Yes, Sony is one of the last holdouts to make a flagship that still has both. They used to be really bad at software updates but have somewhat upped their ante on that. The price is still somewhat expensive and charging significantly slow (peak of 27 W is ironically slower than my budget Android phone).

3.5mm jack and SD card slot make a significant difference. I have a cheap phone but have a 256 gigs latter slotted in inside to give some storage. And former is even more important because there are lots of times when I am just listening to say, music or podcast in a still situation where true wireless buds don’t make sense. Why waste battery of expensive wireless buds when one can put decent IEMs in?

Fairphone does make wireless earbuds with replaceable batteries. That being said, does the Fairphone 6 not come with a 3.5mm jack? Sony still ships it’s Xperia series with both the jack and microsD slot, so that is certainly possible.

I know Fairphone would probably be quite expensive even for the price it offers if it ever came to my country, but for the update cycle they offer and repairable build (looks at my broken screen of old Nokia), it actually makes sense. I don’t particularly need the highest end specs, I just need a mid ranger phone that’s sufficiently fluid and Fairphone fits the bill.

In fact, I was more intrigued by their earbuds. IIRC, they are the only one with a replaceable battery. For a set of wireless ones, that is a huge step. I don’t think their sound profile was/is as good as Sony’s or Sennheiser’s but the simple fact that they don’t have to end up as e waste makes them way more value for money in the long run.

How is the battery holding up (after how many years?). Correct me if I am wrong, it was based on homegrown Tizen OS right.

Yes, I hope Pebble launches internationally (availability in most countries). I hope to daily drive my Galaxy Watch until it’s battery gives away and then looking for another alternative.

Nothing’s original phones and it’s sub brand CMF was not focused on US market at all and could only be bought via developer programmer there. It was more geared towards India and the prices matched the specifications there.

IIRC, Nothing’s original phones were made in southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and it’s previous top tier phone was less than half this price here in India. But with this one, they jumped the gun and made a harrowing decision.

They still have a good array of products in form of Cmf phones (I was close to buying one until I saw it lacked a 3.5mm jack) and earbuds for lower end of the market but they really are being over optimistic here.

Not necessarily. Pixel phones are still very good at photography and crucially, will get 7 years of software upgrades. I would be surprised if this phone hits anywhere close. 165Hz IMO is overkill (heck, many argue 144 Hz on Motorola models is high enough as well).

That being said, the 80 W fast charging does blow away the Pixel (but then many entry level phones as well. The Pixel Pro has 27 W still right?) and raw benchmarks would be higher as well.

Huh, that shouldn’t happen. Whilst Samsung gatekeep certain features for its models only (like ECG for instance though one can bypass it by sideloading the SHM Monitor app from XDA), basic features do work fine with most models. I have a non Samsung device as well.

The watch getting too hot is a problem. I have seen it slowing down it’s charging speed (if not outright refusing to charge) in summers here.

Yes, Garmin is quite good. I only use my Galaxy Watch for basic health and sleep tracking (I know they are paywalling some stuff, but stuff like sleep or heart rate is bare minimum thing) and the odd music streaming.

Garmin definitely would give better milege in that case.

There is one called FairEmail. While it technically has a pro version (one time purchase), but most of the needed features are available on the free tier. Plus it’s available on F Droid as well, so that’s a plus and is continuously maintained.

Configuring one’s system to always login as root in Linux is significantly easier than rooting an Android phone. One needs to know their way to root their phone and spend significant amount of time tinkering with it so that everything works properly.

As for malicious apps, there are many such apps on the Play Store as well. In fact, I would argue that the safest distribution channel is F Droid and not Play Store.

I can’t speak for foreign banks but for banks in my country, they have a problem that is way way worse than any Android stuff can solve ( read: giving access to your account only via SINGLE password and only asking for SMS OTP when transaction is done; and of course no hardware key support). I don’t wish my banking data to be less secure than a WordPress account!

I think it’s Xiaomi. Either case, that brand does put lots of useless stuff. Other Chinese OEMs do it too. Realme puts obnoxious junk even on its high end GT7 series.

I just searched for it and apparently, Moto pushed this app to some of it’s devices via a OTA update. It’s ironic because Motorola phones [atleast the midrange ones] have a relatively bloat free reputation.

But in the vast seas of phones, Lineage OS still supports a very small subset. Major players like Google or Samsung are covered but a LOT are skipped.

