Redmi Note 8 or Pocophone F1

[genexis_x]

Redmi Note 8 (S665, 4GB+128GB), MYR 839 (around USD 202)

Pocophone F1 (S845, 6GB+128GB), MYR 999 (around USD 240)

 

Just want a phone with decent rear camera and good battery life, nothing demanding

 

Other options I've considered:

Spoiler

Mi 9 Lite / CC9: I liked this the most, but it's over budget (don't really want to spend over MYR1000)

Mi 9t: would rather get Mi 9 Lite if I have the budget (this has slightly worse camera, heavier and slightly faster CPU which idc much)

Redmi Note 8 Pro: too big, heavy, slightly over budget

Redmi Note 7: just slightly cheaper, but worse camera (I think?)

 

I'm not open to other options (unless you can convince me)

[Levent]

I just looked at those two phone last night!, and I literally just got home from checking out Redmi Note 7, Redmi Note 8 and Mi A3. If screen is not a big deal, I can suggest Mi A3, the review phone they had on display was not even charged the past 2 days and it had a screen on time of 6 hours yet battery was at %50. I cant comment on Pocophone F1 as I havent had one to play around BUT reviews I saw showed that it had the worst battery life compared to the ones you listed.

ALSO take a look at Redmi Note 7 Pro.

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, Levent said:

Mi A3

Oh yeah I missed that out. Just checked and it has the price with Redmi Note 7. Which one is better tho.

1 hour ago, Levent said:

Redmi Note 7 Pro

Not available in my country unfortunately (all imported set)

3 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Is the Samsung M30s available in MY?

Not from what I've seen, unfortunately

[Levent]

2 minutes ago, genexis_x said:

Oh yeah I missed that out. Just checked and it has the price with Redmi Note 7. Which one is better tho.

Not available in my country unfortunately (all imported set)

Not from what I've seen, unfortunately

Mi A3 has the updated SD660 (which they call SD665, its 11nm instead of 14) rest of it is same, only screen is AMOLED 720P on Mi A3 and it has an in display fingerprint sensor. I just got one today, it should b here tomorrow so if you got any questions or want me to compare camera quality to LG G4 I can easily do that for you.

Also Mi A3 and Note 8 feels MUCH better to hold compared to Note 7.

[genexis_x]

7 minutes ago, Levent said:

AMOLED 720P

Ah I was wondering why I missed the A3. It's because of this. Below 1080p is a no go to me

6 minutes ago, Levent said:

want me to compare camera quality to LG G4 I can easily do that for you

I have no idea how's the camera quality in G4, but if you could do that it would be much appreciated!

[Levent]

6 minutes ago, genexis_x said:

Ah I was wondering why I missed the A3. It's because of this. Below 1080p is a no go to me

I have no idea how's the camera quality in G4, but if you could do that it would be much appreciated!

For a 4 year old phone, it still is great. I'll post them here when I get the phone.

[genexis_x]

2 hours ago, Levent said:

I cant comment on Pocophone F1 as I havent had one to play around BUT reviews I saw showed that it had the worst battery life compared to the ones you listed.

According to gsmarena it's pretty solid (original review). Pocophone is decent IMO, only thing that I'm skeptical of is the plastic build, even though jerryrigeverything said it's fine. Also S845 is overkill for my usage

[Levent]

Just now, genexis_x said:

According to gsmarena it's pretty solid (original review). Pocophone is decent IMO, only thing that I'm skeptical of is the plastic build, even though jerryrigeverything said it's fine. Also S845 is overkill for my usage

Totally agree, even SD660 performs better than my LG G4s SD808 (which I got no problems with its performance) and battery life is significantly better. I am worried more about glass back more than plastic chassis, even if your chassis gets cracked it still somewhat holds together, glass on the other hand definitely not. I dont use my phones without cases so I honestly never cared about use of plastic for chassis.

[genexis_x]

1 minute ago, Levent said:

I dont use my phones without cases so I honestly never cared about use of plastic for chassis.

I always use phone case (my current case for my Redmi Note 4 is broken as hell and yet I'm still using it lol), that's why I'm thinking that the plastic body might not be a big deal

[AlTech]

7 hours ago, genexis_x said:

According to gsmarena it's pretty solid (original review). Pocophone is decent IMO, only thing that I'm skeptical of is the plastic build, even though jerryrigeverything said it's fine. Also S845 is overkill for my usage

Having owned a Pocophone I can say the plastic back holds up well.

 

I would say though that I don’t recommend buying a Xiaomi phone unless A) you really like Mi UI or B) you’re happy to replace Mi UI with a custom rom like LineageOS.

[genexis_x]

2 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

I don’t recommend buying a Xiaomi phone unless A) you really like Mi UI or B) you’re happy to replace Mi UI with a custom rom like LineageOS.

I'm used to MiUI so not a problem

2 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Huawei P30 Lite

Still skeptical of the smaller battery capacity though, even though battery life test is fine

[Xiee]

Pocophone user here so I'll be biased with my advice.

 

Get the Pocophone. That Snapdragon 845 goes a long way. The stock cam may be meh, but you can always download the Gcam app and it improves your pictures a lot.

 

I use the phone mostly for gaming. I "split screen" game a lot with this phone, playing both Azur Lane and FGO at the same time. It eats up the battery quick, but nothing beats simultaneously playing on two games when special time-limited events are active.

