Best sub €300 Android device

ZeroThreat

tedpan wrote: »

You could still buy sim free from eglobal for 230euro?

Are the 4gb/64gb ones the chinese versions?

https://www.eglobalcentral.eu/nokia-6-64gb-dual-sim-sim-free-unlocked-silver.html

https://www.eglobalcentral.eu/nokia-6-64gb-dual-sim-sim-free-unlocked-black.html


Edit.

Actually I guess I'll wait until it's available in the stores here, from reviews of that site, it seems a lot of people are getting chinese models with all google stuff disabled.

ZeroThreat

Actually, decided to order it on amazon.de instead, after adjusting the vat to irish rate it comes out at €240 and free delivery.

Not in stock right now though, but sold direct by amazon.

tedpan

Henry Ford III wrote:

Thanks. Carphone warehouse don't offer sim free phones. Called in there yesterday.

Ah, didn't know you needed sim free! Not many options at all on a Sunday

tedpan

ZeroThreat wrote:

Are the 4gb/64gb ones the chinese versions?

They are the international versions, so play store etc are all there.

The main issues are down to people not reading the descriptions, it will clearly state if it's the Chinese version.

ZeroThreat wrote:

Actually, decided to order it on amazon.de instead, after adjusting the vat to irish rate it comes out at €240 and free delivery.

Nice one! Not bad for that money!

ZeroThreat

tedpan wrote: »

They are the international versions, so play store etc are all there.

The main issues are down to people not reading the descriptions, it will clearly state if it's the Chinese version.



Nice one! Not bad for that money!

Well I haven't put the order through quite yet, the problem is there's no model number given in description.

The TA-1000 are the chinese models with no google services, no camera autofocus, and no NFC (not sure if that's really important)

The TA-1003 was the model for Hong Kong and Taiwan, it does have goole services, but no camera autofocus or NFC either.

Both of the above come in either 3gb/32gb or 4gb/64gb versions.

The TA-1021 is the global model which has what the above don't (but only available in 3gb/32gb afaik).

tedpan

ZeroThreat wrote:

The TA-1003 was the model for Hong Kong and Taiwan, it does have goole services, but no camera autofocus or NFC either.

I'm guessing it will be this version as they are in Hong Kong. Strange why they would remove the autofocus and NFC. Maybe contact eglobal to see if they can confirm?

ZeroThreat wrote:

The TA-1021 is the global model which has what the above don't (but only available in 3gb/32gb afaik).

Hmmm, GSM Arena only has specifications for this model. They also list it at 230 euro. I suppose more investigations are required.

tedpan

charolais0153 wrote:

Mines in belgium after being in Middlesex. Waht cases are ye going to get for it, i cant find an otterbox for it?!

T-Bird wrote:

It's ok don't worry. It must be accompanying my one. It was cleared customs in UK for 2 days and now also in Belgium this morning.

Did anyone get any updates? It states that the package has been sent to the destination country from Belgium. That was Friday morning at 6am.

Last time DPD delivered. Is it an post now?

T-Bird

tedpan wrote: »

Did anyone get any updates? It states that the package has been sent to the destination country from Belgium. That was Friday morning at 6am.

Last time DPD delivered. Is it an post now?

No, mines the same so far.

Henry Ford III

Picked up a Moto G5 from Argos yesterday*. It's a very decent handset. Well built, decently specced, smooth running apps with a pretty good camera.

Transferred all sorts from an iphone via Google drive.

For just under €200 it's hard to beat. Got a €10 voucher and put that against a new sd card.

* Just on Argos. Reserved online and went into on Sat. to pick the phone up. Asked to see it but was told "you can't because they are sealed". Paid and was then handed a box with the seal broken. Rejected it and they offered to get another one Sunday. I checked stock online and they did. Went in again and was given another box with a seal that looked like it'd been tampered with.

3rd attempt was all good though.

tedpan

T-Bird wrote:

No, mines the same so far.

