Can anyone recommend a good dual Sim smart phone. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 09:39:17 am
content: Having stupidly been duped into signing up to the phone Co-op and buying their recommended "fair phone" better known as an unfair phone due to the amount of technical issues with this phone designed by a start-up who seem to care more about who made the phone and how they were treated which I also do but not in substitution to giving a toss about the product the user gets. After two failed touchscreens and a faulty camera I have had enough of this thing and it is going back to them.The problem is that it is a dual Sim phone and I do now have two Sims and am likely to keep to Sims in the future even if I move the contract of one of them. As our MPs recently highlighted in the UK we get terrible coverage worse in fact than a travelling foreigner on a roaming agreement because you have to be near an antenna owned by the same company as your Sim in order to get a signal. So I will probably end up having a Sim card from each of the major players to try and guarantee I always have a data connection as I use my phone as a portable modem for my computer and satnav.So the question now is where to I get a good quality phone that will take two Sim cards both of which will work on 4G properly (unlike this piece of shit fair phone which only actually has one fully functioning slot) and is obviously able to make it Internet connection available on the Bluetooth device as well as act as a Wi-Fi hotspot.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 09:49:05 am
content: What price target? You may look on Xiaomi, they have excellent quality, top specifications and are not too expensive. You need to check which LTE bands are supported for particular model (may depend on region it is made for) and compare with those used by your mobile operator(s).http://www.4g.co.uk/4g-frequencies-uk-need-know/

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 09:51:09 am
content: Well unfortunately needing dual sim does not give me much choice so price might have to come second. I want something that works and that will last. What do you mean by LTE ? things like 4G and 3G ?

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 10:04:45 am
content: LTE is 4G. I checked and Xiaomi models seem to lack 800 MHz LTE band, and everyone in UK except EE seem to use it besides other LTE bands, O2 has 800 MHz band only. So 4G connection might be not available everywhere.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 10:12:19 am
content: You might get OnePlus 3https://oneplus.net/uk/3/specsEU version of it supports all LTE bands you may use.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 10:16:42 am
content: Or Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro 32GbSpecial Editionwhich also supports 800 MHz band.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 10:21:33 am
content: Of course you can also spend a shitload of money and get Dual sim version of Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 edge. EDIT: or some otherhttp://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/samsung-dualsim-phones-supported

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 10:23:34 am
content: Quote from: wraper on October 30, 2016, 10:21:33 amAre you kidding ? those are the ones that go up in flames aren't they ?

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 10:24:00 am
content: Quote from: Simon on October 30, 2016, 10:23:34 amNo, only galaxy note 7 was affected.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 10:31:44 am
content: oh, um....

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 11:04:17 am
content: one thing you may want to know beforehand is what connectivity the second sim support. in most dual sim phones i've seen recently the second slot only support GSM and 2G/Edge, which is useless as it will be shut off in a couple of years time.Also my service provider only use 3G/LTE, i can't use their sim card in a phone that is not UMTS/brick phones. That sucks and that means i can't use most dual sim phones.As for brands, even though the new chinese brands can be appealing and actually very well built and good value for the money, i always found them to suck on the software side / user interface.. things you can't change by changing the launcherin the end i always go to the same two brands..motorola (lenovo) and samsung. have to import them from france because they don't care to sell "good brands" dual sims in italy for fuck if i know reasonmotorola because at hearth it is stock android, very good price/value, samsung because they always have that couple of quirks i long for.. oled screen, fast camera, physical button and great availability of spare parts.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 01:48:36 pm
content: I use a cheap Samsung J1 duos, which is an older low cost phone. does the things I want it to do, though uses an older version of Android, and is rather low power. Will go a few days on a charge though, which is good.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 02:08:29 pm
content: I need to be able to do internet tethering on wifi and blutooth, I had to ditch my last phone because it did not support blutooth tethering so was useless for my satnav.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 02:33:01 pm
content: How does $150 after instant rebate sound?http://www.lemall.com/us/phone/leeco_le_s3/index.htmlNote: both SIM slots do support 4G LTE data, although only one can be used for data at a time. Not sure why since the Snapdragon 652 should support carrier aggregation. (Maybe the RF front end used doesn't fully support it?)

