New phone recommendation

[BLADEVII]

Hi, I'm looking into getting a new phone recommendations. Features I'm looking for are replaceable battery(w/ good battery life), decent camera, good for gaming, external storage, and preferably a headphone jack.

 

I currently own a LGV20 so phone with similar camera specs is good enough for me. In terms of issues I have with it, gaming hasn't been the best as it lags a lot after only a few minutes. Sometimes it also gets really hot when using google map and the phone restarts randomly. I've been looking at the Asus Rog 5 Phone but after further research, it doesn't seem like it'll last very long.

[BiotechBen]

The removable battery is gonna make a recommendation very hard to get. To get long battery life, removable batteries have been phased out for more capacity.

 

The Moto G100 (phone I have right now) has been serving me well, and have yet to have a gripe with it for power user things.

Costs about 1/2 - 1/3 of the ROG phone, and yeah it doesn't have dedicated triggers or "gamer" aesthetic, but offers much better value.

 

https://m.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?&idPhone1=10791&idPhone2=10715

[Lurking]

FWIW, you can replace battery on most phones even if they claim to not be replaceable. You just need to heat up the glue and get some special tools. Ifixit has instructions and sells the kits that include battery and tools. They also include a new gasket to keep them waterproof. That may widen your options.

 

But honestly, the software support runs out before the battery dies if you treat it well. I think the worry about battery is overblown. I just got rid of my 4 year old phone that was buggy, but the battery was still OK. 

 

For the other features, that is tough for a new and good phone. Maybe look at a refurbished phone that still had all that. But again, unless you need tons of storage, the onboard storage nowadays suffices. And BT headphones are so much better. 

 

Just some thoughts. For my last phone 4 years ago I had the 3.5mm and memory card and wanted it. Used the 3.5mm once and hated the wire. The expansion slot was only needed due to 64GB internal storage. Nowadays with 128 GB and options for more, this is less important.

 

 

[dizmo]

If you mean hot swappable in terms of replaceable, not happening unless you want to hop into your time machine and go back a decade or so.

[Kazooduck]

24 minutes ago, Lurking said:

FWIW, you can replace battery on most phones even if they claim to not be replaceable. You just need to heat up the glue and get some special tools. Ifixit has instructions and sells the kits that include battery and tools. They also include a new gasket to keep them waterproof. That may widen your options.

 

But honestly, the software support runs out before the battery dies if you treat it well. I think the worry about battery is overblown. I just got rid of my 4 year old phone that was buggy, but the battery was still OK. 

 

For the other features, that is tough for a new and good phone. Maybe look at a refurbished phone that still had all that. But again, unless you need tons of storage, the onboard storage nowadays suffices. And BT headphones are so much better. 

 

Just some thoughts. For my last phone 4 years ago I had the 3.5mm and memory card and wanted it. Used the 3.5mm once and hated the wire. The expansion slot was only needed due to 64GB internal storage. Nowadays with 128 GB and options for more, this is less important.

 

 

replacable is supposed to mean hotswappable

[BiotechBen]

24 minutes ago, Lurking said:

FWIW, you can replace battery on most phones even if they claim to not be replaceable. You just need to heat up the glue and get some special tools. Ifixit has instructions and sells the kits that include battery and tools. They also include a new gasket to keep them waterproof. That may widen your options.

 

But honestly, the software support runs out before the battery dies if you treat it well. I think the worry about battery is overblown. I just got rid of my 4 year old phone that was buggy, but the battery was still OK. 

 

For the other features, that is tough for a new and good phone. Maybe look at a refurbished phone that still had all that. But again, unless you need tons of storage, the onboard storage nowadays suffices. And BT headphones are so much better. 

 

Just some thoughts. For my last phone 4 years ago I had the 3.5mm and memory card and wanted it. Used the 3.5mm once and hated the wire. The expansion slot was only needed due to 64GB internal storage. Nowadays with 128 GB and options for more, this is less important.

 

 

Main reasons I got the G100 that I have now, reliable large battery, good chipset, 8gb ram w/ 128gb storage and hybrid dual SIM should I need it, I think I've used it's 3.5mm jack maybe a handful of times. It did just get 12 pushed to it today, so excited to see how the update fares.

[Lurking]

20 minutes ago, kamonanban said:

replacable is supposed to mean hotswappable

OP probably should clarify exact expectations for replaceable. This also depends on comfort level to use tools. But again, with large batteries and good care, this will be an issue for in 4, 5 or more years. Replaceable without tool and within 10 seconds would be a severe limitation of choices. And would not provide an IP rating.

