Dilemma on new phone; need quick advice

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jyi786

Supreme [H]ardness
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I currently have a 128GB Nexus 6P. I can honestly say it is the best phone I've ever had the pleasure of using.

Unfortunately, I'm sure I'm falling victim to the widely reported and well known issue of the Nexus 6P having battery problems. I've noticed it starting to get hot for no reason, battery drains REALLY fast, and I'm starting to get random shutdowns for no reason. All pointing to a battery going bad.

Being that I bought my Nexus 6P on a credit card that gives me extended warranty, I have a chance to get a new phone. The issue is, I'm not sure I know which one to go with. Here are the following options:

1. Replace with another Nexus 6P. This is the one I'm leaning towards, just based on the fact that the phone has treated me so well, and is practically perfect (larger than everything else, has dual speakers, is a Nexus).
2. Replace with a OnePlus 3T. Probably not going to happen because I need a good camera, which the OP3T does not have.
3. Replace with a Pixel. Again, probably not going to happen because the price is astronomical.
4. Wait for OnePlus 5? Issue with this is going to be availability.

So what say ye, [H]? #1 sound like something I should go with?
 
I would go with the one that you love, at the right cost for you. Everything else is useless.
 
A friend of mine (with the same phone) recently replaced his battery and it's like a brand new phone. It's still just as quick as newer phones for most things. It might not be as quick as an S8, but it's not like you really notice Facebook or Gmail opening 1/4 second faster. For what it is, it's as good as anything on the market.
 
Only thing I was thinking might net me a better result is a phone that has UFS 2.0 over just regular eMMC. I was wondering how that fared in real life usage? Is it comparable to, let's say, an HDD vs SSD in our side of the computing world?
 
If you've been satisfied with the 6P since you bought it, replace it and be done with it. How fast do you need a smartphone to actually be, with respect to the question about the UFS 2.0 support or not? If absolute top-notch best in class or better than everybody else speed and performance isn't the #1 priority over absolutely everything else, then it shouldn't be a factor in your decision at all given you apparently have loved the 6P so far aside from the battery issues.

Hell, I just bought an Amazon Fire phone for $25 off someone on craigslist yesterday and because of how Amazon designed it - they created a chip that works with the battery and when the battery gets to a point where it's charging capacity is diminished to a point around 30-40% of design spec (this Fire phone has a 2400 mAh battery inside and this one is literally 2 years and 1 week old based on the serial number info) then what happens is the chip tells the phone "Hey, I need to be replaced..." and the phone says "Ok, if that's the case there's no reason for us to even power up till we get a new battery" and it just bootloops at the Amazon logo.

You can plug it into a USB charger and it'll power up just fine, even charges the battery to the full capacity (whatever that happens to be) but unplug the charger, poof, instant bootloops once more which is damned irritating. Luckily replacing the battery isn't that tough, the back can be removed with two screws relatively easy but Amazon really chose some unbelievably sticky damned adhesive under the battery (which is utterly useless really since the battery has a nice snug fit already anyway). Removing the battery physically from that adhesive is the hardest part, aside from that it's the two case screws then two more screws for a metal bracket covering the battery ribbon connector.

So I ordered a battery for $20 off Amazon from some seller, should be here by Friday, and I'll see what happens. I just rooted it, installed SafeStrap, now (as I'm literally typing this sentence) I'm installing LineageOS 11 on it and should be up and running with a proper Android OS in a few minutes. :)

Anyway, if the 6P is something you love and you're happy with everything that phone can do and has done for you, either get the battery replaced or get an entirely new 6P if that's the workable option, that's my recommendation as well. People really don't need to buy new phones every damned year or other year if what they have works for 'em - sure if you decide "Ok, now I need something more powerful..." and can justify it then go get a new more current device with better hardware specs, but if what you have is fine there's no sense tossing more money out for just another smartphone that does the same damned things but perhaps just a few percentage points slower.
 
Tiberian said:
Anyway, if the 6P is something you love and you're happy with everything that phone can do and has done for you, either get the battery replaced or get an entirely new 6P if that's the workable option, that's my recommendation as well. People really don't need to buy new phones every damned year or other year if what they have works for 'em - sure if you decide "Ok, now I need something more powerful..." and can justify it then go get a new more current device with better hardware specs, but if what you have is fine there's no sense tossing more money out for just another smartphone that does the same damned things but perhaps just a few percentage points slower.
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Thanks man, pretty much what I just did about 20 minutes ago. Filed the claim with the CC company, so will wait to hear back. When I do, I'll grab myself a brand new Nexus 6P, except this time it'll be white instead of graphite. Only problem is, it'll cost me $100 more out of pocket, since it's more expensive than it was a year ago. :(
 
Interesting, rare to see older phones go UP in price - even iPhones don't do that. :D
 
I'm pretty psyched about the OP 5. My 3T has been great, but I'd like a better camera. Only reason I'd pass on the 5 is if it's battery isn't at least as good as the 3T.
 
jyi786 said:
I currently have a 128GB Nexus 6P. I can honestly say it is the best phone I've ever had the pleasure of using.

