Help me pick a 250$ octacore

[dusty071]

My priorities are 1. power (strong cpu, ram, etc) 2. display size and quality of it 3. good gps receiver.
Phone would be used mostly for browsing the internet and playing games.

Im sorry i dont have much time to research since im busy studying at the moment but i kinda like Elephone P9 water. Its elegant design is also nice, no square edges like some phones.

The budget i guess would be around 250$. Im not in a rush, so if there are newer, better phones coming out in like 2 weeks i can definately wait. Thanks for your help if anyone responds.

[NexusTrix]

I recommending the Huawei 3c if in Europe or UK. That is not octa. It is mt6582, but 2GB ram and good quality. Big 2300ma battery for 5.0 incher. Huawei makes a great phone.

THL w200s Gizbeat just reviewed also is promising. Octa, but 1gb RAM. Really for smooth Android, 1GB RAM is okay.

[linr76]

there are really good buys for quad core phones right now,
have a look at MT6582 (newer generation quad core). like the Huawei for example that was mentioned already
since no apps support 8 cores and probably wont until some big manufacturer comes out with one in my personal opinion the octacores are a waste of money.
unless you absolutely need a full hd (1080p) screen you are far better off going for a good quad core.
if you still want to have an octacore just because you want an octacore do not buy one with 1GB, whats the point in having a stronger CPU when you cannot use it because of lack of memory?
one more plus for the quad is that they are a lot cheaper and you can stretch the time until Mediatek comes out with the big.LITTLE 64bit CPUs in Q3 this year. if they are made good (reviews will show) then that is definitely the way to go.
i deliberated a long time on this as well, in the end i went for an iNew V3 since in my opinion its the best package at the moment since it has little problems, performs well in real life and has top notch specs in pretty much everything.
i rather have a real good 720p than a mediocre 1080p and the only gripe i have is that it has only 1GB RAM.

also, if you do not need dual sim there are also very good phones out there with single sim (XIAOMI, MEIZU, OPPO etc)
please do tell what you decide on.
happy shopping!

[dusty071]

Im not sure how the quad cores are better since octacores score better on the benchmarks and are similar price but i trust your recommendation on MT6582.

Huawei honor 3c has 2g ram and seems really good, iNEW V3 is also popular but only 1g ram. I think i will go with Huawei but if anyone has a better idea i can still change my mind.

Again, thank you very much for you help.

[NexusTrix]

Linrj make some good points. But would disagree on a couple of them.

Absolutely Android can use 8 core. Android very well optimized for multi-core use. Including 8-core. Certainly couldn't be said that MT6582 is "better than" MT6592. simply not true.

The GPU in MT6592 is better as well. MT6592 at same resolution 720p as mt6582 720p will blow it's socks off.

Also, a 8-core phone with 2gb isn't necessarily going to offer better performance than a 8-core phone with 1gb.

That said, I still thinking Huawei is a good choice. What game will you play?

[dusty071]

I dont care how good the processor is in a specific game, i just want the most performance out of it and quality of the device. I want it to be fast when handling internet browsing and general Android performance and general gaming. If we put Huawei MTK6582 aside for a moment, which 250$ octacore would you recommend that is the best device at the moment. I dont care much about camera, just performance and quality.

You said you were going to be mainly gaming. Are going to be playing super mario bros. or the latest top 3d games?

there is no *best device*. and many will have some different opinions.

For best all around device in 5" at that price range, the Huawei 3c or THL w200s is what I recommend.

The W200s will be a better high gaming machine because of 720p and the 450 quad core gpu.

For everyday Android use, you will notice little difference if any.

[linr76]

yes yes, android is linux and can use 99999999 cores if you have them. no prob at all.
in real life that is absolutely useless and i will show you why:

you have Windows 7/8 64 bit installed on your laptop, 16GB ram and have a quad core i7 cpu and everything.
then you install an application. unfortunately this application is only 32bit (and most of them still are, especially games).
what does that mean? the application will most probably run on only 2 cores and have max 3GB of RAM available (and that is with tweaks already, normally it would be 2GB).
that is real life. as long as the application running does not take advantage (ie in programming) you gain nothing by adding more CPU cores.
furthermore Antutu et all are only numbers. take them with a grain of salt as they tell little to nothing about real life performance.
eg a high clock Celeron dual core will beat any ultra low voltage low clock i7 quad by a mile if the application is not optimized for multi core.