 

IMHO hot swappable means replacing while the device keeps running. This obviously isn't the case when replacing the battery. Once battery is removed, phone will be "cold". 

 

With enough effort, tools and skills everything is replaceable. 

 

On an old Samsung Note 4 the easily replaceable battery came in handy when it crashed and taking battery out was the only way to restart it. Software improved a lot since. So did battery life 

[Blademaster91]

1 hour ago, Lurking said:

Replaceable without tool and within 10 seconds would be a severe limitation of choices. And would not provide an IP rating.

I'm confused why a replaceable battery without tools would limit choices, it would mean more choices as most high end phones only have a glued on glass backing with no way to replace the battery unless you have special tools and very carefully heat and pry the glass off.

If batteries were replaceable there would be other choices of materials like polycarbonate or stainless steel.

And phones with a removable battery did have an IP rating if the phone used silicone gaskets.

[Lurking]

39 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

I'm confused why a replaceable battery without tools would limit choices, it would mean more choices as most high end phones only have a glued on glass backing with no way to replace the battery unless you have special tools and very carefully heat and pry the glass off.

If batteries were replaceable there would be other choices of materials like polycarbonate or stainless steel.

And phones with a removable battery did have an IP rating if the phone used silicone gaskets.

I meant to say if you make the easily replaceable battery a deal breaker requirement, you limit your choice of actually available good phones. 

 

I agree the old style replacement option would be nice, but that has been abandoned by many models. At least on the high end where you also have an IP rating. Maybe some had IP rating, but did they have IP 68 for 1.5m immersion? Even if they did, that was much harder to achieve with more openings for 3.5mm, memory card etc. 

 

There is a "fair" trade phone that is designed to have many parts inc. battery easily replaced. It comes with some trade-offs. 

[BLADEVII]

15 hours ago, Lurking said:

OP probably should clarify exact expectations for replaceable. This also depends on comfort level to use tools. But again, with large batteries and good care, this will be an issue for in 4, 5 or more years. Replaceable without tool and within 10 seconds would be a severe limitation of choices. And would not provide an IP rating.

 

IMHO hot swappable means replacing while the device keeps running. This obviously isn't the case when replacing the battery. Once battery is removed, phone will be "cold". 

 

With enough effort, tools and skills everything is replaceable. 

 

On an old Samsung Note 4 the easily replaceable battery came in handy when it crashed and taking battery out was the only way to restart it. Software improved a lot since. So did battery life 

Originally, I wanted an easily swappable battery but after reading the other comments, if it really does limits my options of good phone then I guess as long as it can be replaced with using tools. I'll probably just pay someone to do the replacing when the time comes since something always go wrong when I do it even with tutorials.

[BLADEVII]

16 hours ago, BiotechBen said:

The removable battery is gonna make a recommendation very hard to get. To get long battery life, removable batteries have been phased out for more capacity.

 

The Moto G100 (phone I have right now) has been serving me well, and have yet to have a gripe with it for power user things.

Costs about 1/2 - 1/3 of the ROG phone, and yeah it doesn't have dedicated triggers or "gamer" aesthetic, but offers much better value.

 

https://m.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?&idPhone1=10791&idPhone2=10715

I personally don't really care about the whole gamer aesthetic thing. As long as it has most of what my LGV20 has to offer and actually performs decently when it comes to gaming. Performances, cameras, and external storage is a definite dealbreaker for me. I like the camera on the what I have currently so as long as it's close in terms of specs then it's good enough for me. As for external storage. my LGV20 comes with 64gb of internal storage and currently has an 128gb sd card. Personally I could use a little more but if a phone with no external storage at least around 200gb of storage then I'd reconsider.

[Commodus]

2 minutes ago, BLADEVII said:

I personally don't really care about the whole gamer aesthetic thing. As long as it has most of what my LGV20 has to offer and actually performs decently when it comes to gaming. Performances, cameras, and external storage is a definite dealbreaker for me. I like the camera on the what I have currently so as long as it's close in terms of specs then it's good enough for me. As for external storage. my LGV20 comes with 64gb of internal storage and currently has an 128gb sd card. Personally I could use a little more but if a phone with no external storage at least around 200gb of storage then I'd reconsider.

I wouldn't worry too much about expandable storage, then. It's fairly easy these days to find phones with 256GB or more of built-in storage, and some phones have the option of 512GB or even 1TB.

