Deciding between A50/F1/5z

M

1. Budget? - 20k - 25k
2. Display type and size? 6" - 6.5"
3. Dual sim? Yes
4. Preferred choice of brand? Samsung/Asus/Nokia/LG
5. What camera option you want (flash, front facing camera)? Triple camera setup is preferred but is not must
6. Preferred operating system? (Android, iOS,Stock Android etc). Android
7. Preferred connectivity options (Dual 4G,802.11AC or 5Ghz wifi). Dual 4G VoLTE
8. Primary use of handset (multimedia, camera, internet, gaming etc)? Anything except gaming
9. Any specific mobile phones in consideration? Samsung A50 / Poco F1 / Asus 5z
10. Any other info that you want to share - Phone should have good camera and battery life. Timely software updates is also a must.

Get Poco F1 and install modded gcam from xda on it.

W

SaiyanGoku said:
Get Poco F1 and install modded gcam from xda on it.

Is this better than asus 5z(I prefer asus for their rma support)?

M

SaiyanGoku said:
Get Poco F1 and install modded gcam from xda on it.

Does that mean I will have to by-pass Play Store?

whitestar_999 said:
Is this better than asus 5z(I prefer asus for their rma support)?

Don't know about Asus phone RMA division but I've been to Xiaomi Service center only once and that too for replacing the screen on out of warranty RN3. XDA/Miui forums have probably every solution for any possible software issues.

monkey said:
Does that mean I will have to by-pass Play Store?

Yes since that app isn't available on phones other that Pixels officially. I've been using gcam myself for quite sometime now and wasn't expecting such level of improvement over stock Oneplus camera.

W

SaiyanGoku said:
Don't know about Asus phone RMA division but I've been to Xiaomi Service center only once and that too for replacing the screen on out of warranty RN3. XDA/Miui forums have probably every solution for any possible software issues.

I don't have any experience with xiaomi rma but asus has been solid for me(plus I prefer Taiwan over China

). Is there such a big difference between two of them after installing gcam?

M

Can gcam also be installed on Asus 5z? How about Samsung A50?

whitestar_999 said:
I don't have any experience with xiaomi rma but asus has been solid for me(plus I prefer Taiwan over China ). Is there such a big difference between two of them after installing gcam?

I'd suggest you to check samples/reviews from xda, C4eTech, Dhanajay Bhosale, Joshua Vergara Android Authority for that.

monkey said:
Can gcam also be installed on Asus 5z? How about Samsung A50?

It should be possible but would require Camera2 Api support enabled without rooting. IIRC, Asus doesn't honors warranty of rooted/bootloader unlocked devices.
Every other Samsung smartphone except the flagships (S and Note series) is trash.

M

So does that mean that I'll have to root Poco F1 too for installing gcam?

monkey said:
So does that mean that I'll have to root Poco F1 too for installing gcam?

I don't think so.
Google Camera ports work without root on the Poco F1, Mi 8, and Mix 2S

W

SaiyanGoku said:
I'd suggest you to check samples/reviews from xda, C4eTech, Dhanajay Bhosale, Joshua Vergara Android Authority for that.

I checked gadget360 review in a hurry & what I got was that hardware of both are similar but stock cam performance of poco f1 was behind 5z.Assuming gcam raises its cam performance to 5z or slightly better than 5z even then only advantage I got is price difference.

P.S. review said poco f1 has some time limit(8min) for video recording,is this removed in gcam.

whitestar_999 said:
I checked gadget360 review in a hurry & what I got was that hardware of both are similar but stock cam performance of poco f1 was behind 5z.Assuming gcam raises its cam performance to 5z or slightly better than 5z even then only advantage I got is price difference.

P.S. review said poco f1 has some time limit(8min) for video recording,is this removed in gcam.

I don't see why there would be any time limit restriction on gcam. Beebom recently claimed it would perform like a S10. (I think he meant S9). Youtube link in spoiler below.

M

I am planning to order Poco F1 today but some one told me that Samsung A50 has also improved a lot after recent update. Is it true?

W

Updates usually improve camera/battery life etc but base hardware of A50 is far behind poco f1. This is unlike poco f1 surpassing asus 5z after huge camera improvement by gcam while both having similar base hardware.

M

whitestar_999 said:
Updates usually improve camera/battery life etc but base hardware of A50 is far behind poco f1. This is unlike poco f1 surpassing asus 5z after huge camera improvement by gcam while both having similar base hardware.

If the camera/battery improves then it is just the processor which holds back Samsung. The display and finish of A50 is much better than F1 in the first place. Also F1 was launched last year and might be upgraded to Android Q at the most whereas A50 should see Android R too.

monkey said:
Also F1 was launched last year and might be upgraded to Android Q at the most whereas A50 should see Android R too.