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 02:44:02 pm
content: Alegedly this one will do 4G on both sim cards and it's a bargain. my only concern is not being able to remove the battery:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Simfree-AMOLED-Smartphone/dp/B014DYVWWS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477837977&sr=8-1&keywords=samsung+galaxy+j7And as much as I hate amazon I just need a goddanm phone!

author: rob77
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 03:01:18 pm
content: sorry haven't read the whole thread, so probably someone pointed this outyou can't have 2 internet connections active at the same time that's a limitation of networking... you could have 2 active but the outgoing traffic will always go through only one - the one where your default gateway setting is pointing to. so that's the very reason why only one of the simcards is used for data, but both of them are used for GSM voice in dualsim phones.and regarding the "best" dual sim phone - i believe it's the Asus Zenphone 2 ZE551ML - it has 2 sim slots + dedicated microSD slot, 4GB RAM and 4core intel atom. unfortunately it's not manufactured anymore because Intel ditched it's mobile silicon.. i'm using that phone and i can say it's the best phone i ever had (had flagships of the time from LG and Samsung) it's fast as hell even if you install a boatload of "shit". when intel ditched it's mobile silicon i quickly bought another such a phone to have a spare (just in case).

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 03:02:21 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on October 30, 2016, 02:44:02 pmI wouldn't call it a bargain. Low resolution screen, small RAM and Flash. CPU is not very fast either.

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 04:15:11 pm
content: As 4G is not available in most of Norfolk 3G is not for that matter. I got one of these.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waterproof-smartphone-Dustproof-Shockproof-Capacitive/dp/B00EZNSUPU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1477843590&sr=8-5&keywords=tough+phonesWorks very well on both sims, I only use one for data but for when I go to places where 4G is I have one of those mobile routers for use with the lap top and use a PAYG data sim in it. I just go to tesco and buy a handfull of EE sims for 99p each they come with 200 mb of data allowance on them which is enough for emails and a bit of general browsing.

author: doobedoobedo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 04:54:12 pm
content: Many Chinese phones have dual sim. Just check the specs for the right frequencies.I've been very happy with both Doogee and Zopo phones. This is my current phonehttp://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_218591.html?wid=4

author: Falkra
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 04:57:34 pm
content: I have an Asus Zenfone 2, it is dual sim and I'm happy with it.NEwer models exist and might have 2 sim slots as well, i'm not up to date.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 08:36:52 pm
content: Quote from: rob77 on October 30, 2016, 03:01:18 pmDual WAN routers exist and there's no reason why that logic couldn't exist in a phone. The latest chipsets support carrier aggregation where bandwidth from multiple carriers can be used at once. Not sure if that only works with multiple connections or if some clever proxying is used to split one connection over multiple carriers.I don't think he actually needs carrier aggregation. Just using whatever service is available is enough.

author: Lightages
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 30, 2016, 11:26:11 pm
content: A happy user of a Jiayu S3 here. Not expensive, dual SIM too. Keep in mind that some phones offer dual SIM or single SIM and microSD, but not both. The Jiayu S3 is dual sim and microSD at same time.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 31, 2016, 04:27:49 am
content: If you're not picky about OS, theMicrosoft/Nokia Lumia 630is dual SIM. I'd trust that over some dodgy Chinese crap. Do your homework, some of the really nasty Chinese phones take two SIM cards, but can only use one at a time. I've seen some where you actually have to switch between the two SIM cards and while one is active, the other is not (so you'll miss calls and SMS messages on the inactive one).The downside to this handset is that it only supports 3.5G (not 4G).

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 31, 2016, 06:45:55 am
content: Quote from: Simon on October 30, 2016, 02:44:02 pmthe J series is lower mid range. works really good for the price, cheap to service (i have the j5). the battery though should be replaceable

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 31, 2016, 06:56:20 am
content: Quote from: wilfred on October 30, 2016, 11:03:11 pmthe 950 is really nice, even though windows phone (i find it confusing to use, going into the settings menu is always a nightmare.. so many options with unfriendly names and scattered strange sections... kinda makes you wonder that all the common names were copyrighted)and don't understimate the power ofContinuum

author: rob77
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 31, 2016, 09:54:17 am
content: Quote from: NiHaoMike on October 30, 2016, 08:36:52 pmlink aggregation across multiple providers is a pure nonsense... that carrier aggregation you mention is basically an application level aggregation usable for some kind of traffic.. e.g. file download where it connects to the target via 2 connections each going through one uplink and each connection retrieves a different part of the file (same as download accelerators but through 2 links). or it can be a source based routing - so hosts from internal network behind that router are assigned to those uplinks (in fact it selects one from 2 default gws for each host and also NATs them to the corresponding IP of the selected uplink) in a round-robin fashion and therefore both uplinks are utilized.the only way how you can have fully functional several uplinks from different providers is to have a BGP peering with those providers.so in a phone only the split download would make sense, and i doubt someone did implement that

author: ZeTeX
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2016, 01:28:22 pm
content: Don't get the lumia, its garbage, just pure garbage. android is the way to go.How about this?http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/android-smartphones/samsung-galaxy-a7-2016-review-3642886/

author: setq
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2016, 03:34:47 pm
content: Another warning away from a Lumia. Also avoid Samsung; they never update their completely fucked up android implementations. If Motorola or Google do a dual SIM, hit that.