My iphone finally crapped out completely and I need to get a new phone but I really don't want another iphone, I really developed a burning hatred of apple over 7 years with this damn phone. I really don't know much about phones though so I'm looking for suggestions, mostly I just use my phone for text, calls, and youtube so I'm not too concerned about specs or cameras and such.
Xiaomi
Pros: good specs for the price
Cons: could be sanctioned by US like Huawei
Xiaomi's specs for the price make me believe in witchcraft. Idk how they do it but for a phone with almost the same specs as my older £500 galaxy I paid £180. Oh and it's got a bigger screen.
Google is strictly worse than Apple in almost all respects, so get something that will let you install a custom ROM and remove Google from it.
Ironically the Pixel line makes this easiest.
I got a OnePlus N10 5G. Lower end of midrange, Chinese company with no issues getting sold in the US, nice big screen, cheapest 5G phone available. Had it for maybe two months now and pretty happy with it.
they have specific antennae for 4&5g, so check compatibility first.
I'm gonna recommend the Fairphone 4, which is kind of the only android phone that's really designed to be kept for many years in the same way that most people are accustomed to getting long term support coming from Apple devices. Most stop getting updates after 2-3 years and even the second longest lasting, the Pixels only get 3 years of feature updates, and 5 years of security patches.
Fairphone tries to give both feature and security updates for their phones for 5+ years, even if Qualcomm drops support for the chip inside, plus they're designed to be repairable for years to come, so they still manufacture replacement parts for the 5 year old Fairphone 2 as well as their more recent devices. Currently, the Fairphone 4 will be supported with full updates at least to the end of 2025 when Qualcomm drops support, but aims to continue supporting the phone until 2027 and still release updates as far out as Android 14 and 15 which are still a ways away.
They also offered an upgrade path from the Fairphone 3 to the 3+ a year after that device's release, which was a pretty significant camera upgrade, but there's no word if they intend to do that with the 4, so no guarantees of upgrades.
That is unfortunately true, but you should be able to import it into quite a few countries outside of Europe without issue, just check a site like Kimovil to make sure it supports bands that are available in your area. For example, here in Canada, I'd have quite good support with it on Rogers or Vidéotron.
Probably one of the "a" model pixels. Pretty cheap, can be flashed to other OSs, well built and supported. Google's version of android is fantastic and is probably the best user experience I've had on a phone. I've heard bad things about the 5th gen line, so I'd go for a 4a or 6a, whenever that comes out. The one standout feature of the newest model is the dark skin tone image processing which captures people with dark skin tone's faces far better than anything else.
The new Nokia phones (X10 and x20) are pretty good midrangers. Stock android, no bloat, 5G, pretty nice.
If you want a "flagship/high end" experience, the cheapest phones that will get you that is the Samsung Galaxy S20FE, or the S21FE coming in January next year. Or if you are prepared to spend a lot you can get the latest Samsung S21 flagship models. I just think they're way too expensive.
I'd advise against the new Pixel 6 as I've heard they have bad battery life and overheating/thermal throttling.
The Pixel 6 has great battery life, it only drains fast when you use 5g a lot. Which only happens in the canned tests tech reviewers do where they do absurd things like stream 8k video over 5g for hours at a time.
Umidigi Bison is waterproof with a 2 day battery for $150.
https://mobilityarena.com/umidigi-bison/
I really like my Blu unlocked phone. I bought the top model for around $250 a few years ago. I just saw today that it's down to $150 and also, there are other models with a little less storage space for cheaper than that.
Don't let the small price tag fool you. In my experience, these phones hold up really well, they play music good and loud and are really fast. The voice calling isn't the best I've ever heard, but I live in an area with spotty service and rarely use my phone for actually calling people.
