Best 4G SmartPhone

[bartpix]

I have to say after using Samsung smartphones upto S4 and after buying the Xiaomi Note 2 to try, at a third of the equivilent price from the main brands - I am wondering why anyone wants to pay such high prices, when other brands are offering even less features to the previously stated smartphone priced 33% of the the "so called leading" brands. I can buy 3 of the above for the price of 1 "Named" brand. It goes to show what "marketing" does to a product pricing.

[dddave]

The Chinese phones such as One Plus, Xiaomi, Lenovo, ect are good but they lack the polish of the high end Samsungs, LG's and especially Apple.

I've owned several Lenovo's and a few others and while they generally do the job, there seems a constant presence of little problems, especially with underlying Chinese apps that seem to appear out of nowhere and defy attempts to get rid of them. Poorly translated messages and warnings leave the user scratching their heads wondering what they mean and finding the source of unwanted notifications can be a challenge. Lenovo's seem to get a lot of unwanted apps constantly trying to install themselves.

It really can take a while to figure one of these phones out...if ever.

Often too, specs aren't what they say, especially regarding battery power and camera resolution. GPS in many MediaTec processors is very poor although it has recently improved according to press reports. I have also had dual SIM and WiFi problems with Lenovo's.

Though not an Apple fan, I can understand why people pay big bucks for I-phones. They are seamless, slick and do what you want done with little fuss and bother. Take one out of the box and in five minutes you know almost everything you need to know to make use of it.

Though Samsung's share the Android complexity of the Chinese phones, they too are slick, very appealing devices. Their displays are the best around and performance is always near the top. A friend has the new Note-5 and it is truly a beautiful piece of hardware and I fully understand those who can afford it, buying it.

The new Xiaomi's, One Plus's, Jiayu's ect. may come close in certain areas and hit the high Antutu benchmark scores but none that I have yet seen has the full package like the Samsung Note-5 or Galaxy S6.

All that said; I will happily spend $200 for a phone that does what I need with maybe a few hiccups rather than $600++ for transitory perfection.

[curtklay]

Check out the new Samsung Galaxy J7 and J5. Most of the bells and whistles of the top models at a cost under $300.

I just got a J5 with screen protector and case for 7000 baht.

[malcoml]

I had three high end Chinese phones and correct as above they are just not finished aswell. They all had minor problems and then there was little in the way of after sales service. One screen simply cracked in my pocket and was impossible to replace outside of China. Even if I got a screen the repair guy said he had no experience in repairing so might stuff it.

That said I also had two samsungs die inside of two years so think they are a little over priced.

Love or hate the apple operating system you can not fault the phone on build quality and that is why I now will stick to Apple.

I have also had Chinese motorbikes which looked great on paper but didn't crack up to it and we recently made the mistake of buying a very expensive Chinese made bottling machine that performs nothing like quoted. Finally I purchased a rather expensive Chinese boiler which required two days of an electricians time when it arrived to Oz just to get it so that it was safe.

I'm not anti China but I have now learnt that you get what you pay for and sometimes it is worth paying a premium to keep life hassle free.

Strangely enough I once walked into a mobile shop in Suzhou and one Chinese sales guy who could speak English told me straight if you can afford it don't buy a Chinese phone. Normally they are very patriotic.

[craigt3365]

My S3 died a few weeks ago. I tried a Cheap smartphone, and it wasn't good. Poor audio quality, poor interface, etc. I just got the S6 and it's orders of magnitude better. Absolutely no comparison.

If you look at all the independent reviews, S6 and the Apple phone always take the top spot, and for good reasons. Price aside, of course...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Check out the new Samsung Galaxy J7 and J5. Most of the bells and whistles of the top models at a cost under $300.

I just got a J5 with screen protector and case for 7000 baht.

Bought a J7 for my wife recently after a lot of shopping around and comparing, and she's been very happy with it, both functionally, and in terms of its looks/status statement.

