Budget Android (€99) vs. Expensive iPhone (€1000) (2018) | Hacker News Reader

Budget Android (€99) vs. Expensive iPhone (€1000) (2018)

willem.com

This article is 6 years old. I wonder how much smaller the difference between a $100 Android and a $1300 iPhone (or Android flagship) is now? Especially if you were to choose a Chinese brand like Oppo instead. I guess the $100 display and camera will be massively better than 6 years ago, while the top end will have had only incremental changes.

We use the Galaxy A15 as a test device for entry level phones in our lab. I get to spend a lot of time with it while testing and debugging. There is absolutely no difference compared to a more expensive phone.

Of course, there is the occasional lag (and by lag I mean that you have to wait a couple of ms/s for things to happen), and maybe you won't see the camera used on a movie set... but beyond that, you can live your life and never miss anything from that iPhone.

Using such a device, you also immediately become aware of apps and websites that were released a bit too quickly - heavy, clunky things take longer to load, and you're more likely to abandon a heavy app/website.

So once again, I ask you to optimise your front-ends (both web and 'native').

i used to get phones in the $100-$150 price range. and i'd usually buy a new one after a year or so because the old one became unusable. screen damage (not cracks, but mostly defective touchscreens or lines appearing), bad battery, etc, things that are expensive to repair, and not worth it for a cheap phone.

but for my last phone a year ago i got a refurbished phone that would have cost $300-$500 new. and the difference was massive. this phone has a way better battery life than i can remember from any of my previous phone. it has a better camera and more ram, and is faster (when previously i felt that more ram and faster cpu would affect the battery life negatively)

now this is just an anecdote, and it is very subjective, but i came away with the impression that spending more in a phone can be worth it.

the downside is that for my usage this phone doesn't last any longer than my previous ones. i broke the screen and had to replace it, which wasn't cheap, and the new screen also has some cracks already, which means my average spending on phones will go up if i replace this one with something similar next year.

It been a couple years since I was testing, but as a game developer I can tell you the performance difference is significant (altho I wonder if it’s due to driver quality or middleware being less optimised for android hardware).

I believe it was around 2021-22 when I was thoroughly testing but at the time even a 5 year old iPhone was faster than a brand new mid-range android (one of the Chinese brands that had good specs on paper).

And by faster I mean an integer multiple higher FPS, not just a little faster.

My guess would be that popular software like Unity and Unreal is much better optimised for iOS GPUs.

One interesting point he made in there was that with his phone costing only €99, he doesn't feel like he needs a case. Who cares if it gets damaged? Just buy another €99 phone.

Any phone that requires a case is going to be bulkier than one that doesn't so this automatically means that the iPhone will be bulkier in the pocket than his budget Android.

If you go the budget phone route you'll probably buy a new phone more often because why not. They're cheap. If next year's model is a decent upgrade you'll probably get it.

I run into people with iPhones that look like they've been through hell despite the case, glass cracked in three places, edges scuffed, outdated model... because frankly they can't afford a new phone all the time so they have to live with this one. But they'll say they just HAVE to have an iPhone and would never consider Android.

Personally I'm somewhere in the middle of the two extremes with a Samsung A5 that costs a couple hundred bucks. Maybe I should ditch the case.

I use an old cheap android but do choose to use a case, not because of the cost of a replacement, but because I don't want to spend time and effort in finding and setting up a new phone.

And personally, I find it better ergonomically with a little more thickness. One auxiliary benefit is that I can throw it around without caring.

One drawback of the smartphone ecosystem is that as far as the aftermarket is concerned, there are two smartphone brands: Apple and Samsung. I broke the display on a Pixel 3a XL in New Orleans, looked around for a repair shop, and found one -- that refused to fix my phone if it wasn't one of those two brands.

iPhone users can walk into Target and find all manner of cases and other accessories with a variety of styles designed to fit their phones. Samsung users enjoy almost as much diversity. For my replacement Google Pixel, I had to go to Amazon and get a plain case from China that almost looks 3D printed.

Go to AliExpress instead and you will find thousands of different types of cases for peanuts.

I used to think so but my current android has terrible heat management. Maybe bad battery or I may have doomscrolling for too long. The battery got bloated without me noticing it.

