Which of these two phones would you go with and why?

[mobster011]

AT&T is willing to give me either the LG Phoenix 2 or ZTE ZMax 2 free of charge and trying to figure out which one to go with.

I like that the ZTE has a bigger screen, more RAM, physical home/menu/back buttons and power/volume buttons on the side. On the other hand, the only real motivating factor for the LG is that it comes with Marshmallow. Quick note: I don't have any experience with rooting and wouldn't really want to take the chance in doing this on the ZTE in order to update it to Marshmallow. Given the pros and cons that I'm feeling with each phone, which would you go with?

Thanks for your feedback and opinions.

LG Phoenix 2
Android 6.0 Marshmallow
5" screen
294 pixels per inch
Qualcomm Snapdragon 210
Quad-core 1300MHz ARM Cortex A-7
1536MB RAM
2125mAh battery
NFC
DOES NOT have physical home, back, menu buttons
Power and volume buttons are on the back below the camera lens

ZTE ZMax 2
Android 5.1 Lollipop
5.5" screen
267 pixels per inch
Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
Quad-core 1200MHz ARM Cortex A-53, 64-bit
2048MB RAM
3000mAh battery
No NFC
DOES have physical home, back, menu buttons
Power and volume buttons are on the side

 

[mobster011]

Bump. This got pushed down very quickly....any thoughts and opinions are appreciated.

 

[mobster011]

Anyone?

 

[Chuck Finley69]

I have the LG Phoenix 2. Coming from an LG G2. Even though my G2 is almost 2 1/2 years older than Phoenix 2, I miss the G2. Keep in mind that I paid only $80 with promo for the Phoenix 2 and G2 at time I bought new was like $600 with promo. I can buy a certified refurb G2 with AT&T for around $150 and wish I'd spent the extra money. That being said, the Phoenix 2 has been a decent phone on a second line that I carry. Paying out $0, I would take Phoenix 2 only for Marshmallow. I've found that a phone built with an OS is better optimized than one that you have to upgrade and that's assuming you'll ever be able to even upgrade. Neither phone is even a mid-tier phone so they don't stay relevant very long. The microsd is not really expandable in the Phoenix 2 as they've advertised for apps. You cannot switch to internal memory from portable. I wasted $15 on microsd card to expand app storage for nothing.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mobster011]

Thanks Chuck. How do you like not having permanent home, back and menu buttons and having the volume and power buttons on the back?

 

[onnad]

Coming from a G2 I had no issues with either no physical buttons and buttons on the back.

 

[B. Diddy]

I'd suggest the ZTE, since overall, I think you'll have a better experience with a more powerful phone with more RAM running an older Android version than with an underpowered phone running a more current version.

 

[Chuck Finley69]

Thanks Chuck. How do you like not having permanent home, back and menu buttons and having the volume and power buttons on the back?

I like it but I've been using same basic setup for last 30 months with the G2.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[dpham00]

I have had the lg k4 (similar to the Phoenix 2)and Zmax2. The Zmax2 performed substantially better. But it is on older software.

 

[mobster011]

dpham, which would you suggest I go with? Older software with better performance or newer software with (presumably) lesser performance?

Thank you Chuck, onnad and B Diddy for your thoughts.

More opinions are always appreciated!