Affordable Smartphone Recomendations

[Nyezhov]

2 minutes ago, samsensam said:

 

fortune tower/mall every time, i'd never buy anything from mbk, it's where all the tourists who dont know better go, and, boy do the vendors know it!

Actually, if you know what you are looking for, you can get a good deal there on all sorts of stuff. But I wouldn't buy a used cell phone from any of the vendors anywhere and I don't buy tourist stuff regardless. Except elephant pants and t-shirts for the family, and it's far nicer to buy them at MBK for 10 baht more than go sweat over at pratunam. 

 

But hey, you feel free to schlep all over Bangkok to save a quarter ????

[dddave]

22 hours ago, tampasailor said:

lOOKING FOR USED ANDROID SMARTPHONE IN PAI. OLDER SAMSUNG PREFERRED. WHO IS A GOOD CARRIER FOR PAI AREA WITH DATA?

Mobile phones, even Samsung's do not age well.  Batteries have a fairly short life cycle and operating systems get bogged down with a lot of garbage difficult to delete.  There are several very decent new  phones with specs far surpassing even 3 & 4 year old Samsungs for B3000+-.

In most rural areas, the best signal can vary carrier to carrier in different villages.  Locals will know best.

[Ks45672]

1 hour ago, samsensam said:

 

fortune tower/mall every time, i'd never buy anything from mbk, it's where all the tourists who dont know better go, and, boy do the vendors know it!

You must have zero bargaining skills.... 

[dddave]

2 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

That's what I'm talking about, and 8A. Is it bright at is the screen nicely visible in daylight? How is the level of bloatware?

Clarification:  The phone I bought for the relation is a Redmi 8, not 8A.  8A is a smaller display.  The Redmi 8 had an excellent display, though 720p, it looked really good.  In bright daylight, all but the most expensive Amoled and Super-Amoled displays struggle.  5000 mAh battery will last 2 days normal use easy.  Processor isn't for top level gaming but for normal use more than adequate. Camera is good in decent light, not so great in low light. 

Xiaomi uses it's propriatory MIUI interface.  Some like it a lot, including me,  some hate it.  There is some MIUI bloat ware but it doesn't get in the way.

Specs below.

 https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_8-9800.php

[melvinmelvin]

50 minutes ago, dddave said:

Clarification:  The phone I bought for the relation is a Redmi 8, not 8A.  8A is a smaller display.  The Redmi 8 had an excellent display, though 720p, it looked really good.  In bright daylight, all but the most expensive Amoled and Super-Amoled displays struggle.  5000 mAh battery will last 2 days normal use easy.  Processor isn't for top level gaming but for normal use more than adequate. Camera is good in decent light, not so great in low light. 

Xiaomi uses it's propriatory MIUI interface.  Some like it a lot, including me,  some hate it.  There is some MIUI bloat ware but it doesn't get in the way.

Specs below.

 https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_8-9800.php

 

rather heavy at 188 grams, not really shirtpocket issue

 

[Ks45672]

1 hour ago, melvinmelvin said:

 

rather heavy at 188 grams, not really shirtpocket issue

 

You must have some weak shirts.... ????

[Nyezhov]

1 hour ago, melvinmelvin said:

 

rather heavy at 188 grams, not really shirtpocket issue

 

Its just going to sit in a holder on my controller. I wish it didnt have some custom interface.

[melvinmelvin]

2 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

Its just going to sit in a holder on my controller. I wish it didnt have some custom interface.

 

that is just OK

 

188 grams is way too much for a shirt, (in my view), it would not be comfortable and it would

drag the front of the shirt into positions so  that it wouldn't look sleek anymore

 

 

 

[melvinmelvin]

I'm in the market for a couple of new phones,

now I have LG Wine, with which I am very happy, but cannot buy batteries for them anymore.

(its a flip phone with keyboard, but smart, at least not dumb)

Its sturdy, lost it in my boat and on the floor several times, screen is still OK and the phone works fine.

It can take serious splashes of water.

 

I like flip phones. Keyboards are better and quicker than non-keyboard.

My usage; voice and SMS and e-mail, vary rarely www and very rarely MMS,

can easily do without MMS and www, not at all interested in taking pics.

 

Any ideas?

(I know Samsung folder 2, but my dealers cannot get hold of it)

 

Sigh:

What I miss with phones is Windows and Outlook compatibility,

for synching calendar and contacts (not interested in e-mail synch, I fix that by other means)

 

Am not keen on a phone the size of a pizza, can do with shirtpocket issues.