AppleCare and better materials all but obviate the need for a case.

These days, dropping an iPhone is unlikely to result in cracks or display damage. The glass on these phones is really strong. However, if that does happen and it gets bad enough to need replacement, with AppleCare, you basically tap a few taps in the Support app and a new phone will be at your front door the next day.

Totally different story if you don't have AppleCare, but I think that it's a no brainer given the cost of these devices.

I think this depends on you as a person. I say this as someone who swears by apple care as I have managed to break 2 phones without taking them out of my pocket:

1. Setting up some light deck and resting it on my thigh, heard a crack, phone smooshed

2. Intoxicated managed to bump the corner of the railing for my mum’s stairs slap-bang in the middle of the phone screen, through my jeans. Phone looked like it had been hit by a bullet

Apple care is a lifesaver for this sorta stuff but AFAIR you can only get it for the first three years of a device. After that you’re on your own

I do have my phone in an apple silicone case, and a cheap screen protector. However, my previous phone a 12 pro in the same setup survived flying out of my pocket at 65 mph on a motorcycle with 0 damage. (I think it got very lucky, and landed flat, screen side down, where the edges of the case somehow protected it). Thankfully it narrowly avoided being run over by a car when I turned around to find it.

I’ve been amazed at what iPhones after the 6 have been able to survive. My 7 which I have kept as a backup is still kicking except for the camera being destroyed by vibration.

However, I do keep my phone in a back pocket usually and mostly take it out of my pocket if I sit down.

> AFAIR you can only get it for the first three years of a device. After that you’re on your own

They have a monthly plan now that renews indefinitely. It's pretty recent so I wonder when they will start cutting those off (like I can't see them still supporting phones that have entered their "legacy" status)

I have a Samsung that was less than $100 USD new. The only things that bother me are that it only has 2.5G WiFi, the camera is average, and it is slow to boot up.

It still costs more than a screen replacement, but at least if I buy a new one, I know I'm not getting a dodgy screen.

The gulf is even wider now. The flagship will have significantly better cameras, faster SoCs, better materials (though this has always been the case) and better screens (top notch OLED with ghosting mitigations and ultra low latency touch response vs a cheapo LCD).

Why not just a $100 iPhone? That's about what I paid for my brand new iPhone SE2 from a budget pre-paid carrier a few years ago... right now you can get a brand new SE3 on the TracFone website for $189. Spec wise it's basically an iPhone 13 and is still a fast modern phone that is sold new and is expected to get updates for about 9 more years.

Personally the cost isn't an issue but I prefer the SE2/SE3 design to the flagship phones- you get nearly all of the performance but in a smaller, lighter, more durable body, and with a physical button and a fingerprint sensor.

There's no such thing as a new $100 iPhone.

You can't compare an unsubsidized price with a subsidized one -- it's not a fair comparison.

I love the SE2 as well but it doesn't cost $100 and it doesn't cost $189. You're still paying ~$429, the remainder is just hidden among the monthly payments.

This is not true- those are prices from prepaid “burner” plans with no contracts. If you prepay for 2 months service the phone is then completely unlocked. These carriers are a good deal anyways and many are actually the Verizon network, but if you don’t use them, it costs only about $20-30 to have the phone unlocked.

I really did pay $100 for an SE2 from Tracfone, and a few months and under $20 later switched carriers.

I believe these carriers are subsidizing the phone under the hopes you will use their service long term- but with no obligation to do so.

Thank you for actually explaining though- my comments were getting downvoted a lot without replies, and I can see this is because people were assuming I was talking about signing a service contract and not understanding the real cost, which is not the case at all.

Tracfone will not unlock a phone until 60 days after it is activated[1]. Oh, and if you use it on T-Mobile or AT&T's network (instead of Verizon), it's actually 12 months.

While this is certainly cheaper than a full price iPhone SE, it is not even close to a "$100 iPhone" - it's a "somewhere between $200-$300 iPhone", depending on which network you use and how you quantify the cost of being unable to switch.

1: https://www.tfwunlockpolicy.com/wps/portal/home/!ut/p/a1/04_...

