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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?

#151

Post by RankingMember »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #102
Daegalus wrote: post #10

The Pixel is the closest. The reason you don't see long term support on Android is because of Qualcomm. Qualcomm wants manufacturers to build on new chips, so they deprecate older chips and stop support. Most manufacturers don't want to hire kernel and hardware devs. Samsung can pull off longer support because of Exynos and they have a lot of inhouse expertise to extend support on old Qualcomm chips. It's all money.…

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…

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?

#152

Post by fensgrim »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #51
bboygravity wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is a lot of work, not all phones support/allow rooting, you need to hide root for apps manually for them to work and there's no way to take full backups on Android phone, rooted or not (adb backup is deprecated and never actually worked at all anyway). Meaning: every time you screw up (or get a new phone) you have to start all over, without the ability to restore a backup. This can easily take many days wo…

If you don't want root, then don't root it; that's separate from replacing the ROM. > there's no way to take full backups on Android phone, rooted or not Er, no? On the contrary, root is exactly how you get full backups on Android - with, I grant, the exception of whatever Android calls their secure element / TPM, which I've only ever seen affect 2FA apps.

yeah, good luck restoring full userdata and metadata partitions on a rooted pixel 4 and newer: you definitely can do that (and bypass TPM), but since there's no working twrp, there's no exactly easy way to dump/restore partition image with dd anymore.

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

#153

Post by mnw21cam »

pyrelight wrote: post #88

Motorola does a pretty good job. Their "bloatware" is mostly the Moto app, which provides really handy and reliable gestures like a double "chop" to toggle flashlight, twisting the phone a few times to enable the camera, three-finger screenshot trigger, etc. Their phones are really solid but they do lag on OS updates, and their cameras are never good.

I'll agree with Motorola, though pretty-much the first thing I did when I switched mine on was disable all the Moto app stuff. Once you have done that it does mostly stay completely out of your way, which is probably the closest you're going to get to a non-bloatware system.

One slight warning, and I'm not even sure if it's completely true, but my G8+ is only a few years old and it has slowed to an absolute crawl. My current understanding is that this is because the flash storage is running out of writes and slowing down. If true, it means they used a sub-standard part with an unacceptably short lifespan.

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

#155

Post by uhtred »

wanderingmind wrote: post #147

If you are OK with spending a couple of hours, buy a Motorola phone that is supported by LineageOS[1] and install microg+ LineageOS(2) It can spoof Play services and so most Apps from Play store will work. [1] https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#motorola (2) https://download.lineage.microg.org/

Could also skip the work and buy a murena (/e/os) phone preinstalled with /e/OS which is based on lineageOS and has MicroG installed already.

https://murena.com/

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

#156

Post by worrycue »

masklinn wrote: post #42
Daegalus wrote: post #10

The Pixel is the closest. The reason you don't see long term support on Android is because of Qualcomm. Qualcomm wants manufacturers to build on new chips, so they deprecate older chips and stop support. Most manufacturers don't want to hire kernel and hardware devs. Samsung can pull off longer support because of Exynos and they have a lot of inhouse expertise to extend support on old Qualcomm chips. It's all money.…

> Apple can do it because they lock you into their walled garden where they can double and triple dip on getting your money. Nonsense. It’s because they have all the expertise in-house anyway, they get extremely good terms due to their weight and negotiation, and they figure if you don’t change phone now you might do so next year and they’ll get your money anyway. There’s no brand loyalty on the Android side, and fos…

Also even if you don’t buy a new iPhone now, i.e. you keep using your old iPhone, they still benefit if you continue to buy apps (and buy in-app purchases), if you continue to buy from iTunes just for the convenience, or subscribe to Apple Music.

This incentivises them to support all their phones as long as technologically possible.

Other phone manufacturers have the opposite incentive, they want you to buy a new phone ASAP, since they earn nothing if you don’t buy a new phone.

From an e-waste perspective, Apple’s model is definitely better.

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

#157

Post by Eldandan »

hospitalJail wrote: post #122
Daegalus wrote: post #10

The Pixel is the closest. The reason you don't see long term support on Android is because of Qualcomm. Qualcomm wants manufacturers to build on new chips, so they deprecate older chips and stop support. Most manufacturers don't want to hire kernel and hardware devs. Samsung can pull off longer support because of Exynos and they have a lot of inhouse expertise to extend support on old Qualcomm chips. It's all money.…

>walled garden This is a marketing phrase that twists a negative into a positive. Its better to use more objective terms. Gardens give you a perceptions of flowers and fruits.

I like walled garden. Everything appears nice and flowery except for the fact they want to hold you in. You can admire its beauty but can't really trust anything in it due to its darker purpose. Reminds me of the Stepford Wives.

What is that called, an ironic phrase?

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

#158

Post by KnobbleMcKnees »

manojlds wrote: post #85
ludovicianul wrote: post #83

OnePlus is pretty close to stock. Very fast, very good battery. It's the only Android I've loved before switching to iPhone. I have a Samsung and a OnePlus 5T bought in the same period (around 5 years ago). The OnePlus still rocks 1 day battery with medium usage, while the Samsung is dead in a couple of hours.

If your experience with OnePlus is from OnePlus 5T times, I have some bad news for you..

What's the news?

I have a 9 pro. Has a single uninstallable app (OP store) and battery life is over a day.

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

#159

Post by jqpabc123 »

RankingMember wrote: post #151
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…

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 .

Fair to middling. It's a competent, well rounded phone --- not the best, not the worst in any respect. You can find reviews online.

https://www.techradar.com/reviews/motorola-one-5g-ace-review

It's perfectly adequate for my needs and I haven't found any issues with the e/OS ROM support. But if only the best will do for you, this obviously isn't it.

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

#160

Post by routerl »

readingnews wrote: post #149

I am not sure where you are located... I was on the Nothing Beta program and received a nothing 1 phone. I have been a longtime root-unjail-roll-your-own phone user. The Nothing is probably the most bloat-free in recent memory. Sure, the google apps (gmail, files, maps) are on it, and it comes with weather, but that seems to be it, and the rest you can easily uninstall without pain.

+1 for the Nothing phone. It does remind me a lot of the OnePlus One, back in the day.
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