Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

681–690 of 1001 posts

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#681

Post by smcleod »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #566
devy wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see a 3-year security update as an irony. In fact, I see that as a great gesture for the budget price point android phone has a 3-year software warranty. Nokia probably have done research on this pricing segment to know that the averaging budget android device lifecycle is about 2.x years and guarantee a 3 year security update to make the device more worthy, comparing to other brands at this price point. By t…

> Apple iPhone as the gold standard only provide security updates up to 6-7 years Laughs in Microsoft How about 20 years?! I have a laptop built in 2006, it runs Windows 10 and will be supported untill 2025. It can also run software compiled in 1999! What platform can beat it, an IBM mainframe? Microsoft is the gold standard! Its a shame they never get credit for the one thing they do well.

Which Microsoft phone offered 20 years security updates? They can't even keep the product line alive let alone provide security updates.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#682

Post by scarface74 »

ryandrake wrote: post #593
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple iPhone as the gold standard only provide security updates up to 6-7 years Laughs in Microsoft How about 20 years?! I have a laptop built in 2006, it runs Windows 10 and will be supported untill 2025. It can also run software compiled in 1999! What platform can beat it, an IBM mainframe? Microsoft is the gold standard! Its a shame they never get credit for the one thing they do well.

You are absolutely right and it is shameful what consumers simply accept for software support periods! I try to buy things that I hope/expect to work for 10, maybe 20 years. Appliances, cars, tvs, and electronics including phones. Yet software support for all these things lasts a mere 3-5 years if that. I have an iPad1 original that still works great! But software support ended a year after I bought it—over a decade…

Yes Apple should support a 2G iPhone that no cellular network supports

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#683

Post by josephcsible »

scarface74 wrote: post #679
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple iPhone as the gold standard only provide security updates up to 6-7 years Laughs in Microsoft How about 20 years?! I have a laptop built in 2006, it runs Windows 10 and will be supported untill 2025. It can also run software compiled in 1999! What platform can beat it, an IBM mainframe? Microsoft is the gold standard! Its a shame they never get credit for the one thing they do well.

This comparison isn’t really relevant. Could you run the then current operating system in 2006 on a computer that you bought in 1986? A 2010 iPhone 4s can’t connect to any network in the US let alone a 2007 iPhone. Computers changed leaps and bounds in the first 20 years just like smartphones have. Sure my 2010 Dell Core 2 Duo with 8GB of RAM can run Windows 10. But a computer bought in 1997 couldn’t run the then cur…

> Could you run the then current operating system in 2006 on a computer that you bought in 1986?

Linux can do something very similar. You can run the latest version of Gentoo Linux today on an Intel 486 from 1989.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#684

Post by josephcsible »

scarface74 wrote: post #682
ryandrake wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are absolutely right and it is shameful what consumers simply accept for software support periods! I try to buy things that I hope/expect to work for 10, maybe 20 years. Appliances, cars, tvs, and electronics including phones. Yet software support for all these things lasts a mere 3-5 years if that. I have an iPad1 original that still works great! But software support ended a year after I bought it—over a decade…

Yes Apple should support a 2G iPhone that no cellular network supports

Why shouldn't you be able to keep using it on Wi-Fi only?

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#685

Post by dataflow »

cubefox wrote: post #439

Does anyone notice the irony of it being partly repairable, while offering just three years of security updates, after which you basically have to throw the thing away? The repairability sounds nice, but it is very irrelevant compared to the limited software updates. Imagine buying a Windows laptop and only receiving three years of security updates. (I know, most other phones aren't better.) It would have been better…

> while offering just three years of security updates, after which you basically have to throw the thing away

Nope, you don't.

It's just that somehow techies seem to have gotten this meme into their heads that an unpatched life isn't worth living. Can't update my phone within 1 microsecond of a patch being released? I guess I might as well just die. Much safer than risking the > The repairability sounds nice, but it is very irrelevant compared to the limited software updates.

I had an Android phone that didn't have OS updates for several years and... it was just fine. I was only forced to finally upgrade to get better reception on other bands it didn't support. If the hardware could keep pace I would've easily kept it with its current OS for another half decade, until apps just got so bloated that I couldn't use it anymore.

> Imagine buying a Windows laptop and only receiving three years of security updates

That's a bad analogy for so many reasons. Android's security is WAY more hardened than Windows's, your phone's apps (including your [likely] Chrome browser) would still get security updates, and even with Windows this isn't as horrifying as you're suggesting. (I've done much worse.)

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#686

Post by AnthonyMouse »

atleta wrote: post #598
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple iPhone as the gold standard only provide security updates up to 6-7 years Laughs in Microsoft How about 20 years?! I have a laptop built in 2006, it runs Windows 10 and will be supported untill 2025. It can also run software compiled in 1999! What platform can beat it, an IBM mainframe? Microsoft is the gold standard! Its a shame they never get credit for the one thing they do well.

