Budget 15-20K Spoiled by Poco F1 - looking for a 5G alternative

theagilecoder

theagilecoder

Disciple
Running my Poco F1 as main daily driver for the last 5 years :
  • Compact at 6.1"
  • Legendary custom rom support - I have each year flashed the new android version of custom rom and each was better than the default Mi OS.
  • Easily replaceable battery - have replaced 4 times (from amazon and mobatree). and have been thus getting 10+ hours sot from day 1.
Now that I genuinely need 5G and looking around for alternatives in less than 20k. Please advice if there is one.
 
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theagilecoder said:
Poco F1 is the Aswathama !! Just a few disagreements from a couple of points:
  1. Getting the battery have been very easy for the F1 and the replacement even easier as the backplate is not glued. I have replace the battery around 4 times earlier (once per year or 2 years and two devices) from amazon and the last two from Mobatree :https://www.mobatree.com/products/xiaomi-mi-poco-f1-bm4e?variant=43713842413845 Always got 100% health and no swelling, in fact the og battery had swelled.
  2. All popular custom rom where the safety net passes by default, you do not need to root at all. I have been daily driving F1 with various ROMs starting with A11 and now running A14 and have never rooted the phone and have used various UPI, banking and paypal like apps - never faced a failed transaction.
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Many Thanks for pointing to a Replacement Battery source and attesting to the quality with repeated purchases.
As for Custom ROMs, please advise which ROM you found best for the now five-year-old POCO F1? (Battery Efficiency being top priority).
 
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alap4m said:
Many Thanks for pointing to a Replacement Battery source and attesting to the quality with repeated purchases.
As for Custom ROMs, please advise which ROM you found best for the now five-year-old POCO F1? (Battery Efficiency being top priority).
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NP, i have replied to the same questions in earlier in this thread, have a look at first page comments.
 
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theagilecoder said:
Running my Poco F1 as main daily driver for the last 5 years :
  • Compact at 6.1"
  • Legendary custom rom support - I have each year flashed the new android version of custom rom and each was better than the default Mi OS.
  • Easily replaceable battery - have replaced 4 times (from amazon and mobatree). and have been thus getting 10+ hours sot from day 1.
Now that I genuinely need 5G and looking around for alternatives in less than 20k. Please advice if there is one.
Click to expand...
Buy a second hand iphone 13 mini
 
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alap4m said:
@theagilecoder do update which smartphone you finally decided to replace your trusty POCO F1 with.
I assume the budget may have been between INR 23K to 33K.
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Have not been able to find a good replacement yet. There are a few options suggested that do cover 1 of the 3 features I wanted such as S23 is compact and both S23 and Poco F6 will have custom rom in the future but not now. So sticking with F1 running A14 as of now.
 
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Just sharing some thoughts -- I think it’d be cool if you could pick up a used Nothing Phone (1). They’re going for ~18k in the used market. Here’s my reasoning:

Given that you’re into custom ROMs, it's a solid choice with a pretty decent set of available ROMs. One cool thing is that you can lock the bootloader even with a custom ROM. Nothing kind of overlooked signing the data structure that checks the OS integrity with their own keys, so -- you can lock the bootloader using the default AOSP signing keys. This is great for getting around the whole SafetyNet and Play Integrity mess that's going on with modern devices.

The phone has solid camera sensors and a command mode display panel, meaning it has internal RAM that can enter a low-power state during static use or AOD. A lot of phones in the 20k-30k range don’t have this, and it’s often overlooked by the end consumer.

The Snapdragon 778G might not seem as flashy compared to its successors, but I haven’t found it lacking for my day-to-day tasks. The haptics are solid too -- Nothing uses a cool framework called ‘RichTap,’ also seen in OnePlus phones, to enhance the haptic experience. And of course, the Glyphs! They might not be the most functional, but they’re definitely cool.
 
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My POCO F1 died today. Probably battery, but MOBATREE replacements are out of stock right now. So...

I've been eyeing the S23 (42K), and Nord CE 4 (25K, good specs, but 6.7" screen). Any thoughts? Or cons about the CE 4?
Also considerable is the Nord CE4 Lite. Also 5G, good enough specs, and even has a headphone jack!
I don't like Nothing Phone (1) because I don't like flashing lights, no particular reason, but I don't want to support the company by buying one :p
 
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KAKAN said:
My POCO F1 died today. Probably battery, but MOBATREE replacements are out of stock right now. So...

I've been eyeing the S23 (42K), and Nord CE 4 (25K, good specs, but 6.7" screen). Any thoughts? Or cons about the CE 4?
Also considerable is the Nord CE4 Lite. Also 5G, good enough specs, and even has a headphone jack!
I don't like Nothing Phone (1) because I don't like flashing lights, no particular reason, but I don't want to support the company by buying one :p
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Let me know if you are selling the f1.
64gb or 128gb variant?
 
