Considering replacing my S20 FE

djdelarosa25 · March 13, 2023

I got my S20 FE pretty late already (December 2021), so the phone is only more than a year old with me. It's been a decent phone in the months that I owned it, but it also has its issues (crappy touchscreen, bad battery life, One UI quirks) and is now near EOL status in terms of updates. Because of this, I'm looking to buy a new phone in the coming months, but my budget is not that big. The max I'm willing to spend is around 30,000 PHP (~$550).

I've been looking at three phones, namely the upcoming Pixel 7a, the upcoming A54 5G, and the Nothing Phone 1. I was dead set on the Pixel 7a until I found out that 5G, VoWifi, and VoLTE are software-locked as the phone isn't officially available where I live. The A54 5G would give me fast, long-term updates (which was something I liked about my S20 FE), but from leaks and rumors about its specs and pricing, it's shaping up to be a disappointment much like its predecessor, the A53.

That leaves me with the Nothing Phone 1, which seems like a well-rounded phone. Great design with minimal and symmetrical bezels (IDGAF about the Glyph interface), upper-midrange chipset which is more than enough for a non-gamer like me, and close to stock Android. I can pick up a like new 8/256 variant for ~$400.

What do you guys think? Is the Nothing Phone 1 a worthwhile replacement for my S20 FE, or are there better alternatives? Do you think I should hold on to it for longer and wait for the new crop of phones to come out?

P.S. I forgot to mention Xiaomi. I can't stand MIUI, and while I flashed custom ROMs on all of my previous Xiaomi smartphones, I've come to the point where I just want something that works out of the box. Oh, and I've had a few friends that got their devices hardbricked because of an OTA update.

Commodus · March 13, 2023

7 hours ago, djdelarosa25 said:

I got my S20 FE pretty late already (December 2021), so the phone is only more than a year old with me. It's been a decent phone in the months that I owned it, but it also has its issues (crappy touchscreen, bad battery life, One UI quirks) and is now near EOL status in terms of updates. Because of this, I'm looking to buy a new phone in the coming months, but my budget is not that big. The max I'm willing to spend is around 30,000 PHP (~$550).

I've been looking at three phones, namely the upcoming Pixel 7a, the upcoming A54 5G, and the Nothing Phone 1. I was dead set on the Pixel 7a until I found out that 5G, VoWifi, and VoLTE are software-locked as the phone isn't officially available where I live. The A54 5G would give me fast, long-term updates (which was something I liked about my S20 FE), but from leaks and rumors about its specs and pricing, it's shaping up to be a disappointment much like its predecessor, the A53.

That leaves me with the Nothing Phone 1, which seems like a well-rounded phone. Great design with minimal and symmetrical bezels (IDGAF about the Glyph interface), upper-midrange chipset which is more than enough for a non-gamer like me, and close to stock Android. I can pick up a like new 8/256 variant for ~$400.

What do you guys think? Is the Nothing Phone 1 a worthwhile replacement for my S20 FE, or are there better alternatives? Do you think I should hold on to it for longer and wait for the new crop of phones to come out?

P.S. I forgot to mention Xiaomi. I can't stand MIUI, and while I flashed custom ROMs on all of my previous Xiaomi smartphones, I've come to the point where I just want something that works out of the box. Oh, and I've had a few friends that got their devices hardbricked because of an OTA update.

Honestly sounds like the Nothing Phone 1 is worth a go if you're willing to deal with a young company that won't have the strongest after-sale support. If the Pixel 7a was supported in your country, I'd steer you to that.