Vengance_01
Supreme [H]ardness
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I am hoping to stick with a 3 year cadiance on phones. otherwise it's just another tool... I could care less about new tech in phones(except for better battery tech)
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Am I the only one not caring about new phones anymore?
- Thread starter Zorachus
- Start date
I bought a Pixel 7 and tried to keep it stock, switched back to my rooted Pixel 3 XL, then recently decided to just use my landline and flip phone for calls and texting. So, I've got two mini-tablet pixels and a Nexus 7 for any sort of mobile computing needs, which tends to be almost nothing these days, maybe a round of Balatro or listen to music
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Dopamin3
[H]ard|Gawd
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Try out Sultan Kernel if you still have the Pixel 7, Tensor G2 is pretty terrible without it. Better battery life, performance, and thermals. And no random scrolling jank.
https://www.gadgets360.com/mobiles/news/google-pixel-software-stuttering-issues-fix-report-7647874
Google has had this bug for years on all Pixels and who knows how long it will take them to upstream it, if they even do.
Mad Maxx
Supreme [H]ardness
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I'm always interested in new phones, but not necessarily buying the latest/greatest phone any more. Pretty much the same with all new hardware now. There's so little real world performance improvements from year to year. Just not worth the time and $$ to upgrade every year.
applegrcoug
Gawd
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well, i'm looking at the Zfold 6....i like the idea of having a larger screen to read stuff. My eyes don't work very well for reading anymore.
learners permit
2[H]4U
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Have you checked to see if there's a software update for the trucks bluetooth interface?
Truck is up to date.
Ugh! Guess I'm forced to care as my wife's Pixel 4a got a mandatory update about a week ago for some battery crap. It basically just killed the battery's capacity and charging ability. Has to charge it daily now.
But they gave her a $100 discount code to use at Google Store...just can't use it on a phone that is on sale (Pixel 8a $399) lol. I won't buy a phone that isn't on sale.
I have an iPhone 13 Pro and no reason to upgrade. Although the satellite messaging might push me to a newer handset since I do quite a bit of offshore fishing where there is zero service. Adding Starlink to the boat is an option too but I don’t really need it
There's a $50 cash money offer, or you can bring it in to get the battery swapped. Did the battery swap on the wife's 4a to give it to the kid... She had already abandoned it because the battery wouldn't make it through the day, and the kid just broke the screen on my old phone (which was already falling apart cause I'm a dumbass and was picking at edge where the back was coming off, and then it came off the whole way one day...).
I'll have to see what I can get done with it. If I can get the battery replaced instead of this unusable discount, I will. Was planning on giving both our Pixel 4a's to the kids and getting the Pixel 9a when it comes out. Or the Pixel 8a if heavily discounted...its $399 right now and I wanted to use that $100 discount towards it lol.
It's been eight years so things have changed, but even then... Apple's mindset has long been to make things easy to understand for users with common tasks (though that can lead to other processes being convoluted, like changing some app settings). That includes distinct visuals, animations that clearly show what's happening, and a relative lack of clutter.
More importantly, I'd say the differences are smaller since the iPhone X. The iPhone is more customizable and powerful; Android is more polished and easier to grasp. You still have to unlearn some muscle memory if you jump between devices, but the change isn't as stark.
I'd still give Apple the nod if you want a tightly integrated multi-device ecosystem, but Google and Samsung are making better cases for themselves than in the past.
Darunion
Supreme [H]ardness
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I mean it's a phone. A few choices out there, find the one that suits your needs/desires. Best way to be happy with something you bought? Don't worry about what others bought.
Yep. Apple's ecosystem makes it easier to manage my businesses and make money. That's all I care about.
Mad Maxx
Supreme [H]ardness
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After 8 years with lackluster Pixels, I'm back to an iPhone -- 15 Plus from work. I still like Android, but have grown bored with tweaking/customizing/maintaining my devices. I just want a solid OS on a phone with great battery life, a great screen, and good camera. I now use Apple devices exclusively, aside from my PC. It's nice to integrate my phone with everything else. I'm gonna try to talk work into upgrading me to the 17 Pro in the fall. It's supposed to be a new design.
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I'm the opposite actually. My phone(s) are portable computers that can make phone calls!
Got bored with computers lately. If you're not into gaming it's not much fun. All the other uses for powerhouses are serious (work) and no monkey biz (tweaking/OC) there so that's that. Outside of Flossy Carter, I'm sure I spend more on phones than anyone here! :-P
Got bored with computers lately. If you're not into gaming it's not much fun. All the other uses for powerhouses are serious (work) and no monkey biz (tweaking/OC) there so that's that. Outside of Flossy Carter, I'm sure I spend more on phones than anyone here! :-P
Turns out I can apply that $100 discount code to a refurbished Pixel 6a on Google's Store for $249. So it would only be $149 for a refurbished 6a. Worth it for $149?
I don't even care about gaming anymore. I care about having a nice device that allows me to do desktop stuff fast.
If that is a pc, xbox, phone whatever, I just do not have any sort of want to play games at my age.
