Marques Brownlee's convincing video "On the Perfect Smartphone"

[Supersnake]

Marques Brownlee made a highly informative and entertaining video, and covers the dynamics comprising why the hunt for the perfect phone will never die and why there will never be a "perfect" smartphone. See On the "Perfect Smartphone" .

 

[T4rd]

Since I'm subbed to him, I saw it when it came out a few weeks ago.

It's pretty funny, I literally lol'd at it. But it's exactly what I've been telling people for the past year or so as pretty much all (flagship type) phones have gotten good enough to check most of those boxes for everyone, so it's just a matter of preference on how you'll use your phone.

I think if anyone is in the position to make a "perfect" smartphone though, it's Google with their Nexus line. Because the biggest crutch of most other OEMs is their inability to update their phones in a timely manner and how overbearing their skin/UI is in terms of how effective it is at managing resources (RAM) and ability to stay fast/responsive after long term use. Samsung and LG are the biggest offenders of this. Moto and Sony are much better since they're pretty close to stock Android, but they have their own issues of trying to keep their phone relatively affordable (Moto) and lack of US presence (Sony). HTC got pretty close with the M8 last year IMO (phone I still have right now but is dying), they only had the camera and battery to improve on this year with the M9, but somehow they failed and actually got worse in some cases. Qualcomm certainly didn't help phones this year with all the issues they had on the 810, forcing some OEMs to settle with the 808 instead, which isn't much faster than last years flaghips.

Overall if you want the best of something, you're going to have to trade off things in other areas. Samsung use to cater to power uses and offer a lot of versatility, but this year they obviously shifted their focus to more form over function design in order to compete with Apple better. So to me it breaks down like this:

• Samsung - Pretty phones that are benchmark kings, but still offer a decent experience with the best camera and displays. But Touchwiz still needs some work, esp. with RAM management/multitasking.
  
• LG - Capitalizing on Samsung's shortcomings by offering the versatility they used to offer; removable battery and expandable storage. Their UI is probably the most invasive though, so their updates are the slowest and they usually have slower hardware/performance than their competitors.
  
• HTC - Arguably the best skin/UI out of the other OEMs and has good hardware all around. But has the worst cameras and battery life is usually mediocre at best.
  
• Moto - Probably the best value for specs/design and performance you can get in a phone now. Camera was their biggest issue in the past couple flagships, but it seems they're at least competitive now on the new Moto X Pure/Style. Just doesn't have all the bells and whistles like IR blaster, removable battery, and it may be a bit too big for people now at 5.7".
  
• Nexus - Pretty much the best for tech enthusiasts for running stock Android so they can have the latest updates and best real-world performance. But cameras and battery life has always been average at best on these as well. Storage options are usually pretty limited too since Google refuses to use expandable storage in their Nexus line, so you have to pay a decent premium for more storage. I would have a Nexus 6 right now though it they didn't go full retard and make it 6".
  
• Oneplus - Great all around hardware and software, but availability is a big issue for them and they skimped out on stupid things like NFC this year. Also not available for all carriers in the US.
  
• Sony - Same as the Onplus minus skimping on hardware, but availability in the US is an issue.
  
• Apple - Offers the best overall hardware and software experience if you're willing to live within the constraints of iOS. iPhone users normally just want a phone that won't give them any big issues and just want something to take pics with and do normal social media/comms stuff. Normally not for tech enthusiasts like most of us here are (though I know there are iPhone users here, they're just way outnumbered by Android).

To me, I absolutely don't care about camera and battery life isn't that big of a deal since I'm always near power at work and home, so that made the M8 the perfect phone for me. But a lot of people put those two things at the top of their list, so it fails hard to them. Root is a requirement for me too or I would replace my dying M8 with a M9 since I love the front facing speakers, expandable storage and IR blaster. But from what I see, the M9 is still unrootable on Verizon, so I'm considering letting the IR blaster go even though I use it every day and picking up a new Moto X Pure.

 

[Supersnake]

Very informative T4rd, along with impressive composition and editing!

 

[CHANG3D]

I think you forgot to mention how android 5.0.x fucked over everybody. It makes getting a Nexus or Moto absolutely necessary if you intend on sticking with Android. I loved my M8, but not if I have to root in order to get the phone working. One should only root/jailbreak to add features, not to remove useless features or to fix things.

 

[Trimlock]

I think you forgot to mention how android 5.0.x fucked over everybody. It makes getting a Nexus or Moto absolutely necessary if you intend on sticking with Android. I loved my M8, but not if I have to root in order to get the phone working. One should only root/jailbreak to add features, not to remove useless features or to fix things.

