Recommendations: small phone new or 2nd hand

The_Arbiter

The_Arbiter

The_Arbiter

Soldato
Joined
2 Jul 2019
Posts
2,637
Current phone moto g3 is on its last legs, battery and screen both dying and it's slow on many websites. I generally only use the phone for websites, playing music via 3.5mm port and Google Maps/satnav. I do favour the moto shake phone to bring up camera.

I really do not want to buy a phone that when dropped it's instant game over. Are these screen protectors actually any good? My G3 has been thrown many a time without a screen protector except a cheapo silicon "case" and the screen is immaculate still. But even now i see panic in people's faces when they drop their phone.

(Edit)
See my post below about a few small phones i'm considering.
 
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The_Arbiter said:
Bit pricey going by the reviews, not very favourable. Not surprised as it's ASUS, Dad had a bad experience with them recently.



No chance this time round, need it for the portable speaker and car stereo which both don't have bluetooth.
Click to expand...
Have 2 dongles permanently attached to both.

You're severerly limiting your choices.
 
Not a fan of dongles tbh, just more faff. I'll have a new car in the coming years, but my blutooth speaker is holding out just, though is mighty big so a dongle attached not ideal for transporting.

That gsm website is very helpful indeed! 120hz is something i'm not after, it was just something i mentioned i'd like to turn off if possible to extent battery life.

Slowly working my way through models suitable or have caught my eye.
Nokia C01 Plus looks alright. But trying to find out if Android Go 11 can run whatsapp.
Also the Pixel 4a, Xperia 10-4, Doro 8100 and the Xiaomi above.
 
@The_Arbiter - what music platform(s) are you using, and when do you tend to use each?

Also, you can get headphones that are both 3.5mm and bluetooth rolled into one. For me, my headphones are bluetooth-paired with my computer which I play Spotify on. I have a tactile MP3 player which is also 3.5mm + bluetooth so I have the options of both there too. The MP3 player has amateur / unsigned artists (which you can't find on Spotify along with house/trance mixes that I made myself. The ease of the tactile MP3 player for me is that I can flick through the folders without looking at a screen. You can do it in the dark, in bed, walking about with the player deep in your pocket because you can put your hands over the buttons and you know which button is which without looking at them.

Then for the 5G, I have that on my main device.

As for screen protectors, I never had any luck with fitting them. I tried a few and just found them too fiddly to fit. So I just just a £10 case on my phone, where the case bezels extend outwards from the screen by ~1mm. So now that my phone is 2.5 years old, I have dropped it a few times onto concrete and wrecked a couple of £10 cases now, but because of the case bezels, the screen never makes contact with the concrete so it's still scratch-free.
 
@Pawnless Endgame

The 3.5mm is merely for my current portable speaker and car stereo, i use VLC currently which works fine enough on this phone with mp3s. I have a modern bluetooth compatible home stereo but that i use via a PC currently as that does it all. My unused (these days) portable setup i have a dedicated player like you.

Tbh i'm just slow to adapt to the current times/tech, and refuse to spend money for what is essentially a streamlined setup that centralises around a phone and smart tv with dedicated speakers, as nice as it could be of course. But i don't feel at ease having all my valuables in a single device (phone) that i could lose or break. I've considered the tablet or laptop route also, but i'm going off topic a bit here.


I think my choices are now down to the Xperia 10-3/4 or Pixel 4a/P4a 5G. I have £160 is cex vouchers so these are looking more favourable. While the Pixel is well reviewed on here, the Xperia 10-4 is a 2022 release that i think should have better security update life and a better health battery (2nd hand), it also boasts a 5000mAh battery. Bluetooth 5.1 + aptx for what that's worth and SD card support.
 
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