Portable Recommend a phone

Hey Everyone,

My brother is currently using a Zenphone 2 and looking to upgrade. He is looking for something around £200-£250 range however there are so many options between new phones and last years models I don't know what to recommend.

Has anyone been keeping up with phone releases and might be able to point me in the right direction?

Thanks,
Javaman

 

I really like my pixel 2 which I expect is around that price second hand (not checked)

 

Pixel 2 isn't a bad shout. It's around £200 new on amazon. Pocophone F1 was another I saw £239

 

Pixel or Nokia would be my recommendations. Both are kept up-to-date with little to no OS fiddling, Pixels are a better choice if you want to unlock the bootloader and fiddle with alternate OS builds (though Nokia are getting better in this regard).

 

Quite like the look of the Realme X2 for that price point but I have no first hand experience, the Realme 5 Pro doesn't look bad either fro something cheaper.

Missus has a Pocofone and it is very good indeed, if a bit chunky/heavy.

I ended up buying a Mi9 last week for my daughter when it was on offer after considering a load of budget phones, it is outstanding, so fast, makes my S8+ feel like an ancient turd.

 

Like @Gareth Halfacree (but a Nokia 7.1 here). Android One, love it, no wasted junk on it and regular updates.

Edit: Plus it's Finnish, but that's brownie points for me not sure that would make any difference to your brother

 

His current phone keeps switching off randomly and the charger port is also a bit flaky. Other than that he would probably hold onto it for another few years.

He mostly uses it for phone calls, news, games (hasn't discovered pubg or anything like that yet), browsing. Headphone jack isn't important and the camera is only used occasionally. A good one would be nice but not top of the priority list.
The biggest requirement is something he could feasibly get 4+ years out of

Been looking at the recommendations and a few in the other thread. The Nokia 7.2, Motorola One Active and Motorola G8 plus look very good. The Mi 9T and Pocophone F1 are still in the running tho updates might be the killer con.

 

I've never heard of anything so absurd!

I'd definitely look at the ones running Android One then as they seem to be supported for quite a while after purchase. AFAIK all the Nokia's are, there are some Motorolas and IIRC some Xiaomis (?)

I've had Samsungs in the past and they seem to be supported for about 2 and a half days.

 

IIRC they're better than they were but ti's still more or less 'oh, you didn't buy our flagship device? get out of my sight, pleb!'

 

Make that "you didn't buy this year's flagship device", and assume any new Android version will arrive a year behind (after Samsung have diked out arbitrary chunks to replace with their own Sumsungified version that doesn't work with everyone else).

 

For that length requirement I would imagine the hardware should be a priority, so RAM and CPU, software updates are all good but whilst many companies can say they offer 2 years of updates that doesn't really mean a great deal unless you have been given an update schedule and if you have some janky hardware it may not even be worth it as software grows with hardware power.

Regarding the two Xiaomi we have both are already running Android 10.

Some more well regarded brands like Samsung haven't managed to update their older devices like the 9series to 10 yet .... / looks at my neglected S8...one day...maybe.

 

Yea if it wasn't for the addiction of digital handwritten notes I wouldn't have touched Samsung with a 40 foot barge pole. Overpriced and disappointing is the only way to describe them.

 

Least they update their phones but yes, Apple certainly win the overpriced wars any day. Disappointing....maybe I just have such low expectations so their phones never seem to disappoint me

 

Another happy Nokia user here. I have an 8(.0) I got as a refurb for under £150 a while ago now.

 

Rocking a pocophone F1 myself! Great phone. About a month behind on security updates.

My first non major brand phone and I have to say I am impressed. Infact I just downloaded the gcam port earlier today and in my random testing I am getting better camera shots.

I havent done it yet but an active modding scene on XDA with a healthy Android 9 scene and currently they are working on Android 10 ports. So if those updates become a little less frequent you can custom rom it.

 

Interesting, that is my Missus only gripe with the Poco is the photo quality, but it is hard to tell if it is the phone or the user as even when we had nice compact pocket cams she could never get the idea of focusing etc.

Well as I am a sucker for Samsung hardware even if they don't do loads of updates I have just took advantage of the black Friday £400 quid off a note 10+....I know I shouldn't really but after playing with the Mi9 and it being so fast and lovely to use, I want some of that responsiveness the new flashy hardware brings, should hold me over until Samsung get the fold right on gen 2/3, then I am jumping all over that, a nice pocketable tablet.

 

I was certainly also tempted by that note offer, that and the s10e for 330 quid.

 

I sent him the recommendations and he's leaning towards a Motorola as one of his friends has a G7. Will let you know if he makes a decision and how it goes.

Thanks everyone

 

Pixel 3a. Bought one last month and the hardware is more than quick enough and the camera is better than anything in the price range. It's also around 18 months newer than the Pixel 2 so will get software updates for longer. And it has a headphone jack.

Looks like it's around £320-350 depending on colour (bought mine in the US, paid $377 for it).