New owner RMA & flash questions

[jhs39]

I'm getting my OnePlus 5 tomorrow coming from a Pixel XL. I have never owned a OnePlus phone before and have two questions :

1) If you need to RMA a OnePlus phone while it is under warranty does the company send you a new or refurbished phone?

2) If I decide i want to flash TWRP and a custom kernel do I also need to root my phone or can I leave it unrooted?

 

[Rhoban]

I'm getting my OnePlus 5 tomorrow coming from a Pixel XL. I have never owned a OnePlus phone before and have two questions :

1) If you need to RMA a OnePlus phone while it is under warranty does the company send you a new or refurbished phone?

2) If I decide i want to flash TWRP and a custom kernel do I also need to root my phone or can I leave it unrooted?

1) Well, usually they should try to repair your device. If, for whatever reason, that can't be accomplished, they must replace it with a similar device.
This is my general knowledge, not something specific to OnePlus as I've never owned one before either.

2) You will need root in order to tweak the custom kernel settings to your liking. The kernel tweaker app needs root, not the kernel itself.
It's pretty redundant to flash a custom kernel and not be able to change any settings. Might as well stay stock then.

 

[jhs39]

1) Well, usually they should try to repair your device. If, for whatever reason, that can't be accomplished, they must replace it with a similar device.
This is my general knowledge, not something specific to OnePlus as I've never owned one before either.

2) You will need root in order to tweak the custom kernel settings to your liking. The kernel tweaker app needs root, not the kernel itself.
It's pretty redundant to flash a custom kernel and not be able to change any settings. Might as well stay stock then.

1) The reason I'm curious about what OnePlus does with phones under warranty is also the reason I'm washing my hands of Google phones. I own the two most recent Google flagship phones --the Nexus 6P and the Pixel XL. Both phones have extremely high defect and catostrophic failure rates. But the bigger problem is what Google does after you RMA your phone. Google sends its customers refurbished phones but those phones are very frequently defective. With both of those phones some customers have received one defective phone after another. People have complained that they were on their third, fourth or fifth phone after doing their initial RMA with Google. Nobody sends out that many defective phones by accident. I was wondering if customers had similar problems with OnePlus.

2) I thought you probably needed root to tweak the kernel settings. Thanks for confirming that.

 

[sn0warmy]

1) The reason I'm curious about what OnePlus does with phones under warranty is also the reason I'm washing my hands of Google phones. I own the two most recent Google flagship phones --the Nexus 6P and the Pixel XL. Both phones have extremely high defect and catostrophic failure rates. But the bigger problem is what Google does after you RMA your phone. Google sends its customers refurbished phones but those phones are very frequently defective. With both of those phones some customers have received one defective phone after another. People have complained that they were on their third, fourth or fifth phone after doing their initial RMA with Google. Nobody sends out that many defective phones by accident. I was wondering if customers had similar problems with OnePlus.

2) I thought you probably needed root to tweak the kernel settings. Thanks for confirming that.

Interesting... I come from a long list of Nexus and Pixel devices. Luckily I never had to RMA my Pixel. However, I RMA'd a few Nexus devices and all of my replacements were new, sealed phones in full packaging with all new accessories. None of those replacements were defective, or even previously used from what I could tell. In fact, the way Google's RMA process works is that you pay full price for a new phone, they ship you the new phone and when you return your defective unit, they refund the amount you paid for the second phone. With a setup like this, you always get a brand new phone, even when it's technically an "RMA".

I suppose it's possible things changed with RMAs when the Pixel line came out, but your comments seem very much out of the norm from my personal experience and from everything I've read over on the Pixel sub-forums.

 

[jhs39]

If Google had a policy of sending people new phones in an RMA that completely changed by the time the Nexus 6P came out. If you use your phone for one day and need to RMA it they will only send you a refurbished phone. The Pixel forums on XDA are dominated by fan boys. You should read the official Google Pixel Support page if you want to get a more accurate sense of what's going on with that phone.

 

[sn0warmy]

If Google had a policy of sending people new phones in an RMA that completely changed by the time the Nexus 6P came out. If you use your phone for one day and need to RMA it they will only send you a refurbished phone. The Pixel forums on XDA are dominated by fan boys. You should read the official Google Pixel Support page if you want to get a more accurate sense of what's going on with that phone.

It's definitely possible that Google's RMA policy has changed in the past couple of years. I don't think I've RMA'd one since the Nexus 5.

But in the days of the Nexus 5, if you needed to exchange your phone you paid full price for a new one, they sent you the new one in full new retail packaging with all new accessories, and you sent your old phone back. Once they received your old phone they'd refund your money. In those days they absolutely did send you a brand new device.

Now I'm curious what the current RMA process is for Google's phones.


On another note, I'm in a very similar situation as you. I recently sold my Pixel XL as I've been using a Galaxy S8 as my daily driver. However, in 2 months of usage I'm already tired of Touchwiz and looking at other more "pure Android" experiences. I almost pulled the trigger on the OnePlus 5 but decided to hold off and see what the Essential Phone had to offer. Aside from the bezel-less look, early reviews of that phone aren't too positive due to the LCD screen and the sub-par camera.

