Affordable Smartphone Recomendations

[stud858]

Xperia z5 compact would be the most afordable and powerful sub 5 inch phone at 4.7 inches.

Im waiting for bezeless 4.5" phone.

Like one handed use and easy pocket use. Havent come across anything yet.

 

[daocat555]

Here are three Sony models compared.

 

https://www.devicespecifications.com/en/comparison/35dcf635c

 

My favorite, the Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact has the best usable surface area (73.76 %), plenty of memory, performance, and a just right battery.  The bezels are smallish, but yeah, once the usable surface area gets over 80% then you'll be humming.  This phone is $546.25 at dealextreme.

 

There have been rumors of Samsung producing a mini as it did some years ago with the J1 mini.  If that happens you might find your pocket friendly, bezel less phone with a Super AMOLED screen to boot.

[stud858]

5g around the corner i hope within 2 years. I'll most likely stick with z5 compact until then. Phone before that was z1 compact and still an excellent small phone .

Main features a must for me. 3gb ram. MHL tv connection. Small size.

Good battery for full day heavy use.

 

Thats it. Not to much to ask.

 

I used to mess with cyanogen a lot and updating roms, but phone tech will taper soon. Phones will be perfect and our lives complete.

 

Enjoy your phone today!

 

 

[melvinmelvin]

I have two LG Wine Smart (flip phone or shell phone).

 

They satisfy my needs but the batteries are smallish and they need replacement.

Cant find batteries in BKK and not in my home country where I bought them.

 

So, will likely have to buy new phones.

 

flip/shell is kinda important due to the environment they're used in

somewhat sturdy - nice

multi band - nice

camera of no interest

ample memory - nice

android - windows / mai pen rai

 

my usage: sms email voice

 

Any good ideas ?

[jvs]

6 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

I have two LG Wine Smart (flip phone or shell phone).

 

They satisfy my needs but the batteries are smallish and they need replacement.

Cant find batteries in BKK and not in my home country where I bought them.

 

So, will likely have to buy new phones.

 

flip/shell is kinda important due to the environment they're used in

somewhat sturdy - nice

multi band - nice

camera of no interest

ample memory - nice

android - windows / mai pen rai

 

my usage: sms email voice

 

Any good ideas ?

I just googled LG wine smart batteries and they are easy to find i think,Nokia seems to have some new flip phones?

[stud858]

44 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

I have two LG Wine Smart (flip phone or shell phone).

 

They satisfy my needs but the batteries are smallish and they need replacement.

Cant find batteries in BKK and not in my home country where I bought them.

 

So, will likely have to buy new phones.

 

flip/shell is kinda important due to the environment they're used in

somewhat sturdy - nice

multi band - nice

camera of no interest

ample memory - nice

android - windows / mai pen rai

 

my usage: sms email voice

 

Any good ideas ?

You could look for the most similar but smaller slightly in size and retro fit. Might work. Second hand markets. Or buy similar from aliexpress. 

Edited August 28, 2018 by stud858

[melvinmelvin]

2 hours ago, jvs said:

I just googled LG wine smart batteries and they are easy to find i think,Nokia seems to have some new flip phones?

 

Thanks,

yes, I see that Nokia has few.

 

Found batteries, also high capacity ones, on amazon and ebay, dont ship to LoS though

 

should have bought when I was in Europe this spring

 

[daocat555]

For free you can get a suite address at Shipito.

 

https://www.shipito.com/en/

 

Order from Amazon or Ebay, then forward via Shipito anywhere in the world.  I've used it maybe 10 times in the past year.  I pay for the Shipito premium suite so they consolidate several boxes into one box for cheaper shipping costs.  But for just one delivery get the free Shipito suite for free and their handling and shipping charges are reasonable.

 

[melvinmelvin]

1 hour ago, daocat555 said:

For free you can get a suite address at Shipito.

