Best Smartphone under 10k baht NEW or Slightly Used

[50baht]

This question seems to change by the month, they come out so fast now.

However the Misses needs to Upgrade because "OLD phone OLD" as she text me with

very clear picture from Swensons.

What would you recommend and where to find in Pattaya ?

50

.

[NewInPatts]

Text back 'Old lady Old' and take clear pictures of young hotties - see what happens.

Try Tukcom.

Edited October 11, 2015 by NewInPatts

[50baht]

Text back 'Old lady Old' and take clear pictures of young hotties - see what happens.

Try Tukcom.

Took your advice. She Textedback, "Duck Hungry Don't come Home"..

.

[CharlieH]

MOVED To telecoms

[RichCor]

The "Old Lady" would need to say what features are important to here.

Presuming she likes having a SmartPhone with a low-light, fast camera.

This would generally mean Samsung or Apple, and the "old versions" for under 10k THB.

My son has an ASUS that does low light, but the images don't compare with his auntie's Samsung.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

My wife just bought a new Samsung J7 for 8900b list. Nice phone and seems to work well. Comes in a "gold" color available.

Good specs: 5.5 in Super AMOLED, Lollipop OS, 16GB, 1.5gb RAM, 13 and 5 Mpx cameras, LTE bands for Thailand, dual SIM, microSD slot, 1080p video.

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_j7-7185.php

There's also a pretty similar J5 for 7700-7900b list -- similar except for a 5 in screen, a smaller capacity battery and only an 8 GB ROM in the common Thai version.

[lopburi3]

If you can stretch that budget a bit the Samsung Galaxy A8 just dropped from 15900 to 13390 and has excellent cameras and build quality and is still 'new'.

http://www.lazada.co.th/samsung-galaxy-a8-white-1535998.html

[Afook]

I have 2 brand new Motorola Motor e, 2nd generation phones from the US.....you can review on YouTube :-)

3500B each, you'll save on the import taxes......it is rated a best for the budget $$, but camera isn't like an iPhone/Samsung :-)

Maybe someone is interested?

[Sayonarax]

Buy her mirror.

[wump]

Just bought a "used" G3 for 229 euros = 9240 Baht.

I'll never gonna buy first hand again. It's the second best phone out there.

[jacko45k]

My wife just bought a new Samsung J7 for 8900b list. Nice phone and seems to work well. Comes in a "gold" color available.

Good specs: 5.5 in Super AMOLED, Lollipop OS, 16GB, 1.5gb RAM, 13 and 5 Mpx cameras, LTE bands for Thailand, dual SIM, microSD slot, 1080p video.

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_j7-7185.php

There's also a pretty similar J5 for 7700-7900b list -- similar except for a 5 in screen, a smaller capacity battery and only an 8 GB ROM in the common Thai version.

I agree it is quite suitable. If you can go a bit higher monetarily the bigger J8 might be worth a look.

[jacko45k]

Just bought a "used" G3 for 229 euros = 9240 Baht.

I'll never gonna buy first hand again. It's the second best phone out there.

Beware of refurbished phones though. If you are going to buy last years high spec models many are out there, make sure they truly are new. These phones get returned to the worlds big network providers as people upgrade to the latest and greatest, and sold on to other countries. They end up on Ebay and Ali Baba, and I am suspicious a few end up in sealed boxes being sold as new items. A likely problem where the battery is not replaceable is it has lost capacity already. Another I have experience of is the phone is ex-USA market, and for Android phones that means the Network has modified the Op system, over the top of the OEM changes, including some operational restrictions you may not want. (Eg, mine cannot do WiFi Hotspot nor software upgrades as this is blocked to only when on the CDMA network). Apple products, and Nexus, are probably better, or rooting!.

[louse1953]

I would suggest you get a less consumer driven missus.

[asdecas]

Depends whether she just wants a utilitarian phone with all the bells and whistles that 10k will buy, or whether she's hell bent on keeping up with the Terdsaks, in which case nothing but a new iPhone 23 at half a million Baht will do,

If you spend 10k however, the phone will almost certainly be Android-based, and these days your choice is huge. Bear in mind that 4g is beginning to be promoted more and more as coverage widens, so any new phone you buy should probably be LTE-enabled, unless you want a repeat request next year. My own feeling is that I will wait another year before upgrading.

Personally i think Xiaomi 4 is a good choice. I've also come across this recently, which looks interesting if you're a Brit with a friend who can bring for you: https://www.wileyfox.com/storm/

[oneday]

Samsung J7

[MaeJoMTB]

Alcatel One Touch Flash 2, today only 10am-12noon from Lazeda, 4600bht.

http://www.lazada.co.th/alcatel-onetouch-flash-2-volcanic-gray-1893652.html

These are great phones, 8 cores, 2GB core memory, 16GB phone memory, 5" screen, dual SIM.

Can take a 128GB microSD card.

Edited October 12, 2015 by MaeJoMTB

[barryw52]

I am a big fan of the Samsung Galaxy 5 i.e the model before the current one. I seen them on sale for 10900 Baht with Android 5.0 installed. Camera is excellent. not sure if there still around today. They have replace battery and external memory card which neither the new Samsung Galaxy 6 or iPhones have. The originally sold for 23900 Baht when first released.

[alocacoc]

I am a big fan of the Samsung Galaxy 5 i.e the model before the current one. I seen them on sale for 10900 Baht with Android 5.0 installed. Camera is excellent. not sure if there still around today. They have replace battery and external memory card which neither the new Samsung Galaxy 6 or iPhones have. The originally sold for 23900 Baht when first released.

The camera is not bad, expect that it takes a few second to load the camera app. And then it takes even longer to open the gallery app.

