Seeking Smart Phone, micro sim/high memory

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 Timmd 27 Apr 2021

As above. I currently have 6 gb on my Samsung Galaxy J5, and I keep getting low memory notifications, and my sim is a micro-sim card, so I'm looking for one with more memory which will accept a micro-sim. I'm probably after spending £150ish contract free. Another Samsung might be good, re not having to get to grips with a new way of phone navigation.

Ta peeps.

Tim

Post edited at 18:52
 Blue Straggler 28 Apr 2021
In reply to Timmd:

Respectfully, I’d say don’t factor in the “keep it Samsung so as to avoid to learning my way around a new system”. You are bright and adaptable, far more so than I am, and I’ve fairly happily gone Android to Microsoft (on their short lived fling with Nokia) to Apple and back to Android to help with parents’ phones. 

I am sure that £150 will get you something with a lot more than 6Gb. 

 Ridge 28 Apr 2021
In reply to Timmd:

I'd second the above. The top end Samsungs (which I used to have on contract) are very nice indeed, but the bottom end ones tend to be worse than other models at the same price point in terms of camera, storage, battery etc.

Look at the Moto range, they're solid and run android, and you can get a G8 power lite with 64gb storage for just under £100 at Argos. (Just check what the 'lite' refers to).

Redmi and Oneplus are worth a look, if you dont mind the Chinese harvesting your data.

 kevin stephens 28 Apr 2021
In reply to Timmd:

Is the 6GB used for valuable content like music apps and photos or junk? If the latter a reset may clear it 

Post edited at 08:20
 guffers_hump 28 Apr 2021
In reply to Timmd:

Samsungs tend to have a lot more bloatware, which slows the phone down, especially lower spec models. I'd maybe look at getting a 2nd hand sony model. Or any 2nd hand model off of ebay.

 Blue Straggler 28 Apr 2021
In reply to Timmd:

A second hand phone would be more kind for the environment 

 timjones 28 Apr 2021
In reply to Timmd:

A secondhand Galaxy S7 would meet your reauirement and should be available for well inside your £150 budget.  I've just bought one each for my wife and daughter for £90 each off an ebay seller that I have used before and trust.

 lboutside 28 Apr 2021
In reply to Timmd:

Second hand Google Pixel 3a would be my choice, cracking phone only a few years old (2019 release compared to a Samsung S7 or S8 if you're lucky which were 2016/2017 releases) decent camera, relatively low on bloatware, Google owns android so you get stock android with day 1 updates rather than the sporadic and delayed security updates you'll get from others such as Samsung (Apple are also great for supporting older phones but good luck finding anything from iPhone 8 onwards for less than 200 in good nick) and it can be found within your price range on eBay or sometimes you'll get lucky with a store like CeX 

 LastBoyScout 28 Apr 2021
In reply to Timmd:

Just get one of the phones that you can add a microSD card into and you'll be able to add between 8Gb and 32Gb, depending on model, maybe even more.

 Blue Straggler 28 Apr 2021
In reply to LastBoyScout:

> Just get one of the phones that you can add a microSD card into and you'll be able to add between 8Gb and 32Gb, depending on model, maybe even more.

They don't always communicate as well as you'd like, with the data on the inserted microSD, so I've heard. e.g. perhaps you can link the music player but not a video player, or perhaps you can't set them to write the photos to the card by default. 

But this is vague wittering from me and may be several years out of date

In reply to Blue Straggler:

My old Moto E2 quite happily uses a 256GB uSD card.

Sadly, it's stuck with the shitty SD card management scheme of Android 6, which means you can't put apps on the SD card without losing the ability to use it as a normal file store as well.

 Michael Hood 28 Apr 2021
In reply to captain paranoia:

I got a Moto E6 for about £80 a year or so ago - great basic smartphone - don't know whether Android 9 allows you to do the file handling you would want.

 lithos 28 Apr 2021
In reply to Michael Hood:

I bought a 2nd hand moto g3 (2015) 16GB for 30 quid from ebay to replace/supplement my same model 8Gb, as it's small, waterproof (claimed) and does everything i need from a phone.  Both are stuck on Andriod 6 so won't run some apps, so i unlocked the older 8Gb phone and installed LineageOS 17 which is Android 10 on it, works a treat so far.  I Will do similar to the 16gb at some point

In reply to lithos:

> so i unlocked the older 8Gb phone and installed LineageOS 17 which is Android 10 on it, 

Any pointers to instructions for that? Sounds promising.

The little E2 has been going since June 2016. I've been very happy with it. Nice size, good display, reasonable battery. Downsides are mediocre camera, and no compass.

 lithos 29 Apr 2021
In reply to captain paranoia:

I'm no expert having avoided it as I've always viewed my phone as a little tool, not something to tinker with.  I read a lot of web pages and it took me quite a few hours as it was my first. I just googled how to install. . I was accepting i might brick it hence test on an older phone.  I advise you read a lot before digging in.

