Advice on Nexus 5-like Android phone?

[r6mile]

Hi all,

I currently own a Google Nexus 5. I'm quite happy with the performance of the phone and it's great for my uses. Battery life is quite mediocre (even though I replaced the battery life), and more importantly my phone has developed some sort of hardware issue where it reboots randomly. I'm not sure I want to spend any money fixing this 2 and half year old phone. Which leads me to what to replace it with?

I'm looking for a mid-range phone (in the £300 price range, as the Nexus 5 was) that has a 5" screen or so (I like the screen size of the Nexus), good battery life, and at least 32GB of storage, or less but expandable with microSD - my Apps don't take up much space but I find that I often run out of space for my music and some films on my 16GB Nexus 5. I'm not fussed about a camera as I very rarely take pictures, and I don't play games on the phone so I'm not fussed about 3D performance. I'd just like it to feel snappy for basic use, and to be able to play movies (both streaming and local files) smoothly. I basically use this phone as a media device to entertain me on my commutes. And ideally it should have a microUSB port - I have about a dozen cables and I'd like to avoid having to replace all them for USB-C or something else. And also the least amount of 'bloatware' as possible.

I've been browsing the internet to find a phone that fits these criteria but I'm not having luck. Despite being a Mac user, I don't like iOS as I find it too constraining and like Android's openness.

Any thoughts on what might suit me? Thanks a lot.

 

[MRU]

Nexus 5X at 32gb ? No micro SD but double your current storage. eglobalcentral.co.uk have the 32gb black at a fantastic price right now.

http://www.eglobalcentral.co.uk/lg-google-nexus-5x-32gb-4g-lte-sim-free-unlocked-black.html

£213

Enter BUY599 at checkout and you'll get an additional £6 off the price bringing it to £207


They are a very reliable seller. I've bought a lot of phones, cameras & lenses from them.

 

[nj-morris]

As MRU says, the 5X is a great option. Even at the Google store it's £299, and for 32GB it's not much more, at £339.
But just curious, why do you want to replace your 5?

 

[r6mile]

As MRU says, the 5X is a great option. Even at the Google store it's £299, and for 32GB it's not much more, at £339.
But just curious, why do you want to replace your 5?

Thanks both for your replies - I will look into the 5X more. My 5 still feels snappy (especially after the factory reset I just did), but this random rebooting issue is incredibly annoying and prevents me from really using properly. I think it's a power button issue, which will cost me £40-50 to replace. The battery is completely underwhelming and even without doing very much on it I have to charge it twice a day by now. I'm just wary of spending any money fixing an old phone. I've also found the 16GB storage quite limiting.

I have done a bit more research and found some good stuff about the Moto X Play - very large battery (which is a very big plus), stock Android (also a big plus), and a microSD slot. It also uses micro-USB which is very useful - not only do I have tons of these cables, but it has been handy in the post as I have been able to charge my phone at friends' houses with standard chargers. It's also only £249 for the 16GB version (plus about £9 for a 32GB SD card from Amazon given that storage is expandable), minus 10% off which Motorola do through Unidays. Whereas the 32GB 5X comes in at £339. Any thoughts on that phone?

 

[nj-morris]

Thanks both for your replies - I will look into the 5X more. My 5 still feels snappy (especially after the factory reset I just did), but this random rebooting issue is incredibly annoying and prevents me from really using properly. I think it's a power button issue, which will cost me £40-50 to replace. The battery is completely underwhelming and even without doing very much on it I have to charge it twice a day by now. I'm just wary of spending any money fixing an old phone. I've also found the 16GB storage quite limiting.

I have done a bit more research and found some good stuff about the Moto X Play - very large battery (which is a very big plus), stock Android (also a big plus), and a microSD slot. It also uses micro-USB which is very useful - not only do I have tons of these cables, but it has been handy in the post as I have been able to charge my phone at friends' houses with standard chargers. It's also only £249 for the 16GB version (plus about £9 for a 32GB SD card from Amazon given that storage is expandable), minus 10% off which Motorola do through Unidays. Whereas the 32GB 5X comes in at £339. Any thoughts on that phone?

I actually nearly bought that phone myself back in October. It does look very good. I was going to suggest it to you, but the screen is 5.5 inches, and I thought that was too big for you, considering you like the 5-inch range. I've never actually used it, but it does sound very good.
Bear in mind though, the 5X does have a fingerprint scanner. If that's something that you want, I'd say go for that.

 

[r6mile]

Thanks a lot nj-morris - I think I am edging towards it. The features and price are very attractive. Also a plus is the ability to customise the colours etc if you buy direct from Motorola. I am going to pop into John Lewis this afternoon and see how the phone actually feels in my hand.

