Current Android phone recommendations

[Dave Barter]

Before anyone lays in..running my own business requires this. It's not for facebook which I don't have...

What phones can people recommend that meet these criteria:-

-not a Sony M5 which will be shortly resident up the colon of the first Sony employee I find
-weatherproof enough to survive a bit of moisture
-microSD card
-long battery life
-not expensive
-runs backcountry navigator
-is not as s h 1 t e as a Sony M5, does not constantly crash, can function as a phone
-can be hidden discretely from Stu when searching for WIFI in a pub

I'm looking at a Moto G4 at the moment but keen to see what others think

[Pirahna]

Just read a couple of reviews of Moto G4. I'd buy it.

[ianfitz]

This raised its head in our house this week.

The answer from the techies we know was a Redmi. Various options but solid phones that don't have the premium price tag of others.

I'm still an apple slave but Helen is happy

[Sarah]

Galaxy J5 ticks a lot of boxes.

[johnnystorm]

Samsung S8 is out soon so the S7 is getting cheaper. It's not "cheap" but £20 a month will get you one on a contract with a healthy quota of data and call time. It's waterproof, has an excellent camera, can take a 200gb as card and has the the performance to not get bogged down by updates for some time. It has decent battery life with a variety of power saving options. I've got an edge version and it sat in an alpkit stem cell on the Divide in all weathers. I use it with backcountry in the UK and used it with back country and OSMAND+ on the Divide for when my Garmin was being flaky.

[PJG]

I've got a Moto G4, and I like it.
It ticks most of your boxes - except maybe the sheer size of the thing will make harder to keep out of Stu's eyesight.
It's cheap, battery lasts 2 days (YMMV), no prob with BackCountry Navigator. takes a micro-SD, half-decent camera.
No more or less weatherproof than any standard smartphone.
I can't compare it to a Sony phone I'm afraid - having never owned one.

This is my 3rd Moto G, and I think you'll find it hard to beat them for value for money, it's just a shame that they don't do them in a smaller size (although the mapping does look great on that huge screen

[ScotRoutes]

I currently use a Samsung A3 as it is one of the smaller phones available today.

I had an Experia Z1 Compact before that and would certainly consider another Experia Compact again. More or less waterproof, if that matters.

[Richpips]

Have a G3 which has been great.

My research says a G4 is next for me (shortly).

[MarkW]

I've had the s5 for a while now its been great and its waterproof!
Its got the microSD, decent removable battery and its a tiny bit old so should be cheaper.

[In Reverse]

I'll throw another vote in for the Samsung Galaxy S5. A few models out of date now but still use mine for bikepacking - properly waterproof, you can carry a spare battery, decent screen size for using Viewranger/mapping app of your choice, quite sturdy to boot. Decent camera too actually. You can probably buy a refurb for peanuts and see if you like it.

[Moder-dye]

I've just gone from a xperia Z1, which was great until I killed it to a Vodafone smart ultra 7. I'm Vodafone contract anyway.

The ultra 7 is great for my needs, maverick pro mapping, strava, podcasts and pics as well as general internet stuff. Only down side is its not ant+ compatible without an ant+ dongle.

Ideally I'd have got another xperia Z ,but cost was the main factor.

[Dave Barter]

Thanks all, went for the G4 in the end along with a waterproof holder I already have

[Zippy]

Now get cyanogenmod on it

[johnnystorm]

Now get cyanogenmod on it

Or another obsolete OS of your choice.

[Zippy]

Stuff moves so quickly these days, I can't keep up!

[mechanicaldope]

Now get cyanogenmod on it

Or another obsolete OS of your choice.

Not very up on this due to certain (banking etc) apps not working on phones with root access. It appears that cyanogenmods successor (LineageOS) doesn't have root access as default. Does this mean that these apps will now work on LineageOS builds?

[johnnystorm]

Now get cyanogenmod on it

Or another obsolete OS of your choice.

Not very up on this due to certain (banking etc) apps not working on phones with root access. It appears that cyanogenmods successor (LineageOS) doesn't have root access as default. Does this mean that these apps will now work on LineageOS builds?

I haven't looked into it. I lost interest after notifications were formatted in white text on a white background in Cyanogen on my OPO.