 

Finding one with a headphone jack might be tricky, but if that's not an absolute dealbreaker, a Galaxy S22+ would do the trick. It's physically smaller than your V20 despite a larger screen, better cameras, more storage (if you spend a bit extra; 128GB is the base) and the usual speed boost. Battery life is pretty strong, too.

 

Other phones could do the job too (including the iPhone 13 family, but I suspect you're attached to Android). In short: a lot has changed in phones over the past six years.

[BLADEVII]

1 hour ago, Commodus said:

I wouldn't worry too much about expandable storage, then. It's fairly easy these days to find phones with 256GB or more of built-in storage, and some phones have the option of 512GB or even 1TB.

 

Finding one with a headphone jack might be tricky, but if that's not an absolute dealbreaker, a Galaxy S22+ would do the trick. It's physically smaller than your V20 despite a larger screen, better cameras, more storage (if you spend a bit extra; 128GB is the base) and the usual speed boost. Battery life is pretty strong, too.

 

Other phones could do the job too (including the iPhone 13 family, but I suspect you're attached to Android). In short: a lot has changed in phones over the past six years.

In your opinion, what are my best option if I absolutely want a phone with a headphone jack? If it's somewhat close enough in terms of specs and performance when compared with the Galaxy S22+, I think that be good enough for me. 

[Lurking]

41 minutes ago, BLADEVII said:

In your opinion, what are my best option if I absolutely want a phone with a headphone jack? If it's somewhat close enough in terms of specs and performance when compared with the Galaxy S22+, I think that be good enough for me. 

I have to ask, why do you need the phone jack? All cars have BT or you can use a converter. I have BT headphones that were $25 and have 16 hour battery. Even now after some years they still last all day and I use them a lot. 

 

2 phones ago I was cheap and used wired headphones. What a pain to watch YT while working in my kitchen. I ended up not using my phone for a lot of audio because the cable is so limiting. Now I use my phone much more, also because BT made me free. I probably wouldn't listen to many podcast at all if I had wired setup.

 

As you noticed, the market wrote off that port. If you accept BT, you have many options.

The whole mobile or cellphone concept is based on not requiring cables unlike a landline....so why add wires to an otherwise wireless device?

[Kazooduck]

1 hour ago, BLADEVII said:

In your opinion, what are my best option if I absolutely want a phone with a headphone jack? If it's somewhat close enough in terms of specs and performance when compared with the Galaxy S22+, I think that be good enough for me. 

If you need mobile audio, get a fiio m15 i think its called, it has a great dac and a light installation of android. Don’t use it as your main phone though…

[BLADEVII]

30 minutes ago, Lurking said:

I have to ask, why do you need the phone jack? All cars have BT or you can use a converter. I have BT headphones that were $25 and have 16 hour battery. Even now after some years they still last all day and I use them a lot. 

 

2 phones ago I was cheap and used wired headphones. What a pain to watch YT while working in my kitchen. I ended up not using my phone for a lot of audio because the cable is so limiting. Now I use my phone much more, also because BT made me free. I probably wouldn't listen to many podcast at all if I had wired setup.

 

As you noticed, the market wrote off that port. If you accept BT, you have many options.

The whole mobile or cellphone concept is based on not requiring cables unlike a landline....so why add wires to an otherwise wireless device?

Definitely in the minority here but I don't really like using wireless headphones. I'm sure there's some decent affordable ones out their but I personally prefer using my wired earphones. Only time I really use BT is in my car.

[Kazooduck]

10 minutes ago, BLADEVII said:

Definitely in the minority here but I don't really like using wireless headphones. I'm sure there's some decent affordable ones out their but I personally prefer using my wired earphones. Only time I really use BT is in my car.

There are wired headphones that work with usb type c

[BLADEVII]

9 minutes ago, kamonanban said:

If you need mobile audio, get a fiio m15 i think its called, it has a great dac and a light installation of android. Don’t use it as your main phone though…

Not really looking for something specifically for audio, especially if it requires a 2nd device to do so. The headphone jack things is really just personal preferences. Also, I know that there are usb to audio jack adapter but I don't want to have to carry around a 3rd cable for my phone. It's not a total deal breaker for me but if there are options out there for it, I would like to know so that I can compare and see which is the best for me. Sorry if it seems like I'm asking for a lot. Thank you for your recommendation though.

[Imbadatnames]

On 5/19/2022 at 10:03 PM, BLADEVII said:

Hi, I'm looking into getting a new phone recommendations. Features I'm looking for are replaceable battery(w/ good battery life), decent camera, good for gaming, external storage, and preferably a headphone jack.

