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Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

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Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#251

Post by berkes »

lopis wrote: post #104
berkes wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been exclusively on Fairphones since Fairphone 1. Recently switched from FairphoneOS (the stripped, bloatfree, google-free Android) back to stock Android¹ Its updates are fast, steady and consistently good (and improving). The FP1 is ten years old, and still works (though android there is EOL and old, and spare parts no longer available), my FP2 and an FP3 work fine, I can still get parts and Android isn't too o…

> The FP4 is top notch. I think find the camera poor though. It takes passable pictures in good conditions. Do you have a better camera app that does a better job?

I probably don't have a reference?

I use both android stock photo app and openphoto (more to tweak).

I think the pictures are good. I'm also old-school in that I think composition, focus, cutout, subject matters far more than pixel quality.

My wife, also FP4 user, sold her canon DSLR 800 (I think?), used for product images in her webshops, because the FP4 made pictures that were just as good or better, without all the hassle.

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#252

Post by berkes »

jagaerglad wrote: post #100
berkes wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been exclusively on Fairphones since Fairphone 1. Recently switched from FairphoneOS (the stripped, bloatfree, google-free Android) back to stock Android¹ Its updates are fast, steady and consistently good (and improving). The FP1 is ten years old, and still works (though android there is EOL and old, and spare parts no longer available), my FP2 and an FP3 work fine, I can still get parts and Android isn't too o…

Did you ever try /e/OS? All my banking apps surprisingly worked on FP4 with /e/OS

I did. I didn't like it. Many apps lacking or couldn't run. Non of my diabetes monitoring apps would run. Many other apps lacked features or crashen on using these features, like push notifications.

I'm pragmatic though, I think Googles services (some, certainly not all) are just so good that I think paying with my data is OK. Like Google Maps. Even though I contribute to OSM, I think all the OSM apps range from "completely suck" to "fancy, but not on par".

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#253

Post by MostlyStable »

scarface_74 wrote: post #243
OJFord wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: why give yourself the headache of coupling having a great camera to choosong a phone then, if it's important to you? Why not have a compact camera as well as whatever phone, and carry that when quality matters?

You’re right, we should also carry around a separate GPS device, MP3 player, one of those portable TV players, and everything else like it’s 2005.

If "average quality" in everyone of those things was not acceptable to you and you actually needed the best of the best, and best quality could not be had in most phones....then yeah that might make sense. I doubt anyone actually cares to have absolutely top tier performance in every one of those categories though, and what most phones have is "good enough". Which is why/how phones ate all those functions. They do most of them "good enough" and "good enough" is all that most consumers care about.

Caring about performance in at least one of those categories is not that uncommon and carrying a dedicated device for that isn't crazy. I have used stand alone GPS receivers before even when I had my phone, and deciding that you need a better camera seems not crazy at all.

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#254

Post by sneak »

bobsmooth wrote: post #18
sphars wrote: post #5

Honestly, the Pixel phones are probably the best compromise between your requirements. While Samsung gets slightly longer support, the bloatware, IMO, is just too much (depends on your definition of bloatware though). Plus the Pixels are first for latest Android and are generally well-supported with third-party ROMs (Lineage, Graphene, AOSP, etc). So my suggestion is the Pixels, (the "a" series for a less expensive c…

I like a lot of the built-in Samsung apps.

How about the ones that surveil your usage of the device and phone it all home to Samsung?

The issue isn't bloat - the issue is spyware.

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#255

Post by scarface_74 »

MostlyStable wrote: post #253
scarface_74 wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re right, we should also carry around a separate GPS device, MP3 player, one of those portable TV players, and everything else like it’s 2005.

If "average quality" in everyone of those things was not acceptable to you and you actually needed the best of the best, and best quality could not be had in most phones....then yeah that might make sense. I doubt anyone actually cares to have absolutely top tier performance in every one of those categories though, and what most phones have is "good enough". Which is why/how phones ate all those functions. They do mo…

> Genuine question: why give yourself the headache of coupling having a great camera to choosong a phone then

But I can have a modern high end phone with a good camera. I can’t buy a camera that lets me take a picture, edit the picture on the device, and then the picture automatically gets backed up to iCloud, Google Photos, Microsoft’s One Drive and Amazon Photos and gets synced to all of my other devices.

