4 ms·

I got burned once with a windows phone Omnia 7 as an early adopter and it was beyond useless (lack of apps/configurability) so I will definitely not rush again

I got burned once with a windows phone Omnia 7 as an early adopter and it was beyond useless (lack of apps/configurability) so I will definitely not rush again on unproven phones despite my interest in Ubuntu. Also the price/specs on this phone is horrible compared to Xiaomi Note 4G (190euro) which I own and can recommend to anyone. I hope Ubuntu phone catches on though. Competition is good.

dasboth 12y ago
I had the Omnia 7 and had the same frustration. Nothing wrong with the phone itself, but the OS was clunky and the Windows Phone app store was basically empty...
yourad_io 12y ago
That was a concern for me as well, especially after having played with beta Ubuntu touch builds. However, it looks like you should be able to get Kitkat on this easily[1]. [1] http://www.bq.com/gb/products/aquaris-e4-5.html http://www.bq.com/gb/products/aquaris-e4-5.html Search for "android"
da02 12y ago
Any recommendations on where to buy the Note 4G? I got mine at pandawill, but I'm curious about other places. It was my first time buying from a Chinese e-retailer.
- leaveyou 12y ago
  I bought mine on amazon in France (sold by some other company but shipped by amazon).
  - Kurtz79 12y ago
    Thanks for the lead. It appears also on Amazon Spain at just 160€. Are you happy with it ?
    - leaveyou 12y ago
      yes. It was worth every euro. Very fluid due to 2Gb RAM and good processor, nice screen and battery up to 3 days with my normal/light usage.
    - da02 12y ago
      I agree w/ @leaveyou. It feels fast and fluid. I love the 2GB of RAM. I'm in the US and use it on T-mobile's "4G". It's compatible and I love it.
  - da02 12y ago
    Did you buy a case for it there too? Thanks for the info.
    - leaveyou 12y ago
      I was not able to buy the case I wanted. They were not shipping in France or something like that..
IkmoIkmo 12y ago
The specs on that Xiaomi are really nice value. I'd been looking at the 2nd gen Moto E or G for my parents, but the Xiaomi beats it, although at a higher cost. It just amazes me how cheap tech has become. The other day I was looking through the Microsoft Store, saw a $90 ish tablet that had various discounts at times bringing it down to an absolutely ridiculous $60-70 range. I checked out some reviews and they were glowing (in terms of value), it actually runs windows 8 and comes with a year of Office 365 and an hour of Skype minutes every month. I can hardly imagine anyone buying Office 365 for a year at $70, instead of just buying this tablet instead haha. Of course it's no Mac Pro, but it surprised me. HP stream 7 was the name. I just sat there grinning while watching the reviews on this device, computing is truly becoming completely and totally ubiquitous this decade, even consumer computing is becoming a cheap commodity.
- leaveyou 12y ago
  I was in the same position: Moto G or something similar.. but lots of reviewers complained about battery life.. And then I saw the price and specs of xiaomi note: 2Gb RAM, 3100mAh and 5.5"+good resolution. If nothing else more interesting appears in the next weeks, I'm gonna buy a second one for my wife.
- untog 12y ago
  Just looked it up. Currently $79, with a $25 Windows Store voucher and $69-worth of Office 365. Extremely tempted but I really need to stop buying random tablet-y devices I'll never use.
  - vram22 12y ago
    Hehe, that really is a temptation. I wish there was one all-purpose device (maybe modular, like the earlier Modu phone [1] and now Google's Project Ara (still to come). [1] Read about Modu in TechCrunch some years ago. An Israeli startup backed by Yossi Vardi, IIRC. Not sure what happened to it. But the idea seemed promising.
- SloopJon 12y ago
  Second-gen Moto E came out just as my wife's Nexus 4 was giving up the ghost, and so far it is the perfect replacement. She was a little upset that it cost so much ($150), at which point I thought it unwise to remind her how much our iPods have cost over the years.
collyw 12y ago
being Ubuntu is it not going to be a fair bit easier to hack things onto it yourself?
- leaveyou 12y ago
  That's how I convinced myself to buy the windows phone. "Oh, it's windows ! I can program for it with C# & WPF. It will be fun.. for a week..". I hack enough things on my laptops (ubuntu). I needed a cheap phone to make calls, send sms easily, put alarms, listen to music, browse web, ocassionaly snap pictures and read some pdfs when I'm bored. Xiaomi is perfect for my needs until now.

