The Samsung Galaxy A35 is finally here and that is the best that you will get out of the A-series, since the A55 isn’t coming. The phone launches at $400 and Amazon sweetens the deal a bit with a $40 gift card.
Additionally, you can pick up the phone with the Galaxy Buds FE for $50 more (the buds have an MSRP of $100, but can usually be found for a bit less).
With no A55, Samsung points to the Galaxy S23 FE as an upgrade over the A35. A couple of weeks ago it was $550, but is now back up to $600.
If you’re going to be spending that much, have a look at the OnePlus 12R. The 8/128GB version holds steady at $500, but the 16/256GB model is down to $530. Double the RAM and double the storage are well worth the $30 charge.
Comparing the 12R with the S23 FE, the OnePlus has the better chipset – Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 vs. 8 Gen 1 and double the RAM. Also, it has an LTPO display, something reserved for the S24 series. It’s larger – 6.78” vs. 6.4” – but it has a higher pixel density too. And the battery is larger as well with 1,000mAh more in the tank. It supports only wired charging, but the 80W rate is much faster than Samsung’s 25W wired and 15W wireless. The Galaxy does have the better water resistance at IP68, compared on 12R’s IP64.
A note on software support: the OnePlus 12R, Galaxy S23 FE and Galaxy A35 will receive 4 OS updates and 5 years of security patches. The S23 FE is older, though, so subtract one.
The Google Pixel 7a has proven to be particularly popular. It doesn’t have the best hardware by a mile, but the combination of low price and Google software brings in a crowd. The upcoming Pixel 8a will bring upgrades but is expected to cost more too (meaning MSRP, the difference will be much larger when 7a’s discounts are accounted for).
For the same $350, you can also pick up the Motorola Edge (2023). Its 6.6” OLED display runs at 144Hz (compared to Pixel’s 6.1” 90Hz display) and it’s curved. The Dimensity 7030 isn’t as fast as the Tensor G2 (the difference in GPU performance is stark), but the 4,400mAh battery supports 68W wired and 15W wireless charging compared to 4,385mAh and 18/7.5W for the Pixel. And that USB-C port can be used for Motorola’s desktop environment, Ready For.
You can get a 5G phone for less. The OnePlus Nord N30 is down to $250 and comes with the Snapdragon 695 chipset. Not everyone’s favorite, but it gets the job done. The N30 is equipped with a 6.72” IPS LCD (120Hz, FHD+) to break up the OLED monotony and has a 108MP camera on the back (but nothing else worth mentioning). The 5,000mAh battery supports 50W wired-only charging.
Going down by another $100 and get the Moto G (2023). This one uses the Snapdragon 480+ instead and also has a 120Hz IPS LCD – but it’s only a 6.5” HD+ panel. The battery has the same 5,000mAh capacity, though it only supports 15W charging.
The Amazon Fire Max 11 seems to be permanently on sale, not that we’re complaining. You can get a good quality 11” screen for $185 (IPS LCD, 2,000 x 1,200px) and enjoy all the streaming services. The MediaTek chipset can handle some light gaming too. You can double the storage to 128GB for $15 more. Both the 64GB and 128GB model come with lockscreen ads removed.
Wi-Fi 7 capable phones are already here – in fact, they’ve been around for a while, since some older chipset were updated to support the new standard. Some routers are still quite pricey, but costs are falling. This TP-Link promises up to 9.2Gbps wirelessly and has four 2.5G ports (1 WAN, 4 LAN). It supports mesh networking too, if you need to cover a larger area. There is also a USB 3.0 port, so you can hook up a drive and make it available to the network.
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