Greetings, Android aficionados! π±π
Today, letβs take a moment to get to know each other better. Weβd love to know:
- Which Android devices are you currently using?
- What do you love most about them?
- What do you dislike?
Whether youβre 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! ππ¬
Remember, letβs keep the conversation friendly and inclusive. Everyoneβs perspective is valuable, no matter the device they use. Weβre here to celebrate the diversity within the Android ecosystem and learn from each other.
Pixel 4a. The perfect size phone and though the battery is losing its life a little bit, Iβm going to keep it as long as possible.
I loved the size of my Pixel 3a! Itβs a shame theyβre hard to fix in my country; Iβd rather have a phone that size than the huge ones that seem to be default now.
I still have a 3a, and the battery is definitely losing it. Have you thought about replacing the battery in yours? Iβd love to hear your considerations.
Pixel 7
Great value for money, excellent camera, no bloatware and great battery life for my use case.
Best Android phone Iβve 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. Iβve got some features and feeling of ownership back by rooting, but itβs 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 havenβt had the requirement to root and customise my FP4. I donβt have a terminal app and Iβve probably forgotten the majority of the ADB commands I used to use!
Maybe Iβm just being assimilated into the Google/android eco-system.
Most users donβt 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 donβt really want to depend on it, given Googleβs track record of shelving good products, and some of their behaviors I find intrusive.
My few main complaints would beβ¦
- 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 havenβt 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 (Googleβs cloud-based solution works, but only transfers data for apps that save them to Googleβs 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 doesnβt have Google Photos or save photos to Googleβs cloud. On older Android versions this wasnβt 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 Googleβs certification prevents the scanner from being used in secure contexts after its manufacturer drops support
By rooting, I haveβ¦
- 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 π )
- Slowed down my fast charge speed from 13W to around 2.5W, I still boost it back up if Iβm in a hurry
- Charging stops at 91% (Most phones have this in the settings, however the FP3 doesnβt)
- Syncthing uses root access to get around some limitations (I forgot what these are exactly, I think itβs the ability to watch the SD card for file changes)
- Disabled/removed google apps that I donβt 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 canβt recall at the mo. Generally I donβt interact with root functionality on a daily basis, itβs 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? Itβs made by Google and compared to other phones, the Pixel 6 has a sorta meh battery life. Also GrapheneOS isnβt really featureful (itβs understandable tho), for example it doesnβt provide ultra energy saving mode and the feature which shows in a nice graph how many hours you wasted on certain apps.
Isnβt there an open source apl you can download that accesses the activity API and shows how much you use different apps?
Galaxy note 9. Itβs 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 donβt 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!
