Mid-range smartphone recommendations

[grkt]

2 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

I agree about this annoyance and would wish that the competition by the "clean" Android models will learn them a lesson.

I switched off automatic update, check the notifications and being puzzled how often some apps require updates.

LINE might easily require three updates a week.

 

 

I set this $hit to update only over wifi, but as I never connect wifi, I do not update often, and everything is fine.

 

[Chongalulu]

20 hours ago, Fat Prophet said:

Honor is a label made by Huawei, which is coming quickly and strong, especially in Asia. One of the Honor phones (Honor 10) was ranked as the best mid range smartphone for 2018 recently, and the Honor 9 was close behind (ranked 4th) by TechAdvisor.UK.  So, I think that Honor generally is a good bet. I would be seriously interested if I hadn't already ordered the Asus 4 Max Plus for just a tad more.  My only question would be parts availability and repair. Asus recently made a statement that it was reducing/removing extra apps from its phones, so the new models should be streamlined in that regard. I hope that is the case with my Max Plus when it arrives, but as I said in an earlier post, I have removed all of the unwanted apps from my Zenfone 3 with little problem, so I am not especially worried about apps. My biggest concern (and hope) is for a better camera on the 4 Max Plus than I have on the 3 Laser. I frequently carry my Nikon 1 or my DSLR, but it would be nice to get decent pictures when I am caught off guard, which is often not the case with the Zenfone 3.  

Just bought the newly launched  Huawei Y9 for the missus 6990 baht ,there is a cheaper but same size Y7 5000 baht but the 4000m/ah battery on the Y9 was the main clincher. Better display also apparently.

[KrishnaCameb4Buddha]

On 5/17/2018 at 8:41 AM, Fat Prophet said:

 

In the mid range, I would stay within the Asus, Huawei (Honor), Xiao Mi, and OnePlus group (I was going to include OPPO, but deleted it on further consideration; Motorola should probably be in the group also, some models get excellent reviews, but I have no idea about price), and stay away (far away) from Samsung,

when your Asus, Xiaomi, Motorola breaks, however, good luck getting it fixed.  Not only are there few or none service centers but parts are difficult to find.  Any little shop, however, can make many repairs to Samsung  because parts are easy to come by if your phone is out of warranty.  If it is in warranty, Samsung will repair it fast. (They repaired my non-smart phone speaker without even wanting to see my receipt).

 

I wanted a Xiaomi or a Moto(rola), but lack of service/repair is making me rethink that.

Edited May 19, 2018 by KrishnaCameb4Buddha

[NanLaew]

On 5/18/2018 at 8:29 AM, nchuckle said:

Just bought the newly launched  Huawei Y9 for the missus 6990 baht ,there is a cheaper but same size Y7 5000 baht but the 4000m/ah battery on the Y9 was the main clincher. Better display also apparently.

Noted. Looks good on gsmarena comparison.

 

Looks like sweet deal here if you can handle the (minimum) 499 baht/m prepaid service for 12 months and if stocks have lasted!

[thedemon]

2 hours ago, KrishnaCameb4Buddha said:

when your Asus, Xiaomi, Motorola breaks, however, good luck getting it fixed.  Not only are there few or none service centers but parts are difficult to find.  Any little shop, however, can make many repairs to Samsung  because parts are easy to come by if your phone is out of warranty.  If it is in warranty, Samsung will repair it fast. (They repaired my non-smart phone speaker without even wanting to see my receipt).

 

I wanted a Xiaomi or a Moto(rola), but lack of service/repair is making me rethink that.

 

I consider it an advantage that I can get almost any Xiaomi parts on Aliexpress. Generally much cheaper than Samsung parts too.

 

As an example, I recently ordered a replacement screen assembly for a Mi6 for approx USD40. For the equivalent Samsung (S8) the cheapest I can find is USD140+. Similar prices for an S7 making them almost uneconomical to repair.