5.1 "fixed" some of those issues but its still terrible. Google is becoming super draconian with their Google Services and its hurting their ecosystem. Whats funny is iOS gets the first of Google Services update and its not NEARLY as intrusive as it is on their own OS!

 

[brettjrob]

It's true that no phone will be perfect, but the crux of the realistically-solvable problem is that (a) stock Android and (b) state-of-the-art hardware are mutually exclusive and have been practically since Android's inception. This leaves the iPhone as the only device running a smooth, debloated, as-intended OS with timely updates that also features a flagship-level camera and other such goodies. Of course, it's also overpriced relative to its hardware and the OS is heavily restricted and treats its users like kindergartners -- thus the "no near-perfect smartphone" conundrum for power users.

Basically, if any of Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony, et al. had stuck with stock Android for their OS and chosen to make any value-added features separate apps that can be removed, this problem wouldn't exist. There would've been near-perfect options every year since 2011 or 2012. For this year, imagine that both the G4 and S6/N5 ran AOSP without any bloat, and thus you knew they'd receive timely OS updates for the next 18-24 months. They'd be close enough to perfect that this conversation wouldn't exist.

Marketing tactics (which are responsible for TouchWiz, Sense, etc.) are what have kept the perfect smartphone a fantasy all along, and there's no end in sight. The Moto X Pure is a big step in the right direction, but in terms of hardware and specs, still won't satisfy those looking for a top-end flagship.

 

[big_aug]

I don't get it either. Why can't we just have fucking stock Android. Does anyone actually use the god damned trash bloatware apps anyway? It truly disgusts me.

I guess it's all a conspiracy by manufacturers. If we had stock Android, we'd be using or phones for much longer. They wouldn't be making any money. I bet if we looked at usage statistics, we would see that owners of the Nexus 4/5/6 keep and use those phones much longer than other phones. I bet their would be a nice correlation between how long people keep a phone and how close to stock Android a phone comes.

I've actually considered getting a freaking iPhone. I have a GPE Z Ultra and just got an LG G Flex 2. I went Nexus 4 (for years) -> Z Ultra -> G Flex 2. Not having stock Android is unbearable. I will probably buy the next Nexus no matter what. I don't want to root/ROM. I just want bare bones Android from the get go.

 

[Optik]

I don't get it either. Why can't we just have fucking stock Android. Does anyone actually use the god damned trash bloatware apps anyway? It truly disgusts me.

I guess it's all a conspiracy by manufacturers. If we had stock Android, we'd be using or phones for much longer. They wouldn't be making any money. I bet if we looked at usage statistics, we would see that owners of the Nexus 4/5/6 keep and use those phones much longer than other phones. I bet their would be a nice correlation between how long people keep a phone and how close to stock Android a phone comes.

I've actually considered getting a freaking iPhone. I have a GPE Z Ultra and just got an LG G Flex 2. I went Nexus 4 (for years) -> Z Ultra -> G Flex 2. Not having stock Android is unbearable. I will probably buy the next Nexus no matter what. I don't want to root/ROM. I just want bare bones Android from the get go.

google fucked up, that's why. Google didnt understand how to brand android beyond customization. Android is for the real power user, but they let phone makers run wild. They shouldve limited manufacturers to locked bootloaders & launchers. That's it.

If manufacturers wanted their own features, google shouldve just said: put it on your SoC, we dont care, just put it on your SoC and you can build your own APP and we'll let it in the playstore.

And the craziest thing is that google had such leverage on these manufacturers. They needed to be able to ship android far more than google needed them, yet google still let them run wild all over android just for the sake of openess and customization.


But i'm expecting the industry to circle back. Once people see how successful moto is through bypassing carriers i think youll start to see more stock android. HTC will probably be next to do it because they are on their last legs.

 

[T4rd]

I think you forgot to mention how android 5.0.x fucked over everybody. It makes getting a Nexus or Moto absolutely necessary if you intend on sticking with Android. I loved my M8, but not if I have to root in order to get the phone working. One should only root/jailbreak to add features, not to remove useless features or to fix things.

Well from what I read, Nexus users were the ones who really got screwed over by the initial Lollipop (5.0.x) memory bug. By the time all the OEMs updated their phones, those issues were fixed and incorporated into their own 5.0.x update and weren't really affected, at least by those same memory leaks. This was why most OEMs were a lot slower to update their phones to Lollipop than they were to Kitkat before that.

So in a way, it might be a good thing to not be on the latest and greatest for when/if Google breaks more shit than they fix like the initial Lollipop release since you have that OEM buffer to kinda protect you from potential problems on a big update like Lollipop was.