Best Smartphone

[Whitepeak]

I've a Huawei p30 lite and it easily does a full day (16/17hrs) between charges. And that's using it pretty much constantly browsing the Internet, Facebook, twitter and using a herd management app. Even if I use it to stream radio or Spotify it still lasts a full day. Been very impressed with it.

 

[Cowabunga]

I've a Huawei p30 lite and it easily does a full day (16/17hrs) between charges. And that's using it pretty much constantly browsing the Internet, Facebook, twitter and using a herd management app. Even if I use it to stream radio or Spotify it still lasts a full day. Been very impressed with it.

Can it access the official Play Store for all the apps, including business apps that are expected and needed these days?
Are the Chinese gathering your data? For that is why Huawei, in particular, is being cast as an international pariah.

 

[Whitepeak]

Can it access the official Play Store for all the apps, including business apps that are expected and needed these days?
Are the Chinese gathering your data? For that is why Huawei, in particular, is being cast as an international pariah.

Yep, it's on android and Google play so no problems there.
Don't know about gathering data. I use WhatsApp for most messaging anyway. Not that I have any data that would be interesting to the Chinese anyway ?

 

[Cowabunga]

Yep, it's on android and Google play so no problems there.
Don't know about gathering data. I use WhatsApp for most messaging anyway. Not that I have any data that would be interesting to the Chinese anyway ?

If you buy any new Huawei phone today, or its sister brand which I forget the name of, they are very much hobbled and certainly don't have access to the Google Play Store or, I think I'm right in saying, Google Maps. This is as a result of US sanctions against the company and anyone who deals with it. So Google is effectively banned from the brand and does not supply Huawei with even the latest versions of Android.
Potential buyers should be made aware of this situation.

There is talk of Huawei introducing its own operating system, but that is hardly likely to catch on outside China [which is a vast market].

For the difinitive position, read this...

Answering your questions on Huawei devices and Google services. - Android Community

support.google.com

 

[J B]

Mid price phones such as these and the Samsung A51 now seem to outperform the top of the range phones in terms of battery life and do everything those expensive ones do and 95% as fast and well.

But don't have the 'status symbol' aura that IpHoNeS have ...

 

[Cowabunga]

But don't have the 'status symbol' aura that IpHoNeS have ...

If only people would realise it, but smartphones really have become commodity products with very little apart from camera image quality to differentiate them. They all look like chocolate blocks and you really can't tell a £1100 one from a £200 one unless you are into that kind of thing.
Even with the price saving, the cameras on those mid-range phones are as good as top of the range phones in 2016/17 and mostly better. The cheap phones at around £100 to £200 tend to compromise too much on hardware specs, such as screen resolution, contrast, processor speed, RAM and camera, while the mid-rangers give 90% of what the top end ones do at a third of the price.

Apple have just had to introduce the iPhoneSE to try and compete, because it is not the headline-grabbing top of the range phones that sell in massive volumes any longer. For instance, the Samsung Galaxy A51 at £300 outsells the £800 S10 by far.
The Sony Experia 10 MkII is about to be launched in the UK with Sony camera technology such as eye and animal eye autofocus and a certified waterproof rating at a sensible £320 inc VAT.

If I wasn't so into the Apple system, these are some of the phones I'd favour. As it is I'm happy with my 'old' iPhone8 that is a slightly slower version of the new SE. I've never seen the 8 to be slow at anything yet and it will hopefully last another three or four years yet. I'm fairly sure it was at least double the price of the new SE when I bought it. Apple are offering £100 in part exchange for the 8 against a new SE, which means that I really should consider changing it perhaps, especially as the 8's battery capacity is now down to below 80% of original.

 

[neilo]

If only people would realise it, but smartphones really have become commodity products with very little apart from camera image quality to differentiate them. They all look like chocolate blocks and you really can't tell a £1100 one from a £200 one unless you are into that kind of thing.
Even with the price saving, the cameras on those mid-range phones are as good as top of the range phones in 2016/17 and mostly better. The cheap phones at around £100 to £200 tend to compromise too much on hardware specs, such as screen resolution, contrast, processor speed, RAM and camera, while the mid-rangers give 90% of what the top end ones do at a third of the price.

