Needing help with getting wife a new phone :)

[Bingo2003]

My wife and kids have been used to the Moto G6 for about a year, I have the Galaxy s8 and trying for upgrade myself and I do love my phone which I bought brand new at Cricket two years ago. I was looking at the Note 8 for my wife, I know it's old but it still is better in almost every way than the Moto g6. Looking at 400.00 to 450.00 if I could. Thought about refurbished also, I just want her to have a good phone. She wants a good phone to watch Netflix/Hulu on and a better phone for photos than she's got. You all were very helpful with getting g6, also thought about the g7 but I still think the Samsung a better option. I want to say thank you again for all the advice.

 

[Unforgiven]

My wife and I are very happy with the Google Pixel 3a, which goes for $399 (or a little more for the XL which is in the range of the size of the Note). The camera is great, it's current generation phone (the Pixel 4a is expected to be announced later in the year), and for me hit's all the buttons I want in a phone. Oh, and it takes awesome photos.

 

[Mackey69]

My wife and I are very happy with the Google Pixel 3a, which goes for $399 (or a little more for the XL which is in the range of the size of the Note). The camera is great, it's current generation phone (the Pixel 4a is expected to be announced later in the year), and for me hit's all the buttons I want in a phone. Oh, and it takes awesome photos.

Ditto. It's the only phone I could recommend in that price range. Great camera and solid basic no frills phone.

 

[Bingo2003]

Hey thanks! I noticed over the past 2 yrs that Cricket has put there older Galaxy phones 1/2 off during Feb Mar time frame. I think I might hold out for a few weeks and see if the s10 will go from 699.00 to 349.00. If this happens I'm thinking this may be the best deal? What do you all think? Don't stop with recommendations!

 

[Unforgiven]

Hey thanks! I noticed over the past 2 yrs that Cricket has put there older Galaxy phones 1/2 off during Feb Mar time frame. I think I might hold out for a few weeks and see if the s10 will go from 699.00 to 349.00. If this happens I'm thinking this may be the best deal? What do you all think? Don't stop with recommendations!

I've never been a Samsung fan, so I'll let others comment on that. (Don't take that to mean I have something against Sammy, I just preferred the more stock Moto's). Good luck and I'll follow along in case there is anything I can add.

 

[Clementine_3]

The 3a is on sale for a bargain right now (b&h, best buy and Amazon) have it for $349 plus a $100 gift card for that store. I ordered one for the kid last night.
I recently had to replace my Essential PH-1 and went with the 3a, not sorry at all. It's a nice phone and the price is right.

 

[ocnbrze]

I upgraded from the note 8 to the note 10+. the note 8 was a great phone for me. it had a decent battery life. the screen is huge and shows movies on it really well. it was my first phone that I owned more than 2 years before upgrading.....and that's is saying something!!!!!!!!!

my only caution as with all older phones, expect the battery life to decrease over time. in a few more years I imagine the battery life would be horrible. I mean it came out in 2017. most batteries start to deteriorate in 3-4 years. this gives you a window of this year and next year, before you start seeing a decline in performance. and this just not the note 8. it is on any older phone.

 

[svim]

Just want to add to what's already been brought up. As far as the battery, yes, at least be wary when buying pre-owned phones. You just don't know if the previous owner maintained it properly or just abused it (i.e. constantly ran the battery down until it automatically shuts down). Some models have user-replaceable batteries where you can just take off the back cover, some models the battery requires a partial or full disassembly to be replaced, an additional problem being most phone manufacturers have moved away from using just mechanical fasteners (screws) and now use a lot of glues and adhesives With a Note 8, it's not trivial to replace the battery but still do-able:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Samsung+Galaxy+Note8+Battery+Replacement/112251
Anyway, that's going down a rabbit-hole you may or may not have to deal with when it involves a pre-owned phone.
Just my opinion but with something like a Note 8 she will have a quality phone with an expansive feature set (it may not be a current model but it was one of their flagship models back in its day). And keep in mind Samsung does love to load their phones up with a lot of Samsung branding so there will be a lot of bloat to disable when she's setting things up. Motorola on the other hand tends to do only some of the same but for the most part minimal alterations.

 

[The_Chief]

I'll cast a vote for the Galaxy Note as well. A lot of people (like me) love the Note line because of the S Pen. While the extra functionality of the S Pen is great, my fingers just don't like to hit their intended target. Using the S Pen allows me to type, tap, draw, mark, etc with surgical precision. I was a huge fan of the Note 8... but the Note 9 made me forget all about it. I have my Note 9 on ebay right now... please PM me for the link, as I'm not here to sell a phone.