What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

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mercalia
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by mercalia »

Graham wrote:Thanks to all, so far. The Moto G7 Power sounds like a possible.

I would not buy a Windows phone - having avoided that virus-magnet O/S for the last 20-ish years.



wow Windows phone is probably more secure than a cheap Android - As I said you will be lucky to get many security updates for that. Android is a Super Duper Virus magnet
mercalia
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by mercalia »

simonhill wrote:Yes cheap, but why introduce yourself to mobile phones with an obsolete and soon to be unsupported operating system.

If you compare the Windows' app store to the Google one, I think you will see the paucity of apps in the former.

I had a Google Android tablet at the time I had my windows phone so knew the difference. There were innumerable apps available on the tablet that I couldn't access on my phone.

I have been tempted to use my old Windows phone as a lightweight phone, but would not ditch my Android phone for normal use. The OP is talking about a first phone and I recommend an Android over a Windows.



well a typical cheap Android phone has an unsupported os a year after buying it. Esp Motorolas. with their cheap budget G series I think. As for apps depends on what you want to do. if you have a Windows 10 phone you should take a look closer look at whats available for travel & mapping. Well as a first phone some thing cheap has a lot to recomend it rather than layout £150 or so . and you are forgetting I was in same the position as him last Winter, this was MY first phone
mercalia
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by mercalia »

al_yrpal wrote:
mercalia wrote:
al_yrpal wrote:Windows phones? Is that a joke :?

Al


have you ever used a windows 10 phone? ie some thing later than 2015

No. good ones can be got cheap so not much of an investment and they have all the apps needed for traveling, as long as you get a windows 10 phone. ok no good if you into facebook and all that rubbish but that nothing to do with traveling?

Android on the other hand is a scumbag ecosystem with you dependant on the phone makers to get updates which they wont if your phone is a cheap one and you have had it more than a year - there are millions of Android phones out there not having had security updates for years waiting to get attacked, and people use these for financial matters :? :? :? Crazy. Google is the last company to trust with a phone os.

ok it has a great app store thats its only merit. But irrelevent if you have specific traveling interests.
If you want to splash out you could get the 950xl for about £120 with a camera that stands up against the flagship phones of Android costing £100's.


Eeerm... I remember that you are a comparatively recent acquisitor of a mobile. With respect you need to get your facts straight. Cheap is not necessarily good. I have had a series of Android tablets and phones and a couple of Chromebooks. In that time, which goes right back to the start of Android I have never had a virus and dont know anyone who has. Like any operating system one has to keep your devices up to date to avoid problems.

Good luck with Windoze, you can reflect on the above during the long periods of time you sit there drumming your fingers whilst your devices update themselves :lol:

Al



out of curiosity what models have you got and how much did they cost and how many years of updates have you had? How frequent? are they still being updated? Or do you buy a new phone every 2-3 years? ( like they want you to). My phone got its last update this June after 4 years of Microsoft hammering away every month getting rid of bugs and security issues. Cheap is not necessarily good and popular dont necesarily mean the best ( we have seen that from Brexit..) The only facts I have made are about the chaotic update policy of Android ( true) and that there are enough apps in the Windows store to justify it as some thing for traveling.
Last edited by mercalia on 29 Jul 2019, 11:50am, edited 1 time in total.
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mjr
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by mjr »

mercalia wrote:
Graham wrote:Thanks to all, so far. The Moto G7 Power sounds like a possible.

I would not buy a Windows phone - having avoided that virus-magnet O/S for the last 20-ish years.



wow Windows phone is probably more secure than a cheap Android - As I said you will be lucky to get many security updates for that. Android is a Super Duper Virus magnet

Windows Phone was discontinued in October 2017. https://www.cnet.com/news/windows-10-mo ... microsoft/

Its last version was released in April 2014. It will not get any updates after 2019 and Microsoft has already told people to switch to Android or iPhone: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/18/microso ... droid.html - unlike Android and its open source core, there is no way that anyone else can provide updates for Windows Phones.

