What cell phone should I get?

[cantunamunch]

Can't you just buy a phone outright and subscrbe to a SIM/virtual SIM carrier deal?

You can but you'll have to get the international version. Which means it will be more expensive up front, have chancy carrier compatibility and every so often will fail to be recognised by the network as having a SIM at all.

https://bestxiaomiproducts.com/do-xiaomi-phones-work-in-usa/

I went through this with OnePlus before T-mob picked them up as an in-store brand. One of the nice things about getting the international version is that the carrier doesn't load their bloatware crap onto the phone. BUT each OS update was a *fingers crossed* experience and while the phones worked great in TX and CO and Canada, the phones didn't work at all in New England ski country, basically turning into WiFi tablets.

Regardless just checked the Xiaomi US site and while they'll sell you everything from a e scooter to an air purifer to earbuds to precision screwdrivers they don't seem to have phones on there.

Oh, they're very much an IoT brand.

So maybe a legacy from Trump's war on Huawei?

Nah. Legacy from US mobile phone adoption and business patterns.

 

[fatbob]

Useful article. I've sometimes toyed with buying a prepay SIM for when I'm in the US for data mainly but because of network band hassle never actually got round to it relying on wifi and whatsapp calling. Would be nice sometimes to have service on the hill (I mean I always have roaming calls available on my home contract) or to run nav when driving without having to first download routes at a coffee shop.

 

[cantunamunch]

Would be nice sometimes to have service on the hill (I mean I always have roaming calls available on my home contract) or to run nav when driving without having to first download routes at a coffee shop.

No doubt. That's why I originally went with a OnePlus dual-SIM phone, one for the home contract and one pre-pay.

It worked - after its own fashion - until the phone bricked during an OS update.

 

[Tricia]

Can't you just buy a phone outright and subscrbe to a SIM/virtual SIM carrier deal? Regardless just checked the Xiaomi US site and while they'll sell you everything from a e scooter to an air purifer to earbuds to precision screwdrivers they don't seem to have phones on there. So maybe a legacy from Trump's war on Huawei?

I recently switched carriers. I didn't think I could without getting a new phone but when I reached out to the new carrier I'm using to ask about it they walked me through the steps to pull out the old sim card and reconnect via e-sim. I can go to the new carrier location and get an actual sim card installed, but for now its working fine.

I do, however wonder if there are limitations to e-sim, and perhaps I should make the trip to the carrier to get an actual sim card.

 

[wooglin]

I've got a Google Pixel. A 7 I think. Like most current phones, its just a little too big for confident one handed operation. Taking a photo while riding a bike, for example. The thumbprint recognition helps. Good camera though.

I aspire to a Light Phone. No camera at all.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I'm leaning pretty hard to a Google 7 Pro (used) for $442 on ebay. The feature I like that makes me consider it over a 6a is the optical zoom. That is the one feature that I've really been missing on my phones. Apart from the used part and the minor display blemish (that is likely the reason for this one being returned) are there any reasons for not going with it?

Thanks for all the input. As usual, skitalkers come through with the info.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I've got a Google Pixel. A 7 I think. Like most current phones, its just a little too big for confident one handed operation. Taking a photo while riding a bike, for example. The thumbprint recognition helps. Good camera though.

I aspire to a Light Phone. No camera at all.

I don't need to use a phone while I'm biking or skiing. I'll stop for my photo ops. I just one-hand while driving.

JK

 

[Sibhusky]

Another Pixel user here, went from a 3A XL to a 7A. I use the camera plenty, but still think my actual camera takes far better pictures. Fortunately many of the cool Pixel photography edits apply to pics I transfer from my camera. I'm very much a believer that as phone should be a phone. This 7A has less battery life than the 3A did, in spite of turning off 5G (I'm barely in that service area) and the 90 MHz refresh rate. (Yes, it's nice, but really, do I need that?) There were zero issues with the first one, except there were no more security updates and I was running out of storage. It was a seamless transition.

The reason I like Pixel is the plain vanilla Android. My Samsung tablet has a ton of real estate used up by their apps, most of which I removed, but there's still a ton of them that you can't.

Because I'm a Google Fi user, I got this new phone for $250 after service credits and without trading in the old phone on the first day it was released.

 

[raytseng]

I'm leaning pretty hard to a Google 7 Pro (used) for $442 on ebay. The feature I like that makes me consider it over a 6a is the optical zoom. That is the one feature that I've really been missing on my phones. Apart from the used part and the minor display blemish (that is likely the reason for this one being returned) are there any reasons for not going with it?

Thanks for all the input. As usual, skitalkers come through with the info.

I've got a google pixel 7 (nonpro) bought retail from google when it released.

