
Ask HN: Cheap but decent quality Android smartphone? - tixocloud
Looking to purchase phones that are being used by customers on a rental basis.
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manvsmachine
Moto G4 or G5 (when the 5 comes out). The Moto G pretty much invented the
category of inexpensive, solid performing phones with a non-tampered-with
Android experience.

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lurker_primo
Please note that Moto G4 doesn't have the compass. That means Google Maps is
not as accurate. I've had problems with inaccurate location(or current
location jumps around) on Maps when I'm in situations where there is a mix of
stop and go, and freeway traffic. I didn't have this issue with Nexus 5 which
has a compass. (It could be an issue with Moto's GPS receiver too)

~~~
tixocloud
Urgh. Looked at the price and thought I could make it work until I read this.

How bad is the accuracy of Google Maps?

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lurker_primo
It is accurate most of the time. Sometimes, it puts your location at a place
that is impossible to get into. Assume you are traveling on a freeway. If you
suddenly get into a stop and go traffic, it assumes you have got onto a
surface street near the freeway - either redirecting you back onto the
freeway, or reroutes you to a completely different route. It confuses you if
you aren't paying attention to your location.

~~~
tixocloud
Thanks. It's difficult to judge unless I actually test it out - I'm in the
market for handsets to be able to rent/give it out as part of a broader
business solution but I'd hate if the end users end up having a terrible
experience.

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WheelsAtLarge
I use a LG Optimus Zone 3 - black - 4G LTE - 8 GB - CDMA - smartphone. It's a
good basic phone. I bought it for about $10.00. It's hard to beat.

Overall it's a good basic phone, apps run at an acceptable speed. I can run
the major apps. The screen is large enough but not too large to get in the
way. The camera is very basic but it does the job.

I don't play games so I can't speak to that. The biggest draw back is the
amount of memory available for apps. It's very low. I only keep a 2 or 3 of
the major apps at one time. You can't beat it for the price. Specially since I
could probably buy 30 of these phones and still be below the price of some of
the expensive popular android models.

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beagle3
Where do you get it for $10? Amazon sells it for $40, verizon for $70

~~~
WheelsAtLarge
I looked at my invoice from Best Buy and it was $9.99. I guess it was on sale
but even at $40.00 it's not a bad deal.

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ValentineC
Are phones sold at such cheap prices carrier-locked?

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WheelsAtLarge
Yes, but in my case I am a Verizon customer so it does not matter. I've read
that they will unlock it after a year of service.

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gaspoweredcat
Lenovo P2 a damn fine device all round that packs one real killer feature, the
best battery life you will see on a smartphone. its combination of the
snapdragon 625 chip and gargantuan 5100mah battery have seen me through 4 days
of my normal usage (around 11-12 hours SOT)

not only does it pack solid battery life but its a generally nice device, 4gb
ram, an AMOLED screen, dual sims (or a sim and microsd) running a pretty close
to stock android (recently updated to android N)

im from the UK so prices will be in GBP here, im not sure how they translate
to the US but the phone can be had on contract for £20 a month or £199.99 on
pay as you go from Three (Unlocked)

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Malarius
Wiko, has pretty solid products in the range 80-200€.

[http://world.wikomobile.com/p-wiko-new-
products](http://world.wikomobile.com/p-wiko-new-products)

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thorin
If you are in the uk I've had a good experience with wiley fox phones. Have a
look on their website and on amazon.

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atmosx
I have a Elephone P9000 it is decent but has flaws and for one it is not half
as smooth as a half-powered iPhone 5S but does the job and I enjoy the extra
disk space and the clear, huge screen, playing HD videos.

I bought it online at 200 bucks, not sure if its cheap or not. Was cheap
compared to my previous mobile, the iPhone 6S

~~~
gaspoweredcat
i had a p9000 and was reasonably impressed too, while maybe not the best
battery life and its fingerprint reader was somewhat inaccurate for the price
it was a generally good phone (not a patch on the lenovo p2 that replaced it
for the same amount of cash though)

Mine started having issues though, very random ones too and no matter what i
did software wise i couldnt seem to fix it, eventually i noticed why, although
it had seemed to survive my motorcycle crash it was in fact bent like a
banana!

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jseliger
Anandtech has got you covered: [http://www.anandtech.com/show/9770/best-
android-phones](http://www.anandtech.com/show/9770/best-android-phones)

~~~
bussierem
$600, "High end", $450, followed by "We have no suggestions for a budget
category in the US right now"

OP specifically asked for "cheap" phones. This article doesn't seem to give
him any good options.

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xeromal
I tend to use this site when making recommendations.

[https://www.stockdroids.com/](https://www.stockdroids.com/)

I believe this was posted to hackernews a few months back.

~~~
bussierem
> Limit size to 4.7" screen (size of my iPhone 6s)

> Most recent releases that aren't made by CAT are in 2015

Seriously, why can I not find a good REASONABLY sized phone?!

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Fej
Define "cheap".

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tixocloud
Was looking at about $100 max.

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el_isma
Xiaomi redmi, all the models, according to your budget.

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tixocloud
Has anyone heard of InFocus phones? We were able to rent these in Hong Kong
but I've never heard of them before.

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maxerickson
Get at least 16 GB, people will complain a lot when 8 isn't enough.

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krbotmario
I agree

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imauld
Samsung Galaxy J7

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Indronil
xaiomi has a lot of low cost amazing phones

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Indronil
note 4, redmi 3s , I have a redmi 2 prime for almost over a year now its
amazing

