I have owned my iPhone 6S for 4 or 5 years now. Quite pleased with it, but will soon be too old for the Apple updates. I could buy the iPhone 7, or possibly the 8, to avoid the ludicrous cost of something like the 11 or 12.
The Sunday Time colour mag today says - "hang on a minute, what about the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite at £299?"
I look at Which? and that says "what about the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC for £199?"
Anybody got one, tried one, any thoughts, or opinions?
Last edited by: Duncan on Sun 22 Nov 20 at 16:23
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I guess you first have to decide what you want out of the phone. if you have other Apple stuff you might miss the integrated nature of the Apple world but if you are happy to go Android and don't want or need to of the range there are lots of cheap but good phone out there. I alway liked the Moto G phones but the ohones you mention do well in reviews.
www.techradar.com/uk/best/best-cheap-phones
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I have just recently purchased a G8 - very marked improvement on battery life and 4G/3G sensitivity cf the previous G6 (which was losing battery life after 4 years).
£139 from JL with 2 year warranty.
No problems yet. Simple transfer of nearly all Apps and ids. (But that was from its little brother:)
The wife's G8 Power lite seems almost as good, after 2 months use. Currently JL £119
Do not bother to try and understand Motorola Badging/branding of family of products.
All the phones in the G8 family seem to be different sizes, be careful if buying a case or screen protector.
Maybe Z will will have a view as he has been a MotoG fan in the past.
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>>The wife's G8 Power lite seems almost as good, after 2 months use.
How does she find its charging time? The TechRadar review criticises it as very slow, due to the use of a micro USB connection.
Does it have NFC?
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GSM Arena is a generally excellent site for not only being able to see the details of individual phones but also for comparing different handsets.
www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g8_power_lite-10154.php
Apparently it has neither NFC nor fast charging. Take that second in context though, it'll still charge in far less than a night, 4 hours or thereabouts. Is that likely to be a problem?
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 26 Nov 20 at 14:16
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No NFC
Charging time is not an issue as she tries to charge overnight. Not sure the effect on longterm battery capacity - but better that it is done every night rather than going flat!
The fact that my phone has USB C is a pain - never have the correct lead to hand. That reminds me I must buy some more leads to scatter around the houses and cars. Not been a problem in lockdown.
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I've had a Xiaomi Pocophone F1 for a year or so and it is a powerful and really capable phone. I think that was just under £300 for the top model (128Gb internal). I thought I had a problem arising with the charge port and was planning to replace it with the Poco 3 NFC, but I resolved the problem.
SWMBO had a £140 Xiaomi M1 A1 for a couple of years but the screen has just started not responding in a small but critical area so we got her a Xiaomi Redmii Note 9 at about £130 (now available cheaper) which is brilliant for the money - she seems really happy with it, despite being uninterested in the technical side she said it is quicker and has a really clear screen, and long battery life. She's not used it much yet for pics but the reviews say it's quite good.
I know people love Apple and I do get why but they are just so expensive and, to me, they seem restrictive.
One of the best things about the phones for me is that they are nearly at disposable pricing - if I had a £800+ phone I'd be worried about damaging it or losing it, and I'd not want to up[grade it too frequently. With a cheapie none of those things bother me. I should say that I am a heavy user of phones (not for calls though) and also rather careless...
Last edited by: smokie on Sun 22 Nov 20 at 17:23
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I have the G7 Plus. Its my third Moto G, and I go for the models that have NFC, dont need "power" as the battery life is fine on the + . Motorolla (Actually its Lenovo) are always just a notch behind on screen sharpness and camera than the top range makes but thats fine its good enough.
Missed out on G8, will probably miss out on G9 as my 7 is working fab, and I will wait for G10 and maybe 5g.
Price/performance/build the Moto G's are unbeatable
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We used to be Samsung, when the prices got ridiculous we switched to Huawei. We were happy with Huawei but when one of the Huawei's needed a screen repair I spoke to a friend of mine in the business.
He told me that repairs of most phones were a nightmare of expense and that Huawei was one of the worst. I got told pretty strongly to look at Xiaomi.
The price / performance is excellent. We've had two for 2 years and we will all change to them as our phones come due. Great performance, excellent battery life and very good cameras.
No downside that I am aware of.
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>> Anybody got one, tried one, any thoughts, or opinions?
You wont like it, its Android. It looks and works differently.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 23 Nov 20 at 02:46
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Try Android if you fancy. It is a slightly different way of working but notunsurmountable and the choice of devices is vastly more numerous than iOS.
