Making the 2023 !android@lemmy.world Buying Guide: Midrange (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by MargotRobbie@lemmy.world to c/android@lemmy.world

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Previously on Lemmy:

iPhones

Past Discussions:

Every hobbyist forum needs their own guides and resources, and we are no different. I think it's finally time for us to all pitch in and make an Android buying guide that's 100% Lemmy over the next couple of weeks, since buying recommendations are commonly requested here, and it's also a way for us to get more friends to talk Android with.

So, over the next couple of weeks, we are going make our own guide piece by piece: Low-end, Midrange, High-end, and Android Accessories.

We are going to use the following price range definition in terms of USD, use this as a general guideline for price range estimates in your local currency, (Probably not a direct conversion, since purchasing powers are different in different countries.)

Low-end: 0-300 USD
Midrange: 300-700 USD
High End: 700+ USD

Rules are simple:

For all top-level comments, you should include the model and brand of the phone, your own recommended price range (i.e. This phone would be a good deal at 200 dollars, OK at 250, but a terrible deal at 300.), and anything else you would like to add to justify your recommendations.
No direct links to products. Prices changes too much, and having affiliate links opens up another can of worms about how sincere our recommendation intentions are.

And we are going to start with the hardest price range to recommend first: Midrange.

Have fun.

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[-] HidingCat@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago

Welp, this is a category that's difficult alright, partly because of differences in PPP that'll make it hard to define. Bottom and top are easy, since there's always a clear ceiling and floor.

I'll go with something more universal: Samsung Galaxy A54. The build quality is nicer than my A52s (the outer frame is more solid and doesn't have the occasional flex that some units get), and the Exynos SoC in this one is fast enough. Going back to a 19.5:9 aspect ratio screen means it's also more useful on the wider end. Like most of the A50 series, great battery life too. Alas no more headphone jack since the A53. Still has a micro SD card slot. OIS on a 2/3" image sensor. Almost perfect otherwise. Cheap too, can get it for US$350 for the 256GB variant.

[-] dingus@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

What is PPP

[-] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Purchasing power parity, basically, a comparison of how much of the same thing a particular currency can buy.

[-] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Maybe I should have started with an easier price range...

Are the Samsung midrange worthwhile to use now? A few years ago, the advice I got was that Samsung's top end are excellent, whereas their midrange are generally not as good as the Chinese brands.

[-] HidingCat@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

Yea, the double digit A series were a revamp of the original A line in response to the Chinese makers. As someone with easy access to Chinese phones, I switched from a Mi 9T to an A52s. I have to say the Samsung comes with a lot of pluses, like timely security updates. The only real downside so far has been the haptics: The vibration motor on the A52s is not good.

[-] sheogorath@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, Samsung phones availability globally has been great in my experience. The only pain point is they didn't have a global warranty.

There's a little bit of reasoning behind this, Samsung has set up a little bit of regional pricing for their phones. As an example I recently bought the Fold5 1TB for USD 1773. And that price is after taxes. Before tax it's around USD 1600.

So I basically got a USD 560 price difference for the phone.

[-] HidingCat@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Yea, same. The Fold 5 in my region has started dropping in price and the base 256 GB is almost at US1k. That's basically a tablet and a phone together. I expect more price drops by the end of the year.

[-] Bebo@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

How is battery life and heating issues compared to A52s, which comes with snapdragon chip?

[-] DharmaCurious@startrek.website 3 points 1 year ago

I switched from a pixel 6 to an A53. I lease my phones through T-Mobile with jump on demand, so I can switch pretty often if I want to (I hate doing it. I like finding a decent phone and sticking to it), and I'm thinking about switching again. The A53 is super laggy, and it crashes frequently, as well as a weird thing with WiFi becoming super slow unless I restart

Any idea if the 54 is better? I'd like to stick to Samsung if possible, because I have a Samsung tablet and they work well together. I really miss LG. :(

[-] HidingCat@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

My work phone is an A53, don't have anything remotely like your issues. In fact I've used low end phones on Snapdragon 400-series SoCs before, and while they're slower, they don't lag or crash. I've always wondered why people have issues with their phones...

[-] DharmaCurious@startrek.website 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hmm. That's weird. Me, my mom and my dad all have the same phone. I try to keep them on whatever I'm on to make trouble shooting over the phone easier when they call me with problems. Both of them report laggyness, too.

Eta

I should clarify, until recently, I've been used to higher end phones. The note series and whatever flagship LG was rocking when I was off the notes. Maybe I'm just spoiled?

