Need a new phone.

[tadka]

My current phone (Xperia XA1) has a screen that goes all the way to the edge (not a bad thing) but if I need to tap on something that’s near the edge it is very difficult. It’s as if the screen has no “feeling” there. It annoys the hell out of me.

What would you guys recommend? I’m thinking mid range. Not too big. Removable battery would be an advantage. No other requirements really. Actually, it will have to be able to run LineageOS but I can check that. For some reason XA1 was never supported by LineageOS.

What do you guys recommend?

[Dave Rice]

Moto G7 and the Huawei Honors.

[tadka]

Went to a few phone shops this morning. The phones I liked were Samsung S10E, Huawei P20 Pro and Huwei P30. All at least £400 on eBay. Way more than I want to spend. Moto G7 looks a bit cheap but to be honest it should not matter to me. I will have to go again and have another look at the Huawei Honor phones.

[Drezha]

The Pocophone is very good. I had one briefly but it didn’t play nice with Android Auto. Other than that, it was a cracking device.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[PlaneMan]

Drezha wrote:

The Pocophone is very good. I had one briefly but it didn’t play nice with Android Auto. Other than that, it was a cracking device.

Totally agree. Mum still has hers and loves it.

[Dave Rice]

The Motos aren’t very blingly, but mine always go in a bumper case anyway. The point is they have decent specs for the money and just work.

I needed a very backlit photo yesterday, none of the phones here could handle it even with flash. Grabbed my old Coolpix bridge camera and it was perfect first time. Made me realise what I put up with for convenience.

[Tippon]

Drezha wrote:

I had one briefly but it didn’t play nice with Android Auto

The Honor 9 is the same, at least in a Ford. Sometimes it’s great and other times it will just sit there trying to connect forever. Apparently it’s down to a conflict between Android Auto and third party launchers like EMUI.

[PlaneMan]

Tippon wrote:

Drezha wrote:

I had one briefly but it didn’t play nice with Android Auto

The Honor 9 is the same, at least in a Ford. Sometimes it’s great and other times it will just sit there trying to connect forever. Apparently it’s down to a conflict between Android Auto and third party launchers like EMUI.

Android Auto works fine in my Swift, Mate 20 Pro, sometimes the car has issues connecting to the phone, that can take a minute or two. Usually it’s a few seconds. I’ve figured out the best way to get it to mostly work quickly, ignition on, plug phone in, start engine.

No idea if that’ll help but worth a try.

[Bob Williams]

Well SWMBO and I have made up our mind* and we are going for an Honor 8A each: –

http://tinyurl.com/y4ev9b5v

Looking at the bang-for-bucks, it has everything we need at the right price. And it has Android PIE (9), 1920 x 1080p, 32GB internal upgradeable up to 512 GB with SD card, 6.1″ screen. A penny under £140, having them at that. I am no smartphone expert, but to me that sounds OK for a Budget phone. Hopefully the Plastic PoTUS will stop his silly games soon.

*I made up OUR mind. Someone had to!??

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

His games won’t effect you Bob. Plus it will blow over in 6 months.

[Tippon]

PlaneMan wrote:

Tippon wrote:

Drezha wrote:

I had one briefly but it didn’t play nice with Android Auto

The Honor 9 is the same, at least in a Ford. Sometimes it’s great and other times it will just sit there trying to connect forever. Apparently it’s down to a conflict between Android Auto and third party launchers like EMUI.

Android Auto works fine in my Swift, Mate 20 Pro, sometimes the car has issues connecting to the phone, that can take a minute or two. Usually it’s a few seconds. I’ve figured out the best way to get it to mostly work quickly, ignition on, plug phone in, start engine. No idea if that’ll help but worth a try.

Thanks Nolan, I’ll give it a try 🙂

P.S. Happy forum birthday 😀

[Bob Williams]

The Duke wrote:

His games won’t effect you Bob. Plus it will blow over in 6 months.

