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[Q] Recommendation for "no-name" cell phone

G'day
Yesterday, my SG4 I9505 fell down a flight of stairs and broken into sizable pieces. I went on to look for a new phone that might be a good match for my "old" broken one. Since I currently live in Switzerland, I'd like to have a recommendation for a phone which matches the LTE 4G frequency used by the providers here, though I'm frequently traveling to the USA and sometimes to Asia (though I normally just buy a replacement phone for the duration). While searching through the net, I eventually hit alibaba.com and browsed through the manufacturers there, in hope to find a cool combination of hardware for my new replacement phone. What I would really like is the following (could be more or more specific, once helpful people reply):
A really fast CPU (low power consumption). Of course, the word good is very unspecific here.
3000+ up to 4000mAh battery
A brilliant 1080p display with vivid colors, with good contrast ratio
Fast and accurate GPS, a-GPS
GSM, 3G, 4G, LTE with the according frequency bands necessary to connect to various providers in Europe, mainly Switzerland. Why can't we have programmable chips which adapt their frequency for the cell connectivity? I currently have 100Mbit/s download and 10Mbit/s upload, so I'd like to continue using this as my main mobile Internet access
Rootable Android (easily upgradeable to newest versions)
Advanced audio chip
Dual SIM
Moderately good lens (I very much prefer lower MPixels but enhanced IS and really working in low-light given the physical constraints)
All the goodies of the normally used SoC CPUs
Aluminium alloy
2-4GB RAM
At least 32GB space
Wifi
Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, temperature, humidity, gesture
Has anybody tested any of these hundreds of new Chinese and Korean mobile phones or has some experience with no-brand phones?

[Q] Chinese Budget Mid-Range phones - Help me to choose ! ;)