Apple have just had to introduce the iPhoneSE to try and compete, because it is not the headline-grabbing top of the range phones that sell in massive volumes any longer. For instance, the Samsung Galaxy A51 at £300 outsells the £800 S10 by far.
The Sony Experia 10 MkII is about to be launched in the UK with Sony camera technology such as eye and animal eye autofocus and a certified waterproof rating at a sensible £320 inc VAT.

If I wasn't so into the Apple system, these are some of the phones I'd favour. As it is I'm happy with my 'old' iPhone8 that is a slightly slower version of the new SE. I've never seen the 8 to be slow at anything yet and it will hopefully last another three or four years yet. I'm fairly sure it was at least double the price of the new SE when I bought it. Apple are offering £100 in part exchange for the 8 against a new SE, which means that I really should consider changing it perhaps, especially as the 8's battery capacity is now down to below 80% of original.

I’m thinking of doing the same with my old ‘SE’, as it’s battery is on a similar downhill trajectory.
The new one at £419 (inc vat) seems similarly good value as the old SE was.

 

[Cowabunga]

I’m thinking of doing the same with my old ‘SE’, as it’s battery is on a similar downhill trajectory.
The new one at £419 (inc vat) seems similarly good value as the old SE was.

I was initially concerned that my then new iPhone8 [same as the new SE] would be too big to be convenient compared to my previous, which was the iPhone5 [same size as your old SE], but I needn't have worried. I think the 8 [and new SE] are an ideal size, if only the screen were a bit bigger. Apples newer, much more expensive phones such as the X and 11 are the same size as the 8/SE but the screen is much bigger because the screen is full size where the 8/SE have the home button, forehead and chin. Nevertheless it is a good size bigger than the 4/5/old-SE.
I have no ambition whatsoever of spending £800 or more on a phone when the 8/new-SE, or indeed a Moto G8plus or GalaxyA51 or similar does exactly the same job for a half the price or for less than a third of some of today's headline grabbers.

 

[Boomerang]

You must be using a lot of powerful apps to not even last a day. If your watching a lot of sky go that will probably be it. A newer samsung would probably be as good as any, I doubt any of the new phones will be significantly better than any other under high battery use. I would suggest find your power banks being the better option. My Samsung Galaxy S9 will last a whole day but I have chargers in every tractor, telehandler, truck, by my computer (wireless charging stand) and by my bed and i have a power bank so it can always be charged wherever I am.

With all those chargers who needs a battery ,you may as well just have a mains powered phone.

 

[J B]

I’m thinking of doing the same with my old ‘SE’, as it’s battery is on a similar downhill trajectory.
The new one at £419 (inc vat) seems similarly good value as the old SE was.

You could buy two proper phones for that money!

 

[Shutesy]

With all those chargers who needs a battery ,you may as well just have a mains powered phone.

Its more the fact that I'm useless at remembering to charge at home so whatever machine I jump into at work needs to have a charger in for when its about to die.

 

[neilo]

You could buy two proper phones for that money!

If you say so, but I’m not quite so ‘on trend’ to be anti everything Apple. I have always found iOS to be incredibly intuitive, which makes life simple for a simpleton like me.

I wouldn’t consider one of their PCs though, much preferring to stick with Microsoft for that. Conforming is just so much easier sometimes.

 

[Cowabunga]

You could buy two proper phones for that money!

Moto G8 Plus or Power are between £200 and £220 and they are great. My brother has a Plus.
It rather depends on whether you want the Apple ecosystem and regular security and operating system updates and a waterproof body, or a very good Android with doesn't and isn't. The Moto is water resistant but not IP rated like the Apple, which itself is not very highly water rated.

They all do the same job unless you are a particularly fussy photographer who wants the ultimate cam-phone, or want to use highly processor-hungry games.

None of the phones in the £200+ mid range category are found wanting today compared to top end phones of three or four years ago. Today's top end phones are often less practical or offer very little extra for most people than these semi-budget phones.

