5 phone features I refuse to compromise on

As smartphones become more expensive and certain brands have leaned towards iterative updates, I’ve learned that I need to compromise when it comes to some smartphone features. At the same time, there are some aspects where I refuse to budge.

It becomes tricky to balance all the requirements I have for a phone I purchase. There’s plenty of choice in my local market, but it has been a long time since I just purchased the latest Android flagship and called it a day. I’m willing to deal with software quirks and designs I don’t like, but these considerations remain ones that I won’t compromise on.

Price is the most important aspect for me when it comes to choosing a smartphone. No matter how amazing a phone may be, I won’t go over a certain price point. It’s one of the reasons why even though I love the Samsung Galaxy Fold 7, I won’t purchase the phone due to its high price point.

Part of this is due to my experience with various smartphone brands that offer significant value-for-money. Many Chinese smartphone brands offer great features and specs at a significantly lower price than counterparts like Samsung and Apple. I also prefer to buy phones with cash, rather than taking out a mobile contract.

However, my unwillingness to compromise on price does come with drawbacks. Due to local taxes, many devices are significantly more expensive in South Africa compared to other markets. For example, while the S25 Ultra launched at a starting price of $1,299 in the US, its launch price locally was R29,999, which is around $1,700. The most I’m willing to spend on a phone is around $1,100, which cuts me off from many of the latest powerful devices.

That said, if a phone meets all my other requirements, I will wait until a sale to see if it drops to my desired price point. This is how I managed to buy a Galaxy S23 Ultra, since I waited until after the launch of the S24 Ultra.

When it comes to smartphone cameras, multiple factors contribute to the quality of the photos. It’s not just about resolution, which is why I consider 100MP+ cameras one of the most overrated features of modern smartphones.

Rather, I focus on the presence of at least one telephoto or periscope camera with decent zoom. Luckily, many phone brands include at least one telephoto lens on their devices. For a phone that doesn’t offer one of these cameras, it immediately falls off my list for consideration.

With the hype around generative AI, many brands are now focusing on the post-processing their devices can do instead of relying on optical zoom. But I’ve always found these results mixed. Photos either end up very blurry or get an over-processed look that spoils them when looking at them on a larger screen.

Another factor that’s important to me is low-light performance, since I live in a dark apartment. If a phone has poor low-light performance, this means that not only are the pictures I take of my cats blurry and noisy, but also the photos I take for the articles I write.

While fast charging isn’t essential for most people, I find that it’s one of those features you don’t know you need until you’ve experienced it for yourself. Over the past few years, I’ve been spoiled by the 100W charging on my daily drivers like the Oppo Reno 10 Pro+ and the Honor 400 Pro.

I don’t mind sacrificing a bit of charging speed if the phone comes with other benefits, but it’s unlikely that I’d use any phone as a daily driver if its charging speed is less than 80W. My S23 Ultra supports 45W charging, but I don’t use it as my daily driver. When I see flagships released with 25W charging, I won’t consider them at all, no matter how much I like the other features. It’s why I find the stagnation of charging speeds when it comes to certain smartphone brands so frustrating.

I’ve also never had problems with battery life or degradation on my devices that support fast charging speeds. Though if the drawbacks of fast charging concern you, you can toggle a variety of battery settings to limit charging speed. But there’s no way to charge your phone faster if its charging technology does not support higher speeds, which is why it’s important to me.

When it comes to fast charging, something that’s also important to understand is that the rated maximum speed does not mean that the phone charges at this speed consistently. Manufacturers often only deliver the top speed when the battery is low. This helps to protect the battery, while still saving you time when you need to quickly charge up your phone before heading out.

A large battery with good screen-on time is another essential feature I look for in smartphones. The smallest battery I’ve had in recent years was 4,700mAh; but I now focus on devices that have a 5,000mAh capacity or larger.

With so many tasks taking place on my smartphone, including productivity workflows and automation, I will no longer compromise when it comes to battery size. I’ve also been spoilt by the Honor 400 Pro, which features a 6,000mAh battery. This means that I can often go more than a day without charging my phone — and when I finally plug it in, the fast charging means that it only takes a little while to get to a full charge.

Unfortunately, this is also an area where many smartphone makers have stagnated, despite technology like silicon-carbon batteries making it easier to incorporate higher capacities into slim devices.

Don’t get me wrong, there are multiple factors that contribute to battery life in a phone. But I personally think that software and algorithmic tweaks should be used in conjunction with hardware upgrades, not as the sole solution. That’s why I now look for a large battery as a baseline.

A high refresh rate is also one of those things that you may not notice until you get used to a device that supports the feature. All the phones I’ve owned in the past few years support a refresh rate of up to 120Hz.

This started off as a nice-to-have feature, since it makes scrolling through apps and playing games smoother. But now it has become essential for me due to my chronic migraines.

If an app stutters at all while I’m scrolling, it contributes to the nausea I experience during migraines. I used to sometimes opt for a lower refresh rate if I wanted to save battery power, but since my migraines became chronic I always make sure to set the refresh rate to the maximum.

In games like Pokémon Go, I also increase the refresh rate to match my display’s rate to reduce stuttering. This does affect battery life, especially since it’s a battery-intensive game. However, it’s worth the trade-off to prevent nausea. When paired with fast charging and a large battery, this feature is manageable.

There are features I’m willing to compromise on, even if I’ve had devices that have better specs than my current daily driver. I put up with certain software frustrations, and I’ve learned not to become too reliant on OEM apps (except when it comes to Samsung Clock). But the features I’ve mentioned are the areas I’m not willing to compromise on.