[KrishnaCameb4Buddha]

5 minutes ago, thedemon said:

 

I consider it an advantage that I can get almost any Xiaomi parts on Aliexpress. Generally much cheaper than Samsung parts too.

 

As an example, I recently ordered a replacement screen assembly for a Mi6 for approx USD40. For the equivalent Samsung (S8) the cheapest I can find is USD140+. Similar prices for an S7 making them almost uneconomical to repair.

Thanks for the info.  Great to know that can be done, especially since I am more impressed with brands like Moto and Xiaomi than Samsung.  So, once you have the part in hand do you then get your friendly thai repair shop to do it? I wonder if aliexpress sells replacement parts for Moto(rola)s like they do for Xiaomi.  I heard that Xiaomi opened an official service center in Bangkok, so if the product comes with a warranty one could get it repaired there.

 

Am curious if your Xiaomi came with so-called 'bloatware'--lots of unwanted 'ads' etc.  I've heard many good things about Xiaomi products...

[Fat Prophet]

3 hours ago, KrishnaCameb4Buddha said:

when your Asus, Xiaomi, Motorola breaks, however, good luck getting it fixed.  Not only are there few or none service centers but parts are difficult to find.  Any little shop, however, can make many repairs to Samsung  because parts are easy to come by if your phone is out of warranty.  If it is in warranty, Samsung will repair it fast. (They repaired my non-smart phone speaker without even wanting to see my receipt).

 

I wanted a Xiaomi or a Moto(rola), but lack of service/repair is making me rethink that.

I agree with you completely. You should have read my first post in this thread. Asus has a factory repair shop within walking distance of Fortune Town in BKK on Rama 9, right on the MRT. I have taken my phone and computer there for battery replacement and service is excellent and parts are available for any Asus product bought in Thailand. I really like Xiao Mi, but I share your concerns about parts availability and repair. I would check on this carefully before I purchased a Xiao Mi phone. I just bought a new Asus phone for exactly that reason (and that it is a great phone and offered at a great price).

 

And its good that Samsung has repair available, because you will need it regularly. Given the horrendous experience with Samsung products (including their "flagship" (Note 7) phone with the "spontaneously combustible battery" which was not allowed  on every major airline), I do not see how anyone could recommend Samsung, much less buy one -- only for the truly uninformed. Why Samsung has not disappeared from the smart phone market is beyond me -- gimmicky marketing and consumer ignorance are apparently a "winning combination", at least in the area of consumer electronics.  

[grkt]

8 hours ago, KrishnaCameb4Buddha said:

when your Asus, Xiaomi, Motorola breaks, however, good luck getting it fixed.  Not only are there few or none service centers but parts are difficult to find.  Any little shop, however, can make many repairs to Samsung  because parts are easy to come by if your phone is out of warranty.  If it is in warranty, Samsung will repair it fast. (They repaired my non-smart phone speaker without even wanting to see my receipt).

 

I wanted a Xiaomi or a Moto(rola), but lack of service/repair is making me rethink that.

 

Who fixes a 6000 thb phone ?!

I buy them cheap to trash them as soon as they have a problem instead of having to deal with any idiot service center.

 

 

 

[thedemon]

17 minutes ago, grkt said:

 

Who fixes a 6000 thb phone ?!

I buy them cheap to trash them as soon as they have a problem instead of having to deal with any idiot service center.

 

 

 

 

The people in Thailand earning 3-400 Baht/day, that's who.

 

[userabcd]

8 hours ago, KrishnaCameb4Buddha said:

when your Asus, Xiaomi, Motorola breaks, however, good luck getting it fixed.  Not only are there few or none service centers but parts are difficult to find.  Any little shop, however, can make many repairs to Samsung  because parts are easy to come by if your phone is out of warranty.  If it is in warranty, Samsung will repair it fast. (They repaired my non-smart phone speaker without even wanting to see my receipt).

 

I wanted a Xiaomi or a Moto(rola), but lack of service/repair is making me rethink that.

Xiaomi actually have many service centres around Thailand, just check on their Thai web site.