 

(I miss my old Ericsson and Sony-Ericsson phones, advanced phones, cheap phones, did what I wanted,

 had Windows and Outlook compatibility, shirtpocket weight and size)

 

[Nyezhov]

53 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

 

that is just OK

 

188 grams is way too much for a shirt, (in my view), it would not be comfortable and it would

drag the front of the shirt into positions so  that it wouldn't look sleek anymore

 

 

 

When smartphones first came out, they were smallish. I carried mine in my shirt pocket so all could see I had a smartphone and was therefore far cooler than they were (I had a car phone and a big Motorola too when they came out, damn I was the shtizle), until such time I bent over to flush and dropped it in.

 

Now I only put it in my shirt pocket ifin it has a button or velcro.

[Orton Rd]

On 11/20/2019 at 8:26 PM, daocat555 said:

I went to a large 7-11 today to check out their in-store mobile deals.  It appears that they offer the Vivo Y91 for 1,560 baht and the OPPO A5s for 1,990 baht or with a True SIM card for 2,160 baht or 2,390 baht.  And a Huawei Y5 for 990 baht.

 

I checked out the VIVO and the OPPO and I think the OPPO A5s may be the best affordable mobile at my 7-11.  It is not a hardware powerhouse but seems to have workable specs.  The achilles heel, IMO, of OPPO phones in this price range historically tend to be a single, not very loud, down firing speaker, and i don't know if any of these phones have a headphone jack.  Maybe some other poster's can provide more info.

You seem to be the phone expert on here, what would you say is the better for sound and camera, the Vivo Y12 or the Motorola G7 power? they both have the 5000 big battery. Looking at the reviews most of the Vivo are in Thai or Indian so it's hard to get an opinion, the Motorola gets good reviews, both about 5k baht

[melvinmelvin]

1 hour ago, Nyezhov said:

When smartphones first came out, they were smallish. I carried mine in my shirt pocket so all could see I had a smartphone and was therefore far cooler than they were (I had a car phone and a big Motorola too when they came out, damn I was the shtizle), until such time I bent over to flush and dropped it in.

 

Now I only put it in my shirt pocket ifin it has a button or velcro.

remember my first Motorola, 1991 or thereabouts, biggish and using a gigant SIM card the size of a credit card,

but it worked, most of the time

 

[Nyezhov]

Just now, melvinmelvin said:

remember my first Motorola, 1991 or thereabouts, biggish and using a gigant SIM card the size of a credit card,

but it worked, nost of the time

 

The car phone was the ticket. Thirtyish and not fat  with a Bimmer. Suits and ties. Pull up next to the chick in the ratty chevy and pretend to take a phone call while giving a finger wave. Roll down window, say into phone, hey hold on a minute, switch to girl....do I know you? Wait, dear, let me finish this call..... Bert, just sell 20,000 shares, whats a loss of a few thousand, hang on...Sweetie, my broker is being a dick, can I buy you a cup of coffee? Great, follow me.....

 

 

[daocat555]

I am a huge fan of the Moto G7 Power, because I am hard of hearing and sometimes take calls while on the street or in a bar.  For the price of that phone the loudness of the speaker  for voice at 75 dB is unusually great (apparently with Dolby).

 

Voice 75dB / Noise 75dB / Ring 82dB

 

Here are the two phones you mentioned as compared on Kimovil and devicespecifications:

 

Motorola Moto G7 Power VS. Vivo Y12: Comparison

 

Comparison between: Vivo Y12, Motorola Moto G7 Power

 

The Moto wins in Antutu score while the Vivo has the more efficient screen-to-body ratio and a slightly bigger screen. The low-mid range Vivo's tend to have a single, down firing speaker with volume in the 66-67 dB range.  The Motorola wins for me no content, and the dB scale is an exponential scale so 75 dB is a lot louder than 66 dB.

 

On GSMarena they have a full review of the Moto, and I couldn't find the Vivo on gsmarena to show the direct comparison from that site (Vivo sometimes has like aliases for their phones; sry this is a quick and dirty reply) Here is the gsmarena full specs for the Moto G7 Power.and from that link click on their full review which I just skimmed; sounds good.  At these prices I think it is even more important than in high end phones to know what you want in terms of CPU, ROM, body size, camera, battery, etc, as the competition is fierce and compromises are always made.

