Looking to buy older smartphone with good camera and sound. Any suggestions?

[AC Question]

We are new to smartphones. We can't spend much. My husband is hard of hearing so he needs one with a speaker that is loud and clear enough not to garble words or be static-filled. Thought about a used Samsung G5 but your reviewer on youtube said it was difficult to hear because of back speaker. We are stuck using Verizon as we live in the boonies so we need a phone that works on CDMA.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! What's your criteria for a good camera? All smartphones have decent cameras, but some are certainly much better than others--so if photography is really important to you, that would influence my recommendations. Offhand, I'd suggest the HTC One M8, which has excellent sound (from two front-facing stereo speakers). The camera is pretty average, though.

 

[gckehoe]

Thank you for your response. My husband's most pressing issue is the sound quality. As far as the camera goes, he needs to take, send, and receive photos with good closeup detail. The HTC you suggested may be a little weak on this. I can get information readily about megapixels (although I am learning that really doesn't tell the whole story) so the real issue is trying to figure out which phones offer good sound quality for people who actually use their phones to make calls!

 

[B. Diddy]

For closeups, you don't really need tons of megapixels--that's more helpful if you want to crop a photo significantly and still get good resolution. It's kind of like a digital zoom after the fact.

 

[gckehoe]

Like I said, I am trying to learn. Maybe this HTC would be his best bet. Thank you!