Help needed choosing a new mobile phone

fixx

Help! I'd like to replace my current phone – not massively urgent, but in the next couple of months. I have my eye on one, but there are so many to choose from, I’m sure I’ve missed some options. I know there are people out there who are aware of many more models than I am, and I’d appreciate any help you can give.

What I’ll normally use it for:
Comms – FB messenger and whatsapp, emails
Info – general browsing, some youtube
Some TV show/films when travelling
Lots of listening to music
Lots of photos while travelling, out doing stuff

Must haves:
Wireless charging (I’ve used it for 3 years on my current phone, I’m not giving it up)
Headphone socket (I own bletooth headphones, but can’t be bothered to charge them all the time. I like to keep things low fuss)
Android. (I have an apple phone for work, and I hate the interface. Nothing against apple in principle, I’ve owned an iphone in the past, and still love my 7year old ipad!)

Strong preferences:
Anything that helps with sound quality for music
Wideangle camera option – most of my photos are groups of people, gigs, and landscape type stuff
Waterproof rating
large screen to body ratio (i.e. not too big a body to hold comfortably, but big enough screen to not make watching videos painful)

Couldn’t care less:
Quality of the front camera (I don’t do selfies. Would only be used for video calls, so quality is dictated by bandwidth, not camera)
Whether it’s ‘cool’ or ‘exciting’. (I want a workhorse – functional, sensibly priced)
Big brand name
Screen type/tech (I’m not a graphic artist, they are all good enough for my needs)
Whether there’s a notch or not

What I’ve looked at so far:
I’ve had a VERY close look at the Galaxy S9+, but it’s just too big to be comfortable in my hand, so it’s a no-go unfortunately. So I’ve got my eye on the LG G7+ - I can wait for the price to come down, and it seems to tick most of the boxes. But I’m not thrilled re. the battery size. It’s not the end of the world, as I’m usually near charging points throughout the day anyway, and am not a heavy user (and I like doing little top-ups re. battery life management), but it’s not ideal. (Also, I don’t care about the boombox thing, but love the Quad DAC).
I like a lot of things about the Oneplus 6, but the lack of wireless charging killed that as an option I also looked at the Huawei P20 and P20pro - but no headphone socket

So I guess the question is, is there a phone out there that still has a headphone socket, wireless charging, REALLY good camera, and better battery life than the LG G7, but not any bigger?

Note re. old LG ‘bootloop’ issues - I know some people have had issues with it, and LG didn’t handle it well at all. But I have a G4, and it’s been brilliant – I can’t believe it’s survived the abuse I’ve thrown at it over the past few years, including more drops than I can count (I’m on my third screen protector, but the actual screen in still immaculate), several dunkings in water (once tried to charge it when the body still had water dripping out of it… I was hungover – and needed the change the battery, but the phone still worked when it dried out!), and my friends are still wowed by the photos compared to their newer ones.
I’m fine with another LG – but don’t really prefer it above any other brands.

Cornucopia

What sort of budget do you have, and how are you intending to buy (pay for the phone outright, or get a phone-airtime bundle)?

I've just had a quick look at the market, with similar requirements to yours and in the end have decided to go SIM-only on my existing Samsung S6, and wait for some better deals to come along. (I couldn't see the point of paying 2-3 times as much as I am now to get a new phone not that much better than what I have).

I did have a close look at the Samsung S8, which is reasonably well-priced on airtime bundle (c. £23pm for my kind of 1GB usage).

fixx

Cornucopia wrote: »

What sort of budget do you have, and how are you intending to buy (pay for the phone outright, or get a phone-airtime bundle)?

I'm SIM-only with my current handset, and expect to do the same again i.e. buy the handset outright, and change SIM deals as and when I like.

I've had a look around, and I just can't see I'll get deal on contract good enough to bother with.

I'm just a bit frustrated that now I've finally agreed with myself that I can have a new phone, there's nothing out there quite right for me, even with the recent launches

I can wait a couple of months, there's no huge rush - I'll be keeping my current phone anyway as a back-up/spare!

S8 and S9 do look good - but the single camera, and 12MP max (when so many now have dual, and 16MP resolution) feels like a bit of a compromise, given I'm looking for a phone to take me through another 3 years at least, and I take a lot of photos... The variable aperture on the S9 is good though.