Your current and next phone. - Smartphone general

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Yandex Captcha Solver said:
Bought a "refurbished" OnePlus Nord N200 5G off eBay earlier this summer for $70. Ended up being a brand new phone. Threw a case and screen protector on. Flashed the international firmware on it, then flashed LineageOS. The camera sucks unless the lighting is great, the phone is slow browsing the web sometimes, speaker is shitty for videos, but I touch my phone just a few times a day. It's the first time VOLTE or Wifi Calling has worked perfectly. Only problem is I have to toggle my SIM in settings every reboot to receive texts.

Battery life is still reporting 100% health thanks to charging controls in LineageOS. Battery lasts a few days due to it's 5000mah battery. Still get weekly OTA updates since it's a supported device. Don't know what I would do without LineageOS, keeps budget phones usable for a long while.

Before I got it, I was really hoping for Unihertz to upgrade their Atom XL line to a new chipset that wasn't made in 2017. Seemed like the perfect small phone, that was durable, and as a bonus doubled a walkie talkie. Know there was a Lineage build for it as well. Sadly they released the Tank Mini, which is almost an inch thick, a tad too comical for myself. A nice thing about Unihertz is they will tell you if a model is getting upgraded soon, just email them. Which there was more odd-ball manufacturers out there like Unihertz. They make some very interesting designs.
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I've considered switching from graphene to another rom.


Mostly because I think having a rooted phone would be nice for some stuff even though the security would technically be worse.

Mostly I haven't because it would be a lot of work to transfer all my data and stuff to a new phone.
 
prollyanotherlurker said:
Mostly because I think having a rooted phone would be nice for some stuff even though the security would technically be worse.
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I was running my phone rooted for a bit, before I got lazy with patching each update. The only thing I find root is nice for nowadays is full app backups, with all data. Already run an adblock DNS and don't have apps with built in ads. Some apps can be tricked for play-integrity check, but that is harder to do as time goes on. I found my bank, Old Glory Bank (they ran the fundraiser for Rekieta's bodycam footage) doesn't have play-integrity checks so that was a major selling point to me. Newer Android versions started letting 3rd party apps self update after the initial app install as well.

There really isn't much going for root nowadays if your sticking with FOSS. A lot of Magisk modules are sketchy as fuck, 50% of them are from chinks, most of which don't share source code. A lot of them are focused on theming to some degree. I think the only one I had installed that was kinda interest was Advance Charging Controller, which just allowed more fine-tuned charging controls.
 
im thinkin of getting that nothing phone 2a some time next year around my birthday since my current phone has begun slowing down and certain apps are incompatible with it now. about 4 to 5 years is a decent time to replace one, though i will have to get a new carrier since ive looked at what the phone supports and mine isnt on there at all
 
Yandex Captcha Solver said:
I was running my phone rooted for a bit, before I got lazy with patching each update. The only thing I find root is nice for nowadays is full app backups, with all data. Already run an adblock DNS and don't have apps with built in ads. Some apps can be tricked for play-integrity check, but that is harder to do as time goes on. I found my bank, Old Glory Bank (they ran the fundraiser for Rekieta's bodycam footage) doesn't have play-integrity checks so that was a major selling point to me. Newer Android versions started letting 3rd party apps self update after the initial app install as well.

There really isn't much going for root nowadays if your sticking with FOSS. A lot of Magisk modules are sketchy as fuck, 50% of them are from chinks, most of which don't share source code. A lot of them are focused on theming to some degree. I think the only one I had installed that was kinda interest was Advance Charging Controller, which just allowed more fine-tuned charging controls.
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oh yeah. Nah I wouldn't want to run just a normal rooted android. I was talking about lineageos, which from what I can tell. Should let you have root privileges.

Mostly because there is just a limitation to what I can do on it without being able to be root. Practically speaking for anything I actually need to do with my phone, it really doesn't matter. And I can do just about anything about anything, and have pretty good security and privacy with graphene like I currently am. Just my inner autist wants to be able to mess around more with the bits underneath.

Like having termux on my phone currently, seems almost useless without being able to do anything outside of the sand boxed directories it runs in. Of course android's/graphene's isolation leads to really good security. But idk. There is always a price you pay when you have more security, same with privacy.
 
Current: Samsung Galaxy A50
Next: Samsung Galaxy S24 FE.

More phone than I need but I got a S24FE for less than the A35/A54/A55 I considered would cost.

I wanted another Samsung because I like the Secure Folder feature for keeping scumbag activities separate from the rest of my life.
 
Galaxy J4
Recently bought it for a very good price and I bought an extra battery since it's removable and I love it cause I go out with 2 and never run out of charge, and it's better than a power bank since you just restart your phone once midday and that's it.

