General Smartphone Discussion Thread - What phones to recommend and which ones to avoid?

[Pee Cola]

I don't care. They fucked me once, I'm not buying another Pixel.

That's how I feel about Motorola, and they fucked me thrice. I'm a slow learner.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

Any decent non-Google OS phones?

 

[EllenDrawsRapeOfHerHaters]

Any decent non-Google OS phones?

Besides an iphone? I like unihertz but I've never tried them as a main phone.

 

[Betonhaus]

Any decent non-Google OS phones?

If you can import a Huawei phone they are really good.
After that there's KaiOS, but that's more for smaller phones with t9 keyboards

 

[The Connected Nose]

I got a Pixel 8 on the second hand market and put GrapheneOS on it, happy as can be so far.

Was just coming here to say that. Picked up an open-box Pixel 8, stuck Graphene on it, and it's been great.

I like unihertz

Aren't they all Android these days?

 

[redditors]

I wish they still made something the size of the iPhone 4 (3.5 inches) as that thing fit my hand perfectly unlike the iPhone 5 that came after and my S3 mini.

Almost everything close to the size of an iPhone 4 these days are chinkshit phones, and avoiding chinkshit pretty much means you're wiping all of your modern options out.

Only one phone on AliExpress matches your requirements: SOYES XS16 PRO.
XS16 Pro, 116 x 49.3 x 13 mm / 4.56 x 1.94 x 0.51 inches
iPhone 4, 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm / 4.5 x 2.31 x 0.37 inches

If you're absolutely A-OK with issues like heat (104 F+), general sluggishness (the MT6762 is slow), Android 9.0 Pie with no updates promised (standard for SOYES), and utter shit cameras (2 fakes at the rear), I think you should be fine with it.

Any decent non-Google OS phones?

What do you consider decent? I've seen people using Tizen and Sailfish OS on compatible phones but I'm positive those two were shit in comparison.

IMO, decent 'phones' that don't run Android are Ockel Sirius A clones with a Waveshare SIM7600G-H 4G USB dongle attached. The biggest advantage that I can see is x86 application compatibility and the freedom to use any OS supported by the 4G dongle, although short battery life and pocketability would be an issue. Take a look at this guy's guide with a Higole Gole 2 Pro with the very same 4G dongle, he has the 'phone' that I have in mind.

 

[analrapist]

Bought the Samsung A15 5G recently. Bought it off Amazon, ended up being some weird Panama model, whatever. Replaced my old moto g fast, which I got 5 years of use out of. The A15 accepts a 1TB MicroSD great. 128G internal, 6GB RAM. OLED screen.

Hate Samsung's extensions to Android tho. Motorola was much nicer to use. The only way to make this A15 not give me random notifications while I sleep is to set the default notification sound to silent and opt in stuff I care about.

 

[redditors]

Almost everything close to the size of an iPhone 4 these days are chinkshit phones

iPhone 4, 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm / 4.5 x 2.31 x 0.37 inches
Fonepia/Phonemax Q9 mini, 114 x 53.3 x 12.4 mm / 4.49 x 2.1 x 0.49 inches

Another 4-inch chinkshit, slightly better specs but it seems to have issues affecting camera, GPS, and Bluetooth functionality. The camera app seems to crash frequently, Bluetooth just doesn't work, and the GPS receiver has a tendency to drop out.

I think the 4-inch phone space is dead for now, or maybe Unihertz might come up with something that bridges the Jelly Max and the Jelly Star's size soon I hope.

 

[teriyakiburns]

Since I mentioned Sailfish in the linux thread, I'm thinking I might throw a wildcard and get the Jolla C2 for my next phone. I used the predecessor of Sailfish on my old n900 and found it to be pretty decent. The UX is very different to android or ios, but it felt intuitive enough at the time.

 

[YautjaWeeb]

I've spent enough of my life rooting Android devices since before the playstore and its dumb. Nearly every hacked rom, bypass and technique you download is sus and then there's the exploits put in by the state and manufacturers.

Don't be a faggot, get a Pixel 8 the boot loaders are all unlocked and new ones are dirt cheap. Dead simple to put GrapheneOS on it, if it's good enough for Snowden its good enough for you.

Once your google ID is entered into any stock android device that IMEI is recorded forever and the device will never be anonymous and forever tied to you. If you went for a J6 field trip running Graphene no one was the wiser. People who went with stock android or IOS got the braclets. Wise up if you value your freedom your being monitored 24/7 whether you are being monitored or not.

 

[Kosher Dill]

Tossing this one out to the knowers of things, because internet search results are simply too pajeetified for this one.

What's the best way to migrate your MMS messages, app settings, etc. from one modern-ish Android phone (Android 13 or 14) to another? Assume adb and similar tools are available, but neither phone can be rooted. And the two phones are different brands so a vendor-specific tool won't work.

 

[Betonhaus]

Google drive backup?

I think android blocks all third party apps from directly accessing text messages, which is why their own messages app is the only one that supports RCS. Sucked when I was using Blackberry Hub as it broke it a little.

