drshreenivaas
Member
- Joined
- 6 Apr 2019
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 11
With heavy heart, I just sold my Realme XT top variant for paltry sum. I had switched to Realme in September 2019 due to aggressive pricing, better quad cameras with better image processing and attractive looks. I had great epectations from Realme, but I was fed up with poorly ported colorOS with buggy updates, swiftly draining battery which worsened drastically with every update & too delicate AMOLED screen which might have needed replacement in near future, though I had used it quite carefully, always encased in flip cover.
The decision to sell was bolstered by pathetic Realme Ui update, conversion of almost all free themes and fonts to paid ones in theme store & introduction of ads (despite Realme CEO Madhav Sheth's claim of “We sell phones, not ads" during the launch of Realme 3). One is unable to halt downloading of ROM update. Installing procedure of ROM update is also buggy & can happen anytime with accidental click on pop-up which keeps appearing out of nowhere during routine use.
Difficult procedure of boot unlock & lack of official flash tool to downgrade stock ROM prohibited downgrade of ROM for which one has to visit service centre.
Lack of bugless custom ROMs closed the only available escape door. Also do note that all Custom ROMs can't make use of 64MP mode in camera (GCam shoots in 16 MP mode) & in-display fingerprint scanner. Even unlocking bootloader renders in-display fingerprint scanner useless on stock colorOS versions older than A16, but then they are the ones which provide excellent battery life.
At least with Redmi phones, MiUi is great to use & is known for great battery life. Themes and fonts are free to use. Ads are there with unified switch to diasable them & Xiaomi doesn't lie about ads like Madhav Sheth.
Unlocking requires waiting period, but is straight forward procedure greatly explained by Mi Community forum. Updates are not as horrendous as Realme. Also downgrading of ROMs is an easy procedure as a propriatory Mi flash tool to flash stock rom is avilable officially and all versions of stock ROM (fastboot as well as recovery) are always available for download on MI community forum. So one doesn't need to visit service centre to downgrade stock ROM.
Custom ROMs support is also good for almost all Snapdragon based Xiaomi devices. For noobs, MIUI based ROMs such as Xiaomi.eu provide hasslefree & adfree experience with excellent battery life. Being based on each device's China Developer ROMs, camera and all other functions also work flawlessly.
Just to give you example, I have restarted using my 3 yrs old Redmi Note 4. It was launched with Android 6.0 & is now running on android 9.0 based Xiaomi.eu ROM & battery still lasts for full 2 days with modrately heavy use.
Lot of people are choosing Realme devices these days. But beware of these pitfalls & then choose. In my opinion, Realme has a long way to go to achieve maturity of Xiaomi.
The decision to sell was bolstered by pathetic Realme Ui update, conversion of almost all free themes and fonts to paid ones in theme store & introduction of ads (despite Realme CEO Madhav Sheth's claim of “We sell phones, not ads" during the launch of Realme 3). One is unable to halt downloading of ROM update. Installing procedure of ROM update is also buggy & can happen anytime with accidental click on pop-up which keeps appearing out of nowhere during routine use.
Difficult procedure of boot unlock & lack of official flash tool to downgrade stock ROM prohibited downgrade of ROM for which one has to visit service centre.
Lack of bugless custom ROMs closed the only available escape door. Also do note that all Custom ROMs can't make use of 64MP mode in camera (GCam shoots in 16 MP mode) & in-display fingerprint scanner. Even unlocking bootloader renders in-display fingerprint scanner useless on stock colorOS versions older than A16, but then they are the ones which provide excellent battery life.
At least with Redmi phones, MiUi is great to use & is known for great battery life. Themes and fonts are free to use. Ads are there with unified switch to diasable them & Xiaomi doesn't lie about ads like Madhav Sheth.
Unlocking requires waiting period, but is straight forward procedure greatly explained by Mi Community forum. Updates are not as horrendous as Realme. Also downgrading of ROMs is an easy procedure as a propriatory Mi flash tool to flash stock rom is avilable officially and all versions of stock ROM (fastboot as well as recovery) are always available for download on MI community forum. So one doesn't need to visit service centre to downgrade stock ROM.
Custom ROMs support is also good for almost all Snapdragon based Xiaomi devices. For noobs, MIUI based ROMs such as Xiaomi.eu provide hasslefree & adfree experience with excellent battery life. Being based on each device's China Developer ROMs, camera and all other functions also work flawlessly.
Just to give you example, I have restarted using my 3 yrs old Redmi Note 4. It was launched with Android 6.0 & is now running on android 9.0 based Xiaomi.eu ROM & battery still lasts for full 2 days with modrately heavy use.
Lot of people are choosing Realme devices these days. But beware of these pitfalls & then choose. In my opinion, Realme has a long way to go to achieve maturity of Xiaomi.