Greetings, Android aficionados! 📱👋
Today, let’s take a moment to get to know each other better. We’d love to know:
- Which Android devices are you currently using?
- What do you love most about them?
- What do you dislike?
Whether you’re rocking the latest flagship or cherishing a reliable budget device, we want to hear about your experiences. Share the brand, model, and any standout features that make your phone shine. Who knows, you might inspire someone to discover their next Android companion! 🌟💬
Remember, let’s keep the conversation friendly and inclusive. Everyone’s perspective is valuable, no matter the device they use. We’re here to celebrate the diversity within the Android ecosystem and learn from each other.
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Pixel 4a. The perfect size phone and though the battery is losing its life a little bit, I’m going to keep it as long as possible.
I loved the size of my Pixel 3a! It’s a shame they’re hard to fix in my country; I’d rather have a phone that size than the huge ones that seem to be default now.
The smaller ones are just so much more comfortable to use. I think the Pixel 8 looks like it’s going to be a similar size, which is good.
Obviously the drawback is a slightly smaller battery, but Pixel software is pretty good at optimising.
I still have a 3a, and the battery is definitely losing it. Have you thought about replacing the battery in yours? I’d love to hear your considerations.
I’ve thought about it, but to be honest, I’m more likely to trade the phone in and get money off a new one.
But hopefully that shouldn’t be until next year.
Pixel 7
Great value for money, excellent camera, no bloatware and great battery life for my use case.
Best Android phone I’ve owned to date.
Fairphone 3
Likes: The community, closest modern analog to the Galaxy S5 (my previous device), ability to open, configuring fast charge/PD speed, good custom ROM support, can be flashed with full Linux (PostmarketOS)
Dislikes: Android OS in general. The newer versions have removed so much capabilities that used to be present. I’ve got some features and feeling of ownership back by rooting, but it’s honestly a sad sign of things to come IMO. Stuff is being watered down, removed or restricted to appeal to the masses.
What things are you missing from old Android versions?
I had a realisation recently that I haven’t had the requirement to root and customise my FP4. I don’t have a terminal app and I’ve probably forgotten the majority of the ADB commands I used to use!
Maybe I’m just being assimilated into the Google/android eco-system.
Most users don’t need to root their device TBH, the stock experience is perfectly fine for the overwhelming majority of people. The ecosystem generally works too, but I personally don’t really want to depend on it, given Google’s track record of shelving good products, and some of their behaviors I find intrusive.
My few main complaints would be…
- Apps can no longer be moved to an SD card easily
- The changes made to the file storage API has made accessing SD card data much slower, so things like map apps and games take much longer to load if they have stored their data there (FP3 is 64GB, installed a 512GB sd card, so most apps tend to use the SD card if I haven’t manually)
- Developers disabling ADB backups for their apps, making it difficult to migrate apps and data to a new device using something like Helium Backup (Google’s cloud-based solution works, but only transfers data for apps that save them to Google’s cloud. For all other apps just the application itself is transferred)
- Call recording is no longer a thing, only system-level apps can do that now (root required)
- Google moving my photos to the new device without asking first - I find it kind of creepy TBH, especially when the previous device doesn’t have Google Photos or save photos to Google’s cloud. On older Android versions this wasn’t a thing
- Some changes were made in Android 12/13 to fingerprint scanner requirements, and sadly it is no longer possible to authenticate into most banking apps on the FP3 after updating the OS. This change will likely affect all FP owners in the future, as Google’s certification prevents the scanner from being used in secure contexts after its manufacturer drops support
By rooting, I have…
- Scheduled backups to the SD card, allowing me to rollback an app+data if an update breaks something (this has saved me a few times already 😅)
- Slowed down my fast charge speed from 13W to around 2.5W, I still boost it back up if I’m in a hurry
- Charging stops at 91% (Most phones have this in the settings, however the FP3 doesn’t)
- Syncthing uses root access to get around some limitations (I forgot what these are exactly, I think it’s the ability to watch the SD card for file changes)
- Disabled/removed google apps that I don’t want (root not needed, this can also be done over ADB)
- Disabled location access for the remaining Google apps… until they force-pushed a Play Services update to hard reboot the device when you do this
- A few more things that I can’t recall at the mo. Generally I don’t interact with root functionality on a daily basis, it’s handled in the background by the apps that use it
What Android devices are you currently using? Pixel 6 w/ GrapheneOS
What do you love most about them? That I got it used on a dirt-cheap price, supports GrapheneOS, has really great cameras and I like the unique of it
What do you dislike? It’s made by Google and compared to other phones, the Pixel 6 has a sorta meh battery life. Also GrapheneOS isn’t really featureful (it’s understandable tho), for example it doesn’t provide ultra energy saving mode and the feature which shows in a nice graph how many hours you wasted on certain apps.
Isn’t there an open source apl you can download that accesses the activity API and shows how much you use different apps?
Great question tbf, I haven’t looked into it, since it’s not that huge big of a deal because I replaced it with the battery usage page.
Pixel 7 running GrapheneOS.
Good camera, 5 years updates and it is affordable for an flagship smartphone.
