Who is this post for?

This post is focused on lower cost and slightly older phones and how exactly to identify if a phone is actually good or not so if you're looking to save and get more for your money (as all Dads do) this is for you. This post will focus on some key specs to look out for to make sure you don't waste your money buying a crap phone, nobody wants that. I will be following up with a post on the same topic but for tablets followed by a post on where and how to shop around to find good deals.

So this is for you if are needing to buy yourself a good cost effective phone or a phone for your teenage kid or younger sibling or any relative who is a standard user, by that I mean they are your typical casual users i.e. use a phone for your usual shopping apps, WhatsApp, YouTube, standard photos and games etc and that they aren't specialist or power users needing a phone to do some high level photography or for super heavy usage.

This post might not be for you if you’re a tech whizz who knows all this and more or if your teenage kid wants you to buy them the latest iPhone Pro Max… Good luck with that one! Although I will do a later post on the Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro Max which essentially is a ~£300 phone that punches well above it's weight and competes with the latest top flagship phones.

Let's get started

First things first where do you find the specs for phones? Is there an information source that breaks it all down and lets you compare? Yes my friends there is one - GSMArena.com this is the website I have been using for over a decade and has every little spec detailed, very helpful. Secondly with AI advancing, LLMs like Google Gemini or ChatGPT can help you to get quick answers and comparisons too so feel free to use that to help e.g. you can ask is ‘X’ processor on this phone as good as ‘Y’ processor or is ‘X’ phone better than ‘Y’ phone that I will list below. If you can understand the specs it will help you figure out what phone is good and what phone to avoid to get more for your money.

What Specs to look out for? Here are my basic benchmarks, anything above this is better.

RAM memory - this is like a phones brain capacity to multitask. (As a father I feel like I need a RAM memory upgrade - the tasks never stop!)

It should be a minimum of 6gb to operate multiple apps smoothly. Anything less and the phone will struggle, an example is the redmi note 10 I once tried had a 3gb RAM and whenever you loaded up a few apps it would go so slow and crash, ironically the previous version redmi note 9 had 4gb RAM and was a lot smoother, talk about a downgrade!

Android version if shopping for an android phone - minimum version should be Android 12.

Processor - the engine that completes the tasks. All phones and should have an octa-core processor (pretty much all of them do now), but you definitely should NOT be using a phone that operates on a quad core processor.

Chipset - for simplicity I will focus on 2 popular android chipsets, the Snapdragon and MediaTek Dimensity processors. If you're inclined to go for a google pixel go for G2 or above. If you're an iPhone user A15 or above should do you good.

Snapdragon

For Snapdragon - the 765G - 5G was an early midrange chipset from around 2021 that included 5G compatibility so this should be your baseline minimum. It will still perform solidly today for your typical use case.

Device example - Oppo X3 Lite and Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro

If you're going for the higher range chipsets then the lowest one you'd want is the Snapdragon - 865 - 5G again the first higher range with 5G compatibility and came out around 2021. It will still perform very smoothly today.

Device examples - Oppo X3 Neo and Samsung galaxy S20 FE

MediaTek Dimensity Chipsets*

Mid range that has 5G compatibility:

Dimensity 900 - example Oppo X5 Lite

Higher range which will inevitably have 5G compatibility

Dimensity 1200 - example OnePlus Nord 2 and Xiaomi 11T

*The ones listed above are chipsets from around 2021, MediaTek from 2023 changed how they name their newer chipsets which can sound confusing but to simplify it, anything that is in the 7000 series or above is typically good enough e.g. Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G has a dimensity 7300 ultra processor, their most premium processors is the 9000 series.

Internal storage memory - if it's for a very simple user who won't be taking lots of photos 64gb could suffice but I think 128gb should be the minimum memory you look for unless the phone has a memory card slot.

Battery - 4000MaH should be the minimum for android.

Camera - This one is subjective as higher megapixels doesn't necessarily mean better quality images, phone cameras also have multiple cameras. Most phones have decent enough cameras now for ordinary photography which you can edit and enhance if needed on photo editor apps. On GSMArena they have reviews for most phones where you can look at camera quality. If camera quality and photography is an absolute top priority then I will say the Pixel 7 should be a benchmark as the quality of its camera is pretty good. I'd ask Google Gemini a question like Is ‘X phone’ camera as good as the Pixel 7’s? That will give you an answer or a starting point to research.

You may stop here now and go do some research with this new knowledge you now have. Any questions or comments or if you just want to criticise what I wrote, feel free to post below!

Otherwise my final thoughts below if you care to know:

I appreciate some of you might be thinking this is too much to figure out but I think it's worthwhile given you will buying a phone multiple times in your life and especially if you're a dad, you will be buying more than one. Getting clued up will increase your purchasing power and save you money. Phones are more reliable these days too so it's not usually a case you buy a used phone and suddenly it dies a few months later. I will also caveat this and say when I say used phones I don't mean ones scratched up in bad condition, I mean ones that are still in good condition and there are plenty out there.

For the average casual user phones haven't changed a lot in terms of new features that make a big difference, I mean aside from the folding screens but they still don't add much dad practicality for me, they are heavier and more fragile, I'd be worried if my kid grabbed that off me especially considering how much they cost.

