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The story
On 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyou G” board, a thread went up asking for phone recommendations after the poster’s Pixel 8 Pro broke. Specific models like the iPhone, Galaxy S series, and Motorola came up, but replies kept pointing out that “you can’t give real advice without a budget or use case,” and the thread turned into more of a back-and-forth about how to ask for advice than about which phone to buy.
In the end, the thread settled on a rough rule of thumb — “iPhone or Galaxy if you’ve got the money, a Chinese phone if you don’t” — but the original poster still didn’t seem fully convinced.
What people said
It's one option
I already have two
they have to deal with people like this too
rough job
Went in for something unrelated last time, and today they still tried pitching me a few models
Re: #20
Don't need an iPhone
Trash
Foldables are the flex phone right now, aren't they 😁
Whip it open in front of everyone and you're guaranteed to turn heads 🤤
If you're short on cash, get last year's model or used
It's one option
I've got the money
But I'm not fully sold
My main phone just died, so that feels like a weak replacement for it
What are you using now?
What broke was my Pixel 8 Pro
Wouldn't the latest Pixel work?
That's the same phone you're using now 😁
I'm actually thinking of just buying a used Pixel 8 Pro again as my main phone 😎
If you want advice from others, you need to share a lot about yourself
Since you're barely sharing anything, hardly any of the advice here has been any good
You've got to keep in mind that text alone could never convey everything anyway
Since I know I'm the one who decides, throwing out a bunch of options to narrow it down is the standard move
Bringing it up on reply #15 is pretty rough
It's a technique to keep you guys talking
Can't be that different from a Pixel 8, right
So are you posting with one of those right now, then?
I think the security chip died
My PIN code stopped working
Can't you just reset it? 🥺
iPhones, probably
This
It's a matter of philosophy, use case, and skill level
Give advice and it gets branded trash with some excuse tacked on
A cautionary example
Treat your own kids like this and they'll grow to resent you
Don't you want to hear people's take on it?
・iPhone
・Galaxy S series
If you don't
・Chinese phone
That's really all there is to it
You really think that counts as advice? Re: #98
You want a detailed reason for absolutely everything?
If you want someone's opinion, that's just common sense, isn't it
Are you even a working adult?
At this point just live without a phone
Background and Key Points
The Pixel 8 Pro that broke is Google’s flagship line, sold in Japan through NTT Docomo, au, and SoftBank as well as Google’s own store; a mid-range failure like a dead security chip a couple of years into ownership isn’t unusual and is the kind of “known issue” Pixel owners in Japan swap notes about. The wider context that shapes this thread is Japan’s phone market itself, which looks very different from the global one: iPhone commands a majority share of the country’s smartphones, propped up by decades of carrier bundling and Apple’s early exclusivity deals with Docomo/au/SoftBank, while Android flagships like the Galaxy S series remain a distant, low-single-digit-share alternative despite being globally dominant. Chinese brands (Xiaomi, etc.) are cheap but carry a stigma in Japan tied to lingering security and privacy suspicion, which is why “iPhone or Galaxy if you have money, Chinese if you don’t” reads as received wisdom rather than a personal recommendation.
The thread didn’t really split over which phone to buy — it split over what counts as a legitimate way to ask for advice online. One camp insisted that without a stated budget or use case, any answer is worthless and the OP was gaming the thread for engagement by withholding that his main phone had died until reply #15; the other treated throwing out options and narrowing down via replies as normal shorthand that shouldn’t require a full personal disclosure upfront.
What nobody raises, and what actually drives phone-buying decisions in Japan more than brand loyalty, is Osaifu-Keitai — the FeliCa-based mobile wallet standard used for train fare cards (Suica/PASMO) and convenience-store payments. Compatibility with it, not price tier, is often the real dealbreaker Chinese and even some Galaxy models fail on.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyou G) thread「Gotta buy a new phone, but what’s good?」.
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