Best budget smartphone?

Cubot Note S is ok with me. Amazon customers are satisfied with it, me too.

Me, for example. While I can do the magic behind the software, this doesn't means I am up to date with regards to what are the trending known good smartphones at any given time. Generally this is easily solved by reading some reviews and visiting the XDA developers forum, but can take much more time without good advice.

With my abilities I can easily help out people get into the rooted ROM thing, yet of course they have to show true motivated willingness to be responsible for their actions without blaming the guru. Only one close friend of me followed the path and, despite not being even remotely so g33k, until now he has done right and has enjoyed some of the benefits of rooting. It just takes a little common sense.

Cheers

P.S.: ask first, shoot later. :-)

You said it yourself only one friend of yours followed this path, while not by any measure an authority of your caliber, i have been rooting, flashing roms, changing filesystems, kernels and whatnot and since the Galaxy S I9000 the times of supercurio (Francois Simond) and the whole voodoo thing (i among lot of other phones had a flashed ZUK Z2 that i gave to my sister, i agree about the hardware and form factor), i don’t pretend to have your teaching skills either but as soon as i introduce the idea and explain to people what it involves the answer is almost always “thanks, not interested” the vast majority of people IRL have no time or interest for this, it requires a high level of autism, they want OTA updates and in most cases would be better of on AOSP, hence the success of the nexus line (although it lost it’s competitive pricing after the nexus 4) and now the interest for android one.

JamesB, can also be time, I loved to tweak PCs and such, buy now i ant to just use them. Used to adapt Windows untill it was very fast, now I install Ubuntu once and be done with it :slight_smile:
For phones, I dont want to walk a path that leads me back many years, just want it to work relatively safe.

Agreed ,although the MIUI rom is quite bloated, since it’s stable i didnt flash any of my 4 xiaomi (the only phones i still own along a ZUK Z1), can’t be bothered with it anymore if the phone works and is patched for security loopholes.

Just bought this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/lenovo-zuk-z2-pro/222914891819

Thanks to a 15% discount coupon, I've just paid 171.82€ for it, or about $211.83. I'm a happy camper! :-D

Cheers ^:)

After my trusty Samsung S7 decided to break (after I left it on my bike rack and drove away I might add :slight_smile: ) I bought a Oneplus 5T and have to say that this phone kicks some serious ass.
It’s working on a stripped-down version of the Android OS, so not a lot of bloatware, and it is extremely fast and battery life is phenomenal, will definitely upgrade to another Oneplus when needed.

What is the BLF consensus on Xiaomi smartphones? Quality? SW updates in line with Google Android releases? Battery life day-to-day and overall life? Never had a Xiaomi but would love to buy one at Gearbest.
Also, I am not entirely sure what all the tiny details are among the various models, they do seem similar.

My daughter has a Xiaomi phone (and she has used other brands as well) and she is extremely satisfied with it, performs more that its price, so to speak.

I have read somewhere that Xiaomi is putting out a whopping 5,000mAh battery phone!

Whopping? LOL :smiley:

We live in era of 10 000 plus mah (real capacity) smartphones with around 200$ price tag

Check this out:

Ulefone Power 5 (13 000 mah)
DOOGEE BL12000 Pro (12 000mah)
Oukitel K10 (11 000 mah)
Blackview P10000 Pro (11 000 mah)
HOMTOM HT70 (10 000 mah)
Oukitel K7 (10 000 mah)
K10000 MAX (10 000 mah)

There are tons of others in 6000 + category :+1:

Is that like 5,000+ lumen 5$ flashlights? Or are there really smartphones with higher battery capacities?

I used to have 2 of the early Samsung Galaxies, and they were good phones but I think all the latest Samsungs (like the iPhone) are overpriced.
Some people will keep paying a fortune to always have the latest model, but not me.
For the last few years all of my family have been using Oppo and Huawei phones and they are really good for the money.
There are different models for different budgets.
I don’t know how well known they are in USA, but in Australia they are available in most phone stores.

You can get a 5Ah phone from Xiaomi

- Mi Max 2 or the new

  • Mi Max 3
    Backside this are BIG phones

All mentioned in my post are real capacity.

The Ulefone Power seems OK
German reviews:

(Normally everything over 80% is a phone I am satisfied. I look also if the screen is PWM free)

Blackview

YMMV

Instead of mAh check the runtime test, it depends how power efficienc the phone is.

wow, thanks for the input. That is a massive capacity for a smartphone. Will look into this and get a new one.

Yes they are cool… Downside of such phones is weight and thickness. So they don’t look fancy. 350 gr. of weight

But hey! If you have night shift job they can withstand more than whole shift of gaming and video reproduction, and some of them have power bank function to charge your Iphones or Samsungs or even your rechargeable flashlights :smiley:

That’s where I love my Note 4. I can have a 13000 mAh battery when the thickness is okay, but I can slim down to the ~3000mAh battery with Qi wireless charging when I need to. It doesn’t get as slim as new phones, and it’s not as fast as them either, but it suits my needs very well….or used to, but now the camera has issues focusing even outdoors.

If you never, ever plan to update your OS, look for a selection of cases or get replacement oats, you can buy just about anything.

Companies like Xiaomi, Oppo, Ulephone and others make good phones but repairs, accessories and software can be iffy.

A two year old flagship from major brands will also work for most people and typically come with deep discounts.

Phones with Snapdragon processors usually get updated more frequently than others. They usually have third party custom ROMs written for them where other processors like Mediatek will have nothing available.

I checked needrom (website) and was amazed how many ROMs there are. Also, I thought Xiaomi has regular updates, at least for a while?