I need help choosing a new phone

TheCharredCarrot · August 18, 2022

I'm currently using a Samsung Galaxy S7 as I've been for many years, but now I need to replace it because its screen turns green and gets really slow & blurry at low brightness levels, it gets pretty hot rather quickly (over 70°C according to CPU-Z), battery life is pretty bad (charge every day) and its earpiece is malfunctioning (I can barely hear the other person speaking even at max volume, I need to use the loud speaker to hear people properly!) and people on the other end of the line complain that they have great trouble hearing me in phone calls.

I live in Portugal, in a small portuguese island region and smartphone availability is extremely limited (basically only iPhones or Samsung flagships exist here, no Pixels are or ever will be sold here and I've never seen any recent Sony flagship for sale either) and I have worrisome cataracts in both of my eyes, plenty of eye floaters and am currently trying to treat a persistent inflammation of my eyes and chronic dryness - so a large, bright and sharp display would really help me see well without much discomfort.

I've had lots of trouble with Samsung phones in the past especially due to their really slow, buggy software, apps crashing often and the utter lack of updates & security patches yet I did consider the Z Fold 4 and was waiting for its announcement to decide - at 1979€ for the 512GB model, and with no good preorder offers or discounts, I can't justify spending this much on a phone that's supposedly very fragile and whose battery isn't particularly exemplar. I thought then that the iPhone 14 Pro Max might be a good choice (still a 1600€+ phone for the 512GB model) but I've heard Apple is going to raise their phones price by over 150$ (which is 100€+ in Europe), that VPNs aren't really secure on iOS and that they want to show ads on more and more of their first party apps which is, for such a steep price, quite disappointing and unwelcomed for me (Apple has been getting a lot of bad press as of late and I'm thinking they're not trustworthy either).

I really don't know what to do, and I've been avoiding Chinese brands due to concerns with personal data such as email, banking, remote access to cameras and other sensitive information possibly being stolen, exploited or something horrendous like that. So, please, what phone might work for me? Display size and quality, performance, cameras and battery life are key and I'd like a flagship phone experience, for sure, but I don't want to overpay for something if an alternative exists with better specifications and at a cheaper price - I really wanted the Z Fold 4 to be great and more affordable (would be easier for me to use when unfolded for my eyes), though it really isn't that kind of phone and it just sucks so much for me as I can't wait for a Z Fold 5.

Sorry for the long post and possible bad English :(!

BiotechBen · August 18, 2022

My Motorola's have been fantastic (technically a Chinese brand because it's owned by Lenovo), the Lenovo pro data protection they offer for free on their phones has been amazing, great camera, battery, and performance from my G100, the new Edge looks like it's gonna be awesome. 200MP camera, snapdragon 8+ gen1, and high refresh rate display FHD+. No ReadyFor though (their flavor of DeX that works really well). The G200 would also be a good choice as well (stuck on Android 12 though)

Commodus · August 19, 2022

22 hours ago, TheCharredCarrot said:

I'm currently using a Samsung Galaxy S7 as I've been for many years, but now I need to replace it because its screen turns green and gets really slow & blurry at low brightness levels, it gets pretty hot rather quickly (over 70°C according to CPU-Z), battery life is pretty bad (charge every day) and its earpiece is malfunctioning (I can barely hear the other person speaking even at max volume, I need to use the loud speaker to hear people properly!) and people on the other end of the line complain that they have great trouble hearing me in phone calls.

I live in Portugal, in a small portuguese island region and smartphone availability is extremely limited (basically only iPhones or Samsung flagships exist here, no Pixels are or ever will be sold here and I've never seen any recent Sony flagship for sale either) and I have worrisome cataracts in both of my eyes, plenty of eye floaters and am currently trying to treat a persistent inflammation of my eyes and chronic dryness - so a large, bright and sharp display would really help me see well without much discomfort.

I've had lots of trouble with Samsung phones in the past especially due to their really slow, buggy software, apps crashing often and the utter lack of updates & security patches yet I did consider the Z Fold 4 and was waiting for its announcement to decide - at 1979€ for the 512GB model, and with no good preorder offers or discounts, I can't justify spending this much on a phone that's supposedly very fragile and whose battery isn't particularly exemplar. I thought then that the iPhone 14 Pro Max might be a good choice (still a 1600€+ phone for the 512GB model) but I've heard Apple is going to raise their phones price by over 150$ (which is 100€+ in Europe), that VPNs aren't really secure on iOS and that they want to show ads on more and more of their first party apps which is, for such a steep price, quite disappointing and unwelcomed for me (Apple has been getting a lot of bad press as of late and I'm thinking they're not trustworthy either).