 

I've owned the phone for about a year now since I bought this last September. If you're worried about the plastic back, just buy a good solid protector like a Spigen Armor Case or something similar.

 

The one turnoff that people don't like about the Pocophone is that it uses an IPS LCD screen. But that doesn't really bother me as you're paying for what you get and that's what matters to me.

[kokakolia]

20 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Having owned a Pocophone I can say the plastic back holds up well.

 

I would say though that I don’t recommend buying a Xiaomi phone unless A) you really like Mi UI or B) you’re happy to replace Mi UI with a custom rom like LineageOS.

I have always been curious about Xiaomi phones. But my iPhone 7 is still holding up really, really well.  What's so bad about Mi UI? It looks just like any other Android OS. 

 

13 hours ago, Xiee said:

The one turnoff that people don't like about the Pocophone is that it uses an IPS LCD screen. But that doesn't really bother me as you're paying for what you get and that's what matters to me.

Did you see the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite? For around $230 USD you get an AMOLED screen, a Snapdragon 710, a fancy glass back with hypnotic patterns and a 4000mAh battery. Seems... too good to be true. 

[genexis_x]

17 minutes ago, kokakolia said:

What's so bad about Mi UI?

From my knowledge, the interface can be confusing and the UI can be buggy. I might be wrong tho

18 minutes ago, kokakolia said:

Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite

I liked this the most out of all the options listed above, but it's out of my budget

[kokakolia]

Just now, genexis_x said:

From my knowledge, the interface can be confusing and the UI can be buggy. I might be wrong tho

Ha! I see why you imediately installed a custom ROM 10 seconds after unboxing. My first and last "China" phone was the Lenovo Zuk Z2. Cheapest phone on the planet with a Snapdragon 820. The only good things about it was the Snapdragon 820  

 

Anyways, everything with the Zuk was average at best but software has flaming hot garbage. It was half Chinese, half English. Buggy as ever. And everything was pretty good when I installed a custom ROM. And then when I tried to install the latest ROM last year, it got hard bricked. I don't want anything to do with TWRP and ADB fastboot ever again. Is installing a custom ROM on a Xiaomi phone easier than that?

[genexis_x]

2 minutes ago, kokakolia said:

Is installing a custom ROM on a Xiaomi phone easier than that?

I have no idea since I never done it before. And I'll never install custom ROM in my phone anyway

[kokakolia]

1 hour ago, genexis_x said:

I have no idea since I never done it before. And I'll never install custom ROM in my phone anyway

To answer my question. I only seem to find guides using the "TWRP" method. Exactly what I feared. 

[Levent]

I dont have much time to spend on my computer today but I took a two comparison shots with my LG G4 and my new Mi A3 (it has that elusive 48mp camera xiaomi puts in to everything). Camera is good, just the lack of OIS is noticeable. Overall I am extremely impressed with how solid this phone feels. My dads Redmi Note 7 feels like a slab to hold in hand while this feels PERFECT especially with the Spigen case.

Photos got EXIF data (except location, I removed those). Here is the ZIP file containing pictures. I uploaded this way to keep EXIF data. If you got any questions about SD665 or anything else hit me up, loving this phone so far.

[genexis_x]

After some considerations I've shortlisted these:

Mi 9t (MYR 1099 sale price, 6GB+64GB)

Honor View 20 (MYR 1049, 6GB+128GB)

Redmi Note 8 Pro (MYR 999 sale price, 6GB+64GB)

Redmi Note 8 (MYR 698 sale price, 4GB+64GB)

 

@Levent @huilun02 which is the best in your opinion in terms on camera quality? I think battery life wise they are all similar

[Levent]

My first choice would be Mi 9T, then Note 8 Pro. Although I will mention that I have absolutely no experience with Mediatek SOCs but I remember they really bad when it comes to software side of things. (PS Camera on the Mi 9T is noticeably better in review shots of gsmarena)

[genexis_x]

2 minutes ago, Levent said:

Mediatek SOCs

I had really bad experience with them too. But the review says this particular chip is fine

 

Oh BTW, thanks for the images. They look good!

 

How about Honor View 20? Looks like a good contender too

[Levent]

41 minutes ago, genexis_x said:

I had really bad experience with them too. But the review says this particular chip is fine

 

Oh BTW, thanks for the images. They look good!

 

How about Honor View 20? Looks like a good contender too

Kirin is also a manufacturer I have no clue how good their software support is. Hardware looks good and I do like Huawei's UI but with what's going on US, I honestly wouldn't risk having a phone that only gets one major Android update. Lack of custom rom support and just 1 major Android update is not a chance I would be willing to take again (LG only updated g4 to MM while same soc got updated to nougat in other applications)

[genexis_x]

2 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

SD855

Mi 9t has SD730, also triple camera setup with telephoto

 

Thanks for your detailed explanation

[genexis_x]

1 minute ago, huilun02 said:

Yup, I mistook it for the Mi 9T Pro. I have corrected my post. The View 20 is the only device in your list that has a flagship chipset

How does the camera in Mi 9T compared to Honor View 20? TBH I don't need super fast soc so it doesn't matter much

[genexis_x]

7 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

snip

Thanks for your valuable info again.