My phone’s just bitten the dust and now I need to look for a new one again.
Thought I’d test the waters and see what kinds of phones people on here are using nowadays and what for, what features set them apart if any etc
Bonus points if anyone’s managed to get mainline linux running on them either via KVM or bare metal
Edit: Thanks for everyone who talked about their choices of phone, I am now writing this on a fairphone 4 and am quite happy with it so far.
If you live in the US and want something on a budget, I recommend last year’s Moto G Stylus 5G (the 2023). You can find it for around $250. For the price, you get:
Damn, that does sound pretty good. Is the OS pretty close to stock?
Can depend a bit on your carrier but yeah pretty close. Only issue is the security updates can be infrequent. I love Motorolas as work phones though, the twist motion to turn on the camera and the chop motion for the flashlight are super convenient for an IT guy doing lots of rummaging
Chop motion for flashlight and twist for camera is amazing. I wish I knew how to implement this on a non-Moto phone. It’s gonna be painful switching away at some point.
There are a few apps that let you do motion shortcuts, the issue I’ve found with them is that for whatever reason the apps consume inordinate amounts of battery waiting for the motion while the Motorola implementation seems to have no real energy issue.
Always remember, if the app is free, you’re the product.
Just don’t think about the implications for Lemmy too much.
I remember having issues with the chop motion once and my coworkers looking at me like I’m crazy.
Not my fault y’all settle for inferior products 😤
Now let me continue hacking at the air with my fragile handheld computer.
I’m at my 3rd moto atm. A slightly outdated g31. It came with Android 11 and only recently 2 years after I bought it, it got the 12 upgrade. Still gets regular security patches.
Next the apps installe by Motorola (where I mean by optional that you can deactivate them, not uninstall). None of these apps are in the top 12 in the battery usage statistics and most of them are activated.
Moto App (117MB, optional)
A tutorial center with “kurzgesagt” like animations e.g. for gestures. A selection of shortcuts to settings for customizing your device and Motorola QOL settings.
Moto Actions and Gestures (20MB, optional)
Enables the gestures (has no other brand a shaking flashlight gesture or has Motorola patented it?).
Moto App Launcher (4MB)
The Motorola specific desktop customization. I don’t know how close it is to the Pixel stock image but it doesn’t get in my way.
Moto AI Services (whopping 200MB, optional)
The reviews for this service are scalding. I’m honestly not the biggest fan of having AI on my phone that’s not in my control. Two reviewers point out, that it probably isn’t very invasive AI and rather used for QOL features, like the shaking flashlight feature.
Moto Feedback (31MB, optional)
Helps the user sending feedback (bug-reports and memory-dumps?) to Motorola. Again smotheringly bad reviews. Never had to do with it or used it knowingly. Can be deactivated.
Motorola notifications (88MB, optional)
Again some furious reviews. Double edged sword as it’s used to send news about updates but also push ADs. But the latter isn’t very spammy. Just every few weeks or month a push notifications about a new moto. That’s about the only place where I would see ADs (apart from regular apps).