I'd rather be on a beach checking out hot women while being in good physical shape. The real world beats sitting inside a house playing a game on a computer.
I'd rather play the game of real life living in the real world. The only reason I upgraded from my s21 ultra to the s24 is I wanted a small phone. I hate big phones now.
If that is a pc, xbox, phone whatever, I just do not have any sort of want to play games at my age.
I'd rather be on a beach checking out hot women while being in good physical shape. The real world beats sitting inside a house playing a game on a computer.
I'd rather play the game of real life living in the real world. The only reason I upgraded from my s21 ultra to the s24 is I wanted a small phone. I hate big phones now.
I never encountered a phone that did not share all those goals, could you imagine a mainstream smarthphone maker not trying to make things easy to understand for user with common task, they are all obsess with it.
Windows phone was probably the best at it in those regards:
As much as I enjoyed using Windows Phone (I still have a Lumia 1020 tucked away), I'd say it pushed style to the point where it overrode both ease of use and functionality.
Live Tiles were part of that. When they worked well, they served as both app icons and useful widgets. But there were frequently issues: you sometimes had to wait for the tile to flip over to see the widget info, making it somewhat pointless (if you're going to wait, why not just launch the app?). And it took a while before Microsoft implemented the option for small tiles, so you spent a lot of time scrolling your home screen to see more than eight apps.
Some of the Metro UI concepts were also more hurtful than helpful. Those run-off-the-screen category headers looked cool... until you realized that you couldn't just jump to the one you wanted, and might not know what options there are until you've gone through them all. So you spent a lot of time swiping where your Android and iPhone friends just tapped once.
And I'd add that numerous manufacturers didn't share those goals, at least not for a while. BlackBerry (RIM) spent far too long trying to please carriers and corporate IT managers rather than making easy-to-use phones (remember, it was shocked that Apple would give users the real web rather than a compressed, neutered, carrier-friendly version of it). Symbian was an absolute mess that was not only unreliable, but threw unnecessary obstacles in your path (asking you to choose a connection type every time you did something online, for example). And Microsoft's Windows Mobile... that was clearly a computer OS developer treating mobile as little more than an extension of your PC, complete with similar UI concepts.
That born of being obsess on both; easy to understand for user with common task (there is not more than 8 common task on a phone to do) and wanting a relative lack of clutter. Smaller icon, more of them, more relative clutter, make less common task easier, make more common task harder.
I feel the difference is in execution, not different goals from the main mainstream phone maker once the Iphone made them mainstream users affair and not work tool. Could be because it was my first one (well I had a Ipod that was quite similar to the phone) but in term of ease of use for regular task (phone, text, calender-email, gps, take a picture or video ttype of stuff), MIcrosoft was much better at it, having an physical button to bring the picture app and take picture for example, hard to beat. Same goes for a screen that only has only 6 giant button for the things you actually do. Made it harder to do less common stuff too, than the others, would you have had lot of apps, scrolling down would have been worst...
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I just bought a new phone but it wasn't a newly released phone. My LG G8X was stolen last month, I replaced it with a LG V60, cared more about what the phone I use has to offer than when it was made. Updates took a while though, guess that's the downside to buying a new sealed 5yo phone.
NamelessPFG
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The main reason I even replaced my Note 20 Ultra with an S24 Ultra was that the N20U's glass got cracked on both sides, though it's still technically usable and I've kept it as a backup device. The fact that the S24 Ultra ditched the stupid curved edges and has readily available tempered glass screen protectors as a side effect is a nice bonus.
The S25 Ultra looks thoroughly meh and might even be worse than the S24 Ultra in a few regards; guess I picked a good time to upgrade.
It's not like the 2010s, when smartphones were drastically upgrading every few years like PCs were in the 1990s and early 2000s. Each new phone is more evolutionary than revolutionary, a subtler increment from the last just so they have something new to show off every year, and I don't think they're realistically expecting people to upgrade every year (which would be a flagrant waste of money) as much as every three years or so.
If what you've already got still does the job and isn't physically damaged, might as well keep using it. Any flagship made this decade is more than good enough for typical use.
The S25 Ultra looks thoroughly meh and might even be worse than the S24 Ultra in a few regards; guess I picked a good time to upgrade.
It's not like the 2010s, when smartphones were drastically upgrading every few years like PCs were in the 1990s and early 2000s. Each new phone is more evolutionary than revolutionary, a subtler increment from the last just so they have something new to show off every year, and I don't think they're realistically expecting people to upgrade every year (which would be a flagrant waste of money) as much as every three years or so.
If what you've already got still does the job and isn't physically damaged, might as well keep using it. Any flagship made this decade is more than good enough for typical use.
