[ka51resident]

Hi! Hope all of you are doing well!

I'm looking for a phone which has 4G+VoLTE (for my Jio Connection) with very less bloatware. The main use will be for Hotspot and calls. What phone do you suggest that is good for this?

Considered a Jio Hotspot Router but I should be able to make calls once the battery on my main phone dies.

Currently keeping JioPhone and Nokia 8110 (affectionately known as Banana Phone).

Would really love your advice.

Thanks in Advance

[NPV]

Originally Posted by RYP

Have you ever considered the Mi A3?

Thanks again!
I got the Mi A3 and it's a great VFM product, very happy

Without the MIUI and the other Mi bloatware apps, this is a lovely phone with the Android One UI.

[vishalrao]

I snagged a Samsung Galaxy M21 a few days ago off Amazon.in for 12.7k for the base 4gb/64gb version, pretty happy with it so far.

I mainly went with it for the OLED screen and large 6000 mAh battery. I prefer stock Android but the OneUI of the Samsung is bearable to me

[RYP]

Originally Posted by NPV

Thanks again!
I got the Mi A3 and it's a great VFM product, very happy

Without the MIUI and the other Mi bloatware apps, this is a lovely phone with the Android One UI.

Great to hear, a very good decision indeed! Stock Android is the real deal, I know that feeling of buttery smoothness. We have two phones in the family running almost stock Android, and one of them is a 3 year old Moto G5 bought for 15k, which is far smoother and lag free than my wife's year old Galaxy Note 8 costing thrice. Have a great time with your phone for the years to come!

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by RYP

Great to hear, a very good decision indeed!

Doesn't 'Mi A3' come with 720P screen? This should be a concern where even sub 10K phones have 1080P screens.

[Vysakh]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

Doesn't 'Mi A3' come with 720P screen? This should be a concern where even sub 10K phones have 1080P screens.

720p AMOLED is still better than 1080p IPS

[RYP]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

Doesn't 'Mi A3' come with 720P screen? This should be a concern where even sub 10K phones have 1080P screens.

Truth is you'll never notice it. I've set the screen resolution to 720p from 1440p on my wife's Galaxy Note 8 to conserve battery and have yet to notice any difference it made on quality of the display. I get it, where this dilemma of yours stems from - Reviewers. That bunch out there are always biased towards 'more is better' mindset in a not-so subtle American line of thoughts and have vey little clue towards real life impacts

[RYP]

Originally Posted by vishalrao

I snagged a Samsung Galaxy M21 a few days ago off Amazon.in for 12.7k for the base 4gb/64gb version, pretty happy with it so far.

I mainly went with it for the OLED screen and large 6000 mAh battery. I prefer stock Android but the OneUI of the Samsung is bearable to me

Exynos 9611 on the M21 is a very capable processor, million times better than the underpowered Exynos 7904 they were plonking inside the last gen M- series phones, it kinda felt like Ertiga with an Alto's engine Also UFS 2.1 storage is the icing on the cake. OneUI should hold well for atleast 2 years with that processor and storage

Originally Posted by ka51resident

I'm looking for a phone which has 4G+VoLTE (for my Jio Connection) with very less bloatware. The main use will be for Hotspot and calls. What phone do you suggest that is good for this?

Lots of options out there for your requirement. All depends on what price range & longevity you are looking for, can you narrow down the same?

[kamilharis]

I have the habit of checking out e-commerce websites randomly everyday for no reason. One day i was going through www.souq.com ( Amazon owned platform in Middle east ) and I found Samsung Galaxy A50 128GB variant listed for 281 riyal which is just around ~ INR 5300. It was some technical error but within no time I placed the order and it got confirmed and delivered. I gave it to my mom as her mobile was due for replacement. I think the actual price of this one comes around INR 20000.

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by kamilharis

I found Samsung Galaxy A50 128GB variant listed for 281 riyal which is just around ~ INR 5300. It was some technical error but within no time I placed the order and it got confirmed and delivered. I gave it to my mom as her mobile was due for replacement. I think the actual price of this one comes around INR 20000.

A50 is 2+ year old model it was followed by A50s and A51 nowadays A51 is 21K. Usually sites like Amazon will keep on showing 2 year old price for models like A50 or S9 however the real market price comes down.
I think it may not be glitch but they may be clearing old stock.

[kamilharis]

Originally Posted by amitk26

I think it may not be glitch but they may be clearing old stock.

My purchase was made on January 8th actually. I don't think that was a stock clearance exercise from Amazon because on January 5th when I paid a visit to amazon , they had listed Redmi note 8 for 150 Riyal ( ~ ₹2800 ) . Out of curiosity i placed an order for 4 pieces. But later they themselves cancelled it saying that their system was having some issues. Current price for A51 is around ₹25k i guess.

[ka51resident]

Originally Posted by RYP

Lots of options out there for your requirement. All depends on what price range & longevity you are looking for, can you narrow down the same?

Hi!

I'm looking at a price range of <10k. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the phone should be free of bloatware. Read some reviews about Nokia 8110 on some prominent e-commerce websites; turns out that it has it's own share of problems with respect to heating, no support for VoLTE, heating and poor packaging (presumably because of no official mention on Nokia India's official website). I was very tempted to buy Nokia 2720 Flip but the same story as above.

If you happen to know of any phones with 0 bloatware and VoLTE, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

[vishalrao]

Originally Posted by ka51resident

Hi!

I'm looking at a price range of <10k. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the phone should be free of bloatware. Read some reviews about Nokia 8110 on some prominent e-commerce websites; turns out that it has it's own share of problems with respect to heating, no support for VoLTE, heating and poor packaging (presumably because of no official mention on Nokia India's official website). I was very tempted to buy Nokia 2720 Flip but the same story as above.

If you happen to know of any phones with 0 bloatware and VoLTE, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

Did you take a look at the Nokia 3.2 ?

I bought 2 of them for my mom and aunt back in October for around 8.5k each (for the 32gb variant) and it works well.

Stock android, no bloatware, bright and clear screen. Note the wifi is only wifi-N (2.4 ghz) and not wifi-AC (5 ghz) but that isn't much of a problem.

[AYP]

Originally Posted by amitk26

A50 is 2+ year old model it was followed by A50s and A51 nowadays A51 is 21K. Usually sites like Amazon will keep on showing 2 year old price for models like A50 or S9 however the real market price comes down.
I think it may not be glitch but they may be clearing old stock.

The A50 is only an year old and was launched in the early part of 2019. The A50s and the A51 were introduced at intervals of 6 months each.

The A50 6g 128 gb storage retails for around 20,000 in India so I doubt if it is gonna be priced 3-4 times lesser in the Middle East.

[kamilharis]

Originally Posted by AYP

The A50 6g ram, 128 gb storage retails for around 20,000 in India so I doubt if it is gonna be priced 3-4 times lesser in the Middle East.

A50 still retails in middle East for around ~ ₹17000 for 128gb 4gb variant. Only that particular day that too for couple of minutes it was listed for that price of ~ ₹5000. I couldn't stop myself from buying it when it was listed for 1/3rd of its original price . Adding to this , i just placed an order for A51 128GB 6GB variant for my colleague for 966 Riyal ( ~ ₹19000 ) . Good price IMO even if we calculate with the poor exchange rate these days.