[-] HidingCat@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Still doesn't explain the crashes. Mine has been pretty rock solid.

Day-to-day stuff like browsing web pages and using social media shouldn't have much of a difference, especially if you moved from say, a Snapdragon 845 to a SD 778G. I went from a Snapdragon 820 to a 730g and the latter was definitely faster, so dropping down a class level or two may not make a difference if the generation gap is big enough.

[-] bergie@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

The previous year’s flagship is one option. Samsung’s S22 and S22+ both fit in this range, and even the S22 Ultra is not too far off. And those still have a few OS updates left. Pixel 6 Pro seems to sell for the same price as 7a in Germany.

This has been my strategy for the last two phones (Note 8 and Note 10) and it has worked great. Following this thread with interest as this is the year I’m due to upgrade.

[-] EddieTee77@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

This is truly some great advice. You can get a great phone for so much less this way. There aren't many features worth buying the newest phone for anyway. Just enjoy the discount for a phone that's a year old.

[-] citruslumps@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Or even 6months old. Back when Samsung stillade good phones, I would get that year's model on Swappa for half the price or less.

[-] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Guess I'll start.

Google Pixel 7a, which MSRP for 500 USD, but 450 is currently a very good deal.

Looks to have a great camera for the price, clean software with long support, but a bit weak in battery life.

Also, no headphone jack, unlike some of the other "a" series Pixels.

[-] counselwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago

is there something similar but has expandable storage (headphone jack would be a bonus).

[-] kali@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 year ago

Another benefit is support for degoogled software (ironically) such as e/OS/ and GrapheneOS, if that's your thing.

[-] AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Seconding the Pixel 7a (which I own right now) 😁

At $450 you get literally a high-end phone that's priced like a mid-range one because it does not feature a glass back (which is a plus IMO, as that's one thing less you have to worry about breaking) and doesn't have an optical zoom (can be a deal breaker). The size is also just right, as it's the most compact one out of the Pixel 7 series.

You also get guaranteed updates until May 2028. And as with most Pixels, you have the best support for ROMs like GrapheneOS.

As for battery life, it seems to be due to the Android 13 version. The Android 14 beta yields a much better battery life thanks to the optimizations that they did.

[-] DharmaCurious@startrek.website 4 points 1 year ago

I had the pixel 6. Is the 7/7a less glitchy? There were constant weird issues with the 6. Which, tbh, I could mostly get past. The reason I swapped out was because of lack of HDMI support. I can't always use Chromecast, and I like being able to mirror my screen to a monitor I have on my sewing table.

[-] AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Can you elaborate on those glitches? I haven't had any noticeable issues with my 7a. As for Chromecast, I haven't tried yet so I can't really say.

[-] DharmaCurious@startrek.website 5 points 1 year ago

It's been a while since I had the phone, but iirc it would drop wifi constantly, Bluetooth would occasionally and randomly cause the phone to seize up and you had to do a hard reset, you could only have a Bluetooth device connected to it alone, if the device was also connected to something else no audio would play from either device (I think that had a work arojnd in dev option, but i dont recall what it was), the screen would go unresponsive if you had youtube playing in background mode, and a handful of other things.

Most of them were worth it just for the Hold For Me feature, though. Lol. God I miss that.

[-] AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

if the device was also connected to something else no audio would play from either device

I believe that depends on whether the device supports multipoint connectivity? I have Pixel Buds A earbuds and I know I can't have them connected to more than one device because they don't support that.

As for the rest, I think it's highly likely that you got a faulty unit.

[-] SteWi@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

Samsung S23! for (and here it gets complicated) about 600$.

Here in .at Samsung has 10% off for new customers and 150€ off if you send in an old phone. If your old phone still has some value you get that on top of it.

So if you have any old phone left over you can get a S23 for 650€ which includes 20% sales tax, in US terms that should equate to about 600$.

[-] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

The Asus Zenfone 10 for 700 USD looks to be a good option when it comes out, especially for people who like small phones, clean software and a headphone jack. Doesn't seem like there is much to complain about the phone spec-wise.

[-] dvdv@feddit.nl 3 points 1 year ago

Seems like you won't be able to unlock the phone since they removed the unlocker from their website. It's one to look out for, for sure. But we'll see how it all develops

[-] AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

The Pixel has been mentioned in the comments, but for lemmings living in Europe and about to buy one, you might want to hold off for a week as it's very likely that Pixel devices will get good discounts on Google's 25th anniversary:

this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023

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