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hey all
looking for a good budget phone for my girlfriend that is under US$200
i can get her the same as what i have (xiaomi note 3 pro) but they are harder to find now that they are old/discontinued and i was hoping something that might be a little better might be out by now

requirements
must support australian bands B1 B3 B5 B7 B8 B28
cpu that isnt just a bunch of A-53's (dual A-72 or similar is fine)
5.0 or 5.5 inch screen or larger
at least 3gb ram
microsd slot
large battery (3000mah or hopefully larger)
3.5mm jack and fm radio (she uses the radio all the time at work)

i suspect im going to have to get her a note 3 like me but im asking around just in case there is something out there that might be better that i havnt seen
http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Xiaomi-Redmi-Note-3-Pro-5-5-Inch-FHD-3GB-32GB-Smartphone-371104.html

Closest I know of right off hand would be the Moto G4+ or G5+. The lower end models only have 2GB of RAM. The higher have 4GB, but go over your budget a bit.

--SS

Check out the Nokia 6. It's supposed to be released this month. The only catch is the AT&T LTE bands are not well supported but the T-Mobile LTE bands are.

https://www.phonearena.com/phones/Nokia-6_id10392

EDIT: There is an international version that might support your bands. The TA-1003 is the model. TA-1000 is the China varient. https://www.amazon.com/Nokia-TA-1003-Un ... ds=nokia+6

Note 3 Pro is still a good bet.

Kimovil is a useful site for finding something decent in the Chinese phone market, e.g.
https://www.kimovil.com/en/compare-smar ... y-radio-fm

(Best to double check the specifications with a review though, there is the occasional mistake in their database.)

Not sure of the Australian options, but I got a really fine deal on the Moto G5 (G5+ is only available in the US, apparently) through Amazon. They knock $50 off if you let Amazon give you ads on the lock screen. Its really quite unobtrusive. I think the it was $180 with the ads.

This may be a silly question, perhaps, but why not one of the newer Xiaomi Notes?

morphine wrote:

This may be a silly question, perhaps, but why not one of the newer Xiaomi Notes?

Those are stuck on 3G in North America because they don't use the NA bands for their LTE radios.

edit: I'm stupid, he's in Australia.

morphine wrote:

This may be a silly question, perhaps, but why not one of the newer Xiaomi Notes?

they stopped supporting band 28 which is a big deal for me (telstra) but i might have to get one if i cant find a note 3 and miss out on 4GX https://www.telstra.com.au/coverage-networks/telstra-4gx
Australia is currently using these LTE bands
2100Mhz (B1) – Telstra (a handful of sites), Optus (Tasmania), Vodafone
1800Mhz (B3) – Telstra, Optus, Vodafone
850Mhz (B5) – Vodafone
2600Mhz (B7) – Telstra, Optus
900Mhz (B8) – Telstra (a handful of sites, utilises spectrum previously used by 2G)
700Mhz (B28) – Telstra, Optus

TheEmrys wrote:

Not sure of the Australian options, but I got a really fine deal on the Moto G5 (G5+ is only available in the US, apparently) through Amazon. They knock $50 off if you let Amazon give you ads on the lock screen. Its really quite unobtrusive. I think the it was $180 with the ads.

im fairly sure the G5 and G5+ only has a bunch of A-53's

kalelovil wrote:

Note 3 Pro is still a good bet.

Kimovil is a useful site for finding something decent in the Chinese phone market, e.g.
https://www.kimovil.com/en/compare-smar ... y-radio-fm

(Best to double check the specifications with a review though, there is the occasional mistake in their database.)

yeah i think im going to try and find another note 3 pro as there doesnt seem to be many other options in my price range
thanks for the site link it looks handy.!

DragonDaddyBear wrote:

Check out the Nokia 6. It's supposed to be released this month. The only catch is the AT&T LTE bands are not well supported but the T-Mobile LTE bands are.

https://www.phonearena.com/phones/Nokia-6_id10392

EDIT: There is an international version that might support your bands. The TA-1003 is the model. TA-1000 is the China varient. https://www.amazon.com/Nokia-TA-1003-Un ... ds=nokia+6

thats actually looking like not a bad option but just a tad expensive (almost double the price of a note 3 pro)

SecretSquirrel wrote:

Closest I know of right off hand would be the Moto G4+ or G5+. The lower end models only have 2GB of RAM. The higher have 4GB, but go over your budget a bit.

--SS

as mentioned before they seem to have a bunch of A-53's in them which i dont want

In this case I'd second the recommendation for the Nokia 6.

Also take a look a the Huawei "Lite" models. P8 Lite, etc etc.

morphine wrote:

In this case I'd second the recommendation for the Nokia 6.

Also take a look a the Huawei "Lite" models. P8 Lite, etc etc.

P8 Lite is 8xA53's.

What's the problem with a bunch of A53's? It gives you super battery life. Are games or heavy browsing part of the use case?

