Associate
- Joined
- 5 Aug 2017
- Posts
- 10
I really only need a basic phone - in descending order, it's mostly for calls, texts, maps/satnav, emails (including viewing attachments), web browsing and Skype. No need for something all-singing, all-dancing and pricey, right, particularly since I make almost zero use of the camera? My previous low-end phones served me well while they lasted, but it's been a few years since I was in the market, and now I'm confused why several features I've become reliant on, and thought of as pretty basic and unexceptional, don't seem to be standard anymore!
I'd also like a phone to last a good few years, without getting frustrated over storage running out, multitasking giving up, or a chronic lack of updates. The minimum specs for the kind of future-proofing I want are probably 3 GB memory, 32 GB storage and a comparable processor. That's nothing extravagant and there are phones in the £150-250 range that cater for this, but I would like a compass (I do a fair bit of walking, don't want to get half-way down the street before the GPS figures out my orientation is the wrong way) and really badly need a notification light (my phone has to spend a lot of time sitting on my desk on silent, but I want a quick way of spotting missed calls or texts without having to fiddle with it every 10 minutes just to check).
Most reviewers' go-to recommendation in this specs/price bracket is the Moto G5 or Moto G5 Plus, yet these both lack compass (at least in the UK) and notification light. Some people are excited about the new Nokia 6, which does seem to have a compass, but again the UK version has no notification light. Have these become high-end features, perhaps associated with business use, or just gone out of fashion? Do any suitable competitor models (or variants like the new G5S/G5S+) have these features? Finding information on the internet has been a bit of a pain, review sites and even sites selling them often don't list these features, plus specs found online vary so much between countries.
(FWIW I'm also concerned that the Moto G5 and Nokia 6 look oddly underpowered with a Snapdragon 430 - the Snapdragon 625 in the G5+ looks rather more in line with the rest of the specs - and they might be feeling their age in a few years' time. I'm also wary of manufacturers who bloat their OS since the chances of it being kept up to date in 2 or 3 years are so low - but even with near-stock Android, Lenovo have developed an awful reputation for providing basic security updates to Motorola-branded phones, whereas HMD have appeared pretty committed to updating their Nokia-branded phones.)
I'd also like a phone to last a good few years, without getting frustrated over storage running out, multitasking giving up, or a chronic lack of updates. The minimum specs for the kind of future-proofing I want are probably 3 GB memory, 32 GB storage and a comparable processor. That's nothing extravagant and there are phones in the £150-250 range that cater for this, but I would like a compass (I do a fair bit of walking, don't want to get half-way down the street before the GPS figures out my orientation is the wrong way) and really badly need a notification light (my phone has to spend a lot of time sitting on my desk on silent, but I want a quick way of spotting missed calls or texts without having to fiddle with it every 10 minutes just to check).
Most reviewers' go-to recommendation in this specs/price bracket is the Moto G5 or Moto G5 Plus, yet these both lack compass (at least in the UK) and notification light. Some people are excited about the new Nokia 6, which does seem to have a compass, but again the UK version has no notification light. Have these become high-end features, perhaps associated with business use, or just gone out of fashion? Do any suitable competitor models (or variants like the new G5S/G5S+) have these features? Finding information on the internet has been a bit of a pain, review sites and even sites selling them often don't list these features, plus specs found online vary so much between countries.
(FWIW I'm also concerned that the Moto G5 and Nokia 6 look oddly underpowered with a Snapdragon 430 - the Snapdragon 625 in the G5+ looks rather more in line with the rest of the specs - and they might be feeling their age in a few years' time. I'm also wary of manufacturers who bloat their OS since the chances of it being kept up to date in 2 or 3 years are so low - but even with near-stock Android, Lenovo have developed an awful reputation for providing basic security updates to Motorola-branded phones, whereas HMD have appeared pretty committed to updating their Nokia-branded phones.)