I really don't know what to do, and I've been avoiding Chinese brands due to concerns with personal data such as email, banking, remote access to cameras and other sensitive information possibly being stolen, exploited or something horrendous like that. So, please, what phone might work for me? Display size and quality, performance, cameras and battery life are key and I'd like a flagship phone experience, for sure, but I don't want to overpay for something if an alternative exists with better specifications and at a cheaper price - I really wanted the Z Fold 4 to be great and more affordable (would be easier for me to use when unfolded for my eyes), though it really isn't that kind of phone and it just sucks so much for me as I can't wait for a Z Fold 5.

Sorry for the long post and possible bad English :(!

Your English is good, and probably better than many native speakers!

The more credible rumors suggest Apple will release a non-Pro iPhone 14 Max at its expected September 7th event. You could get the big screen you want and avoid Samsung without paying as much as you would for the top-tier phone. I wouldn't fuss over the VPN and advertising issues, at least not yet. The VPN flaw appears to be a bug, and the advertising expansion is neither official nor guaranteed to come true. The reality is that Apple is still more privacy-conscious than Google (not that I'd consider Google horrific, but the differences are clear).

If you want to go with Android, I'd pick the Galaxy S22+ (I got to try one for several weeks). Big, bright display, ample battery life and of course high-end performance. Samsung's OS support is also much better than it used to be; you now get four years of major OS updates, and monthly security updates. My main gripe is simply that the S22+ doesn't offer storage beyond 256GB, so you may find yourself streaming a lot of content if you want to leave plenty of room for photos.

Imbadatnames · August 20, 2022

On 8/18/2022 at 8:35 PM, TheCharredCarrot said:

I'm currently using a Samsung Galaxy S7 as I've been for many years, but now I need to replace it because its screen turns green and gets really slow & blurry at low brightness levels, it gets pretty hot rather quickly (over 70°C according to CPU-Z), battery life is pretty bad (charge every day) and its earpiece is malfunctioning (I can barely hear the other person speaking even at max volume, I need to use the loud speaker to hear people properly!) and people on the other end of the line complain that they have great trouble hearing me in phone calls.

I live in Portugal, in a small portuguese island region and smartphone availability is extremely limited (basically only iPhones or Samsung flagships exist here, no Pixels are or ever will be sold here and I've never seen any recent Sony flagship for sale either) and I have worrisome cataracts in both of my eyes, plenty of eye floaters and am currently trying to treat a persistent inflammation of my eyes and chronic dryness - so a large, bright and sharp display would really help me see well without much discomfort.

I've had lots of trouble with Samsung phones in the past especially due to their really slow, buggy software, apps crashing often and the utter lack of updates & security patches yet I did consider the Z Fold 4 and was waiting for its announcement to decide - at 1979€ for the 512GB model, and with no good preorder offers or discounts, I can't justify spending this much on a phone that's supposedly very fragile and whose battery isn't particularly exemplar. I thought then that the iPhone 14 Pro Max might be a good choice (still a 1600€+ phone for the 512GB model) but I've heard Apple is going to raise their phones price by over 150$ (which is 100€+ in Europe), that VPNs aren't really secure on iOS and that they want to show ads on more and more of their first party apps which is, for such a steep price, quite disappointing and unwelcomed for me (Apple has been getting a lot of bad press as of late and I'm thinking they're not trustworthy either).

I really don't know what to do, and I've been avoiding Chinese brands due to concerns with personal data such as email, banking, remote access to cameras and other sensitive information possibly being stolen, exploited or something horrendous like that. So, please, what phone might work for me? Display size and quality, performance, cameras and battery life are key and I'd like a flagship phone experience, for sure, but I don't want to overpay for something if an alternative exists with better specifications and at a cheaper price - I really wanted the Z Fold 4 to be great and more affordable (would be easier for me to use when unfolded for my eyes), though it really isn't that kind of phone and it just sucks so much for me as I can't wait for a Z Fold 5.

Sorry for the long post and possible bad English :(!

Could have misconceptions with the apple stuff. VPNs are fine you just have to close stuff after you turn the VPN on. If you turn it on, close all your apps and never turn the VPN off you can just forget about it. They also have private relay which you can double stack with a VPN.

Regards the ads they’re in places that you don’t really see (I had to look for them) and they don’t harvest your data and sell it plus you can turn off personalised ads and they just serve generic ones. Ads aren’t bad if they’re done right, when they’re intrusive and steal all of your data is when the issues come.