Looking for an Android phone with decent camera
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ronnus
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Agreed, I've got a 1st gen Moto G as a work phone and the camera is beyond dreadful. Budget phone makers put the money towards making the device perform, peripherals such as the camera are the cheapest they can use.
You might want to seek out something like a Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom from a few years back, which was a mash up of camera and smartphone. If you can stretch to £140 it may fit your requirements. Although I quite fancied a go on one, I've never used either said device or said company, so caveat emptor. You might be able to grab one from eBay for under a ton.
I used to have 1st Gen Moto G. I agree it wasn't great. My daughter now has a 3rd gen and it is noticably better. Still not up to compact camera standards though. I now have a LG G2. 8MP OIS. In good situations it gives pretty good images but if you look closely they are still pretty rubbish compared to a decent compact.
An example here:
Zoe on my G2 by Toby, on Flickr
The point being that even a reasonable good phone is still not exactly great.
An example here:
Zoe on my G2 by Toby, on FlickrThe point being that even a reasonable good phone is still not exactly great.
In which case you do have more options. Looking on ebay I reckon you could get a G2 for sub £100. Depends whether you think the picture above is good enough for you or not - you can click through to flickr and see the original size of you want to pixel peep. In my view it is over-processed giving a strange look to the background but it isn't bad considering how tiny the camera has to be.
You are going to have to consider what else you want from the phone though. eg how much memory? The G2 comes in 16GB and 32GB sizes and does not take a memory card. The os takes up about 8GB so the 16GB will have 8GB free for apps and data. Depends on your usage as to whether that is enough or not.
Other comments on the G2:
Very nice (full HD) screen which goes nice and bright (so usable outdoors) but it does suck up the battery if you run it at high brightness.
Small for a 5.2" screen. The screen goes very close to the edge of the case. It does have a thin metal frame round it but I suspect it will be susceptible to glass breakages if dropped. I keep mine in a case to help protect it.
A very shiney and slippery case! When I first got it I was convinced I was going to drop it all the time.
Odd placement of the volume and power buttons (on the back). You get used to this pretty quickly but I still find it not quite as comfortable as normal side buttons.
Good call quality. Not that many people use there phones for actually talking nowadays
Decent speaker volume and quality, at least compared to my old Galaxy S3 Mini anyway.
OS is kitkat 4.4.2 but with quite a lot of LG customisation. None of the LG stuff is too intrusive but I do suspect it creates more lag than you would expect from the processing power and memory it has. But this is being very fussy, it is fine in normal use. I think there is a lollipop update for it but I have had too many problems with lollipop and marshmallow on my nexus 7 to want to upgrade!
One thing that does bug me is it beeps when if finishes charging and you don't appear to be able to turn that notification off (without routing the phone anyway). I got round it by turning of system notification sounds (it sill notifies for apps, texts etc) but I think that is a bit of a bodge. It is also slight sensitive to chargers and charging cables. I have one cable which makes it go mad when it finishes charging - constantly beeping the notification. But that is only one cable from 4 or 5 I tried.
Oh, and to get LTE coverage in the UK you want the D802 version, there are others on ebay that will not do all the 4G bands in the UK.
Bottom line, if I had paid £400 for it (about what it cost when released I think) I might be a bit more critical but for the £120 I paid (new but opened and soiled box) I think it is an absolute bargain.
I am sure there are other options in the same price range (2nd hand) but I've not tried them. It is certainly better than my daughters 3rd Gen MotoG which would probably cost you the same, if not more, 2nd hand.
EDIT: Btw I forgot to add, I get a day hard use (downloading, playing netflix, over 8 hours screen time) or 4 to 5 days light use (ie the occasional call or text) out of a charge. Quite reasonable I think considering it has a higher resolution screen and more processing power than my netbook!
You are going to have to consider what else you want from the phone though. eg how much memory? The G2 comes in 16GB and 32GB sizes and does not take a memory card. The os takes up about 8GB so the 16GB will have 8GB free for apps and data. Depends on your usage as to whether that is enough or not.
Other comments on the G2:
Very nice (full HD) screen which goes nice and bright (so usable outdoors) but it does suck up the battery if you run it at high brightness.
Small for a 5.2" screen. The screen goes very close to the edge of the case. It does have a thin metal frame round it but I suspect it will be susceptible to glass breakages if dropped. I keep mine in a case to help protect it.
A very shiney and slippery case! When I first got it I was convinced I was going to drop it all the time.
Odd placement of the volume and power buttons (on the back). You get used to this pretty quickly but I still find it not quite as comfortable as normal side buttons.
Good call quality. Not that many people use there phones for actually talking nowadays
Decent speaker volume and quality, at least compared to my old Galaxy S3 Mini anyway.
OS is kitkat 4.4.2 but with quite a lot of LG customisation. None of the LG stuff is too intrusive but I do suspect it creates more lag than you would expect from the processing power and memory it has. But this is being very fussy, it is fine in normal use. I think there is a lollipop update for it but I have had too many problems with lollipop and marshmallow on my nexus 7 to want to upgrade!
One thing that does bug me is it beeps when if finishes charging and you don't appear to be able to turn that notification off (without routing the phone anyway). I got round it by turning of system notification sounds (it sill notifies for apps, texts etc) but I think that is a bit of a bodge. It is also slight sensitive to chargers and charging cables. I have one cable which makes it go mad when it finishes charging - constantly beeping the notification. But that is only one cable from 4 or 5 I tried.
Oh, and to get LTE coverage in the UK you want the D802 version, there are others on ebay that will not do all the 4G bands in the UK.
Bottom line, if I had paid £400 for it (about what it cost when released I think) I might be a bit more critical but for the £120 I paid (new but opened and soiled box) I think it is an absolute bargain.
I am sure there are other options in the same price range (2nd hand) but I've not tried them. It is certainly better than my daughters 3rd Gen MotoG which would probably cost you the same, if not more, 2nd hand.
EDIT: Btw I forgot to add, I get a day hard use (downloading, playing netflix, over 8 hours screen time) or 4 to 5 days light use (ie the occasional call or text) out of a charge. Quite reasonable I think considering it has a higher resolution screen and more processing power than my netbook!
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andyred
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A great phone but I believe (at least some of) the UK 4G bands are not supported? I know a mate upgraded his to a +2 because of lack of 4G.
Edit: btw. The op hasn't said what size phone he wants. Things like the Ultra 6 are getting very near the limit for fitting in a trouser pocket.
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