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00:00Alright guys, today I wanted to talk about some of my favorite $200 smartphones and just
00:05sort of round them up and just answer some questions that I get all the time and you
00:11know, these are some of my favorite phones in this price range of around the $200-$250
00:17price range and just really, really impressive and I want to sort of draw some comparisons
00:22between these phones and something like the Galaxy A14 or A24 or basically any budget
00:30phone in the $200-$300.
00:33Even obviously a lot of mid-range phones, I think these phones are a lot better and
00:37you get a lot more value for your money.
00:39I want to talk about some things like, you know, gaming, security, you know, just the
00:46overall features, software support, all that stuff we're going to go ahead and get into.
00:51Alright, so I want to talk about, I get this question a ton, so which phone would I personally
00:57pick in the $200 price range?
01:00I get this question a lot and it really depends, that's why I say when people typically ask,
01:05well should I get this phone over this phone?
01:07It guys, it really depends on what type of person you are and what you're going to be
01:11doing on your phone.
01:12Let's say it's very, very dependent on that, so there's several factors that you got to
01:17take into consideration.
01:19Now this year, I think one of my favorite phones in this price range, it would have
01:23to be between the Galaxy S21 Plus and the LG V60.
01:30I think these are two phenomenal phones, but personally, it's kind of tough, it's kind
01:37of tough because, I'll explain why I think it's kind of tough.
01:40The V60 has the Quad DAC, which is something that I really love.
01:44Now the dual screen case is something that I am going to pick up for you guys, but it's
01:47not something that I personally would probably use, mostly because the phone is already big
01:54and I have smaller hands and it would just make it bigger to hold, but there's a lot
01:58of functionality with the dual screen case, but I wouldn't necessarily use it, but I do
02:01like that it has a Quad DAC in it for sure, and also it does have SD card support.
02:08Now me personally, I don't download a lot of content, I don't really take a lot of photos
02:13and videos in my own personal life, unless I'm actually testing out phones and stuff
02:16like that, so I probably, me, would go with the S21 Plus, if I was, you know, just me
02:24personally, right?
02:27Mostly because I know that this phone is going to get Android 15 as well, the V60 is probably
02:33just going to get security patches for another year or so, so I know this phone, I'll be
02:38able to experience, you know, the newer versions of Android with this phone, and I also, I'm
02:43a big display person and I really like the high refresh rate, having 120Hz, which the
02:49V60 does not have, and I said this, you know, in my comments, the V60 does have an extremely
02:55smooth 60Hz panel, it's actually pretty impressive, so, like I said, it's really, really smooth,
03:02so just ask anybody who owns a V60 in the comments, it's a very, very smooth display.
03:08But yeah, I would personally go with the S21 Plus if I was spending like $200, and every
03:13time I'm on $300 or $350 to $400, I would probably get like an S21 Ultra or something
03:19like that, and I would use that, I really like the S21 Ultra.
03:23Also, if you are an iPhone person, you're pretty much choosing between, and I get this
03:28question a lot, you're pretty much choosing between the iPhone 11 and the iPhone XS.
03:32I personally would pick the iPhone 11, mostly because, even though the iPhone 11, the display
03:40on here is not my favorite, it's an IPS panel, it's, you know, it's an IPS panel, and it's
03:46just not that high resolution, right, it's like 720p plus, but what I like about the
03:51iPhone 11 is that, not only does it take better pictures than the XS, it does have the ultrawide,
03:57which is, it's a really handy secondary camera, so that's something that, you know, I really
04:03like, but as far as like speed and everything, they both pretty much feel the same, this
04:07and the XS, and I would just say spend a little extra money and get the iPhone, get the iPhone
04:1411, and plus I like the design of it, I think it looks a little bit more modern, as well
04:18too, it looks a little bit closer to something like an iPhone 12 or 13, so I definitely would
04:24go with that, just to answer that question, and for people who are asking me about the
04:28Note 10 Plus, this is still an excellent phone, like I said, the price has come down dramatically
04:33on this phone.
