Need advice for phone 10-13k.

1. Budget?
And: 10-13k. Can extend a bit if worth it.

2. Display type and size?
Ans: touchscreen. 5" or larger

3. Dual sim?
Ans: yes, if available. Not a necessity

4. Preferred choice of brand?
Ans: Motorola, Asus, Sony. Don't know about mobiles much but I've used phones of these brands that my friends own. No to Samsung as service in my city is worse than crap.

5. What camera option you want (flash, front facing camera)>
Ans: camera should be good with macro feature and lots of camera settings like aperture, ISO, shutter speed etc. Flash should be present. Front camera should be present but is not a necessity.

6. Preferred operating system? (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, etc)?
Ans: Android.

7. Preferred connectivity options (3G, 4G ready)
Ans: 3G: yes. 4G: yes, if possible within my budget.

8. Primary use of handset (multimedia, camera, internet, gaming etc)
Ans: heavy Internet usage, camera, editing Microsoft Office files, some small coding on-the-go. Basically I'm buying it for small tasks that I always need to find a friend's laptop for (I'll be buying a laptop next year).

9. Any specific mobile phones in consideration?
Ans: Moto G (2nd Gen) and Asus Zenfone 5 . Don't really know about many phones through but Zenfone looks better on paper.

10. Any other info that you want to share?
Ans: the phone should be durable, have good loudspeakers, expandable memory, should get android updates and have good developer support as I'll be experimenting with custom ROMs. And the most important thing- should have good battery life.

M

Zenphone has better camera and chipset only negative is less battery backup but it can be solved by enabling battery saver option which comes by default.Asus also promised to provide Android L.
While Moto G has good dev support Camera is average though not good as zenphone .

Moto g 2014

+1 to Moto G (2014)

moto g's camera is just usable using stock camera. quality may improve with other camera apps. under heavy usage mobile last for 12hrs, can easily last 30hrs if you keep usage in check. sound is not too loud or deep despite having stereo speaker but good enough for personal use. slim bezel means despite being 5", is quite compact on the sides (and easy to hold). above all, rumor is Moto G should receive Android 5.0 update by next month but most likely will get by December end.

only -ve is currently kernel source is not released i.e. no custom rom. you'll have to live with stock android for another couple of months or more.

I guess Moto G 2nd gen would have better dev support than Zenfone 5 (My friend didn't even get 4.4 OTA upgrade yet)

sam said:
moto g's camera is just usable using stock camera. quality may improve with other camera apps. under heavy usage mobile last for 12hrs, can easily last 30hrs if you keep usage in check. sound is not too loud or deep despite having stereo speaker but good enough for personal use. slim bezel means despite being 5", is quite compact on the sides (and easy to hold). above all, rumor is Moto G should receive Android 5.0 update by next month but most likely will get by December end.

only -ve is currently kernel source is not released i.e. no custom rom. you'll have to live with stock android for another couple of months or more.

So is this because its a new phone or because Moto won't do it? I see thta there exist custom ROMs for original G so I guess it's only a matter of time. I'm personally in favor of Moto as well because

a) it has untouched Android. I prefer the clean, stock UI over custom UIs which easily get a bit sluggish sometimes.
b) I believe because of lack of any custom UI in the OS, updates will arrive quicker and they will do.

So I guess Moto G will it be.

Can someone also suggest a good screen guard and 16 GB microSD card for it? I read that UHS1 cards are even faster than class10 cards and that this particular is a very good one. Any suggestions are welcomes.

M

But your phone need to support UHS.

harshilsharma63 said:
So is this because its a new phone or because Moto won't do it? I see thta there exist custom ROMs for original G so I guess it's only a matter of time. I'm personally in favor of Moto as well because

a) it has untouched Android. I prefer the clean, stock UI over custom UIs which easily get a bit sluggish sometimes.
b) I believe because of lack of any custom UI in the OS, updates will arrive quicker and they will do.

So I guess Moto G will it be.

Can someone also suggest a good screen guard and 16 GB microSD card for it? I read that UHS1 cards are even faster than class10 cards and that this particular is a very good one. Any suggestions are welcomes.

I got sammy evo class 10 card for Moto g

harshilsharma63 said:
So is this because its a new phone or because Moto won't do it? I see thta there exist custom ROMs for original G so I guess it's only a matter of time.

maybe motorola is waiting for android 5.0 to be released.

