Choosing new phone - help!!!
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anonymous-user

Original Poster:

84 months

Friday 21st January 2022
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Afternoon All,

My Samsung S9 is in its last legs, its looking battered and the battery has had it. My preference would be for another Samsung but would be open to other options as had other Android in the past (no iPhones). Was looking on the Samsung website trying to work out what to go for but I really don't understand any of it.

I would like a phone as good as or better than my S9 but don't need anything too fancy. I would like a decent battery, good camera and something that is as good with the usual apps like whatsapp and the internet (I generally have quite a few apps on my phone like Amazon, ebay, OSmaps, Teams, so that might be a consideration). I'm interested in gaming or streaming movies or music or anything like that.

Ive not bought a phone outright for quite a few years and can't believe the prices, i was thinking I'd be spending under £200 until I started looking (over a grand for a phone, madness).

I started looking at the S series Samsungs as they are massively cheaper that the S series, but can't really see why they are so much cheaper?

Any experts able to point me in the right direction, A32 5G looks like a front runner at the moment.

Cheers

AC43

13,636 posts

238 months

Friday 21st January 2022
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I hung onto my S6 for years until the battery started failing. Then I went S10 a couple of years ago and around about the time it was about to be replaced. I've just replaced that with an S21.

The last two are on a contract but you can get an S21 for £600-ish.

No headphone socket, though, which is a bit irritating but no doubt helps the water proofing.

The 21 is noticeably faster & slicker than the 10 which was the same over the 6. Better camera, better mike too.




Scrump

23,947 posts

188 months

Friday 21st January 2022
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I recently started using an A32 5G. Can’t fault it. Battery life is superb.
(I don’t game on it and am not a keen photographer so the photos look fine to me)

deckster

9,631 posts

285 months

Friday 21st January 2022
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Work gave me an A52 to replace my old S9 and to be honest I was a bit sniffy about them pinching pennies and moving us downmarket.

But in everyday use it's fine. More than fine, really - it's a genuinely good phone. The only thing I miss is wireless charging - but as above, the battery life is superb and genuinely I can get two days out of it, so I can forgive having to plug it in every now and then.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

84 months

Friday 21st January 2022
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The memory at 4gb is sub optimal, 6gb is recommended for the best performance.

I switched from a phone with 4gb to 6gb ram and have noticed the apps I use and mobile browser tabs are always in memory. The phone feels a lot snappier as a result of it not having to load anything.

Otherwise even mid range processors are fast enough these days to run everyday apps really smoothly.

Personally, I think something like the A52s forms something of a value / performance sweetspot. That comes with 128GB storage and 6GB RAM which is a lot more comfortable and future proof in 2022. It will also get an additional year of Android updates over the A32, important if you are putting financial details through your phone. Specifically, the A52s will give you 3 years of OS updates plus an additional year of security updates. No one else in the Android space can match or beat that apart from Google with their Pixel 6 line up.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 21st January 21:52

numtumfutunch

5,174 posts

168 months

Friday 21st January 2022
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Bit of an expert here, and long term Android fan boy/boi smile

After being very happy upgrading every 2y to the odd Galaxys specifically 3,5,7,9 I reached the point where the 20 and 21 were just stupidly expensive and so I left the fold

I bought a Oneplus top spec 8 Pro on recs from this forum - massively less ££ than the S20/21 - which was superb with a fantastic camera which is a biggie for me until it died in an accident which would have probably split the atom if Rutherford hadnt beaten me to it and then I replaced it with a Google Pixel 6

The Pixel is similarly brill - camera fantastic and battery excellent and usefully cheaper than even the Oneplus

Having said that Oneplus did an unusually genuine black Friday sale during which favourite/only son bagged their 'vanilla' 9 (just beneath the flagship) for approx 450 squids which was/is a steal

Current Oneplus deals are not good and neither are Google Pixels

Happy hunting

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

84 months

Friday 21st January 2022
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I’d stay away from Oneplus. They have gone seriously downhill of late. The bugs on my friends 7T Pro are terrible. Reports all over the web talking about how much things have changed for the worse once they moved over to Oppo and skinned their Colour OS.

Easternlight

3,946 posts

174 months

Friday 21st January 2022
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XiaomI make some pretty good phones for not a lot of money.

https://ams.event.mi.com/uk/sales2022/winter-sale/...

Wanted to buy one but they're all too big for me

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

84 months

Saturday 22nd January 2022
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Thanks all, still not sure where I'm going but might look at Samsung alternatives

snuffy

13,317 posts

314 months

Saturday 22nd January 2022
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MonkeyMatt said:
Ive not bought a phone outright for quite a few years and can't believe the prices, i was thinking I'd be spending under £200 until I started looking (over a grand for a phone, madness).
I would say that phones that cost a grand are not really phones at all - they just happen to be devices that have the ability to make phone calls.

But you don't have to spend a thousand pounds on one, just like say laptops; you can buy one for £300 or £3000, or anywhere in between.

Condi

20,441 posts

201 months

Sunday 23rd January 2022
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I bought an excellent condition secondhand S10 on ebay. Think it was being sold because the battery wasn't great, but Samsung replaced it under warranty FOC.

Otherwise, I had a £100 Motorola G7 Play which for a day to day phone was just as good really. The biggest difference was the camera - the G7 was like taking photos with a potato compared with the S10, but for most apps, you wouldn't notice that one cost 4 times as much as the other.