Android Creator Wants To Make Android Phones

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Andy Rubin, the co-founder of Android OS, is reportedly interested in developing a new Android phone.

Andy Rubin, estranged father of the world’s most popular smartphone operating system, is reportedly gearing up to launch his own Android hardware startup. Andy Rubin making smartphones! It could happen! According to The Information, Rubin has been trying to raise money to start a hardware company to produce phones.
 
I just want a high end high, quality phone, with a sd slot, running stock android without rooting and and installing roms. It's my phone, not my project PC, I just want it to work. If he builds it I will come.

I would pay handsomely for a gpe Gnote5, or something on that level. The Nexus line, with Google's no SD slot policy, so we can push cloud, can fuck off
 
As long as this project:

- avoids carrier tie-ins at all costs meaning they sell unlocked directly to consumers only
- has a microSD slot for storage expansion
- has a removable battery because for many of us it does matter tremendously
- has a 5-5.5" display hopefully at 1920x1080 because anything more than that is just a god damned waste of power
- has support for all the currently used LTE technologies and bands
- uses a microUSB connection hopefully but I suppose a USB-C will be useful to some degrees
- has a rock solid Android build on it with updates as necessary, perhaps even a moderately customized version is fine with me
- has a price not to exceed $450 to $500 or something close to it and less would be even better

I'd be interested. Probably just a dream at this point but, I'd like to think if anyone could pull off a really awesome Android smartphone it would be Rubin.
 
Not doubting their software expertise but don't know how much experience they have on the hardware side as that determines if I want to risk being a customer to them repeating the same mistakes others have made and learned from.
 
Tiberian said:
As long as this project:

- avoids carrier tie-ins at all costs meaning they sell unlocked directly to consumers only
- has a microSD slot for storage expansion
- has a removable battery because for many of us it does matter tremendously
- has a 5-5.5" display hopefully at 1920x1080 because anything more than that is just a god damned waste of power
- has support for all the currently used LTE technologies and bands
- uses a microUSB connection hopefully but I suppose a USB-C will be useful to some degrees
- has a rock solid Android build on it with updates as necessary, perhaps even a moderately customized version is fine with me
- has a price not to exceed $450 to $500 or something close to it and less would be even better
Click to expand...

Not sure price could get that low on 1st model. Cool innovative features I would like to see:
- multiple SD card slots
- multiple sim slots
- multiple usb ports (micro and type c).

And while we're at it, how about a swappable battery/protective shell case instead of any internal battery. Thinner shells that have less protection and run time and thicker that are built like a tank and run forever. I really hate those after market backpack type battery cases when the manufacture could have built them into the original design and just sold different sizes as up sales.
 
Tiberian said:
As long as this project:

- avoids carrier tie-ins at all costs meaning they sell unlocked directly to consumers only
- has a microSD slot for storage expansion
- has a removable battery because for many of us it does matter tremendously
- has a 5-5.5" display hopefully at 1920x1080 because anything more than that is just a god damned waste of power
- has support for all the currently used LTE technologies and bands
- uses a microUSB connection hopefully but I suppose a USB-C will be useful to some degrees
- has a rock solid Android build on it with updates as necessary, perhaps even a moderately customized version is fine with me
- has a price not to exceed $450 to $500 or something close to it and less would be even better
Click to expand...

Good list, but I'd also add a decent sized battery that would give 2 days of normal usage (instead of barely one day with the current phones), and at least 32GB flash built in.
 
A decent sized battery is a given hence me not bothering to put it on that impromptu list, so a revised one would then add:

- a decent sized battery say at least 3000 mAh but then again if the phone is designed well and doesn't have a battery sucking insanely high resolution display which sucks down more power than anything else then it should last for a while because of that
- at least 32GB internal storage but in this day and age 64GB is better considering
- a great rear camera sensor and lens assembly, "moar pixels" have been proven to not necessarily equate to quality so just include one that actually is high(er) quality
- front camera I couldn't care less about for the most part but 5 Megapixels seems a happy compromise

My holy grail for a smartphone? Pogo pins, done right, and no phone has yet done it right. Sure it's ok to have a standard microUSB port on the bottom (or even the top if absolutely necessary as some older Motorola devices did like the Atrix HD which I loved actually). But pogo pins on the side so at home or wherever you have the properly designed dock you can simply lay the device in the dock - it doesn't need to be inserted into anything, it doesn't need to be plugged in - the connections necessary for charging and data transfer are made, even HDMI out possibly too.

It's a wonder to me that no company has done this yet - the only smartphone that's ever had pogo pins at all was the original Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone and those pogo pins were only used for charging, sadly. Not even the line out audio worked nor did it work as a data connection and even to this day I find that just incredibly stupid. But then again, Apple has never done this either, so much for them being on the cutting edge of future design, eh?

I know it'll never happen but, a man can dream. ;)
 
Ordeith said:
Will his phones be as terrible as his OS?
Click to expand...

