Weekend Open Forum: When buying a new smartphone, what do you value most?

Jos

Posts: 3,073   +97

One of the great things about PCs is that you can configure things like storage, processor, graphics and more when buying a new system — not to mention when building your own. Even with laptops you get a handful of options, but it’s a different story with smartphones, where your choice is usually limited to the amount of storage you want. And given that the idea of modular, upgradeable smartphones never really took off, buying one means you are committing to those specs for at least a year or two.

With that in mind we want to know: when buying a smartphone, which spec of feature do you value the most? There are a few things to consider like build quality, battery life, camera, screen size, operating system, price and so on… but which ones rank higher on your list?

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A good screen, great feel in the hand, and build quality. Then on my last few phones, wireless charging and waterproofing have been day to day changers.
 
Good features at a good price. Device prices need to be reigned in. Its kinda frustrating. Prices for these high end phones are double what they're really worth. We're seeing some pushback. Originally that was the Google Nexus phones but they are getting away from the budget pricing. Now we have Oneplus. They just aren't really having an effect on the big players like apple and google. Anyway, I'll be good with my op3 for awhile. I love my dash charging.
 
why do you want a removable battery ? swap batteries on a daily basis

Sometimes phones lock up, and a hard reset will not work. In this situation, pulling the battery is the only thing to do. If you cannot pull the battery you have to wait for the battery to run dead. I know not everyone has run into it, but I seem to a lot.
 
Fact is, you are not like everyone else. There are removable battery diehards, but most do not use their phones enough, and do not want the hassle of swapping and charging multiple batteries. Most do not keep one phone long enough for the battery to die either. I'd sooner have water proofing.

Nope, everyone wants a removable battery, its a fact.
 
A good camera is a must for me. I don't want to carry around a DSLR all the time but want good pictures. Aside from that, responsiveness and battery life. Expandable storage is nice, but I really don't need it as long as I have 128gb+ storage.
 
I don't know what I really want yet, but April/May is probably going to be a very big month for me regarding my mobile phone... I'm finally done with HTC One M7 and need to get a new phone this year. LG G6, Samsung S7 or S8, Sony Xperia XZ, are all contenders at the moment. I guess the first thing I care about is the size of the phone... I like the size of the One M7 and fit my hand like a glove. Handling someone else's phablets/"Plus" phones is just too big and unwieldy to me.
 
It doesn't have apple or samsung logo and it runs android. Water proofing is nice but so is price. Anything beyond 1080p seems pointless but if it doesn't affect price or battery life I wouldn't care. Mid range will suffice but older premium models are usually best.
 
Low price, unlocked, expandable storage, near stock Android, no bigger than 5". (I already have a tablet; I don't want to carry another one all day and talk into it.) Removable battery is a plus (for hard resets) but I gave on on that a couple of years ago. Regular updates are nice, too, especially security updates.
Basically, I want another pre-Lenovo Moto G. :)
 
Small size. Have recently reluctantly upgraded to a 4" screen Galaxy S4 Mini. Been worth the upgrade from a Galaxy Young 2 to get better performance (the Young is sluggish as hell), but for a device that I mostly use for answering phone calls, I see no reason to stick a heavy, huge box in my pants.
 
Value the most? Excellent camera. Back in 2007 when I got the first Sony Ericsson K800, I practically have better pictures on my hands than some other phones I replaced it with. Went for LG G4 which is great. It's always nice to have your memories or work stuff kept at higher quality. I kinda wished I got the 1020 when it first came out.
 
I want a phone to function properly as a phone. I want it to play nice with a Bluetooth earpiece while I am driving. I want it to recognize the names in my contact list when I speak them. And most of all, I want the damn thing to NOT suddenly dial people on my contact list in the middle of the night when I am asleep.
 
I want to browse the internet, make calls and send texts. I use my phone for work because I have an app for making deliveries, but I probably wouldn't even have one if I didn't need one for work. As long as the phone can do that I'm perfectly happy with whatever it is. I like to read books on the go, but I have a Kindle Paper white. I don't carry my paperwhite everywhere unless I'm going on a trip so if I can do some reading in my down time while I'm working my phone is my go-to reader.

I don't know what to say, smartphones aren't really important to me. I guess battery life? who knows, I really wish that I didn't need one. because of the work that I do I need an android phone and I honestly HATE android. On top of that, I don't want to buy an apple product.
 
Battery longevity is important for me. 3 days is my demand. Second is a good screen with adequate resolution. Third is enough RAM that applications run smoothly. A sensible camera is nice, but does not need to be superb.

And the winner is: Huawei P9 lite. (Octocore, 3 GB Ram, 1080p screen and battery easily lasts 3-4 days)

Got a good deal at my service provider (loyal customer) for the equivalent of US$ 153.
 
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