So please stop trying to push people into buying into that dead-end "scumbag ecosystem".
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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mercalia
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by mercalia »

How many years of support do you think you will be getting for your Android phone? The best is 4 years from the top end, the worst maybe a year then you will be like me - no more security updates and no way to update to a later version of the os. So you are deluded if you think you are safe. If you know anything about Windows, most of the so called updates have been so called feature updates that no one ever wanted, that MS felt it had to do to make MS less boring compared to Apple, & of no value to a mobile phone. its had a chip on its shoulder for a long time seeing that erstwhile failure being a success. I havent been pushing any one to do anything just point ing out that for limited purposes like travel in its many forms a cheap Windows 10 phone is more than adequate - of course if you want to be an IZOMBIE then maybe not.

I suggest you do a google on the previous Motorola G5 and the abymal support of that budget phone by Motorola before you buy anything from them. ( I nearly bought one, so I am not that ill imformed) eg it came out with v7 of android, v8 came out about a month after its launch but can you update it to v8 - not on your nelly. I have read stories of people buying into cheap Motorola devices not getting security updates for 6 months just a year after buying them, and Motorola still promising updates to v8 as late as January 2019 for 2017 devices but failing to deliver .

Caveat emptor
Last edited by mercalia on 29 Jul 2019, 12:17pm, edited 1 time in total.
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al_yrpal
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

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Mercalia, no ones argueing with you. You constantly display your loyalty to Microsoft and what can only be described as incomplete knowledge of Android and its update policy. I am sure we all wish you the best of luck with Windoze! :lol: The answer is in the numbers...

IBTW have a Motorola G5S and its wonderful. Its updated regularly and has never had a virus or let me down QED.

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
mercalia
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by mercalia »

al_yrpal wrote:Mercalia, no ones argueing with you. You constantly display your loyalty to Microsoft and what can only be described as incomplete knowledge of Android and its update policy. I am sure we all wish you the best of luck with Windoze! :lol: The answer is in the numbers...

Al


I am not "loyal" to MS, just very wary of Android & not prepared to become an izombie like I see all the time on the buses and tube on facebook etc.

Android Update Policy? Until recently there wasnt any - it soley depended on the carrier or manufacturer and still does though Google has tried to introduce some standards, but I think only for hi-end phones? Now if you got your updates directly from Google maybe a different matter, but since manufacturers add their own hardware requiring special drivers, and customisations thats NEVER going to happen. so just because I dont use Android dont assume I dont follow the news. Brexit was also in the numbers and see were it is taking us
Last edited by mercalia on 29 Jul 2019, 12:26pm, edited 1 time in total.
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mjr
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

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mercalia wrote:How many years of support do you think you will be getting for your Android phone?

I don't know but it will probably be longer than the 5 months your Windows phone has left!

The best is 4 years from the top end,

Where did you read that myth? Updates are still available for 2013's LG G2 and Sony Xperia SP, for example. Sure, you can find newer phones with discontinued support and manufacturers often lose interest sooner, but that's the nature of a marketplace.

I suggest you do a google on the previous Motorola G5 and the abymal support of that budget phone by Motorola before you buy anything from them. [...]

Yes, I won't buy Motorola again since the rubbish way they "supported" my first Android phone, including announcing updates which never happened. That's part of why I now look for phones which can be rooted/unlocked, which at least gives me a chance of the other Android providers supporting them!

Now if you got your updates directly from Google maybe a different matter, but since manufacturers add their own hardware and customisations thats NEVER going to happen. so just because I dont use Android dont assume I dont follow the news.

I wouldn't use a customised Android and most of the extra hardware is not specific to single manufacturers so is usually either supported by all update providers or not vital to me (fingerprint readers used to be, for example, but even that's becoming widespread now).
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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mercalia
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by mercalia »

well MJR it sounds like you have to work hard to get around the ecosysytem issues.

The 4 years came from a recent Google Android certification standards paper I read about

I think you can only get the sony SP to accept Android 8 by forcing it? it dont come from Sony themselves? And thats the nonsense of it all. who knows what will and wont work?
( think I read some where some one trying to force the mobile os that Mozilla made onto a Windows phone)

Seems like the op is going to get a Moto G7, presumably another later cheapie from Motorola? a company you wont touch with a barge pole.

One virtue of Windows 10 phones is that MS have been hammering on bug fixes etc every month for the last 2 years for the last version 1703 in my case, and as a result probably very secure and what remains, malware writers cant be bother to exploit. probably noone is even trying to find them?

