What smartphones are people using nowadays?

Lemmy users be like: I built my own phone

Any smartphone, they're not that different and all have the same weaknesses. They're pretty fragile, don't have battery-life and they have lots of bloat and functionality that's gate-kept behind sign ups and cloud accounts

I'm using a Pixel 6, mostly because I like stock android. Not spectacular compared to their previous phones though, notably they used to be the only major company that still had headphone jacks, but that is no longer the case.

Galaxy S10. Still rockin the headphone port.

Google pixel so i could put graphene os on it.

Buy a refurbished or new in box flagship phone from a couple years ago. I paid like 1400$ for a Sony Xperia 1 III but now 2 years later it's like 500$, refurbished with a warranty. It's great value considering most phones brands don't change much in only 2 years and you still get a pretty cutting edge device.

I am on an iPhone 12 mini, I expect to keep it for another two or three years.

There are VNC and SSH apps in the appstore for Linux access.

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:

• More than adequate performance, especially at this price point (Snapdragon 6 Gen 1).
• Adequate RAM (6GB)
• Lots of storage (256GB)
• Decent cameras (50MP + 8MP UW)
• Great display (120Hz FHD+ IPS LCD)
• Great battery life
• Headphone jack(!)
• MicroSD slot(!!)

Redmi Note 9 Pro with LineageOS 18.1 (Android 11).

Stay away from Xiaomi's phones if you plan to use the stock MIUI Android they come with. My SO has a stock Redmi Note 11S and MIUI is the biggest piece of bloated instrusive shit that I have ever seen on a phone.

Pixel 7, but for me I always look for a phone with stock Android and a good camera. Usually any of the Google Pixel phones covers that well.

Bought myself a Pixel 6 used a while back. Been very happy with it

Just switched from an iPhone XR to a 15 pro. Hope to get another 4+ years out of it.

I only switched because my SUV’s CarPlay and wireless charger turned the XR into a no-working hot plate after an hour. The 15 pro still gets as hot but doesn’t seem to shut down. I blame ford.

Fairphone because I want it to last 5+ years without any annoying repairs.

I'm currently using a Samsung S21, but once this thing eats it I'm done with Samsung. I'm sick of the OS updating and installing 6-7 garbage programs on my device without my consent.

I'm going to get a Nokia G42, just buy it outright and be done with the payment plan model. Nokia actually teamed up with iFixIt so I can do service on my own phone without needing to go through Verizon. Easily replaceable battery so I can buy an extra one and have it for when I'm traveling. SD card slot! Headphone jack!! And it's only like 1/4 the cost of a flagship.

It also runs vanilla Android.

Pixel 6 Pro with Graphene Os. You have to make a few concessions when it comes to ease of use, but the privacy and security is top notch.

Still holding onto my Samsung Galaxy Note9

It has an excellent built-in stylus with a headphone jack and expandable storage to boot. Nothing that's come out since feels like an upgrade, only various sidegrades.

I use a pixel 8. If you care about security or privacy, GrapheneOS simply has no substitute.

Battery life lasts about a day and a half. Performance is solid, camera is solid, and it has an AMOLED for active display.

Still using my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, for me it's perfect.

Continues to be up to date, hardware and software wise.

The cheapest piece of shit Samsung make because I break phones. I work outdoors in all weathers and I use my phone alot. I go through on average one a year and I dont want a broken or lost phone to ruin my month.

Pixel 4a. Was the only smaller phone at the time except for one of the Samsung ones but I'd rather have stock Android than the bloated crap from Samsung. Not a fan how big smartphones have gotten.

One plus nord n30. Bought it because it was relatively inexpensive and reviewed well. I'm happy with the purchase thus far.

I'm on the Samsung A54 right now. I had one too many times using Google devices which decided to suddenly die on me (Nexus 5x, Google Pixel 4a) and Internet mummers seem to hint that newer Pixel devices seem to be continuing that same lack reliability. I have an older Samsung tablet that is still working (better described as something that just won't die) so I decided to try the Samsung world of things to see if I can get the reliability I desire. So far, so good.

Curious about the Google device issues? The Nexus 5x worked great until it just died for good one night. The Pixel 4a worked great until it "turned off" at night making me miss all my alarms and requiring me to turn it back on. Now it is a coin toss if it will stay on overnight or just turn off for no reason making me miss all alarms. Apparently it can turn off when you are not using it which is a bit concerning for a device that should receive phone calls and sound alarms...

Unfortunately... Samsung is the only "normal" choice compared to others in my country... Other brands shipped adware, or just straight up shows ads on lock screen. I'm not joking. Samsung does it too unfortunately, though not as aggressive. Also I noticed after the year 2020 their midrange model has gone worse.

