I haven’t blogged for a while, and that’s because I’d hoped this blog would be me saying which phone I chose, and a mini review of it.
Well, things haven’t exactly gone according to plan. Black Friday and Cyber Monday came and went, and although there were a lot of deals, I still couldn’t make up my mind…
Black Friday deals
When the Black Friday period arrived, there were loads of deals, and a lot of surprises. In the UK, our Black Friday now lasts for 2 weeks leading up to the big day, so for two full weeks, I got to see various deals come and go.
Whereas there was lots of deals for the Xperia 5 II when I typed my last blog, over that 2 weeks of Black Friday, there weren’t any deals.
In fact, the phone that was most heavily discounted was the Galaxy S20. And I mean, heavily…
Normally, the Galaxy S20 (on contract) would hover at around £51 per month, with around 1-4GB data, and with an upfront cost – but, EE (UK) had a customer offer at £33 per month, no upfront cost, & 10GB data. It was a brilliant deal, and I now wish I’d gone for it.
There was also a deal for the Pixel 4a – EE were offering it with a free LG TV & at a very knocked down price, for around £33 per month.
But, there were no deals for the Pixel 5. At all.
To be honest, for the great price of the S20, I should’ve gone with it… it was a lot cheaper than the £39 per month I’m currently paying for my S9 Plus.
But I didn’t go for it. I held off.
Why?
I can’t make up my mind
I’m stuck. I cannot make a decision. Every decision I make, I end up changing my mind the very next day.
One day, I’ll choose the Galaxy S20, but the next day I’ll remember it hasn’t got a 3.5mm headphone port.
I’ll then pick the Xperia 5 II, because it has the Holy Trinity of cameras, and then matches the specs of my S9 Plus more accurately – 3.5mm port, Micro SD Card slot, built-in audio equaliser.
Then, I’ll remember it’s size – it’s almost the same height as my S9 Plus, but with a slimmer 21:9 aspect ratio.
I’ll then choose the Pixel 4a, because it’s a small phone with a 3.5mm port.
Then I’ll pick the Pixel 5, because although it ditches the 3.5mm port, it has wireless Qi charging & an ultrawide camera.
Then, I’ll remember it hasn’t got a Micro SD Card slot, and I’ll end up back with the Galaxy S20.
And then the cycle continues…
My Galaxy S9 Plus
What makes it worse, and even harder, is that my S9 Plus is in perfectly fine form, with no real problems. AccuBattery estimates it’s got an 85% battery health (i.e. 85% of its original 3,500 mAh capacity), with an estimated capacity of 2,971 mAh – see screenshot below.
For reference, my old Galaxy S7 (brand new) came with a 3,000 mAh battery. Therefore, after 2 years of use, the battery of my S9 Plus is about on a par with a brand new Galaxy S7.
That’s better than my HTC Desire Eye – which, according to AccuBattery, has 94% of its original 2,400 mAh capacity (an estimated 2,259 mAh).
It’s also a lot better than my iPhone 6S, which only has 79% of its 1,715 mAh battery – an estimated 1,355 mAh remaining capacity.
Unlike with my Galaxy S7, I haven’t noticed any slowdowns, strange heating issues, or anything major. It’s still working fine. I even recently turned the animator, window, & transition animations down from 1x to 0.5x.
Although this hasn’t necessarily improved the performance, it has increased the speed with which my phone scrolls & transitions between apps – making a 60Hz screen feel more like 90Hz. This makes it feel brand new, even if its Exynos 9810 (10nm) chipset is not as fast as the newer Exynos 990 (7nm+) in the Galaxy S20.
Unfortunately, however, I’ve had to switch these settings back to 1x – I was starting to experience headaches and a little bit of dizziness from using my phone, so thought it best to reset the animations back to their factory defaults.
This new discovery made me realise that 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rates possibly aren’t for me. If I’m getting dizziness from using a 60Hz screen in a well lit room, with quicker load times & less transitional animations making it look loads faster, then using a screen with an even higher refresh rate is going to make me feel even worse.