 

https://www.shipito.com/en/

 

Order from Amazon or Ebay, then forward via Shipito anywhere in the world.  I've used it maybe 10 times in the past year.  I pay for the Shipito premium suite so they consolidate several boxes into one box for cheaper shipping costs.  But for just one delivery get the free Shipito suite for free and their handling and shipping charges are reasonable.

 

 

ta,

will try that

this service is exactly what I enquired about with Amazon last year

nope, they could not provide and they had never heard of anyone providing such

bah!

 

when you pay shipito, is that then a door to door service customs included and no more charges or?

 

 

[daocat555]

Shipito will not calculate Thai Customs Duty for you or accept money from you for Thai Customs.  Shipito charges you for them handling the package and the shipping cost; then you will pay the person who delivers the item the Thai Customs fee.  For the purpose of Customs Shipito asks you what is in the package and its value.  For example, if I send a 12 x 3 x 3 inch box weighing 1 pound via DHL express I will pay Shipito $41.15 for the delivery service (tends to get to me in 3 days), and I forget whether with the free account whether you also pay Shipito $2-$6 for handling or not.  I may tell Shipito that the item is "alarm clock" and the value of the item is $18.85.

 

In this example Thai Customs will add the value of the item ($18.85) to the shipping cost ($41.15) and get a value of $60.  But Thai Customs is not done yet.  Insurance is free with DHL express, which does not keep Thai Customs from charging you duty on the free shipping insurance, which Thai Customs will value as something like $7.  This is so annoying because I would never insure a tracked, DHL express package which virtually never would be lost.  But there is no way that I can refuse the "free" DHL express insurance.  So you will need to pay full duty on $67 and VAT on $67; so you will end up paying Thai Customs.....eh.....a lot.

 

For some items at Amazon I still save money doing it this way.  Sometimes with me it is not an issue of money rather an issue of getting a specific item I want (as is the case with you).

 

If I send that same package Airmail Economy Shipito will charge me $13.39, I can decline the optional insurance, and Thai Customs will add $13.39 to $18.85 and charge me Duty and VAT on $32.24, which I believe by policy is no Duty charge at all.  But in Thailand no Duty charge at all is an oxymoron.

 

It's a system that works well on a case by case basis with me.  I use my Shipito Suite address as my "home" address in the USA often.  I use it for new ATM Bank cards, etc, and the Dutiable value of one envelope is $1.  To do that you need to 1) have a Shipito premium account and, 2) fill out a form called 1583 and have it notarized (any Thai Notary, it does not need to be US Embassy), and return form 1583 to Shipito which needs it to accept US mail for you.  Amazon or Ebay packages which require a signature are no problem for you as Shipito will sign for you and accept the package.  For me Shipito will accept USPS items which require a signature also.

 

 

[jvs]

6 hours ago, melvinmelvin said:

 

Thanks,

yes, I see that Nokia has few.

 

Found batteries, also high capacity ones, on amazon and ebay, dont ship to LoS though

 

should have bought when I was in Europe this spring

 

Cheapest way is when you have some one coming over to take it for you or just let them send it in the regular mail.

 

[melvinmelvin]

34 minutes ago, jvs said:

Cheapest way is when you have some one coming over to take it for you or just let them send it in the regular mail.

 

yes, agree, that is the easy way out

 

[daocat555]

A visit to me from somebody in the States would be a rare thing.  I used to have somebody who would ship me things I wanted; that's gone.  So I am really happy about Shipito.

 

Somebody in some topic mentioned the Pocophone F1; I forget where and I just posted this in NanLaew's Mid-range topic but I think the F1 is impressive enough to post it here as well.

 

The Pocophone F1 is at Lazada at four sellers; Lazada itself (LazMall), Shopping D, Thaisuperphone, and K SMART.

 

Although all the Stores have generally good feedback LazMall has the best price, and for me I trust them the most.  This is an awesome phone in several ways; and gets a big thumbs up from me.  I retract my worry about "tinny" speakers which I quoted from one brief review but is soundly contradicted by gsmarena.

 

This is a super performing and decently well rounded phone well worth a look by anyone shopping in the 9 K to 14 K baht price range.

