Samsung sees 95% drop in profits for a second consecutive quarter::Today, Samsung posted its Q2 2023 financial results. The report says Samsung’s profits have dropped considerably compared to last year.
Poor functional design and atrocious security practices and culture will do that. Nothing to see here.
I suspect that hardly any mass market consumer cared about security, sadly. And what exactly do you mean with “functional design”? It’s all slabs of screen with a charging port across the industry these days, or did you mean any features added/missing?
For security it depends on where you live in Australia there have recently been several very big hacks which is resulting in a lot of damage from the high valued sensitive information being stolen. So it now matters and is only getting more important. Samsungs made the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Apple the opposite. Curved edge screens were nothing short of an abortion. Their bloatware invasive annoying and made experience terrible. Even the physical button lack of remapping was frustrating and useless.
Software to hardware Samsung is a train wreak.
I don’t even want to buy a new phone. It’s been more than four years. What great productive work are most people doing on them anyway?
Im scrolling Reddit and Lemmy productively
You could always get one of those phones with buttons for under 50$
I’d buy a new phone if they fucking offered a flat oled screen. This rounded edges is complete bullshit.
The S20fe 5g is flat and has OLED. The flat screen is the reason I bought it. Still running as well as day one three years later. I have noticed a slight dip in battery life lately but I can get through a whole day with maybe 35% left. When this one dies, I will probably get another.
I have the S22 Ultra and it all started with the shitty S7 which I got after my Note 3 died. Also, the S22 Uktra has a worse camera than my Note 8. They made this camera for selfies and anything other than a selfie comes out blurry
Yep. I run my phones in to the ground and when it’s time to replace it I’ll get one of the cheaper models that’s been out for a year.
If I’m going to pay£1500 for the latest flag ship phone then I’d expect it to do multiple things that a £300 phone can’t do but the only real difference is that the cameras not quite as good.
Not to mention things like Lineage can get even more life from old phones.
I’m running lineage os on a 7-year-old phone, and I can confirm.
When money is tight you might use your phone for a year or two longer. 1000 Euro phones also don’t help the matter.
I’m still using my iPhone 8 Plus that I bought in 2017 and it still serves well since I don’t play games.
It also seems like the whole you gotta upgrade every other month hype has long since died down. It’s not the exponential improvements that it was ten or twelve years ago.
I couldn’t agree more. I have a Zfold 2 that I’ve had since launch (3 years) and I look at the phones on offer now that I have an upgrade available and I see no reason to upgrade to a new phone for a marginally better camera and processor, there hasn’t been enough innovation in mobile tech in that time to warrant paying another £1000+ over another 3 years, I’ll rock this phone phone until it dies the same way I did my Note 9.
I’m in the same boat. I’ve still got an S10 from launch, although it’s noticeably wearing down in performance now. I’ll wait to the holiday season to see if I can get a deal on a new Samsung. At that point I’ll have used the s10 for almost 5 years. Used to get a new phone every other year but that’s not needed or wanted now.
Hell, I’ve had a £100 phone for 3 years already and it’s absolutely fine. I’ve noticed a little battery degregation but it still lasts a whole day. Plus a cheap batter change will make it last year’s more. I can’t understand why anyone would still sing those contracts for a new phone every 2 years.
Yeah, I’ve had my LG G8 for four years now and I’m just starting to look for replacements. Unfortunately the G8 is known for the battery being very hard to replace or I would be looking into a battery replacement service instead to get a couple more years of useful life.
I’m clinging to my LG though with no OS updates ever again its days are numbered. In the meantime I paid a shop to replace the battery in my LG because it couldn’t hold a charge anymore.
Phones just went through the same thing PCs went through twenty five years ago.
While I don’t use a Samsung, I am over half way through my phones fifth year. Other than a battery replacement I’ve had literally no problems whatsoever.
If only lifespan and right to repair were written into law everywhere.
Software updates are the problem unfortunately
Developers require money, and software maintenance requires lots of developers, testers and other people.
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Yes and no. Installing last version of android on a pixel 4 is most likely absolutely fine. And keeping at least security support is likely not a big deal. 3 years of security update support it is clearly a finance department decision. Why 3, why not 3 and half? Why not 4?
Just because they need predictability in sales, and they attached the support to the “classical” number of years after which you’d like a customer to buy a new tech product. 3 years has always been a magic number for hardware companies, since forever
No not really, formula is no more than 10% production costs pa unless w produced poorly to begin with. It’s even less if you’re running multiple versions of roughly the same thing then the costs are spread over those versions.
