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Comment by kombine | Hacker News Reader

My Lenovo P780 was only $80 more expensive, but its battery has the highest capacity on the market, 4000 mAh. The phone holds the charge for >2 days of quite intensive use. I had Samsung Galaxy Note before this one, but now don't understand why anyone would choose top end phones from the brands like Samsung or Apple, if half of the cost of a phone goes to profit their shareholders.

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>don't understand why anyone would choose top end phones from the brands like Samsung or Apple, if half of the cost of a phone goes to profit their shareholders.

When consumers spend money to buy products, where the money goes (whether it's costs of production or shareholder profit) almost never factors into the purchase decision.

Rightfully so. For instance, a new manufacturer comes in, and has high costs due to inefficiencies and lack of economies of scale, how does that help me in making decisions?

While low prices can make purchase more compelling, the lack of profits never does.

I bought a Lenovo A820 for my daughter; it's a great phone for the price, can only recommend it.

another point is build quality - the Lenovo phone comes in a metal case, not some plastic.

Does your phone support LTE? Does it run a modern version of Android? Does it have a modern SoC? Does it sync with my Fitbit? Is it widely available in the US? Can I get after sales support?

Does your phone support LTE?

I don't know if it does, but I live in Europe so that is not an issue for me.

Does it run a modern version of Android?

4.2.1

Does it have a modern SoC

It has more than enough horsepowers for what I do on a smartphone. It's quad-core, as for details - I never bothered.

Is it widely available in the US? Can I get after sales support?

Again, I don't know much about US, but I would imagine that a big company like Lenovo would be present there in one form or another.

Lenovo has no presence in the U.S. for cell phones. The P780 doesn't support LTE, which is a big problem in the U.S. Because American carriers never built out well-developed HSPA+ networks. They put most of their energy into skipping ahead to LTE. So the differential between HSPA and LTE is a lot bigger than in Europe. Finally, most international phones don't support all the bands U.S. carriers use for HSPA. This makes the lack of LTE even more acute.

Non-LTE works just fine in the US for a lot of folks. T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, where quite of few Moto Gs will end up, is solid. Heck T-Mobile's non-LTE network is faster than some other carrier's LTE networks in a lot of areas.

Right, but t-mobile is pretty much the only carrier with a really solid HSPA+ network, and has a tiny minority of the overall market. I've got a Lumia 620, which doesn't do LTE, and it's really not great on ATT.

It depends entirely where you are. I've had T-Mobile since the original G1 (first commercial Android phone) came out in NYC and have had no issues. Service is a bit spotty on the train up to Albany/Rochestor, but it is with all the carriers. The only places you have trouble with T-Mobile is when you get in rural areas, which I usually don't. The one exception is part of my family we visit and only Verizon has coverage by them. In that case, I just switch to wifi calling at their house. Or turn it off for a while.

In the states, if you're obsessive about your phone being on every minute of every day (and, realistically, anyone actually that important... as opposed to thinking they are for their startup... is still forced to carry a pager), you basically have to go with Verizon. That's why I have a Verizon hotspot as a backup. Not as a backup for T-Mobile, but as a backup for Time Warner, since it goes down at least once a month for a little while and down for a full day every few months.

This is one reason I'm always surprised people buy anything other than a Nexus device. You have a new phone, and it's running an OS that's already a year old.

Is nexus devices available in every country? Can you walk to a store and buy a nexus phone? Do Nexus phones have SD card (very important for me)?

If battery capacity is your main issue, you can do better with an aftermarket one. I got a 4500 mAh for my Galaxy S3 for $30! Of course, it requires a new case because it's enormous...

It wasn't my main issue, until I got it. I was very restricted with my Samsung before, because I would always end up with dead battery during just a one day of intensive usage. As for the size, it's absolutely manageable, maybe a little thicker than most of the 5" phones.

Fair enough, this thing looks ridiculous. Works great, though.

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