New Phone

"TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut" (twincharged) 09/11/2015 at 13:45 • Filed to: None

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Bought a Xiaomi Redmi 2 for use in in the UK because 1) it’s supremely cheap and expendable and 2) iOS 8.4 kind of crippled my old iPhone 5. All in, with an aftermarket 32GB MicroSD card, it cost about US$140. So far, I’m liking it and getting used to Android. The drawbacks? Well it’s far from a top of the line performer, but it’ll get the basic jobs done. For such a cheap phone, it hasn’t crashed on me once but obviously does experience some slowness. Also, the camera is awful, it just can’t focus right. Any Android users out there got any nice apps to recommend to me?

Also, I just got back from karaoke and my voice is trashed. Worth it though.

Leon711 > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 09/11/2015 at 13:52

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When you get to the UK and are driving (if you are) then Waze. Otherwise the usuals, The Google suite of apps (docs, drive etc.) And pretty much anything you can get on ios.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 09/11/2015 at 13:53

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App store: Google camera app

\you’ll thank me later

CalzoneGolem > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 09/11/2015 at 14:01

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I use VLC to play music because I hate Google Play.

djmt1 > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 09/11/2015 at 14:08

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As a UK user of a cheap Chinese phone find out which networks your phones supports. For example my OnePlus One only has LTE/4G on EE and 3.

NaturallyAspirated > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 09/11/2015 at 14:18

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Torque is a neat app; you can use it with a $15 Bluetooth OBD2 adapter to read Check Engine codes or provide real-time ECU info.

Ingress is a pretty cool game if you don’t mind walking. It’s been able to motivate me to go on walks when otherwise I’d have been too lazy. Basically you have to walk to local landmarks in order to progress.

Game Dev Story is my favorite traditional phone game.

Waves is a great tuner app if you play guitar or whatever.

Wifi Analyzer is great for improving the Wifi connection from your home router, as it can suggest the best channel to use in your local area.

Google Authenticator is an app/service I consider vital for security. Highly recommended for all websites and services that support it.

Klaus Schmoll > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet 09/11/2015 at 14:43

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The google camera app always crashed on me. I could use it once then had to re-boot the phone to use it again.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > Klaus Schmoll 09/11/2015 at 14:44

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weird, no issues for me

\droid turbo user

\moving to the next ASUS zenfone after my verizon contract is up

Klaus Schmoll > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 09/11/2015 at 14:50

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Nokia Here let’s you download the maps in advance, you can’t get stuck in nowhereland when you have no signal or run out of data.

Shazaam is always nice to have.

Google goggles is good for QR codes and such.

SonorousSpeedJoe > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 09/11/2015 at 16:05

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I’d recommend Microsoft Office Lens if you have a OneDrive account - it’s a camera app that recognizes documents. You can take photos of papers and save them as PDF or Word documents, among other options.

If Google’s apps are allowed on the phone, as that Gmail app would indicate, I’d also recommend Inbox and its desktop version.

scoob > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut 09/11/2015 at 17:10

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So far, I’m liking it and getting used to Android.

The thing about MIUI (Xiaomi’s Android skin) is that it’s, like other Chinese Android skins, aesthetically more like iOS than Android. So it shouldn’t feel that much different from iOS.

Android Device Manager , I think it’s like Find My iPhone?

ES File Explorer , if you need a nice capable file explorer.

Google , don’t know if Xiaomi has the Google apps pre-installed, but it has to.

MX Player , for playing whatever media you have on your storage. Plays tons of file formats.

My Study Life , great planner for school, and it’s on iOS as well.

Pinyin Input , just in case.

Pushbullet , shows your phone’s notifications on your desktop, and makes it easy to send things back and forth to your desktop/phone.

Textra , pretty and customizable texting app.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > NaturallyAspirated 09/13/2015 at 09:20

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Wow, Ingress is awesome! I think it’ll be a great app for when I’m in York, good for exploring a new city.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > scoob 09/13/2015 at 09:21

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True, it does look a lot like iOS. However, I’ve gotten a new launcher so I can use a nice futuristic theme that I’ve got.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > SonorousSpeedJoe 09/13/2015 at 09:21

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Sounds good!