What are the best Android phones (without breaking the bank)

[Doug Briggs]

The driving force for me to consider a new phone was the failure of the phone to a) track with Strava and b) take photos without hanging and restarting on its own. It occurred to me I should try another phone app which I did. Today it worked as it should. I got my pics and Strava track without a hitch. What I've learned from this thread is that phones for under $300 exist that have great cameras and battery life.

Thanks yet again skitalk folks for your great input.

 

[cantunamunch]

It occurred to me I should try another phone app which I did.

Once more for clarity, you used another voice call app, another tracking app, or another camera app?

 

[Doug Briggs]

Once more for clarity, you used another voice call app, another tracking app, or another camera app?

Camera app. I'd been using the built in one. I had noticed that Strava stopping and/or the phone entirely hanging and/or shutting itself off coincided with the taking of pictures. I thought it might be temperature related but even on warm, sunny days the problem occurred.

So I started using my old Samsung for photos. No problems with the Moto. So I started using the Samsung for Strava, no problems with the Moto. So there was a problem with Strava AND photos. So I tried replacing the Moto phone app with one from the Play Store. I took a bunch of photos today that would have normally caused the hang/shutdown problem. I'll be testing it more to be sure.

 

[Decreed_It]

Costco members, new sale flyer, starts 5/19, this is a good deal I am very likely to go for it:

Remove Samsung bloatware and rock on.

 

[Tony S]

Just reporting back that I finally forked over for a new phone to replace my 6yo Samsung S7. My biggest complaint was short battery life.

I took the advice here not to waste money on a flagship phone. (I was easily convinced!) It's only been a few weeks on the Pixel 5a I bought, but so far I'm super happy with it. It easily lasts a whole day without a charge, which the Samsung never did even when brand new. The fingerprint sensor is far faster and better placed. And the two external buttons are both on the same edge of the case, preventing the dreaded "I squeezed left button while trying to press right button" syndrome.

The jury is still out on many features, such as the camera, just because I haven't used them much yet.

The only downside I've found is that the quality and stability of voice calls is noticeably poorer, but I attribute that to the fact that I moved from Verizon to Google Fi, not to the phone itself.

Edit: And there is NO bloatware!

 

[Uncle-A]

I went through this a while back and I think it was you @Doug Briggs that helped me out. I ended up with the Pixel phone. It has worked well for me. I can't speak to the app you are referring to but other than that it is fine.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I'm still plugging away on my Moto Z2 Force. The battery is strong, cell and wi-fi calling works great. Only the camera is an issue but that is maybe the phone not the built in app. I'm being frugal so if it ain't badly broke, I'm not changing, yet.

 

[johnnyvw]

We recently upgraded our plan to unlimited (AT&T). While I was on the phone with the CS rep, she asked if I would be interested in upgrading my phone to an S21 with a $700 rebate for trade-in. My current phone was a S9, so not too old, and I didn't have plans to upgrade at the moment, but for that price I couldn't say no. I know eventually I will HAVE to upgrade, just because things will no longer work with the older O/S.

 

[cantunamunch]

So no one in this thread is 5G yet?

 

[Uncle-A]

So no one in this thread is 5G yet?

My wifi phone works on my home wifi that is 5G. My area has 5G coverage but if is a bit thin in spots, the older generation is fully covered so it actually works better when not on 5G.

 

[Andy Mink]

So no one in this thread is 5G yet?

I have 5G occasionally. Not sure what the big deal is. It seems no faster and, in some instances, seems slower than 4G. Kind of a Nothing Burger for me.

 

[cantunamunch]

I have 5G occasionally. Not sure what the big deal is. It seems no faster and, in some instances, seems slower than 4G. Kind of a Nothing Burger for me.

The big deal is that it uses completely different transmission bands, with much smaller antennas, more of which can be installed with significantly less mechanical and power delivery requirements for each one. And so places like Vermont, West Virginia, New Hampshire can finally start getting reasonable broadband instead of one bar on top of one mountain.

