Honor 9/Nokia 8

[Smudger]

Just found I can got hold of a download of the ota file, going to give that a try then see if I'm still after a new phone...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well, I popped into CPW this lunchtime, and there is a dearth of phones that I like the look of. I quite like the look of the HTC U (11?) with the squeezy sides, but I'm not paying over £600 for a phone. Might just go for the Moto G5 Plus for £250 and go budget for now. Or wait for the G5S Plus to be announced...

I do know though that as soon as I buy something new, my X Force will get its Nougat update and feel like a new phone again...

The G5 Plus has been on offer for around £200. It might be worth checking HUKD TBH!!

[Smudger]

Well, after a lot of faff, a few hours of broken wifi and a lot of time spent in front of a computer, I've upgraded the X Force to Nougat. And I can't really tell the difference, other than the split-screen thing. So I'll carry on with this one for another few months and see how it goes. My concern about going budget is that I might end up forking out a bundle of money for a handset that's less powerful and has less features than my former top-of-the-range X.
Certainly the new X, the X4, looks to be an upper-budget handset, running a 600-series Qualcomm. And the Z2 Force will be way too much. So it looks like it's grey-market LG G6, Honor 9 or Oneplus 5... If I decide to change...

[Smudger]

..and embarrassingly, android Pay doesn't work when your bootloader's unlocked. And now I can't relock it without re-flashing my phone with a stock image. Which is not available yet...

[jimborae]

..and embarrassingly, android Pay doesn't work when your bootloader's unlocked. And now I can't relock it without re-flashing my phone with a stock image. Which is not available yet...

There are ways around this I believe but I guess it depends how much you want to bugger about with it. Eitherway XDA Forums will probably have the solution, something along the lines of magisk and/or a custom kernel I suspect to fool the safetynet check.

[Smudger]

I'm just scouring xda now...

[Smudger]

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.

As if by magic...

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/son...ia-xz1-compact

[Smudger]

Aaaand now the Honor9 is back in stock on the Hihonor website, comes with a free fitness band, worth about £30-60

So it's this or the Nokia 8, which comes with a Nokia Activité Steel smart watch, apparently worth £120. Hmmm

[Smudger]

Right, so I went for the Nokia 8 in the end. Not sure if I'll miss some of the Moto software, which really was quite useful, but sick of the waiting for updates. And screwed up my phone many, many times trying to manually install the updates from blurs etc...
It arrives on Wednesday...

[jimborae]

Sweet, let us know how you get on with it as I was looking at this if I don't get an LG V30.

[Smudger]

I will, and as it's via the web, I can send it back within 2 weeks if I miss the Moto stuff too much...

[Smudger]

Right, picked up the Nokia at lunchtime, and after a while restoring from backup, I'm very pleased. Haven't had a proper play, but preliminary feelings are that it's quick, smooth and responsive. Camera seems good, if slightly muted next to my colleague's S8+, but that could be the screen. On the subject of the screen, it's clear and bright, very bright.

I haven't transferred my SIM to it yet, as I haven't put on the screen protector or case yet (clear). The matte blue is darker than I thought it would be, but looks quite classy. Wondering if I should have waited and gone for the copper colour, but I tend to like a stealth phone, so I'll probably stick with it.

Edit: One thing I noticed straight away is that you can have 5 icons/groups across the screen, rather than 4 on my Moto X, and I've just realised that I can resize the screen on my Moto, but it still only gets 4 icons across, just with more space between each one.

[Smudger]

Aaaannd there's a system update available already. Think it's going to be to 7.1.2 rather than Oreo, only mentions Security Updates, improved system stability and User Interface enhancements...

Edit: Nope, still 7.1.1, just updated to September Security Update.

[Smudger]

Another update received, apparently a security patch, improved stability and User Interface enhancements. Looks like they're keeping their promises about rapid updates. Now, if they could just get that Oreo update out...

Edit: just realised the improvements listed are exactly the same as last month's. Hopefully it's not the same update, pushed twice...

Edit 2: Security Patch Level is still showing as 1st September, but Kernel version is Tuesday 19th September. Strange...

[ankit1432]

well, honor 9 would have been released by now. I doubt if this guy have bought honor 9 as the smartphone has some major flaws