Best bang for your buck used flagship.

[etad putta]

So I see people asking about buying budget and midrange phones for as much or more than a 2 year old flagship phone. Doesn't it make more sense to buy the older beast phone than the lower spec new device? There are many great used phones out there.

 

[mustang7757]

The only issue is that couple year old flagship might be getting close or done with software support and possible security, depending the manufacturer and a new mid range will be current.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

Also some of the newer midrange CPU chips may be as good or better than the older flagship. For instance if you got a pixel 2, then the Pixel 4a 5G would be more powerful. Certainly it has better battery life and longer updates.

 

[swebb]

A new midrange will certainly last 2 or more years with updates and out of the box battery life. A 2 year old flagship? Maybe, depending on how the battery was used or abused. You won't know the history so it's a roll of the dice and you may have to replace it sooner than planned.

 

[Morty2264]

Your point does have a lot of validity. However, sometimes even mid-range devices will have more up-to-date specs than a flagship phone that is about two years old. There are a ton of variables when it comes to mid-range versus flagship devices.

The mid-range market is getting very competitive and those companies *want* you to buy those mid-range products, so they certainly make them more appealing, especially over their flagship counterparts. For instance, the LG Velvet is mid-range but has really awesome specs, like wireless charging and a huge battery, and it's water resistant. And since it is newer, folks may want to snag that over, say, my S10 (used or not), which is an older flagship that won't have a lot of software updates left. LG will give the Velvet updates for at least two years.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

I love my Pixel 4a 5G. It runs like a flagship with its 765G chip and stock Android. It feels more fluid than my flagship top of the range S10+ ceramic with an Exynos chip.

 

[TechnoMax]

Sometimes the old ones offer more than the new ones: I found out that the best (and cheapest) phone for me as a music capabla backup for my main phone is not a cheapy new phone a quite old LG G7: It had NCF, a microSD-Card slot, a fingerprint sensor and good Bluetooth-codecs, even a very good DAC. This combination is hard to find these days. You should therefore carefully look what you really need and how much you are willing to pay. Some older phones rapidly lost their value and are a cheap buy these days.

 

[bkdodger2]

I think both options are good.. I can also recommend a phone like the 4a 5G which I got for $399..also like certified pre-owned cars if you looking for a flagship phone pick one from a year or so at least you get some updates left and battery is still solid...

 

[Jeremy8000]

Just by example, you can currently get a Pixel 4 XL from Amazon as "renewed" for as little as $300, free return for exchange or refund up to 90 days. Even less than that (as low as $222) on Swappa if you are ok with foregoing any buyer's remorse/guarantee.

Of course, this is a transitional time in wireless, from 4g to 5g, so the degree to which you anticipate being able to benefit from 5G over the next couple of years should factor heavily into your decision - if it won't make much difference, this is probably the best time to look at older flagships as they will devalue more rapidly against those with the newer connectivity; likewise, if 5g is relevant for you, you'd be better off with a current gen (1st gen 5g products haven't seen that similar decline, and many of those were more limited in 5g bands and were priced initially in part based on lower scale of production).

 

[DoctorWizard]

Oh great and mighty phone wizards, I come seeking thy advice!
My Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has battery cancer, it's fading fast, and I don't expect it to last much longer. I've been browsing refurbished and renewed phones on Amazon. But swebb (above) makes a good point that a new midrange may be a better option than a refurbished flagship.
So great wizards, I am asking for recommendations, both new midrange and refurbed flagship.
My budget is $250 after tax, tops (so about $220-230) and I can get another refurbed Note 9 at that price. I've been pretty pleased with my Note 9, so that's how I'm leaning. Or maybe the S9 since I rarely use the pen.
But I'm not a phone power user and and I use it mainly for (gasp!) a phone. I take very few pictures. I only occasionally play music and almost never watch videos. I run very few apps, mainly store apps like Walmart and Home Depot so I can find what isle something is on. NO games. I use the web browser to look stuff up, but only when I'm not in front of my computer, which I usually am. Want a big enough clear enough screen to read it without being huge and heavy in my pocket. I'm impatient so it should have a fast processor. Must be water resistant. Must be fairly tolerant of abuse even without a case. (Yes, I'll add a case but best if the phone itself is sturdy). I'm on T-Mobile. It should be unlocked. It should be fairly easy to root if I so choose.
So omnipotent and all-knowing phone wizards-- what models do you suggest I look at?

