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
GrapheneOS has better gplay support than calyxos
Thanks for the correction - I’ve been using enough different ones that my information might have been out of date there
Only if you ever buy the popular models.
Get yourself a rugged device, made for enterprises. They tend to be a bit more costly, but they aren’t fragile, they have great battery-life (although usually low specs to make that work), have no bloat and don’t require a sign up or even cloud.
Like the Unihertz Tank for example, or the Ascom Myco. Or the Bittium Tough Mobile 2 if you want extra secure.
Wow I misread the battery capacity on the unihertz tank and was like when was 2000mAh last a big battery? It’s 20 000 mAh. Also there’s a Tank2 with only 15 500 mAh.
damn thanks how did I not know these existed…
don’t have battery life
I have a Fold 5 with a snapdragon 8gen2. I have “light performance mode” on at all times, and deep sleep most apps that I rarely use, and get 8 hours SOT. The 8g2 phones are definitely worth getting for battery life
That’s not even that good.
In normal scenarios, I get 10h SOT, with 12h in battery saver mode.
Although I do drop to 5h SOT when using it for GPS map logging while on my motorcycle.
Which phone? Stock OS or custom ROM?
Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2022), stock OS
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.
If you know yoyr criteria you could try the Phone Finder on https://www.gsmarena.com/
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.
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.
I am on an iPhone 12 mini, I expect to keep it for another two or three years.
There are VNC and SSH apps in the appstore for Linux access.
iPhone XS Max here, and I’m astounded at how fast it still is after five years. Battery lasts all day, too.
I’m contemplating upgrading due to USB-C and 120hz, but I have no other reason to at the moment. The longevity of this bitch is mindblowing.
Yep, I used my iPhone 6S far longer than I expected.
I get that plenty of people dislike Apple and iOS, I am no super fan of Apple, but credit to them where it is due, they make phones that last for a long time.
People HATE Apple products here, but I loooove iOS. I fuck around all day on my Linux and Windows machines, I want zero fuck-around-ing on my phone.
I want a great big button that says “MAKE INCREMENTAL ENCRYPTED BACKUP: THE BUTTON”.
I want 50k photos and videos and every text I’ve ever received to not slow my phone down after years of not reformatting.
When I get a new phone, I want to plug it into my computer and immediately have it be the exact same phone as my previous phone.
Yep, I am an IT guy, I just want my phone to work, and so far iOS has been perfect for me.
I love iCloud backups it just works.
I feel that—I find that’s the case for most of my IT friends.
I’d love to use iCloud backups, but I have some… sensitive stuff on my phone, so I stick to local encrypted backups hahaha
I also have some stuff I’d prefer to backup locally, so I have disabled iCloud backups for most of my apps and only really use it for core iOS features, like settings, texts, contacts, and local photo gallery.
Anything else is either manually backed up me or stuff I don’t care about.
All my weird stuff is in photos, but I couldn’t back up 50k photos to iCloud if I tried hahaha
People here just irrationally hate apple, not even just their products. Like yesterday there was a person who was just literally making stuff up to dunk on them. I tried to set them up for a home run (and they could have scrolled down just a little bit for all the info they needed) but the best they could come up with was a feeling they had.
0 though, just irrationally angry.
That’s very in line with what I see here. Very sad, for a group of tech minded individuals. All of my IT friends use Linux desktops and Apple phones because at the end of the day, they don’t wanna fuck with their basic communication/photo device.
My dad has been using my old 6S until recently. We bumped him up to a 8 I recently quit using.
Currently I’m using an 11 Pro. Great phone.
USB C is the only reason I upgraded to a 15 pro. I’d still be on my iPhone 6s until this phone if it wasn’t for getting each upgrade for stupid cheap from friends.
What are you gonna do when your battery goes to shit?
Replace it? So far it is fine.
I have an iPhone SE that’s 2 years old and my battery lasts like 6 hours without use. Can you replace a battery?
iFixit has guides for it so yeah, looks like it
If you live in the US and want something on a budget, I recommend last year’s Moto G Stylus 5G (the 2023). You can find it for around $250. For the price, you get:
- More than adequate performance, especially at this price point (Snapdragon 6 Gen 1).
- Adequate RAM (6GB)
- Lots of storage (256GB)
- Decent cameras (50MP + 8MP UW)
- Great display (120Hz FHD+ IPS LCD)
- Great battery life
- Headphone jack(!)
- MicroSD slot(!!)
Damn, that does sound pretty good. Is the OS pretty close to stock?
Can depend a bit on your carrier but yeah pretty close. Only issue is the security updates can be infrequent. I love Motorolas as work phones though, the twist motion to turn on the camera and the chop motion for the flashlight are super convenient for an IT guy doing lots of rummaging
Chop motion for flashlight and twist for camera is amazing. I wish I knew how to implement this on a non-Moto phone. It’s gonna be painful switching away at some point.
There are a few apps that let you do motion shortcuts, the issue I’ve found with them is that for whatever reason the apps consume inordinate amounts of battery waiting for the motion while the Motorola implementation seems to have no real energy issue.
Always remember, if the app is free, you’re the product.
Just don’t think about the implications for Lemmy too much.
I remember having issues with the chop motion once and my coworkers looking at me like I’m crazy.
Not my fault y’all settle for inferior products 😤
Now let me continue hacking at the air with my fragile handheld computer.
I’m at my 3rd moto atm. A slightly outdated g31. It came with Android 11 and only recently 2 years after I bought it, it got the 12 upgrade. Still gets regular security patches.
Next the apps installe by Motorola (where I mean by optional that you can deactivate them, not uninstall). None of these apps are in the top 12 in the battery usage statistics and most of them are activated.
A tutorial center with “kurzgesagt” like animations e.g. for gestures. A selection of shortcuts to settings for customizing your device and Motorola QOL settings.
Moto Actions and Gestures (20MB, optional)
Enables the gestures (has no other brand a shaking flashlight gesture or has Motorola patented it?).
Moto App Launcher (4MB)
The Motorola specific desktop customization. I don’t know how close it is to the Pixel stock image but it doesn’t get in my way.
Moto AI Services (whopping 200MB, optional)
The reviews for this service are scalding. I’m honestly not the biggest fan of having AI on my phone that’s not in my control. Two reviewers point out, that it probably isn’t very invasive AI and rather used for QOL features, like the shaking flashlight feature.
Moto Feedback (31MB, optional)
Helps the user sending feedback (bug-reports and memory-dumps?) to Motorola. Again smotheringly bad reviews. Never had to do with it or used it knowingly. Can be deactivated.
Motorola notifications (88MB, optional)
Again some furious reviews. Double edged sword as it’s used to send news about updates but also push ADs. But the latter isn’t very spammy. Just every few weeks or month a push notifications about a new moto. That’s about the only place where I would see ADs (apart from regular apps).
Pixel 7, but for me I always look for a phone with stock Android and a good camera. Usually any of the Google Pixel phones covers that well.
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.
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??)
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.
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.
Somebody should start putting TECs in the wireless chargers. Even 10 watts of cooling would probably make a difference.
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.
Fairphone because I want it to last 5+ years without any annoying repairs.
Same. Broke my screen last year and replaced it myself with a simple screwdriver.
