All the guides I’ve seen are like “check out this budget phone for $350, it has five cameras”
I only need one camera and it just has to be good enough to take pictures of documents while still being readable.
Android 12
Like 16gb storage minimum. 2gb ram minimum.
Most phones seem to be way over those specs knocking up price. A bunch that r more affordable don’t go up to Android 12. I assume Android 12 is important so I don’t get hacked when I’m trying to do banking on my phone on unsecured public Wi-Fi (which is where I do all my banking :( )
I bought a used Pixel 3a for ~$150 over a year ago. The camera is very capable of capturing documents while maintaining legibility, and my banking application works just fine. It runs Android 12.
Purchasing used devices is an excellent way to keep costs down. I would look for deals on eBay.
I was actually looking at ebay! I got overwhelmed by all the options and don’t know where to start. Tips?
used devices
Do the batteries come uhh bad? (Not sure what the term is) It’s annoying that i have to external battery my current phone nearly constantly
The battery should probably be fine if the phone was made sometime the past 2-3 years, or if only lightly used by the previous owner. I haven’t owned enough phones to make much more than that unqualified prediction, however. I believe one term for a run-down battery is “spent.”
I happened to get my Pixel from a bloke who was upgrading to a newer phone just because he could, and only used it a year or so. The battery life is still excellent a year later under daily use.
I pick hardware based on which operating system I want to use. Getting a carrier and bootloader unlocked phone is my basis for searching, alongside price.
Although it has been claimed Google’s Pixels go to some lengths to implement security features with Android that other phones possibly don’t have. As a bonus, if you get an unlockable Pixel, the bootloader may be relocked when using another OS. But I am not particularly knowledgeable about such things.
Thanks!
Take a look at the last 2 years of Motorola devices. Especially if your camera is more of a tool than it is a luxury. I picked up a Motorola G Power 1.5 years ago for around $300. 4G of ram, expandable SD storage.
I am only now starting to feel the bloat of my application choices and am thinking about slimming the software that I use to prevent things that I want to keep running from getting killed.
The battery works super, duper well even after my heavy usage. I’m at 50% around bed time.