As for the OP's question, support is another factor and distinguisher. From my experience, Samsung has a very good support / after sales service and repair network here in Thailand. But for the Chinese brands you mention, not so sure how much on the ground presence they have here.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I had three high end Chinese phones and correct as above they are just not finished aswell. They all had minor problems and then there was little in the way of after sales service. One screen simply cracked in my pocket and was impossible to replace outside of China. Even if I got a screen the repair guy said he had no experience in repairing so might stuff it.

That said I also had two samsungs die inside of two years so think they are a little over priced.

Love or hate the apple operating system you can not fault the phone on build quality and that is why I now will stick to Apple.

I have also had Chinese motorbikes which looked great on paper but didn't crack up to it and we recently made the mistake of buying a very expensive Chinese made bottling machine that performs nothing like quoted. Finally I purchased a rather expensive Chinese boiler which required two days of an electricians time when it arrived to Oz just to get it so that it was safe.

I'm not anti China but I have now learnt that you get what you pay for and sometimes it is worth paying a premium to keep life hassle free.

Strangely enough I once walked into a mobile shop in Suzhou and one Chinese sales guy who could speak English told me straight if you can afford it don't buy a Chinese phone. Normally they are very patriotic.

And what country does Apple use for its outsourcing manufacturers for the IPhone???

Edited November 20, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[RedQualia]

I hate buying phones... I mean, they're phones. About as exciting as buying a toaster, IMO. I just can't get excited about this crap. A friend has an apple something or other. He's all wired in... The internet follows him everywhere as he rides his motorcycle around. Always answers the phone when I call him, it seems, no matter where or what he's doing. He's happy to pay 30,000 Baht or so for his apple thing. And happy to get a new one every year or two. Although he complained of needing a screen repair a few weeks ago. I think someone (apple?) wanted 14,000 Baht and he was getting a "good deal discount" somewhere else for 7,000 Baht. That's quite a bit of money to purchase and keep repaired what is apparently a consumable.

My old Lenovo A516 has been acting badly for a while, and basically began falling apart while I was traveling. I did some research and decided a Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime for 3,400 Baht was what I wanted. Except that when I went to MBK, no one had one, and those who said they could get it reported a price of more than twice what the internet said the going rate was in Thailand. Time for more research. After looking at the various other Xiaomi phones, I decided none were what I wanted as none supported microSD cards.

Somehow I stumbled across a review of the Alcatel Flash 2. A new phone, first available only in the Philippines, but now available in Thailand. Octacore CPU running at 1.3gHz, 720x1280 screen resolution, 13mp and 5mp cameras with lots of options, lots of memory, support for microSD cards up to 64Gb or 128Gb (some disagreement on this in the ads). Reviewers generally had nothing but kind words for it, though one reported that there was minor lag on a fairly graphic intensive "conquest of the galaxy" game of some sort (I don't play games on phones, much less graphic intensive games). Initially, the phone was/is only available from Lazada via mail order, and when I first looked there, it had a price of 4,590 Baht and a "coming soon" image in place of the "order now" image. I would have to wait, or buy something else, it seemed. I decided to wait. In the meantime, in conversations with my stepdaughter back home, she seemed convinced that I was making a big mistake... She just knew that a Samsung J2 was what I needed. I took a look... Comparing the specs of the J2 with the Alcatel, it seemed somewhat as if she was recommending that I buy a Honda Wave 100 instead of maybe a CBR250. I decided to keep waiting.

After a week or two, the phone finally DID become available, and at a cost of 4,190 Baht. I trusted the reviews I'd read, so ordered two, one for my wife and one for me, sent to my home (remember - I was traveling).

I have finally returned home and have had time to play with the Flash 2 a bit. By and large, I am not disappointed with this phone. Much nicer than what I had before. Much faster. Have installed all the apps I had on the last phone and haven't even made a dent in the memory available (I did put my old 32Gb microSD card in the phone, and the newer version of Android does allow for installation of apps on the microSD card -- older versions did not). One minor complaint is that the speaker could be better when it comes to watching videos, listening to music, etc., without headphones. But I don't do that so much, so not really all that important.

Again, the Alcatel Flash 2 is a fairly new phone. The specs can be seen here: http://www.gsmarena.com/alcatel_flash_2-7570.php

Lazada has 350 reviews/ratings of the Alcatel Flash 2. 219 are at five stars, 121 at four stars, 10 at three stars. No one or two star reviews.

