I need a smartphone but I’ve dropped two in recent years and one of them was an expensive one. The glass was shattered and I was told it wouldn’t be worth repairing it. I’m looking for a new one that does ordinary things. I use Facebook and WhatsApp a lot and have started to use YouTube too. I sometimes take photos but don’t need anything fancy. I’m reluctant to spend much on it now, given my clumsiness. What do you recommend?
— Fidelma O’Neill
Answer
I’m taking it that “reluctant to spend much” means your budget is somewhere between €300 and €500. For that, you’ll get a really decent, large-screen phone with good battery life, pretty good cameras and enough power to do what you say you need to do.
It’ll be Android, though — the only iPhones you can get in that price range are refurbished (second hand).
I’d recommend either Samsung’s A54 (€399), Google’s Pixel 7A (€509) or Xiaomi’s Redmi 13 Pro Plus (€449).
The Pixel is the most powerful of these devices and has the ‘nicest’, most intelligent Android user interface, while the Xiaomi phone has the biggest, best screen, the most storage and the joint-best battery life. The Samsung phone is the most basic, but offers a decent all-round experience for a few quid less.
If it was me, I’d go for the Xiaomi.
Question
My grandson says he wants a pair of ‘smart glasses’ for his birthday. I’ve no idea where to start looking.
— Noreen O’Mahony
Answer
Smart glasses, at present, are really just sunglasses with speakers around the ear stems and cameras on the front. The best-known pair is Facebook’s Wayfarer model (€329). While Meta markets these as being fun for recording or photographing stuff (they’re voice activated, as well as manually activated), they’re actually more useful for listening to things like music, radio or podcasts.
An alternative is Huawei’s Gentle Monster II glasses (€329 from Three stores). These don’t record video, but do have excellent speakers and a microphone to make or take calls with.
One point that might be easily confused for those who don’t follow such things — smart glasses shouldn’t be confused with virtual reality headsets, such as Apple’s Vision Pro or Meta’s Quest headset.
These gadgets are getting a lot of press attention right now, but are totally different to smart glasses (and can cost thousands of euro).
