Android Experience with "less popular" mobile phone brands

[logistopath]

Most of us here have mobiles made by the popular manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Google, Oneplus, etc... Most of the buying advice section also sees recommendations from these brands. However, with the other less popular brands like Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, etc. catering to all budgets nowadays,

1. Would you be open to considering these phones for your next purchase, whatever be your budget? Why or why not?
2. What has been your experience with these phones, if you have already had them?
3. Which of these "less popular" brands seems to be worthy of consideration?

P.S: I'm aware that most of these brands are subsidiaries of one parent company. For the sake of discussion, let us consider them as separate entities.

 

[silverstar]

However, with the other less popular brands like Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, etc. catering to all budgets nowadays,

You are correct that folks here are able to afford high end flagships from Oneplus, Samsung, Apple but this population contributes to a very tiny share in the market compared to the "mid-range" and "budget" oriented consumers which contributes to the largest share in the market. Fun fact Xiaomi continues to retain the largest market share in India after displacing Samsung over 5 years ago so, like it or not these brands cannot be termed "less popular" consider the larger picture.

1. Would you be open to considering these phones for your next purchase, whatever be your budget? Why or why not?

I hope we can agree that even though "mid range" manufacturers provide killer hardware for an affordable price, they provide a terrible software experience. If I have to state my personal opinion I would be open to consider purchasing any smartphone provided I get an excellent software experience (along with killer hardware). The Google Pixel would be a prime example but not everyone can afford it. So the next best thing would be to search for a smartphone which is widely supported in the custom ROM world and most of such phones happen to be manufactured by "mid range" manufacturers like Xiaomi, Motorola, etc.

I understand its not everybody's cup of tea to go about tinkering about their smartphone so it makes sense for such folks to skip mid-range brands for their terrible software experience, bloatware and ads and instead opt for a phone which offers stock experience.

What has been your experience with these phones, if you have already had them?

I have answered this partially above but if I talk about the experience out of the box then I'll say its terrible. I blame the market running after higher and higher numbers with respect to hardware specs therefore forcing manufacturers cutting corners elsewhere which among other things includes software experience, ads, bloatware, tracking, etc. That being said for someone who's comfortable tinkering these are excellent devices to load a custom ROM and tweak everything exactly as you want all while enjoying the best hardware.

I have been doing this for the past 4 years with all my phones and I can vouch for this route (ofc YMMV)

3. Which of these "less popular" brands seems to be worthy of consideration?

Avoid Oppo and Vivo period. Motorola and Nokia provide the best software experience (near stock, minimal bloat) but their hardware is not always worth the money. Xiaomi and subsidaries (Poco, Redmi, etc.) provides excellent hardware but terrible software out of the box but also have the highest chances of being popular in the custom ROM world.

 

[mks9697]

I can only talk of my experience with Mi and Redmi brand of phones. My relationship with the brand was horrible, it began when my camera had autofocus issues(constantly hunting focus in video mode). It was then reported that this is a known software bug. They patched it after 6 months of my ownership and broke it again after a few months in another software update.
Last year I moved to LG G8x which didn't cost a lot in the flipkart sale and let me tell you I've experienced the confident just click and post for the 1st time in my life. No weird focus bugs and feature breaking updates.

 

[raksrules]

If people have used even the least popular brands, they can also talk about it. Brands like Infinix, Tecno, Lava, Micromax, Poco etc. Some of these brand have ridiculously high specced phones at 10K-14K range. And even have massive screen sizes. The only thing missing is the L1 widevine which means even on an almost 7 inch screen size phone, you cannot watch Netflix in HD or Full HD. But yes offline videos in full HD would look great I am sure.

 

[rdst_1]

I can only talk of my experience with Mi and Redmi brand of phones. My relationship with the brand was horrible, it began when my camera had autofocus issues(constantly hunting focus in video mode). It was then reported that this is a known software bug. They patched it after 6 months of my ownership and broke it again after a few months in another software update.
Last year I moved to LG G8x which didn't cost a lot in the flipkart sale and let me tell you I've experienced the confident just click and post for the 1st time in my life. No weird focus bugs and feature breaking updates.

