One place where Android reviews fail to inform...

[littlenoodles]

I just got an Axon 7. Can't say I'm dissatisfied - the hardware works really well, and got a Black Friday deal. But having hemmed and hawed over its mixed reviews, I'm kind of disappointed in what the reviews *didn't* complain about.

Most of the time, when a review talks about problems with an Android skin, they talk about the superficial stuff. Turns out most of that stuff can be fixed by downloading a replacement launcher and the standard Google keyboard, messaging, etc. apps. In fact, my phone feels pretty stock-ish at this point (and my last phone was a Nexus 4 on Cyanogenmod 13).

But a few days in, I went looking for some basic Android functionality - and it's not there. Specifically, multi-user mode - which is one of Android's best features is not implemented. And while I'm at it, neither is the ability to 'pin' an app when handing your phone to someone else to use. And the thing is, these features can't be restored by downloading an app. So my beef with reviewers is - when you talk about a 'not so good' Android implementation, how about talking about the real stuff - core Android functionality that has been disabled for no good reason. I'm considering returning my Axon over this kind of stuff - though I'm wavering, because I mostly like it. And Cyanogenmod support seems to be getting close.

I guess that's another topic for discussion. I'd like Nougat, and it's supposedly coming to the Axon 7 next month. My take on eventual Cyanogenmod support was as insurance for when ZTE stops providing updates. How do you folks feel about replacing the OS on a brand new phone? In the case of the A7, that means giving up the 2 year warranty that ZTE includes...

 

[SpookDroid]

If the Axon is not on Nougat, multi-window is NOT an Android feature. That was something that started with other manufacturers, most notably Samsung and then LG following suit. But multi-window has not been a part of android for phones until Nougat.

Reviews complain about the superficial stuff because that's what they're reviewing: the phone as it is from the manufacturer. Yeah, you can 'fix' most things by using 3rd party apps, but if you have to do that for the whole phone, then what's the point of getting that brand? And that's why reviewers give UIs such a hard time.

The 'PIN' feature, however, is. And that's an oversight on the manufacturer's part for stripping that from their OS. Granted, it's a very 'unpopular' feature, as confirmed by carrier surveys (by 'unpopular' I mean goes largely unused), although at one point T-Mobile removed it from their Note 5 I believe, and then brought it back with an update.

As for Cyanogenmod, well...they're not in good shape right now.

 

[littlenoodles]

I wasn't talking about multi-window. Multi-user has been there since lollipop, and yeah, the pinning thing is kind of confusing, but multi-user is pretty straightforward. In any case perhaps 'unpopular' features should be made optional - and defaulted off, rather than removed for those of us who like them.

While I'm at it, I have another issue. ZTE has its own calendar app, which can't be disabled. I can see can't be deleted, but this is nasty if you use another calendar app, because you end up getting notifications from both. There's a thread about this here that claims you can disable it if you use the 'Stock Android' flavor of ZTE's launcher, but it didn't work for me. Apparently, even that workaround has been removed from the latest update - so it's not inadvertent. Why on earth does ZTE care so much about having you use their calendar app...?

 

[LeoRex]

I have no issue with them including those apps... Out of the box, core functions should be available. But yes, apps that can be replaced easily shouldn't be forced upon the user.

OEMs fuss with things they should just leave alone. All those low level functions... Just leave be... There's little reason to hack away at a feature Google has spent a fair amount of time developing. Don't reinvent the wheel, or worse, remove that wheel.

As for reviews, they rarely cover everything, but that's hard to do... The operating system is massive and it can be hard to pick through everything. There are a lot of devices to go through.