[bijims]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

Looking for a phone for my son with a 20K budget. Requirements are large display, battery and long term support. The Samsung M34 seems to fit my requirements. Any other decent options in this price range ?

If the 6000 mah battery with 25w fast charging, and the Samsung brand are important to you and you are fine with the mediocre Exynos 1280 chip, then the M34 can be considered, else there are much better options in the market.

Originally Posted by dragonfire

Is the Pixel 6A still relevant today? I can get one for 18K. Sounds like a good deal to me, but since the Pixel 7 series is around, does the 6A make sense?

PS: This will be a secondary mobile and replace a Moto edge 20 (which hasn't received the Android 13 update yet). My primary phone is an iPhone 13.

With the Pixel 8 series along with Android 14 due in a couple of months, going for the Pixel 6A which is over a year old isn't the best idea, but considering the fact that the Pixel 7A is quite expensive and the feature upgrades over the 6A aren't monumental, the 6A is definitely more VFM.

[meerkat]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

Looking for a phone for my son with a 20K budget. Requirements are large display, battery and long term support. The Samsung M34 seems to fit my requirements. Any other decent options in this price range ?

Do keep in mind that the Samsung M series phones are relatively heavy (bigger battery). The M34 also has a notch (rather than a punch-hole), if that matters.
.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by meerkat

Do keep in mind that the Samsung M series phones are relatively heavy (bigger battery). The M34 also has a notch (rather than a punch-hole), if that matters.
.

I am not a fan of the M series phones at all. Having used a M31 briefly, I was put off by the cartoonish app icons and UI. The biggest grouse was the weight and size. At 200g+ I felt like I am lugging a stone in my pant pocket. If someone has used a plain vanilla Android One phones, these M series phones feel cheap and childish!

[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

Looking for a phone for my son with a 20K budget. Requirements are large display, battery and long term support. The Samsung M34 seems to fit my requirements. Any other decent options in this price range ?

I got M34 for my teenage son three years back and it has been working very well. It is an excellent phone with good battery and camera. Family prefers the natural looking photos from this camera than processed photos from OnePlus 7T (more than double the price). The only con is that it is heavy as others have pointed out.

[sdp1975]

Originally Posted by bijims

If the 6000 mah battery with 25w fast charging, and the Samsung brand are important to you and you are fine with the mediocre Exynos 1280 chip, then the M34 can be considered, else there are much better options in the market.

A decent battery to last a day long is good enough. I don't care about the brand, but I've read that Samsung displays are the best in class. The usage is browsing, mails, video etc , so don't need a very powerful processor, but long term security updates - at least 3 years - is good to have.

If there are better options in this price range I'll be happy to take a look at them.

[bijims]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

A decent battery to last a day long is good enough. I don't care about the brand, but I've read that Samsung displays are the best in class. The usage is browsing, mails, video etc , so don't need a very powerful processor, but long term security updates - at least 3 years - is good to have.

If there are better options in this price range I'll be happy to take a look at them.

If you want basically the same phone at a cheaper price, the Samsung F34 5G launching on 7th August is the one to go for, else the Motorola g73 5G at Rs.16999 for the 8gb/128gb variant (with additional card discounts), the Poco X5 Pro 5G are either better or more VFM products in this price range.

[NG_EV]

For BHPians planning to buy M or A series phones, please check the type of proximity sensor before purchase. Samsung has played dirty and replaced the actual proximity sensor with a virtual proximity sensor. It will lead to same set of problems as there were with S20FE. You will need a screen replacement sooner or later.

[pedrolourenco]

Has anyone tried out the Briar Messaging App?

https://briarproject.org

I have tried it out on my phone and seems to be good. Advantages are:
- It's secure. Messages are only stored on the 2 phone involved in the conversation (or multiple phones in case of a group).
- You can create an account without a phone number.
- Only contacts who are added can message you.
- Can be used without internet. Bluetooth when in range or Wifi if all the phones are connected to the same Wifi network. I find this feature extremely useful on board the ship where data is extremely limited.

[StepUP!]

I am using S23 for a while now. I upgraded from S10.
However I am finding S10 better in terms of display, screen touch feel, grip and size. Even S23's camera didn't impress me. I feel I didn't upgrade on anything except 5G connectivity.

Not sure what I am missing here.

[batish]

Originally Posted by StepUP!

I am using S23 for a while now. I upgraded from S10.
However I am finding S10 better in terms of display, screen touch feel, grip and size. Even S23's camera didn't impress me. I feel I didn't upgrade on anything except 5G connectivity.

Not sure what I am missing here.

Same here. Upgraded from S8 to S23, don't find the display to be immersive or true AMOLED. Camera too loses focus easily. 4/5 photos which have texts have screwed up focus near the sides.

After June update I have to charge it twice in a day whereas earlier it was once a day. I am not a heavy user by any means. No games, just simple internet surfing. Even this takes a toll on battery.

[PatienceWins]

I just got Samsung A54 256gb as OnePlus 7T battery is draining fast. I went for A54 compared to S23 plus considering the price difference and my usage (no heavy usage). Even if I am not happy with the phone, I can give it to my teenage son who is using M34 and go for a proper upgrade.

Pros:

• Great stereo sound quality. The focus is on sound quality at higher volumes than sheer loudness
• Good Amoled display for a mid range phone. Adaptive 120 Hz refersh rate gives a smooth experience during normal usage (blame the processor on heavy usage - see Cons)
• Samsung One UI - lot of customization
• Great voice quality and signal reception
• 4 year android update and 5 year security updates
• Decent build quality and same design as Samsung flagship S23
• Good camera (yet to test it in outdoors) with 50 MP mode
• Supports 5G

Cons:

• Exynos Performance: It is fine for my usage, but during heavy usage (transferring data from old phone and running multiple apps) I could see the impact
• Battery and slow charging: Even with a 5000mah battery which takes more than 1 hour to charge (miss fast charging on OnePlus), it lasts a day now. Wonder how the battery will perform in the long term.
• No charger out of the box, just cable. Samsung should learn from chinese counterparts
• Miss Alert slider on OnePlus
• Phone is heavy and the Spigen Tough Armour case has made it bulky/ heavy

Overall, I am not regretting the decision and using A54 as the primary phone now. Happy I did not spend more than 2 times the price of A54 on S23 plus.

[rajivr1612]

Team, I was trying to subscribe to YouTube Premium, but not able to make payment through Play Store.
All payment modes are inactive.
Can someone please help?

[harry10]

Originally Posted by rajivr1612

Team, I was trying to subscribe to YouTube Premium, but not able to make payment through Play Store.
All payment modes are inactive.
Can someone please help?

Did you try making it directly through youtube?

Best way is to leave standing instructions so it can be debited itself every month. I do it via my icici Credit card and on every 12th I receive a Msg from icici, payment will be deducted on 14th and on 14th it gets deducted. No hassle of doing it manually every month.

[rajivr1612]

Originally Posted by harry10

Did you try making it directly through Youtube?

Best way is to leave standing instructions so it can be debited itself every month. I do it via my icici Credit card and on every 12th I receive a Msg from icici, payment will be deducted on 14th and on 14th it gets deducted. No hassle of doing it manually every month.

Yes, I tried it directly through YouTube.
I have not added my credit card yet, but any guess as to why it doesn't even accept GPay?

[dragonfire]

Originally Posted by rajivr1612

Yes, I tried it directly through YouTube.
I have not added my credit card yet, but any guess as to why it doesn't even accept GPay?

I think you can give standing instructions only using a credit card. There was some RBI mandate recently that prohibits charging a payment method automatically.