Live data from Hacker News

Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

theguardian.com

31–40 of 1001 posts

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#33
post #16
post #3

This will be nice if and only if there is a way to install a custom android version. Otherwise it'll be bogged down with bloatware and will be useless as soon as security updates aren't available anymore. But if so, very nice :)

There's no bloatware since Nokia's Android is Android one. However, the bootloader is locked and their Android's EOF is abysmal which is crazy.

Do they seriously lock the bootloader of a "repairable" phone? That's the most important feature for me, which has prolonged the life of all my Android devices by several years.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#34

> It runs Android 12 and will be supported for three years of monthly security updates and two major Android version upgrades. And that's why I stick to iPhones for long-lasting devices, those two major versions are a joke. Apple has the crown with seven on the iPhone 6S. When will someone make Android phones other than Pixels with non-abysmal software support? Yes, I know you can install alternate ROMs on your phone…

Yeah my wife’s old iPhone 8 Plus still gets updates, still runs. Many of my android devices from that time are dead, no more updates, and/or borderline unusable due to random android slowdown performance issues.

In fact running across that old phone is what convinced me to switch.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#35
I'm happy about this! But, while repairability is always great, a major (maybe the biggest) part of phone obsolescence is due to software. 2 or 3 years of updates are a joke, Apple does up to 8.

The best hope here is that this phone's repairability will attract a software hacking community to provide inofficial updates, but what a terrible thing to have to rely on. Besides: Phones by other brands like Pocophone are plenty repairable, being made for the indian market, and have good community software support.

The real next innovation for an Android device maker will be providing at least 5 years of updates (I'm well aware of the challenges involved, but these are not that hard, make it so).

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#37
As other have noted, the lack of updates and locked boot loader make this a no go, but the state of fully open-source, non-Android phones OSs is likewise abysmal. As such, leaving the iPhone isn’t going to happen for me. I’m still using my iPhone 11, and it’s still nice and speedy, the battery is fine, it gets updates quickly, and generally doesn’t annoy me too much. If the PinePhone or PinePhone Pro had a solid, fully functional, open source, non-Android operating system that was also good with power management… I would switch without hesitation. That’s just a super high bar, and I don’t expect anyone to actually pull it off any time soon.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#38
post #3

This will be nice if and only if there is a way to install a custom android version. Otherwise it'll be bogged down with bloatware and will be useless as soon as security updates aren't available anymore. But if so, very nice :)

I have a G20, and it's pretty vanilla Android stock.

I'm actually excited for this. My family tends to shop in this price range, and you've got a lot of fairly interchangeable phones out there. It ends up being sort of frustrating because there's no obvious right choice.

Now you have a simple argument. You don't have to deep dive explain to Mom the difference between CPUs or manufacturer update policies, just "If this one breaks, it can be fixed without a huge production number."

There was a time when one of the (admittedly secondary) arguments for buying an iPhone or Galaxy S (as opposed to a cheaper alternative) was that the local fix shops had a lot of dead scrap units and could arrange for a cheap quick fix, while if you bought a Nokia or Umidigi, you were waiting weeks for them to get parts and it was probably twice the cost because they didn't want to work on a phone they weren't wildly familiar with.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#40

> It runs Android 12 and will be supported for three years of monthly security updates and two major Android version upgrades. And that's why I stick to iPhones for long-lasting devices, those two major versions are a joke. Apple has the crown with seven on the iPhone 6S. When will someone make Android phones other than Pixels with non-abysmal software support? Yes, I know you can install alternate ROMs on your phone…

Though I'm on android 9? Five year old phone and while I'm not a power user nothing seems to care? Apple apps are much more picky of versions.
Post reply on HN