpr

Wonder why people choose Chinese origin devices like MI, Oppo etc which are subsidised by the Chinese govt and purpose of selling these devices is to collect data on the servers of the Chinese govt without consent of the users.

I guess, few of the manufacturers wanted to pass on some of their brands as extremely VFM, while recovering the cost difference through distasteful commercials on customer devices. I feel this is cheating, if they have hidden this fact from their customers.

Good to know, Motorola which is owned by Lenovo refrained from this cheap tactics where has Oppo has thankfully spared OP.

[padmrajravi]

There are rumours that even Samsung is going to start this. Already there was a scandal when Note 10 was released, where the Note 9 users got ads in their notification panel. Samsung's point of view was that, it was present only in the carrier-locked phones and carriers were responsible for this.

I think, going forward more and more manufacturers will start doing this. At the moment, Nokia , Lenovo etc are free from the ads.

[shashank.nk]

The lower budget offerings from Samsung already carry ads, this is what I gathered from watching a few Youtube videos.

So as of now its Mi,Realme and Samsung that push ads through the UI. I'd never buy a phone which shows silly ads even if I paid a not-so-hefty price for it.

Unfortunate that more manufacturers are getting into the list of those that show ads, this is one trend which will probably not reverse until something drastic like diminished sales happens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Tz7kLCTaA

[revvharder]

Originally Posted by shashank.nk

The lower budget offerings from Samsung already carry ads, this is what I gathered from watching a few Youtube videos.

So as of now its Mi,Realme and Samsung that push ads through the UI.

Nah, have the M20, M30, M30s only the galaxy store used to give ads which is not used in my case and remains disabled and even the ads are for apps only and not vulgar like Xiaomi and I do not bother about updates but the latest OneUI 2.0 came with galaxy store which I just diabled.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

To confound my dilemma, Samsung is launching A51 and A71 in india tomorrow. Was almost about to hit the buy on A70s yesterday when I suddenly backed off and decided to wait till today. And today, there is this news on the Galaxy Ax1.
So,we have the M30s, A50s and A51 with the 9611processor.

And the A71 has SDM730 over SDM675 powering the A70s.

Dont want to spend more on the SD855 /855+ processor phones.
A gaming laptop at 60-75k is better than a 35k phone. (When SD855 competes with i7 / Ryzen, something is getting disrupted.)

Since this will be the first phone for the kids, hope it will be worth the wait.

[PetrolRider]

Originally Posted by shashank.nk

The lower budget offerings from Samsung already carry ads, this is what I gathered from watching a few Youtube videos.

If Samsung of all goes for it, then God save us all. But I highly doubt that considering they have a reputation to keep.

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

To confound my dilemma, Samsung is launching A51 and A71 in india tomorrow.

A70s is now going at 25K and 27K for 6 and 8 GB RAM version respectively. Expected price band for A71 would be 30K-35K, that is SD855 zone. Remember, we always pay a premium for Samsung phones.

Samsung phones are mostly for Camera and display, Exynos + Mali are nowhere in compare to SD + Adreno for gaming. So, if gaming is your main concern, go for ROG2, or stick to SD855. SD675 is a commuter chip, jack of all, but master of none.

[civic-sense]

I think if somebody has a budget of around 30K, he should simply go for the OnePlus. I started my OnePlus 7 journey with some apprehensions as it was kind of too mainstream for my liking. And although I am a bit bored with it already, there is nothing in the market that could replace it - except (ahem) the OnePlus 7T.

I don't like the notch, the glass build, lack of headphone jack, the heft and the thickness... BUT... the software experience is simply great. It has a lot of customization options (unlike stock android) yet it has no junk (except Netflix). It is fast, fluid, no stutters, no lags, no waiting for apps to load.

I still wish it had the headphone jack though.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Phones carrying ads just makes my number-one question about any potential purchase even more important... Is it easy to root?