RFC: Smartphone for light user
- Thread starter nac
- Start date
OP
nac
Aspiring Novelist
I don't need big storage (I have about 6GB of free space in 16GB storage) and it's not gonna affect performance of the phone, so I am going with minimum.
My 2GB phone uses ~90% of memory even when idle. In 2025 brand new phones uses over 2GB just for system & background services and reserved memory. Typical social media apps like whatsapp generally consumes about 0.5GB, this is just a rough guideline we can use. What are the kinda apps we use, how many apps we want in the background (multi tasking) will help figure out the amount of memory we need. I feel like I would be okay with 4GB, but my recent hands-on experience isn't that smooth and I am not sure if it's because of 4GB RAM or the puny D6300 or the heavy UI/skin. So I am going with 6GB, and all 6GB variants comes with a minimum of 128GB, and I am settling for that.
I didn't dig too deep about 5G bands. Samsung and Moto gives more number of bands in this budget, I guess (I am generalizing here). Except few sub 10k phones, all phones in this budget covers popular bands in India. More expensive phones tend to offer more bands, and obviously flagships offer most amount of bands. We can further research the list of bands offered by our service provider/ones available in our area and pick the phone which offers that. I don't know where we can find all those information. If someone who does international travels a lot need to look for bands in that country as well. I am gonna go easy on that and assume the phones in this budget have enough 5G bands.
OP
nac
Aspiring Novelist
Didn't consider Lava. Their recent launches are very good, Storm Play, Storm Lite, Play Ultra, Blaze Dragon, Blaze AMOLED 2. Their bloatware free/ad free Stock Android is a definite plus, their spec are good for the price, but poor update policy, no service center - don't know how good their door step services are, made me not consider them. They have definitely managed to make people notice about their products this year. I very much expect their sales will reflect that. Agni 4 is yet to be launched, and likely be priced higher and I wouldn't require that much raw power. If I am considering, that would be Storm Play.
OP
nac
Aspiring Novelist
Came across this article. The in-display fingerprint scanner is not any way better than side mounted dedicated scanner and it costs more. Despite that phone makers are choosing in-display one 
Article is 3yrs old, but I am assuming still the scene is pretty much the same esp. in the budget phones.
somegadgetguy .com/2022/08/30/can-we-finally-admit-that-in-display-fingerprint-sensors-on-phones-are-terrible-and-that-no-company-should-use-them/
Article is 3yrs old, but I am assuming still the scene is pretty much the same esp. in the budget phones.somegadgetguy .com/2022/08/30/can-we-finally-admit-that-in-display-fingerprint-sensors-on-phones-are-terrible-and-that-no-company-should-use-them/
OP
nac
Aspiring Novelist
As suspected M35 6GB variant gone out of stock and there goes my Samsung option.
My expected prices for base variant,
Z10x - 12k
P3 - 13k (But doesn't look like it will get there)
With P3 I have least amount of compromises, esp if it comes to 13k and the price difference is as narrow as I expect between Z10x, then it's a very sweet deal. But still there are few concerns.
View attachment p3 z10x.png
My expected prices for base variant,
Z10x - 12k
P3 - 13k (But doesn't look like it will get there)
With P3 I have least amount of compromises, esp if it comes to 13k and the price difference is as narrow as I expect between Z10x, then it's a very sweet deal. But still there are few concerns.
View attachment p3 z10x.png
OP
nac
Aspiring Novelist
Prices are revealed for both iQOO and realme
Z10x got price deal as expected.
They didn't reveal any discount/deal for P3. If any we will see it on the day of sale.
CMF 2 Pro and OPPO K13 are priced @ 15k, that's nice. Interested ones can grab them.
P3 8GB variant and K13 base variant mostly sold for the same price. In that line, I am assuming P3's base variant will only come to 14k, not 13k as I expected. Already P4 is launched and selling, it has got nice price deal too. If they've stopped production of P3, it may not get steeper discount.
Z10x got price deal as expected.
They didn't reveal any discount/deal for P3. If any we will see it on the day of sale.
CMF 2 Pro and OPPO K13 are priced @ 15k, that's nice. Interested ones can grab them.
P3 8GB variant and K13 base variant mostly sold for the same price. In that line, I am assuming P3's base variant will only come to 14k, not 13k as I expected. Already P4 is launched and selling, it has got nice price deal too. If they've stopped production of P3, it may not get steeper discount.
