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New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

arstechnica.com

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Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#11

Post by tudelo »

jdietrich wrote: post #3
andrepd wrote: post #2

These seem underwhelming compared to what the Chinese manufacturers are doing. For example, 100$ can get you one of these: https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_4_(4x)-8608.php

You won't get a 4x for that price, but you can get a 5A for under $100. For that price you'll get a Snapdragon 425, 2GB of RAM, a surprisingly bright 720p display and a non-awful camera. I can only assume that these devices will sell for vastly below the listed price in their target markets, otherwise they're going to flop miserably. https://www.banggood.com/Xiaomi-Redmi-5A-Global-Edition-5_0-...

These phones seem like really good deals... too good to be true? I'm in the market for a cheap phone coming from a moto E 1st gen and these seem like promising options.

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#13

Post by tudelo »

StudentStuff wrote: post #9
leke wrote: post #8

Will these phones still run the regular android apps like Duolingo, Memrise, Telegram, Brave, BaconReader...?

That is the idea, but with only 8GB of internal storage, using Progressive Web Apps for things like Reddit would be best.

Hah. I have a phone with 5GB (probably marketed as 6 but I don't remember) and you really can not have many apps installed at once. Add to it the fact that if you run something like Spotify it will cache like 1GB of data over a few days. I have something different every week. As a bonus, it keeps my home screen free of almost any icons...

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#14

Post by dbspin »

tudelo wrote: post #11
jdietrich wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won't get a 4x for that price, but you can get a 5A for under $100. For that price you'll get a Snapdragon 425, 2GB of RAM, a surprisingly bright 720p display and a non-awful camera. I can only assume that these devices will sell for vastly below the listed price in their target markets, otherwise they're going to flop miserably. https://www.banggood.com/Xiaomi-Redmi-5A-Global-Edition-5_0-...

These phones seem like really good deals... too good to be true? I'm in the market for a cheap phone coming from a moto E 1st gen and these seem like promising options.

The Xiaomi phones absolutely work. They're amazing for the price, and very popular as imports here in Ireland. There's always the chance they might have Chinese govt spyware however, as has been alleged with Huawei https://mashable.com/2018/02/14/huawei-prove-phones-not-spyi...

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#15

Post by bsimpson »

bebna wrote: post #5

Can one "downgrade" a normal android to go? Would be interesting to see what it does to your battery runtime, for people like me, who use their phones mainly for different forms of text messaging, some news browsing and some once in a while google maps routing.

There's an open bug in Chrome to put it in Go mode on regular hardware (crbug.com/747143).

Not sure if that would help though. The performance constraints on low-end hardware are different than on others. For instance, you want as many layers as possible on regular hardware (so transitions are smooth). However, those layers eat up RAM that low-end hardware can't afford.

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#16

Post by Grazester »

StudentStuff wrote: post #10
bebna wrote: post #5

Can one "downgrade" a normal android to go? Would be interesting to see what it does to your battery runtime, for people like me, who use their phones mainly for different forms of text messaging, some news browsing and some once in a while google maps routing.

Doubtful, this seems to just be another soon to be orphaned Android variant (like Android One). Uninstalling Google Play Newsstand and most of the other Google Crapware should get you close, perhaps replace Google Play Services Framework with microG to save a few hundred megs of space?

Go apps are stripped down version of their normal counterpart. These stripped down versions are smaller in size and maybe be optimized for slower internet services. Android Ones is still going well in places like India but Google usually has a say in what hardware is used on Android One phones as they push the updates for these devices. With Android Go any hardware can be used.

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#17

Post by changechan »

andrepd wrote: post #2

These seem underwhelming compared to what the Chinese manufacturers are doing. For example, 100$ can get you one of these: https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_4_(4x)-8608.php

can they be flashed with a custom rom and still be usable? 10 years ago I had half a dozen firefox browser open with hundreds of tabs, now I can barely have one or two with a dozen tabs -- same with mobile, I buy the cheapest phone and do the minimal I need, but sometimes I need a special app and I expect it to work a year later and not get hung up on required upgrades and then get locked out with a useless phone. I just want a phone I can buy and not worry about evil corporations forcing me to upgrade or that it will be slower then stuff I used 10 years ago.

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#18

Post by ktpsns »

StudentStuff wrote: post #6
andrepd wrote: post #2

These seem underwhelming compared to what the Chinese manufacturers are doing. For example, 100$ can get you one of these: https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_4_(4x)-8608.php

Even compared to a $5 Android Tracfone you can get at any Safeway, these are pretty underwhelming. Why would I pay 12x more and only get double the RAM & LTE compared to a $5 Alcatel Android phone? Essentially the only reason is for modern Android, but its not as though any of these Android phones (except the Nokia) will ever see multiple years of software updates.

Can you provide a link to a shop where to buy a smartphone for $5?

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#19

Post by bruceb »

Not sure what the point of this article is. There are plenty of Quad core, 2gb ram, 16gb phones for under $100 already available in the US. Of course some are initially locked but they are locked to MVNO that have relatively cheap plans $20-$40 a month.

This configuration (Quad,2gb,16gb) seems like a good minimum that you can use most apps without major problems and have enough space to not uninstall stuff all the time.

Plus now the used market has many high quality phones that are available. A used Samsung S5 should meet most people's basic needs. The difference between a 2018 phone and a 2015 phone is much smaller than 2015 and a 2012 phone.

As for place like India, there are plenty of phones in the $80-$99 range that meet these specs. And many that are at the $40-50 price points that have worse specs but still usable.

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#20

Post by jdietrich »

tudelo wrote: post #11
jdietrich wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won't get a 4x for that price, but you can get a 5A for under $100. For that price you'll get a Snapdragon 425, 2GB of RAM, a surprisingly bright 720p display and a non-awful camera. I can only assume that these devices will sell for vastly below the listed price in their target markets, otherwise they're going to flop miserably. https://www.banggood.com/Xiaomi-Redmi-5A-Global-Edition-5_0-...

These phones seem like really good deals... too good to be true? I'm in the market for a cheap phone coming from a moto E 1st gen and these seem like promising options.

I own a Xiaomi Note 4. It's a fantastic device for the price and has given me no trouble at all. Xiaomi's Android skin (MiUI) is nicely designed, performs well and is regularly updated even on older devices. Xiaomi aren't well known in the west, but they're the fifth largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world.

Depending on your country, you may have to pay import charges if you buy direct from China or Hong Kong. Even with import charges, Xiaomi phones still usually work out to be a good deal. Warranty coverage is limited if you're outside of Xiaomi's core markets, but parts are cheap and readily available if you need to replace a cracked screen or a weak battery.

I wouldn't recommend other Chinese brands like Doogee, Leagoo or UMI. The hardware is usually good, but the software is often poor and you can forget about updates.

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