yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
OP3T is sold out, and used ones are going for more than new, priced out of value... Personally I would put the camera in the "pro" side. The OP5 looks promising depending on final price, but we will know that today.

Axon 7 - you're forgetting the signal reception, it's not good compared to other flagship devices (exact opposite of Axon 7 Mini), but the Axon 7 has an bootloader unlock

Huawei - Any device that actively tries to prevent you replacing their software is off my list. Huawei's hardware is good for the price, but EMUI ruins it

Nexus 6P - yeah, not another 2 year old phone

Moto X4 - not sure why you have bootloader in the cons, support, eh, not the worst (look at how Lenovo supports the Z & G5)... We often suffer from "the grass is always greener on the side" syndrome when it really isn't better elsewhere, just different. Will all hinge on price

Honor 8 - it's a Huawei, the software kills it, again actively prevents 3rd party customization

Nokia 7/8/9 - Waiting as well, but looks like it's only going to be a 9 and no 7 or 8, but yeah... I'm kind of waiting for it too, or at least a price
[X Style (Pure) General] ShadyUnicorn:
Op3t - My friends getting a OP3t off eBay, he's found some very good prices (except midnight black)

Zte - I'm in the UK, signal would differ here

Huawei+honor - I'd just stick Nova launcher (prime) on there and it'd be pretty good to be honest

X4- I just mean that it's not as easy as a nexus or one plus device

Nokia lineup ought to be awesome, hope it is :)

---------- Post added at 01:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------

From this, I'd say you'd be best off getting an axon 7 mini
[X Style (Pure) General] Bill720:
Depends on your geography and service provider

Don't forget that these ones have Led screens instead of LCD, so uneven whites and burn-in (among other annoyances) will abound.

Remember that domestic LTE band support for these may be lacking (or nonexistant). Also, (lack of) domestic CDMA support for the Mate 9 could be an issue as well for many folks.
[X Style (Pure) General] ShadyUnicorn:
The LCD screen the Moto X style/pure has is just killing my battery. for that reason, I'd still get an LED screen. plus, I love dark themes, and that means LED would be much better.

I'm going to look up the coverage in my area of these phones first of course. :p
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
I wasn't going to reply but your last line pulled me in so I am going to hit each point before talking about the Axon 7 Mini...

I don't know if being in the UK would make much difference, it is talked about in lots of forums that the Axon 7 just gets poor signal reception, not a band or frequency thing, more like the design is inhibiting the antenna somehow.

Huawei - Good luck using Nova or any 3rd party launcher, this is what I was talking about. First, Huawei block the use of all their widgets from 3rd party launchers (not like HTC Sense widegets which requires a special framework, we know these work) and that wouldn't be bad but EMUI has some nice widgets, and using a 3rd party launcher breaks things like Torch and gestures. Also, you will find Nova/Action/Google or whatever launcher you use just disappears at random. Not even kidding, there are several threads about it in various forums. When my son had an Ascend Mate 2, he used Google Launcher and it would just disappear sometimes... reinstall from Play Store and everything was back again.

X4 - lol... "not as easy as OP or Nexus"? Nothing is as easy as those, although Moto would be the third easiest device to unlock out there.

The Axon 7 Mini is a great device, my son has been using it since October of last year and loves it... It is his favorite phone of all time, and he has had some decent ones but this one replaced a HAM2 that the screen got broken. Signal reception is crazy good (we had to go to ER at hospital last night, my Moto X showed signal but I couldn't make a call, his had 2 bars and functioned perfectly), camera is good but not astounding, display is bright and readable, battery life is good (~6 hours SOT), fingerprint reader is quick, and it likes Nova Launcher. If you can catch this device on sale for $199USD (which many US retailers run it at from time to time) it is an astounding deal, although at full retail price of $299USD I would hesitate but still might get it.

