Recommendations for a mobile phone- tech freaks let's go-

Marin

Lao Tou
Staff member
Hey folks, this week my iphone 7 died, This is what I normally use for making videos etc so its an important piece of equipment.
This is a known component failure that apple will fix for free, with a lot of hassle on my part. I am about done with tech hassles at the moment so I am leaning towards replacing the phone and figure some of you folks might have some experience and advice to offer, maybe not. We'll see.

Originally I thought of just upgrading to another iphone but first, I am annoyed with apple at this point because the restrictive nature and the service is just not great. Even so the airdrop feature is very convenient for the video work, between the phone and the macbook etc. Even with annoyance I might have upgraded to another iphone for jut that reason, but when I looked all of the current offerings for iphones have face ID and no finger print ID which is not only Orwellian and creepy, but also now extremely impractical with Covid, and I just dont like having to hold the phone to my face to open it. It's just unnecessarily tech-flashy and silly. But they ALL have that. The last iphone to have finger print sensor is the iphone 8 and they are only available by third party refurbishers without warranty.

Allegedly the iphone 13 is going back to finger print sensor but I cannot wait as my phone is right now, a dead piece of junk, so I must act. I started looking into android, may be a good time to break the apple reliance. I started looking at Samsung because I believe they make some decent quality, and I know next to nothing about any other Android makers. The issue with Samsung is that they appear to mostly make fairly huge phones, and I like things that are easier to use with one hand. SO they do have a somewhat recent model that is smaller with good features, the Galaxy S10E, but as far as I can find that also can only be bought "certified pre-owned" from either Samsung (maybe a better option) or third parties which dont look good.

I am considering the Galaxy S10E refurbished by samsung because it has a warranty, but I would like anyone's advice on whether that is a good idea if they have experience with the company, the model or the 'pre-owned' phones. Important is that I am only buying unlocked CDMA phones at this time. If anyone has advice about what other good android makers and models might be for not huge phones with exceptionally good video and camera I would like to know. The iphone 7 has a very good video camera, what I replace it with has to be better, not just pixels but video lens etc.

What say ye?
 

johnyii

Nerd
You are already in the Mac ecosystem. iPhone 12 (not the pro one unless you need the best camera) seems like a no-brainer!

But you are going into the Android ecosystem, I will go for one of Google Pixel to be "pure" their system.
 

Marin

Lao Tou
Staff member
You are already in the Mac ecosystem. iPhone 12 (not the pro one unless you need the best camera) seems like a no-brainer!

But you are going into the Android ecosystem, I will go for one of Google Pixel to be "pure" their system.
OK I will look into that one. Can you elaborate on why you would opt for that instead of samsung? I am totally not knowledgable on this. I would stay within the Apple ecosystem if I could find a phone with fingerprint ID and a reliable warranty, because the apple stuff just fails often. At the moment that is not at all easy. It's also really important of course, that the video and camera be really really good.
 

johnyii

Nerd
Personally, I never quite understand the Samsung ecosystem which is why I said that if I have to switch into the Android (Google) ecosystem, I'd rather stay with just Google has to offer which is why I suggest their Pixel phone.
 

teesid

Jingang
You are already in the Mac ecosystem. iPhone 12 (not the pro one unless you need the best camera) seems like a no-brainer!

But you are going into the Android ecosystem, I will go for one of Google Pixel to be "pure" their system.
+1 here. I you were to switch to Android I highly recommend a Pixel. It's Google's own brand so it should get the software updates before others and it's not bloated with third party apps. It's been the most stable Android phone for me so far.

Anyway, if Airdrop is a must then it has to be an iPhone. Right now the most recent model that has Touch ID seems to be the 2020 iPhone SE. It has the same chip as the iPhone 11 pro.
 

Assad

Jingang
I am an Android guy, I used to have a Pixel and was very happy with. I bought last year a XiaoMi, everybody was saying it's good, blablabla ... well the Pixel camera is the best, and generally the hardware is better. And as others said previously, regarding software, Android is Google so no brainer. I miss my Pixel !!
 

johnyii

Nerd
Anyway, if Airdrop is a must then it has to be an iPhone. Right now the most recent model that has Touch ID seems to be the 2020 iPhone SE. It has the same chip as the iPhone 11 pro.
Good call! The iPhone SE has the same chip as my iPhone 11 Pro but with Touch ID!
 

Marin

Lao Tou
Staff member
OK, I had totally missed the SE, that was a good call. I bought one, just arrived, will set up later. This is the best compromise. It is basically a slightly improved iphone 8. This reduces the hassle and change that I would encounter moving to Android at this moment and keep the video making process streamlined.
 

angryclown

Jingang
I have a Pixel phone and I like to say it's the best of both worlds: By building their own phone, Google has managed to replicate all the invasiveness and data theft of an Apple phone, while still retaining all the instability and buggy-ness of an Android.
 

Marin

Lao Tou
Staff member
I have a Pixel phone and I like to say it's the best of both worlds: By building their own phone, Google has managed to replicate all the invasiveness and data theft of an Apple phone, while still retaining all the instability and buggy-ness of an Android.
I was kinda worried about that when considering google. I already do my best to get google out of my life on my laptop etc so I was concerned about making google my actual phone. Apple is maybe even a step below google on the evil ladder.
 

angryclown

Jingang
I think Apple gets a boost on the evil scale for showing other companies how to do it and make money off it-- now everybody wants a piece of that pie. You're gonna get screwed either way, I just feel like Apple at least has the decency to dim the lights and give you a shot of cheap whiskey before fucking you over...
 

Marin

Lao Tou
Staff member
At least apple recently made the move to allow users to opt out of cross site tracking etc.

Of course, as soon as the new phone arrived the old phone starts working- somewhat mysteriously. I know that if I were to return the new phone the old one would mysteriously stop working again. I am conflicted about whether to toy with fate or not.
 

johnyii

Nerd
Of course, as soon as the new phone arrived the old phone starts working- somewhat mysteriously. I know that if I were to return the new phone the old one would mysteriously stop working again. I am conflicted about whether to toy with fate or not.
In times like this. It’s not a bad idea to have some buffer or backup! My phone is my 2FA (two factor authentication) to my bank, my work and my entire digital footprint. I simply cannot imagine losing it for a day especially when I am on the road right now
 

Marin

Lao Tou
Staff member
In times like this. It’s not a bad idea to have some buffer or backup! My phone is my 2FA (two factor authentication) to my bank, my work and my entire digital footprint. I simply cannot imagine losing it for a day especially when I am on the road right now
Well I have resigned myself to the idea of having 2 I guess, because I know how this works. It dies the minute the new one leaves.
 
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