 

I have seen the one on the 5th floor in Pantip Plaza.

[NanLaew]

6 hours ago, KrishnaCameb4Buddha said:

Am curious if your Xiaomi came with so-called 'bloatware'--lots of unwanted 'ads' etc.  I've heard many good things about Xiaomi products...

The reason I bought a Xiaomi a couple of months ago was because it has no bloatware ro ads. Any ads come from free apps that one installs... pretty much the same as any other smartphone.

[4evermaat]

3 hours ago, grkt said:

 

Who fixes a 6000 thb phone ?!

I buy them cheap to trash them as soon as they have a problem instead of having to deal with any idiot service center.

 

 

 

It depends on what breaks.  If the charging port is broken and can be fixed for 200-300 baht without breaking other phone functionality, do you need to throw out an otherwise working phone?  

 

Even if you wanted to get a new one, the old one will make a great spare or gift for someone. 

[4evermaat]

The midyear Thai Mobile Expo is coming up next week 24-27 May 2018 at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center .  If you can make it, you might be able to find some good deals there.  

 

Samsung will showcase the A6/A6+ 2018 (8990/10,990) .  A scaled down version of S9.  If it has dual sim (2 dedicated slots + dedicated microSD slot), then it might be worth looking at.  

 

Most of the vendors will give out premiums with the phone purchase. Also you get the comfort of seeing multiple types of mobile devices from all the major brands showcased in one place.  Plenty of mid-range choices should be available.

Edited May 20, 2018 by 4evermaat

[gotozero]

If you are interested in searching by full range of parameters i could recommend web(https://javaphone.store).

They have all kinds of that toggle buttons for filtering and pretty much about technical specification of devices.

 

Edited May 21, 2018 by gotozero

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 5/16/2018 at 1:17 PM, KhunBENQ said:

I am very satisfied with the Samsung J7+.

Excellent display (Full HD, Amoled), fast, enough memory (4 GB, 32 GB), dual cam.

Don't be fooled to buy a "J7 Pro" or "Prime", "J7+" is it.

Bloatware, unfortunately yes. At least with that amount of memory it doesn't hurt much.

 

 

Samsung kills me with their marketing approach.

 

Try to get any average person to explain what the top level differences are between a Plus model vs a Prime model vs a Pro model... Or which is at the top of the spectrum and which is at the bottom. Hopeless...

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 5/16/2018 at 3:35 PM, Fat Prophet said:

 I am an Asus fan, and just ordered the Zenfone 4 Max Plus (M1), which has a 5.7" screen, with 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of ROM, and can be had now on Lazada for just under B5000 -- a steal at that price. It gets great reviews across the board, exceptional battery life, except for the camera (the camera on my Zenfone 3 is also disappointing, but not a huge problem IMO). I like Asus because they have a factory service center just a short walk from Fortune Town in BKK, so getting warranty work is relatively easy as compared to some of the other less popular phones in Thailand. The new Zenfone 5z is also a great phone (has the new Snapdragon 845 processor), but it is hard to find and triple the price of the Zenfone 4 Max Plus. Avoid the Max Pro, it is not as good as the max Plus and costs a bit more. Lots of good choices now....

 

The one thing I don't like about many of ASUS' recent models is they're following the trend for non-removable batteries. My Zenfone 2 Laser has a removable battery, which is a feature I specifically wanted at the time of purchase, and it's good it does too, since the original battery failed 1+ years after purchase. So otherwise, I'd be out my original purchase money and be having to buy a new phone as well.

 

Another niggle I have with a lot of their models that come with dual SIM slots is when using LTE in the one SIM slot, the other SIM slot is only enabled for 2G. And these days, some of the Thai mobile providers aren't even using 2G signals anymore. So it effectively defeats the purpose of having a dual SIM phone.

 

But a lot of times, the ASUS websites and specs don't clearly state that, and you only find out once you start using the phone, or read the tiny print of the manual once you download the PDF file from somewhere.