But remember, this isn't like it's big brother, you can't unlock the bootloader on the Axon 7 Mini... heck, you can't even root it currently, so there are no custom ROMs, kernels, etc. and ZTE does not support it as a "developer platform" like the Axon 7 full-size, and although Nougat is supposedly coming for it and some parts of the world have it already, not seeing it here in the US yet. One more thing, the Axon 7 is "stockish" Android, but the Axon 7 Mini is not... it is skinned much heavier but it is not overly intrusive or bogged down with too much extra junk, to be honest, I kind of like it and think ZTE did a good job with it.
[X Style (Pure) General] ShadyUnicorn:
Guess we'll have to see how the One plus 5 goes. the new batch of phone's from most of these companies are still to come anyways. Hopefully Huawei will reconsider their look and follow the Lenovo route. Bloated emui in the east and more stock in the west. ZTE axon 8 may improve on the antenna bands. But this is just hope. At the moment, no phone especially jumps out at me.
[X Style (Pure) General] namartlu:
Just ordered a OnePlus 5. :)
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
Enjoy... I like the device, not the price... Seriously though, it looks like a great device and I hope you like it!

Personally I won't drop over $400 on any phone, the 3T might have been an exception since it was close but I was hoping for a fire sale on it once the 5 was announced down around $375 (would have snagged one), but OP made sure that didn't happen. When I can get decent mid-range devices for $200 to $300, I just can't justify spending twice as much for something that will just get replaced in 18-24 months anyway.
[X Style (Pure) General] mikelebz:
It's been sitting in my cart, but I decided to wait for reviews first... Plus my Moto x is still kicking. Probably can last another year until the OP6 Rofl
[X Style (Pure) General] Hemidrosis:
Thinking of my next phone to be the Z2 play. Though the battery is smaller. I've read reviews saying it easy gets 5-6 hours of SoT and great standby. I don't really use my phone much so it's no problem for me.

Was looking forward to the X4 but if the phone having a 5.2" display is true.. Might be hesitant to purchase. I'm already spoiled by the size of the X Pure.
[X Style (Pure) General] Bill720:
Buyer's remorse > contrast ratio

I'm neither an expert nor a developer, (so take this for what it's worth) but my guess is that the screen technology doesn't make that much difference in the grand scheme of things; maybe 15-20 minutes of Screen-on-time better in the context of the Pure Edition in all likelihood. (such a small difference in) Battery life is not really a good excuse to abandon a superior display technology. Trust me when I tell you to try one before you invest a dollar into Led because the buyer's remorse can be intense. The contrast ratio is so good on LCD now anyway that it almost doesn't even matter anymore.
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
Screen technology and implementation is HUGE... An AMOLED screen uses a fraction of the power of a standard IPS type screen's because of how it works, but the color representation is not as good... It's all pluses and minuses that vary on technologies and implementation.

The IPS screen on the Moto X Pure/Style is probably the most power hungry, exponentially, of any display I've ever seen... But the display is probably the most beautiful and vibrant I've ever seen, especially in direct sunlight.
[X Style (Pure) General] Aleycat:
My Moto X Style screen touch stopped working (just the bottom strip, the navigation bar) which makes me think that Moto has not really designed the phone with a quality digitizer. (either that or I have bad luck) Ended up paying for a replacement and immediately selling the phone. I was considering buying a OnePlus 5 but after seeing the official reveal decided to go cheap and buy a Redmi note 4 (snapdragon) for the time being. It's buttery smooth and has an amazing battery life. The dev support is pretty good, once you flash slim or RR you'll never go back to MIUI. I'm really impressed with the quality of build considering I paid just 200$ for it.
[X Style (Pure) General] BackDaws:
I'm getting sick of this phone now, battery is awful, and I have to charge it at least twice a day now, I'm also noticing WiFi has gone slow and takes ages to load websites or videos etc I've other devices on the same network which are working perfectly.

I've been looking at reviews for the oneplus 5 and I like it so far.
[X Style (Pure) General] luq529:
Not really, when displaying pure white amoled drain more battery than LCD. Main reason is the Snapdragon 808 and radio which drains battery. It is possible to go 7-8 hours of SOT while just reading. But when the main cores of snapdragon comes to work it is possible to discharge moto x style in less than 2.5 hours.
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
I would disagree... I often see the screen taking 50%, 60%, and even 70% of the battery, although I do agree the SD808 is very inefficient by comparison to many other SoC's of it's time and newer. Although AMOLED can take more battery in certain situations it isn't often you have a purely white screen, they only light the pixels needed and don't use a backlight where IPS displays have to have the backlight on constantly. My radios with good signal are less than 10% of the battery drain.

