Mi 9T \ Moto G8plus\ Redmi note 8 pro\ Realme X2

shnaek

I'm currently using a Moto G5 plus - I love the phone, it's been great. Now I'm thinking of upgrading. I'm very tempted by the g8 plus, but reviews seem to put the Mi 9T at the top of the list.

I don't do any gaming. I listen to music, watch videos, use the usual social media apps, take photos, satnav - nothing crazy really.

I love the stock android on the Moto's

What are your thoughts?

captain_boycott

I went with the Mi 9T - mainly because the AMOLED display is good, and no teardrop camera, just a full display with minimal bezel. Don't game either so performance not an issue. Some people don't seem to like MIUI, but now that it has its own app drawer, I quite like it now.

geecee

I went from a G5 Plus to a Mi 9T before Christmas

Ended up buying a G8 Plus last week as I hate the Mi 9T, the G8 is slight heavier, wider & longer and has less cpu power/ram ... but at least it doesn't have Miui and all the Xiaomi Bloatware (especially that god damn "Downloads" app")

Got the G8 plus for €231 delivered from Amazon ES

shnaek

Cheers for that, yeah, it's the MIUI that was worrying me though the full display looks great. I do love the clean android on the Moto.

shnaek

geecee wrote: »

I went from a G5 Plus to a Mi 9T before Christmas

Ended up buying a G8 Plus last week as I hate the Mi 9T, the G8 is slight heavier, wider & longer and has less cpu power/ram ... but at least it doesn't have Miui and all the Xiaomi Bloatware (especially that god damn "Downloads" app")

Got the G8 plus for €231 delivered from Amazon ES

How do you find the G8 plus compares to the G5 plus? I see on Amazon.it now it's 203quid which looks like great value for it.

Mark Hamill

geecee wrote: »

I went from a G5 Plus to a Mi 9T before Christmas

Ended up buying a G8 Plus last week as I hate the Mi 9T, the G8 is slight heavier, wider & longer and has less cpu power/ram ... but at least it doesn't have Miui and all the Xiaomi Bloatware (especially that god damn "Downloads" app")

The bloatware is easily removed. Install Nova Launcher and it's essentially stock android.

Whats wrong with the downloads app?

sioda

I've used a pocof1 running miui since day one and never ran into any bloat ware at all have I missed something?

geecee

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Whats wrong with the downloads app?

It pops up at random times of the day to inform me "new file found" - which turns out to be some random PDF that I downloaded days or weeks earlier, it then proceeds to remind me about the file multiple times... until I finally give in and delete the file. Its a complete pain in the ass

Mark Hamill

geecee wrote: »

It pops up at random times of the day to inform me "new file found" - which turns out to be some random PDF that I downloaded days or weeks earlier, it then proceeds to remind me about the file multiple times... until I finally give in and delete the file. Its a complete pain in the ass

Just block all notifications from the app? It's really easy:
Either find the app in the "Apps" part of your settings and turn off it's notifications (Settings>Apps>Manage Apps>Downloads>Notifications)
or
When it gives you a notification, pull down the notification drawer and swipe the notification to the left and you will see a cog and clock, press the cog. (Or you can just press and hold on the notification) You will get a toggle that will allow you to turn off all notifications from the app.

It is a rubbish app, but it's easy to kill (it never pops up for me) and its far from unique in giving irritating pop-ups on android. I have blocked all pop-ups on my phone except for calls, texts, emails, whatsap (which give screen notifications, sound and light) and Google play app updates (which I've set to be silent).
You have a lot of control over notifications in android. E.g. only 3 of my 4 email accounts actually give me notifications and the two google accounts only give me notifications for emails in my Primary and Updates folders.

stephenmarr

I bought a 8T from amazon spain for €158 delivered. Took 3 days. very happy with the phone.

maccydoodies

Ok. Please bear with me. Im not tech savvy at all. I was gifted a Mi 9t for Christmas and I love it. However it seems to be eating the data on me so much so I've turned off the mobile data. Even if I am on wifi at home its a bit I dunno just not connecting properly. So I forget the wifi and add it again. Still not 100%. Everyone else's connection at home seems fine. Is there something I'm doing wrong or some setting that needs to be changed? Thanks

corks finest

sioda wrote: »

I've used a pocof1 running miui since day one and never ran into any bloat ware at all have I missed something?

No bloatware on global

Mark Hamill

maccydoodies wrote: »

Ok. Please bear with me. Im not tech savvy at all. I was gifted a Mi 9t for Christmas and I love it. However it seems to be eating the data on me so much so I've turned off the mobile data. Even if I am on wifi at home its a bit I dunno just not connecting properly. So I forget the wifi and add it again. Still not 100%. Everyone else's connection at home seems fine. Is there something I'm doing wrong or some setting that needs to be changed? Thanks

First thing is to check which apps are using your data:
Open Settings and type "Data Usage" in the search bar and press on the first result. You now have a list of what apps are using your mobile data, from most to least (if you press the button in the top right you can change it to wifi usage). If you tap on "Today:Mobile data usage ...MB" at the top, you can set it to the last month to get a better idea of what is hogging your data.
You can now press each app and you will get a screen which will allow you to limit that app's data usage. There are 3x options, and you can stop the app using mobile data, wifi and background data separately (e.g. if you turn off the toggle for mobile data then that app will only connect to the internet over wifi).

maccydoodies

Mark Hamill wrote: »

First thing is to check which apps are using your data:
Open Settings and type "Data Usage" in the search bar and press on the first result. You now have a list of what apps are using your mobile data, from most to least (if you press the button in the top right you can change it to wifi usage). If you tap on "Today:Mobile data usage ...MB" at the top, you can set it to the last month to get a better idea of what is hogging your data.
You can now press each app and you will get a screen which will allow you to limit that app's data usage. There are 3x options, and you can stop the app using mobile data, wifi and background data separately (e.g. if you turn off the toggle for mobile data then that app will only connect to the internet over wifi).

Thanks for the reply Mark.

Spotify is my biggest culprit. I must download more music to stop using the mobile data. I have today researched a new plan and I'm going to go with virgin media unlimited calls texts and data.

any other tips to get the best out of my phone?

Mark Hamill

maccydoodies wrote: »

Thanks for the reply Mark.

Spotify is my biggest culprit. I must download more music to stop using the mobile data. I have today researched a new plan and I'm going to go with virgin media unlimited calls texts and data.

any other tips to get the best out of my phone?

No problem, glad I could help.
I would recommend debloating it (removing the unnecessary Xiaomi brand apps).
I posted instructions in a different thread here and a list of the apps I removed here (don't remove everything Xiaomi or MIUI brand, 1 or 2 I think are required).

Other than that I don't think there is much need to be done with the phone to get a nice clean stock android feel. I installed Nova Launcher to get back the App Drawer (I think a recent update might have given back on the stock MIUI launcher though).
In general, for any android phone, I would recommend Bromite and Youtube Vanced, custom versions of Chrome and Youtube Apps that block ads. These are not on the PlayStore, so you will have to download them directly from those websites (and install MicroG and SAI apps before the Youtube vanced App, if you want to be able to log into your youtube account).