Hi all :)
I need to replace my Xiaomi Mi 10t Lite 5g, so my wife has agreed to buy me a replacement for Christmas. I’m clueless when it comes to phone chipsets though, so I need some help.
I posted a similar request last year for my wife, and we’re in pretty much the same boat now, so I’ve quoted the relevant part of that post below. The main differences are, she went for a Motorola Moto G85, but I can’t stand the wraparound screen, and if possible, I’d like to get a phone with usb 3 that can potentially act as a desktop replacement and connect to AR glasses, but the last part isn’t important.
The main things she needs are, decent battery life, an SD card, NFC, and more than 64GB of internal storage. If the OS can be changed in the future to get security updates, that would be a bonus. Given the direction that they seem to be going, with collecting data and locking down the bootloader, I’d prefer to move away from Xiaomi if possible.
The catch is though, we’re on a small budget. Thanks to Christmas, we’ve only got around £200 to £250 to spend. If there’s a significant upgrade, we can go to about £300, but that’s a stretch.
I did look at the Poco M6 Pro, the Samsung A55, and the Tecno Spark 20 Pro, which seems to be ridiculously cheap, but don’t know if they’re still considered decent.
Thanks :)
EDIT: Sorry, I forgot this bit. Pixels are no good for me because of the lack of SD card support. I’m regularly in places with no internet connection, so keep my media on my SD card.
Get the A55. It is superior in every way to the 10t lite. The software will be decent considering its samsung.
But, if you want you can check your options on gsmsarena’s phone finder https://m.gsmarena.com/search.php3?nYearMin=2024&nPriceMax=350&nRamMin=6000&nIntMemMin=64000&chkNFC=selected&nBatCapacityMin=4800&idOS=2&idCardslot=1
It is very tempting. The only thing putting me off is that it’s a Samsung, and they seem to be getting worse with regards to advertising and privacy. It’s definitely in the running though :)
Also, thanks for the link, I didn’t realise they had a phone finder :)
A55 is an super midrange smartphone. I have a A22 5G. The software did have bloat but no ads.
Even if the A55 does include some of that. You can install Shizuku, and Canta to remove any unnecessary apps from the phone itself.
Another thing you can do is install PersonalDNSFilter from Fdroid or Playstore to block trackers and ads.
That’s a good point, thanks :)
I use AdGuard at the moment, and one of the Android Debloater scripts, so there’s no reason I couldn’t use them on a new phone :)
Great! I too use Adguard on my phones. But, I suggest a foss DNS filter app to others. Because, not everyone may be comfortable with a paid closed source app.
Believe it or not, I hadn’t actually considered that. I’ve switched to Linux, and FOSS for a lot of other things, but completely forgot about my adblocker. In fairness to them though, I set it up a few years ago, and haven’t had a problem with it, other than when Sky, a British ISP, seemed to restrict traffic to it.