Oppo Find X5 Lite or Similar Phone

• 

  ry2528 on 22/07/2023 - 10:12

  +2

  OnePlus Nord CE3 Lite would be the closest since Oneplus and Oppo are owned by the same company.

  Otherwise look for Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro.

• 

  CBM78 on 23/07/2023 - 09:05

  +2

  I have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro for approaching 4 years now. Previously a Samsung owner who was sick of replacing them every 12-18 months because it slowed or screen broke or battery would last a day.

  Redmis are a great value phone for the price. I will likely buy the Note 12 Pro 5G as a replacement later this year. Maybe at the 11/11 AliExpress sale.

• 

  toocheap on 23/07/2023 - 18:58

  +1

  Not sure how you feel about Samsung, but their website has some good deals (https://www.cheapies.nz/node/41489).

• 

  Nil Einne on 25/07/2023 - 20:14

  +2

  Assuming you're fine buying from Amazon AU, you might want to check out the Motorola's there as they currently have good discount. For example the Motorola Edge Ultra 12/256GB is something like ~NZ$800 delivered (AU$730.77) and this is significantly better than the Find Lite https://www.amazon.com.au/Motorola-Ultra-256GB-Smartphone-In…

  If that's more than you're willing to spend you can get the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion 8/128GB Smartphone https://www.amazon.com.au/Motorola-Fusion-128GB-Smartphone-S… for ~NZ$565 (AU$$516.45). I linked to the Solar Gold but I think there are 3 colours available. Unfortunately it is less storage with no expansion but you might want to check if you really need that much or it's just a nice to have. Since if it isn't essential, spec wise the CPU/GPU and camera are a fair amount better on the Fusion compared to the Oppo Find X5 Lite IMO. (Possibly the display too, not sure on that.)

  The slightly older Motorola Edge 30 Pro Smartphone, 8/128 GB https://www.amazon.com.au/Motorola-Edge-Smartphone-Cosmos-Bl… is better than the Neo I think in nearly every way and was at the same price. https://au.camelcamelcamel.com/product/B09VL4HD31 Unfortunately it's currently out of stock. I think it'll probably come back in stock, it might have gone out of stock before when it was only a bit more & did. However no guarantees of course and who knows when even if it happens. Edit: Actually some commentators here say battery life might be a problem compared to the Fusion due to the older CPU https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/790022

  You might want to check OzBargain for more discussion of these phones. https://www.ozbargain.com.au/search/node/motorola Note that the discount seems to be Australia wide so you'll find multiple places selling them. The prices you'll see will be a bit less given AU's 10% GST, the Ultra is AU$700 for Amazon delivered to Australia.

  Note that for comparisons to Oppo phones on OzBargain, bear in mind they recently had some good deals with tradeins where you got a lot for any tradein e.g. https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/787150 This wasn't something easily available to NZ but commentators on OzBargain would be consider these deals not what's available here. (So comments like why get this when you can get the Oppo are probably referring to deals like this.)

• 

  mrmathewcrow on 25/07/2023 - 20:30

  +1

  Noel Leeming have some returned phones in their stores. Recently picked up a mint condition Oppo x2 pro for $500 from one. Amazing phone even though it's a few years old. You can ask more info in store about each one. This phone had been returned by the owner after a week, and then just sat there for a couple years. Battery is still in great condition.

• 

  NovaAlpha on 27/07/2023 - 21:35

  I bought my Redmi K60 (Poco F5 Pro) for about $550. It's the variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB eMMC. It's basically top of the line hardware specs, which you can look up on Google.

  I got it from https://www.smzdm.com, which is basically the Chinese version of Cheapies. They aggregate deals from places like jd.com (similar to Aliexpress), as well as other merchants. I then use a shipping redirection service (kinda like Youshop) to get it shipped from China to here. No import duty at all either (not sure why, but I'll take it).

  I always just get my Chinese friends to buy them for me, because they know how to deal with this stuff. I mostly just buy stuff from Aliexpress, Temu, Ebay and Amazon and of course Cheapies. So the moral of the story here is to find yourself a Chinese friend. It's likely that some of the sites like Taobao or JD will require you to sign up with an account using a Chinese mobile number, which is impossible to get and so you'll have to rely on a Chinese friend who can help you with that.

  Either that, or browse Trademe or Facebook Marketplace (be careful). You might find some good deals for last year's model. I've purchased a few 2nd hand phones on TM without any issues and dirt cheap.

  Other than that, wait for big sales on Aliexpress like 11/11 or whatever.

  Lastly, avoid Oppo. ColorOS is trash and poorly unoptimized. You'll barely find any custom ROM support for it as well. Most of the custom ROMs you'll find are found in Chinese forums. The bootloader is hard to unlock (if even possible) for most of the Oppo phones. They just suck a lot. Whereas their sister brand OnePlus is ok, but still kinda meh nowadays.

  Personally, I'd recommend getting a Pixel phone if you can, or get a Xiaomi phone like the Poco series or the upper mid-range ones. Xiaomi / Redmi devices are usually really good bang for your buck, excellent hardware and their battery size is usually quite generous (5000 mah ~ 5500 mah). In terms of MiUI, as long as you know how to tweak it, it's actually really good and stable. Xiaomi phones always gives me the best battery life and the most screen on time. I can use my phone (screen on) for 30 minutes straight, browsing Reddit or 9Gag or whatever and it'll only drain like 1~2%, which is really good.

  Having said all that, I work in IT at a very high level and I'm a power user, I know how to hack Android and reverse engineer APKs and stuff. I run automations on my phone, etc etc. So your mileage may vary.

  Just get a decent Xiaomi phone, run MiUi EU custom rom (not to be confused with official MiUI rom for Europe) and you should be good. Otherwise, you can always flash a different custom ROM or even a GSI ROM if you're a power user and know what you're doing. I'm currently just rocking official MiUI and MiUI EU on 2 of my Xiaomi phones. Everything is super stable, no ads or any spyware or whatever, super lightweight and heavily optimized.