 

Motorola Moto G7 Power - Full phone specifications

 

Oh camera? Kimovil rates the cameras better on the Moto and my quick assessment is that the Moto has a better camera setup -but nothing to write home about (5.5 on Kimovil's scale of 0-10).

[melvinmelvin]

 

my mob phone ringing tone

 

 

 

after Brexit UK can live on selling it

 

 

[Orton Rd]

Thanks to daocat555 for the info and links, think it will be the Motorola for the sound.

[daocat555]

Since my last post achieved simplifying things (I worked from a fixed choice of 2 phones) let me now try to complicate.  Consider the Meizu Note 9 vs the Moto G7 Power and suddenly the Moto doesn't look so cost effective.  Meizu has poor penetration at places like MBK but it is available at Lazada for 5,449 baht at LazMall which I consider to be the best store at Lazada.

 

MEIZU Note 9 RAM 4 GB/ROM 128 GB Snapdragon 675 เล่นเกมถ่ายรูป | Lazada.co.th

 

Meizu Note 9 VS. Motorola Moto G7 Power: Comparison

 

Compare Meizu Note 9 vs. Motorola Moto G7 Power - GSMArena.com

 

https://www.devicespecifications.com/en/comparison/f61816c4b1

 

The improvement in camera and screen-to-body ratio is immense for an extra 449 baht.  48 MP camera vs 12.56.  An antutu score of 213,000 vs 108,000.  And yada,yada,yada, the improvements go on and on.

 

And in the 5,449 - 7,449 baht range that is where the companies really strive to compete because this is the price range where people buy phones.  Big Companies like Xiaomi and Asus  have very competitive phones in this range.

 

The Moto was released in February of 2019, and since then other phones with better specs in all but battery (ok and speaker volume) have become available.

[scubascuba3]

I've had the Moto G7 Power for about 6 months and I'm still happy with it. I use it a lot during the day and the battery still lasts the day, if I'm heading out in the evening i do top it up to be sure.

 

The only negative is the volume, if you lay it on it's screen you can't hear it, with my Samsung that wasn't an issue as the speaker was at the side. It's not a deal-breaker but mildly annoying when you forget.

 

Also worth noting the charger is the USB C, so any older type chargers you have can't be used unless you have an adapter. USB C is much fast charging than traditional type

[rwilem]

On 11/17/2019 at 5:23 AM, daocat555 said:

I had a Realme 3 Pro which i bought after my Meizu 16th got water damage and blew out the screen.  Yes I am a bit of a Meizy fanboy so i was searching for a 2,000 - 4,000 phone on Lazada for my new lady friend, and I was pretty much going to get her the Realme C2 for 3,564 baht when i saw Lazada selling the Meizu X8 for 4,990 baht.

 

I bought it.  I will keep the Meizu X8 and my gf can get my Realme 3 Pro which is a lot of phone.  AliExpress is selling the Meizu 16s global for a nice price but too much for me right now and the Chinese version of the 16s Pro.  The Meizu 16s was 11,000 baht at an online Thai seller reportedly and got sold out.  If it ever hits Lazada (some Meizu's do and some Meizu's don't) I will probable post about it.  Meizu has kind of fallen on hard times, perhaps, however I consider them to sell high quality phones.

I am happy with the Meizu 16th I picked up last year. OK, the flyme OS is a little funky, and Meizu is getting hammered for lack of software updates for the global versions of their phones, but it's not a big issue for me.

 

Lazada was selling it for 7,999 baht during the 11/11 sale, as well as great price on the Meizu X9, as you noted and took advantage of.

 

And the top-of-the-line Meizu 16s can be had online for the price of the 16th a year ago, incredible.

 

On the updates issue, I did receive their last flyme update (7.3.0G), got it OTA which was smooth. Meizu is saying the 16th global version should receive the flyme 8 update based on android 9, already out for the CN version of the phone, before the end of the year.

[melvinmelvin]

 

Came across

 

     X One Phone

 

any good?

 

[Number 6]

Moto G7

 

1+ 7T

 

[dddave]

18 hours ago, melvinmelvin said:

 

Came across

 

     X One Phone

 

any good?

 

Some info on Google. Sorry but pretty much a dog, 5 year old specs  2gb Ram, 16 memory, 720P , 5.3" display. Low end Mediatech 6739 processor at 1.3gHz which is pretty slow.  3450 mAh battery which is not much by today's standards, especially with a Mediatech processor which are poorly optimized for battery usage Cameras are low end, ok in normal outside light but not much else.

