Dropped Samsung S8: repair, upgrade to S9 or S10?

[Church of Noise]

Dropped my trusted Samsung S8 and now the screen is cracked (and I have the impression the crack is growing...)

So, options are:

• Replacement screen at ~220 GBP (am in Europe)
• Second hand S9 (good condition) at approx ~230 GBP - slightly more performant phone for similar money to repair, slightly longer software support (including Android 10 which the S8 didn't get)
• Second hand S10 (good condition) at ~410 GBP - longer software support, larger battery, newer, different design from S8/9 series

Other options are not really being looked at as I like the Samsung interface, find the phones good quality for money and am not bothered about the S20 as imho the extra money does not warrant the little added features AND it doesn't have a jack connection (major killer for me).

Am very much in doubt between option 2 and 3 - any advice?

[AJB88]

A lot of packaged bank accounts have "free gadget insurance these days" register it with that if you have it and then wait a few weeks and claim.

In the mean time buy yourself a new one or borrow one for a few weeks?

[The_Jackal]

What about a nice new S9 on contract? They must be quite cheap now.

[Church of Noise]

Thanks for the input!

Just checked and it doesn't seem damage to mobile phones is covered in any of the insurance covers I have...
Given that I live in Belgium, I'm not sure the suggested cover in bank packages is applicable but will check it out!

My employer takes care of the contract and associated costs and there is a Bring Your Own Device policy which includes a monthly fee to cover the use of an own device, so phone+contract deals are off the table as well.

The main thing I'm thinking about is the added advantages of the S10 over the S9 vs the extra cost. In itself, I like the design of the S8/9 but I'd be willing to spend the difference in case it would mean I could use the S10 for longer (if I don't manage to smash that one too the S8 did however last more than 3 years so I'm not complaining really...)

[AlexC1981]

I think the camera and battery are the biggest differences between the S9 and S10. You probably won't even notice the rest most of the time. With that price difference I'd get the S9, but I'd want to double check on the battery life.

[tangerine_sedge]

How about a Samsung a71 new for ~£420? The specs are good and it has a good battery...

[davek_964]

I was in a similar position a few months ago - S8+ had a cracked screen.

I liked the phone, and it did everything I wanted - but lockdown meant that getting the screen replaced wasn't practical. I considered S10 / 20's but decided that they lost some of the features I liked - everything I've read suggests the screen fingerprint sensor is much worse than the dedicated sensor, the flashing status LED disappears and headphone jack disappeared after S10).

I wanted S9 - but I didn't want a used phone (seen too many people complain that they have some underlying issue) - and it wasn't possible to find a new S9 from anywhere I trust.

So I ended up with a Note 9 since you could still get them new. Has all the features I still want, I got the 512GB version - so don't really even need my SD card. I didn't think I'd ever use the stylus - but actually I have, for the times when you quickly want to note something down on a bit of paper, being able to write a note on the screen is pretty cool.

Apart from the stylus, it really just seems like my S8+ with lots more memory - but I like it.

[LasseV]

Church of Noise said:

Dropped my trusted Samsung S8 and now the screen is cracked (and I have the impression the crack is growing...)

So, options are:

• Replacement screen at ~220 GBP (am in Europe)
• Second hand S9 (good condition) at approx ~230 GBP - slightly more performant phone for similar money to repair, slightly longer software support (including Android 10 which the S8 didn't get)
• Second hand S10 (good condition) at ~410 GBP - longer software support, larger battery, newer, different design from S8/9 series

Other options are not really being looked at as I like the Samsung interface, find the phones good quality for money and am not bothered about the S20 as imho the extra money does not warrant the little added features AND it doesn't have a jack connection (major killer for me).

Am very much in doubt between option 2 and 3 - any advice?

Can't comment about S9, but my s10e is comparable to my wifes iphone 11 pro. So it is a very good phone and s10 is even better in some aspects. However, it is bigger and i dislike that. I think that s10e is perfect sized phone for everyday living. So, i could say new s10e could be a one option too?

This is my first Samsung phone and i'm loving it. Nicely designed high quality product. So i agree with you, my next phone will be samsung.

[Jamescrs]

I bought an S10+ around 6 weeks ago as a replacement for my Google Pixel 2XL but my wife has an S8 so I can compare it to that.

The S10+ certainly has a much better display than an S8 and the camera is significantly better even to me who really doesn't care less about how good a camera on a phone is as I hardly use it but I was pleasantly surmised how good it was when I did use it. The S10 seems to process faster and just be a slicker device generally which I suppose should be expected really.

I got a good deal on mine buying off Music Magpie though their Ebay store, Ebay had a promotion on which gave me a discount voucher worth upto £75 so I got the maximum discount there and I ended up paying in the region of £475 for a used described as "pristine" Galaxy S10+ and when it arrived other than not being in an original box I wouldn't have known it wasn't brand new from Samsung.

I can certainly recommend the S10+ as I like having a larger device.

[Church of Noise]

Just to bring some closure here, in the end the seller of the S10 proved to be local and took another 60 GBP off the price so i decided to go for that one (it's less than one year old, so I assume the battery is still in better shape than an older S9)
Quite chuffed so far!

[paulrockliffe]

Solid choice, when I dropped my S8+ and ended up with Note9, my wife has the S10. I've since cracked the Note screen too, which is irritating.

I'm currently just living with it because frankly I've not been out the house enough in the last 4 months to justify any spend, I'm keeping the budget back as perhaps I'd be better off getting a new tablet instead.