Hello New Phone

I haven’t written a blog post in 3 weeks. This shouldn’t really happen again. When I began the blog I made a promise to write at least one article a week, and by and large I’ve managed to maintain that pace. But 3 weeks is absolutely unacceptable ?

Anyway, for a quick update, on July 6th my old Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X broke. The screen kept flickering making it impossible to see anything. The phone had already been heavily abused, so I knew its days were numbered.

I bought the Note 4X in September 2017. Originally I chose it because of the massive battery size (4,000 mAh), the reasonable screen size (5.5″), and most of all, the price (3.5 million dong — you can’t find a phone with such specs at this price).

It had served me flawlessly since. Honestly, besides the low-quality camera and the crappy speakers (well you can’t expect top-of-the-line hardware from a 3.5 million dong device), the phone is amazing. I never once had an issue during my almost 2 year stint with it.

The biggest problem is that I’m not exactly a gentle handler. I bought a thick protective case named “Ironman” for it (pretty apt name), but still managed to put numerous cracks on the screen. In August 2018, I dropped it when we were driving to Ba Vi for a race, and the screen just broke open. I had to replace the screen for 500k.

The last straw came two weeks ago on July 4th when I was pushing my motorbike up the stairs, and my phone pocket was pressed against the wall. When I took the phone out the screen kind of just stopped working.

I was really sad then 🙁 I really was hoping I’d make it to the 2-year mark before having to buy a new phone.

So on Friday I did my research and bought a new Xiaomi A2 Lite. It was a bit tougher to make the choice this time, because almost every single new model has screens that are over 6 inches. I’d much prefer a smaller screen, and the A2 is the only phone with a 5.84″ I could find.

At one point I even seriously considered getting a second-handed Galaxy S7 as it comes with a 5.5″ screen. Thankfully I found the A2 shortly after!

So far the A2 has been, again, fantastic. It has the exact same price tag as my good old 4X (3.5 million dong), and also has a gigantic 4,000 mAh battery.

The biggest difference is that the A2 is an Android One model, meaning it comes with a stock Google OS. It’s completely naked. No built-in apps at all. I was surprised that it didn’t even come with a Recorder or even a bloody Gallery app. I had to download everything manually.

After some more reading I found out that Android One phones are meant to be affordable mid-range models for the lower market. Manufacturers just give Google a chassis to load their software in. It’s a good thing really because most phones are loaded with bloatware that do nothing but slow everything down. This phone feels light and smooth, so I can’t really complain.

I’ve been using the A2 Lite for 2 weeks now. So far so good. The screen is actually smaller than I expected, because it has an 18:9 ratio instead of the regular 16:9. Also, just like the 4X, the camera is, well, less than ideal, but that’s all I need for now.

I bought another Ironman case for it. Here’s the new phone in all its glory:

Here’s hoping this warrior will last me another 2 years ?