Android for an older fella <$500

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Davout

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Topic # 226167 23-Dec-2017 16:26

I was thinking about getting my mum's partner a nice phone for Christmas.

Something simple for a non tech person to use with a reasonably large screen. Water resistance is a big plus.

I think he is with Vodafone, but something that can also work with other carriers would be great. I'm willing to stretch the budget a bit for something cool.

Linux

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Reply # 1924187 23-Dec-2017 16:27

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Samsung A3 or A5

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Ex JohnR VodafoneNZ 17 years 4 days

mattwnz

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Reply # 1924233 23-Dec-2017 18:50

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Have a look at the nokia 5 (or 6). Very durable and strong, run almost pure android, and a finger print scanner, and mainly all glass and metal build. I have been trialing a 5 for the last month, and very impressed for what it is. Also was only about $230sh on sale and price matching. Only downside is the 16GB of storage, but you can buy a card for it. But if you want something a bit more powerful, then one of the mid range samsungs maybe an option, but I personally like the more pure android experience.

The other phone at the $500 price range (although more than double the price of the nokia 5 on special) is the iphone 6, but it is now a 3+ years old, and probably won't get ios updates beyond the next big release, so I probably wouldn't get it due to it's age. The old iphones that are 3+ also seem to get a lot slower on newer ios versions, my iphone 5S which is only 18 months old from new, has been turned into a dog by ios11, and is so slow it makes me want to upgrade. If buying an iphone, the 6s maybe the better one, and it still has the headphone jack, but it is beyond your budget at the moment. SUspect next year they will drop it down to the $500 mark.

Davout

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Reply # 1924240 23-Dec-2017 19:35

mattwnz:

my iphone 5S which is only 18 months old from new, has been turned into a dog by ios11, and is so slow it makes me want to upgrade. If buying an iphone, the 6s maybe the better one, and it still has the headphone jack, but it is beyond your budget at the moment. SUspect next year they will drop it down to the $500 mark.

Apple have admitted slowing them down depending on battery status. People are supposedly starting to sue them. https://9to5mac.com/2017/12/20/apple-statement-iphone-performance-battery-age-issues/

I'll look into the Nokias thanks! Liking the 6, will they work on all the networks?

sailedpeep

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Reply # 1924289 23-Dec-2017 21:46

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Plenty of great choices at under $500. I'm not the one to generally recommend Samsung phones; the software layer over Android is pretty heavy and I've seen some which bog down badly.

Personally, I like the Moto G5 series and I'm pretty sure you can get the 'Plus' variants which come with a Snapdragon 600 series chip for under $500 from PB. Very clean software load, and the 600 series chips have excellent battery life v. performance. This website is very good for checking if a specific model of phone is compatible with your network of choice.

If you're staying above the $360 range, it's pretty hard to get a bad phone these days.

lNomNoml

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Reply # 1924331 24-Dec-2017 03:24

Go the Motorola G5s for the partner for $400, it's really amazing value for money and I'm quite impressed with it, it's got a very recent version of Android and will look forward to an update at the start of next year. The big bonus I saw was very little bloatware or customisation it's very near stock Android which will be good for someone who needs it simple.

The Motorola G5 is also a good option for cheaper.

Tinkerisk

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Reply # 1924335 24-Dec-2017 03:49

I would also recommend the Moto G5, G5+ or G5s. Any of them will do the job.

Nope, English isn't my mother tongue. But that's why I'm here.