Finally picked up a Nexus 6P

Axon 7 is just $400. So glad I didn't grab that 6p deal yesterday!
 
I've been looking into the 6P with Google Fi.. seems a real nice cost effective way to go, especially with the discount currently. I've never heard of Axon, but the specs seem impressive on the 7, especially at this price. Obviously it wouldn't be able to work with Google Fi, which sucks cause i don't really want to pay all up front.
 
I've been looking into the 6P with Google Fi.. seems a real nice cost effective way to go, especially with the discount currently. I've never heard of Axon, but the specs seem impressive on the 7, especially at this price. Obviously it wouldn't be able to work with Google Fi, which sucks cause i don't really want to pay all up front.

From what I've gathered, it seems that pretty much any T-Mo or Sprint compatible phone will work on Fi, they'll just be restricted to one of their networks (T-Mo or Sprint's), so you don't get the benefit of both network's coverage (though I'd say you'd rarely find places where Sprint would have LTE while T-Mo doesn't). Because I've seen several people using phones like the GS7, Moto X, and a couple other non-Nexus phones on Fi this way. I would assume they wouldn't be able to utilize WiFi the same way Fi does either though, where it will auto-connect to any open WiFi network it can and create a secure VPN connection on it for all comms.
 
Holy crap, I had forgotten how nice it is to have a straight-up Android OS without all the Samsung and Verizon bloat on it, without having to root my phone. It was wonderful to go into the Verizon store and get a new nanoSIM card and look at their sad faces because they couldn't sell me anything. Going into a phone store is like going to a used car lot. So shady and you can't trust anything they say.
 
Holy crap, I had forgotten how nice it is to have a straight-up Android OS without all the Samsung and Verizon bloat on it, without having to root my phone. It was wonderful to go into the Verizon store and get a new nanoSIM card and look at their sad faces because they couldn't sell me anything. Going into a phone store is like going to a used car lot. So shady and you can't trust anything they say.
Mind elaborating for those of us that have never had an android phone but are looking into it? What phone did you get? Is there that much bloat on other brands that aren't nexus?
 
Mind elaborating for those of us that have never had an android phone but are looking into it? What phone did you get? Is there that much bloat on other brands that aren't nexus?

Nexus 6P 128GB.

Bloat: There's the overlay, which is usually the worst offender. They range from decent to horrid. Every phone manufacturer has to make their own tweaks to the OS, including annoying things like changing the direction you swipe to delete emails, changing what buttons do, adding their own apps you can't uninstall... etc. Nothing annoys me more than useless apps that I can't uninstall that are taking up storage space. Even worse is when they get updated without me even wanting to use them. And still worse is when you're forced to use them. It's not the end of the world. You can just turn most of them off or just ignore them. No worse than iOS where you are stuck with certain things, but it's so nice to be able to do what I want with my own phone.

6P is really fast and responsive, even though it's last years Snapdragon 810. I thought my Note 3 was quick (and it is), but this phone is definitely faster, and the Marshmallow interface is better and more fluid. I was stuck on Lollipop on the Note 3 since Verizon had abandoned it. Sadly, my Note 3 from 2.5 years ago had 3GB of RAM and this phone still only has 3GB. That's not bad, but nothing to get excited about anymore.

One niggling thing though... Google has decided I need their search bar at the top of my home screen and I haven't figured out how to get rid of that yet. It's annoying me already.
 
Thanks a lot for the info. I thought getting an android phone was going to be simple... until i started looking into it! lol
 
It is simply stunning to me that OEMs continue to get away with, or even bother investing in development time for, major Android skins.

Samsung and a couple others undoubtedly put out the best hardware on the market, but I will not be buying their products again until they wave the white flag on custom skins. Since that's clearly never going to happen, I will stick to Nexus or quasi-AOSP (Moto, OnePlus, etc.) devices.

To echo Astral's comments above: it's been awesome using the Moto X Pure for the past year without even thinking about rooting or ROMing. It works as it should out of the box, like an iPhone, but with the power of Android under the hood. Using CM and other ROMs on my previous Samsung device was usually a "95% perfect" experience, with the occasional reboot or nagging bug with something like Bluetooth or even SMS. This is why I simply refuse to go back to Samsung/LG/HTC, no matter how sweet their cameras and AMOLED panels may be. Their stock skinned software usually works pretty well (albeit ugly) out of the box, then gets borked on some future half-assed update 6 months later, forcing you into a custom ROM that's smoother but buggy.

With the Moto X Pure, despite it being a middling device from a hardware perspective, I've had zero software problems after nearly a year of use. It's flawless. This has been true even after a major update from 5.1 to 6.0. Gee, I wonder if that might have something to do with keeping the OS streamlined and leaving it alone, instead of relying on a team of 1-2 devs maintaining and updating a crappy, pointless skin...
 
