Cell Phones Dedicated Discussion (Market Prices/ Troubleshooting/ Advice/ Recommendations)

[Panther]

There are two non warranty 4G models, J500F and J500G. 16GB model is difficult to find, but I suggest getting that one. F variant is better but I use G variant, though specs are same.

There is also 3G non warranty model J500H.

They are available in Blue Area and Jinnah super for ~20000/-.

Just bought J500G/DS 4G LTE for 20500/- and got glass screen protector for free. Seems nice to me but a bit bulky. I hope my son likes it when I go back home.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[Chaudhary007]

What do you want most from your phone? Battery timings, camera, video recording, display sharpness or whatever?. Knowing this is the most important step in phone decision or recommendation, which NO ONE here mentions.

You can get imported new Core Prime 3G or 4G (G361H or G361F) in this budget too.

G361 is latest model of G360 having Android 5.1.1. It was being sold at ~12500/- brand new in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Best option, and better than Pakistani Core Prime (G360H).

Apart from the 4G option isn't grand prime better in all aspects compared to core prime.
only difference would be getting a used one and a new one. If i am able to locate a good used grande prime in Singapore plaza should i go for it ? Or should i buy from Dubai plaza ?

I previously had an S2 which i had to sell at the end of last year, i got it from Singapore plaza and it was fine...

[s15]

Just bought J500G/DS 4G LTE for 20500/- and got glass screen protector for free. Seems nice to me but a bit bulky. I hope my son likes it when I go back home.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Perfect. Just fully charge it before using it for the first and enjoy.

Use soft gel silicone cover too.

Its a very good phone, so he definitely will love it.

P.S, nothing beats the satisfaction you get when you have Samsung Galaxy phones, one of the best phone brands.

[civic7]

Any user of Oneplus two here?

[s15]

Apart from the 4G option isn't grand prime better in all aspects compared to core prime.
only difference would be getting a used one and a new one. If i am able to locate a good used grande prime in Singapore plaza should i go for it ? Or should i buy from Dubai plaza ?

I previously had an S2 which i had to sell at the end of last year, i got it from Singapore plaza and it was fine...

G360F/G vs G530F/H.
Performance is same. G360F/G is as fast as G530F/H, they both have same Snapdragon 410 inside with 1GB ram. Other specs are better in Grand Prime, you can Google it.

But a little bit complicated thing is, now both Core Prime (G360) and Grand Prime (G530) have their value editions launched running 5.1.1, which are G361H/F and G531F/H, being imported from abroad, with some slightly different specs. So I predict (being Baba Fooka [emoji1]) these older models (G360 and G530) will obsolete soon, as they are almost one year old models.

To my knowledge, value editions have some other SoC, which is not Snapdragon but the performance is almost equally good because they run 5.1.1 which is more optimised than 5.0.2.

G360F,G and G530F/H have Snapdragon 410, i can confirm.

Updated
@chaudhary007
No idea about Singapore or Dubai plaza, but if you buy used, make sure that original battery is not swelled or dented, even slightly. Most people check phone thoroughly, but never look at battery and get a fake or faulty one and then sell phone because of bad battery timings. Grand Prime and J5 has same battery btw.

[curiousdevil]

Just bought J500G/DS 4G LTE for 20500/- and got glass screen protector for free. Seems nice to me but a bit bulky. I hope my son likes it when I go back home.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Congrats bro i got the same version i wanted to ask was the paper seal already broken or not in my case it was open and plastic was on just like yours the phone was new but it was already rooted and for ota updates it said your phone is modified and stuff i re flashed it with stock rim and unrooted it now it works perfectly fine with the updates as i received one update. Another thing which i wanted to know was if u connect it to pc or laptop does it shows up in my my computer for mass storage or option in phone to select it for charge only,mtp or mass storage, in my case it gets detected as samsung_android and in device manager it says samsung android in adb mode and it doesnt show up in my computer as mass storage samsung smart switch and samsung kies 2 and 3 both show it as unsupported whereas mobogenie detects it and everything works and there is no menu to select mtp, charge only or mass storage on phone. My last question is if u power off your phone and goto recovery by home+power + volume up do you get in recovery menu with options like factory reset and stuff and for your information if it shows frp lock something you should goto settings and goto about build number or baseband number something likke this and tap it 7 times it will enable developer mod and from their turn on oem Unlcok something also mention that from which shop you bought it in saddar i bought it from faisal mobiles. Hope u dont mind these questions of mine answer them asap thanks and best regards

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Panther]

I bought this one as first phone for my youngest son and it is with him now. I will try and answer rest of your questions later however one thing is for sure that all original seals are intact and it's not rooted. I went to couple of shops and found that mostly seals are broken and sets are repacked. The shop keepers logic is that since these are smuggled ones so they have to open and check the stuff etc. However in 0ne shop I found three sets 100 % sealed and I picked one up. I also went through complete setup sequence and found it with original software / not rooted. I will try and answer rest of the questions later.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[s15]

Bro i installed smart switch it says unsupported whereas mobogenie detects fine tried 2 pc

Sent from my SM-J500G using Tapatalk

Smart switch for PC sync is mentioned in J5 official specs, but i believe it did not install usb drivers for you, which it automatically does most of the times.

