OT Rugged smartphones

[Blanco]

2 hours ago, Bowie69 said:

The iPhone 7 was a very well specced phone (£500+?),

I have never gone back to Apple having had a couple of their early desktop machines in the late 80's, .. at the time they had a useful WYSIWYG interface and we had interior planning software that was developed for them.

I have avoided Apple phones, particularly since they admitted tampering with the performance of ageing phones.... is that still an issue?

[reb78]

8 minutes ago, Blanco said:

 

I have avoided Apple phones, particularly since they admitted tampering with the performance of ageing phones.... is that still an issue?

They destroyed an Ipad 2 of ours with an update - one day worked perfectly, the next it was as good as bricked. Even typing produced MASSIVE lag to the point it was unusable. Of course, you cant roll back or root etc like you can with Android and Jailbreaking seems to have died a death, so that was it, machine ruined. That was years ago, but I dont beleive that they have stopped doing it.

[Happyoldgit]

Sincere thanks to all who offered advice and suggestions. You wouldn't believe the amount of time I spent comparing makes and models, not made any easier due to the very real ongoing effects of the chemotherapy treatment, what's known as "chemo brain" I'm told. Whether I made the right choice - for me - I have no idea but the phone arrived this afternoon and is on a top up charge now. More in due course.

 

Edited April 29, 2021 by Happyoldgit
Edited to remove a load of useless stuff in which I waffle on about Mac's and Windows laptops, life, the universe and everything.

[Nonimouse]

4 hours ago, reb78 said:

 

I hate iphones, but inherit my other half's cast offs when she upgrades, so beggars cant be choosers and all that. BUT I still hate the thing! Despite trying I cant get her to get an Android phone that I can inherit.

 

I really sympathise with you on this. We are issued with iphones at work (12pro). I loathe the damn things. The only thing that has improved over the last ten years is battery life - although having said that, the facial recognition is good. Signal is always bad. Far to complex - just an utter pain to use. Water resistance is appalling as is the build quality. But we need to spend tax payers money as quickly as possible, so 6.5k iphones to all the staff is fine. Same reason we use 02 - we need cost not efficiency; why would anyone actually want to make a call anyway?

[Bowie69]

2 hours ago, Blanco said:

particularly since they admitted tampering with the performance of ageing phones.... is that still an issue?

Yep, definitely.

 

2 hours ago, Blanco said:

I have never gone back to Apple having had a couple of their early desktop machines in the late 80's, .. at the time they had a useful WYSIWYG interface and we had interior planning software that was developed for them.

Interesting, I worked at a joinery where they used very old macs (even then in ~2000 they were 10-15 years old!) with a single floppy drive and a tiny screen, for designing staircases and dispatching them to a CNC router.

[Ed Poore]

1 hour ago, Nonimouse said:

Signal is always bad

That's one thing that's blown me away with the Ulefone I got - signal reception has gone through the roof compared to all the other phones I've had. OK 4ft thick Victorian walls don't help but I can pretty much get signal in every room of the house now at certain locations - it was a case of one side of the house if I was lucky with all the previous phones. Similarly at my parents farm once you left the yard up the top of the hill it was a done deal you lost signal but this phone seems to get signal everywhere except at the bottom of one of the woods up a narrow valley.

[Nonimouse]

46 minutes ago, Ed Poore said:

That's one thing that's blown me away with the Ulefone I got - signal reception has gone through the roof compared to all the other phones I've had. OK 4ft thick Victorian walls don't help but I can pretty much get signal in every room of the house now at certain locations - it was a case of one side of the house if I was lucky with all the previous phones. Similarly at my parents farm once you left the yard up the top of the hill it was a done deal you lost signal but this phone seems to get signal everywhere except at the bottom of one of the woods up a narrow valley.

I find this with my Oukitel - signal is always good (ok, I'm on EE so it would be good), almost as good as Tesco, with it's piggybacking system.

Oddly enough I find this with my wife's Huawei P35 Pro. One of the last sold in the UK before the US ban on Google being used in Chinese products. An excellent phone. I'm told it's very simplistic and actually rather basic in the way it works and what it runs; but what a great phone

I'm very much a 'simple works, so why bother with complicated' kind of chap. 