Hey guys,
I would like to start a discussion that would aggregate meta-data available on the Chinese budget phones under £200 with mid-range specs, firstly in order to help me ,but also others to decide the correct one as there is scarcity of reviews and lots of them are paid for stubs and contain lots of misleading data.
I have spent last two weeks researching on my leisure the best possible option for the chinese budget mid-range purchase. I have been hoping to get a device priced well under £200 that would field a solid camera, 4G (800mhz) ,superb hardware perf. CPU, GPU and GPS, have solid battery 2700mh+ (ideally with quick charge function) have appealing design and ideally max up to 5" of display size with the Lollipop upgradeability.
I have seen and read lots of reviews including yours and concluded on following:
- Mediatek did really break out of its shackles and these new 64bit SoCs ARM A53 Cortex with 6732 and 6752 are real deal breakers, so I have found a plenty of quad core 5" phones that satisfy my hunger for the performance stuffed by features - >
- Kingzone N3 Plus , Elephone P6000 (and possibly P3000s) , Lenovo P70 and also a bit more expensive Zopo ZP920 magic.
--- > now from what I have seen about these devices they are united under one oblivious problem that I cannot simply overlook despite being on low budget. And that is the overall quality of their cameras. Here we can easily conclude that they generally suck, although Zopo Zp920 is one of the favourites together with ZTE Blade S6 ,but here had battery life really swept all my hopes into oblivion. One of the issues I ve found here is that almost every budget manufacturer simply loves to overstate the resolution capability of these phones, I have been digging deeper just to find out that Elephone and Kingzone simply equip their devices with a lower quality Omnivision or Sony (ElE has even issued two different sensors for the same phone due to shortage of stock) that are really just 8Mpx interpolated to 13 MPx. I have not seen many useful reviews for N3 Plus despite it's appealing design and functions comparable to P3000s, but I assume the camera problem will be exactly the same (as it is with the alleged overstated battery capacity). Despite this problematic, I have found out that the camera on P6000 is kind of controversial.
P6000 is slacked as most of the same priced phones for underperformance in low light situations., however, I have found several contrasting reviews that even claim that its low light/night images are even better that on the famous Xiaomi Mi4. From pics I ve seen I wonder whether the varying quality can be a result of different sensors used or for example that pictures have been taken on its native 8MPx res rather then extrapolated 13MPx . I am writing this really because, P6000 seems to be after all my best choice together with its 32bit brother P3000s. I have tried to look out for some comparison between these two especially camera wise (talking about rear cameras, as I am not really that concerned about the front ones), but I failed. Problem is that Ele nor reviewers really state what sensors are these phones using. But P6000 seems (at least from some outdoors pictures) quite sharper and with better dynamic range, but I am still undecided.
Is camera on these phones also fixable software wise as I am not really into vanilla camera apps.
Now first questions on you. Firstly, do you know about any device currently priced under £200 that would match my criteria or at least that would have really exceptional camera for this price range ? Is Elephone P6000 superior to P3000s in terms of performance and camera or are they pretty much comparable ? Also how much of difference we talking in terms of GPU between Mali T450-M4 and T760 M2 ? It seems that finding a solid camera that would boast at least with pretty standard Exmor 214 sensor with a solid battery life is almost impossible, or I have largely overlooked something.
I also understand that if camera wise my 5" quest would prove unsuccessful I will have to go phablet wise and I am although kinda reluctantly to do so. Here I have researched my field on comparable level.
My finalists are Jiayu S3 , Kingzone Z1 and Eco E04 Aurora (P7000 and M1 are excluded as they re not supporting my LTE band 20) On E04 side I am quite baffled as it initially looked as a superb device , but many responses pointed out its inaccurate GPS and also camera seems to be exaggerated as 16MPx with unknown sensor model. I have seen some really great shots, but also some not very good - again probably due to extrapolation perhaps. Also it only comes with 2GB at the moment and without NFC support. So in phablet side S3 seems to be the king - yet, I have seen some really crap videos took on this devices, where reviewer admitted that this is a firmware error and that fix is on its way, so the S3 leaves me with the only really big concern and that is the battery recharge time that is apparently the slowest around here (up to 4hrs !!! ) which again made my enthusiasm cease. And then we have here Kingzone Z1. Apart from only HD display, it is stuffed with features and seems to be a direct competitor for all 5.5s of its price range. However, despite being out there are no reviews that I can hold on, so for me this device also represents a great unknown.
Equally, I have been checking camera comparison for the upper-midrange flagships like Meizu Mx4 and OnePlusOne just to find out that not even these guys despite their renown are capable of great shots under low-light conditions.
Also I am in a preference of 64bit processors especially the new Mediatek 6732 and 6752. I am ready for your tips and advices, also if you can bring in links to some camera comparisons among these phones and more in depth reviews I d be glad. Also will happy if you bring up some real data about camera sensors and other modules that are under suspicion to be lies presented by manufacturers.
And if you own any of the phones mentioned, state a brief overview about their pro/cons.
Waiting forward to your responses
Thanks
Six

HUAWEI fanboy here. :thumbup:
Sent from my HUAWEI Y536A1 using XDA Free mobile app

I recently discovered Xiaomi and think I will never go back! Good quality and low prices
I have RedMi Note 4G which is a fairly perfect phone for its price range. Never had a problem. It hasn't 800 MHz LTE though, but it's worth checking out other Xiaomi phones too.
---------- Post added at 01:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:03 AM ----------
Also, I would reccomend avoid mediatek devices if you can. They are generally poorer in video performance than Qualcomm / Intel ones. I had a huawei G700, while specs say it's a great phone in my experience it was not. Lags and slowness was frequent issues.
Mediatek also has a bad reputation in open source community, modding/upgrading/installing recovery and custom ROMs would be impossible or at least harder.
I am very happy with my Xiaomi and maybe you could be too!

