Please friends, i need some help, and i'm stuck. I want to buy a mid range (mostly stock) android phone, with KitKat, or upgradable to KitKat, 8mp camera, display 4,5-4,7 inch and scratch resistant, a good decent sound, dual sim, card memory support, and no lag. I have available ~230 euros, do you think it's possible with this money ? Can you give me some examples ? Any advice ?
I have in mind Moto G, but the quality of camera is not so good, and it has 16 gb memory, and no card slot.
Thank you!
There are 3 threads devoted to discussions about devices, please repost your question in one of these three threads: The what should I buy thread or the The Device Suggestion Thread or the The Device Comparison Thread.
Hello everyone, don't know if this is right thread but seems like a general discussion, please move if it is wrong place.
Tried to analize what can i buy at the moment but you know.... i already spent around 8 hrs digging and brain started to overheat So maybe i can get some advices from community to save some time.
What i need: Descent all rounder, i think i would like smaller/lighter phone, but i never had big one so i don't really know... I don't know if i really need very powerful phone, but i can afford 50EUR difference to get more powerful version to be more future-proof. I can play with firmwares, but after some time it get's boring I don't think if i need a lot of storage, but again, files get bigger and bigger, so maybe if i'll have it i'll use it. I could spend ~250 total, but more into ~220 max (taxes and VAT included). i really don't feel like spending a lot of money on something i can break, loose or drop...
What i discovered that seems interesting to me:
1. Xiaomi Mi4c 3/32GB SD 808 version, i can get it to my country, it is EU for 215EUR total.
Pros i see: 5" as i really don't know do i need a big phone, using Lumia 735 now. removable battery (as i do not like buying new phone every year, so if it will be ok in 2 years i just replace battery and keep using it)
Cons: There is thread here that multitouch don't work properly. Dont' know any other, i just jumped into search and just' don't know what is trending.
2. Meizu M1 Metal 2/32 Helio X10 ~220 EUR
Pros: Seems to be more powerful?
Cons: non-removable battery, too big? I really don't know about big phone
2. Redmi Note 3 Pro with SD
Pros: Very powerful, SD slot aviable
Cons: non removable battery, size (again), camera
To compare prices locally i can get: Alcatel Idol 3 4,7 version ~200EUR. LG G3 D855 Titan ~260EUR, Samsung Galaxy A3 A300F 220 EUR, XPERIA M4 AQUA 220 EUR to have an idea.
Appreciate any advice from experienced community!
We have a dedicated thread stuck at the top of this section for these types of questions,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1620179
You'll have more success posting there, so I'm closing this thread.
Thanks,
Darth
Forum Moderator
Decided to start this thread on advice from another forum poster in an attempt to drum up some interest with the hope of building a community of support since there aren't a lot of resources online about it. It's a good, fairly recently released android tablet with decent specs. I bought it last week and so far I am not disappointed though there are definitely a few niggles about it, as is the case with just about any device.
(pros) Things I love about this tablet:
-hexacore processor... it feels nice and snappy.
-big bright 9.7" ips screen
-build quality feels solid and seems very much on a par with Apple's iPads
-reasonably priced, especially when compared to the comparable Samsung tablets
-4GB RAM & 64GB internal storage (YEAH!)
-MicroSD storage (no singing the Nexus tablet blues anymore with devices that don't have MicroSD support)
(cons) Things I hate about this tablet:
-no root ability so no flashing of custom roms (so far)
-only android 6.0
-PowerVR GPU failed to blow me away for gaming but is still no slouch... just no Nvidia K1 killer
-hardware compacitive buttons instead of softkeys (which may be a plus or a minus but I feel it's a minus because of difficulties seeing the buttons when not lit in the dark)
-battery is not the best but not the worst either. Buy a $20 powerbank if you go on long plane trips
-too many pre-loaded Asus apps (bloatware) though I'm beginning to discover that they can be disabled
Anyway, I'd like to build up a community of support for this device and share tips & tricks for its userbase. The most important thing I'd like to see is a way for it to be rooted so that we can have some real fun with it. Plus, it should bust open the interest in this tablet tenfold if it occurs. It deserves its place among other classic more budget-conscious android tablets like the Nexus 7 2013, I feel..
The chipset is so new on this tablet that I can't get a fastboot command that shows the state of the bootloader to work.
