for work, cheap and good

A

AC Question

Hi people, it is time to consider a smartphone. (never had one)

Reasons: google calendar, google mail, hotspot
I want: good battery, dual sim, android, home/back/menu buttons under the screen (not on screen)
I don't care about: camera, games, fingerprint reader
Considering: dedicated SD slot, OLED display, more RAM
I don't like fancy (transparency, sliding, bumping, overlays etc.) and colorful GUI's.

Questions:
1. Is google calendar showing more on higher resolution display of the same size (HD vs FHD)?
2. Is OLED display actually saving battery?
3. How much internal space is needed for my use (how much takes the system)?
4. Do I need SD card slot (what is your use of SD card)?
5. 2GB or 3GB or more ram and why?
6. Is there any simple GUI / skin for your recommended one?
7. Great apps you suggest?

So far I am most into Lenovo / Samsung.

Thank you!
 

belodion

Co-Ambassador Team Lead
Moderator
Jun 10, 2014
39,362
245
63
Visit site
post by me, i registered :)
Welcome. :)

I find it difficult to juggle all those things in my head. It may be best if you tell us what you intend to do with the phone. Your needs may be met by something fairly simple, in which case you don't really need to concern yourself very much with the all the points you mention above. They are perfectly good points, but some may not be relevant in your case.

But to answer your questions briefly:
1) HD would give you enough sharpness for the Google Calendar app.
2) Yes, but not very much.
3) It depends on your use. Several gigabytes of storage are used for the system, varying with device and storage capacity.
4) It depends on your use.
5) That is personal preference.
6) Android Device Manager. But there are many more. :)
 
Last edited:

chickensk

New member
Jul 24, 2016
2
0
0
Visit site
So I checked Lenovo and Samsung stores personally and I found one to go with - Lenovo A7010 - 3GB 16GB version.

WHY?

1. I was looking for operating system variants, that have possibility to set device resource access per application - Lenovo A7010, Samsung J5.
- Lower product numbers like Samsung J3 was too simple to get per app access control.
- Lenovo K5 was even more terrible, prohibiting you to remove app icons from desktop, because it lacks application menu or any other menu!

2. Lenovo K5 Note (A7020) i have NOT tried, but it has 2SIM / 1SIM + SD combo slot. I have seen how to use both, but I don't like to do that. But it has better specs for not such a price difference..

3. Even Samsung OLED display in 720p looks slightly better than Lenovo 1080p IPS:
- Samsung version of Android GUI restricts you to remove "quick setting shortcut box" in settings menu. It leaves empty white box, suggesting you to add some “shortcuts”.
- Samsung quick settings panel icons still look very “childish”, but Lenovo has very weird labels on theirs..
- On Lenovo you can not move WiFi / Cell / BT switches in quick settings panel other than inside the top row.
- Samsung has more themes available right away in the menu, but mostly I don’t like their styling anyway.
- Samsung has possibility to change OS font (I did not notice this on Lenovo version). Just for you to know.

4. Even not visible, average performance of A7010 processor seems 1.5x higher and it has double the cores.
- It should show in battery life.
- I don’t care about GPU.
- Both interfaces are very responsive.

5. Lenovo A7010 has option for 3GB RAM, which seems more futureproof in today's style of app / web coding.

6. Camera image quality looks on par (but I didn’t try to compare, as I don’t care). Samsung had more intuitive controls for camera (as for setting it manually), but was definitely slower on auto.

7. Lenovo A7010 has capacitive home button, which I prefer designwise to physical one. Samsung J5 home button is great though!
- Lenovo P1 home button (with fingerprint reader, about which I don't care) is wobbly. I like stifness of control surfaces.

8. Lenovo A7010 has details I like:
- slightly higher capacity battery, but not exchangeable as Samsung J5 has
- very interesting deep energy saver mode
- much better timekeeping app design / usage
- very thorough black/white listing of contacts, automatic call recording, even yellow pages feature!
- WiFi ac, direct WiFi
- buttons on one side so you always know where to find them (probably not an issue for most of you)
- front facing speakers (even I don’t care about them) makes more sense
- headphone jack on top side of the phone (allows you to hold it vertical on your lap)
- dual led flash
- small notification led!
- is black only, suits every occasion :p

9. Other brands I had oportunity to check live (Moto) or online:
- do not have home/back/menu buttons under the screen, which takes screen real estate and decereases operating speed while waiting for them to show up, if they hide
- have a version of Android from Asia (no offense please)
- do not have Android

BUT:
- I forgot to check contact list group assign on Lenovo. Samsung does it well (allowing contacts to be added to more groups at the same time).
- I am not sure about differences in using multiple alarm clocks.
- I don't remember details about automatic network, private mode and do not disturb modes switching...
- I am not sure about differences in built-in file management, but was well thought of on Samsung.

Any comments or questions appreciated!

Thank you for reading. :)
 

B. Diddy

Senior Ambassador
Moderator
Mar 9, 2012
165,285
4,396
113
Visit site
Welcome to Android Central!

1. Is google calendar showing more on higher resolution display of the same size (HD vs FHD)?
Yes, a 1080p screen will show more detail than a 720p screen.

3. How much internal space is needed for my use (how much takes the system)?
Get at least 16 GB of internal storage, but preferably at least 32 GB, if you plan on installing a lot of apps. The system and preinstalled bloatware typically take anywhere from 3 GB to 8 GB, depending on the phone and the amount of bloatware.

4. Do I need SD card slot (what is your use of SD card)?
The SD card has and always will be best used to store media, like photos, music, and videos. Some phones allow you to move an app to SD, but this only moves a small portion of the app. Some phones on Marshmallow allow you to format the SD card as Internal (Adoptable) Storage, meaning it incorporates the card into the onboard internal storage, and you can therefore install more apps. The downside is that apps may run more slowly (since SD card read-write speeds aren't as fast as onboard eMMC), and if the SD card corrupts or fails, apps or the whole system may crash.

5. 2GB or 3GB or more ram and why?
This is a subject of debate. The trend these days is more more MOAR RAM :p, but increased RAM doesn't do much if the system can't optimally use it. This was noted recently in the OnePlus 3, although OnePlus is supposedly going to address it: The OnePlus 3 doesn't take advantage of all its RAM, but why? For most average users, 2 GB RAM is plenty, and 3 GB is more than enough.

6. Is there any simple GUI / skin for your recommended one?
Nova Launcher is an excellent and versatile alternate launcher.

Sorry, but I haven't read through your more detailed post about those Samsung and Lenovo phones. I would suggest, however, that you also consider the ASUS ZenFone 3 line. ASUS phones are typically dual SIM and have SD slots. Their upper level phones have at least 4 GB of RAM. And they're relatively affordable.
 

Trending Posts

Forum statistics

Threads
942,407
Messages
6,913,941
Members
3,158,399
Latest member
pauloxcavalcante