So now I'm back to looking at the OnePlus 5. But with the 2nd generation Pixel/Pixel Xl due to be announced in early October, I'm finding myself in a holding pattern for the time being.

 

[jhs39]

I think the Pixel XL would have been a great phone for $600 (providing you don't need to RMA it) but for the $1000+ that I spent on mine it was obscenely overpriced. I wouldn't consider buying another Google phone unless they change their RMA policy.

Now they put a hold on your credit card for the full price of a new phone but send you a refurbished one. If you don't have the money available for the hold then you have to return your old phone before they send you a replacement.

Another fun part of their current warranty policy is that the phone has to be returned in like new condition unless you purchased the extended warranty which covers physical damage. There have been reports of the Pixel screen cracking due to overheating and it's fairly easy to scratch, crack or chip the glass on the back of the phone. Before Google will accept an RMA on a defective phone with any physical damage they send you to UBreakWeFix (I think that's what their called) and you have to get any physical damage to the phone repaired out of your own pocket before Google will accept the defective phone back. People report every day that their Pixel became completely unresponsive and dead, usually without warning. Even people with a dead phone can't RMA it before paying to fix any physical damage.

The OnePlus 5 isn't as fast and smooth as a Pixel XL but it's close. My biggest complaint with the phone so far is that its's too thin to hold comfortably for an extended period of time. I wish the phone was a little thicker which would make it easier to grip.

But the OnePlus 5 is much closer to the spirit of the Nexus devices than the Pixel is. It's very easy to unlock the bootloader and flash stuff, the development community blows the one for the Pixels completely out of the water and if you want to update stock you can download zips from the official OnePlus page that can be flashed with TWRP.

I don't notice any jelly effect with my display but there is a rumor OnePlus will release a OnePlus 5T in the fall like they did with the OnePlus 3. It might be worth waiting for the new one instead.

 

[sn0warmy]

Yeah, that RMA process is drastically different than the way it was before. And it sounds like an insanely obnoxious hassle. I think I'll be taking that into consideration when I consider the 2nd generation Pixel/Pixel XL. Granted, I always install a TG screen protector and case on my phones immediately after unboxing them.

A case will likely solve your grip issues, BTW.

Interesting that you say the OnePlus 5 isn't as fast/smooth as the Pixel. I was under the impression from reviewers that the Snapdragon 835 and 6/8GB of RAM in the OnePlus 5 made the phone feel noticeably faster than the Pixel XL. Granted, the Pixel XL never missed a beat and never stuttered, so I'm not really sure how much smoother you can really get than that.

 

[jhs39]

The OnePlus 5 definitely has better specs but for some reason it still isn't as smooth as the Pixel XL. In Spotify I notice a slight lag when I scroll through my playlists. The app drawer also isn't quite as smooth.

One other area where the OnePlus is inferior to the Pixel XL is the camera app. A lot of people are actually using the Google Camera app ported over from the Pixel rather than the stock camera app on the phone.

I preordered the RhinoShield Bumper Guard case for the OnePlus but it isn't shipping until the first week in September. Meanwhile I'm on my third temporary case for the OnePlus but I haven't liked any of them. The stock case that OnePlus sells for $40 (it's their signature case) is amazingly bad. It's literally paper thin, offers no protection, fits the phone poorly, is every bit as slick as the bare phone and feels like it was made of seventy five cents worth of material at most. The Supcase Unicorn Beetle Pro is so poorly designed it interferes with the ability to type accurately because the edge of the case redirects your fingers. I'm currently using the Spigen Rugged Armor but the case is too slim and smooth to improve the grip of the phone. It's not what I expected given the name but when you're buying phone cases on Amazon it's hard to tell what you are getting until it arrives.

 

[jhs39]

Now that I think about it the reason the OnePlus 5 isn't quite as fast and smooth as the Pixel XL is very likely because it's running a modified version of Android. I tried a number of custom ROMs on the Pixel XL but the phone performed best by far on pure stock Android. On even the best custom ROM the Pixel probably didn't perform as well as the OnePlus 5. The Oxygen operating system used on the OnePlus adds useful functionality not found in stock Android but it also adds bugs that affect performance in one way or another.

 

[Rhoban]

The Pixel also runs a slightly modified version of Android.
OnePlus is faster due to its specs. Hands down. The only reason the Pixel feels smoother is due to the software and how it was tuned.

 

[jhs39]

The Pixel also runs a slightly modified version of Android.
OnePlus is faster due to its specs. Hands down. The only reason the Pixel feels smoother is due to the software and how it was tuned.

Faster specs don't matter if the phone doesn't feel faster or smoother. The Pixel runs the most vanilla version of Android that you will find on any phone. But it also doesn't have the customization options or features that you find on the OnePlus or especially on a high end Samsung phone. But there's a trade-off. The Samsung phones tend to lag noticeably after months of use. The Pixel doesn't lag ever as long as you stay on stock Android. Unfortunately recent Google phones including the Pixel have very serious build problems. Google almost seems to be intentionally making phones that will be dead within a couple years of purchase .