This would have been a middle of the road phone 5 years ago but today's apps demand a lot more memory so you'd be very restricted as to what would run.  Basically ok for calls and text messaging but not much more.  Facebook and other  pages will load slowly and be jumpy as ad pages load.  You Tube will buffer often.  For nearly the same price there are many up to date bargain phones, the Xiaomi Redmi 7 and Redmi 8, The Realmi 3, a few Oppo's and Vivo's, all under B4000.

If you want a truly excellent phone for under B5000, Lazada is selling the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 for B4999. Difficult to do better at twice the price.

[melvinmelvin]

41 minutes ago, dddave said:

Some info on Google. Sorry but pretty much a dog, 5 year old specs  2gb Ram, 16 memory, 720P , 5.3" display. Low end Mediatech 6739 processor at 1.3gHz which is pretty slow.  3450 mAh battery which is not much by today's standards, especially with a Mediatech processor which are poorly optimized for battery usage Cameras are low end, ok in normal outside light but not much else.

This would have been a middle of the road phone 5 years ago but today's apps demand a lot more memory so you'd be very restricted as to what would run.  Basically ok for calls and text messaging but not much more.  Facebook and other  pages will load slowly and be jumpy as ad pages load.  You Tube will buffer often.  For nearly the same price there are many up to date bargain phones, the Xiaomi Redmi 7 and Redmi 8, The Realmi 3, a few Oppo's and Vivo's, all under B4000.

If you want a truly excellent phone for under B5000, Lazada is selling the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 for B4999. Difficult to do better at twice the price.

 

OK, thanks a heap

you would LOL if you saw how that phone is pushed in Norway

[dddave]

10 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

 

OK, thanks a heap

you would LOL if you saw how that phone is pushed in Norway

I clearly remember paying $25 for breakfast in Oslo 5 years ago...I can't imagine what a simple phone must cost there.

A friend who lives in Norway bought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, the cheapest 800 CC Sportster model...cost him $70,000 by the time he got it on the road.   Sheesh!!

[melvinmelvin]

1 hour ago, dddave said:

I clearly remember paying $25 for breakfast in Oslo 5 years ago...I can't imagine what a simple phone must cost there.

A friend who lives in Norway bought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, the cheapest 800 CC Sportster model...cost him $70,000 by the time he got it on the road.   Sheesh!!

 

high cost place

 

you would struggle to find an android phone for less than 6500 baht I would guess

[daocat555]

So many nice Realme phones; this Realme 5 is 4,599 baht at Lazada.

 

【ผ่อน 0% 6 เดือน,ส่วนลด 100 เมื่อชำระเงิน】มือถือ realme 5 (3+64GB) 4 เลนส์ พลังแบตเกินพิกัด 5000 mAh | Lazada.co.th

 

Here is it compared to the Meizu Note 9 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7.  And there are Redmi note Pro's, ec, and i think a Redmi Note 8 now or soon.

 

.

Compare Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 vs. Meizu Note 9 vs. Realme 5 - GSMArena.com

[topt]

On 11/27/2019 at 2:27 AM, daocat555 said:

So many nice Realme phones; this Realme 5 is 4,599 baht at Lazada.

 

【ผ่อน 0% 6 เดือน,ส่วนลด 100 เมื่อชำระเงิน】มือถือ realme 5 (3+64GB) 4 เลนส์ พลังแบตเกินพิกัด 5000 mAh | Lazada.co.th

 

Here is it compared to the Meizu Note 9 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7.  And there are Redmi note Pro's, ec, and i think a Redmi Note 8 now or soon.

 

.

Compare Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 vs. Meizu Note 9 vs. Realme 5 - GSMArena.com

Thanks - can you tell me what is the difference between a "hybrd dual sim" and just a "dual sim" - since they all say Nano in brackets anyway?

[dddave]

18 hours ago, topt said:

Thanks - can you tell me what is the difference between a "hybrd dual sim" and just a "dual sim" - since they all say Nano in brackets anyway?

A "hybred" dual SIM is when the phone user has the option of installing either 2 nano SIMs or one nano SIM and one micro SD memory card.  Dual SIM is just that, it will take two nano SIMs. Some phones will also take a SD card as well, some don't.