Mobile Phone

[cruiser2]

Am thinking of getting a new mobile phone.

I will use it mainly for phone calls, whats app and to lookm at emails.
Would like a good camera and preferablyan SD card I can remove.

I want to buy outright and then chose my supplier. There ae some cheap deals which are suitable.

Any advice much appreciated.

[Suff]

My suggestion list.

Determine what you want to pay first. You can then compare that to the market and adjust to suit.

I assume you are not going Apple, there is not much in the way of "deals" out there. If you do want to go there you can go for their more budget range.

For Android.

Know what you want. Processor is important, over time it will become slower. Try to avoid Mediatek unless it is Dimensity and 800 or above.

Android version. 13 has been released now so you should be looking for 12 at the very least. Check to see if the manufacturer supplies updates and how many. Cheap Chinese clones will be running Android 11 with No updates. Over 5 years this becomes important.

Screen size. What size do you need/ want. Bigger screens don't fit in your pocket so well but are more readable.

Ram, nothing less than 4gb. I prefer 6/8 but this does drive the price up.

Even with a SD card storage is important internally. Nothing less than 64gb.

Think about the SD card for a bit. Most manufacturers are trending away from them. WM gave us a really good app for syncing contacts and media off the phone to a PC. It is worth thinking about.

Charging. Do you really need wireless charging? I don't. However supporting quick charge and QC3.0 is useful.

Screen. Do you really need QLED or OLED? I have a xiaomi Poco F3 with OLED screen, yes it is beautiful and very sharp. Is it so much better than my mi max 3? Not really, not worth paying a lot for.

5G. Do you need it? If it comes with no cost, why not. If you do not have a 5g enabled sim, then it won't do you much good. However the 5g phones have far better WiFi overall and I find their signal is better. If you can get a 5g sim at no cost, could be useful.

Not a big thing which you need to pay for but if you can get it for near zero extra, then it could be a deciding factor.

Just recently I had to replace one of my 3 MI MAX 3 phones to retain my backup phone. I bought a Honor Magic 4 lite. It doesn't take a SD card but it hit all of my targets for a backup phone. The cpu is 2 generations older but fast enough, ram/storage is 6/128, it has fast WiFi and is 5g. I bought it from Curry's because it was the best price I could find.

My requirements are not to everyone's tastes as. I prefer larger more powerful phones.

I do suggest that you go to a store and try to get a phone in your hand to try it out, one on which the display is on and able to be used.

There is a good market in older Samsung phones at cheaper prices but the S8 I got for Mrs S was still over £300. It is also now suffering from a fixed android version with no updates.

Have a think about it then it is easier to advise.

[Workingman]

I have tried Nokia, Eriksson, Alcatel, Motorola, Chinese clones.....

Cruiser, my needs are very similar to yours - calls and messages and photos - so my advice flies in the face of a lot of what Suff says, you will hardly, if ever, go anywhere near those needs...

A few months back I got a Samsung S7 on eBay. It has a 10 Mp back camera an d a 5 Mp 'selfie', 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage all on Android 8. It was £125 and more than meets my needs. It is 4G and LTE so good for many years yet and has Wi-Fi and quick charging. A good 15 hours of talk time and about three days on standby.

With the MyPhoneExplorer app you do not need an SD nowadays, and many phones no longer offer them - just transfer stuff to your computer.

However, when Suff says go to a phone shop and handle a few he is dead right. There is nothing like the feel and having a play to tell you what is right.

Stay away from cheap clones or even cheap anything.

[Suff]

I did say my requirements are a bit on the high side....

Yes cheap clones are dire. Snapdragon chips, Samsung Equinox or Mediatek Dimensity at 800 or higher or you will regret it in time.

The problem is over time. My mi max 3 with 4gb of RAM eventually slowed right down. It has a snapdragon 630 in it. Over the years I've found that the lower the spec the quicker it becomes a glorified egg timer.

OK Admitted I do banking on my phone, have a LOT of travel apps on it, plus my wifi and remote socket apps. Guilty....

[cruiser2]

Suff,
you are like my son. He works for a Japanese company and is involved with mobile phones. What he tells me is too technical for me to understand.

Your info is suitable so I now know what to look for when I go into one of the many phone shops.

It may be a few weeks before I finally make the plunge.

[Workingman]

Cruiser, please do try the local independents. They are usually more helpful, and knowledgeable, than the big players, and they are on your doorstep. Good luck with whatever you choose.

[Suff]

Thanks Cruiser. I do try to dumb it down but some things are named and come with numbers. Android, versions etc.

This comes from personal experience. I kept my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 for 5 years because they kept changing to something I didn't want and was not much, if any, better. In the end I wound up unable to go to websites with the Samsung browser and other stuff on the phone stopped working because the Android was just too old.

Good luck and do try the local guys. As WM says they can be more knowledgeable.

[cruiser2]

Suff, Had a long phone call with my son last night. He said the Google Pixel 6 Pro is one of the best mid range phones.
Said the best option is to buy it outright and then choose which carrierI am going to use.
So may go out this afternoon and see what is on offer.

Thank you for your help. I want Rolls Royce specs at Mini prices. An imposible goal I know so I have to compromise.

[Suff]

Google Pixel phones are some of the very best on the market.

They also have one other benefit. Pixel phones get continuous Android updates. Every time a new Android version comes out, Pixel phone's get it. None of this "one or two versions", Google tests them all with their Pixel phones. Not sure quite how far forward they go but I know it is at least 3.

The major downside with Pixel phones is that they are expensive. Google sells direct from their store, £649.

That being said, they are not as expensive as Apple or Samsung for top models.