Yes, as I already said that requires buying 2 months service which will be somewhere between $15-30 total, but Tracfone is a good carrier on the Verizon network with no contracts and incredibly low prices- so it's somewhat hard for me to see that as an extra expense if you need service anyways. I think I was previously paying about $8/month for them, but switched to another cheap carrier that includes unlimited data.

You can get a Tracfone SE for $100- I've seen them that cheap on the website, in person in box stores, and on eBay, but you have to hunt around. It would be $219 total right now for an SE3 and 2 months service on the website.

My newish flagship iPhone will stop getting updates by the time the SE4 or 5 is out. I expect to move that way. 3D scans were fun for about a week, but the size and weight quickly became a nuisance on something I mainly use for photos, note taking, looking stuff up, and navigating.

I've followed Android since dropping it for a 3 year old 6s Plus in 2018 and the things I disliked about it seem to still be there based on reviews and the issues Android-using friends run into.

If they told me the SE was the premium phone and cost more, I would still consider it- I just like the design a lot more, however I wish they would bring back the even smaller SE1 form factor. I'm not watching movies or playing games- I don't care how big the screen is. I just want it to be small, rugged, and light but still secure and work with modern apps for things like 2FA and remote entry systems.

I skimmed it without even realizing the date of the article. It's remarkable how even content on dated tech like this still feels fresh due to the same underlying problems.

while someone writes an updated version of this, my observations for the past 6 years on both fronts:

- the superficial feature gaps are lower than ever, and some aspects being better for the budget side (e.g. iphone 16 still with 60Hz display vs 90hz on a redmi a3)

- the flexibility with ios is reaching a tipping point (usb-c, altstore in the EU, etc.). meanwhile android ad revenue approaches are getting more egregious by the quarter.

- the repair ecosystem for iphones are (arguably) consistently better than budget android phones now. components would still cost a new budget android to change, however.

- iphones maintain their resale values, although refurbished marketplace is partially to blame for the continued success recently.

for basic use, now more than ever phones can last you for several years, provided the one you use serves your needs today. obviously, a 10x more expensive phone will not last you proportionally longer.

I am typing this on a €100 that I use daily. Whenever I need a phone I typically buy whatever Xiaomi released in my price range the previous months. I mostly end up with a Poco (I loved the Poco X3). Currently using a budget Redmi device.

(2018)

yeah, that's seriously old, and perhaps even for 2018 that's a pretty awful choice lol. nowadays (for past several years really, since about 2020-2021, when huge notched/cutout screens really hit the lowest segments) you'd be able to get a pretty damn good phone at that price, with a huge screen and a huge battery (and maybe even quite a lot of storage, like 128gb options). it'd actually be interesting to see a comparison with a modern $100 phone.

It's probably time for me to upgrade.

I bought my budget Samsung phone in about 2018 (a J145 for about $150). It has 16gb and struggles a bit these days performance wise.

Edit:

We use my wife's iPhone for photos and stuff like that, mine just for texting and so I can receive spam calls (wouldn't want to miss those).

Feels like the phone capabilities didn't change much since 2018. What would be the android phone nowadays that we could write this article about?

This article was written in 2018... Android one is long dead, now the owners of inexpensive Android phones again have to guarantee that they will ever receive security fixes or updates.

That phone is now running LineageOS and with that will receive updates until the hardware is no longer capable of running a recent version of Android.

While I do not know whether this the case for the specific phone mentioned in the (2018) article but it is true for my (2014) Samsung Galaxy SIIIneo, the (2013) Galaxy Tab 3, the two (2018) Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro devices, my daughter's (2015) Galaxy S6 Edge+, etc. Many if not most Android devices are more like PCs in that you're not stuck with whatever the vendor installed on them, instead you have the freedom to install your own OS distribution.

A lot of Android phones in the past two years (mainly from Google and Samsung) have very long update promises. These will slowly trickle onto the budget/used market and get updates longer than their expected lifespan.

These new update policies don't apply to older models. When Samsung went to 7 years support with the S24, I never got that with my S23. It remained at 4. And that's a flagship class model.

I agree with you that its a little ridiculous they don't retroactively apply the decision to at least the flagship models of yesteryear.