I've used the S25U and I like the rounded edges and reduced weight, but it's a tough sell unless you're upgrading from an old phone and insist on the latest CPU and camera features. It's better than you might think (the camera processing has been improved on other sensors), but for me this year the most exciting Android phones at the moment are the Pixel 10 line, Nothing Phone 3 series and OnePlus 13.
arthur_tuxedo
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I’ll consider buying a new phone when one of these companies goes back to making phones, not Gordon Gecko-style giant bricks. If most people want to carry a tablet in their pocket, fine, but why companies completely stopped making phones is something I’ll never understand. Maybe they think I’ll cave and buy a brick someday if they don’t offer me any phones. That’s never going to happen. I’d rather give up phones and just carry around an iPad Mini. At least there’s a usable purpose to its size and it’s not a worst-of-both-worlds form factor. Just my opinion, if others are happy with their phablets, more power to them.
Darunion
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Because they go where the money is.
Iphone mini last time they did that only accounted for about 3% of that gens sales IIRC. People don't want a small phone, at least not enough numbers to be worth product development.
Why not get a clamshell foldable like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 or Moto Razr+? Easy to fit in your pocket but becomes a full-on smartphone when you need it. The Razr+ even lets you do quite a few things solely from the cover screen.
As for the "back to making phones" thing... realistically, that's not going to happen. Most people want more than just making calls and sending the occasional text; they want photography, to catch up on their socials, to watch videos, to get serious work done (I've jumped into work chat and even edited reports on my phone). Many tasks that benefit directly from larger screens. It's very hard for companies to justify a small, basic phone when the market just isn't asking for it in significant numbers.
arthur_tuxedo
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I would consider devices like those if Apple never makes another pocketable phone again. Privacy concerns have me considering a de-Googled phone at some point, anyway. But I went Apple in 2015 and had so many fewer headaches with cross-device functionality that it would take a lot to get me to go back to Android.
I understand the argument that the market isn’t there, I just don’t buy it. Apple killed the Mini after only 2 years, which isn’t long enough for any product to justify its existence (or fail to do so). I bet most people never even knew a Mini existed. The thing is, despite the name, there’s nothing “mini” about it. It’s gigantic compared to the old 5S / original SE, and not meaningfully smaller than the iPhone 8 / SE2, which was a lot cheaper at the time. The truth is that Apple never gave it a chance to succeed, and they didn’t try to find out why people weren’t buying and make improvements, they just wanted to kill off small phones as fast as possible so they wouldn’t have to design a separate chip with power and thermals that would fit in a smaller form factor. And that’s their decision to make, they just need to understand that there’s a certain segment of phone buyers who will be lost to them forever. I will never buy a big phone at any price or with any feature set. A big phone just isn’t useful to me. If I’m going to lug around a big device, I’ll just get a small tablet which is actually fit for those purposes.
Clearly the average buyer perceives value in a phablet, but I’m never going to use a phone to watch a long video, work, or even answer a text longer than a sentence or two. Those tasks are what tablets are for, and they’re a lot better at them.
I have to admit it would be cool if Apple came out with a flip that opened to 7", had a full cover screen, and identical cameras that the "pro max" versions have. There's not much of a chance of that happening (insert Lloyd Christmas reference here). But bringing back removable storage and the headphone jack sounds as taboo as bringing back 8 track tapes these days. I'm over that, mostly. What's hilarious is the 7 years of updates Samsung is touting. Like who keeps a phone for 7 years? I'm lucky to go 7 months! 
NamelessPFG
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I keep my phones for at least 3 years, and wouldn't be opposed to keeping one for a whole 7 years if there's no physical damage or OLED burn-in present. It's a much-needed step in the right direction, especially when older flagships are usually better values than newer mid-rangers for a given price bracket.I have to admit it would be cool if Apple came out with a flip that opened to 7", had a full cover screen, and identical cameras that the "pro max" versions have. There's not much of a chance of that happening (insert Lloyd Christmas reference here). But bringing back removable storage and the headphone jack sounds as taboo as bringing back 8 track tapes these days. I'm over that, mostly. What's hilarious is the 7 years of updates Samsung is touting. Like who keeps a phone for 7 years? I'm lucky to go 7 months!
Phones do have one additional predicament most other devices don't have to worry about, though: ever-changing network standards.
I traded in my Note 4 for substantial discount on my S24 Ultra because the Note 4 in question was a Sprint variant - good luck using that anywhere with working LTE nowadays, since they locked out all the other bands and it predates the S7/Note 7 of a unified North American variant. (Unfortunately complete with locked bootloaders for everyone, too. Sprint and T-Mobile variants back then had unlocked bootloaders, real easy to root and flash custom ROMs on.)
I do want my damn headphone jack and memory card slot back, especially since Bluetooth audio latency is horrid and you might as well tie up the USB-C port with wired headphones if you plan on gaming or doing audio production, but if it's between that or the Wacom EMR S Pen on the Galaxy Note - er, S Ultra models, I'm taking the pen.
xDiVolatilX
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Are there any phones out there that have a telephoto camera lens on them but do not have an OLED screen?
Also care nothing for the newer tech. Still using a Pixel 7Pro that just got the latest Android update. Don't even recall how old this phone is.
FlawleZ
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Same thing happened to my S3. Loved that phone until one day the power button stopped working.