# Looking for decent smartphone



## Regeneration (May 6, 2019)

My LG G3 dropped dead, and now I'm looking for good performance-per-price phone. Battery life is also important to me.

Maximum budget: $450 / €400

I thought about LG V30, and then I saw negative reviews regarding the display.

My 2nd choice, was S8+, but then I found out it has different specification per region:

Octa-core (4x2.3 GHz Mongoose M2 & 4x1.7 GHz Cortex-A53) - EMEA
Octa-core (4x2.35 GHz Kryo & 4x1.9 GHz Kryo) - USA & China

Thanks!


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## AltCapwn (May 6, 2019)

Okay, I know everyone's gonna become crazy because of my recommendation, but I love the Blackberry Key2, and even convert 2 of my friends to the Blackberry family after letting them try it.

You gotta love the physical keyboard, but I do personally hate touchscreen.


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## AlienIsGOD (May 6, 2019)

Pixel 2 XL is what i have and it runs pretty snappy with a great camera


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## eidairaman1 (May 6, 2019)

Make sure it is carrier unlocked.

Gsmarena is a good reference point for all different phone models even within a certain line


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## R-T-B (May 6, 2019)

Hail, fellow G3 user!  My Verizon vs985 croaked just this year.

If you liked the removable batteries that LG almost kept around post G3...  they really don't exist anymore.  Closest you can get is the Lenovo Motorola "z" phone lineup, which is a strange brand but does have external clip on battery packs for their flagship z phones.

I like mine,running a first gen moto z I got new old stock this year pretty cheaply.

*Good things about it:*
It doesn't have "gimicks" like a curved screen, see through, or bezeless screen, which I hate.  It's just a good quality AMOLED.  I understand they have kept the body all the way to the z3, too, for "mod" (accessory) compatibility.
The external battery packs are great I just wish you could charge all of them separately (see con).
An army of magnetic hotswap clipon accesories available for it including gamepads, projectors (like lolwut I know) and an optical zoom camera.  I've only tried the batteries because you can wallet drain fast there.

*Bad things about it:*
It runs a little hot, but that's probably just because my first gen one has a shitty hot chipset.  A newer one would do better, but money and I are not easily parted (unless it's PC).

The internal battery is pretty small (but the external batteries limit this impact and actually make it quite a battery tank).

The "battery mods" short of the really expensive turbo pack do NOT support external charging.  Kind of a weird design decision.  I bought a dead moto z on ebay "for-parts" I use as a charging cradle to mitigate this (if it can even partially turn on it can usually charge accessories, just look for shattered screens, any z series will do).

Different specs on Verizon version.  That version is basically overclocked.  This may only apply to first gen, but honestly, firstgen runs hot as is and does not need an overclock.

-RTB, "won't pay more than $200 for a phone" guru.


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## eidairaman1 (May 6, 2019)

https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s8+-8523.php#g955u

It's either the G955U or G955FD you want.


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## R-T-B (May 6, 2019)

eidairaman1 said:


> https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s8+-8523.php#g955u
> 
> It's either the G955U or G955FD you want.



I had a S8 on contract and wasn't terribly impressed but I'm a phone-dinosaur.  The curved screen kept making me mess up and touch things I didn't want so I returned it on carrier contract within the return period.  Your preferences may vary, of course.  I hate change.

And I doubt he wants dualsim G955FD, that costs more and not many people run two plans.  He most likely wants the G955F if he wants Exnyos (Verizon need not apply), G955U if he wants Qualcomm or has Verizon.


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## Regeneration (May 6, 2019)

The double specification gets on my nerves. I can only find the EMEA version with lower clocks.

https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_pocophone_f1-9293.php

The specs for Xiaomi Pocophone F1 are amazing.


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## R-T-B (May 6, 2019)

Regeneration said:


> The double specification gets on my nerves.



You and me both.  I especially hate it when one carrier pays for an "exclusive" version but I recognize this does happen a lot, and have basically accepted I often must begrudgingly ignore it.

