Honor 9/Nokia 8

[Smudger]

I'm getting sick of waiting for my Nougat update on my Moto X Force, one of the reasons I got a Moto was that they were quick to update, but since Lenovo took them over, they've been dire. So, I've been considering the Honor 9, which for £380 seems quite a good phone, but again it comes down to updates. Anyone got an Honor? How quickly do they update the UI? Is the Honor skin any good? Can you just get rid of it by installing the Google Now launcher?

[Dashers]

I'm thinking of one too, I believe you can change the launcher and that brings it pretty close to stock from what I've read.

The more tricky problem, is actually getting hold of one. Three seems to be the only place with UK stock and you have to get that with a sim card (at least a tenner extra) and they're only doing it in chavtastic blue.

I tried tweeting Honor asking about the grey and black ones, but they didn't reply.

I'm also tempted by the Nokia 5 - it's £180 in August, not as powerful, but also a lower res screen (so uses less power, but doesn't look as sharp). Mainly because it's all stock Android apart from the camera app.

I'd really like a replacement to my Xperia Z3 Compact, but Sony don't seem so interested in making a decent compact any more.

[Smudger]

You can get it from www.hihonor.com, but they're out of stock, although they say some more is due in 3 days. I actually quite like the blue...

On that honor site, you also get a free fitness tracker with it, but I don't know if it's any good...

Edit: it's saying 4 days now, so I guess even they don't know...

[jimborae]

Honor (Huawei) are not known for their track record on keeping devices updated, the Honor 9 is very well reviewed but be aware that the EMUI is not the greatest skin in the world (it used to be one the worst) but yes, can be replaced by a 3rd party launcher. I had the previous version of EMUI on a Honor 6 I think and it was horrible and even broken in places. The newer versions are much better, though be aware that there will be no chance of installing 3rd party roms Like Lineage OS, if thats your thing, as it uses a Kirin cpu, so no 3rd party support.

[jimborae]

If it were my money I'd get an LG G6 either second hand or new, but import from abroad. There are some amazing deals on them atm, ie new for around i.e. LG G6 H870DS for £310 from the likes of Eglobal Central (if you can stand ordering from them).

[virtuo]

For a little more you could get a Oneplus 5 - spec-wise as good or better in every way if you don't mind the slightly larger screen and no expandable storage (although I prefer USB OTG over SD cards these days, which is supported).

The AMOLED display is lovely, and the launcher is snappy and light. Had a few OTA updates through as well.

[Smudger]

For a little more you could get a Oneplus 5 - spec-wise as good or better in every way if you don't mind the slightly larger screen and no expandable storage (although I prefer USB OTG over SD cards these days, which is supported).

The AMOLED display is lovely, and the launcher is snappy and light. Had a few OTA updates through as well.

Yeah, this is the thing, is the Oneplus 5 £70 better? Or £120 better for the 6gb/128gb version...

I'd have the Oneplus like a shot, but it's moved into what used to be top-end phone territory, cost-wise...

[jimborae]

Yeah, this is the thing, is the Oneplus 5 £70 better? Or £120 better for the 6gb/128gb version...

I'd have the Oneplus like a shot, but it's moved into what used to be top-end phone territory, cost-wise...

IMHO no the OP5 is not worth the extra over the Honor 8. That's why I sent mine back & got a LG G6.

[Smudger]

If it were my money I'd get an LG G6 either second hand or new, but import from abroad. There are some amazing deals on them atm, ie new for around i.e. LG G6 H870DS for £310 from the likes of Eglobal Central (if you can stand ordering from them).

What's up with eGlobal?

Edit: I think I see. Grey imports?

[jimborae]

What's up with eGlobal?

Edit: I think I see. Grey imports?

Yep basically grey imports and poor customer service. However I know many have experienced no problems ordering from them, ie. goods arrived and as advertised but LG wont honour the warranty in Europe if you bought from them and the H870DS is not getting updated as frequently as the European version. Conversly though I wanted the 4Gb/64Gb Quad DAC version so i didn't have much choice and the price puts it very much into the 2nd hand flagship territory so it was a no brainer for me. I paid £350 by the way.

