Budget 25-30k Mid range phone - wait or buy now

[mallik]

I have had bad luck with phones recently. Lost the One Plus 6 in the sea in Goa, and now had the LG G8X snatched.

So, I am in the market again for a new phone. I travel a lot, so a smaller, lighter phone would be handy. I had a good experience with G8X, apart from its fingerprint sensor (hit and miss) and perhaps the camera (not bad but not great either), everything else was beyond expectations for me. But I have also been considering the iPhone SE 2020 and the Pixel 4A, for they have great cameras, and I work in travel, where a good camera is a major plus.

So, please help me decide.

Questions:-
1. Budget?
A: INR upto or around 30k

2. Preferred display size, type and resolution?
A: 5-6" , bright screen
3. Preferred operating system? (Android (with version), iOS, Windows Phone etc).
A: Android 11, iOS 14

4. Preferred connectivity options? (4G, 3G, 2G etc).
A: 4G good enough. 5G would be an added benefit, but not necessary

5. Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them.
A: don't know. Have a Realms X2 pro which my girlfriend is using and loves. So, open to options if build and camera are good.

6. What is your intended use for this phone (internet, camera, multimedia, mails etc.)?
A: Camera, mails, social media, and some RPG (low resource games)

7. Single SIM/ Dual SIM?
A: No preference

8. New or Used? Online or Offline?
A: New. Online preferred, as I stay in Mussoorie

9. Any other requirements?
A: Need decent battery backup
10. If you have already considered a phone, then please mention the model
A: LG G8X, iPhone SE 2020, Pixel 4A.

Thank you all!

 

[msankadi]

Pixel will have longer updates than mi. Also pixel makes do with even with not so powerful processor. Their camera is a yardstick against which other phone cameras quality is measured. But the battery is smaller. Also, pixel doesn't have very good after sales support in India(I can't personally verfiy this as I have only read about this online). Pixel is also relatively compact phone. There is great custom rom support for pixel(also for mi but slightly better for pixel). Mi has bloatware ridden ui. If one wants to save and have same performance don't go for mi 11 lite go for poco x3 or moto g60 or g40, all these have nearly same processors (730g or 732g). Pixel shines in camera department and software experience. Maybe because it has poor support in India and because it is overpriced, it hasn't beaten every phone from 15k to 25k. At 20k pixel will be unbeatable. But close to 30k, there are many decent competitors performance wise, mi 11x, iqoo 7 or even samsung a52 which also has ip67 rating and its camera maybe at par with pixel. If you can get pixel sub 25k then it will be a great deal(ofcourse if luck is good and the phone doesn't suffer from hardware issues).

I have a very different take. I don't care one bit about this longer update nonsense business. Just like adding 4 cameras and 2 more gb ram on a 12 gb ram is beefing up the numbers to sell more, longer support post couple of years is hardly useful for 10% junta

Mi phones have the best rom support and you can get any rom you prefer. Newer updates are just incremental anyways and I am yet to see what value does an 'updated' phone have in security vs a proper Dns security and av protected phone.
I would take more power any day of the week and just setup my own security instead of overpaying for phones like apple and Samsung.
Just debloat the phone and if you want vanilla android just install vanilla android on top of it. Then install a reliable antivirus, reliable browser that blocks harmful websites and tracking like edge. If you want you can install adaway or similar system wide protection and ad blocking once you're rooted. Use 2fa on all apps wherever possible and use strong passwords with bitwarden

Relying on just an 'updated' system to protect you is just taking the lazy route and doesn't protect anyone who doesn't take additional steps to protect themselves

 

[TinTinSnowy]

@msankadi Problem with Xiaomi phones is they don't allow relocking the bootloader with custom keys. You give up the biggest security feature of Android (verified boot) in your adventures to use custom rom. Google Pixel allow relocking the bootloader with your own custom key. You can use any rom of your choice and lock it with your own keys while keeping the verified boot intact. https://source.android.com/security/verifiedboot

 

[msankadi]

@msankadi Problem with Xiaomi phones is they don't allow relocking the bootloader with custom keys. You give up the biggest security feature of Android (verified boot) in your adventures to use custom rom. Google Pixel allow relocking the bootloader with your own custom key. You can use any rom of your choice and lock it with your own keys while keeping the verified boot intact. https://source.android.com/security/verifiedboot

That's a fair point. However Once you're trusting custom roms aren't you on your own once the system boots to protect yourself? Even with a verified boot can't someone who wants to steal your data run malicious scripts or install unseen or system apps that do the same?

 

[TinTinSnowy]

That's a fair point. However Once you're trusting custom roms aren't you on your own once the system boots to protect yourself? Even with a verified boot can't someone who wants to steal your data run malicious scripts or install unseen or system apps that do the same?

You have to trust some things in life. Like you trust your phone manufacturer or may be the app running on the phone. Zero trust model is impossible whether it's phone or your life.

Most popular Pixel rom for security is GrapheneOS. https://grapheneos.org/
It is vouched by many security experts and the source code is available publicly for audit.