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Forced into an Upgrade 141st Journal
4 years ago
This is my head.
I gots me a new phone. It arrived Saturday. Well, I had to upgrade as my old ancient one as it will not work with with my carrier anymore soonish as they are going to drop that capability in a few months (as with many other carriers as they all want to move to the so-called kinda 5G stuff in the US). The old phone worked well enough for what I use it for. I is a big slow but since I am an antisocial dragon, I done use it much anyway. I have various computers and laptops at home and work, I don't really need much beyond basic phone functions and playing simple games when I am on the road.
But getting a better camera would be nice, so I was keeping the idea of upgrading in the back of my head. But never pulled the trigger until now. I did a bunch of searching for something that is not insanely priced, which are slim pickings. I was looking for something in the $200US to $300US range (spoiler, I went a bit over). I definitely not going into the ridiculously overpriced $1000+ flagship models.
Aside from the better camera and video, other features I searched were a decently good screen, expandable memory and if I can get it, a proper audio jack and replaceable battery (the later pretty much extinct these days). I also want to stick with Android for reasons. Oh, it absolutely had to be unlocked. There is no way I am going to be tied down to the mercy of a single carrier.
Just about anything on the current market would blow my old model out of the water, a Samsung Galaxy Prevail (something like that IIRC). But if I had to upgrade, I wanted something far enough ahead that I won't need to do it again for a good while, while not being stupid expensive. Basically the best bang for the buck type of thing. So I attacked the mid-ranged phone, trying to find a good price-to-performance ratio.
I first looked at the Samsung A32. Seems good enough. The camera specs way higher than my old one. It has a 48MP rear camera compared to something like like 8MP on the old, 12MP on the front instead of 5MP (or was it 2MP, I forgets), 4K 30fps video versus whatever crap my old one put out, maybe 720p if that. Memory wise, it has 4GB RAM and 128GB internal storage with expansion of 512GB. The old has 8GB internal with 32GB max expansion. The RAM I don't know but probably something like 1GB. The A32 has a much much better display and speed of course. So it looked like a winner. But the cheapest unlocked price was somewhat over $300US, especially including sales tax and whatnot (a little cheaper if I am locked with a carrier but no way I am going to do that).
But I still wanted to look around a bit more for anything better. Other Samsung models like the A42 and A52 that are getting good reviews too with a little better specs in each bump in the model. The prices I been seeing on them are a bit close with the A52 on sale, so if I am going to pick among those two, the A52 would be it.
So comparing the A32 with the A52, the later has four time the screen resolution, double the framerate, 6GB of RAM, a 64MP camera sensor, can go a full TB with the micro SD and has a slightly faster processor. And it is about a hundred bucks more than the A32. I felt it was worth it as that was nice jump in performance per price ratio. Anything above that model has a much bigger diminishing return, huge increases in price that doesn't seem to justify the better specs, at least in my eyes. Besides, the prices was getting way out of paw.
I ended up selecting the A52 despite being a bit over my original price bracket. For less than 20% more in price, I get 4x the display, 2x
refresh rate, 2x expandable memory limit, 50% more memory, 33% more camera pixels, and a slightly better processor (that diminishing returns thing starting to kick in), all the while keeping the audio jack and all that.
This phone better last me a long long time, several centuries at least. I am not going to swap phones every year like some people. Unless it is something that transcends space and time, I am sticking with what I got for the long haul.
At least I now can take better pictures and videos. I bought one of those 1080p action cams a while ago and took a few vids here and there, but hopefully with this new phone, I can do it more often. I plan to record the fursuits parades that I am in in the future if I can manage it. I might post it on YouTube. I have an account but I haven't put anything up on it as of yet. Maybe I can start with stuff like the parades and the like. I bought a steady cam stick thing awhile back that should make a nice addition to the phone. Should make the vid as stable or even better than those super expensive phones. Then just about the only thing I'll be missing out on is the small speed bump and slightly better camera, which I can live with.
