new phone recommendations

I would like to make a bit different take here meet 150 pound selection for a long terms possible use at least 4- 5 years.
This is not for everybody’s solution as you really cannot expect manufactures warranty, it would rather require your own DIY maintenance skills, for both hardware as well as software. But we know a lot of people are doing so for their computers, why not your Smartphone as well?

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Long term Software Support
At the moment, OEM supports android devices up to 2 years. However, open-source* community developed alternative Android OS "Custom Roms” have been available for nearly 200 devices with LineageOS. LineageOS is the one of the most established Custom Rom communities. (According to them 1.7 million users in the world) You may find the official supported devices find there.

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/

If you want to install a Custom ROM, DON'T BUY ANY NETWORK LOCKED PHONES, (Unlocking network restriction would still block to install a Custom Rom)

*Android OS has been developed as a part of Android Open Source Project. http://source.android.com/ Google has an obligation to supply the source code. Development community starts to develop their custom Android for their existing devices to extend their hardware life much longer.


Spare parts and battery availability
I strongly suggest checking out the repair parts and battery availability before buying your smart phone. Some Chinese OEMs such as Oneplus, Xiaomi, Huawei parts are available. (Unfortunately repair parts availability does not imply the easiness of repair itself… however, without repair parts, you are not able to repair it)

https://www.replacebase.co.uk/

Repair resources (youtube etc)
https://www.ifixit.com/


Specification research by yourself, Don't check the price only !!!
https://www.gsmarena.com/
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Within £150 budget with a brand new phone:

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
This Smartphone is the one of the best selling phone in the world, which also is well supported by open-source developers community.

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/mido

Global Version Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 4GB 64GB ROM Mobile Phone Snapdragon S625 Octa Core 5.5" FHD MIUI8 13.0MP Note4 Smartphone

Including UPS £18.(Duty included) delivery £148

Global Version Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Note4 3GB 32GB Mobile Phone Snapdragon S625 Octa Core 5.5" FHD 1920*1080 13.0MP 4100mAh

Including UPS £18.(Duty included) delivery £119

Don’t forget Screen Protector and Protective Case

Full Cover Tempered Glass For Xiaomi Redmi 4X 4 Pro 4A 4 Prime For Redmi Note 4 Pro Note 4X Note 5A Pro Screen Protector Film

TCICPC For Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Case Cover For Redmi Note 4X Case Silicone Ultra Thin TPU Soft Phone Case For Redmi Note 4 Global

MSE tip, pay in USD with credit card such as Halifax Clarity Card!
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/buy-from-china-aliexpress

I personally am not interested in a brand new phone very much as you do use a custom rom, then everything will be your responsibility, I really do not care about manufactures warranty, yes this is rather after market products stuff.

Then you would get a great second hand smart phone from the list of lineages supported devices.

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/

As people said, Moto G series are very honest decent hardware, also well supported by Android open-source communities; Nexus 5 (32GB at £70 is a still great spec (apart from a smaller battery and modest camera quality) Oneplus One (64GB at £100-120) is very Custom Rom friendly. If you are lucky, you would get a OnePlus 3 at £150. (Unfortunately Nokia phone are not developers friendly at the moment, I have to exclude them. )

Again this is not everybody’s solution, but some of you might be interested? ,When people are willing to pay ridiculously more than 200 pound per year for the smart phone use, this would be a great cost-saving and environmentally friendly solution (Doubling device life means halving eWaste!)

As the smartphones performance has been improved significantly, you would be able to use them for 4-5 years with the latest open source Android OS with a fraction of the cost, you would be able to use it with a great user experience at less than 30-50 pound per year ?

Happy hacking

From personal experience I wouldn't recommend anyone buying a Moto G5 series phone, nor in fact anything from the Lenovo/Moto platform.


I wonder how many of the recommenders actually have one or have used one long term? A simple Google search will reveal no end of issues around the world for these phones, the biggest of which is dropping wifi connections and constantly searching for new ones. Mine started after 7 months, some much less than that. CPW and Motorola service can only keep parroting the same thing, return for repair, for which you will have to pay the cost of return and lose your phone for a week or so each time.

Put simply do your research first (I did), but don't rely on glowing reviews for a brand new product, which is where I went wrong.

I picked up the flagship Moto X Style the day it was released back in 2015 and it was an outstanding phone, solid build quality, top performance and a software experience that wiped the floor with anything Samsung offered. I recommend their budget offering to many people and they always seem satisfied with it.

mac.d wrote: »

Isn't this an issue with the Moto G5 Plus specifically? If there's similar issues with the non-plus model, I've not seen a great deal of complaints about it?

Nope G5, G5plus, G5S, G5Splus and even the various G4s all have similar issues.

d123 wrote: »

You are correct, Lenovo bought Motorola with the sale finalised on 30 October 2014 but only actually merged it into Lenovo in August 2015. The Moto X Style was launched September 2015 so was a more of a Google owned Motorola designed handset.

Their quality has definitely gone down since 2015.

Yes, I am also very much concerned about the future of Motorola with an introduction of Moto C (C for CRAP) Lenovo is the company kept losing the smartphone market share to sell a cheap disposable smartphone without proper software update.

(Edit)
Moto C and Nexus 5, both are more or less same price. Do you think 2017 crap Moto C is better than 2013 decent Nexus 5 ? Check the spec by yourself!

https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=8645&idPhone2=5705

I don't believe that Lenovo forced Motorola to sell such a crap at 2017!!

(You will be able to install the latest Android OS, custom Rom to Nexus 5 for another a couple of years at very least, please don't fooled by the price itself. ...)
(Edit ends)

Lenovo also releases cheap tablets every year with more or less same harware spec (available at Argos), the difference ? OS version. Lenovo sells cheap smart phones/ tables without proper software update. Do you really expect this company cares about the duality, spare parts etc for long term use ? They don't expect you to use them more than a year or so.

As far as I know, Moto Gs are still great honest product, as it would be easy choices in the Western market in terms of availability, but I am VERY much concerned about Lenovo's ownership..

(Edit2)

That's why Open source software support is extremely important here, even Lenovo mess around great Motorola smartphones, as long as you would get a software support from Open source communities, you should be able to keep using your loving devices.
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#motorola

(Edit2 Ends)