Hi all,
I've always bought locally off plans or outright. Samsung s3 previously, finally redeemed with an xperia z3 and my days of battery life agony disappeared.
I just hate the d6653 model which is only 16gb internally - is there a larger size? I am looking to upgrade therefore. The s8+ physically felt fine/great. But apart from the woolies promo atm it is bloody expensive. I was wondering, if I can't decide on woolies (I'm worried about having only 6gb data and being locked in for 24 months, I wish it was 1-2 gb higher) what alternatives do I have?
I note the Chinese phones are touted as on par performance and specs, but a lot cheaper than branded. My worry is I don't know anything about flashing, rooting etc. I have heard that they are not plug and play out of the box like traditional big branded bought in aus. Is it quite hard to import and run a Chinese phone for the uninitiated? And I believe band 28 is not on any Chinese phones that would be decent/flagship currently would it (i.e. comparable to the z3 in terms of battery).
Happy to have a screen size anywhere from the z3 up to the s8+. I just want at least 32gb if not more internal memory, expandable micro sd as per usual, battery life that rivals the z3 or even better (so 5+ hours SOT would be great. Preferably web browsing and other day to day, doesn't have to be 5 hrs of intense gaming SOT).
Any suggestions? What sort of brands or models can I have a look at now in deciding against the s8+? I'm also mindful of local flagships like the s8+ having better bands so constant travel to say asia (japan, Malaysia and all) are more likely to be serviced with cross-compatible bands. So far my z3 has worked from USA all the way to Japan, Korea and Malaysia. I am assuming a China brand phone would struggle with bands?
Protip:
In newer versions of Android past Marshmallow, freshly formatted SD cards you insert into your phone can be used as part of 'internal storage'. When you do so, the card becomes encrypted to your device and can no longer be used interchangeably with other devices such as personal computers or cameras.
The upside is of course, it counts towards internal storage and your apps that you install seamlessly span across the internal memory and external memory.. So a phone with say, 10GB of free internal memory coupled with a 32GB card makes it effectively 42GB (approx).
To answer your other questions, most chinese-brand phones work right out of the box and do not require rooting, but SOME unscrupulous sellers may pollute the phone's ROM by cooking their own versions of the firmware and sneaking it onto the device, without your knowledge. The phone works as advertised but may have a lot of unwanted bloat and advertising.
Xiaomi, Huawei and OnePlus (split of Oppo) is considered first-tier brands and they are held highly in regard even by American consumers, so flagships like the Mi6, Huawei P series or Honor series are usually sold in several countries (but not as australia because our market is tiny). Some of these phones have full support of Aussie networks including B28.
Most popular phones on Ozbargain in this category has been Xiaomi Mi5, Mi5s, Xiaomi Note 3 Special Edition, Xiaomi Redmi 4 Pro / Prime
Tier 2 brands may include ZTE, Lenovo, LeEco, and Meizu, are also safe bets and are pretty popular amongst European users, but always check to see they fully support Australian 3g and 4g networks.
popular picks include the ZTE Axon 7, LeEco Le Max 2, and Lenovo ZUK Z2 64GB. All these I mentioned runs the flagship Snapdragon 820 processor.
And then there's the really low-end 3rd-rate brands with brandnames that are very obscure… like Cubot, UMI, THL, Doogee and whatever, these you should really only buy if you are desperate to save money. But sometimes, there are a few surprise hits and they occasionally make a decent phone.