If one’s phone supports Lineage OS, well and good but it’s not a fix all

I think even some Chinese OEMs throttle somewhat post 80% (and/or give user the option to limit charging upto that point only). I have a spare entry level Samsung phone. It supports 25 W charging though it gets very slow post 80%. It’s not a big deal because the battery capacity is good and with an efficient chipset and 60Hz display, it does way better than my main Realme phone which I need to charge almost twice daily.

May companies like Realme still use Vooc charging and have not switched to USB PD. I think it’s the case with majority of Chinese OEMs.

A similar case is seen in wireless tech where Qi or Qi2(which currently only HMD supports) isn’t the base standard for Chinese OEMs since their propreitary solutions can sometimes wirelessly charge as high as 50W in some cases.

Very few flagship phones offer the first two now. ( I think Xperia series had an Headphone jack). Replaceable battery is almost gone even in mid rangers. Chargers, Chinese OEMs still provide but still not Samsung or Google.

That’s true. Graphene is majorly Pixel limited, I guess. And even Lineage has a small set of devices when one considers the nos of OEMs and variants they manufacture per year.

Doesn’t’ the fork like Lineage OS or Graphene also need to support those phone models first?

I have a Nokia C01 Plus. It was very cheap and it’s just kept, only used occasionally by me. It has Android 11, probably Go version only.

Otherwise, my main phone was littered with bloatware(looks at Realme).

HMD, the spiritual successor to Nokia, still produces the odd phone (latest being the HMD Fusion) that is close to stock Android in feeling. The author mentions that folks looking for stock Android are well served by Pixel A series of phones but they are still overwhelmingly expensive, Atleast in emerging markets.

They are a major force in the Chinese market so maybe it might see some traction there, but otherwise, I still don’t see a third mobile OS getting genuine market share.

I could be wrong, but didn’t previous generation of Samsung A series phones come with eMMC storage. I think this has UFS 2.2, so slight increase there as well.

But I agree that overall it’s an incremental upgrade only. And base model of 4GB RAM might not hold in the long term. I had/have an entry level Samsung phone(A05 I guess), but that stutters much

Do Silicon Carbon batteries have a lower lifespan than Lion ones? I know they allow for more dense and higher batteries to be packed in slim packaging but didn’t knew if there is any potential downside.

Yes, it has a 3.5mm jack.

HMD has committed to only 2 Android upgrades and 3 years of security updates (just like their mid range Nokia series of smartphones they launch(ed)).

I knew their update policy was bad, didn’t knew it was this bad.

Mobvoi’s alternatives always boasted of much longer battery life than Pixel or Galaxy counterparts. The author moans about lack of Google Assistant support and wireless charging but honestly, significantly larger battery life is more than worth any Assistant.

Also, wireless charging might be more convenient but it generates a lot of wasted heat and my Galaxy Watch throttles when charging via WPC mechanism in high temperatures.

One valid criticism is the slow rate of upgrades that this company gives and it’s lesser international availability.

Stock android experience is the exception, not the norm, sadly. Some manufactures like Motorola or HMD have a light touch and close to stock but other ones don’t. The worst offenders are Chinese brands who twist it so much and without much benefit(Atleast, Samsung’s ONE UI is customizable as heck, can’t say the same for Realme’s).

Hardly any proper compact phones are released now. Even Asus has switched to larger sized models with its newer Zenfone series.

Upto 6000mAh battery is common. Some Oneplus phones have upto 5500 mAh, Samsung budget series have an option upto 6000mAh. And of course, Chinese OEMs do offer tons of phones in that range.

Now, what is interesting is that phones above 6000mAh are rare. Whilst there is the occasional power bank attached phone that weighs half a kilo and has five digits battery life; the most I have seen is a Techno phone going upto 7000mAh.

Yes, 4 out of top 5 slots in India (in terms of market share) are taken by Chinese OEMs (other being Samsung). However, not all are equally unknown. Brands like Xiaomi have released international phones as well and are regularly reviewed by Western publications. Techno, meanwhile, is slightly more focused on emerging countries and is out of depth in developed economies.

I also use Iceraven. I think, apart from Smart cookiewebpreview, it’s the only one that allows for extension sideloading.

Sideloading xpi’s is possible on Iceraven as well. I used Smart Cookie Web preview in the past but it was slightly lighter in terms of feature set then.

It isn’t much better either. HTG went from a great site publishing tech articles to riddled with paywalls(you will encounter sign in screens if you read multiple articles quickly), Premium options, ad affiliated newsletter links and just constant churning of low quality filler mostly.