Of course, it always helps if the phone is cheap.  That helps me ignore a lot of things.



Regeneration said:


> The specs for Xiaomi Pocophone F1 are amazing.



Holy shiiite...  I'm guessing MSRP is much higher than your willing to pay though?

EDIT:  Looks in your buget man, I wouldn't say no.  I like the 8GBs of ram.


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## Eskimonster (May 6, 2019)

bought a phone in china for 90 dollars with 8 cores 256 gb space and 1080p 13MP camera and Dual Sim.  Name Geotel Amigo. here is a photo sample also.


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## eidairaman1 (May 6, 2019)

R-T-B said:


> I had a S8 on contract and wasn't terribly impressed but I'm a phone-dinosaur.  The curved screen kept making me mess up and touch things I didn't want so I returned it on carrier contract within the return period.  Your preferences may vary, of course.  I hate change.
> 
> And I doubt he wants dualsim G955FD, that costs more and not many people run two plans.  He most likely wants the G955F if he wants Exnyos (Verizon need not apply), G955U if he wants Qualcomm or has Verizon.



I have a G900T myself which was brand new carrier unlocked. I provided the 2 I suggested due to asking about the S8+, work with any carrier.


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## R-T-B (May 6, 2019)

eidairaman1 said:


> I have a G900T myself which was brand new carrier unlocked. I provided the 2 I suggested due to asking about the S8+, work with any carrier.



Yeah, but you advised a dual sim variant that won't work with verizon, and then the qualcomm based one that works with basically everyone.

Was just pointing out that the dualsim may not be needed.  The G950U is the safe bet if going Samsung.

No worries either way.  Verizon is always the oddduck carrier for unlocked.


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## bug (May 6, 2019)

If you're not in the US, Nokia has some pretty sweet phones imho. And they're all Android One phones to boot


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## Regeneration (May 6, 2019)

I almost bought Xiaomi Pocophone F1, but at the last second, I saw a user review saying "Don't buy this! doesn't have NFC, and the touch isn't responsive like the major brands".

Galaxy S8 Plus it is I guess. I can get SM-G955F or SM-G955FD (dual-sim) in a lower price. Both unlocked. I wonder why the dual-sim version is cheaper.



bug said:


> If you're not in the US, Nokia has some pretty sweet phones imho. And they're all Android One phones to boot



Nokia 8.1 (aka X7) is in my budget, but there are no benchmarks or any word on the battery life on GSMArena.


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## R-T-B (May 6, 2019)

Regeneration said:


> I wonder why the dual-sim version is cheaper.



That is odd.


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## bug (May 7, 2019)

Regeneration said:


> Nokia 8.1 (aka X7) is in my budget, but there are no benchmarks or any word on the battery life on GSMArena.


It's got a 3,500mAh battery and a 10nm SoC, battery life is most likely above average. But I hear you, I feel the same about having to plug the phone in every single day


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## Readlight (May 7, 2019)

Galaxy 8 S Luxury new phones A60 ,nokia 4.2, K50


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## Vayra86 (May 7, 2019)

Eskimonster said:


> bought a phone in china for 90 dollars with 8 cores 256 gb space and 1080p 13MP camera and Dual Sim.  Name Geotel Amigo. here is a photo sample also.View attachment 122417



That's a pretty big phone! And for 90 dollars, a steal! 

My recommendation would be Moto G6/Plus. Royally under budget, will do the job, and quite well too. Moto has a pretty close to stock Android as well.

It won't beat chinaphones spec wise though.


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## bug (May 7, 2019)

Vayra86 said:


> That's a pretty big phone! And for 90 dollars, a steal!
> 
> My recommendation would be Moto G6/Plus. Royally under budget, will do the job, and quite well too. Moto has a pretty close to stock Android as well.
> 
> It won't beat chinaphones spec wise though.


I used to be all about Moto Gs, but their update policy sucks. I think Nokia is the better pick now. Of course, availability is also a factor.