I cannot recall windows OS right now, as I have been using Linux for sometime.

Most probably, you need to manually install usb drivers for J5. Try that, if that does not help, try enabling USB debugging from Developers options.

Tap on build number quickly 7-9 times to activate developers options in settings.

[curiousdevil]

Smart switch for PC sync is mentioned in J5 official specs, but i believe it did not install usb drivers for you, which it automatically does most of the times.

I cannot recall windows OS right now, as I have been using Linux for sometime.

Most probably, you need to manually install usb drivers for J5. Try that, if that does not help, try enabling USB debugging from Developers options.

Tap on build number quickly 7-9 times to activate developers options in settings.

Thats the issue bro i did Everything but still i tried it on win 8.1 lappy win 10 pc win 7 pc

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[s15]

Congrats bro i got the same version i wanted to ask was the paper seal already broken or not in my case it was open and plastic was on just like yours the phone was new but it was already rooted and for ota updates it said your phone is modified and stuff i re flashed it with stock rim and unrooted it now it works perfectly fine with the updates as i received one update. Another thing which i wanted to know was if u connect it to pc or laptop does it shows up in my my computer for mass storage or option in phone to select it for charge only,mtp or mass storage, in my case it gets detected as samsung_android and in device manager it says samsung android in adb mode and it doesnt show up in my computer as mass storage samsung smart switch and samsung kies 2 and 3 both show it as unsupported whereas mobogenie detects it and everything works and there is no menu to select mtp, charge only or mass storage on phone. My last question is if u power off your phone and goto recovery by home+power + volume up do you get in recovery menu with options like factory reset and stuff and for your information if it shows frp lock something you should goto settings and goto about build number or baseband number something likke this and tap it 7 times it will enable developer mod and from their turn on oem Unlcok something also mention that from which shop you bought it in saddar i bought it from faisal mobiles. Hope u dont mind these questions of mine answer them asap thanks and best regards

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Your piece looks suspicious to me. It should NEVER be rooted. What's your charger and headphone count? Check via phone info app.

Mine was not rooted and it should never be rooted at the start. I have the same model too.

I checked my charger and headphone connect count and it was 5 and 3 at start which was perfectly normal.

My paper seal was intact, though the box was open from the other side, but it was repacked, as all of the imported phones are box opened to check the accessories and stuff (perfectly normal, as long as there is no dishonesty).

Even official warranty phones are box opened to put warranty card or sticker (seals) and then repacked by warranty provider. Perfectly normal.

J5 and many other imported phones have regional lock, so 5 minutes of calls must be done from specified country sim to unlock it for other carriers. Its written on the documents inside. That's why they cannot be seal pack [emoji4]. But is always better to check charger and headphone count too.

Document scanned by mobile camera using camscanner app. The document was in J5 box.

Take a look at "CamScanner -Phone PDF Creator"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intsig.camscanner

[s15]

The plastic wrapping is done locally for imported phones to give a brand new touch.

Even if the upper main seal is intact, the box can still be opened from the lower opening and then glued back [emoji4].

[curiousdevil]

Thanks god .app says my phone is original and in country of origin it says china and region malaysia headphone count is 5 i have not used headphone on it and charger count is 126 and thats because i have been frequently plugging in and out in pc for usb issue as far as root is considered it had been done by shop keeler i believe i dont know why but phone looks perfectly fine like new

Sent from my SM-J500G using Tapatalk

[curiousdevil]

Ya Allah Khair felt high magnitude earthquake here in pindi.

I fixed the usb issue @s15 i had to dial *#0808# and select mtp +adb btw can you share your screenshot by dialing above code thanks and now it is deyected by smart switch

Sent from my SM-J500G using Tapatalk

[s15]

Ya Allah Khair felt high magnitude earthquake here in pindi.

I fixed the usb issue @s15 i had to dial *#0808# and select mtp +adb btw can you share your screenshot by dialing above code thanks and now it is deyected by smart switch

Sent from my SM-J500G using Tapatalk

Yeah, that was extremely scary. I hope all are fine.

