Brain spasms hours looking at what to buy HELP!!

[vidtek]

I have been searching for a long while and after a time the specs. and 'phones all meld into a homogeneous pile in my head.
Please help me sort out my wants/desires and needs too.

Must haves:

Budget: £ 120-£180

Display: 5,5.5 or even 6", 1080p would be nice 2-4k probably over my budget

Battery must be removable-control freak here. I don't play games so battery life not a major concern.

Speaker/Sound: Must be VERY loud, I don't believe them but they say I'm a bit deaf so miss a lot of calls.

Rootable : I said I was a control freak. ability to remove bloatware crap

3/4G for Virgin UK

Bluetooth. at least 4. to connect to my smartwatch

GPS: essential

Desires/wants:

Camera: quick action one touch would be nice as I take a lot of shots of my growing granddaughter and family.

Wireless: a,b,g,n, and ac 2 and 5ghz bands

Infrared, G-sensor, Light Sensor ,Proximity Sensor ,Hall Effect Sensor, NFC, HDMI

I'm pretty tech-savvy for an old-un I've done IT support for major companies, I use Linux on my computers.

Tony.

[deanlee121]

Elephone P8000 good phone [/align]

[WuddaWaste]

Hey Tony! Welcome to the forums!


For quick reference and to help others glean recommendations, I believe the following is true. I gathered it from a few different sites.
Virgin UK 2G: 900/1800 MHz
Virgin UK 3G: 2100 MHz
Virgin UK 4G: 800/1800/2600 MHz

As far as your list is concerned, I'm pretty certain there are quite a few phones that will fit the "must have" marks easily. The only tough one I see is "NFC" and maybe "HDMI". A lot of budget phones tend to drop NFC capabilities. HDMI is something that requires a special cable and adapter from the phone, so it's something I've never really tested or cared about (I recommend screencasting to a chromecast or similar).

[deanlee121]

Let's us all know what phone you go for when you do I use tcl m2u good phone 4g on three UK

[vidtek]

Elephone P8000 good phone [/align]

I have looked at the elephone, particularly the newish Power. There have been some bad reviews re the build quality with some of the elehones, so I discounted them. Following your suggestion I'll take another look.

Maybe there is just too much choice out there....my old brain is slowly recovering!
Thank you.

Tony.

---

Hey Tony! Welcome to the forums!


For quick reference and to help others glean recommendations, I believe the following is true. I gathered it from a few different sites.
Virgin UK 2G: 900/1800 MHz
Virgin UK 3G: 2100 MHz
Virgin UK 4G: 800/1800/2600 MHz

As far as your list is concerned, I'm pretty certain there are quite a few phones that will fit the "must have" marks easily. The only tough one I see is "NFC" and maybe "HDMI". A lot of budget phones tend to drop NFC capabilities. HDMI is something that requires a special cable and adapter from the phone, so it's something I've never really tested or cared about (I recommend screencasting to a chromecast or similar).

Hey WW-

Thanks for the detailed reply, regarding HDMI I just can't help it-I always prefer a cable connection to all the flaky wireless solutions that sort of half work.
I even whip the back off my S3 and remove the F/T card and whack it in the computer's reader when transferring piccies or video from it. I can do that and have them over in a tenth of the time it takes me to set up a connection, authorise the file permissions and start transferring them over via the airwaves.

I have peered through the specs. of dozens of phones, and there is always something missing, many of them are just perfect except for that one thing, it seems no manufacturer has got it 100% right for me.
The Asus Zenfone2 looked perfect-then I realized it didn't have a removable battery. The Lenovo Vibe P1 is the same.
Maybe I'll have to suck it up and just accept a non-removable battery.

Cheers, Tony.

---

Let's us all know what phone you go for when you do I use tcl m2u good phone 4g on three UK

Deanlee-

Just goes to show you - I confused Elephone with Ulephone silly old fart.

Tony

[DirKNirK]

Take a look at Lenovo K3 Note too. Hits most of the things on your list there. If you can accept the non-removable as you said, the Xiaomi Note 3, but can't upgrade storage with that one.

[vidtek]

Take a look at Lenovo K3 Note too. Hits most of the things on your list there. If you can accept the non-removable as you said, the Xiaomi Note 3, but can't upgrade storage with that one.

DirkNirk-
Had a look at that but it doesn't really inspire me, so-so.

I came across this one and if I accept the battery non-removable it ticks everything else and is cheap too. £126.82 at Banggood
UMI IRON Pro 5.5 Inch 3GB RAM MT6753 64Bit Octa-core 1.3GHz 4G Smartphone

Tony

[deanlee121]

Take a look at Lenovo K3 Note too. Hits most of the things on your list there. If you can accept the non-removable as you said, the Xiaomi Note 3, but can't upgrade storage with that one.

DirkNirk-
Had a look at that but it doesn't really inspire me, so-so.

I came across this one and if I accept the battery non-removable it ticks everything else and is cheap too. £126.82 at Banggood
UMI IRON Pro 5.5 Inch 3GB RAM MT6753 64Bit Octa-core 1.3GHz 4G Smartphone

Tony

Hey tony its funny that I was going to tell you of the UMI IRON good phone thats the phone I love next

[vidtek]

Take a look at Lenovo K3 Note too. Hits most of the things on your list there. If you can accept the non-removable as you said, the Xiaomi Note 3, but can't upgrade storage with that one.

DirkNirk-
Had a look at that but it doesn't really inspire me, so-so.

I came across this one and if I accept the battery non-removable it ticks everything else and is cheap too. £126.82 at Banggood
UMI IRON Pro 5.5 Inch 3GB RAM MT6753 64Bit Octa-core 1.3GHz 4G Smartphone

Tony

Hey tony its funny that I was going to tell you of the UMI IRON good phone thats the phone I love next

Deanlee-

Yes it looks very impressive, I can live without AC wi-fi, but not so sure about the lack of AGPS, GLONASS with the GPS.

So, it's between the UMI, Ulephone Power and the Elephone Vowney.
Anyone any comments?
Tony

[deanlee121]

the UMI, Ulephone Power comes android 4.4 but the 64bit cpu so you will need android 5.0 to for 64bit ios

---

DirkNirk-
Had a look at that but it doesn't really inspire me, so-so.

I came across this one and if I accept the battery non-removable it ticks everything else and is cheap too. £126.82 at Banggood
UMI IRON Pro 5.5 Inch 3GB RAM MT6753 64Bit Octa-core 1.3GHz 4G Smartphone

Tony

Hey tony its funny that I was going to tell you of the UMI IRON good phone thats the phone I love next

Deanlee-

Yes it looks very impressive, I can live without AC wi-fi, but not so sure about the lack of AGPS, GLONASS with the GPS.

So, it's between the UMI, Ulephone Power and the Elephone Vowney.
Anyone any comments?
Tony

Elephone Vowney now that's a good phone 2k screen 4gb ram