Unfortunately, I'm sure I'm falling victim to the widely reported and well known issue of the Nexus 6P having battery problems. I've noticed it starting to get hot for no reason, battery drains REALLY fast, and I'm starting to get random shutdowns for no reason. All pointing to a battery going bad.

Being that I bought my Nexus 6P on a credit card that gives me extended warranty, I have a chance to get a new phone. The issue is, I'm not sure I know which one to go with. Here are the following options:

1. Replace with another Nexus 6P. This is the one I'm leaning towards, just based on the fact that the phone has treated me so well, and is practically perfect (larger than everything else, has dual speakers, is a Nexus).
2. Replace with a OnePlus 3T. Probably not going to happen because I need a good camera, which the OP3T does not have.
3. Replace with a Pixel. Again, probably not going to happen because the price is astronomical.
4. Wait for OnePlus 5? Issue with this is going to be availability.

So what say ye, [H]? #1 sound like something I should go with?
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Not completely familiar with the Nexus 6P, can you not just replace the battery? How much does the warranty cover? What is the difference in price between a brand new Nexus 6P and a Pixel? If the price difference is not that much (you said the Nexus 6P is now more expensive than before), I would move to the Pixel. Otherwise, I would probably stay with the Nexus 6P.
 
You could apparently replace the battery, but I'm not messing with it. The price difference between a Pixel and a Nexus 6P is almost $300. Forget even trying to get a 128GB, that will definitely be in excess of $400.

My plan is definitely to stay with the Nexus 6P. I've been very disappointed with the last two or so generations of phones, they all haven't been able to come close to the 6P in terms of design and features that I'm looking for.
 
I like everything about the 6P, except the rear sensor. I hate the trend to rear sensors on phones.
 
Commander Shepard said:
I like everything about the 6P, except the rear sensor. I hate the trend to rear sensors on phones.
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I'm actually indifferent. I thought I would hate it since on my Note 4 it was on the front, but I adapted well to it, and now it's like second nature. For the times I can't reach it (like when it's flat on a table top) I just swipe to wake and then authenticate via pattern.
 
Add my vote to the 6p. I have one and am holding out for the pixel 2. For me the Pixel seems bloated without a lot of worthwhile upgrades.
 
yyv_146 said:
Add my vote to the 6p. I have one and am holding out for the pixel 2. For me the Pixel seems bloated without a lot of worthwhile upgrades.
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Not to derail this thread, since Pixel was one of the choices, how exactly is the Pixel "bloated" and without a lot of worthwhile upgrades? Coming from a Note 4, my Pixel is extremely valuable, the fastest, the longest battery life of any device I have ever used, great camera, great features, and completely devoid of the bloatware found on carrier phones...

The difference between the two is generally the use case. If you want something more for a developer and tinkerer, you may still prefer the Nexus, if you want something a little more mainstream with better support, the Pixel is a great choice.
 
Saying the pixel is bloated is just nonsensical.

Also, jyi786 I wouldn't shit on the 3T's camera. It might not be better than the S7/S8, but it's quite good. For example:



That being said, I would probably go with the OnePlus 5. Should be launching in 2 weeks, they're working with DXO directly to get camera quality up with the best devices, and it SHOULD be cheaper than say, a Pixel or one of the Samsung phones out there.

I would avoid the 6P only because any you get now won't have a warranty, and they, as you experienced, are known to have issues.
I would avoid the 3T simply because it's not the flagship in 2 weeks.
I would CONSIDER a used Galaxy S7, probably get one mint for $400
I would consider a new G6, which should be around $500
 
entropism said:
Also, jyi786 I wouldn't shit on the 3T's camera.
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I'll have an in-depth look at that, thanks. From what I've seen though, it's almost unanimous that the 3T's camera sucks in comparison to its competitors, and is definitely worse than even the 6P's camera (which, might I add, is actually very good).

entropism said:
I would CONSIDER a used Galaxy S7, probably get one mint for $400
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Sorry, no Samsung. Locked down to hell = no for me.

entropism said:
I would consider a new G6, which should be around $500
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I would have considered it, but AMOLED is a requirement.
 