udda90 said:
I recently discovered Xiaomi and think I will never go back! Good quality and low prices
I have RedMi Note 4G which is a fairly perfect phone for its price range. Never had a problem. It hasn't 800 MHz LTE though, but it's worth checking out other Xiaomi phones too.
---------- Post added at 01:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:03 AM ----------
Also, I would reccomend avoid mediatek devices if you can. They are generally poorer in video performance than Qualcomm / Intel ones. I had a huawei G700, while specs say it's a great phone in my experience it was not. Lags and slowness was frequent issues.
Mediatek also has a bad reputation in open source community, modding/upgrading/installing recovery and custom ROMs would be impossible or at least harder.
I am very happy with my Xiaomi and maybe you could be too!
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I got a Xiaomi Mi Note (Dual Sim and dual 4G) from China recently, which is fast (3G RAM), smooth (iphone style ROM) and good quality and just a little over £200.
But please bear in mind that it only supports FDD-LTE B3/B7, which means if your carrier is Vodafone UK (I'm in the UK by the way) you can not use LTE outside of London,Manchester and Birmingham.
(I don't have permission to post an outside link yet, but if wiki 'LTE-Advanced' you can see Vodafone UK is using B20 throughout the UK and B7 in 3 cities an the moment)
Only 3 and EE use LTE B3/B7.

GeorgeZZzz said:
I got a Xiaomi Mi Note (Dual Sim and dual 4G) from China recently, which is fast (3G RAM), smooth (iphone style ROM) and good quality and just a little over £200.
But please bear in mind that it only supports FDD-LTE B3/B7, which means if your carrier is Vodafone UK (I'm in the UK by the way) you can not use LTE outside of London,Manchester and Birmingham.
(I don't have permission to post an outside link yet, but if wiki 'LTE-Advanced' you can see Vodafone UK is using B20 throughout the UK and B7 in 3 cities an the moment)
Only 3 and EE use LTE B3/B7.
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In the end I went with Jiyau S3 Advanced, bout £160 and I cannot complain. Flashed it into Flyme OS and man this machine rocks the socks ! The resurrection of Mediatek - this 64bit M6752 Octacore smites Snapdragon 610 with an easy apparently.
Also camerawise - Sony Exmor IMAX 214 RS really delivers the promise - Removable battery makes it a dream. After 2 weeks of research, I am only happy I did not fell for anyother device, - plus supports Band 20 /800 Mhz @4G so it's GiffGaff & O2 ready.

Xiaomi phones are pretty good in many aspects. I'm planning on getting one in the near future. Some of my friends have Xiaomi devices and so far they haven't had any complaints.

sixtheninth said:
In the end I went with Jiyau S3 Advanced, bout £160 and I cannot complain. Flashed it into Flyme OS and man this machine rocks the socks ! The resurrection of Mediatek - this 64bit M6752 Octacore smites Snapdragon 610 with an easy apparently.
Also camerawise - Sony Exmor IMAX 214 RS really delivers the promise - Removable battery makes it a dream. After 2 weeks of research, I am only happy I did not fell for anyother device, - plus supports Band 20 /800 Mhz @4G so it's GiffGaff & O2 ready.
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Good for you. I'm still looking for the solution to unlcok LTE B20 on my Xiaomi MI Note LTE...
This post is not working for me...:crying:

yea, i'd look into the xiaomi options. it's surely gonna be my next purchase, although im also a bit of a lenovo fan.
now i have a jiayu g2f, i spent about 100 dollars on it at the time. i can say that it beats the quality of my previous(samsung) phones. In speed it is definately similar to my tab4 10.1. only thing is that it heats a bit more.
so like was mentioned, i'd also look into the jiayu s3 if i was you.

