r/PickAnAndroidForMe • u/Magical_critic • Apr 26 '26
Canada Best mid-range android phone with decent camera and long battery life?
I'm done with flagship phones. I had an S20 that only lasted a couple years before it started stuttering like crazy. I upgraded to an S22 and in 2.5 years it's rebooting on its own, gets insanely hot, constantly freezes, and battery life is non-existent. I think it's gonna be bricked soon so I'm looking for a new phone.
Does anyone have any mid-budget reccs? I looked at stuff like OnePlus but I heard it doesn't work that great in Canada depending on the carrier (I'm with fido). Ideally, I would like a phone with a decent camera and an acceptable battery life. I don't play games so I'm not overly concerned with performance except with basic tasks.
I've narrowed it down to:
- Samsung Galaxy A57 128GB ($700 CAD)
- Samsung Galaxy A37 128GB ($600 CAD)
- Pixel 10A 128 GB ($680 CAD)
- I think I would lean towards this device but I heard battery longevity isn't that great.
- Motorola G Stylus 256 GB ($300 CAD)
- I've heard decent things about this phone but I am worried about the short support
I've never done this but I'm also down to try buying open boxes from Best Buy and maybe get higher quality phones at a discounted price. For example, I found an open box OnePlus 13R 256 GB for $600 CAD. But unfortunately, it's online only so I can't inspect it in person to see if it's in decent shape or not.
Overall, anyone got any recs?
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u/SuitableMaybe5389 Apr 26 '26
Get the OnePlus. The open boxs from best buy are always in immaculate condition and they come with a warranty.
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u/risen_GER Apr 26 '26
$600-$700 is mid-range? To me everything above $500 or 500€ is high end, and above $900 is lunatic. Am I too old fashioned?
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u/Magical_critic Apr 26 '26
The flagships run for at least $1000 CAD, so I consider $600 - $700 to be upper end mid range unfortunately.
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May 03 '26
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u/Bograma Apr 27 '26
I don't understand why people even take Sammy's A series into account - the phones are so underpowered, & full of bloat, that it's basically impossible to quantify them as "middle" tier smartphones. They're slow, buggy and delivering v little value, when compared to any Chinese counterpart, being a Xiaomi, Vivo, Poco, hell even CFO from Nothing! Compared to the others on the list, the Pixel is a Superman!
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u/targt45 May 02 '26
What? LOL, best you take a look at An TuTu numbers and you will see they exceed Motos. Nobody come close to matching system upgrades and security like Samsung with 6-7 years. Value? Big as the resale is strong since they are a respected mfg.
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u/Halogenleuchte Jul 04 '26
Got a Samsung A53 for years now and I'm still very happy with it. Samsung Phone are fine, especially for the 300 bucks I paid for it.
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u/Crumpedoot 11d ago
Im very unhappy with mine. Screen isn't bright enough when its a sunny day, finger ID straight up doesn't work when its very bright and when its pitch black in the room it still shoots white that blinds me when im half asleep, it became significantly slower months after use (only thing i play is pokemon go) and the battery isn't anything special. Only redeeming quality for me is the good camera quality.
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u/Lopsided_Tea_3929 Apr 26 '26
Pixel 10a. There's the hardware and you have 7 years of hope that the brand may optimise it's software for efficiency.
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u/Magical_critic Apr 26 '26
I was leaning towards Pixel 10a too. My only concern is that I've heard reports of Google's software updates causing the phone's battery to go to utter crap. Any thoughts on this?
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u/Lopsided_Tea_3929 Apr 26 '26
So, whenever you update a device it resets it's optimisation and after a week it'll go back to normal battery backup figures. I've an iPhone and a s26, and I've noticed this on my iPhone so I think it'll be the same for pixels.
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u/graviticvortex Apr 26 '26
S25 FE for the same price as A57. Pixel 10a (or 9a if there is a good deal) if you want a smaller phone.
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u/Mercury_Jackal Apr 27 '26
I bought an S25 to replace my venerable S20 FE (which I liked for the price, solid phone for 4 years). I ended up returning it because of the ugly photos -veey high auto ISO choices, knarly noise, blurred details and inconsistent autofocus. I picked up the Xperia 1 VII instead from Swiftronics and it's been great. Rock solid battery and some great stuff like quality stero speakers and 3.5mm headphone jack and SD card slot.
For your price range, I'd check out the Xperia 10 VII. What you WON'T get (and what others might offer at this price) is better cameras (maybe even a third telephoto lens) and faster processors. But from what I've read about the 10 VII, what it DOES deliver is a clean stock Android experience with competent cameras, light touch on processing, no weird AI crap, and the aforementioned SD card slot and headphone jack. It's not a home run of a device, but I think it's compelling, and "inexpensive but well made stock Android" phones aren't actually that common. Motorola's offerings are the other brand that comes to mind (I had an X Play back in 2016, and again for the $450 CAD price, great phone).
I'm on the Bell network and things are decent - no issues in the city, but when travelling to, say, Chatham I noticed my cell network speeds were way down vs the S20 FE. Not a dealbreaker, but you should check network compatibility of Xperias on Fido. I picked mine up from Swiftronics, a reputable brick and mortar shop - they have the 10 VII and you can ask them - the sales person I spoke with knew about some of the (fixed) issues with the first 1 VII devices, so I'd say they know their stuff.
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u/Practical_Tap417 Apr 28 '26
get Poco X8 Pro if u able to get one, most decent affordable mid-range phone so far in 2026.
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u/targt45 May 02 '26
Poco? You mean the phone with practically zero warranty support? Lots of Reddit users say never again will they buy from this obscure brand.
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u/mindtaker_linux 26d ago
My only issue with the Chinese phones is that theyre hard to enable developer mode. You need an account to enable developer mode.
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May 21 '26
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u/Acceptable-Amount-74 Aug 24 '26
You also got options like the Poco X8 Pro and Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro/plus or 13 Pro if you want to go cheaper. Forget these North American brands they keep trying to sell you for $1000.
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u/Tapelessbus2122 Apr 26 '26
pixel 10a