[Paul B]

Sorry, me again 

Any opinions on the Honor 10 Lite vs. the Moto G7 Power?

5000mAh battery and USB type C swings me slightly towards the Motorola (I've had the original through to the G4 so it's also a familiar format).

[sxrxg]

G7 power has a large battery life however the specs don't seem that great with a 720p screen and 632 snapdragon, single camera, etc. These will give better battery performance however will impact upon the phones day to day performance.

With regards to battery life almost all phones will last a full day of use and with powerbanks being so cheap i'm not sure having such a large battery is critical (obviously this will depend on your usage patterns). As this is the case i would be tempted to get a better specification of phone than the G7 unless the battery life is the most critical aspect of performance for you.

What is your budget? Happy to make some other suggestions once this is known.

[Paul B]

Budget is a funny one in that work said they'd pay without defining a budget (it's a small firm). I'd like to keep it <£200.

I've always managed quite well with the Moto series of phones but the G4 was a disappointment (always a bit slow and the battery life seemed poor).

I'll be buying a whopping battery for my summer climbing trip so that'd be fine for work trips to London etc. (infrequent).

Edit: I'm a bit picky with camera outputs; overly processed HDR stuff etc. 

[sxrxg]

If you can stretch the budget slightly the Xiaomi Mi 9 SE is a bargain https://www.eglobalcentraluk.com/xiaomi-mi-9-se-6gb-64gb-dual-sim-black.html#description. Slightly smaller screen however is AMOLED with in screen fingerprint scanner, snapdragon 712, triple camera, recently released so will get updated to android 9, dual band ac wifi, bluetooth 5.0, usb c, 18W fast charge.

If you want cheaper than the best cheap option would seem to currently be the Honor 10 lite https://www.eglobalcentraluk.com/huawei-honor-10-lite-3gb-32gb-dual-sim-sim-free-unlocked-black.html (can also be bought from amazon/John Lewis for £170) or if you want Android One software for quicker updates and a similar experience to your Moto Xiaomi do the Mi A2 https://www.eglobalcentraluk.com/xiaomi-mi-a2-dual-sim-4gb-64gb-black.html#specifications (can also be bought in the UK for £150ish).

[joel182]

I'm a big fan of Xiaomi phones - if you're willing to put general concerns about chinese phones aside

[kelvin]

Regarding the camera on the Honor phone - my girlfriend has the Honor 9 lite and the camera gives tremendously processed pictures if I'm honest. Otherwise it's a fantastic phone and I can only imagine the 10 is better. I say this as a G2 to current G4plus user.
I had thought to get a Honer 10 lite to replace it but I think the photos would bug me sadly.

[Paul B]

I had thought to get a Honer 10 lite to replace it but I think the photos would bug me sadly.

This is my worry. Nat has the 9 lite and I'm not convinced by the photos and the 'dump the icon anywhere' on the screen UI.

If you can stretch the budget slightly the Xiaomi Mi 9 SE is a bargain https://www.eglobalcentraluk.com/xiaomi-mi-9-se-6gb-64gb-dual-sim-black.html#description. Slightly smaller screen however is AMOLED with in screen fingerprint scanner, snapdragon 712, triple camera, recently released so will get updated to android 9, dual band ac wifi, bluetooth 5.0, usb c, 18W fast charge.

If you want cheaper than the best cheap option would seem to currently be the Honor 10 lite https://www.eglobalcentraluk.com/huawei-honor-10-lite-3gb-32gb-dual-sim-sim-free-unlocked-black.html (can also be bought from amazon/John Lewis for £170) or if you want Android One software for quicker updates and a similar experience to your Moto Xiaomi do the Mi A2 https://www.eglobalcentraluk.com/xiaomi-mi-a2-dual-sim-4gb-64gb-black.html#specifications (can also be bought in the UK for £150ish).

Good knowledge, thanks. Xiaomi Mi A2 seems to have an adapter to take a headphone jack, isn't that a massive PITA?

[sxrxg]

To avoid the 'dump the icon anywhere' you can just change the launcher to something like the Google Now Launcher that is available in the play store. Then you will only have to interact with the emui interface when you head I to the phone settings.

As for headphones this seems to be the way things are going with most high end phones opting for usb c and a dongle to give a 3.5mm jack. I think in the long run most people will switch over to Bluetooth headphones (could be a good excuse to buy yourself some 😉).

[Paul B]

I have some but the chances of me remembering them when I go to work etc. and not losing/damaging/constantly forgetting an adapter is low!

I'll probably stew on this long enough that the whole market will change again.

[tomtom]

I'll probably stew on this long enough that the whole market will change again.

:D

I wondered about the headphone jack thing - but it turns out I use the headphones so infrequently I've not yet had to take the adaptor out with me...

[sxrxg]

The mi A2 lite has a headphone port if that is a sticking point with the mi A2. Downsides are that the camera and processor are slightly worse and you only get micro usb not usb c.

[nik at work]

Moving back to the uk in the new year and need to sort a phone.