Before doing anything to phone check you can: unlock your bootloader; install TWRP and get an OS for your phone, as I understand some are easier than others. Research and pick a Custom ROM/ OS to use (it may be limited by your phone) but you can play with all sorts of builds, with or without google apps etc.  I used LineageOS 17 (aka CyanogenMod) i would have been happy with an Andriod 8 clone but thought why not. I think from a quick google you may be stuck at LineageOS 15 but other ROMs are available

There are a few easy things to do (you need a good USB lead and power cable) connect to your PC (i used MacBook)

  • set developer mode on your phone (easy 7 taps on the version in settings/about)
  • backup everything 
  • download to PC ADK  - (adb and fastboot are all you need) 
  • download to PC - a bootloader and an OS (for me TWRP & LineageOS) 

then more complex (lots of phone reboots in here!)

some pages

WHICH CUSTOM ROM (OS) ...This is old but a starting place - do a bit more research! https://www.geekdashboard.com/best-custom-roms-for-motorola-moto-e/

unlock: https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/standalone/bootloader/unloc...

general:https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-key-tips-to-avoid-bricking-your-roo...

new os - I read a few forums /post about which is best but couldn't really make up my mind so went with https://lineageos.org/  version 17 as I've heard of them from old  you can check if they support your phone, and I followed their guides (linked from device page)

i read this https://www.androidcentral.com/root  and a load of other bits... including fixing a bug by clearing some settings.

hope that helps sorry for the length

In reply to lithos:

Thanks, I'll have a bit of a delve.

 timjones 29 Apr 2021
In reply to Blue Straggler:

> They don't always communicate as well as you'd like, with the data on the inserted microSD, so I've heard. e.g. perhaps you can link the music player but not a video player, or perhaps you can't set them to write the photos to the card by default. 

> But this is vague wittering from me and may be several years out of date

I've not noticed any difference in performance when reading/writing to an SD card and it has certainly been possible to save photos to the card on my last 2 phones which means that it must have been an option in Android since at least 2015.

 timjones 29 Apr 2021
In reply to captain paranoia:

> Thanks, I'll have a bit of a delve.

It's quite a simple process, the only issue that has stopped me doing it my latest phone is that some banks and card providers won't allow their apps to run on rooted phones.

 henwardian 29 Apr 2021
In reply to Timmd:

Smart phones with a lot of memory do not exist, sadly. The entire industry is based on selling phones without enough memory so people run out of space after a few operating system updates and app installs and have to buy the new model with _slightly_ more memory. A few years back they plugged the only flaw in their strategy by taking the nerfbat to memory cards you could add to the phone too.

In reply to timjones:

> It's quite a simple process,

Most of these things are simple once you have done them, but they are often arcane, and fraught with the possibility of bricking if you type a character incorrectly...

> the only issue that has stopped me doing it my latest phone is that some banks and card providers won't allow their apps to run on rooted phones

Many catchup services wont run on rooted devices, either. I had identified the need to root a device as a potential barrier.

 Blue Straggler 29 Apr 2021
In reply to timjones:

Thanks for setting it straight! I am out of the loop, I get a company iPhone (not the latest shiny one, I am on an iPhone 7 that I got maybe 3 or even 4 years ago, and my only upgrade option this year was the SE, and my submission for upgrade got rejected, which made it all a bit of a pricktease!). I use my company phone for personal use too so I've never really looked into spec apart from overall 'what can I get for Mum and Dad for around £150' which tends to be "whichever current Motorola is around £150"  

OP Timmd 30 Apr 2021
In reply to henwardian:

> Smart phones with a lot of memory do not exist, sadly. The entire industry is based on selling phones without enough memory so people run out of space after a few operating system updates and app installs and have to buy the new model with _slightly_ more memory. A few years back they plugged the only flaw in their strategy by taking the nerfbat to memory cards you could add to the phone too.

That sounds capitalistic enough to be true (not a bad thing in itself, capitalism, if selling testing software in industry to reduce failure of products, but in this case...). With Samsung phones and their bloatware, the second hand suggestion for a high end one, or a Sony or Google phone could be a plan.

I found my model of Samsung phone doesn't link up with the SD slot-in card, photos go onto it, but the general memory doesn't.

I think I'm getting tired of Samsung bloatware now, it just seems to keep accruing and taking up space...

Post edited at 15:38
OP Timmd 01 May 2021
In reply to lithos:

> I bought a 2nd hand moto g3 (2015) 16GB for 30 quid from ebay to replace/supplement my same model 8Gb, as it's small, waterproof (claimed) and does everything i need from a phone.  Both are stuck on Andriod 6 so won't run some apps, so i unlocked the older 8Gb phone and installed LineageOS 17 which is Android 10 on it, works a treat so far.  I Will do similar to the 16gb at some point

It looks like spending some of the summer learning how to programme/fiddle with smart phones could be a good idea. 

In reply to Timmd:

> it just seems to keep accruing and taking up space...

I have a suspicion that Android (6) keeps a shadow copy of installed apps somewhere, because my phone has 8GB, but I can only find about 4GB of apps and system files. The space available keeps shrinking, in spite of deleting apps, their data and cache. Don't know where the memory is going...

 dsh 03 May 2021
In reply to Timmd:

> my sim is a micro-sim card, so I'm looking for one with more memory which will accept a micro-sim. 

That shouldn't matter, you should be able request any size sim from your carrier. They normally don't charge you either. If it doesn't give you a choice of size it will be a nano sim with adapters for any size. Nearly all phones now take nano sims.

 artif 03 May 2021
In reply to Timmd:

I have a Samsung work phone and a Sony Xperia personal phone. Ive had four work phones and the same Sony in the same period, the Sony gets far more use than the work phones. Sony has a dual sim or sim and memory card slot I currently run a 128G card with no problems at all. Hi res music as well, which was my main criteria. 

The new Xperia camera seems to get better reviews than the I phone equivalent, if that's your thing (runs for cover) 

Post edited at 16:16

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