New Phone - Up to R2k Budget

Bismuth

Bismuth

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Good post, I'm in the same boat as both me and my significant other are considering going fro bog standard to smartphones. If you do purchase will you be good enough to PM me with what?
 
pedruid said:
Good post, I'm in the same boat as both me and my significant other are considering going fro bog standard to smartphones. If you do purchase will you be good enough to PM me with what?
Click to expand...

Will do. Am planning to make this purchase in the next week or so. Will post here with what I've purchased and first impressions etc., for anyone who is interested.

B
 
Get the newer hisense u971 from makro for R2000.

Big difference is that it has snapdragon 200 ,compared to u970 which has some Chinese one.

I use the u971 great phone for the price ,just animation is a tad laggy now and then . I think the adreno 305 gpu is bit weak for the 720p screen.
 
jman said:
Moto E should do nicely. Under R2k, has decent specs (snapdragon 410- quad core, 4,5 inch screen, LTE) and it has lollipop, which most of these other chinese brands won't have. I say go for that. It won't have the best camera though.

http://store.orange.com/za/mobile-p.../motorola-moto-e-2nd-gen-8gb-black-4g-274725/
Click to expand...

I'd have suggested that as well, except for:

Android OS(hence me posting in the Android Subforum)
Dual-Sim
Quad Core
1Gb RAM
4" or larger screen
Click to expand...

:)
 
jman said:
Moto E should do nicely. Under R2k, has decent specs (snapdragon 410- quad core, 4,5 inch screen, LTE) and it has lollipop, which most of these other chinese brands won't have. I say go for that. It won't have the best camera though.

http://store.orange.com/za/mobile-p.../motorola-moto-e-2nd-gen-8gb-black-4g-274725/
Click to expand...

It is not a bad example, thanks. However, the reason I want dual-sim is that I am sitting with a work sim (the phone that they gave me with it is crap, so leave that in my drawer) and my personal sim. Currently my work sim is in an old Wave II, my Galaxy Y Pro that was my personal phone has bombed out, so decided on dual-sim as a replacement, then will only have to carry one phone around.

If I do ever have to give the work sim back, will probably just stick an Axxess data sim in the second sim slot.

B
 
Bismuth said:
It is not a bad example, thanks. However, the reason I want dual-sim is that I am sitting with a work sim (the phone that they gave me with it is crap, so leave that in my drawer) and my personal sim. Currently my work sim is in an old Wave II, my Galaxy Y Pro that was my personal phone has bombed out, so decided on dual-sim as a replacement, then will only have to carry one phone around.

If I do ever have to give the work sim back, will probably just stick an Axxess data sim in the second sim slot.

B
Click to expand...

Then as previously suggested, the Moto G dual sim will be perfect, if you're willing to go up a couple hundred bucks. Recommended the phone to my father, and it's perfect (this is the 1st gen, so the second gen will be even better)
 
Quick comment on the Gobii IVP.

I've had mine for about 9 months now and am not looking to change it any time soon. I run MTN & Telkom prepaid on it which gives good coverage in PE. What has impressed me the most is that I've never had to remove the battery for a cold reboot because of problems - common occurrence on my previous Hi-Sense android.

Use it mainly for calls, whatsapp, emails and casual browsing (MyBB app works a treat) and usually get about 30hrs before the battery hits 40%, the camera is OK for my purposes but not in the premium phone (or my old Nokia 500) league.

I've dropped it once face down onto concrete getting it out of my shirt pocket with no damage (just lucky I guess as I don't use the supplied cover or screen protector) and the screen is still scratch free.

In short, great value for money for the budget conscious. Mind you I'm just cheap - no way I can justify paying the price of a good laptop for a "premium" brand phone or be tied to a contract :)

BTW: the 4.5" size suits my big fat fingers nicely with Swiftkey installed.
 
So, about the Hisense U970 - TL;DR: tread carefully and look elsewhere first.

Long form: we had one in service for awhile when we needed something as an emergency replacement, which was the only reason we went for it. It turned out to be competent enough but the battery life turned out to be pretty sucktastic, enough so that he was ALWAYS looking for charge, and it never really lasted through a working day; and this within the first year. Also its charge port is up the left hand side which is more annoying than anything else but what really burns is that it died and the phone can no longer be charged and has to go in for repairs to get it back into service.

What's good is that it supports high speed data on 900/2100, a thing you REALLY have to watch out for! Which is why you are going to ignore almost every one of the Doogee phones you see.
 
Gobii IVP...
I agree with NickZA.We have 2x at the offfice, & 2x at home. Great phone, Great price, good service from Kalahari. The dual sim works very well. The free cover is actually quite nice, & has a nice feel to it. The speed of the phone is pretty good.

The free 'Here' nav app works very well.

The only problem I've picked up is the program memory is not all that large. It occassionally tells me it's full & I cannot load more apps from the Play Store. Side-loading then works well. --- Just google & download the app you want, & install it. App storage problem solved. I also have a 16meg card for data storage.
 
Last edited:
Off subject somewhat... I also just got a Proline 7" tablet from Kalahari as well, for R999.00 Dual sim, 3G etc..
A flip cover is available for R55 as well, from one of Pinacle's resellers.
 
jman said:
Then as previously suggested, the Moto G dual sim will be perfect, if you're willing to go up a couple hundred bucks. Recommended the phone to my father, and it's perfect (this is the 1st gen, so the second gen will be even better)
Click to expand...

That is not a bad phone, but I have "hard-capped" the budget at R2k, you need to draw the line somewhere. Heh, otherwise will end up with a damn S6! :D

wobbie said:
Gobii IVP...
I agree with NickZA.We have 2x at the offfice, & 2x at home. Great phone, Great price, good service from Kalahari. The dual sim works very well. The free cover is actually quite nice, & has a nice feel to it. The speed of the phone is pretty good.

The free 'Here' nav app works very well.

The only problem I've picked up is the program memory is not all that large. It occassionally tells me it's full & I cannot load more apps from the Play Store. Side-loading then works well. --- Just google & download the app you want, & install it. App storage problem solved. I also have a 16meg card for data storage.
Click to expand...

The main apps that I will use it will be Gmail, Facebook, Whatsapp, Waze and maybe Chrome for a bit of browsing when I am not near my PC or Tab. Maybe the odd game or two, idk.

wobbie said:
Off subject somewhat... I also just got a Proline 7" tablet from Kalahari as well, for R999.00 Dual sim, 3G etc..
A flip cover is available for R55 as well, from one of Pinacle's resellers.
Click to expand...

Was thinking of something like this, but already have a 7" Tab 2 which fills that role just fine. One day I might upgrade that, but as I have it running Kitkat, I am quite happy with it for now.

B
 
wobbie said:
Gobii IVP...
The only problem I've picked up is the program memory is not all that large. It occassionally tells me it's full & I cannot load more apps from the Play Store. Side-loading then works well. --- Just google & download the app you want, & install it. App storage problem solved. I also have a 16meg card for data storage.
Click to expand...

Screen Shot 2015-03-13 at 12.02.23.jpg
 
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