Current daily driver is a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4. Pretty happy with its compact size when folded, and it serves as a mini-tablet of sorts when unfolded. It’s also the first phone I’ve owned that I’ve not needed to worry about running out of juice midway throughout the day. Though I find its quite hard to find a suitable table stand for it, especially if using it unfolded.
My Android journey began in January 2014 with a Sony Xperia Z1, upgraded from an iPhone 4S with a busted home button. It was a pretty great introduction to the Android world with Sony’s near-stock interface (when compared with the dark days of T**chwiz bloatware and whatnot) and lasted until January 2016 when I upgraded to a Sony Xperia Z5 Premium. The lack of an SD card slot of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 made me hold my nose and get the Z5P despite its Snapdragon 810 SoC, and I endured its abysmal 3.5 hour SOT until 20 months later I upgraded to a red Sony Xperia XZ Premium. This was a really good looking phone and its SD835 SoC was definitely a far cry from the 810 with 5.5 to 6 hours SOT. 28 months of use later and the XZP unfortunately started lagging, which prompted me to try out Samsung. The Note 10+ impressed me with its nearly bezelless screen and s-pen, but the Exynos 9825 SoC was pretty meh at battery life. So another 28 months later and I’ve upgraded to the SD 8+ Gen 1 Fold 4.
I’m currently running the Pixel 6 Pro with Graphine OS.
Worst thing about this phone is the curved display. Everything else is good enough for me, which is saying a lot. I’ve had many phones over years and only a few have really been awesome.
I love this phone. I thought it’d take longer than it actually did to get used to not having a home button anymore, but I adapted in less than an hour. Love how OxygenOS is very close to stock Android. The glass on the back is super slick. Everything is super slick to me. My hands are chronically dry. So I hate all these glass-backed phones.
I’ve previously used a OnePlus 3, OnePlus One, Samsung Galaxy S4, Motorola Photon 4G, and a Motorola RAZR ve20. I loved my Galaxy. It was my first OLED experience. My OnePlus One felt like kind of a downgrade, but it also allowed me to stop having to sign contracts to get an affordable phone in 2015. Plus, back then, it felt like being a part of something new and exciting. Man I miss Cyanogenmod.
I upgrade basically whenever I need to. The phone I have now is ~3½ years old. The back glass is busted and the battery is starting to lose its life. They will repair it and so I’m thinking of sending it in. I can picture myself using this phone on another 3-4 years barring some kind of carrier stupidity.
No other Android devices. I’m an otherwise Windows/Ubuntu person. Started trying Mint recently. I do have a Fitbit.
I used to have a 4th gen iPod Touch circa 2011 before I got my Photon 4G. iOS 6 ran like crap on it and I was around the corner from building my first PC. I had started using my Android phone for my games and music and such so I just didn’t have a use for it anymore. Sold it off and I haven’t owned an Apple product since.
LG G8 here, quad DAC with the high impedance trick is king, no other phone can get even close to these things 🤯. We only have Sony and Asus now and they aren’t as great as LG’s jack.
Pocophone f1 and I have a xiaomi note 8 as a backup ; because I tend to drop my phone due to carelessness (¯ ¯٥) i have had my screens change twice this year.
I am typing this on my Pixel 7 (recommend me a Lemmy app please :D )
I had a 4a before this, I liked the finger print reader way better on the 4a but other than that my 7 is better, its the best and most expensive phone i’ve ever owned.
Before the 4a I had some random Honor and Huawei phones and I used to upgrade phones almost yearly which I felt was kinda depressing so I figured I should “invest” in a phone I could use for ~3 years.
The only Apple product i’ve had was some kind of iPod that I asked my uncle to copy cd’s onto, it was kinda cool i guess.
At this point, I just can’t do without Stacks, Tile view, Sessions and Work Spaces. The build-in Periodic Reload is also great, but by far, the most incredible feature is that you can customize your right-click menues however you like. I also have a lot of Command Chains set up in the Quick Command bar.
The amount of stuff that you can customize in Vivaldi has been without parallel for me.
