I hate them all, but I hate some less like Motorola.
This feels like the correct answer.
Motorola and a couple others feel like at least they haven’t jumped on the “let’s charge them whatever the hell we can get away with” train. They’re still relatively inexpensive and are essentially just as capable and nice as the Samsungs and the Apples of the world. Hell, I get far more comments on my Motorola Edge 2023 with it’s textured faux leather back than others get with the latest Sammy or Apple identical square.
It feels like these smaller producers are able to take a few more risks in design.
Don’t you only get three years of security updates with that phone?
Sadly yes. That’s the drawback. But its balanced by the fact that its pretty easy to find good custom ROMs after it ends its software lifespan
Oh, that changes things, yes. Good point. I would need those custom ROMs to be keeping up with security updates, though.
I have the same phone, but don’t really have any clue what any of this means. If you’re up for it I wouldn’t mind an ELI5 on this so that I have at least an idea of what it means or what to look up. If you’re not up for the ELI5 I still appreciate what you put out there
For me it’s Motorola because they are one of the few companies still iterating and throwing different weird designs at the wall to see what sticks.
Hopefully they’ll throw one at the wall with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard lol. Whoever does that again (that’s not a niche device full of other issues) will get my money immediately.
Same. The Motorola Droid 4 is my all time favorite phone, not viable as a modern daily driver, but damn do I miss being able to pop the keyboard out for longer messages, compose mostly coherent messages without looking, or just reclaim screen real estate.
Yes, to all of that. Also, I remember using my HTC TouchPro2 as a pocket SSH terminal to log in and check/fix random issues from anywhere. Sad that slide out keyboards on phones were a casualty of the thinness wars.
can they do it with butterfly keys to keep it silly thin? or would they just rattle in your pocket?
Agreed.
$300 for the g84, I’m quite happy. Dual sim Call recording Stereo speakers Headphone socket Oled display Sd card Fast charge 5Ah battery Thin and light. 5g
Only downside is mediocre camera. Ok if you don’t need to zoom in.
can they do it with butterfly keys to keep it silly thin? or would they just rattle in your pocket?
I agree. They seem to never get enough attention in the press but they make really nice phones.
I will buy an edge 50 pro soon but having a hard time finding the white one for a good price.
I ordered a Fairphone 4 and had it shipped over to the US before they officially supported US carriers and got their reseller state side to fix some minor issues.
And its also cute I get to play the “Organic” card for a piece a tech. The device itself is good enough and with the repairability focus I can take my battery out as a party trick. (I have seriously done this, it works best for Iphone people)
How is camera on that? I remember earlier Fairphones were pretty bad in this regard, which was a deal breaker for me.
If the camera is that important, then look for a phone where the camera is the primary feature. Samsung has some nice ones these days, Fairphones offerings are generally average across the industry, many claim they are over priced, but that is due to their picky component/vendor selection (See their attempts at ethicaly sourced parts).
It’s not that it’s that important, but what I saw from Fairphone 1 or 2 (I don’t know which model exactly, maybe even 3) was really underwhelming. Not that my current phone makes epic photos, otoh it cost me about third of a Fairphone. Their mission is great and that’s why I’d consider phone from them. I wouldn’t mind slower CPU or less storage for my needs, but not improving camera from my current phone doesn’t make sense for me to switch.
Whichever ones allow bootloader unlocking, make it not a PITA to unlock, and are generally developer friendly (or at least not antagonistic to developers).
For a while that was Motorola, but I’ve read recently less models are allowed to be unlocked. OnePlus is also pretty good about unlocking the bootloader.
Just checked their website, all 2024 models are unlockable.
Motorola without a doubt. One of the few companies that still believe that a high end phone doesn’t need to cost 2000 dollars.
I’m in camp moto as well. The other lovely thing is gestures. Shake your phone to put on the torch, turn it around and back twice to activate the camera.
The shake for the flashlight option my Motorola phone had was by far the best thing every. I can’t believe other manufacturers haven’t added that as an option.
Love my G31 as a daily driver and Music player. Does all it needs to, and for a very reasonable price. Also, has a headphone jack and an SD card slot :)
Gotte be Fairphone. I bought the FP5 when it was out pretty new from Murena. It came with a de-googled android rom called /e/ preinstalled. Couldn’t be happier. I love the way you can just open the back and exchange any part with a simple phillips head screwdriver as well as exchangeable batteries. It’s still splash resistant tho. I love knowing neither google nor apple are tracking me and supporting open source software monetarily. It works a bit different from stock android but its nice to use. I also like how they have long software support and care about where their parts are sourced. For their performance they might be a bit pricy but it aligns with my ideals so I support it.
Does /e/ play well with bank apps?
It works well enough with my banking app at least. /e/ supports a locked bootloader but I don’t know if all banking apps play well with a non-stock android rom.
Google–not really a fan of the company, but the Pixels have been solid for me. The cameras have always been great, and weirdly, the bootloader has always been easy to unlock (I’m running LineageOS on my Pixel 7), so you can still get some modicum of privacy if you like.
Can you run banking apps and stuff on that os?
My banking app is fine on it. It won’t run Microsoft Authenticator, but if my company wants me available, they can buy me a separate phone.
Weird. GrapheneOS will run ms authenticator, but not some banking apps
I’ve always liked LG for phones. But they left the market. Now I’m in pixel which is… Well… It functions.