[Retroanaconda]

It’s always interesting how different our perceptions can be. I have a Samsung ‘somethingorother’ as my work phone which runs Android and I find it frustrating and complex to use compared to my own iPhone 11. The iOS just seems so much more intuitive and Android is clunky and awkward.

I recently upgraded from my old iPhone 6 to the 11 to allow me to use CarPlay, that phone was quite old and I hadn’t noticed it slowing down at all. I changed my iPad too as my old one is now approaching 8 years old, that had started to slow up and was struggling with some websites etc. but after that length of time I don’t find that unacceptable. It’s now relegated to os mapping & gps duties in the car where it’s shorter battery life is not an issue.

I’ve had ‘rugged’ phones in the past but always found them some way behind normal models in terms of development, but I guess this gap as shortened or disappeared since the advent of common operating systems across different makes/models. 

[Blanco]

2 hours ago, Bowie69 said:

Interesting, I worked at a joinery where they used very old macs (even then in ~2000 they were 10-15 years old!) with a single floppy drive and a tiny screen, for designing staircases and dispatching them to a CNC router.

I think they would have been ideal for that, .... we didn't have CNC, all our units were modular sizes and we used the Mac's to build interiors, render the walls and facades and generate the itemised picking list, it was both a sales tool with the pretty pictures and a production tool for the listings,.... only problem was the catalogue building wasn't done in house, in those days that was quite an expensive overhead.

 

7 minutes ago, Retroanaconda said:

I’ve had ‘rugged’ phones in the past but always found them some way behind normal models in terms of development, but I guess this gap as shortened or disappeared since the advent of common operating systems across different makes/models. 

This was me just over two years ago, I went with the Nokia 7+ and a case, but looking again now it seems things are indeed closer. I am going to try a wireless charging adapter I have ordered to try and keep the Nokia going a bit longer, and if that doesn't work I'll go with the Doogee S96 Pro as well I think ....... (unless HOG tells us there is some reason not to) it does seem a good balance of processor/OS and features for the price, also I can order it from Holland duty paid, ... anything I buy in the UK at that price level would attract Irish VAT and be duty payable.

[Badger110]

On 4/27/2021 at 6:47 PM, Ed Poore said:

Only had it since mid January but been suitable impressed by the Ulefone Armor X8. Dropped it a fair few times and from height and not suffered, it's got the case built into it. Waterproof (even a submersible mode for the camera). Think it was £124 from Amazon when I bought it.

 

I had 2 of these, ear piece speaker went on the first one and the second one just died after a few months.

 

Certainly tough, but the internals didn't turn out to be that good.

[zardos]

6 hours ago, Nonimouse said:

Signal is always bad

That is because Apple would say that you are holding it wrong 😁

They did actually say this to some people, when they screwed up the design that caused left handers to bridge a gap between different aerials, then they started charging people for "rubber bumpers", then they gave the way free but after the uproar died down, they started charging for them again.

The problem with Apple is they treat the customer very badly and bank on fanboys (or people they have locked in to their closed ecosystem) to still buying their over price mediocre product.

[zardos]

3 hours ago, Retroanaconda said:

I have a Samsung ‘somethingorother’ as my work phone which runs Android

The problem is that Samsung has replaced a lot of Google's effort with their own inferior UI

[Happyoldgit]

Re the Doogee S96 that I ordered from Amazon late last night and was delivered this afternoon. I am still setting it up but am using it to post this. I paid £296 but noticed the price has now increased to £329.99!

First impressions: it's solid, chunky, weighty and so far has been easy to setup.

I have been playing with the night vision and it's good! Obviously the range of the small infra red led's is not going to illuminate a football pitch but they are fine in the average room and will illuminate surprisingly far outside. I also found some of the reviews are wrong when they state the night vision will only capture stills. By chance I discovered that by selecting the front camera the camera will capture video via night vision - bonus!

[Happyoldgit]

[Glue]

Doogee or Doggy?

[landroversforever]

Perfect for late night dogging.... sorry, dog pictures

 

[Stellaghost]

6 hours ago, landroversforever said:

Perfect for late night dogging.... 