So, 2024 - 7 = Galaxy S8 should still be getting security updates until end of year, 2024 - 4 = Galaxy S20 should have its final OS version upgrade this year.

Yeah I wish I could still use my S8. It was my best phone ever. I like my S23 but it misses so much.

The notification LED, the pressure sensitive display, the edge screen (rounded edges), the iris scanner, the 3.5mm jack, the beautiful orchid grey back pattern. It even had a heart rate and SpO2 sensor. But being stuck on android 9 without security updates is just too much of a problem.

The notification LED was so great to notice a missed call etc. An always on display is not as useful because it's so dim. You can't see it from a distance. It's more like an almost off display :) The LED you would easily notice across the room.

For the price of an iPhone, you can get a new Android phone every eight months.

That's a lot of e-waste.

You don't have to buy the phones.

> That's a lot of e-waste.

Tell that to Google. They release almost every year a "new" Android version.

iPhones don't need to be expensive, you can get new iPhones quite cheap.

I paid about $100 for a brand new iPhone SE2 through a budget prepaid carrier with a projected support life of 8 years from when I bought it 2 years ago- a fairly common discount offer you can still find for new SE3s now. I don't think you can buy any usable Android phone for the $12 or so I'd have every 8 months instead of buying a base model iPhone. And Apple uses their top end CPUs and hardware in their cheap base model phones.

I don't understand how the down-payment on the loan you bought your phone on is relevant in this discussion.

What loan? That was a cash price for the phone connected to the month-to-month prepaid carrier I already used anyways because they had a very low monthly price with no contracts... and after just 60 days it is unlocked and can be used on any network. Indeed, after a few months I did switch to another prepaid carrier that had free data.

If you take Tracfone for example, they have plans that are as cheap as about $8-15 a month depending on the term, so I don't think being locked in for 2 months on whatever carrier you already want to use is a "loan." Presumably you're using some carrier or wouldn't have a phone. Worst case scenario add $30 to the total price to use it as an unlocked phone.

This is also generally the cheapest way to buy an Android phone. However, the cheap carrier versions of flagship Android phones are often banned from getting security updates for some reason.

What price can I buy an unlocked iPhone as a one-off, without any recurring payments or carriers? That's the price that's relevant when comparing that phone's price to other phones.

I already answered that- your best deal to get an unlocked phone is to buy a locked one and pay out the 2 months service to unlock it. So add about $20-30 to the price, which still gets you a new iPhone free and clear for about $200.

The thing that makes getting an iPhone like this so much cheaper than even a base model 3rd world country targeted Android is the really long support life.

However, I can't imagine anyone actually doing that, because if you're budget conscious enough to be doing this, you'll already be using one of those low priced prepaid carriers, so the 2 month lock-in is not an extra expense.

So I get an iPhone for $200 and then I can cancel the contract and pay nothing else? That sounds like a pretty good deal.

Yes- right now on the Tracfone website I see an iPhone SE3 for $189, and single month prepaid rates of $15/mo so that would be $219 total. I'd imagine you have to really wait out the 2 months of service also before the unlock triggers. These are prepaid "burner plans," so there is no contract, you just buy months/minutes up front, and can buy the minutes as a gift card along with the phone.

However, in the past I never paid those full website rates because you can often get the pre-boxed store shelf versions of these phones new on eBay, or in person at stores for even cheaper... and the monthly service itself is also a lot less than $15/mo if you prepay for a longer period. In real life $100 total is possible for a brand new iPhone if done right, and is about what I paid for mine.

Just don't touch anything through Walmart, but yeah, these deals are pretty much real.

Play Walmart games, win Walmart prizes.

My Samsung Galaxy A13, a budget phone. IIRC will get 4 years of security updates. Pretty good tbh

I still get Android One security updates from Google on a Nokia 1.4

no way something that old gets security updates still...aaand it stopped getting security updates earlier this year. nokia's update promises are not great, often just about 2 to 3 years of updates. (combined with phones getting released on older android versions, like android 13, and having only two os upgrades which pretty much comes down to just one...just none with android 15 just about to drop, it's really not great.) which is maybe fair for phones that cheap, but samsung with quite competitive specs at the same price ranges offers longer update promises (something like A series, like A15 apparently promising 5 years of updates)

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