Okay so not specifically to do with smartphones but Nokia was the most innovative and creative designer of cell phones altogether, until they made the unfortunate mistake of going all-in with Windows Phone with the Lumia. They should have been smart enough to see that like almost everything MS does, it was doomed from the start. It was their downfall :-( So sad because they made some of the most gorgeous phones in the world.
I have a modest collection of Nokia phones and I’d like one day to have one of everything they made.
Smartphones nowadays are just catalysts to exploitation. There’s no more innovation they’re just cramming more things they can claim as “features” without really making any substantial innovation anymore. There are a handful of gems here and there but they’re really spread evenly across the gamut of brands. Also there are so many more smartphones with cool designs and functionality that are just not available in the U.S.A. I don’t really understand why, other than the big names wanting to keep the market stuck to the same handful of gigantic bricks that refuse the idea of any flavor or character. Maybe they lobby to keep affordable and innovative designs out of the U.S. market so they can keep peddling their mediocrity forever.
If you had asked me a couple weeks ago, I would have said Unihertz. I loved my tiny little Jelly Star.
Unfortunately, the backlight for the screen died. It is still technically under warranty, but the options they gave me were 1) We’ll ship you the part, and you can pay a local shop to put it in. 2) Pay to mail us the phone, and we’ll fix it and get it back to you in the next month or two. or 3) Buy a replacement phone at a discount.
It irks me that the only option that won’t cost me more money is having them ship me the part and trying to replace it myself.
I still like the little phone, but there is no way in hell I am giving that company any more of my money.
Sorry for the rant. To actually answer the question: I like my Google Phone. I don’t love Google per se, but the phone itself works pretty well.
Edit: Since writing this, I received the replacement screen, and I will say that it was surprisingly easy to take apart and repair. I don’t think most people already have the tools to do so, and I still don’t think I should be responsible for the repair myself, but I do once again have a functional phone after spending 0 additional dollars. Also, I like the phone just a little bit more because it was substantially easier to take apart than all of the other phone’s I’ve worked on.
Fairphone, as their hardware is comparable to other phones, while still supporting many custom ROMs. And they’re very repairable.
Sony! They kept removable storage and headphone jacks, they just don’t really advertise their Xperia phones in the US hence why nobody knows about them here.
They’re just as advanced and high-end as their Samsung and Apple counterparts and I think they rock.
I used to be a Samsung fan, but they started coming 75% full of bloatware, so I tried the first Pixel when it came out. I’ve bought nothing but Pixels since then.
they must have changed a lot since i had one… didn’t have a gallery app, forced me to use the cloud storage, no secure folder, and it smashed to smithereens the first time i dropped it on a sidewalk. it was completely trashed. i am clumsy and drop phones often, and never had that experience before or since
Ooof, that’s hard. There’s no single favorite.
Xiaomi and similar (like Poco) I like because of their higher performance and usually including both headphone jack and IR blaster. Currently have X3 Pro.
What I do not like about them is the tracking. Ads I don’t mind, honestly, but data collection kinda bothers me. You also need a Mi account to unlock the bootloader with a proprietary Xiaomi tool, plus there’s a waiting period. Yuck. Also, the software feels like unfinished rushed project. I am pretty sure Alpha releases of most custom ROMs are more stable. Anyway, I kept the stock ROM on this one anyway.Moving on…
Google. Yes, you read that right. They not only allow easy bootloader unlocking, but also relocking with a custom key, thus being the choice of Graphene OS.
What I outright hate is no headphone jack and Micro SD card slot. Otherwise, I’d just get one of the Pixels pretty damn quick.Lastly…
Pine64. Easy to obtain spare parts, pogo pins for hardware expansion (like a keyboard or LoRa module), possibility to communicate directly with the modem over internal serial interface because that’s possible too, built mainly for GNU+Linux distros.
But the whole idea is very much experimental.Could have been Nokia up there if they kept it up with N900.
HTC 7: front facing speakers, microsd slot up to 2TB, 469 ppi , full brushed aluminum casing, smoooth OS, best phone i ever had, especially at the time, blew everything else out of rhe water.
still can’t believe big companies aren’t making phones with front facing speakers.
Sony Xperia still have front facing speakers.
I really like that Sony didn’t abandoned good features just to follow the hype. Some of those features are a headphone jack, an SD card and a small screen (big screens also available in the 1 series).
The xperia is more expensive then what I would usually spend on a phone, but it is probably the only phone that still has all those things you mentioned, which are nearly all dealbreakers for me. (Asus zenfone why did you have to become big :( )
Have a look at the Xperia 10 Series (for example the Xperia 10 VI), they have all those features for what I find is a reasonable price.
thank you!
the new one does! xperia 1 vi, jesus that’s great, thank you.
I wanted a fair phone, but front-facing speakers are absolutely huge for me.
Most new phones have at one front facing speaker. Does it really make a lot of difference with one more?
huge difference, yes.
especially with volume, accuracy, clarity and pitch. on most phones with speakers spacing away from you, it’s like having one speaker plugged into your TV, it’s pointed away from you at corner of your wall.
you can turn it up as loud as the speaker will go, but the sound quality isn’t going to increase.
you can imagine the difference having a conversation with someone looking at you versus having a conversation with someone turned away from you.
and the difference in quality between the speaker at the top of most phones and the bottom facing speaker is very clear, whereas most front-facing phones focus on two good speakers.
Yes, it makes a huge difference if you enjoy music, movies, podcasts; anything with sound on an HTC One from 11 years ago will sound much better than what the newest iPhone or pixel can offer because the speakers are facing you instead of playing audio away from you(and the HTC one speakers kicked ass)
