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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Well, what you said is true, budget phone is still a budget phone, and there are compromises.
(no 4G, no Micro SD card slot, no IR blaster, minus some of the sensor, some build quality compromise)

However, Mi3 at least on par with other brand on parts that is not a compromise. (1080p screen, 13MP camera, NFC, 3050Mah battery, 2GB RAM, 16GB Storage, Snapdragon 800). Dare I said they try to compete with high end phone with some compromise. (Of course, just can try, we know they cannot compete, but this is the phone intention)

Compare to other phone at this price range, this is a pretty good phone to start with, pretty much the most value for money, if people don't mind with the compromise. There is always a better phone out there, but won't be just +RM200 different for getting famous brand with almost similar spec. Only budget phone like this can exist at this price bracket.

Other worthy contender around this price range are Xiaomi Mi4, ASUS Padfone S/ S Plus, ASUS Zenfone 2 550ML (16GB) or ASUS Zenfone 2 551ML (32GB), Huawei Honor 6, Lenovo Vibe Z K910. (Again, only budget phone can exist)

This post has been edited by Alan Yee: Jul 31 2015, 12:34 AM

Sorry for my previous post, I shouldn't say Mediatek processor is bad.
You are very kind of buying phone for your fren and family.

Down to the most realistic question, would be the price of the phone.
Below RM1000, only Xiaomi, Huawei, Meizu, ASUS, Lenovo can offer phone with better spec and performance.
Even though those phone at some respect still consider as budget phone, their spec actually is the same as what has been offered in high end phone by famous brand few years ago. So, at some point untrue also to consider those as budget phone.

It is pointless also to ask people to go for more expensive model, it is well depend on people budget, and suggesting the best phone according to a person's budget. Of course, it is always welcome to suggest, maybe just +RM200, that person will get a much better phone, only if that person can afford.

This year, Mediatek has improve a lot, as well as Intel Atom chip.
Big brand like Sony and HTC also rolling out phone with Mediatek chip too, considered a big step in choosing Mediatek chip for major brand.

Thanks, I think I'm out of topic on my previous post.
Processor do improve every year, newer generation processor do come out to replace the old generation from time to time.
S615 is actually very comparable to S600, it is better than S600 actually.

Performance is somewhat in between S600 and S800 series.
This processor is the answer from Qualcomm to Mediatek to compete in the middle range processor line up.

Lenovo Vibe Z (K910)
Lenovo K3 Note
Lenovo P90
Lenovo Golden Warrior Note 8
Meizu M1 Note
Huawei Honor 4X
Lenovo A7000
HTC Desire 620G
Xiaomi Redmi Note
Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE I9305

Should rank and show like this:

1. Lenovo Vibe Z (K910) : SD800 Quad 2.2Ghz, 5.5" 1080p, 16GB, 2GB RAM, 13MP/5MP, No Card Slot, 4G
2. Lenovo P90 : Intel z3560 Quad 1.89Ghz, 5.5" 1080p, 32GB, 2GB RAM, 13MP/5MP, No Card Slot, 4G
3. Lenovo K3 Note : MT6752 Octa 1.7Ghz, 5.5" 1080p, 16GB, 2GB RAM, 13MP/5MP, Micro SD Card Slot, 4G
4. Meizu M1 Note : MT6752 Octa 1.7Ghz, 5.5" 1080p, 16GB, 2GB RAM, 13MP/5MP, No Card Slot, 4G
5. Meizu M2 Note : MT6753 Octa 1.3Ghz, 5.5" 1080p, 16GB, 2GB RAM, 13MP/5MP, Micro SD Card Slot, 4G
6. Lenovo Golden Warrior Note 8 : MT6592 Octa 1.7Ghz, 5" 720p, 16GB, 2GB RAM, 13MP/5MP, Micro SD Card Slot, 4G
7. Lenovo A7000 : MT6752m Octa 1.5Ghz, 5.5" 720p, 8GB, 2GB RAM, 8MP/5MP, Micro SD Card Slot, 4G
8. Huawei Honor 4X: HS620 Octa 1.2Ghz, 5.5" 720p, 8GB, 2GB RAM, 13MP/5MP, Micro SD Card Slot, 4G
9. Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G : SD400 Quad 1.6Ghz, 5.5" 720p, 8GB, 2GB RAM, 13MP/5MP, Micro SD Card Slot, 4G
10. HTC Desire 620G : MT6592 Octa 1.7Ghz, 5" 720p, 8GB, 1GB RAM, 8MP/5MP, Micro SD Card Slot, 3G
11. Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE I9305 : Exy 4412 Quad 1.4 Ghz, 4.8" 720p, 2GB RAM, 8MP/1.9MP, Micro SD Card Slot, 4G