I miss Sony Xperia. I wish they didn't leave my country.

I'm leaning towards samsung again because of DeX and an absurdly high battery life in a couple of their phones, but samsung don't seem much better than apple as a company

I found the sweet spot on the Samsung A34. It has the things I want, but it isn't flagship expensive and it has guaranteed 4 years of updates plus another year of support.

I'm a Pixel fan. Between the whole family, I think we have almost every generation.

Samsung Galaxy XCover 6 Pro

It was an easy choice as it's the only modern devide with removable battery and a headphone jack. I would've gotten Fairphone but no headphone jack - no buy.

You might ask on c/android if you're not after an eyephone. I now use a Motorola G Stylus 5G 2023, good value at $250 imho. Big screen, fast compared to what I'm used to, good battery life, battery apparently not too hard to replace, headphone jack, SD slot, NFC, 256GB flash, 6GB ram, decent cameras (main, front, and wideangle macro, no telephoto). The main missing "flagship" features that I can think of are wireless charging and USB-C video out. Main complaint everyone has is too few software updates, but meh. I would probably buy this again if I needed another phone right now. The pen (stylus) isn't great but it is handy for poking small UI elements or typing when I'm tired, so I use it more than I expected to. Samsung's S pen is supposed to be better though.

Heads up: the 2024 version of the entry level model (G Play) is out and it's an ok upgrade to the 2023 version, but they removed the SD slot, which makes me wonder if they will do the same in the other models. With 256GB on board I guess the card is less important than before, but it is nice.

Pixel 6 pro.

get an empty can with some wire attached, connect a second can to the end of the wire and provide your intended contact with said second can.

I use a Fairphone 4 running Murena's e/os. The experience has been pretty good so far. I haven't needed to repair the phone yet but it's nice to know I have the option. The os doesn't have any quirks I can't live with. I like their app store, it gives every app a privacy score based on what logging it has and permissions it uses.

Pixel 7 pro with GrapheneOS. It is great.

Galaxy S24 Ultra. I got really pissed off at the Pixel 7 Pro and bought this on a (very costly) whim. But this is the first phone I really like since the Note 9. The screen is gorgeous. The software is better than stock android on the Pixel. And it can actually make phone calls!

Galaxy Fold 3, incredible phone, Dex is fantastic, brilliant for viewing things on larger screens so it's much easier to view.

Battery life is atrocious though, I charge it 3 times a day

I have Motorola something because I'm poor. Though, one good thing about Motorola phones is that they're durable as all hell.

Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G 2022

Don't care about the stylus. Bought it for the features and the value. $250 for a 120hz screen, headphone jack, expandable storage, and nearly 3 days of battery life. I carry all my music on a micro SD. It's been a great phone and my only complaint is the camera. I think the sensors are good it's just moto's camera app, and the obscurity of the model makes it very difficult to find a fully working port of GCam.

I still have the pixel 6 pro, I want it to last until at least a pixel 10. I treat it like an appliance, I'm done with custom roms

I have my old oneplus 6 on my desk as a postmarketOS test device

Samsung Galaxy Z fold 4. I got it for a good price and just wanted to see what folding phones were like. It's pretty awesome. Just hope the durability holds up for a few years.

Jelly Star.

I don't like big phones. I just wish this one was a little thinner. The Jelly Pro was a perfect size, but it didn't have the performance to really be a functioning device. 😔

Poco X3 Pro.

It was very cheap (€188) with a powerful SoC. Though it does come with a caveat: reliability. I knew about this issue since I decided to buy it. It already had motherboard replaced in-warranty not once, but twice. But since I knew about this, I had backups already, so I lost just moderate amount of data. The biggest one was Termux stuff which I forgot to backup since I explicitly excluded the Android folder. Then all the apps, since there's no way to back it up without root.
I mean, the software is also quite buggy, but oh well, I can work around it.

Hardware wise, the mentioned SoC (Snapdragon 860), FM radio, headphone jack, IR blaster, 120Hz IPS LCD (I do not want *LED due to permanent burn-ins.), 5200mAh battery, easy to open (the back cover is soft plastic, so you can just rip it off without breaking anything, then glue it back).

Though now I am also looking at the idea of PinePhone.

Next time I'll probably take something with MediaTek SoC instead, due to MTK engineer mode (*#*#3646633#*#*) due to changes by my carrier. Specifically, I am looking at the band-lock feature.

im still on a pixel 3a

I got a seconhand Samsung S22+.

Great size (my last phone was too small), battery good, performance is great, screens good. Everything is good.