G8X also has an autofocus issue, but with the front cam and on top of it, it isn't even something which can be corrected by a software update.

 

[ankushv]

Used Micromax many years ago , phone broke down after warranty over , battery was swollen did not buy micromax after that .
Redmi I had Redmi 1s and Redmi note 4g back then . Both were awesome phones .

Redmi note 4 was good too . As well as the Mi5 I had , very good audio dac , good camera with auto focus , good screen and compact .

Currently using Mi Max 2 . Very well built phone .

The problem I always faced with mi and redmi was the absolute lack of software support . They always updated miui but never the core os .

OT I have a Samsung s9 and s9+ . Just after warranty s9 ( an excellent phone ) developed the yellow screen fault . Samsung wants 10k for it . Screen is scratchless but turns a yellow tumt after 5 min of use . Very disappointed with Samsung for that .
They have ( Samsung flagships) have great camera and also software support and one ui is good . But will think again before I buy another as the super amoled screens are very expensive to replace .

 

[DrkLord]

Used Micromax many years ago , phone broke down after warranty over , battery was swollen did not buy micromax after that .
Redmi I had Redmi 1s and Redmi note 4g back then . Both were awesome phones .

Redmi note 4 was good too . As well as the Mi5 I had , very good audio dac , good camera with auto focus , good screen and compact .

Currently using Mi Max 2 . Very well built phone .

The problem I always faced with mi and redmi was the absolute lack of software support . They always updated miui but never the core os .

OT I have a Samsung s9 and s9+ . Just after warranty s9 ( an excellent phone ) developed the yellow screen fault . Samsung wants 10k for it . Screen is scratchless but turns a yellow tumt after 5 min of use . Very disappointed with Samsung for that .
They have ( Samsung flagships) have great camera and also software support and one ui is good . But will think again before I buy another as the super amoled screens are very expensive to replace .

Less known companies drop software support too. They provide good hardware for the price and I guess the cut costs on software side. But if the phone you are using is popular enough(like poco f1), the custom rom scene will have your back. Even now, only phone that can displace it for value for money is poco x3 pro.
Samsung is jack of all trades master of none. They give decent software experience and decent hardware (overpriced) for their price. Still sailing on their brand value. But they also have good after sales support.
Xiaomi provides good hardware and their after sales support has improved too. If you can get over the overly bloated ui they are generally great value for money phones.

 

[mks9697]

G8X also has an autofocus issue, but with the front cam and on top of it, it isn't even something which can be corrected by a software update.

so do several samsung flagships. however i have never had any issue with the front cam's focus.

 

[iPwnz]

Most of us here have mobiles made by the popular manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Google, Oneplus, etc... Most of the buying advice section also sees recommendations from these brands. However, with the other less popular brands like Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, etc. catering to all budgets nowadays,

1. Would you be open to considering these phones for your next purchase, whatever be your budget? Why or why not?
2. What has been your experience with these phones, if you have already had them?
3. Which of these "less popular" brands seems to be worthy of consideration?

P.S: I'm aware that most of these brands are subsidiaries of one parent company. For the sake of discussion, let us consider them as separate entities.

Xiaomi is very popular man what are you talking about. I think the seller's commission is also good since they are being sold widely.
1. Yes. I considered the iQoo and Infinix brands.
2. NA
3. Because you added Xiaomi in the list I would say Xiaomi. I have high hopes for iQoo and Infinix.

I hope you are trying to bring a new startup. I will buy it if it has the things I need no-bs features whether its from China or Korea.

 

[soulweaver]

1. Would you be open to considering these phones for your next purchase, whatever be your budget? Why or why not?

Like Lenovo, and Mi - absolutely not. Motorola - Yes | RealMe - Possibly

2. What has been your experience with these phones, if you have already had them?

Lenovo - Garbage updates, Almost non-existent support
Mi - No matter how much you debloat - too much telemetry and ads keep popping up
Motorola - Pretty Good devices. Clean Android. Super Easy to Debloat
RealMe - Has ads, but easier to Debloat than Mi

3. Which of these "less popular" brands seems to be worthy of consideration?

The previous post answers the question I guess...

