The Android Thread

[Sheikah]

Hmmm, i thought the only option now was that stupid subscription model. Still, £14 is a bit steep. I might have another go with the mobile browser theme,  but I hate using browsers.

Christ is that how much it is? Think I got it years back when it was 99p. I thought you had it already as VIP used to appear next to your name in Tapatalk (which was same for me).

[bob]

7 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

9 minutes ago, bob said:

Hmmm, i thought the only option now was that stupid subscription model. Still, £14 is a bit steep. I might have another go with the mobile browser theme,  but I hate using browsers.

Christ is that how much it is? Think I got it years back when it was 99p. I thought you had it already as VIP used to appear next to your name in Tapatalk (which was same for me).

Nah, that's just because I am a very important person.

[Ashley]

For any Pixel owners Call Screening is finally available outside America. You may need to update the phone app to see it within the settings though. 

When you get a call there's an option to call screen. Then a robot takes over and explains you're screening and displays a transcript of their response and you can choose to pick up or decline the call. 

Now if we could get Hold For Me which has been available in America since Pixel 3 that would be grand. 

[Ike]

The Pixel stand is available for preorder as well. Delivery is currently around 15th December.

[Happenstance]

Anyone played any good new android games lately? With the Z Fold 3 arriving today it'd be nice to get some new games to test on it.

[Sheikah]

Anyone played any good new android games lately? With the Z Fold 3 arriving today it'd be nice to get some new games to test on it.

I recommend Slay the Spire if you haven't already tried it.

[Happenstance]

 

Ah she’s a beaut. Spent most of today messing around with the settings and customising stuff. Still got more to do and then I can start using it properly!

[bob]

Why do you have the time in San Francisco displayed?

[Happenstance]

2 minutes ago, bob said:

Why do you have the time in San Francisco displayed?

I watch some livestreams etc in the US and it's helpful to know what time it is over there.

[Ashley]

18 hours ago, bob said:

Why do you have the time in San Francisco displayed?

I can do one better

Got a close friend in Chicago and another in Sydney so it's helpful to know at a glance what time it is there

[Happenstance]

Got myself a new controller so I can take advantage of that extra screen size for gaming.

[drahkon]

Is there a 5ghz Wifi phone on the market for sub 150€? I have no idea about the phone market these days.

Or a different question: Any good sub 150€ phones?

[Cube]

12 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Is there a 5ghz Wifi phone on the market for sub 150€? I have no idea about the phone market these days.

Or a different question: Any good sub 150€ phones?

I think Nokia phones are pretty good cheap phones. Built to last, unlike the Chinese brands. 

[Dufniall]

Nokia is indeed pretty good again these days. Clean android without much extra software, fairly long update policy. Two new models just released, the G11 (€149) and G21 (€199), both get at least 36 months of security updates. Plus is they have a 90hz screen so that's a bit more smooth to look at.

Samsung launched the A13 today, a phone with a higher resolution than usual in this price range for €189. Has the usual extra Samsung software and I'm unsure what their update policy is. They promise up to 5 years "on upcoming A series models" but not sure if these really cheap ones fall under that policy.

Chinese brands often have better specs for the low price, but often have bad track records with updating their devices. If you just want to use them for 2 years they are fine, but bas choice for longevity.

I think most phones nowadays support 5Ghz WiFi already.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Dufniall

[drahkon]

Thank you  

My current phone is suffers from a lot of problems and it's pissing me off more often than not.  

Have looked into Nokia and the G11 seems like a good phone. Might try to order it soon. It's not available in Germany for now, it seems (at least not at reputable sellers).

[Sheikah]

Thank you [emoji4]My current phone is suffers from a lot of problems and it's pissing me off more often than not.  

Have looked into Nokia and the G11 seems like a good phone. Might try to order it soon. It's not available in Germany for now, it seems (at least not at reputable sellers).

Not sure whether they are available readily in Germany but Xiaomi phones are basically unbeatable at the moment in the budget range. For the specs they simply cannot be beaten.

 

For instance, this deal on the Redmi 10 would put it in the 150 EUR territory, but not sure if they would deliver to you: link.

 

I have a Xiaomi Poco F3 which was a bit more expensive (£250) but it's incredible for the price. It has a similar level of power and display as phones costing three times as much or more.

[Dufniall]

10 hours ago, Sheikah said:

Not sure whether they are available readily in Germany but Xiaomi phones are basically unbeatable at the moment in the budget range. For the specs they simply cannot be beaten.

True, specs-wise Xiaomi has amazing bang for buck. I have the Mi 9T (the one with the pop-up camera) and the specs are great for the price I paid for it. However, it is quite a bloated software version of Android with a lot of extra apps I don't use or need, and my latest security patch is August 2021, so more than half a year old. I think it depends on the user if you want security or better specs in this price range.

[Sheikah]

True, specs-wise Xiaomi has amazing bang for buck. I have the Mi 9T (the one with the pop-up camera) and the specs are great for the price I paid for it. However, it is quite a bloated software version of Android with a lot of extra apps I don't use or need, and my latest security patch is August 2021, so more than half a year old. I think it depends on the user if you want security or better specs in this price range.

I should note that I put the Xiaomi EU ROM on it as soon as I got it, which is really simple to do and very much recommended. Removes all bloat and leaves the whole thing feeling very slick. I also put Nova launcher on it which makes it look much cleaner.

When I consider that I got a Poco F3 for £250, I just can't see myself every paying a lot for a phone again. It really is diminishing returns beyond that. You can pay 3 times more for nowhere near 3 times as much phone.