[LivinLOS]

Lenovo K3 note.. Total sleeper.. Near flagship phone specs.. under 7k baht...

I have had a series of nexus flagships.. This does it all for half the price..

Make sure you get (or install) the ROW (rest of world) rom.. AKA international ROM.. The Chinese version is filled with bloatware.

[meltingpot2015]

If you buy a Samsung, test it fully before purchase, ensure it has warranty (probably goes for all phones), buy from authorised dealer.

Test if fully, as in, open up all the apps you would use most frequently, see how they perform. Some phone shops do not have the phones connected to Internet, making it impossible to test web browser performance on the phone. When I visited a Huawei phone dealer in Loas and asked if I could Open an Internet browser page, he said "Internet is slow here". So I suggested we open the speedcheck website, that way we know if its the phone or Internet connection speed. He said "OK, we can arrange it".

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I have 2 brand new Motorola Motor e, 2nd generation phones from the US.....you can review on YouTube :-)

3500B each, you'll save on the import taxes......it is rated a best for the budget $$, but camera isn't like an iPhone/Samsung :-)

Maybe someone is interested?

Before the J7 my wife ended up getting as a birthday present, I had bought her a Moto E from the U.S. for about $100, but Amazon ended up sending the wrong phone, so I had to return it -- fortunately at Amazon's expense.

One downside to the Moto E phone is it doesn't have a flash. And now lately, apparently, there's a kerfuffle going on because after promising the model would get OS updates, it's now not clear that Motorola is going to push out the Marshmallow update to the Moto E series.

But, for that brief period at home, I had my hands on the Moto E prior to returning it, and I must say, I Iike the Moto G a lot more, obviously at a higher price, but one still well within the OP's budget. Despite having decent specs and a relatively up to date OS, the Moto E felt to me like a budget phone. The Moto G didn't.

To have and use the three phones -- Samsung J7, Moto G and Moto E -- you clearly can tell the differences in the phones related to the differences in the prices. For under 6000b, I'd definitely buy a Moto G again. And, although I have a personal allergy to costly mobile phones, I have to admit, the J7 is a really nice phone for my wife. I just wouldn't pay close to $300 to buy one for myself.

[speedtripler]

Just bought a "used" G3 for 229 euros = 9240 Baht.

I'll never gonna buy first hand again. It's the second best phone out there.

Beware of refurbished phones though. If you are going to buy last years high spec models many are out there, make sure they truly are new. These phones get returned to the worlds big network providers as people upgrade to the latest and greatest, and sold on to other countries. They end up on Ebay and Ali Baba, and I am suspicious a few end up in sealed boxes being sold as new items. A likely problem where the battery is not replaceable is it has lost capacity already. Another I have experience of is the phone is ex-USA market, and for Android phones that means the Network has modified the Op system, over the top of the OEM changes, including some operational restrictions you may not want. (Eg, mine cannot do WiFi Hotspot nor software upgrades as this is blocked to only when on the CDMA network). Apple products, and Nexus, are probably better, or rooting!.

The battery problem can be easily solved, non removable only means that you need tools to replace it

Doesn't mean you have to bin it when the battery life gets bad

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I should have added, in the under 10K category, any Android fan in Thailand probably also ought to take a look at the new I-Mobile IQ II, which is the first Android One phone offering in Thailand in partnership with Google. It's getting some good reviews from users in threads on the subject here. And it's list priced at 4,444b, and has LTE capability as well.

But for Thais, clearly, I-Mobile doesn't have the same "I carry an expensive phone" statement as the upper end Samsungs.

[realenglish1]

For my money I would buy OPPO A very good Chinese Brand I have been using for many years and no problems

Costs about 7000 new and has great functions MORE for the money compaired to Samsung and good service as well

[speedtripler]

I should have added, in the under 10K category, any Android fan in Thailand probably also ought to take a look at the new I-Mobile IQ II, which is the first Android One phone offering in Thailand in partnership with Google. It's getting some good reviews from users in threads on the subject here. And it's list priced at 4,444b, and has LTE capability as well.

But for Thais, clearly, I-Mobile doesn't have the same "I carry an expensive phone" statement as the upper end Samsungs.

Iphone is the usually the ultimate Thai status symbol...

Even the girls in the office on low wages have them on credit...

[nongsangcity]

True vision phone 1990 baht.....not a lot it carnt do....and you dont have to use a true sim card either....i use my AIS sim card....

[Farangdanny]

I recently bought an AIS LAVA.

Under 4,000, seems perfect !

[khunano]

Get a Lumia Windows phone, e.g. Lumia 730, two sim cards can be inserted as well as a sd card for additional memory, good Carl Zeiss camera, 5 MP selfie camera. Just saw them advertised on Lazada for a bit over 5 KB. OK, not too many apps but Line, FB, etc. are available. Also, excellent navigation with HERE maps come along free. Have used them in Thailand, now in several European countries.

[doctor pat]

i just got a lumia 430

only 1.4 million dong, about 2200 baht. i am surprised at how good a phone it is for that cheap. its really nice to use and no lag or slowness. windows runs a lot better on a low end phone than android.

but the camera is terrible

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

If I was going to consider a Lumia phone, which I probably wouldn't, I'd certainly make sure any model I was looking at has been promised a Windows 10 OS update by Microsoft.

And even if the phone was going to get Windows 10 for mobiles, you really have to wonder what the apps and related ecosystem is going to be for Lumia phones moving forward.

If someone just wants a basic phone with camera, I guess it would be fine. But if you're someone who uses a lot of apps to extend the functionality of your mobile phone, Windows just isn't the place to be.