Android phones - old but good vs cheap but new - how do they compare?

[TPMB12]

Just curious about mobile phone improvement over the years. Assuming you get new phones every 2 years how do they compare? Say a decent £500 phone that's 2 years old versus a £100 new model or even a £150 new model released 2 years later?

What about 3 or 4 years old phones? How much has mobile phone technology improved?

Reason being I have a personal samsung A70 and I've been told to buy a replacement for an iPhone 5s so I'm getting an android phone. Budget is vague one to two hundred but with the impression they don't want to spend much. It's for work use and mostly camera use but with some phone use.

As I'm usually happy with my personal phone camera as it ages I start to think it's not actually that good. I had a galaxy s2 which had a good camera for its day then LG g2 also good for it's day but now they'll be considered no good. Hence my query.

TL:DR
If a 5s or A70 was once considered OK would I find a newer but lot cheaper phone equivalent or better?  Say sub £100 realme or redmi?

[Feanor]

Main issue I have with older phones and tablets is that they end up with a frozen in time Android version.
Then modern aps get mardy and won't run.
The SONOS app won't run on my tablet, for example.

Then you have to play around with installing your own Android version, which maybe beyond most people.

[rusky]

Main issue I have with older phones and tablets is that they end up with a frozen in time Android version.
Then modern aps get mardy and won't run.
The SONOS app won't run on my tablet, for example.

Then you have to play around with installing your own Android version, which maybe beyond most people.

This is the main issue. At 3-4 years old, you're probably going to be 1 or 2 android releases behind.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 that's 6 years old. Nothing wrong with it but it's stuck on Android 7 so 4 versions out of date. It still runs better than the Moto G6 power or Galaxy A20e that are only 2 years old but there are apps that aren't supported.

[Polar Bear]

I know of a couple of users of Samsung Galaxy S7 phones which are now at least five years old.  They seem to be fine for now.  I have an S9 which is still very competent but could do with a replacement battery.

If your needs are for basic phone plus photo purposes and you aren't needing it to be a web browsing, game playing device these phones still work well. 

[MikeFromLFE]

If your needs are for basic phone plus photo purposes and you aren't needing it to be a web browsing, game playing device these phones still work well.

Indeed. I use an older Motorola phone as a bedside clock / podcast player / radio. The two issues are the OS won't allow newer apps, and the battery doesn't hold a lot of charge.

[T42]

[TPMB12]

Just a camera I can get texts and calls on. Main use is cavers
Camera then texts. Very little browsing done but that's possibly down to the tiny iPhone screen
Never understood why apple resisted the screen size increase  until quite late to the party.

I was thinking that battery and OS support has a lot to answer for. So many good enough phones bricked because of non-replaceable batteries and unsupported/out of date OS and manufacturers skin. My old galaxy s2 got to 2 or 3 years then the battery caused issues. I replaced it and got another 2 or 3 years. The phone was still good enough for my needs. Afaik the phone was still supported as I updated twice iirc. I only replaced because I wanted something new not needed to.

[Ham]

Many of the issues described are why I am a Google phone fanboi, although I have rarely taken full advantage of the additional service life from updates, the photo quality has always been a strong point especially in bangs for bucks. The lack of manufacturer overlay to the Android experience is also something I like. Against that, battery life hasn't always been that great and they are built in with no option for storage upgrade. I have got a couple of Pixels I could sell if anyone would be interested (Pixel 2 and 4, with the 4 being the most interesting @ £75).

[TPMB12]

My first phone was a flip top cover dumb phone given to me
 It called and texted. Then I got an LG touchscreen but not a true smartphone. My first true smartphone came next with my galaxy s2 bigger but 4 2". Then LG g2 at 5.2". Then A70 at 6.7". The LG g2 was very good camera and very pocketable. The A70 can still just pocket in my jeans front pockets but it's a squeeze.

I think 6" or close to it is the best size option but there's not much out there that size with reasonable cameras. I think they miss a trick by focusing on screens for gaming and not pocketability.

