I'm not a fan of any of the $200 and below android devices relative to the iPhone SE, but that's primarily because the 32GB SE can be had for roughly that price here in the states and in day to day usage it's crazy powerful relative to the rest of that price range. How much more is it than the E4 plus?
Eh, it's a middle of the road Mediatek CPU which ain't so hot, and the battery isn't user replaceable, which is the one big issue I have - but otherwise the specs are OK.
Battery is huuuuuuuge (5Wh) and supports quick-charging, both of which are definite pluses; RAM is plenty with 3 GB, the GPU will be enough to drive the 720p screen (I don't give a rats ass about high dpi if I can save a few bucks, but admittedly, this will result in a lot of scrolling and zooming: The Nintendo approach to displays). It's a Motorola so Android is mostly vanilla and might even get an update to beyond the 7.1.1 it gets shipped with. For better or worse, there's even a fingerprint sensor that seemingly isn't completely assy.
Not bad for a 180€ phone that will have to endure being the target of my perpetual loathing and (mostly) work-related activities.
The 32GB SE is around 330-ish around here, so close to twice the price, and I'd have to live with iOS 11. I just can't seem to come to like the post-6 iOS's.
With the holiday deals, I would definitely recommend a Moto G5. You already see it going for around $230 in the US. I got one for my mom as a late mothers day present and it's pretty brilliant phone. There are some good Chinese manufacturer phones as well but you'd most likely have to order online (I think Huawei is sold in Euroland).
Plenty of those, ZTE, Huawei, etc pp. ....mountains of choices, which is why I'm still paralysed. And frankly, having handled a cheapo 100€ ZTE recently, even with only 1GB RAM and a really grimy budget Mediatek inside, it worked well enough. Sure, it's only 99€ worth of hardware, and it shows, but it's kinda... Good enough. Ish.
Which once more exacerbates my conundrum. I just want to whatsapp a bit, browse the net whenever I have to look something up, send and receive a couple of mails per day, and mostly call others/receive calls from others/be on standby. Maybe occasionally make a photo for documentation and such.
There's really no need to spend any big bucks on an ultimately disposable tool, unless I can be 100% sure that it will stay in prime condition for at least five years. I'd rather get a middle of the road phone every three years instead, I think. Roughly on the same level, spending wise, and I get to treat it with way less care.
As an aside: It's really annoying that there are so many different specs for a smartphone of the same name, often even depending on the region. Makes research a slog. There's like two dozen G5 loadouts. From 2 to 4GB RAM, with and without NFC, dual sim and whatever, it's a hot mess. Have to hop between g's arena and amazon and geizhals (price comparison site) as if I was still a young whippersnapper. Which I ain't.
Anyway.
The ten to twenty bucks extra over the E4 Plus that I'd have to spend on a G5 of comparable specs that's sold over here would net me a replaceable, but *vastly* smaller battery, a loss of 0.5" screen size (booh) while upping the resolution, which means that the crappy budget GPU has to push way more pixels. The out-of-the-box Android is also behind by 0.1.1, but I bet that's been remedied by now. ...I guess? I'm not up to the intrinsics of Android versioning.
Granted, the CPU is a snapdragon, which is a definite step up.
Then again, might as well splurge for an additional 30-ish bucks to get some screen real estate back (although only 0.2"), a better camera, double the storage, and a small boost to performance. The G5 plus isn't that far off, price wise. On the other hand, the G5s costs roughly the same as the G5, and there's also the Honour 6X from Huawei and by now I have looked up so many different models, I can't even flarble squee duck duck duck.
Anyway, after wasting my precious lunch break on looking up esoteric smartphone specs, I can just say "Fuck it", add on yet a bit more dosh and go for the comparatively worry-free iPhone SE. Which might even retain some resale value, even if I chuck it around a bit.
Or get a similarly priced Samsung A5 or ....
Oh god, it never ends. I just want a work-friendly phone with oodles of battery life that stays out of my way, nothing fancy. Free market was a mistake. Just give me my state-issued steam powered backpack phone and be done with it. Make the pain go away. I need a wank and some booze.