---

I think the key issues are easy availability of spares and repairability more than anything else.

 

[Fapdda]

1. Honestly, yes. Its just that Xiaomi has a lot of ads, some of which can be controlled to an extent. if you're able to live with it, that's cool; if not then these devices are not for you.
Vivo, oppo, realme is a big NO. Shitty software and experience.
2. I've owned a POCO F1, owned it for 2 years and sold it off because the company was intentionally slowing the phone down to sell newer devices. Worked like a beast when I had a custom rom installed but I bought into the LG G8x for 20k fad and I kinda regret it. POCO f1 with a custom rom felt much faster than the laggy LG UI.
3. Xiaomi and Motorola seem decent to me.

 

[DrkLord]

1. Honestly, yes. Its just that Xiaomi has a lot of ads, some of which can be controlled to an extent. if you're able to live with it, that's cool; if not then these devices are not for you.
Vivo, oppo, realme is a big NO. Shitty software and experience.
2. I've owned a POCO F1, owned it for 2 years and sold it off because the company was intentionally slowing the phone down to sell newer devices. Worked like a beast when I had a custom rom installed but I bought into the LG G8x for 20k fad and I kinda regret it. POCO f1 with a custom rom felt much faster than the laggy LG UI.
3. Xiaomi and Motorola seem decent to me.

2. Have you tried any custom roms on the g8x?

 

[cute.bandar]

Nokia masterrace!
For basic phones, for people who nothing CPU intensive, don't need a great camera, nokia is hands down the best there is.
The thing is even 'techies' underestimate how critical a lean OS, verified drivers are. Mostly focusing on the ram and cpu specs side
My G10 battery lasts 5 days! with 10hrs of screentime + several hours bluetooth audiobooks.

Actually its not just nokia that's great, its android one - tested hardware, verified drivers, no vendor OS customizations or bugs.

 

[Fapdda]

2. Have you tried any custom roms on the g8x?

I don't think the bootloader is unlocked in g8x, so can't install custom roms here anyway.

 

[DrkLord]

I don't think the bootloader is unlocked in g8x, so can't install custom roms here anyway.

I found an unofficial bootloader unlock for it on xda. Is the phone still receiving software updates, if not, then they should allow the bootloader to be unlocked.

 

[ibose]

Lenovo - Garbage updates, Almost non-existent support
Mi - No matter how much you debloat - too much telemetry and ads keep popping up
Motorola - Pretty Good devices. Clean Android. Super Easy to Debloat
RealMe - Has ads, but easier to Debloat than Mi

Does Lenovo still sell their own phones ? They own Moto now.
I think Moto and Nokia are the only folks who give stock Android

 

[idkmuch01]

my opinion is for a Redmi K20 pro with custom ROM. the phone cost me ~15k with exchange. killer hardware with (now) fantastic software. i use a variety of AOSP ROMs that give me pixel exclusive features too. IMO if someone is willing to try out custom ROMs(I am a student so it doesn't really matter if my phone has issues for an hour or two but the same might not be true for someone else). I get around 7ish hours SOT with battery charging artificially limited to 80%

also have my eye on the new motorola devices. look like a good deal imo.

 

[ssslayer]

I have used Infocus android phone in past that was offering me the previous gen flagship Snapdragon processor at awesome price. It worked well, but has been in disuse for previous 2-3 years since I shifted to VO-LTE. Actually the phone works well even today - only problem is that the battery gets discharged quick.

My wife's Redmi Note 5 works great even today.

My Redmi Note 7s used to work good but lags/freezes (OS issue? Or inadequate resources like RAM/CPU/GPU?). Performance wise I would rate Note 5 >>> Note 7s, even though the hardware specs of 7s is better !!!