Smartphone assistance

[Blindtraveler]

Hi all

latecomer, mainly due to my disabilitty to the modern day smartphone eara, but with my trusty Nokia now showing its age, and the Wife storming ahead of me on her Android powered MotoG Im taking the plonge whilst my old phone still works, this will mean no huge pressure to swith over unlike if my old handset was unserviceable.

All but decided on an Alcatel Go Play for its ruggid build and near blote free OS but wondering, as the internet has failed me a bit if the Android OS is upgradeable? It ships with 5.0 and only want the wee small upgrade to 5.1. Any experts know if its doable?

 

[GaryMcEwan]

Hi all

latecomer, mainly due to my disabilitty to the modern day smartphone eara, but with my trusty Nokia now showing its age, and the Wife storming ahead of me on her Android powered MotoG Im taking the plonge whilst my old phone still works, this will mean no huge pressure to swith over unlike if my old handset was unserviceable.

All but decided on an Alcatel Go Play for its ruggid build and near blote free OS but wondering, as the internet has failed me a bit if the Android OS is upgradeable? It ships with 5.0 and only want the wee small upgrade to 5.1. Any experts know if its doable?

I've just had a look on GSM Arena and it's showing the current OS is Android 5.0. It doesn't say anything about a planned update. I've checked on the Alcatel website but the link for the Go Play is currently down at the moment.

 

[Be3G]

Whilst I concede that they're not cheap, I wonder if an Apple iPhone would be better suited for you Blindtraveller, as they offer many built-in accessibility features including a screen reader.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Thanks both for replying

Whilst I concede that they're not cheap, I wonder if an Apple iPhone would be better suited for you Blindtraveller, as they offer many built-in accessibility features including a screen reader.

Iv stuck with one antiant nokia or another for so long as I tried an Iphone once and found it very unintuative and just not for me. The android OS has now rivaled and indeed in some ways overtaken it in terms of ease of use so as I say thanks but no thanks

 

[telstarbox]

I can also vouch for the Moto G, I think stock Android includes lots of accessibility features as well?

 

[Blindtraveler]

It does!

 

[jon0844]

Android natively has good accessibility support. I would say to get a phone with Marshmallow as it has the Doze feature that really boosts battery life significantly. Android Nougat improves this further.

That would be my main concern about buying a phone that is limited in updates or end-of-line (Android Lollipop is okay, but Marshmallow is better). App wise you'd be fine with anything though.

There are probably too many phones out there for £100-200 that I could recommend, and lots of different specs (battery, chipset, camera, screen size/screen type/resolution) so if you want an opinion on any specific models, I can try and help.

I don't know much about all Alcatel phones, although I have got two models (the Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 and Platinum 7) which are rebranded Alcatel/TCL phones. The former is £130, the latter £300 (but a lot better). Each have Android Marshmallow.

Then there are the Moto G phones although the G4 models apparently have various overheating and lagging issues to contend with.

 

[mikeg]

This is where I think my BlackBerry Q10 was good. I accidentally put it in screen read mode and then it took me ages to figure out how to get it back to touchscreen, non-ready mode (touchscreen was also disabled). The entire 'phone I discovered had very comprehensive accessibility features. During that brief period of time I couldn't find a feature that they hadn't converted to work in this mode. However I couldn't recommend it as simply put Blackberry 10 is dead!

I think Android is the way to go, more customisable, a freer design and most widely supported. Iphones are expensive locked-down throw away devices. I'd recommend avoiding the Alcatel mentioned as I can find no evidence an upgrade has been pushed and if it's still running Lollipop then it likely will for the rest of its life. Given that N is about to roll out, do you want to be stuck using L in two years time? Alcatel don't exactly have the best reputation for pushing out updates. I'd recommend the Moto G series. Incidentally the Moto G4 is out, but the only place I can find it on contract is Tesco Mobile, at least when I was looking for a new phone for my friend a couple of days ago. Have to say it seems an improvement on the previous model which I have, though the 5.5" (!) screen may not be to everyone's liking. Moto G4 comes with android Marshmallow and would be very surprised if it didn't get N at some point in the near future. Comes with the added benefit of water resistance. This was of great interest to my friend who is now in the market for a smartphone - you see he's gone a year without a smartphone as punishment for dunking his first and previous smartphone in the toilet only a month after getting it under very similar circumstances to 'Moss' from the IT crowd.

 

[Blindtraveler]

It was the water resistance IP67 rating that atracketed me to the Alcatel, what out of the HTC Desire 530 or the Sony Xperia XA has the better IP Rating/is tougher and better generally?

Limmited to what I can get as with the Phome Coop and wanting to stay with them plus want a handset with no setup fee

 

[jon0844]

I am not sure the XA is IP rated (unlike the Z models before) and I haven't actually used the Desire 530.

Sony has very little Android modification, and the apps it loads on are all removable (or were on the Z range) so I'd swing towards that. But, if you need water resistance then perhaps you'll need to look at something else.

The last (3rd generation) Moto G was water resistant, and is a pretty good phone. The newer 4th gen models aren't as cheap, or water resistant. Snapdragon 410 isn't a massively powerful chip, but I never found mine to be slow. It should be quite cheap now too, and compare well with the Alcatel Go Play you mentioned.

The Alcatel only has 1GB RAM, whereas you can get the Moto G with 2GB. The Moto G also has the latest Android OS too, and is more likely to get Android N than the Alcatel (in my opinion).

 

[Blindtraveler]

Sony implies that the XA is IP67 rated but will check

 

[jon0844]

Sony implies that the XA is IP67 rated but will check

Ah, I didn't realise that. Didn't think any new X range phones were.