www.chinaphonearena.com

I've sorted out my backup phone with the THL 4000 and now it's time to replace my Lenovo K910. Finding a replacement has been more difficult than I expected because I've been spoilt by the K910. It can still hold it's own (currently 41,268 on Antutu) with most of the latest flagships and the current price is unbeatable. But there are certain new features that I want and the Zenfone 2 and Nubia Z7 Max seem to fit the bill. Here are my requirements:

- 5.5 inch screen max, 5.3 inch minimum
- Worldwide 3G (quad or pentaband)
- LTE and worldwide if possible
- 3,000mah+ battery
- Kitkat
- Dual-sim
- 2GB+ ram and 32GB+ rom
- SD slot
- No more than 153mm in length or 77mm width
- $200 to $400 price range.

Those are the basic criteria. There are many phones that actually fit those criteria but once you factor in price most of them drop off. I took a long hard look at the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 because it's a gorgeous phone but after reading the review on Anandtech I ditched that idea. I wanted the 5.5 inch Lenovo Vibe Z2 but after talking with a current owner I ditched that because it's a low midranger at best in terms of performance (he claimed 23,000 on Antutu) and he preferred the K910.

So I arrived at the Nubia and the Asus. I know the Asus is 64bit and up to 4GB of ram but there's nothing on final pricing or available bands/models per region. The Nubia has been out about six months so it's tried and tested plus it's got a Snapdragon 801 (I'm not too sure about Intel in mobiles yet). But the Nubia doesn't have worldwide lte.

Please give your opinions and suggestions if I've missed any phones. Thanks.

@sniper47, @WuddaWaste, @cookiedough etc What are your opinions?

My vote is for the ZTE Nubia. They've been in the game a lot longer than Asus. Not to say the Asus is a bad choice. Your price range and requirements narrow things down quite a bit. Makes the decision easier I suppose. : ) one thing I would mention is to not worry about Antutu too much. I'd leave the Vibe Z2 in there if Antutu is the only thing that knocked it of your list.

(2015-01-19, 01:25)cookiedough Wrote: [ -> ]My vote is for the ZTE Nubia. They've been in the game a lot longer than Asus. Not to say the Asus is a bad choice. Your price range and requirements narrow things down quite a bit. Makes the decision easier I suppose. : ) one thing I would mention is to not worry about Antutu too much. I'd leave the Vibe Z2 in there if Antutu is the only thing that knocked it of your list.

I'm seriously leaning towards the Nubia also. I use Antutu as a general indicator namely anything above or below 30,000. There is little difference in performance between any phone above 30k. But when my $90 thl 4000 is at 19k and a $400 Lenovo is 24k then the Lenovo is out.

Nubia Z7 Max

Given the two, I'd also say go with the Nubia. I don't find any major problems with Zte phones. Or at least I don't see any problems reported from users on forums and such

Also, I have this friend that mentioned buying an Asus zenfone (not sure which) and the touchscreen and display gave out after a small fall. He brought it to a service center and there was this long line of people getting their screens repaired as well. And these are all different zenfone versions. So...I'm not quite sure about build quality there. Of course, it could be just coincidence but since you have a damn good alternative, I'd say go with that

Zenfone seems pretty good. I would go for this one

Does anyone know if Vickmall is still a recommended vendor here? They don't seem to be active on the forum any longer.

Yea, they haven't been posting. But I think they are still a sponsor. Their banner hasn't been removed...

(2015-01-20, 14:33)Trenzalore Wrote: [ -> ]Yea, they haven't been posting. But I think they are still a sponsor. Their banner hasn't been removed...

Thanks. I've ordered the Nubia z7 max from them so let's see what happens.