Next upgrade advice

[DrFacecage]

Hi all,

 

My phone contract is up in a little over a week. I currently have a Sony Xperia XZ Premium and am looking for a suitable replacement. I used to only buy Windows phones, I used to love how everything worked, but they're kaput and were never really well supported with apps.

 

Anyway, this was my first android phone and I'm happy enough to stick with Android, so I'm looking at a replacement. A decent camera and screen are important to me, but I'm not overly bothered by gimmicks and I don't use many apps other than YouTube and the usual social medias. I would also rather not have something too big, I find my current phone to be a good size.

 

I'd like a decent battery life and good reliability, obviously. I've been considering the Pixel 4, or one of the last Galaxy S10s; but I don't know if they are going to be an actual upgrade or not. I'm really out of touch with the current phone market, so I thought I'd turn to the experts for advice.

 

Any thoughts will be appreciated, thanks in advance.

[Oswin]

do you have a budget? what are your preferences? i.e screen size, battery size, etc

[DrFacecage]

I'd appreciate better battery life, I like the 4k resolution but would be willing to sacrifice that for an HD+ OLED. I do find that my current phone can become clunky/stuttery at times where I'll have to completely shut down whatever app I'm using and restart to get it smooth again. I don't know if that's just an optimisation issue or a ram issue though. I also had to send it away 3 times to be replace under warranty when it basically bricked itself. I will also say that the picture quality has been a little underwhelming, I don't take many photos, but I'd like them to be a bit sharper and better stabilised. Otherwise, it's still a good phone, I'm just trying to see whether there's a comparable phone that's come out in the last year that would be a tangible upgrade without spending a fortune. I'm currently spending ~£60 per month and don't really want to spend more than that. That sum was for the phone, unlimited minutes and texts, and 32GB of data per month.

 

Sorry for the rambling response, and thanks for the replies.

[Lord Vile]

18 hours ago, DrFacecage said:

I'd appreciate better battery life, I like the 4k resolution but would be willing to sacrifice that for an HD+ OLED. I do find that my current phone can become clunky/stuttery at times where I'll have to completely shut down whatever app I'm using and restart to get it smooth again. I don't know if that's just an optimisation issue or a ram issue though. I also had to send it away 3 times to be replace under warranty when it basically bricked itself. I will also say that the picture quality has been a little underwhelming, I don't take many photos, but I'd like them to be a bit sharper and better stabilised. Otherwise, it's still a good phone, I'm just trying to see whether there's a comparable phone that's come out in the last year that would be a tangible upgrade without spending a fortune. I'm currently spending ~£60 per month and don't really want to spend more than that. That sum was for the phone, unlimited minutes and texts, and 32GB of data per month.

 

Sorry for the rambling response, and thanks for the replies.

Well if you want to stay with sony they do the Xperia 5, that's at carphone for around £40 a month with up to £30 up front. You could go apple with the 11 (128GB) at £50 plus £50 up front or around the same for the XS if you want that OLED but you'd be dropping to 64GB of storage or a pixel 4 (128GB) for around £40 a month with up to £30 up front. Sony is more of what you know, pixel is the most stock android option and the iPhone is the iPhone, best support and all round phone you can buy. 

 

BTW you don't like the 4K resolution it's a phone you can't tell the difference between 4K and 1080p at a normal distance. Think about it for a 24" monitor (around 4x the size of a phone) the consensus is 4K isn't noticeably better than 1440p.

[EL02]

Samsung galaxy s10 would do a pretty good job.

[Lord Vile]

4 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Your ramble was too short.

How lackluster was the battery life? How often did it have to be charged? And how often would you like to charge?

If a 3230mAh battery didnt cut it, dont get something with an even smaller battery...

Was the internal storage sufficient? How much of it was filled up?

 

Your phone slowing down and getting stutters is probably due to the 4GB of RAM

Is ingress protection still required?

Is headphone jack still required?

 

And last but not least, it appears you are getting your phone from a carrier. Which means your options are limited. And we dont know what they are.

The battery size would be fine if you didn't have to power a 4K screen

[Lord Vile]

2 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Thats for him to decide. He might have found the battery life to be lackluster even during standby, where the GPU and display are basically unpowered.

I mean to say a new phone with the same cap might perform better if it didn't have a stupid res screen. A 1080p screen would last longer because I it's OLED it has 1/4 of the pixels to operate an if it's LCD the backlight doesn't need to be as bright and there's fewer pixels to drive 

[DrFacecage]

On 2/24/2020 at 3:32 AM, huilun02 said:

Your ramble was too short.

How lackluster was the battery life? How often did it have to be charged? And how often would you like to charge?

If a 3230mAh battery didnt cut it, dont get something with an even smaller battery...

Was the internal storage sufficient? How much of it was filled up?