As for Chinese phones, the lesser known brands are basically disposable hardware, because you can't fix them unless you ship them back to China. At those prices, disposable may be ok though.


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## kastriot (May 7, 2019)

As  you can see mobile phone favorite is in eye of beholder so i made this custom search in gsmarena you can tweak it as you like:

https://www.gsmarena.com/results.ph...ayResMin=2073600&nBatCapacityMin=4000&sOSes=2


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## Chomiq (May 7, 2019)

bug said:


> It's got a 3,500mAh battery and a 10nm SoC, battery life is most likely above average. But I hear you, I feel the same about having to plug the phone in every single day


There you go.


> *Nokia* has a 3500 mAh battery and supports 18W charging.  In the YouTube video playback test with the screen brightness set to half, *Nokia 8.1* discharged to 7% after 11 hours.  In the test battery GeekBench with a dimmed screen, the *Nokia* received 4803 points and discharged after 5 hours and 33 minutes of continuous load of the processor.  This is a fairly good result, though not in the forefront.  Like the charging speed, which is good, but lower than even the cheaper *Moto G7 Plus* with 27W charging.  It provides comfort, but does not go beyond the standard of other smartphones and finding a model that will work longer is the most possible



As some people mentioned, Moto's no longer provide as swift updates as they used to in the past.

For $450/400€ you're either going to have to compromise on some things with a new phone or go for flagships that are at least 1 or 2 generations behind. It's a tough call.

Huawei flagships drop prices fast once new gen is released, so do LG's.


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## bug (May 7, 2019)

Chomiq said:


> There you go.
> 
> 
> As some people mentioned, Moto's no longer provide as swift updates as they used to in the past.
> ...


And by "no longer provide as swift" they mean G phones get a new version of Android well after the _next _version is released. At least the security patches are only a couple of months old.

Nokia's Android One phones don't get instant updates either, but waiting 2-4 months for a new Android version on a mid-range phone is miles better than what Moto currently offers.


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## Regeneration (May 7, 2019)

After hours of reading, it seems that mid-range phones aren't great like previous generation high-end models.

Performance:
https://www.gsmarena.com/benchmark-test.php3?idPhone=8523#show

Battery time:
https://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3?idPhone=8523#show

I ordered Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus (dual-sim version) 2y warranty + Otterbox Symmetry + 9H tempered glass screen protector.

Seems like best bang for the buck.


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## Jetster (May 7, 2019)

Vayra86 said:


> That's a pretty big phone! And for 90 dollars, a steal!
> 
> My recommendation would be Moto G6/Plus. Royally under budget, will do the job, and quite well too. Moto has a pretty close to stock Android as well.
> 
> It won't beat chinaphones spec wise though.



I bought the Moto G 5 Plus. very reasonable plus I got republic Wireless for $32 month 4G 3 Gb Data


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## Midiamp (May 7, 2019)

Where you at? The States? If you are, Pixel phones are great, the upcoming 3a probably gets you the best bang for the buck.

If you're from the old country or in the vicinity, the Chinese phones nowadays are great choice. Xiaomi, Oppo/Realme, Vivo, is borderline good/great today. I'm a Chinese phone convert myself, coming from Samsung S and A line, now I settled for Huawei P30 Pro and Honor 8X. Almost bought a Vivo V15 Pro for my daily use, but a friend asked me to buy his P30 Pro as he need the money for something else, so I bought that. Both the P30 Pro and Honor 8X killed my range anxiety, amazing battery life, and the P30 Pro camera is just downright amazing.

I turned off all user experience feedback and any "ET call home" functions tho.


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## Vayra86 (May 7, 2019)

Jetster said:


> I bought the Moto G 5 Plus. very reasonable plus I got republic Wireless for $32 month 4G 3 Gb Data



Yep me and the missus have one too and its pretty damn good. Also comes with dual sim, even.


