My phone’s just bitten the dust and now I need to look for a new one again.
Thought I’d test the waters and see what kinds of phones people on here are using nowadays and what for, what features set them apart if any etc
Bonus points if anyone’s managed to get mainline linux running on them either via KVM or bare metal
Edit: Thanks for everyone who talked about their choices of phone, I am now writing this on a fairphone 4 and am quite happy with it so far.
Lemmy users be like: I built my own phone
It uses Arch btw
“and I put Linux on it!”
“so you just run android?”
“it runs Gentoo”
I am using a Librem 5
“privacy is so important” pulls out android phone
Educate yourself
Any smartphone, they’re not that different and all have the same weaknesses. They’re pretty fragile, don’t have battery-life and they have lots of bloat and functionality that’s gate-kept behind sign ups and cloud accounts
The biggest difference is whether you can run a custom rom or it’s locked down.
any special model that you prefer?
Pixels (at least ordered from Google) allow you to unlock the bootloader without any exploits, so they normally have the best ROM support
GrapheneOS is where a lot of the security work that ends up making it to other Android devices starts
CalyxOS is a good option for more support for standard Google Play apps
LineageOS is the original big ROM, but I think last time I checked, you couldn’t reenable the secure boot chain
I’m using a Pixel 6, mostly because I like stock android. Not spectacular compared to their previous phones though, notably they used to be the only major company that still had headphone jacks, but that is no longer the case.
I have a 6a. Same deal. Terrible battery life honestly. I wish I could find a phone that could stay up to date and I can replace the batteries…
I will say though I had to replace the screen after completely obliterating it and it was shockingly easy, at least as far as modern smartphones go.
The good thing about the pixel line seems to be that the repairs are supported in most local places or ifixit thats for sure. I had a terracube before. Do not recommend!
Are the newer pixels any better? I have a pixel 4 that I’d like to upgrade at some point but it seems like everything else would be a downgrade for what I want.
Good battery life under load, wireless charging, and NFC are the only things I want. A low end phone with a potato for a CPU would be plenty but none of them have wireless charging AND NFC. They’ve started to have one, or the other, but not both.
Im not sure. Looks like the 6a would not be a good fit for you: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/does-google-pixel-6a-have-wireless-charging/
Oh yeah I forgot about that. I think the 7a or 8a added it but I haven’t heard favorable things about their battery life either.
Well my 4 still does the job. Screen burn is pretty minimal and I’m doing my best to manually keep it at bay. If its battery blows up at least the back isn’t even glued on properly so I can replace it again.
If you know yoyr criteria you could try the Phone Finder on https://www.gsmarena.com/
6a here too. At least the battery holds long when the phone is barely used. Idle standby is great compared to my outdated Xcover from before.
Galaxy S10. Still rockin the headphone port.
S10e here, and…I’m not looking forward to giving it up, because I don’t want a phone worse than this and they all are.
For me it’s the vertical size, fits perfect in my hand and almost all newer phones are longer.
Mine replaced an S4 Mini. My S10e is still borderline too big IMHO and I’m unaware of anything currently on the market any smaller.
Galaxy S7 here, but it’s probably getting replaced somewhere this year.
Ah I miss my S10 . It died end of last year, I was hoping to get a few more years out of it. I forgot I had already had the battery replaced and dropped it in water :(
i know right? i don’t leave home without my VinylMan and 1/4” hi-fi’s
Still does the job just fine.
Buy a refurbished or new in box flagship phone from a couple years ago. I paid like 1400$ for a Sony Xperia 1 III but now 2 years later it’s like 500$, refurbished with a warranty. It’s great value considering most phones brands don’t change much in only 2 years and you still get a pretty cutting edge device.
good advice, i bought Moto G100 when it was about 3 years old and antutu benchmark is around double what my friends have for a similar price (Samsung A series)
Google pixel so i could put graphene os on it.
Redmi Note 9 Pro with LineageOS 18.1 (Android 11).
Stay away from Xiaomi’s phones if you plan to use the stock MIUI Android they come with. My SO has a stock Redmi Note 11S and MIUI is the biggest piece of bloated instrusive shit that I have ever seen on a phone.
Agree. I have a POCO F5 and, while it is not as awful as you say, it still sucks.
However, I flashed a custom ROM on my so’s Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, and that android experience is just bliss.
Pixel 6 Pro with Graphene Os. You have to make a few concessions when it comes to ease of use, but the privacy and security is top notch.