Is buy a handset and get a sim only deal the way to go?

Also thinking of switching from android to iPhone for a couple of reasons but... switching over whatsapp seems to be an issue. I definitely do not want to lose whatsapp messages, has anyone got round this? Or should I just stick with android?

Also don't need latest and greatest. Just phone that will do standard WhatsApp/internet/email/nav stuff. Relatively cheap, not massive and robust as important as anything else. Any recommendations either side of the apple android divide... and how much should I be paying?

[SamT]

Have a look at Currys/PC world outlet on Ebay.

Got my last 3 phones (wife/kids etc) from here.  Ex demo/stock/refurb/returns type stuff, but every one I've had has essentially looked brand spanking new and been about half price.

Just transferred all my dads Whatsapp messages over to a new phone.  Was a bit fiddly, but involved backing them up to google drive, then restoring from google drive to the new phone.  (actually, probably straight forward if you're not changing your gmail account/email address).

[nik at work]

Cheers i'll check that out.

I think the WhatsApp issue is specific to going android to iphone or iphone to android. Because android whatsapp backups to google drive and iphone backups to iCloud. And they can't talk to each other... the interweb suggests there are workarounds but wondering if anyone has actually done it.

[duncan]

My long-term strategy has been to buy whatever unlocked second-hand/reconditioned iPhone costs £200. Buying through a reputable reseller costs about £25 more for than one that could have been nicked. This usually gets you a phone 2/3 year off the cutting edge but still with ~4 years life before OS changes make it obsolete (unless you blow it up attempting a DIY battery change).  Two years ago  it was an SE from Tesco (seemed ‘as new’), currently looks like you’d get a 7 which is a perfectly fine thing. Factor in a couple of battery changes at £25 a go and one new screen at £40 (not yet, but I’ll likely break something) means it’ll cost me ~£75 a year over the 4 years.

Then look for whatever seems like a decent data deal. I chose 3 because they offered free roaming in the USA but there are better options if this is unimportant.

[nik at work]

Cheers Duncan that's just the kind of info I was after. Nice one 

Anybody got any insight on the android to iphone WhatsApp transition?

[SA Chris]

aye, #fuckapple stick with Android.

[nik at work]

Is looking like it could be the option I'll have to take...

Can't believe that migrating WhatsApp history between android and apple is such an issue. Where's my fucking jetpack etc etc

[remus]

Anybody got any insight on the android to iphone WhatsApp transition?

Can confirm it's a fucking nightmare. I'm usually pretty willing to spend a lot of time messing around trying to coerce technology in to doing what it should but gave up trying to transfer whatsapp messages from my partners iPhone to new android phone (slim chance it's easier the other way round?)

There's no official way of doing it and lots of crap instructions that don't work. I think there might be some paid apps that will do it for you but I didn't want to fork out cash so can't comment on whether they're any good. The solution I came across involved backing up the iPhone to your computer, extracting the whatsapp messages, fiddling with the format then trying to convince the new android phone to restore these messages as if they were a backup.

There is an option to extract all your messages as plain text so you have the basic contents of the messages available to read and not lost forever, but obviously you can't just browse them in whatsapp so it's a pretty shit half way solution.

[nik at work]

Guess I'm sticking with android then... 

[tomtom]

No ones blamed Facebook - I mean WhatsApp yet?

[nik at work]

I'm not in the blame game. I want solutions...


...or a jetpack.

[nik at work]

Or some android phone recommendations:
Relatively cheap
Compact
Robust
Reasonable camera
Decent built in memory

And a brief look at sim deals suggests giffgaff is the way to go. Any horror stories?

[nai]

Have a look at Plusnet SIMS, usually some some decent deals to be had.

https://www.plus.net/mobile/sim-only

Recently bought a Motorola moto g7 power for £160. Decent specs, 64gb, camera's ok. Piece of piss to transfer all data & apps, WhatsApp just a case of backing up on your old handset then importing the chats and media if you wish.
Very impressed for five weeks until I stood on it in the lid of my climbing sack and cracked the screen.

[tomtom]

My long-term strategy has been to buy whatever unlocked second-hand/reconditioned iPhone costs £200. Buying through a reputable reseller costs about £25 more for than one that could have been nicked. This usually gets you a phone 2/3 year off the cutting edge but still with ~4 years life before OS changes make it obsolete (unless you blow it up attempting a DIY battery change).  Two years ago  it was an SE from Tesco (seemed ‘as new’), currently looks like you’d get a 7 which is a perfectly fine thing. Factor in a couple of battery changes at £25 a go and one new screen at £40 (not yet, but I’ll likely break something) means it’ll cost me ~£75 a year over the 4 years.

Then look for whatever seems like a decent data deal. I chose 3 because they offered free roaming in the USA but there are better options if this is unimportant.

Thats sort of what I do - but buy the one year old just replaced near top Apple model... £600-700... and keep for 3-4 years. Works out about £150-200 a year including selling the old one at the end... Happier to pay a bit more for a fancier camera and better performance...

Always buy just after the new one has been announced..