Although Asus usually has locked bootloaders, Mediatek chipset are usually not locked in my experience. My Lenovo tab 2 10A has a Mediatek chipset that was not locked.
I am sure the chipset on this tablet is locked, but not positive. With a locked bootloader we can't do much with this tablet.
In the past I have owned the Asus TF 700 and the Asus TF 701 if memory serves Asus provided a bootloader unlock key (app) to unlock the bootloaders on these tablets on the Asus support pages.
On Asus products I currently have:
ASUS ZENPAD S 8.0 Z580CA
ASUS ZenPad 3S 10 (Z500M)
I have asked Asus support for a key for the S 8.0 and never received a reply. The S 8.0 has a Intel processor and the 3S 10 has a Mediatek processor. I really like Asus products but latley they are very restrictive on options.
JackOfOwls said:
Decided to start this thread on advice from another forum poster in an attempt to drum up some interest with the hope of building a community of support since there aren't a lot of resources online about it. It's a good, fairly recently released android tablet with decent specs. I bought it last week and so far I am not disappointed though there are definitely a few niggles about it, as is the case with just about any device.
(pros) Things I love about this tablet:
-hexacore processor... it feels nice and snappy.
-big bright 9.7" ips screen
-build quality feels solid and seems very much on a par with Apple's iPads
-reasonably priced, especially when compared to the comparable Samsung tablets
-4GB RAM & 64GB internal storage (YEAH!)
-MicroSD storage (no singing the Nexus tablet blues anymore with devices that don't have MicroSD support)
(cons) Things I hate about this tablet:
-no root ability so no flashing of custom roms (so far)
-only android 6.0
-PowerVR GPU failed to blow me away for gaming but is still no slouch... just no Nvidia K1 killer
-hardware compacitive buttons instead of softkeys (which may be a plus or a minus but I feel it's a minus because of difficulties seeing the buttons when not lit in the dark)
-battery is not the best but not the worst either. Buy a $20 powerbank if you go on long plane trips
-too many pre-loaded Asus apps (bloatware) though I'm beginning to discover that they can be disabled
Anyway, I'd like to build up a community of support for this device and share tips & tricks for its userbase. The most important thing I'd like to see is a way for it to be rooted so that we can have some real fun with it. Plus, it should bust open the interest in this tablet tenfold if it occurs. It deserves its place among other classic more budget-conscious android tablets like the Nexus 7 2013, I feel..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like there are a lot of here that migrated from the N7-2013 to the Zenpad. I had been trying to hold off for the long rumored Samsung S3 but gave up and got the Asus as a Christmas gift. Like most of you all too, it would be really nice to see an update either by Asus or custom ROM. But I think the mediatek processor is the biggest limiting factor at this point.
I do not think Mediatek is such a negative thing. If you take a close look most of the large manufacturers of Android devices are using or have used Mediatek chipsets in some of those products. The ageing chipsets are almost non-existent in today's devices. The king of the hill on mobile chipsets is Qualcomm Snapdragon. The more Mediatek is used the more consumers will look for third party development. Imo
I'd like to christen this topic with its first question to owners of this device (or any android 6.0+ device for that matter) that are into portable gaming with their phones and tablets.
I just bought a SanDisk Ultra 128 GB MicroSD card which will be delivered tomorrow according to USPS tracking. Since I have a rather large GooglePlay base of purchased android games and apps, would it be best to use MicroSD card external storage or adoptive storage for them? Thanks.
loner. said:
I do not think Mediatek is such a negative thing. If you take a close look most of the large manufacturers of Android devices are using or have used Mediatek chipsets in some of those products. The ageing chipsets are almost non-existent in today's devices. The king of the hill on mobile chipsets is Qualcomm Snapdragon. The more Mediatek is used the more consumers will look for third party development. Imo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with you on terms of performance with the MediaTek and I do think it's likely to start seeing more widespread use. The weakness I was referring to is that at the moment it's not getting much love from the Custom ROM Developers
radon222 said:
I'm with you on terms of performance with the MediaTek and I do think it's likely to start seeing more widespread use. The weakness I was referring to is that at the moment it's not getting much love from the Custom ROM Developers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True XDA seems to have little love for Mediatek.
Fasle on getting widespread use. The use of Mediatek is worldwide in phones and tablets and coming on strong.
