New phone, Honor magic 7 pro or Oppo Find x8 pro?

[snowdog]

Currently have a Xiaomi 13, when it works it's a decent phone, but it has shown its quality issues my old Huawei mate 20 pro did not show. The charging port is a bit borked because of water/shorting (I had smoke coming out, the protection didn't kick in and the charger was sparking in the port), the battery is rubbish now after just 1,5 year (on my holiday/during heavy use I would have to recharge 3x per day with powerbank) and I had a broken power button (it would stay stuck and be in a reboot loopt, but it wasn't stuck mechanically, pressing the button 200x with violence would ''unstuck'' it but it was very stressful being on a holiday). Also the software updates occasionally broke the phone. While the bugs were fixed quickly after with another update, I feel OxygenOS us a bit rubbish.

I want a good battery life, nice camera's, great performance and mostly realibility. I am psotively biased towards the Honor as I know being ex Huawei they make proper quality hardware. I abuse my phone, it gets dropped quite often (but I have a good spigen case), and it must be physically and mechanically sound.
Oppo appears to have better battery life and day picture quality. also the IR blaster, haptics and more physical buttons are a nice touch. But I just don't know how the build quality is.
Ideally I want it to last 4 years, not like my Xiaomi which can barely last 2 years. I had my old Huawei for 5,5 years no problem.
I like ai enhancements, both my current Xiaomi as well as my old Huawei did this well.

NOTE: I use my own launcher and I don't care about manufacturer software updates, in fact I consider updates malware and they break more than they fix, so less updates is better imo.


I'm having a hard time finding out which phone has objectively the better camera's (on average in all conditions).
The EU version of the honor appears a downgrade battery wise which makes me hesitant.

 

[snowdog]

Did some more research, the Find x8 pro is more tempting because of the better price (300 euro price difference), and appears to have good picture consistency, even in dark conditions. Also the battery is simply better than the Honor EU version...

 

[snowdog]

Well took the plunge/gamble, ordered the Find x8 pro 16/512. If this won't suffice I can always try Honor in a year or so.

 

[snowdog]

Got it in, first impressions are very good, it's nippy, camera is great, and no annoyances to far. It is a tad large compared to my old phone but that was expected. I hope it doesn't bend in my pocket as it's thinner I think than my last phone!

I do miss one feature, on my Xiaomi 13 in the dev options I could use 4g/5g simultaneously to wifi to boost speeds using both connections if possible, I don't see this option anymore. It seems to be lacking quite a few other advanced features in the dev options... .
I don't mean the ''keep mobile data active while on wifi'' (for faster switching) option, I already turned that on.

I feel that in general the menu with options is shorter than I am used to with Xiaomi which allowed for more customization?
But I did see an ''unlock bootloader'' feature so I guess I could get a different ROM on if I wanted to.

Wifi seems great so far, full 1000mbit in my own home even at a distance from the AP (did not do a LAN speedtest, just internet), the Xiaomi would be stuck around 700-800 mbit in my usual desk spot where this gets 950-1000 ish up and down!
Pictures in the dark are much nicer.

Yet to add my 2nd work sim (e-sim) to it as need to contact provider (my job needs to do that) but I am home sick atm so couldn't test the dual4g/5g stuff yet or using the secondary sim for internet while on call with the first and vice versa.

 

[uscool]

Got it in, first impressions are very good, it's nippy, camera is great, and no annoyances to far. It is a tad large compared to my old phone but that was expected. I hope it doesn't bend in my pocket as it's thinner I think than my last phone!

I do miss one feature, on my Xiaomi 13 in the dev options I could use 4g/5g simultaneously to wifi to boost speeds using both connections if possible, I don't see this option anymore. It seems to be lacking quite a few other advanced features in the dev options... .
I don't mean the ''keep mobile data active while on wifi'' (for faster switching) option, I already turned that on.

I feel that in general the menu with options is shorter than I am used to with Xiaomi which allowed for more customization?
But I did see an ''unlock bootloader'' feature so I guess I could get a different ROM on if I wanted to.

Wifi seems great so far, full 1000mbit in my own home even at a distance from the AP (did not do a LAN speedtest, just internet), the Xiaomi would be stuck around 700-800 mbit in my usual desk spot where this gets 950-1000 ish up and down!
Pictures in the dark are much nicer.

Yet to add my 2nd work sim (e-sim) to it as need to contact provider (my job needs to do that) but I am home sick atm so couldn't test the dual4g/5g stuff yet or using the secondary sim for internet while on call with the first and vice versa.

you can't unlock bootloader on oppo , and if you use custom roms Google keeps trying to stop Google pay working

 

[snowdog]

So this option is a lie ?

EDIT: I see it is, ugh...

 

[Dom1988]

I do love a good Chinese Spy phone.

I've got the Magic7 Pro, the Oppo was my first choice but I couldn't find any tempting carrier deals, I was also considering the OnePlus 13 but it had the same issue.

I had the S22 Ultra, prior to that the Huawei P30 Pro, which is hands down the best phone I've ever had, and before that a string of HTCs, I love alternative brands.

I'll be honest when I say that I can't really tell the difference between screen, audio and camera tech, but my 2 pence on the Honor:

It feels like using my Huawei, which is a good thing. It feels a quality piece and is nice to hold, the 2.5D screen is a cool feature.

I love the stereo speakers, reminds me of my HTC One M7, it's probably not the best quality but I'll stick Spotify or YT on as I'm doing bits around the house and rarely have turn it up all the way.

The cameras are as good for anything I'm likely to need, the x6 zoom is nice for taking close up pictures of stuff that's gross, the x30 and above digital zoom is hit and miss, I've never taken a decent picture of anything at those levels on any phone I've ever had so it's not an issue. The AI phone enhancement is hit and miss, and gimmicky, sometimes it can improve things, other times it's horrendous.

The battery, albeit smaller than the global release and some competitors, fares a lot better than my S22U ever did (Exynos 2200), I can get a full day out of it no problem, with 20-30% remaining by 2am (if I'm up late shooting baddies). I haven't used the power saving mode other than to see how it functions (my S22U lived in PS mode). I charge it with an Anker 45w brick, I might get a 100w one in the future but it charges quick enough for my needs.

The screen is clear and bright, the colours look nice. I have it set to adaptive with vivid colours. The brightness can be cranked up plenty.

I haven't really played any demanding games on it yet, my S22U would overheat playing Bethesda Castles so if it doesn't do that, it's a win.

All in all, I'm very happy, with my only real gripe being the unavailability of cases from name brands like Spigen and Mous etc.

Value was also a big deciding factor, the deal I got, with trading in my wife's S22, I paid £450 for the phone and £8pm for a 150gb SIM on a 24m contract. I claimed the free MagicPad2 tablet as well, that I use to keep my wife and newborn entertained.

Think that's it.