Bought myself a Pixel 6 used a while back. Been very happy with it
I hear a lot of good things about the older pixels, but they only have a couple years of security updates left and a couple months of android updates so it doesn’t feel like a smart decision to buy them now
They don’t have less security updates than other brands. Plus you can always install a custom ROM to keep getting updates afterwards.
LineageOS or GrapheneOS are perfect for these and dont rely on google play services eating your data and battery.
Yup. That’s exactly what I was thinking
I’m currently using a Samsung S21, but once this thing eats it I’m done with Samsung. I’m sick of the OS updating and installing 6-7 garbage programs on my device without my consent.
I’m going to get a Nokia G42, just buy it outright and be done with the payment plan model. Nokia actually teamed up with iFixIt so I can do service on my own phone without needing to go through Verizon. Easily replaceable battery so I can buy an extra one and have it for when I’m traveling. SD card slot! Headphone jack!! And it’s only like 1/4 the cost of a flagship.
It also runs vanilla Android.
But problematic, that the bootloader isn’t unlockable.
Edit: on the nokia
As an only part-time semi-nerd, I’m not too concerned with that. I’m sure if I started playing with the root I would probably brick my Nokia (damn, nice pun??)
Still using my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, for me it’s perfect.
Continues to be up to date, hardware and software wise.
Moi Aussi! I can’t believe this was the one that got me to stop phone hopping…
My S21 is the one to unfortunately kick the bucket. It could potentially be repaired but I expect the cost of repairing it is going to be comparable to just buying a new phone.
If I can fix the USB C port I can at least still use it for DeX or as an android tv somewhere I’m sure
Just switched from an iPhone XR to a 15 pro. Hope to get another 4+ years out of it.
I only switched because my SUV’s CarPlay and wireless charger turned the XR into a no-working hot plate after an hour. The 15 pro still gets as hot but doesn’t seem to shut down. I blame ford.
Nah, wireless charging in general is to blame here - they heat up batteries a ton, and that can kill the battery faster.
If you keep using your Pro with it, expect the battery to deteriorate quickly.
Somebody should start putting TECs in the wireless chargers. Even 10 watts of cooling would probably make a difference.
MagSafe/qi 2 + PPS should fix that. It’s actually tolerable to wirelessly charge my phone and do anything with it.
But it’s still going to get pretty hot if you’re doing wireless CarPlay/AA. Even wired CarPlay it will get warm.
The cheapest piece of shit Samsung make because I break phones. I work outdoors in all weathers and I use my phone alot. I go through on average one a year and I dont want a broken or lost phone to ruin my month.
I can get behind that, that’s kind of the direction I’m leaning in too.
I tend to go the other way with that and buy the tougher phones so they last me a bit longer though, I’d rather pay 600 every 3 years and have a somewhat nicer phone than 200 every 1 year and have to put up with a crappy one
???
“Alot” doesn’t exist, it’s always “a lot”. Above meme depicts an imaginary animal, the alot, in order to make the difference clearer.
To the people who treat that as a hard and fast rule, I wonder what opinion they hold of the word “another.”
I guess they would think that an other and another have different meanings, like car pet and carpet
Car pet… is this petting a car or having a car as a pet. :)
Edit: or petting someone with a car
What does “an other” mean that “another” doesn’t?
What wrong with another
Nothing, that’s my point. It’s a fusion of the words “an other” which is a phrase used in English so frequently that it became its own word, “another.”
People are fine with that but they treat “alot” like it’s a problem.
Alot
I get that, but I didn’t use a lot or alot in my comment. Did you reply to the wrong person?
I did! Sorry!
I had two Caterpillar CATphones before. It was awesome. One of them had an infra red camera and was waterproof down to 5 meters.
They were a bit on the slow side, but they sure could take abuse
I tried that once, but that one got lost and I was like “Yep, cheap shit it is”
Honestly the worst samsung A series shits from great heights on cheap off brand phones. They do pretty much everything I want except the whole tap to pay thing.
Unfortunately tap and pay is the one feature keeping me from using custom roms/rooting/linux. Very much like having multiple options incase my card doesn’t work, forgotten my wallet etc
Get a Samsung S series FE (or Fan edition). They are usually cheaper versions of the flag ships with the same features but slightly lower specs.
I’m a Pixel fan. Between the whole family, I think we have almost every generation.
I found the sweet spot on the Samsung A34. It has the things I want, but it isn’t flagship expensive and it has guaranteed 4 years of updates plus another year of support.