NoOther said:
Not to derail this thread, since Pixel was one of the choices, how exactly is the Pixel "bloated" and without a lot of worthwhile upgrades? Coming from a Note 4, my Pixel is extremely valuable, the fastest, the longest battery life of any device I have ever used, great camera, great features, and completely devoid of the bloatware found on carrier phones...

The difference between the two is generally the use case. If you want something more for a developer and tinkerer, you may still prefer the Nexus, if you want something a little more mainstream with better support, the Pixel is a great choice.
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I was referring to the physical design - the oversized bezels and tapering thickness. Of course there is zero bloatware - that's to be expected for a device from Google.
 
jyi786 said:
I'll have an in-depth look at that, thanks. From what I've seen though, it's almost unanimous that the 3T's camera sucks in comparison to its competitors, and is definitely worse than even the 6P's camera (which, might I add, is actually very good).

Sorry, no Samsung. Locked down to hell = no for me.

I would have considered it, but AMOLED is a requirement.
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Get the international version. Bootloader unlocked, and you can put Lineage on it.

Really though, the S7 and S8 are the first devices I haven't wanted to root.
 
Domingo said:
A friend of mine (with the same phone) recently replaced his battery and it's like a brand new phone. It's still just as quick as newer phones for most things. It might not be as quick as an S8, but it's not like you really notice Facebook or Gmail opening 1/4 second faster. For what it is, it's as good as anything on the market.
Click to expand...

This is what I did to my 6P last month. Its definitely restored the phone to new in terms of battery life and fixed the early shutdown issue that has plagued a significant amount of 6P phones. According to the Accubattery app, my old batter was at about 70% capacity of its original/new capacity and it seemed about right since I was only getting about 2-3 hours SoT in a charge, but I'm not sure if that accounted for my phone shutting down at 10-30% reported capacity left on some days. After replacing the battery, Accubattery is reporting my phone with 105% of its rated capacity and I'm back to getting 4-5 hours of SoT easily in a charge and I've completely discharged it a few times just to make sure it wouldn't shut down early as well.

I'm a root user running PureNexus ROM, but I'm with OP that I've loved this phone since I've had it and nothing out now has yet to compel me to even consider upgrading other than maybe the Mate 9 since it has the one thing I really miss from my One M8 phone; an IR blaster. I love stereo speakers too and HTC was the last OEM to have both stereo speakers and an IR blaster with their M7/8/9 phones. Pixel phones seem like great phones; but were a regression in design from the 6P IMO since dropping the stereo speakers and seems a bit generic looking comparatively while marking up the price on top of that. OP3/3T phones look nice for their price and they've been getting software updates relatively quickly compared to other OEMs, but still I'd miss my stereo speakers and who knows if they'll continue that support after the OP5 is out since the OP2 has yes to get Nougat (I'd probably just root/ROM it anyways though, but I'd prefer to use a ROM based on a phone's stock ROM for max stability).
 
T4rd said:
I love stereo speakers too and HTC was the last OEM to have both stereo speakers and an IR blaster with their M7/8/9 phones.
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DOH... was going to mention the Axon 7 which is just a year old and has AWESOME front facing speakers and sound quality compared to most anything else in the same class but of course it has no IR blaster which I use myself as well with all my LG devices.

It's just one little additional thing that really does make a difference these days, every smartphone maker should include them, really.

But then again, every smartphone maker should have taken the cue from LG with the double-tap-to-wake/sleep years ago when they introduced the G2 - that is something that I have as a habit now and I simply HATE using devices that don't do it natively with stock ROMs. Yes it can be added with custom kernel support on custom ROMs but even so, every damned smartphone should offer that as an option out of the box, seriously. :)
 
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My 3T has double-tap to wake/sleep. It's one of my favorite features. :)
 
Yeah, I think HTC phones have had the double tap and swipe to wake (but not sleep) or launch apps as well. I'm not sure if their current U phones still retained that feature though. It is a nice feature that I used every day as well, but fingerprint readers have kinda negated the need for that feature too since you can now wake and unlock the phone with one action now instead of waking and then unlocking. If I just need to check notifications without unlocking, the ambient display on my 6P and other newer phones allow for that as well.

Axon 7 is def a solid phone as well, forgot about that phone and it's been pretty underrated since it came out.
 
yyv_146 said:
I was referring to the physical design - the oversized bezels and tapering thickness. Of course there is zero bloatware - that's to be expected for a device from Google.
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Ahh, I think the criticism in regards to the bezel is overblown. I actually kind of like the bezel as it allows me to hold the phone without hitting buttons or keys I did not want to. However, that space could be better used like on other phones. So really I am on the fence with it. It seems like something that could be utilized in the future, but did not make it in this cut, especially if you consider that companies have been looking at front sensors for fingerprint identification rather than rear sensors.

