this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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There are many ways and tools to choose your next device, but some are better than others. How do you do it?

I'll begin - I tend to use Kimovil, however it lacks pricing for many devices and thus makes the process harder. Has many filters though, from headphone jack to different 5G and 4G bands.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

GSMARENA Phone Finder is pretty amazing. You can filter by basically any phone characteristic you want. Back material? Yep. Refresh rate? Also yes. Proximity sensor? You got it. Minimum wired charging wattage? Sure, why not.

I've yet to find a more comprehensive one.

Edit: taking a look at Kimovil. It seems like it has much of the same filters as Phone Finder, but with the bonus of also showing price, which is nice.

[–] dinckelman 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For the most part it's good, but filtering by price pretty much just doesn't work

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, prices vary between markets, but relative pricing tends to be the same

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

My only gripe is I can't filter by SoC type, like Snapdragon only for example, otherwise it's a cool thing to have, but yeah, kimovil shows regional pricing

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

pretty cool!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I check for LineageOS support, repairability (kind of pointless nowdays), a headphone jack and a SD card slot and end up buying something that just supports LineageOS because apparently I am asking too much of a modern phone... :(

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm kinda doing the same thing, expect I'm still waiting for a phone that does all of it. The problem is that my old device is usually more powerful than the current offerings, so I guess I'll wait. No hurry anyways.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I already have one without a SD card slot and lacking repairability and the reward is a dying battery and no easy way to repair or back up anything, can't recommend!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Devices for LineageOS and I then use the official website to validate it, as well as GSMArena Phone Finder

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This would be the perfect website for what I need if it only had a headphone jack filter!!!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I stay whit Sony phones. Besides me loving the 21:9 ratio, they have headphone jacks

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

can't install Lineage on it unfortunately

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I mean, you can use the Devices for LineageOS as a way to create a filtered list, and then filter the "candidates" by going to GSMArena.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I stick to Pixels because I use GrapheneOS, that makes it simple lol

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Well, my first criteria is an unlockable bootloader, followed by rootability.

Those alone usually pare the options down to 2 to 4 phones, so I really don't have to think too much about the cool features.

I expect to use my phone from 2 to 5 years, so compatibility with certain ROM producers is Aldo high on the list.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I look up what I like in a phone (headphone jack, expandable storage, led, Snapdragon..., plastic back, etc.) and use gsmsarena's advanced search feature.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I find the size of the phone is super important to me so I also use phonesized.com to compare it to whatever my current handset is.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't use a tool, I just check the sizes to narrow down if the phone can be used comfortably in one hand. This narrows the results down to 0 and I just decide to keep my current device for longer.

[–] outplayed 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use the tool of nearly blind brand loyalty and waiting to upgrade until the things I need are included

guess which line of Android phones

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

no idea which but it seems you will be waiting for a very long time :D

[–] ikidd 5 points 1 year ago

I look at the supported devices list for LineageOS or Graphene, compare the specs to find the smallest one that's current, then hit the classifieds to buy a used phone. Because I'm just going to break it anyway and I'll be fucked if I use stock Android.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

GSMArena has nice phone search functionality, I was using it often when thinking about upgrading, but to be frank I bought 2 of my last phones basically on release date based off specs, unboxings and first impressions I saw online, even not full reviews were online, those phones were:

  • Motorola One Vision - May 2019 - 128GB of UFS storage, modern punch hole display and OIS equipped camera sounded cool, unfortunately the camera was kind of sub par, slight zoom resulted in garbage photo, also apparently Motorola couldn't optimize for exynos because despite somewhat satisfying performance, stuttering was frequent
  • OnePlus Nord 3 - July 2023 - powerful SoC, 16GB of RAM, OnePlus declares 3 years of software support, fast 80W charging, looks nice on paper, my only gripe is battery drain but they keep optimizing the software
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Download page of LineageOS πŸ™ˆ.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I mostly use GSMarena to compare features and check out reviews of shortlisted phones on amazon and youtube. Kimovil looks interesting. Will try it out next time.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Mostly reviews tbh, hard to quantify stuff like camera quality

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm a farmer and need a rugged phone that can fall off a tractor into an irrigation ditch on a regular basis. So I buy Sonim, end of story. Usually replace them every 5 years as they never get updates and the Android version starts getting obsolete.

Unfortunately the Sonim XP10 looks to be not as sturdy as previous versions and they have walked back their previous bulletproof warranty. So I guess I'm in the market for a new ultra-rugged phone, luckily the XP8 I'm using should last for years yet

[–] The_Ferry 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My dad who's also a farmer has been using the Samsung X-cover phones because of the sturdiness as well, just if you're looking to branch out

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I've heard good things about them online but sadly they aren't supported by my Canadian carrier at this time, and as my carrier gatekeeps services like VoLTE and VoWifi with their firmware for some reason it's not really worth the risk of importing one especially at full price...

But I'm hoping they make it out here soon to provide us with another rugged option for sure. I've been so happy with Sonim for years that I'm quite disappointed in their latest offering.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

www.epey.com - Turkish website that can serve that purpose for a very wide variety of things. It allows filtering based on specs, comparing items side by side and shows price history. The prices and availability isn't always complete so I usually pick what I want from there and search the web to see if they're any lower prices. And it only lists items that are on sale in Turkey so might not be as useful to people living in other countries, but might be worth trying.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I dont. I will generally narrow down on a couple devices and then type (phone brand phone model specs gsmarena) into duckduckgo and compare the two or 3 on my short list this way. What has become really important to me is width. I hat a 76mm motorola and with the case it was not nice to hold. With that said my most recent phone is 74mm, but i still will try for just a bit narrower next time. I am suspecting 71mm should be about right.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A smartphone is the ultimate, single-user personal computer. Choosing a device is too intimate for me to use any sort of tabular comparison tool. The device needs to be right for me qualitatively also.

I strongly recommend picking a handful of devices and getting a variety of opinions from reviewers. Then, weigh those opinions against what features are most important to you.

If this is your main computer which most likely it is for most people, it's worthwhile to spend some time on selection.

[–] nek0d3r 3 points 1 year ago

I wasn't even aware this existed! This is really cool. Normally I've just stuck to a brand that I know works for me, but this is far better.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I used kimovil. Being able to ensure you only get phones that support your data bands is really important imo

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I check sites that list hardware specs, and once I find a phone that seems interesting for an average price I'm willing to pay, I check places like XDA to know how much of a hassle it'll be to unlock the bootloader and add a custom ROM. And if modding the phone has too many/too big drawbacks, I return to the first step until I find a phone that seems good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I search for "update duration Android OEMs" and to no one's surprise find there are only 3 flagships with ok support: Google, Samsung, OnePlus

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Right now, I mod hand-me-downs

The quality has skyrocketed lately, a working bacon(my current main phone), then a working addison(which now supports treble thanks to lineageOS and Xperience teams!), then my next main phone, the oxygen

[–] tacosplease 2 points 1 year ago

I just compare specs. Which has the better processor, screen size, resolution, etc. Had no idea people put more effort into it than that.

Most people I know just tell the guy at the phone store what they like and buy whatever is suggested based on that.

[–] LaughingFox 1 points 1 year ago

I use @phonescoop.com or gsmarena to compare specs and read reviews.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I was given two options, so I pitted the two phones against each other. Pros and cons, you know? And then the winner was the phone I got.

[–] aluminium 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you want ALL the specs - phonedb

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Never heard of it, will check out!