I have a Moto G6 which has proven to be excellent and lasted two years so far which is a miracle for me. Most phones barely last a year until they slow down, get glitches etc etc. I am looking for another phone in the next 12 months but have not yet looked closely enough to advise on models.
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Duncan has a Mercedes and an iPhone. Why would he want to compromise on either front?
;-)))
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I would disagree with you on one of the points.........
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Indeed there will be those who disagree on both of them. But, it's wrong to scold them for it, they just haven't reached that level of karma yet.
;-)
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>> You wont like it, its Android. It looks and works differently.
I hadn't picked up on the point that your were currently an Apple user. Zero is quite right, it's an Android, you won't like it.
Apple and Android are so different that if you like one then you need better motivation than cost to be able to accept the other.
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But cost is a large motivator when the difference between a boggy iPhone and a good value Android can be £500
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If it means Battersea Dogs Home gets less spondoolies when you croak so be it.
Buy a newer iPhone. And they have residuals..it’s not all wasted.
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>> But cost is a large motivator when the difference between a boggy iPhone and a
>> good value Android can be £500
>>
Not sure that’s true. Apple don’t make budget phones. You have to compare like with like. An iPhone 11 is £599. An equivalent Android is cheaper certainly but not £500, perhaps £100.
Having changed from a budget Android to an iPhone last year there is a huge difference in all round performance especially when it comes to the camera.
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>>
>> You wont like it, its Android. It looks and works differently.
>>
Quite seriously, that has given me more thought than anything else.
I have had a couple of iPhones now. I like the way they work. Would I get on with Android? Millions do, of course.
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>>Would I get on with Android?
It will annoy you beyond belief for a week, and will irritate the fk out of you for about a month. And then you will live with the occasional confusion or forgetfulness for about three months.
Only you can say if it is worth it to you. It would not be to me.
edit: I'm Android and iPhones annoy me more than I can say, even though I do know how to use them.
Ditto MACs
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sun 22 Nov 20 at 21:32
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I am an Apple eco user, and faced much the same issue as the OP. The iPhone 6 doesn't take the NHS app which was something of a rationale for an upgrade that was shortly inevitable anyway. I bought an iPhone SE 2020 and am very pleased with it, more importantly it will have an update lifespan of at least five years apparently.
I am a value seeking buyer and loath buying new phones. I usually try and pick up a slightly secondhand phone from a private ebay seller who is upgrading, preferably with a month or two of warranty left. i got lucky and was able to buy a 128GB SE 2020 for £370 (List is about £450), an unwanted replacement, only six weeks old and in unwrapped, new condition. Plenty of oomph under the bonnet, not cutting edge in camera tech but does all I need in that department. Battery life is said to be an issue with these but I am I guess a light user and have no problem.
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>> Battery life is said to be an issue with these
I've found the SE2 has a much better battery life than the SE1 has.
Black Friday is upon us. Many good deals to be had at the moment.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 23 Nov 20 at 13:11
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>> edit: I'm Android and iPhones annoy me more than I can say, even though I
>> do know how to use them.
Ditto here, can't abide iPad either for the same reasons, they are still too propriety in standards (bluetooth for example) and too locked down and inflexible.
>> Ditto MACs
I have and use a MacBook Air for my primary laptop, it is very good, less locked down, but still has annoying "not invented here" restrictions.
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Having swapped from Apple to Android, I found the only frustrations were not so much that the different systems can't do things, it's just that you've learned the dead simple way to do it on the other one. And then you have to prod about trying to find how to do it in an entirely different way.
I remember I used to say "siri, remind me to buy lemonade when I get to Tesco", or whatever, and it just worked. I tried to do the same on Android and it was having none of it (not using siri, obviously).
Actually I'm not sure I ever did get location based reminders working on my android phone now I come to think of it. Google either pretends it's going to remind you, but then then does nothing when you get there, or says "something went wrong", or, or, or, etc.
It's the little stuff.
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You have a much greater understanding of tech than most people. You like tinkering around with stuff and find Apple inflexible. Most people I think don’t see the locked down nature of Apple systems a disadvantage but a positive advantage. Their old advertising slogan of “It just works” is broadly correct.
Out of curiosity what problem do you have with Bluetooth on Apple?
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I think it depends on how much you want to change what the phone comes setup as. I've no idea how or even what I'd change on my phone. A new phone at 120 quid does everything I'd ever need it to do. Last phone I had lasted about 5/6 years until it died, I'll do the same with this one.
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From my observation of others with Apple products, both phones and laptops/PCs, only two things are guaranteed.