Very strange there's been no update since Friday morning??? Maybe it's changed courier. I think I'm getting a nervous tick!

charolais0153

tedpan wrote: »

Very strange there's been no update since Friday morning??? Maybe it's changed courier. I think I'm getting a nervous tick!

Mines thr same too. At least we're in the same boat

tedpan

charolais0153 wrote:

Mines thr same too. At least we're in the same boat

Or the phones are in the same boat somewhere?

T-Bird

tedpan wrote: »

Or the phones are in the same boat somewhere?

Hope they are not on a slow boat to China..

Theories of this and that are swimming in my head. But I might give it another day or 2 (says he trying to be sensible and not panic...).

tedpan

T-Bird wrote:

Hope they are not on a slow boat to China..

Great news! They are in portlaoise. Should be with us within 48 hours! It will be a good weekend

To track, click into landmark tracking.

Click "view complete tracking history"

Then on the right, click "track with postal carrier"

Copy the local barcode. CE********BE

Track with an post.

Arrived with them 20 minutes ago

T-Bird

tedpan wrote: »

Great news! They are in portlaoise. Should be with us within 48 hours! It will be a good weekend

To track, click into landmark tracking.

Click "view complete tracking history"

Then on the right, click "track with postal carrier"



Copy the local barcode. CE********BE

Track with an post.

Arrived with them 20 minutes ago

Excellent thanks! Slim to zero chance of tomorrow but Thursday should be the day.

This will probably be the first android I will have had that cannot really be customised. Rom development is almost zero. But to be honest in kind of looking forward to the break lol. I need to spend my free time on more productive things...

tedpan

Mine is out for delivery today

T-Bird

tedpan wrote: »

Mine is out for delivery today

Mine was delivered this morning

Just opened it now - not switched it on or anything yet (at work). It's a lot thinner and smaller / less bulkier than I thought it would be.

Its replacing a oneplus 2, which I thought was a good enough phone and certainly not as bad as the poor reviews it is getting. That is once you put a decent custom rom into it of course.

tedpan

T-Bird wrote:

Just opened it now - not switched it on or anything yet (at work). It's a lot thinner and smaller / less bulkier than I thought it would be.

T-Bird wrote:

Mine was delivered this morning

Nice one! Yeah, it is a sleek looking phone, hopefully the wrap won't bulk it up too much. Mine should arrive around lunchtime, that's what time the postie usually shows up. Can't wait!

podgey1992

I've had a Nexus 5x for almost a year now and it's just totally failed and bootlooped, so I'm looking into an upgrade.

Any recommendations for a new phone with similar or better specs around the €200-250 mark? Preferably something more reliable than the nexus as i'd like to get more than a year out of a phone :mad:

I'm also open to the idea of getting a Chinese import (the UMIdigi S2 looks awesome) but don't have any experience of this - would you recommend it? I'm reasonably computer literate so shouldn't have too much trouble setting it up (hopefully).

tedpan

podgey1992 wrote: »

I've had a Nexus 5x for almost a year now and it's just totally failed and bootlooped, so I'm looking into an upgrade.

Any recommendations for a new phone with similar or better specs around the €200-250 mark? Preferably something more reliable than the nexus as i'd like to get more than a year out of a phone :mad:

I'm also open to the idea of getting a Chinese import (the UMIdigi S2 looks awesome) but don't have any experience of this - would you recommend it? I'm reasonably computer literate so shouldn't have too much trouble setting it up (hopefully).

For that budget, this is class.. 199eur

Huge screen, unreal battery, powerful with the 635

https://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_646141.html?wid=4

I was considering it although really wanted the quad DAC and 2nd screen on the V20.

It was 230eur last week. I might buy one as a backup device.

podgey1992

tedpan wrote: »

For that budget, this is class.. 199eur

Huge screen, unreal battery, powerful with the 635

https://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_646141.html?wid=4

I was considering it although really wanted the quad DAC and 2nd screen on the V20.

