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Any thoughts on these rather similar phones?

T

tinpanalley

Newbie
I've got a chance to get any of these for nothing basically in an upgrade. I can't pay for an upgrade so these are my options.
  • Huawei P20 Lite
  • LG G6
  • Samsung Galaxy A5
I know most people wouldn't even look at these but I have different criteria from most smartphone users.
1. Best camera possible among these
2. Enough CPU power and speed to let me do light gaming without lag, use heavy-internet-use apps like Maps and Browsers without lag (my current phone freezes when searching an address and often just crashes.
3. Good battery longevity would be useful
4. I'd like the phone to be rootable to run things like Xposed and do image backups.

Where I differ from most users, I think, is I do not ever use my phone for music or video and can't imagine anything more useless than using a forward facing camera to take pictures. I don't mean I only do video and music occasionally, I mean I have a media player and I would never watch anything more than a news video on a small screen. I'm only saying this because nowadays when you ask about phones you get video and audio specs. Also, important to keep in mind that I'm currently on a BLU Life One X that has been acting up. So, really, my expectations are probably lower than most people in how top of the line they want their phone to be.

Thanks for any help!
 
https://www.phonearena.com/phones/c...uawei-P20-Lite,LG-G6/phones/10297,10808,10379
The above link is just side-by-side comparisons of hardware specs (and could be inaccurate as far as some details) so it's in no way a fully comprehensive way to decide between the three. Just going off of you stated on the camera being a big factor, the G6 has a lower res camera than the other two, but a lot more features (apparently). Some of them might be resolved in the other two by installing a third-party camera app though. As for the rest of the items you mentioned, all three are quite capable phones for general purposes. But as for rooting, they're all more recent models (don't forget rooting will violate your terms of service so there are warranty issues involved) running current versions ('safely' rooting is one thing, rooting with those one-click apps is another) of Android so that could be more involved.
 
svim said:
https://www.phonearena.com/phones/c...uawei-P20-Lite,LG-G6/phones/10297,10808,10379
The above link is just side-by-side comparisons of hardware specs (and could be inaccurate as far as some details) so it's in no way a fully comprehensive way to decide between the three. Just going off of you stated on the camera being a big factor, the G6 has a lower res camera than the other two, but a lot more features (apparently)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. While the megapixel count is lower, resolution isn't really the final word on good photo quality. Contrast ratio and f-stop are much more important to me. But I will grant you that the rooting is almost pointless now given that it doesn't really solve any major problems anymore in newer handsets that can't be fixed with just a good launcher.
 
If you're used to stock (or near stock) Android, I'd avoid the Samsung as their UI is so different. I've got the Huawei P8 Lite 2017, and their Emotion UI is not too intrusive. I don't mind LG either. The best advice would be to see if you can have a demo in a phone store to help you decide.
 
Davdi said:
If you're used to stock (or near stock) Android, I'd avoid the Samsung as their UI is so different. I've got the Huawei P8 Lite 2017, and their Emotion UI is not too intrusive. I don't mind LG either. The best advice would be to see if you can have a demo in a phone store to help you decide.
Click to expand...
I had a Galaxy S3 when it first came out and after more than a year, I vowed to never own another Samsung phone or tablet ever again. Every time I look at their OS, I hate it. TouchWiz is one of the worst designs I've personally ever encountered.
I actually like a lot of what the Huawei does but I can't find a single review in print or video (those those can be unbearable themselves) that likes it overall for all the important technical spec reasons.
 
If the bootloader can be unlocked will depend on the carrier that you're getting the phone from. US Carriers like Verizon and AT&T lock their branded phones down pretty tight.
Since one click exploits don't work on 6.0 and above, unlocking the bootloader and either booting or flashing TWRP then root method is needed.
 
Jfalls63 said:
If the bootloader can be unlocked will depend on the carrier that you're getting the phone from. US Carriers like Verizon and AT&T lock their branded phones down pretty tight.
Since one click exploits don't work on 6.0 and above, unlocking the bootloader and either booting or flashing TWRP then root method is needed.
Click to expand...
Yeah, apparently it can't be done, period, on the G6. Not the end of the world.
 
n0tall0wed said:
yes it can. buy the us unlocked version. If you can't then I would go with Huawei.
Click to expand...
I can't. I'm doing all this via a free upgrade on my Canadian provider. They did confirm for me however that I'm getting an already unlocked phone. I won't have to unlock it myself.
Why the Huawei, out of curiosity?
 
tinpanalley said:
I can't. I'm doing all this via a free upgrade on my Canadian provider. They did confirm for me however that I'm getting an already unlocked phone. I won't have to unlock it myself.
Why the Huawei, out of curiosity?
Click to expand...
well out of the 3 you list I will never own another Samsung phone. I never liked touch wiz and they insist on placing too much of their crap on the phone. Now if The LG G6 is unlocked I would prefer that over the Huawei. I have owned the G6 and loved it. The only reason I got rid of it was I bought it used and about 3 weeks afterwards I found out the guy I bought it from got it from a rent a center and stopped making payments. So it was useless as my daily phone. As for Huawei I have owned several different phones of the theirs. Never had any problems with any of them and they tend to be alot cheaper price vs spec wise. Actually come to think of it the last Huawei I bought was an issue getting the bootloader unlocked because Huawei is removing the option from their website so you might want to check to see if you still can unlock it.
 
This is more of an incidental point as you didn't list it as something to consider but as far as the Google monthly security patches, you should check with your carrier as to which of those three choices they'll be supporting. In general though, if your carrier isn't forthcoming about this and they're passing off their responsibilities off to the manufacturer, the current trend is Samsung is more likely to continue supplying those updates, LG a maybe, and Huawei coming in third.
 
Thanks everyone.
I've gone for the G6. I compared a lot of sites that don't talk about bells and whistles but rather about tech specs, CPU, I went and read about each processor in each phone, though to be honest I was really only looking at the LG and Huawei.

I couldn't find a single tech review that found much to like about Huawei's attempt to make an affordable version of their full-featured P20 with the Lite. The last time my wife and I bought phones, it was these BLU Life One X's we have now that are failing on us. We had never gone with budget phones, the specs seemed ok and the CPU and other specs concerned me but I didn't think it would affect our ability to use our phones the way we use them. But being someone who builds his own computers I should have known better than to gamble on a device with lesser internal parts. While we don't need to have the latest and greatest phone, there is clearly a benefit and quality that comes from most flagships even if they're one model old that budget phones can't really compare with. Again, not always, but sometimes.

This has been a useful community for years, I think since I was on Froyo, so thanks for the help and feedback everyone.
 
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