I have NEVER gotten 7+ hours of SOT on my Pure, even doing literally what you said such as reading with Moon Reader sitting 3 meters from my wireless AP and better than -80dBm LTE signal... 5.5 to maybe 6 hours, even in airplane mode (I travel a lot) I will lose nearly 50% battery reading during a 3 hour stint in airplane mode. And this Pure isn't even a year old, I bought it July 20, 2016, when Best Buy first ran them on-sale for $249.99 as Deal of the Day.

As a comparison, my son has an Axon 7 Mini and his display rarely exceeds 30% of total battery usage and it has an AMOLED display (I just looked, 6h 32m off charger, 57 min SoT for Display using 17%, phone calls 1%, mobile radio 1%, wifi 1%, and apps 78% with 24% of total battery used... not sure why app usage is so high, might have to look into that, awake time is very high and deep sleep is only like 15%, weird). By comparison, my MXPE battery stats typically would be Display 50%, phone radio 7%, Wifi 1%, Phone calls 15%, and apps 26% on an average day... and GSAM says my average SoT is 2h 50m and 4h 9m maximum
[X Style (Pure) General] luq529:
Yeah, now I agree more with you :) But I would not take those numbers from battery settings too seriously. If cool tool and current reading are true when phone is in idle at lowest brightness it takes about 150mA of current, on max brigthness it is about 450mA. But only if you open chrome it goes up to 1.5-2A so I was guessing the main reason of low SOT is CPU. When I will have time I can do some tests in this matter.
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
GSAM with "more stats" enabled via adb all the way... I don't trust the embedded battery usage settings app.
[X Style (Pure) General] aybarrap1:
AMOLED isn't necessarily bad tech IMO. It has improved. As far as battery life, I think it can do better than IPS. With many apps offering "dark" themes these days it has only gotten better. Personally I would have no problem with getting AMOLED. My wife however is better if with IPS since she is constantly on two apps (Facebook being one of them :eek:) and has burn in on all of her three Samsung devices she has owned.
[X Style (Pure) General] Bill720:
Bad experiences, bad times

Ideally, shouldn't "screen" be at the top of that list? If it's not, then this means that you've got wakelocks or other high-intensity software burning even more energy than it. What you're saying makes sense, but I don't necessarily buy the explanation that it has to use more power just because it has a backlight.

It has indeed. It's still years away from where LCD is, but has definitely improved with every generation. I still pick up the ol' Samsung Epic from time to time and can't help but wonder what they were thinking with stuffing technology that clearly wasn't ready for prime time into a consumer product like that. The Note 2 (which was only two-and-a-half generations newer than the original S) is dramatically better, but it still required a custom kernel to get the calibration closer to being in the ballpark and the burn-in problem was intense.

Maybe the technology has improved even more since then, but those experiences collectively ruined Led for me. I don't think I'd ever buy another phone with it unless said phone was basically perfect in every other way, especially after seeing how much the Pure Edition's outstanding LCD panel is capable of.
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
Lots of things consume energy besides the screen, and typically the screen will be at the top of the list depends on what your doing. Every device has idle useage to varying extent.

You can believe me about the display power usage or not... In most situations an AMOLED display uses much less power than a like IPS panel because of how it works.. But it isn't as "nice", crisp, or color true in most people's opinions.
[X Style (Pure) General] aybarrap1:
Read that the Nokia 6 is finally coming to the US. The bad news: CDMA is a no go and LTE for AT&T is only partially supported. T-Mobile is the only fully supported network. To top it off, the Nokia 6 will only officially be available via Amazon. Not the best way to re-enter a market. No official news on any other Nokia devices so the prospects are very slim going with Nokia.
[X Style (Pure) General] Bill720:
It was good knowing you, Nokia

Bummer. They could've (maybe) had a shot if they wouldn't have half-assed it. Guess they're destined to just be another clueless brand who can't understand why nobody domestically buys their product that can't be used domestically.
[X Style (Pure) General] Oaklands:
I was looking at the Z2 Play but I am on Verizon and do not want a locked phone. I really hate the way Moto has released that product.
[X Style (Pure) General] Hemidrosis:
According sources.. Unlocked version will also be available. Chances are it'll support CDMA bands as well. Verizon requests almost all their phones to be locked, unfortunately.
[X Style (Pure) General] ismithx:
what's wrong with buying from amazon?

also you US people are spoiled, the US is literally the only country that still uses CDMA, not every phone manufacturer is going to go the extent of adding CDMA for the benefit of one country
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
I don't think the real issue is getting it from Amazon, the real problem is only limited support for AT&T and no support for any CDMA carriers... I was frankly shocked that the Nokia 6 doesn't support Band 5, marginally important for AT&T customers since 5 is a secondary or tertiary LTE band in some markets. Although missing it might not be the end of the world.