Yeah, and Linux will probably have an even longer support period. But MS is in a totally different business. HW manufacturers build and sell new devices to customers who then buy software from a different company (MS). One of the selling point of Windows is that it runs on basically all HW. But they can only afford this because they have monopolized the market. The mobile phone business is very different. (But you ma…

> But MS is in a totally different business. HW manufacturers build and sell new devices to customers who then buy software from a different company (MS). One of the selling point of Windows is that it runs on basically all HW. But they can only afford this because they have monopolized the market.

It's really the opposite problem. Essentially all of the relevant phones run Android; the monopoly doesn't help. And PC/workstation hardware was supported for just as long back in the days of Novell Netware and proprietary Unix. Some of the hardware from those days is still supported now.

The problem isn't the lack of a monopoly, it's the presence of one. The majority of the SoCs in phones are from Qualcomm, and they provide neither documentation nor source code, even though the market is clamoring for the longer support lifetimes that would allow, because with limited competition they don't have to.

There was some hope that Samsung would do better, and they might increase their market share quite a bit if they did, but a duopoly still isn't much competition. Samsung is already a big enough player that they have to be weighing the increase in market share against the longer repurchasing cycle. The have to decide if they want to be the heroes and capture that much goodwill from the people paying attention and making recommendations to others, or not. So far so fail.

We need more competition.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#687

Post by paulmd »

foobarbecue wrote: post #429
peterlk wrote: post #391

And it comes with a 3mm headphone jack! Hallelujah!! I’m so, so glad someone is stepping up to fill this niche. My only complaint, and it’s kind if a big one, is that the screen is too damn big. I’m tired of phone manufacturers forcing me to carry a television in my pocket. I want something small that I can hold in one hand without a pop socket. I’ll trade performance, camera quality, basically anything for a phone w…

Loving my Unihertz Atom (for a particular sports application). https://www.unihertz.com/products/atom if you haven't tried one. I agree that it would be great if Nokia did this product but in a reasonable size.

It's interesting hearing in this thread about some of the smaller android companies, you mentioned unihertz and someone else mentioned ulefone. Something a little different from the usual flagships at least.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#688

Post by jorvi »

screamingninja wrote: post #664
atleta wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fair point, but indeed a lot of people will kill their phone in less than 3 years. Either breaking the screen (which, IIUC, will be also replaceable/self servicable) or killing the battery. Most sources say that the battery will keep an acceptable capacity for around 500 cycles, i.e. 1.5 years if fully charged daily. (Now I don't know, because I'm very cautious not to fully charge and to discharge below 25-3…

> Speaking about batteries, what would be nice if they added a setting that allows defining charging limits Like Samsung Battery Protection? It limits charging to 85%. I would personally have used the 80% threshold, but after 2+ years of heavy use, the battery has held up quite well on this Note 20.

I wish you could set both a lower and upper limit. Never let it discharge below 10% or above 90%.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#689

Post by AnthonyMouse »

shepherdjerred wrote: post #642
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple iPhone as the gold standard only provide security updates up to 6-7 years Laughs in Microsoft How about 20 years?! I have a laptop built in 2006, it runs Windows 10 and will be supported untill 2025. It can also run software compiled in 1999! What platform can beat it, an IBM mainframe? Microsoft is the gold standard! Its a shame they never get credit for the one thing they do well.

The original iPhone had 128MB of memory. The iPhone 6s (releasing in 2015, which is the oldest model currently receiving security updates) has 2GB of memory. The latest iPhone, the iPhone 14, has 6GB. It doesn't make sense for Apple to support devices that aren't even going to be able to run the apps that users want. Not many users are going to want to be using a 6-7 year old device when hardware is advancing and the…

There are tons of people who use their phones to make phone calls and send texts and read the occasional Wikipedia article. They don't need newer hardware.

People who want to play video games on their phones will need newer phones, but even they benefit from being able to sell their old one to the people who don't need that instead of having to throw it away.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#690

Post by paulmd »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #640
steve_adams_86 wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely love my watch and mostly stopped using my phone since getting it, but it’s mind blowing that such an expensive and capable device is forced to piggy back off of a phone. Why can’t my watch be supported by MacOS rather than iOS? I mean, I know why, but it’s crazy. As soon as I find a high quality standalone watch I’ll start to seriously consider not having a phone at all. Or perhaps just not an expensive…

what do you still need the phone for since they added standalone capabilities?

You need an iphone at least to register the watch to the account, although I don't think anything forces you to keep it after.
Post reply on HN