Also, unfortunately for me, the 3 phones that I’m mostly considering all come with higher refresh rates: the S20 has 120Hz at Full HD (or 60Hz at 1440p), the Xperia 5 II has a Full HD panel which can be toggled to use 120Hz, and the Pixel 5 has 90Hz toggle on its Full HD screen.
Thankfully, the key word here is that these refresh rates can be toggled on and off, meaning I don’t actually need to use them. Yes, for 99% of users, these toggles will be turned on – but probably not for me.
I don’t think the headaches are caused solely from using my phone, but at least I can rest assured that I can still use these newer phones at 60Hz should I want to…
And the cycle continues…
The Xperia 5 II looks like a great phone, but apart from being slimmer than my S9 Plus, it’s the same height. I was really looking for a more compact phone, but without downgrading the experience – I’m not interested, therefore, in bigger phones.
In a blog post a couple of years ago, I detailed how my 6.2″ inch S9 Plus is just a mere 0.8″ inches smaller than the 2013 (Asus-built) 7″ inch Nexus 7 tablet.
The space between 5.5″ and 7″ used to be dominated by phablets, such as the Galaxy Note 20.
But there’s rumours that Samsung is discontinuing its Galaxy Note line, and has since made the Galaxy S21 Ultra compatible with the Galaxy S Pen.
It’s understandable why – the new Galaxy S21 Ultra sits at a whopping 6.8″ inches, just 0.1″ shy of the 6.9″ Galaxy S20 Ultra. The iPhone 12 Pro Max, by comparison, sits at 6.7″ inches.
Both phones may only have a small bezel, but those screen sizes are even more perilously close to being a small tablet from 2013.
My hands haven’t grown bigger since 2013, so to me, a huge phone like the S21 Ultra is just way too big. It wouldn’t be portable at all, and I’d need a handbag just to carry it around with me.
That’s why I’m only considering smaller phones this time around. In 2018, I wanted to upgrade from my Galaxy S7 to an S9, but the S9 Plus came with the extra telephoto camera, so that’s what I went with.
The main problem with that decision is that the S9 Plus is/was a much bigger device than the standard Galaxy S9. This was something I overlooked, and was shocked to discover when I finally received it through the post.
That’s why I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. That’s why I’m taking so long to make a decision.
I started thinking about my new phone back in July 2020, and it’s already January 2021 – that’s a full 7 months of thinking and weighing up my options.
Sony are supposed to be releasing an Xperia 10 III in early 2021, but if it’s more on a par with the Xperia 10 II – and not the Xperia 5 II – then I may have to give that phone a miss.
The Galaxy S20 also looks like a brilliant device, but again, it’s only marginally smaller than my S9 Plus, and although it also has the Holy Trinity of camera lenses, it loses the 3.5mm headphone port.
The Pixel 4a looks good on paper, but it lacks the ultrawide camera of the Pixel 5. But, both of the Pixel phones lack the Micro SD card slot of the Xperia 5 II and Galaxy S20.
What it really boils down to…
I was really looking for a more compact phone, but without downgrading the experience.
That quote really sums up where I’m at, and the problems I’m facing trying to get a newer phone.
Ideally, I’d like a smaller phone than my S9 Plus – this makes the Pixel 4a and Pixel 5 more appealing options.
But, I don’t want to compromise on my requirements of phone specs – i.e. 3.5mm port, Micro SD Card slot, built-in audio equaliser. This makes the Xperia 5 II the best option.
I want a phone that’s supported for at least another 2 years with OS & security updates – the Galaxy S20, Pixel 4a and Pixel 5 all meet this particular criteria.
But, I don’t want to have a phone that’s the same size as my S9 Plus – therefore, the only phones capable of ticking this box are the Pixel 4a, Pixel 5, and Galaxy S20.
The Bigger Picture…
I was watching a video recently, from YouTuber Paul Taylor, who said the following in his unboxing video for the iPhone 12 mini:
Functionality is going to be downgraded, but usability is going to be upgraded.
He qualified this with “if that makes sense,” but actually it makes perfect sense, and encapsulates the issues I’m having in trying to decide which phone will be My Next Phone. I’ll leave the link to the video below:
Pixel 4a, Pixel 5
With the Pixel 4a and Pixel 5, functionality will be downgraded – I’ll lose the built-in audio equaliser, Micro SD Card slot, and telephoto camera lens on both.