i never said that MT6582 is better than 6592. most definitely its the other way around, like you stated.
why? not because the 6592 has 8 cores but because each core is clocked higher (1.7GHz instead of 1.3) and the GPU is 4 cores instead of 2.
technically the two cpus are nearly identical (same manufacturing process with 28nm)

what i meant to say is that from price to performance perspective the MT6582 is the better choice ( if all other specs are nearly identical)
because a phone with top specs and quad core will cost you 160-200 USD and the same specs will cost you around 250-300USD with octacore.

as soon as the 64bit 4+4 (big.LITTLE) MTK CPUs will be out, noone will care about the "true octacore" anymore and you just wasted 50-140 USD.
that is of course MY opinion and everyone is entitled to have a different than mine.
i spent a lot of time going through all the options and this is what my thinking process was behind buying the iNew V3.

[NexusTrix]

Sorry linrj, you're wrong about performance only being better because the clock speed. Why not just have a single core cpu? You think single-core MTK cpu given all other aspects the same will perform same dual-core or quad-core, then it's time for you to go back to the drawing board. I use this to illustrate a point. And the point remains same with 4 vs 8. Of course it depends on load as well. General speaking, it is difficult to tell the difference, I will agree there.

Absolutely Android performs little in difference between 1gb and 2gb. The only different is some small hitch between switching of apps when many are loaded and that's it. The general smoothness of Android there is no difference.

I do think the MT6582 is a good choice. Nothing wrong with it.

You seem to just skip over the main point. That is mt6592 vs mt82 at the same resolution. The GPU in mt92 will toast 82.

[linr76]

you're wrong about performance only being better because the clock speed. Why not just have a single core cpu? You think single-core MTK cpu given all other aspects the same will perform same dual-core or quad-core, then it's time for you to go back to the drawing board. I use this to illustrate a point. And the point remains same with 4 vs 8. Of course it depends on load as well. General speaking, it is difficult to tell the difference, I will agree there.
.... snip ....
You seem to just skip over the main point. That is mt6592 vs mt82 at the same resolution. The GPU in mt92 will toast 82.

no, i am not wrong. i could prove it to you on a technical basis but that is really not the point here.
lets just look at a small example: (and i will refrain from clogging this thread anymore)
as long as we are talking about unoptimized applications, a Single Core CPU with otherwise the same technical specs and higher CPU clock will "toast" anything you will bring against it dual, quad or octa. you know why? latency, overhead of multiprocessing, no sharing of cache and raw clockspeed. since most applications now are at least optimized to run on 2 cores the former statement is of course NOT true anymore. but i also only wanted to prove a point ;)

also, the cpu architecture is very important in all this -
eg a Power 7+ 4 core cpu will "toast" any Intel CPU on the market, no matter if 10 or 16 oder 32 cores.
since we have the same architecture (ARMv7) the logical consequence is that the higher the clock the faster the CPU.
if you could clock the 6582 to 2.5 GHz it would "toast" the 6592 with no problems at all.

i agree 100% on the GPU, the GPU in the 6592 is MUCH better, since it not only has 4 cores but its also clocked higher per core.
and the GPU does not suffer the same problem of optimization as the CPU when it comes to core count. (because there is an abstraction layer inbetween Application and GPU driver, eg. OpenGL with standardized API)
but this has nothing to do with the CPU, Mediatek could package the Mali 400mp4 also in the 6582. thats why its called SoC (system on chip)

lets not fight about this ok,

the point of this thread is that dusty wants a good phone, and there sure are good phones with octacore around.
I just wanted him to consider Alternatives which sometimes offer better value for money.

[dusty071]

You said the alternative quad cores are much cheaper and so they are better value for the money which i would understand, but they are actually equal or even more expensive. Comparing huawei 3c to THL w200s, the quadcore is 20$ more expensive then the octacore!

I intend to have this phone for a long time, couple of years minimum. So unless the Huawei devices are known for better build quality (which would explain the price) then i am leaning towards the mtk6592 devices.

I guess THL w200s was recommended because it got a good review, but doesnt Elephone P9 Water have even 2GB of ram and better battery? Even Elephone P6S is good but that is a phablet (might be too big). So why is THL better way to go? They all have the same processor.