Flying Fox wrote:

morphine wrote:

In this case I'd second the recommendation for the Nokia 6.

Also take a look a the Huawei "Lite" models. P8 Lite, etc etc.

P8 Lite is 8xA53's.

What's the problem with a bunch of A53's? It gives you super battery life. Are games or heavy browsing part of the use case?

yes games and heavy browsing are the majority of her use

i believe having a few higher performance cores will give her more performance/faster phone and make the phone last a bit longer because of the extra performance vs having so many low performance cores

i dont see the point of so many low performance cores in a phone, like how useful are 8xA53's (or even 10 like some have) performance wise going to be compared to 4XA53s?? sure it can save a little battery life but id rather have a bigger battery instead - its just stupid imo

i think (and i cant believe im saying this) apple went the right direction with less cores but higher performance instead of stuffing "MOAR COARS" into a phone - yes i know this is a budget phone im after but do think the direction arm manufacturers have gone with so many low performance cores is just silly and its something that really $#!+$ me about the android ecosystem
ill take 2xhigh performance+2low performance cpu's in a phone anyday over 8xlow performance cpu's

hopefully with the new big.LITTLE arm are introducing budget cpu's will have at least one high performance core in

i think i found a pretty decent phone with good specs for a good price but its an unknown brand
$234 US dollars
heres the specs
5.5-inch 1920×1080 pixels
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 Octa Core 64bit 4 x A72 +4 x A53
Android 7.1 OS
6GB RAM +64GB ROM
Dual camera:8.0MP front camera and Dual 13.0MP Rear Camera with flashlight
Dual Nano SIM
Metal unibody,4060 mAh built-in battery with fast charge
Support 4G/3G/Wifi/GPS/Bluetooth/multi-language/Touch ID/Type-C
2G: GSM B2/B3/B5/B8
3G: WCDMA B1/B2/B5/B8, TD-SCDMA B34/B39
4G: FDD-LTE B1/B3/B5/B7/B8, TDD-LTE B38/B39/B40/B41
http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Coolpad-Cool-Play-6-5-5-Inch-6GB-64GB-Smartphone-Black-381828.html

4XA72's 6gb ram 64gb storage 5.5inch 4000mah battery and does most of the australian bands so it looks like a winner to me but i havnt seen any reviews of it yet (i think its new) if the OS is bloated i could always hope someone does an alternative rom for it...

You didn't have me at "unknown brand." I wouldn't do that pretty much ever.

+1 Moto G

Suck it up and get the Moto G 5plus or the G4 plus. I still have a 1st Gen Moto G. It is still alive and kicking, my kids use it now as a mini tablet. The Moto G series have been top of the budget phones for years on many sites too.

Just looked on GearBest and saw the Mi 5 is on sale for like 230-250.00 USD.

I don't think you can go wrong with either one of those.

I don't think TR had an article on it, but make sure to install Firefox Focus on her phone. It is the absolute best. Everything is so snappy. Still need Chrome or Firefox for special sites.

The Private Browser With Automatic Ad Blocker
What is Firefox Focus?

As for phone, I would buy a used iPhone 6/6s with that budget. Have a look at Swappa or similar site.

Ive been a long time Nexus only user, but the near 1k price of Pixels and only 3 years of updates is not my cup of tea. Apple updated the iPhone 5 that was released in Sep 2012. Now i know probably not best experience by now. But batteries, flash,... all have improved a lot. Plus Apple is getting more realistic with RAM size. Likely a $200 6/6s would weather much better in future. Android O(8) coming out this holiday is supposed to help the update problem with Project Treble. But it will likely take several years to go anywhere and really doesnt mean anything.

I wrote a lot because my Nexus 5 was perfectly fine for me, i only changed because i want security updates. I am absolutely getting iPhone next unless Google changes trajectory.

Newegg has the LG G5 for $240 today...

Waco wrote:

Newegg has the LG G5 for $240 today...

not in australia they dont

blahsaysblah wrote:

As for phone, I would buy a used iPhone 6/6s with that budget.

my girlfriend has had an iphone in the past and doesnt like them as much as android also no swappa in australia

Sigeric wrote:

+1 Moto G

Suck it up and get the Moto G 5plus or the G4 plus. I still have a 1st Gen Moto G. It is still alive and kicking, my kids use it now as a mini tablet. The Moto G series have been top of the budget phones for years on many sites too.

Just looked on GearBest and saw the Mi 5 is on sale for like 230-250.00 USD.

I don't think you can go wrong with either one of those.

the moto is close to double the price im looking at (around $350 AU dollars) for something that isnt really that good specs wise
the mi5 has always been an option but it doesnt support that many australian phone bands

i think im going ahead with the coolpad, i thought they were an unknown brand but after some research i found they have been making phones and gadgets for a fairly long time
they even have budget phones in america
https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone/coolpad-defiant
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Walmart-Family-Mobile-Coolpad-Catalyst-Prepaid-Smartphone/51671354

Yeah I'm sorry but there is no way I would buy that phone in your situation. I do hope you realize you're likely to get no major revision Android updates. Hell, I think you'll be lucky to get security updates. I guess good luck.