I am happy for my friend who likes apple products so much, and pleased to know that he can pop 30,000 Baht more or less for the phone he thinks he needs every year or two.

I, however, need a much less expensive phone, especially if it's going to wear out every 1-2 years. Thus far, I see no reason whatsoever why I should not be delighted with the Alcatel Flash 2, and especially since I paid 26,000 Baht or so less than my friend.

Samsung and apple aficionados -- do carry on.

[Bcgardener]

The trouble with Chinese products is the wide variation in quality you get with any Chinese product. I think that people living in the West where there are standards and consumer protection get used to buying products that are all built to a good standard but the price differences usually reflect more features or even more "bling".

China is the wild west with no controls on anything so you end up with manufacturers that make the "same" product but to widely varying standards. We have purchased a number of machines for our company from China and also source a lot of our components from there. You just have to understand that if an item is half or less than the price you would expect that it's not going to be of the same quality. We recently looked for quotes on a new machine from China and ended up with a price variation in the quotes from USD$8,000 to USD$22,000 with all companies claiming the machines had the same specifications. I doubt you would ever see this in the West. Being sensible we ended up with a good machine but it cost around USD$18,000.

Purchasing from China always tends to be cheaper but don't expect amazing bargains for good quality.

[rijit]

I'm just about to finally replace my 5 ish year old i9000. & was thinking the zenphone 2 with 4gb ram and quad core processor, at around 299 us looks a deal. Thoughts anyone?

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Jeffrey346]

I have been doing Forum reviews for Smartphones for quite some time. When buying a phone, you first need to determine what your needs are.

If you just require a phone to make and receive calls, and do some SMS, any cheap phone will do. If you require 4G data, there are some very good Chinese phones that compete well with Sammy, LG Moto etc.

The issue with most Chinese manufactures is warranty/service and OS updates. Most never send out an update for a security leak and getting service is next to impossible.

In the last 3 months or so, I have been using the Elephone P7000 and 8000 and the Zopo Speed 7 Plus. They all have great specs and have worked flawlessly. Zopo has done a decent job with updates but Elephone has not.

Now keep in mind, we are talking about phones that cost 3-4000B not 30,000B.

My philosophy is use the phone till it quits and replace it with another Chinese cheapie..

[dotpoom]

Why do people price thing in dollars when we are living in Thailand....is there a special store out there that deals in dollars only? I never hear people pricing things in Euros, maybe no store eh!...for Euros?

[thailen]

I just recently bought a Samsung Galaxy J7 after comparing it on-line with the iPhone 6. It beat the
Apple phone on almost every feature you can name. The iPhone 6 cost 25,000 baht, while the J7 cost 8,900 baht. Which would YOU choose?

[craigt3365]

I just recently bought a Samsung Galaxy J7 after comparing it on-line with the iPhone 6. It beat the

Apple phone on almost every feature you can name. The iPhone 6 cost 25,000 baht, while the J7 cost 8,900 baht. Which would YOU choose?

The iPhone 6 is an awesome phone. If someone was going to give me one or the other, for free, I'd take the Apple. Again, these decisions usually come down to price.

[Dustdevil]

Why do people price thing in dollars when we are living in Thailand....is there a special store out there that deals in dollars only? I never hear people pricing things in Euros, maybe no store eh!...for Euros?

Perhaps because of the sheer size of dollar-denominated foreign reserves worldwide compared to the Euro. $4.2 compared to 1.4 trillion Euros.

[Thaijack2014]

I was looking for a smartphone with all available sensors. Found out that Wiko, a French brand, made in China is a very nice option for less then 5000 Baht. It has a built in battery, 16 gb memory, 2GB Ram and you can add an extra Micro SD up to 64 GB. Also it has Duo SIM. And is very slim. It fits into my wallet.. It doesn't come with "Wiko" apps. The OS is straightforward and if you don't like the launcher, you can always ad another, more to your likings and use that.

Before I had an HTC, but at 4x the cost of this phone.

