An old iPhone, maybe.
It is running an older version of Android, it should be on 12 by now. What is the support lifecycle? Will it get 13?
An iPhone SE 2022 or iPhone 13 should get at least version 20, looking at the history, they will probably get up to around version 22.
And your friend’s Galaxy should, according to Samsung, get up to Android 15 + 1 year of updates.
The iPhone and Samsung aren’t water repellent (light rainfall), they should withstand being dropped in water or used in a heavy shower.
The processor is a 1-2 generation old mid-range Qualcomm processor, which probably means you will get Android 12, maybe 13, if you are lucky, before Qualcomm drops support for it.
The storage is probably the slower variant on the budget phone, compared to the high performance storage on the iPhone 13s and especially the 13 Pros, which can record RAW 60fps 4K video, generating several GB of data per minute. But in normal use, you probably won’t notice the difference.
2 MP? Seriously? We are back in the early 2000s? 8MP would be the minimum for a secondary camera, most primary cameras are well into double figures. The quality of the lenses will also be significantly different. Likewise the AI used to process the images on high end phones is a lot more advanced.
Wi-Fi: No Wi-Fi 6.
Bluetooth: No BT 6 LE
15W/20W aren’t fast charging. The current Pixel and iPhone were derided at launch, because they only have 25W - although the iPhone does seem to still charge fast enough at 25W. Many middle-tier phones are charging between 40W and 60W these days - whether that is good for the battery in the long run is another question.
Don’t get me wrong, that isn’t a bad phone for the money, but it doesn’t come anywhere near matching a high-end phone, in terms of stats, performance or finish.
Can you use it as a daily driver? Certainly.
Will the results be acceptable? Depending on what you are looking for, very probably.
Does it match the performance of a high-end phone? No, not in any way.
If you are on a budget, there are good, usable phones in the sub $200 bracket, right on up to high-end phones at over a thousand. The more money you spend, the more features or the better quality/performance features you will have.
I have an iPhone SE for work and an iPhone 13 Pro for private use, before that, I had a Galaxy S20+ and before that some mid-range phones for several years. With the exception of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, which was a mid-range priced phone trying to box in the premium segment, the difference between those mid-range phones and high-end phones was significant and clearly visible.
You can clearly see and feel, where Apple saved money to make the SE version of the iPhone, especially the camera. But it is still a fine phone, if you aren’t into photography and filming and need a good, robust phone for every day. The same will be true of your Amazon bargain.
Some of the exulted price of premium phones is that they are in the premium segment and the “name” behind them (who would have thought that about Samsung, having grown up with them as a bargain basement brand for decades!), but also the materials and components used - the lenses are ground finer and have better optical qualities, the processors are more powerful & have more or better cores, the iPhones have integrated memory and storage, increasing the performance even more, the screens are of a higher quality.
You get a lot more for your money, when you buy premium, but is it fully justified? It depends on what you are doing and using it for, how long you will keep it etc.
If you are buying a budget $200 phone every 2 years, because it stops getting the absolutely critical monthly security updates, but you keep an iPhone 13 for 6-8 years, until its support runs out, the price difference is minimal, buy the iPhone SE for $429 and keep it for those same 6-8 years, it works out a lot cheaper than the budget $200 Android phone.
Higher end Android phones can’t provide that sort of longevity, yet, but they have imporved, but the cost per year of use still doesn’t work out.
Again, I have friends who are more than happy with $150 phones, because they are happy to have any phone and that is all they can afford, some can’t even afford that and are on hand-me-downs from friends. Not everybody can afford a premium phone, not everybody needs a premium phone and there are phones to match most people’s wallets out there, and for that we should be grateful.
But to say a $200 phone matches or beats a $1200 phone? No, not in any measurable way, apart from the money left in your pocket for other things.
