cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/310837

All the guides I’ve seen are like “check out this budget phone for $350, it has five cameras”

I only need one camera and it just has to be good enough to take pictures of documents while still being readable.

Android 12

Like 16gb storage minimum. 2gb ram minimum.

Most phones seem to be way over those specs knocking up price. A bunch that r more affordable don’t go up to Android 12. I assume Android 12 is important so I don’t get hacked when I’m trying to do banking on my phone on unsecured public Wi-Fi (which is where I do all my banking :( )

  • MrGamingHimself@lemmy.ml
    5·
    2 years ago

    Depends on how much you care about privacy. There are a lot of not bad chinese phones in the low/medium price range. Realme phones are pretty good for the price. Samsung a52 and a52s are pretty good as well though a bit more expensive. Both of these have great cameras. I would recommend a phone that is at least 6gb of ram though, 4 is way too low these days.

    • sascuach@lemmy.mlOP
      1·
      2 years ago

      I would recommend a phone that is at least 6gb of ram though, 4 is way too low these days.

      You’ll never guess how much ram i have on my laptop lmao!

      4gb. and i have 2gb on my phone.

      Why do you think i should get 6gb? Makes my apps run slower?

      • MrGamingHimself@lemmy.ml
        1·
        2 years ago

        Why do you think i should get 6gb? Makes my apps run slower?

        Yeah, having low ram makes your phone slower in general. Newer versions of Android use a lot of ram, so if you get 4gb your phone can be choppy and it’ll only get worse over time. Best to get 6gb or preferably 8gb if you want to be using your phone for years to come.

    • sascuach@lemmy.mlOP
      31·
      2 years ago

      I got my current phone 16gb storage, 2gb ram, 1 camera for 100$ new. Android 10 though. Getting pretty slow and glitchy.

      So 100$ budget, but accounting for inflation since then I guess like 120$ budget

      There’s a crosspost button btw.

      I used it for this post :p

  • poVoq@lemmy.ml
    3·
    2 years ago

    Look for an older used device with LinageOS support and replace the battery if needed. The originally higher priced devices from 2-3 generations ago still easily beat the cheap new ones.

    • Helix 🧬@feddit.de
      3·
      2 years ago

      If you can even replace the battery without damaging the device, that is. Look at a teardown first, e.g. on ifixit or youtube.

  • Zerush@lemmy.ml
    3·
    2 years ago

    I have an old Alcatel 1c. 1 Gb RAM. Little thing, but enough for what I use it, surfing the web, calling, receiving messages and the occasional F-Droid FOSS games, it even has a camera with flash, which makes quite acceptable photos. It cost me in a mall 3 years ago €45 and works well to this day, no problems. In any case, I have seen in general in Alcatel a robust mobile with a very good performance and price ratio.

    • sascuach@lemmy.mlOP
      1·
      2 years ago

      Alcatel a robust mobile with a very good performance and price ratio.

      Yeah thats what i noticed too! Like no where sells them online or smthg, i see lots of samsungs and whatnot on amazon/ebay but very few alcatels. Walmart/a few other brick&mortar store’s website sucks tho

      • Zerush@lemmy.ml
        1·
        2 years ago

        In the mall where I bought it, it was also well hidden under the much more expensive Samsungs and others. I think that, because they are so cheap, they do not offer much profit margin. Online is usually only found on the Alcatel pagehttps://www.alcatelmobile.com) itself, at least from what I found online.