But the camera is meh. I'm really disappointed by that and I don't know what to do. Sure it's an upgrade on my 5 year old cheaper Chinese phone. But I thought it was meant to have a great camera, the default setting are some shitty Instagram looking ai filter where the sky is the bluest blue much darker than reality, grass is some glowing bright green it looks like a fucking video game. I managed to fix a lot of that but it's still meh, night mode is fairly bad too.

ZenFone 10, because it's one of the now rare phones where you can still reach the whole screen with one hand.

Fairphone 5 with iodéOS. Its perfect for me

I use a Gigaset GS5 from Germany. Runs stock android has USBC, 3.5m audio jack, replaceable battery, dual Sim cards, and a SD card slot. Yea, 3 card slots. not those crappy dual SD/Sim card slots.

I got a samsung galaxy s23 ultra. Battery and stylus are dope, camera is fun to use, but it's slightly too big.

LG G8X from 2019. Bought it used last year for a 100€ with the second display case. It runs circles around any modern budget options.

Xperia 1 II

Has every feature I want in a smartphone without compromise.

I have a pixel 6 pro, but I wouldn't recommend it. You'd think Google is capable of providing a perfect Android experience, but my old Note 9 was way less buggy.

I've had lots of issues with 3rd party launchers (nova), I can't even use the USBC with a dongle and second screen (my old Note could do this without issues). Also this is my first phone without headphone jack and SD slot, both I really miss. Just in general the software (especially in the beginning) felt really buggy with small glitches etc.

I don't think I'll ever go pixel again.

Pixel 7 because oft grapheneOS. As all Smartphones are pretty much the same because we reached a plateau, the only thing differentiating them is how easy it is to install another OS.

Galaxy A32. It no longer receives software updates, but still gets security updates. It works fine for me.

Unfortunately, an iPhone 13 Mini.

I’d love to switch back to GrapheneOS (used it on a Pixel 3a for a while), but I really don’t like Pixel hardware. The Fairphone 5 is on my radar, but it’s expensive for what it is and also isn’t available to purchase in the US. I’m also not sure if CalyxOS supports it yet, and there aren’t any other Android roms that I’m interested in.

So I’m suffering with iOS until something else becomes available.

I’m hoping Linux phones become viable within the next 5-10 years. I have Ubuntu Touch on my Pixel 3a and PostMarketOS on my Pinephone. Mobile Linux is super cool and fun to play with, but is nowhere near daily driver ready yet.

Pixel 7. It's fine.

rn using a Samsung Galaxy A32, planning to switch to a pixel 7a eventually

I have an iPhone 11 Pro. It’s a few years old now, but still gets updates and is still quick enough. However, the battery is fading pretty quick and Apple has made replacement inconvenient at best. I’m going to order a DIY battery kit that will hopefully take care of that, otherwise it’s gonna be replacement time.

Google Pixel 6a

iPhone 13 Pro. Will probably keep it until the 16 Pro later this year maybe, or I might go another year. Nothing wrong with it so far, I mostly just want a type-C connector for convenience at this point

Pixel 8 sounds like what you're looking for.

Blackberry Key2 because nothing beats a hardware keyboard. Tried it but cant life without one.

A Librem 5. It's exactly what i want, a small desktop PC with modem in it.

I really like the looks of those TCL NXTpaper phones. They use a matte color eink display that looks amazing.

Just bought a Galaxy s20+ ultra refurbished a couple of months ago. Only cost like 300 and had comparable specs to the current $1500 phones.

Wife has to have apple and I couldn't bring myself to buy her refurbished for her birthday... bit the bullet and got an iPhone that was 1 or 2 generations old, still cost like 800-900.

Recently got myself a Pixel 7a and it's been a great experience.

Pixel

My Pixel 6 Pro got smashed up in a bike crash, so I recently replaced it with a Pixel 7a.

I don't know if anyone's run desktop Linux on them, but I'd guess if there's any phone where that's been done, it'd be a Pixel. They make it easy to run other Android ROMs, and the Pixels are probably the most popular phones amongst the type of people who would like to attempt that as a result. (Personally, I stick with Google's Android.)

Pixel 4, probably gonna be on this phone for a while.

iPhone 13 Pro. Probably going to upgrade to a 16 Pro this fall.

a Pixel 3 they're basically the Google equivalent to the iPhone I did some work merging code for my Fire tablet's Android kernel, and when I saw how much development Google put into Android, I figured Pixels would probably have the best drivers thing is kinda old, but it works great for my purposes no SD card slot though ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ but it came bundled with a few USB adapters, a wireless charger, and some headphones.

I'm on a OnePlus 5. Had it for a few years now and love it. Best phone I ever had.

I am still using Redmi note 5 pro and it's working great!