Would confuse a bit.....

iPhone 6+ not good enough?
Galaxy S6/S6 Edge, LG G4, HTC One M9, Sony Z3+, Galaxy Note 4
Top would be Galaxy S6/S6 Edge.
But, you can based on screen size to choose those phone too.
Of course, if really can spend for 2K, top up a bit, look for this year flags.

Closest to your budget would be Galaxy Note 4, HTC One M8.
Minus -RM200, you may get Oppo Find 7, and Vivo Xplay 3S, LG G3.

Maybe only Oneplus One suit your need.
Top up +RM200, you can get Oppo Find 7A, just slight slower than Oneplus One, but you get removable battery, and Micro SD card slot. Or Huawei Honor 6 Plus, Meizu MX4 Pro
Minus -RM200, you may get Xiaomi Mi4, but Mi4 don't has 4G support. Or Meizu MX4.

This suppose is a joking post from myself.
There are tons of Android phone flourish into market, with various spec and price.
I think no one can fully understand those phone without really using them.

The spec is mix and match among the processor, screen, internal storage, battery size, OS version, then OS optimization/customization.

For me is, it is very hard to judge a phone is good or bad without even using it.
Personal preference on brand's OS implementation, optimization and customization also impact on buying guide too.

Note 4 has AMOLED screen, S Pen, 5.7" screen, but maybe only 16GB internal storage for dual sim model, you should check carefully with Directd on this.

LG G4 has IPS LCD screen, 5.5", with 32GB internal storage.
Battery size for both dual sim model is same (3000Mah), Note 4 may have much longer battery life, due to the screen and processor efficiently.

Both equally good, down to your own personal taste.

It's you.....
Because we have different opinion, then it's normal to have this kind of debate.....

Joking only.
I admit I am living in the myth, thought expensive brand will have better after sales service.
Thanks for your clarification, at least we now know what brand actually has good service.

I now owning phone/tablet from Samsung and ASUS, and their service actually is quite ok. Not as good as Huawei for 1 to 1 exchange, but all issue at least get settled within a week.

Touch wood for all buyer, we should protect our right to get a problem free device, regardless of brand.

It ok, nothing to worry about, only have discussion like this can make people grown up.
This is what forum is all about, share out something that often what sales person or marketing from brand that seldom share. (As sharing those will keep people away from buying phone/tablet from them)

The after sale service should be an important factor for buying phone from certain brand.
Feel free to share out more useful info.
Sharing is caring.

Xiaomi Redmi 2, get the enhance version with 16GB storage and 2GB RAM.
Huawei 3C Lite

This post has been edited by Alan Yee: Aug 2 2015, 08:52 AM

Xiaomi Redmi Note
Meizu M1 Note
Huawei Honor 4X

This post has been edited by Alan Yee: Aug 2 2015, 08:50 AM

At this price, go for :

1. ASUS Zenfone 2 64GB, 4GB RAM, dual sim (5.5" 1080p)
2. Xiaomi Mi Note 64GB, 3GB RAM, dual sim (5.7" 1080p)
3. Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro 32GB, 3GB RAM, dual sim (6" 1440p/2K)
4. ZTE Nubia Z7 Max, 32GB, 3GB RAM dual sim (5.5" 1080p)

This post has been edited by Alan Yee: Aug 3 2015, 11:27 PM

1. Samsung Galaxy Note 4
2. LG G3
3. Xiaomi Mi Note
4. Motorola Nexus 6
5. OPPO Find 7
6. Vivo Xplay3S
7. Lenovo Z2 Pro
8. ZTE Nubia Z7
9. Oneplus One

Oppo Find 7A,
Samsung Galaxy S5
Huawei Honor 6
Xiaomi Mi4
Xiaomi Mi Note
Oneplus One (Oneplus 2 not yet launch and won't be getting here any time soon)
LG G3 (AP Suite your budget, but ori is over your budget)
ZTE Nubia Z7 Max (AP only?)


For Elephone P7000 and P8000, it is almost same spec as Meizu M1 Note and Lenovo K3 Note, so not really recommended, because of higher pricing.