I love how this articles doesn’t even discuss phone size and headphone jacks, which are my 2 prerequisites before I even consider a phone.
Yeah. Unfortunately there’s not much to chose from. They’re all huge glass slabs without ports nowadays.
It absolutely discusses phone size - in some detail both in the intro and as part of the reviews.
Choices?
- Pixel 8
- Galaxy S23
- Galaxy S23 Ultra
- Galaxy Z Fold 5
- Nothing Phone 2
What bugs me about this is THEY ARE ALL THE SAME! Flat rectangular phones with no buttons and few ports. Where is the innovation? Where is the experimentation? Where are the different form factors?
Go back to like 2003 and you had all kinds of variety in the market. Some phones had slide out keyboards, some had physical keyboards like blackberries, they were all kinds of different expansion ports and slots and interfaces, and occasionally something totally different like Compaq had a gadget that took different backpacks that bolted on the back to give it extra capability.
Skip 20 years ahead to today, and every phone is the exact same fucking form factor. And so we obsess over millimeters and megapixels and software. There’s no innovation here. There’s no variety here.
The only even slightly interesting development I see is the new flip and book phones, but that technology is being used in the most boring way possible. I want to phone the size of a Snickers bar where I pull the screen out of it from the side and it unrolls as far as I want it to. I want a phone that flips open like a laptop to reveal a keyboard. Or even simpler, I want a phone that’s 4 mm thicker and has a battery that lasts all week. Give that phone a headphone jack and wireless charging, put a little rubber around it to make it indestructible, then you’ll have something interesting.
Until that happens, you have like six manufacturers that are basically building the exact same product. Boring.
So right. The last Blackberry I used with BB OS had micro hdmi port, hardware keyboard and completely different OS that was able to run android apps. Fast forward 10 years and you can’t get any of those any more except maybe from some weird Chinese brands.
The public voted with their purchases and this is what they wanted.
Eventually most products settle into a baseline normal and innovation slows dramatically. It’s not just phones that do this.
There are plenty of phones out there that are weird and different but most people ignore them and they don’t get the same attention. Think rog phones, flip and fold phones, fair phone, sony’s camera focused phones no one wants to buy.
Not too mention this list is for what you should buy, which is really the word experimental phone.
It’s a strange mentality that almost everyone time phone are brought up people so for absolute innovation. A full on game changer. Most of these already do exactly what we want incredibly well. There isn’t much room for a game changer. Innovations will be less dramatic, more subtle.
No one is going to buy a round phone, or a squiggly phone, and curved screen edges or curved phones never did well. So rectangular it is.
Enthusiast features rarely stick around cus most people don’t need those features or the features get rolled into something else. Headphones jacks and HDMI and so on can ask be integrated into USB C and for most that’s good enough.
I’ve got a Pixel 6 Pro and if Google keeps providing current updates for it, I can see myself using it for three more years. It’s just a solid piece of tech.
And you can always go Lineage/DivestOS/Graphene after that and it’ll run faster than new.
GrapheneOS support stops along with Google stopping their support. My 4a is now EOL. Not sure about the other roms. Hopefully someone puts in the effort.
Crap, I forgot about that with Graphene, and it’s why I’m not using it. Good reminder
If you enable developer options and then disable animations, your phone will feel 1000% faster on any OS.
I have a 6a and can’t wait to get rid of it. The cellular connections drops often and doesn’t reconnect without rebooting the phone, the GPS takes forerto figure out where I am making it very frustrating to use for navigation, and the fingerprint sensor doesn’t work great in the dark. Might give the s23 a shot next.
The “a” models are a different animal. We tested it when my wife wanted a “small” phone and she hated it. She has the S23 and loves it. Even then, my Pixel 6 Pro feels snappier, more feature rich, and takes significantly better pictures than her S23.
PS: We’re both on Google Fi and neither of us have connectivity issues. I’m fact, I often have better coverage on the 6 Pro than she does on her S23. That might have to do with the phone size though. (Bigger phone means larger antenna)
Pixel 7 pro here and it’s a total piece of shit. Garbage cell connection on tmo and spectrum. Random Bluetooth issues. Battery that can’t last even close to a full day and incredibly slow charging speed. Only decent feature is the camera/photo software.
Unfortunately not many options left. Oneplus is dead to me after they removed wireless charging. Asus is just dead. Samsung ruined otherwise great hardware with worst software of any other Android phone. I never considered other phones seriously, but I’m open to suggestions.