I was rather amused the other day I was using my 640 on the buses and this guy was intrigued at the tile interface of it kept glancing at it never seen the like, how easy & fluid it all was to use. rather funny really. I suppose teh same reaction if I were using my minidisc portable
mercalia
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by mercalia »

al_yrpal wrote:Mercalia, no ones argueing with you. You constantly display your loyalty to Microsoft and what can only be described as incomplete knowledge of Android and its update policy. I am sure we all wish you the best of luck with Windoze! :lol: The answer is in the numbers...

IBTW have a Motorola G5S and its wonderful. Its updated regularly and has never had a virus or let me down QED.

Al


I did a bit of google and it claims you can get Andoid 8.1 on it? you have that? sounds like you have a goodun. No cheap 2nd hand on Ebay either
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al_yrpal
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by al_yrpal »

Screenshot_20190729-131609.png
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
mercalia
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by mercalia »

al_yrpal wrote:Screenshot_20190729-131609.png



it is though a late 2017/2018 phone so I would expect that. And not cheap new - £220?

I offered my Lumia 640 as a cheap option for some one to try out at little cost, might be all thats needed for non izombies
Last edited by mercalia on 29 Jul 2019, 1:40pm, edited 1 time in total.
pete75
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by pete75 »

mercalia wrote:
simonhill wrote:Yes cheap, but why introduce yourself to mobile phones with an obsolete and soon to be unsupported operating system.

If you compare the Windows' app store to the Google one, I think you will see the paucity of apps in the former.

I had a Google Android tablet at the time I had my windows phone so knew the difference. There were innumerable apps available on the tablet that I couldn't access on my phone.

I have been tempted to use my old Windows phone as a lightweight phone, but would not ditch my Android phone for normal use. The OP is talking about a first phone and I recommend an Android over a Windows.



well a typical cheap Android phone has an unsupported os a year after buying it. Esp Motorolas. with their cheap budget G series I think. As for apps depends on what you want to do. if you have a Windows 10 phone you should take a look closer look at whats available for travel & mapping. Well as a first phone some thing cheap has a lot to recomend it rather than layout £150 or so . and you are forgetting I was in same the position as him last Winter, this was MY first phone


£150 is cheap for a phone. BTW almost all Android apps will run on WIndows 10 you just need to install Bluestacks.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
mercalia
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by mercalia »

pete75 wrote:
mercalia wrote:
simonhill wrote:Yes cheap, but why introduce yourself to mobile phones with an obsolete and soon to be unsupported operating system.

If you compare the Windows' app store to the Google one, I think you will see the paucity of apps in the former.

I had a Google Android tablet at the time I had my windows phone so knew the difference. There were innumerable apps available on the tablet that I couldn't access on my phone.

I have been tempted to use my old Windows phone as a lightweight phone, but would not ditch my Android phone for normal use. The OP is talking about a first phone and I recommend an Android over a Windows.



well a typical cheap Android phone has an unsupported os a year after buying it. Esp Motorolas. with their cheap budget G series I think. As for apps depends on what you want to do. if you have a Windows 10 phone you should take a look closer look at whats available for travel & mapping. Well as a first phone some thing cheap has a lot to recomend it rather than layout £150 or so . and you are forgetting I was in same the position as him last Winter, this was MY first phone


£150 is cheap for a phone. BTW almost all Android apps will run on WIndows 10 you just need to install Bluestacks.


I'll have a look at that ta. hmmI think only for desktop, though I might put it on my lappy

The sad thing is, MS investigated bridges to both iphones and android stores to allow download and running the store apps on windows phone but the Android bridge worked too well and it underminded their universal app platform so it was discontinued and the team disbanded. very sad - but then MS run by bureaucrats interested in the stockmarket value now.
Last edited by mercalia on 29 Jul 2019, 1:50pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Graham
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Re: What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

Post by Graham »

mjr wrote: . . . That's part of why I now look for phones which can be rooted/unlocked, which at least gives me a chance of the other Android providers supporting them! . . .

This may be a significant factor. As a long-standing Ubuntu user for my Desktop PC I dislike the idea of having software locked to the hardware.
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