[Paul B]

ASUS Zenfone?

I could swap with my Dad and I'd imagine he'd never notice...(although he'd demanding 4G on his new network for his whopping 510mb of data allowance).

[Grubes]

okay so thanks to a lovely individual who decided to take a phone out of my pocket at the gig last night I am in the market for a new phone.

needs to have 4g lollipop, bought direct not as part of a contract, okay camera preferably and 32gb storage 16gb is acceptable.
Budget <£150 but can stretch to £200.

A nexus 6 is a fantastic phone that works brilliantly. Only issue is its pretty pricey (why I am not buying another one) and a little big.

[tomtom]

okay so thanks to a lovely individual who decided to take a phone out of my pocket at the gig last night I am in the market for a new phone.

needs to have 4g lollipop, bought direct not as part of a contract, okay camera preferably and 32gb storage 16gb is acceptable.
Budget <£150 but can stretch to £200.

A nexus 6 is a fantastic phone that works brilliantly. Only issue is its pretty pricey (why I am not buying another one) and a little big.

Theres an article on cheap smartphones on the BBC news site atm..

[Grubes]

I read that what I took away way basically it said dont bother paying less than £125 or they are shit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33757083

I can get a 16gb Moto G 3d gen for £210 from motorolas website. Which Ian recommends on the last page. Still hapy with it Nai?

[nai]

Yes very happy, but £210?  Mine was £140 or so a few months back.  This generation of moto g takes an SD card so you can boost your storage that way rather than relying solely on internal

[Fultonius]

I read that what I took away way basically it said dont bother paying less than £125 or they are shit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33757083

I can get a 16gb Moto G 3d gen for £210 from motorolas website. Which Ian recommends on the last page. Still hapy with it Nai?

I've got one arriving today and it was £119 http://www.rakuten.co.uk/shop/mobileshopisland/product/motog4gblack/  (seems to have gone up to £125 now)

[Paul B]

Is the camera still rubbish?

[Fultonius]

Apparently it is, but I never use a mobile a camera anyway so for me I'd rather save a few fuckalls. Water resistance and gorillaglass were higher priorities.

The s5 mini is basically the same phone with a better camera and at least £70 more (from dodgy looking sites, probably more like £100 more).

[nai]

Camera's a bit better than it was on the older model, in good light for static subjects it works fine. It's improved in poor light but still not great and the zoom is still poor. The pan function works ok although it does produce some comedy results at times. Basically it's ok for taking snaps.  Not sure whether paying the extra money you'd spend on a compact would get you the same features and quality?

[nai]

Actually, just realised I have the 2nd generation model, XT-1068, which is the one Fultonius has linked to.  I bought it just as the 3rd gen was released and hence the price dropped. 

[Fultonius]

It just arrived and so far so good.

I had thought about getting the moto E as this review was pretty clear:  http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/android-smartphones/new-moto-g-4g-2015-review-battery-3605165/

But that was based on a £60 price differential whereas just now the price differential is only £10 so less clear cut. 

[Paul B]

My better half constantly complains about the photos she gets from the Moto G (original) and given they're 8GB none expandable 3G versions they're getting out of date anyway.

With that in mind I was thinking of purchasing (a second hand) replacement as an Xmas present. It's pointless spending huge money here (~£150) as the phone gets taken to construction sites, left unattended a fair amount and if it's really high value I doubt it'll last too long.

We're completely Android in the household but I was considering going for a refurbed iPhone 5C (plastic screen I hope?).

Can anyone suggest a viable Android alternative?

Will Chromecast (regular and audio) support be built into iOS apps such as TuneIn and iplayer?

[Duma]

Sony do nice cameras - second hand z3 compact may be doable on that budget?

[tomtom]

5C is glass screen. Thin glass covers for the screen (Rather than plastic) are really good nowadays.. But equivalent android ££ seem better value...

[sxrxg]

Have you considered a Chinese phone? You can get a lot of android phone for your money.