 

Gsmarena measured max sound output of 72.8 dB for voice and 86.6 dB for ringing phone and subjectively wrote:

 

And the Pocophone turned out plenty loud in our testing, securing a spot in the Excellent bracket. It performs great for music and the sound output is rich and clean, even at maximum volume.

 

To further quote gsmarena:

 

Pocophone has done what OnePlus couldn't achieve this year - come up with a flagship killer with a jaw-dropping price. The F1 has everything and we mean everything - a premium screen with a notch that holds the infrared scanner for face unlock, the latest Snapdragon chip, expandable storage, stereo speakers, all the necessary ports, and high-end camera experience on both sides of the device.

 

I could quibble with regards to the camera.  My Meizu 15 measured 77 dB max for voice, and as the dB scale is exponential not linear, my Meizu suites my hard of hearing old ears much better.  But I agree with gsmarena that the price/performance features of the Pocophone F1 are very nice.

[daocat555]

My Xiaomi 6A which I ordered from the Xiaomi Dreami Store at Aliexpress on August 16 arrived this morning.  It is in a sealed box and along side of it a case and wall plug.  Since it is a gift for my housekeeper's daughter I am not going to open the box to review it.  Xiaomi Redmi's are known entities, my main concern with the phone is the single speaker which fires out of the back and into your palm if you are holding it to your ear.  It probably sounds fine.

 

So in the blind as I have not done a hands on review of any of these here is my top 5 under 5,500 baht mobiles.

 

1) Umidigi One Pro                                                                   5,499 baht

 

2) Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro                                                             4,563 baht               

 

3) Cubot J3 Pro (just to keep that Pro theme going)          2,325 baht

 

4) Sony Xperia XA1                                                                   3,990 baht

 

5) Xiaomi Redmi 6A                                                                  3,205 baht

[daocat555]

I have gotten feedback from a hands on user of the Xiaomi 6A that the speaker output is indeed poor as the speaker fires out of the back of the phone.  So I am removing the Xiaomi Redmi 6A from any recommendations I make in the future.

 

I have also looked into the Sony XA1 and found some problems, so that is also off the lists.  And researching (but not hands on) I am replacing the Cubot J3 Pro with the Cubot Nova.  I'll add the well proven and Super AMOLED screen Samsung . Redoing the list quickly my top 4 value phones are:

 

1) Umidigi One Pro

 

2) Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro

 

3) Samsung Galaxy J6 2018

 

4) Cubot Nova

[stud858]

12 minutes ago, daocat555 said:

I have gotten feedback from a hands on user of the Xiaomi 6A that the speaker output is indeed poor as the speaker fires out of the back of the phone.  So I am removing the Xiaomi Redmi 6A from any recommendations I make in the future.

 

I have also looked into the Sony XA1 and found some problems, so that is also off the lists.  And researching (but not hands on) I am replacing the Cubot J3 Pro with the Cubot Nova.  I'll add the well proven and Super AMOLED screen Samsung . Redoing the list quickly my top 4 value phones are:

 

1) Umidigi One Pro

 

2) Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro

 

3) Samsung Galaxy J6 2018

 

4) Cubot Nova

YES the J6 seems to be a bargain at under 5000 baht with 3GB ram. it is a slim phone with great screen to bezel ratio . It is light and battery life is good. And of course SAMSUNG has been in the game the longest and gets its software reliability and compatibility the best.

Better if the J6 was not so long in my opinion but I guess good for social media.

 

Enjoy your phone today !

 

 

 

[Henryford]

The new Pocophone F1 looks pretty impressive 11,000 baht with top of the range specs. The only downside (for some) is the plastic back. Half the price of even the OnePlus 6.

[melvinmelvin]

On 8/28/2018 at 8:33 AM, daocat555 said:

For free you can get a suite address at Shipito.

 

https://www.shipito.com/en/

 

Order from Amazon or Ebay, then forward via Shipito anywhere in the world.  I've used it maybe 10 times in the past year.  I pay for the Shipito premium suite so they consolidate several boxes into one box for cheaper shipping costs.  But for just one delivery get the free Shipito suite for free and their handling and shipping charges are reasonable.