That was my conclusion as well Steve. Plastic PoTUS is just playing games, trying to confuse the Chinese into making better trade deals. Probably confusing himself more.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

We went down to talk to Carphone Warehouse about the Honor8A and were drawn aside for a confidential chat. It turns out that CW are instructing staff at all branches to inform potential purchasers of Huawei and Honor phones, that there will be no support after August 1st. They can still be bought and are still on display, but CW will offer no guarantee regarding support after that and purchasers are requested to accept that by signing the receipt. We thought about it and asked to see alternatives. I noticed this Sony Xperia L3:

http://tinyurl.com/y64uttqd

It was just another tenner at £149.99 and it suited all our requirements. After a long think over a coffee in a local cafe, we returned and ordered: they will be in store tomorrow. Then we got the usual BS concerning covers. We like wallet covers but their offer was £19.99 each or “3 for 2”, plastic cover wallets. OK, I said, what do we do with the 3rd, bearing in mind that we have only ordered 2 phones, not 3? Plus they only have it in black. So I rejected that and went home to check Amazon: 2 leather interior wallets in one of several colours. I ordered a red for me and a nice blue for SWMBO. £5.99 each.

http://tinyurl.com/y36v9fnz

Sorted! And the Xperia L3 is £169.95 at Argos, £169 at amazon.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[PlaneMan]

The lack of support is bowlocks, that’s just them covering themselves.

Regardless, if that suits you and the wifey, fine. I still use my now ancient (in phone terms) Xperia Z2 occasionally, particularly when the weather is rotten as it’s waterproof.

[Richard]

I am not the best guide but PM I tend to side with you.

Bob, once I have something from the lower end of the market that is it for support anyway. To be honest I rarely, in fact never see any benefit from the laboriously updated items. My Moto 4G Play is now just over 2 years old, it drives me nuts sometimes, so should it go bad at some point I would think about replacing it with another low end item that meets my limited need. That is the real point, it must meet what the user wants, there is so much choice that ‘near enough’ probably is not ‘good enough’. My eldest daughter breaks her phones about every 10~12 months, but she has been happy with a string of Sony phones. They were outside of my need/price profile. So good luck once you are settled, but do not look back.

[The Duke]

You get play store updates do your covered for all the major nasties, no matter the make of phone.

Actually the play store gets two layers of security. It gets scanned server side,then again at phone side, it the two check sums don’t match the phone won’t install the app.

Sevurirty patches are patchy from device to device, but it’s not the end of the world once they stop. It’s not really an issue to worry about. Unless a massive out break occurred, but by then we wousl all know about it, and Google would push a mass patch. Probably via the play service interface. That’s why it’s there, as the oems was always to slow to react, hence play services was created.

It wasnt loved when it first came out, the oems hated it and tried to say it was Google taking away control. In reality it wad Google re asserting control ad the oems was giving android a bad name.

Long story short, don’t worry about it. When it’s an issue you’ll know.

[Ed P]

I’m sure Steve will know of better ways, but getting Google Play etc on unsupported phones has been detailed many times in the past. Using the apk route is the easy one – I even used it on my Kindle Fire. As has been said, this is all just a big Trade Negotiation ploy.

In any case Car Phone cannot duck out of their statutory obligations in that way – demand to see it in writing!

[Richard]

I suspect that the commission jockeys have some sort of incentive to sell other makers’ phones in what is an increasingly cut throat shrinking volumes market. Other’s on here appear to have resolved the issue of application management and the playstore/no playstore probably non issue.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

There is something to be said for going refurb. You can get a Samsung S7 A1 refurb for £150 or less if you dont mind a strange colour.

You get Android Orio and full access to the play store with updates for at least the next 2 years.

The S7 was built as a flagship and it shows in the quality of the camera and screen amongst other things.

The only sticking point with a refurb could be the battery as its non replaceable.

[Bob Williams]

Wheels-Of-Fire wrote:

There is something to be said for going refurb. You can get a Samsung S7 A1 refurb for £150 or less if you dont mind a strange colour. You get Android Orio and full access to the play store with updates for at least the next 2 years. The S7 was built as a flagship and it shows in the quality of the camera and screen amongst other things. The only sticking point with a refurb could be the battery as its non replaceable.

I have 2 reservations regarding that Graham: I would be happy with, say, a refurb laptop from a reputable source, but why would I buy a used phone with a short guarantee*, when I can buy a brand new one that suits my needs, with a long guarantee? In addition, I wanted one that has a replaceable battery, like our old Wileyfox ones, batteries already replaced last year, inexpensively, from a Chinese source.

*Admittedly, the refurb may have more bells and whistles, but note the bit above that says ..suits my needs. The ones we are collecting later today, will do what we want from a phone. Better bang for bucks.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Author]

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