Good smartphone or decent smartphone + smartwatch

[Aniallation]

Selling my current phone to a friend as he broke his (not losing any money so w/e) and trying to come up with something to use as a daily driver right now. I have around, $240-ish CAD to spend. For that money I can either get:

 

1. The same phone again (Galaxy Avant) or something similar like Moto G, S3, Xperia Z, Nexus 4, etc. plus a smartwatch like Pebble (or Galaxy Gear if Samsung, I don't mind charging a watch every night)

 

2. A better phone but no smartwatch, it would be something like an Xperia Z1, S4, etc. 

 

I don't do much intensive things on my phone. It's mostly just listening to music, texting, social networking, and maybe some casual games (Flappy Bird) to pass the time. 

 

Any suggestions? Please leave a reasoning for your vote!

[TheSLSAMG]

I mean, you said it yourself. All you do on your phone is light work, stuff that a Snapdragon 400 can easily take. I'd just get the smartwatch and decent phone.

[MikeTz]

Moto G(2nd Gen) and a smartwatch hands down...

[Aniallation]

Moto G(2nd Gen) and a smartwatch hands down...

Not sure if I'll be able to get a 2nd gen. But first gen wouldn't be a big deal to me for a ~100 dollar phone.

[xavouine]

Not sure if I'll be able to get a 2nd gen. But first gen wouldn't be a big deal to me for a ~100 dollar phone.

 

You can't go wrong with a Nexus 4. Plus, with 240$, you won't be able to get a better enough smartphone that would be worth droping the pebble for.

The only thing with the N4 though is the horrible battery life. 

Alternatives would be an Elephone P2000 as it has extremely good specs for the dollar + a decent battery. You could also shop for a used Xiaomi or something (be sure to check carrier compatibility though)

[Aniallation]

You can't go wrong with a Nexus 4. Plus, with 240$, you won't be able to get a better enough smartphone that would be worth droping the pebble for.

The only thing with the N4 though is the horrible battery life. 

Alternatives would be an Elephone P2000 as it has extremely good specs for the dollar + a decent battery. You could also shop for a used Xiaomi or something (be sure to check carrier compatibility though)

Yeah I can't get Chinese phones as they won't work with my carrier. I use Wind which requires AWS HPSA+ network. I am looking into getting a Nexus 4, I don't mind charging my phone every night since no phone I've ever had comfortably gets me through two days of usage anyways.

[xavouine]

Yeah I can't get Chinese phones as they won't work with my carrier. I use Wind which requires AWS HPSA+ network. I am looking into getting a Nexus 4, I don't mind charging my phone every night since no phone I've ever had comfortably gets me through two days of usage anyways.

then the Nexus 4 would be your best bet. I personally loved mine <3 the only reason I switched was the lackluster battery and the shortage of storage ( I have 11gb of music )

[Suika]

I would consider the Nexus 4 with the Pebble if you're all right with 16GB. If you mod or deal with custom ROMs, you will run out of memory fast.

I currently run the Nexus 5 with the Pebble and I can't leave the house without 'em. Still wish I had my Nexus 4, though, I enjoyed its build far over my N5's.

[ShadowCaptain]

I would just get a better phone

[Thorium19]

I would go for a better phone, it'll last you longer and you can get a smartwatch at a later point, I don't really think they're suitable at the moment, too many issues, with display burn in *cough* moto 360 *cough* too short battery life or not enough functionality (or too much, if you look at some of samsungs offerings). Wait on the smartwatches for the next gen devices at least, that's when you'll start to see better performance and increased functionality from them, although if you really want a smartwatch now the pebble or asus zenwatch would be my choices to go for.

[razor767]

I would go for a better phone, it'll last you longer and you can get a smartwatch at a later point, I don't really think they're suitable at the moment, too many issues, with display burn in *cough* moto 360 *cough* too short battery life or not enough functionality (or too much, if you look at some of samsungs offerings). Wait on the smartwatches for the next gen devices at least, that's when you'll start to see better performance and increased functionality from them, although if you really want a smartwatch now the pebble or asus zenwatch would be my choices to go for.

I agree with this, get a better phone now and get a smartwatch later. 

[Aniallation]

then the Nexus 4 would be your best bet. I personally loved mine <3 the only reason I switched was the lackluster battery and the shortage of storage ( I have 11gb of music )

I would consider the Nexus 4 with the Pebble if you're all right with 16GB. If you mod or deal with custom ROMs, you will run out of memory fast.

 

How bad was the battery life on yours? 

 

16GB shouldn't be that big of a deal for me. I'm most likely just going to slap CM11 on it cause I don't like Lollipop so not a big deal in the ROM department. I currently have a lot of music but taking into consideration that I don't even listen to 90% of the music I have stored locally I'm just going to start using Spotify a lot more anyways.

[Aniallation]

I would go for a better phone, it'll last you longer and you can get a smartwatch at a later point, I don't really think they're suitable at the moment, too many issues, with display burn in *cough* moto 360 *cough* too short battery life or not enough functionality (or too much, if you look at some of samsungs offerings). Wait on the smartwatches for the next gen devices at least, that's when you'll start to see better performance and increased functionality from them, although if you really want a smartwatch now the pebble or asus zenwatch would be my choices to go for.

I agree with this, get a better phone now and get a smartwatch later. 

 

lol then yeah I'll wait a bit longer to see how well smartwatches do.

 

I'm looking to get a decent smartphone and an SSD instead, cause having a green boot drive sucks

[xavouine]

How bad was the battery life on yours? 

 

 

I could get through the day (7a.m to 12p.m) with (very) light use. Any gaming/flac listening and I had to find somewhere to plug in before the end of the day.

Still manageable but far from ideal. tbh, it didn't bother me much at the time but now that Ì have my Oneplus One, I don't see how I'd ever go back to charging every day

[Suika]

How bad was the battery life on yours?

Running KitKat, it ran me through the entire day. If I knew I'd be in a situation where I'd use my phone more than average, e.g. I'd watch a lot of YouTube, I'd bring a power bank.