Frustrating quest for a mid-range phone <rant>

[yankeeDDL]

It seems unbelievable that with such a wide variety of phones, one has a hard time finding something suitable.
I am looking for a decent phone, 4.9~5", maximum 5.2" screen, Full HD, no Pentile.
Good camera, good battery and, as a plus, a fingerprint sensor, all at max $400 (350eur).

It seems to me that such phone would entice a huge variety of people, but I must be wrong, because it does not exist.

It's true that the 810 disaster, last year, crippled several otherwise decent phones, but it seems to me that companies are "changing for the sake of changing", not to innovate.

I own a (nearly) 3 years old Nexus 5.
I have no major issues with it, except ... well, the issues that it always had: the camera is not great, battery life is mediocre and now it will no longer receive new versions of Android.
Also, 32GB feel ... tight. Having 64 or, better, a microSD, would be great.
So the only Nexus devices out there are either huge, or not significantly more powered than a 3 year old one.
What about the Nexus 5X? Well, the 808 would be an improvement, but at 430eur it does not seem worth it. By a far margin. That's more than what I paid for the Nexus 5, 3 YEARS ago. The N5X should blast it at that price ... but it doesn't really.

There are a few decent phones with 5.5" diagonal. I tried some and they all feel too big. Yes, the Nexus 5 also felt big when I first got it, but it literally took minutes to get used to it. Not so with 5.5". Put them in your pockets and you feel that they're stretching your pants beyond what would be reasonable. One-hand operations are impossible, and I am nearly 6 foot tall: how many people can really comfortably use a 5.5" phone? Why is nobody releasing a good, but smaller phone?

Why not making a new phone identical to the N5? Same screen, better CPU, larger battery, updated cameras.
The Galaxy C5 seems to come close to that, but it has a 617, and the battery ... 2600mAh - meh.

 

[cbrunny]

Xperia XA should meet almost all the need, but it is sadly just 720p.

 

[shimpster]

moto x, moto g, almost any phone manufacturer

 

[quikah]

Xperia XA should meet almost all the need, but it is sadly just 720p.

No fingerprint reader either.

I am in the same boat, really like the 5" size.

 

[Lodix]

Xiaomi mi 4c maybe ?

 

[tsupersonic]

Nexus 5X sounds like the ideal candidate. The only downside is at comes in at 16/32 GB with no expandability. In the US, we've had great discounts. 430 EUR is way too much. Hell I paid about that for my 64 GB 6P.

If you're willing to go with a used option, the S6 might be a nice option.

 

[quikah]

Nexus 5X sounds like the ideal candidate. The only downside is at comes in at 16/32 GB with no expandability. In the US, we've had great discounts. 430 EUR is way too much. Hell I paid about that for my 64 GB 6P.

If you're willing to go with a used option, the S6 might be a nice option.

It is kind of borderline, 5.79" tall, but doable. However, I have heard many issues about lag on it, and the limited storage is a HUGE issue for me.

 

[Insomniator]

Galaxy S5

Two years old yeah, but I just did a factory reset after the marshmallow update and its flying. Waterproof, MicroSD, AMOLED, Removable Battery (still great original battery life for me).

You can probably get a mint/new one for 200 bucks. Best bang for buck there is right now IMO. I am 100% serious.

 

[yankeeDDL]

Thanks everyone.
Good suggestions, but indeed, I think most already pointed out the shortcomings.
Xperia XA: 720p on a 5" ... and the CPU is an octa-core A53. Not impressed.
Moto X: 5.7": way too much
Moto G: 5.5": too much. It has a huge frame too: it is 16mm taller than the Nexus 5!
Xiaomi mi 4c: has an 808. And no SD card, and only 32GB.
Galaxy S5; has an 801. Why not sticking with the Nexus 5?

 

[Oyeve]

Thanks everyone.
Good suggestions, but indeed, I think most already pointed out the shortcomings.
Xperia XA: 720p on a 5" ... and the CPU is an octa-core A53. Not impressed.
Moto X: 5.7": way too much
Moto G: 5.5": too much. It has a huge frame too: it is 16mm taller than the Nexus 5!
Xiaomi mi 4c: has an 808. And no SD card, and only 32GB.
Galaxy S5; has an 801. Why not sticking with the Nexus 5?

Now you're just nitpicking.

 

[Artdeco]

Now you're just nitpicking.

Yep, want better specs, spend more $

 

[smitbret]

A brand new LG G4 can be picked up for <$300

It's a little larger than you wanted at 5'5" but it ticks all of the boxes except for fingerprint reader.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Galaxy S5; has an 801. Why not sticking with the Nexus 5?