I wonder why this is not a problem for pcs though
Because PCs are based on a hardware standard that allows for a standard kernel and pluggable drivers. So you can just take a standard install of a new version of Windows, and toss in the same drivers from the last version, and you’re on your way.
On ARM, there is no such standard that is widely deployed, the hardware is integrated bespoke for each and every device, so building a new version of the OS for a specific phone means using very specific configurations (where in memory is the GPU mapped? where is the sound chip mapped? on a PC the hardware can plug-and-play detect this stuff, on ARM it has to be hardcoded into the OS for every device). This is made worse by the chips used in mobile phones being proprietary hardware where the drivers are only released to manufacturers under NDA, and these hardware manufacturers often don’t bother to supply updates at all and individual phone manufacturers don’t have enough clout to force them to
Because PCs are from a time before tech monopolies. They are based on a spec that allows different vendors to work together. As a result there is more competition, more options for repair, etc.
Yes, though technically they started out as reverse engineered clones. There were tons of incompatible microcomputer brands before the IBM PC. Then companies like Compaq put out “PC compatible” clones based on specs that came from reverse engineering of the IBM PC. Over time, things evolved toward deliberate standardization.
Imagine the dumpster fire of legal action, which courts would likely side with, if someone put out hardware that was 1:1 compatible with the iPhone and iOS would run on it. That’s basically what happened, though MS DOS was produced by an additional party instead of IBM.
I have quite a number of systems capable of running Windows 11. Microsoft won’t allow it. Thankfully I run mostly Linux. But your point is not as solid as you think it is unfortunately…
I wonder how long this will last. We’re already seeing Apple getting some crazy performance with their M chips with integrated RAM and GPU, wouldn’t surprise me if PCs start becoming less and less modular as time goes on.
As a guy who likes repairing tech this movement towards anti repair saddens me.
It kinda is. Windows 11 won’t run on older hardware and end of life of the latest version of Win 10 is coming up in 2 years or so. And a bunch of PCs weren’t really ready for Win 10 when that replaced Win 7/8 and again, support for those dropped at some point.
Lifetimes are usually more lenient with PCs, but it still happens. You can switch to Linux of course, but then there are alternatives for many smartphones as well.
My Galaxy S10 is on its 5th year I think. Really had no issues with it, even the battery. Only showing signs of slowdown this year.
Granted, I run my phone on 720p and constant battery saver lol
Foldable devices seem like the 3d TVs of the last couple of years. I will not be getting one any time soon.
I see why you’re saying that but I love my fold and I don’t think I could go back to a regular phone anymore, you quickly get used to the screen real estate and its difficult to give it up imo. While the outside screen is too thin on my fold for my fat fingers you get the best of both worlds of a phone and a more portable tablet, I get it if its not your thing but I find it very handy to have that extra work space on my phone.
While the outside screen is too thin on my fold
Yep, I’m hoping they’ll do a slightly wider tri-fold model at some point. I’d like to have a wider front screen, like Galaxy S22 Ultra sized, and then be able to unfold twice to get a ~3x sized tablet-sized screen.
Not that that would help with the already astronomical price-tag of the Z-Fold.
I’m in the same boat with my foldable. It’d be a handicap now to watch videos on a smaller screen now that I’ve gotten used to the bigger one. I only use the small screen for phone calls now because it’s awkward holding the large screen to your face for that.
And now TVs fold also 😂
and who even wants this? a couple of friends have them, and it seems like nothing more than a weird novelty. in sci-fi, the phone unfolds to become a tablet, not folds in half to become… uselelss while potentially damaging the screen for no good reason.
this is a classic example of one of those technologies that you think would be cool, but once you have it, you’re like, “eh, never mind.” but Samsung went all sunk cost fallacy and doubled-down on it, losing billions. brilliant!
I’d love to have one but they’re overpriced.
Same with every flagship, the tech isn’t scaring me off just that the price is ridiculous to me. A new phone case, wallpaper and launcher and I’ll get another year out of any phone.
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I had flip phones before smartphones became default, I loved the intuitiveness of answering, locking, etc, and I love the idea of a foldable smartphone because of the size of the screen that you can get into a pocket
Same here, was on flip phones for the longest time. I loved the compactness. They became scarce some years ago so I started buying smart phones, currently a Samsung. That thing is huge and unwieldy. It does not fit well in a pocket so I don’t carry it around. I always have to find someplace to stow it, often in the center console of my car.
