My galaxy s7's screen is on the way out - half the screen is black.
Its time for me to upgrade. I almost bought an s21 Ultra from mobileciti after reading a few reviews, but something possessed me to have a second look at more reviews.
I had looked previously for reviews on the cameras as this is one of the most important things I'm looking at when I upgrade.
Originally I thought of the s9, then I looked at the note 10+, and from there thought the s20 note ultra would do.. I am not a mobile gamer and don't really watch movies on my phones.
I just want a phone with a camera suitable for the times I cannot carry around my slr with a 500mm lens. Battery life and performance are the second biggest factors.
So just before I went through with the purchase on the s21 ultra, I had a look at productreview.com and realise australians got shafted by the exynos. I have been out of the loop with the problems of all the newer samsung phones. So many crappy phones with poor battery, cameras not focusing, overheating etc etc.
Wow.
What are my options? I've always used android and but since reading a few different phone reviews from people who haven't been paid to review (ACTUAL customers) I don't know what to buy. I am even considering an iphone.
Can we get the snapdragon s20 or s21 series phones anywhere? The zoom and low light capabilities are what I am most concerned about in the phone cameras.
Upgrading a Galaxy S7 - out of Ideas
Comments
I'm really not keen on any of the chinese phones, but I feel like samsung is just crap nowadays. I think I will be compromising one way or another.
why aren't you keen on the chinese phones? Are you afraid they'll have poor camera performance, poor battery or poor performance? You said those three things are your top main considerations when choosing a replacement.
Nope not that. Just unsure with privacy and tracking.. though I've heard it isnt as bad as android phones with google processes running in the background
Camera focus means either a Pixel or iPhone are your key options.
This is what I've been thinking.. its a shame sony isn't as good in their phone department as my slt is sony and I love it.
Sony Experia 1 III.
It's the cameraphone you want.
I want one bad. Too bad they pulled out from the Aussie market.
@TeamSAXON: Not sure if the reason has been made public. I assume the sales weren't good enough.
Looks like it happened in 2019.
https://www.smh.com.au/technology/why-sony-silently-stopped-…
The next Pixel phone is rumoured to be made by Samsung, so perhaps that?
Also frankly I didn't have any issues with my Galaxy S10 Plus, though, I might have been lucky and I tend to do all sort of optimisation stuff for fun.
My wife's S10e has gotten slightly slow, had to turn down on the animations and stuff.
Though knowing my wife, her phone probably has bunch of crap apps that I don't want to know about.When is that coming? I really can't wait much longer, my current phone is hardly usable :(
I have heard October or September.
While Exynos probably isn't the best, your priority isn't performance as you said.
Likely chances are, anywhere that allows people to vent, like productreview.com, will always be filled with people who had a bad experience, because who would go all the way there and write good things about a product.Another thing you could possibly do is get your phone repaired, hold for little longer? That could be an option. Wait and see how the new Pixel turns out, and grab the phones then?
I think repairs might be hard as we're now in semi lockdown conditions. I'll be thinking about it though
@TeamSAXON: Send a message to Samsung and go from there I'd like to say.
It was not during the lockdown period, but getting the phone repaired via mailing it wasn't that difficult, so hopefully that procedure haven't changed much.
Basically, talk with them, get them to give you a slip, take the slip to the post office (which might be bit difficult with the lockdown, check with your restrictions), they give you a padded bag to put the phone in.
No phone camera is going to take anything usable at 500mm zoom levels.
Obviously I know that, I just want something good enough to use while I dont have my camera for birds etc
Sony Xperia 1 III ?
have been considering that one
Not worth messing around imo, just get a pixel if camera is your priority.
I upgrade from 7 to s8+ years ago and I thought the bigger screen - narrow frame is a game changer. love it. Recently change to S10+ - feels almost the same but a lot faster. I bought a refurbished one from green gadget. If you bought direct with them sign up for their newsletter to get 10% off.
Samsung A52
You gan snapdragon version via eBay or somewhere, mostly coming from China.
But warranty might be a bit tricky, and the phones are usually ineligible for Samsung trade up.Samsung Galaxy S21 FE will be coming out soon.
Pixel 5 is best option for your needs except for smaller battery capacity. But, it has smart battery management and quick charging.
You can look at Oppo Find X3 Neo. Fits your requirements perfectly. Look out for deals. It is available cheap most of the times.
Coming from a s7, any mid tier or top tier phone will be a upgrade regardless. Light years ahead. I had a s7 5-6 phones ago. The Huawei mate 20 was a good phone for me but work ended up banning Chinese phones (Huawei) so had to change.
Exynos was an issue in the s20 series and less so in the s21. Battery life was the main concern and the s21 ultra is one of the best for battery life for me. I'm a photographer as well and the s21 ultra won't disappoint. I would tame the expectations of the 100x zoom or any of the zooms. It's not going to be good enough for bird photography but if you needed to read a sign far away it's useful. I wouldn't bother using the zoom other than a gimmick.to be honest, the Chinese phones technically may have better cameras but lack of Google on huawei makes it a no go.
If you're willing to wait and see, the Samsung flip and folds are coming out soon but will be at a premium.
I wouldn't pay more than 1.5k for the s21 ultra at the moment as at launch, there were plans to get it close at 500 of rrp.
One thing I forgot about is that the s21 has no expandable memory - thats a big minus for me unfortunately
Doesn't bother me. I went with the 512gb s21 ultra. More than enough.
Think as time passed, people will just get used to:
- no headphone jack
- no sd cardhave you had any of the issues such as overheating?
I went from an s9+ to a s21+ and the improvement is quite noticeable. Camera is also a step up from what was already a pretty impressive camera in the s9+.
If you don't want to cash out on a Samsung, then Oppo is the way to go for a camera phone IMO.
If you haven't, check them out.