I don't get the negative comments about Android they come here and there in the forums, but are usually pretty definitive.. to me that is like attacking windows 7 in the same manner, makes no sense.. or I guess trolling.
Then again I am using android 5.0 as Google intended.. it works awesome, so much so, I got an android tablet to cut desktop use.. since if its looking at websites and ordering here and there.. a tablet works fine, even without the keyboard.
Android is a polished, lean, stable OS.
Now that said, windows 7 was it.
Problem is windows abandoned many design aspects of windows 7 in favor of more iphone/android-like style.. I guess its the modern UI so to speak.
This is a fundamental mistake to me, but since I have to suffer either way (I have used windows 8/metro it is atrocius) Android is really the way to go (I don't know about apple, but the price is too high to consider).. Nexus 6 phone has yet to crash, it gets used all day, pretty much non-stop, for work, for music, for facebook, for shopping.. I mean clearly it has a small screen, no keyboard and mouse..OBVIOUSLY windows desktops are needed still... but is not because of windows, its mostly because of the hardware capacities for the most part.
 
Uvaman said:
Android is a polished, lean, stable OS.
Click to expand...

I used 5 different Android phones before begrudgingly switching to my iPhone 5S when it came out, precisely for the reason that Android was not lean, polished, or stable. Either this is not true, or Android has come a LONG LONG way since Fall of 2013.
 
Shameless Liar said:
I used 5 different Android phones before begrudgingly switching to my iPhone 5S when it came out, precisely for the reason that Android was not lean, polished, or stable. Either this is not true, or Android has come a LONG LONG way since Fall of 2013.
Click to expand...

Needs and opinions differ, that is for sure.

I have never had ANY stability or major performance issues with Android, started with the original Verizon "Droid".

A lot more frustration with lack of consistency from model to model and lack of updates meant more change from device to device. And of course battery life. Sure early on things weren't "smooth" as butter or "never crash", but never was it to the "piece of crap" level of always and consistently happening while cursing.

Then again my phone usage is fairly light, emails, texts, GPS, calendar and time killing surfing and games.

Just like with anything else people have different requirements and needs. A contract courier is going to look for and expect different things in a car than a house wife with 4 kids etc.
 
Ordeith said:
Will his phones be as terrible as his OS?
Click to expand...

Linux hater? Are you a fan of the Windows phone? :p

The only downside of Android is it is often loaded with crapware from the cellular vendors you cannot easily get rid of.
This is why so many choose to ROOT their phones.
Just got LJ V10 from Version; I found a NFL football app that I wouldn't get rid of. What the heck does football have to to with cell phones?? :mad:
 
It's bloatware and every carrier puts at least something on the devices they sell - go into Settings - Apps, locate the app in question and disable it, done. It'll still be technically on the device, sure, but it won't show up on any screen and it's effectively just not there anymore. Once a working root is discovered you can use something like Titanium Backup (the paid version) to totally uninstall the app permanently.

Companies like LG and carriers too add such software because they get paid to do so and the income helps keep the phones within a decent price or subsidized by the carriers so the end users don't end up paying the full brunt of it more often than not.

Disable it and anything else you don't actually use and move on.
 
Shameless Liar said:
I used 5 different Android phones before begrudgingly switching to my iPhone 5S when it came out, precisely for the reason that Android was not lean, polished, or stable. Either this is not true, or Android has come a LONG LONG way since Fall of 2013.
Click to expand...

It would be foolish for me to argue about your own experience.
For me I have used kit kat (4.4 I think is the number) and android 5.0.
I had 2 4.4 phones, then a windows phone (money wasted, it was about the it's new' excitement) then I got a nexus 6 its more for the wife, (but its really shared as I have a dialer phone basically in case I need to call AAA something like that).
I was genuinely impressed. Both KitKat cellphone luckily where not carrier-bloated (but not totally stock) so the experience was good, but Android 5.0 straight from google, to me personally, its google's peak at the moment, like W7 was for MS.
I tell you, the experience I had with verizon phones has been horrible, terrrible.
Maybe you had verizon phones (I don't know how much ATT modifies phones)
Verizon had (I assume still has) a way to fuck-up phones that is bar-none.
I mean I had verizon phones for which it was obvious even the battery life they managed to fuck-up.. and I am talking not-so-smart moto phones.
I would look up the specs, standby/talk time and it was great so (for the model I had), battery itself right? / wrong! new battery, same issue barely pushing a day of use.. and of course that in turn murdered batteries even faster.
I am sure they are still turning decent phones into garbage, I am sure android phones are no exception, its probably worse than ever, who knows.. considering I am complaining about back when phones where meant mostly for, you know calling people, but as I learn with time (A co worked later had virtually the same model, but 'stock' since it was a generic cell service, by then I ditched verizon for several reasons) how my model should work, even how the screens looked.. it was obvious Verizon had done some deep, mayor changes, not just adding some apps and ring tones.
So yeah, with apple you get the apple experience, with android, unless from google, you the the god-knows what experience I assume.
 
Shameless Liar said:
I used 5 different Android phones before begrudgingly switching to my iPhone 5S when it came out, precisely for the reason that Android was not lean, polished, or stable. Either this is not true, or Android has come a LONG LONG way since Fall of 2013.
Click to expand...

You probably haven't used Android since 2011. iOS 9 is still not as stable as and lacks features that Android had in 2012. iOS doesn't even have an uptime counter and the split view multitasking is very limited and only works on iPads not iPhones. Galaxy Note II says welcome to almost 2012.
 
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