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Jelly Star – The Smallest Android 13 Smartphone

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Re: Jelly Star – The Smallest Android 13 Smartphone

#231

Post by goodburb »

torlok wrote: post #215
goodburb wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have used my Android 9 flagship smartphone for 6 years without issues, but had all sorts of issues on iOS when I avoided updates, specifically with apps, missing or broken. Unlike iOS, most feature updates on Android are apps, not OS versions. iOS tends to be monolithic. You don't need to update to use the latest apps or security updates (which is also a patch), at least for a while. Android updates would make sens…

Why would you avoid iOS updates? I only buy middle of the line used iPhones about every 3 years, and had no issues all the way into EOL. Apple keeps their phones updated for 6+ years and they always run smoothly. It's like the only great thing I can say about the company. Changing the battery yourself is easy too.

Widget updates impacting task switcher and home screen with lag circa version 15/16 and battery drain on some models.

While this is anecdotal, they don't always run smoothly at least statistically, and no software is always flawless...

Arguably one could say that the major iOS versions don't have major differences while Android does. E.g 9 to 10 has major graphic stack overhaul and 12+ has major app API changes. iOS 12-13 is significant while 13-16 has less core changes and more UI/UX relatively etc. Android upgrades are technical and under the hood, usually hardware specific changes and API. Most people can't tell between Android 6 and 14 with vendor skin/theme.

The point is you can keep an Android phone updated without changing the major version. You don't have to update the entire OS for the notes app like in iOS which I had to do because the Mac app refused to sync. You could also get major UI changes and new OS integrated features like quick share with app updates on the same Android version.

Changing battery on any modern smartphone isn't easy and very risky for the average person.

For the younger crowd, checkout smartphones before 2016, many had the ability to replace the battery under 10 seconds, though the point is that it's user serviceable.

Re: Jelly Star – The Smallest Android 13 Smartphone

#232

Post by andrepd »

chasil wrote: post #67
nobodywasishere wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used LineageOS on a number of devices for a number of years, and had to upgrade to a new device every year due to either performance, bugs, or official support being dropped. Can't tell you the number of various bugs I ran into that completely made it unusable, until the point I just started getting two of every device to be able to have a backup, and be able to do clean version updates. Being able to just get one…

I run Lineage on a Pixel 3a xl (no google), and a OnePlus 5 (mind the gapps). I have found both to be completely stable. My first Cyanogen phone was an HTC Incredible, and I don't remember any stability problems.

Same. LineageOS is what allowed me to use devices I liked for as long as the hardware lasted, instead of being forced to buy the new crap.

Re: Jelly Star – The Smallest Android 13 Smartphone

#233

Post by SpecialistK »

mdasen wrote: post #92
montroser wrote: post #24

This is cool as an option. But, why oh why mustn't we have any 5 inch Android phone on the market? It's not as if there's no demand, as evidenced by iPhone SE on the iOS side. The last real Android choice was the Pixel 4a and beyond that, everything has been mega huge.

There isn't that much demand on the Apple side. Apple discontinued the iPhone mini because they weren't selling. The iPhone SE's popularity is driven by price, not the demand for a smaller phone. The iPhone SE is 5% taller and wider than an iPhone mini. People didn't buy the iPhone mini at $100 cheaper than an iPhone. If they were going to settle for a smaller phone, they wanted half-off. It allows Apple to be in the…

There certainly was some market for a small phone, although how much is beyond my current knowledge. It's definitely a niche market segment.

I think Apple's misstep was to make it a small version of the yearly models rather than a nicer version of the SE. The SE is on a 2-3 year cadence rather than yearly, and the hardware in the 2022 SE is very similar to the 13 mini. So I think the angle should have been to market the SE in 2 flavors: the current "Touch ID" model with hella bezels for US$429, and a "Face ID" model (the "mini") for US$499 or $529.

It could keep just the single camera, notch instead of "Dynamic Island," no MagSafe, worse screen and glass, etc.

This wouldn't eat into the market for the more expensive models while still delivering enough performance for most people. Sure it wouldn't please the "literal flagship, but smol" crowd, but would have reduced engineering and make inventory easier.

Re: Jelly Star – The Smallest Android 13 Smartphone

#235

Post by kjellsbells »

josephcsible wrote: post #151
keyringlight wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The challenge is trust, can you trust that an third party ROM hasn't been tampered with, and that third party maintaining the build for your device is often some guy on the internet you probably only know as a pseudonym. It might be the latest version, it might have some modifications that 'distro' of ROM applies to all their builds, some required per-device changes to make it work, but what degree of confidence is t…

But if you're going to worry that a custom ROM might be compromised, shouldn't you also be worried that you know that the stock ROM contains unfixed critical security vulnerabilities? Wouldn't any reasonable argument to forbid the former also forbid the latter?

There are cases every day where an employee of a company can demonstrate that A is at least as good as B, but trying to get permission to do B is impossible.

There's simply no universe where an employee at a typical F500 company is going to be able to convince the IT team that they should permit custom code on phones even if the logic of the argument is sound. Even if they found the person, persuaded them, got them to persuade their management, in house legal teams, compliance teams etc., I seriously doubt whether the MDM solutions (eg InTune) would even have a checkbox to override the policy on one phone. To say nothing of the ongoing cost of tracking that one employee's specific setting.

This also plays a bit into the argument of why integrating your personal device into the corpo ecosystem of your employer is not a decision to be taken lightly.

Re: Jelly Star – The Smallest Android 13 Smartphone

#237

Post by UncleSlacky »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #85
wkat4242 wrote: post #6

Part of the problem with this brand is that this "Android 13 Smartphone" will probably stay that forever. Updates are very very minimal. I have their first jelly and it didn't even get the upgrade they promised. Other than that, it's not so bad. Swype-typing makes a small keyboard still useful. But the updates really are the achilles heel here.

In India that is the story with Motorola phones. They have started making decent hardware, as in competing with others, but they sometimes don't even respect updates for their flagship phones. And then, they are not alone in this.

LineageOS supports quite a few Motorolas, at least:

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#motorola

Re: Jelly Star – The Smallest Android 13 Smartphone

#238

Post by ben_w »

happymellon wrote: post #194
throwaway55110 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very prevalent in the expat community where I have many friends. I hate it. At least the current AI developments made it possible for messenger apps to transcribe the messages to text (and back, though I haven't seen that feature yet) - we both get what's best for us. And same with voice calls and voicemail - I mostly don't accept calls and let them all go to voicemail. iPhone transcribes what they're saying…

Speech to text doesn't require AI. I've had it on my Google keyboard for a very long time. Its always been accurate too.

> Speech to text doesn't require AI.

*grumpy old man shakes fist at ever-changing meaning of words*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect

https://www.kurzweiltech.com/kai.html

Re: Jelly Star – The Smallest Android 13 Smartphone

#239

Post by [deleted] »

mainframed wrote: post #36
montroser wrote: post #24

This is cool as an option. But, why oh why mustn't we have any 5 inch Android phone on the market? It's not as if there's no demand, as evidenced by iPhone SE on the iOS side. The last real Android choice was the Pixel 4a and beyond that, everything has been mega huge.

As an owner of a Samsung Galaxy S22, which is not small but seemed to me like the only sane size - feature - price balance on the Android market back then: maybe the reason is battery life? I'm really underwhelmed by the one of the S22. I barely get a day out of it. When I'm travelling with Google Maps, I have to carry a power bank. Maybe current android phones are just optimized so bad in comparison to iPhones? And…

[deleted]
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