dasboth 12y ago

I had the Omnia 7 and had the same frustration. Nothing wrong with the phone itself, but the OS was clunky and the Windows Phone app store was basically empty...

yourad_io 12y ago

That was a concern for me as well, especially after having played with beta Ubuntu touch builds. However, it looks like you should be able to get Kitkat on this easily[1]. [1] http://www.bq.com/gb/products/aquaris-e4-5.html http://www.bq.com/gb/products/aquaris-e4-5.html Search for "android"

da02 12y ago

Any recommendations on where to buy the Note 4G? I got mine at pandawill, but I'm curious about other places. It was my first time buying from a Chinese e-retailer.

leaveyou 12y ago
I bought mine on amazon in France (sold by some other company but shipped by amazon).
- Kurtz79 12y ago
  Thanks for the lead. It appears also on Amazon Spain at just 160€. Are you happy with it ?
  - leaveyou 12y ago
    yes. It was worth every euro. Very fluid due to 2Gb RAM and good processor, nice screen and battery up to 3 days with my normal/light usage.
  - da02 12y ago
    I agree w/ @leaveyou. It feels fast and fluid. I love the 2GB of RAM. I'm in the US and use it on T-mobile's "4G". It's compatible and I love it.
- da02 12y ago
  Did you buy a case for it there too? Thanks for the info.
  - leaveyou 12y ago
    I was not able to buy the case I wanted. They were not shipping in France or something like that..

IkmoIkmo 12y ago

The specs on that Xiaomi are really nice value. I'd been looking at the 2nd gen Moto E or G for my parents, but the Xiaomi beats it, although at a higher cost. It just amazes me how cheap tech has become. The other day I was looking through the Microsoft Store, saw a $90 ish tablet that had various discounts at times bringing it down to an absolutely ridiculous $60-70 range. I checked out some reviews and they were glowing (in terms of value), it actually runs windows 8 and comes with a year of Office 365 and an hour of Skype minutes every month. I can hardly imagine anyone buying Office 365 for a year at $70, instead of just buying this tablet instead haha. Of course it's no Mac Pro, but it surprised me. HP stream 7 was the name. I just sat there grinning while watching the reviews on this device, computing is truly becoming completely and totally ubiquitous this decade, even consumer computing is becoming a cheap commodity.

leaveyou 12y ago
I was in the same position: Moto G or something similar.. but lots of reviewers complained about battery life.. And then I saw the price and specs of xiaomi note: 2Gb RAM, 3100mAh and 5.5"+good resolution. If nothing else more interesting appears in the next weeks, I'm gonna buy a second one for my wife.
untog 12y ago
Just looked it up. Currently $79, with a $25 Windows Store voucher and $69-worth of Office 365. Extremely tempted but I really need to stop buying random tablet-y devices I'll never use.
- vram22 12y ago
  Hehe, that really is a temptation. I wish there was one all-purpose device (maybe modular, like the earlier Modu phone [1] and now Google's Project Ara (still to come). [1] Read about Modu in TechCrunch some years ago. An Israeli startup backed by Yossi Vardi, IIRC. Not sure what happened to it. But the idea seemed promising.
SloopJon 12y ago
Second-gen Moto E came out just as my wife's Nexus 4 was giving up the ghost, and so far it is the perfect replacement. She was a little upset that it cost so much ($150), at which point I thought it unwise to remind her how much our iPods have cost over the years.

collyw 12y ago

being Ubuntu is it not going to be a fair bit easier to hack things onto it yourself?

leaveyou 12y ago
That's how I convinced myself to buy the windows phone. "Oh, it's windows ! I can program for it with C# & WPF. It will be fun.. for a week..". I hack enough things on my laptops (ubuntu). I needed a cheap phone to make calls, send sms easily, put alarms, listen to music, browse web, ocassionaly snap pictures and read some pdfs when I'm bored. Xiaomi is perfect for my needs until now.