All OS Smartphone Recommendations: Battery & Camera-Oriented

low budget: pixel 7 (30kish) but shit battery life
a little above that: S23 (good-decent battery life) @40k currently on fk, we have a couple of them on sale including mine (just a disclaimer) for cheaper price

mid level: OP 12 - not sure how the camera compares for it but range is in 60s.
mid level: Xiaomi 14: stellar all rounder with a better camera than OP 12, wont be as battery optimized

High Level: S23 Ultra @75K, S24 ultra, S24 plus and the pixel 8 (again shit batt life)

and then comes your usual iPhones but I wont claim them to have a stellar battery life
 
Pagnovita said:
I currently use a Xiaomi Mi 9T.
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Pagnovita said:
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Xiaomi Mi 9T came out Jun 12 2019.

Assuming you bought it a year or so after. The battery is shot.

Go change the battery if the phone is still good enough for you.
Pagnovita said:

Ultimately I’m in the market for a smartphone with a well-optimized OS that won’t degrade the battery life after just a few weeks of usage.​

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Does not happen with Samsung.
Pagnovita said:
The second most important factor for me is the camera. As a photographer, I’m possibly looking for a smartphone with a high-quality camera that can serve as a substitute when I don’t have my DSLR with me. The camera on my current Xiaomi Mi 9T is decent, but its low-light performance leaves something to be desired (which I was aware of before purchasing it).

For my next smartphone, I’d like the camera quality to be at least on par with the Mi 9T and have video stabilization. I don’t care about having a ton of megapixels; I’m more concerned with the quality of the sensor.
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If you consider models a year or so back assuming not current then it should not be hard to best your Mi's camera not merely match it. For this you should consult gsmarena and look carefully at their photos to assess yourself whether s prospective camera is good enough for you.
Pagnovita said:
I’ve already done some preliminary filtering using Kimovil, but since I’m not an expert, I’d rather seek advice from those with more experience, especially considering the overwhelming number of results.

❗I’m also open to considering iPhones, despite their prices, as iOS, being a proprietary system, tends to offer better OS optimization and therefore more efficient battery management.

​

If you could recommend some smartphones that meet the requirements I’ve outlined, ideally suggesting models across the low-budget, mid-budget, and upper-mid-budget, I would greatly appreciate it. This would help me better assess options based on both features and price.
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I can only speak of phones i have. My first choice was LG because they had good cameras. But they stopped making phones so I switched to Samsung and currently have a S20FE & S23.

Camera and battery on these have been fine. But the S+ variants of galaxy if available and affordable should be considered if battery matters.
 
20k - Nothing Phone 2a 8/256GB - it will outperform 9T in all aspects

28k - OP Nord 4 8/256GB maybe

40k - S23 8/256GB (great for compact phone lovers but battery life is not as good as others but is still considered good, better than S23FE, etc)

75k - S23 Ultra

Check GSMArena reviews

 
altair21 said:
2a camera is this good? damn didnt know that.

just one thing, 40k is for 128 variant on fk
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2a camera is inferior to my S20FE, but not by too much, used them side by side. I'm pretty sure 9T's camera is much worse to my S20FE, Xiaomi's cameras were no where near Samsung flagships those days, so forget a mid range phone coming close to S20's cameras.

S23 256GB was 40k on sale few weeks back, now is 43k or so after card discount, my bad, didn't check the increased price.
 
OMEGA44-XT said:
2a camera is inferior to my S20FE, but not by too much, used them side by side. I'm pretty sure 9T's camera is much worse to my S20FE, Xiaomi's cameras were no where near Samsung flagships those days, so forget a mid range phone coming close to S20's cameras.
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Move scaling to 12MP under the 9T.

Photo compare Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G - GSMArena.com

m.gsmarena.com m.gsmarena.com

9T loses details in the shadows compared to 20FE

OMEGA44-XT said:
S23 256GB was 40k on sale few weeks back, now is 43k or so after card discount, my bad, didn't check the increased price.
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Yes, price quickly increased on those 256GB models once the weeklong FK sale ended
 
256gb lowest price 42k afaik. otherwise woulda gotten that for my father
 
If going for Pixel 8 then go with the Pro models only. Small version has a BOE panel (in majority cases) and that's an awful panel almost unusable. Camera isn't that great due to inaccurate auto white balance at night time, not on iPhone 15/16 level anyway , but still excels at day surpassing everything else.

PS: battery backup of the P8 isn't bad by any means btw. Getting solid 8+ hrs even with some 5G usage.

You should aim for the iPhone.
 
sauravghosh said:
If going for Pixel 8 then go with the Pro models only. Small version has a BOE panel (in majority cases) and that's an awful panel almost unusable.
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I've seen your post about bad legibility on the smaller Pixel 8 and it confused me. The S23 is similar in size to this pixel 8 smd I don't have any such legibility problem with it and that's coming from a larger S20FE
 
blr_p said:
I've seen your post about bad legibility on the smaller Pixel 8 and it confused me. The S23 is similar in size to this pixel 8 smd I don't have any such legibility problem with it and that's coming from a larger S20FE
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Yes I've seen that Samsung doesn't have any problem wrt to text size/scaling. I'm sure they offer a finer control over font size compared to only 6 steps offered by Google. It's either too large or too small.
 

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sauravghosh said:
Yes I've seen that Samsung doesn't have any problem wrt to text size/scaling. I'm sure they offer a finer control over font size compared to only 6 steps offered by Google. It's either too large or too small.
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nope same bullshit just more presets
 
sauravghosh said:
Yes I've seen that Samsung doesn't have any problem wrt to text size/scaling. I'm sure they offer a finer control over font size compared to only 6 steps offered by Google. It's either too large or too small.
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Well. Eight or one more to your seven (not six) but I've not needed it.

I've not changed the defaults for font size other than to have five icons across in the quick panel, home screen and app drawer. And the settings are the same across the two phones. A couple of hours reading on the S23 and no problems.

Experiment with a different font, the one you have is very thin compared to Samsungs default. I don't find it very legible in either of the two sizes you have there.

You could also experiment with visibility enhancements in the accessibility section. I haven't changed anything there.
 

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@blr_p There's no other font to choose from other than the lone default font offered. Yeah. Lol.
There's nothing wrt to visibility in accessibility section either.
The default font is way too small. +1 is probably a bit too large but I still like it. Problem is so many texts in so many apps are cut off even at just +1.
 

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