One, obsolescence. Two, a big hole in your pocket.
Their stuff is well designed and well made and carries snob-appeal, but their attitude to their clientele is "we know better than you do what is good for you". Limited options for customisation being a case in point.
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I remember being at an industry meeting when iPhones first came into the UK Telco world.
It was welcomed by all, even those not offering them, since the overriding feeling was that "finally people will learn to pay for phones". Until that point MNOs had been funding them and users were totally unwilling to pay for advanced features.
I think it was O2 which championed the iPhone arrival.
With the advent of the iPhone it quickly changed to "charging for handsets but including it in the monthly contract price".
Apple certainly lead the way in introducing high-end phones and convincing ordinary people to pay dearly for them willingly.
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>> Out of curiosity what problem do you have with Bluetooth on Apple?
Bluetooth file transfer. Bluetooth audio with anything other than I-something.
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>>>Bluetooth file transfer.
Do I assume that it doesn't work between iPhone and non iPhone ? Because that would be a show stopper for me. Not that I'd get an iPhone anyway.
For many/most people though it as CG says, it simply does the stuff it does and that's pretty much all that matters to them.
It's only for a minority that the restrictive and bespoke environment is an issue.
But all that aside, I'll be damned if I'll pay that much for a telephone that does no more than a phone a third of it's price.
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>> >>>Bluetooth file transfer.
>>
>> Do I assume that it doesn't work between iPhone and non iPhone ? Because that
>> would be a show stopper for me. Not that I'd get an iPhone anyway.
Its very flakey, connects, drops, refuses, stubbornly refuses to see, any one or all of those depending on the time of day and the state of the sun. Ditto macbook to Android.
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Oh and USB-OTG is of course near impossible
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 23 Nov 20 at 14:10
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I don't use it often, but when I do it's a life saver.
EDIT: Oh this #$%&& software.
Paraphrase to replace asterisked paragraph....
Apple have 14% of the smart phone market so I don't see them putting much effort into changing. And since it is a stand-alone market with no compatibility with anything except itself, I guess it speaks volumes about both their design and the usage experience.
Certainly I can't see them putting much effort into getting beyond that.
Funnily enough 14% is also about the Mac share of overall 'PC' shipments. Mostly the same people, I guess.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 23 Nov 20 at 14:22
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I've had various mystery problems with Bluetooth. A few months ago I bought a Yamaha network amplifier which among its many inputs has bluetooth. I am very pleased with the amp but the connection from my phone when playing music from it constantly dropped, and I wondered if it was faulty.
6 weeks ago my neighbours in the adjoining (attached) house moved out. It's been fine since then.
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I recently bought an Xiamoi Mi 9T Pro to replace a four and a half year old HTC 10, which cost me £517 at the time with a 10 per cent discount.
The Xiamoi had a list price of £527 when first introduced, but this gradually fell to £399 - I got mine for just £300 on eBay.
It does everything and more that I need, has a Samsung Super AMOLED screen, Snapdragon 855 CPU and Sony camera equipment, plus an all Gorilla Glass 5 body.
I must confess I'd never heard of the brand before now, but have been very pleasantly surprised at the sheer value for money - in fact one review I read stated that the £399 price wasn't a typo...!!
tinyurl.com/yxvagycz
Last edited by: Stuartli on Mon 23 Nov 20 at 19:04
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If one thing might convince me to consider a switch to an iPhone, then it is this quote from a BBC article.....
"Earlier this year, Apple announced it would introduce a feature called App Tracking Transparency, to give people more control over their data.
Crucially, customers would have to opt in for their data - previously handed over by default - to be used by apps such as Facebook's.
That is a massive problem for Facebook, which sells targeted adverts to make eye-watering profits. It says openly that this will damage its business.
Apple has postponed the proposed changes until next year, to give developers time to prepare. "
www.bbc.com/news/technology-55079454
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I decide to reawaken this thread, as its 3 yr birthday approaches, my Moto g8 is giving some intermittent issues that I cannot readily resolve (or identify). My gut is to stay with Motorola despite the recognised shortcomings of the Motorola Android update policy, but they have recently released a couple of new 5g phones. Has anybody experienced the G84 or G53 yet?
I have never managed to come to terms with the Motorola G naming convention, if anybody has a simple explanation please post it.
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>> I have never managed to come to terms with the Motorola G naming convention, if
>> anybody has a simple explanation please post it.
I'm baffled too but my G23 does all I need.
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SWMBO had a Moto something Power, c £180 IRC but it packed up about 3 months outside warranty, suspected motherboard problem. She isn't a heavy user.