Problem: I just inserted the SanDisk Ultra 128GB MicroSD card into my Zenpad 3S 10 and though the card is recognized and I'm able to format it as external storage, I'm not getting the option to format it as adoptable storage. What could be the issue? Is this something that one of the Asus bloatware apps is causing? The android version is 6.0 so I know it's adoptable storage capable.
JackOfOwls said:
Problem: I just inserted the SanDisk Ultra 128GB MicroSD card into my Zenpad 3S 10 and though the card is recognized and I'm able to format it as external storage, I'm not getting the option to format it as adoptable storage. What could be the issue? Is this something that one of the Asus bloatware apps is causing? The android version is 6.0 so I know it's adoptable storage capable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I prefer have the external sd card listed as external storage, but to see more options you may want to go to the website and download the manual for this device if you haven't already.
loner. said:
I prefer have the external sd card listed as external storage, but to see more options you may want to go to the website and download the manual for this device if you haven't already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was able to enable adoptable storage under the ZenUI launcher by using this tutorial, but the transfer rates are ridiculously slow with the SanDisk Ultra 128GB. When I formatted it as adoptable storage, I got a warning that my MicroSD card was too slow for adoptable storage and that I would probably have issues. But the Sandisk is rated at 80 MB/s so I'm wondering what's up. When I tried to migrate the data to the MicroSD it said it would take an hour to migrate 37GB of data from my internal storage but it self-aborted after about 20 minutes or 10GBs. WTF? Running SD benchmarks right now to determine exact transfer rates and even that is taking forever in reading operations for the benchmark. According to the other ZenPad topic, this Asus device may have issues with large 128GB cards. I'm starting to become disgruntled because I bought this tablet with the hope of transferring all my apps and games to the Sandisk 128GB card and having it actually be feasible to run stuff off of it.
ETA: Just did a cold reboot and now my SanDisk 128GB MicroSDXC is showing 42 MB/s read speed using the A1 SD Bench app instead of benchmarking at 4.5 MB/sec before the cold reboot. Maybe this will work out after all. Retrying the data migration to adoptable storage now.
Well, my adventures in adoptable storage have not been a total success. I posted about my specific issue with it here. Hopefully other owners of the ASUS ZenPad 3S 10 have found a way to at least make microsd cards formatted as external storage able to run obb files off of it. I'm only realizing now how badly needed that root ability is. Thanks for any help.
I contacted Asus about upcomming updates and got the following responses (roughly translated from german):
Yes, an upgrade to Android 7 is planned for your device (I asked about the LTE version). Unfortunately, it has been delayed, but we expect it to be released at the end of the second quarter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I then asked them about the non-LTE version, specifically because of this post which claims that the Z500 will never receive an update because the hardware is not supported by nougat.
We can't confirm this and cannot make any further comment on this false report. Unfortunately, we have no information on the release of Android 7 for your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note how they could immediately tell me when the update is comming for the LTE version but have no information about the non-LTE version. Perhaps it is not supported by Android 7 after all and they are still figuring out a way around this? I'm not an expert on this topic, someone more skilled than me might want to take a look on the post I linked above, I can provide translation if needed.
Still not sure whether to buy this or the S2. Similair prices, I like the ZenPad more for the hardware, but the S2 is well served with Custom Firmware and is thus sure to be up to date for many years...
About the IMG GX6250 no being able to run Nougat, that's a lie. See here about the new Asus Tablet running Nougat, it uses exactly the same GPU as the Zenpad S3 10.
It make no sense, why would Google support a device in Android 6.0 and stop supporting the same device in Android 7.0 unless it was a old chipset and hardware configuration. If Googe was at odds with Mediatek it would be news...
hi
i have asus zanpad 3s 10 z500m for 3 days and i have a problem. After 3- 6 hours in standby tablet stop responding.i try a factory reset and after the night in standby mode the tablet don't start. i try power buton ,nothing.i plug in charger and after few seconds the tablet start.the battery have 45% so not the issue.
thank you!
lyon king said:
hi
i have asus zanpad 3s 10 z500m for 3 days and i have a problem. After 3- 6 hours in standby tablet stop responding.i try a factory reset and after the night in standby mode the tablet don't start. i try power buton ,nothing.i plug in charger and after few seconds the tablet start.the battery have 45% so not the issue.
thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would send it back for a exchange on a new replacement.
Thinking about getting one of these for my daughter to replace her aging first-generation 10" Samsung tablet. It seems more cost-effective than getting a Samsung Tab S2 (or the new and ludicrously priced Tab S3) for pretty much the same - or better - spec.
