Samsung is retiring the Galaxy S23 series, but that doesn’t include the new Galaxy S23 FE – this will remain the “budget flagship” option until its replacement arrives, likely mid-next year.
For the same £600 you can also buy a foldable phone nowadays, the Motorola Razr 40. It uses a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset, so has less performance than the S23 FE (which has an Exynos 2200), but flexes a 6.9″ FHD+ internal display at 144 Hz (the display on the cover, however, is small).
If you want more performance, the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra is also available which packs the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. The internal display is boosted to 165Hz and you get an actually usable 3.6-inch cover display. However, the cameras on both Razr 40 models aren’t great.
If you don’t like foldable devices, the Motorola Edge 40 is a solid choice for a mid-range device. It has a Dimensity 8020 chipset and a 6.55-inch 144Hz (FHD+) OLED display, as well as a 50+13MP dual camera on the back. The 4,400mAh battery supports both 68W wired and 15W wireless charging.
The Amazon Fire Max 11 is one of the cheapest 11-inch tablets money can buy – and right now Amazon is selling it without the usual advertising. The IPS LCD display has a resolution of 2,000 x 1,200 px and the MediaTek chipset is quite powerful in this (it’s a mid-range chip, but Fire tablets usually get worse).
Even cheaper is Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023 version), also without advertising (normally removing them costs more). It has a 10.1-inch display with 1,920 x 1,200 pixel resolution and an octa-core processor. Keep in mind that both Fire tablets have microSD slots, so there’s no need to spend extra for additional storage if you don’t want it.
For something more powerful, there’s the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE and Tab S9 FE+ pair, a 10.9″ and a 12.4″ tablet respectively. Both have IPS LCD (90Hz) and are powered by the Exynos 1380 chipset. Both are also IP68 rated, so you can use them poolside.
You can dive into gaming with the Xbox Series S Starter Bundle. It is the less powerful of the two Microsoft consoles, but this one comes with 3 free months of Game Pass Ultimate. This allows the console to stream games, but you can also download them – the Ultimate pass includes new releases on day one.
There’s also the Xbox Series And you’ll have to provide your own Game Pass or games (at least this one still has an optical drive).
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