Help me chose a budget android phone

[Thaco]

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If anyone else is following this, the Note 5 Global 64gb version is going on sale on Black Friday: BLACK FRIDAY SALE US $176.88 - 213.99

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Glob...9-7269186157a2

hat's like $3 off their current price, i'd rather order it now and beat the rush, lol

[The Cosworth]

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I bought mine from Amazon over the summer, but they're no longer in stock anymore.

Don't forget the Aliexpress coupon and eBates hahaha

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hat's like $3 off their current price, i'd rather order it now and beat the rush, lol

It is actually honestly more that I am curious to see what like the Pocophone drop to. That sort of thing. Im less worried about this deal and more worried about buying it today, then something dropping and being like FAK.

[The Cosworth]

Screw it, decided to order both for my wife and I. Ended up being $274.xx CAD with shipping for each. Then Ebates 3% back. So not bad overall. Will pay about $530 in the end for 2.

[The Cosworth]

So got them both a few days ago. Pretty darned happy with them. Only 2 complaints on MIUI. First is the 'security' app. Couldn't remove it in the stripper tool and don't really know what it is doing / why it needs the permissions it does. Second is the screen 'on' time and the time to lock the screen seem to be the same setting.

Otherwise super impressed with the performance, I downloaded 80gb of my music / podcasts yesterday and had about 12 hours of uptime and used 60% of battery. Pretty nuts. Also the LTE / Wifi antenna seems really silly fast compared to a lot of my old equipment. Dunno. Tempted to buy another few just so I have spares when they go on sale.

And yes this is the Snapdragon 636 model and it shows as the Note 5 Pro even though the Ali-Express listing is just 'global version'.

[D'z Nutz]

Yeah, I'm not too sure about either of those. I'm never bothered by the security app cause I turned off the notifications haha

There's a couple other things you can do to improve performance too. I can't find the link for it, but I think disabling MIUI Optimization in Developer Options is one of them. Also either disable battery saver completely or turn it off for apps you want running in the background and use for notifications otherwise it'll just keep killing everything you're not actively using. I've missed things like calendar notifications cause of it. I still get amazing battery life with it completely off.

[The Cosworth]

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Yeah, I'm not too sure about either of those. I'm never bothered by the security app cause I turned off the notifications haha

There's a couple other things you can do to improve performance too. I can't find the link for it, but I think disabling MIUI Optimization in Developer Options is one of them. Also either disable battery saver completely or turn it off for apps you want running in the background and use for notifications otherwise it'll just keep killing everything you're not actively using. I've missed things like calendar notifications cause of it. I still get amazing battery life with it completely off.

Thanks yeah battery saver is off already. Turned off the Miui optimization. Put Pixel 1.4 Launcher onto it. Still a little strange, but less so. Found the screen timeout, it was under 'sleep' but I swear there is supposed to be an android setting to 'not lock' if active in the last xx minutes even if the screen times out. They might have removed that. Also found the 'trusted' bluetooth thing where it wont lock when connected to your vehicle is impossible to get to on their software. Dunno how to get back there and seems to be a complaint.

However, still love it. Especially for the price. The FM receiver is also hilarious to have.

[C4S]

P20 lite, Mate 20 lite, good value, good cameres.

One plus 6 is on sale too, $569, 1/3 price of iphone with similar look, spec, and notch ..

[ExtraSlow]

FM tuner is awesome. Data free radio baby.

[D'z Nutz]

Just for shits and giggles, I picked up at Mi A2 Lite off a guy on RFD tonight just to try out. I like the smaller size, it's got the 4000mah battery, and of course pure Android. I'm so undecided which one I want to keep haha! It does feel slower than the Note 5 Pro though.

[D'z Nutz]

If anyone is looking for a budget bare-bones Android phone, Costco's got the Moto G Fast for $150 until the end of the week. Reviews look good and there doesn't seem to be a lot of bloat, so I picked one up as a spare.

[Xtrema]

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...3_64gb_xl.html

Pixel 3 XL, $180-$200 USD.

Should get Android 12 but updates stops coming in Oct.

And picture and video off this device still got unlimited storage with Google Photos (Unlimited storage ends for all Android users June 1st).

[ExtraSlow]

Pixel 3XL is a nice phone. my wife has that one. That motorola is a good deal too, and Moto Android is very close to stock unlike ***samsung***. My favorite part about android is all the options.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Pixel 3XL is a nice phone. my wife has that one. That motorola is a good deal too, and Moto Android is very close to stock unlike ***samsung***. My favorite part about android is all the options.

Samsung is basically stock Android now, but with useful customizations added that stock Android doesn't offer. One UI is nothing like it used to be and has no impact on performance. If you like options with Android, you get a whole ton more with Samsung's One UI and many of them are genuinely useful. They also do monthly security/feature updates just like the Pixel phones and they get new versions of Android much faster. Samsung used to be much worse in that regard but they've got their act together as of a few years ago.

[ExtraSlow]

I'm still salty about the old Samsung way, and I see no need to go back and find out of they've improved. Nice that they have, but they lost me.

[Xtrema]

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I'm still salty about the old Samsung way, and I see no need to go back and find out of they've improved. Nice that they have, but they lost me.

They still do a lot of Samsung things but you can just ignore or disable. The only thing I would bitch about is it's preloaded with Facebook. Then again our whole group is on Whatsapp so the Zuck find his way in anyway.

Samsung (Galaxy anyway) is the only Android maker promising 5 year of OS update. If you buy it on Android 11, you are good til Android 16. Pixel only promise 3.

[mr2mike]

Go older Pixel all the way.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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They still do a lot of Samsung things but you can just ignore or disable. The only thing I would bitch about is it's preloaded with Facebook. Then again our whole group is on Whatsapp so the Zuck find his way in anyway.

Samsung (Galaxy anyway) is the only Android maker promising 5 year of OS update. If you buy it on Android 11, you are good til Android 16. Pixel only promise 3.

You can just uninstall FB on Samsung devices, most manufacturers pre-install it. Ideally it wouldn't be there in the first place though.

[D'z Nutz]

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https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...3_64gb_xl.html

Pixel 3 XL, $180-$200 USD.

Should get Android 12 but updates stops coming in Oct.

And picture and video off this device still got unlimited storage with Google Photos (Unlimited storage ends for all Android users June 1st).

Damn, that's not a bad deal at off. Amazon has refurbed 3A XL's for $280 and I thought that was a deal.

[mr2mike]

I'm still running a Pixel 2. No issues and bought it new.
Updates stopped for OS a year ago. Still good though.
I'm sure I'll be updating eventually in near future once apps stop being supported.

[Xtrema]

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I'm sure I'll be updating eventually in near future once apps stop being supported.

Only Android version got disowned (as far as I know) by apps is 4.x. That's like 7 years ago. Pixel 2 should be running on 11. I would be surprised if it doesn't run apps for another 7 years, just not in optimal speed.