Mind you, I was stupid, because after two weeks of having the phone I cracked the screen with force (I was pushing my bag with the phone in it and didn't realize it). When I went to the shop to have the screen repaired, they said that it would cost 2500 Baht. They would send the phone and I would get a new phone for that money. But it would take two weeks. Since I needed the phone, I just bought a new one. The one with the broken screen is still in my drawer and I'm thinking of having it replaced anyway.

Do this with an iPhone, of Samsung.... I can't afford to draw 25000 Baht out of my pocket, just like that.

Another advantage of these cheap phones is that every year there are new phones on the market. If you want to keep up, it would be very costly with the more expensive phones, but here I am. I just give the phone to my cousin or whoever needs one and I buy a new phone (if I would want one)... For 5000 Baht, it's not a big deal.

Edited November 20, 2015 by Thaijack2014

[heybuz]

xiaomi mi3,for a couple of years no worries,updates regularly and only a few chinese programs that can't be deleted.

[AdamRich]

It depends on what you are using it for. If you are just using it for calls and to jot some notes then you should be okay. The cheaper phones have sh!tty processors and less memory. Therefore you can not do things on the internet efficiently or switch between apps as fast. Also your cam and video will leave a lot to be desired. Definitely a case of you get what you pay for.

[aussiandrew]

I had three high end Chinese phones and correct as above they are just not finished aswell. They all had minor problems and then there was little in the way of after sales service. One screen simply cracked in my pocket and was impossible to replace outside of China. Even if I got a screen the repair guy said he had no experience in repairing so might stuff it.

That said I also had two samsungs die inside of two years so think they are a little over priced.

Love or hate the apple operating system you can not fault the phone on build quality and that is why I now will stick to Apple.

I have also had Chinese motorbikes which looked great on paper but didn't crack up to it and we recently made the mistake of buying a very expensive Chinese made bottling machine that performs nothing like quoted. Finally I purchased a rather expensive Chinese boiler which required two days of an electricians time when it arrived to Oz just to get it so that it was safe.

I'm not anti China but I have now learnt that you get what you pay for and sometimes it is worth paying a premium to keep life hassle free.

Strangely enough I once walked into a mobile shop in Suzhou and one Chinese sales guy who could speak English told me straight if you can afford it don't buy a Chinese phone. Normally they are very patriotic.

And what country does Apple use for its outsourcing manufacturers for the IPhone???

It's all about quality control gentlemen thank you.

[mike324]

I think many times the cheaper phones spec such as processor may seems faster or the same, but in real world test they tend to be slower than their more expensive counter part. I really do think that cheaper phones don't last for some reason. One of the main concerns with cheap phone are the screen, they are normally lower quality - not gorilla glass hence easier to break.

I've have my iphone 4 since 2010, my office ladies has been replacing their phone almost every two years - they've been through HTC, Samsung, and LG. The reliability and quality just seems to be lower for Andriod phones. Iphone are built like a tank. I plan on getting the Iphone 6, but price of Android phones are very attractive.

Not saying android phones suck wife has her Samsung for 8 years.

You get what you pay for, some are happy to change phones every year or two and be up to date with the newest phones, but cost wise its not cheaper in the end.

[aussiandrew]

Gentlemen it's all about quality control thank you.

[csabo]

I usually buy apples but then I saw that oranges were cheaper so I started buying oranges. The apples and oranges were both fruit but the oranges had cool colors and way more vitamin C than the apples but after trying lots of oranges I discovered I never really liked them as much as apples. Seems you just can't compare oranges to Apple.

[bazza40]

Having tried desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones, I've given up. A laptop suits me fine. Tablets and smartphones? Forever flying off to some unwanted corner of cyberspace because I've accidentally hit the wrong part of the screen. I have a tablet for emergency purposes; i.e if my laptop breaks down.

Phone comes from the Greek word phonos, meaning sound. People communicate on phones by speaking into them. So I'll stick with my 500 baht Samsung, where phone credit costs me about 100 baht/month, and leave you gentlemen to spending lots of money on the smartphone and your internet costs.

