buying advice Looking for a new Android phone

[Col. Sandurz]

Hello everybody!
Looks like my beloved Xperia Z3 starts to be slightly outdated and I am looking for something to replace it, possibly at around 400 euros.
I'll buy it in Italy so anything available in Europe should do the trick.

 

What I'd like:

As stock as possible

GPS should not stop working during calls (That's a big gripe with my actual phone)

Able to record both side of the conversation with ACR or similar apps (Or, if that's not possible anymore, it would be nice if there was an easy-ish mod path to do that, like easy rooting or whatever)

Wide angle camera, decent indoor shots.

Decent battery life.

 

I'm not particularly concerned about size

[Spakes]

What budget do you have? I'm blind...

Can't say about GPS working fine, since that is Android's fault mostly.

Anyway, did you consider Galaxy A series or Honor Play line?

[191x7]

Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro.

Xiaomi Pocofone F1.

Older OnePlus like the 6T.

[WereCatf]

There will be several new phones launched towards summer, including OnePlus 8 Lite, so I, personally, would wait a few more months. I am actually in need of a new phone myself and I'm planning to wait until the new batch of phones gets released. Spring and summer is seemingly a very popular period of time for phone-manufacturers to aim, probably because people like to buy new phones for their vacations to shoot all those stupid videos and take a billion pictures with.

[Col. Sandurz]

On 1/16/2020 at 1:00 PM, WereCatf said:

I, personally, would wait a few more months. I am actually in need of a new phone myself and I'm planning to wait until the new batch of phones gets released. 

That's an interesting take.
I guess I could wait but I'm suffering a little right now mainly because I have no more room in the phone and the camera has gone bad (dust infiltrations).

 

On 1/16/2020 at 2:12 PM, huilun02 said:

Xiaomi Mi A3:

Oled screen, albeit 720p resolution

Will be well within your budget from practically any reputable seller in Europe (new)

I've heard the screen is not very good, regardless of the resolution, that may be a deal breaker for me.

On 1/16/2020 at 2:12 PM, huilun02 said:

Moto G8 Plus is unable to employ its ultrawide camera for photos. Only videos. Don't ask me why.

 

Well, I am not sure that's a huge limit for me, I am mainly interested in photos anyway.

 

On 1/16/2020 at 2:12 PM, huilun02 said:

I'm interested to know what you liked and disliked about your Xperia Z3. So that I help you get what you want, and avoid what you don't want.

Pro:

Excellent battery life (at his heyday)
Snappy enough

Mostly stock Android

Big screen of decent quality
Allows for two way call recording without any tampering
It was nice that it was waterproof (until it lasted).

 

Cons:

Not enough internal memory (16 GB)

Loses GPS signal during a call
I've had some reliability issues on the hardware side (had to change the screen, under warranty, usb covers are prone to break, camera is now almost unusable due to dust) and on the software side (I was forced to format the thing a couple of times due to battery drain and the such).

Still a little of bloatware

A little slow at re-catching the cellular signal after losing it.
Very hard to root (even If i really didn't have a lot of reasons to do that)

Backup was not really reliable

 

On 1/16/2020 at 12:47 PM, Spakes said:

What budget do you have? I'm blind...

Can't say about GPS working fine, since that is Android's fault mostly.

Anyway, did you consider Galaxy A series or Honor Play line?

I think the GPS thing is an interaction of many things, but the phone plays its role, if what I read around is to be believed.

The Samsungs are a little to far from stock Android for my tastes, I don't know the Honor Play line, I'll check it thanks.

[Col. Sandurz]

On 1/22/2020 at 2:36 PM, huilun02 said:

And where have you heard that from? Send me some links?

Well, it's in Italian but...

https://andreagaleazzi.com/recensione/recensione-xiaomi-mi-a3/
His gripe is that the low resolution added to the pentile matrix makes the low resolution really noticeable.

On 1/22/2020 at 2:36 PM, huilun02 said:

 

Yes, the ultrawide camera of the G8 Plus cannot be used to take photos.

When taking videos there is an ultrawide option. When taking photos there is no ultrawide option.

That's really strange, I misunderstood you and thought it was the opposite.

 

On 1/22/2020 at 2:36 PM, huilun02 said:

Good to know.

 

The absolute best hardware you can get (brand new) is probably the Mi 9T Pro

It has the flagship SD855, great uninterrupted 1080p OLED screen, and an ultrawide camera that works for photos

 

The big kicker? It runs MIUI which is far from stock Android. If you have experience in rooting and flashing custom roms, you could work around this. Your demand for stock android is whats greatly limiting your options. Remember here I tell you that stock android is vastly overrated.

I'll have a look at it in a shop so I can get a feel for the interface.

I am also sort of perplexed about the front facing camera,

Looks fragile.

On 1/22/2020 at 2:36 PM, huilun02 said:

 

Also keep in mind your Z3 used a FLAGSHIP SD801. To get to the same level of performance with a mid range chipset you will need something like the SD712 or SD730. The SD665/660 somewhat under the 801.

Duly noted.

[Col. Sandurz]

Just to put a closure to it.
My phone broke and I ended up with a Note 10 Lite.
I spent a little more (450), I had to give up stock android, but I was always curious about the S-Pen.

So far no luck with phone call recording but I still have hope.

Camera's somewhat lackluster but has what I need.