Well, seeing most people here seems lazy to do some study on the phone available.

Let me help you all out thought, choose phone based on the processor will be the safest bet.

Ignore those battery life claim, due to bigger, higher res screen, and 4G network, all phone battery life sucks.
Be prepare to bring wall plug charger or power bank.

Speaking back to the processor, only choose phone with Qualcomm Snapdragon high end processor, such as S600, S800, S801, S805, S810 and S820.
Even though those S800 series has over heating issue, they offer the best performance in day to day use, and gaming as well.
Forget S615 and S400/S410, they are just as slow.

RAM count, no need so worry, 2GB RAM actually is enough, more RAM doesn't make the phone faster, just good for multi-tasking, but average user seldom multitasking, even the OS itself will close the program if not used for very long time.

After that, come to the budget and brand selection.
Want the most high end and reliable device? Only buy from Samsung, Sony, Apple, LG, HTC, Motorola.

Stay away from budget brand like Huawei, Lenovo, ASUS, Acer, Alcatel, Xiaomi, Oppo, Meizu, Oneplus, ZTE, Ninetology.
Those budget phone is very good in value, and feature high end processor, high end feature at very budget price, but the quality and reliability isn't there.
You may buy those phone in a risky situation where budget allowed, but when your phone got issue, the after sales service just isn't there. Recommend just buy from ASUS, if local warranty is your concern, at least ASUS still has very respectable local support.

No money to buy high end phone? A very good advise is, buy the phone from last year flagship, which has price drop near or similar to those offer from budget brand. The old flagship, starting from year 2013, featuring at least Snapdragon 600 processor, are still very good, almost no different in feature compare to those phone offer in year 2015. They are still pretty fast, fast enough for everyday usage without any weird issue.

Lastly, my recommendation as below:
Over RM2000 budget:
Samsung S6, S6 Edge, Note 4, Note Edge, HTC One M9, LG G4, Sony Xperia Z3,Z3+, iPhone 6/6 plus

Around RM2000 to RM1500
LG G3, HTC One M8, Desire Eye, Butterfly 2, Sony Xperia Z2/Z3 Compact, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, S5

Around RM1000 to RM1500
HTC One M7, Sony Xperia Z1, Samsung Galaxy S4, LG G2


For those budget minded and won't mind on the headache on after sale service, here are some phone with high end Snapdragon processor, but with much budget price tag.
Oppo N3, Oppo Find 7/7A, Vivo Xplay 3S, Vivo Xshot, Lenovo Z2 Pro, Oneplus One, Xiaomi Mi4, Mi3, Xiaomi Mi Note/ Note Pro, ASUS Padfone S/S Plus.

For starter, recommend ASUS Padfone S/S Plus, Xiaomi Mi4, which spot Snapdragon 801 processor with less than RM1000. Guarantee those phone is lag free in comparison.

Move up a bit,, over RM1000, but below RM1500 you do get Oneplus One, Vivo Xshot, Oppo Find 7A, Lenovo Z2 Pro, Sony Xperia Z1, Sony Xperia Z Ultra.

On the highest budget end, Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 3, LG G3, HTC One M8, HTC Desire Eye, should be a pretty good buy. (Around RM1500++ to RM1700)

Stay away from other budget phone, especially those using Mediatek processor, and those from budget brand.

thanks bro... still crying and touched

but why u say so... OnePlus One in 1k-1.5K budget is the best bang buck dude... even M8 and S5 are lost to this killing machine

This post has been edited by mudkipryan94: Jul 29 2015, 09:36 PM

Now in Q3, at further price drop, actually S5, M8, pricing now very close to Oneplus One.
S5 and M8 actually offer much more than what Oneplus One can offer.
They just lose in pricing to Oneplus One.

Even at this price range, I will also consider buying LG G3, the price not that far away.

Oneplus One has it's own issue when come to service support, the quality is hit and miss.
There are a bunch of complain regarding this those getting a defect unit.
Well, congratulation for those people who get the good unit, but feel sorrow for those who get the defect unit.

For S5, M8, and G3, I don't have to worry on those defect issue, as the local support is pretty strong.

