Android phones, apps and tablets

Interesting, cheers.

The storage is probably irrelevant with -- as I understand it -- the ability of latest android to view internal and SD card storage as one block. (Hopefully I've not misunderstood that!)

That generally works, I used it on my previous motorola.

A few caveats though:

Not all apps recognise it - in my case neither Plex nor BBC radio would let me download to the SD card section of the memory so I was limited in what I could sync.

One SD card I used became corrupted (I assume) and the phone would only periodically see it (normally just after rebooting) which meant that loads of apps were unusable but, because the phone was still thinking the SD card should be there I didn't have an option to change the location of where things should be saved (e.g. I couldn't take any pictures because the phone wanted to save them to the SD part of memory).

When I updated the phone it somehow lost the encryption key so I had no choice but to wipe the SD card and start again. There's no option of plugging the SD card into a PC to get stuff off it as it's encrypted (admittedly there is a convoluted method to mount it in Linux if your phone is rooted and you've had the foresight to copy the encryption key).

All in all, it works fine (but a bit slower than normal) most of the time but if it screws up it is very annoying.

Thanks for the detailed comments; good to know. I shall be sure to think carefully before encrypting.

If you're adopting the SD card as internal storage it has to encrypt it (it's not the same as the option for system-wide encryption).

Nexus 5x not casting to my TV, anyone else having the same problem? It's quite annoying...

I have a P9. In may ways it's really good (screen, radio performance, size, USB-C, fingerprint reader, etc.). Battery is decent/OK. The fancy camera (it has two cameras) is a bit over-rated and my photos don't come out as well as on other phones I've had. Since I've had it, the phone has not frozen, or rebooted, or crashed itself. The bezels at the side of the screen are very thin. Overall, it's noticeably better device than, say, the Nexus 5X which I had before. It feels higher quality in general.

You get a Huawei interface, which is, um, interesting. You can set it to make it more like standard Android. My device is from China and now and again I come across some Chinese writing deep in the interface. UK versions may not have this. It includes a lot Huawei apps you can't delete and special Huawei ways to do things like sharing, or connecting to bluetooth and WiFi, etc., but these work fine, so not such a big deal. Because it uses the Huawei processor, you can't put Lineage or other open source OS on it. You're stuck with the Huawei bloatware and UI oddities.

The biggest problem I have is I can't sync Google contacts over-the-air. This would have been a deal-breaker if I had paid full retail price. It may not apply to UK versions, but I'd be careful of that.

With those caveats, I would say, if you can get a good deal, it's a good phone and I'd recommend it. I'm happy enough with mine and not rushing to change it.

That's the longest phone review I've written in years.

i've got a wiley fox swift + and it does the job.

Definitely not a problem with your WiFi?

Thanks ended up going with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x at £149 you can't beat it. Has MUI 8 on it which is fine as I'll whack on Nova Launcher apart from no 4G its ticks all the boxes for a cheap decent spec phone.

My LG Nexus 5X has been running like a bag of nails since Oreo - just found this fix on XDA - so far so good

For anyone with performance issues after Oreo update,
go to Developer options and change the default GPU renderer from
OpenGL to skia (the old one)

actually I don't think that has really done anything - laggy, battery life appalling

after getting this back fixed (mobo replaced) under the extended support for the boot loop issue, I'm seriously unimpressed with this Nexus 5X

Nexus still not available from bullshit repair shop...

Mine took a week to be replaced via Carphone warehouse. Who are you dealing with? Apart from the fact they are fucking muppets.

If anyone is running DNS66 on Oreo and is annoyed by persistent 'app running in the background' notification here's how to hide it.

https://www.xda-developers.com/hide-app-running-background-notification-android-oreo/

Carphone shithouse took 9 visits and held onto my phone without contacting me for a month (they had my number AND email). Fucking idiots. But no, I'm talking about some highstreet arsehole shop. He took £65 to replace the screen, in the process cracking the case and the fix worked for a single day only. I took it back saying it wasn't fixed. He's had it for ages (earlier than the Sony went back to Carphone Shithouse).

I went back to see if it was done (he also never contacted me) and he said it's with LG to repair - he "wanted to call me". It was supposed to be done last week. Now it will be done this week. I'm growing tired of the delays and if the cunt thinks he's going to charge more for this fixing he's got news coming...

actually I don't think that has really done anything - laggy, battery life appalling

My 5X had bad battery life before Oreo, now it's bad to the point of being massively annoying.

Is this all software stuff or could it be a hardware issue?

Edit: by hardware issue I meant battery being knackered. But reading around a lot of people seem to be having problems with Oreo.

Anyone want an unlocked 32gb Note 5 in dark blue? Comes with box, new otterbox case and is in vgc. Battery is ok - about what you’d expect from a two year old phone.

Via Chromecast? Mine occasionally does this. Try rebooting the Chromecast from the Home app. If that doesn't fix it then I've had to reset it and start again or even reboot the router.

Liking my Redmi note 4x, hating MIUI. Will have to flash a new ROM when I get a minute, any good ones to try?

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/mido

I've put it one three devices it's been great

I don't know if anyone else uses Swiftkey keyboard, but the design decision to use a long press on Enter to insert emoji/GIFs, coupled with grubby screen/laggy messaging app/twitchy thumb from too much coffee, has caused me to send this half way through an initial chat about a possible job opportunity:

Three times, including halfway through my explanation for the previous two.

Employers love a confident candidate...

Burn his shop down.

I want the phone first.

Fuuuuu... after Oreo destroying the battery life my 5X crashed and is now boot looping :((

Bought it in February 2016 so a year and a half - not long enough for a £300 phone.

Is it worth trying to do the flash factory image thing? I'm not sure I want anyone to get the impression I've been fucking around with it.

I bought it from Amazon so am quite hopeful that they'll offer me a full or partial refund - apparently they've given lots of 5X bootloopers full refunds even over a year...