Which Android 'flagship' phone?

[Dan_1981]

AJB88 said:

Is there anything up with the P30? or is it out of security/OS updates now?

If the answer is no for both then why bother, are any of these phones an "upgrade" anymore? I'm writing this as a 33 year old who up until a few years ago used to get a new one every year.

Nothing major - slipped off things a few times so a couple of screen cracks but nothing impacting performance really..... but two years... shiny new toy etc etc

[heisthegaffer]

arcturus said:

smithyithy said:

Sony? Always seems underrated but offer some really nice phone..

I swapped my Huawei P20 Pro for an Xperia 1ii a couple years ago and it's been great.

I'd agree - another Sony user here. Love my Xperia 1ii. Had Sony for years. A lot less bloat that a Samsung phone. Not the cheapest although the Xperia 5 series do offer good value in my experience.

I can thoroughly recommend a Sony Xperia 1 iii. Brilliant phone, Excellent camera, good battery life, lovely screen...

Love the fact they have a shutter button for quick access to camera.

[paulrockliffe]

heisthegaffer said:

arcturus said:

smithyithy said:

Sony? Always seems underrated but offer some really nice phone..

I swapped my Huawei P20 Pro for an Xperia 1ii a couple years ago and it's been great.

I'd agree - another Sony user here. Love my Xperia 1ii. Had Sony for years. A lot less bloat that a Samsung phone. Not the cheapest although the Xperia 5 series do offer good value in my experience.

I can thoroughly recommend a Sony Xperia 1 iii. Brilliant phone, Excellent camera, good battery life, lovely screen...

Love the fact they have a shutter button for quick access to camera.

I had one of the earlier Sony Xperias, it was a lovely bit of kit until I smashed all the glass on it, but I found the performance pretty poor with both battery life and freezing. It used to get properly hot though, I suspect that was the problem. Anyway, moved to Samsung after that and have never looked back.

I think by default Samsung is double-tap power button to go straight to the camera, but whatever phone you have there are some great button remapping apps out there. I always program button shortcuts for the apps I use the most or things like adding calendar events which are otherwise a load of clicks away.

[RizzoTheRat]

Shaoxter said:

For example I ordered my wife an S22 256GB - RRP £820 but got £200 off for trading in any phone (had an old S3 lying around, worth about £10 on ebay) and some Galaxy buds and Disney+ which you could flog for £100-150, so ~£500 net.

Sadly my S10e isn't included in the trade in deal, which is a shame as the S22 is the first decent sized on the market in a while. Going to wait until they iron out the bugs though.

[heisthegaffer]

paulrockliffe said:

heisthegaffer said:

arcturus said:

smithyithy said:

Sony? Always seems underrated but offer some really nice phone..

I swapped my Huawei P20 Pro for an Xperia 1ii a couple years ago and it's been great.

I'd agree - another Sony user here. Love my Xperia 1ii. Had Sony for years. A lot less bloat that a Samsung phone. Not the cheapest although the Xperia 5 series do offer good value in my experience.

I can thoroughly recommend a Sony Xperia 1 iii. Brilliant phone, Excellent camera, good battery life, lovely screen...

Love the fact they have a shutter button for quick access to camera.

I had one of the earlier Sony Xperias, it was a lovely bit of kit until I smashed all the glass on it, but I found the performance pretty poor with both battery life and freezing. It used to get properly hot though, I suspect that was the problem. Anyway, moved to Samsung after that and have never looked back.

I think by default Samsung is double-tap power button to go straight to the camera, but whatever phone you have there are some great button remapping apps out there. I always program button shortcuts for the apps I use the most or things like adding calendar events which are otherwise a load of clicks away.

Funny, as I had a Z3 compact and a later Xperia. The Z3 was really fragile, snapped it in half on a soft play slide but the later one was much better. In fact, I got an upgrade to a Samsung S8 which felt a step back battery life wise but sold the Xperia to a mate.

[ChickenvanGuy]

arcturus said:

smithyithy said:

Sony? Always seems underrated but offer some really nice phone..

I swapped my Huawei P20 Pro for an Xperia 1ii a couple years ago and it's been great.

I'd agree - another Sony user here. Love my Xperia 1ii. Had Sony for years. A lot less bloat that a Samsung phone. Not the cheapest although the Xperia 5 series do offer good value in my experience.

Another very happy Xperia 1ii user here. Bought used at the start of 2021, was an absolute bargain and has been brilliant. I'm a bit of a Sony fan boy, but it really has been excellent. That's with a background of iPhones for years and a Samsung Note 10+ before the Sony. The screen is superb (I don't actually need a near 4k phone screen, who does, but I'm sadly pleased that I do have one. I'm so shallow!).

Android is clean with little bloat, and I like both the physical shutter button and the option to use the Pro apps for the camera which give pretty much the same interface as the Sony Alpha mirrorless cameras and loads of control over shooting.

Agree that the Xperia 5 phones are great value. I wanted wireless charging which the 5 doesn't have, hence the 1ii.