 

 

thanks,

can it be specified to Shipto that shipping with DHL is not acceptable?

 

with my DHL track record over the past 5 years I will not engage in anything that might involve DHL.

 

a number of parcels shipped to me from US, UK, NORWAY, NETHERLANDS, GERMANY,

not a single one reached me, most were returned to sender, some just vanished

 

[daocat555]

For each package you send out from Shipito you get a choice of USPS, Fedex, or DHL.

[faraday]

Bought my wife the Oppo F9 yesterday, in a gorgeous blue colour. Just under 11k bt.

 

Giving it to her tomorrow as an anniversary present.

 

Poor Khun Faraday still has his ancient Galaxy S5...feel sorry me?

 

 

 

[daocat555]

The price of the Samsung J6 went up yesterday at all Lazada stores, making it a good but no longer great value.  Faraday, start saving for the LG V40 ThinQ which will have quite the camera and is expected to have a September announcement.  Henryford, yes on the Pocophone and Lazada has it for a better price than Aliexpress.

 

 

[Ks45672]

14 minutes ago, daocat555 said:

The price of the Samsung J6 went up yesterday at all Lazada stores, making it a good but no longer great value.  Faraday, start saving for the LG V40 ThinQ which will have quite the camera and is expected to have a September announcement.  Henryford, yes on the Pocophone and Lazada has it for a better price than Aliexpress.

 

 

Pocophone f1 looks like the one to beat, great spec for the price point

 

[stud858]

1 hour ago, daocat555 said:

The price of the Samsung J6 went up yesterday at all Lazada stores, making it a good but no longer great value.  Faraday, start saving for the LG V40 ThinQ which will have quite the camera and is expected to have a September announcement.  Henryford, yes on the Pocophone and Lazada has it for a better price than Aliexpress.

 

 

J6 still at 4799. On Lazada. Big c 4999.

Were they ever much cheaper than that?

[daocat555]

I bought my Samsung J6 for 4,823 baht.  If I look at the store at Lazada that I bought it from it shows a price of 6,990 baht.  Which I would say is a price increase.

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/-i246201654-s388045469.html?spm=a2o4m.order_list.detail_image..1dfa6108oVfnSt&urlFlag=true&mp=1

 

Could you post the Big C link if they sell online?, or are they just retail Stores?

[daocat555]

Okay Stud, I just poked around Lazada and you are correct.  Some stores still have it for less than 5,000 baht; it seems it was only the Store I bought it from (Qwentyone.house) which raised its price by a lot.

[daocat555]

Slow days on the affordable, midrange, and high end topics.  I got my Umidigi One Pro today and I'm having fun with that,  I bought it from dealextreme on 8/21 and it was shipped from Malaysia.  In my mind dealextreme was based in either China or Hong Kong; but maybe they are based in Malaysia.  It was a bit scary as the sophistication of their tracking system is that from 8/21 until today if I tried to track my phone I got "Full Shipped" and no other information.  So I cannot recommend dealextreme on the basic of it's tracking system for the free, budget shipping, which falls way short of Aliexpress, but dealextreme had the best price for the phone ($169.99) and 14 days from order to receipt is actually better than usual for Aliexpress.  Also, kind of odd, the phone was not officially released until a few days after they shipped it.  I imagine I am one of the first to have this phone in my hands (maybe I should branch out and upload a Youtube review?  Nah, thats not me.)

 

I have my Xiaomi Redmi 6A and my Samsung J6 (2018), all ready to sell/give away, wrapped in fancy paper that I bought from Lazada.  And the only phone which I am waiting to be delivered is the Cubot Nova from Aliexpress.