If it seems no faster and sometimes slower, you're not in a 5G network, you're talking to a compatibility interface jerry-rigged on top of our usual LTE.

 

[Doug Briggs]

5G isn't an issue for me. We may have it soon as we now have fiber around the county. More critical to me during day to day operations is not dropping calls. Our influx of visitors means the cellular network gets overloaded quite frequently. At home I'm on Wi-Fi calls more often than not, it seems. It is spurring me to consider a mesh network at home to prevent loss of Wi-Fi between my multiple non-mesh APs.

4G is fast enough that when I use my phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot, I can do remote control which is pretty sensitive to poor quality service.

 

[cantunamunch]

At home I'm on Wi-Fi calls more often than not, it seems. It is spurring me to consider a mesh network at home to prevent loss of Wi-Fi between my multiple non-mesh APs.

How's your SMS over WiFi? Ours is absolute cr@p, with texts arriving minutes sometimes hours late.

Imagine being able to call through Wildcat's WiFi (no LTE service!) but not getting the text until next time you connect to LTE - in Conway proper.

Imagine similar ridiculousness at Okemo and Stratton and Snowshoe and Whiteface and Pico. 5G mini-antenna mesh can't come soon enough.

 

[Doug Briggs]

SMS seems ok. I don't know when it goes Wi-Fi vs Cellular. The phone app shows which is in use but I rarely can tell the difference. I can see the cell tower from my home but it is just on the 'horizon'. Before I had a phone capable of Wi-Fi calling, I had a network extender. It was fair at best but that was back in 3G days.

 

[Tricia]

So no one in this thread is 5G yet?

I haven't been in this thread because I'm on an iPhone 12 Pro, but I've been on 5G for a bit and feel that it is quite a bit better, especially when I'm tethering, which is something I often do.

 

[Andy Mink]

The big deal is that it uses completely different transmission bands, with much smaller antennas, more of which can be installed with significantly less mechanical and power delivery requirements for each one. And so places like Vermont, West Virginia, New Hampshire can finally start getting reasonable broadband instead of one bar on top of one mountain.

If it seems no faster and sometimes slower, you're not in a 5G network, you're talking to a compatibility interface jerry-rigged on top of our usual LTE.

All I know is sometimes my phone says 5G. I figure it knows what it's doing.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I finally broke down and got a new phone. I didn't break the bank, either. The last one would hang when I took photos in the cold, so it was time. This phone cost about the same as a point and shoot I would have gotten to allow me to keep the old phone, so a good step sideways and up.

It's a Motorola One 5G UW with 128 GB built in. I added a 128 GB card so I don't have to worry about filling up the device with photos and music. It has a 48 MP camera (quad pixel) which means it has great resolution; it doesn't make 48 MP photos, but enhances the photos by having more content to work with, if I understand it correctly. Macro mode, HDR photos, excellent Wi-Fi calling, 5G (which I didn't realize was a prevalent around here as it appears to be), runs a lot faster than the old phone (to be expected).

I got it on ebay for $300 (including tax) which is about 1/2 the Verizon/retail price. It was a 14 day return and has the warranty according to the vendor. I just moved the SIM card over and boom. It was online and I just had to go through the standard setup process. Hours later to install and test the apps and I was a happy, if tired, camper. I have two Google accounts and have inadvertently installed apps with both of them so I had to do a fair amount of manual stuff to get them running. Using the Verizon transfer feature was a good experience apart from the two Google accounts as Wi-Fi settings and lots of other basic stuff got carried over.

All in all I'm happy with it and the price was good. My first cold weather photo with it worked as hoped, too, so mischief managed.

 

[Mothertucker]

@Doug Briggs ^^^Still has tomahawk chop flashlight?

 

[Doug Briggs]

@Doug Briggs ^^^Still has tomahawk chop flashlight?

Yes. Hiiiiya!

And twist your wrist twice to open the camera.