In the current spectrum, how much should one spend to get the best value? I know everyone has a different taste and budget. But analysing the current trend of smartphone culture could give a bit of insight into spending wisely.
Best value is around 300-400 $
But it depend on what you need on your phone, and you need to choose well. https://www.kimovil.com/ has some good comparison.
I prefer older used flagships.
It’s hardly depends on the use case though. I don’t care about camera, games or what so ever. Phone, messenger and maybe a handful of apps for social and homelab. So for me it’s max 100€
My general rule of thumb when getting a cheap device:
want the cheapest device even if it has dubious ads and tracking: xiaomi
want a relatively cheap device and ok with first party ads/promotion and tracking: low end Samsung
The thing with cheap device is it’s not guaranteed to have 3rd party roms available, and even if one exists, it’s not guaranteed how long they’ll be maintained, so it’s not a factor when I’m trying to get a very cheap device.
You can spend barely a whole minute during first time setup to make Samsung phones not give you any ad and remove most tracking that has no direct use for the end user.
I tend to limit myself to max €100 per expected year of use. It’s just a phone to me. My Nokia 6.1 was €300 and is still working.
Main requirement is the availability of an alternatuve rom for it.
The best value smartphone on the market is the Fairphone 5. 70 euros per year, amortized over 10 years. Compare with a cheap, slower, but more expensive to repair Samsung A14, which would only last 2 years before the battery starts dying, and cost 85 euros per year over that time.
Yeah, just find a phone that was cutting edge 3-4 years ago. get it used off amazon or wherever for like $200-300. I bought my Samsung Galaxy S10 like 4 years ago, it still runs amazingly well.
This is going to be even better with 7 years of updates on flagship smartphones from Google, samsung and Fairphone going forward. Your phone would still be updated and fairly secure by the time you get it.
When the Pixel 7 came out it was incredibly good value for money. Buttery smooth, high quality cameras, best quality android experience $500. Unbeatable, and made the A series not worth it that year.
Somewhere between 300-500
Prioritising getting a decent chipset over the rest of the features, because having all the gimmicks doesn’t matter if the phone feels slow after a few years of updates.
The chipset is no longer important unless you’re heavily into smartphone games. Even a mid-range chipset from 2 years ago will run standard tasks just fine these days. Smartphone requirements have basically plateaued for a few years now.
Prioritize just about everything OTHER then the chipset, depending on what you really use the phone for. Cameras, battery life, screen quality, memory capacity… Prioritize chipset only if you’re gaming.
I dont really game on my phone but my parents both got the Samsung a51 shortly after i got my Poco F1.
And nowadays the a51 takes a while to load basically anything while the F1 still feels pretty snappy.
Chipset also plays a huge part in the battery life and camera experience.
For me I only start looking for a new phone when i get annoyed by how slow my current phone feels, I’m not saying you should get a shitty phone just because it has a good chip, it just really helps it not feel old in a few years.
I typically buy a new flagship on sale and hold it for 4-5 years. Buying a new $300 phone means you start with mid-range performance and go down from there over time. This means you’ll either have a really slow phone for the last year or two or you’ll need to replace it sooner.
Depends on what phone you get and where it cuts the corners.
The Snapdragon 845 in my Poco F1 is still plenty fast 4 years later.
The camera is still respectable even today.
The plastic body and shitty LCD screen aren’t great, but that was already there when I got it.
Not necessarily. It depends. Some Socs like the 888 and 8 gen 1 were bad. I briefly used a Xiaomi 11T pro(8/128GB) and the snapdragon 888 inside compared to the dimensity 7050 in my realme 11 pro(12/1TB) is not much faster, if at all. The difference was super small. Instead I have much higher ram and large storage which negates any speed advantage it may have in day to day usage.
I got a couple Galaxy a20 like phones (can’t remember all the names) and they would break very easily, one fell from my pocket onto my shoe and the screen cracked . I eventually got a galaxy s21 and this phone has been dropped on pavement a bunch of times. Dropped in water , butter chicken etc and still is just fine. Other than that I actually don’t notice much difference in performance . I bought my s21 directly from Best Buy and it was almost $1000 Canadian.
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Best value is around 300-400 $ But it depend on what you need on your phone, and you need to choose well.
https://www.kimovil.com/ has some good comparison.
250€ because I spent that much 18 months ago and still super happy
I spent £250 on my Motorola G73 and am very happy with it
I use apple phones, but i usually run 3-6 years behind.
Currently have an 11 , I think they are up to 14. I don’t really see what the new models do.
Still the thick end of 250 quid.
I don’t know what people who spend 1000 tell themselves.
That I had a savings goal that I put a dollar a day into for three years to get there lol.
It’s funny, I bought an s9 plus at launch and was recently “kicking tires” thinking of upgrading.
Looked at the recent crop and from my judgement, they’re about 15% better than this one for the things that matter to me. For only $2,000 CAD
Looks like I’ll be having the screen and battery replaced and keeping this for another 7 years.
If you don’t care about the cameras…
Nowadays that’s probably the biggest most worthwhile improvement you’ll see.
Edit: The difference between your S9 and an S23 or S24 would be pretty dramatic.
See the new models have a bigger number so that is better
Under $300 IMO, that gets you a used flagship model from 1-2 years ago that isn’t too much different from the current models.
