Samsung Galaxy S8 for £574

boatman

Anything more than £100 - £150 is too much in my book..

d123

boatman wrote: »

Anything more than £100 - £150 is too much in my book..

As long as you're happy with a second class service you'll be fine

boatman

d123 wrote: »

As long as you're happy with a second class service you'll be fine

You can get decent phones for less than £150, the one thing they don't get right is the camera for indoor use.

d123

boatman wrote: »

You can get decent phones for less than £150, the one thing they don't get right is the camera for indoor use.

They might be decent in many people's estimation but they will still only offer a second class service in comparison to some phones from £200 and up...

boatman

d123 wrote: »

They might be decent in many people's estimation but they will still only offer a second class service in comparison to some phones from £200 and up...

With the exception of the camera, if you are not playing a few top end games, it just seems to be keeping up with the Jones and doing yourself out of a few hundred quid, each to their own.

d123

boatman wrote: »

With the exception of the camera, if you are not playing a few top end games, it just seems to be keeping up with the Jones and doing yourself out of a few hundred quid, each to their own.

I'm not talking about cameras and games, I'm talking about the services you will receive.

Already, to receive full network service on EE and Three you need phones with certain features built in, at present the cheapest phone to get those is the £200 Nokia 6.

Buying a cheap Chinese phone means you're going to be having smaller network coverage, and not be able to use VoLTE/4G Calling (which is going to become much more important in the near future as the networks move towards a bigger 4G/smaller 3G network) and wificalling which is helpful in many buildings. As the 4G network expands beyond the 3G network if your phone isn't VoLTE capable you'll be left in that smaller 3G footprint while other users get to use the new larger network.

As I said, buying a budget Chinese phone for £150 or less is going to give you a second class service from the network.

Perhaps when Android gets it's [STRIKE]shi[/STRIKE] mess together in the future we might see all Android handsets compatible, but that's only a dream at present, especially with the way some makers customise their software to such an extent.

boatman

Got VoLTE on my Xiaomi. Its got all the UK bands(1,3,7,20), so no coverage issues.
http://techtrickz.com/how-to/miui-8-global-beta-7-1-5-rom-brings-volte-for-video-call-function-installation-guide/
It was a lot less than the S8.

d123

boatman wrote: »

Got VoLTE on my Xiaomi. Its got all the UK bands(1,3,7,20), so no coverage issues.
http://techtrickz.com/how-to/miui-8-global-beta-7-1-5-rom-brings-volte-for-video-call-function-installation-guide/
It was a lot less than the S8.

What network are you saying you're getting working VoLTE on? (And not just a VoLTE toggle in the menu).

The phone just having the bands doesn't mean the networks will let you access them (this mainly applies to B20 in the U.K.).

Edit

LOL

What is that webpage even talking about? "VoLTE conference video calls" !!!!!! is that?

New – VoLTE conference video calls
New – VoLTE support for video calls / Conference calls (Jio network users only)

The clue is in the word, Voice over LTE...

So you're on the Jio network, are you?

boatman

The link was merely to illustrate that those cheap rubbish Chinese Xiaomi phones have VoLTE, Its not exclusive to those paying £500+
Can't say I've ever been chatting and thought, 'I wish I had VoLTE'.

I presume the networks are restricting usage to high end phone sold by them to try and get people to buy their phones.

d123

boatman wrote: »

The link was merely to illustrate that those cheap rubbish Chinese Xiaomi phones have VoLTE, Its not exclusive to those paying £500+
Can't say I've ever been chatting and thought, 'I wish I had VoLTE'.

I presume the networks are restricting usage to high end phone sold by them to try and get people to buy their phones.

Those "cheap rubbish Chinese" phones might have a VoLTE toggle in the menu (or work on a Chinese network) but that doesn't mean it will work on a U.K. network. So far, no "cheap rubbish Chinese" phone has been compatible with VoLTE in the U.K. (or any western network last time I checked).

VoLTE isn't only restricted to high end phones sold by networks, an old iPhone 6 bought from anywhere is capable and supported on both EE and Three, EE even support the £200 Nokia 6.

Without VoLTE you don't get Band 20 access, so yes, you'll soon be thinking "I wish I had VoLTE" when you have no signal and someone with a capable phone has a 3 bar signal (I had exactly this at a location in County Durham recently).