A folding smart phone could be a solution, but they’re all really expensive. I don’t spend a lot on phones and never will. Right now I’m looking to replace my under $300 Samsung with an under $300 Motorola. Functionally my Samsung works well, but I hate all the Samsung bloatware on it. I know Motorola uses a fairly stock Android image and hopefully it will be a bit more compact.
from what my friends have told me, that novelty wears off real quick, and is replaced with the concern it will break or wear out— which happens more frequently than manufacturers claim. if not the screen itself, then the hinges, which were a common problem with the old flip-phones, too, back in the day.
I mean, you like what you like. I’m just speaking from a practical standpoint in that any moving parts = a high manufacturing cost and higher rate of defect and breakage. the primary advantage of the “candy bar” form factor is that it reduces/eliminates moving parts and potential points of failure from the physical design.
I admit… I really do miss the idea, even the feel of flipping a phone shut. hell, I even miss slamming a phone down to end a call. angrily jamming my finger into a screen to end a call is REALLY unsatisfying, and often ends in my throwing my phone across the room, and I’ve thankfully developed the habit of throwing it at my couch to save on replacing expensive smartphones, lol. but, until tech evolves tot he point where we get phablets a la Westworld or Legion that can unfold into a super-slim tablet rather than fold down into a flip-phone from the past whose screen could actually just break at any moment because the tech was rushed…. yeah, I’m not interested.
I had a Motorola razr in 2021 that was a good phone, the crease never really bothered me but after 6 months of use the touch screen stopped working and then the pixels started going out on it before it stopped working entirely.
I loved the form factor but it’s just not reliable enough. I’d probably only buy another clamshell foldable if apple made it because I trust them not to rush a half baked product to market.
I was going to say I miss slam-shutting my flip phone too but have realized that I only talk on the phone like 3 times a week so I wouldn’t be getting a foldable just for that
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After having one, it’s really amazing and the form factor and random utility it brings (built in tripod, easy to aim flash light and be hands free). The screens just need work. The crease is a non-issue as far as using the phone, but the little screen protectors that manufacturers say not to take off will deteriorate after like 6 months.
I think it’s close though and I do often miss my foldable.
Have had a samsung foldable and in a 2 year time period I’ve had to replace the factory installed screen protector twice. It started w a little crack that crept upwards until the whole protector was split in half. Ended up just peeling it off after the 2nd replacement started cracking. I imagine ppl don’t like the idea of not being able to protect their screens for one of their premium products…
On the flip side I did watch the superbowl from a hotel pool with this phone and it was perfect for that.
Maybe make better products, return to high QA, and deal with customers as customers and not enemies?
Nah, take on another L instead.
Sorry. I’m just trying not to get evicted due to living in a country with the highest rent, internet, food, and data plan prices.
Seeing that you’re from Canada, why is this so? Why is living in Canada so expensive relative to elsewhere?
Government. Not liberals or conservatives, but the government as a whole. Canada has had many years where both liberal and conservatives were in charge, and nothing changed.
Canada doesn’t allow competition. We have 3 main internet providers, 3 main phone plan providers, like 2 grocery store chains, a couple airlines, etc.
When other companies attempt to come in to break up monopolies, they lobby, and get them shut down.
I mean where are we going to go? America isn’t really an alternative, as much as Americans think it is. Our healthcare, gun laws, etc are things that make Canada really good. We could move to some European or Scandinavian country, but that’s not as easy as it sounds, especially when you need to learn a new language, get accepted, move your entire life, and live in such a different culture.
So people in Canada just accept it. Maybe one day monopolies will be broken up, but there are no parties that are going to do that now. Left or right leaning.
We have a similar thing in Australia with our supermarkets, airlines and media. Our governments have been equally as stagnant in trying to change things. Housing and utility prices are fucked as well.
Not just any government, but a government captured by capitalism
Isn’t refusing to break up monopolies against the idea of capitalism and competition?
Capitalism and free markets are separate things within the economic “sphere” of society. Capitalism is an economic doctrine that focuses on directing production through private capital; free markets (in theory) ensure “equal access” to markets for products (as compared to monopoly or (economic, not necessarily drug) cartel markets which restrict access).