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Dumped my moto only policy, and just bought a Pixel 6, runout model, so very cheap. Its a fantastic phone. Pixel 7's will be runout phones soon as pixel 8 is out.
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What price for the pixel?
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I paid £238 for a 6a, in chalk white, seemingly an unpopular colour, but actually very smart. The price of 6a's seems to vary by about 30 - 40 quid depending on time of the month.
7a's are hovering around 380-400 but coming down as Pixel 8 supply ramps up.
Note - the a's are cheaper as they are lsightly lower spec than digit only models.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 28 Sep 23 at 19:58
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I started the hunt for the next phone when mine went into a reboot loop two weeks ago. It's a 256Gb Xiaomi X3 Pocophone NFC. Which I thought waws probably less than £200 new but maybe was nearer £300.
Must admit I couldn't find much of interest in the same price range, though I ten towards more recently released phones than run-off models. However I'll have a look at the Pixel.
The phone righted itself and has been fine for a couple of weeks now, but the battery life is not so great so I've got a replacement on order from China.
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Got myself a new phone 15 plus at John Lewis at the weekend. OK its expensive but its a great phone.
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Have you tried a fast charge via the usb connector yet?
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I use an USB-C power adapter. It's pretty quick
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you need the 15 pro to get full USB 3 support, which includes fast charging. Lesser 15 models are merely USB 2 support.
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I had read that there were overheating issues related to the usb charging but other articles seem to indicate that the issues are more general.
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Swithering on new iPhone.
I have an 11 and only thing wrong with it is battery efficiency is down to 75%. But since I work from home I always have a charger to hand, or worse case scenario, take a Powerbank if going out for any length of time. Think phone is 4 years old so 2 years out of contract.
Seem to be a good deal on the 14 and 15 with O2. However I am now on a £8pm O2 sim only with more data than I can even use, which has been doubled up as I am also a Virgin customer.
Might just pay the £80 or whatever at an Apple Store and get them to put a new battery in.
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I re placed the battery in my old iPhone 11 last year. If you are down to 75% it will decline pretty fast. Definitely time for a new battery.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Fri 29 Sep 23 at 08:57
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DIY Bobby, it's not tricky
Battery & tools around £10 eg
tinyurl.com/uapbn3fh
tinyurl.com/2a3aeu3s
Method www.youtube.com/watch?v=Feyqwf3cYtw
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 30 Sep 23 at 21:28
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>> DIY Bobby, it's not tricky
>>
>>
>> Battery & tools around £10 eg htinyurl.com/uapbn3fhhttps://tinyurl.com/2a3aeu3s
Linky, he no worky.
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>> Linky, he no worky.
Should be ok now.
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>> >> Linky, he no worky.
>>
>> Should be ok now.
>>
...it always was on my iPhone..... ;-)
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Watched the video, probably too footery for me!
There is also a local shop that will do it for £40 but obviously not a genuine iPhone battery but not sure I really need one of them!
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Footery, something that is awkward or difficult.
(I had to look it up)
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Bobby can be our resident Susie Dent
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Ha ha impressed that had a dictionary definition!
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>> Ha ha impressed that had a dictionary definition!
Scottish usage according to my dictionary.
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Can someone tell me what an iphone can do that my free of charge £7 a month Nokia can't?
I'm not sneering at them, I genuinely don't know.
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Sync with my iPad and Apple Watch and iCloud seamlessly?
Use Apple Pay on my Apple Watch
Back up and restore to a new phone Simply by sitting 2 phones side by side?
Share wifi passwords by pressing a button.
Be worth much more after a year / 2, years etc
Get updates by the manufacturer as and when they are available (my frustration years ago with android was there were new updates but it very much depended on phone make and network when each user actually got the update)
All probably irrelevant if you use your phone to send texts and make calls. Not sure my iPhone can do that…..:)
Seriously, years ago I moved from android (Sony Xperia) to iPhone and never looked back. Was chalk n cheese the difference. Difference to android is probably very little now but I have been Applified and there I will stay!
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>> Can someone tell me what an iphone can do that my free of charge £7
>> a month Nokia can't?
>>
>> I'm not sneering at them, I genuinely don't know.
Stream video to a tele, take superb photos (and edit them with magic features), high quality video, watch hi res youtube and so on and so on.....
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I’ve been using iPhones and iPads pretty much since they first became available. Rightly or wrongly.
I know nothing about the tech and I’m certain that my current one can do way more than I’ll ever need it to.
