Looking to buy my dad his first Android phone

[pfizer]

Hey guys, need some help here. My dad's still using his old iPhone 4s and we're thinking of getting him his first Android phone for Christmas.

My dad's already tried Samsung and hated how laggy and confusing it was (his words, not mine). He takes a lot of pictures and videos with his iPhone and hates how restrictive the Apple environment is.

Finally, he's not a fan of phablets; he finds them too big and unwieldy, since he prefers to put his phone on a belt clip.

I'm thinking of getting him the 5-inch Google Pixel; by all accounts, it's fast and easy to use. Any other suggestions? Most 'small' phones these days seem to be downgraded versions of their bigger counterparts.

 

[oracles]

I use one of the Sony Xperia performance models and it's been fantastic. Its fast, takes great 23mp pics easily, I've never experienced any kind of lagging or sluggishness either. It's about as user intuitive as most androids, not massively complex to work out at all.

I don't know about belt clips for them, though.

 

[pkgitar]

In the 4" realm, the iPhone SE is the best. No other Android comes close unless you go up to the 4.6" Xperia models. I'm not a "fanboi" of either brand, but it's small, fast, powerful and takes great photos/video. I went from a 4.3" Xiaomi MI2s to the SE. Shame Xiaomi doesn't make 4" phones any more because I loved that thing.

GSMArena has a "phone finder" where you can define values based on what you're looking for. Try that and see what comes up.

 

[endmysuffering]

Moto g 3rd gen is what I use, 200$ and its pretty good. I honestly don't really care for smartphones so maybe I'm not the best person to ask, but smartphones are updated so often that spending tons of money on one is not the best idea.

 

[pfizer]

Thanks for the input guys

 

[takotakumi]

Hey guys, need some help here. My dad's still using his old iPhone 4s and we're thinking of getting him his first Android phone for Christmas.

My dad's already tried Samsung and hated how laggy and confusing it was (his words, not mine). He takes a lot of pictures and videos with his iPhone and hates how restrictive the Apple environment is.

Finally, he's not a fan of phablets; he finds them too big and unwieldy, since he prefers to put his phone on a belt clip.

I'm thinking of getting him the 5-inch Google Pixel; by all accounts, it's fast and easy to use. Any other suggestions? Most 'small' phones these days seem to be downgraded versions of their bigger counterparts.

Which Samsung did he try?
I just upgraded from the Galaxy s5 to the S7 and its a night/day difference for me. It is SO much faster (better processor and 4GB ram vs 2gb). It takes great pictures quickly and even has a pro mode which lets you adjust manual settings like a DLSR camera (shutter speed, iso, all that).They also released some reviews a couple of weeks ago and it seems the S7 Camera is still the best. The Pixel is great too, but didn't live up to the "Best phone camera ever". Overall the S7 is the best, with the Iphone 7 and Pixel following it.

However, since you mentioned you want a smaller size phone, Im pretty sure the Pixel should be the best in the 5" world at the moment. Pixel is still great regardless what you may stack up against it...

 

[knet370]

here's my top picks:

google pixel/xl
samsung s7
xiaomi mi5s
asus zenfone 3 deluxe

s7 takes image quality award followed by pixel and mi5s

 

[pfizer]

@takotakumi - He tried my sister's S7 and my brother's S7 Edge for a while. The guy's impatient as .... and has a tendency to tap on the screen like mad; I'm kinda impressed he managed to get those phones to lag at all. He's also not a fan of the TouchWiz UI, since he finds it confusing. I was leaning towards getting him the Pixel because of the software, which is basically an Android-ified version of iOS.


@knet370 - Thanks!

 

[Petar Bogdanov]

Nexus devices had the best ownership experience of any Android device, as long as you didn't need the bestest camera or an SD card slot. The Pixel should be the same.

 

[benny]

Here's another vote for the Pixel. Sounds like it will be able to handle his phone needs and then some.

If he isn't ready to jump into Android, then the iPhone SE would be a nice upgrade with what he is familiar to.

Edit: No SD card slot on the Pixel though, something to keep in mind when selecting a model if he keeps all of his photos and videos on the phone.

 

[ATOMICxTomato]

My nexus 6 is pretty sweet and you can get em pretty cheap im sure.