I remembered when Samsung released their first Galaxy Note phone with a 5.3″ screen. A screen that size today is considered only ‘average’, but 5 years ago it was gargantuan, and many phone users wondered if the thing would even sell. Steve Jobs as widely reported scoffed at the Galaxy Note then and said no one was ever going to buy a phone that size. That remark was of course one of Apple famously bad tech predictions, and they ended up having to eat their words with their own line of similarly sized phones and play catch-up to Android market leaders.
I have a thing about phablets ever since owning the first Note. And today, anything that’s under 5.5″ display screen isn’t in my reckoning anymore. While the Note 5 remains the best smartphone I’ve owned, I’ve been on the lookout for a second replacement phone after our one week old Mi Note 3 kissed concrete whilst in Ling’s haversack in Melbourne. From checking around, it would have cost half the price of that phone just to fix the cracked screen – simply not worth it.
And as usual, several phablets made the list – with the main requirement of it featuring a 6″ or larger screen:
Leagoo Shark 1: 6″ screen, very attractive priced (available on eBay for just a mite over S$200!), mammoth battery of 6300mAh, and halfway decent build. But some troubling issues with the phone noted in reviews, and I also had low confidence on whether the relatively unknown manufacturer would be keeping the phone current with software upgrades.
Lenovo Phab: a whopping 6.98″ screen and well out of a phone-size at this point. Dim and low resolution display too.
Asus Zen 2 Laser: 6″ screen, moderately-priced and available at many stores, but I’m not fond of the tapered phone edges, dim display and the odd color cast on the screen.
Asus ZenFone 3 Ultra: 6.8″ screen, not released yet but from early indications, well out of my price bracket.
Sony Xperia XA Ultra: 6″ screen, fairly small capacity battery at 2700mAh, and also costing more than what I was willing to part (S$648).
Huawei Mate 8: 6″ screen, very nice premium build, good battery size of 4000mAh, but way more than what I was willing to pay for a second phone.
Xiaomi Mi Max: 6.44″ screen (!), supposedly great build – but more on that later – dedicated buttons that weren’t gonna eat into the screen size, and pretty cheap.
The Mi Max though has only seen release in China and India so far, and there are no indications yet that it would be ever brought in officially for sale in local stores. That said, there are plenty of Qoo10 and Lazada sellers who’ve brought in export (i.e. warranty-less) sets and attractive prices. So – after waiting for the periodic discounts to show up, one such Mi Max unit was ordered at a price that was even less than the Mi Note 3. Amazing.
More to come in a bit.:)
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