Old Flagship Phone or New Midrange Phone?

CrispyChrispy on 23/11/2021 - 11:09

Currently looking for a new phone for around the $300 mark, and I'm quite on the fence whether or not to get a relatively 'old' flagship phone (Samsung Note 8, S9, etc.) or a current midrange device, like a Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro.

Both I would be getting brand new in box, not looking for a second-hand device. Also not looking for a flagship phone from before 2018.

Both have their advantages; old flagships have;

  • Generally better build quality
  • Most likely a better camera
  • Most likely more reliable
  • Better display/screen quality (eg. AMOLED or OLED compared to LCD)

New midrange devices have;

  • Generally better chipsets (eg. Snapdragon 845 vs 860) and more storage/RAM
  • Larger displays, may be 120Hz
  • Bigger, longer lasting batteries
  • Regular software updates

There are of course more perks with each one, though I'm not gonna list all of them out.

What do you guys think? Camera, build quality and performance are the main important things I look for. Both options look equally as appealing to me. Thanks in advance.

Poll Options expired

  • 4
    Old flagship phone (from 2018 onwards)
  • 36
    Current midrange phone (eg. Phones from Poco's lineup)
Mobile Mobile Phone

Comments

  • nubzy on 23/11/2021 - 11:26
    +2

    The S9+ is still a great phone and has many features missing from the newer ones. It was the perfect phone IMO and at a reasonable price of ~$850 brand new.

    • Drakesy on 23/11/2021 - 12:12
      +1

      Agree
      Have the S9+, still runs all apps flawlessly,
      Only downside is the battery is getting long in the tooth and only lasts ~3 hours if i'm lucky oh and being stuck on android 10.

      One thing i didn't realise was that some midrange phones didn't have an NFC reader, in case you use samsung/google pay a lot.

      • No on 23/11/2021 - 12:15

        I am legit impressed you can make do with a 3 hour battery life.

        • Drakesy on 23/11/2021 - 12:20

          Haha
          I don't
          It lives on life support connected to my office computer

          Eyeing off a galaxy s21 ultra or pixel pro next
          Probs the s21 though for its battery life.

      • Stopback on 23/11/2021 - 12:21

        Battery case can easily solve yhst

        • Drakesy on 23/11/2021 - 12:22
          +1

          Lugged around a battery case with my iphone 6
          never again.
          Firm believer that a phone should be a stand alone item.

          • dcep on 23/11/2021 - 20:06

            @Drakesy: but iphone 6 is the thinnest and lightest iphone ever ?

            • Drakesy on 23/11/2021 - 21:44

              @dcep: Haha, don't get me wrong i loved the form of it.

              Turns out if thin and light means cutting out half your battery then practicality pretty much went out the window eh.

  • Bid Sniper on 23/11/2021 - 11:54
    +2

    Went from S9 to A52, sold S9 so was only a $100 to upgrade.

    A52 is better in every metric, only thing i miss is notification light. I wouldn't bother with old phone considering how good mid teir are now.

    • scrimshaw on 23/11/2021 - 13:34

      Notification light is mostly obsolete now since there are now always-on displays, or touch-to-wake displays that display more information than a single LED light anyway.

    • [Deactivated] on 23/11/2021 - 20:46
      +1

      man i miss the notification light from my s8! a little glance at my phone would tell me if i have any notifications, and it had different colours to differentiate apps as well

  • Stopback on 23/11/2021 - 11:57
    -1

    Find out what you want from a smartphone then decide

    Don't buy something because it's got a feature that you think is cool

  • MTWallet on 23/11/2021 - 12:05

    As you mentioned, when buying used, important will be if the phone is supported by the maker with updates. And the battery life.

    My example I bought a new Asus phone in 2019. A great phone but already there will be no further android updates available from the maker.

    I also have an old iPhone 5S that I use as a second phone. It was released in 2013 and was supported with iOS updates until 2021!

    The Xiaomi you are considering 'should' be well supported. Choose wisely.

    • Stopback on 23/11/2021 - 12:14

      xiaomi has some bugs sadly, my a2 lite has ram problems

      • Brianqpr on 24/11/2021 - 09:42

        Owned several Xiaomis over a few years, and currently using a Redmi note 10 pro, never had any problems bar one blurry camera issue years ago on a Redmi note 3. The rest of my family use iphones and there's been far more issues with those.

    • dcep on 23/11/2021 - 20:08

      do you know if iphone 6 still supported ?

      i know 6s still gets updates with iOS 13 … but 6 got stuck with iOS 12 ?

  • oscargamer on 23/11/2021 - 12:07

    Can you stretch to $430?

  • freefall101 on 23/11/2021 - 12:17
    +1

    The Poco X3 Pro uses a IMX582 sensor vs the IMX345 in the S9 - the 582 has better image quality while the IMX345 has better low light range (plus Samsung added OIS), depends which you want of those two. Reliability is questionable when the most unreliable part - the battery - is now 3 years old. The display might be LCD in the Poco but it's also 120hz which makes for really nice usage.

    Software updates drive reliability too, IMO. Samsung stopped at Android 10 for the S9 - you now get only a year or so of security updates. The Poco will get at least Android 12, maybe 13.

    On the hardware side, remember the AU version of the S9 has an Exynos chip too, wasn't quite as fast as the Qualcomm version.

    The key difference for me though would be what size you want. The Poco is a lot bigger/heavier/thicker phone but comes with the bigger display. That should probably drive your decision more than anything else.

    • CrispyChrispy on 23/11/2021 - 12:23

      True, thanks for your input. I don't mind too much about the size/bulkiness of the phone, my hands are decently large.
      Seems like the current midrange phone is the way to go.

  • Drpepper666 on 23/11/2021 - 16:13
    +1

    Check the update lifecycle on the phone. Supported longer is generally better. You don't want to run an unpatched phone.

  • jubz on 23/11/2021 - 16:41
    +1

    If you could increase your budget, I would suggest going with Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G $421.85 ($371.85 with $50 Newsletter Voucher) @ Samsung Education Store. I just checked the Samsung education store and it is back in stock. You get two years of Samsung Australia warranty.

    Previously, I had bought Poco F1 from overseas and had a camera issue. It was too much trouble to get the warranty issue sorted. I would suggest buying something local, so you are covered for at least two years. The Galaxy A52S is a new phone launched recently, so you get around four years of Samsung update.

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