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[scubascuba3]

I have the Samsung J7 Pro and am very happy with it, around 9k

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 5/17/2018 at 12:04 PM, Fat Prophet said:

Asus recently made a statement that it was reducing/removing extra apps from its phones, so the new models should be streamlined in that regard.

 

I think what they're trending toward doing is making their MANY ASUS apps, most of which I never use, as optional add-ons via the Play Store instead of automatically bundling them into the OS of the phone, where you can avoid updates, but you pretty much can't remove the underlying, permanently installed app. I hope they are moving on that direction with their newer models.

 

Regarding ASUS, also, they don't seem to be very fast or very committed to providing OS generation updates. Mine has Android 6 on it now, after starting out with 5 I believe, and I haven't heard any indication an update to either 7 or 8 is going to be forthcoming. Though I do seem to get an Android security patch update every six months or so. My sense is that you might expect an update to the next major OS update after purchase, and that's pretty much it.

 

 

 

[gotozero]

44 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

I have the Samsung J7 Pro and am very happy with it, around 9k

 

 

7900thb

[Fat Prophet]

10 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I think what they're trending toward doing is making their MANY ASUS apps, most of which I never use, as optional add-ons via the Play Store instead of automatically bundling them into the OS of the phone, where you can avoid updates, but you pretty much can't remove the underlying, permanently installed app. I hope they are moving on that direction with their newer models.

 

Regarding ASUS, also, they don't seem to be very fast or very committed to providing OS generation updates. Mine has Android 6 on it now, after starting out with 5 I believe, and I haven't heard any indication an update to either 7 or 8 is going to be forthcoming. Though I do seem to get an Android security patch update every six months or so. My sense is that you might expect an update to the next major OS update after purchase, and that's pretty much it.

 

 

 

My old Zenfone 3 Laser now has Android 7.1.1 installed, and my new Zenfone 4 Max Plus, which I just got Friday and set up over the weekend, has Android 7.0, although there may be some updates that will come onto my new phone shortly. I see very little difference in the performance of the 2 phones -- the screen on the Max Plus is brighter with more vivid colors and is very slightly larger, but I see little to any difference in performance, but I have only had it up and running for 1 day and I might see more improvement over time. The Zenfone 3 is a solid phone and works very well, but the Max Plus is only marginally better. I have taken about a dozen pictures with the new phone -- one was excellent and in relatively low light; three were average, no better than my Zenfone 3, and 5 were fuzzy, out of focus and very poor quality; I deleted them. I am not really sure what I was expecting/hoping for (other than a better camera (it does have 2 rear cameras, normal and wide angle; I have only used the normal lens thus far)), but there is certainly not enough improvement to justify the B5,000 purchase price. I really like Asus, but unless you are into face recognition and other gimmicks or have a phone with problems, the actual performance of the phones has reached a plateau and you are probably better to stick with what you have. I may feel differently in a month or so, but that is my first reaction -- same, same. 

[grkt]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Samsung kills me with their marketing approach.

 

Try to get any average person to explain what the top level differences are between a Plus model vs a Prime model vs a Pro model... Or which is at the top of the spectrum and which is at the bottom. Hopeless...

 

 

this is so easy, even lotus has the clear specs and shows exactly what is better on the more expensive models.

 

I have samsung almost as much as I hate apple, but it is so easy to buy them and fix them everywhere that I still think that they are the best choice. I am not stupid enough to look for problem with any Chinese crap because I think that I deserve better specs or anything else totally useless for 90% of the people.

 

 

 

[grkt]

1 hour ago, scubascuba3 said:

I have the Samsung J7 Pro and am very happy with it, around 9k

 

 

 

I agree that this is a good choice for a cheap phone, and people looking for Chinese brands always make me laugh.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 minutes ago, grkt said:

 

this is so easy, even lotus has the clear specs and shows exactly what is better on the more expensive models.

 

 

Of course any one can read the specs and compare among the Plus, Pro, Prime, etc models, if they are so inclined.

