@Edent well done! I was recently reading the #TakeTheJumpNow manifesto and they recommend keeping products for at least seven years, which isn't an easy feat with all the new shiny devices that come out each year https://takethejump.org/end-clutter
@Edent
I'm surprised that current generation of foldable phones are popular. A small crack or even scratch on screen or protection glass makes me mad. I've checked how it looks like in shop (i.e almost unused). The folding trace is SO visible.
@Edent that's what I do. Newish phone (eg last years flagship) kept for 4y which is about Google EoL for security updates. Works out about 100 quid a year, which is fine
@Edent I feel I am at least as excited as you about swapping to a foldable. However, I have had several first hand accounts of a loud noise from an adjacent room causing them to fail.
@Edent Where did you get the battery replaced on your 5T? I've got a onePlus 6 that is getting long in the tooth but I think a replacement battery could get another couple of years out of it. (Also can you link me to Lineage?)
@rnalexander I walked down to my local phone shop and asked for a replacement. They didn't have stock but ordered it in for me. Cost of battery & fitting was about £40-£50. Cost of the new battery was about £30 on eBay - but I wasn't confident enough to do it myself. So a fair price!
Here's the official source for Lineage - don't use 3rd party sites. https://lineageos.org/
@Edent I realise that the 6a doesn't fold (I just tried it to make sure: it stubbornly refused), but like you I have concerns over the longevity of such devices
@damien@Edent Really loves the Pixel and it's worth every penny, especially as the after-market support is good. Unfortunately the screen took one too many knocks - I ended up buying a Oppo A78 - it's noticeably slower and suffers sometimes from slowdowns - but for the price (€250) it's perfect until my contract runs out, then I'll happily donate it somewhere
@Edent Can't get Samsung A series with 5G? My A73 cost equivalent of ~400GBP IIRC, when it first came out. I choose based on lifetime of guaranteed security updates first, then other features...
@nwp no. I'm talking about amortised cost of ownership.
Having a £600 phone last 6 years is the equivalent of buying a new phone every year for £100.
(Or a phone every 2 years for £200 etc).
@Edent Yeah, I get that. I just wasn't clear exactly what you were trying to achieve. Cheapest over time will probably be the A14 as I mentioned in other message. Hardly anybody else guaranteed (or even discussed) update lifetime when I was looking. And that comes out to ~35 quid a year.
@nwp@Edent
After 6 years, my Blackberry Key2 is finally nearing an end. Prolonged camera use causes overheating shut down and lack of updates past Android 8.nnnn is now affecting some functionality.
With today’s state of @pluralistic “enshitification” I’m happy to have fewer apps and stay out of tech databases everywhere.
So what’s the masto equivalent phone hardware to purchase today? Do we have to be beholden to perpetual planned obsolescence?
@wonka@FullOnElectric@nwp@Edent@pluralistic the problem with their phone is that they are massively insecure and have been for several years while lying about it and don't seem interested in fixing it. I understand security isn't a main concern for most people but I would be aware of that
@GreenSloth@wonka@FullOnElectric@nwp@Edent@pluralistic basically in modern Android phones there is a public key that's flashed into the secure store on the processor that's used as a "root of trust" that basically begins the chain of checks (called verified boot) that android runs to make sure that whatever operating system you're booting hasn't been corrupted by malware or compromised or switched out on you without your consent. The idea is that only the manufacturer or the creator of the original OS you're booting has the private key they can use to sign the OS so that it will satisfy that root of trust (it also does a checksum to prevent modifications). (In the Google Pixel line, you can also flash a user-set root of trust as well if you want to boot your own operating system, so that it can verify that whatever operating system you're booting is the one that you installed and wipe the phone's storage so attackers can't get access if someone tries to switch the user-set root of trust. This basically gives you the same level of security with custom ROMs that you get from manufacturer-provided ROMs, because you can re lock the bootloader, instead if leaving your phone totally and completely open to attacks once you unlock the bootloader to install LineageOS or whatever. This is why GraphineOS only supports Pixels).
The problem is, Fairphone ships their phones with Google's example developer key still flashed as the hardware (non-user-changeable) root of trust! So anyone could grab the google developer example private key, sign their malware or modified OS version with it, install it on your phone, and you'd never notice. Various viruses and malware can do this to your phone for instance, modifying the OS. It also leaves you open to evil maid attacks.
This flaw has been known for years and is true of all their phones but they've done nothing to fix it, and sadly there's nothing you as a user can do either.
The other thing is that they just completely lie about how long their hardware is supported for. They say 5 years iirc, but you actually only get firmware updates from the manufacturer for like half that because they use old SoCs and the manufacturer stops supporting them, meaning that for most of your phone's lifetime you're actually not getting security critical firmware updates.
@Edent my son's phone died, so I was able to pass on my 6 year old Samsung running Lineage 18 to him. Satisfied my desire for new with a 3 year old Sony that's now running Lineage 20. Children are handy sometimes 😀
I'm skeptical of a folding screen lasting for decent second hand use though.
@adrinux yeah. I think if I only paid a few hundred quid for one, I could bear it lasting just a few years.
But I can't justify the full price - unless I was certain it would last a decade.
@Edent I’m also on the “use you device as long as possible” train. So I’m still running my iPhone 7, and when it eventually dies, I’m buying a Fairphone.
@Edent They do look pretty cool. I'll likely wait until they get the reliability issues ironed out, and then until secondhand ones can be had relatively cheaply. Not worth it til then IMO
@Edent I wanted a folding phone so much I bought one of the Royole Flexpais in 2019 but the screen was a bit disappointing in terms of reliability. Was very cool though and certainly had the Wow factor :-) Spec was pretty good (Snapdragon 855) but had a proprietary app store (In Chinese) so most things got sideloaded or from F-Droid: Here was my write-up: http://sxatech.blogspot.com/2019/09/royole-flexpai-flexible-phone-thats.html
I feel I should ask them if they can repair the screen again ...
@Edent I use a few v mainstream commercial apps (social media and streaming) and lots of work apps and messaging and p much zero games, no linux anything, no custom rom anything. I use a phone the way a boomer or a normie teenager would. I like samsungs cuz they have tons of ram and run fast even with 1000 apps open...
@malvernator
I'm just terrified of the idea of having a £1,700 item lost, stolen, or damaged. No matter how strong those new screens are, it seems like a recipe for disaster at that price.
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