I am looking for a smartphone for my girlfriend. She is willing to spend around $300, but the big problem is that she really don't want a phone with a "big" screen (over 5"). I have looked around a bit, and the only thing that seems reasonable is a Sony Xperia X compact. There are a few Samsung phones (A5 I think), but the abysmal software support from Samsung for non-flagships is kind of a big deal for us. Sony at least seems to support them, and are upgrading it to Android 7 along with most Xperia phones sold the last 2 years
What more could I look for? She does not have very high requirements, just that it works, has decent amounts of memory/storage and a long expected life. The phone will probably be used for 3 years, if not more before being replaced
I highly recommend the Moto 3g. It's battery is freaking amazing and as a pretty high-end user, it handled everything I threw at it. Heard the newer models aren't as great battery-wise, but it should be much cheaper than 300$. I'm using the cheaper 1ram/8gb model, but if she wants more base storage get the 2ram/16gb. It comes with an mSD slot and it's water resistant up to 1m for 30m, as long as the back cover is snapped in properly. So drink spills or drops into liquids should be no problem.
It doesn't get anymore android version updates (Last update was 6.0.1), but it still seems to gets occasional security updates.
The Moto G series is pretty decent. They aren't too big and the specs are decent enough. My G3 didn't come with any major bloatware, just a Motorola app or two that I was able to delete in a couple seconds.
I used the Moto G3 8GB for about 8 months and must warn you, get the 2GB RAM model. The low storage and memory barely handled my usage back in 2015, let alone modern-day.
The 2gb model is still less that 300$. Maybe I just have an OCD habit of turning off apps and I just use the mSD for storage. Also I don't play 3D games so, that might be a factor. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
According to the Sony Forums it is, but not officially. The theory from most comments there seems to be that they made it good enough for IP67, but did not advertise it as such. Apparently they got way to many warranty claims on other phones for people bathing with them, or forgetting to close all the lids. So yes, but not officially, and if it breaks, sony won't replace it. It is however advertised as water tight in Japan for some reason.
I have looked at it, and it seems good but Samsung got a bad reputation for updating flagships (if I am correctly informed of course). I will still consider it
Thank you so much for all your replies. I will look into the phones you have recommended. I think it will probably be the Sony, or a Moto G series. Really sad that the market under 5" is that bad
Xiaomi, Huawei and Windows Phone are some of the options at your disposal. Windows Phones in particular are decent options because they have 5" screens and are jack-of-all from browsing to audio/video and have a fairly decent camera. their major issue is the fact that their app store is really disappointing, though you will get all the major apps like whatsapp, facebook and Twitter. a fair warning though, Instagram was still in its beta the last time i checked out their mobile app store, in which case, Android is still your best bet. About Android. Huawei Honor 6x, LG G5, Zenfone3 and Moto G4 Plus are some of the decent android options if you wish to explore them, with LG and Motorola being the more noteworthy names.
