Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware? • Hacker News Board

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

#171

Post by lolinder » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 2:34 PM UTC

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.

My main problem with Moto is I've had really bad luck with their charging ports. I had a G4 and a G6, and both had ports that were loose from day 1 (so much so that car charging was impossible because it would instantly fall out) and both become unusable towards the end. I have several family members who had the same experience.

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

#172

Post by _rdvw » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 2:34 PM UTC

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

/e/OS is currently 7 months behind security updates for the browser/webview for the second time in a row and has a PDF viewer not updated since 2016 yet considers itself the "state of the art" in security. See my full list of issues with it here: https://divestos.org/misc/e.txt

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

#173

Post by _rdvw » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 2:35 PM UTC

uhtred wrote: post #155

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/

/e/OS is currently 7 months behind security updates for the browser/webview for the second time in a row and has a PDF viewer not updated since 2016 yet considers itself the "state of the art" in security. See my full list of issues with it here: https://divestos.org/misc/e.txt

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

#174

Post by _rdvw » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 2:35 PM UTC

em-bee wrote: post #75

murena sells phones with /e/OS preinstalled. for my mother i installed /e/OS myself, but if she had to get a new phone while i am not around i'd point here to that website and tell her to get one of those. /e/OS is free of bloat, yet easy to use.

/e/OS is currently 7 months behind security updates for the browser/webview for the second time in a row and has a PDF viewer not updated since 2016 yet considers itself the "state of the art" in security. See my full list of issues with it here: https://divestos.org/misc/e.txt

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

#175

Post by _rdvw » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 2:37 PM UTC

lxn wrote: post #54

jillesvangurp wrote: post #19

The short answer is no. There is the Google Pixel. But it has limited updates and proprietary software for things like the camera. That camera is really nice though and it's as close as the Android experience Google intended to ship because this basically is Google's version of Android. I have the Pixel 6 and it's fine. Nokia stays close to that but ships their own camera app. It too has limited updates that run out…

I agree with everything you said about Fairphone, but their software support is decent when it comes for security updates (major Android versions upgrades are not guaranteed). They offer 5 years which is way better than average. Their track record is also good I would say. Fairphone 2 started with Android 5 and it currently offered Android 10 upgrade. https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/997918043739...

Fairphone's support periods are a lie, they last longer than the Qualcomm or the Linux kernel stable version they use actually offers.

Fairphone 3 users despite still having "support" until next year are over a year behind Qualcomm and run the end of life Linux 4.9 kernel.

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

#176

Post by inanutshellus » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 2:39 PM UTC

jqpabc123 wrote: post #159

RankingMember wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"Middling" appropriately describes Motorola cameras. I've bought Motos exclusively since the original Droid and have finally moved off of the brand because of the camera.

It wasn't an important feature until I started getting potato quality photos of my children doing first-time-ever events.

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

#177

Post by idatum » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 2:42 PM UTC

jillesvangurp wrote: post #19

The short answer is no. There is the Google Pixel. But it has limited updates and proprietary software for things like the camera. That camera is really nice though and it's as close as the Android experience Google intended to ship because this basically is Google's version of Android. I have the Pixel 6 and it's fine. Nokia stays close to that but ships their own camera app. It too has limited updates that run out…

As long as you don't consider Play services bloatware, yes Pixel is quite clean. I'm still happy with a Pixel 5a. Camera is good enough even with that older model.

I like Android though because compared to others I know with iPhones, there seems to be more ways to customize Android. Termux is one obvious example -- with a BT keyboard, feels like a pocket Linux device. I also use a different launcher as well as different browser and search engine.

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

#178

Post by rdlw » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 2:47 PM UTC

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 thought that was the point. There ARE flowers and fruits, but only the ones approved by Apple, and the walls stop you from trying anything else.

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

#179

Post by znpy » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 2:49 PM UTC

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…

> 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 know.

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

#180

Post by rafabulsing » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 2:52 PM UTC

jjice wrote: post #137

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.

Tangential but I really miss the gestures. I'm much happier with my Pixel 6a, but I had a run of Motorola phones beforehand. God the shake for flashlight and rotate for camera were godsends. Everyone got a kick out of it too, it was always funny to see people react to how great shake for flashlight was. I wonder if there's an app that can do this now on any phone, but I hadn't thought to look until now.

The brief period I spent with a non Moto phone got me missing the gestures so much as well. It's actually kind of insane how useful the flashlight gesture is. I realized that I actually don't really have a concept of not being to see anymore: anytime I entered a room that was too dark for whatever reason, the muscle memory kicked in immediately. Crazy.

On the non Moto phone I tried replicating it with Tasker. It worked... Sometimes. But it was a really cheap random Redmi model so that might have been the issue, more than the app itself.