Some options that I am currently considering and you may want to look at:

LeTv 1s
Xiaomi Note 2/Note 3
Xiaomi Mi4c
Bluboo Xtouch

Generally amazing performance for the money, just make sure that you read some reviews and make sure that it has the 4g bands you require for your network (lots of models do not have band 20 - 800mhz that is required for o2 and vodafone). Also I bought my last phone from a supplier with an EU warehouse so that you avoid potential customs/VAT charges and the delivery doesn't take a month like it does if dispatched from China.

[Paul B]

Not really as I'm more drawn to the 'Just Works' side of things than having custom ROMS on phones which may or may not have their own Android UI.

[Stu Littlefair]

Chromecast is supported on iOS in the iplayer apps, BBC sport, tune in radio, Vimeo and YouTube.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TobyD]

We're completely Android in the household but I was considering going for a refurbed iPhone 5C (plastic screen I hope?).

Can anyone suggest a viable Android alternative?

Nexus 5?

[slackline]

Moto G 3rd Gen (has expandable storage so chuck a 128Gb microSD in for music/pictures).

Very close to AOSP (i.e. Stock) ROM, splash resistant, can even choose pretty colours and can be engraved (oooooh!). 8Gb weighs in at £159.

[Paul B]

Chromecast is supported on iOS in the iplayer apps, BBC sport, tune in radio, Vimeo and YouTube.

Cheers Stu, have you changed your BT unit to a CC audio yet?

Toby - Nexus 5 was the only idea I've had. Do you have one (do you like the camera etc.)?

Slackers - The camera would have to be a big improvement over the original as it's really poor. Expandable storage is a big plus the way apps seem to swell currently.

If I were to be looking at the 5c, can anyone point to a reputable source for buying used or do I need to take my chances on ebay?

[slackline]

Slackers - The camera would have to be a big improvement over the original as it's really poor. Expandable storage is a big plus the way apps seem to swell currently.

You might be able to find even more detail on the two to compare, but I'm lazy so from Wikipedia on specification...

Rear camera    5 MP, 3.5mm focal length, f/2.4 aperture with LED flash and Touch Focus

Rear camera    13 MP, f2.0 aperture, dual CCT dual tone flash, 1080p video recording @ 30fps, and slow motion recording

Emailed you some samples to look at.

[duncan]

Whilst we're on the subject, what would be the android equivalent to an iphone 6?

I've had it with Apple's 'our way or the highway' approach, particularly with respect to managing music.

c.5" screen, excellent camera, decent sound quality are priorities.

[slackline]

Samsung 5/6
Moto Play X
LG4
Sony Xperia Z3
Nexus 6
HTC One M9

Wouldn't bother with the OnePlus2 myself as its specification in comparison to those is poor. 

I doubt anyone here will have tried all of these to give you a balanced opinion/comparison.

TechRadar : 10 Best Android Phones

[chris j]

Toby - Nexus 5 was the only idea I've had. Do you have one (do you like the camera etc.)?

I bought a 32Gb nexus 5 last month as a replacement for my Moto G (~£250 off Amazon I think) after not being overly impressed by reviews of the latest Moto G and reading lots and lots of reviews of mid-range phones which all seemed much the same and bigger than I wanted.

The camera is the only weak point on  the phone for me - takes perhaps a second or more to take a picture after you hit the shutter so I have lots of blurred pictures of our nipper. Otherwise stock android 6 (upgraded itself as soon as I took it out of the box and connected to wifi) which is great.

I wasn't keen on messing around with SD cards - I spent a lot of time installing cyanogen on my old Moto G and then figuring out how to move app data to the SD card, 32GB internal storage is plenty for me for the time being. As a point of reference for performance it plays real racing 3 fine in lower graphics settings, starts to stutter when the rear view mirrors come into play in the higher settings.

HTH

[TobyD]

Chromecast is supported on iOS in the iplayer apps, BBC sport, tune in radio, Vimeo and YouTube.

Toby - Nexus 5 was the only idea I've had. Do you have one (do you like the camera etc.)?

Yes I have one, i really like it. The camera is decent, its fast, good screen etc. The only drawback for me is very little memory; so its amazing with wifi / good 4g but less so without.