Out of these models, purely on camera comparison: S23 Ultra if very high zoom is important to you, Pixel 8 Pro otherwise. Pixel produces slightly better quality photos but its maximum zoom level is smaller, this may or may not matter to you. S23 Ultra is a notably better phone than Pixel 8 Pro overall and probability of having issues with it is much lower. Others don't compare to these two.
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Choosing a good cell phone (?!)
- Thread starter Winemaker
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- android cell phone
I (for my family) am in the process of upgrading our phones. My younger son broke his camera, and in the process of researching Verizon sent me an "up to $1k off with trade-in, any condition" offer. We are on five year old S9's except for my older son, who has an even older S7 (due to his cat deciding his previous phone was a toy worthy of batting around and then dunking into the sink full of dish water). We can get an S24 or S24+ "free", and an S24 Ultra for $300 ($8.33/mo for 36 months). My younger son is into hiking 14r's and wants the better camera; older boy and my wife will get an S24+ and I am waffling. The S24 and S24+ are fairly close in size and have the same camera and performance, with the S24+ having more base memory and slightly larger screen. The S24 Ultra is a significant step up in camera (more pixels, more zoom, better low-light captures), has a little longer battery life, and is a little more rugged (screen and case).
If you are not on Verizon, you can get ~$750 off directly from Samsung, and there are probably deals with other carriers.
Edit: The entire S24 line gets updates for 7 years, with Samsung matching the competition for support lifetime.
HTH - Don
If you are not on Verizon, you can get ~$750 off directly from Samsung, and there are probably deals with other carriers.
Edit: The entire S24 line gets updates for 7 years, with Samsung matching the competition for support lifetime.
HTH - Don
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Yeah, In Samsung top lines, "plus"models are basically just bigger screen regular model (S23 vs S23+, S24 vs S24+ etc.), cameras are always way better on Ultra, so regular S or S+ don't make sense if camera is the main factor. For me camera was very important, and its zoom quality in particular (I hike and ride bicycle in rural areas, like to be able to take pictures of wild animals and other objects that is difficult to get close by), so my previous phone was S22 Ultra and current one is S24 Ultra. S24 Ultra is a major step in photo quality over S22 Ultra.
I have a S23 and it fits all of my cargo shorts and pants pockets. Anything a few mm larger and they would not zipper up. Very tight fit in pockets.
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- Thread Starter
- #25
I've always had a total rejection for everything Apple. I'm definitely wrong but it seems like a world for posh people.
- Thread Starter
- #26
Totally agree, I don't care about the Android vs Apple battle. That's for naughty kids.
I don't understand why cell phones or have a good camera or sw or audio..... There is no cell phone that is complete in everything.
I don't know if it is wanted or because it can't be done or maybe it would cost too much. I just don't understand it.
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Buy S24 Ultra, all of the above are great! Also excellent screen and battery life. This is simply the best phone you can get now.
Because in real life perfect things for everyone don't exist? S24 Ultra, for example, is big and heavy - price for big cameras, big battery and big screen. And expensive. Not everyone likes big and heavy, not everyone can (or want) to pay the price. That's why even Apple manufactures more than one model of iPhone.
- Thread Starter
- #28
I grew up with Android, tinkering, changing Rom, custom Rom, kernel..... things unthinkable on iOS, I like that, if the phone is mine, I can do what I want with it. This fact of a closed ecosystem annoys me and then Apple makes you pay even for the air you breathe, if you enter an Apple store.
In the end I got an S23 Ultra 12/512, I find it amazing and I still discovered 1/10 of the potential or maybe even less, but I am no example in this regard coming from a POCO F1 from 2017.
In the end I got an S23 Ultra 12/512, I find it amazing and I still discovered 1/10 of the potential or maybe even less, but I am no example in this regard coming from a POCO F1 from 2017.
Ended up with a very good deal from Verizon, $1k USD trade-in credit for any phone, any condition. Older boy got an S24+, and rest of us (wife, younger son, and I) got S24 Ultra mainly for the camera. still setting them up, and figuring out if we've done everything needed to clean and unlock the old phones to return. Liking the new one so far, although auto-incorrect is not improved...