I just used the migration tool to migrate to a freshly set up phone

 

[seri0us]

An iphone is boring but serviceable

An iPhone from 10 years ago is just as serviceable (if not more) than most phones today, including iPhones..
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+6+Plus+Battery+Replacement/29424

 

[Betonhaus]

An iPhone from 10 years ago is just as serviceable (if not more) than most phones today, including iPhones..
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+6+Plus+Battery+Replacement/29424

A ten year old iPhone isn't really serviceable if it can't connect to the current networks or run the current versions of applications.

 

[Grub]

I've been using Motorolas for years because they've usually been pretty reliable and come with the least amount of added bullshit. I sort of regret not looking more into phone hardware before getting my current one though because if you want to do any kind of gaming or emulating you want to pay attention to the chipset. I've been learning there are decent games and unofficial ports and all kinds of shit for android outside the usual mobile trash that does actually make it decent for gaming when you pair it with a controller.

Only problem is you really want a snapdragon chipset with Adreno drivers. The mediatek chipset with the Mali drivers used by I think a lot Motorola phones still is pretty garbage for gaming. With a decent phone with a snapdragon chipset you pretty much have access to the majority of the Nintendo switch library which is a fuckton of games. With a Mali phone you're pretty much limited to only 2d switch games and even they're pretty hit or miss.

But, almost every console Vita/3ds and below are available. There's a bunch of enterprising Russians and Asians who exist across the internet devoted to porting PC games to Android and generally, the third world's reliance on smartphones and piracy has really opened up gaming on android more than you'd expect when you really start to dig around at what's out there.

 

[Betonhaus]

Just got a notification that android 15 is available to I stall for my device. What's so great about it?

 

[ghastlyretard]

Just got a notification that android 15 is available to I stall for my device. What's so great about it?

Probably nothing. I wasn't even aware I was on 15 until I read this. Looking up features in 15, I do see passkeys is being pushed more, and now that I think about it I have seen it more often try to force me to use passkeys for shit.

Spoiler

Android 15 has many new features, including: [1]

• Security: Theft protection, private space, and a pinnable taskbar [1]
• Multitasking: App pairs, which lets you pair your most-used apps for multitasking [1]
• Camera: Low Light Boost and in-app camera controls, which work better in low light [2]
• Messaging: Carrier messaging apps can use satellite connectivity to send and receive messages [2]
• Authentication: Log in with a single tap in apps that use Passkeys [2]
• Screen recorder: Choose a specific app to record instead of the entire screen [3]
• Volume panel: The sliders are now larger when playing back media [3]
• Predictive back: Shows a preview of what screen you're going back to [3]
• Home controls: A new screen saver that lets you access your connected home devices when your phone is docked and charging [3]
• TalkBack: Uses Gemini for more detailed image descriptions [3]
• Circle to Search: Can identify and find songs playing in the background [3]
• Bluetooth Auto on: Automatically turns Bluetooth back on the next day if you turn it off [4]
• Notification cool down: Reduces the volume of all notification sounds if you get a lot of notifications at once [4]
• PDF enhancements: PDFs load more smoothly, and there is support for password-protected files, annotations, form editing, and copy selection [5]

Generative AI is experimental.
[1] https://www.android.com/intl/en_in/new-features-on-android/
[2] https://blog.google/products/android/android-15/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZGJ8hS7ps8
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDazo8tkCPU
[5] https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-download-android-15-and-features/

 

[teriyakiburns]

Tossing this one out to the knowers of things, because internet search results are simply too pajeetified for this one.

What's the best way to migrate your MMS messages, app settings, etc. from one modern-ish Android phone (Android 13 or 14) to another? Assume adb and similar tools are available, but neither phone can be rooted. And the two phones are different brands so a vendor-specific tool won't work.

For SMS/MMS, I'd probably recommend SMS Backup & Restore. t's been reliable for me in the past, though I've not upgraded for a while. The only bad reviews on it are weird bugs that are probably user error. Transferring app settings I've never really looked into. There's usually some means to do it built in, IIRC.

 

[Betonhaus]

For SMS/MMS, I'd probably recommend SMS Backup & Restore. t's been reliable for me in the past, though I've not upgraded for a while. The only bad reviews on it are weird bugs that are probably user error. Transferring app settings I've never really looked into. There's usually some means to do it built in, IIRC.

Does it work with RCS messages? As that the issue I found last time I tried a third party backup app. The migration tool seems to work the best.

 

[ForkyMeetsPorky]

For a traditional smartphone experience, I recommend any of the Sony Xperia handsets, they still have microSD card support, dual SIM if needed and a headphone jack. In terms of customisation they are close to stock Android, only with custom 'Pro' camera apps which you can easily ignore for the stock Google camera.The main downside is Sony do not provide updates for very long, usually only for another major release of Android and that's it. Some of the older Xperias could run Sailfish OS which aims to be app compatible wtih Android.

Most other brands like Moto or HTC are fine, just avoid the low end Mediatek powered ones, or any that still ship with the Cortex A53.