Over in the “public sphere”, governments decide whether to jump in bed with private capital (often resulting in monopolies or cartels in economic marketplacs), or to make & enforce regulations that protect the (so-called) free market.
Or to make and enforce regulations that protect consumers – i.e. human f-ing beings – and enrich local economies without protectionism and “zero sum games”, but I guess we shouldn’t get too carried away here ;)
Thanks for the clarification!
Government. Not liberals or conservatives, but the government as a whole. Canada has had many years where both liberal and conservatives were in charge, and nothing changed.
Huh, it’s almost as if they don’t encompass as much of the political spectrum as they’d like us to believe.
I haven’t even seen a North American have a kind of acceptable political understanding in the 2020s until now.
Plenty of real people are quite aware of our current issues, they just get drowned out online.
It’s big and cold. How much food do you think grows there? There’s actually plenty of cheap land but people like to live with other people.
If you don’t want modern conveniences, I bet it’s cheap. I bet you can live off of potatoes and chicken for like $0.
It’s not cheap. Buying a crack shack in a shitty province with basically no job opportunities costs more than a nice place in LA.
Actually.
Getting a piece of shit, run down, SHARED town house in Nova Scotia costs more than a decent house in LA.
You can get a rural house with land for no money. You can grown your own potatoes and raise chickens. That life is exceptionally cheap. But like I said:
People like to live with people.
So the problem is, Canada is big and cold. No one wants to live in the cheap areas.
Yeah I watch a girl on YouTube who bought a run down old house in Nova Scotia + plenty of land for I think $64k? It obviously takes a lot of work to get it modernized but it was technically liveable when she bought it. But it’s kinda out in the middle of nowhere and therefore not as desirable.
(If anyone cares, she’s a booktuber but she has a whole video series on refurbing the house. Her name is Ariel Bissett.)
The Economist explains it well in their article Australia and Canada are one economy—with one set of flaws. The competition regulators in both Australia and Canada aren’t doing their job, allowing oligopolies to form.
It’s a type of endemic corruption and Transparency International should start calling it out.
Sounds like Canada
You’d be correct!
Starting the comment with sorry really gave it away . Plus it sounds alot like my current situation
At least you don’t live in the city with the highest rent prices. Our countries treated housing like and investment scheme which drives up local tax revenue resulting in reduction year in year of new developments (assuming Canada has the same supply Constraints as here) . The reduction is fueled by the tax revenue however also by the increasing amount of investors and owners who vote. They don’t want their asset values to decrease so it’s artificially kept high the value component of the assets left long ago, we are in fictional valuations now.
Regarding food, their is no other way around monopoly or duopoly other than supporting farmers markets. By supporting them they can grow their base and bring down prices. Not sure what else can be done here. It’s a real problem for us here.
Electricity prices are skyrocketing here and that’s squarely landed at the feet of poor renewables planning. Mandatory coal plant shutdowns without having replacement capacity in place is killing people when the elderly & vulnerable can’t afford AC during the heat waves.
Sounds like Singapore.
Maybe they could stop taking features away from their phones. Put a micro SD and aux jack back and I’d buy one
Wait… they’re removing SD cards?
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What do they need all this space for?
They removed the keys for the screen. Ok.
Phones got bigger for the screen. Ok.
Phones got thinner, monolithic-like and they removed replaceable batteries. Why?
They removed the 3.5mm jack. Not ok, full stop.
They removed the SD card slot. A cloud’s not a storage card.
I heard they’re removing SIM card slots as well.
Gradually making phones into TV’s with sensors is bad. What if next you’re considered dead or criminal when offline?
Maybe I am in the minority but I’ll never need an aux jack again and I see it as another point of failure for water damage.
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This is why I’m still using my LG v60, it had the best headphone jack and dac at the time and probably still does looking at everything else currently on the market.
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Next they’ll removing the charging cable and send us just a fucking phone.
Oh you mean like google did? I was pretty surprised and disgusted they didn’t include a charging cable with my pixel 7. All I got was a 6 inch data transfer cable.
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Yup. I’m using the chargers from my old phone
I’m still rocking the v60 also. LG started packing a world class DAC into their smartphones back with the LG v35 and kept it going all the way to their pinnacle (the v60). The v35, the v60, and everything in between had audio superiority that still hasn’t been beaten by other modern flagships.
I’m going to be inconsolable when my v60 finally needs replacing.
