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The previous year’s flagship is one option. Samsung’s S22 and S22+ both fit in this range, and even the S22 Ultra is not too far off. And those still have a few OS updates left. Pixel 6 Pro seems to sell for the same price as 7a in Germany.
This has been my strategy for the last two phones (Note 8 and Note 10) and it has worked great. Following this thread with interest as this is the year I’m due to upgrade.
This is truly some great advice. You can get a great phone for so much less this way. There aren't many features worth buying the newest phone for anyway. Just enjoy the discount for a phone that's a year old.
Or even 6months old. Back when Samsung stillade good phones, I would get that year's model on Swappa for half the price or less.
Welp, this is a category that's difficult alright, partly because of differences in PPP that'll make it hard to define. Bottom and top are easy, since there's always a clear ceiling and floor.
I'll go with something more universal: Samsung Galaxy A54. The build quality is nicer than my A52s (the outer frame is more solid and doesn't have the occasional flex that some units get), and the Exynos SoC in this one is fast enough. Going back to a 19.5:9 aspect ratio screen means it's also more useful on the wider end. Like most of the A50 series, great battery life too. Alas no more headphone jack since the A53. Still has a micro SD card slot. OIS on a 2/3" image sensor. Almost perfect otherwise. Cheap too, can get it for US$350 for the 256GB variant.
What is PPP
Purchasing power parity, basically, a comparison of how much of the same thing a particular currency can buy.
Yeah, Samsung phones availability globally has been great in my experience. The only pain point is they didn't have a global warranty.
There's a little bit of reasoning behind this, Samsung has set up a little bit of regional pricing for their phones. As an example I recently bought the Fold5 1TB for USD 1773. And that price is after taxes. Before tax it's around USD 1600.
So I basically got a USD 560 price difference for the phone.
Yea, same. The Fold 5 in my region has started dropping in price and the base 256 GB is almost at US1k. That's basically a tablet and a phone together. I expect more price drops by the end of the year.
Maybe I should have started with an easier price range...
Are the Samsung midrange worthwhile to use now? A few years ago, the advice I got was that Samsung's top end are excellent, whereas their midrange are generally not as good as the Chinese brands.
Yea, the double digit A series were a revamp of the original A line in response to the Chinese makers. As someone with easy access to Chinese phones, I switched from a Mi 9T to an A52s. I have to say the Samsung comes with a lot of pluses, like timely security updates. The only real downside so far has been the haptics: The vibration motor on the A52s is not good.
How is battery life and heating issues compared to A52s, which comes with snapdragon chip?
Guess I'll start.
Google Pixel 7a, which MSRP for 500 USD, but 450 is currently a very good deal.
Looks to have a great camera for the price, clean software with long support, but a bit weak in battery life.
Also, no headphone jack, unlike some of the other "a" series Pixels.
is there something similar but has expandable storage (headphone jack would be a bonus).
Another benefit is support for degoogled software (ironically) such as e/OS/ and GrapheneOS, if that's your thing.
Seconding the Pixel 7a (which I own right now) 😁
At $450 you get literally a high-end phone that's priced like a mid-range one because it does not feature a glass back (which is a plus IMO, as that's one thing less you have to worry about breaking) and doesn't have an optical zoom (can be a deal breaker). The size is also just right, as it's the most compact one out of the Pixel 7 series.
You also get guaranteed updates until May 2028. And as with most Pixels, you have the best support for ROMs like GrapheneOS.
As for battery life, it seems to be due to the Android 13 version. The Android 14 beta yields a much better battery life thanks to the optimizations that they did.
Samsung S23! for (and here it gets complicated) about 600$.
Here in .at Samsung has 10% off for new customers and 150€ off if you send in an old phone. If your old phone still has some value you get that on top of it.
So if you have any old phone left over you can get a S23 for 650€ which includes 20% sales tax, in US terms that should equate to about 600$.
The Pixel has been mentioned in the comments, but for lemmings living in Europe and about to buy one, you might want to hold off for a week as it's very likely that Pixel devices will get good discounts on Google's 25th anniversary:
The Asus Zenfone 10 for 700 USD looks to be a good option when it comes out, especially for people who like small phones, clean software and a headphone jack. Doesn't seem like there is much to complain about the phone spec-wise.
Seems like you won't be able to unlock the phone since they removed the unlocker from their website. It's one to look out for, for sure. But we'll see how it all develops