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Phone Upgrade - Motorola One Zoom?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Gareth Halfacree, 16 Oct 2019.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    (Wait, we don't have a "mobile" or "phone" prefix 'ere? Swizz.)

    I'm currently rocking a Huawei P9, which is stuck on Android 7.0 (unless you live in China, in which case you can enjoy the heady heights of Android 8.0) and hasn't had a security update since... June 2018(!).

    Looking at upgrades, the key thing I want is a decent camera - that way I can potentially cover events without having to dig out the SLR, at least for online coverage. Front-runner at the moment is the Motorola One Zoom, which costs £370 and has a four-lens camera that does normal shots, 2x telephoto, 0.5x wide-angle, and depth sensing - which should cover pretty much everything except back-of-the-crowd stage shots and macro stuff.

    Anyone got one? Thoughts? Better alternatives? Don't fancy a Huawei again, given that I had to replace the battery on this one 'cos it'd make the thing crash and claim it had zero charge every other week - and what a faff that was, I ended up bruising the LCD panel trying to prize the battery away from the glue holding it in place - and there's the whole Thou Shalt Not Google thing going on at the moment. I'm also not interested in £800-plus premium-grade stuff - £400's pretty much my limit, and it'd be nice if I could get a four-year lifespan out of it.
     
  2. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    £379.99 on Lenovo, but there's a 10% voucher if you subscribe to the newsletter - drops it to £342. Tempting, very tempting!
     
  3. sandys

    sandys Multimodder

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    Motorola generally keep OS quite stock which is nice, keeps it flying along where other phones like my Samsung can struggle with its OS upgrades.

    Another option in budget is the Xiaomi Mi 9T pro, only triple cam but top of the line 855 snapdragon, down side, runs their own custom launcher but it is nice and fast if my missus' Pocofone F1 is anything to go by and lacks SD card. comes in two specs 6Gb/128Gb and 8Gb/256Gb, UK at the moment only get the lower spec, still decent enough. Powerful CPU/GPU and extra RAM could help life, storage might reduce it if you are not one to clean up. 27W charger is nice upgrade over some phones, so some quick charging off your laptop charger etc.
     
    Last edited: 16 Oct 2019
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  4. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    Any of the HMD Nokias float your goat?

    Stock Android, more reliably updated than the more recent Lenovorollas, Nokia had a rep for decent cameras, dunno if that still holds up.
     
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  5. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Looks very similar to the Motorola, but with a better SoC and more RAM. More expensive, though, and no microSD slot... Certainly one to think about, ta!
    This one looks like it's got a great camera, and the idea of shooting RAW is tempting, but it's £100 more than the Motorola and apparently the in-screen fingerprint sensor's a joke.
     
  6. wolfticket

    wolfticket Downwind from the bloodhounds

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    I was going to throw the Nokia into the mix, as I'm happy with my 8 and Pureview generally equals excellent camera. However one of the things I'm happy with is the fingerprint sensor and I would find it highly annoying if the newfangled in-screen one sucked just for the sake of flashy slickness.
     
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  7. sandys

    sandys Multimodder

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    You can go to DXOmark to look at camera stuff , gsmarena has some pretty in depth reviews too.

    Mi9TPro (redmi k20Pro is its name elsewhere)

    Nokia 9 Pureview
     
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  8. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Still can't make up my mind. The price of the Motorola and guarantee of one major version bump - presumably to Android 10 at some point - is swaying me that way, but apparently the camera isn't quite as good as the specs suggest (though better than most at the same price point.) It's not on DXO, sadly, but I've seen some full-res outputs and while I can see where the complaints come from I reckon it'd do for me.

    I was also looking at the Pixel 3A or 3A XL, but they're pretty pricy considering the 4 was announced this week...
     
  9. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    ...anyone mentioned OnePlus yet?
     
  10. GeorgeK

    GeorgeK Swinging the banhammer Super Moderator

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    OnePlus are great phones (the best imo) but not so great cameras (source: I've had a 3T, a 6 and now a 7 Pro). I mean don't get me wrong they aren't terrible but I've seen better photos out of my wife's 2 year old Pixel 2. Also not so cheap any more.

    Edit: Although according to dxomark the 7 Pro has the 5th best camera out there. I suppose I'll always be comparing it to my Canon and nothing will ever come close to that
     
  11. sandys

    sandys Multimodder

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    Is the guarantee of updates something motorola offer or have you assumed because it has One in the name and you are assuming it is part of Android one program with 2 yrs updates and 3yrs security etc? I only ask because it is not an Android One device.

    Just splash out and buy a Samsung or Apple if you are going to keep it running for years.
     
  12. wolfticket

    wolfticket Downwind from the bloodhounds

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    Hmm...
     
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  13. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Never liked OnePlus, mostly 'cos of this. And this. And this, given all the "it's not us" turned out to be precisely them. And that whole bundling a USB cable that could damage anything you plug it into debacle, which I didn't cover here.

    Though, to be fair, Lenovo ain't exactly covered in glory - I've written plenty about its laptops being bundled with malware and the infamous BIOS hardware whitelist...
    It's also, sadly, £700. Twice the storage of the Motorola, sure, but that's something you could easily level with a £10 microSD card.
    No assumptions here, and I'm aware it's not Android One (though it's still cheeky that it's a Motorola One):

    upload_2019-10-17_14-45-2.png

    Source.

    Just to confirm, it's Android Enterprise Recommended, which requires "90-day security updates" and "support current shipping release + one letter upgrade."
    Nope. Had Samsungs in the past, don't rate 'em - waaaaay too much bloatware. Never had an Apple phone, but I've had an Apple laptop and that's a mistake I don't fancy repeating. In either case, my £400 budget ain't going to get me the high-end models.
     
    Last edited: 17 Oct 2019
  14. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    ...also none of the associated guff works on linux.
     
  15. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    To be fair, none of the Android stuff does either, except ADB and random third-party open-source stuff.
     
  16. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    But don't most 'droid devices sync/connect over something vaguely pingu friendly [as in, don;t they just show up as a usb drive]?
    Apple you're basically reliant on some cloud service or other to get stuff on and off the thing.

    Either way... don;t buy an iphone :p
     
  17. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Last time I had cause to try it, it used some weird "multimedia protocol" that was kinda-sorta supported in Linux, rather than showing up as a proper removable drive. Don't know that I've ever plugged my current handset into a PC to see if that's still the case!
     
  18. sandys

    sandys Multimodder

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    You tend to get a choice of how the usb port reacts on the phone, my galaxy has something like 5 options for how you want the phone to behave when attached to something via usb, I think it is quite standard on Android.
     
  19. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Hmm - I wonder if the Nokia 7.2 would do me? Proper Android One programme device, though it's only got 64GB of storage (but'll take a microSD to expand that) and a weaker SoC. £100 cheaper, though, which is *super* tempting.

    EDIT: Ooh, three year warranty if purchased through Nokia direct, too...
     
  20. bawjaws

    bawjaws Multimodder

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    Aye, just enable the developer options and then you can plug your Android phone into a (Windows) pc and it'll see it as a removable drive, both for the internal storage and the SD card (albeit only some of the internal storage, as most of the partitions aren't user-visible without jiggery-pokery).
     

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