Some people don’t own cars with all that Bluetooth bullshit, or just prefer to use the jack since it is lossless audio.
I really hate that cars seem to drop a built in music solution in favor of smartphones. Give me a good radio and a cd player or sdcard slot over any smartphone connectivity and I’m happy.
Ahh like I get the argument but it is technology progressing, lots of cars didn’t have cd players when the world moved from tapes. The infrastructure responds to demand.
Just because it’s more modern doesn’t mean it’s a 1:1 replacement.
Wired is cheaper, and it has better quality, but it can also be annoying if you’re doing sports.
It’s the same for HD and SSD. I still prefer HD to store multimedia and backups, despite being slower and older than SSD.
There is no reason for them not to coexist.
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It’s not to spend more money, there’s a real increase in value Bluetooth provides to most people. Yes there are edge cases, but when you can get a a blue tooth headset for $5-20 it’s not really cost prohibitive any more.
Remember when the singe piece Bluetooth mics were like $100 when Bluetooth first started hitting mainstream phones? Many people didn’t think it was worth $100 to use an unwired headset for phone calls.
Well now, that phone is also your entire music collection, your cable box and much more. Being untethered makes a lot more sense.
In addition, easily Bluetooth destroyed device batteries, now it’s more power and you can just leave it running all the time in your phone.
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I think also, the removal of the port allowed for better engineering around the screen and better waterproofing and thinner devices.
I think with the EU mandating phones use USB-C, it might push apple into to drop port charging all together. You may see MagSafe only charging iPhones in the EU or everywhere soon.
Maybe I am in the minority but I’ll never need an aux jack again
There is still significant lag for bluetooth audio on both ios and android platforms. It’s doesn’t really impact calling, and it doesn’t really impact watching video content (because they figured out how to measure that latency in real time and inject artificial delay into the video stream so that audio and video sync). But what they haven’t figured out yet is the answer for bluetooth audio for gaming. When gaming, you can’t arbitrarily delay the video feed so that it lines up with audio, so the bluetooth audio experience is complete dogshit for any gaming scenario. If you game, you have to use the physical cable or the constant audio lag will drive you mad.
Also, there used to be (still are) a fair number of accessories designed to work through the aux port. Examples: mobile credit card readers that connect through aux jack (like square/paypal) that are used heavily by small vendors (especially for shows/events); also things like selfie sticks that use a cable plugged into the aux jack connected to a length of wire running inside the selfie stick to a button on the end of it.
The market is starting to come up with wireless versions of these things, but the modern wireless versions now require unique ios and android versions of them when the aux-jack solution used to be platform independent.
Also, the audio quality of an aux jack is an order of magnitude superior to anything that can be piped through bluetooth…still.
I very much appreciate devices still throwing traditional aux jacks onto mobile devices. Ideally, there will be a wireless technical solution that eventually is superior, but that technology is definitely not bluetooth and we’re still waiting for it to be invented and hit consumer availability.
Almost all of those are pretty niche problems though. Which explains why they just aren’t a high priority for manufacturers.
Would love to read more about the Bluetooth lag. Does it affect Bluetooth dac’s like the fiio btr5 as well?
What is this, 1995? /jk
Nah it’s 2005
Sooo… you want a Sony Xperia then
Stupid money, loved the Z series but the price skyrocketed
Yeh it’s expensive but I vote with my wallet. Sony’s build is the best I’ve ever had. Software is close to stock AOSP with nice Sony improvements. Only issue I see is Sony are slow to roll out major OS updates. All in all, I’d argue it’s one of the best devices I’ve had over the last few generations.
This is exactly why I have mine! Sent this from an Xperia 5 III :)
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I bought 1 Samsung phone. Never again.
Exactly, they’re amazing and last forever, no need to ever buy two! I’ve had my Samsung tablet now for 9 years and it’s still going strong (though I’ve replaced the battery twice, but I can’t blame Samsung for the realities of battery chemistry haha), it’s still the best screen I’ve used too, bloody fantastic big AMOLED display.
Until this thing breaks down one day I’ve no need to buy any more Samsung stuff! Though when it does, I can’t wait to see what other amazing tablets they’ve cooked up in the intervening years :-D
Same. It’s the software. I don’t want your shovelware, Samsung.
