Looking for smartphone (android) recommendations

[andreasmaaan]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a new android phone, and thought the technically-minded here might be able to advise me. Had a look at a few manufacturers' websites and was overwhelmed by all the choice. Each manufacturer seems to offer a plethora of models with similar specs and at similar prices, and it's not clear to me what the relevant differences should be between the phones of even a single manufacturer - forget trying to make a choice between all the different manufacturers' offerings.

Anyway, my main criteria are reliability and (hopefully) longevity, but I'd also like it to run standard apps smoothly and quickly, and to be current enough in terms of the processor etc. that it won't be struggling within a couple of years (if that's even a thing these days).

Would prefer it to be on the smaller side if possible (by Android standards), to have a decent camera, and to have acceptable audio performance (i.e. decent voltage output, good microphone, not-terrible inbuilt speaker).

Price is pretty flexible; I had imagined spending maybe 200-250€, but if that won't get me over the line, would be happy to hear more expensive recommendations.

Thanks

 

[daftcombo]

I'm happy with a Samsing J5 which is two years old. But I heard a lot of good from One Plus and actually they make very good pictures.

 

[3125b]

I just bought a Realme 7 to replace my Xiaomi Redmi Note 7.
Realme is a brand of BBK Electronics like Oppo and OnePlus. You could look into what they have to offer in your country.
Xiaomi is the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, they offer a wide variety of more budget oriented options, you could get something like the Poco X3 for about 200€.
A cheaper Smasung phone (like the A-51) might be an option as well, they have a three year feature update guarantee for those now, and as far as security patches go, Smasung really hasn't diappointed me, my 4.5year old S7 Edge still gets those.

Small phones are really out of fashion unfortunately. There is nothing recent and decent for under 250€ with less than a 6.5" screen.
Most of these phones have decent cameras by now, of course low-light performance is limited by the form factor.
Audio performance is hard to say, they are all decent in terms of DAC because of the SOCs used, output power is gonna be limited. Here are a few measurements I made: https://www.computerbase.de/forum/threads/fachgespraeche-sound-und-multimedia.1981079/#post-24875579 (phones at the bottom of the table). At that price point you are only gonna get a mono speaker, and never a great one. My Realme 7 does decently I'd say, but I can't really qualify that.
Get a dongle if you really want good headphone output performance.

 

[bobbooo]

Check out reviews on GSMArena. They have a great phone finder tool where you can select the features, size, price range you're looking for:

https://www.gsmarena.com/search.php3?

 

[esm]

My usual recommendation for Android shoppers is to buy whatever the currently-available version of Google's flagship is in the price bracket you're comfortable with. So today, that'd be a Pixel 5 (well above your price range) or 4a (close, but a little above).

Anything else means you're going to be at the mercy of some random company's software update cycle; while your warranty might cover you for X years, you definitely won't be getting meaningful OS updates for that long. The manufacturer has no motivation at all to do anything but the bare minimum for a phone they've already released; they'd much rather you bought their New Shiny every year instead. Google will push updates to you when they make them, without a calculus about how much money they'd make if they held it back for the new model instead.

Depending on where you live (ie. non-US), Fairphone might be an interesting option as well (although again, the price is above your range); their incentives are aligned with selling and supporting a phone that will last (and can be repaired).

Phones that dip well into your price range are going to generally be subsidized (a mostly US problem) or poorly-supported over their lifetime. That's just the harsh economics of it.

(And yeah, sadly the market seems to have spoken on phone sizes, and those of us who prefer smaller phones have lost this one.)

 

[sq225917]

Poco x3 from xiaomi

 

[Soniclife]

My usual recommendation for Android shoppers is to buy whatever the currently-available version of Google's flagship is in the price bracket you're comfortable with. So today, that'd be a Pixel 5 (well above your price range) or 4a (close, but a little above).

These are my thoughts as well, though my current phone is a one plus 6 that is still giving me zero desire to upgrade it.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Thanks for the help everyone

In the end, the Pixel 4A looks like the best choice for me, and costs around 340€ here in Germany, which is close enough to budget.

However, surprisingly, it turns out that it's sold out atm. So I now have two new questions:

• Is this normal for Google? Any idea what the cause could be? And is it likely to come back in stock relatively soon? I.e. Is it worth waiting for?
• If it isn't worth waiting for, what's my next best option?

Thanks again.

 

[Bob-23]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a new android phone, and thought the technically-minded here might be able to advise me. Had a look at a few manufacturers' websites and was overwhelmed by all the choice. Each manufacturer seems to offer a plethora of models with similar specs and at similar prices, and it's not clear to me what the relevant differences should be between the phones of even a single manufacturer - forget trying to make a choice between all the different manufacturers' offerings.

Anyway, my main criteria are reliability and (hopefully) longevity, but I'd also like it to run standard apps smoothly and quickly, and to be current enough in terms of the processor etc. that it won't be struggling within a couple of years (if that's even a thing these days).

Would prefer it to be on the smaller side if possible (by Android standards), to have a decent camera, and to have acceptable audio performance (i.e. decent voltage output, good microphone, not-terrible inbuilt speaker).

Price is pretty flexible; I had imagined spending maybe 200-250€, but if that won't get me over the line, would be happy to hear more expensive recommendations.

Thanks

With regard to longevity - a modular 'shift-phone':

"It is important to us that you can enjoy your SHIFT for a long time: The storage is expandable and the battery can be changed easily. Repairs are inexpensive and you can even take matters in your own hands: We give you the parts and video-tutorials and you can fix your SHIFT yourself. And in case you disassemble the device or root it, your warranty will still be valid."
https://www.shiftphones.com/en/

 

[Helicopter]

I had a Galaxy J7 that was great too. Removable backplate was a plus because I replaced the battery with a generic one at very low expense. I would get mid range Samsung line for best overall implementation.