[meltingpot2015]

Can anyone recommend the iphone 4 or 4s?, for basic phone use, SMS, using 3 or 4 apps, maps, and internet browsing. Not too bothered about phone camera pixels.

[dddave]

I'm just about to finally replace my 5 ish year old i9000. & was thinking the zenphone 2 with 4gb ram and quad core processor, at around 299 us looks a deal. Thoughts anyone?

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

The Zenphone-2 is a great piece of hardware. The problem is, Asus insists on stuffing it with their propitiatory "ZenUI" and all manner of bloatware, most of which you'll never use and each update brings even more. These unwanted apps are difficult to remove, even for a person fairly experienced with "rooting" phones. For it's 5.5" screen size, it is somewhat bulkier than some competing 5.5" models.

A friend who owned one found he had to use a flip case that covered the screen as he was frequently sending "pocket" calls...usually to the last called number.

A lot of people love the Z-2 but unless you play a lot of heavy duty games or like to keep multiple apps running at the same time, do you really need 4gb RAM? There are more than a few excellent phones now in this price range. The newest iteration of the Motorola Moto-G looks pretty good.

Edited November 20, 2015 by dddave

[rijit]

I'm just about to finally replace my 5 ish year old i9000. & was thinking the zenphone 2 with 4gb ram and quad core processor, at around 299 us looks a deal. Thoughts anyone?

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

The Zenphone-2 is a great piece of hardware. The problem is, Asus insists on stuffing it with their propitiatory "ZenUI" and all manner of bloatware, most of which you'll never use and each update brings even more. These unwanted apps are difficult to remove, even for a person fairly experienced with "rooting" phones. For it's 5.5" screen size, it is somewhat bulkier than some competing 5.5" models.

A friend who owned one found he had to use a flip case that covered the screen as he was frequently sending "pocket" calls...usually to the last called number.

A lot of people love the Z-2 but unless you play a lot of heavy duty games or like to keep multiple apps running at the same time, do you really need 4gb RAM? There are more than a few excellent phones now in this price range. The newest iteration of the Motorola Moto-G looks pretty good.

Thanks don't know if theres anytruth in it but Got told that Motorola were stopping making phones and it would make service difficult to come by.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Shiver]

I would avoid the *really* cheap phones (slow, crappy camera and screen, limited memory etc), and also the flagship models as well (priced for fashion rather than function). I'm using a Galaxy A5 which is mid range, and better than the flagship models of previous models. As per comments above it is not flawless because ... android ... but once you get used to it then no issue. My gf has an apple S4 which imho is a piece of s h one t, but some people just like apple. When taking pictures or watching video, everyone wants to use my phone and not their own. I'm not familiar with the current flagship models of any phone, but find mid to slightly upper range to be the sweet spot for my purposes.

Best benefit I find is that I get 5-7 days battery out of it which is not bad for a colour screen, whereas others get only one day.

[user82374298374]

The iPhone 6 cost 25,000 baht, while the J7 cost 8,900 baht. Which would YOU choose?

The one which Just Works, and which is far easier to secure - e.g., the iPhone.

I can always make more money. I can't make more time.

[guzzi850m2]

My IQ II has been good so far, considered the price.

I played around with work colleagues S6 and a iphone 5 or 6? awesome phones without a doubt but they cost as much as my lap top pc

I can afford above 2 flag ship phones if I want but I don't uses phones much in Thailand, just the weather forcast and currency exchange rate and my el chepo IQ can do that just fine.

I use my IQ when off-shore working, reading the news, surfing and so on, and it's fine for that.

I know I can't sell it but 2 years down the road, I bin it and get another cheap phone.

[canarysun]

I have used Samsung mobile phones for a few years and have had nothing but problems with them! I then changed to a Lenovo mobile phone that seemed to do everything apart from make a phone call.....

I then switched to HUAWEI a year ago.A superb phone with a fabulous camera and looks nice too.I bought the Huawei Ascend G6 ( SIM FREE ) in Thailand for 5,000 baht.

I must admit i don't let mobile phones rule my life like most people.But i seriously ( i can be serious sometimes....) think that Huawei are as good as Apple or Samsung if not better!

F.J x