You can choose Huawei
I am a chinese and now i am in china ,I think Huawei is a good choice.Huawei have many patents and their devices is so good.Now i am using Huawei honor 6.(my english is so bad,if i had a misspelling,please pardon me)

Galaxy S10E or the Mi 9

Straight to the point, I'm looking to purchase one of the phones but I'm not sure which to get. I'm mostly looking into the selfie camera and XDA support so yeah not sure which one

Supracer said:
Straight to the point, I'm looking to purchase one of the phones but I'm not sure which to get. I'm mostly looking into the selfie camera and XDA support so yeah not sure which one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will go for Xiaomi mi 9. Wide angle camera, Dual SIM, Amoled, My mother toung, Call recorder and great price. Only missing 3.5 aux but I will survive. BB Oneplus....

My list:
Mi9: Most likely better AOSP support, cheaper
S10E: better screen, 3,5 jack, smaller size

I'm also thinking about buying either the Mi9 or S10E. At the moment, I'm slightly leaning towards the Mi9 because of the price and also because I don't really like Samsung's software.
That being said, Samsung has improved radically over the past years and Xiaomi is not exactly delivering mint Android either.
As for the size: Would love to buy the Mi9 SE but it looks like it's not going to be available in Europe and that it will also lack the necessary 4G bands to make it work properly.

ljo13 said:
I'm also thinking about buying either the Mi9 or S10E. At the moment, I'm slightly leaning towards the Mi9 because of the price and also because I don't really like Samsung's software.
That being said, Samsung has improved radically over the past years and Xiaomi is not exactly delivering mint Android either.
As for the size: Would love to buy the Mi9 SE but it looks like it's not going to be available in Europe and that it will also lack the necessary 4G bands to make it work properly.
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Click to collapse
Would definitely go for the Mi9. Depending on region Samsung has decided to use their Exynos variant in comparison to Snapdragon 855.
We all know the Exynos is faster than the Snapdragon 855 but with regards to power efficiency, we are still unsure. Last years Galaxy S9 Exynos variant suffered from severe battery issues which ultimately resulted in me returning my S9 within the cooling off period.
The Mi 9 is very attractive with its Snapdragon 855 and scores well on gsmarena battery test even beating the p20 pro (4000mah) which I currently own and would not sell apart from sh** selfie camera being worst ever. Ultimately Samsungs decision to only ship Exynos variant phones within the UK is a shocking one.
We should be given the choice

Mi9 I've just received mine.
I was going to get the S10+ but when I seen this and the price tag my mind was made.
Screen is great,cameras front and back are brilliant, it's so fast and smooth it's unreal. Fingerprint scanner is very good it's so quick and accurate nothing like OnePlus 6t that was dreadful for me.
Only think this device doesn't have for me is dual speakers, IP rating, SD slot.

Buy Mi9 Only if you dont mind the lack of OIS....camera at night is a joke.i sell mine for that after just 24 hours!!!

Z953RR said:
Buy Mi9 Only if you dont mind the lack of OIS....camera at night is a joke.i sell mine for that after just 24 hours!!!
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Agreed, camera so far one of the aspects I'm slightly less pleased with, especially coming from the Pixel 2 xl. However, a Mi 8 gcam port works already and so does night sight, which even though its not meant for this device works pretty well. So I'm definitely gonna be patient and follow its development as great things await us I believe! Would be great if we can use the telephoto and wide angle cameras with the gcam port!

I have installed gcam in mi9 with night mode... quality better BUT NOT with low light.you need a tripod ..theres not optical image stabilization (hardware)

mulkman said:
Would definitely go for the Mi9. Depending on region Samsung has decided to use their Exynos variant in comparison to Snapdragon 855.
We all know the Exynos is faster than the Snapdragon 855 but with regards to power efficiency, we are still unsure. Last years Galaxy S9 Exynos variant suffered from severe battery issues which ultimately resulted in me returning my S9 within the cooling off period.
The Mi 9 is very attractive with its Snapdragon 855 and scores well on gsmarena battery test even beating the p20 pro (4000mah) which I currently own and would not sell apart from sh** selfie camera being worst ever. Ultimately Samsungs decision to only ship Exynos variant phones within the UK is a shocking one.
We should be given the choice
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Click to collapse
I'm not so sure about "Exynos" is faster than 855, of course maybe Samsung phones with Exynos feel faster than Snapdragon?