I actually had high hopes for this device, but the band coverage is not the best for an unlocked US phone.

GSM: 850/900/1800/1900

WCDMA: Band 1, 2, 5, 8

LTE bands: 2, 3, 4, 7, 12, 17, 28, and 38

- Source

EDIT: I had the wrong information... updated with correct US band support, it actually isn't terrible.

For comparison, the MXPE supports LTE bands: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 25, 26, 41

Recommended by AT&T Wireless for "complete" network coverage:

3G WCDMA/UMTS/HSDPA/HSPA+ - 850/1900MHz Bands 2 & 5 (minimum requirement for nationwide service)

4G LTE –700/850/1900/1700/2100/2300MHz Bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 17, 29, 30, 40, 66
[X Style (Pure) General] Bill720:
CDMA is the bedrock of USA

When that country and network covers such a massive stretch of land and so many millions of customers, excluding an essential technology automatically shuts out all of them. At this point in time, (and probably for at least the next decade to come) CDMA is an essential part of the overall infrastructure. When originally established, it was the best technology, but with the country being so large and geographically diverse, it takes a lot of time and money to make massive changes like that, especially when we don't have anything that is ready to replace it everywhere yet. People forget just how large the USA and its networks are; it can't all just be changed overnight.
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
CDMA is not the "bedrock" of the US network, more of the Dead Rock and is being decommissioned as it should be. It is a dead technology and much like ßetamax in it's day, it was a superior but not popular for applications it was comparable to at the time for some North American carriers due to the large areas that needed to be covered with minimal equipment. It never got a strong foothold in the world markets outside of the US though (it had limited deployments that didn't last long in most other areas of the world). Remember, CDMA 1x tecnology has been in operation in the US by Verizon since July of 2001, which is 16 years, an extremely long time for this type of service.

10 more years is pretty a long time, I don't expect to see much of it past 3 or maybe 5 years tops... Verizon has confirmed it's 2G 1X/CDMA network is planned to be shutdown by 2019-2020. http://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/verizon-to-shut-down-2g-cdma-1x-network-by-end-2019

Remember, US carriers nationwide are shutting down their 2G networks... AT&T Wireless shutdown it's last remaining 2G Edge networks in December 2016. T-Mobile plans on shutting down their 2G -AND- 3G networks by late 2019 as well, in favor of a 4G/5G LTE only network.

The big problem is the switching equipment and spare parts are getting harder and harder to get as some replacement parts have not been manufactured for 10 years. Verizon has already begun to sell LTE only devices (the LG Exalt as an example) that have no CDMA or other 2G/3G capabilities at all, and we will likely see more LTE only devices over the next couple of years. Another good example is the HTC U11, an unlocked device that is certified by Verizon for use on it's network, it does not contain a CDMA radio either. https://www.androidcentral.com/us-u...-support-verizons-cdma-network-and-thats-okay
[X Style (Pure) General] Cowbell_Guy:
I'm just looking to get a rooted phone on Verizon... Besides the pixel2 what options do I have for a current phone?
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
Moto E4, Moto G4 or G5, Moto Z, and the retail unlocked Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge (NOT the Verizon branded model).

Those are the only ones I know of as of now that work have an "official" rooting method.

There are some other Verizon phones that are rootable, unofficially... The HTC 10 has the ability to unlock the bootloader and go S-OFF (if you understand HTC's bootloader security, this is HUGE).

There are other devices that will work with Verizon, if you are willing to forgo the CDMA radio altogether... since that entire network won't be around in 2 years, many phones that are Verizon certified devices don't even have a CDMA radio. All you REALLY need for Verizon these days is a phone that has LTE band 2, 4, 5 and 13, and VoLTE support.