It was 230eur last week. I might buy one as a backup device.

The V20 looks brilliant - it's way over my budget I'm afraid plus I don't want to give LG any more money since the nexus packed in.

The Xiaomi looks great - thanks! I'll look into getting it, do you know if there's any difference ordering 'HK Warehouse', 'Global version', or 'International version'? - does this matter? The screen is massive might even be too big but I'm sure I'll get used to it 4 gb of RAM and 64GB ROM for that price is nearly too good to be true.

T-Bird

podgey1992 wrote: »

The V20 looks brilliant - it's way over my budget I'm afraid plus I don't want to give LG any more money since the nexus packed in.

The Xiaomi looks great - thanks! I'll look into getting it, do you know if there's any difference ordering 'HK Warehouse', 'Global version', or 'International version'? - does this matter? The screen is massive might even be too big but I'm sure I'll get used to it 4 gb of RAM and 64GB ROM for that price is nearly too good to be true.

Go for Global version. I think the international version is for China only, it does not have Google play and also missing a bandwidth.

tedpan

podgey1992 wrote: »

The V20 looks brilliant - it's way over my budget I'm afraid plus I don't want to give LG any more money since the nexus packed in.

The Xiaomi looks great - thanks! I'll look into getting it, do you know if there's any difference ordering 'HK Warehouse', 'Global version', or 'International version'? - does this matter? The screen is massive might even be too big but I'm sure I'll get used to it 4 gb of RAM and 64GB ROM for that price is nearly too good to be true.

The Global Version is your safest bet. They have the black in stock, but is 20eur more.

There's also this, which is closer in size to your 5x.. Superior processor too for 213e

https://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_706441.html?wid=4

My V20 just arrived. The fun begins..!

podgey1992

tedpan wrote: »

The Global Version is your safest bet. They have the black in stock, but is 20eur more.

There's also this, which is closer in size to your 5x.. Superior processor too for 213e

https://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_706441.html?wid=4

My V20 just arrived. The fun begins..!

Global version is saying €320 for me! Your second recommendation looks great though, thanks!

tedpan

podgey1992 wrote: »

Global version is saying €320 for me! Your second recommendation looks great though, thanks!

No worries! You need to select Black on the Global version for the price to change

tedpan

T-Bird wrote:

Go for Global version. I think the international version is for China only, it does not have Google play and also missing a bandwidth.

I just checked the description. It is the international version(not the Chinese version) with Google play, so all good, it's just shipped from Hong Kong which takes about 2 weeks.

Fireball14013

podgey1992 wrote: »

The V20 looks brilliant - it's way over my budget I'm afraid plus I don't want to give LG any more money since the nexus packed in.

The Xiaomi looks great - thanks! I'll look into getting it, do you know if there's any difference ordering 'HK Warehouse', 'Global version', or 'International version'? - does this matter? The screen is massive might even be too big but I'm sure I'll get used to it 4 gb of RAM and 64GB ROM for that price is nearly too good to be true.

The 5x is an excellent phone, it'll be hard to beat with the budget stuff. You should try contacting Google, they're fixing those for free if you purchased from them.

podgey1992

Fireball14013 wrote: »

The 5x is an excellent phone, it'll be hard to beat with the budget stuff. You should try contacting Google, they're fixing those for free if you purchased from them.

Yeah I loved it although it was getting slow... I bought it off eglobalcentral and am seeing if they'll fix it over email, LG might repair it but since it's over a year since I bought it I think I'm out of luck and I've read that the repaired phones tend to bootloop again.

The_B_Man

There's a fix for the boot loop issue on XDA...as long as ur bootloader is unlocked

podgey1992

The_B_Man wrote: »

There's a fix for the boot loop issue on XDA...as long as ur bootloader is unlocked

Unfortunately the bootloader isn't unlocked, and the phone won't load past the google screen so I can't get in to unlock it. Someone suggested putting it in the oven online but that seems crazy!