 

Here is my plans for these phones.  My housekeeper is very nice and hardworking.  Her daughter, who I've met, needs a mobile, so for 2,000 baht my housekeeper gets the Samsung to give to her daughter (my housekeeper is on vacation now but before she left we agreed that she would give me 2,000 baht and I would give her a phone.  I had been considering the Xiaomi Redmi 6A, but that one is not good with respect to audio output.).  The maintenance man can have the Xiaomi 6A if he gives me 1,000 baht.  That's a deep discount but the phone is tainted by having a single speaker firing out the back of the phone so I don't want to charge him too much for it.  When I made him this offer he told me he would have to discuss this with his wife, who I know as she works in my laundry.  The young woman, kind of friendly to me, who works in the bar of my complex can have the Cubot Nova for 2,000 baht, which is my least generous discount but she works bar so my thinking is that in two good evenings of work she can get the 2,000 baht which my housekeeper may not get in a month of scrubbing sinks.

 

My loss total for the Samsung, Xiaomi, and Cubot will be 5,837 baht.  Expensive hobby this buying mobiles is.  How do I make a profit?  Volume! (my accountant 30 years ago told me that joke.)

 

So my big news is the Umidigi One Pro is here.  I put my SIM card in it, updated it OTA and It's now charging (wireless charger).  I plan to give it a full review here after I have given it a good test drive.  

 

I have pretty much exhausted the number of people I can give phones to, so if anybody out there in Thai Visa land wants to buy it from me in Jomtien or pay me via Paypal to ship it to them I will be open to offers.  There's a trust issue involved there, so if not I will just take my time finding someone, you know, to make, um, some deals with.

 

Please posts any thoughts about affordable phones.  I found the great deal Lazada had on the Samsung from a post here.  Cubot and Umidigi I found from net surfing, and everybody knows Xiaomi.  Cheers.

[stud858]

38 minutes ago, daocat555 said:

o for 2,000 baht my housekeeper gets the Samsung to give to her daughter (my housekeeper 

If she doesn't like it. I'll take it for 2000. Plus wash your socks for a week.

 

[jvs]

On 8/30/2018 at 11:49 AM, daocat555 said:

I have gotten feedback from a hands on user of the Xiaomi 6A that the speaker output is indeed poor as the speaker fires out of the back of the phone.  So I am removing the Xiaomi Redmi 6A from any recommendations I make in the future.

 

I have also looked into the Sony XA1 and found some problems, so that is also off the lists.  And researching (but not hands on) I am replacing the Cubot J3 Pro with the Cubot Nova.  I'll add the well proven and Super AMOLED screen Samsung . Redoing the list quickly my top 4 value phones are:

 

1) Umidigi One Pro

 

2) Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro

 

3) Samsung Galaxy J6 2018

 

4) Cubot Nova

I kind of have my mind set on the Redmi 6 pro,anything against this?

Camera quality is a must and not a lot of bloatware,battery life also important i can not find it in any shops i have tried but will keep looking.Have you had this one to test out?

I can't even find the price yet.

If i could remove the bloatware i would consider the j6 ,the j6 2016 i have now has never given me any trouble.

[Ks45672]

1 minute ago, jvs said:

I kind of have my mind set on the Redmi 6 pro,anything against this?

Camera quality is a must and not a lot of bloatware,battery life also important i can not find it in any shops i have tried but will keep looking.Have you had this one to test out?

I can't even find the price yet.

If i could remove the bloatware i would consider the j6 ,the j6 2016 i have now has never given me any trouble.

Easy to root Samsung and remove bloatware, unlike Huawei 

[daocat555]

It's very important to understand that the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite and the Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro have the exact same hardware. It's also important to know if you want 3/32 memory or 4/64.  Then, know prices and your seller.

 

Then order from LazMall with the link below.

 

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite 3/32GB: ซื้อขาย โทรศัพท์มือถือ ออนไลน์ในราคาที่ถูกกว่า | Lazada.co.th

 

Unless you want 4/64, if so message me and get a long story as there is no clear Shop for the 4/64 at present.

 

Oh, camera? They tend to be the weak point of so many Xiaomi phones and the Mi A2 Lite is no exception.  Hard to have it all at this price point but I'll get back to you on the best 6,000 baht mobile for best camera.