Budget circa €400 - Pixel 3a still the best bet?

ixoy

My S7 Edge just completely, and utterly, died. Really annoying but the cost of repair is probably not worth investigating. I've an old phone that I'm using temporarily but I need something meatier.

I'm not a massive phone person so, with a budget of up to €400 (S7 Edge, at about 450, was the most I ever spent), so I'm looking around and seeing that the Pixel 3a seems like a decent bet at €300. Well aware I've missed the Vodafone offer on this but I wasn't expecting to need a new phone yet so never even looked at the offer.

My main requirements on a phone are:

* Strong camera - Pixel 3a seems to fare well here for its price point
* Can play Netflix, Prime, Spotify, etc smoothly
* Decent battery - Not the 3a's strongest point it seems but not sure how well it lasts over the course of months, etc. Found the S7 Edge battery performance went poor quite quickly.

Bit irritating they still don't allow SD cards but 64gb seems decent enough space wise. I had a Nexus 5 previously which generally worked quite well.

There's a ton of models out there and it's hard to gauge the right fit (plus I'd really rather a new phone sooner than later) so interested in people's experience with the Pixel 3a (seems good from the thread) or would they plump for something else at that price, especially against the S7 Edge that I'm coming from.
Also has to be in stock - I'm assuming vendors are still selling these for delivery given they're high cost but easy to shift.

I have the pixel 3a -> camera produces excellent results as long as you don't "need" wide angle or optical zoom.

no other phone comes close under 500/550 really in terms of camera and considering the pixel 3a can be had for less than 200 it's a no brainer imo

netflix, spotify etc all no problem and has widevine level 1 drm for HD netflix etc.

the battery is only 3000mah - that will last a day for all but the very heaviest users.

but the charging is fast enough on the flipside

if you want phone batteries to last longer ideally charge to about 85% and don't let it go below 15% in use

that produces far less strain and keeps it at its original capacity much longer over time

joe_99

Xiaomi Mi 9T is great value at around €270. You will be doing well to get a better phone, battery and camera at that price.

Check out eglobal

https://www.eglobalcentral.eu/xiaomi-mi-9t-6gb-128gb-dual-sim-redmi-k20-carbon-black-1.html

Barr

joe_99 wrote: »

Xiaomi Mi 9T is great value at around €270. You will be doing well to get a better phone, battery and camera at that price.

Check out eglobal

https://www.eglobalcentral.eu/xiaomi-mi-9t-6gb-128gb-dual-sim-redmi-k20-carbon-black-1.html

That looks great . I was looking at the Mi 10 but at that price it seems a steal.

Whats the catch?

joe_99

Barr wrote: »

That looks great . I was looking at the Mi 10 but at that price it seems a steal.

Whats the catch?

No catch. Have one myself. Superb value.

Did a lot of research before i bought one. Read up on reviews.

the 9t is a decent phone but the camera results are not as good as the pixel in terms of colour interpretation, dynamic range and low-light shots

it does have a bigger battery though - 4000mah vs 3000mah