I just need a reliable phone with wireless charging and decent camera.
I’ve never had any connection issues with the 6 Pro, but it could be because I’m on Google Fi. Also, the battery on my phone lasts the entire day. I use a high watt charger so I don’t know how the charge speed would compare if I used a 2a charger.
It’s a shame that the 7 Pro isn’t up to par.
My experience with the 7P is the opposite.
Also on Fi, but that is just T-Mobile. My connection has been great. Battery life is good. I don’t mind the slow charging and intentionally plug into an even lower power charger to hopefully extend the longevity of the battery.
My wife’s experience is closer to OP’s though. She’s had problems like that on most phones when I don’t even though we often have the same model. I think it is something to do with the games she installs.
Before the Android 14 update, we had 5G turned off. It seems the update to the radio firmware has fixed the battery drain problems.
Thanks for this additional info. The “smallness” was something I was after with this phone, as well, but it definitely doesn’t feel as good in my hand as the s23. The pixel pro versions have some intriguing features, but they’re just too big for my liking.
I think you’ll like the S23. I haven’t heard a single complaint from my wife about hers.
My wants:
- ROM-friendly w/ active development
- flagship specs
- No hole-punch
Seems I can get two of three, but not all three with the latest phones.
EDIT: I currently rock a Oneplus 7 Pro running crDroid 9 (Android 13).
Remember the days when we had the notification led? :(
I cheaped out and got the smaller version of my phone with no led.
Regretted it ever since. Been 5 years and vowed to never do that again. :(
I really want a notification led
You still have ways to emulate it with software… Especially apps or Android 14 that make your flashlight act as one.
I loved the notification LED on my Xperia XZ1, Nexus 5X, and basically all older Android phones.
Ideally I’d like to see an LED along a corner so that regardless of placing the phone face up or down, you can still see the LED.
On the other side of the foldable spectrum, the OnePlus Open is a welcome addition to the mix with the best screen format on a book-style folding phone. It’s thin and light, and the software includes some thoughtful approaches to multi-tasking — a crucial part of the folding phone experience. At $1,700, it’s just $100 shy of the Pixel Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 5 and misses a couple of key features that both of those other options include: wireless charging and an IPX8 rating.
Does anyone really care about these though? Wireless charging is really niche and worse than wired in every way, and water resistance is one of those things phones love advertising but nobody ever notices.
[…] water resistance is one of those things phones love advertising but nobody ever notices.
Water resistance is something I do not want to notice because if I notice it, it means it has failed. Do I trust it completely? Hell no. Do I prefer to have it? Hell yea!
Couldn’t disagree more. Both are huge selling points for me, and have virtually no downsides, unlike other phone features.
- Juno ( @Juno@beehaw.org ) English8•11 months ago
Wireless charging has huge downsides. What do you even mean? Slower charging, huge energy waste, heats up like mad
Slower charging, huge energy waste, heats up like mad
For one, you don’t have to use it, so these are never downsides if its on your phone. Secondly none of these are a problem for me. I charge slowly at night, my phone never gets hot, and phone charging is less than .1% of my electric bill.
I used to think the same way until my wife’s phone stopped charging via cable because the USB port failed. The fact that it can charge wirelessly has kept the device usable.
Same here. Wireless charging kept my Galaxy Note 8 going long past its USB port failing, along with my mom’s LG G7.
I have a phone like this. Wireless charging is so slow the phone isn’t really usable any more.
Both have been must-haves for me over the past number of years. It’s nice being able to drop the phone onto a charging stand at the desk or in the car. Also nice being able to rinse the phone off or use in a bath/shower without worry.
I’ve only had 1 phone in the last 10 years that didnt wirelessly charge, and there’s zero chance I’d buy a phone without it again. And I’m really hoping qi2 starts appearing in phones next year.
I don’t understand the need for super fast charging, like it’s handy if you’re on the run and forgot about it, but I need more charging than my phone does, so it’s no issue to just plonk it on a stand when I’m resting…
For the price manufacturers are asking it better have everything.
Wireless charging is really niche and worse than wired in every way
Huh? Name one. Oneplus is dead to me after they removed the most useful feature that almost everyone uses and expects in even the most basic phone, let alone a $1k+ phone.
What a goofy list.