Okay yes, the title is probably confusing. I'm still half asleep and I haven't had my morning coffee. My apologies.
Back in November of 2025 I bought a Motorola G04s, 64 GB in blue, for $99, discounted from JB Hi-Fi. Until about July 23, 2026, I used this phone.
On July 21 I ordered an Oppo Find X5 Lite 8/256 GB from CEX Australia. It's arrived. I went through setup just fine, etc. Those who want a review on that phone: I think in one of the Android threads I posted a review of that phone on my other account before this one got reinstated. I don't know what post it is because no one's commented on it in like a few weeks and I'm on mobile so I'm too lazy to go and find it.
For the longest time, however, I've always wanted to put my SIM back into my Motorola because one of my main concerns about a phone is battery life. One of the several reasons I upgraded to the Oppo was because of the battery life of the Motorola. After plugging my SIM card into my phone, my Oppo one, I started using it as a hotspot for school because I hate my school's Wi-Fi with an absolute burning passion. In fact I would not wish anybody to use that network. In fact I wouldn't wish it on my worst dead enemy.
But I had a problem. Every time I'd leave school (mind you, this is a 6-hour day), my Oppo would always end up with about 20% or 30% battery left. Granted it was a refurbished phone and it has a 4,500 mAh battery so of course it would struggle. Last Monday I put the SIM card from my Oppo into my Motorola. My idea was to give it a test drive to see how the battery would last during a whole day of hotspot use at my school but then I had a problem. The battery on this, despite being absolutely awful with actual use, was legitimately a god whilst on hotspot mode.
On Friday I left school at 2:50 pm. I started my hotspot at 8 with about 51% battery or so left. At the end of the day this is what the Motorola achieved, which is not even close to what my Oppo could have done.
Now I don't know what to do because I spent $140 on the Oppo. My original plan was to give my Motorola to my sister so she could use it as a backup phone. Now this Motorola is showing way too good battery results through hotspot and hotspot is something I rely on especially when I'm at school.
Does anyone have any suggestions here? If I go back to the Oppo I get 4 GB extra RAM and I get 256 GB of storage compared to 64 GB. I think I technically get better camera performance and I get a faster processor, which is good for me even if the results don't really show.
If I stay with Motorola I've put down $140 on a phone that I would no longer use, which isn't great financially. The Motorola I could just give off. I didn't spend $99 from my bank on it and this Motorola is still in perfect condition. So is the Oppo. If I stay with the Motorola I lose access to the headphone jack being on the bottom. I lose access to the headphone jack being on the bottom compared to the top. I like it being on the bottom. Motorola, you suck at your phone designs. I will miss the faster charging, which is very useful: 65W compared to like 15W, which is just absolutely abominable. I've been growing on the in-display fingerprint sensor. Plus I also technically have a brighter screen, which is good for sighted people when they take photos with me in bright areas, and a smaller display size, which is good because I like smaller phones and it's lighter. I really don't know what to do here. Does anyone have any advice on what I could do?