I have a Samsung S20, it’s starting to have issues, so I’m looking at something decent, need large screen 6in+, prefer powerful phone for future proofing. I don’t intend to glash it the 1st year, last phone I put a custom ROM on was my Note4. Right now I’m looking at the 1+ 12 and the pixel 8 pro, the pixel 9pro is just out of my price range. Is there anything else I should be looking at?
If your phone can survive until next summer it might be a good idea, EU is forcing some consumer friendly requirements which I imagine will give you a wider availability of models with five years of updates.
https://energy-efficient-products.ec.europa.eu/product-list/smartphones-and-tablets_enEcodesign requirements will apply to mobile phones and tablets put on the EU market from 20 June 2025 onwards, including:
- resistance to accidental drops or scratches and protection from dust and water
- sufficiently durable batteries which can withstand at least 800 charge and discharge cycles while retaining at least 80% of their initial capacity
- rules on disassembly and repair, including obligations for producers to make critical spare parts available within 5-10 working days, and for 7 years after the end of sales of the product model on the EU market
- availability of operating system upgrades for longer periods (at least 5 years from the date of the end of placement on the market of the last unit of a product model)
- non-discriminatory access for professional repairers to any software or firmware needed for the replacement
Wow! I think Louis Rossman will be happy about this, although the U.S.A. lobbyists are most likely trying to push in the opposite direction. I mean, we stand to benefit in that manufacturers are unlikely to make different models, but anything beyond the physical can be differentiated by region so they can continue to screw the consumer senseless in U.S.A. while the EU actually continues to do good for the consumers.
If they’ve already spent the developer time to create a security update for the EU market then I imagine they will push it to phones in the US too.
In the US carriers have a lot of control over the software on phones bought through them (most of them). So you’d have to get the update verified and approved by them.
Ah, that sucks and complicates things. One can only hope that doesn’t stop the US phones from getting them then.
Yeah that’s what I’m saying. Certain things will be global, but in terms of repair availability etc. you follow Louis Rossman? He’s been trying to get right to repair in Congress and meanwhile the lobbyists keep pushing back and some manufacturers are starting to just plain go evil. The shit some of them are pulling - in many industries. So I’m just saying we will get the kind of advantages that just have to be included due to logistics, but anything that’s local regulation we are getting worse and worse in the U.S.A. companies are rapidly jumping onto new levels of evil and the FTC has only now got a woman with balls - pardon the expression - but they can only do so much and it’s not even enough.
I mean that would make sense but reality often doesn’t reflect what makes sense. Planned obsolescence is a thing. As is malicious corporations. Many OEMs are creating differentiation in their product lineup by simply removing features from lower end models.
If you can wait until Black Friday, Pixels always have significant sales.
Pixel goes on seriously steep sale in holiday season. If you are in the U.S. and you think the price is right, you can wait for that.
last year: https://www.cnet.com/deals/black-friday-pixel-sale-takes-up-to-25-off-unlocked-google-phones/
I personally will take the pixel over oneplus, just because I like the android aesthetics and like to keep the possibility of modding open.
They also have some pretty crazy trade-ins sometimes. I got my P7 for ~$100 plus a free set of Pixel buds.
The main reasob I was looking at 1+ is they are giving more than twice the trade in value that google give.
Yup, same. Upgraded from P6 to P7 for $20 a couple Black Fridays ago. The P7 is starting to get a little wonky, so I’m waiting to see what the sales look like this year, it’ll almost certainly be either a Pixel 9 or Nothing Phone (2).
I’m looking to upgrade my phone as well. One important thing I want is call recording, and that really narrows the options.
Samsung phones can record calls, but you need to use SamFW to change the CSC. LineageOS does not support recent models.
OnePlus phones have better hardware specs, but I think nowadays you have to root with Magisk and use BCR for recording. That breaks banking apps. LineageOS supports some OnePlus models, but not 12.
Pixels don’t have native call recording? But GrapheneOS works on them. Again, many apps are broken.
Fairphone might be interesting, I should look into that.
I switched from Samsung to Pixel and I’m on my second Pixel phone now and they’re great. So much better OS and smoother than OneUI ever was.
Ironically, I went from Pixel to Samsung, and legit enjoy the less hand-holding the Samsung flavored OS has with all the extra software settings and hardware features I never had with my Pixel.
Of you don’t want custom ROM than buy whatever you want. But if you want privacy you need an pixel phone because they support graphen os.
I’m currently using a Nothing Phone 2 and i really like it.