Wanna get a phone that has a removable battery and is rootable OR just somehow root my current one and it would be perfect. Only issue is that it doesn't have much documentation and I don't wanna risk bootlooping it. Shizuku has been alright for now at least to remove bloat apps and play services.

Also I wanna say that I always hated smartphones as devices and leaned more for computers but recently I found myself using my phone a lot more because I love traveling and I kind of started loving it as a piece of technology. It's small and handy and if you use a keyboard like Thumb-Key on F-Droid you can type really fast and easily. Just wish there was a thinkpad of smartphones or something reliably rootable cause fuck vendor roms. Also again, I can't do without removable batteries after trying this one, it's the best feature they stopped making. Perhaps with the EU pushing for removable batteries we might see that again.
 
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el_4aba7 said:
Galaxy J4
Recently bought it for a very good price and I bought an extra battery since it's removable and I love it cause I go out with 2 and never run out of charge, and it's better than a power bank since you just restart your phone once midday and that's it.

Wanna get a phone that has a removable battery and is rootable OR just somehow root my current one and it would be perfect. Only issue is that it doesn't have much documentation and I don't wanna risk bootlooping it. Shizuku has been alright for now at least to remove bloat apps and play services.

Also I wanna say that I always hated smartphones as devices and leaned more for computers but recently I found myself using my phone a lot more because I love traveling and I kind of started loving it as a piece of technology. It's small and handy and if you use a keyboard like Thumb-Key on F-Droid you can type really fast and easily. Just wish there was a thinkpad of smartphones or something reliably rootable cause fuck vendor roms. Also again, I can't do without removable batteries after trying this one, it's the best feature they stopped making. Perhaps with the EU pushing for removable batteries we might see that again.
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to me. its the pixel line of phones. well. as far as adding different roms. physically as a phone you can easily swap parts out like a thinkpad, idk what the best option for that would be. If it existed though, I would move to that in a heartbeat. Having both would be a game changer.
 
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Still got my Galaxy S9+ thinking of upgrading since it's gotten a bit fucked up from years of wear and tear. Any particular durable model I should be aware of?
 
The Last Stand said:
I had a Google Pixel 2XL. Battery began to degrade after three years so I wanted the new Pixel 6.

Verizon talked me into getting a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra with trade-in. Camera is much more impressive than Google's offering. Screen is bigger, cleaner and sharper. Battery life, questionable.
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My phone after the S22 Ultra was an iPhone 16 Pro. Hmm, same reason as the post above: trade in offer. Next phone after that, it may be another iPhone.
 
I'm currently using an iPhone 13 mini, really enjoying it and absolutely love the smaller form factor.
However the battery is getting quite bad now and I've heard it runs pretty bad on the new iOS 26 so am considering a new phone.
Indifferent to both iOS and Android and have gone from one to another several times.
In my country, there's no real variety other then Samsung, Google and Apple, other then a few $300 crap Chinese phones I don't want to consider.
The smaller form factor is a non negotiable at this point. Largest I would want to go for is about the normal iPhone size.
Is there any small phone option any more, or is it all just huge phones now?
 
YoRHa No. 2 Type B said:
I'm currently using an iPhone 13 mini, really enjoying it and absolutely love the smaller form factor.
However the battery is getting quite bad now and I've heard it runs pretty bad on the new iOS 26 so am considering a new phone.
Indifferent to both iOS and Android and have gone from one to another several times.
In my country, there's no real variety other then Samsung, Google and Apple, other then a few $300 crap Chinese phones I don't want to consider.
The smaller form factor is a non negotiable at this point. Largest I would want to go for is about the normal iPhone size.
Is there any small phone option any more, or is it all just huge phones now?
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Samsung Galaxy S non-plus is exacly iPhone normal size. Other than that, there's Pixel 9/Pro non-XL, but even it is bigger. Don't bother looking at chinkshit, they are the worst at this, all they make is paddles.
 
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Max Weber said:
Samsung Galaxy S non-plus is exacly iPhone normal size. Other than that, there's Pixel 9/Pro non-XL, but even it is bigger. Don't bother looking at chinkshit, they are the worst at this, all they make is paddles.
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I hate Samsung's Android version with a passion but maybe I need to try it again, last time I seriously used it was during the TouchWiz era, using an S5.
Had a Pixel 3a and really enjoyed it. Maybe I'll give Pixels another go too, I really liked running CalyxOS on my last one, perfect since I don't use any Google services.
Not surprising all the Chinkshit is glorified e-waste, I'll only consider Google, Samsung or Apple then.
Thanks for taking the time to reply, have a great day.
 
My current phone is Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. It has everything I need and is the best phone I've owned by far. I want to use it for as long as possible. I had to use ADB to disable system update nagging because I'm never doing that again after significantly slowing down my three previous phones.

