RFC: Smartphone for light user

[nac]

Looking to buy a smartphone in the upcoming BBD/GIF sale. In fact I am looking for quite some time now. I am using base variant of Redmi 4 which cost me 7k back in 2017, in that line up Redmi 15 is now priced @ 14k, doubled in 8yrs. The price feels like a lot especially considering the life of smartphone isn't very long. Despite knowing that we're buying a smartphone every few years on an average. I am kinda not comfortable spending this much for a phone, probably the reason I am dragging this purchase for a long time.

I am a very light user and I tend to go for cheaper option, I don't know if I can get away with SD4/D6x00 powered phones for under 10k. On the other hand, I seriously doubt how these will age esp. when I intend to use it as long as possible.

Should I stick to LCD display, cause of green line issue in AMOLED?

And this new GST reform making me to think if I should wait.

 

[nac]

Since I don't have first hand experience with any other UI, I am thinking of going to local shop and see if there is any display unit which I can check. I have heard that local sellers try to match or come close to online pricing, will see if that's true as well.

 

[vidhubhushan]

yes, wait for it if you can. i have used mi, motorola and samsung. nothing very difficult, just needs a few days to identify and remember. check motorola models as it has a very light ui.

 

[Vyom]

In around 15K you can get very good phones. Especially Motorola.

 

[nac]

check motorola models as it has a very light ui.

In around 15K you can get very good phones. Especially Motorola.

Yeah, that's what I learned - Moto has light UI. CMF has even better UI and lighter, but current gen CMF is outta budget and Moto has very poor update policy. G35/45/64 came with just 1 OS update promise. G85 came with 2 update promise, only one left and it has curved display which I am not a fan of. Recent launches G96/86 Power both outta budget and came with only 1 update promise. Other than this, Moto's spare price cost the highest among the budget phones. All these pretty much rules out both Moto and CMF.

 

[vidhubhushan]

Yeah, that's what I learned - Moto has light UI. CMF has even better UI and lighter, but current gen CMF is outta budget and Moto has very poor update policy. G35/45/64 came with just 1 OS update promise. G85 came with 2 update promise, only one left and it has curved display which I am not a fan of. Recent launches G96/86 Power both outta budget and came with only 1 update promise. Other than this, Moto's spare price cost the highest among the budget phones. All these pretty much rules out both Moto and CMF.

i agree with these motorola issues. service centre quoted somr thousands (3-4000 i think) to replace the power button of g5s+; even the receptionist girl was shocked and told the technician how can i say this much. i have noticed the arrogant attitude of moto people before sales as well but a lot of people use it and find it ok so suggested. i have a bad experience of mi service centre as well. in both the cases, local tech shop did well.

 

[nac]

Visited more than half a dozen shops but couldn't get hands on all the brands. Retailers straight away said when I asked for Moto phones, "we don't do online phones and they don't have service center here, so don't bother". Despite that few had Moto phones but they are boxed and sealed, no display units. Didn't see any iQOO either, no CMF - less than handful of service centers in the entire state.
I said my budget right off the bat, so pretty much all shops gave the same suggestion Samsung A06, A16, A17, Vivo Y series budget phones, Oppo A series budget phones. The cheapest 6GB phone costs about ~14k. And all the shops pricing are same. No shops have any pricing advantage. As normal sales people, most of the suggested models are above the budget and insisting on buying today as there is offer extended and today is the last day. Don't worry if you don't have full money, there is EMI with almost no paper work.
With the little time I had, I don't get why some UI is better than other. Pretty much all looks the same. May be if I had tried every model extensively, may be I will get it. But for now, all feels more or less same.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

I got the Moto G86 for my father because that was the only one with flat screen. Won't even consider other phones with iOS wannabe UIs as they are just bad.

 

[nac]

I got the Moto G86 for my father because that was the only one with flat screen. Won't even consider other phones with iOS wannabe UIs as they are just bad.

You wanted only Moto, so it was easier for you to make that buying decision. I am still all over, like do I need to spend this much to get a decent phone, isn't Samsung M06/Lava Storm Lite like phones enough for light use, if bloatware are all removable why is it bad, if the updates gonna break the phone should I not look for phones with long software support and so on. I believe discussion like this will help me decide better, so here I am exchanging thoughts/ideas/views.