Currently, I’m using a Motorola moto g100 and I’m happy with it. Good battery life, nice big screen, much improved performance compared to my last phone. Best phone I’ve ever owned. The main inconvenience is the location of the fingerprint sensor: I’d have preferred if it was on the front of the device somehow (definitely not on the back – I often have it lying flat on the table).
I also dislike the fact it can only remember five fingerprints while I have 10 fingers. Who thought that was a good idea? :þ
Previously I had a Moto G5+ and a Moto G. I guess you could say I enjoyed the quality and relative lack of bloatware of these Motorola phones, while being more affordable than some of the alternatives I was considering at the time I bought them.
Going further back, I had a HTC Desire Z (with a slide-out physical keyboard). I picked it as my first smartphone because I was hesitant to get rid of physical keys, but as it turned out I hardly ever used them. Looking back, this one was clearly the worst value for the money.
Since I switched to smart phones I’ve been upgrading every 3 or 4 years.
Before the smart phone era, I had an Alcatel device (can’t remember the exact model). I used that tiny near-indestructable thing for over a decade, only charging it about once a week. It was mostly an “in case of emergency” though, not nearly as heavily used as later phones, because it wasn’t really usable as a miniature pocket-computer (like smart phones are). Still, I was pretty happy with it at the time: the only reason I got rid of it was because the ‘0’ button broke, and in my country all phone numbers start with 0.
I also have an LG G Watch (Wear OS). A relative worked at Google when these were handed out to employees but didn’t actually want it, so I got it as a gift. It’s pretty old now: I’ve replaced the bands a few times and it won’t charge past 70%, but it still mostly works and the battery still lasts all day. I’m not sure if I’ll get another smart watch if and when this one finally breaks, though.
No Apple products, and my laptop runs Linux Mint. These days, I only use Windows at work or when helping relatives with tech problems (sigh).
Are you happy with it? What are its best and worst qualities?
Absolutely love it. It’s only the second Galaxy model to be sold with the Snapdragon chip in 🇦🇺 Australia, after the S22. I had an S21 Ultra (Exynos) and decided to wait for the S23, because of the rumours that the cameras would be improved.
Glad I waited, and also very glad to have an included stylus, because I’m a photographer and designer, so the stylus is bloody useful!
I honestly can’t think of an downsides to this phone, I’m so damn satisfied with it.
Which phones have you had previously? Which were the best and worst of the lot?
As noted above, I had the S21 Ultra previously. I actually bought a Pixel 7 Pro when it was released, but after about a month I decided that while it was a great phone with some clever new features, I still preferred my S21 Ultra — so I sold the Pixel 7 Pro and went back to my Samsung!
Other previous phones, let me think… First modern smartphone was the iPhone 3G, followed by iPhone 4, iPhone 5S, HTC Desire, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Sony XPeria V, LG Nexus 5X, Google Pixel, Google Pixel 2, iPhone 11 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S10, iPhone 13 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, S23 Ultra.
Not sure if that order is exactly right… haha.
How often do you upgrade to a new phone?
Usually every year, to be honest, which obviously isn’t super responsible either financially or in terms of e-waste, but it really is my number one addiction. 😂
What other Android ecosystem devices do you have? Watches, headphones/earbuds, etc.
Galaxy Watch 4, Pixel Watch, Galaxy Tab S4 (now my son’s), Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (now my daughter’s), and a Galaxy Tab S8.
Oh, and the Chromecast with Google TV.
Do you also use any Apple products, or are you Android all the way? (And/or Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, etc.)
I have an iPad Pro A12X (pre-M1, annoyingly) for drawing with Procreate, and I still have my iPhone 13 Pro — mostly just for shooting videos for work, since phone gimbals integrate better with iOS than they do with Android (or maybe just Samsung). I also have a work-supplied MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max.
Lastly, I also have a pair of AirPods Pro that I bought for my iPhone but now mostly only use with my Macbook, and a pair of Beats Fit Pro that I absolutely love using with my S23 Ultra. I was tempted by the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, but I really prefer buds with winglets for a more secure fit.
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