OnePlus 5T or HTC U11+

[aurichie]

Here's a question. How bothered are people REALLY about security?
I know as a species, we're impressed by big numbers, so when Apple say that only 1 in 1,000,000 attempts can fool their tech, people all go "whoooooooo".
But does Joe public really need that? As if our phones are all under constant attack from people trying to get in. All this marketing BS claiming we need NSA level security and encryption.

Although this number is NOT true, but if someone proved to me without a doubt that the face unlock on the OP5T was only secure enough to stop 499 in 500 attempts I personally wouldn't bat an eyelid, and I would continue to use it very happily.

Thoughts?

Most people don't care about security you are right. I'm sure a scary number of people still require no security to unlock their devices where it is still optional.

I do care about security, I have unique complex passwords for everything, 2 factor auth wherever possible, etc. For the moment though, it's hard disabling the OP5T offering because its so damn fast and convenient. Of course by using this relatively weak facial recognition on my phone, I'm undermining everything else I have setup lol.

 

[Earth[Tera].bin]

Since this thread originally started as a battery complaint, I thought I'd post my latest battery stats for my OP5T
I'd say this was average usage.

19% left after 35 hours unplugged with over 6hrs screen on time

Obviosly it's all relative to usage habits but quite happy with the U11+

53hours uptime, 9% left ... 5h41min screen usage.

 

[Sp00n]

Here's a question. How bothered are people REALLY about security?
I know as a species, we're impressed by big numbers, so when Apple say that only 1 in 1,000,000 attempts can fool their tech, people all go "whoooooooo".
But does Joe public really need that? As if our phones are all under constant attack from people trying to get in. All this marketing BS claiming we need NSA level security and encryption.

Although this number is NOT true, but if someone proved to me without a doubt that the face unlock on the OP5T was only secure enough to stop 499 in 500 attempts I personally wouldn't bat an eyelid, and I would continue to use it very happily.

Thoughts?

People don't care about security until it directly affects them, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be pushing for it, security shouldn't be something you have to think about and I'm sure Joe Public assumes that companies have done their due diligence.

 

[lltfdaniel]

 

[Moonpie2]

People don't care about security until it directly affects them, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be pushing for it, security shouldn't be something you have to think about and I'm sure Joe Public assumes that companies have done their due diligence.

You're absolutely right, and I guess most facial and fingerprint scanners have a security rating above 1/10,000. But in my roundabout way, I think I was trying to make a point about people hopefully not confusing 'less secure' with 'not secure'

 

[Liquid_Entity]

This is how bad my Nexus 6P is

 

[silverblack]

OP5T SOT.

 

[TheOtherOption]

Finally had a shipping notification on my HTC U11+ - arriving tomorrow by DPD; just a shame I'm off away over Christmas from early tomorrow morning - sods law!

 

[Moonpie2]

Inspired by Earth[Tera].bin's U11+ I thought I'd try and push my OP5t and do a bit of hypermiling and see where it got me

No idea why it stopped with the details after 2 days, but that was 57 hours in total.

Anyway, regardless of which way Liquid Entity goes, we're now living in an age of very efficient phones and no longer must he put up with losing 45% battery in 80 minutes.

 

[lamboman]

EDIT: Just tidied up my words on the display. In short, I believe that GSMArena's review did not measure the maximum brightness under intense light.

Just had my U11+ turn up. Not going to give a software overview seeing that it is effectively stock Android. So merely hardware observations compared to an S8 and iPhone 6s Plus. I'm notoriously fussy; keep this in mind.

Spoiler: Hardware observations

Display
I don't believe GSMArena's claim of a maximum brightness of 300cd/m2 to be accurate. In previous reviews they have provided 'Max Auto' measurements for devices that only ramp the brightness up to the true maximum when intense light is sensed by the ambient light sensor. It appears that they have failed to do this with the U11+, or the software release at the time did not offer such functionality.

The panel itself has a very minor matrix-like pattern when looking closely at white pages. As I said above, I'm extremely fussy; this completely blends into the background in normal usage (i.e. for typical usage you cannot see it, such as this page).

The S8 display receives a lot of praise, but decent panel technology is meaningless without decent calibration. Regardless of mode, compared to my calibrated Acer X34 (IPS panel, 94% or so measured sRGB coverage calibrated, though that figure means little by itself) the S8 is extremely yellow and overall completely off the mark. In sRGB mode its rather dull, yet in blue light filter mode certain colours (oranges in particular) almost appear neon-like. By eye at least, the U11 Plus is much closer.

The display has vertical colour shift, towards red. None horizontally. This is less irritating than AMOLED panels such as the S8 (which shifts to a red tint then to blue regardless of angle), but the shift does impact brightness.

Black levels by eye appear to be excellent for an IPS.

Finally, by eye the white point seems closer to 6500K than the iPhone (which is rather cold), and overall colour reproduction appears closer to my calibrated X34 than the iPhone.

All this ought to be verified with a colorimeter; at the very least I'll try to get an accurate maximum brightness measurement as soon as possible. By eye alone, the display may be the best of the bunch.

Form factor
Virtually identical to the iPhone but thicker; expected given the size of the battery. The side bezels are just right, and the display being flat is fantastic; I loathe the S8's curved sides, they make the display feel tiny and in my experience are prone to accidental touches.

Like the design overall, but they're all black slabs (as I like them).

Speakers
All three phones are similar enough in terms of volume. U11 Plus is by far the best; sounds the most natural, with highs not being shrill, merely clear. Using the earpiece as a tweeter sounds very close to a stereo solution, eliminating the need to cup the phone (as is required on the iPhone, and to a lesser extent the S8).

The S8 comes second, sounding thin but at least clear enough for speech. The iPhone is terrible simply, being muffled to the point that understanding people in videos becomes very difficult.

Hope the above is useful to someone. From a like-for-like perspective (smaller bezels, phablet size, Oreo out-of-the-box for Treble), the only alternatives right now are the Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, and the Pixel 2 XL. The Mate 10 uses a 16:9 IPS display, the Mate 10 Pro uses an 18:9 1080p AMOLED (Pentile Matrix subpixel layout). I personally don't feel 1080p at this size is enough. The software experience on the Huawei devices is also lacking, which is a real problem; if you don't want to run LineageOS, having a great stock software experience is crucial. That said, you get a headphone jack with what seems to be a decent DAC/amp built-in, which takes away an annoying dongle.

The Pixel 2 XL, even at the current available discounts, is difficult to justify in my opinion. Many of the advantages of the Pixel 2 XL - the pure software experience, the marginally superior camera - can be replicated on the U11 Plus at a much lower cost with Nova Launcher and Google Camera, with the added benefit of expandable storage and a better display. I'm looking forward to LineageOS 15 development to start shifting; I think this will become a very compelling device at that point.