It is a

FALLACY

that you need CDMA support for Verizon, and they don't want you to have it either... Verizon has scaled back it's CDMA network, in fact in Q1 of 2016 98% of Verizon's coverage area was covered by LTE and 92% of all it's traffic was on LTE, and those numbers are a year and a half ago. Verizon is on track to shutdown all CDMA service by December 2019, possibly earlier even.
[X Style (Pure) General] tech_infinity:
http://m.gsmarena.com/moto_x4_to_be_the_new_midtier_smartphone_on_googles_project_fi-news-25943.php

For those interested in a mid ranger with project FI support.
[X Style (Pure) General] Bill720:
Could, but I don't see it happening so fast

In most of the areas that are adequately covered by LTE, Voice-over-LTE is probably the only thing holding back the retirement of CDMA. For some Verizon prepaids, even this hasn't started rolling out yet (although it's due any month now) though. Even with VoLTE, the trouble is that LTE needs a clearer signal to work than 1xRTT, so it's those fringe areas where such a shutdown would mean the difference between primitive voice/data coverage and nothing at all. I also read the rumor articles and have seen differing reports, with some saying that it'll only be a shutdown of EvDo and others saying that it will be both 1xRTT and EvDo. Personally, I don't see them sunsetting the technology in just five years, even if those last few prepaids finally start to transition all of their customers to VoLTE tomorrow.
[X Style (Pure) General] aybarrap1:
I think VoLTE all over would be great, but as you have pointed out, LTE coverage is not as expansive. Do I think carriers will halt their shutdown of older tech if they can't expand coverage... It will depend on potential customer loss in terms of the cost to keep the towers running. Of course the government could step in to halt it but not likely.
[X Style (Pure) General] sk8223:
I just bought the Redmi Note 4 Global Version (4/64) with the 1700 LTE band from the official Xiaomi store. But it won't get to me until the end of July since I opted for free shipping. It's a downgrade yet an upgrade in many ways. No more heat! No more internal storage issues! I won't have to hold the phone with two hands either! I can finally stop using my iPhone 5 for music and sell it already!

It's a shame it doesn't have 3G 1700, only 4G 1700. Can't use it on Freedom. :(
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
Got to be careful with those "frequencies" they only tell half the story...

I'm having trouble finding exact specs, but this seems pretty consistent:

FDD-LTE B1/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B20

TDD-LTE B38/B40

3G: WCDMA B1/B2/B5/B8

2G: GSM B2/B3/B5/B8

The 3G/HSPA+ coverage is fine (B2 & B5), but the LTE is pretty bad for the US... Or am I looking at the wrong device?

I really, REALLY like this device, 4000mAh battery, 5.5" screen, developer support, but passed it over due to it's LTE band support.
[X Style (Pure) General] sk8223:
I went to willmyphonework.net and it says that the Redmi Note 4 only works with 3G on my carrier, Koodo, and lists the bands 850MHz and 1900MHz. But it doesn't seem to recognize that the Redmi Note 4 has multiple variants, like the Global variant, which do indeed have 4G AWS.

The seller listed

GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz

3G: WCDMA: 850/900/1900/2100MHz

4G: FDD LTE B5:850 /B8:900 /B4:1700 /B3:1800 /B1:2100 /B7:2600 /B20:800

TD LTE B38:2600MHz B40:2300MHz

TD LTE B38:2600MHz B40:2300MHz
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
So who is your carrier? If it's Tmo based you might be OK, although LTE B4 isn't everywhere anymore...
[X Style (Pure) General] sk8223:
I live in Canada and use Koodo so I'll get LTE. Koodo uses 1700/2100 for LTE. I don't even use LTE since I have a prepaid plan so the AWS band is meaningless to me, LMAO! :D
[X Style (Pure) General] aybarrap1:
I agree. Just pointing out that the marginal losses of a few customers do not outweigh the cost of keeping old technology in service.
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
Guess that depends on the loaded cost of keeping that equipment running... not only is most of that equipment no longer manufacturerd (meaning very high cost of custom manufacturing or refitting used equipment), but remember that part of that cost is the tied up frequency spectrum that is rarely utilized and they could probably make more money reusing that airspace for 4G or 5G deployments due to how little it is used.

Air spectrum is expensive, companies pay tens of billions of dollars for the rights to use it, and if they don't then they have to forfeit it back to the government for a fraction of what they paid...
[X Style (Pure) General] acejavelin:
Awesome! Sounds like a perfect fit for you!