This post has been edited by Alan Yee: Jul 29 2015, 09:57 PM

Budget around 1k.. Thinking of zp2 4gig ram.. Not a multitasker thou.. Look like people are suggesting oneplus one.. But im having a doubt on buying last 3 years phone..

Ok, tell you the honest truth about Zenfone 2.

The performance of the phone is same as Snapdragon 801, or another word, same performance as Oneplus One, S5, M8, Oppo Find7, even the processor graphic card is high end. So, no complain on performance either, it is very fast. Only let down by the camera quality, and the phone battery life (usual high end phone issue, which suck a lot of juice)

One big issue with ASUS is the phone quality. Personally deal with ASUS android tablet before, and the problem is terrible, send to service center twice, at last the problem is solved. Used two year without issue. (ASUS Fonepad, by the way)

Another real issue is, the Intel Atom processor is not fully compatible with all the apps in Play Store.
You may get more apps crash than other phone using Snapdragon or MTK.
This is due to most apps is written based on ARM processor architecture, and Intel Atom is X86/X64 based.
Well, more apps compatibility issue is solved over the year, but there is not 100% guarantee.

My personal experience is, some apps is totally cannot install. Some apps often crash, need to restart.
Worse experience is after some apps update, the apps totally crash and cannot open.

Most popular apps have no issue though, but less popular apps may have issue.

Worth a try to buy, but you have to be ready to face those problem.

^ thanks.bro..

Thanks for the recommendations. Will update him on this.

have u ever try using Asus phone ,huawei phone, meizu or xiaomi to begin with?
dont talk BIG here okay.

have u ever buy a samsung ? s3, duos, grand, prime, note 2
have u ever buy oppo? neo series?
have u ever owned an zenfone 3,5,6 series?
and use them personally?

come on bro.
DONT SIMPLY SAY

Stay away from other budget phone, especially those using Mediatek processor, and those from budget brand.

What I am talking here is more on the after sale service, and actual value per phone.

I personally don't own any phone from Oppo, Huawei, Meizu or Xiaomi, but I have friend who actually own them, and some of the phone has the usual quality issue. The phone warranty repair take a few weeks, so I have to hold back to actually own these phone.
Not everyone is getting the defect unit, but it will have long waiting period waiting the phone to get repaired.
(But recently Oppo service is getting better and better, anyway)
Even Samsung/Sony/LG/HTC is not perfect on its own quality, but they compensate these with local service support. At least the service they offer maximum just take 1 week for replacement or repair.


I do own a Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, it is already 2 year old. I have compare with friend who own s3, duos, grand, prime, note 2. Simply, this S4 Active with Snapdragon 600 processor win hands down on the performance, apps loading, screen transition, gaming, just that fast. The S3 and Note 2 lag if the phone is installed with too many apps, and if memory is fully filled. The lag simply happen just on the simple swiping the phone UI. The S4 ACtive is simply still fast and stable, , no lag, even under heavy load.

As there is high end processor inside the phone with price comparable to phone with Mediatek processor, would suggest go for the high end processor instead of Mediatek.

I am not saying Mediatek is bad, but for the choices available, high end SnapDragon processor perform better than high end Mediatek processor, in term of speed and also gaming performance.

Most of the Mediatek chip also come with load of lower end or outdated graphic chip, and not every Mediatek chip is equivalent. Only very few Mediatek phone comes pack with high end graphic chip, and high end performance. Unlike Snapdragon 800 series, the Adreno 330 series chip is of the top performer, even it is installed on cheaper phone.

So, if the price is nearly similar, why not top up a bit to get a better one?
This is because I own a damn cheap Acer Liquid S2 (RM999), and almost similar price damn cheap Lenovo S960 (RM799), at almost the same release time.
The 2 phone are very similar in term of spec, with very cheap build material, and cheap outlook too, just the processor is different.
But the Liquid S2 simply beat the S960 in every performance, just because the Liquid S2 is packed with Snapdragon 800 processor.

