Out of the phones released past 2015 you used, which one is the closest to the heart?
Out of the phones released past 2015 you used, which one is the closest to the heart?
Yep.
I’m actually upgrading to a Pixel 5 in a few weeks! Lol.
Great size, lighter than many, great specs, and I can run DivestOS on it. And it’s less than $150
Xiaomi Mi max series, big screens with a good ratio. its sad there won’t be a max 4.
A lot of modern phones have big screens, but they’re made long and thin for handlets.
I just upgraded to the Pixel 8 Pro when the Pixel 5 went out of official support. The screen fingerprint reader works fine. Where it is flawed is that it's not as quick to unlock from the front. I'm looking forward to the greatly improved support period. Three years was ridiculously short. I know something like GrapheneOS is always an option, but I'm hesitant to do so when I don't have a backup phone.
The Pixel 8 Pro has been treating me well. Great photos and video, snappy UI, good feature set. And it sounds like I'll be getting feature drops for the next few years, so that's nice. The battery life is good. I added on Peak Design's case and mini tripod, so I can quickly set it up on a surface to take videos or make a video call.
The one I have now, the Pixel Fold. Folding tech isn’t perfect by any means, but damn if it isn’t nice to have a small tablet with you at all times not to mention foldy phone unique functionality, like laptop/tabletop mode or folding it like a book for reading (If only I could get a foldy device with an eink screen, it could be the perfect reading device lmao). The pixel unique features are nice too.
Ofc, there was a love before that, but prior to 2015. The Motorola Backflip, damn I wish they would release a modern version of that one :( not the best keyboard to type on, but it was a physical keyboard none the less
LG V10, LG V20 and Galaxy XCover 6 Pro
V10. Easily. That was peak-smartphone design as far as I’m concerned. Felt like you could pound nails with it.
The LG V40. Its this phone that flew under so many people’s radar despite offering a lot at the time. Also just getting it was hard because it never was offically sold where I live.
Also the Huawei Mate 10 (not the Pro). Its such a cool device, again not officially sold here. Its this really neat phone from 2017 with really slim bezzels but also a big 16:9 aspect ratio display.
S7 edge was the best phone I have ever had. Now it is running lineageos and ocasionally serves as a network debugging tool.
The S8 I got afterwards was horrendous from the first day I used it to it’s last. I never factory reset it. I have no idea what caused the issues.
Now I have a S22 definitely my last samsung.
Nexus 6p. Mine self destructed due to a damned chip flaw, but was the first phone to have a camera that literally floored me. Every thing about the phone was the epitome of “more than the sum of it’s parts”. Bought a refurb cheap just to get another 2 years despite the known flaw.
I’d say that if most of the Nexus line, but 6p was the best. Absolutely treasure my now-useless but mint Nexus One.
Pixel just haven’t quite done it for me, and that saddens me so much.
OnePlus had some great hits. I’m very fond of my Bacon, and and 7 pro. The 8pro was great too, but some of the special was… less.
Galaxy Note 9. It was the last fully featured phone Samsung made with a headphone jack, an S-Pen, and no display cutout. The only phones that have come out since that are even close to as fully featured are the Sony Xperia phones.
I bought one brand new a few months ago because my S7 died and I couldn’t justify dropping $1000 on an Xperia phone. It’s an EU model bought from US Amazon so I definitely overpaid, but it’s been worth it so far. Definitely holds up imo.
It’s obviously not flagship level, but it’s still a solid mid-ranger. It doesn’t get software updates anymore so officially, I’m stuck on Android 10 and an old security patch. However, I can upgrade to One UI Android 12/13, or whatever the latest AOSP is through the magic of custom ROMs if it ever starts to bother me.
Oof $300 for a repair is rough, especially considering you can get a refurb Note 9 or 10 for less than that (US or EU at least). What are you daily driving now?
S Pen is one of those things that I didn’t think I’d use much but I keep whipping out for this or that. It’s kinda great!
OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren Edition.
I would still be using it if I hadn’t taken it into a pool with me and bricked it. 😢
I want to love the Unihertz Atom, but sadly it just doesn’t work for me.
I got it specifically to have a phone to only call, text and message. But those are the exact things that don’t reliably function. It often didn’t receive messages or even calls unless the app was opened and in the foreground.
I factory reset it, tried activating and deactivating Unihertz’s own energy management app, tried the original versions of Signal/Threema/Dialer/Messenger as well as their FOSS forks/alternatives, tried it with and without Google Services installed…
But whenever I thought it works now, after lots of testing, it would then stop getting the notifications again after a few days, without me changing anything. So eventually I gave up.
If it had worked, it would be my favorite phone. But it didn’t. Now it’s rooted and I just play around with Android on it.
(By the way, if someone knows how to re-enter deleted IMEI numbers on a Mediatek phone from Linux to get rid of the red warning text overlay, please help!)
I thought about this, and I’m not really sure. A lot of the phones I liked using are before 2015. This leaves me with two options.
The Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact:
I’m still using the XZ1C, it’s still fast for what I use it for, and does everything I need. The modem bug annoys me though, and keeps it from greatness. The battery is still really good, even after replacing it with a Chinese battery and 80% charge limit. It’s almost the perfect phone. Make it 18:9 and have modern specs with stable software and it would be awesome.
Runner up (The only other post 2015 phone I’ve used enough and is good enough to like):
I really liked the S7 (Exynos), the last semi good Samsung (until you get to S10e) Although it’s kinda slow and didn’t work well for cell in the US.