I keep reading reviews of other smartphones that say the phone is very fast etc but battery life is not great. Not much use for a fast phone if it's run out of battery in my view! The big battery life on the Moto X play is probably one of the biggest draws.

 

[ozaz]

Yeah 5X or Moto X Play are probably your safest bets.

Left-field option - might want to take a look at BQ.
http://www.bq.com/uk/smartphones

They are a Spanish manufacturer who are doing quite well in Spain and apparently starting to take customers away from the big boys: http://cdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/news/16/03/sony-numbers/-728/gsmarena_005.jpg

They have recently entered the UK market. I have no experience with them, but what I like about them is they offer variable storage and ram options on some of their phones, give 5-year warranty (!!!!), and put decent size batteries into their phones. Take a look at the M5.

I'm probably going to try them out in a couple of months when they release a phone with a fingerprint sensor: http://www.bq.com/uk/pr-aquarisx5plus

 

[r6mile]

Yeah 5X or Moto X Play are probably your safest bets.

Left-field option - might want to take a look at BQ.
http://www.bq.com/uk/smartphones

They are a Spanish manufacturer who are doing quite well in Spain and apparently starting to take customers away from the big boys: http://cdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/news/16/03/sony-numbers/-728/gsmarena_005.jpg

Thanks all - I think the Moto X Play it is. At £224 (because of 10% Unidays discount) it seems very good value, with most of the criticism directed at its CPU which is not great for gaming - which I don't do on my phone anyway - and a camera that performs poorly in low light (I very rarely take pictures)

PS: I actually had a BQ before my Nexus (I am Spanish) and it was pretty good though the battery life was not great and was nowhere near as smooth as the Nexus. And I ended up losing the phone anyway...

 

[nj-morris]

Thanks all - I think the Moto X Play it is. At £224 (because of 10% Unidays discount) it seems very good value, with most of the criticism directed at its CPU which is not great for gaming - which I don't do on my phone anyway - and a camera that performs poorly in low light (I very rarely take pictures)

PS: I actually had a BQ before my Nexus (I am Spanish) and it was pretty good though the battery life was not great and was nowhere near as smooth as the Nexus. And I ended up losing the phone anyway...

So are you ok with the 5.5-inch screen?

 

[ozaz]

PS: I actually had a BQ before my Nexus (I am Spanish) and it was pretty good though the battery life was not great and was nowhere near as smooth as the Nexus.

That's interesting. Out of curiosity, how long ago was that?
Do you remember how close the skin was to stock Android?

 

[r6mile]

So are you ok with the 5.5-inch screen?

Yes I think I might actually enjoy that - would be useful for watching movies. In my original post I just meant I was looking for something bigger than a 4-inch phone like some iPhones.

That's interesting. Out of curiosity, how long ago was that?
Do you remember how close the skin was to stock Android?

I got it around easter of 2013. I think it was very close to stock Android - I don't remember any bloatware. I was quite pleased with the phone (I think it was called BQ Aquaris 5.0) but it's just battery life that I found a bit disappointing, and it did not feel as snappy as the Nexus i got later (which I guess is expected since the BQ was a much cheaper phone)

 

[nj-morris]

Yes I think I might actually enjoy that - would be useful for watching movies. In my original post I just meant I was looking for something bigger than a 4-inch phone like some iPhones.

Cool. Let us know how it goes.

 

[r6mile]

Hi guys,

Just to let you know I received my phone on Saturday. Customised using Moto X Maker (black front and back, metallic red 'accents', looks very cool). It came all the way from China but only took a day to deliver. Came with Android 6.0 Marshmallow - I have installed a Sandisk Extreme UHS1 U3 32GB microSD card and configured as 'adaptable storage'. It's big but I like that, but the 5.5 screen is great for media and the phone feels feels sturdy. I am still going to get a case for it (Diztronic black matte).

So far I am impressed with battery life (the main draw to this phone for me), still over 55% battery after more than 24 hours of use (not very heavy use, but including watching some videos and listening to music), which these days is great. The phone feels very snappy, and using NFC and Google backups it transferred over all my apps, settings and contacts from my Nexus 5 easily. I also like that I can re-use all my existing microUSB cables, though I think I will buy a fast charger (which is not included). I can highly recommend it, a great phone particularly for the price.

I know the 6s Plus is a bit more powerful etc, and obviously many people prefer iOS to Android, but it seems hard to justify 2.5x the price of the Moto X Play IMO.