I've had an 8 Pro for about 8 months coming from an S21. It's a good phone and a worthy upgrade especially if you use the AI features. I really like the call screening and compared to my wife's Iphone I don't get near as many spam calls/texts. I've got 60gb worth of flacs on it too.
jbattman1016
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Having gone from Pixel to Samsung and back to pixel. I hated the double apps when on Samsung. Having Google and Samsung apps that I can't remove always annoyed me. I didn't want to toot my phone just to remove the apps, so I picked up the pixel 7 when Google was running the crazy trade in deals.
My 7 works great..reminds me of my original pixel XL minus the headphone jack. The battery for me is good as I'm not in cell network 90% of the time, so I don't think I'm a good reference for that.
My recommendation is a current gen Pixel Pro especially now that they are updating it for several years.
My 7 works great..reminds me of my original pixel XL minus the headphone jack. The battery for me is good as I'm not in cell network 90% of the time, so I don't think I'm a good reference for that.
My recommendation is a current gen Pixel Pro especially now that they are updating it for several years.
Barrelhouse Solly
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The camera requirement is the hard one. No phone is as good as a moderately priced camera with a decent zoom lens. I think of phone cameras as box cameras on steroids. They're the Instamatic of today. You can take good pictures with them within a limited distance range and under limited light conditions. If you're not put off by carrying 2 devices you might consider a point and shoot camera in the $200-$300 range and a new phone in the same range. We went to Italy a few years back. Because I was worried about theft, I got a refurbished Panasonic point and shoot camera with manual controls, a viewfinder, and a 20 X zoom lens for $200. I was happy with the pictures I took, particularly at the Uffizi and Academia. I suspect inflation has made a similar camera more expensive.
Depending on where you live Pixels have been a real pain in the ass. For me Google hardware divisions look like permanent demo sites.
Samsung now is much better in this regard than a few years back - less extra apps and most of these apps can be disabled right from settings. And even the ones that can't be disabled from settings can be disabled without root (using adb or, much more user friendly, ADB AppControl - https://adbappcontrol.com/en/). So, from a real issue it just became an annoyance during initial setup - to go over the list of apps and disable the duplicates.
And to be fare, most of the Samsung apps are not worse or even better than stock Google versions. If someone always uses Samsung phones, I can easily see how they can be preferred. If switching often between different brands (like I do) then it is better to stick to Google's app that will be available on any device.
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My experience with Samsung has been like this. Other than seeing they are there or sometimes seeing they insist on updating it otherwise matters not that the Samsung stuff is there. It never is forced on you and I think the only bit of software I've used from them is their Health app.
- Thread Starter
- #37
Update on the S23 Ultra:
Exceptional camera, video too (I have to admit that Apple is slightly superior on video for naturalness of colors and quality in general), and then with the pen....!! really excellent not to mention the DeX function.
Fully satisfied, the previous one had become too slow, too many hitches and some apps were starting to not work so well anymore, for example the Eversolo one, which always crashed on the parametric eq.
I don't know what the S24 Ultra is like but the 23 is more than enough for me.
I have to take a tourist trip to NY in September, I hope I will get nice photos and videos with this phone.
Exceptional camera, video too (I have to admit that Apple is slightly superior on video for naturalness of colors and quality in general), and then with the pen....!! really excellent not to mention the DeX function.
Fully satisfied, the previous one had become too slow, too many hitches and some apps were starting to not work so well anymore, for example the Eversolo one, which always crashed on the parametric eq.
I don't know what the S24 Ultra is like but the 23 is more than enough for me.
I have to take a tourist trip to NY in September, I hope I will get nice photos and videos with this phone.
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They don't, its just AI (I also have a S23) https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/13/23637401/samsung-fake-moon-photos-ai-galaxy-s21-s23-ultra
That article reads like someone who does not fully understand image processing and what it can do. I certainly would not call the photos "fake", but processing has significantly enhanced them. Cameras and photographers have been doing that for many years, well before digital, so to me the idea that they are swapping in other images seems a bit absurd.