Nexus 6P 128GB.
One niggling thing though... Google has decided I need their search bar at the top of my home screen and I haven't figured out how to get rid of that yet. It's annoying me already.

Think you could easily do that by using a different launcher, such as Nova.

I don't like the constant bar either, but do like the swipe to Google Now page, so have kept the Google launcher. Think you can remove it with Xposed, but seemed like way too much of a hassle.
 
To echo Astral's comments above: it's been awesome using the Moto X Pure for the past year without even thinking about rooting or ROMing. It works as it should out of the box, like an iPhone, but with the power of Android under the hood. Using CM and other ROMs on my previous Samsung device was usually a "95% perfect" experience, with the occasional reboot or nagging bug with something like Bluetooth or even SMS. This is why I simply refuse to go back to Samsung/LG/HTC, no matter how sweet their cameras and AMOLED panels may be. Their stock skinned software usually works pretty well (albeit ugly) out of the box, then gets borked on some future half-assed update 6 months later, forcing you into a custom ROM that's smoother but buggy.

With the Moto X Pure, despite it being a middling device from a hardware perspective, I've had zero software problems after nearly a year of use. It's flawless. This has been true even after a major update from 5.1 to 6.0. Gee, I wonder if that might have something to do with keeping the OS streamlined and leaving it alone, instead of relying on a team of 1-2 devs maintaining and updating a crappy, pointless skin...
I've got to say, I really didn't have any issue or qualms about the Note 3, other than the pointless, junky apps on it, but it was getting old and wasn't going to ever get Marshmallow, let alone Nougat, from Verizon. (Plus I'd dropped it a couple times over the years and it had a tendency to reboot randomly.) I'm not the kind of person that mods and puts 100 apps on my phone either. I use it for internet browsing, email, IM, ebay/shopping, paying bills, playing a game here and there, forum posting... stuff like that. Pretty much any phone will do what I need it to do. But I really don't like how fast the phone companies abandon last years hardware, in the hope they can sell me something new. That's the main reason I went with the Nexus phone. At least Google has regular updates and I already know I'll be getting Nougat right away. Also, I like front firing speakers and this 6P has them, which is something Samsung has never done.

I don't think I'd buy the 6P now unless it was on a big sale (like Amazon Prime Day), with the new Nexus phone almost assuredly being announced next month or in September.
 
Think you could easily do that by using a different launcher, such as Nova.

I don't like the constant bar either, but do like the swipe to Google Now page, so have kept the Google launcher. Think you can remove it with Xposed, but seemed like way too much of a hassle.

Just use Nova Launcher. There is an option to remove the Google Bar
 
This is part of why I tend to take an "iPhone or Nexus" approach to phones. They're the only two brands where it doesn't feel like your phone OS is being hijacked by someone else.

Eh. As others have said, Motorola doesn't screw around much (some even prefer it to stock Android) and neither does OnePlus. ZTE's skin isn't bad either, so I'd consider the Axon 7 as well -- especially at $400. Nexus is always the safest bet of course.
 
Purchased a refurb from BB. Arrived in like new condition. This phone is big, its too big for my small hands, but it is awesome though.
 
I've had zero problems with mine so far. I'm really liking it and very happy with the way everything works so far. Didn't think going from the 1080p screen on my Note3 would be that big of a difference, but everything is noticeably clearer.
 
I've had zero problems with mine so far. I'm really liking it and very happy with the way everything works so far. Didn't think going from the 1080p screen on my Note3 would be that big of a difference, but everything is noticeably clearer.

I've had a spate of random reboots when running Google Navigation, but I was running an older version of Pure Nexus (a May version). I just wiped clean and installed the latest one, hopefully it goes better.
 
I've had a spate of random reboots when running Google Navigation, but I was running an older version of Pure Nexus (a May version). I just wiped clean and installed the latest one, hopefully it goes better.

Are you running Xposed and/or Franco Kernel as well? I've been having some random reboots as well, but I'm running both of those and think the app blocker (MinMinGuard) I'm running in Xposed is causing it since it seems to only reboot while using a few ad-heavy apps that I think don't like being blocked, heh. There's no paid version to remove the ads either, in case someone wants to argue about it, else I would pay to remove the ads. The reboots haven't happened often enough for me to try disabling it yet though, so I was just curious.
 
Tried a new ROM, old fav developer = Chroma, just installed it yesterday, with Franko kernel. Also have have two really kick ass Layers on this that are perfect IMO;

Dark Stock Theme - Layers
Navigate - Layers Theme

Dark Layers is what I really wanted, just the stock AOSP style, but inverted, and still keeping the nice colorful material design intact. And Navigate allows some really cool nav bar keys, some really different stuff.