That said, the bezel is such a small issue in the overall picture of the phone itself. It is quite a great phone, best one I have owned to date so far.
 
Good thing I waited. I'm a bit disappointed in the OP5. Sure, it has the best process and the most RAM, but the display is till 1080P, the battery is still too small, and for all the hype about the DxO stuff, the camera is still mediocre, at least from the review shots I saw.

I've recently started looking into the possibility of switching to the S8+ or even the Note 8. I think I can handle the Touchwiz stuff as long as I'm able to modify the themes and install something that will allow me to block ads at all levels.

Don't want the Pixel, because they are locking it down HARDCORE, and if I wanted to spend that kind of money for a "Nexus successor" it better do everything the Nexus could have done and then some.
 
Locking down the Pixel, eh? What is this blasphemy you speaketh of, traveler? :D
 
Tiberian said:
Locking down the Pixel, eh? What is this blasphemy you speaketh of, traveler? :D
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I've seen lots of musings from Chainfire (the developer of SuperSU) and comments on Android Police which point to Google looking to lock down the Pixel 2 even further than the Pixel already is. It was difficult to get the Pixel unlocked for root because of the fundamental differences between it and other Android devices in how it programs stuff like the bootloader, fstab, etc. etc.
 
Well, I suppose that's the end of the Nexus/Pixel era of factory supplied ready to be customized devices then, time to start focusing on other companies like OnePlus which offer great hardware for less money and unlockable bootloaders out of the box that don't even void the warranty either. Yes it appears there's something going on with the OnePlus 5's camera that doesn't seem right considering the news that they partnered with DxO to make it a really great camera - the reviews I've seen so far (maybe 4 of them) haven't even really touched on or commented all that heavily on the camera performance which seems odd, almost like the reviewers were purposely avoiding the subject altogether for whatever reason, I wonder.

Of course, nobody is forcing anyone to buy flagship devices at full retail pricing the moment they hit the market either, older devices work just as well if not even better and usually do have a community already in place with some level of support for various purposes, most notably custom ROMs and other cool stuff.

I've never bought a flagship device on the day of release, I more than likely never will. I might be someone that considers himself an early adopter but it's more accurate to say that I adopt technology early by learning as much about it without actually forking over handfuls of cash to own the physical devices. :D
 
Tiberian said:
Well, I suppose that's the end of the Nexus/Pixel era of factory supplied ready to be customized devices then, time to start focusing on other companies like OnePlus which offer great hardware for less money and unlockable bootloaders out of the box that don't even void the warranty either. Yes it appears there's something going on with the OnePlus 5's camera that doesn't seem right considering the news that they partnered with DxO to make it a really great camera - the reviews I've seen so far (maybe 4 of them) haven't even really touched on or commented all that heavily on the camera performance which seems odd, almost like the reviewers were purposely avoiding the subject altogether for whatever reason, I wonder.

Of course, nobody is forcing anyone to buy flagship devices at full retail pricing the moment they hit the market either, older devices work just as well if not even better and usually do have a community already in place with some level of support for various purposes, most notably custom ROMs and other cool stuff.

I've never bought a flagship device on the day of release, I more than likely never will. I might be someone that considers himself an early adopter but it's more accurate to say that I adopt technology early by learning as much about it without actually forking over handfuls of cash to own the physical devices. :D
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I know, me neither. I actually bought my Nexus 6P after it was out almost what, a year? Year and a half? Even then I was reluctant because the SD 810, but this phone turned out to be the best one ever.
 
My wife uses an LG G Flex 2 which is Snapdragon 810 powered but luckily hers has the revision 2 version of that SoC and it doesn't have any issues with overheating. Previous owner bought it, dropped it a week later, shattered a lot of the glass on the front (typical spider web) but the digitizer remained fully functional with zero dead spots anywhere so he filed a claim with insurance (which they purchased with the phone), got the replacement a few days later, then put the damaged one on craigslist for $25 and I snapped it up an hour after it was posted.

Flagship device, cosmetic damage (which is all the spider-web damage really is since it has zero effect on functionality), $739 retail price brand new, for $25 cash? SOLD!!! :D

Got it home, patched the necessary system files to it would unlock the GSM functionality, shut it off, put a T-Mobile SIM card in it, turned it on, changed it to global mode for cellular use, bing bang boom 4G LTE here we go. BONUS!!! :p

She's been using it for a year now, not a single complaint or problem but I did just recently in the past month get her a brand new official LG OEM battery for it and she's an even happier camper now. :)
 
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