Buying a smartphone in 2026: what a mess!

These are the phones I remember owning since 2000.

  • Nokia 3210
  • Sony Ericsson K300i
  • Nokia E63
  • Dopod D600
  • Motorola Milestone
  • Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  • Nexus 5
  • Apple iPhone SE
  • OnePlus 5
  • OnePlus 7 Pro
  • Motorola Edge 40 Neo

I’m about to buy a new phone. It’s about two years old, and it’s not bad for what I need - listening to music, podcasts, communicating on Telegram, Matrix, IRC, WhatsApp, browsing through Pixelfed and Mastodon. Occasionally, if I’m on holiday or at a family event, I do miss the cameras on the better phones I used before this Moto Edge 40 Neo. They were good - well above average in photo detail, but more importantly, they captured photos with balanced colours.

In the process of distancing myself from social media in 2019, I decided not to spend good money on phones. My OnePlus 7 Pro stopped working soon after, so I forced myself to buy the Moto Edge 40 Neo, for about $200. It’s been good for everything, except the photography bits - it’s inconsistent, with random saturated colours and I have spent a lot of time using Snapseed to normalize colours. You should be able to tell which of the photos on my Pixelfed account were clicked from this phone.

So, why are phones today priced at $1000 and $2000, why are people buying them at these prices and what great, profound work are they doing on them? Does your TikTok and Instagramming need a $1000 phone? If I had to spend $1000 or two, on a phone for photography, I’d look at a mirror-less camera with some lenses and a $300 phone. I’m complaining about cameras, because I’ve been travelling this past year and my trusty Nikon D5300 has done its job well, but there are times I find it would have been nice to have a decent camera-phone in my pocket.

All the phones I mentioned at the start cost me between $50 and $300 or so. Long story short, I need to increase my budget a bit, and buy a somewhat better phone, for say under $500. I’ve narrowed the models down to the Samsung S25 FE and the OnePlus 15R - very good performance, especially on the 15R, a flat screen (applying a screen guard is easy), a good screen and generally good cameras, based on the samples photos I’ve seen online. If you have some thoughts, please mail me