Still bewilders me Google got rid of the 2 button navigation style. They hit the nail on the head with that one, it was a perfect balance of convenience and speed, and they went and gutted it for a half-baked ripoff of iOS’ gesture system. Cannot explain how upset I am over that.
You can switch back to 3 and 2 button navigation in the settings if you want. I use the 3 button navigation. I use all three buttons.
I think it’s their way of admitting gestures is stupid. Gestures makes it unclear where the OS UI ends and where the app UI begins. A completely shit idea.
What version of Android are you on? Android 12 or below? It was removed entirely in Android 13. It can be “patched back in” on a custom ROM, but doing so breaks the recents screen due to incompatible changes made to the system launcher (which handles the recents screen for… some reason).
Or maybe you have a Samsung or other phone that has their own 2 button implementation. But as far as I’m aware, it’s gone from AOSP as of Android 13 :(
Android 14 is the most underwhelming updated yet. Google didn’t even promote it well on I/O. About OneUI 6, I just wish Samsung updates the control center. It’s too outdated. I know it’s simple and working well, but I would love some visual tweaks.
For me it’s probably the ability to sideload apps, among other things. Apps like NewPipe which would never make it to the Play Store are apps that I use every day, because they are just good apps. Also, I just like the UX of my Pixel compared to an iPhone - I couldn’t live without things like a back button, and I sort of don’t like the iOS UI.
Pixel 7 Pro w/GrapheneOS. Being able to control what my phone is sending or not sending + the battery life gain from everything not phoning home is amazing.
My friend recently went on a trip into the mountains for some hiking, they took some photos that made me ask if it was from a DSLR camera, but it was just from a Pixel 7 Pro. Amazing how far phone cameras have come.
I can build my own ROM and add any tweaks I want to the source
Full filesystem access, not the circus act iOS is running with their "file management"
I can run any browser I want, download any file I want
I can sideload any app I want, and install open source apps from F-Droid
I can use projects like ReVanced to install modified apps effortlessly, and don’t have to go through the AltStore/Apple Developer BS to install simple things like uYou
I can entirely replace my home screen with a different launcher app if I wanted to
I have a Pixel 4a because I refuse to spend more than $200 on a phone. The battery is starting to not last very long so either I am going to replace the battery or get a Pixel 6a for $200. I’d really prefer to not need a new phone because I like the headphone jack.
Agreed. Also their hardware and software integration, long term support, and battery when compared to other flagship phones, although the s23 seems to be on par with iPhones this time around.
Anecdotally, I have to say iPhone seems to have terrible battery life. My wife and several friends all have had the last few iPhones and they seem to be charging their phones all the time. At least every night but often during the day as well. My Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ was amazing. Like 1.5 days of battery. Then I got my Google Pixel 6 Pro and 7 Pro and it blew my mind. I go 2+ days on a charge no problem.
I suppose to be fair I use my phone more like I did my BlackBerry back in the day, whereas they all use TikTok and stuff fairly frequently.
I don’t use Brave anymore but god, I remember really loving that bottom search bar layout (with the search icon rather than the whole bar). It was probably one of the hardest things for me to get used to not having when I switched to Firefox.
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