I want a new phone, but there's too many options!

Hey gang!!

So, on Wednesday I broke my phone. Big time. It's had a crack right down the back of it for a while, and on the way to my grandmas, it just...fell. The screen has a huge crack that goes completely vertical. Now, I could work with that. However, while dropping, my headphones snapped off inside. And when I say my headphone jack snapped, I mean like...it looks pretty unsalvageable. So, not only is my phone unable to listen to stuff anymore (One of the ONLY reasons I own a phone), my headphones are also fucked. I only use my phone for facebook/whatsapp/audible/spotify, so I'm pretty upset.

However, I guess there's a silver lining- I can buy a new phone!!

Now, if you recognise me on here at all, you might know I'm planning to leave the UK in 2020 for either Japan or Korea. I'm actually waiting for results on the JET programme, which is another 8 weeks off. Woof! So, if I get there, I'm gonna want a quality phone. I guess here are my needs:

• An excellent quality camera so I can document my travels and life abroad
• An above average battery life, for if I'm needing to use maps/translate to get about
• Dual Sim (This is probably the most important one, as I wanna keep my UK phone number, and my new one overseas)

Now, I've looked around, and spoke to a few friends. Here's the phones that are at the top of my hitlist:

The Samsung Galaxy A70

The Samsung Galaxy M30

The HONOR View 20

The Google Pixel 3A

I wanna stay on the android/google ecosystem, because I'm so deep into it. I can probably spend somewhere between £275-£350. If anyone has any experience, or any other ideas, please please hook me up!

If camera is a primary concern then I'd choose the pixel. I've the 3a XL and have been very impressed by the camera. Even night shots turn out pretty well. It also has a pretty good battery life, when I put it on charge at the end of the day it's usually still on 50-60% (though I'll admit I'm probably quite a light user in that regard).

The only criticism I have of the phone is when viewing Netflix, depending on what I'm watching, there can be noticeable black crush at times. I have managed to mostly fix that issue with a calibration app though.

I like Huawei, who makes Honor, but I always worry the political winds should shift orphaning these phones. So the choice might be Samsung A70 or M30. The more expensive A70s is big with a big 6.9" AMOLED screen and a smaller 4500 mAh battery to run it. The A40 is smaller, lighter and less expensive with a 5.7" AMOLED screen but a decent sized 6000 mAh.


If it matters both the A70 and M30 have the a 3.5 jack, so that is nice if you have nice wired headsets. The down side for the A70 for some is the placement on the fingerprint sensing is on the screen (some don't like it) whereas the M40 has it the fingerprint sensor on the back. If you want dual-sim the A30 loses; the A70 is the only that can hold all three tiny chips at once, the A30 can hold one sim and one memory card OR two sims.

M30 Price: £229.00
A70 Price: £324.99

So, is that nearly £100 worth it for the A70... that you might have to decide.

Be sure to check out the audio quality (in terms of recording and in terms of calls) of the Pixel. I can't remember which one was really bad for it but since I do use my phone to make calls it stopped me upgrading to it.

Personally, I've had my OnePlus 6T for about 2 years now and I'm not looking to upgrade anytime soon.

I believe it's between 6-7" display. By far the best feature is the battery life on it. It's only a 3700 mAh battery but on average usage, I'll get 1-1.5 days from 100% charge down to 10%. The camera does have some drawbacks, however, you can easily get around them by downloading the custom Google Camera .apk online. Software has come along way when it comes to improved image quality.

It supports dual-SIM and sits around €275-300 depending if OnePlus is trying to push a new product or not.