Are high end smartphones worth the money (to you)?

[NoshowJones]

4 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

I bought Lenova Bluetooth earphones on Lazada, great for £3

I bought a pair from Lazada too, can't remember the make, but very poor like a lot of their products.

[CFIAM]

5 hours ago, jaywalker2 said:

I said "for the most part." Of course I have some apps on my phone and I've tried others but generally the experience hasn't been good -- like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. I prefer to use them in the browser. Personal preference. Again, there are exceptions obviously. I have tried Brave along with most of the other browsers both on the laptop and phone. As far as I'm concerned Firefox is by far the best.

 

If Firefox is the best, then why are you suffering issues that people with the other browser aren't having?

It seems that you have convinced yourself of something that isn't necessarily so. Which add-ons do you use with Firefox on the cellphone?

[BeastOfBodmin]

On 2/5/2025 at 3:19 PM, Centigrade32 said:

 

iPhone have features those cheap and mid-price Android phones don't have, such as OIS on both cameras. Cheap Android will have no stabilisation at all and possibly poor cameras and of course they are limited to one or two Android updates. Mid-price will have limited stabilisation, possibly EIS rather than OIS.

Right about the limited OS updates. Samsung guarantee a minimum of 7 major updates for certain devices. Samsung have "not cheap" lines. I haven't had problems with old Android versions and app compatibility yet. The main reason I use Android rather than PhoneOS is Android irritates me less to use. I use macos on the desktop because that irritates me less to use than Linux or Windows.

 

For me, camera is not a priority. Although this model has a 64MP sensor and a so-called ultra-macro mode, my wife prefers to use her S21 FE except when it is too full to store new photos/ vids 🙂. I can't take decent photos for s..t.

 

I could root it, but that would break several of the financial apps I still use as they would refuse to run on a rooted phone. The thing seems to reboot randomly maybe once a month. But you should reboot once a week anyway. The screen becomes unresponsive sometimes, requiring a "Vulcan neck pinch" to reset it. I am considering putting a micro drive in the now spare SIMM slot because of the pain it is to manage files at the file level on Android (or PhoneOS for that matter). The battery might be showing signs of wear and tear.

[msbkk]

21 hours ago, impulse said:

 

One of the things I love about Thailand is how cheap and easy it is to get a battery replaced, even on the models where the manufacturer tried to make it hard.  Crafty devils, those Thais...  They'll bend over backwards to make a transaction work.

 

I am very careful with this after having bad experience. One expensive phone was damaged during a battery replacement in a shop instead of the customer service of the manufacturer. Another replaced battery lasted 2 weeks.

[impulse]

28 minutes ago, msbkk said:

I am very careful with this after having bad experience. One expensive phone was damaged during a battery replacement in a shop instead of the customer service of the manufacturer. Another replaced battery lasted 2 weeks.

 

That's a good cautionary...  But even in the authorized shops in Thailand they charge a lot less than back home. 

 

Not a smartphone, but I took a computer in once back home and they charged me $120 just to open it, plus parts and labor.  (Told me to come back in a week) I had a laptop motherboard repair done in Fortune Town and they charged me 1000 baht, all in.  Had a fried chip that he replaced, (while I watched).  I was impressed that he even identified the fault.

 

[treetops]

On 2/6/2025 at 11:23 AM, NoshowJones said:

I bought a pair from Lazada too, can't remember the make, but very poor like a lot of their products.

 

Lazada don't have any products - they are the selling platform for multiple products and multiple vendors.

 

If you got a poor product it's because you chose poorly.

[impulse]

3 minutes ago, treetops said:

 

Lazada don't have any products - they are the selling platform for multiple products and multiple vendors.

 

If you got a poor product it's because you chose poorly.

 

So if you ordered an advertised Apple product and you received a fake, it's your fault?

 

[treetops]

4 minutes ago, impulse said:

So if you ordered an advertised Apple product and you received a fake, it's your fault?

 

You chose the wrong vendor without due diligence, but regardless of that it's the vendor's fault, not Lazada's.

 

Lazada are quite good in cases like this as their returns/refund procedure is quite straightforward.

[impulse]

12 minutes ago, treetops said:

 

You chose the wrong vendor without due diligence, but regardless of that it's the vendor's fault, not Lazada's.

 

Lazada are quite good in cases like this as their returns/refund procedure is quite straightforward.

 

I partially agree with that.  I had great luck with Lazada.  Literally hundreds of orders pre-paid by debit card and not one transaction that ended badly.  Very few that even needed to be returned, and those went great.

 

But they need to do a better job of weeding out fake products.  They should have (at least) an algorithm that auto deletes 3,000 baht new IPhones and 512GB SD cards selling for 250 baht. 

 

And ads for frog feathers, which are as likely as a 250 baht, 512GB SD card.

 

TBH, maybe they do now.  But in the past, I've found a lot of products that screamed FAKE because they were on Lazada at ridiculous prices.  That's Lazada's fault.

 

[Will27]

5 hours ago, impulse said:

 

I partially agree with that.  I had great luck with Lazada.  Literally hundreds of orders pre-paid by debit card and not one transaction that ended badly.  Very few that even needed to be returned, and those went great.

 

But they need to do a better job of weeding out fake products.  They should have (at least) an algorithm that auto deletes 3,000 baht new IPhones and 512GB SD cards selling for 250 baht. 

 

And ads for frog feathers, which are as likely as a 250 baht, 512GB SD card.

 

TBH, maybe they do now.  But in the past, I've found a lot of products that screamed FAKE because they were on Lazada at ridiculous prices.  That's Lazada's fault.

 

I tend to agree with treetops on this one.

I think the buyer has to be vigilant on what they buy and who from.

 

If you stick to things sold from Lazmall vendors or official brand shops, you shouldn't have a problem in most cases.

 

I don't think Lazada should, could be able to police everything on their website.

[impulse]

37 minutes ago, Will27 said:

I tend to agree with treetops on this one.

I think the buyer has to be vigilant on what they buy and who from.

 

If you stick to things sold from Lazmall vendors or official brand shops, you shouldn't have a problem in most cases.

 

I don't think Lazada should, could be able to police everything on their website.

 

I don't disagree about the need for "buyer beware". 

 

I did get a little triggered at his contention that "If you got a poor product it's because you chose poorly".  Regardless of how diligent a buyer is, Thailand's supply chain is leaky and counterfeit products can get on even the official brands' shelves.  Even "back home" that happens.  Walmart occasionally finds fakes in their retail stores.  That's not because the customer chose poorly.  It's because counterfeiters are crafty bastards.  They can swap in a fake at many stages along the supply chain.

 

Regarding Lazada, they can't police everything, but if a casual user like me can see a product listed for an impossible price, they're falling down on the job.  Algorithms should pick those up before they even get posted.

 

As I said, I like Lazada and had hundreds of satisfactory transactions.  But they could do better.