I’ll also lose the overall polish that Samsung brings with its One UI. The Pixel UI will be a bare-bones, stock Android experience. For some, that’s better, but I won’t be able to create folders on the App Drawer – like with One UI 2.5 on my S9 Plus – without first installing a Launcher on top, e.g. Nova Launcher, or Lawnchair. That’s fine, you’ll say, that’s still better than Samsung.
But, without that Micro SD Card slot, that extra launcher app (Nova, Lawnchair) will take up more of that 128GB internal storage. Not much more, but it all adds up…
I’ll be eating into the Pixel’s internal storage by re-adding features that the Galaxy S20 has installed by default. The S20 comes with a Micro SD card slot, so storage anxiety is something I’d never experience on that device.
Installing a custom launcher on top, was something I’ve only ever done on my HTC Desire Eye. The only reason I did, was to make use of custom icon packs, as the default HTC icons were just too drab & boring for my liking.
But it’s not something I’d want to do on a newer phone. I don’t want to have to install & use an app like Apex, Nova, or Lawnchair, just to get back some of the features which should be there, but aren’t.
If you think I’m making a bigger deal of this than it’s worth, let me give you an example: if you have more than 50 apps installed, such as local transport apps, music, games, Netflix etc., the App Drawer quickly becomes a humongous scattered list. Sure, it’s organised alphabetically, but I can’t keep all the games in one folder, separate from all my video apps, etc. – so, in that way it’s one big disorganised list.
On the Pixel 4a, I’d also lose Qi wireless charging. On the Pixel 5, I’ll lose the 3.5mm headphone port, but gain an ultrawide camera, and re-gain wireless charging.
However, with both the Pixel 4a and Pixel 5 having almost the same dimensions (± a few millimetres), they’ll both be smaller, more portable, and a better fit in my hand than my current S9 Plus.
They’ll both have fast charging. Also, with smaller screens and lesser chipsets – Snapdragon 730G in the Pixel 4a, and Snapdragon 765G in the Pixel 5 – they’ll also both (hopefully) have much longer battery lives between charges.
They also both have the new Power Menu with access to Google Pay and smart home toggles – two features I’d love to have. Therefore, usability is going to be upgraded.
Galaxy S20, Xperia 5 II
The same theory can be applied to both the Xperia 5 II, and the Galaxy S20.
Let’s start with Sony. Functionality will be upgraded on the Xperia 5 II: I’ll have a 3.5mm headphone port, a built-in audio equaliser (Dolby Atmos, with a custom settings page), a Micro SD Card slot, the Holy Trinity of camera lenses, and Sony’s Pro photo & cinema apps.
All of that, wrapped up in a slimmer body with a 21:9 aspect ratio, and powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset.
It’s also got the Power Menu on Android 11 – meaning I can use my smart lights in the same way as on the Pixel 4a and Pixel 5.
The Xperia also has a dedicated camera shutter button – something which the other three, and most phones in general, sadly lack.
There’s also a Google Assistant button. While some reviews have pointed to this as a disadvantage, I can see a benefit: I won’t have to say the frankly stupid ‘Hey Google‘ or ‘ok Google‘ to summon it.
It’s not just Google – I also despise the ‘Hey Siri‘ action on iOS. Thank goodness my iPhone 6S has a Home Button – which, when held down, works in the same way as the Assistant button on the Xperia 5 II and summons the virtual assistant. No silly phrase necessary.
However, usability will be downgraded – it may have a slimmer body, but it’s height will be the same as my S9 Plus. It therefore won’t be as portable, or as easy to use in one hand, as my old iPhone 6S.
The 21:9 screen also means a lot of content will suffer from letterboxing – YouTube videos made for 4:3 or 16:9 screens will have big black bars (or, closer to black boxes) at the sides of the videos I’m watching. Not such a bad thing as I’ll have somewhere to place my thumbs without blocking the picture, but it’s ultimately a lot of wasted space.
