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2016-07-30, 23:21
The thing is... For your needs, you don't need this powerful of a phone. Not even close. If you told me you planned on playing the best games at 60fps, okay maybe... Otherwise, not.
Your statement about good hardware with bad software or vice versa I find to be untrue. Most carefully chosen China phones and major brand phones are carrying fine hardware and software. It's been a long time since Galaxy S3. Nowadays even $150 MTK phones are very snappy.
Also, you're in the USA, so almost all China phones unless you go with American retail phones are not going to have 4G.
There's an exception, that's the Redmi Note 3 Pro which reportedly has 4G for T-Mobile on one band. http://www.chinaphonearena.com/forum/Thr...Mobile-LTE I can't confirm this, but a few people have.
Many China phones have 3G for T-Mobile and ATT though. Just look for 850 1900 WCDMA and you should have H and H+ which are quite fast.
Based on your criteria, I'd still recommend Redmi Note 3 Pro. It will be more than enough. It's the best value right now and has USA 3G, looks modern, strong components all around, and you might get lucky and find LTE working for you too. Plus you'll be saving $100.
There is one downside and that is that you may need to flash the Global MIUI ROM because they usually come with a ROM specially made for China shops to sell with English and Play Store. Not really a big deal, but if you want you can flash the Global. It's easy to do, especially if you have experience which you seem to have. The bootloader is unlockable too, just need to apply through Xiaomi. The Redmi Note 3 Pro has a lot of custom CM based ROMs for it too.
Your statement about good hardware with bad software or vice versa I find to be untrue. Most carefully chosen China phones and major brand phones are carrying fine hardware and software. It's been a long time since Galaxy S3. Nowadays even $150 MTK phones are very snappy.
Also, you're in the USA, so almost all China phones unless you go with American retail phones are not going to have 4G.
There's an exception, that's the Redmi Note 3 Pro which reportedly has 4G for T-Mobile on one band. http://www.chinaphonearena.com/forum/Thr...Mobile-LTE I can't confirm this, but a few people have.
Many China phones have 3G for T-Mobile and ATT though. Just look for 850 1900 WCDMA and you should have H and H+ which are quite fast.
Based on your criteria, I'd still recommend Redmi Note 3 Pro. It will be more than enough. It's the best value right now and has USA 3G, looks modern, strong components all around, and you might get lucky and find LTE working for you too. Plus you'll be saving $100.
There is one downside and that is that you may need to flash the Global MIUI ROM because they usually come with a ROM specially made for China shops to sell with English and Play Store. Not really a big deal, but if you want you can flash the Global. It's easy to do, especially if you have experience which you seem to have. The bootloader is unlockable too, just need to apply through Xiaomi. The Redmi Note 3 Pro has a lot of custom CM based ROMs for it too.