Time for a new phone

Oh dear.  I had been thinking it was time for a phone upgrade, even though the almost completely unknown Vivo model I bought in 2020 was still showing great battery life and had been very reliable (as I said to my daughter only last week, prompting her warning "Don't say that - it will stop working now!").  Yes, it has today developed a troublesome major problem.    My daughter, the soothsayer.  (I did drop it on a hard floor recently - but I've done that before, so I don't know if there is any connection with its current problem.)

Sadly Vivo, a brand name which festoons many a shop in Singapore and Malaysia, has apparently abandoned the Australian market, and the only models to be found here seem to be the very cheap ones probably left over from bulk buys a couple of years ago.

In fact, I like the look of a new Vivo model (mid range - I am still unconvinced of the benefits of expensive models) just released in Asia. But short of buying it from an Ebay seller based in Malaysia, or another trip to Singapore, I am unable to get it here.

I am very unsure of what to buy in its place.  I am been tempted to go with Xiaomi - I like to keep with Chinese brands as I figure they will help me when forced to welcome My New Asia Overlords on the streets sometime in the next decade. "Look!" I will exclaim while waving my phone at them "I've been using your nation's phones for years!  And I have the CGTN app." 

But the mid range Google Pixels get very strong reviews.  They just look a little bland to me.   

I know Oppo is made by the same company that does Vivo, but when I see their screens in the stores, they just don't seem as good as on my lovely, apparently dying, Vivo.

I was pretty happy with my Motorola cheapo - in fact, I can't remember why I stopped using it.  I think it was just the battery?   Motorola has kept strong in the market and has a good range of phones now, but I'm just not sure how they are in the camera game, which really has become the important thing for me.

I've even considered going back to a Samsung mid ranger - quite a lot of people seem to like the A55 which is pretty new, but gee, you don't even get a charger in a Samsung box now.

I see that the Xiaomi Redmi phones have eSim - something I think will save a lot of fuss when travelling overseas.  That and a camera with a whopping 200MP sensor probably means it's a done deal.

We'll see....