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Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

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Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#201

Post by jakub_g »

austinjp wrote: post #194
CMDBob wrote: post #124

It's funny, as my phone (A 2022 Moto Razr) can work as PC, if I plug it into a monitor with it's USB-C port. I can plug it into a monitor, and plug a mouse and keyboard into the monitor's inbuilt USB-C hub, and it works just fine. Has a desktop mode and everything! If the monitor doesn't have a hub in it, I can use the phone as a mouse/touchpad! Plus, if the monitor supports it, it'll even keep it charged rather than…

Interesting, I wouldn't mind an Android phone that can do similar, but I'm not looking for a clamshell. For anyone else who, like me, is naive about such things, the key search terms seem to be: DisplayPort alternate mode over USB-C. Support seems patchy.

FWIW, apparently Google shipped software support for DP Alt Mode for Pixel 8 and newer a few months ago.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#202

Post by gadders »

rjh29 wrote: post #185
codedokode wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the reason is that after you got used to full-sized keyboards, typing on a tiny screen portion with any software keyboard is just a pain. I cannot type more than several words on a smartphone without getting annoyed.

Have you tried swipe-based input methods? Given a bit of time to learn your style they are much higher WPM and less error-prone than trying to press non-tactile keys on a screen.

Agreed. I forget the name of my preferred one, but they sadly went bust a few years back. It had features that the Samsung equivalent still lacks.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#203

Post by bashkiddie »

My personal opinion is: If you use it as a daily driver (as opposed to some boredom-only entertainment device) you should get the best money can buy.

Web requirements scale up over time, elder devices (some years old as opposed to yesteryears device) are CPU and RAM constraint.

Once a device is not manufactured anymore, its batteries are neighter. You will only get stocked elder batteries.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#204

Post by jakub_g »

hilbert42 wrote: post #102

I find it highly annoying that these rather powerful handheld smartphone computers don't have decent port access for use with instrumentation, etc. A huge range of features comes to mind from Geiger counters, oscilloscopes, sound level measurement, light intensity, etc , etc. The potential to expand the smartphone capability is enormous yet no manufacturer has tackled it. Why not? Why aren't there multiple USB ports?…

Whoever I talk to those says "smartphones are damn too big", and yet no manufacturer produces reasonably-sized phones anymore, because it apparently "they wouldn't sell" / "market size too small".

If this is too difficult, than your use case is orders of magnitude more difficult. Unfortunately everyone tries to sell to the same generic user, with very little actual space for differentiation targeting niches.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#205

Post by ajb »

atoav wrote: post #171

What astounds most ist that we have now ~16 years of Android and there is still no all around decent keyboard for power users. It seems like everybody has accepted to use Android just as a consumer OS. When I started using Unexpected Keyboard the realization that I can just shift + arrow select text and ctrl + x cut it hit me like a bag of bricks. This is such a simple thing, but the existing story for marking and ed…

Definitely. There seems to be a long-standing bug in g-board where you tap a suggested word, it's highlighted (IE, it recognised that you tapped) and then - it just ignores it? So frustrating. Will be watching this thread to see people's suggestions...

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#206

Post by alkonaut »

A higher performance chip can do the things I want to do (such as encode video during a video call) while using less battery, than a lower performance chip could. That is: paying for performance, no matter how unusable that performance might seem is the same thing as paying for battery time. And I'm always ready to pay for more battery time.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#207

Post by whoitwas »

bashkiddie wrote: post #203

My personal opinion is: If you use it as a daily driver (as opposed to some boredom-only entertainment device) you should get the best money can buy. Web requirements scale up over time, elder devices (some years old as opposed to yesteryears device) are CPU and RAM constraint. Once a device is not manufactured anymore, its batteries are neighter. You will only get stocked elder batteries.

Why? No phone is ideal if you can manage, maybe a wifi only device second, third best maybe a flip phone or burner, fourth would be a cheap "smart phone", and last in my opinion would be scamming yourself for some expensive AI powered device you rent.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#208

Post by boomskats »

FWIW two things have been a game changer for me in terms of mobile UX recently:

- ZMK powered super portable wireless Bluetooth split keyboards

- portable headset-based displays like the Viture XR pro

I am now comfortable leaving my laptop at home with zero anxiety, because I know I can fairly comfortably dive back into anything I need to from anywhere with my split 36 keys, termux, obsidian and earbuds. Yes most of the functionality that makes this possible has been around for a while, but it feels like the peripherals that grease the UX are here now.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#209

Post by orf »

ksp-atlas wrote: post #173
orf wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For starters I'm 1 person, so the market is not O. And I know of others, and I know I'm not alone Of all the people you interacted with in any way, shape or form this year, what percentage of those would benefit from this? It rounds to 0, assuming you’re not a shut-in

Wouldn't any percentage below 50% round to zero?

No, obviously not.

Re: Unless my phone can be a PC, I don't want to keep paying for extra performance

#210

Post by Tepix »

Until recently, the availability of software updates was a limiting factor, especially for midrange phones.

(Before that, phones were so slow and had so little RAM that software updates made them unusable eventually).

The mid-range Samsung A52 5G now comes with 7 years of security updates and you can get it with 8GB of RAM for less than 300€.

That's a pretty good deal! You just need to replace the battery every three years or so.

Having said that, i think that on-device AI will change things and it will accelerate the update cycle once again because bigger models are better and the models that fit on phones are still anemic these days. Where are the phones with 32GB of RAM? My body is ready!

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