EDIT:

*i.imgur.com/rZuGUqs.jpg

Go for the moto g... It also is water resistant.. And imo no need for screen guard... I have scratched my moto g with sharp keys no marks/damages it does have gorilla glass.. Everything about it is awesome but the battery . I am a little disappointed by it.. With 100 charge it dips down to 20... 8-12 o'clock with medium-heavy use...it is good compared to other phones but I think I was expecting more since I had only used Nokias that lasted 3-4 days on 1 charge

flyingcow said:
Go for the moto g... It also is water resistant.. And imo no need for screen guard... I have scratched my moto g with sharp keys no marks/damages it does have gorilla glass.. Everything about it is awesome but the battery . I am a little disappointed by it.. With 100 charge it dips down to 20... 8-12 o'clock with medium-heavy use...it is good compared to other phones but I think I was expecting more since I had only used Nokias that lasted 3-4 days on 1 charge

Does the glass surface not get dull with regular use? I mean I'm not gonna use a flip cover or anything.

I don't think, its gonna dull coz It has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection

M

harshilsharma63 said:
Does the glass surface not get dull with regular use? I mean I'm not gonna use a flip cover or anything.

Glass will not get dull but once in a while you have to clean with a soft cloth to wipe out fingerprints.

abhigeek said:
I don't think, its gonna dull coz It has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection

There is no such visible impact on the screen quality.

R

I would suggest you should go for asus zenfone 5

asus zenfone 5 is 10k, moto g 2 is 13k

But asus zenfone 5 > moto g 2

Points to consider

asus zenfone 5 has 2 gb ram (free ram 1.5gb) , better camera, zen ui, better eyephone, usb cable.

moto g has 1gb ram only , no usb cable.

For the price difference asus zenfone 5 is definitely a better choice.

M

^He already bought moto G2.

Minion said:
^He already bought moto G2.

I've ordered it. Should arrive today. Also ordered a Samsung Evo class 10 memory card with UHS1. Thanks everyone.

The reason I choose moto g->

1. I prefer Stock Android- faster updates, cleaner UI, more responsive (more or less), consumes less memory.
2. I read complaints of Zenphone's poor battery life everywhere. Coming form a Nokia background, poor battery life for me is like India's Internet for a North American citizen.
3. I like the quality of Moto G. I used both Zenphone and Moto g of my friends and I liked Moto's physical quality.

^^And your choice will stay a good one

A

best within this range.....asus zenfone 5...

Can anyone recommend recommend a reputed and trustworthy website for downloading apk files?

apk4fun. or use real apk leecher though some files throw an error and refuse to download.

sam said:
moto g's camera is just usable using stock camera. quality may improve with other camera apps. under heavy usage mobile last for 12hrs, can easily last 30hrs if you keep usage in check. sound is not too loud or deep despite having stereo speaker but good enough for personal use. slim bezel means despite being 5", is quite compact on the sides (and easy to hold). above all, rumor is Moto G should receive Android 5.0 update by next month but most likely will get by December end.

only -ve is currently kernel source is not released i.e. no custom rom. you'll have to live with stock android for another couple of months or more.

*github.com/MotorolaMobilityLLC/kernel-msm/tree/kitkat-4.4.4-release-titan - Its released now

- - - Updated - - -

harshilsharma63 said:
Can anyone recommend recommend a reputed and trustworthy website for downloading apk files?

apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/

ankush28 said:
*github.com/MotorolaMobilityLLC/kernel-msm/tree/kitkat-4.4.4-release-titan - Its released now

- - - Updated - - -

apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/

Yeah for both X 2nd gen and G2 as well.

Okay so as I'm new to Android, what does this mean beginning other than of arrival of custom ROMS?

- - - Updated - - -

And about camera, I'm use an app called "DSLR Camera" and it's much better than the default camera app.

harshilsharma63 said:
Okay so as I'm new to Android, what does this mean beginning other than of arrival of custom ROMS?

- - - Updated - - -

And about camera, I'm use an app called "DSLR Camera" and it's much better than the default camera app.

1) Umm Kernel sources? Mostly nothing other than custom roms and tweaks...
2) Use this - [Mod][How to][Updated Camera 3.3.20.8]Unlockâ€¦ | Moto G | XDA Forums (works on most moto phones + some with sony sensors)
Motorola pushed lollipop to Moto G 2014 today (Nah it wasn't soak test), that might bring RAW support and improved picture quality