They're all pretty much the same, unless you're looking for specific use cases, e.g. camera, outdoors ruggedness, gaming, specific OS build, etc. I stopped getting flagships once I realized my old ones battery started to swell like a cheaper phone. I'm on Android, so I get to replace any app with the one of my choice - I'm particular about data submissions to home and sneaky stuff like autotagging. Now all I look for is a recent android build (for app compatibility), decent camera hardware (I'll replace the app), IP68 and a good price.

Degoogled Pixel 4a that I bought to replace my broken Pixel 4a. I'm gonna use this thing until it dies and then maybe buy another one. I'm not sure when another phone this hold-able, reasonably powerful enough, and good LineageOS support will get released.

Samsung A52. Great battery, 90hz, works with Tello, and is cheap.

Pixel 8 Pro. I'm satisfied of it. The first thing I did was unlocking and the second rooting.

S10+ it's running for me for the last 3 years. Used Samsung's cost like 1/4-> 1/3 the starting price about 1.5 years after release.

Samsung ultras series with a pen. The pen feeling is real-time. Also pretty robust little thing. I’ve had it a few years and I love this phone.

I also still have an lg g4 that still works. I keep it as a backup emergency given that it still works and has a replaceable battery.

I use a Samsung S21 5G as my daily driver with an S8 as my phone for watching videos because it still has a headphone jack. This is going to be my last Samsung phone though, I can't support their constant injection of bloatware every update, their atrocious customer support, and the removal of good features.

S20FE. It was cheap ~500 when i got it and it had all the stuff i wanted (microsd, 120hz, latest chip, 3 cameras, flat screen).

Use Termux on android to run Linux natively with proot

6s (2015) here. I know that perfect phone doesn’t exist and mine is getting older with every minute now, battery is a joke even after one replacement few years ago..

..yet for all those years I have trouble finding any replacement, and I am open for any direction that will just feel fine (at least), somehow nothing does.

Permanently Deleted

Whatever work pays for

Loving my zenfone 9, has some issues due to the supported network bands but its usable with some tinkering (USA).

Regular Galaxy S22 256Gb

Was choosing between S22, Pixels, and Nothing Phone. Ultimately, I went with the former because I happened to accumulate Tab S8 as well as Galaxy Buds 2. If not for those, probably would've saved a buck with first Nothing.

Pros: Easy cloud sync, good processor, nice materials, could be found for a very affordable price, and rest of the features that come with premium phones

Cons: No headphone jack, no SD card slot, some bloat you can't remove, battery

Would've probably still rocked my Poco F1 if it didn't get obliterated by a 0.5m drop onto a quartz floor. It never fully recovered from it.

I usually use a cheap Chinese phone around 100 bucks and swap it every 1-2 years.

Murena 1, its the phone made by e os

Samsung S21 that I've mangled a bit via debug mode to get rid of most junk apps.

I'm not really that picky, as long as It's android. The only reason why I have this model is because my phone is paid for by my employer, and when my previous phine died while I was out in the field, I just had to pick something they had available there and then, while the guy approving the purchase verified the purchase.

OnePlus 8T with LineageOS 21 on it. Thing's already a version of Android past official support, and it works great. Zero complaints, I don't see myself upgrading anytime soon. I expect to see at least another 2 years on that phone, maybe longer. Averaging 25% memory utilization, so it's got room for Android's enshittification for quite a while still.

Xiaomi 13: great for pictures, shitty OS

I use a Nora12 with the extra defensive block.

oneplus 9 pro

pixel 7a, calyx

Pixel 8 Pro/CalyxOS. Originally considered PinePhone/FairPhone, but mobile Linux just doesn't cut it for me quite yet. Originally considered installing GrapheneOS, but learned that the developer is yikes.

There are a handful of issues, but it's working pretty well overall. I don't miss iOS, except for Spotlight.

Smasnug A40. It can run a browser, SSH, and play music. It has USB-C and a headphone jack.

I dread the day I have to replace it.

Pixel 6 pro on graphene os and an iPhone 13 pro max

Moto edge + 5g

Pixel 5, it's fine. Used to unlock bootloader/flash a custom os but less hobbyist lately with the phone, next one I get is definitely going to have a headphone jack though.

iPhone 8, I have been surprised by how long it has lasted so far. Still gets security updates every now and then.

Next phone is probably going to be a fairphone.

iphone. They're solid and they get updates forever so there is no rush to upgrade. I don't miss Android and not getting updates 6 months after I buy the phone.

Original iPhone SE. still receiving security updates, and the perfect size for my hand. I hate the trend towards phablets.

Liking my pixel 4a but still using stock :(. Should get round to installing graphene os

I'm using a POCO X5 5G!

And I'm loving it...

Just get the Oneplus 6 xD