Next one will probably be a used S23 Ultra because it's slightly newer and still has the 10x telephoto lens. That was the main selling point for the S21U for me and it doesn't look phones are going to have that feature anymore.
 
The Note 9 remains the GOAT, however banking and government apps require up to date software. I was forced to upgrade, which sucked. My current phone is the S23 Ultra in pink which I bought through my provider since they offer the latest phones at MSRP compared to other telecom providers. Also while I find the term "power user" dumb, I do use the S-pen on a daily basis and it's a must have feature. When my 2 year contract's is over in december, I'll consider sending my phone in for repair since the back glass cracked in a freak accident. Speaking of which, I'll need to repair my iPhone 12 mini in as well haha, do like that little red phone and I do prefer Apple CarPlay over Android Auto.

Hentai-Semitism said:
My current phone is Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. It has everything I need and is the best phone I've owned by far. I want to use it for as long as possible. I had to use ADB to disable system update nagging because I'm never doing that again after significantly slowing down my three previous phones.

Next one will probably be a used S23 Ultra because it's slightly newer and still has the 10x telephoto lens. That was the main selling point for the S21U for me and it doesn't look phones are going to have that feature anymore.
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I'm not impressed with Android 15 (let alone the UI choices which are retarded, but I digress), especially with the initial release which killed the battery life of my S23. However the followup update fixed my main complaint. Also have you considered enabling Vulkan rendering? I've done it on my Samsung, which did noticeably improved performance and battery life.
 
BeckhoffAX5702 said:
Also have you considered enabling Vulkan rendering? I've done it on my Samsung, which did noticeably improved performance and battery life.
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Never heard of that. Can I do that with S21U?

I know I can lower the resolution and refresh rate, but some guy on Youtube did extensive testing of those features and his takeway was that it wasn't worth it. I don't use my phone all that much anyway and only charge it every couple of days.
 
Why are there two smartphone general threads?
Anyway, my current phone is an iPhone SE3, which I bought because it was the cheapest iPhone when I was looking to upgrade, however I've since come to believe that it was actually the best phone available on the market because it's usable both as a one-handed or two-handed phone. To give an analogy, the iPhone 5 was like an arming sword, optimal for use in one hand. The iPhone 6 was like a hand-and-a-half sword, giving up some one-handed usability for greater capabilities, especially in two-handed use. The iPhone 6 Plus was like a longsword, giving up on the idea of one-handed use for optimal capability for a pocketable phone. The modern edge-to-edge phones are like if you gave a longsword the handle of a bastard sword, it's still not really usable with one hand, but you've given up signicant capabilities. I consider the iPhone 6 form factor to be close to optimal because one-handed use is convenient for quick use, but two-handed use is better for prolonged use and typing. The reason why the SE is more usable than the iPhone X style is because of the bezel, which reduces the screen height making it easier to reach the top and bottom of the phone, and the home button making it less necessary to access them compared to gesture navigation. Also the bezels are a very convenient place to put your thumbs so that you can more securely hold the phone without covering the screen.
I'm not currently looking for a new phone since the battery on my current phone should last a few more years, but I know that there will not be another good phone with the iPhone 6 form factor since Apple was the last holdout and they've given up on it. Apple may be able to convince me to get their cheapest phone again if it's cheap enough, but the 16e is definitely too expensive and I would much rather have a large phone or a mini phone, and the convenience of iPhone continuity isn't relevant to me anymore. I already know there aren't any good mini phones, and I consider two-handed use to be more important than one-handed use, and mini phones give up a significant amount of battery life and screen size, so I would definitely look for a large phone if there were good options.
The phone would need to either be an iPhone (I consider the privacy level of iPhones to be good enough), a Linux phone (if they were good), or an Android phone that either comes with an alternative ROM (for example the Murata phones with EOS, although I haven't really looked into EOS), or have an easily unlockable bootloader. It would also need to be cheap enough for my budget at the time (complete unknown), so unfortunately I'm not sure if there are any large phones that will be in my price range, since as far as I know they tend to be bloated with unnecessarily expensive camera systems.
 
volatile puar said:
To give an analogy, the iPhone 5 was like an arming sword, optimal for use in one hand. The iPhone 6 was like a hand-and-a-half sword, giving up some one-handed usability for greater capabilities, especially in two-handed use. The iPhone 6 Plus was like a longsword, giving up on the idea of one-handed use for optimal capability for a pocketable phone.
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And modern phones are like Final Fantasy swords.

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DeadwastePrime said:
im thinkin of getting that nothing phone 2a some time next year around my birthday since my current phone has begun slowing down and certain apps are incompatible with it now. about 4 to 5 years is a decent time to replace one, though i will have to get a new carrier since ive looked at what the phone supports and mine isnt on there at all
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didnt happen because other things happened and also probably not this phone because my carrier doesnt support it. might have to go with a s25 or s25+ perhaps
 
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