I can also run newer apps as a lot of them stopped support for KitKat 4.4 long ago. I don't plan on running the latest ultra demanding action and FPS games as I have a computer for that if I even have a desire to do so (lack of freetime putting a dent here). But still would be nice to have more options open to me. As for steaming movies and stuff, I'll do it over WiFi if that. We shall see... we shall see.
But getting a better camera would be nice, so I was keeping the idea of upgrading in the back of my head. But never pulled the trigger until now. I did a bunch of searching for something that is not insanely priced, which are slim pickings. I was looking for something in the $200US to $300US range (spoiler, I went a bit over). I definitely not going into the ridiculously overpriced $1000+ flagship models.
Aside from the better camera and video, other features I searched were a decently good screen, expandable memory and if I can get it, a proper audio jack and replaceable battery (the later pretty much extinct these days). I also want to stick with Android for reasons. Oh, it absolutely had to be unlocked. There is no way I am going to be tied down to the mercy of a single carrier.
Just about anything on the current market would blow my old model out of the water, a Samsung Galaxy Prevail (something like that IIRC). But if I had to upgrade, I wanted something far enough ahead that I won't need to do it again for a good while, while not being stupid expensive. Basically the best bang for the buck type of thing. So I attacked the mid-ranged phone, trying to find a good price-to-performance ratio.
I first looked at the Samsung A32. Seems good enough. The camera specs way higher than my old one. It has a 48MP rear camera compared to something like like 8MP on the old, 12MP on the front instead of 5MP (or was it 2MP, I forgets), 4K 30fps video versus whatever crap my old one put out, maybe 720p if that. Memory wise, it has 4GB RAM and 128GB internal storage with expansion of 512GB. The old has 8GB internal with 32GB max expansion. The RAM I don't know but probably something like 1GB. The A32 has a much much better display and speed of course. So it looked like a winner. But the cheapest unlocked price was somewhat over $300US, especially including sales tax and whatnot (a little cheaper if I am locked with a carrier but no way I am going to do that).
But I still wanted to look around a bit more for anything better. Other Samsung models like the A42 and A52 that are getting good reviews too with a little better specs in each bump in the model. The prices I been seeing on them are a bit close with the A52 on sale, so if I am going to pick among those two, the A52 would be it.
So comparing the A32 with the A52, the later has four time the screen resolution, double the framerate, 6GB of RAM, a 64MP camera sensor, can go a full TB with the micro SD and has a slightly faster processor. And it is about a hundred bucks more than the A32. I felt it was worth it as that was nice jump in performance per price ratio. Anything above that model has a much bigger diminishing return, huge increases in price that doesn't seem to justify the better specs, at least in my eyes. Besides, the prices was getting way out of paw.
I ended up selecting the A52 despite being a bit over my original price bracket. For less than 20% more in price, I get 4x the display, 2x
refresh rate, 2x expandable memory limit, 50% more memory, 33% more camera pixels, and a slightly better processor (that diminishing returns thing starting to kick in), all the while keeping the audio jack and all that.
This phone better last me a long long time, several centuries at least. I am not going to swap phones every year like some people. Unless it is something that transcends space and time, I am sticking with what I got for the long haul.
At least I now can take better pictures and videos. I bought one of those 1080p action cams a while ago and took a few vids here and there, but hopefully with this new phone, I can do it more often. I plan to record the fursuits parades that I am in in the future if I can manage it. I might post it on YouTube. I have an account but I haven't put anything up on it as of yet. Maybe I can start with stuff like the parades and the like. I bought a steady cam stick thing awhile back that should make a nice addition to the phone. Should make the vid as stable or even better than those super expensive phones. Then just about the only thing I'll be missing out on is the small speed bump and slightly better camera, which I can live with.
I can also run newer apps as a lot of them stopped support for KitKat 4.4 long ago. I don't plan on running the latest ultra demanding action and FPS games as I have a computer for that if I even have a desire to do so (lack of freetime putting a dent here). But still would be nice to have more options open to me. As for steaming movies and stuff, I'll do it over WiFi if that. We shall see... we shall see.