For me it has mainly been refined improvements that's been happening over the years, things like the camera, processors and screen quality have advanced and become more optimised which is useful but it’s all predictable and hardly groundbreaking. Some useful physical things have been removed in newer phones if anything such as removable batteries, 3.5mm headphone jack and memory card slots to expand storage. Maybe bringing back removable or swappable batteries could be a new feature again on these phones? Or some of those advanced health monitoring features you can get on smartwatches could be embedded but perhaps that's a bit too much as phones are very powerful tools now we all rely on heavily, having some separation might actually be a good thing although I would like to see some style variation return. Around 2010 you’d have slide phones, flip phones, walkman phones and phones with keyboards! Styles would be different and each year you'd actually look forward to something new and different.

Back to today the flagships and even mid range phones from up to 3-5 years ago will still perform very well today (and for years to come) and those can be snapped up for good prices in the £100-250 price range; good value for your money.

The marketing and ads today makes you believe they will be inadequate but I guess it’s no surprise that's how they make sales. I think the new phones are very overpowered for the casual user. Does your teenage kid really need a £1200 iPhone 17 pro max to see their acne clearly on the selfie camera or to mask it with the beautify feature? Older phones can do that at a fraction of the price!

Hello Friend, are you there or am I just talking to myself?

Ok really I just wanted to open this blog with a Mr Robot reference and I am most likely talking to myself because this is the first post and I have no subscribers yet.

DadsShopTech - what is the why? To help dads buy the right tech at the right price, to give them one less thing to worry about or one less thing to figure out.

As chief problem solvers, chief fixers of everything, chief technology officers, chief finance officers and chief binmen of the household we have a lot of roles to carry alongside our day jobs. There is a lot to figure out when it comes to buying tech, is this model any good? Is this a good deal? How do I know I’m getting a good deal to begin with? A lot of questions not withstanding that there is enough weight we already carry on our minds as we worry and think about many things to be the guardian protectors that provide a warm home and a safe space for our family’s to thrive.

Things are getting more and more expensive and that includes most of tech. What the earlier iPhones used to cost brand new Vs what they cost now illustrates that, and their battery life is still crap! The pressure to buy the latest tech doesn’t serve anyone well either especially when you consider the price depreciation. I am an advocate for buying good value tech and 2nd hand tech. There is a lot of good quality stuff out there and the amount you can save can be significant. If you’re having to buy for yourself and household members the costs adds up! It is a more sustainable practise in what is a hyper consumerist world that not only tells you to keep buying the latest and ‘greatest’ but tries to attach a sense of status and identity to it at the cost of your wallet!

How do I aim to help?

By sharing tips on what things to look out for in a phone for example, things like the processors, the chipsets, RAM etc. I will also share my purchase experiences of various different pieces of tech and the practical the value they have added to dad life, this includes where I’ve purchased things and where I have got some really good deals and saved money. The type of tech will include phones, tablets, smartwatches, smart glasses and things like setting up a podcast, a NAS system and my family vlogging kit.

The values I will keep in mind: practicality, cost effectiveness and elegance are the way my priorities are ordered when it comes to purchasing tech and my recommendations will be shared with that in mind. Honesty too, I will aim to mention the drawbacks.

You can stop reading here as the above is the essential read, the rest of this will be about my expertise and experience in this area which you are welcome to read on.

My main speciality is phones and tablets. I used to flip second hand phones as a teenager, I would analyse prices on various sites like eBay, CeX, Gumtree to find good deals, sometimes I’d trade devices for multiple older devices and then sell those on. I would use the profits to fund my driving lessons and terrible fashion choices. It got to a point where I could predict the depreciation of iPhones myself. (until they completely inflated their prices up!)

I also went on to work at a phone shop EE, I felt like I’d be a natural here, all that technical knowledge and experience selling phones I thought yeah I could absolutely smash it here… but reality hit me quickly and I discovered sales wasn’t about having all the technical knowledge but rather how you package and sell to people, most of whom were the uninitiated here, I thought they would be able to spot some of these terrible deals a mile away but no, to my shock they were none the wiser, they were just simple buyers who didn’t have the technical knowledge I did. If it was any consolation my customer service was pretty good, I would often fix issues and even scored the highest on the mystery shop score in the region so I was good at something at least. Perhaps my consideration and level of customer service was too high, I only liked selling good tech, I couldn’t morally sell a phone or tablet to people that I thought was crap!

I ended up leaving shortly after as there were some unethical practises I saw among commission hungry colleagues that would take advantage of simple buyers who didn’t know better. It actually got to a point where I would advise people to not buy certain contracts that were being pushed which sucked for my commission and sales numbers but I guess that sets me up well for this blog. I’m aware most dads are simple buyers I can try to help when it comes to tech and considering as dads we often have to foot the bill for most things, the cost of getting it wrong can impact us more so I feel more strongly about serving dads here.

The buying of tech continued quietly over the years, it was just for myself or my family where I would find good deals for things like phones, laptops and tablets. I also went into podcasting, vlogging and trying wearable tech for myself through various trial and error. Recently feeling a bit bored of corporate life I thought why not start the buying and selling again and see where it goes? Perhaps I can combine my reflective insights with my customer service skills and technical knowledge again to sell good quality stuff and make Dads more informed about buying tech. I changed my eBay name in that excitement to DadsShopTech and then thought let me go even further and explore my creative outlet and start a blog to see if this resonates with anybody and try to add some value.

Where will this lead?

Well this will either die in a few months time or hopefully lead to a community of fathers that might share their own hacks, advice and even contribute to this blog with their own posts. It might lead to me reviewing more things down the line if there is demand. At the very least it will be a therapeutic creative outlet for me which could help a few people.

If you’re still here reading this, I salute you friend, thank you.