Wanted - decent android phone with screen <5"

@ancient_mariner - I'm looking for a new Android phone for my wife. Not too big, decent battery life, reasonable but not state-of-the-art spec ... sound familiar? I used the very comprehensive Phone Finder functionality at GSM Arena and my shortlist was basically a bunch of Xiaomi phones including the 4X. It seems to tick a lot of boxes for my wife's needs, as it apparently did for you. Your early reports of usage seem very favourable too - so I think I'm going to get one. Unless there is anything else you'd want to add that would influence my decision....?
 
Hi @StewartR I've had the phone in my hands 10 days now, so I suppose that if I were writing for a magazine this would be a long-term test. ;)

Nothing has changed especially, and tonight I just put the phone on charge for the third time since first use. It's almost boring in that everything just works and gets on with stuff as it should without stutters or several seconds of wondering "is the app going to open?". You'll probably want to spend a bit of time going through all the MIUI menu options and especially altering privacy settings. Bumper cases are a little more expensive than many other phone types, but can still be found on Amazon for £5-£6. If I bought it again then I'd probably spend an extra few quid for the black model (if it were available - they don't seem to be in stock on the link below) because I don't do bling and don't especially like the white bezel round the screen, but that may not bother your wife one iota.

This link should take you to the appropriate page on Gearbest where mine came from, current price £104 plus about 4 quid shipping from the GW6 warehouse in the EU (probably Italy): https://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_690359.html?wid=1090517
 
For what it's worth, Xiaomi's event this morning has indicated some pretty decent new tech, the Mi8 phone, Mi Band 3, new TV's and VR.
 
OK, to briefly revive this thread, we're just back from Italy. Although my Xiaomi phone works very well in all respects here in the UK, in Italy it offered 3G calls only - no data - presumably because Italy uses 900/1800mhz for 4G which the phone doesn't have. Unlike in the UK, it seems they don't put data down their 3G infrastructure. We got by with our old Lumias, which had 4G connectivity without trouble. If you're an international traveller then make sure the phone will work in all the places you expect to go.

What it did bring home to me was how much apps use the data connection even when they aren't being actively used. Left it on in flight mode, and it went from 50% to 23% between Wednesday and Sunday, including several hours screen time in that period.
 
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A good thread for me - my Xiaomi mi5 is on its last legs, as the battery only lasts half a day now, but it is about 2 1/2 years old and has been faultless otherwise. I was wondering about phones with replaceable batteries as it seems wrong to have to bin a phone that still works in every other way but there isn't many it seems.
My wife and daughter both have the redmi 4 and they are still going strong with plenty of battery life..
 
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stevewestern said:
A good thread for me - my Xiaomi mi5 is on its last legs, as the battery only lasts half a day now, but it is about 2 1/2 years old and has been faultless otherwise. I was wondering about phones with replaceable batteries as it seems wrong to have to bin a phone that still works in every other way but there isn't many it seems.
My wife and daughter both have the redmi 4 and they are still going strong with plenty of battery life..
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My Mi5's battery still lasts about 1 1/2 days, I did out of interest look at how easy it is to change the battery and it's relatively easy to be honest...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uuSmcp-p5o
 
Just ordered the wife a Xiaomi Note 5 from Gearbest, using their Polish warehouse for shipping (so duty paid). Hopefully it will be even better than the 4X.

*edit* the real PITA is going to be trying to recover whatsapp messages & move them across. Apparently it's possible with a paid-for app, but especially difficult on later phones like her 650.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
*edit* the real PITA is going to be trying to recover whatsapp messages & move them across. Apparently it's possible with a paid-for app, but especially difficult on later phones like her 650.
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Yes. Whatsapp is a pain. Telegram doesn't have that problem. In fact you can continue chats across many devices and PCs. This also means you don't have to exclude people who don't have a smartphone from groups.

Good luck with the Note 5.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
Just ordered the wife a Xiaomi Note 5 from Gearbest, using their Polish warehouse for shipping (so duty paid). Hopefully it will be even better than the 4X.

*edit* the real PITA is going to be trying to recover whatsapp messages & move them across. Apparently it's possible with a paid-for app, but especially difficult on later phones like her 650.
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I've got Whatsapp on my pc as well as my phone, so it might be worth your wife doing the same..?

Following on from this thread, I've now got a Redmi Note4 with 4gb RAM - my teenage daughter was so impressed with it (as am I) that she has now got one too - she was going to get some £500 plus Sony...
 
My Mi5 died a tragic death from a drop into gravel which destroyed the front and rear glass, phone still worked but went through insurance and now have a 128Gb Ceramic Mi6!

In short, the form-factor of all other phones is too large (inc. the Mi8), so I opted for the Mi6 at a fantastic £280 price. Nothing bad to say about this phone at all, battery lasts 2.5 - 3 days!

Also grabbed a Mi Fit Band 3 for £24 and gave my Band 2 away
 
I have a Huawei mate 10 Pro, battery is a 4000 mah battery, and lasts 3 days with light use...even frequent use, it has over 60% in the evening...best battery life I e had on a smart phone.
 
supergeeman said:
I have a Huawei mate 10 Pro, battery is a 4000 mah battery, and lasts 3 days with light use...even frequent use, it has over 60% in the evening...best battery life I e had on a smart phone.
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And the relevance of a phone with a 6-inch screen to this thread is.... what, exactly?
 
StewartR said:
And the relevance of a phone with a 6-inch screen to this thread is.... what, exactly?
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Ease up on the hostility there Stewart, I'm on the lookout for a new phone and I found his post informative.
 
I suppose the relevance is that I've commented on buying my wife a 6 incher in this thread. ;)
 
ancient_mariner said:
I suppose the relevance is that I've commented on buying my wife a 6 incher in this thread. ;)
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Oops. I hadn't realised that. Well, I guess it's "your" thread, so if you want to use a "screen < 5 inches"' thread to talk about 6-inch phones, I shouldn't be objecting when somebody else seems to be taking it off topic! Sorry @supergeeman - and yeah, yours is bigger than mine.
 
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