I am not one for buying the latest flagship mobile phone. My phone is a tool and not a status symbol. I have never owned an iPhone as I never really got into Apple stuff. The things I use my phone for are mainly:
- Some photography, but it is mainly snaps as memories and, of course, to use online.
- Listening to podcasts.
- General internet use, including Hive via
.
- Logging my running, but my Garmin watch does the actual tracking.
- Some streaming, but that is usually to a Chromecast on the TV as I like a decent size screen.
- The occasional phone call.
My last couple of phones have been from Motorola who give you a pretty vanilla Android experience. They have served me well, but the last one (a G6) eventually locked up and was not getting updates anyway. So in January I bought a Moto g50 for £159.
There were cheaper phones available, but this offered:
- 5G.
- Long battery life.
- Reasonable cameras.
- 64GB of storage.
This phone has a few firsts for me. It has USB C, which at least removes the problem of trying to insert the cable the wrong way around. It also has a screen filling the front with a camera notch. This meant learning the gestures to navigate. I do not really like that phones keep getting bigger, but there do not seem to be many that fit better in the hand.
The back has the, now obligatory, multiple cameras and fingerprint sensor. You can see photos I have taken in my recent posts. The cameras seem pretty good. I have found my previous Motorola did well in low light and this does too, so I rarely use the flash.
The macro mode is good for getting in close.
I have no real issues with performance. All the apps I need run fine. I do not tend to play games on my phone and maybe some of those need a faster processor. So far I have only used half the storage with apps and media. It is possible to add an SD card for more.
The battery life is excellent. It can last a couple of days with normal use, so I would not need to worry about running out. I do not think the battery is replaceable without special tools. The phone is partially waterproof, but I will not test that too much. It has a proper headphone jack,
After two months I am still very happy with this phone. It is nothing fancy, but I do not feel like I am missing out on anything. I hope it will last me a few years. I will replace it when it either breaks or becomes a security risk through lack of updates. I do not bother buying special phone insurance as I can afford to write off the cost. If I were paying £800 for a phone I might think otherwise. I just do not want to have that much money in my pocket and I might get paranoid about dropping or losing it.