The UI of the Xperia 5 II also shares the same bare-bones approach of the Pixel’s. The launcher is stock Android. This means no bloatware, such as the annoying Samsung Daily feed or upDay feed – and means the Xperia 5 II simply has the Google Discover Feed tucked away to the side of the Home screen.
But, stock Android also means no folders in the App Drawer – unless I install a launcher on top.
This isn’t so much of an issue with the Xperia 5 II, thanks in large part to it having both 128GB internal storage as well as a Micro SD Card slot. But it is still a consideration – using the stock launcher often offers the fastest speeds & cleanest experience on a phone. In the short term I’ll be fine with that Snapdragon 865 chip to boot, but in the longer term, a Launcher app may lead to device slowdowns.
Also, the Xperia 5 II’s camera does not ship with a Night Mode. Although this may arrive in a future update, the phone is being aimed more at the Enthusiast photography market, where DSLR’s (not phone cameras) are the Kings and Queens of the photography landscape.
My S9 Plus
Back to my S9 Plus: one of the biggest issues I have with my phone, is that I always have to cradle it with both hands. If I simply just hold it with one hand (and support it at the bottom with my little finger), because of its size and weight, I often find it tips forward out of my hand, and drops to the floor.
Even while wearing a case, I’ve found that two-handed usage is therefore essential to avoid dropping (and possibly breaking) my phone.
I therefore need a phone that would be smaller, and more portable, than my S9 Plus. The Xperia 5 II unfortunately fails to tick this very crucial box.
The Galaxy S20, while a tad smaller than my S9 Plus, is similar both in size & dimensions. It too suffers from this problem, and usability will be downgraded. But, it then also has redeeming features up its sleeve, which means that functionality will be upgraded.
On the Galaxy S20, I’ll have One UI 3.0 – a lot smoother, and fully-featured than the TouchWiz of older Samsung devices. I’ll also have a Micro SD Card slot for expanding my storage, and the built-in audio equaliser I’ve come to love and use regularly.
I’ll have the Game Launcher app, which separates my games from my other apps, and also handles all game notifications as well – meaning my notifications panel isn’t littered with endless pop ups from games.
I also have access to the Galaxy Store, and to the Sound Assistant app, which gives me on-the-go access to that built-in equaliser – without having to manually search for it within the Settings app.
The Galaxy S20 loses the 3.5mm port, so usability will be downgraded there, and it has an Exynos chipset – meaning battery life won’t be as good as on a USA-spec Galaxy S20 with the Snapdragon 865G.
But, although battery life won’t be as good as the Snapdragon variant, I personally will notice an increase. As noted, my S9 Plus has an estimated 2,971 mAh of its original 3500 mAh battery (85%), whereas the Galaxy S20 will come with 4,000 mAh out of the box.
As it’ll be a new phone with no battery wear, I can expect that full 4,000 mAh from Day 1. That’ll be an upgrade from the impressive battery life I was achieving from my S9 Plus brand new, and it’ll still be a massive upgrade from the battery life I’m currently achieving with my phone.
Therefore, for me personally it will be an upgrade.
In other areas, usability is upgraded again – such as the charging time & speeds. My S9 Plus currently (pun intended) takes about 1hr 35mins to charge to 100% via USB-C, but on a 15W wireless charger it takes about 2hrs 35 mins to charge to 100%.
On the Galaxy S20, these times will be dramatically reduced thanks to its 25W Super Fast Charging – 1hr 6mins wired, and 1hr 35mins wireless. That’s a huge upgrade over my S9 Plus, and one I didn’t think was possible.
It may not be in the same league as the OnePlus Warp Charge, but it’s still impressive.
Also, the newer Galaxy S21 ditches the Samsung Daily feed & now gives you the option to switch to the Google Discover Feed. A welcome change, and hopefully one that trickles down to the Galaxy S20 in future updates, possibly in One UI 3.5?
But, then again, functionality will be downgraded. I don’t use Samsung SmartThings due to its incompatibility with all of my smart devices, and I actually find I use the Google Home app a lot more in this regard.
But while I have been able to uninstall the SmartThings app from my S9 Plus, it will still be pushed onto me, for supposedly “the best experience.”