ted presley said:
I'm not so sure about "Exynos" is faster than 855, of course maybe Samsung phones with Exynos feel faster than Snapdragon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This years exynos has also failed in terms of battery life.
The snapdragon 855 is way more efficient than the exynos

mulkman said:
This years exynos has also failed in terms of battery life.
The snapdragon 855 is way more efficient than the exynos
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exynos is only better in singlecore (multicore is faster in 855) but exynos does that at the expense of a lot of heat and battery. Also the GPU in 855 is like 2 generations better than exynos.
yes, my s9+ exynos still does beat the mi9 in single core. but the s9+ gets beaten in gpu tests even by my older mix 2 NON S (snapdragon 835!!.. not 845!!) 855 gpu is a beast. Exynos s10 gpu is just slighty better than s9 exynos because they did improve the power per core.. but removed like 40% of the cores... (g72mp18 vs g76mp12)
and that single core perf. is irrelevant.. My mix2 with a good rom is AT LEAST as fast as the s9+ in app opening, web surfing etc.. believe I tested.

P30 and P30 pro has dual gps, someone tested gps accuracy?

P30 and P30 pro has dual gps, someone tested gps accuracy?

Good news.
Emui 9.1 with huawei p30 pro.
Has full dual gps-l1 and l5 support.
Gpstest already detects l5.

GREAT that GPSTEST detects it....but....can it tell you if you've moved less than one meter? Can it make that distinction in real world usage? Thank you.

Oppo Reno 10x hybrid zoom version uses dual-frequency GPS.
Today, OPPO’s Vice President, Shen Yiren, discussed a few details about the OPPO Reno series. Shen Yiren said on Weibo: “The 10x hybrid zoom version uses dual-frequency GPS.” The dual-frequency GPS function provides more accurate positioning. Another Chinese manufacturer, Xiaomi, was the first to apply the technology to mobile phones. The Xiaomi Mi 8 supports L1+L5 dual-frequency positioning and its accuracy is at least 3-5 times better. It is more resistant to multipath and reflected signals in urban scenes and has higher immunity to interference.
https://www.gizchina.com/2019/04/04/oppo-reno-10x-hybrid-zoom-version-uses-dual-frequency-gps/

onepiece said:
GREAT that GPSTEST detects it....but....can it tell you if you've moved less than one meter? Can it make that distinction in real world usage? Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would to know the same.

I have a question.
Redmi note 9s has snapdragon 720g.
Which supports dual gps.
Unfortunately on stock miui and
European Miui newest
Gpstest does not detect dual gps or galileo.
There are only l1 gps, glonass and Chinese.
I have root.
What to change in gps.conf to make it galileo and dual gps?

Question Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Snapdragon) vs S22 Ultra Exynos

I came across with two tests today comparing the both processors. Though some people would be interested. I would also like to see the both phones users confirming the results on their side. 3DMark Wild Life scores on the other hand are a bit disappointing for Exynos. I have currently ordered an Exynos version and still have time to cancel it. What would you recommend?
Compare Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Snapdragon) vs S22 Ultra: which is better? | NR
We compare Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Snapdragon) with S22 Ultra to find out which phone has a better camera, screen, performance, and battery life.
nanoreview.net
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‬1‬ said:
I came across with two tests today comparing the both processors. Though some people would be interested. I would also like to see the both phones users confirming the results on their side. 3DMark Wild Life scores on the other hand are a bit disappointing for Exynos. I have currently ordered an Exynos version and still have time to cancel it. What would you recommend?
Compare Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Snapdragon) vs S22 Ultra: which is better? | NR
We compare Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Snapdragon) with S22 Ultra to find out which phone has a better camera, screen, performance, and battery life.
nanoreview.net
Page not found - ASOLANDIACASH
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would definitely keep your order running.
I had both versions of the S21 ultra.
Im not playing games, but use my phones a lot... And to be honest, i couldn't feel or see any difference.
I pre-order the S22 ultra to in the Exynos version without any concerns vs the SD version.
I have the Tab S7 to and never had any problems.
This is just my humble opinion