 

[dpham00]

Oh great and mighty phone wizards, I come seeking thy advice!
My Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has battery cancer, it's fading fast, and I don't expect it to last much longer. I've been browsing refurbished and renewed phones on Amazon. But swebb (above) makes a good point that a new midrange may be a better option than a refurbished flagship.
So great wizards, I am asking for recommendations, both new midrange and refurbed flagship.
My budget is $250 after tax, tops (so about $220-230) and I can get another refurbed Note 9 at that price. I've been pretty pleased with my Note 9, so that's how I'm leaning. Or maybe the S9 since I rarely use the pen.
But I'm not a phone power user and and I use it mainly for (gasp!) a phone. I take very few pictures. I only occasionally play music and almost never watch videos. I run very few apps, mainly store apps like Walmart and Home Depot so I can find what isle something is on. NO games. I use the web browser to look stuff up, but only when I'm not in front of my computer, which I usually am. Want a big enough clear enough screen to read it without being huge and heavy in my pocket. I'm impatient so it should have a fast processor. Must be water resistant. Must be fairly tolerant of abuse even without a case. (Yes, I'll add a case but best if the phone itself is sturdy). I'm on T-Mobile. It should be unlocked. It should be fairly easy to root if I so choose.
So omnipotent and all-knowing phone wizards-- what models do you suggest I look at?

Have you considered replacing the battery? It may be cheaper than buying a whole new phone

 

[DoctorWizard]

Have you considered replacing the battery? It may be cheaper than buying a whole new phone

I have been looking into that. I'm good with electronics and often fix stuff myself. I checked iFixIt and they rate the difficulty of replacing the battery on a Note 9 as "medium". But then when I started reading the directions--- well it seems there is a lot of glue involved, and heat guns, and lots of spudgers, and ...... so I would not consider that to be "medium" difficulty!! More than I care to tackle anyway. Furthermore, the screen has several cracks. They are nearly invisible and I don't really notice them but again from looking at iFixIt's instructions, it sounds like that could be an issue when trying to pry all the glue loose. And if was to take it to a repair shop I doubt they would change the battery without also changing the screen. So at that point, I might as well just replace the phone.
(But thanks for the suggestion!)

 

[Morty2264]

Did you make a purchasing decision yet, OP?

 

[DoctorWizard]

Well I am pleased to say I do not need a new phone (yet), I solved the problem! I'm a bit frustrated because I never figured out exactly what the problem was but my theory is a crypto miner.

When my battery issues started, I immediately suspected an app. Even though I use my phone mostly just as a phone and I'm very careful about what I install. So I started uninstalling apps, shutting down and blocking permissions on apps, and using the built in tools (which are pretty good) to monitor and track battery usage by app and system process. When that failed to find any smoking guns, I moved on to trying quite a few 3rd-party battery optimizers and usage trackers. Still no smoking guns and no real improvement. At this point I thought I may be infected with something, but 4 malware scanners, a rootkit scanner, and a system file checker again failed to find anything amiss. Finally I backed everything up and did a factory reset. And even that failed to solve the problem! Only then did I resign myself to the fact that the Li-ion battery must have a partial short (dendrites?) and must be failing. Then as a last ditch effort, having read somewhere that extremely well written malware can survive a factory reset, I reflashed all the ROM images. SUCCESS! My battery life is back to where it used to be! So I am highly impressed (and highly pissed) that some hackers somewhere have written a very stealthy and very resilient piece of malware and managed to waste a great deal of my time. I'm happy at least that I don't have to shell out $$$ for another phone.