So, it's the time of my life again, where I dig deep to do research on what phone to buy next. I have used two epic phones in my life as of now, both has a personality:
1. LG Optimus One (very popular and supported phone of its time)
2. Moto X (1st gen) (awesome and unique phone of it's time, features rich not gimmick)
Sadly, my Moto X fall from when I was riding my bike, and then before I could pick it up, a car ran over it rendering it's screen broken. It might still be alive, but display repair cost is atleast 3k. Combined it with the fact that it's non removable battery was not even lasting 12 hours on full charge and that I used this phone for 3 years I think it's time for an upgrade to those shiny fingerprint enabled fHD phones!
So I went back to the spreadsheet and plotted specs of various phones which I shortlisted. Here is the google docs link of the same:
Mission Next Phone.xlsx
Spreadsheet have following phone's specs:
For this thread's purpose though here is the filled questionnaire:
1. Budget?
I am ok till 20k. But I am flexible. I can also shell only 10k for a phone like Redmi Note 4 (cause it effing ticks all checkmark [I will talk about it later]. But I can also spend beyond 20k if I think phone is WORTHY [that is with a personality])
2. Display type and size?
Atleast full HD display, Amoled is preferable but not mandatory since coming from an Amoled display (got used to the richness of black). Also 5.5" could be huge for my small hands. BUT some phones CAN pull it off by having a large display to body ratio (thin bezel) like LG Q6.
3. Dual sim?
Yes. I want to use two sims and a memory card. Even in Hybrid dual SIM's tho, there comes a Hybrid Sim Slot Adapter (like this)which can be used to use 2 SIMs and a card simultaneously. So can look at it if I choose to go with Hybrid SIM phone.
4. Preferred choice of brand?
LG, Motorola, OnePlus, Lenovo, Mi (in decreasing order of preference)
NOT Samsung, Apple, Oppo, Vivo, Panasonic etc
5. What camera option you want (flash, front facing camera)?
I don't take much selfies. Front camera not a priority. But a rear camera should be good. I realize that a phone which can shoot 60fps on fHD would be great!
6. Preferred operating system? (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, etc).
Android
7. Preferred connectivity options (3G, 4G ready).
Of course. I think this question can be removed from the template. Instead storage should be asked. So in this case I want at least 64 GB of inbuilt memory, to store all those offline content like YT offline videos and Amazon Prime videos.
Also headphone jack is important. I choose all phones with headphone jack.
8. Primary use of handset (multimedia, camera, internet, gaming etc)?
Everything except gaming. I game mosty on PC on my beloved RX 480.
9. Any specific mobile phones in consideration?
Shared a spreadsheet.
10. Any other info that you want to share
A lot. So no phone is perfect right now. Never was any phone that was perfect. Maybe Nexus line up, but then again, those were not dual SIM, or with removable battery, or with expandable storage. So lets see what quirks does some of the phone of today have, and why those are not perfect:
Redmi Note 4: Plane looking, flat phone, hybrid SIM, non stock ROM. It ticks all the boxes of features but it lacks on build front.
Moto G5 Plus: It's a very strong candidate on my list. But it's only available in 32 GB of in built memory for India market.
Also don't have Amoled.
Moto G5s Plus: It's hybrid SIM phone, don't have Amoled. Speaker is present on the bottom part of the phone unlike Moto G5 plus where it is in front.
Moto Z Play: It's a one year old phone. It have same processor as in Moto G5 plus and G5s BUT price is a lot more since it's "moddable" with very costly Moto Mods. White Moto Z play is Rs 20,100 but Black is Rs 24999. WUT?
Moto Z2 Play: It's new avatar of Moto Z play, but with slightly new processor as of old. BUT they downgraded battery from 3510 mAh to 3000 (WHY?). Also price is 28k!
Moto X4: It's upcoming phone from Motorola, BUT with 32 GB of memory and 3 GB of RAM. Also no Amoled. Moto's drunk.
LG V20: Damn, this phone is good. Even at 5.7" screen size it's display to body is good so doesn't seem THAT large. But price of 29K.
LG Q6: Kept this on list since it's very cheap. If I can decide on nothing, this is the fall back plan.
Nokia 7: This checks all boxes of my criteria. But it's hybrid SIM. Also price is not known.
OnePlus 3T: I am considering this chinese option too. Only because Moto seems to have been infected with cancer after Lenovo bought it. But this is not available right now atleast not the black version. It's costly too at Rs 25k.
So as you can see, almost all phones have SOME quirks if not many. I don't know what to buy!
1. LG Optimus One (very popular and supported phone of its time)
2. Moto X (1st gen) (awesome and unique phone of it's time, features rich not gimmick)
Sadly, my Moto X fall from when I was riding my bike, and then before I could pick it up, a car ran over it rendering it's screen broken. It might still be alive, but display repair cost is atleast 3k. Combined it with the fact that it's non removable battery was not even lasting 12 hours on full charge and that I used this phone for 3 years I think it's time for an upgrade to those shiny fingerprint enabled fHD phones!
