Phones are expensive

D

Dogwhisperer

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Flagships are really expensive, so do you buy a mid range, or a 2nd hand flagship, or a new sealed from a 3rd party dealer?
 
Dogwhisperer said:
ive found midrange phones slow.. online you can get S10's or S10e's at a substantial discount from 3rd party dealers
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What midrange have you been buying? I like the Nokia range because of Android One: https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_za/all-phones
Note that they had new phones announced end of September, they're launching now. I've only read the 7.2 review, seems like a meh upgrade on the 7 Plus due to the price.

Reviews complaining about the 660, note that it definitely is fast enough for general use, if you're gaming that's a different use case.

Xiaomi with Android One is good, just all grey imports so no warranty, which is why I stuck to Nokia (I have the 7 Plus, but not sure I'd recommend it if you're keeping it over 2 years about as Android One is 3 years of security patches, so March 2018+3 = March 2021, but 2 years of major OS patches which means Android 10 could be the final update, but note that the bootloader is unlocked since March and it has Trebble support, so good chance LineageOS but no one will work on it until HMD drops support).

As an aside, I've actually found the S10e slightly slow and power hungry, think it's because Exynos variant. The new Exynos chip (990) that got announced is pretty meh.
 
Went from S7E to A30

No lag or other issues on the A30 that I have noticed but do prefer the S7 Camera.
 
Bought 2 flagships from people on this forum. Kept them both for years.
 
maumau said:
Bought 2 flagships from people on this forum. Kept them both for years.
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considering the normal pricing, and contracts being a rip, this is a good option

though the amount of people selling contract phones, then stop paying, doesnt these phones get blacklisted ?
 
Indeed, flagships are a whole rental deposit.
Came from iPhone, now using LG, will probably downgrade to a cheaper device next year.
 
Mid-range OR last year's flagship at a discount.

Locally available mid-rangers to consider:

Galaxy A50
P30 Lite
Nokia 6.x or 7.x

Flagships:

The s9's were going cheap from Telkom on contract. Not sure if still available

The LG G7 is also going cheap (R299 from vodacom last time i checked). Its a great phone but if you like to get regular updates you'll be disapointed by LG.
It will probably get android 10 a month after 11 gets released
 
Dogwhisperer said:
considering the normal pricing, and contracts being a rip, this is a good option

though the amount of people selling contract phones, then stop paying, doesnt these phones get blacklisted ?
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That would be an option actually :eek:

Fortunately both people I bought from are regular forum members and had paid cash. They supplied invoice etc so guarantee was still valid.
 
There are some good Chinese brands and they are cheap. Cheap enough that you can get a new phone every year, so mid specs are fine. Those guys spending R20K on a stonking phone today but have a sad looking phone in 2 years time. Rather have a nice phone all the time and only spend a third of that in 2 years.
 
Dairyfarmer said:
There are some good Chinese brands and they are cheap. Cheap enough that you can get a new phone every year, so mid specs are fine. Those guys spending R20K on a stonking phone today but have a sad looking phone in 2 years time. Rather have a nice phone all the time and only spend a third of that in 2 years.
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problem with chinese brands, is most contain some form of malware. I wouldnt trust Xiaomi and the likes. Even oneplus is borderline.
 
I am fine so far with getting flagships on contract, but I do agree the cost has gone up significantly vs. the Samsung Galaxy S2 days. I very nearly got an iPhone XS Max 512GB in May but I simply could not justify the extra over the 256GB as I already had an iCloud account with 200GB, so I went with the 256GB variant and to my surprise have got nowhere near to filling it up.

Dogwhisperer said:
considering the normal pricing, and contracts being a rip, this is a good option

though the amount of people selling contract phones, then stop paying, doesnt these phones get blacklisted ?
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Someone had this exact issue I believe with the Galaxy Note8 around here a about a year ago. Bought it from someone, used it for a while and then that person stopped paying their contract and suddenly the forum user had a paperweight in their hands.

Not at all an ideal situation, it’s what makes me weary about buying phones that are used.
 
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Dogwhisperer said:
problem with chinese brands, is most contain some form of malware. I wouldnt trust Xiaomi and the likes. Even oneplus is borderline.
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backstreetboy said:
Xiaomi is just filled with ads but they're reportedly stopping that with Miui 11. I only know of Doogee phones having had malware.
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I use Doogee phones and there is no malware. The earlier models did have some apps pre installed that contained ad ware. The last few years they have come with very minimal apps installed.
 
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