Sigeric wrote:

+1 Moto G

I had a post-Google Moto G phone and I am swearing off the brand entirely, at least while it's still in Lenovo's wings. My phone was sluggish as heck because (apparently) the memory management was all screwy, the update to Android 5 took a whole nine months in coming, and there was but a single minor update, and no security patches. Slow, unsecure phone, Lenovo doesn't care. In fact, if one checks out the Moto update history, it's a laugh.

Sorry about the rant, but I am/was pretty furious. I'd sword off Apple when I got the Moto G, and I went (under protest) crying back into Captain Cook's arms.

f0d wrote:

i think im going ahead with the coolpad, i thought they were an unknown brand but after some research i found they have been making phones and gadgets for a fairly long time
they even have budget phones in america
https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone/coolpad-defiant
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Walmart-Family-Mobile-Coolpad-Catalyst-Prepaid-Smartphone/51671354

Off-brand catering the lower end of the market. XDA does not seem to have a section on the Cool Play that you linked before. I would not consider that good ROM support at all. Also, these Chinese brand you can bet money on it that it uses iPhone-style non-drawer interface, although nothing an additional launcher won't fix, if you don't like those kinds of launchers.

The good news is that it is Nougat 7.1 out of the box.

f0d wrote:

i think im going ahead with the coolpad, i thought they were an unknown brand but after some research i found they have been making phones and gadgets for a fairly long time
they even have budget phones in america
https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone/coolpad-defiant
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Walmart-Family-Mobile-Coolpad-Catalyst-Prepaid-Smartphone/51671354

Seems to lack an FM radio though.

kalelovil wrote:

f0d wrote:

i think im going ahead with the coolpad, i thought they were an unknown brand but after some research i found they have been making phones and gadgets for a fairly long time
they even have budget phones in america
https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone/coolpad-defiant
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Walmart-Family-Mobile-Coolpad-Catalyst-Prepaid-Smartphone/51671354

Seems to lack an FM radio though.

ah crap you are right, thanks for pointing that out i was going to buy it tonight too so good timing.!!

Maybe this can help you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F_klHqspUU

I'm going to second what one other person said, and recommend a used iPhone 5s/6/6s.

You're guaranteed to get updates for a bit, and the 5S and later are 64-bit, so they'll make the transition to iOS 11.
Security issues are addressed more quickly, due to updates not being dependent on whether the carrier feels like it.

Even if you don't have Swappa, eBay AU exists, and I'm sure there's other options. Android might be nice --it would be my preference too, but Google really isn't ensuring consistency among phones, and a used iPhone is better built than pretty much any brand-new cheapie-vendor (read: not Samsung, Moto, LG, HTC) phones. It's also incredibly easy to find accessories for them.

The 5S should be going relatively inexpensive these days if your budget is tight.

How much is the Xperia X running down there? It's only 5" and has a smaller battery, but Sony is typically excellent with power optimizations. It has an SD650, and an SD card slot. It's going for $250 here, and Sony isn't very focused on the US market so I'm not sure if that would be higher or lower over there...

They're good about updating their devices, too, though a little slowly sometimes.

A used (maybe new?) Nexus 5X is probably the best Android option other than the models we've discussed. Updates straight from Google, that's a massive win.

The only problem is that it may be a little too dear, hence looking for a used one in good condition.

morphine wrote:

A used (maybe new?) Nexus 5X is probably the best Android option other than the models we've discussed. Updates straight from Google, that's a massive win.

The only problem is that it may be a little too dear, hence looking for a used one in good condition.

Heads up, Project Fi has not been selling any 5X or 6P phones for a while. Just the expensive Pixels. New mid-tier from partner is supposed to come out later in year.

If they get 5X, remember, it will get this years big OS upgrade and security updates into end-ish of next year. Price it for that.

morphine wrote:

A used (maybe new?) Nexus 5X is probably the best Android option other than the models we've discussed. Updates straight from Google, that's a massive win.

The only problem is that it may be a little too dear, hence looking for a used one in good condition.

The other problem is that the Nexus 5X is having hardware issues that are causing a lot of turnover. The phone has great specs, but they seem to break about 12-16 months down the road. It causes a never-ending boot loop issue. Right now, HTC or Google (better off going Google) are replacing them, but there isn't a guarantee your new one will last longer than the old one.

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/ne ... lg-1630142

I'd have picked up a used one myself if it weren't an issue.

LoneWolf15 wrote:

morphine wrote:

The other problem is that the Nexus 5X is having hardware issues that are causing a lot of turnover. The phone has great specs, but they seem to break about 12-16 months down the road. It causes a never-ending boot loop issue.

I wonder if the H791 hardware is any safer than the H790? I picked up my Verizon-compatible 5X (used) around the beginning of February and so far it's been problem free. If it ever does go, a Pixel will probably be next.