Android Phone Recs

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tehpope said:
Most, if not all, CPUs are manufactored in China. Even Apple's CPUs are made there.
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Depends on what you mean by "China", AMD has their wafers made in the ROC (not Communist), and gets them finished in some other country, possibly Malaysia.
 
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White Devil said:
Nokia used to be Finland, but is now Chinese. I used to use one of their smart phones a couple years ago and deep dived into how all the software on them is Chinese because a Chinese company owns the company that owns Nokia now.
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If I were to guess, the hardware is probably made by TCL, like newer BlackBerry's. The rules about local "manufacturing" and labelling are a huge joke worldwide.

I worked in a factory that "made" brake pads for all kinds of vehicles. They had one whole line that was where the women mostly worked and their job was to put sticker labels with "Made in Canada" on white boxes containing brake pads from China that we surfaced (or something minor like that, we certainly didn't make them). This was a popular brand of brake available in the auto stores here. The only thing we actually made there in the factory were a relatively small number of large brake pads for heavy machinery.

This was not at all unusual at the time for the auto accessories industry from what I heard from other people with similar jobs back then,
 
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lemmiwinks said:
If I were to guess, the hardware is probably made by TCL, like newer BlackBerry's. The rules about local manufacturing and labelling are a huge joke worldwide.
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I remember when they first introduced the Nokia 6 and whatnot they had a huge marketing blitz with videos and shit how all the hardware is produced locally with the finest Finnish metals in a state of the art factory, blah blah blah. The phones software is stuffed to the gills with shit that phones home to China and there was a big thing about it in 2018 iirc.
 
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Uncanny Valley said:
An old Samsung
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I second this. My galaxy S7 gave me a good 3 years. I’ve got an S10 now that I like because I can still plug an aux cord into it and use a microSD for extra storage, but I don’t think I’ll be getting a newer Samsung when upgrade time comes. I don’t think my current phone will hold up the way the old one did.
 
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Saklas said:
I second this. My galaxy S7 gave me a good 3 years. I’ve got an S10 now that I like because I can still plug an aux cord into it and use a microSD for extra storage, but I don’t think I’ll be getting a newer Samsung when upgrade time comes. I don’t think my current phone will hold up the way the old one did.
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My old s6 only lasted a short while because it had a faulty battery.
 
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I have a buddy who's got an S4 (I think) that they've been beating into the fucking ground for years and it still mostly works.
 
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I wish they still made the "Active" models of the Samsung galaxy series. The phones that were built to be tanks to MIL-SPEC specifications.

Right now I just use a Samsung A50 in an Otterbox case. It's been fine for the 14 or so months I've had it.
 
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I found this article:

Seems like all the phones on this list are:
-Too proprietary
-Too damn expensive
-Not for sale in the US
-Out of biz

I read an article that Flips spy on you just as much as Smarts. Anything with critical apps (email, maps, text...) is leaking your data, turning on your mic/camera and tracking you. Nothing you can do., unless you don't get a cell phone at all.
I guess I will bite the bullet and just buy a normie phone. Probably a Samsung Galaxy, whatever the new(er) one is.

"A strange game, the only winning move is not to play."
 
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Orange Rhymer said:
I found this article:

Seems like all the phones on this list are:
-Too proprietary
-Too damn expensive
-Not for sale in the US
-Out of biz

I read an article that Flips spy on you just as much as Smarts. Anything with critical apps (email, maps, text...) is leaking your data, turning on your mic/camera and tracking you. Nothing you can do., unless you don't get a cell phone at all.
I guess I will bite the bullet and just buy a normie phone. Probably a Samsung Galaxy, whatever the new(er) one is.

"A strange game, the only winning move is not to play."
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If you’re worried about spying, and want a little less of it, look into getting a faraday cage or a faraday bag and turning the phone off or putting it in airplane mode while it’s in the container. Faraday cages block radio signals (eg WiFi and cell phone signals) the phone itself would be useless in the container but at least it isn’t spying on you quite as much if you aren’t actively using it. Sometimes I want To go back to a flip phone though, just because I sometimes miss the days of people not having several different ways to contact me 24/7.
 
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Saklas said:
If you’re worried about spying, and want a little less of it, look into getting a faraday cage or a faraday bag and turning the phone off or putting it in airplane mode while it’s in the container. Faraday cages block radio signals (eg WiFi and cell phone signals) the phone itself would be useless in the container but at least it isn’t spying on you quite as much if you aren’t actively using it. Sometimes I want To go back to a flip phone though, just because I sometimes miss the days of people not having several different ways to contact me 24/7.
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I actually wrapped my phone securely in aluminum foil in December - creased every fold twice and made sure no open path to the outside.

It actually worked great. I called the phone - no answer. Texted - no answer. Even used the 'phone locator' with no result. Also, when I unwrapped it, there were no 'missed calls' or texts. The locator started blasting, however.
 
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Orange Rhymer said:
I actually wrapped my phone securely in aluminum foil in December - creased every fold twice and made sure no open path to the outside.

It actually worked great. I called the phone - no answer. Texted - no answer. Even used the 'phone locator' with no result. Also, when I unwrapped it, there were no 'missed calls' or texts. The locator started blasting, however.
Click to expand...

Good to know! I might try that myself.
 
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Orange Rhymer said:
Probably a Samsung Galaxy, whatever the new(er) one is.
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Whenever I buy a phone I make sure it is on the list of LineageOS Supported Devices. Pretty much if it is on the list you will have other options available. Most ROM's are based on Lineage, and the ones that aren't benefit from the same properties of the phones from the list that allow Lineage to be ported (hardware documentation etc).
 
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lemmiwinks said:
Whenever I buy a phone I make sure it is on the list of LineageOS Supported Devices. Pretty much if it is on the list you will have other options available. Most ROM's are based on Lineage, and the ones that aren't benefit from the same properties of the phones from the list that allow Lineage to be ported (hardware documentation etc).
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In that sense an s9 is probably a good idea as the samsungs always typically have good lineage support

S10 is kinda trash with the in screen fingerprint reader. Such a step back.
 
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I have a Razer Phone 2. Its been great despite poor reception. Completely stock OS + Nova Launcher. Specs are pretty decent too.
 

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