Sexy dark layers. ;) Biggest reason to do roms, IMHO... nothing like a nice dark UI to look at in the middle of the night.

While I've used the Dark Stock Theme layer, I also have grown fond of Inversion UI.

Inversion UI - Layers Theme - Android Apps on Google Play

The same author also has a layer called PS Layers... which gives system and nav icons color, but it's a layer on top of a layer and has to be installed manually. Worth the trouble, IMHO.

Running XenonHD on my LG G3 (AOSP based)

L77NoOw.png
 
Nexus 6P 128GB.
One niggling thing though... Google has decided I need their search bar at the top of my home screen and I haven't figured out how to get rid of that yet. It's annoying me already.

Nova Launcher. Hands down. You can make it as minimal as you want and load icon packs, too.

My setup with Nova Launcher, Better Dashclock and Desaturate/Saturate Icon Pack.

136W9FL.png
 
Are you running Xposed and/or Franco Kernel as well? I've been having some random reboots as well, but I'm running both of those and think the app blocker (MinMinGuard) I'm running in Xposed is causing it since it seems to only reboot while using a few ad-heavy apps that I think don't like being blocked, heh. There's no paid version to remove the ads either, in case someone wants to argue about it, else I would pay to remove the ads. The reboots haven't happened often enough for me to try disabling it yet though, so I was just curious.

Negative. The reason why I don't use Xposed personally is because I want to be able to use Android Pay, which you cannot do with Xposed installed.

Pure Nexus was completely rebased since the beginning of June, so I'm hoping that this addressed the stability. Suffice to say I've yet to get a reboot with the clean install as of yet.
 
Its hard to recomend the 6p with zte axon 7. I hope there are some fire sales on the 6p. 300$ for a 64 or 128gb model.
 
Slightly off topic: I just ordered a SIM for Project Fi. I'm eager to try it. Before I actually port my number over though, I will certainly be testing it to ensure it works with a good signal at both my office/home locations.
 
Its hard to recomend the 6p with zte axon 7. I hope there are some fire sales on the 6p. 300$ for a 64 or 128gb model.

AT&T and TMobile in my area are crap or I probably would have waited for it as well, if for no other reason than the awesome DAC it has on it.
 
Nova Launcher. Hands down. You can make it as minimal as you want and load icon packs, too.

My setup with Nova Launcher, Better Dashclock and Desaturate/Saturate Icon Pack.

136W9FL.png

Your background makes my brain hurt... :p
 
Its hard to recomend the 6p with zte axon 7. I hope there are some fire sales on the 6p. 300$ for a 64 or 128gb model.
Unless like others have stated you don't want the extra layer of zte's OS, correct? I have look at it vs the 6p, and it's definitely got a lot of good stuff packed in there with less of the drawbacks that the 6p has. Google just had it on sale if you bought it from them for Google Fi, but i'm hoping they get more aggressive as people have said they're going to release their new phone soon too... since there's no sd card on the nexus phone, they really ought to sell the bigger storage versions.
 
Nova Launcher. Hands down. You can make it as minimal as you want and load icon packs, too.

My setup with Nova Launcher, Better Dashclock and Desaturate/Saturate Icon Pack.

How did you get your nav icons colored?
 
How did you get your nav icons colored?

PS - Layers Theme - Android Apps on Google Play

Install this app. When you run it, it'll create a ZIP file on your sdcard partition in the Overlays folder called ps.zip

Using something like root explorer, extract the ZIP and copy the 3 files to /system/vendor/overlay

and reboot.

It has to be manually done because due to the way layers works, it can conflict with some themes if you install it through layers manager due to that one of each type of layer can really only be installed/active at the same time... but it works perfectly fine if you copy the overlay files manually.

Anything to not have white nav icons, honestly.

The three files affect only three separate areas:

PS-settings-overlay.apk only colors the icons in the settings screen.

PS-systemUI-overlay.apk only colors all the tiles icons in System UI (oh man, so nice looking on a dark theme)

and PSnavbarv7_pri99.apk is the three color shapes in the navigation bar. So if you only want this installed, this is the only one you need to copy to /system/vendor/overlay
 
You all get Android Pay working on any Nougat ROMs while rooted? I guess Google's recent Safetynet update has made it a bit harder now. I followed this guys directions and while Snapchat works again, I still can't get it to pass this Safetynet test. It passes the first two checks, but fails "CTS profile match". Not sure if it's because of my kernel or what, going by what he said in that post. I'm running the latest PureNexus ROM now that was just posted yesterday. Not a big deal, as I don't use Android Pay much and I mainly just wanted to get Snapchat working again since the wife and I use it sometimes when we're away. But just curious if I can get it working again.
 
