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I’ve had a Nothing Phone 3 for just over a month running google-free (mostly FOSS apps or loading from Aurora, F-Droid etc) and I love it. Easily the best camera on a phone I have ever owned.
Buy whatever and flash grapheneOS on it.
No phone could ever be worth more than $200. Change my mind.
You must be good at eyeing deals in the used market.
No. In the big chain store right across the road from me, there’s a bunch of brand new Xiaomis, Realmes, Samsungs and Motorollas for as low as $70. Admittedly the cheapest ones are a complete e-waste, but the ones in $150-200 range are perfectly capable of doing anything you’d need a phone to do for the next 3-5 years. Phones have became an appliance these days, you don’t really need to buy the best microwave in the market every year, just buy the second cheapest when previous breaks after a decade and it’ll be just as fine. Same with phones, the only real differences I see in top-end vs budget phones is like just a slightly faster cpu, slightly better displays, slightly better cameras and wireless charging. But that’s to me sounds like a 900W microwave with moisture sensor and app control versus a 800W one without any any of that, but at 4X the price difference.
This of course doesn’t apply if you’re like playing competitive Fortnite or PUBG on the phone or something, to which I would say: 1) WHY? get a console, ffs, or better yet, a proper gaming pc, and 2) you’re not really buying a phone at this point, but a handheld console that just happens to fill that role as well. Same goes if you buy Apple for things locked in their ecosystem.
PS. And yeah, nothing of it has any relation to Europe, it just happens that 3 out of 4 phones in that image are way overpriced for what they’re worth.
If you need a basic smartphone and aren’t too picky, then you can get unlocked new for that.
A fair number of Moto G models go unlocked, new for under $200.
Let’s not forget Crosscall. It’s a french brand specializing in durable phones designed for outdoor.
I have a nothing phone 3 and very happy with it, it does everything you really want a smartphone to do, and looks stylish (imo) and has a really slick UI.
Downsides are camera is not good in low light and they push the AI stuff too hard.
And I’m not sure it quite justified the price tags when comparing it to Chinese or Samsung phones at a similar spec, but it’s not way off and for me was easy to justify a slightly higher price tag for a British based design company and better repairability/rights as well as some cool features and looks.
But the price point is the one thing all these 3rd party phones suffer from, you either have to make a proper budget phone, or try and make a flagship, but will cost 20% more than a Samsung because of scale costs.
If I did Not pick Up a Pixel for gOS, I’d be down.
I’m Just wondering how Long Google will keep the fence down for this. Kinda worried.
I got a refurbished pixel for gOS, but I keep procrastinating installing it 😭.
barely have the time
Yo. Take a short while. The Installation is actually very simple and I have been surprised how fast I was actually done
the only problem I have is that I cannot install my banking app 🫤
to add another (german) brand: https://www.shift.eco/
I had the shiftphone6 back in 2018 and I believe it had an alternative OS installed, in any case I can’t remember the google play store pre-installed (correct me if I’m wrong).
