My first impressions.
Unpacking and assembly
The box is very nice - a white, textured cardboard with a blue ‘open me’ ribbon.
The back cover wasn’t on, and I couldn’t find it at first (it was hiding at the bottom of the box). It was very difficult to get the cover on properly - each of the 4 corners in particular.
As such, I haven’t tried disassembling it yet. I’ll probably give it a go next weekend.
Look
It looks fantastic. It looks a lot better than I’d expected, based on photos and reviews throughout the web. The gentle curve on the back hides how thick the phone is.
I’ve got the transparent back cover which is absolutely fantastic. Again, this is significantly more beautiful than I’d hoped. I’ve only had it a few days, but it’s been a big talking point when people have noticed it.
Feel
It certainly feels a lot thicker than my husband’s Nexus 6, but it still feels nice in the hand. The back cover feels very slightly soft, which is nice.
The buttons were a little stiff at first, but after a couple of presses now have a really nice feel when pressing in.
Screen
The screen is crisp and clear, colours are great as are the details.
There’s a significant flicker when the screen is on the lowest brightness setting, which I’m hoping is a software issue. Also, the difference between the lowest brightness and the next up is huge - in some light I’m struggling to get comfortable as one is too dark and the other too bright.
I’ve noticed one touchscreen issue - when scrolling, the screen will often jump all over the place. It hasn’t affected usability at all, but it’s a little offputting.
Camera
The camera is a huge disappointment. I like taking photos, and neither camera is up to the job really. The front camera is so bad it might as well not exist. It’s such poor quality that I’d rather it was left out and the money spent on a better quality rear camera. I haven’t been able to take a single good photo yet.
Colours are a little washed-out, there’s a lot of noise, the camera is slow to work (so photos are sometimes blurred) and I often struggle to focus. I’ll get some examples later.
I’m aware that many camera issues are software so perhaps there might be an update to help in the future. Either that or a module upgrade at some point - I think I might have to buy myself a digital camera to compensate for the poor phone camera, which is disappointing.
Software
I wasn’t sure on the launcher at first. I’ve come from Windows Phone, which has very straight forward start screen, and the Android experience was a little more complicated. I tried installing a couple of alternatives - Google Now and Microsoft Arrow - but realised that I preferred the FP default. After a few days use I really like it.
I love the lock screen, being able to tap between clock, peace of mind, battery and time of ownership is really nice.
I’d guess the majority of users will only use one sim, so the prominance of dual-sim in the software is annoying. There’s a huge ugly greyed-out sim icon in the taskbar, and on the lock screen there’s a scrolling text in the top-left saying ‘No sim card’. I hope a software update will get rid of these.
Battery
So far so good. I spent the whole day out with friends yesterday and used my phone for maps and photos quite often. I also listened to music and browsed the web for a total of 3 hours on the train there and back. When I got home my battery level was 48% which I was chuffed with. I thought it might not last all day so took a portable batter pack out with me - but it was not needed at all.
Overall
I love it. There are a couple of minor annoyances but on the whole I’m really chuffed. I can’t wait to keep on using it and exploring more things. And showing it off - of course.