Androids, Everybody needs good Androids - The Bear and Badger

hunk

1+ or Xiaomi are my first picks. Can't beat the bang for buck and quality factor. Custom rom supported too.

[Deleted User]

Aye, the Chinese are justifiably proud of those phones. Great value for money and few, if any, corners cut.

hunk

So my android phone just died after 4.5 years. The battery seems to be the culprit and needs to be replaced.
Ordered a new one from aliexpress, hope it doesn't take too long.

No backup phone here anymore so I'm phoneless for a while.

Diluted Dante

What phone is it?

hunk

Xiaomi Mi3
Great phone, although it lacks 4g. It was released 5 years ago, same specs as a Nexus5 I believe but with a bigger battery. Battery was great till the last charge, no downclocking or slowdown whatsoever. Main thing that irritates me is why do manufacturers not have a battery health indicator built in? A heads up service warning before the battery is about to croak would be nice.

Might upgrade to newer hw later this year. It's probably either 1+ or Xiaomi again.

Diluted Dante

Ah, can't help with that then.

Apple are actually going to add one of those after the kick off about them fucking up peoples phones. I guess they don't so people will buy a replacement.

GooberTheHat

What apple did was actually pretty clever and a good thing for customers. Where they fucked up was making it a secret.

tigersgogrrr

I miss having a Windows phone. Might pick up a cheap Lumia 950 and throw my Android phone in the trash.

EDIT: Probably more that I miss Nokia's builds.

Diluted Dante

GooberTheHat wrote:

What apple did was actually pretty clever and a good thing for customers. Where they fucked up was making it a secret.

Clever would be an option to optimise.

WorKid

Really clever would be a user-changeable battery. And an SD card while we're there.

Hodge360

How would they make money??

Diluted Dante

User changeable batteries have a 6 month warranty. You have to buy a new one before your contract is up.

WorKid

You can only use Apple-approved electrons, pre-smoothed to deliver a great user experience. $100 a bucket.

hunk

Just replaced the busted battery of my 5 year old Xiaomi Mi3 manually.
What was once old is now new again!
Fuck me, this thing is fast even if I'm on a clean install. Still an excellent phone after all these years.

Removing the back cover and getting to the innards was a hassle but well worth it. Might even order some new back covers while I'm at it. And to think a new battery replacement is only just a tenner...

GooberTheHat

Did you need to use the heat gun and all that gubbins?

AJ

Been trying to decide whether to replace my battery or upgrade recently. Bit scared because the phone's getting pretty old and I don't know if I'll be able to guarantee a good quality battery any more.

Plus, there's a couple of fairly decent smaller (well, marginally smaller; fuck you phone industry) phones about at the moment, which are very tempting.

hunk

Nah, no glue as the back cover was all clamps. It's easier that way to switch to a different color back cover.
Phone isn't water resistant which in my case makes it easier to get to the battery.

I did have to remove a plastic dustcover which for some reason was glued to the camera module (why?)
I couldn't remove the dustcover completely for fear of busting the camera. Still, it was necessary to lift it to get to the ribbon cable connecting the battery to the motherboard. Removed old battery, snapped the new one in place, fastened connector to motherboard and phone was working again.

It's not hard but if you've never opened up a pc or something similar it can be quite daunting. Was worth it though.
Might still upgrade to new hw later this year, 16gb is a bit meagre nowadays.

AJ

I would imagine that's not a dust cover on the camera module, but an anti-static type sheet to prevent interference. If you'd removed it, you'd probably get slightly grainier photos.

Kow

GF wants new phone. What would be the recommendation between mid range Samsung (J5 etc), a similarly priced Xiaomi and Huwaei? All around the 200 - 250€ mark.

hunk

@AJ
Probably, but did they really have to glue it all together?
If they made the cover removable it would be so much easier to get to the battery and innards of the hw,
Would improve repairability no end.

AJ

Kow wrote:

GF wants new phone. What would be the recommendation between mid range Samsung (J5 etc), a similarly priced Xiaomi and Huwaei? All around the 200 - 250€ mark.

One of the Chinese ones; the buttons on Samsung phones are back to front. If she's left handed, she might prefer that, though.

hunk wrote:

@AJ Probably, but did they really have to glue it all together? If they made the cover removable it would be much easier to get to the battery and innards of the hw, Would improve repairability no end.

True. It's odd to have an easily removable back but then make the battery hard to get out.

hunk

Kow wrote:

GF wants new phone. What would be the recommendation between mid range Samsung (J5 etc), a similarly priced Xiaomi and Huwaei? All around the 200 - 250€ mark.

https://www.ibuygou.com/p-xiaomi-mi-a1-5-5-inch-smartphone-android-one-dual-rear-12-0mp-cam-snapdragon-625-4gb-64gb-ir-remote-control-full-metal-body-9991.html

AJ

I don't suppose any of the decent Chinese manufacturers do anything sub-5"?

Kow

Yeah, that's one of the ones I've been eyeing. Never had a Xiaomi though, so I don't know.

hunk

Fwiw, I don't think I could ever return to a screen smaller than 5". Played around and updated the mother in law's iPhone5 and its 4" screen is unworkably tiny. Phone works fine except for a dodgy power button.

AJ

I tried a workmate's iPhone 5 recently and actually found it very slightly too big.

I'm constantly struggling with my 5" screen and would have totally grabbed that 2.5" one that's kicking about, had it not turned out the battery life is an actual turd, you can't get any bigger ones and they won't even ship a backup one to the UK.

It saddens me that the smallest phone worth getting is 4.6".

hunk

The Sony Xperia XZ1 compact might be your thing.
Hi end specs in a tiny 4.6" formfactor.

AJ

Yeah, that's my ideal phone at the moment, it's just a little outside what I'm comfortable paying for one. The only other alternative is the Galaxy A3, but I don't like Samsungs and I've heard reports that it might be a little underpowered.

I'd sacrifice the performance to get something like this but, as I said, the battery's a piece of shit. Maybe I'll try it anyway, I tend to have GPS etc. turned off must the time, so maybe it'll last me a day.

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Diluted Dante

My phone is 6.4". It's great.

hunk

I'll happily move to 6-7 inch as long as it fits into current form factors. Bigger screen = better user experience.

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