What made you switch?

[revodo]

Really? It's funny I've never had that problem and I've dropped it multiple times. My wife had one also and she broke plenty of screen protectors but never the glass. I have it in a Spigen rugged armor case.

Either you're one lucky SOB, or I was a very unlucky SOB. I'm glad yours never shattered.

 

[housecat]

Overall, I liked certain things about iOS, but there were little things that drove me nuts. Like why does everything need to be at the top of the screen? Why can't I put folders at the top and then at the bottom?

What do you mean by this? I use all my folders at the bottom, and just moved one to the top to see if I was missing something.

An aside, that's 71% battery left after all day on a 12 mini. That said, phones are utility for me. Battery life is kind of subjective based on use-cases. My wife has an 11 Pro Max and I think you'd have to be a total lunatic that needs your phone taken away if you're running a phone like that down in one day.

 

[kirbyrj]

What do you mean by this? I use all my folders at the bottom, and just moved one to the top to see if I was missing something.
View attachment 377388
An aside, that's 71% battery left after all day on a 12 mini. That said, phones are utility for me. Battery life is kind of subjective based on use-cases. My wife has an 11 Pro Max and I think you'd have to be a total lunatic that needs your phone taken away if you're running a phone like that down in one day.

I mean have blank space between the top and the bottom. Like if you deleted the entire rows starting with Authenticator and Health, the row starting with Voice would automatically move up. You can't leave it down there to separate apps/folders (see below). Also, the gaps between rows on Android is slightly more pleasing to the eye for me as everything seemed cramped on iOS.

I average about 5 hours of SOT a day. The SE2 was near the end of the battery, and the Pixel 3a is at about 30% after that time. Realistically, a 12 mini probably would have been fine.

 

[housecat]

Interesting, I haven't thought about that. This is just the 1 of 1,000 ways to do things and there's always something. I would never leave just empty space myself, as I consider my apps that aren't in folders as my core, frequently accessed apps. I may play around with it sometime and see. Even on Android I'd put something in between, usually a weather widget. iOS has those (as below), which can be used as (useful) spacers if it's not possible. My phone's screen may look different than it's supposed to on wasted space. While it's basic, the way I like it, I've changed the spacing and such by using the zoom mode. Anyway, I think we're down to pretty nitty gritty nitpicks at this point. Those things go every which way for sure. I was just curious about that, interesting observation!

I don't know if I'd recommend the 12 mini to most people, it's only for the utilitarian crowd. I'm the traditional type of person that would be a IBM Thinkpad type of user (I do have a Lenovo X1 Xtreme). Most should get the regular iPhone 12 for the additional screen and battery life. I just find large phones entirely distasteful.

 

[kirbyrj]

Interesting, I haven't thought about that. This is just the 1 of 1,000 ways to do things. I would never leave just empty space myself, as I consider my apps that aren't in folders as my core, frequently accessed apps. I may play around with it sometime and see. Even on Android I'd put something in between, usually a weather widget. iOS has those (as below), which can be used as (useful) spacers if it's not possible. My phone's screen may look different than it's supposed to on wasted space. While it's basic, the way I like it, I've changed the spacing and such by using the zoom mode. Anyway, I think we're down to pretty nitty gritty nitpicks at this point. Those things go every which way for sure. I was just curious about that, interesting observation!
View attachment 377441

I think my conclusion was that I'm just used to things working differently. I probably could have played around with the zoom function a little more, but on the small size of the SE2, it was hard to see as it was. And then I was searching around for the right place to change settings that are probably second nature to most iOS users. I probably would have had a better experience with a fuller sized iPhone 11 or 12. That's about the limit of pocketable phone for me. I might try it again at some point.

 

[housecat]

The 6.1" phones like the base 12 and most Androids are definitely my limit too. I know pretty much everyone here has one besides me.. so I can't just talk trash without getting pummeled.. but some have expressed regrets on the Max/Plus phones. I really don't want to buy a ~6" phone unless I'm absolutely forced. The difference in usability for 1-handed use is massive, whether I'm reading on it before I go to bed, or I'm on a bus holding onto the rail above me and trying to use my phone. I love the SE2, it was a tough call for me, who doesn't like that price point. The edge to edge screen, FaceID, slightly increased battery life, 5-year run on the SE1 (which made me grateful and alone got me to spend more), and slightly smaller dimensions overall pushed me to spend the extra. I do think one-handed use, if important, would be better on the SE2. Just because the screen is smaller. I use the reachability accessibility shortcut through a double-tap on the back of the phone to help sometimes even on the mini and it's 5.4". It's hard to keep a death grip on it and touch the entire screen, and that's really important in public settings or when you're anywhere there's a hard floor beneath you. I hate cases. I roll buck naked.