04:34What's cool about this phone is that it's still actually getting security patches, so
04:38this one, the May security patch just hit on my phone, I haven't installed it because
04:43I wanted to show people, they thought it was not getting any security patches, I suspect
04:47this phone will get security patches for, you know, at least the rest of the year, hopefully
04:52even next year, as well too, so we'll just have to keep our eye on it, it's a pretty
04:57big one too, it's 281 megabytes, as well too, so I really like the Note 10 Plus, you guys
05:01know I made a ton of videos on this phone, beautiful design, SD card support, really
05:07nice display, you get the built-in stylus, it has SD card support as well too, yeah,
05:13it's just really, you know, nothing not to like about this phone, and I'll show you the
05:17gaming experience on this phone, on all of these phones as well too, because that's a
05:20big deciding factor when buying a, you know, older flagship over a mid-range or a budget
05:27phone. Now, the S21 FE, I wanted to mention because this phone is pretty unique, so this
05:34phone is kind of one of the only phones that you can find with these type of specs that
05:40will actually get up to Android 16, so this phone was released, I believe, with Android
05:4512, and it will get up to Android 16, which I think is absolutely awesome, so if you're
05:51looking for a phone that's going to have the longest life cycle for 200 bucks that you
05:56can get from Samsung, this is definitely the phone to get, I think this is an extremely
06:00good buy, and not only that, but even though this phone has a plastic back, I don't think
06:05that's such a bad move, because this is a phone that you could, I feel like you can
06:08use without a case, you're not worried about when you drop it, you'll crack the back of
06:12the phone, like something with, you know, like something with the S21 Plus that's full
06:17glass and metal. So yeah, so I really like the S21 FE as well too. So this is something
06:23that I, you know, constantly see in my comments, is people, you know, saying that they wish
06:28they found the channel sooner before they bought like a budget phone or something like
06:33that, because when you go to play games on the budget phone, and we saw that with the
06:37Galaxy A14, that it did a, you know, pretty much a terrible job at gaming, it was, it
06:43wasn't like terrible, terrible, but it's like nowhere near what these phones can do in terms
06:49of gaming and just playing like PUBG, Call of Duty Mobile, even Fortnite competitively
06:54on these phones, it's just an excellent experience here. So you can pretty much blind pick all
07:00of these phones, and I think you'll have a pretty good gaming experience. I think my
07:04favorite phone to game on is probably the B60. You know, it just feels like the Snapdragon
07:10A65, it just feels like it doesn't get as hot as the 888 chip. So the S21 phones, they
07:18have the Snapdragon 888 chip. Even the oldest phone here, the Galaxy Note 10 Plus, is still
07:25able to play at, yeah, HDR Extreme. So all these phones are able to play at HDR Extreme.
07:31Even the iPhone still does a really good job with PUBG. They're all able to play at 60
07:36frames. Really, really smooth. So that's why I say it's, this is why I just love older
07:42flash is because for 200 bucks, in this $200 price range, instead of struggling playing
07:47games on something like Galaxy A14, or even, you know, whatever Samsung's mid-range phones,
07:53you will get a really good experience on here and get really good graphic settings. Play
07:58at HDR Extreme easy, smooth on any of these phones here, as you can see, even the oldest
08:04one. And not only that, you're not going to get a crappy screen or like the Galaxy A14.
08:11Now this is also a question that I get quite a bit about security. So what happens when
08:16the old flagships stop getting security updates? So a phone like, let's say, the Galaxy Note
08:219 that I still, sometimes I use on and off, I still have all my stuff on there, and I've
08:26never had a, like a hack or security problem. I think most people get hacked due to like
08:32phishing scams and stuff like that. Like those emails and people send you text messages and
08:38say, hey, you got a package or something, or whatever. You won something and they give
08:42you your information, stuff like that. Most people get hacked like that. Or most people
08:46get hacked downloading stuff that's not on the official Google Play Store as well, too.
08:52But I've never actually had a security problem using a phone that's not getting software
08:56updates. Now, again, I'm not a security expert or anything like that. I've just personally
09:00never had that problem. But when I do have a phone that has officially stopped getting
09:04security updates, let's say something like my OnePlus 7 Pro, it's not getting a ton of
09:10security updates, I will go ahead in the Play Store and download an antivirus app. Now you
09:15can pick one that you like. You know, some of these are paid services, some of these
09:20are free, stuff like that. But a lot of these applications, they protect you from malware
09:27and all sorts of stuff like that, which is something that I think is definitely really
09:32nice to have so you know that you're on your phone safely even when the phone is not getting
09:37security patches. So that's just something I like to do. Like I said, I've never actually
09:42gotten hacked or anything on a phone. But like I said, most of the time it's people
09:46downloading applications that's not officially on the Play Store or they clicked on something
09:51that they weren't supposed to click on or something like that, went to a website or
09:54something like that that they weren't supposed to be on. That's typically how that goes,
09:58guys. But like I said, me personally, I've never had that issue. If you are sort of worried
10:03about security, if you just really are worried about it, then like I said, I would get something
10:08like a Galaxy S21 FE or S21+. Since these phones will have one of the longest life cycles,
10:14I think the iPhone 11 has a couple more years on it as well too when it comes to software
10:19updates. And then by the time, honestly by the time two, three years go by, you'll probably
10:25be ready to upgrade again, upgrade to a better phone. So that's why I said I think it's still
10:31a pretty good buy even though some of these phones might not be getting security patches
10:36every month, it might be on quarterly security patches, stuff like that. When it does happen,
10:40you just put that antivirus software on there and just be mindful of the things that you
10:44are installing. Now, one of the things that I really like about older flagships is actually
10:49the image quality. Like I said, the Samsung has just knocked it out of the park here.
