Should I give family member on Verizon old Android Smartphone?

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biggles

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This family member is using the original Moto X from 2013. I have an LG G4 and a G6 and could give him either one. He is not a power user and would alternately go with one of the cheapest Android smartphones Verizon offers. For instance, he might just get the Moto E6 that is currently free when you sign a contract. But I have heard that older flagships are sometimes better than brand new discount Android devices. As in better camera, better battery life, faster processors, etc.

Other relevant info is that this family member is not tech savvy and is not interested in switching away from Verizon at the moment.
 
If the phone works on Verizon, go for it. I give my old phones to family as well and they always enjoy the upgrade. It also usually means an improved version of Android which brings in UI improvements and security updates, which is important.

I'd rather give it to someone that would appreciate the gesture vs a $10 trade in on a new phone.
 
biggles said:
This family member is using the original Moto X from 2013. I have an LG G4 and a G6 and could give him either one. He is not a power user and would alternately go with one of the cheapest Android smartphones Verizon offers. For instance, he might just get the Moto E6 that is currently free when you sign a contract. But I have heard that older flagships are sometimes better than brand new discount Android devices. As in better camera, better battery life, faster processors, etc.

Other relevant info is that this family member is not tech savvy and is not interested in switching away from Verizon at the moment.
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yeah if it works on verizon do it, anything is better than the moto E6 which is about as budget as it gets. all they have to do is take the phone into a verizon store and they'll do everything for them to set it up.
 
The two year old G6 will be alarmingly superior to the brand-new Moto E6, it's like comparing a brand-new netbook that's $100 on Amazon to a used Ultrabook that originally sold for $1500 years and years ago, just such a different class of machine that it almost defies comparison. I found that out when I got a heavily-discounted G6 for myself this summer, my first "nice" Android phone and wow is it an improvement. I'd even say that the G4 is still more preferable than the new Moto despite the 4+ year age gap- the CPU in the G4 isn't going to be any slower than the Moto and the LG still has more memory and a nicer display.
 
biggles said:
https://www.techcenturion.com/snapdragon-processors-ranking-and-list
Okay, I found this comparing the Snapdragon 808 to the 430 cpu. The 808 is in the LG G4 and the 430 is in the Moto E6. 68 and 57 are the scores, which makes the LG G4 about 19% faster. Is this a reasonable estimate of how much better/faster the LG G4 would be?
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Not really; as the 808/810 were one of the worst chips Qualcomm has made so far since they ran hot and would thermal throttle pretty quickly with any sustained load (esp. games).

IMO I'd rather have a newer budget phone than an older flagship phone, if just for the newer and better software support (security patches at least) and also for the much better battery life that comes with newer and more power-efficient hardware and less battery wear (though the G4 was one of the last phones you can easily replace the battery on).

You're also not going to notice any performance difference in general UI/app usage, as even budget phones like the Moto E/G series have proven to have pretty decent UI performance with their modest hardware. Like I had a Nexus 6P with the Snapdragon 810 while my wife had a Moto Z Play with the 625 SoC and despite the 810 being considerably faster in benches, the Z Play was literally just as fast switching between apps and actually a bit smoother in some instances because the 810 in the 6P was quick to thermal throttle while the 625 in the Z Play ran much cooler and therefore had much better sustained performance, which definitely did translate to overall better UI and game performance on the Z Play.

The only way I would recommend the older flagship is if camera is a priority, as budget phones usually have pretty bad or mediocre cameras even compared to older flagships.
 
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