Any reason not to get the LG Aristo 5? Or should I get a used phone?

M
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My LG G3 just died and I can’t get it to work at all. I’m thinking it’s a hardware problem. (There’s no response whatever I do. I took out the battery, held the power button for 15 seconds and popped the battery back in. Nothing. I tried holding the power button and down volume buttons. Nothing. I’ve tried all three of my spare batteries. Nothing. I’ve tried charging it for several hours. Nothing.)

Anyhoo, I decided to start looking for another phone.

The things I like about my G3 that died:

  1. Headphone jack.
  2. FM radio app that’s acutally a radio.
  3. Being able to change batteries.
  4. I have one app that is Android only.

I can’t seem to find a phone with FM radio and changeable batteries. I think the LG Aristo 5 should work for me, but I don’t know what I’m not getting with a more expensive phone.

Any suggestions or am I on track?

11 replies

M
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I think I’m going to go for a used Google Pixel 3a for about the same price. My Wife really likes her Pixel 3a XL.

snn_555
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I would probably do the same thing. If you can get the 3A on a good price. In your situation wanted to use a phone for five or six years you may even try the pixel 4A. What you're not getting in the Aristo 5 vs a higher dollar phone is really going to be much more noticeable than you think if you plan on keeping a phone for three or more years.

 

Having specifications with low Ram is really going to be the thing that hinders you more than almost any other feature. Since you prefer a budget device, you already know that you're going to sacrifice cameras and audio as well as performance and screen quality. You'll also be sacrificing battery life. With low Ram you get a lot of page reloads and apps that fall out of memory that have to reload. Having dealt with that issue long ago it is something I prefer to stay away from. The pixel 3 a and 4A are going to give you much better quality in every respect from battery and screen and camera and audio Etc. Both have a headphone jack as well. I'm not sure what sort of price point you can find the 3A at now but at $350 the 4A is a fairly solid phone. You've also already owned a phone that never had water resistance. Which you won't find with any phone with a replaceable battery.

 

Replaceable batteries are really sort of not even a strong consideration for most people anymore considering batteries last at least 15 to 20 hours now with optimizations in the software and operating system also due to the size of the batteries and their capacity being much better than they used to be. It's just a lot easier to plug the phone in for 15 or 20 minutes and get an extra four or five hours then it is to buy extra batteries and remove phone cases to take off the backs of phones to swap out batteries.

 

One could argue that if you kept a charged battery around all the time for emergency situations that would justify having a phone with replaceable batteries. However most batteries nowadays not only last throughout the day but can also last three or four years before you have such degradation that the phone or the battery would need to be replaced.

Also, with a Pixel, youll get 3 or 4 years of OS updates. 

 

3A or 4A for the win. 

When you are suffering, know that I have betrayed you.
M
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Thanks! I’ll have to check out the 4a. I didn’t see it available. I would pay full price for a 4a since it’s this year’s phone and $50 cheaper than the 3a was.

I was looking at used 3a’s for under $200. However, there is a certain piece of mind in having a new phone with a warrenty. When my LG G3 stops working there’s no hope except to try to resurrect it myself. I do have my wife’s old LG G3 with a bad screen. I thought about taking the motherboard from one and putting it into the other and trying to see if it would work. But then again, who knows how long until the thing just up and quites for seemingly no reason.

When my wife’s brand new Pixel 3a XL had an audio problem that never went away, we called in, boxed it up and traded it in for a working one under the warrenty.

Not that I’m against the idea of keeping a phone for a long time. I have maintained this LG G3 for years. I hate having a throw away society. I think that’s what I like about the G3’s replaceable battery; is that it’s cheap and easy to replace making a bad battery not a good reason to throw the phone away. 

Camera? I don’t really care about the camera that much. I don’t consider myself a photographer and don’t really see the point of why so many people think they got to have a top notch camera on them. Not that I don’t like to take a picture once in a while. But I’m not paying $1,000 or so for a flagship phone with such features that I’m never really going to benefit from.

snn_555
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The 4a is available for pre-order from Google now. I wouldnt mess with replacing parts. 

When you are suffering, know that I have betrayed you.
M
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The 4a is available for pre-order from Google now. I wouldnt mess with replacing parts. 

I have a $100 bid on a 3a on Ebay. If that doesn’t go through I’ll either buy a used 3a for up to $200 or get a 4a.

The only problem with the 4a is it says “pre-order” and I understand that that could mean it will take time to come in. Is that correct? I can’t seem to find how long it will take to get one. I could go without a phone for a week, or maybe even two. But if it takes a month or so to get it, I’m not going to be happy.

I do have an old Alcatel Windows phone lying around I could see if it still works I guess while I wait.

snn_555
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Ships August 20. 

Receive around August 24.

When you are suffering, know that I have betrayed you.
M
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You’re awesom @snn_555 ! Any reason I’d have a problem with an unlocked phone? It seems like in the past that you had to get a T-Mobile phone for stuff like Wi-Fi calling to work.

snn_555
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Well the pixel for soul through T-Mobile worked with Wi-Fi calling. While there are still some people that use Wi-Fi calling at this point pretty much everybody has coverage just to use LTE with voice. However I haven't seen anything that says it does or does not work with TMobile Wi-Fi calling. However the only carrier selling it is at Verizon but it is sold unlocked meaning you can be used on any carrier. That doesn't mean that T-Mobile won't cover it later on but Verizon is always first to carry everything it seems.

When you are suffering, know that I have betrayed you.
M
Userlevel 2
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Well I got some good news. While I research the Pixel 4a a bit more I just popped out my wife’s old LG G3’s mother board and popped it into my LG G3 and so far it’s working just fine.

I also may have found a good Pixel 3a for $100.

M
Userlevel 2
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The G3 ended up inheriting the screen problems my Wife’s G3 had. So apprently it’s something wrong with the motherboard. Basically it stays on for about a minute and then fades black. After that it will on stay on for a few seconds.

I had a bid on a Pixel 3A on eBay that was still $100 up until 3 seconds from the end and it jumped to $170 just like that! So I guess I’m back at square one again.

snn_555
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Yeah auction sites are like that. 

I think pre-order 4a or find something in store.

When you are suffering, know that I have betrayed you.

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