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Test phone destruction

chrissyyy

ULTIMATE Member
In an unfortunate turn of events, I have smashed the screen on my Redmi Note 10 5G test phone to smithereens.

The phone still works but I can’t turn it off as the digitiser has been damaged.

Is it worth buying a new screen or should I look at getting a newer test phone?

The battery could probably do with being replaced. I have had it not far off 2 years.
 
Go on, treat yourself, have a L'Oréal moment chrisyyw, because you're worth it.:giggle:
 
Hahaha.

My question is, would I gain much upgrading to a newer Android phone from a testing perspective?
 
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Screen only, then possibly, screen and Battery probably not worth it, if its a Test Phone and you can live with the battery then there are some cheepo Chinese LCD (non Amoleds, under 30 Quid) available as a cheap fix, if you can or are prepared to do DIY, otherwise bin it or eBay it as spares.
 
Screen only, then possibly, screen and Battery probably not worth it, if its a Test Phone and you can live with the battery then there are some cheepo Chinese LCD (non Amoleds, under 30 Quid) available as a cheap fix, if you can or are prepared to do DIY, otherwise bin it or eBay it as spares.
I think I got this on a Xaomi deal for £99.99 so for the sake of a screen, I think I will have a go at repairing it. I have done plenty of other phones in the past, albeit far better built!

I am going to take it apart today and if that goes well, I’ll just stick a new screen in it I think……..and buy a far better case!
 
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My question is, would I gain much upgrading to a newer Android phone from a testing perspective?

It depends on what you buy.

I use 2 phones. I had a OnePlus 8 and a Poco F3. Managed to get good deals and went from the 8 to the 8 Pro and from the F3 to the F4. I got better cameras, but from a network point of view it wasn't an upgrade.

Recently I bought a Galaxy S23 Ultra. You can see the screenshots here where it was getting 100Mbps higher speeds than the 8 Pro. It aggregates more bands and gets higher speeds every time.

Your testing phone isn't that great, so if you upgraded to something better, I think you might see improvements. Something with a Qualcomm SoC and their X65 (Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1) or X70 modems (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) since they've improved a lot in the past 2 generations.

The problem is that phones with these modems cost more than £99... looking at Xiaomi's website, the cheapest with a X65 is probably the Poco F5 Pro and it costs more than £400. At that price point you could get a second hand Galaxy S23 with a better SoC and the X70 modem my S23 Ultra has, plus a USB 3.1 port in case you want to use ethernet. I believe both are rootable (the Samsung probably a bit harder to root) so you could even have Network Signal Guru installed.

Only you know if you need this or can justify the investment. If all you need is to check the available bands/map areas and see if speeds are acceptable, then maybe you don't need a new phone.

Essentially, you need to actually upgrade to see some differences. Going from that phone to another like it will be more of a sideways upgrade on the network side and not worth doing it.
 
It depends on what you buy.

I use 2 phones. I had a OnePlus 8 and a Poco F3. Managed to get good deals and went from the 8 to the 8 Pro and from the F3 to the F4. I got better cameras, but from a network point of view it wasn't an upgrade.

Recently I bought a Galaxy S23 Ultra. You can see the screenshots here where it was getting 100Mbps higher speeds than the 8 Pro. It aggregates more bands and gets higher speeds every time.

Your testing phone isn't that great, so if you upgraded to something better, I think you might see improvements. Something with a Qualcomm SoC and their X65 (Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1) or X70 modems (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) since they've improved a lot in the past 2 generations.

The problem is that phones with these modems cost more than £99... looking at Xiaomi's website, the cheapest with a X65 is probably the Poco F5 Pro and it costs more than £400. At that price point you could get a second hand Galaxy S23 with a better SoC and the X70 modem my S23 Ultra has, plus a USB 3.1 port in case you want to use ethernet. I believe both are rootable (the Samsung probably a bit harder to root) so you could even have Network Signal Guru installed.

Only you know if you need this or can justify the investment. If all you need is to check the available bands/map areas and see if speeds are acceptable, then maybe you don't need a new phone.

Essentially, you need to actually upgrade to see some differences. Going from that phone to another like it will be more of a sideways upgrade on the network side and not worth doing it.
I have managed to take it apart today so I have ordered a new LCD.

It’s not a great phone, I certainly wouldn’t have one as a daily but for CellMapper and NSG it does ok. I never use the camera or dial out on it. It just runs NSG and CellMapper all day.

I just wondered how it stacked up against an old OnePlus or S20.
 
I'm using a phone in a similar price range, but based on what I've seen, it is probably more worth it investing into a new phone, particularly a flagship one. They often have a better modem, more bands and more antennas, which means you can get a better experience.

I haven't really had any issue with my phone though with bands etc.

Hoping Linus hurries up with the cellular testing stuff so we can make more informed decisions (although some of his data isn't always accurate).

---

Even though it's bad for the environment, I don't think the screen is worth replacing if you wanted to sell the phone on in the future.
 
I have managed to take it apart today so I have ordered a new LCD.

It’s not a great phone, I certainly wouldn’t have one as a daily but for CellMapper and NSG it does ok. I never use the camera or dial out on it. It just runs NSG and CellMapper all day.

I just wondered how it stacked up against an old OnePlus or S20.

Yeah, for that you don't need a very expensive phone.

I only mentioned this because 5G modems have been improving a lot. If I can see this performance gap between the X55 on the 8 Pro/F4 (the best modem just 3 years ago) and this year's X70, then I imagine that the gap between a 2yo Mediatek modem (historically behind Qualcomm) from a low end SoC and a X70 is even greater.

I think most flagships from the past 2 or 3 years are good, older than that and the modem might even not be integrated with the SoC (eg: OnePlus 7 series) and have limitations with NR bands. I'd probably avoid phones with Samsung modems too (lots of complaints about the S22 and Pixel 6 signal and speeds, for example).
 
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