My wife has the 11 Pro Max and while she loves the phone, no regrets at all out of her, she's just a totally different buyer than most people here. She has a pop socket case on it, and she's just always on it. I'm going to get her the watch to match though when they update them. While mine functions like a watch+phone in your pocket, the Max phones are just too big. I will say you can pocket a Max / Galaxy Note in a man's front jean pocket. Not ideal though.

I've gotten the room temp here and I can tell it won't be popular with this crowd, but my favorite and most-likely Android purchase would by far be the Galazy Z Fold. When Apple releases a foldable phone, even at that price (they're $1,500), I'm going to buy her one. Samsung in general not popular with this crowd I noticed. I've always had the best luck with them on the Android side. Outside of Team iOS, Google or Chinese phones seem to tickle most peoples fancy here. But that's what we're waiting for to replace her 11 Max.

 

[NamelessPFG]

I've gotten the room temp here and I can tell it won't be popular with this crowd, but my favorite and most-likely Android purchase would by far be the Galazy Z Fold. When Apple releases a foldable phone, even at that price (they're $1,500), I'm going to buy her one. Samsung in general not popular with this crowd I noticed. I've always had the best luck with them on the Android side. Outside of Team iOS, Google or Chinese phones seem to tickle most peoples fancy here. But that's what we're waiting for to replace her 11 Max.

Samsung earned themselves a lot of ire from the TouchWiz era, but they improved markedly in the software department by the S7/Note 8's timeframe. Still, many are "stock" Android purists, even though it turns out to be missing a lot of features that Samsung includes by default. (Also worth noting: the Pixel is not stock Android, if AOSP is the true "stock Android" - it's skinned, just like everything else.)

Unfortunately, that was also past the S6/Note 5 era when they started prioritizing form over function, hence sealed batteries (I suppose the IP68 rating makes up for it, and it did save my Note 8 once already), a return to deleting microSD slots like the S6/Note 5 generation (even though Samsung now has UFS memory cards that would work great in their own smartphones), glass backs that easily shatter, all in the name of creating a design that would win over iPhone users (many of whom are tech journalists that constantly crapped on Samsung's plasticky builds even though the Note 4 moved away from that), and on top of that, they locked the bootloader across the board on the newly unified US variant starting with the S7/Note 7 generation, ruling out custom ROMs like LineageOS once Samsung inevitably drops support like a hot potato after two to three years. Don't even get me started on the removal of the headphone jack starting with the Galaxy Fold or the Note 10 lineup... it'd be a lot more bearable with a second USB-C port to make up for it.

All of that said, the Galaxy Fold line shows promise. They just have to make the screens not so horrendously soft that I can groove them with a fingernail, especially if they're aiming to add S Pen support - something that would win me over, because I find modern Galaxy Notes to be too narrow to make as much use of the pen as I'd really like, especially with those stupid curved screen edges that have no place on a penabled phone. An unfolded Galaxy Fold hits the sweet spot in terms of screen size and portability.

 

[housecat]

Impressive histories. Am curious to learn if during your five year sessions, Apple created a new app or updated something on one of their apps; or introduced something within an updated iOS, that would require you to have a more recent model iPhone.

They didn't. That phone started on iOS 9, currently-supported on iOS 14, and will be getting iOS 15 this fall. It was only at the end of 2020 when it probably needed sprucing up. It works fine.. I just wanted FaceID and all the other advancements (which is a huge list) between the iPhone 6S-era and iPhone 12. I never had any problems that I can recall. Maybe the rare application wasn't optimized for such a small screen? I know ZipCar's app even on my 12 mini is slightly off with some buttons like "end trip", but it's there and works fine. No deal breakers for sure.

Just to follow up on the bold quote there on the Zipcar app. That was because I had Apple's zoom mode enabled. Which makes everything bigger on the screen, basically making it very similar to the old 4" screen's real estate. That's how much I like a small phone, losing real estate for larger and easier to reach buttons.

But I had to disable this and put it back into standard mode the other day to deposit from money from a crypto sale in Voyager's app. Their FAQ said zoom mode can cause the issue with not seeing the button. Well, it fixed it for Zipcar as well. End Trip no longer almost off the screen. I won't be messing with that again but the good news is that a quality life can be had with a small phone.