Motorola (G3) and subsequent models are:
- close to vanilla Android and have plenty of updates
- they are significantly less expensive than Samsung’s and Apple’s wannabe’s
1 Like
I have been a proponent of Moto for a long time, recently realising too long. My son had a G and now an X. My current phone is a G hand-me-down from my partner when she bought an Oppo. I previously had RAZRs, and earlier Moto’s before them to the point I could have been called a welded on customer. After being exposed to the Oppo my next phone will probably not be a Moto. ‘close to pure vanilla’ is good but sometimes not when barebones is not quite enough and customisation and replacement apps are needed to be a happy user.
Also check Moto ownership over the years as it has not been the venerable Motorola (USA) that had superior engineering and quality for some time. It is now’just another brand name’ manufactured by ‘just another company’ in my opinion.
1 Like
Yeah I used to be like that with HTC - loved their older phones, but when Dick Smith was closing down I pounced on a cheap Oppo R7plus and haven’t looked back. Love that I can get 6+hours of screen on time (about 18 hours of use) in a charge.
1 Like
I have seen excellent photos, even closeups of insects etc, from an Oppo phone. The depth of clarity and true colours certainly exceeded my Samsung 5.
1 Like
Yeah, I find it takes pretty good photos, however the built-in Oppo camera app is a bit prone to crashing. But you get used to working around it.
One thing I like that it has (sad that the latest Android phones need it) is a memory manager. It’s simple, but it allows the phone to flush cache from selected apps when it starts getting low on RAM.
Apparently 3GB is no longer enough, or Android has memory management issue. And Chrome is a hungry beast
2 Likes
Some interesting ideas …
3 Likes
This has to be number one - if the phone doesn’t function properly as a phone for calls in and calls out, then you are carrying around an expensive calculator/camera/notetaker/diary/etc.
3 Likes
True, and sadly ever more true now in AU where the gov’t has more or less mandated you have a mobile phone that can make calls for when your NBN goes down.
3 Likes
Hmmm I want one of those phones that don’t rely on power at the towers (my sarcasm is at the system and no way intended at Ben).
2 Likes
Hehe, all good - the humour is strong in this one.
Yeah I am a mobile user anyway, but view mobile and any other fallbacks as a layered backup approach against gov’t stuff ups.
Having said that I’ve not bothered learning HAM radio stuff etc
3 Likes
… at least theres no code requirement for a full call these days, but I reckon WICEN has had it’s day (if it ever did) …
.Two comments, one being Oppo remains beyond Choice radar although it is featured at JBHifi, Good Guys, Officeworks, and others and is regularly well reviewed by the techie media.
The other is regarding the questionable and so far unproven accusations against Huawei and ZTE. I found nothing relevant searching Choice, although Huawei was the subject of a worry in another forum thread, and BestBuy in the USA has now stopped selling them, probably under direct or indirect US governmental duress. I suggest at least a comment is warranted for the most paranoid and those engaging in secretive communications. (some satire implied but one never knows for sure when business espionage is a problem. Of course the US, EU, and Japanese branded phones are truly secure, really they are. They must be. Right. Maybe?)
On balance it seems no reviews ‘go there’ but the market is being pushed around and buying a product that could be marginalised through no fault of its own might be a personal disservice unless done so with eyes wide open.
However, if Choice chooses to stay focused on product performance and join the others in avoiding the issue I fully understand. From my perspective Huawei and ZTE are just ones of many, all the same. regarding security.
4 Likes
There is also a related report on mobile network kit that may be germane, linked into another thread.
3 Likes
Key Deal-breakers for me are:
- Lock-in
- Bloatware
For me, these exclude anything “Apple” and more recently Samsung phones.
Apart from the usual features like a good, screen, usable in bright sunlight (I live in WA) and functional, intuitive apps for key functionality like SMS, Phone, Contact management, I also look for substantial (and preferably user-expandable) memory and effective use of memory.
Bloatware + poor (cynical?) memory usage have led me to omit Samsung from my shopping list after having owned several in the past. Yes, you can add memory cards to most Samsung phones however this extra memory is virtually useless because:
- Most apps can only be stored in the “core” memory which is rarely expandable and often 3/4 full already in a brand new phone;
- This core memory is loaded up with software many never use and which you can’t uninstall;
- Then, to keep your phone secure you have to update all these apps you never use, gradually eroding what little core memory is left;
- If you are impudent enough to add an app or two to the phone that you do actually use, your core memory fills up even quicker and a year or two after buying the phone, you are looking for a new one because you’ve run out of core memory, while you’ve still only used a fraction of your 32G or 64G extra memory card!
Cheers,
Rob
Waikiki, Western Australia
8 Likes
2 Likes
We hear you on this and another request for testing Oppo, the more requests we get, the better we can allocate our testing budget. The challenge is that CHOICE tests smartphones as a collective with our other consumer organisation partners in the US (Consumer Reports) and the UK (Which?) with the labs located in Europe. So far, it’s been prohibitively expensive to have it included, but I suspect this situation will change soon as Oppo is now in the top five smartphone makers in the world (even though you can’t get them in the US or UK).
One product we have covered is the OnePlus 5 and 5T which attempted to push into the Australian market last year and works on an online purchasing model. For all intents and purposes, it is an Oppo with another name and skin as they have a very strong relationship with Oppo as far as their founders are concerned.
3 Likes
I found the organisation of this review very awkward. In fact it applies to all your reviews where the product list is either complex or large, and this one is both!
If you use the filters on the left, good that you can select several, but the actual list you can select filters from is in this case very small considering the range of characteristics.
If you select Compare All Products, then you can’t use filters at all. You can remove products one by one.
As an example, (other members will have different egs) I was interested in video performance. That doesn’t seem to have a relationship to camera in terms of % performance, eg, a good camera rating might not lead to good video. I suspect both camera and video need very good display outside, in sunny or wintery conditions, and inside in artificial lighting maybe darkness, etc. You need to be able to see the object in a wide variety of conditions. I didn’t get the feeling these things had been considered together, and it was nigh on impossible to filter such phones.
Related to both camera and video, I’m not ever expecting a phone to give me the type of high quality a dedicated reflex camera or video camera will. But, gives me the immediacy of the moment, portability, flexibility.
With a new report it might be the ideal time to look for a bargain amongst the discontinued items, but can’t filter just those!
I am also at a loss to understand the recommendations, when some of the phones are 10x the price of another! Recommended for what? Should we buying the Android brand leaders at all?
I also wondered if the O/S version is actually the determinant of some performance criteria, rather than the hardware?
3 Likes
Something you don’t look for in a Smartphone…A team testing the VOIP components in the Android system (not the software you install but the operating system components) found 8 vulnerabilities and a further 1 in a 3rd party app. Most but not all have been patched. they tested the 7, 8 & 9 versions of Android. Google has patched most. More of the news about this find can be read at:
Earlier versions of Android have not been tested and are likely not patched either as many providers no longer support earlier versions in their patching regimes.
5 Likes