 

I currently own a LGV20 so phone with similar camera specs is good enough for me. In terms of issues I have with it, gaming hasn't been the best as it lags a lot after only a few minutes. Sometimes it also gets really hot when using google map and the phone restarts randomly. I've been looking at the Asus Rog 5 Phone but after further research, it doesn't seem like it'll last very long.

Look at Sonys Xperia 1 line. The 1 iv has just come out and looks like it meets what you want, though it is expensive. 
 

Full spec:

 

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/smartphones/xperia-1m4/specifications

 

The iii is cheaper and offers mostly same stuff, is just a year older. 

[BLADEVII]

2 hours ago, Imbadatnames said:

Look at Sonys Xperia 1 line. The 1 iv has just come out and looks like it meets what you want, though it is expensive. 
 

Full spec:

 

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/smartphones/xperia-1m4/specifications

 

The iii is cheaper and offers mostly same stuff, is just a year older. 

I'm not too familiar with how Sony is in the mobile market. How do they hold up over the years? I'm willing to splurge a bit but whatever I'm getting, I would like it to last for at least the next 5 years.

[Imbadatnames]

1 hour ago, BLADEVII said:

I'm not too familiar with how Sony is in the mobile market. How do they hold up over the years? I'm willing to splurge a bit but whatever I'm getting, I would like it to last for at least the next 5 years.

Minimum OS updates is 2 Years which is only one under Google and Samsungs. They have the 8 gen 1 in the iv and the 888 in the iii, you could always go overkill with the Pro i too. Spec wise it’ll last the same as any other flagship android. Lineage OS is also a thing when the phones get older. 

[BLADEVII]

32 minutes ago, Imbadatnames said:

Minimum OS updates is 2 Years which is only one under Google and Samsungs. They have the 8 gen 1 in the iv and the 888 in the iii, you could always go overkill with the Pro i too. Spec wise it’ll last the same as any other flagship android. Lineage OS is also a thing when the phones get older. 

That sounds pretty good. The only downside I found so far is that the camera isn't as good as the Samsung S22 Ultra under low light, but considering it's already better than what the LGV20 has to offer that's good enough for me. Might just splurge on the IV. I'll do little more research and see what other options I have before finalizing my decision, though I'll probably wait for another 5-6 month if I do end up going through with it. Thanks for the recommendation. 

[Lurking]

3 hours ago, BLADEVII said:

That sounds pretty good. The only downside I found so far is that the camera isn't as good as the Samsung S22 Ultra under low light, but considering it's already better than what the LGV20 has to offer that's good enough for me. Might just splurge on the IV. I'll do little more research and see what other options I have before finalizing my decision, though I'll probably wait for another 5-6 month if I do end up going through with it. Thanks for the recommendation. 

Note the update cycle is counted from the date the phone is released, not the date you buy it. You also want addl. years of security updates after OS upgrades expire. 

And a promise to update is not a promise the updates actually are good and resolve all bugs.

 

I got burned with my Samsung S9+ that was totally buggy right after the last March update (which was the last security patch ever) and even factory reset didn't help. Hardware still was great, but the OS..... I hope they do better now. the S22 came out this January and they promise 4 years OS updates + 1 year security patches. So that would give you the longest software life. How good those updates will be? Only Samsung knows... if you can wait a few months, the Pixel 7 may be a much more mature version of the Pixel 6 and then start out with the 3+2 year update and security patches. 

[BLADEVII]

31 minutes ago, Lurking said:

Note the update cycle is counted from the date the phone is released, not the date you buy it. You also want addl. years of security updates after OS upgrades expire. 

And a promise to update is not a promise the updates actually are good and resolve all bugs.

 

I got burned with my Samsung S9+ that was totally buggy right after the last March update (which was the last security patch ever) and even factory reset didn't help. Hardware still was great, but the OS..... I hope they do better now. the S22 came out this January and they promise 4 years OS updates + 1 year security patches. So that would give you the longest software life. How good those updates will be? Only Samsung knows... if you can wait a few months, the Pixel 7 may be a much more mature version of the Pixel 6 and then start out with the 3+2 year update and security patches. 

Thanks for the heads up. It's still gonna a couple month before I go through with it so that'll be plenty of time to research to compare the pro vs cons. So far with the Xperia 1 IV, at least from what I've seen so far, it's pretty much what the III has but better. Reparability isn't great though so I'm definitely gonna need to take good care of it considering it is going to be a pricy purchase. 

[Kazooduck]

I still think an s10 is the best option because lineageos and other roms will support it pretty much the longest of all on this list