You all get Android Pay working on any Nougat ROMs while rooted? I guess Google's recent Safetynet update has made it a bit harder now. I followed this guys directions and while Snapchat works again, I still can't get it to pass this Safetynet test. It passes the first two checks, but fails "CTS profile match". Not sure if it's because of my kernel or what, going by what he said in that post. I'm running the latest PureNexus ROM now that was just posted yesterday. Not a big deal, as I don't use Android Pay much and I mainly just wanted to get Snapchat working again since the wife and I use it sometimes when we're away. But just curious if I can get it working again.

Unlocked bootloader is now the main trigger point. Even on my stock LG G5 Android Pay no longer works because of my unlocked bootloader, even though it was working 3 days before that update to SafetyNet happened. I don't know if that will ever be able to be faked.
 
Unlocked bootloader is now the main trigger point. Even on my stock LG G5 Android Pay no longer works because of my unlocked bootloader, even though it was working 3 days before that update to SafetyNet happened. I don't know if that will ever be able to be faked.

Some were able to get around this by using the kernel to pass the proper flag to report to SafetyNet that the bootloader was locked.
 
Some were able to get around this by using the kernel to pass the proper flag to report to SafetyNet that the bootloader was locked.

Source please. Hadn't read that anywhere yet. Would love to read more about it.
 
I have to say, I am still enjoying my Nexus 6P a lot. Really is a great phone. Sure I wish it had the SD820, and better display, but overall very happy with it, and no way thinking of spending $800 on the Pixel XL.

I am running this sweet ROM;
[ROM][6P][7.0.0_r14]★ Pure Nexus ★ Substratum | Fi | WiFi Calling ★[10/25/16]

You get OK Google detection working (from any screen or while in standby) properly in this ROM? Beans said he fixed it, but there's still lots of people having issues with it in that thread. I see where people got assistant working instead, but Google Now seems better to me for now and I don't want my phone masquerading as a Pixel phone (by modifying the build.prop file) either.

Otherwise this ROM is back to its Marshmallow functionality. I did a clean install with the new "dynamic Gapps" he posted too.
 
Source please. Hadn't read that anywhere yet. Would love to read more about it.

Sorry, just got around to seeing your post today.

Here's at least one, which is the changelog for the ElementalX kernel that was updated to include the flag.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nex...t/kernel-elementalx-n6p-t3240571/post69277078

There are more, which are evidenced from the OP3, where this patch was originally derived.
Sultanxda Bypasses New SafetyNet Unlocked Bootloader Check

So bottom line, I personally don't know if it works or not, as I haven't tried it yet.
 
Been considering side-grading from the MXPE to 6P primarily for the software updates, since I'll likely not be upgrading to a "new-generation" phone for another year or two.

It's just super frustrating that this had to be the year Pixel debuted, throwing a wrench into the whole Google lineup. Seems like the last 6P stock is being cleared out at around the same MSRP it debuted at over a year ago. As much as I want one, it's just not worth $450-500 for a 64 GB model in Oct/Nov 2016 - it's 14-18 month old tech now, for chrissakes. Any other year's Nexus would've been down 25-50% from the initial price by now, like Shamu was a year ago.

Will watch for BF deals, but I'm not too optimistic about doing this side-grade for a <$100 net loss.
 
Been considering side-grading from the MXPE to 6P primarily for the software updates, since I'll likely not be upgrading to a "new-generation" phone for another year or two.

It's just super frustrating that this had to be the year Pixel debuted, throwing a wrench into the whole Google lineup. Seems like the last 6P stock is being cleared out at around the same MSRP it debuted at over a year ago. As much as I want one, it's just not worth $450-500 for a 64 GB model in Oct/Nov 2016 - it's 14-18 month old tech now, for chrissakes. Any other year's Nexus would've been down 25-50% from the initial price by now, like Shamu was a year ago.

Will watch for BF deals, but I'm not too optimistic about doing this side-grade for a <$100 net loss.

You should consider used, that's how I got my 64GB 6P back in May for $420 and then immediately RMA'd it for a like-new refurb due to a faulty speaker. That was before the 6P was even a year old, so Google had no issues doing the RMA despite me being the 2nd owner and didn't care that the bootloader had been unlocked on it when I asked them directly about it. So you'd want to make sure the seller had a receipt for it now, if you were concerned about any hardware issues with it. 64GB 6Ps are going for around $300 now on Swappa and I've seen a couple in FS/FT here as well.
 
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