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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

#51

Post by timlod »

diggan wrote: post #44
timlod wrote: post #34

> This also means the battery is—get this—replaceable! When you take off the back you can actually pull the battery out and—if you have an extra on hand—replace it with a fully charged battery. Amazing. Not sure if this is meant to be a joke... My understanding that most lower-tier phones have replacable batteries, at least my last phones (from the Moto G series) had.

I've been a Moto G fan since the first one, but the current one I have (3rd Generation, falcon) does not have replacable batteries. But instead it has space for a sd-card. I was not sure which one was best to have, but after having the phone for a while and the battery loosing it's juice, I would definitely be happier with a replaceable battery compared to upgradable storage.

I have the recent one (G5), and it has both. 2 Sim card slots, SD card slot, replacable battery. The first one also had a replacable battery. Didn't know the 3rd Generation didn't! In that case I'm glad they reverted their design in that regard.

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

#52

Post by Severian »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #25
tudelo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Moto E4 can be had for ~$130 unlocked. I got one as a temporary replacement for my beloved Moto G LTE until I could find a decent 4.5" phone. I'm mostly happy with it other than I wish it was smaller. The Samsung 2017 A3 is what I wish I could get but thanks to pointless market segmentation, the only variant that works well in North America is impossible to buy and it's now being obsoleted by a replacement with a 5"…

I too have a Moto E4 and it works beautifully. I don't play games on it, but for everything else its very snappy and it takes pretty good photos. I got mine for $99 when it first came out. I have yet to run out of internal storage (16GB for those who don't know). 2GB RAM seems good enough atm. I can plug pretty much anything into the usb port and it will work with the device too.

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

#53

Post by datguacdoh »

bruceb wrote: post #19

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 ti…

The difference isn't just the price. It's that all of these phones are also running an optimized version of Android that is going to run on the lower specs better than anything else. It doesn't matter if the specs seem the same between devices, if the vendor adds a bunch of crap or just drops aosp without optimizing for the hardware, the phone is going to run terribly. This is the current state of most low end android phone's which they appear to be addressing with Android Go phones.

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

#54

Post by r3vrse »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #40

As far as I'm concerned, the only question that matters is "What is the chain of responsibility for making security updates get to my phone?" If the answer is "Google-Carrier-Me" or "Google-Vendor-Carrier-Me" and not "Google-Me", then fuck it sideways. I'm so done with Android until the update model stops being garbage.

I completely agree.

I do find it interesting though, as someone who through work has deployed a lot of cell phones for field ops - the situation seems to be kind of, sort of getting better in that respect.

We bought a ton of Moto G4s and G5s in last 18 months, and for the first year, I saw maybe one OS update and a couple security patches?. In the past six months, it's been noticably different (and these phones are only getting older, mind).

I'm writing this on a Moto G5+ which has 7.1.1 and the January security patches, including fix for KRACK vulnerability. G4 models have the same patch level and 7.0. Updates have been deployed fairly regularly lately (if still not quite on a monthly cycle).

This from Lenovo, who have historically been terrible for issuing updates in a timely manner.

I wonder if the message is finally getting to these OEMs that they can't afford to let current models wither on the vine in this IT security climate, even if only for their own selfish ends (e.g. avoiding bad press).

I really hope so. It's way overdue.

Disclaimer: total anecdata, handle with gloves.

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

#55

Post by bitL »

taoistextremist wrote: post #4
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

Isn't Xiaomi subsidized by the government? Hard to compete against that in price.

You have other manufacturers like Ulefone, Doogee, Leagoo, Wiko, Bq, Archos, Zoji, ZTE, Bluboo, Cubot, Oukitel, Fantec, HomTom, Kazam, BlackView, Elephone, Umidigi, Wieppo, GigaSet, HiSense, Gretel, Nabo, Siswoo, Hafury, Coolpad, STK, Keecoo, Meizu etc. offering better specs than any Go phone. Go just seems like a rebranding of what couldn't sell and got outdated.

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

#56

Post by mastax »

I was confused by some of the comments here before I realized that I was confusing "Android Go" (for low-ram devices) with "Android One" (stock android with guaranteed updates, usually for budget devices). For all the folks asking for a good cheap phone that gets Android updates, look at Android One devices.

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

#57

Post by [deleted] »

StudentStuff wrote: post #24
ktpsns wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Sure, I bought a bunch of LG Sunrise phones, but the current offer seems much better: https://slickdeals.net/f/11329603-8gb-alcatel-pop-icon-2-lte... Brick and mortar only though, and stock varies. I usually power dial all the local stores, then go to the ones with the most stock and clean 'em out. Easy way to get a few dozen Androids in short order. Sadly, at the $5 price point Amazon and eBay will never beat Brick…

[deleted]

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

#58

Post by jstewartmobile »

I remember the Treo from 2004 where my contacts and appointments opened immediately. Now we have these things where you wait a second for it to do a little dance before you can dial the number.

That, and considering the amount of information they're scraping, Google should be paying me to use their awful phones.

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

#59

Post by amiga-workbench »

BoorishBears wrote: post #49
amiga-workbench wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty much through buying "flagship" devices due to the pathetically short software support lifetime they have, I bought a second hand Xperia Z5 Compact for £150 about 6 months ago and loaded Lineage OS onto it. Even my old Xperia Z3 has a port of Oreo available, and its perfectly functional.

The iPhone is a flagship with excellent software support, it just so happens it’s also Apple's only phone line

I can't put up with iOS, it feels like I'm using a crippled feature phone rather than a pocket computer.

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

#60

Post by e12e »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #40

As far as I'm concerned, the only question that matters is "What is the chain of responsibility for making security updates get to my phone?" If the answer is "Google-Carrier-Me" or "Google-Vendor-Carrier-Me" and not "Google-Me", then fuck it sideways. I'm so done with Android until the update model stops being garbage.

I'd prefer a more classical model of having a group of volunteers work with semi-independent groups of vendors - along the lines of Debian Gnu/Linux. Rather than some semi-closed Linux + Google+hw-vendor Android.

I like the direction Google one + lineage Os seem to be taking us; even if the baseband are still a problem / back-door.

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