Phone spec request - upgrade from Galaxy S5

strumpusplunket · 26 Jul 2020 at 15:47

My eldest has been using my old Galaxy S5 for a couple of years, but it is getting increasingly frustrating for him due to decling battery life and general sluggishness.

We've agreed he can get an upgrade, but not sure what would be a good option.

He likes the look of the S7 and S8, but I wonder if those are really the best option?

Ideally, he'd like a decent screen size like the S8, but I don't think he really needs a lot of gimmicky features. Decent battery and basically snappy responsiveness life would be good selling points for us, too.

We don't want to spend too much. Below £250ish if at all possible, but we don't really have a fixed budget in mind. We're thinking just buying outright would be the best bet.

What would be the best options for model and retailer? Any of the Xiomi phones any good, or are they having problems like Huawei with the Google Play Store and Android?

nlel1975 · 26 Jul 2020 at 15:50

I’d recommend the Motorola Moto G8 Power, large 5000mah battery, big screen and similar in performance to a Samsung Galaxy S8 but three years newer. Can be bought new for around £200.

strumpusplunket · 26 Jul 2020 at 17:37

nlel1975 said:
I’d recommend the Motorola Moto G8 Power, large 5000mah battery, big screen and similar in performance to a Samsung Galaxy S8 but three years newer. Can be bought new for around £200.

Cheers. I will check that out.

nlel1975 · 26 Jul 2020 at 18:35

strumpusplunket said:
Cheers. I will check that out.

Motorola is a name you can trust, Android doesn’t automatically mean Samsung.

strumpusplunket · 26 Jul 2020 at 18:38

nlel1975 said:
Motorola is a name you can trust, Android doesn’t automatically mean Samsung.

Yeah, I am not especially a Samsung fan. Just a bit out of touch with what the current decent models are since I have no interest myself in phone upgrades these days.

First things I'm reading about the G8 look good so far.

marms · 26 Jul 2020 at 19:28

I got a samsung Galaxy m31, its good phone with great battery life.

nlel1975 · 26 Jul 2020 at 19:39

marms said:
I got a samsung Galaxy m31, its good phone with great battery life.

A good phone but it’s not in the same price range as the G8 Power. The Samsung M31 is £ 245 and the Motorola G8 was £ 198.98 when I bought it. That’s a whole £ 46 more for the M31 which puts it in a different price range.

I bet if you splashed out £ 46 more than the M31 costs you’d get something even better and so on, you have to draw a line somewhere.

marms · 26 Jul 2020 at 23:17

nlel1975 said:
A good phone but it’s not in the same price range as the G8 Power. The Samsung M31 is £ 245 and the Motorola G8 was £ 198.98 when I bought it. That’s a whole £ 46 more for the M31 which puts it in a different price range.

I bet if you splashed out £ 46 more than the M31 costs you’d get something even better and so on, you have to draw a line somewhere.

It's within the budget mentioned by strumpusplunket and they wanted recommendations, im sure they're able to decide themselves if it's worth the extra £46

strumpusplunket · 27 Jul 2020 at 08:51

Yeah,I spoke to my lad about this last night. He doesn't want the G8 because his friend has one. He'd even rather have a different phone that's not as good instead of the same one as his mate. I guess that's teenager logic, I dunno.

I might leave it to sit with him for a day or two since I think that's a daft bit of reasoning, but good to see a back-up option here too.

nlel1975 · 27 Jul 2020 at 17:33

Have you thought about selling the Samsung Galaxy S5? A new battery on eBay costs less than £ 10 and after a factory reset it should be back up to speed.

I sold my Samsung S5 Mini for £ 50 locally.

strumpusplunket · 27 Jul 2020 at 17:47

nlel1975 said:
Have you thought about selling the Samsung Galaxy S5? A new battery on eBay costs less than £ 10 and after a factory reset it should be back up to speed.

I sold my Samsung S5 Mini for £ 50 locally.

Yeah, I usually sell my old phones through one of the online selling portals. Shopping around them usually nets me a reasonable amount off the next phone. Though I haven't done this for a long time as the only time I've upgraded in years was when I lost my old phone.

Squink · 27 Jul 2020 at 17:58

Samsung are offering 15pc off at the mo, if you check out the code on their website. Best for your son is the £75 trade in price for the s5, coming on top of the 15pc off.

strumpusplunket · 27 Jul 2020 at 18:13

Squink said:
Samsung are offering 15pc off at the mo, if you check out the code on their website. Best for your son is the £75 trade in price for the s5, coming on top of the 15pc off.

That definitely sounds worth looking into, cheers!

nlel1975 · 27 Jul 2020 at 18:22

strumpusplunket said:
That definitely sounds worth looking into, cheers!

Could get a Samsung Galaxy A41 for £ 154 with your 15% off and £ 75 trade in normal price £ 269. Performance as good as M31 or G8 Power but only 3500mah battery but who cares about at this price.

tamzzy · 27 Jul 2020 at 18:25

i know it's above your proposed budget, but can't really go wrong with the A71. samsung currently doing a sale on their website
A71 = £419, less 15% discount and then £75 trade in for any phone = ~£280

strumpusplunket · 27 Jul 2020 at 18:27

nlel1975 said:
Could get a Samsung Galaxy A41 for £ 154 with your 15% off and £ 75 trade in normal price £ 269. Performance as good as M31 or G8 Power but only 3500mah battery but who cares about at this price.

That's a bargain. 3500mah should last a day of normal use anyway, I'd think?

tamzzy said:
i know it's above your proposed budget, but can't really go wrong with the A71. samsung currently doing a sale on their website
A71 = £419, less 15% discount and then £75 trade in for any phone = ~£280

Not a bad price, but hard to justify the extra over the cheaper models. I will have a look together with my son before making the final decision, though.

nlel1975 · 27 Jul 2020 at 18:37

strumpusplunket said:
That's a bargain. 3500mah should last a day of normal use anyway, I'd think?.

Yeah should do, better make your mind up soon before deal expires. The code you need to enter at checkout is SUMMER15

tamzzy · 27 Jul 2020 at 18:38

strumpusplunket said:
Not a bad price, but hard to justify the extra over the cheaper models. I will have a look together with my son before making the final decision, though.

ofc depends on how old your son is and his needs

A41 is a nice budget phone and will do all usual daily tasks like facebook and whatsapp etc with no issues
A71 is better in every way, but ofc you pay for the extra features

3500mah should last about 6h of screen-on-time i suspect. my s10 lite with 4500mah (same as the A71) will last 7-8h of screen-on-time on a full charge
i don't bother charging it to beyond 70% any more to prolong the battery longevity

nlel1975 · 27 Jul 2020 at 18:52

tamzzy said:
A41 is a nice budget phone and will do all usual daily tasks like facebook and whatsapp etc with no issues

It might be a “budget” phone but it will be several magnitudes more powerful than a Galaxy S5.

nlel1975 · 27 Jul 2020 at 19:04

nlel1975 said:
Could get a Samsung Galaxy A41 for £ 154 with your 15% off and £ 75 trade in normal price £ 269. Performance as good as M31 or G8 Power but only 3500mah battery but who cares about at this price.

Sorry maths isn’t my strong point you’re looking at £ 158.91 for the Galaxy A41 in this deal.