Recommended budget phone for up to €300 ($360)?

LBO6051 · September 3, 2021

Hi, everyone!

My phone of 3 years (Samsung Galaxy J4+) recently bricked after I accidentally dropped it into a pool, and now I have to look for a replacement.

I'm not that well informed about the smartphone tech, and I don't follow any news regarding the advancements in this industry so I would appreciate it if somebody would be willing to give me some suggestions on my next purchase. Here are my requirements:

BUDGET: €300 (I'm willing to increase this by around €50 as long as the improvements are worth it)

Things that I'm looking for in a new phone are:

Battery capacity - The longer it lasts before it needs to be recharged, the better
Longevity - I'm hoping that the new phone will last me for at least a couple of years (3 or 4) before needing to be replaced
Storage space (32GB or higher)
Resolution (720p or higher)
Size (less than 7")

RAM, CPU, GPU, etc. is not so much important to me as long as the phone has a decent chip and is not slow, so anything along the J4+ specs or better would be good enough for me.

Things that I don't care much about are:

Camera quality - Not a big camera user, and on the rare occasion where I do take a picture or record a video, I would just like that the picture/video quality does not look like garbage, otherwise I don't mind making sacrifices here
Fingerprint sensors
NFC, Infrared, Radio, etc.
Waterproofing, Dustproofing, etc. - While nice to have, it's not really something that I would be willing to pay a premium for
5G - There's no infrastructure for it in my country right now (Serbia), and besides, I don't care about that sort of thing. The only use that I need from it is when I need to enable data for the internet because I cannot find a WiFi to connect to, which I believe 4G is good enough for this

My usage on the phone is pretty casual. Aside from the couple of calls I make and the texts I send, I mostly spend my time web browsing or watching YouTube videos. I don't play video games, aside from something small like Minesweeper to pass the time while I'm in a waiting room. I don't listen to music frequently, and when I do, it's mostly via speakers, so a headphone jack is optional.

One thing that I would also appreciate would be if the phone does not have privacy issues like screening your data without your consent or being filled with bloatware.

Searching the net, these are the phones that I found:

Poco F3 - €305
Poco X3 Pro - €185
Samsung Galaxy A51 - €193
Samsung Galaxy A52 - €350
Samsung Galaxy A72 - €331
OnePlus Nord - €193
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G - €222
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro - €176
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G - €125
Xiaomi Mi 9T - €83
Huawei P40 Lite - €115

Out of all of these, which one do you think is best? I feel like all these phones on the list fit the criteria of what I'm looking for, so I don't know if I should just go with the one that's cheapest and save money since my use case is so minimal, or go with the more expensive variants if the hardware improvement is worth the extra money (especially for futureproofing)?

Nonetheless, if you have a better suggestion from what I've found, please feel free to share it.

Thanks in forward!

LBO6051 · September 4, 2021

12 hours ago, huilun02 said:

The A52 and A72 have the best camera of the lot, with OIS on the main shooter. They are also IP57 rated and have headphone jack and expandable storage. Screen is 1080p OLED 90Hz. The downside is the dated SD720G chipset, although for your described use case there should not be performance problems.

The Poco F3 has the most powerful chipset (SD870) and fastest storage of the lot. Also OLED 120Hz screen and is IP53 rated. but lacks storage expansion and headphone jack.

The best value of the bunch (hardware-wise) is the Note 10 Pro. Chipset is more capable (SD732G) than used in the Samsungs. Has OLED 120Hz screen and is IP53 rated. Has storage expansion and headphone jack as well. The camera uases a 108MP sensor, while lacking OIS, is still very good at capturing details for photos.

With Xiaomi phones you might not like the stock operating system MIUI, which has a lot of Xiaomi's apps and has an unconventional design that seems to target iPhone users. It might show ads but can be turned off if you rummage through all the settings.

All of the phones I mentioned have stereo speakers.

Be wary of suggestions that will bust your budget for things that you are not particularly concerned about. I am not Serbian. Never been to Serbia. I do not hail from or live anywhere near Europe. Good luck

Thanks for the information huilun.

Poco F3 was my first choice, but reading a bit more about MIUI and Xiaomi's business model, it made me a bit wary. I'm not sure that I like the idea of having ads in an operating system and a phone that sends data to the company whenever your online. Here's an interesting article about this: https://www.androidauthority.com/xiaomi-privacy-cheap-phone-1118444/

Some users suggest installing a custom ROM like LineageOS or GraphiteOS to counteract this, but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that just yet, plus I believe it voids warranty.

I've also heard good things about Google's Pixel 4A, unfortunately, it's around €390 or more around here, so until I can find it for a price within my budget, I have to look at something else.