What is the best $200 smart phone I can get?

[slightlyhuman]

i have asus zenfone 2 and s5 mini in the mail. really wish the zenfone had a smaller screen. i hate displays bigger than 5". i'm thinking i'll keep the zenfone 2 for obvious spec reasons but sure wish it had a 4.5-4.8" screen.

 

[soccerballtux]

Luckily, in a large number of areas, band 12 has been allowed to be deployed. Here's a coverage map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=zYsWXH8QR36Q.k_csKbu63eVk. It gets at probably the biggest metros in the US.

While band 17 does overlap with band 12, the phone's baseband radio software has to have band 12 support built into it for proper hand-off of voice support. TMo requires phones with band 12 to also support VoLTE because band 12 is being used to expand rural coverage where there is no existing footprint. If a phone doesn't support VoLTE in this situation (no legacy coverage), the phone will have data but not voice or messaging.

So TMo actually finds itself in a bit of a unique situation. It's also the reason the Nexus 6 has its own baseband radio compared to all the other variants.

ah yes, it was VoLTE that was the problem.

 

[slightlyhuman]

zenfone2 is very nice. very fast. don't like the the power button on top but double tap to turn the screen on will suffice.

Don't like the soft buttons and they do not light up(really?). The asus software bloat wasn't too bad but there is a lot of stuff from Asus already on the phone.

Waiting on s5 mini to decide which one I like better. If the zenfone 2 had a smaller screen and capacitive buttons it would be the best phone I've ever owned.

 

[lazybedone]

You could try the Asus Zenfone. Its worth your budget and could satisfy you in terms of your daily activities.

 

[ymteh]

Asus zenfone fulfilled the budget. But I have searched a number of bad reviews about it. Still I see many of my friends are using this phone so I guess it's ok to go for if you have not much demands on a device.