Whats the least evil phone I can buy?
The answer is none, isn't it?
On a related note, Huawei phones are hard to find in Australia :thinkin-lenin: I wonder why? :xi-lib-tears:
Those look so cool! Props to them for making a phone that you can repair yourself!
dont work in the USA afaik
i usually just buy whatever phone currently holds the record for battery life and is sub-200 dollars. did that 7 years ago and im still going strong on mine even with the battery being built in. still can last me a full day on 1 charge after all these years. before it could last me like, an entire week lol
the actual biggest issue when a phone lasts that long is that the microusb charging port slowly starts to erode away so it becomes harder to charge it. im thinking of maybe trying to get wireless charging on my next one, might have to replace this one in a year or so because of this issue
I've had the corroding port problem on a couple phones I've owned too. My current phones a 2018 and it has wireless charging, but I ended up never using it because it would always disconnect and reconnect and turn the screen on and off all through the night, or disconnect and not charge at all. And that was after spending a couple of minutes trying to find the perfect spot for it to charge on every night. Other wireless chargers have been similar.
Maybe newer phones are better, but see if you can test it out before you buy if you plan on relying on that in the future. The corroded port is still better for me than a wireless charger.
Wireless charging is sus af.
The battery is one of the first things to fail, and wireless charging destroys it even faster.
It's just generally harder on lithium batteries to charge them wirelessly, and reduces their overall lifespan. Which would be fine if phones had easily swappable batteries, but they of course do not, because that isn't as profitable.
I have trouble finding a source, but that is obviously because of Big Wireless Charger (only half joking). Here's something though: https://www.futurity.org/wireless-charging-inductive-phones-2103782/
I was surprised to hear this so I read a bit of the article. It seems to come down to temperature, particularly from increased power output due to misalignment, which explains the later iPhones magnetic alignment thing… I bet the mag field helps too.
Consider this, folks, a lion battery can basically go 0-100% a finite number of times. The wear is exponential: charging to 20% and draining to 0 is much worse than charging to 100% and draining to 80%. So, if the convenience of wireless charging helps you keep your battery in the happy zone, you’ll get more life out of it.
Also, mechanical ports into a phone are a nightmare.
That makes sense; a matter of degree.
Whenever I've tried wireless charging, my phone does tend to get much hotter than wired charging, but I've always wondered if this is from having a case on the phone.
Like misalignment, distance will require to whole system to work harder and produce more heat.
You could probably get it fixed at one of those cell phone repair shops. I got a new headphone jack put in mine for like $30.
its starting to get to the point that it can barely run gps apps, i keep swapping to new ones that claim to have less cpu usage but im reaching the end of the rope. about time to upgrade i think. in another year ill say 8 years is a good run and move on.
planned obsolescence and bad programming is a hell of a thing
Just get a used phone and keep a device out of a landfill
Refurbished phones are p cheap too. LG flagship phones will sell for peanuts the year after, and if you root them and install LineageOS you can be p confident there's no more bullshit on it.
I don't like the construction of Huawei phones. Myabe it's changed, but around four years ago I looked it up and found too much glue and disposable copper foil in all of their phones, in some of them it looked impossible to even replace the battery or the screen without risking breaking other components. Xiaomi on the other hand is great at this, you can open all of their things very easily with a plastic spugder and a #0 Phillips screwdriver, they are neatly organised inside and you can buy original parts for cheap on dragon-tt.com.
I like to repair my own stuff so this is the most important "feature" of any electronic device for me. I've had very bad luck sending things to repair shops so every time something breaks I spend the money on a new repair tool instead.
I dug around and it turns out Huawei is banned in the US? They might be banned here in Aus too. Apparently android might not work on them or something?
I can't give you a firm answer (I'm writing this post off the top of my head), but if their phones can't use play services, you will have issues. A lot of apps depend on a bunch of Google Play Services APIs to work correctly, although there is an open source project to build a drop in replacement called microG but my understanding is that it isn't quite there yet. In general, yes you should expect usability issues if this is the case.
HOWEVER, some people (I'm not one of them though I see where they're coming from) who would regard these issues as a worthy trade off for keeping some distance from Google for privacy or whatever reasons. The subreddit that you'd want to start researching would be old.reddit.com/r/fossdroid if that sounds like a route you'd go down. If you use Linux full time, it would be something doable, but if that's not your thing I'd keep my distance.
Xiaomi phones look pretty cool too, those might be easier for you to find. Not much of a phone person, so I don't really keep up on new tech or models or anything.
The least evil phone is the bananaphone, but I don't know if you can buy those anymore
You might be able to get away with a Garfield Phone though, they just wash up on the coast every now and again
bring me a nice lasaga Jon, it's Monday Jon, you cannot deny me Jon
I have a huawei phone and it has been pretty good so far for me. The model i have has good battery life and camera.
It was a bit weird getting use to using apk to install app and not using google drive but its probably my favorite phone of the ones i have had
What do you think of Oppo phones? They're Chinese too afaik
Oppo and oneplus are more or less the same thing now so if oneplus stuff interests you that might be good. Other brands to consider are Vivo and Xiaomi, although not all bands will work in the US/Canada, they make really good phones and most bands still work. If you don't need a new phone now, wait for Honor to release something new maybe, since they're the Huawei spinoff after the sanctions.
Can't really do a comparison to other brands since the last phone (samsung) I owned was 5 years old before I switched a month ago. I'll say I'm impressed by the charging speed. It can go from 10% to full in an hour. I don't know if modern phones are all like that nowadays but that one stood out to me. It's quite easy to satisfy me on the phone front but I would recommend Oppo if someone asked.
I was pretty certain Huawei phones were banned from being sold in stores in Australia. If you want one you have to order online from overseas. I know people who have Huawei phones. If you are using the phone for the usual stuff, Huawei phones are reliable and last for years without slowing down. No idea how they compare to Xiaomi
The best phone is the one you have right now, assuming it's all in working order.
Having said that, the moment Huawei or Xiaomi or whoever makes a non-android OS that is actually good, I'll be switching over.
Yeah I hate buying new phones. The only reason I'm looking is I've had mine for 6 years and it's starting to show signs that it's dying.