10:55The iPhone surprisingly does well too. The iPhone 11 takes some pretty good shots, but
10:59I don't think it is anywhere in comparison to the S21+, or the S21 FE. These take some
11:06phenomenal shots, like really, really good shots, almost really close to basically flagship
11:11quality, like the flagships that are out right now, Galaxy S23 and stuff like that. It takes
11:18photos really, really close. I do the comparisons every year all the time. These phones take
11:24some absolutely beautiful shots, I mean really, really good indoors, outdoors. Even the LG
11:31V60 takes some great pictures. The Galaxy Note 10+, it is starting to show its age a
11:35little bit. Sometimes you get a little softer photos than I would like, but even that phone
11:41in good lighting still takes some really good photos here. As you guys can see from these
11:45shots, this phone just has an excellent camera. All of these phones have pretty good cameras
11:51and honestly, they all beat the Galaxy A14 or the Galaxy A24 in my opinion. I think it
11:58just looks better, you get higher resolution shots as well too, like say for instance,
12:03the S21 Plus can go up to 64 megapixels, you can get a really crispy shot with this phone,
12:11just a ton of detail with the shots and stuff like that, so I absolutely love it. I think
12:15all the flagships, as far as the camera quality goes, it's just an easy choice. I think that's
12:22one of the biggest things is people buy cheap phones and they see the image quality sucks,
12:28but if you get an older flagship, you really get top tier photo quality. It's actually
12:33extremely impressive how good the photos are on all of these phones. Now, one of the things
12:38that people bring up quite a bit is battery life. You guys gotta remember, if the phone
12:45is refurbished, typically what they do is you don't get a phone with less than 80% battery
12:52health. So like when I bought the iPhone 11, and there's actually ways, and I'll do a video,
12:57there's actually ways to maintain good battery health, like charging the phone up to 85%,
13:04but you can see in the iPhone 11, it's still on 87% battery health, so it's on some pretty
13:10good battery health. And I've never had an issue with battery life. They all just do
13:17a good job, and people don't actually know, it's very easy to take these phones to a phone
13:22shop and just put a new battery in here. If you do get a phone that's kind of a, you know,
13:27feels like it's draining a little too fast, but I've actually never had that issue. That's
13:31why I always recommend, if you're gonna buy refurbished, to buy it on sort of the bigger
13:38name sites, Amazon, Ebay, stuff like that. And I just always had a good experience with
13:44those sites. Plus, you have 30 days to, you know, return the device as well, too, if you
13:49do notice that, to say, hey, this battery feels like it's draining way faster than it's
13:54supposed to. You know, so you have that option. That's why I really like to recommend those
13:59sites. So, I think just buying an older flagship in 2023 is a pretty good option, guys. I'm
14:08gonna keep on, you know, making videos on this, you know, as we see phones that come
14:13out, they come down in price. And I'm gonna keep on updating you guys and just helping
14:17people make, you know, better decisions here, because I know the feeling when you spend,
14:23you know, $200, $250, and you get, you know, a crappy, cheap phone. But yeah, so, it's
14:31just a no-brainer. You get flagship features, SD card support, you know, some of these phones,
14:36like headphone jack, built-in stylus. And honestly, when it comes to iPhone, the iPhone
14:4211 can basically do everything that the newest iPhones can't do, software-wise, FaceTime,
14:47iMessage, it still has pretty much all the same features. So, you're not really missing
14:50out on anything. Even something like the Note 10+, it still has majority of the same features
14:55that S23 Ultra would have, honestly. So, be sure to let me know what you guys think, and
15:01I'll catch you guys in the next one.