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US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

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Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#781

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my world experience, this is a pure Americanism. And Americans broadly seem to care a more about status than the other 95% of the worlds population.

go to latin america. I bought a phone for a girl awhile back while I was there. she literally chose a used 3 year old iphone over a brand new android that costs more. I even showed her that the secs on the android were objectively better. "Quierro un iphone!!" its definitely not an american only thing

I don’t think I would ever use an Android phone again, I used one very early one and then stopped around the Pixel.

For me, an iPhone is better than any Android phone. I don’t know why this is surprising to many people.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#782

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People just like to think they're special "thinking out of the box" rebels because they use android when the equivalent android phone costs the same as an iphone. There's very little price difference between the models for the main brands (you can off course find cheaper alternatives with their own issues) but if you get an iphone and a samsung side by side odds are they're at the same price range. And as a professio…

There's nothing bang for your buck about apple laptops. I can get a pc laptop for half the price and arguably better quality. It is true about phones though, especially when you consider how badly all the big brands except apple and Google add unremovable money making spam apps to their phones.

Please share a link to any laptop that’s even close to performance/battery of the base level MacBook Air in a similar form factor.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#783

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would 100% use iOS if I preferred to keep a stock OS and needed those apps. I just don't need that in a phone and am totally fine with the limitations of a degoogled device. I don't recommend that for most people. I was simply responding to a question of what device to consider with regards to privacy/security. I even tried to include caveats that it isn't right for everyone and had real tradeoffs.

You were specifically asked what you would recommend to someone looking for a new phone, and you said a degoogled phone. Now you say you don't recommend that for most people? Which is it?

> If security is a concern, getting a newer Pixel and installing GrapheneOS is your best bet. It's still not perfect and nothing beats just not having a cell phone, but that's a choice very few are okay with today.

> The trick with GrapheneOS, or any privacy setup, is that it requires attention to stay reasonably secure. The OS won't matter if you enable Google services and install apps that track and sell all your data.

Not sure how I could have been more clear here, I literally started by saying "if security is a concern". I stand by that, if security is a concern I would not use an iPhone or stock Android. I also stand by the assumption that for most people security isn't a concern.

So yes, I wouldn't recommend graphene for most people but I would recommend it to anyone both concerned about security and willing to sacrifice some functionality and convenience (both caveats in my original post).

You make it sound as though I changed my recommendation or story half way through. If that's your opinion, please do me a favor and point out specifically where I walked it back or contradicted myself.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#784
post #95

I am planning to make the switch this year. As a long time Pixel user, Google's support of its own hardware has been subpar. My phone was only officially supported for 3 years. They will increase support for new phones, probably because Apple does the same. It is too little, too late for me.

I've had every htc g1/nexus/pixel. 3 years hasn't been too big a deal, we have 3 phones in the household and the phones trickle down based on preferences for camera, phone size, and us. Did run up against the 3 year limit a few times. Fortunately the pixel 6 and 7 switched to 5 years of support. I was considering switching to iPhone, but then I tried GrapheneOS. It's only for pixels, is easy to install, and focuses o…

Is there any hope of getting these operating systems (grapheneos/leaniageos) to run on anything other than the pixel phone?

I've been using Samsung all my life (tablets, phones, watches, TVs) since they've been providing consistent quality, but after samsungs silently leaking my keyboard input to grammarly and not providing me the features I paid for on their galexy watch, I decided to move out of the samsung echosystem for good.

The thing is that I still really like their hardware. I just want to change the software running on it to something more sane and less shady.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#785
In other words, Android devices last longer than iDevices which causes the latter to be replaced more often. As to why Android devices last longer can be disputed, this can range anywhere from they are used for a longer period of time because the user does not want to spend more money on mobile gadgets to they last longer because they can be kept up to date using AOSP-derived distributions which enables 10+ year old devices to run current Android and anything in between.

Add to that the fact that iDevices are much more recognisable due to there being only a handful of current versions compared to the thousands of current Android devices and as such more easily recognised as 'out of date' or 'old' and their - often brand- and status-conscious - users have an extra incentive to buy a new device even though the old one still worked fine just so they are not perceived to be 'poor'.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People just like to think they're special "thinking out of the box" rebels because they use android when the equivalent android phone costs the same as an iphone. There's very little price difference between the models for the main brands (you can off course find cheaper alternatives with their own issues) but if you get an iphone and a samsung side by side odds are they're at the same price range. And as a professio…

There's nothing bang for your buck about apple laptops. I can get a pc laptop for half the price and arguably better quality. It is true about phones though, especially when you consider how badly all the big brands except apple and Google add unremovable money making spam apps to their phones.

You are out of touch, M1/M2 runs circles around any other silicon and the pro line has great design and usage for convenience built in. The solid resale price is the proof as no windows device is worth anything used.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#787

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another sign of the HN bubble. Google only has lifetime sells of 27.6 million pixels over 6 generations https://www.phonearena.com/news/pixel-7-pro-6a-google-best-s... Apple is estimated to sell twice that many in a quarter https://www.statista.com/statistics/299153/apple-smartphone-...

I had a pixel 2, 3xl and 4a. none of them lasted more than 2.5 years before breaking. This year I switched to a iphone because I need something I can rely on working wherever I travel. they will only fix your pixel while you're in the united states. I'd say they are effectively disposable.

I've had the galaxy nexus, the nexus 4, a pixel xl, a pixel 3a, and a pixel 6a.

None of them broke. I only stopped using them because they run out of security updates. The only things I bought for them were the light Spigen phone cases.

Maybe the issue is the operator not the phone here.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#788

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlimited = 40 GB then "480p speeds"

This is exactly my biggest question about every network out there. What happens after soft-cap? > The one other thing that almost wholly shapes who I'd go with for an MVNO is what speed I get after soft cap. This should have to be advertised alongside any deal in big bold print. It should be in the main paragraph outlining the plan in every review. But instead it's often buried somewhere in terms & service, or uses v…

Agreed. I recently travelled over the US border to Canada (to a major city) and was shocked by the International data pittance, and what Verizon considers "3G speed". Crossing that imaginary line took me back almost 15 years and as much as I want to blame Verizon and their CA partner, apparently they're one of the "better ones"!

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#789

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I don't care about getting updates. If they're important to you, that's fair. But the phones don't suddenly stop working without updates. They're still perfectly fine.

I hope you don't do banking or anything critical on your phone.

I certainly don't. Security updates or not, I don't trust my smartphone with anything of critical importance.

Re: US smartphone shipments fall sharply, but Android more than iPhone

#790
post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's also true for iMessage? If you actually care about e2ee you'd use Signal.

Actually it’s not true for iMessage. Messages switches to SMS/MMS if the phone doesn’t support iMessage or has it disabled, but if it’s an iMessage it’s an iMessage—encryption and all—and you can see in advance if that is the case. That said I don’t know what Google’s messenger actually does when it drops the encryption on RCS messages. Is there a visual distinction between encrypted RCS and unencrypted RCS on the se…

Yes, the send icon changes.
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