Phone cameras these days take OK pictures as long as you aren't taking pictures in extreme lighting, etc. They are OK for snaps in daylight and some artificial light. They are usually useless for night time unless your expectations are low which they probably are if you haven't used a DSLR.
Yes. A friend of mine is an experienced photographer/graphics designer, and is involved with a local, high-end Art Gallery. He used to lug all of his expensive digital photographic kit in to the gallery every 2 weeks to photograph the new exhibits, until one day he thought "What about using my phone instead?" (I think it's an I-phone - since all of his other tech is Apple)
The resultant photos were deemed to be just as good as his 'proper' photos (he produces an online catalogue for each exhibition) - so now his proper camera kit stays at home...
My little 'go to' camera - a 15-year-old Fuji F10 is "only" 6 megapixels, and that's grand for all I need to do - so having a phone with similar abilities, plus the advantage of usually having it in my pocket, would be a plus. The phone review sites I've seen don't seem to review the phone cameras
- other than to give a megapixel rating - so it's hard to know which ones are better than others...?
I think if you're fishing around the cheap end of the pool the cameras aren't much to write home about, so they don't review them very much.
I'd suggest looking at flagship phones from a few years ago - either used or refurb. For instance, an iPhone or the Galaxy S or Galaxy Note ranges. Here is a good source of refurb phones:
- older phones like a Galaxy S5, Note 4 or iPhone 6 or SE are in the 100-200 pound bracket, and possibly cheaper on ebay.
Apple are good at keeping old-ish phones up to date, or you can install LineageOS on some Android phones.
Theo
Thanks. I'm in Ireland - but might pop in to a local phone shop early in the week, as I know they have 2nd-user phones...
Oh - indeed. Didn't mean to suggest they can match a 'proper' camera under all conditions. But then neither can any shapshot camera. Just making the point that they can be vastly better than ones of only a few years ago. Or on a cheap phone.
Think is a decent proper camera is a bulky object to carry with you at all times. Most always carry a phone, though.
+1 for Motorola (or whoever they are now), I have had a G4 and G5 and I bought someone a Moto E. Excellent value.
I do actually have SIM only contracts, currently one of the cheapest GiffGaff ones, but last time I looked someone else (Tesco?) gave slightly more data for the same price.
I think the "card" thing relates to the version of Android, as tweaked by the phone maker. Some apps can be moved to the card, some can't. You
*should* be able to store photos and music on the card. You may struggle to access the card via USB.
I don't think I would pay their prices when you can get a new moto g6 for £220 on amazon.
Quite bad if it doesn?t have a user replaceable battery and the trader chooses to tell you that that's life when you discover it doesn?t last very long between charges. It isnt even that easy to check that when you have it in your hand before handing over the money.
If you have a common smart phone something like My Phone Explorer may work on your PC, etc. Far better interface than the one Samsung provides. It accesses the card on my S5 here.
What is the spec of the camera on that? As I said, the only way of getting a good one at a low price may be via a used phone. If that is important to you.
Which one of the three?
Honor versions are a bit cheaper but still made by huwei
There is more to the network operator than their call costs. EE are the only network to offer a 4G service here. Three do 3G but have a weak signal(*), Vodafone might do 3G, O2 are 2G!
Tarrifs are a minefield. 1p mobile, £40/quid a year minimum, I don't think so, that's only £20 less than my contract...
IDMobile, does the credit *never* expire or the phone become disconnected if you don't use it? I suspect it needs to be "kept alive" somehow, how?
I have Asda Mobile for a data backup link, EE so 4G, allows tethering (not many PAYG tariffs do), only needs to make one chargeable call or text every six months to keep it alive. 1/3/5p MB/text/min IIRC but if I actually needed to use it I'd buy a "bundle".
(*) Not that any networks signal is good enough for use indoors, unless you are upstairs by a window on the right side of the house.
+1
Samsung Kies is probably the worst bit of software I've every had the misfortune to try and use.
My Phone Explorer works well with a Galaxy SIII mini. It'll probably work on any phone provided that the client will run on the phone, access to the file structure and databases is through the standard Android APIs.
With you there. ;-)
I also use it to send some texts from home. Much easier (for me) to use a proper keyboard. Also to edit and organise things like the contact list - again, easier with a proper keyboard. But mainly to transfer pics from the phone to PC. And of course is also a backup for the phone data. One of the few bits of free software I've been very happy to donate to.
Plusnet are much better value than both. Go via uswitch, and their deals are even better.
...and to think that MPE was developed by one bored German IT guy in his spare time, and is offered free of charge... I wonder what Samsung's budget for the project was and how many people they threw at the job...
Unfortunately he has all but stopped support for it a few months ago (a year?) after getting too much grief from ungrateful users..
It's a Samdung product, what did you expect?
3 PAYG is much better. Good coverage anywhere I've needed it in various parts of the country. 3p/min, 2p/text, 1p/MB
No expiry but call, text or use some data at least once every
6 months to keep activeSuits me - I try to keep a minimum of £10 credit on the phone because I top up so rarely, I don't want to get caught out if I forget to check for too long! Then £10 top up when it starte to get low. When I first got it, I put £20 credit on it and didn't top up again for over a year!
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