Galaxy note 9. It’s the peak smartphone, no holepunch nonsense, every useful feature, still plenty fast. The only drawbacks are that the battery is starting to wear out, which is fixable with a bit of fuss, and the screen has a little bit of keyboard burn in, only visible on all black screens.
Hopefully you don’t get a grouping of dead pixels like my Note 8 developed last year. Ended up with a hole punch style, but on the right-hand side of the display!
Kinda hoping to stretch it until tablet style foldables get reasonably reliable and affordable
- Fairphone 4
- The physical keyboard (https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry)
- The buggy software
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. It’s fast, reliable, has amazing battery life and IMHO it’s handsome as hell.
The last phone I had was a Pixel 3A which was amazing for what it was, so I got myself a Pixel 7a to see if it was comparable.
I love the fun software on the Pixel 7A, it is great as a work phone [the Google assistant interfaces with phone calls in ways that are mind-blowing] but I mostly find myself on the S22U.
Zero complaints on either, but if I had to choose just one, I’d stick to the S22U if I could afford it.
Nice! I’m on an S23 Ultra and my only complaint is the lack of an unlockable bootloader on the North American variant.
Yeah that’s been almost my only complaint for my last 3 Samsung phones… Damn north american models!
Guess I’m the only one with a Sony Xperia phone.
Got a 1 iii, love the display and candy bar shape, tiny bezels and headphone jack with expandable storage.
Dislike the limited brightness range outdoors on sunny days, and how the battery dies after four hours of heavy use, lol. (Though I do multitask it hard, so it’s understandable)
I’m just waiting for the shipment email for my Xperia 1 V.
For me it’s the rectangular front display, no notches, no hole punches, no nonsense. Just some small bezels which also house front facing speakers. Everyone has gotten so acclimatized to “bezel-less” displays for the sake of not just being last years model that you lost stereo speakers, and added a literal black mark to accompany lost display area.
Then you throw in a 3.5mm audio jack AND expandable storage <insert fry take my money gif here>
I’m in the camp that you don’t need to refresh a design over and over again, especially “just for the sake of it.”
PS: I’m not particularly happy to pay the price I did for the phone which has, in my mind, basic features. However, the other option is to pay for a phone with less capabilities than my current phone.
I would actually love a Sony, since Hardware and feature wise they seem great. Good form factor, SD card and headphone jack.
But the high price and especially the short software support just turn me off.
Pixel 5. I love it. I really don’t want to update because this is the last phone with the fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone
Using a Pixel 5 as well. Before that I had the OnePlus 6 for 6+ years before I decided I wanted a smaller phone again. While it at times still seems a little slow, it still works great. I replaced the battery about 3 months ago and it has a great battery life again. Running Lineage.
Same. Google’s design has taken a step backwards since the pixel 5. Worse battery life, less ergonomic due to fingerprint sensor being in the screen vs the back, and their custom socs have very poor efficiency.
Unfortunately most phones are doing the in screen fingerprint thing now since it’s the cool thing to do.
Currently rocking a Samsung Galaxy A53 5G. Bought this to replace my old shattered Xiaomi Redmi Note 8.
I’ve been using Android phones since a long time. Started out with a Galaxy Y, loved those small phones with TouchWiz 3!
My most favorite phones I’ve owned over the years have to be my most beloved Xiaomi Mi A1 (probably the best clean stock Android experience I’ve had), the Pixel 3a, Sony Xperia M, and the Moto G2 2014 (again, with the cleanest Marshmallow experience).
My A53 is good, mainly got it because I’ve kind of gotten old tired of experimenting with new ROMs lol. I don’t plan on upgrading for 4 more years…this phone does everything I need it to, and it’s decent enough to last it’s promised update life cycle.
Samsung Note20Ultra. My favorite phone to date. Fell in love with Spen, smart select, and Samsung Notes!!
Z fold 4 here.
Likes: the folding obviously lol but I also like samsungs software.
Dislikes: fragile and the camera is shit.
A Samsung Galaxy A50, it’s my beloved treasure! It was my first phone that I bought with part of my own saved money.
It’s pretty usable, to this day. It runs Android 11 but only recently got axed for security updates, so I may get a new phone soon. There’s really nothing not to love about it.
The battery has deteriorated though, I can barely get 4-5 hours SOT without using 80-90% of the battery. Also, the adhesive that holds the back plastic panel to the phone keeps coming apart so it doesn’t hold anymore, which is kinda nasty. I’ve re-applied back panel adhesive two times but it keeps happening, presumably due to heat. Never seen this happen to any phone other than the A50.
Pixel 5 because it hasn’t died yet. Will probably continue to use it until 2025 or until it dies. Which ever comes first.
I pretty much can only use pixel devices these days because of the software. Flagship Samsung devices may be better hardware wise but their software is so bad and bloated it erases most of the benefits.
Honestly the biggest negative I can think of is the lack of a headphone jack. Yes I still want one. I still remember the time Google launched an ad campaign mocking iphones lack of a headphone jack only to remove it themselves one hardware update later.
I own like 3 dongles but it’s just not the same.
