I’ve been using my current phone for about 7 years now and it’s well behind on updates and starting to fail in minor but foreboding ways so I’m looking to get a new one and was hoping people here could help me with my indecisiveness.
My greatest requirement is long term support, which immediately puts Google and Samsung at the top of the pack (Fairphone, I see you but you just aren’t supported well in Canada as far as I can tell).
My other biggest interests are display quality, battery life, and customizability. I like the 6.2"-6.3" screen size that both the Pixel 10 and S25 fall in.
I don’t care overly much about the camera beyond quite casual use and I don’t care about gaming on it at all. I don’t plan to use Graphene OS.
Given these preferences do people think one phone comes out over the other? I keep waffling back and forth. I’m also happy to hear about other android models too if someone thinks one fits the bill better that I’m unaware of.
I used my old budget phone (Moto G4 from 2016) for 7+ years until the hardware was falling apart, and the CPU and ram were way behind current requirements. I upgraded to a new budget phone (Moto G Stylus 5G 2023) in late 2023 and am using it now and I’m sure it will be fine for another couple years despite no more major OS upgrades, just security patches (it’s on Android 14 forever now).
If it were me I’m sure I’d stay with this approach instead of buying a more expensive and invasive phone just for the sake of a few more OS upgrades, especially since upgrades more and more mean regressions these days. That is, the new versions have more AI so they are worse than the old ones.
The main attraction from my perspective of the Pixel 9 and 10 is satellite messaging, which can be handy when there is no cell coverage. IDK if the S25 has that. If not, that would be the deciding factor between them for me. I expect that the feature will make its way into midrange and budget phones after a while, so I plan to keep my current phone at least til then.
Some things I like about the low end Motos: 1) SD card slot and 3.5mm headphone jack, and 2) relatively easy to replace the battery. The battery replaceability in particular potentially gives a longer lasting phone than the Samsung and Pixel’s longer software maintenance does.
It’s possible that the easier battery replacement has something to do with lack of wireless charging (a nice feature but I don’t miss it that much). Since some newer Motos do have wireless charging, the battery replacement advantage may have gone away in them.