The LG Thinq mid range line (G) probably have the best audio performance in this price range, with excellent screens, and maybe a bit slow. This is what I would get myself today since I care more about audio performance now.

Currently I have an S9, which is great, and will likely get TOTL LG (Q) next. LG is moving on from the letter designations, but these are brand new mid range and still probably above your price range.

Good news is this is an area where tech is advancing so fast anything you buy will likely seem totally awesome.

 

[Katji]

overwhelmed by all the choice. Each manufacturer seems to offer a plethora of models with similar specs and at similar prices, and it's not clear to me what the relevant differences should be between the phones of even a single manufacturer - forget trying to make a choice between all the different manufacturers' offerings.

I have the same problem, right now - quite urgently, but I hate dealing with it. I'd thought I just needed to decide on one of the Xiaomi/Redmi phones, but then found out why the main Amazon equivalent here only has a few of them.
I would be choosing one the less-expensive Huawei's, except for one thing - I do need Uber (Google Maps.)
So I think it comes down to Samsung again (which feels sort of boring.) A71.

 

[Katji]

Check out reviews on GSMArena. They have a great phone finder tool where you can select the features, size, price range you're looking for:
https://www.gsmarena.com/search.php3?

Unfortunately - like all others - they tell you Bt 5.0 but not which codecs. And the aptX website is not good, nor is the other similar one.

 

[LTig]

It's very easy to reduce the number of smartphones to choose from. Look for those models ...

• where the user can change the battery
• where the user can extend internal memory with a micro SD card
• which are water proof

I did this 5 years ago and the overwhelming list came down to just one model, a Samsung S5 neo. I use it every day, with the first battery. I only had to replace the micro SD card (Sandisk 128 GB) which broke down after 4 years.

 

[Helicopter]

It's very easy to reduce the number of smartphones to choose from. Look for those models ...

• where the user can change the battery
• where the user can extend internal memory with a micro SD card
• which are water proof

I did this 5 years ago and the overwhelming list came down to just one model, a Samsung S5 neo. I use it every day, with the first battery. I only had to replace the micro SD card (Sandisk 128 GB) which broke down after 4 years.

Good critera. I will give up replaceable battery and of course longevity with it for a good headphone output, but I break phones and tablets, so battery only constrains longevity on a closed unit 40% of the time for me. Micro SD is an absolute must for me. One reason I would not touch Apple.

 

[dasdoing]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a new android phone, and thought the technically-minded here might be able to advise me. Had a look at a few manufacturers' websites and was overwhelmed by all the choice. Each manufacturer seems to offer a plethora of models with similar specs and at similar prices, and it's not clear to me what the relevant differences should be between the phones of even a single manufacturer - forget trying to make a choice between all the different manufacturers' offerings.

Anyway, my main criteria are reliability and (hopefully) longevity, but I'd also like it to run standard apps smoothly and quickly, and to be current enough in terms of the processor etc. that it won't be struggling within a couple of years (if that's even a thing these days).

Would prefer it to be on the smaller side if possible (by Android standards), to have a decent camera, and to have acceptable audio performance (i.e. decent voltage output, good microphone, not-terrible inbuilt speaker).

Price is pretty flexible; I had imagined spending maybe 200-250€, but if that won't get me over the line, would be happy to hear more expensive recommendations.

Thanks

since you are from Germany, you might find this intresting https://geizhals.de/?cat=umtsover#gh_filterbox

 

[dasdoing]

personaly I go for the smallest I can find (currently a Palm PVG100E)....but I only need Whatsapp and GPS in the streets

 

[bobbooo]

Unfortunately - like all others - they tell you Bt 5.0 but not which codecs.

If you click on the specs page of any individual phone, GSMArena does tell you which Bluetooth codecs it supports, under COMMS > Bluetooth, e.g. here's the Samsung Galaxy S10e's specs page (LDAC is omitted since support is included with Android 8 and upwards by default):

https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s10e-9537.php

 

[whazzup]

I'm a supporter of Sony phones. But I generally buy used flagship models a generation older. Still powerful and good efficiency, battery not too degraded, way cheaper prices. And I chose to believe that Sony has more incentive to fit their flagship models with higher quality, longer lasting batteries.

And an additional point on battery longevity:
I recently found an app, AccuBattery, that estimates, visualizes and helps reduce battery wear. It's based on and cites their own research papers that lithium batteries really hate getting charged to above ~80% of their max capacity. And further digging got me to this:
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

The takeaway for laymen like me is that the battery heats up disportionately above 4v (typically ~80%) and in turn reduces the cycles at a much faster rate. When you see the jump in estimated battery wear, from ~0.1 - 0.3 cycles (up to 80%), to 0.9 - 1+ (beyond 80%), I swear you'll start thinking twice about letting the battery reach max charge.

So now I'm charging the phone a lot more often to keep it within 30-80%. The app helps by giving a lot more data about the battery usage than what the android os has, and even has an alarm when the battery reaches 80%.

 

[wasnotwasnotwas]

I'm happy with a Samsing J5 which is two years old. But I heard a lot of good from One Plus and actually they make very good pictures.

Ive had a Oneplus 3T (still going as a DAP) and now got a 7T- but they are way over the $250 mark. The cameras, IME, arent great. Longevity is . But they are very big too.

 

[esm]

However, surprisingly, it turns out that it's sold out atm.

Yeah, they kind of hit this one out of the park; the price-to-features of the 4a meant it sold out almost immediately when they launched it a few months ago (at least in a few regions). FWIW, I see both the 4a and 4a 5G in stock in the US store, so you might just be dealing with a temporary regional supply issue. Maybe check Amazon?