Battery life is better, waterproof, removeable storage/battery, better camera, etc. Except for price and updates, the GS5 outclassed the N5 significantly.

Still, I would only consider it if it were really cheap since it's an old phone.

 

[Roland00Address]

With the Qualcomm 650 being the new midrange what you want may happen soon. For people who do not have these skus memorized.

Qualcomm 650
2x 1.8GHz Cortex-A72
4x 1.2GHz Cortex-A53

Qualcomm 652
4x 1.8GHz Cortex A72
4x 1.4GHz Cortex A53

Qualcomm 810. Note this is an older cpu techn even though it is the higher number, the qualcomm 652 will be faster and possibly the 650
4x cores up to 2 GHz Cortex A57,
4x Cortex A53

Qualcomm 820
2x 2.2GHz Qualcomm Kryo
2x 1.6GHz Qualcomm Kryo


http://www.gsmarena.com/snapdragon_652_benchmarked_cortexa72_is_fast_even_on_28nm-blog-16681.php

Note this below device is not the qualcomm implementation of the A72 quad core but instead a different brand implementation of the standard arm cores.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9878/the-huawei-mate-8-review/4

 

[dawheat]

I'd rather spend a little more and get a mint S7 GSM for $475 on swappa. You get the S820, good battery life, great camera, fingerprint scanner, and still compact for it's screen size.

Pay a little more and get a mint flagship that'll have a longer lifespan.

 

[yankeeDDL]

Yep, want better specs, spend more $

I guess you missed my point. 399eur 3 years ago bought me a Nexus 5.
At that price, today, you have nothing decent with a screen size between 4.7" and 5.2".
It is wildly disappointing to me, especially given that 5.5" is a large phone, by any standard.
A53 cores are not particularly faster, nor more energy efficient than the Krait 400 in the Snapdragon 800 of the Nexus 5. At least not to the point to warrant an upgrade.

By the way, tell me, please, what phone has a display which is at least FHD, between 4.7-5.2", with an S820 and expandable storage?
Basically only the Galaxy S7 (580eur) and the HTC 10 (>700eur).

 

[yankeeDDL]

Battery life is better, waterproof, removeable storage/battery, better camera, etc. Except for price and updates, the GS5 outclassed the N5 significantly.

Still, I would only consider it if it were really cheap since it's an old phone.

While I agree that the S5 is better than the Nexus 5, you'd have to agree that, as an update, is not such a no-brainer.
A new S5, in Europe, costs 386eur, almost as much as the Nexus 5 did 3 years ago.
Yes, specs are a bit better, but it probably won't get Android N either.
Meaning you'd have invested in an "old" phone.

 

[ChronoReverse]

I did say I wouldn't get it unless it was cheap since it was so old. Not sure what your repeat of that point was for.

But as a swap, it pretty much gives you a very usable phone.

 

[JeffMD]

Yankee, your biggest hurdle atm is the screen size. You can find MANY phones 1 and 2 generations old that meet all your requirements, except that screen size is a little bigger.

Get over it. 5.5 will not kill you.

 

[Roland00Address]

Yankee, your biggest hurdle atm is the screen size. You can find MANY phones 1 and 2 generations old that meet all your requirements, except that screen size is a little bigger.

Get over it. 5.5 will not kill you.

Most 5.5 inch phones are about 5 mm wider than a 5inch to 5.2 inch phone depending on the bezel size.

In other words we are talking a 1/5 of an inch wider. Now 1/5th of an inch may not seem like much, but that is the thickness of 3 dimes. But what really matters is can you one handly reach the other end of the screen with your thumb or other fingers when you hold a phone one handed. Can you use the phone while doing something else at the same time such as holding your young child's hand?

When OS and App design requires you to reach the other end of the screen to perform essential functions the size of the screen is of critical importance.

If you are going to use the phone two handed why stop at 5.5" why not 6 or 7 inch? Most people can two hand a 5.5" phone and a 7" phablet with identical results. If screen size is everything why not the biggest you can successfully palm?

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I am male, and I have medium size hands. But for the people that have smaller hands whether male or female this is a big deal.

Note that these screens have the same width, as long as you do not need to interact with the top of the screen, do to web, app, and os design. It is better to have the taller phone. Placing the pull down screen or pull up screen for notifications is a big deal when you have tall phones vs square phones.