The issue is that currently the 1-2 years used flagships have a lot of issues
That reduces quite a lot what should be the main source of used flagships
P7 only has connectivity issues in third world countries like the US. It’s not a problem in Europe
Well, you never know where people are, so it’s safe to warn a 300 millions country
Every generation has issues to be fair, I have an S21 and it’s been great.
Interesting, Snapdragon or Exynos?
Snapdragon on mine
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Don’t buy S22. Speaking from experience. Single update messed up the whole thing up.
I prefer older used flagships. It’s hardly depends on the use case though. I don’t care about camera, games or what so ever. Phone, messenger and maybe a handful of apps for social and homelab. So for me it’s max 100€
This is getting to be a better and better option with Google and Samsung promising more than 3yrs of OS updates.
Meh, OS updates are overrated, especially now that Android is so much better with battery life.
I have a phone running Android 9… And it’s super fast. And if I switch it to Lineage/Divest, it’s even faster.
Don’t worry man I’m with you on that one. Android 12 is a downgrade from 11 IMO
My general rule of thumb when getting a cheap device:
The thing with cheap device is it’s not guaranteed to have 3rd party roms available, and even if one exists, it’s not guaranteed how long they’ll be maintained, so it’s not a factor when I’m trying to get a very cheap device.
Best to look for current rom development on a device first. The Lineage device list is a big part of why I’m now going to Pixel.
Generally you get roms on the newer devices, and the older they get, development drops off.
Also depends on the device. If it was a flagship, it tends to have a longer rom lifespan because the hardware has a longer usability curve.
The Lineage device list is interesting in that you see which devices are (generally) more usable long term by the development cycle.
You can spend barely a whole minute during first time setup to make Samsung phones not give you any ad and remove most tracking that has no direct use for the end user.
I tend to limit myself to max €100 per expected year of use. It’s just a phone to me. My Nokia 6.1 was €300 and is still working. Main requirement is the availability of an alternatuve rom for it.
Yup, I also budget 100 euros per year. I tend to buy phones around 400 euros myself, they need to last 4 years before I buy a new one.
Currently on a Poco F2 Pro with LineageOS, still needs to live for a couple of years.
The best value smartphone on the market is the Fairphone 5. 70 euros per year, amortized over 10 years. Compare with a cheap, slower, but more expensive to repair Samsung A14, which would only last 2 years before the battery starts dying, and cost 85 euros per year over that time.
Yeah, just find a phone that was cutting edge 3-4 years ago. get it used off amazon or wherever for like $200-300. I bought my Samsung Galaxy S10 like 4 years ago, it still runs amazingly well.
This is going to be even better with 7 years of updates on flagship smartphones from Google, samsung and Fairphone going forward. Your phone would still be updated and fairly secure by the time you get it.
I wouldn’t spend more than 300 bucks
Value is subjective.
When the Pixel 7 came out it was incredibly good value for money. Buttery smooth, high quality cameras, best quality android experience $500. Unbeatable, and made the A series not worth it that year.
This year I’d probably say the pixel 7a.
Pixel A series for $300 is a good deal, or just deal with the OnePlus models. I don’t use my mobile much anyway
Somewhere between 300-500 Prioritising getting a decent chipset over the rest of the features, because having all the gimmicks doesn’t matter if the phone feels slow after a few years of updates.
300-500 of what currency?
Euro, although it should still apply to dollars since phones tend to be a bit more expensive here.
I would say the opposite.
The chipset is no longer important unless you’re heavily into smartphone games. Even a mid-range chipset from 2 years ago will run standard tasks just fine these days. Smartphone requirements have basically plateaued for a few years now.
Prioritize just about everything OTHER then the chipset, depending on what you really use the phone for. Cameras, battery life, screen quality, memory capacity… Prioritize chipset only if you’re gaming.
I dont really game on my phone but my parents both got the Samsung a51 shortly after i got my Poco F1. And nowadays the a51 takes a while to load basically anything while the F1 still feels pretty snappy.
Chipset also plays a huge part in the battery life and camera experience.
For me I only start looking for a new phone when i get annoyed by how slow my current phone feels, I’m not saying you should get a shitty phone just because it has a good chip, it just really helps it not feel old in a few years.
I typically buy a new flagship on sale and hold it for 4-5 years. Buying a new $300 phone means you start with mid-range performance and go down from there over time. This means you’ll either have a really slow phone for the last year or two or you’ll need to replace it sooner.
Depends on what phone you get and where it cuts the corners. The Snapdragon 845 in my Poco F1 is still plenty fast 4 years later. The camera is still respectable even today.
The plastic body and shitty LCD screen aren’t great, but that was already there when I got it.
Not necessarily. It depends. Some Socs like the 888 and 8 gen 1 were bad. I briefly used a Xiaomi 11T pro(8/128GB) and the snapdragon 888 inside compared to the dimensity 7050 in my realme 11 pro(12/1TB) is not much faster, if at all. The difference was super small. Instead I have much higher ram and large storage which negates any speed advantage it may have in day to day usage.
I got a couple Galaxy a20 like phones (can’t remember all the names) and they would break very easily, one fell from my pocket onto my shoe and the screen cracked . I eventually got a galaxy s21 and this phone has been dropped on pavement a bunch of times. Dropped in water , butter chicken etc and still is just fine. Other than that I actually don’t notice much difference in performance . I bought my s21 directly from Best Buy and it was almost $1000 Canadian.