On 29/04/2021 11:05, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
John Rumm wrote:
On 28/04/2021 16:08, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Heard on the news they're likely to use the NHS track and trace app as a
vaccine passport.

My phone is a Galaxy S4. Works just fine as a phone and camera and the
things I want a phone for. But too old for the NHS app - which was
presumably written by a pal of BoJo, given I can't see what's so special
about it that it needs the latest phones.

It does not need a particularly recent phone (I think hardware wise all
it needs is Bluetooth Low Energy 4 or above), but does need Android 6 or
later. Most S4s were Android 5 (Lollipop)

Although Samsung don't have an update for this, there are ways of
installing it yourself:

https://www.nextpit.com/how-to-get-a...sung-galaxy-s4

That looks a bit above my paygrade. Does anyone offer this service? Have
Googled, but no help there. And looked on Ebay.

I use the mobile so little for outgoing calls I'm happy with PAYG. And BT
hotspot Wi-Fi access round London, for my parking app, etc.

If I do have to buy a new phone,

There will no doubt be manual ways to achieve the result without a
smartphone, however path of least resistance and all that!

what is going to be the best value? With
at least as good a camera.

Moto does ok for me, but there are other mid range good value options
out there these days. "Good camera" tends to be quite a broad definition
now - some phones take the camera aspect to the extreme.

The S4 has an excellent snapshot camera, which I use a great deal. Perhaps
the main reason I bought it in the first place.

I would be tempted to wait. You're not going to be the only one in this
position, and your local phone shop may well become wise to the need and
the route to upgrading the system.

The important thing is to know there is a route to the upgrade and can
be done successfully.