LG teases us with svelte V30 but refuses to say if it's coming to Blighty

Re: Dual SIM ? Memory expansion ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_V30

Re: Dual SIM ? Memory expansion ?

Who needs a dual SIM when you've got a quad DAC. The 1980's wants your quadrophonic surround sound system back.

30"

"I can run Satnav for 10 hours solid and still have 30" battery left).."

Is that 30 inches or 30 seconds?

I'm gonna have to pick up an armful of older v20s and eek them out for years to come :/

I've finally come to terms with my "non-removeable battery rage", and accepted that they've gone, and they aren't coming back. However, when you start HAVING to think that a phone is a two-or-three year life product, it raises the question of why anybody would pay £450-£700 for upper mid range and flagship products. With few makers supporting devices older than two years anyway, thinking of keeping a phone longer than that starts to add extra risks, and you've got all the wear and tear that a well used phone is subject to. I hate to admit it, but maybe the makers were right to abandon user-replaceable batteries.

Because of this, I've just traded out of a decade of Samsung loyalty, and like the commentard above, bought a Xiaomi. Mine's a Redmi Note 4X, and for £150 I'm absolutely delighted. Sure, its not an S8 or iPhone 7 in every detail, but it's looks and feels impressive, an easy match in my book for last year's flagships in terms of the user experience, but YMMV. It's running Android 7, but if there's no updates ever, well, it was £150. If stolen or lost, well, it was £150. And in many ways, its nice having a "minority interest" phone, although that's only true in Europe, since Xiaomi are one of the top four phone brands in China.

Returning to the V30, its interesting to note that LG are trying to differentiate themselves on audio quality and optics. Exactly like the new Nokia brand devices. Sony are likely to do something similar if they haven't already - and suddenly those USPs lose their uniqueness. And with an estimated list price tag of €900, the V30 is just another high spec, short lived device with a (UK street) price likely to be around £700. I want good value, and spending the price of a useable second hand car on a phone....well, I can't do it.

Re: Shape of things to come

"Getting an S8 next week."

You think blowing £550 on a phone will save the British economy? At that price I'd want it to wipe and wash my arse, make the bed, and do 0-60 in five seconds.

Actually, it probably will do the 0-60 bit, but only as it is snatched by moped riding ratboys.

Re: So £x100 for a phone. Battery fails, you're f**ked.

don't worry, getting it changed won't cost anywhere near as much as it will those Apple Fanbois/sheeple when their precious iPhone needs a battery change.

Re: The iPhone 8 will render this irrelevant...

And only for a mere doubling of the purchase price.

I've sometimes checked the bands and frequencies these cheap devices work on and it covers seemingly all bases in the UK - or am I missing something?

If you're buying a grey import, then you're taking a small risk. My new grey import phablet works fine including 4G, although apparently if you buy the wrong version you might find your device doesn't supprt UK 4G/LTE bands (good article by Techadvisor on how to tell if your phone will work with UK 4G), so I'd say do your research, make sure you can find a credible review of the device, buy carefully. Be aware that for these items headphones are not often supplied, and the supplied charger may not be a UK spec item - you might get the "luxury" of a cheapo UK adaptor. I think I'm making it sound riskier and more complicated than it is, BTW.

You mention £89 - if you make sure the purchase is for over £100, pay with credit card, and then you could claim the money back from the card provider under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act (in the event of problems and the vendor won't help).

With many Gearbest items, some are UK warehoused, most aren't, but there's also some small time bulk importers who resell the same items within the UK often via Ebay. That means you pay a slightly higher price, but the phone is despatched to you from the UK (so quicker), the transaction is covered by UK consumer law, the Ebay guarantees may be easier to enforce, and also you won't have to factor in the probable import duties when buying from a non-EU vendor. Some of the Ebay traders will also do the UK setup of the device, which is a small but pleasant convenience.

All in, go for it. If you haven't dabbled in this market and buy wisely, there's some interesting, good value and decent quality kit that makes you wonder why the Western markets are so obsessed by Apple, Samsung (and the Sonys, HTCs, LGs of this world).