What budget ($200-400) phones would you recommend?
What budget ($200-400) phones would you recommend?
Not looking for me personally, so leaving the specs/features open, and generally interested in what people might recommend.
Imo there's almost always some surprising budget phones floating around to learn about. Only condition I might add is that preferably they're from 2022-2023, and if not, mention their release year to help know its version/update situation.
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I've been using Xiaomi phones now. They're Redmi Note phones are fully featured phones with good hardware. The camera leaves something to be desired but HDR high refresh, fast SoC make up for that.
The android distro is very bloaty so I'd recommend installing a custom launcher for it, the added settings and battery optimizations are really good though.
https://m.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_note_13_pro+-12572.php Cost 120eur, 180eur, 240eur for 13, 13pro, 13pro+ respectively.
Just be aware with Xiaomi phones that you might be restricted for certain things.
My memory's not great, so I can't remember if it was unlocking the bootloader or root, but Xiaomi locked it behind an account. You can't unlock without setting up a Xiaomi account that includes, from memory, your email address, phone number, and date of birth.
I've read that newer phones are going to be even more locked down, but I don't know if there are going to be workarounds.
It's unfortunate yeah. A lot of data goes to Xiaomi instead of Samsung, Google and Apple. Rooting is more of a hassle than on other phones but definitely possible.
That's still a trade off I'm willing to make to get a mid-range phone for half price of a comparable Samsung.
I've found the article I mentioned earlier. It's the bootloader that currently needs a Xiaomi account to unlock.
https://xiaomiui.net/how-to-unlock-xiaomi-bootloader-and-install-custom-rom-7098/
I'm sure that I've read that they are going to restrict rooting and bootloader unlocking though, probably on here somewhere. I just can't find the post.
Just be aware with Xiaomi phones that you might be restricted for certain things.
You can't unlock without setting up a Xiaomi account that includes, from memory, your email address, phone number, and date of birth.
Your memory really is not great, and you can use throwaway emails to deal with registering/receiving codes from them.