Per Tom's Hardware:
Ice Universe says that the AMD RNDA2 GPU part of the Exynos SoC has a target clock speed of 1.9 GHz. However, in practice, due to thermal issues, it could only run at 1.29 GHz, in an acceptable manner. Various clocks between 1.29 GHz and 1.9 GHz were tested, goes the tale, but the lesser speed was the first with acceptable thermals. The actual temperatures are not revealed, instead we learn that all for speeds greater than 1.29 GHz, they are "hot".
Ice Universe has some further interesting info about what Samsung is trying now that it has hit that thermal throttling performance wall. According to Ice Universe's leak, Samsung is going to try and tweak things to get the GPU running acceptably at 1.49GHz "to restore some dignity".

I've used both of them and based on my experience, Snapdragon is always better. It gives you stable performance and often supports bootloader unlocking.

sureshkumargs said:
I've used both of them and based on my experience, Snapdragon is always better. It gives you stable performance and often supports bootloader unlocking.
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"Snapdragon often supports bootloader unlocking" Not on S Series devices, much wider availability on Exynos variants. Only one Snapdragon variant offered bootloader access on the S21 Ultra, SM-G9980.

You would find More developers working on snap dragon than Exynos to bring custom ROMS. If you see devices such as Poco F1, OnePlus 8T and X3 Pro you would find almost every custom from working on them.

This is a S22 Ultra Forum, we're not discussing a bunch of cheap Chinese phones nor is the OP asking questions about them. What does your response have do with the unlocked bootloaders on S Series variants? Exynos devices have far more development and custom ROM's on S Series than Snapdragon. In reality development is declining with Samsung devices, Android 12 and OneUI 4 has made it far more challenging to implement custom platforms.

‬1‬ said:
I came across with two tests today comparing the both processors. Though some people would be interested. I would also like to see the both phones users confirming the results on their side. 3DMark Wild Life scores on the other hand are a bit disappointing for Exynos. I have currently ordered an Exynos version and still have time to cancel it. What would you recommend?
Compare Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Snapdragon) vs S22 Ultra: which is better? | NR
We compare Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Snapdragon) with S22 Ultra to find out which phone has a better camera, screen, performance, and battery life.
nanoreview.net
Page not found - ASOLANDIACASH
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you've ordered a Exynos equipped device I assume you're in Europe or the UK, correct? So your Service Provider can only enable all their Call Features (5G, Carrier Aggregation and the rest) if you have a Exynos Chipset and their branded phone or possibly the unlocked device. How valuable are those features to you? For me it's a no brainer, I would only aquire the Snapdragon SoC no matter where I lived "if" I wanted the device, which I don't. The more that is made public, the less confidence I have in the S22 Ultra, particularly the Exynos version. Honestly, if someone gave one to me for free, I'd give it back.

Thanks for the replies. I've found this on youtube and it shows that the performance of Exynos 2100 has been improved / optimised in time and caught up with SD so decided to keep Exynos version.

‬1‬ said:
Thanks for the replies. I've found this on youtube and it shows that the performance of Exynos 2100 has been improved / optimised in time and caught up with SD so decided to keep Exynos version.
Click to expand...
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That's the S21 Exynos SoC. The S32 Ultra has a Exynos 2200 Chipset which has been totally redesigned.

varcor said:
That's the S21 Exynos SoC. The S32 Ultra has a Exynos 2200 Chipset which has been totally redesigned.
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Yes I'm aware of it. I shared it as a reference of how Samsung support Exynos 2100 in time and improved it's performance. So Exynos 2200 might have a lower score against SD at the moment but it's performance will be improved in time too.