Rants are welcome, even encouraged :)
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The last 4 phones I had were just a mess. I am starting to loose hope of there being something that would work well. I just recently got a new phone, it’s a mess as usual. Maybe what I am experiencing is enough for a warranty claim, maybe it’s just a quirk to be dealt with…
Every couple years every newer phone I try is just worse and worse. I thought that maybe once PinePhone and available software gets mature enough…, but at this point, maybe other phones will just get crap enough.
My last good phone was ironically an ultra-cheap Lark Cumulus 5HD. It was just 50 EUR new. No lags, no crashes, swappable battery, a just works experience. 50 bucks…
Chronologically…
Moto G5s Plus
Great hardware, except that focus on my camera was kind-of broken, but I was too lazy to get that repaired under warranty.
But SW, god damn Motorola. Slow buggy mess. Crashes, freezes, battery drain. BUT, I was able to fix it with ✨a custom ROM✨
Poco X3 Pro
If you had any MIUI device, you know. Alarm clock may get killed optimized, ton of bugs to learn working around, built-in ads and spyware. Lots of it, based on blocked DNS logs.
HW - cheap and powerful. Average lifespan of the motherboard being whopping… 9 months. The phone ate 3 of them.
Moto G54 5G Power
Once again, great HW, SW not so much. The 3 button navigation was completely broken in high DPI and what made me return it - non-skippable updates. Just full-screen permanent update notifications. Only option: update. Nope.
Ulefone Armor 24
Few SW issues: Long-pressing dock icons while an app is open crashes “Quickstep”, in turn killing navigation (both gesture and buttons…). Alarm clock gets killed most of the time even with all optimizations off.
HW, least I think I should classify it as such: The phone has a chance to negotiate (?) 12V for split-second intervals using QC 2.0 (based on my USB tester) which it doesn’t expect, and throws overvoltage error. This happens with all QC-compatible chargers I tried, even the original one when used with OTG adapter.
The original one otherwise uses USB-C with PD, which works, sure. But after using it data transfer to PC via cable is broken until reboot.
I was very much a full-time phone person, but now it’s too much. I got a cheap touchscreen ThinkPad and use it with KDE Plasma (wayland). I was doing basically everything on a phone before, now I instead try not to, but with everything being an app, damn.
Pixel 8 pro.
Quirks : Runs GrapheneOS
LG V20. It’s old as shit but it has tons of features that you can’t get all on a new phone. IMO phone technology peaked on this one.
Just off the top of my head: Headphone jack, Replaceable battery, Small second screen you can put app shortcuts on, Hi-fi DAC, IR blaster, SD slot
HMD Vibe. I hate this phone. Bluetooth is terrible, cameras are all trash, it sometimes just doesn’t ring when someone is calling, no NFC, no finger print. Face unlock is slower then just putting in my pattern.
I had the Nokia 8.3 5g just before it that I accidentally took swimming. It was the best phone I’ve ever had. No bloat, everything worked perfectly. I can’t understand how they had that phone, then made this piece of trash.
Chronologically…
TCL 10L. Decent phone, I liked it a lot, the software was kinda buggy but was overall pretty good… Kinda destroyed it in a gym accident.
Samsung Galaxy A12. Horrible phone, do not buy. Slow, sh!t software, crap battery life. Thank God for GSIs as they are the only things that made this phone bearable.
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G. Best phone I’ve ever owned. The software sucks but it’s supported by most custom roms (I use lineage). Got it for a good price 2nd hand and it’s been my daily driver ever since.
Google Pixel 8
Got it recently after the battery started swelling on my Google Pixel 6 after 3 years of ownership.
I love that it’s smaller than the 6, the 120Hz OLED display, the clean software, the 6 remaining years of updates, cameras are great (as were the cameras in the Pixel 6), and (relative) lack of bloatware compared to other phones I’ve had from Motorola and LG.
I am kind of irritated by the battery life and and how warm the phone tends to get. It was $200 cheaper than the Pixel 9 when both were on sale, but I’m wondering if I should’ve bit the bullet and gone for the 9.
Overall, I really like the phone for it’s features and performance, but wish it had better endurance and ran cooler.