Edited by ChickenvanGuy on Wednesday 6th April 15:00

[C G]

RizzoTheRat said:

Shaoxter said:

For example I ordered my wife an S22 256GB - RRP £820 but got £200 off for trading in any phone (had an old S3 lying around, worth about £10 on ebay) and some Galaxy buds and Disney+ which you could flog for £100-150, so ~£500 net.

Sadly my S10e isn't included in the trade in deal, which is a shame as the S22 is the first decent sized on the market in a while. Going to wait until they iron out the bugs though.

For the £200 off you can literally trade in any phone including a broken one if it powers up and holds a charge.

Just done it myself, ordering S22 for the wife mainly on account of her requiring one-handed operation, and myself an S20 FE.

S20 FE seems particularly good value having set it up today. Just over £200 to buy it after the trade in and 3/4 of a flagship device.

[gangzoom]

R32 said:

The S21 camera seems to take good shots and has the 10x lens

The 'best' lens on the S21/22 isn't the x10, its the x3 + portrait mode and the wide angle with its semi fake macro.

Having said that the x10 lens can deliver some crazy results in good light, panning 'action' shots is something that simply shouldn't be possible on a smart phone! Samsung also recently allowed you do access the x10 lens in 'pro' mode - so RAW outputs is now possible, and actually even in low light the detail is pretty decent.

Edited by gangzoom on Wednesday 6th April 22:17

[roscopervis]

The OnePlus 9Pro is just as good as the 10 Pro - only the cpu has been updated, everything else has stayed the same or even been downgraded in terms of the camera.

The BBK group that OnePlus are part of are like the VAG group of cars. Look to their cheaper brands for better value but equivalent performance -Realme GT2 Pro for example.

Xiaomi are also good, but the UI is pants.

[captain_cynic]

Nokia's flagship XR20.
Vanilla Android with 3 years of updates.

May not be as powerful as other flagships but it is cheaper and has less bloat.

I've had good experices running cheaper Nokia's (7.2 and now a G21) but o don't really use it for much more than a web browser and occasional phone.

[dave_s13]

I got a Xiaomi 11t pro a couple of months ago.

Cost £500 ish and is a cracking phone for the money. 120w supercharging is fancy. Lovely screen 108mp sony camera that takes great pictures and even harmon kardon speakers (which sound alright for a phone!).

You cannot beat the spec Vs cost compared to any other brand really. And you can even get 3months interest free credit from Xiaomi (via klarna) to spread that cost a bit as well.

Overall I'm very happy with it.

Edited by dave_s13 on Thursday 7th April 10:50

[RizzoTheRat]

C G said:

For the £200 off you can literally trade in any phone including a broken one if it powers up and holds a charge.

Just done it myself, ordering S22 for the wife mainly on account of her requiring one-handed operation, and myself an S20 FE.

S20 FE seems particularly good value having set it up today. Just over £200 to buy it after the trade in and 3/4 of a flagship device.

I need to look i to that again then, cheers. I went in from my Samsung account and it wanted me to pick my old phone from a dropdown, which didn't then bring up a discount, but did if I randomly tried a a more recent phone. Maybe it was to do with the extra discount they offering for a while.

[Dan_1981]

Amazing when you start digging into the world of Android what exists out there...

I've also added the Vivo X70 Pro+ to my list - not yet released in the UK but looks to have a stunningly good camera setup.

[Dan_1981]

Honor Magic 4 Pro has been released and seems to get pretty decent reviews & pricing isn't horrendous on a two year contract.

Some freebies too for pre ordering.

I think i'm going to end up with either that or the one plus 10 pro.

[nd0000]

I'm on my fifth or sixth Pixel phone. At this stage it's partly laziness in not having to make a decision.

It used to be that this meant you got the latest versions of Android straight away, and it was less bogged down with dodgy vendor apps. These days maybe the pace of change has settled a little. But if you use the Google apps then there's a lot to be said for the clean and integrated experience.

[xerawh]

Dan_1981 said:

Honor Magic 4 Pro has been released and seems to get pretty decent reviews & pricing isn't horrendous on a two year contract.

Some freebies too for pre ordering.

I think i'm going to end up with either that or the one plus 10 pro.

I'm thinking the Honor too. With cashback I can get the man maths to match a v.good refurbished Galaxy 21 ultra which is my other option.

Don't know but got 3 days to decide.

[LasseV]

S21 Ultra. It is a damn good phone. I recommend it.

[croyde]

Remember when you changed phones every year as the contract was only 12 months.

Always exciting...

First dual band, then Tri and Quad. Smaller handsets, flips, sliders. WAP then a sort of internet capability.

Then the first screen phones.

Nothing exciting anymore, ok a better lens here, faster chip there. Boring.

That's why I still have my current Pixel that is nearly 4 years old.

[lornemalvo]

Fore Left said:

I used to always buy Samsung Galaxy S phones. Got a bit fed up with paying through the nose so last time round I bought a Samsung Galaxy A52 5G. Performance wise you wouldn't know it isn't a top spec phone and while it lacks a little in the looks department I've put a case on every phone I've ever owned to it really doesn't matter.

I now wonder why I ever bothered forking out for the top of the range phones.

I went even further, I bought an A21 and it's absolutely fine, does everything I need. I don't get the need for the latest and best, some are serious money and I think it's a form of insanity