All I can say is that they have all worked faultlessly. The one I’m typing on now is about 3 years old I think, no idea what model it is, but it was apparently new then. My iPad however, is ancient in so far as I think it was one of the first ones produced. Still working perfectly and in daily use mainly as portable document storage. I treat it as a sort of electronic briefcase.
Wouldn’t hesitate to replace either with newer versions if required.
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>> Can someone tell me what an iphone can do that my free of charge £7
>> a month Nokia can't?
Bloke in pub has 20+ year old Nokia 3020 and swears blind it can do one thing an iphone cannot.
Debate gets heated and a bet, worth the price of an iphone, is entered into.
Nokia man hurls his phone against a wall; it still works....
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I buy refurbed Samsungs, usually pay 100-150 quid a go. Get quite a few years out of each one. I don't think I've used an iphone let alone bought one.
The phone technology stuff passes me by.
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Fair enough on the iphones, but none of the stuff you can do would be of particular interest to me.
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I don't think there is much between high end Android and Apple these days, in terms of capability. I think Apple are still the more expensive aren't they?
But as ROR implies, it depends really how much you need the expensive high end features. For many the answer is not a lot.
I tend towards mid range Androids and they suit me well. I don't have to worry about high resale value as they haven't cost me so much in the first place. I guess you have to sweat an Apple a bit more before deciding to take the plunge on a new phone. I can't really remember the last one which I kept for 3 years, as per Humphs post.
I haven't tried backing on up to another side by side as I've never needed to, though SWNBOs recent-is replacement was a comparative breeze to get it looking like her previous one.
My phone syncs where I need it to. I don't do wearables like watches but I'm sure if I did then it would sync to them too. I can cast my screen to a tv. My happy snaps and videos are of totally adequate quality, I can show a QR code for someone to scan to share a network (how often does one need that tough?). I'm not really that bothered by having the latest Android version but Apple determine when you get your update, just as the Android phone manufacturers do.
As I said, there's not much between them (well, mine only cost £190 with 256Gb onboard memory - I guess an iPhone would have been multiples of that). Technically it stacks up against an iPhone 11 quite well www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=10415&idPhone2=9848
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Z
I have only ever upgraded Moto to Moto which comes with an app that transfers all Apps and personal info with very little intervention. is it this simple if moving everything to a Pixel?
Several reviews of the Pixel7(a) seem to think that it is not much of an improvement on the 6, is this your view?
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I've a Poco X3 Pro, very similar. 8MB/256GB. Cost c. £200 just over 2 years ago.
The best phone I've ever had. I've had no luck with Sony, they seem to be fragile. The Poco is in a bumper case and has been dropped several times without damage.
Since 2012 I've had an iPhone 4S, a Windows phone (good but obsoleted when MS pulled out of phones), Sony, Huawei (also OK but retired when battery life shortened) and then the Xiaomi Poco which taught me there's little benefit in paying £500+ for a phone. Prices seem to have gone up a bit but £200-£250 should get something decent i.e. not painfully slow and with enough space for lots of apps and photos (and/or possibly expandability via micro SD).
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I've had the 8/256 X3 Pro for a couple of years as well. Cost me about £160 from Switzerland. It's a peach of a phone - fast, decent display and, like yours, has been dropped a few times with no ill effects.
The WiFi range is also damn good. Sat on a Greek beach recently I could pick up a nearby taverna's free Wifi when my Samsung tablet and other beachgoers phones couldn't.
Mrs K. has the X5 Pro and she's chuffed with that too.
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I got a 256Gb Poco X3 NFC at about the same time as Manatee and it has been brilliant, and a great spec for the money.
In fact it had a wobble a couple of weeks ago so I've been causally looking for what I might replace it with, and there is nothing in a similar price range (actually up to £300 and beyond) which technically comes near it on paper.
This morning I found the Samsung A34 which can be had for a bi over £300 with 256Gb (I've not yet got far on price tracking) and while the spec isn't quit as good it ticks most of my boxes.
However before coming away to Portugal I ordered a new battery for the X3 (under a tenner IIRC) which should arrive about he same time as I arrive home in early Nov, and I'm really hoping that will give me at least another year of the Poco.
EDIT the four things I look for are 256Gb, long battery life, SD card slot and headphone jack. I can compromise on the latter two and also could get by with a 128Gb so long as it had an SD slot. I think I already ruled out the X5 Pro on that basis, or maybe it was on price.
Last edited by: smokie on Mon 2 Oct 23 at 14:44
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Mobile Phones - CGNorwich