Fuck Samsung, I’ve had the worst experiences in all of tech with their support system. I had a bad ram module on my s22 and even used the Samsung Support app and had a tech point it out to me. Sent it in and apparently the repair center can’t see those notes that the support dev had written. It took 3 tries and countless calls to support, and eventually got in contact with the office of the CEO, and they basically admitted their backend support is so fractured that someone with phone in hand can’t see any notes any other tech had written. They then decided to give me a refund, which was for less than the receipt, and after fighting for another MONTH to get them to give me the correct funds, they finally sent it to me. 3 months in total. Fuck Samsung.
The CEO directly handles support?
It’s a gimmick I think, it’s called The Office of The CEO. It’s basically just customer support that actually can do things I guess. You can get to it through the Samsung website. It’s truly the only way to get anything done, but you basically have to send a super bitchy email to get them to respond. https://www.samsung.com/us/support/contact/email-the-ceo/
Yeah, this is the chaebol system at work. The Faustian deal between these megacorps and the citizens of South Korea means that it is impossible for Samsung to fail or to be accountable for their bad business decisions. South Korea is the most developed cyberpunk technofeudalistic society.
without any kids. They’re in for huuuge trouble.
They went from one million births in 1960 to just 250k last year.
The birth rate is below 1.
with a birth rate of 1, four grandarents make a single grandchild.
Once we go below 1, most people will never even be grandparents.
The boomers will enter retirement age soon, I’m not really sure how that will work.
They definetely won’t be able to do anything against North Korea. They will either be bedridden or care for someone bedridden.
I think boomers are all retired, it’s gen X and Millennials that don’t breed
Youngest boomers are 59, so still not all retired.
Likely not having that many kids though.
Ok. I guess I live in a wealthier place, they all retired here on generous pensions at age 54 and a half
no surprise
I know personally that I would never buy a Samsung phone again. The budget models are filled with ad/crapware. The premium models are expensive, gimmick laden and bad value.
The expensive models also have ad/crapware, don’t forget about that fun feature
I didn’t know about the adware but I know they bundle a lot of duplicate shit in the deluded belief that people want to use Samsung’s payment system, or appstore or any of the other parallel universe junk that just stinks up the phone.
You shouldn’t have to do this if course, but if you want to remove all the shit they put on phones it’s very easy and safe to use ADB. XDA usually has a list of the things that are safe to remove and there are tutorials online.
Genuine question: what do you recommend instead? Not really excited to support Google via pixel either and didn’t love my last iPhone. Is there a good choice anywhere?
A refurbished Pixel or older refurbished OnePlus, they have great third party software support so you can just throw Lineage or /e/OS on there and never worry about crappy software and/or bloatware again!
I installed e/OS/ on my Samsung s8+, best decision of my smartphone user life. Fast os, no ads, no crapware, no tracking, no preinstalled bullshit
Does “visual voicemail” still work when using e/OS/? I bought an unlocked Samsung a few years ago, but it’s apparently an issue to get visual voicemail working. Not sure if it’s only an ATT problem, (like they’re just being dicks about me not buying my phone through them), but I gave up cause it wasn’t worth my time. I just don’t really check my voicemail anymore cause I’m too lazy to call it, but I wouldn’t mind having it back if it’s a quick fix
Sony Xperia
I think OnePlus, Motorola or Pixel but really you’d have to check reviews since any phone of including this shit if they wanted. Networks do it too so it is important to buy a SIM free phone if possible as the first precaution.
Whatever is most popular under $200. Unless you game or use your phone to take photos a lot, it will do just fine, there’s not much to be added to justify any additional costs. Ironically, most phones in that category would be Samsungs.
I’ve had several phones under $200 over the years. One thing’s been common. The stuff that sucks is the stuff that’s not clear from the specs. It’s the fact that something or the other just doesn’t work that well. I’ve had bad proximity sensors, bad gps, rather poor ram management (still there on my more expensive Samsung). It’s not the chip or the cameras that bother me, it’s the stuff like the quality of the sensors, wifi, bluetooth etc. After my last $200 phone, I bought a Samsung galaxy s20 FE 1.5 years after it launched. Soooooo much better than anything I’ve had in terms of consistency and not letting me down on the daily. So my motto is going to be old flagship, rather than new mid-ranger. And if I can afford it, new flagship I guess.
But a more expensive phone will last you longer until it gets completely outdated because of its’ performance, therefore you replace it less often and generate less e-waste.