I agree with the one user who stated that modern phones are too goddamn big.
I’ve had Samsung’s Z Flip5 for over a year now and I’ve been really enjoying it. Small form factor when folded that actually freaking fits in women’s pockets. And when unfolded, I have a case with a ring that helps me hold it and reach higher up on the screen. Honestly, I would like if it was a bit smaller when opened, but it’s a fun compromise.
It doesn’t seem to fit in with what you want though, as it doesn’t have a headphone jack and isn’t going to be as durable as a regular phone. Still, it’s fun and I like it!
Moto G Stylus 2020. No real complaints about the phone. Battery life is about 2 days. It has headphone jack and SDcard slot. I like the chop chop motion to turn on the flashlight and the twist motion to run the camera.
I have a Galaxy M35
It’s fine, but when it’s not playing something and the screen is off I can’t change the volume, which is really stupid.
Sometimes I’ve got earphones connected and press play on them and the volume is loud, but I can’t just pause and lower it, I have to: pause, grab the phone, unlock it and only then lower the volume. At least it should be a setting.
Huawei P30 Pro, decent cameras and screen, battery still going strong after 3 years, pretty happy with it!
Small phones pleaseeeee!
Every time I buy a new phone I’m devastated to learn that I can’t get anything usable with one hand.
I need a 5.5 inch phone, anything bigger is hard to use, anything past 6 is impossible with one hand
Oh, you’d absolutely hate my phone: https://www.gsmarena.com/ulefone_armor_24-12602.php
Look at the dimensions, especially thickness and weight. Ironically though, it feels better in hand than a large thin slab. Thin phones are better smaller.
If you’ve seen that Energizer P28k thing, this is larger and heavier.
That’s some battery. How long do you get between charges?
I try to keep it around 20 - 80 %, that’s 2 - 3 days. Fully charged, (by the way, there is more capacity beyond “100%”), 4 possibly even 5 if going to like 5%.
But I use it heavily.
Also, that flashlight at the back can actually drain it quite fast. Hell, if you have like 30% it can’t keep it on full power steadily, it starts flickering a bit. It gets completely disabled <20%. Earlier if you use it in the camera app. Ideally, if you want to use it combined with the camera you’ll have > 50%.
You may be able to charge your laptop from it if it supports 5V charging. It can supply 10W. To get some idea, my ThinkPad L390 yoga is currently consuming 3.73W as I am typing this.
But as I wrote, good luck charging it, though my unit may be defective. I don’t have another one to compare to.
Pixel 4a with CalyxOS.
Support has ended while my phone is still working great and could probably last me a few more years (4 already) I get that companies can’t support devices forever, but I wish they would apply their 7 year support policy retroactively because now I’m going to buy a new phone for the simple reason that mine is now insecure (no security updates for firmware)
This sucks and it’s so wasteful.
Recently jumped from a Pixel 2 XL to the 9 Pro Fold. I had the 2XL for quite a while, and a few times over the years it developed this issue where it would shut off when I plugged it in to charge, unless YouTube was playing for some reason. Sometimes it would stay on if I turned it back on after it was plugged in, but not always.
I used my phone as my morning alarm, which typically meant starting a video like this before going to sleep. Generally the problem went away after a month or so, and so I just dealt with it. This last time was pretty persistent though, and got to the point where I decided to get a new phone.
Obviously I’ve only had the Fold for a couple months, so nothing crazy I’ve noticed so far. First time I’ve ever had a brand new flagship phone, which is neat I guess. A little pricey, but I do a lot of reading on my phone so honestly I think it’s a decent investment. Doubt I can go back to reading PDFs on a non-fold, but I tend to keep phones until they’re run into the ground, so by the time this one gives out there should be plenty of cheaper folds on the market.
Samsung Galaxy S9. have replaced the battery twice, got it at launch. skipped the s8, had s5 and s7 prior. it’s not rooted, user lawnchair launcher and love it. will drive it til it dies.
I’ve had three Google Pixels now and they’ve all developed problems with just freezing up or shutting down randomly. Won’t be getting one again. Also, the smaller versions keep getting bigger with every iteration. What’s the point? I want a small phone.
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