Custom roms will ensure you get R (RN3 was launched with lollipop and has multiple stable Pie roms).
As for A50, I doubt Samsung will support it after Q officially and lack of developer support means no custom roms for it.
If you still want a Samsung phone, try to get refurbished/used S9 in same budget. You may not get updates but would get a much better phone than A50.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

M

SaiyanGoku said:
Custom roms will ensure you get R (RN3 was launched with lollipop and has multiple stable Pie roms).
As for A50, I doubt Samsung will support it after Q officially and lack of developer support means no custom roms for it.
If you still want a Samsung phone, try to get refurbished/used S9 in same budget. You may not get updates but would get a much better phone than A50.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

I will not go for custom ROMs and no used phones too.

monkey said:
I will not go for custom ROMs and no used phones too.

If you aren't comfortable with rooting & stuff, Asus 5Z would be better for you IMO as it offers better camera out of the box. Xioami has a better track record of updates at least MIUI updates if not android version updates (like you might get latest MIUI version but not on latest android).

Samsung A50 is a good phone overall but its camera & performance can't match Poco F1 or Asus 5Z. At this budget, A50 would be my choice for my parents as its camera is good enough & they care about brand value. The latest update apparently improved its fingerprint sensor's responsiveness but it's still slower than traditional sensors. A50 will definitely get Q update & has a good chance of getting android R as well because the 2016 & 2017 A5 got 2 android version updates.

If you are into rooting & stuff, Poco F1 has the best potential for improvement. With a stock android based custom ROM & GCam its pretty good as Goku said. Again if you aren't into those stuff, just avoid it as rooting is becoming tougher nowadays + banking apps don't work (there is a way to bypass them though).

W

anupam_pb said:
Again if you aren't into those stuff, just avoid it as rooting is becoming tougher nowadays + banking apps don't work (there is a way to bypass them though).

Is this applicable to just rooting or both rooting & custom ROM(I mean will a custom ROM with no rooting work fine with banking apps).

whitestar_999 said:
Is this applicable to just rooting or both rooting & custom ROM(I mean will a custom ROM with no rooting work fine with banking apps).

Yes, they would work fine on a custom rom without root access as long as it passes safetynet (almost all of them do).

whitestar_999 said:
Is this applicable to just rooting or both rooting & custom ROM(I mean will a custom ROM with no rooting work fine with banking apps).

Rooting is the culprit, I rooted my old Z3C & banking apps were just not working, didn't install Magisk.

M

OK thanx guys, I have placed order for Asus 5Z. I didn't want to install custom ROM or stuffs not available on Play Store (wanted to play safe) and I think Asus 5Z beats Poco F1 out-of-the-box in every department (except price by a small margin).

BTW my friend was insisting me in buying A50 (which HE eventually did). The phone is very good too but the fingerprint scanner is still crap even after the update. Also he found Exynos 9610 performs better than SD675, so he is happy.

monkey said:
OK thanx guys, I have placed order for Asus 5Z. I didn't want to install custom ROM or stuffs not available on Play Store (wanted to play safe) and I think Asus 5Z beats Poco F1 out-of-the-box in every department (except price by a small margin).

BTW my friend was insisting me in buying A50 (which HE eventually did). The phone is very good too but the fingerprint scanner is still crap even after the update. Also he found Exynos 9610 performs better than SD675, so he is happy.

Congrats

The 9610 doesn't beat S675, it is similar to S660, whereas S675 is a bit better than S710 of Mi 8 SE. Its enough for normal usage for sure:
Samsung Galaxy A50 review

M

I think my friend decided by looking here: ≫ Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 vs Samsung Exynos 9610 | Mobile chipset comparison

Anyway thanks.

monkey said:
I think my friend decided by looking here: ≫ Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 vs Samsung Exynos 9610 | Mobile chipset comparison

Anyway thanks.

Sites like that never collect enough data, otherwise, many more people would use it.

monkey said:
I think my friend decided by looking here: ≫ Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 vs Samsung Exynos 9610 | Mobile chipset comparison

Anyway thanks.

May be it's triple camera setup

M

Now my friend is crying buying Samsung as it is supported by Ads. He is seeing ads after every lock-ups and sometimes even when the phone's screen is off. Extremely bad by Samsung.

monkey said:
Now my friend is crying buying Samsung as it is supported by Ads. He is seeing ads after every lock-ups and sometimes even when the phone's screen is off. Extremely bad by Samsung.

Strange, I know some Samsung apps show ads, like Samsung Mall in India, I have seen ads in its game launcher, but not in UI, unlike Xiaomi. Maybe some other app is pushing the ads.

I moved to Nova Launcher & my only annoyance is Bixby after Pie update (earlier I could disable it completely).

monkey said:
Now my friend is crying buying Samsung as it is supported by Ads. He is seeing ads after every lock-ups and sometimes even when the phone's screen is off. Extremely bad by Samsung.

one of my acquaintance has A50. Will check up with him.

M

My friend has confirmed - the Ads were due to SHAREit App which left the ads even after being uninstalled. After "Reset" and fresh installation the phone is working fine.

monkey said:
My friend has confirmed - the Ads were due to SHAREit App which left the ads even after being uninstalled. After "Reset" and fresh installation the phone is working fine.

That app is cancer nowadays. I remember having to install it last year when I was in India, I used to keep it disabled unless I need to use it (bad internet in my home town).