I know that person said Apple (6-7 years of software updates!) is out of the question, but nearly all higher-end Androids get good custom ROM support and can be kept running for years after the OEM stops supporting it.
For just under $200 (in my country anyway - we have 20% sales tax, you might get something better in the US for the same money) I can get a Galaxy A14 with a Mediatek MT6769, a SoC built on an ancient 12nm node, which might be cheap, but will have much less performance per watt than a 7 or 8 series Snapdragon on a 4nm node.
Oneplus has gone to shit as far as software is concerned, but the hardware is still good, so if you’re OK running a custom ROM, they’re good.
I last used the Xperia lineup ages ago, but it was a pretty decent experience, close enough to stock Android and the additions they did add were actually improvements. No idea if that’s still the case, but you could look up some reviews.
Ditto for Motorola, which was nearly stock Android back in 2014.
Murena sells refurb and new phones with /e/os preinstalled if you want to go google-free.
I do miss the early days of Android, when you had players like HTC creating completely unique Android experiences (I mean so did Samsung, but their uniqueness was how slow Touchwiz was).
Edit: Also completely forgot the fact that Nokia makes some good phones, including pretty affordable ones and some higher end ones. But personally the one person I knew with one had issues with the USB-C port and had to have theirs repaired by the warranty and then refunded on the second or third round. But that was a much older model, maybe 5 years now, they likely have fixed the issues on their newer ones.
I’ve had a Nokia 3.1 and 5.1 and I would advise everyone to steer clear! I won’t be buying a Nokia phone again
Welp, another brand to avoid, that makes… pretty much all of them.
Out of curiosity, what was wrong with your Nokias? I’d never heard of any other issues besides the USB-C port on the 5.1.
The 3.1 started to become incredibly slow once I installed at the latest updates. If it’s factory reset then it runs fine. The worst offender on that phone was turning the Wifi on and off. Turning it on (after all updates are installed) causes the phone to freeze for 10-20 seconds.
On the 5.1 the keyboard stops responding to every other key press at times. That’s been my only gripe so far to be honest but it’s incredibly frustrating.
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Not the OP, but I went with Moto instead. They’re slim, with minimal junk (2-3 Moto utility apps that aren’t terrible, no Facebook or similar), they work as well as my Samsung phones (if not better), and my first one outlasted the network it was running on (AT&T older G-series network).
Have a look at Gigaset aka the Siemens branch that built all those DECT phones aka not Siemens mobile (which was a complete joke and failure). Not part of Siemens any more, anyway. Never really top of the line but also comparatively inexpensive (not as much as China phones but still), and most importantly: Replaceable battery. Always had them, even before the new EU regulation (which isn’t even in force yet). Not really that popular in the mainstream market but definitely among builders etc. who want a rugged phone, they’re quite successful in that niche.
I’ve been happy with my pixel. As much as it might be not ideal if you don’t want to support Google, ironically it’s like the only phone you can de-google and still have a locked bootloader and full features
Doesn’t that invalidate safety net?
Doesn’t that invalidate safety net?
Sorry I’m not 100% sure what your asking. If you’re asking about custom roms, I’d trust many custom roms (Graphene is my favorite) better than a lot of manufacturers’s roms. And a bootloader that can be re-locked is a big boost to security, since it requires that the OS be signed by the devs instead of making it easier for malicious code to be shimmed in and run at the OS level even if I install a custom operating system.
SafetyNet is the name of Google’s tamper protection thingy. Basically, if it’s not a trusted chain, safety net won’t pass.
This doesn’t impact phone functionality, but some apps check for this and refuse to work if it’s not passing. Google Pay is one of the more well-known examples. Some other banking apps will also check for it. Oddly enough, Pokemon Go also used to (not sure if it still does).
Ah, sorry, yeah potentially. I’ve heard that banking apps won’t work most of the time (but usually just use the web any way so can’t confirm). Though oddly if you wanted to use Google Play on Grapheme it works perfectly fine, so maybe not.
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What the new phones have? Security updates!
Umm, well actually, it’s Samsung, so please forget what I said.
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I have a four year old phone, and unless I do something stupid I don’t know why I would change.
Performance is a non issue in 2023
I think this is a much more significant factor than everyone saying they want SD and AUX back. A 2019 phone is still very good from a hardware perspective, especially for the needs of the majority of users. Phones plateaued awhile ago.
I don’t mind it when corporations lose money. Fuck 'em.