 

Your phone slowing down and getting stutters is probably due to the 4GB of RAM

Is ingress protection still required?

Is headphone jack still required?

 

And last but not least, it appears you are getting your phone from a carrier. Which means your options are limited. And we dont know what they are.

The battery life was fine, most days I'll get to bed and have at least 15% left, but there's been some reasonably frequent days of heavy use where I've had to charge more frequently than once a day. It's not something that worries me, but everyone would love a battery that lasts longer.

 

The internal storage seems to be more than sufficient, I regularly clear out my phone, I don't install many apps. My biggest storage usage is pictures, but even then I don't take more than a few per week.

 

Ingress protection is pretty important as I work as an engineer on a quarry, so there's lots of dust and I regularly get soaked to the bone climbing in and out of machines in all weather. It never gets submerged though.

 

As for a headphone jack, I'd hate to lose it, but it looks like that's the way the market is going. I just resent the idea of having another device to charge when the benefit of smartphones was that they consolidated many battery devices into one. It just seems like a massive step back for no real gain.

 

And I'm with Vodafone UK, I've been with them for a great number of years, their customer service sucks, but their coverage is good. That being said, my contract is finished, so I'm not obliged to upgrade with them.

 

I've got to say thanks, I never thought my post would garner this much interest, I really appreciate all the advice and knowledge you guys are offering.

 

 

[Guest]

On 2/16/2020 at 10:36 AM, DrFacecage said:

Hi all,

 

My phone contract is up in a little over a week. I currently have a Sony Xperia XZ Premium and am looking for a suitable replacement. I used to only buy Windows phones, I used to love how everything worked, but they're kaput and were never really well supported with apps.

 

Anyway, this was my first android phone and I'm happy enough to stick with Android, so I'm looking at a replacement. A decent camera and screen are important to me, but I'm not overly bothered by gimmicks and I don't use many apps other than YouTube and the usual social medias. I would also rather not have something too big, I find my current phone to be a good size.

 

I'd like a decent battery life and good reliability, obviously. I've been considering the Pixel 4, or one of the last Galaxy S10s; but I don't know if they are going to be an actual upgrade or not. I'm really out of touch with the current phone market, so I thought I'd turn to the experts for advice.

 

Any thoughts will be appreciated, thanks in advance.

S10e

 

Has similar specs to your current phone with some added perks you mentioned in one of your posts. With the S20 lineup coming out, Samsung may adjust their prices for last gen stuff so you could snag a deal. My wife has that phone and she beats it up with her job and daily life, and it's been champ for her. That's my recommendation OP, though I don't know what prices are like in the UK or availability. Currently you can get one for $350 USD on Amazon. Check out the GSM link for all the goodies.

 

https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s10e-9537.php#sm-g970f/ds 

[Abhinav2003]

On 2/23/2020 at 12:29 AM, DrFacecage said:

I'd appreciate better battery life, I like the 4k resolution but would be willing to sacrifice that for an HD+ OLED. I do find that my current phone can become clunky/stuttery at times where I'll have to completely shut down whatever app I'm using and restart to get it smooth again. I don't know if that's just an optimisation issue or a ram issue though. I also had to send it away 3 times to be replace under warranty when it basically bricked itself. I will also say that the picture quality has been a little underwhelming, I don't take many photos, but I'd like them to be a bit sharper and better stabilised. Otherwise, it's still a good phone, I'm just trying to see whether there's a comparable phone that's come out in the last year that would be a tangible upgrade without spending a fortune. I'm currently spending ~£60 per month and don't really want to spend more than that. That sum was for the phone, unlimited minutes and texts, and 32GB of data per month.

 

Sorry for the rambling response, and thanks for the replies.

So this has brought me to a couple of recommendations for you to choose from.

S10e: The prices have dropped due to the S20(s) and it is a very solid phone. Great display, a nice form factor (your mileage may vary that's why I'm going to recommend more phones), great cameras for your standards. And a overall great experience. A decent enough battery life, not outstanding but should get the job done

OnePlus 7T: Not the 7Pro, the 7T. A big phone, yes, but justifies it. You get a good set of camera (I would recommend installing Gcam) good for someone not so geeky. Awesome screen and will also introduce you to 90Hz which is a great bonus. A good battery life, again, not other world but good. 

Pixel 3a Xl: This I'm recommending if you wanna save a buck. The best camera you can get at this price point. A fine battery life. A good enough screen. A, not great design. Great software. Fine performance. If you don't want the best possible camera, don't get this. 

I would say go for OnePlus since overall it's the best one. Maybe wait for the Pixel 4a, that seems to be good. I also didn't recommend the iPhone 11 since I don't think you're such a user who will appreciate the main focus, camera, on that phone and it's also a bit expensive, I don't think you need it.