Great finding by you about the issue. Thank you . It will affect most J5 users rooting their device.

Here are my untouched settings, default. Because i also installed the firmware via odin and then factory reset it to see its true face. Are these settings (screenshot) okay?. I highly suggest you to factory reset the device atleast, as you have already installed firmware via odin. It will bring back all the default settings, saving you from trouble later on.

Your phone was rooted and most probably this tutorial was used by shopkeeper which changed the usb settings.

http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f684/unlock-root-done-j500g-5-1-1-solved-1984615/

When purchasing a 'brand new' phone, always boot into download mode to check the device status. Brand new phones should not have custom status. It must show official and knox status to be 0x0.

[curiousdevil]

Yes bro thanks for the screenshot, My phone was set to last option DM+MODEM+ADB which was causing this issue and Al-Hamdulillah it got fixed

[Sha2eb]

Salam brothers,

Thinking of moving on from my HTC One M8.

I have shortlisted the following:

1. Samsung Galaxy S6
2. Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
3. LG G4
4. Huawei Mate S

My usage is as follows:
Emails (about 6 accounts need to be synced)
Documents and pdf viewing and editing
Facebook
Whatsapp
Pakwheels forums
Skype
Camera and games usage is moderate
Calls of about 2 hours a day
Approximately 50 to 100 sms

I have used the One M8 for about 10 months now and have not had any lagging issues. Battery back up has also been pretty good. Can go for a full day (7an till 11pm) on a full charge easily with data on. So ideally i want a succcessor that does not lag and gives me decent battery backup.

I feel that 32gb memory should suffice for my usage.

Need some first hand reviews on the above handsets so that i can finalize a worthy succesor to my One M8.

Please keep in mind that iPhone is not an option for me.

Thanks in advance

[heroofdikhan]

Salam brothers,

Thinking of moving on from my HTC One M8.

I have shortlisted the following:

1. Samsung Galaxy S6
2. Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
3. LG G4
4. Huawei Mate S

My usage is as follows:
Emails (about 6 accounts need to be synced)
Documents and pdf viewing and editing
Facebook
Whatsapp
Pakwheels forums
Skype
Camera and games usage is moderate
Calls of about 2 hours a day
Approximately 50 to 100 sms

I have used the One M8 for about 10 months now and have not had any lagging issues. Battery back up has also been pretty good. Can go for a full day (7an till 11pm) on a full charge easily with data on. So ideally i want a succcessor that does not lag and gives me decent battery backup.

I feel that 32gb memory should suffice for my usage.

Need some first hand reviews on the above handsets so that i can finalize a worthy succesor to my One M8.

Please keep in mind that iPhone is not an option for me.

Thanks in advance

Note 5 or s6 edge prime

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

[Sha2eb]

Note 5

Sent from my A900 using Tapatalk

Size is a let down for me

[hussey08]

Salam brothers,

Thinking of moving on from my HTC One M8.

I have shortlisted the following:

1. Samsung Galaxy S6
2. Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
3. LG G4
4. Huawei Mate S

My usage is as follows:
Emails (about 6 accounts need to be synced)
Documents and pdf viewing and editing
Facebook
Whatsapp
Pakwheels forums
Skype
Camera and games usage is moderate
Calls of about 2 hours a day
Approximately 50 to 100 sms

I have used the One M8 for about 10 months now and have not had any lagging issues. Battery back up has also been pretty good. Can go for a full day (7an till 11pm) on a full charge easily with data on. So ideally i want a succcessor that does not lag and gives me decent battery backup.

I feel that 32gb memory should suffice for my usage.

Need some first hand reviews on the above handsets so that i can finalize a worthy succesor to my One M8.

Please keep in mind that iPhone is not an option for me.

Thanks in advance

To be honest almost all phones nowadays can handle the workload you've mentioned.
The ones you've mentioned are at the top of the food chain so anyone will suit you fine! It all comes down to personal preference when deciding to go for anyone out of these.

I would pick the G4 (I like the leather back).
Though the S6 has better battery life, slightly better camera, better chipset etc.
The edge on the S6 edge looks nice but not something i'd pay about 10000 more for. Its not that functional for me.
Lastly, the Mate S feels a bit too big for comfortable handling. Sure, you'll get used to it but do you want such a big handset? (might not fit into your jeans etc etc)

You cant go wrong with any one of these though tbh. So totally up to your preferences!

[heroofdikhan]

Size is a let down for me

Yup size is huge, then you are left with s6 edge small size, awesome camera and battery backup is good