Need suggestions for mom's phone, $500 USD cap

[DVA]

Hey guys, my mom needs a phone, I was just wondering what the best phones are under the $500 range. 

Uses include:

GPS

Casual internet surfing, facebook,youtube, etc...

Casual photography, birthday events, pics with grandchildren and so on..

Needs a long battery life.

 

That's pretty much it! She's not a huge tech person by any means. She just needs to make sure it can last all day, take decent photos (12mp+ preferred), make phone calls, text, use GPS, all the basic stuff. 

 

So far I had in mind the One Plus 6 and the Essential Phone. I see a lot of Moto phones and I've had a great experience with one for my wife, it works better than my 2 year old flagship LG G5. 

 

suggest away for my momma you guys!

[ThePD]

My work phone is a Samsung S8 and I love it. I think you can get those for around 250-450 now depending on the carrier.

[LukeSavenije]

well, I have the perfect phones for you(r mother):

• pocophone f1
• xiaomi mi a2
• samsung galaxy s9 (getting pretty cheap rn, not sure about us pricing)
• oneplus 6(t)
• xiaomi mi 8
• xiaomi mi mix 2s
• huawei p20 (lite)

just to give some examples. yes I have something with chinese/japanese phones

[DVA]

1 minute ago, ThePD said:

My work phone is a Samsung S8 and I love it. I think you can get those for around 250-450 now depending on the carrier.

How does the battery life feel? My mom is on the S5 and it lasts all day, the only downside is the photo quality is DREADFUL and she gets continuous dropped calls. She can make calls, but can't always receive calls. The phone is just crapping out. 

I know the S7 is also doing horrible right now with the battery life being the biggest thing. I don't know if I can trust the S series anymore. It feels like something fishy is going on to have consumers buy the next gen phones. 

 

It might be the first time I've ever considered Apple, but the 7 is looking tempting with Software support for the next several years. 

[GoldenLag]

Nokia 7 plus if they are still avavible

[ThePD]

Coincidently, my primary personal phone is an S5 and its battery is terrible. The Photo quality on the S8 is definitely improved vs the S5. I find the feel of the phone itself is very nice. Would definitely consider a case considering it has that slippery side glass/screen. Battery life on the S8 is very strong, but that may be my bias since my S5 is super aged now.

[dizmo]

I'd have to go with the Moto Z Play 2/3, with the battery pack mod if you're looking for something with a lot of endurance.

I wouldn't consider the Essential Phone unless you're getting it cheap; it was only $329 with all the accessories on Black Friday, and honestly, I probably wouldn't pay a whole lot more than that for it. You can still find them on Swappa for pretty good pricing; something to consider.

 

Like @ThePD I too have an S8, and I'm pretty fond of it. I don't use my phone a whole lot these days, and I only have to charge it every couple of days. I keep the brightness down, have the power settings on restrictive for CPU speed, and notice no difference compared to letting it loose. There's nothing fishy about the phones getting worse battery life; all of those devices are likely nearing the end of their lithium batteries lives.

 

If you can afford one, Apple is the way to go. It sounds like it's more of a fit for what she'd be using it for, aside from perhaps excellent battery life, but battery cases are plentiful.

 

 

[DVA]

3 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

Nokia 7 plus if they are still avavible

Haven't heard anything from Nokia in a while, I'll have to look into it, thanks. 

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I'd have to go with the Moto Z Play 2/3, with the battery pack mod if you're looking for something with a lot of endurance.

There's nothing fishy about the phones getting worse battery life; all of those devices are likely nearing the end of their lithium batteries lives.

 

If you can afford one, Apple is the way to go. It sounds like it's more of a fit for what she'd be using it for, aside from perhaps excellent battery life, but battery cases are plentiful.

 

 

Thanks, my wife has a Moto phone that was $259 and it EASILY outperforms my (at the time) $700 phone. What a bummer, so I'll definitely consider Moto's products. 

True, I suppose I didn't take into account their loss of battery charge hold with their lifespan. 

 

I do believe I'll try to convince my dad to get her the iPhone 7, maybe even the 8. 

[H4X3R]

Samsung S8

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

S8 obvs

[Darkseth]

6 minutes ago, DVA said:

Haven't heard anything from Nokia in a while, I'll have to look into it, thanks. 

Thanks, my wife has a Moto phone that was $259 and it EASILY outperforms my (at the time) $700 phone. What a bummer, so I'll definitely consider Moto's products. 

True, I suppose I didn't take into account their loss of battery charge hold with their lifespan. 

 

I do believe I'll try to convince my dad to get her the iPhone 7, maybe even the 8. 

This most likely has something to do with the Moto having a very pure vanilla Android with almost no additions to it.

 

Phones like Samsung, Huawei might suffer a bit performance-wise because of their... "fully (feature-)loaded UI Skin".

In terms of your LG G5: That Skin should not be too heavy but yea. It coming with a Snapdragon 820 back then wasn't a help, which is only a 2+2 Core Chip, instead of 4+4 Core. Some 8-Core chips from midrange COULD feel faster, depending on Workload. still, the pure Hardware performance of your G5 should be faster - if you check Benchmarks.

But it's mostly all about the Software (optimization).

 

So you can consider a Oneplus 6/6t. Has a very decent camera (especially with GCam Port it comes extremely close to the top dogs (check Jonathan Morrison's Blind test from a month ago, and that was just stock camera).

It comes with OxygenOS, which is basicly vanilla Android, with some very usefull additions, but still optimized for speed, performance and efficiency.

 

Especially the 6t with it's larger 3700 mAh battery is a real monster. When at Home in Wifi, i can easily get 8+ hours Screen-On-Time per battery Charge - and Oneplus' Dash Charge (well, "Dash" is not allowed anymore) with 20 Watt charges it pretty quick. 30 Minutes should be enough for 60+% Battery.

[iHomer]

Xiaomi:

• Mi mix 2s
• or wait for mi mix 3
• mi 8
• mi 8 pro
• A2 lite
• A2
• Note 6..
• POCOPHONE F1!

[kokakolia]

Just get an iPhone 7 or 8. It doesn’t have to be new. These phones are simply awesome. And Apple has way better support and security than Android. 

 

Hint: You might want to glance at Apple certified refurbished deals. They guarantee brand new batteries unlike other refurbished units. 

 

EDIT: https://www.amazon.com/Apple-iPhone-GSM-Unlocked-128GB/dp/B01N9YV6DL/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr3_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544395090&sr=8-1-fkmr3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=refurb+iphone+7+128

 

Seems like a no brainer to me. And you’re saving money.