I never minded iPhone overall. But my recent phone has been a lemon. Also since the iOS 16 update, the phone has been nearly unusable. Thankfully, people actually seem to be speaking speaking out about it. Usually people will never criticize Apple.

I could go on about all my issues with iPhone, but are there actually better options? I had Android about 10 years ago. It was fine, I didn’t really have any issues. Feels like you just get fed up with one platform and move to another one that’s better in some ways but still not great.

I’ve noticed Google products have fallen off a cliff in recent years, too. For smartphones being one of the most talked about ‘triumphs of capitalism’ (bs), capitalism doesn’t seem to make good phones. Actually, they have gotten way worse in recent years.

  • CountryBreakfast@lemmygrad.ml
    12·
    2 years ago

    Idk I use a Huawei like a good dengist

    Edit: I’ve had my phone since 2019. AT&T tried to send me a new phone because of the whole 5G thing. Lmao hell no imperialists. You won’t catch me slippin. I switched to to Ryan Renalds bullshit service to keep my Huawei.

    • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmygrad.ml
      5·
      2 years ago

      Same pinch, incredibly based, on my P30 Lite right now and am waiting it out for a year or two before making a new phone switch. It will be either a Huawei or a Mediatek based phone. Most important priority to me is 2 party call recording (NOT Google dialer BS), which only Huawei, Xiaomi and Samsung give builtin.

      Edit: almost forgot to tell it has been 3 years of P30 Lite this month, and it is even better than my Honor 6X, which lasted 3 years.

  • Arthur BesseA
    9·
    2 years ago

    If you want to try using a mobile phone operating system that is built and maintained by people who are your allies instead of by giant companies who simultaneously view you as their customer, product, and security adversary, check out postmarketOS.

    It has a variety of user interfaces available, some of which are very geeky (eg sxmo) and some of which are pretty user-friendly (eg Phosh or Plasma).

    It has varying amounts of support for a large and growing number of devices, and can apparently make phone calls on about a dozen of them now. The best-supported device currently is the PinePhone (which can also run many other Linux distributions besides pmOS).

    Unfortunately the PinePhone checkout page still has this warning: “Beta Edition PinePhones are aimed solely at early adopters. More specifically, only intend for these units to find their way into the hands of users with extensive Linux experience.” … I think they’re exaggerating a little bit to avoid refund requests; imo what you need isn’t extensive prior Linux experience per se but rather some perseverance and the ability to troubleshoot. A lot of people are using pmOS and other non-Android Linux phones as their daily driver without often needing to troubleshoot anything, but it can sometimes require a bit more technical proficiency than just using an iPhone or Android device.

  • TeezyZeezy@lemmygrad.ml
    8·
    2 years ago

    Honestly I don’t think so. I have had my phone since 2020 and it’s already basically fucked, lol. Recent years have only gotten worse technologically.

    Like the other comment said, Apple has been the worst with reference to planned obsolescence in my experience. I have heard you can get some good Huawei/Xiaomi phones for pretty cheap off of Alibaba or Amazon, even.

    • i_must_destroy@lemmygrad.mlOP
      6·
      2 years ago

      Smartphone tech has plateaued imo. Honestly, that’s not even a bad thing. It has most of the features people want already. The cameras usually take great pics. I got this iPhone 2 years ago and planned to just keep it as long as possible, but it’s been terrible. The battery was totally shit after like 5 months.

      • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmygrad.ml
        5·
        2 years ago

        Precisely the only things now are:

        • ultrawide camera quality
        • to a slightly lesser extent, main camera video quality
        • 2 party builtin call recording (not Google dialer crap) is only provided by Huawei, Xiaomi and Samsung (Samsung is region dependent) in the market AFAIK

        Battery replacement aside, these 3 allow keeping phone for longer. Samsungs are hilariously bad in budget and midrange, so your options are pretty narrowed. If you do not need 2 party call recording, Realme and Asus are other great options.