[DanceswithUnix]

IMHO no the OP5 is not worth the extra over the Honor 8. That's why I sent mine back & got a LG G6.

How are you finding the G6?

My wife is having odd flakyness on her G3 like the camera app stopped working. It's already had a couple of factory resets which buys some time before it goes strange again. She isn't impressed, but looking around for a replacement is turning out to be surprisingly difficult. She doesn't want another LG, but with so little choice in this bracket it might still be in the running.

[jimborae]

For the price i paid and the imported price now it is a stupidly good phone and ridiculously good value for money. The cameras are superb, as is the screen, the phone is fast, the software is good although I use Nova launcher, the Quad DAC really does improve the sound, it's waterproof (IP68) and has SD card support. The only thing missing is wireless charging which is why I still pine for my Galaxy S7 which covered all those bases.

However if your're not going down the import route I don't think my comments still hold true. I think the cheapest price is about £420 and it's the 32Gb model with no quad DAC, still a good phone but no longer the stone cold bargain it was. However you do get a full warranty should things go south.

[virtuo]

Yeah, this is the thing, is the Oneplus 5 £70 better? Or £120 better for the 6gb/128gb version...

I'd have the Oneplus like a shot, but it's moved into what used to be top-end phone territory, cost-wise...

Entirely subjective unfortunately. £70 or £100 more on something that I'm going to be using every day for 2-3 years is worth it for me, as it's from a reputable brand whose devices I've owned in the past with no issues. It ticks all of my boxes and even ticks boxes that aren't important to me - the cameras for example are a massive improvement on my previous phone (OnePlus 1), and it runs cool even when running big games, where my last one got a bit warm.

I didn't buy mine on release day, as I didn't want to fork out the extra either until I had seen some real reviews, but my 1+1 was stolen a few days before the launch, and I got a good payout on the insurance (better than selling it 2nd hand) so the upgrade only cost me £200 in real money.

[Dashers]

I was going to go with a Oneplus 5, but the size and no SD storage has ruled that a no-go for me. £500 vs £380 is quite a jump for the sake of a £20 SD card worth of capacity (which I can transfer from my previous phone).

Oneplus have also neglected to upgrade older models, frankly all manufacturers are fairly naff at this. The best experience I've had so far is with Sony, which whilst not fast at releasing updates, have updated longer than I thought they would.

I long for the day that phones are white-label devices that you can buy and install whatever OS you want .

All the above is why I'm leaning towards the Nokia 5, I'm kinda thinking what's the sense in spending a lot of money (which I really need to be spending on new brake discs) for something that doesn't satisfy.

[jimborae]

Entirely subjective unfortunately. £70 or £100 more on something that I'm going to be using every day for 2-3 years is worth it for me, as it's from a reputable brand whose devices I've owned in the past with no issues. It ticks all of my boxes and even ticks boxes that aren't important to me - the cameras for example are a massive improvement on my previous phone (OnePlus 1), and it runs cool even when running big games, where my last one got a bit warm.

I didn't buy mine on release day, as I didn't want to fork out the extra either until I had seen some real reviews, but my 1+1 was stolen a few days before the launch, and I got a good payout on the insurance (better than selling it 2nd hand) so the upgrade only cost me £200 in real money.

Then that is a very good deal my friend. Personally I loved my One+ 3, which I got launch day, so was only £309 and thus for me was an excellent value phone. I love the One+ software implementation and the fact the updates are so frequent and then of course they also have no issue to you unlocking the bootloader & putting whetever the hell you like on there. It's a very refreshing attitude. But for me the One+ 5 was just to big a jump in price for not enough gain, really just a camera upgrade and slightly faster cpu which I wouldn't notice in day to day use compared to my One+ 3. So to get something truly different I ended up with the G6........Horses for courses.

By the way the issue I had with the Galaxy S8+ was fingerprint sensor location, the speed & accuracy of it and some lagging in the software. Compared to my One+ 3 it didn't seem as fast yet cost over twice as much and was a pain in butt to unlock.

[Zak33]

I have an Honor 6 for work and it ROCKS

camera... great
battery.. superb
speed.. fast
Built in software that actually DOES the biz (Phone Manager aoftware, keeps is clean)