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Update: I went with Motorola Edge 50 Neo. I don't game, so the processor isn't a big priority. Motorola has promised 5 years of updates, which is probably enough to satisfy me. I still use stock Poco F1, after all.

Will let everyone know my experience after I get it.
 
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KAKAN said:
Update: I went with Motorola Edge 50 Neo. I don't game, so the processor isn't a big priority. Motorola has promised 5 years of updates, which is probably enough to satisfy me. I still use stock Poco F1, after all.

Will let everyone know my experience after I get it.
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I have been eyeing it also. It has the same dimensions as F1 thanks to no bezels. Thanks to the LTPO screen, the SOT I have been seeing in the reviews is not as bad as S23 but actually pretty good standing at 7-8 hours. It will never have custom rom unfortunately but the price is attractive for the specs.
 
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theagilecoder said:
I have been eyeing it also. It has the same dimensions as F1 thanks to no bezels. Thanks to the LTPO screen, the SOT I have been seeing in the reviews is not as bad as S23 but actually pretty good standing at 7-8 hours. It will never have custom rom unfortunately but the price is attractive for the specs.
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Yeah haha, it's practically a cheaper S23. I don't use custom roms, even on F1, so that isn't an issue for me.
You do lose out on some nice Samsung features like the Audio Control hub, though. But then again, you also gain some nice Moto gestures xD

Even if it were, I'll still have the F1 with me to play around. I'm actually pretty happy about having a secondary Android phone to play with hahaha
Maybe postmarketOS? I'd love to develop that further for F1 (if I could. I should stop dreaming lol)

That said, a bit off-topic, but how do I deal with open box delivery?
Do I set up the whole phone infront of the delivery person, then check the specs, camera, screen etc
Or just boot up and make sure its working fine and give them the OTP?
 
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KAKAN said:
Even if it were, I'll still have the F1 with me to play around. I'm actually pretty happy about having a secondary Android phone to play with hahaha
Maybe postmarketOS? I'd love to develop that further for F1 (if I could. I should stop dreaming lol)
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I too wish I could run arm linux on a phone with display out to a monitor. That would be awesome !
KAKAN said:
That said, a bit off-topic, but how do I deal with open box delivery?
Do I set up the whole phone infront of the delivery person, then check the specs, camera, screen etc
Or just boot up and make sure its working fine and give them the OTP?
Click to expand...
Oh! The one time I have taken an open box delivery I just made sure the item was there in the box and not a vim bar ! Didnt know we could test it out like this before giving the otp :D
 
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theagilecoder said:
Oh! The one time I have taken an open box delivery I just made sure the item was there in the box and not a vim bar ! Didnt know we could test it out like this before giving the otp :D
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I'm asking haha, this would be my first time doing an open box delivery. Samsung doesn't do this, you get the phone, and you can return it if it's broken and so on.
 
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KAKAN said:
I'm asking haha, this would be my first time doing an open box delivery. Samsung doesn't do this, you get the phone, and you can return it if it's broken and so on.
Click to expand...
RECORD Delivery. If actual Phone (and not VIM bar) hand over OTP.
Don't stop recording and switch on. If actual phone exists, it should boot up properly.
 
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alap4m said:
RECORD Delivery. If actual Phone (and not VIM bar) hand over OTP.
Don't stop recording and switch on. If actual phone exists, it should boot up properly.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I'll keep it in mind for the next delivery :p
I received the delivery, and couldn't record it because my Poco F1 wasn't in a good condition. In any case, the new phone was in mint condition, booted up, no dead pixels and I paid and took it.
Been using it for a day now, and I freaking love it. Same size (physically) as the Poco F1, slim, great camera, not-so-great camera software, good charging etc
I've setup tap to pay, but haven't tested it yet.
I loved to automate stuff around the house with NFC back with Lumias, so will get into that once my order of NFC Tags arrive haha
Good battery life, though most of the day it's just there at idle. I received notifications right on time, down to mere seconds of delay at most, and the battery drained from 100% to 80% after more than 10hr of sitting idle, with maybe a little text, call, maps or camera here and then. Overall, really happy with it.
Haven't tested wireless charging, either. The pad is at home, so I'll be able to test it out towards the end of October.

If anyone wants me to test something specific, do let me know. I'm not much of a phone review person haha
 
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If you are in Mumbai.
Then there are Mobile spare parts, accessories wholesale market/malls in mumbai central.

Nathani Market opposite mumbai central station

For batteries, city center mall near Mumbai Central.
 
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