Ask HN: Cheap but decent quality Android smartphone? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Cheap but decent quality Android smartphone?

16 pointstixocloud33 comments

Looking to purchase phones that are being used by customers on a rental basis.

Moto G4 or G5 (when the 5 comes out). The Moto G pretty much invented the category of inexpensive, solid performing phones with a non-tampered-with Android experience.

Seconded. I have a Moto G3. Cheap, solid, beater that IDGAF about key scratches. Never had any hardware issues.

Root-ready by the mfg, running Cyanogen from day 1.

My Moto G(1) has been my phone since October 2014. I've even been running Android N for most of 2017. My only wish is that I had got the LTE version, but StraightTalk wasn't offering LTE at the time... and I honestly thought I'd have a new phone by now.

Was just about to suggest the Moto G. A computer science class in high school (we paired up with a tech school) used these phones as a class set. Solid build, not too expensive, good stock experience, not-noticeably-bad performance.

Own a G4 Play, highly satisfied. Long battery life. Minor downside: no compass.

I've had some trouble with moto G4 - just google for phantom touch.

If you use the device for email, etc.. probably you won't notice. For development/testing is a mess.

Please note that Moto G4 doesn't have the compass. That means Google Maps is not as accurate. I've had problems with inaccurate location(or current location jumps around) on Maps when I'm in situations where there is a mix of stop and go, and freeway traffic. I didn't have this issue with Nexus 5 which has a compass. (It could be an issue with Moto's GPS receiver too)

Urgh. Looked at the price and thought I could make it work until I read this.

How bad is the accuracy of Google Maps?

It is accurate most of the time. Sometimes, it puts your location at a place that is impossible to get into. Assume you are traveling on a freeway. If you suddenly get into a stop and go traffic, it assumes you have got onto a surface street near the freeway - either redirecting you back onto the freeway, or reroutes you to a completely different route. It confuses you if you aren't paying attention to your location.

Thanks. It's difficult to judge unless I actually test it out - I'm in the market for handsets to be able to rent/give it out as part of a broader business solution but I'd hate if the end users end up having a terrible experience.

I use a LG Optimus Zone 3 - black - 4G LTE - 8 GB - CDMA - smartphone. It's a good basic phone. I bought it for about $10.00. It's hard to beat.

Overall it's a good basic phone, apps run at an acceptable speed. I can run the major apps. The screen is large enough but not too large to get in the way. The camera is very basic but it does the job.

I don't play games so I can't speak to that. The biggest draw back is the amount of memory available for apps. It's very low. I only keep a 2 or 3 of the major apps at one time. You can't beat it for the price. Specially since I could probably buy 30 of these phones and still be below the price of some of the expensive popular android models.

Where do you get it for $10? Amazon sells it for $40, verizon for $70

I looked at my invoice from Best Buy and it was $9.99. I guess it was on sale but even at $40.00 it's not a bad deal.

Are phones sold at such cheap prices carrier-locked?

Yes, but in my case I am a Verizon customer so it does not matter. I've read that they will unlock it after a year of service.

Lenovo P2 a damn fine device all round that packs one real killer feature, the best battery life you will see on a smartphone. its combination of the snapdragon 625 chip and gargantuan 5100mah battery have seen me through 4 days of my normal usage (around 11-12 hours SOT)

not only does it pack solid battery life but its a generally nice device, 4gb ram, an AMOLED screen, dual sims (or a sim and microsd) running a pretty close to stock android (recently updated to android N)

im from the UK so prices will be in GBP here, im not sure how they translate to the US but the phone can be had on contract for £20 a month or £199.99 on pay as you go from Three (Unlocked)

Wiko, has pretty solid products in the range 80-200€.

http://world.wikomobile.com/p-wiko-new-products

If you are in the uk I've had a good experience with wiley fox phones. Have a look on their website and on amazon.

I have a Elephone P9000 it is decent but has flaws and for one it is not half as smooth as a half-powered iPhone 5S but does the job and I enjoy the extra disk space and the clear, huge screen, playing HD videos.

I bought it online at 200 bucks, not sure if its cheap or not. Was cheap compared to my previous mobile, the iPhone 6S

i had a p9000 and was reasonably impressed too, while maybe not the best battery life and its fingerprint reader was somewhat inaccurate for the price it was a generally good phone (not a patch on the lenovo p2 that replaced it for the same amount of cash though)

Mine started having issues though, very random ones too and no matter what i did software wise i couldnt seem to fix it, eventually i noticed why, although it had seemed to survive my motorcycle crash it was in fact bent like a banana!

Anandtech has got you covered: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9770/best-android-phones

$600, "High end", $450, followed by "We have no suggestions for a budget category in the US right now"

OP specifically asked for "cheap" phones. This article doesn't seem to give him any good options.

I tend to use this site when making recommendations.

https://www.stockdroids.com/

I believe this was posted to hackernews a few months back.

> Limit size to 4.7" screen (size of my iPhone 6s)

> Most recent releases that aren't made by CAT are in 2015

Seriously, why can I not find a good REASONABLY sized phone?!

Define "cheap".

Was looking at about $100 max.

Xiaomi redmi, all the models, according to your budget.

Has anyone heard of InFocus phones? We were able to rent these in Hong Kong but I've never heard of them before.

Get at least 16 GB, people will complain a lot when 8 isn't enough.

I agree

Samsung Galaxy J7

xaiomi has a lot of low cost amazing phones

note 4, redmi 3s , I have a redmi 2 prime for almost over a year now its amazing

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