not really into high end smartphones as i don’t have a usecase for those. don’t need an above average camera, if any at all. currently i am using a motorola edge 20 as my daily workhorse and overall i am not unhappy with it. Just sometimes it seriously hangs and occasionally reboots. also probably sooner or later updates will cease, i would assume.
if i was to look for a replacement in the … let’s say 400 - 600 eur/usd price range … what kind of phone would make sense to purchase? i rarely use any apps other than a browser, really. no gaming intended.
I’d say pixel. I think my next phone will be a mid range pixel. I went with a top of the range oppo last time and it’s a frustrating experience with after market products - they just don’t exist. the fast charging is brilliant but you can’t buy like a 3rd party power brick which will do VOOC fast charging. I can’t even buy an OPPO 80w charger in Australia. Want a nice case for it? no chance. So I’m going to try pixel next for the ecosystem. I had samsung previously and just couldn’t get over the blandness of them!
I’d also tend towards a Pixel, 7a probably, like @neoNgEcho mentioned. Are there any blatant cons to such a decision? What about realworld battery life?
FWIW, I can easily get a full day out of my pixel 6a. The only down-side that I perceived, having upgraded from a pixel 3a was the loss of the headphone jack (RIP) and the in-screen fingerprint reader being finicky/sub-par (which I believe is also true of the 7a)
Thanks for the info! Headphone jack is not a huge loss for me as I use bluetooth headphones already. Fingerprint is kind of bummer to hear, I wanted to switch partially because the fingerprint on the edge 20 sometimes randomly just goes unresponsive to any kind of touch. Meh :-/
Have you tried the setting “display > screen protector mode” this increases the sensitivity of the screen including fingerprint. Now it works in all but the brightest sunshine.
I’ve been researching phones to replace my Moto X4. The Pixel 7a seems like a good choice, but I’m disappointed in having to accept several downgrades after all these years. 1) No headphone jack. This isn’t that big a deal, but it does seem silly that I can’t get that. 2) No storage expansion card. This one I can live with. 128 GB is likely enough. 3) Slightly less wide. I really don’t want a giant phone at all, but my eyes are getting bad and I’d prefer something wider and maybe just a tiny bit taller than the X4. The Pixel 7a is a little too narrow for my taste. 4) Weight. I know I’m going to have to give in on this one, but my Moto X4 is a nice light 163 g. Pixel 7a is 193.5 g.
The other general issue is that the build quality on Pixels seems to be all over the map. Some people seem to have no problems, others have tons.
I’ve also been looking at the Moto G Power 5G 2023, which is larger, weighs a little less, probably gets better battery life, has a headphone jack and expansion card slot, has 256 GB of storage and is considerably cheaper. The downsides though are that the camera won’t be as good as the Pixel 7a and the software update support will likely not go more than a few years. Also, the Moto G Power 5G 2023 seems enormous to me. I don’t know if phone manufacturers all wear pants with incredibly deep pockets or what. But I hope they reign in the
sizesheights.