In general, the pixel phones work fine and have the first updates for newest android and google features.
You should be aware they can have a tendency to be a bit quirky. Such as apps or the browser randomly exiting and or freezing up or just turning laggy or unpredictable for a moment. The frequency of these quirks is small so it is only a minor inconvenience, but it is just really noticeable when it does quirk out.
I think people chalk it up to google trying hard to demonstrate that the latest android platform will work on medium priced hardware vs Samsung Galaxy running premium hardware with older and tuned OS

Other things to point out: my understanding is the fingerprint unlock only uses only a cheap sensor and does not have a better fingerprint sensor, so it does not work well at all for me. Battery life and drain is good, but not excellent (obviously depending on usage as well as esoteric settings).

If primary purpose though is for photos, that should be excellent choice; it's well praised for photo output. I think though that getting excellent photos might depend just as much on the skill of the photographer + learning all the photography features in the camera app; vs only the device hardware.
But even with my lack of photography skills it does pretty good with me just using the default/auto.


I think the only other advice I'd add is purchase timing. The Google pixel 8 may drop in the fall so news should be coming out very soon, rumors speculate early october
If you can wait, there will be closeouts on the Pixel 7 and clearing out the old models for the new. The price cuts may start even just at annoucement and before the pixel8 release date. If you can even hold out even later until say Black Friday, there will be sure to be a deal then.

 

[Sibhusky]

I don't have as many fingerprint issues with the touchscreen as I did with the sensor on the back of the 3A XL. I just registered multiple times with my thumb and then two other fingers. Occasionally I'll delete one of them and redo it. Since I'm old, my fingerprints are supposedly harder to read -- worn off and dry skin. My biggest adjustment was holding the finger longer on the touchscreen than I had to with the sensor.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I believe the 7 pro has face recognition which I like on my current Moto. I do use fingerprint often and will have to consider the sensor location. My Moto's sensor is on the side for easy one handed unlocking.

 

[raytseng]

I believe the 7 pro has face recognition which I like on my current Moto. I do use fingerprint often and will have to consider the sensor location. My Moto's sensor is on the side for easy one handed unlocking.

Info here on the fingerprint, I guess my fingerprint ridges are just not very optically sensible, (compared to my 3 previous galaxies devices that worked well.

https://www.androidpolice.com/google-pixel-fingerprint-scanner-problems-workaround/

The problem is the unreliability. Even if it ends up eventually works 60% of the time, one gets very frustrated when it doesn't read, so you just get trained to enter pin or unlock code and avoid the path of frustration.

Face recognition works, but won't unlock with sunglasses, goggles, or facemask. The esoteric options to keep unlocked when paired or in certain areas are also hit or miss.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Info here on the fingerprint, I guess my fingerprint ridges are just not very optically sensible, (compared to my 3 previous galaxies devices that worked well.

https://www.androidpolice.com/google-pixel-fingerprint-scanner-problems-workaround/

The problem is the unreliability. Even if it ends up eventually works 60% of the time, one gets very frustrated when it doesn't read, so you just get trained to enter pin or unlock code and avoid the path of frustration.

Face recognition works, but won't unlock with sunglasses, goggles, or facemask. The esoteric options to keep unlocked when paired or in certain areas are also hit or miss.

Thanks. Those are all issues with my current phone although fingerprint is probably 80 - 90 % responsive. So most of these issues are just steps sideways, not backwards.

 

[wooglin]

I don't need to use a phone while I'm biking or skiing. I'll stop for my photo ops. I just one-hand while driving.

JK

Skiing my phone stays zipped in my pocket unless I’m at a complete stop. Don’t even touch it on the lift. Too many other things to juggle.

 

[cantunamunch]

Why, why, why doesn't someone invent a camera flask?

 

[Doug Briggs]

My Google Pixel 7 Pro 12 GB RAM, 128GB storage, arrived yesterday. I set it up last night and was pleased with the Verizon (IIRC) migration tool. All (that I wanted copied) of my data, accounts and apps were copied quickly with a USB cable. The process was much easier than I expected; I had low expectations. I still had to set up the apps that needed setting up. It all went pretty smoothly.

Thanks for all the help, everyone.

BTW, I bought it on ebay for $450, open box. I bought the $50 1 year warranty to make up for the lack of manufacturers warranty. $550 with taxes was about $150 (without taxes, almost 9%!) less than the cheapest new unit.

So far . The camera, in very limited use, is really sharp and nice.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Samples of my field testing the camera.

Photo Sphere mode (full size)

About 4x optical zoom (full size)

No Zoom, just challenging light and focus (full size)

I opened the photo actual size on my PC then did a capture of some of the detail.