Should say that the last two phones I bought were a G8 and a Galaxy A51, both for business use by partners in the farm. The latest tablet I bought the other week was an Android for the use of my 92 year old mother. An amazon Fire. Should perhaps have bought her an iPad but wasn't sure she would use it much or could drop it, so the fire has the chunky 'child' padded cover. I've jailbroken it and added Google Play Store to it and my daughter is now meant to be configuring it for simplicity of use. My mother is lonely and frail and just maybe this will be of some help.

 

[Cowabunga]

If you say so, but I’m not quite so ‘on trend’ to be anti everything Apple. I have always found iOS to be incredibly intuitive, which makes life simple for a simpleton like me.

I wouldn’t consider one of their PCs though, much preferring to stick with Microsoft for that. Conforming is just so much easier sometimes.

That is my reservation about the Android tablet for my mother. It isn't half as intuitive and simple to use as the iPad. It was only just over £100 though.

I love my iMac, which has Windows installed on a partition, but I never use that these days. It is now nine years old and hasn't missed a beat, although I do get frustrated with it being so slow sometimes. The iPad Pro is miles faster. Which is why at some point in the future I will get a new 27" iMac with a fast processor, 64GB RAM and a 1Terrabyte solid state drive plus a graphics card with its own 8GB RAM.
I have lovely dreams about it. The occasional cold sweat about the price.

 

[yorkie]

new iPhone se

update new iPhone 2020 se is crap ,on my second battery will not last as long as 2.5 year old se, is no better than old 5s I still have , it may have the new chip same as an 11 ,but that is all , listen to music on it all day old one will go a day and a half these will not last a day .second one will be going back and sticking with old one ,only reason for changing was updates soon stop for old se ,will not pay £1050 for next smallest one when don't need three cameras or the extra sizer £800 for 2 cameras and one twice the size

 

[Willie adie]

I've a hauwei but has for a year before the Google boycott was in force, obviously the Chinese are flavour of the month or 2 months atm.
But have to say I love the phone previously I had an LG which they stopped making or idve had another of them. I had issues with Motorola, 3 phone and all had the same problem the earpiece stopped working and had to have loudspeaker on to hear a caller.

 

[Tomr10]

I've a Huawei p30 lite and it easily does a full day (16/17hrs) between charges. And that's using it pretty much constantly browsing the Internet, Facebook, twitter and using a herd management app. Even if I use it to stream radio or Spotify it still lasts a full day. Been very impressed with it.

My wife has one it's much nicer than my s8plus she is having a few issues with it at the mo but it's getting on now. Plan is to claim on insurance and then get a sim only for it

 

[Cowabunga]

update new iPhone 2020 se is crap ,on my second battery will not last as long as 2.5 year old se, is no better than old 5s I still have , it may have the new chip same as an 11 ,but that is all , listen to music on it all day old one will go a day and a half these will not last a day .second one will be going back and sticking with old one ,only reason for changing was updates soon stop for old se ,will not pay £1050 for next smallest one when don't need three cameras or the extra sizer £800 for 2 cameras and one twice the size

It’s not available to buy for a while yet. So you could not possibly be on second new SE battery. Not even the reviewers have them.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Just dropped my LG G5 yesterday and it smashed. I had it 4 years so its done ok - I liked the way had replaceable battery etc.

Haven't got the heart to buy an expensive android - may get dropped again so just bought an Honor 10 Lite from Argos which will do what I need. £108 + vat. (made by huawei). It will surely do two years.

I reckon my Sim only deal could do with cheapening down a bit now - don't use calls as much as used to, its all whatsapp nowadays and v few texts

 

[Cowabunga]

Just dropped my LG G5 yesterday and it smashed. I had it 4 years so its done ok - I liked the way had replaceable battery etc.

Haven't got the heart to buy an expensive android - may get dropped again so just bought an Honor 10 Lite from Argos which will do what I need. £108 + vat. (made by huawei). It will surely do two years.

That’s the other Huawei brand that I forgot the name of. For a lot of people it will be frustratingly hobbled by the lack of Google access. For instance, it doesn’t get the Chrome browser, i’m guessing, so couldn’t use my herd management app.