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## AltCapwn (May 7, 2019)

Eskimonster said:


> bought a phone in china for 90 dollars with 8 cores 256 gb space and 1080p 13MP camera and Dual Sim.  Name Geotel Amigo. here is a photo sample also.View attachment 122417



I thought you took a photo of the phone. It's a pretty big phone with no screen?!


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## Eskimonster (May 7, 2019)

i just bought a galaxy 7 for my daughter refurbished for 75 dollar

Here a pic of my phone 
 and oh yea it got fingerprints .


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## eidairaman1 (May 7, 2019)

Eskimonster said:


> i just bought a galaxy 7 for my daughter refurbished for 75 dollar
> 
> Here a pic of my phone View attachment 122490



Hopefully it's with the corrected lith-ion battery. We had 4 at work 3 of the batteries buldged and caused the phone to split/delaminate. Only 1 survived.


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## SoNic67 (May 7, 2019)

Regeneration said:


> My 2nd choice, was S8+, but then I found out it has different specification per region:


What region will you be using it in?
The US models (Snapdragon) work perfectly in EU. The EU models don't work well in US.

I have used Asus, Motorola (moto X 1st gen, G4 Plus, X Pure) before I defected to Samsung camp. Moto quality slipped a lot lately, and their updates are very slow to come by. I'm on Verizon network and that didn't work at all on Asus and poorly on moto (no VoLTE). Works fine on Samsung - had S7 Edge, S9 and now I have S10.
Never had any battery problems on the S7 Edge - I still have that phone in the house.

At least Samsung has monthly updates for the flagship models. The S7/7 Edge just got moved to quarterly updates this April, after receiving three Android upgrades. Unheard of with other manufacturers.
https://security.samsungmobile.com/workScope.smsb


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## Eskimonster (May 7, 2019)

Hmm,your saying something.

Gonna check it,when shes back from school about the battery type.


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## R-T-B (May 11, 2019)

Only the galaxy s7 note had battery problems warranting a recall.


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## okidna (May 11, 2019)

I just bought Xiaomi Mi 9 SE. I love small and compact phone, this one despite using 5.97 inch AMOLED screen managed to be small enough (only 3 mm longer and 1 mm wider than my trusty old Mi 5 which has 5.15 inch screen).

Got the 6/64GB model, I don't play games or listening musics on my phone so 64 GB is more than enough for me.
SD 712 is nice, fast, and efficient. I can get 5-7 hours of SOT with only 3070 mAh battery for my daily usage (no gaming, mostly browsing on 4G network, and a little bit of social media).


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## Roddey (May 11, 2019)

LG v20 still has the replacable battery, high def dac, ear phone jack, and can be had cheap. Mine(used) did have some screen burn in when I got it but I ran a screen burn in remover app and it got rid of it. That is if you do not need band 12 on t-mobile. I will hang on to mine until it breaks or is unusable on my network and if the dac still works I will use that even if the phone is no longer needed. The dac is still great in it and the camera is good.


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## Deleted member 24505 (May 11, 2019)

Samsung phones are over rated. The huawei P20 pro was better than the s9, and the new P30 pro is better than the s10, imo of course.


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## silentbogo (May 11, 2019)

Regeneration said:


> I almost bought Xiaomi Pocophone F1, but at the last second, I saw a user review saying "Don't buy this! doesn't have NFC, and the touch isn't responsive like the major brands".


If you want something like pocophone, but with NFC - look at Mi Mix 2s, Mi8 or the newest Mi9 (SD855!!! ).



Regeneration said:


> Nokia 8.1 (aka X7) is in my budget, but there are no benchmarks or any word on the battery life on GSMArena.


Probably not tested yet, but there are reviews for this model. I've watched a video on TechAltar about this thing, and so far it doesn't look impressive at all (except for the weird looks and gazillion cameras gimmick). Specs are typical for this price range.
I'm a Nokia 8 owner and while I like my phone overall, it does not live up even to its moderate price tag. Gorilla Glass 5 should be scratch resistant, but I've already made a small groove in it after careful use and carrying the phone in a pocket by itself (no keys or junk).[/quote][/QUOTE]


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