Cheap chinese smartphones

[DerbyBorn]

Any views? I don't need a status symbol but my Nokia 1616 is embarrassing my family. Saw a DooGee that seemed to have a good spec.

[Graham.]

Seems as good a place as any to post this.

[ss]

Ha Ha I still use the original 3310, looks like I will be bang in fashion again :-) Hang on to anything long enough and will go full circle

[Davey]

I don't know what a Nokia 1616 is, I assume some kind of mobile 'phone, but if your family is embarrassed by it, that's their problem, not yours.

[Bill]

In message , DerbyBorn writes

I think they can be excellent or very, very bad.

I have a THL T6C Android 6, cost just under ?40 from ebay, which seems excellent. A Medion from Aldi, which seems to be made by Lenovo, was on offer at ?49.95. Has 16GB rather than 8 of the THL, also excellent.

I use these 2 in the cars.

A Cubot, bought s/h for my wife, seems nice now I have sorted out the weird way it started up in an app. She has it and tries it from time to time but still prefers her old simple clamshell phone.

A Lumia Windows 8.1 mobile phone is actually really nice, far, far better than Windows 8.1 on a PC. They go for little money now. Shame about the lack of useful apps.

A "Timmy" Chinese phone with one rotating camera would be excellent if only the registration of the screen were accurate. I have not found any way of calibrating the screen so that the letter you hit is the one that appears on the screen. Another older Chinese phone's battery swelled until the back was dislodged. No-one locally could supply a replacement battery and they all looked scared when shown it. The phone won't do anything without the battery.

For day to day phoning, I usually use a s/h Blackberry Z10, which can be set up to run many Android apps. I really like it, but battery life is a problem.

[F Murtz]

Huewei and some made by Huewei IE Honor would be a good place to start (although they may spy on you :) )

[Thomas Prufer]

There's a Blackview in the family, a waterproof shockproof outdoor one. I think it's a 5000...

Pro: Battery life is excellent, several days if cautious, more than one if doing all the smartphone stuff. It allows charging other stuff from its own batttery, that is, it can be used as a power bank.

Con: The glass display cracked from a low drop on a hard surface, which it should not have, given the specs.

Thomas Prufer, who still uses a Nokia 1200.

[Brian Gaff]

I think the new ones have an updated modem so the will work on 3G as 2G is due to be switched off in a couple of years or so I'm led to believe. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

I'm going to have to get a new phone as my Owasys phone for the blind is falling to pieces and its no longer made. I suppose a cheap Android with a decent camera and Talkback and knfb reader will mean its a phone, and a paper print reader as well, which will be very handy as long as hand written letters do not make a come back. Brian

[Huge]

[31 lines snipped]

In what way? Providing you switch off "Location Services" and only turn on WiFi when you want it, my Z10 will go 2 days without a charge.

[pamela]

I also know someone who still uses a Nokia 3310 but the battery life is awful and it weighs a ton.

I much prefer the Nokia 6210 which was around the same time. A real classic.

[Max Demian]

How long will it go if you do charge it?

(Update of old clock/watch gag.)

[Max Demian]

I was looking at this one from Argos:

It's the 5" Alcatel PIXI 4, £39.99 with a PAYG Virgin SIM (locked to Virgin and you have to buy £10 airtime). (They were selling it for £29.99 before Christmas.)

The reviews say it's fairly good, but the camera doesn't seem to have autofocus, so I might have problems with QR codes (or snapping my lunch).

[DerbyBorn]

Mine:

[Woody]

Saw a used one yesterday in good nick for ?52!!

Probably still the best business (non-smart) phone ever made.

[Tim+]

Nah. That was the 6310i. ;-)

Tim

[Woody]

Sorry, I misread the link. Yes, 6310i was the best without a shadow of a doubt.

[Bill]

Admittedly I leave wifi on all the time, but both the phone and the external "Power Bank" that uses the same battery give just about one day per charge. They used to be better but I'm loathe to invest in another battery in case they were all made at the same time and have all deteriorated to the same extent. Both the THL and the Medion do about 3 days, which was the reason that I bought them ( well tbh, I'm a sucker for the Aldi remainder bin and saw the better Medion the day after I ordered the THL).

[ARW]

I need a card reader. I want to know what is on the 32Mb card I have just found in my old Nokia 6230.

[R D S]

I've had a Redmi 3s for a few months and very happy with it.