So I went back to the spreadsheet and plotted specs of various phones which I shortlisted. Here is the google docs link of the same:
Mission Next Phone.xlsx
Spreadsheet have following phone's specs:
Redmi Note 4 12,999
Mi A1 14,999
Mi Max 2 16,999
Moto G5 Plus 13,999
Moto G5s Plus 15,999
Moto Z Play 24,999
Moto Z2 Play 27,999
Moto X4 ~ Rs 22,000
LG V20 29,000
LG Q6 14,990
Nokia 7 TBA
OnePlus 3T 24,999
OnePlus 5 32,999
Huawei Honor 8 17,990
Mi A1 14,999
Mi Max 2 16,999
Moto G5 Plus 13,999
Moto G5s Plus 15,999
Moto Z Play 24,999
Moto Z2 Play 27,999
Moto X4 ~ Rs 22,000
LG V20 29,000
LG Q6 14,990
Nokia 7 TBA
OnePlus 3T 24,999
OnePlus 5 32,999
Huawei Honor 8 17,990
For this thread's purpose though here is the filled questionnaire:
1. Budget?
I am ok till 20k. But I am flexible. I can also shell only 10k for a phone like Redmi Note 4 (cause it effing ticks all checkmark [I will talk about it later]. But I can also spend beyond 20k if I think phone is WORTHY [that is with a personality])
2. Display type and size?
Atleast full HD display, Amoled is preferable but not mandatory since coming from an Amoled display (got used to the richness of black). Also 5.5" could be huge for my small hands. BUT some phones CAN pull it off by having a large display to body ratio (thin bezel) like LG Q6.
3. Dual sim?
Yes. I want to use two sims and a memory card. Even in Hybrid dual SIM's tho, there comes a Hybrid Sim Slot Adapter (like this)which can be used to use 2 SIMs and a card simultaneously. So can look at it if I choose to go with Hybrid SIM phone.
4. Preferred choice of brand?
LG, Motorola, OnePlus, Lenovo, Mi (in decreasing order of preference)
NOT Samsung, Apple, Oppo, Vivo, Panasonic etc
5. What camera option you want (flash, front facing camera)?
I don't take much selfies. Front camera not a priority. But a rear camera should be good. I realize that a phone which can shoot 60fps on fHD would be great!
6. Preferred operating system? (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, etc).
Android
7. Preferred connectivity options (3G, 4G ready).
Of course. I think this question can be removed from the template. Instead storage should be asked. So in this case I want at least 64 GB of inbuilt memory, to store all those offline content like YT offline videos and Amazon Prime videos.
Also headphone jack is important. I choose all phones with headphone jack.
8. Primary use of handset (multimedia, camera, internet, gaming etc)?
Everything except gaming. I game mosty on PC on my beloved RX 480.
9. Any specific mobile phones in consideration?
Shared a spreadsheet.
10. Any other info that you want to share
A lot. So no phone is perfect right now. Never was any phone that was perfect. Maybe Nexus line up, but then again, those were not dual SIM, or with removable battery, or with expandable storage. So lets see what quirks does some of the phone of today have, and why those are not perfect:
Redmi Note 4: Plane looking, flat phone, hybrid SIM, non stock ROM. It ticks all the boxes of features but it lacks on build front.
Moto G5 Plus: It's a very strong candidate on my list. But it's only available in 32 GB of in built memory for India market.
Also don't have Amoled.Moto G5s Plus: It's hybrid SIM phone, don't have Amoled. Speaker is present on the bottom part of the phone unlike Moto G5 plus where it is in front.
Moto Z Play: It's a one year old phone. It have same processor as in Moto G5 plus and G5s BUT price is a lot more since it's "moddable" with very costly Moto Mods. White Moto Z play is Rs 20,100 but Black is Rs 24999. WUT?
Moto Z2 Play: It's new avatar of Moto Z play, but with slightly new processor as of old. BUT they downgraded battery from 3510 mAh to 3000 (WHY?). Also price is 28k!
Moto X4: It's upcoming phone from Motorola, BUT with 32 GB of memory and 3 GB of RAM. Also no Amoled. Moto's drunk.
LG V20: Damn, this phone is good. Even at 5.7" screen size it's display to body is good so doesn't seem THAT large. But price of 29K.
LG Q6: Kept this on list since it's very cheap. If I can decide on nothing, this is the fall back plan.
Nokia 7: This checks all boxes of my criteria. But it's hybrid SIM. Also price is not known.
OnePlus 3T: I am considering this chinese option too. Only because Moto seems to have been infected with cancer after Lenovo bought it. But this is not available right now atleast not the black version. It's costly too at Rs 25k.
So as you can see, almost all phones have SOME quirks if not many. I don't know what to buy!
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