Recommendations: Big Battery life, rugged, good performance.

SolarNova · February 11

I'm considering buying a new phone for the 1st time in many years.

It will primarily be used for emergency calls, texting, web browsing, and media consumption.

Primary point is longevity. So it needs to be durable, not suffer from software bloat over time.

Onboard storage has to be big enough to ensure even after years of software updates it wont run out of room.

Battery life has to be high.

Super thin, tiny battery, mobiles I have no interested in. Im ok with it being a thick boy. ideally the battery will be replaceable.

Good screen brightness for outdoor use is ofc needed, not to concerned about screen size so long as it isnt stupidly large. I currently have a 5" screen,, so maybe up to 6.5".

Despite being a tech head with computers, i hate dealing with mobiles, especially locked down run of mill big company models. They infuriate me. So something that comes with or is capable of running a good OS that gives the user full control would be great.

And finally no proprietary ...anything...

And while by now it should go without saying ...nothing from Apple.

As for budget....maybe £300.

And if any1 has any good sites for mobile phone reviews (factual statistical reviews, not 'overviews' of marketed specs), please let me know.

Somerandomtechyboi · February 11

49 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

And if any1 has any good sites for mobile phone reviews (factual statistical reviews, not 'overviews' of marketed specs), please let me know.

Maybe xda forum

Unsure of their reviews but their forums are filled with a bunch of mobile phone specialists so you can get some help there especially regarding custom firmware

As for the phone maybe something like the redmi k60 since it has a 5500mah battery, a 6.67" 1440p oled display, and an 8+ gen 1, its one of the phones im eyeing since it has good specs for the 330$ it goes for used here in indo, for alternatives theres the 12t pro and the regular xiaomi 12 (pro)

Xiaomi has a large community around it especially their higher specced phones due to how cheap they are both new and used (i mean new poco f5 going for 330$ and it has a 7 gen 2 chip that matches the 8 gen 1) so you shouldnt have any trouble finding and flashing custom firmwares, and their phones depreciate real quick so you can save alot of money even if the phone is only a generation old for both buying new and used

Also avoid mediatek if you want to do any firmware flashing shenanigans, something to do with closed source making it really annoying to make custom firmware for phones with mediatek chips