[Cudzoziemiec]

My experience was as Feanor and Rusky's. Last year I replaced my seven (possibly eight) year old phone with a new one, mostly because various apps objected to old Android version. Also the battery connection was getting dodgy but the software-android objecting to each other was the main problem.

[Kim]

Then you have to play around with installing your own Android version, which maybe beyond most people.

I've come to the conclusion that life's too short for this sort of thing.  It's not that I'm not technically competent, it's that the learning curve for what you have to do this time round is soul-destroying.  And if you run into problems, your only source of help is from the sort of people who post on mobile phone forums...

[TPMB12]

Then you have to play around with installing your own Android version, which maybe beyond most people.

I've come to the conclusion that life's too short for this sort of thing.  It's not that I'm not technically competent, it's that the learning curve for what you have to do this time round is soul-destroying.  And if you run into problems, your only source of help is from the sort of people who post on mobile phone forums...

Shudders! I've had cause to go there!

[Kim]

Then you have to play around with installing your own Android version, which maybe beyond most people.

I've come to the conclusion that life's too short for this sort of thing.  It's not that I'm not technically competent, it's that the learning curve for what you have to do this time round is soul-destroying.  And if you run into problems, your only source of help is from the sort of people who post on mobile phone forums...

Shudders! I've had cause to go there!

So much techno-joy.  So little understanding...

[TPMB12]

I find some places can be too techy/geeky and as such might know the solution just unless you're like them you might not follow what they're saying. You go there and get told to root it when it turns out a settings option works just fine for your needs. Perhaps that's just my experience. It's why I often prefer advice from people on a cycle forum,  as in not specialist phones or computers.

[DaveReading]

I find some places can be too techy/geeky and as such might know the solution just unless you're like them you might not follow what they're saying. You go there and get told to root it when it turns out a settings option works just fine for your needs. Perhaps that's just my experience. It's why I often prefer advice from people on a cycle forum,  as in not specialist phones or computers.

To be fair, the folks on mobile forums usually give great bike advice.   

[TPMB12]

You could be right. The closer you get to being an expert or specialist in something techie the closer you often get to being inaccessible to the less knowledgeable

[rusky]

Then you have to play around with installing your own Android version, which maybe beyond most people.

I've come to the conclusion that life's too short for this sort of thing.  It's not that I'm not technically competent, it's that the learning curve for what you have to do this time round is soul-destroying.  And if you run into problems, your only source of help is from the sort of people who post on mobile phone forums...

Shudders! I've had cause to go there!

So much techno-joy.  So little understanding...

Custom ROMs seem like a good idea until your mobile banking app wont run on a rooted phone!

[Kim]

I find some places can be too techy/geeky and as such might know the solution just unless you're like them you might not follow what they're saying. You go there and get told to root it when it turns out a settings option works just fine for your needs. Perhaps that's just my experience.

That's not because they're too techy.  It's because most of their technical knowledge is shallow, and they'll jump to suggest whatever cargo-cult solution appeared to work for them without attempting to understand the problem.

I find it infuriating.  Far worse than people with deep understanding of a subject skipping steps in an explanation, because they are at least pointing you in the right direction.

(I appreciate that when you have limited understanding of the subject matter, it can be hard to tell the two apart.)

[hubner]

I'm using, believe or not, a Samsung Galaxy S (now called S1) for calls and texts. I also use some of the stock apps, like music player, calculator, calender. But no internet as the browsers won't load current websites. The battery lasts a few days before needing recharging.

For internet and as a mini computer, I've got a Moto E3 (2016), bought secondhand for about £30. Works well enough for me, the only thing is it takes a few seconds to dispays maps on Osmand maps.

Both of course have replaceable batteries and SD card slots, and headphone sockets.

For a phone that you're going to keep for a long time without spending lot of money, I would say go for a 2-3 year old phone with expandable memory and a removable battery.

I spent quite a lot of time looking for that type of phone and found only Moto phones  had those features, and even then some Moto phones had fixed batteries and memory.