OP
nac
Aspiring Novelist
Looks like even if we buy from phone maker's official online store, replacement process is same as buying from e-commerce sites. And their order processing and shipments takes about a week, that seems very slow.
If P3 drops to 13k or lower, I will be picking P3. If there is no price drop, I will be picking Z10x for 12k.
If P3 drops to 13k or lower, I will be picking P3. If there is no price drop, I will be picking Z10x for 12k.
OP
nac
Aspiring Novelist
I am not picking Motorola for few reasons,
No service center where I live (Amazon/Flipkart support ends @ delivery, after that we're on our own and we have to run to service center if there is any issue)
High spare price
Just 1yr OS support.
G45 - It's been selling for the same price for over a year now.
G96 - Best camera wrt image quality in this price segment.
G86 Power - All good except 1yr OS support.
I am considering just the base variant of P3/Z10x - 6/128GB. I don't know without VIP/Black membership, others could see the deal price of P3 tomorrow midnight when sale starts. If not then it's 23rd
No service center where I live (Amazon/Flipkart support ends @ delivery, after that we're on our own and we have to run to service center if there is any issue)
High spare price
Just 1yr OS support.
G45 - It's been selling for the same price for over a year now.
G96 - Best camera wrt image quality in this price segment.
G86 Power - All good except 1yr OS support.
I am considering just the base variant of P3/Z10x - 6/128GB. I don't know without VIP/Black membership, others could see the deal price of P3 tomorrow midnight when sale starts. If not then it's 23rd
OP
nac
Aspiring Novelist
I feel 6GB memory is good enough for me. I checked with my mom's POCO M4 Pro (I know A13 is not same as A15, and there are 2-3 OS updates too in the future. At this time, this is the best I have), opened bunch of apps (what we typically use, dialer, message, whatsapp, youtube, camera, files, maps etc) and still 2+GB of memory available free.
I don't think I will need big storage, if I ever fill up the storage, I will move them to PC and free up the space.
Banner says, offers are for both debit and credit card. Usually they give more discount for CC than DC, will see how this time works. If there is no offer for DC, I will have to ask around - someone who is not using their CC this time of the sale and enough balance left to use.
I don't think I will need big storage, if I ever fill up the storage, I will move them to PC and free up the space.
Banner says, offers are for both debit and credit card. Usually they give more discount for CC than DC, will see how this time works. If there is no offer for DC, I will have to ask around - someone who is not using their CC this time of the sale and enough balance left to use.
OP
nac
Aspiring Novelist
Received iQOO Z10x 6+128 Titanium.
Setup the phone without internet, 50 pre-installed apps in the drawer, 21.8GB of used storage on first boot. Rebooted after disabling RAM extension. Phone came with 40% battery, charged the phone to 100%. Turned ON internet, Sep patch of 700+MB ready to download. Along with patch, google installed it's apps - that's about ~6 more apps.
Uninstalled 17 apps
Turned off 2 apps?/folder?
Disabled 7 apps
I am keeping 22 apps (including 2 installed apps)
I am not sure what to do with the other 10 apps which are not uninstallable, except one others can't be disabled either.
View attachment iq.jpg
Setup the phone without internet, 50 pre-installed apps in the drawer, 21.8GB of used storage on first boot. Rebooted after disabling RAM extension. Phone came with 40% battery, charged the phone to 100%. Turned ON internet, Sep patch of 700+MB ready to download. Along with patch, google installed it's apps - that's about ~6 more apps.
Uninstalled 17 apps
Turned off 2 apps?/folder?
Disabled 7 apps
I am keeping 22 apps (including 2 installed apps)
I am not sure what to do with the other 10 apps which are not uninstallable, except one others can't be disabled either.
View attachment iq.jpg
vidhubhushan
Alakh Niranjan
OP
nac
Aspiring Novelist
Not all, but most are. There are few immune to this, CMF which comes with the least no. of preinstalled apps, followed by Lava. These two comes with no ads, no bloatwares. Next to that Moto comes with least amount of bloatwares and ads. Other popular brands in this budget, all comes with plenty of preinstalled apps. Samsung and iQOO/vivo comes with least amount among them. K13 tops @ ~80apps, P3 @ 70 apps among the models I checked.