I know rooting is pretty much never going to happen (so I'd never consider one of these for myself) but how bad is the Asus bloatware/crap that they've bolted on top of Android? Would a new launcher (such as Nova) fix most of it without needing to root?
Andre
andrewilley said:
Thinking about getting one of these for my daughter to replace her aging first-generation 10" Samsung tablet. It seems more cost-effective than getting a Samsung Tab S2 (or the new and ludicrously priced Tab S3) for pretty much the same - or better - spec.
I know rooting is pretty much never going to happen (so I'd never consider one of these for myself) but how bad is the Asus bloatware/crap that they've bolted on top of Android? Would a new launcher (such as Nova) fix most of it without needing to root?
Andre
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Asus bloatware and launcher really aren't bad at all and actually grown to like it. I'm coming from an N7 2013 and a series of Moto Droid that were as close to stock android as possible.
Sent from my P027 using Tapatalk
radon222 said:
The Asus bloatware and launcher really aren't bad at all and actually grown to like it. I'm coming from an N7 2013 and a series of Moto Droid that were as close to stock android as possible.
Sent from my P027 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Nova Launcher Pro.
Sent from my P027 using Tapatalk
Bought mine specifically for a decent resolution 4:3 device. Fought a bit with the bloatware to get it disabled to my liking - in particular some of it absolutely trashes the performance (I forget which though, this was months ago).
Coping without root. Only tend to use that for AdAway, so am using JumpGo as a browser - and almost none of the other apps I use are ad supported so it's not too terrible.
Would love to see a proper AOSP build for it. The hardware is brilliant but as it stands it's simply a stop-gap for me until something better with similar properties comes along with decent software.
So I've been meaning to trade in my ZenFone 2 ze551ml for a while now after I heard its not getting nougat and that the one marshmallow update is all ZenFone 2 is getting due to Intel limitations
So well I wanted to get a new phone and I have a budget of 20,000 rupees
I have a few requirements that I need apart from that everything additional is just a cherry on top
1. Decently fast and optimised with minimal bloatware
2. 4gb ram minimum
3. Something that may be update at least 2 years down the line... I used to be well informed about these things after I got my zenfone 2 and heard its disappointing update schedule but right now I'm kind of busy with studies and have lost track of it
4. A nice display with sunlight legibility
5. Fast charging and over 3000 mah battery preferred
6. VOLTE like really badly with dual SIM functionality
Dual volte if there is any or one volte and one LTE will do
6. Fingerprint scanner isn't a must but would be appreciated
7. And also a phone that has a decent xda community for roms and is relatively the easiest to root and unlock as I used to do it a lot on my note 2 but have lost practice in the past 2 years
I short listed a few devices and would like ure opinions about them before I purchase any...
1. Zuk z2 plus (zuk subsidiary as I know has been shut down recently due to Lenovo doing budget cuts)
2. Mi5 the 4 th ram variant isn't available in India so I'm missing out one of the key features there itself
3. Moto g5 plus
4. Nubia z17 mini
5. Or should I wait for the one plus 3 or 3t prices to drop in a month or 2 ( preferably don't want to wait too long but if I must I must)
6. Redmi note 4
7. Decent storage options in the price point.
Thank u for ure replies and I'm sorry to be a bother
Yes I can check all these and previously I have but right now I'm kinda on a time constraint to do the research
Also if u have any suggestions that may be Better than the ones listed please do tell
Also as a bonus if I can find a phone with ois in this price point will be even better
Hi all, i currently have a Samsung Note 10 Plus 5G.
I wod like to get a new flag ship with the following criteria
1. i hate curved screens
2. above 8gb ram
3. generally new good phones are 120ghz refresh rate
4. 256gb and above, plus a micro sd slot (i current ha ve 256gb and using an extra 400gb sandisk micro sd card)
5. a headphone slot is nice (but optional)
6. obviously a nice screen, fast chipset and good cameras are important also
7. i am not a gamer so keep that in mind pls.
what are my current options?
i really hate curved screens. need to mention that again. thats what i dislike about my current note 10 plus 5g. (and i really like this phone)
your thoughts?
and thanks!
Consult sites like this one
The best mid-range phone 2023
These are the best mid-range smartphones and affordable flagships right now, from Google to Samsung
www.techadvisor.com
Should be based on independant evaluations.