When the Iphone 5 came out it made the screen taller but not wider. So as long as apple did smart design guidelines and people followed them everything improved. See following picture

But when the Iphone 6 and 6 plus came out they made the phones both taller and wider and you get this situation

Do you notice how much wider the iphone 6 was compared to the iphone 5? This was a big deal...it is even worse with the iphone 6 plus if your goal is to be one handed. That is why apple brought back the iPhone SE which is the iphone 5 dimensions again. (They also brought it back to have a cheaper iphone for asia and other developing countries. The iPhone SE can still look like a prestigious phone while the iPhone 5c told everyone you were cheap if you did not have a case)

Here is a great chart that tells you how big your hand needs to be from palm to fingers to successfully one handed palm a phone and reach the desired points. They then put basketball players on it to demonstrate what is a traditional hand size but what is really large hands.

Full disclosure based on everything I said so far you would think I am an apple phone user. Nope, the answer to that is HELL NO. I am an android fan through and through but the apple due to have limited model choices throughout time vs the hundreds of android phones makes it far easier to research and far easier to demonstrate to people with these images. I would also argue that apple has done more market research on what are the best phone sizes if I am only going to offer 1, 2 or 3 models to fit the wide variety of the market. Aka researching the market before you create dozens of phone models so you do not create excess waste such as Samsung does. In 2014 Samsung released 56 phone models. In 2015 and 2016 they are still releasing alot but less than they did prior. Great article and picture demostration of the too many Samsung choices

http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/1...-making-too-many-phones-will-cut-lineup-by-30

Apple thought with the 6 and 6+ that they captured enough of the market, but after some reflection and studying how people use their phones they brought back a smaller size with the iphone SE.

Oh another thing that market research shows. People who use the 6+ often use that phone two handed while people with smaller phones are more likely to use their phone one handed. But if your goal is two handed like I said before, why not do something like the Samsung Mega (6.3") or the Sony Xperia Z Ultra (6.4")

----

Now shrinking bezels will help improve palm-a-bility. Apple moving away from a home button will also allow to make a smaller phone with a bigger screen despite a smaller size.

Yankee, your biggest hurdle atm is the screen size. You can find MANY phones 1 and 2 generations old that meet all your requirements, except that screen size is a little bigger.

Get over it. 5.5 will not kill you.

Telling someone to get over it means you fundamentally do not understand their concerns or you do not care.

When you tell someone to get over it...one of the most common counter arguments is someone doing a retort where one of the words is a four letter word. There is a reason why that is socially acceptable, you were inflammatory and they responded with a inflammatory reaction statement.

 

[holden j caufield]

Is CPU that important for users? I have an older Note4 (adreno cpu) and an LG G2. Rooted, amazing battery life, made even better by underclocking it. I don't play any intensive games but these cpu and gpu run everything amazingly. For me the screen, battery, location of often used buttons, general inputs etc far outweigh the cpu.

 

[Zodiark1593]

I guess you missed my point. 399eur 3 years ago bought me a Nexus 5.
At that price, today, you have nothing decent with a screen size between 4.7" and 5.2".
It is wildly disappointing to me, especially given that 5.5" is a large phone, by any standard.
A53 cores are not particularly faster, nor more energy efficient than the Krait 400 in the Snapdragon 800 of the Nexus 5. At least not to the point to warrant an upgrade.

Actually, with the relatively high clockspeed of the Krait cores (IPC is close to on par) the Snapdragon 800 is still significantly faster than many A53 based SoCs. Considering Armv8 tends to give a 30% boost in IPC, this is quite an impressive showing from Krait. The power efficiency aspect in SD800 probably came from each core being on their own voltage plane. You'd lose die space, but gain efficiency in exchange. I feel the SD800 was a much more forward-looking design than the later 810.

Not many apps will challenge the SD800 to a significant degree, let alone modern A57 and A72 based SoCs with a half-competent GPU. Not counting inefficiencies in code, we seem to have hit that "good enough" point for most basic uses. As it stands, even the most demanding games on the app store don't seem to compare well in visuals compared to titles on the PS3/360, unless you count benchmarks.

 

[sm625]

Galaxy S6 is under $250 on swappa. What is frustrating about that?

 

[Strk]

I guess you missed my point. 399eur 3 years ago bought me a Nexus 5.
At that price, today, you have nothing decent with a screen size between 4.7" and 5.2".
It is wildly disappointing to me, especially given that 5.5" is a large phone, by any standard.
A53 cores are not particularly faster, nor more energy efficient than the Krait 400 in the Snapdragon 800 of the Nexus 5. At least not to the point to warrant an upgrade.

By the way, tell me, please, what phone has a display which is at least FHD, between 4.7-5.2", with an S820 and expandable storage?
Basically only the Galaxy S7 (580eur) and the HTC 10 (>700eur).

So you want the newest specs with a year old/used pricing?

 

[Insomniator]

You still haven't even mentioned performance as an issue with the Nexus 5. If you aren't pushing the performance of that phone, you won't notice a huge difference moving to an 820.