Aside from SmartThings, there are currently 10 Samsung apps in the above screenshot that I don’t use at all, and which I can’t disable or uninstall. Digital Wellbeing is a shortcut to the feature within the Settings app, but it’s something I don’t use at all, and while GamePlugins can be uninstalled, it’s a Samsung add-on which is recommended but which I also have never used.
Also, as of writing, it looks as though the Power Menu of the Pixel 4a, Pixel 5 and Xperia 5 II won’t be coming to One UI 3.0. That’s a shame, as I really would like the tie-in capabilities that would come with having quick access to Google Pay and the Google Home smart toggles.
However, even if it was offered, it would most likely be the Samsung version – meaning full capabilities would only be possible if using both Samsung Pay and SmartThings.
Also, I HATE how Samsung is still pushing Bixby onto us. I’ve hardly ever used Bixby on my S9 Plus, and have its single press toggle disabled, to avoid accidental activation – this used to be a huge problem when trying to take a photo. Thankfully, it no longer bothers me.
I also have bxActions installed – a button remapper app – which remaps the Bixby double press activation function to whatwver you want. In the past, I had it remapped to be a camera shutter button, but I now have it remapped to instead activate Google Assistant. But, even then, this is a feature which I’ve also rarely used. I’m just not a big user of virtual assistants at all, and until they can make a cup of tea for me, I doubt I’ll use them any time soon.
But the biggest reason why I HATE that Samsung is still pushing Bixby onto us, is because technically speaking, the Power Off button doesn’t exist on the Galaxy S20. You can press and hold it to turn the phone on, but once it’s powered on, that button is now the Bixby button. To turn the phone off the way Samsung wants you to turn it off, you have to press the Power icon at the top of the Quick Settings menu (see screenshot below) – up there, next to the Settings cog icon.
There is an option within Settings to remap that button back to Power Off, but I just can’t get over the fact that its default operation is to operate Bixby. It means Samsung is still pushing Bixby onto me, even though I don’t use Bixby, never have, and never will.
This kind of thing wouldn’t be a problem I’d face on the Pixel 4a, Pixel 5 or Xperia 5 II – because none of these phones come with any annoying bloatware, such as… BIXBY.
Summing up
And this is really where I’m still at. On the one hand, the Galaxy S20 is the perfect phone for me, but it’s still similar in size to my S9 Plus, and has similar little annoyances (à la my S9 Plus) which I could really do without.
The Sony Xperia 5 II sits in the same boat. Although slimmer, it’s the same height as my Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, and so, therefore, isn’t really what I’m looking for in a new phone. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, and at this stage (January 2021) it is cheaper than the Galaxy S20, but in this regard it’s not quite perfect. It is still on my shortlist though, because of that 3.5mm headphone port and built-in audio equaliser.
The Pixel 4a or Pixel 5 would be perfect in terms of size and overall usability, but in both cases functionality would be severely downgraded – I’d lose the Micro SD Card slot, and crucially also the 3.5mm port on the Pixel 5.
A couple of years ago, this was something I considered to be completely unacceptable. Back then, I wasn’t prepared to lose both the 3.5mm port and Micro SD Card slot – which was the case with the Pixel 3 and OnePlus 6 – and even today, I’m still not happy with the prospect of losing them.
I’m going to conclude this blog post now, and leave you with a quote from a blog I posted in November 2018, discussing Micro SD Card slots on phones. Enjoy:
There’s also the argument that previous iPhone users, who are now transferring over to Android […] won’t use the expandable storage feature, so OEMs don’t put it in.
That apparently makes a device like the OnePlus 6 [or the] Pixel 3 more appealing to that audience. A cheaper device, with pretty much the same features as an iPhone.
In the article I linked above, [Android Authority’s Joe] Maring talked about phones being released with “128GB or 256GB of internal storage to help mitigate the loss of microSD support,” but despite this, he also admitted that “there are still a ton of users that need to have this feature.”
I’m one of those phone users, and judging by the quoted forum users, and the general gist of the 94 comments on the article (with views from both sides of the argument), I’m not alone on this.
I really would miss the luxury of being able to transfer all of my media over from one device to the other in the click of a finger. How do iPhone users cope?!
– Chris JK
KPH tech blog 
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