 

Ahhh thats why your build is slow, too tired with those late nights lol regards Stephen

[Happyoldgit]

So far so good with regards the S96. Once set up it's been pretty intuitive to use with no issues in areas that other phones have struggled to get a signal. It's heavy but really solidly built, but I like being able to feel and be aware of it in a pocket. I have used the phone a lot for photos, browsing and calls, the battery is currently on 25% and on its original charge. I like the fact that you can connect a lanyard [supplied] directly to the body. The audio via the rear speaker is good, not hi fi quality obviously but distortion free and clear when the volume is cranked up.

All in all I'm still happy with it ...typing that has probably jinxed it!

[ThreePointFive]

It's not for me to tell you what to do with your new-found nightvision capabilities, but I'm just going to leave these here for... inspiration.

 

+

=

[Blanco]

On 5/2/2021 at 9:55 PM, Happyoldgit said:

So far so good with regards the S96.

Just broken the screen on mine which has concentrated my mind on this.....  (again), .... think I'll press the button on one as well unless there are any major disappointments?

[Happyoldgit]

1 hour ago, Blanco said:

Just broken the screen on mine which has concentrated my mind on this.....  (again), .... think I'll press the button on one as well unless there are any major disappointments?

Actually no, I have been quite happy with it. The screen is a bit bigger than the previous phone but not too big that it won't fit into a pocket and I soon got used to the additional weight - it seems like a well built but of kit. Signal strength is generally better too. Good buy IMHO.

I bought a cheap digitiser and screen to replace the one that was destroyed on the previous phone. While not good enough to use regularly it enabled me to access the device and get off some data I needed.

[Blanco]

Black and Orange  (hobson's choice for immediate availability) S96 now on its way from Holland 🤞 

[L19MUD]

On 5/14/2021 at 9:48 AM, Happyoldgit said:

Actually no, I have been quite happy with it. The screen is a bit bigger than the previous phone but not too big that it won't fit into a pocket and I soon got used to the additional weight - it seems like a well built but of kit. Signal strength is generally better too. Good buy IMHO.

I bought a cheap digitiser and screen to replace the one that was destroyed on the previous phone. While not good enough to use regularly it enabled me to access the device and get off some data I needed.

@Happyoldgit are you still happy with the Doogee? I see they do a 5g version now and am tempted

My Land Rover explore phone (which was terrible from new) appears to be about to die with constant loops back to the welcome screen

[David Sparkes]

38 minutes ago, L19MUD said:

@Happyoldgit are you still happy with the Doogee? I see they do a 5g version now and am tempted.

I thought that one of the Doogee S96 positives was that at 4G it had more 'space' to have a better aerial (or whatever components are required to use a weak signal).

I took mine to a February GLASS meeting in a Peak District Derbyshire pub which historically had weak signals within the thick stone walled building.
Naturally, the last test was at least 12 months ago.
When I raised the discussion point, it transpired that all 4 attendees (with different phones) had a 2 bar 4G signal, although some were nominally 5G phones. Someone did suggest there had been improvements in the 4G network 'recently', but I considered that point as 'unproven'.

The only other point about the Doogee S96 was that its combination of weight and size made it difficult for my arthritic stiff fingers to hold it.
I bought a 'silicone' case which has more friction and has eased to problem slightly. eBay item 114673595525, Cover Case TPU SMOOTH 100% TRANSPARENT for DOOGEE S96 PRO Gel Silicone.

Regards.

[Blanco]

I have had my S96 for about 19/20 months now. One annoying occasional issue is the screen goes blank once a call has started, and I haven't sussed how to wake it up. A proper pain if you need to press menu options once connected. At first I thought it was just internet calls but eventually I decided it didn't matter what sort of call.

And as of last week it doesn't seem that tough either, I dropped it on the drive, (loose stone surface) it landed from about 3ft on a larger stone on the RH edge and burgered the finger print sensor. The sensor comes as part of the screen and frame assembly and is major surgery to fix!   Other than that it has been pretty successful, and I'll probably try and get it repaired (depending on how much they want)

There is now an S97, haven't looked closely at the differences yet.