3 reasons you should buy a cheap Android phone this October, November, December

3 reasons you should buy a cheap Android phone this October
PCWorld
Published on Sep 26, 2018
Michael Simon is back for another episode of Android Confidential - featuring hot takes, first looks, all Android. Here Mike tells us why you might want to consider a cheaper phone this fall rather than the Google Pixel 3, LG V40, or Huawei Mate 20.

 

Agreed. 100%. The mid rangers now are so good, I would not buy a flagship unless I was gaming ALOT. For most mundane tasks we do on our phones, a mid ranger kills it now. Most times with better battery life since its not pushing stupid high res screens and more un-needed powerful chips.

 

I think last year flagships are also a good option.

 

Depending on your usage, the flagship phones for the last 3+ years would work fine for most people.

It's ridiculous to spend $1k+ on a new phone when there are so many 2-3 generation brand new phones still available, or save even more $ and get a used / refurbished phone - carriers have been providing those for quite a while as an alternative to expensive 1st generation smartphones; basically free flagship phones.

I'm not saying the $1k+ top phones aren't for many people, for others then it's more of a passionate hobbyist need than a pure technical or functional need driving purchases, when that money can be applied in a more judicious way.

Remember, when you buy those expensive phones and show them off to others, you may induce some to overstretch their own means to play " keeping up with the Jone's" as it used to be called.

If you are a judicious shopper for food and essentials, there is no reason to act differently when it comes to high tech equipment.

 

My choices are the LG Q stylo + for a galaxy note alternative. 90 percent of the functionality less than 1/2 the cost. and for a sweet, well designed, modern mid ranger, the new nokia 7.1 in steel grey/rose gold is a real winner!

 

I like Xiaomi Mi Max 3 because 7", good (but not great) all around, and my favourite ROM developer moved to it; I also like physically smaller & cheaper Redmi Note 6 Pro despite worse camera since I hope with Google HDR+ port I won't notice the difference. But they both have 802.11ac obviously, while I'll be upgrading my other devices to 802.11ax as soon as it becomes mainstream, or maybe even earlier... So I'm hesitant even to pay $200-$300 for one of these phones, let alone more for some flagship which will become obsolete in a half a year or so. \=

 

I would buy the P20 Pro hands down before the samsung. The camera alone is worth the price of admission there! Then you have the awesome color choices etc. Just an overall better device.

 

If someone wants to blow money just because someone else has an expensive thing, that’s their choice.

It’s a dumb choice, but their choice. Not the fault of the person who already owns the expensive thing.

 

You are forgetting about the "Dumb and Dumber" effect, perhaps better known as " Monkey See, Monkey Do".

It's a well established model of behavior, from well before human evolution brought us here today, and most certainly plays a central role in the social behavior of purchases in the technology world.

Watching others is how we learn, which is why it is important to do as you say, and as parents to know our children are modeling their behavior on our behavior, as well as others:

For The Children's Sake, Put Down That Smartphone

Why Do We Say "Monkey See, Monkey Do"?

 

Welp, I guess I need to start removing some friends off of Facebook and blocking out my windows. Don't want them to force me to buy something expensive.

 

The video is so right I especially don't see what the heck is up with people's obsession with GeekBench scores on a phone. I buy a phone to use Whatsapp to cha with my family/friends, take a few photos every one in a while and make calls. I don't need a super fast CPU to benchmark or edit videos on my phone. I'd never even wanna play a game on my phone I have no time for this BS small screen gaming. If I wanna game, it's on my taptop or I won't do it

 

Agreed. I use my phone for stuff, not gaming, not benchmarking just stuff. No need for a super powerful processor etc for the everyday stuff.

 

Tablets are awesome because reading magazines and books on any sized smart phone is a terrible expereince. I even had reading news headlines on my iPhone. Sit down in the evenings with my ipad and read away. Different tools for different jobs. I am invested into the apple mobile ecosystem, I think at this time it has the best all round setup. The ipad, iphone and watch all work great together, and they have decent integration with windows 10 which is a nice feature now thanks to dell.

 

I understand the argument against paying full price for flagships each year (especially with the rise of midrangers) but to play devil's advocate, there are people who use their phone at least 3 hours a day so for them, paying a premium on what could be considered a "new coat of paint" is worth it to them. Especially since it's practically a (whether they realize it or not) big part of a their life.

 

Hell no, I use my phone more than that and I like the familiar face of it for years, love it in fact, I miss my old phones when I change them out every 3-5 years. I still gottem here and use'em on Wifi from time to time.

Screw wasting money, wipe the damn phone off - clean it and polish it up, and keep the money in your pocket.

 

While I’m not really a big fan of expensive phones, idk if I’d say that it’s a waste of money for everyone. As jedi commented, those who value the phone enough to justify the purchase price aren’t “wasting” their money any more than someone “wasting” their money buying expensive versions of other things, even if that value might be partly/fully subjective.