  • chinawatcherwatcher@lemmygrad.ml
    81·
    2 years ago

    there are multiple brands of chinese phones like xiaomi, huawei, etc that are all cheaper and/or better for the price than their western counterparts. as far as phone plans, i’d make sure to get an unlocked phone (which i think all global phones are anyways) so that you can get a cheap af phone plan like redmobile, cricket, or any of those kinds of providers. i pay like 10 a month or something for phone service

  • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
    7·
    2 years ago

    It depends what you mean in terms of non-terrible. Huawei and Xiaomi make great affordable hardware. I got a Huawei Mate 10 Pro three years ago and it’s still going strong, before that I don’t think I had a smartphone for longer than a year before it developing serious issues.

    If you’re more concerned about privacy and de-googling then ironically a Google Pixel with Graphene OS seems to be the best choice. There are a couple of Linux based smartphones around too but the hardware can be quite dated and you’d best be prepared for a lot of tinkering.

    • i_must_destroy@lemmygrad.mlOP
      5·
      2 years ago

      I am getting more serious about my privacy. iPhone has just shit the bed so bad the last few years. Autocorrect is terrible, constant, serious bugs that will never get fixed. It won’t send messages to android phones half the time now. I’m honestly not convinced Apple and others don’t purposely sabotage other apps on their platforms now.

  • MexicanCCPBot@lemmygrad.ml
    7·
    2 years ago

    As someone who switched back from iOS to Android last year, it’s not as “thrown together” anymore as you imagine. I’d say the experience is just as polished as the iOS experience when it comes to everyday use, particularly on mid/high-end phones. My phone receives regular security and feature updates over the air so it has that too. Plus you earn extra amenities such as a proper file system, tons of customization, and other features that iPhones just don’t have. Though I also have to admit I didn’t invest in the Apple ecosystem (no Airpods, no iPad, etc) so I had no vendor lock-in in that regard.

    • i_must_destroy@lemmygrad.mlOP
      4·
      2 years ago

      iPhone was historically usable at least. iMessage is very good usually. I got a Mac last year to make music with and I am already on the verge of selling it.

  • electric_nan
    6·
    2 years ago

    I’ve got a one plus phone that I’m pretty happy with. I only buy phones that are supported by lineageos. I actually install lineageos4microg which replaces some necessary (for me) google services with open implementations. Just updated to android 12 last week.

  • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.ml
    4·
    2 years ago

    One of my problems with both Apple and Microsoft is how non-upgradeable they are. What I mean by that is you can’t replace old parts with new ones (like you can with a PC you build). So if your phone starts bugging out because the new update is too much for its current parts you have to end up getting an entirely new phone instead. Trying to look for alternative that will last is pretty hard. I guess for phones this would be hard since they’re small but the Framework laptop looks nice as it’s built for longevity.

  • Arsen6331 ☭@lemmygrad.ml
    4·
    2 years ago

    It depends on how well you need it to work. Pine64’s PinePhone and PinePhone Pro are what I’d recommend for people who don’t want to use Android or iOS. Unfortunately, because the only people writing code for Linux phones are hobbyists like me, there aren’t many apps and certain features don’t work. The original PinePhone is fully working, but it’s slow due to an old CPU. The PinePhone Pro is pretty fast, but features like the cameras don’t work properly yet. If all you’re doing is calling and browsing the web, both of these options are far better than Android and iOS phones. The PinePhone Pro is also finally getting usable Android app support, so you’ll be able to get the best of both worlds.

    If more features and reliability are required, I’d look into phones that can run open-source android builds. Not as good as mainline Linux, but far better than proprietary spyware.

  • Read_Michael_Parenti@lemmygrad.ml
    4·
    2 years ago

    I would say buy a used Samsung. You don’t have to depend on Google services as much with their products, and you get the most updates of any Android brand. The cameras are also better than a lot of other Android phones if you care about that. I would highly suggest against getting a Pixel, they are so buggy and get poor support.