There are exception though, the Mediatek chip on Lenovo Vibe X2 (MT6595M), and Meizu MX4 (MT6595) are of very high performance, but they are rarely available on other phone model.

It's very hard to get used to a slow phone after experiencing high end device.
That is why iPhone owner still choose to stick back to iPhone.

sd 410 no good meh...lenovo a6000 plus

Need recommendation for second phone. Budget 100-200. Android. Lite use. For instant messaging n such.

go celcom centre.
pay 99+10+6% gst = RM115

take their magic sim prepaid pack.

profit.

alcatel pop d3 or zte blade v815

https://www.xpax.com.my/bundle

not that good compare to the mtk 64bit in many phone like meizu m2 note

This post has been edited by salimbest83: Jul 30 2015, 02:05 PM

I am not saying SD 410 is not good, they just not worth the price on being at low end phone.
Because just top up a bit up to RM900, you can have a much better performance phone with higher end processor, such as ASUS Padfone S, Xiaomi Mi3/Mi4, ASUS Zenfone 2 550ML.

But at the end, we should buy phone according to our budget.
Pointless if only advise go for higher price phone.

Between the two, which one is better?

a6000 is a 64bit chip rite

So you said S615 and S400 is slow, but older flagships using S600 is okay?

And just a friendly suggestion, things aren't as bad as you make them out to be. I used to have thoughts like you, thinking Mediatek is bad; Intel has incompatibility issues, etc. Then I realized, every product out there has almost the same defective rate --there's always a chance of getting a really bad lemon out of the whole perfect batch.

Customer service in Malaysia is always bad. No matter phone, food, or clothes. I had a lot of bad experiences with Asus, along with few other people --respectable is not even close.

And like you said, they are budget brands, they've got to cut corners here and there --but so far I haven't had a single problem with my Mi3 running heavy games in and out. Things like that, etc.

Not blaming you or wronging you, but do keep your options open a bit --people like certain brands for the brands it self, and also aesthetics. Electronics all die eventually anyway lol

Its ok at the time they were launch but not on 2015 .

Your argument is conflict with ur own statement . Of course its ok because it using snapdragon 800 like the previous people mention in his list .
No one say mi3 is not ok . But there is always better phone out there . Budget phone must have compromise something its normal .

This post has been edited by xerox8908: Jul 30 2015, 09:00 PM

Um, what? Don't quite understand what you're trying to say lol. I'm mentioning the Mi3 because he did mention that people should steer away from these budget brands (Xiaomi included); which coincidentally, whilst they cut corners on certain things, it still runs well --which is what I am saying.

So... I don't quite get what you're trying to say, because you said what I said

This post has been edited by Helldiver: Jul 30 2015, 09:14 PM

Yes, I agree, things aren't bad actually.
The problem is on the manufacturer them self, that confuse consumer.

I agree, not all Mediatek chip are inferior, as I said in other post, there are exception (MT6595, MT6595M, MT6795T all perform greatly), even the Intel chip, start from z3560 to z3580, are real high end chip.

I'm apologize and sorry to say that to stay away from Mediatek, but rather, I should say only pick the phone with high end processor chip to avoid lower performance.

There are now lower tier, middle tier and high end processor. But the pricing on the phone may confuse many people.
Some phone price may be priced very close among brand, but their performance should be justified among the processor chosen.

My main point still the same, high end chip may be found on comparable cheaper phone. It is better to pick the phone with high end chip rather than a phone with lower end.

Many newer release phone with lower tier and middle tier processor are priced very close to last year flagship phone. So, that's why I advise go for the last year flagship phone, as those will perform better than those middle and lower tier processor phone, given the price drop of flagship phone.

Another thing to say is, manufacturer only pack high end graphic chip on high end processor.
They pack everything high end in the same SOC.
So, pick processor to justified the phone performance, rather than the price.

As for the Xiaomi brand, and other newer budget brand, my point is more on the quality issue and after sale service. I know not everyone is having issue with Xiaomi phone, but should also consider the after sale service.
Because I have own phones with many problem before from budget and also problematic phone from big brand, and I realize the after sale service is very important to make sure those phone is problem free.