[bob]

I would recommend the Moto line of phones. I've got the Motorola One Action, and it's been great. Only £200-ish I think. I'm not exactly a power user, but I've never had any issues with it.

[drahkon]

Had 3 Moto phones in my life so far and without fail all of them stopped working one way or another in a matter of two years. Same with my current one...it's slowly but surely breaking down (random restarts, ghost touches, WiFi issues, and more). Repairs didn't work.

I'll probably go with Nokia. Friends had a lot of issues with Xiaomi phones and my old Xiaomi phone was horrible, as well.

[bob]

Had 3 Moto phones in my life so far and without fail all of them stopped working one way or another in a matter of two years. Same with my current one...it's slowly but surely breaking down (random restarts, ghost touches, WiFi issues, and more). Repairs didn't work.
I'll probably go with Nokia. Friends had a lot of issues with Xiaomi phones and my old Xiaomi phone was horrible, as well.

Those are features.

[Dufniall]

I was due a new phone at work so looked around at what is available. We have an arrangement where you can get €250 refunded once every two years. I was thinking about maybe getting a more high-end phone this time around (my previous phones were the Motorola G5S and the Xiaomi 9T), so looked at the Google Pixel 6, Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S21 fan edition. Also took into account some cheaper ones like the Samsung A52s, the Samsung A53 (new release, they advertise with free headphones worth €149, which they sell on their own site for €72...), Poco F3 and Motorola Edge 20.

That last one had a cashback of €100 going, so I got the Motorola Edge 20 (sorry @drahkon, hope mine doesn't break down ) as I didn't feel like paying a lot extra as I haven't really felt like I missed out on not having a flagship. Specs are good, 144Hz OLED screen, Qualcomm 778G 5G processor which is very good for a mid-end phone, and the display is nice and big (6,7 inches). I figured I'd like a bigger display to use for Stadia games and watching series. Weird to think that 7 inch is tablet size and now I have a phone of almost that haha.

I did have a Moto before (G5s), and like how Motorola uses a very clean version of Android, especially against the numerous Xiaomi apps that flooded my 9T. I dislike the lack of a 3,5m port which is quite common in the market nowadays, and the camera is sticking out quite a bit. One thing Motorola isn't great at (neither was Xiaomi) is software updates, but they promised at least 2 major OS upgrades so I should be set for Android 12 and 13. And by that time I'll swap phones again anyway.

Anyway, happy to have the Edge 20, although I do miss my Xiaomi 9T pop-up camera which meant I didn't have a hole in my screen!

 

[bob]

Currently looking for a new phone (the power button fell off my Moto, amongst other things, maybe @drahkon had a point), and the current state of mobile phones is a bit weird. They are all essentially identical now. Sure, you get a bit more brightness with this one, and a few more RAMS with this one, but for day to day use, it doesn't matter all that much. I get that there is more of a difference between a £1500 phone and a £200 one, but for phones in the same price range....you could pick one at random and it would be fine?

Trying to look for daylight between the various models, but all the reviews are full of weird fanboys in the comment section saying how this chipset is absolutely trash, or a 25W charger is an embarrassment and you'd be a fool to get this one etc. 

I think I might settle on the Samsung A54, but I will probably seek one out in the flesh before I buy, as it's a bit larger than phones i've owned previously, so I want to make sure it doesn't make me feel like a tiny-handed twat.

[Ashley]

I have stuck with the pixel line for quite a while because I want a good camera and prefer the Android OS to iOS but I would say if you have no particular alignment to one manufacturer or another give them a try and see which you get on best with. As you say, there's very little daylight between them if you're not into the granularity so it's mostly about vibes nowadays. 

[Julius]

1 hour ago, bob said:

I think I might settle on the Samsung A54, but I will probably seek one out in the flesh before I buy, as it's a bit larger than phones i've owned previously, so I want to make sure it doesn't make me feel like a tiny-handed twat.

Looking up the A54, it's RRP is £450, so in that price range on Android it might also be worth considering a Pixel 7a (the "budget" version of the 7), which has the same RRP.

Because of how weird Google is and the timing of their budget releases (~6 months after their standard and Pro releases), you could probably even get a Pixel 7 for a little bit more if you missed around? But the 7a (and previous 'a' revisions for the Pixel) are some of the best bang for your buck, so definitely one worth taking a look at to see if it vibes with you and what you're looking for 

1 hour ago, Ashley said:

I have stuck with the pixel line for quite a while because I want a good camera and prefer the Android OS to iOS but I would say if you have no particular alignment to one manufacturer or another give them a try and see which you get on best with. As you say, there's very little daylight between them if you're not into the granularity so it's mostly about vibes nowadays. 

Fellow Pixel person here, have been for a while too (stock Android for me >>> all other Android experiences I've tried), and while I love the camera and prefer Android to my (admittedly dated) experiences with iOS, I absolutely agree that these days it's more of a use case/preference thing rather than one being outright better than the other.

I think Apple has a far tighter ecosystem of hardware and software (because, well, walled garden and all that), but if you want your phone to do more than just be a phone and basically a portable computer, having that option with Android is a really attractive prospect. And the Pixel in particular definitely has the best built-in post-processing software of any phone camera out there. 

I'm toying with the idea of upgrading to an iPhone this year for a change because my 6 Pro seems keen to try to off itself and I also kind of just want to try something a bit new. I haven't had an iPhone since the 6S and I'm not particularly allegiant to either "side", but I think the big tipping point for me this year is probably that USB-C is coming to iPhone so I won't need to buy a bunch more cables if I do make the swap. 

Plus, if I'm not a fan after a few weeks, I guess I can always send it back