Samsung Galaxy A14 5G A Series, Factory Unlocked, 64GB, US Version, Black (Renewed)

hardware as well is operating system overdone
The Germans have a wonderful word concoction: “Verschlimmbessern”Meaning to improve something continuously and by that making gradually worse and eventually useless.In our “update mania” world this here is a classic case.The phone has a way to sensitive touchscreen and no matter what you try from the gazillion settings there is only one to increase the sensitivity but not to decrease it! You can search online that issue.Tests I did show that the touchscreen responds when the finger is actually is not touching the screen but is 0.5- 1mm ( 1/52″ – 2/52″) away from it!This leads of course to an absurd overreaction when you handle the phone, even with the palm protection on, it reacts unintentionally. Often even it responses before you have actually touched anything simply because you moved your finger without touching the screen!Then there is the OS, by now Android 14. Another effort to overload an overdo many functions and poorly organize them. all of course in the eternal other obsession “security”. The [settings] interface is not intuitive and straightforward anymore like it used to be in older android OSs.Whereas like in earlier versions you could customize and prioritize which icon functions you wanted where, that no longer seems to be possible.And then of course the confirmation pop-up window mania.Say you want to turn something off or delete a message/email. You have to go on a regular basis through three confirmations! DUH? Say you select an email or SMS and click on delete, then it asks you first if you want to delete it, and then and then again were you wanted deleted to and finally you need to confirm that! Really? Seriously?notwithstanding that the new and improved absolutely outlandish privacy terms and all other terms all of them with their 10,000 links to other terms about terms and privacy etc. blah blah… I really feel being raped on a daily basis.Furthermore for some reason despite larger screen all the fonts are smaller but layout spacing is larger with more wasted space. (yes I tried the font sizing). Total useless another feature is, that you can choose from an endless variety of different fonts…Any app you start needs a gazillion confirmations requesting permission to give access to this and that, here and there etc. etc. Overall straightforward sensible layout of the interface and functionality is gone.Here’s a personal comparison and experience.Before I upgraded to this phone I had a Samsung S5 with OS Android 6.01. Everything worked fine I never had an issue SMS and MMS sent out instantaneously and everything else worked. Of course with new apps the phone became, aside from artificial incompatibilities, slower and slower. P part of a marketing ploy probably.Now I have a Samsung A14 5G with Android 14. MMS take much longer and needs two or three confirmations…And when executing a functioning in an app, next time I open the app I have to navigate back as it doesn’t go back like previously by default.There’s more but that would take up too much space to writeup here.Remember the peaceful relaxed time when we had a Bell telephone and a typewriter?We were able to communicate and even managed to fly two men to the moon and bring them safely back…

Worse in virtually every way compared to my 2017 Moto x4. Keeping it due to longer software support
I bought a Moto x4 many years ago and have been perfectly content with it. After it updated to Android 9 I didn’t like the fact that you could no longer see all open apps in the new window-switching view, and it forced a google search toolbar, and a number of other things I thought were worse, so I used directions on xda to revert back to 8.1.I was perfectly happy with this for many years.Then a security-related app I was using notified me that Android 8.1 was not secure and has not received security updates for years. So I have to get the latest version of Android.Then I find out that Motorola doesn’t publish security or Android version updates to the phone past Android 9, so my only option is to buy a new phone or flash a 3rd party ROM. I looked for instructions and ROMs, and LineageOS seemed to be the primary other option, but I ran into many problems.So I looked up what phones were similar to the Moto x4 and provided the longest term of security and software updates. Samsung Galaxy A14 5G seemed to be the winner so I bought it. It’s 6 years newer than my Moto x4 so it should be an enjoyable upgrade at least right? Wrong.* It’s much thicker and taller. Too tall for my liking; difficult to use with one hand – yes I’ve tested the “one-handed features”.* The fingerprint reader is worse. The Moto x4’s works 90%+ of the time, the A14’s works about 40% of the time.* The battery takes many hours more (can be more than twice as long) to recharge (via USB 3.0 to my PC) and drains as fast or faster.* No call recording.* No view all open apps ability.* Various other annoyances related to how the software functions on this phone/android version.The only noticeable improvements are more customization of notifications & layout.New Android versions & phones are barely different and many of the changes are often downgrades. Hyping them up and making us buy new phones to get security updates is such a scam. My Moto x4 could have lasted me another decade at least.I hate the smartphone industry. Thankfully, California’s new Right to Repair law might mostly solve this issue for the future.

Great Value
I did extensive research on the best phone to fit my needs and this was it. (Disclosure: this phone is for an almost two year old.) I was extremely skeptical about the unlocked reviews, more than too many said the phone wasn’t truly unlocked. Luckily for me, it absolutely was. I put the SIM card in and it worked immediately. I didn’t need to configure APN’s or anything. It did warm up during info transfer from an older galaxy but it didn’t overheat. So far during charging and usage I don’t have that issue either. As stated, the phone is a backup for me but I let me son have full autonomy over it. So far his apps work with no issue. It does lag a bit for higher storage games but overall I can’t complain. The phone came basically brand new. If it had a Samsung box I’d believe it was. I think the experience varies and won’t negate anyone else’s, but mine has been so far so good. I would take the chance and worst case scenario just send it back.