Upgrading from Galaxy S8 - new phone advice?

CWHG

CWHG

CWHG

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Joined
4 Jul 2020
Posts
16
Hello,

I currently use a Samsung Galaxy S8. The battery is on it's way out and the camera suffers from terrible lens glare from artificial light.

I'm in the market for a new phone as have had the above for many years now.

My criteria is,

  • Solid battery life. Must be able to comfortably get through a full day with fairly heavy use.
  • 5G - although I can't really use it now, I'm not planning on upgrading for another 2-3 years
  • Solid camera, it would be great if it could take decent night/low light shots.
  • Rated waterproof. The phone comes into the bath with me and one of these days i will drop it!
  • Headphone jack would be nice. I often plug in to friends sound systems to play from Spotify.
  • Smooth and responsive (however I'm only an occasional mobile gamer so raw power is not essential)
  • Compact. I really can't cope with these HUGE screens. My galaxy S8 is a perfect size.
  • Preferably not Samsung. The Samsung apps & bloatware are too much.
  • Wireless charging would be preferred, but not essential.

My budget: around £700 but Ideally less.

If anyone has suggestions, that would be great.

Thanks.
 
Can you wait until Black Friday? There are a number of solid phones out there which are currently at full price, but which will likely be reduced in the sales.

The Pixel 5 fits most of your criteria (but no headphone jack), but at £599, most people would agree its overpriced. It recently came with £250 headphones to sweeten the deal, but that offer is now expired.

After that, you have the £799 Sony Xperia 5 ii, which lacks only wireless charging from your list. It comes with 'free' £210 headphones, but has been on offer recently where a 24-month contract including decent data allowance came to about the RRP of the phone. That offer is no longer available, but something similar might come up on Black Friday.

Have you considered the iPhone 12? At £799 it's above your budget (and lacks a headphone jack), but it'll last you five years and still be worth something on the resale market.
 
Thank you for the response.

I certainly can wait for Black Friday. How significant are the discounts?

Looking at the spec for the pixel 5 i agree that it seems overpriced, by about £200 in my humble opinion!

The Sony looks like a dream, but £799 is steep.

I saw that the oneplus 8T was being advertised. It looks like a good deal at around £550. Does anyone have any experience or views on this phone?
 
Your headphone jack requirement is going to limit your choice somewhat or at least, you're going to have to concede on your other requirements.

For example, the Pixel line could be right up your street in terms of no bloat, great camera performance, 5G, wireless charging and solid battery life but it doesn't have a headphone jack.

There is the Pixel 4a 5G that has the headphone jack but if I'm not mistaken, doesn't have an official IP rating or wireless charging, but does have good battery life according to The Verge review at least.

OnePlus doesn't have the best cameras around but I'm guessing they'll be an improvement over the Galaxy S8. Plus you might be able to find a Gcam camera that installs without root so you can get better photos, as usually its the computational photography that lets OnePlus down.
 
Head phone jacks are rare now, you'll have to probably get an adaptor or limit your self to a handful of phones.

I know you said no samsung but newer samsungs are quite a step from S8, One UI OS much cleaner now, plus 3 yrs support, they will give you £200 trade in for your s8, s20 5G FE edition would be <500 quid plus you could also reduce by 5% quidco and another 5% you use samsung pay, so potentially ~450, seems decent for the money, its only 10mm taller and 5mm wider than the s8.
 
Yes, I went to look at one in an o2 store today. It looks great and so smooth when I was playing around on it. Sadly it was fixed so couldn't handle it or test the camera.

I have 2 concerns.

- The price!
- and I've heard that the screen brightness is poor in outdoor conditions.
 
If you liked the 5ii in the hand, then it's the phone for you. It's really well reviewed and you'll either have to bite the bullet and pay the price, or hang on and see what the sales bring.

And yes its max brightness is not great. Winter is nearly here so it's not likely to be an issue for months and then ask yourself how often you use your phone in direct sunlight.
 
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