 

[nac]

Samsung A06 and Vivo Yx9 both felt not that smooth with about half a dozen apps. These are display units, so only the apps that came with, no extra apps are installed. But A17 is smoother than A06, which I didn't expect - did 6GB helped? Not sure. May be A17 is just few days old while the others are on display for months, and slowed with age? A06 screen brightness is very poor, it's worse than my Remdi 4 despite A06 has better numbers on paper.
There was this thought that I can live with sub 10k phones, but after checking these phones I am not sure now. May be I can live with it, but I don't want to go for it.

 

[shreeux]

Like PSU Tier List....Any Mobile Tier List available?

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Like PSU Tier List....Any Mobile Tier List available?

My personal list:

Samsung S series / Google Pixel phones: S tier
Motorola phones : A tier
Phones which have custom rom support: B tier
Phones which have crap iOS wannabe UI and no custom rom support: Garbage tier
Everything else: C tier.

 

[shreeux]

Every month more phones were released... It's hard to choose the best one.

Any criteria to select the best one?

Like standard specifications for long-term usage of at least 3 to 5 years

 

[nac]

Like PSU Tier List....Any Mobile Tier List available?

I haven't come across one and I guess it's near impossible to make one.

Phones which have custom rom support

It looks like in today's scene pretty much all phone makers made it impossible to unlock bootloader, at least that's what I read.

Every month more phones were released... It's hard to choose the best one.

What's best for one, wouldn't be the best for other. So you have to decide based on your budget and what you need from a phone. Your budget defines many things in your buying decision.
One of the sales person from a local shop said, todays phone don't last long even if you carefully handle your phone, manufacturers will kill it by pushing update. I guess it's coming from his experience of seeing many in his line of work.

I use my smartphone like a feature phone most of the time but there are features I appreciate about smartphones, so the reason I am looking for a smartphone instead of a feature phone. I bought Poco M4 Pro 3yrs back for my mom, it has received all the updates and it's running as good as it was running in the 1st year. It's a base variant 6+64, if there is such a good 4G phone today, I would happily go for it. But todays 4G phones aren't any better than ultra low budget 5G phones and there is no significant pricing advantage either. So no point in going for 4G phones.

Generic expectation from a budget phone

Good processor with good amount of memory.
Display with decent enough nits and good glass protection.
Good built with decent IP rating.
Acceptable camera.
Good battery life and charging.
Good connectivity.
Decent software and support.

Again the definition of "good", "decent", "acceptable" varies from person to person.

 

[Vyom]

I agree on the points mentioned in this thread.
Which is why I had to increase my budget and go for Samsung S23 last year, which costed me a whooping 49k, after discounts. Which was A LOT for me.
But I didn't want to compromise on certain things like updates, camera and stuff. Even then I had to compromise headphone jack and removable battery. But they say it's to make it waterproof.
Sad state of affairs for budget market.

 

[nac]

Yeah, people who look for phones in this budget sure have to compromise, I just need to figure out what's the least amount of compromises I would be okay with.

 

[shreeux]

At least...every month, create a list of the top 10 mobile phones based on their specifications. and

We will choose accordingly.

 

[nac]

At least...every month, create a list of the top 10 mobile phones based on their specifications. and
We will choose accordingly.

There are tonne load of youtubers do that already.

 

[shreeux]

There are tonne load of youtubers do that already.

Mostly they never reveal everyting...they are also sponsored

 

[nac]

Mostly they never reveal everyting...they are also sponsored

Saying every bit about a phone would make the video super long, yeah when it's sponsored they pretty much tone down a lot.

Generic expectation from a budget phone

This is how I am prioritizing.

1 Good connectivity.
2 Good processor with good amount of memory.
3 Decent software and support.
4 Good battery life and charging.
5 Good built with decent IP rating.
6 FHD display with decent enough nits and good glass protection.
7 Acceptable camera.

Sale date is announced, roughly 3 weeks from now. And these are my final shortlisted candidates,
iQOO Z10x
realme P3
Samsung M35

I am price sensitive, so Z10x is likely be the one as it's the cheapest in the lot and with LCD display I don't have to worry about the possibility of developing green line issue. But it lacks secondary mic and memory card slot
P3 is all good, except high spare price.
M35 comes with Victus protection, OIS and produces better images. But it's already a year old, don't have that long OS support advantage it had last year, have to shell out more for charger, case and all and it's spares are expensive. As it's 1yr+ old, some deep discount would be nice. But recent pricing and sales feel like they are selling the last few batches, likely they have stopped the production after the launch of M36.