People who've upgraded their smartphones recently, what has gotten better?

using k20pro as backup phone with voltage OS. smooth for me. battery, performance everything good.
For k20 pro I will suggest only two roms either go for Evolution x or Rising OS. If call recording is important then go for Rising OS it also has call recording without that google shitty thing. Also both comes with Leica camera n if needed u can install gcam also. Perfectly super smooth experience on both.
I have used both currently on Evolution X.
Which build? I'm looking for a flash and forget build that I won't be updating in the near future ,so looking for a ROM that will give me good battery backup.
My experience with SuperiorOS has been very poor.
 
Which build? I'm looking for a flash and forget build that I won't be updating in the near future ,so looking for a ROM that will give me good battery backup.
My experience with SuperiorOS has been very poor.
For Evolution x 27 July 2023 build
For Rising OS go for 15 Aug 2023 Dvaraka build

You can give try to these both builds awesome stability & battery backup. Personally tried & tested both builds. Don't update to further build versions for now.
 
Mostly the quick charging comes in extremely handy to me and the 5000mah batteries in phones nowadays. Plus if you get a real highend one with Amoled and Dolby vision atmos viewing videos and movies is much improved. Plus of course availability of repair parts
 
Recently dropped my K20 Pro and the duplicate display on it stopped working. Rs.10k for a 60Hz original display sounded too much, even though it could be overclocked using a different kernel; and duplicate displays not surviving such drops is a bit of a deal breaker for the careless & clumsy me. So, finally decided to buy a new phone. Almost considered the OnePlus 12, but just couldn't convince myself to spend 60-some-thousand on a phone. So decided to use a cheap & VFM option for the time being and exchange/sell when I see a more reasonably priced flagship. The Moto Edge 30 Ultra, which I was really considering never came back in stock and Poco F5, which I was also considering was slightly overpriced since the last time I'd checked. So, bought a Poco X6 Pro and wanted to, sort of, answer my own question here.

First off, more than happy with the performance of the D8300 Ultra, especially for the price. My last experience of a Dimensity SoC was horrible with the D1200 on Oneplus Nord 2; it ran too hot & drained lot of battery even at normal usage. Mediatek has sure come a long way on this. Thermals & throttling are respectable; throttling is perhaps impressive by modern standards at about 70-80% depending on the mode. Not sure how much of this is due to the odd choice of using one overclocked mid-range core as performance core instead of a dedicated core for single-core performance like a Cortex X#. 120Hz display is a solid upgrade from the 80Hz, that the duplicate display on my K20 Pro went up to. I've been using the X6 Pro with 120Hz always on and battery backup is more than I was expecting: I'm seeing 20-30% battery left with 7-9hrs of usage including benchmarking, gaming and viewing some HDR content on YouTube. This was during the initial few days with phone; as the novelty wore off and I started using the phone normally with 3-5hrs of usage, it just about lasts for 2 days with about 20% left. This is mostly due to idle drain being next to nothing; so could be more due to the OS than SoC. While playing BGMI, the battery drain is roughly 10% per hour. All this does leave me with an impression that it is worth the money spent.

But I do have a few gripes. It generally does suck that for roughly the same price as the K20 Pro (adjusting for inflation), this is a significantly worse package: Not THE flagship performance that the K20 Pro offered in it's time; build is all plastic as opposed to metal frame and glass back; 2MP macro replacing a much more useful 2x telephoto; no headphone jack. For a (n advertised) "flagship killer", I'd have had much more respect if it didn't try to pose as a flagship with the "multiple" cameras and lack of headphone jack. I'd frankly be happier if few corners like a third camera and even under-display fingerprint sensor were cut for a slightly cheaper price; capacitive sensors are faster & more reliable anyways. Dolby Vision/HDR is really nice, but unfortunately not a lot of supported content yet. But Dolby Atmos on this device is borderline gimmicky; earpiece speaker is too weak, so the bottom speaker is noticeably louder; adjusting balance would result a better experience, although at the cost of overall loudness. Even while using with a headphone (VR3000 with Abigail Pro), the Dolby Atmos just sounds more like a louder, 'V'-ed out EQ than immersive/ better soundstage, imaging or whatever is being advertised. There's no noticeable improvement in audio quality, at least in my setup.
 
Not that deep into tech but I started off with a Redmi Note 3 (Kenzo) in its release on 2016 and used it for 4 years, it wasn't used heavily just moderate browsing, clicking images and bla bla.
After a while it started to show signs of being outdated (no software and security updates) with how rapid mobile tech got, brought a Samsung M31 in March, 2020 which was my daily driver till a few weeks back.

Now this phone on the other hand worked flawlessly for what I needed, basic stuff, gaming wasn't as bad just couldn't expect it to use max settings for graphics and security updates still came from time to time (I think now its stopped). Recent life changing things has happened in my life where me as a person wanted to start treasuring memories with a better camera and this phone just didn't have what it takes. Started to look around for a camera to purchase but eventually decided that a phone with a good camera was all I needed instead of the extra hassle of camera and all the accessories you'll need.

After quite a lot of digging and looking at different phones, I was initially looking to go for another mid-range like the M31 but eventually got my hands on an IQOO 12 (16GB Variant), glad to say it has definitely shown to be an amazing upgrade and decision in under a week of purchase itself. Yes, there were other options but as an overall package this phone had a lot going for it.

The few things I'm really impressed with are:

Camera - My primary reason for upgrade was to get a good camera so I'll start with this. Coming from a M31, almost anything above its range should make me go wow but damn this phone has a nice camera, my wife and I recently went to a wildlife park and the zoom really helped me get some great pictures of the flora and fauna which was really far away from us, the portrait mode is the GOAT feature of this phone though and the macro seems to also be miles ahead of most other phones in the range.

Really quick finger/face unlock - Having never experienced this, the unlocks are really quick that I can just slide unlock with no delay in almost all light conditions with the face unlock feature. Both the sensors have yet to fail me in unlocking at one go.

Charging - While my daily life has no requirement for having really quick charging times, it has definitely helped me twice till date where the quick charging made it easier for me to not wait around for a comfortable range of battery percentage to head out for travel. Did I mention you get a 120w charger with the phone, I still think it's a scam that most flagship phones don't provide a charger in the name of environment.

Security - Since it's a new phone and that too a flagship from the brand, 4+ years of updates is something which will keep me using this phone for a longer period unlike the Redmi Note 3 which ended at 2. Ton of banking and other apps on phone without latest security updates is probably not a great idea.

Display - All I know is its crisp and I can see everything clearly at very bright areas. Phone works smooth with the 144hz set at hybrid mode, don't have a requirement for it to run at 144hz at all times.

Only con I would say is I miss a headphone jack, these phone companies really be removing features here and there to make it harder to decide for a better upgrade.

Honestly, I don't care about most of the features the phone has but the number of pictures I've clicked already surpassed the M31 in its span of 4 years and that to me is already a worth it reason for purchase. There were people saying the UI/Software was bad, but I don't seem to see any or maybe they are just looking for features that I have no need for. Gaming is better as I checked COD Mobile and it worked great, having had a reference point with the M31, would say it runs way more smoother and HQ. Don't play much so the SoC doesn't get used to its full capacity but as a daily driver it's been a great experience.

Upgrades.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Emulation upgraded from a snapdragon 720g to snapdragon 7+ gen 2, big jump in emulating capability especially when it comes to vita and ps2 emulation.

Can't say this processor is good for switch emulation though, if you want to try that go for a minimum 12 gigs ram and 8+ gen 1. 12 gigs is the minimum for switch emulation on Android.
 
Back
Top