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
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.
Google pixel so i could put graphene os on it.
Galaxy S10. Still rockin the headphone port.
Galaxy S7 here, but it’s probably getting replaced somewhere this year.
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.
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)
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.
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??)
get an empty can with some wire attached, connect a second can to the end of the wire and provide your intended contact with said second can.
Perfect, I’ll never need to worry about it running out of battery on me
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
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.
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.
Samsung Galaxy XCover 6 Pro
It was an easy choice as it’s the only modern devide with removable battery and a headphone jack. I would’ve gotten Fairphone but no headphone jack - no buy.
Personally I’ve only really stuck with wireless headphones anyway since before they removed the jack so doesn’t bother me that much
How often do you find yourself needing to charge it?
My average screen on time is around 1 to 2 hours a day so I usually have well over 50% left when I plug it to a charger at night.
You might ask on c/android if you’re not after an eyephone. I now use a Motorola G Stylus 5G 2023, good value at $250 imho. Big screen, fast compared to what I’m used to, good battery life, battery apparently not too hard to replace, headphone jack, SD slot, NFC, 256GB flash, 6GB ram, decent cameras (main, front, and wideangle macro, no telephoto). The main missing “flagship” features that I can think of are wireless charging and USB-C video out. Main complaint everyone has is too few software updates, but meh. I would probably buy this again if I needed another phone right now. The pen (stylus) isn’t great but it is handy for poking small UI elements or typing when I’m tired, so I use it more than I expected to. Samsung’s S pen is supposed to be better though.
Heads up: the 2024 version of the entry level model (G Play) is out and it’s an ok upgrade to the 2023 version, but they removed the SD slot, which makes me wonder if they will do the same in the other models. With 256GB on board I guess the card is less important than before, but it is nice.
Galaxy S24 Ultra. I got really pissed off at the Pixel 7 Pro and bought this on a (very costly) whim. But this is the first phone I really like since the Note 9. The screen is gorgeous. The software is better than stock android on the Pixel. And it can actually make phone calls!
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.
I have an iPhone 11 Pro. It’s a few years old now, but still gets updates and is still quick enough. However, the battery is fading pretty quick and Apple has made replacement inconvenient at best. I’m going to order a DIY battery kit that will hopefully take care of that, otherwise it’s gonna be replacement time.