 

My point was, there's no common sense, inherently intuitive approach in their naming conventions that tells you among Plus, Pro, Prime, etc, which is the high middle or low range versions of that particular phone.

 

[KrishnaCameb4Buddha]

5 hours ago, grkt said:

 

  people looking for Chinese brands always make me laugh.

 

 

androidpolice.com would beg to differ with you:

 

https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/01/20/xiaomi-mi-a1-second-take-215-offers-best-value-android-smartphone-right-now/

 

https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/13/xiaomi-mi-a1-android-one-review-almost-perfect-budget-phone/

 

[scubascuba3]

androidpolice.com would beg to differ with you:
 
https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/01/20/xiaomi-mi-a1-second-take-215-offers-best-value-android-smartphone-right-now/
 
https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/13/xiaomi-mi-a1-android-one-review-almost-perfect-budget-phone/
 

My limited experience of a cheaper chinese phone which was highly rated was that support by the company was poor and there were numerous issues with the software. It just wasn't tested sufficiently before being released. I now stick with well known brands when possible, LG, Samsung

[thedemon]

19 hours ago, grkt said:

 

I agree that this is a good choice for a cheap phone, and people looking for Chinese brands always make me laugh.

 

 

 

You remind me of those old guys when I was a kid that would say "I'll never buy one of those tinny Jap-crap cars"

[thedemon]

6 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

13 hours ago, KrishnaCameb4Buddha said:

androidpolice.com would beg to differ with you:
 
https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/01/20/xiaomi-mi-a1-second-take-215-offers-best-value-android-smartphone-right-now/
 
https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/13/xiaomi-mi-a1-android-one-review-almost-perfect-budget-phone/
 

My limited experience of a cheaper chinese phone which was highly rated was that support by the company was poor and there were numerous issues with the software. It just wasn't tested sufficiently before being released. I now stick with well known brands when possible, LG, Samsung

 

I would agree with you, that has been my experience too. But it's changing fast.

 

Google's beta program for Android P includes only 7 non-google devices. 5 of those are Chinese phones.

 

https://developer.android.com/preview/devices/

 

Not too long ago I became a Xiaomi convert. Now my new favourite brand is Oneplus. Initially I was sceptical because of their association with Oppo which I had always considered a kind of budget brand, until I was convinced to buy a Oneplus 3.

 

It's great hardware, almost pure Android and no bloatware.

 

I still like Samsung and they have an advantage over others with their display technology but I think the premium they charge over some Chinese brands is too much now.

[KrishnaCameb4Buddha]

6 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

14 hours ago, KrishnaCameb4Buddha said:

 

My limited experience of a cheaper chinese phone which was highly rated was that support by the company was poor and there were numerous issues with the software.

The reviews of the Xiaomi Mi A1 acknowledge these issues but point out that a) the Mi A1 is using the latest software ('straight' Android) and b) Xiaomi has opened service centers in Thailand.  

 

The $200 Xiaomi is superior to $400 Samsungs, according to the androidpolice.com reviews cited above.

 

Here come the Chinese!

[KrishnaCameb4Buddha]

12 minutes ago, thedemon said:

 

I still like Samsung and they have an advantage over others with their display technology but I think the premium they charge over some Chinese brands is too much now.

Some people do not like Samsung's display technology, the AMOLED.  Many complain of motion sickness, severe eye fatigue, migraines--caused by a super-high flicker (on-off) rate.

 

Sharper/clearer/brighter is not always better.  Sometimes 'less is more'.

 

Edited May 22, 2018 by KrishnaCameb4Buddha

[thedemon]

4 minutes ago, KrishnaCameb4Buddha said:

Some people do not like Samsung's display technology, the AMOLED.  Many complain of motion sickness, severe eye fatigue, migraines--caused by a super-high flicker (on-off) rate.

 

Sharper/clearer/brighter is not always better.  Sometimes 'less is more'.

 

Maybe, I don't know. But Apple's iphone 8 has a Samsung Amoled so there will be a lot of people complaining if that is the case.