New budget phone for mother

[snowdog]

Mom currently has a Redmi Note 8 Pro (with Nova Launcher). It works fine, but battery is getting worse, and the storage often needs cleanup due to the ammount of whatsapp and facebook crap she receives/sends.
The cheaper the better, but I want her to last as long as possible.

Because of this I want minimal 256 storage prefferably 512.

She spends hours on the phone, whatsapp video calls (with family abroad) and facebook video calls. And facebook/whatsapp in general.

Important:

Audio & microphone quality.
Battery life & fast charging.
Camera (AI post processing is much encouraged imho). Both front and back camera's. Video not important, photo's are imporant.
Storage (128 gb will become problematic in 2 years imho) 256 absolute min, 512 preffered.

Nice to haves:
3.5 mm
expandable storage
5G
Wifi 6
NFC/Google pay.

Not important:

Refresh rate (why is this even a thing on phones)?
3d processing (current cpu is fast enough, so anything midrange is fine I think).
Wireless charging
OS (provided no Nova Launcher issues)


I was looking into the Poco M6 pro 12/512 for 229 euro's, but I know from my Xiaomi 13 that OxygenOS+ Android 14 does not work great with Nova launcher, it has bugs... Also it lacks 5G which seems a bit future proof-lacking.
Redmi Note 13 pro seems nice but also lacks 5G? Same OxygenOS+ Android 14 does not work great with Nova launcher issue.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 5G also same as above, but it has 5g.
Poco X6 seems nice but same OxygenOS+ Android 14 does not work great with Nova launcher...
Xiaomi 12 Lite, Honor magic 5 Lite and

Otherwise only Realme, Moto's or an old Galaxy (S21) spring to mind.
Am I missing anything?

I am tempted to just go for the 512gb Poco M6 and drop the 5g requirement. The fast charger is a big plus. I am a bit unsure about the OS and also the reviews do not seem to be utterly positive over the Camera's. GSMarena seems to mention lack of a physical proximity sensor as a negative as well.
Also tempted at the: Realme GT Neo 6 SE (Snapdragon 7+ gen 3, 12GB/256GB, 6000 nits OLED, 5500mAh 100w, global Rom) for €269
I don't mind ordering from HK/China to save a few tenners, have done so in the past and it always went well.

 

[Grimley]

Oneplus Nord CE3 Lite ticks most of those boxes, I've had mine since BF last year. Available direct from Oneplus £179

 

[snowdog]

That actually looks perfect, bar one thing, the poor 128gb storage. 128gb will not last a few years, even when removing photo's/video's. Main reason for upgrade is to not have to clean (or move) the storage for the next 5 years .
I know it's expandable but SD cards are a hassle, you just want a big UFS E-mmc/SSD to be honest. Why have they not made a 256 gb version ?

The rest of the specs are great, thanks, I did not see that option. 3x optical zoom camera is a big plus as well imo.

Any new budget phones on the horizon that would be a mix between the hardware of the OP CE3 Lite and storage of the Poco options?

 

[snowdog]

Because of an offer I just grabbed the Poco X6 pro 5G 12GB RAM/512GB storage for 285 euro's of DHGate.

Should last her a while.

 

[mithrandir]

Sounds good. I would be interested in hearing how the delivery goes and also thoughts on the phone. Specs look fantastic for the money but hate my previous experience of miui.

 

[snowdog]

Oxygen OS not MIUI now. TBH since I use Nova I don't really notice anything specific to specific OS-es usually. But I did have some issue with Nova after unlocking on my own Xiaomi 13 since the Android 14 update, I'll see, worst case I'll set up the default launcher instead for her, I know a workaround to the issues but don't want her to deal with it.

Delivery should be fine; GLS package from Spain (warehouse) so no risk of import costs as it's EU.
I've ordered my own Xiaomi 13 from DHGate (but Hong Kong) and it went fine. And ordered Xiaomi products of DH Gate before like air filter or robot vacuum.

 

[Orcvader]

Oxygen OS not MIUI now. TBH since I use Nova I don't really notice anything specific to specific OS-es usually. But I did have some issue with Nova after unlocking on my own Xiaomi 13 since the Android 14 update, I'll see, worst case I'll set up the default launcher instead for her, I know a workaround to the issues but don't want her to deal with it.

Delivery should be fine; GLS package from Spain (warehouse) so no risk of import costs as it's EU.
I've ordered my own Xiaomi 13 from DHGate (but Hong Kong) and it went fine. And ordered Xiaomi products of DH Gate before like air filter or robot vacuum.

Poco X6 uses MIUI. Oxygen OS is only for OnePlus phones.

As for the launcher issue, that's due to Google's changes with Android, so it affects all A14 phones regardless of skin.

 

[snowdog]

Poco X6 uses MIUI. Oxygen OS is only for OnePlus phones.

As for the launcher issue, that's due to Google's changes with Android, so it affects all A14 phones regardless of skin.

Sorry, you're correct, I didn't mean OxygenOS but HyperOS (so whever I referred to OxygenOS I meant HyperOS), which afaik has been standard for the X6 since march.
But I barely notice any differences between all these OS-es since the launcher is the same I've been using for over 8 years.

For me Nova + Sesame search + Swiftkey is the combo I want to keep using, the rest of the phone I don't really use or use the google apps (e.g. I never use manufacturer specific gallery but always google photo's, never use media player except spotify and plex, etc). Well the task manager perhaps and dialer ( which is terrible imho compared to the samsung dialer/contacts), but that's it. But I think the stock android/google dialer is also pure ****.

 

[kona786]

I found Hyper OS frustrating after coming from a Pixel phone. The fact that I couldn't separate notification tones from the ring doorbell to sms/WA was ridiculous.

The settings area is convoluted, there was no proper battery stats and the whole OS just looks dated. Lots of duplicate apps that can't be uninstalled, Dual pull down notification system etc.

Not a fan at all. Put me off ever getting their Ultra phone in the future.

Returned the X6 Pro for a Pixel 7 for my mother. The camera was also terrible in comparison.

 

[Orcvader]

I completely forgot they rebranded their OS as Hyper OS, although last time I looked it was mostly the same as MIUI, just a new name.

It's not just the launcher, there's a lot of changes under the hood too. Main issue I have with these alternative skins is for the sake of improving battery life they change the way how Android apps are allowed to work in the background. This can mean late notifications or apps not working properly at all if their background process has been force killed (eg playing music while the screen is off. Major services are whitelisted but not all are). Hyper OS/MIUI also have a weird habit of rearranging where certain settings are too (such as making certain apps default for opening URLs). Which is why I now stick with Pixel or other skins that properly follow AOSP behaviour.

 

[Fluffybob]

Just grabbed a POCO x6 5G and it's a decent bit of kit