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LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

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Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#461

Post by SkyBelow »

gmadsen wrote: post #453
neogodless wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My nephew asked me what my phone was. I said a OnePlus 7 Pro. He said "is that a Samsung?" My anecdote suggests there is only iPhone and Samsung that people choose between. Of course many know there are other options, but that seems like the mindset of the masses.

if seems like all collection of social structures eventually coalesce into a duopoly.

It is a legit concern of mine. I've been asked for phone recommendations from family as well, but they only focus on the main brands with a strong preference for Apple as the status symbol and Samsung as the slightly less pricey option for people who want a phone they can do a bit more with (which is to say they see Samsung as the phone I like because it isn't locked down). Even after explaining there is more to Android than just Samsung they don't seem to care because their view seems to be based on what advertisements they watch.

I'm afraid too much critical thinking has been off loaded to corporations through advertisement. Sure, it is just a phone, but for many of these people the $1k price tag is a major part of their disposable income and I don't think enough thought is being given to the far cheaper alternatives.

Not only has it been reduced to two options, the two options have become two of the most expensive options. I don't think this was by chance.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#462

Post by JeremyBanks »

marcodiego wrote: post #457

Every company that leaves a business should be obliged by law to release detailed documentation, bootloader keys and dev kit/tools. There's no other way to guarantee that costumers can own the devices they paid for without this.

Are customers entitled to that but only if they purchase a phone from a failing company? I've had Samsung drop support for one of my phones after ~no time, but they're doing fine.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#463

Post by ekianjo »

speedgoose wrote: post #111
Judgmentality wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Batteries have to hold substantially more power now than they did 5 years ago. EDIT: Huh, I looked it up and I'm completely wrong. Battery sizes haven't changed.

They charge much faster now, which is good for sales because a battery that charges fast is very convenient. So it progressed. Fast charging degrades the battery slightly faster than slow charging but it's not the end of the world in my opinion. I'm guessing it's much better to not keep your phone battery at a high state of charge for a long time, much of the chemical reactions that degrade the battery happens at hig…

The LG V20 already supported fast charging so its not recent tech by any means.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#464

Post by summm »

nindalf wrote: post #190
nl wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even without root, Tasker can automate every single aspect of the OS - Want to send and receive WhatsApp messages over email?[1], Want better accessibility e.g. Voice summary of news?[2], Want a butt triggered pomodoro timer?[3]. Termux runs a Linux container and it can run complete Linux distribution inside it with PRoot[4]. Best of all, Tasker & Termux can communicate with each other for endless possibilities. Do…

> Does anyone actually care about any of these things? On HN, sure. The other 3.6 billion smartphone users out there? No. The top voted opinions on HN are niche and don't represent the general population in any way. You can see this effect on other threads. Here are a few classic examples. - Everyone on HN hates Facebook, and yet 2 billion+ people use it every day. - Privacy is a paramount concern on HN, more importa…

The Fairphone has really crappy specs otherwise. Abysmal camera, low RAM, etc. That is an important reason power users don't buy it. Instead one could have some old phone with good hackability which is better and even cheaper. I see too many posts like yours here, so I do not imagine most of the HN think like you describe. Unfortunately.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#465

Post by eertami »

asah wrote: post #447
mdiesel wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for OnePlus. I started years back on the 2, upgraded more recently to the 6T. Will take a lot of convincing for me to even think about anyone else. Same experience though, people have either heard of it and rave about it, or ask who makes it.

serious q: OnePlus looks *great* but I'm concerned about the Chinese government and the de facto cyberwar with the US. Example: I have security sensitive US clients, and I'd be concerned that (in the future, let alone present) I'd be labeled a security risk for carrying a "chinese cellphone." How do you mitigate this concern? (serious replies only please)

Most people don't recognise what cell phone someone has, and I've never had a conversation organically turn to phone models unless someone is buying a new one.

I think if you put a case on it, the make/model of your phone will be brought up exactly 0 times in life.

Small aside: I used a Oneplus X for more than 5 years, but these days I'm not sure what positives OP have over other manufacturers. Early phones were great value but the recent releases just seem like other flagships. And the Nord for my usage is just a Pixel 4a but worse.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#466

Post by oriolid »

herbst wrote: post #443
pjmlp wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because using stock Android is like the phone version of year of Linux Desktop. It is so ugly from UI/UX perspective, that almost everyone ends up installing a theme anyway. Then Google only does the minimum in features, and their software is crap. For many years, if you wanted proper music software, Samsung phones with their custom real time audio SDK were the only option on Android ecosystem. Same applies to the qu…

What does Samsung audio do better than other phones? I still own a mp3 player because not even those shitty beats phones did a close to clear sound experience. Ps: i never used a theme. All i want is stock android o.O

Samsung Pro Audio used to be the only low-latency audio API on Android devices. AFAIK it was a very thin wrapper over JACK. Of course, using it often crashed the app, and then Samsung first declared it deprecated and then didn't port it to 64-bit runtime.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#467

Post by pdimitar »

SkyBelow wrote: post #461
gmadsen wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if seems like all collection of social structures eventually coalesce into a duopoly.

It is a legit concern of mine. I've been asked for phone recommendations from family as well, but they only focus on the main brands with a strong preference for Apple as the status symbol and Samsung as the slightly less pricey option for people who want a phone they can do a bit more with (which is to say they see Samsung as the phone I like because it isn't locked down). Even after explaining there is more to Andr…

Most non-technical people I know opt for iPhones because they know they can use them for 5-6 years with 1-2 battery swaps (that costs 30 EUR where I live). And for display quality.

I keep hearing this adage of "iPhone as a status symbol" and I have legitimately never in my life seen it. Only ever saw people on the internet talking about it.

An anecdotal data point for you, if it's useful.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#468

Post by perryizgr8 »

mrweasel wrote: post #363
perryizgr8 wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung lets you disable Bixby fully. Users complain more about Samsung because Android users are not used to being forced by the device they paid $1000 for, it's a new experience for them, unlike Apple users.

I don’t understand the complaint then, what is Samsung forcing users to do? Just disable Bixby or buy a phone from another brand.

I agree.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#469

Post by ethbr0 »

cageface wrote: post #310
ethbr0 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung's software design feels like an analogy of Korean corporate structure.

Samsung's software is really not bad these days. I feel like there's a hint of Western arrogance in the dismissals they get now.

"Better" would be a fair summary [0].

The original quip was an application of Conway's law, in that if you have a rigid, hierarchical organization with lots of bureaucracy, you're probably not going to get great software out the other side.

At least for consumer devices. You might make exemplary software for other rigid, hierarchical enterprises.

It's nothing against Koreans. It's everything against how Korea has organized its corporate culture, even if it's making efforts to change that.

[0] https://www.phonearena.com/news/Samsung-One-UI-3.0-android-1...

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#470

Post by eertami »

underwater wrote: post #241

The mobile phone ecosystem is sick, and I don't see it getting better. The fact that there is not a third choice is maddening. Even in the worst parts of the Microsoft era we had Apple as the underdog. Apple products had issues, but Apple die-hards at least could rest easy knowing that they were buying into a company who stood for something. In the mobile space the underdog is Google; a company who sees dealing with…

>In the mobile space the underdog is Google

Doesn't Android have 70% market share? I don't follow how they're the underdog, surely they're more like Microsoft in this comparison.

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