I don’t have to settle for a low end phone that won’t see any updates after two years where the operating system is created by an adTech company.

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#256

Post by martin8412 »

znpy wrote: post #179
jqpabc123 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all money. They don't want you keeping a phone for 5 years. Yes. Hardware vendors love Open Source. It essentially cedes all control of the market to them. They spend minimal time/money/effort on software development and updates because surprise, surprise --- it doesn't produce profits, it consumes them. Hardware is where they make all their money. The only realistic way to get long term software support on Andr…

> The only realistic way to get long term software support on Android is from Open Source. Or by laws and regulations. I hope the EU will do something practical in this area, since it seems to be the only entity capable of pushing some useful changes. Example: the digital markets act, which will force companies like apple to allow for side loading of apps. No us entity even attempted at anything similar as far as i k…

Apple is the only phone manufacturer providing long term software support...

Every single phone shipping with Qualcomm SoCs are at the mercy of Qualcomm. When they want you to buy a new chip, they'll kill support for your current chip, meaning that the manufacturer will have to spend effort making newer Android work with older kernel versions if even possible.

My Sony Xperia Z3 had software support killed by Qualcomm. They refused to provide the binary blobs required to make next Android version work despite the CPU being perfectly capable, as evidenced by the beta builds that only needed a small update from Qualcomm.

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#257

Post by MostlyStable »

scarface_74 wrote: post #255
MostlyStable wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If "average quality" in everyone of those things was not acceptable to you and you actually needed the best of the best, and best quality could not be had in most phones....then yeah that might make sense. I doubt anyone actually cares to have absolutely top tier performance in every one of those categories though, and what most phones have is "good enough". Which is why/how phones ate all those functions. They do mo…

> Genuine question: why give yourself the headache of coupling having a great camera to choosong a phone then But I can have a modern high end phone with a good camera. I can’t buy a camera that lets me take a picture, edit the picture on the device, and then the picture automatically gets backed up to iCloud, Google Photos, Microsoft’s One Drive and Amazon Photos and gets synced to all of my other devices. I don’t h…

While it's certainly not the mainstream set of priorities/preferences, it is possible for someone to have a set of priorities in a phone that precludes the high end cameras, while still wanting a very good camera. And depending on the weighting of those preferences, they might be willing to put up with the inconveniences you outline. It's obvious that you peronally don't share those preferences, which is completely fine. But it doesn't make sense to criticize someone else who does.

There are sets of preferences where it is not possible to satisfy all of them and something must be sacrificed. Some people will choose to sacrifice convenience.

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#258

Post by whelp_24 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #232
allarm wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it technically possible to write an open source firmware for the existing wireless chips?

Not really, modem firmware even for wifi and BT is pretty much tied down "thanks" to regulations, you won't get far without an exploit bypassing the signature verification. Governments are apparently very afraid of people modifying their chipsets to be more powerful in range than allowed.

Could you link me some of those regulations or a article on it. I am curious

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#259

Post by scarface_74 »

MostlyStable wrote: post #257
scarface_74 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Genuine question: why give yourself the headache of coupling having a great camera to choosong a phone then But I can have a modern high end phone with a good camera. I can’t buy a camera that lets me take a picture, edit the picture on the device, and then the picture automatically gets backed up to iCloud, Google Photos, Microsoft’s One Drive and Amazon Photos and gets synced to all of my other devices. I don’t h…

While it's certainly not the mainstream set of priorities/preferences, it is possible for someone to have a set of priorities in a phone that precludes the high end cameras, while still wanting a very good camera. And depending on the weighting of those preferences, they might be willing to put up with the inconveniences you outline. It's obvious that you peronally don't share those preferences, which is completely f…

Those are also the stated preference of the original poster

> How's the camera? For me, the camera is more important than anything else on a phone, and thus far I've been stuck with Pixels because, despite the shorter support period (and absolutely mind-bogglingly bad customer service), that software does amazing things with old camera hardware .

Re: Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?

#260

Post by pessimizer »

scarface_74 wrote: post #144
tourmalinetaco wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GrapheneOS and CalyxOS both provide that same benefit while being FOSS.

Only if you have a supported device and you are one of the single percentage of people who want to run non Google Android or deal with the hassle.

> Only if you have a supported device

Not a great point, Apple only sells like five devices.

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