LG is getting out of the mobile phone business • Hacker News Board

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#511

Post by throwawayboise » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 2:15 PM UTC

mywacaday wrote: post #252

ohazi wrote: post #66

I never understood why Samsung phones were constantly receiving praise by tech reviewers while LG got crapped on. Samsung always wanted to do things their way -- different (shitty) UI, Samsung versions of all the core Google apps (but worse), reorganizing preferences for no reason, the stupid bottom button placement, non-remappable Bixby button, aggressively killing apps for power management and breaking widgets, etc…

I had two Motorola phones back to back and really liked them, hardly any bloatware, performed well and the second one had a impact resistant screen that wasn't glass, didn't need a case and tooke some awful banks but never cracked even though it had some dents.

I've always had Android phones since my first smart phone, and they have always been Motorola. Totally happy with them.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#512

Post by twobitshifter » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 2:18 PM UTC

I still have my Nexus 4 (LG manufactured) in a box somewhere. This was actually my first smartphone, and it turned out to be a great purchase. It was affordable, simple, and somewhat close to open. Rooting in place was as simple as could be, and with “Xposed” I was able to get features on my phone that wouldn’t be widespread on stock Android or iOS for many years.

It’s hard to point to anything very wrong with that phone. It even had an Amoled always on display, which was ahead of its time. Reviewers thought that front and rear glass was an awful design decision, and they may have been right, but look where we are now?

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#513

Post by neogodless » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

behnamoh wrote: post #509

gmadsen wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

that seems to be the case: - two-party government, - two major desktop OSs (macOS and Windows), - two main mobile OSs (android and iOS), - two major phone manufacturers (Apple and Samsung), - two main internet browsers (Chrome and Firefox), - two mainstream cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin and Ethereum), - two major home internet providers (Verizon and Comcast) - two ... There are exceptions of course, esp. in the retail ma…

Ha I wish your point about browsers was correct. Sorry, Safari is (a very distant) number 2.

https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#514

Post by acdha » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 2:21 PM UTC

oftenwrong wrote: post #452

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…

What's wrong with working around barriers? I find Tasker useful for fixing things I don't like about my phone that are otherwise beyond my ability to fix. For example... 1. By default my phone remembers the last media volume level used with headphones. This does make some sense, but it is easy to accidentally get maximum volume blasted in your ear. I use Tasker to automatically reset the volume to a safe level when I…

Your comments are interesting in terms of the iOS/Android comparison: both of those are things which just work on iOS without needing to find and configure a separate app. This dynamic shows up constantly in these discussions because HN is full of people who enjoy tinkering as a hobby and have strong opinions about things should work whereas from the perspective of most normal people it’s easier to pay $400 for a noticeably faster iOS device rather than spending time puttering around trying to find the right combination of apps to compensate for an unmotivated device vendor and hoping that you didn’t just install malware in the process.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#515

Post by emodendroket » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 2:21 PM UTC

ohazi wrote: post #66

I never understood why Samsung phones were constantly receiving praise by tech reviewers while LG got crapped on. Samsung always wanted to do things their way -- different (shitty) UI, Samsung versions of all the core Google apps (but worse), reorganizing preferences for no reason, the stupid bottom button placement, non-remappable Bixby button, aggressively killing apps for power management and breaking widgets, etc…

The type of person who cares about stock Android is probably rare and anyway is just going to buy a Pixel or maybe an iPhone.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#516

Post by thaumasiotes » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

ohazi wrote: post #66

I never understood why Samsung phones were constantly receiving praise by tech reviewers while LG got crapped on. Samsung always wanted to do things their way -- different (shitty) UI, Samsung versions of all the core Google apps (but worse), reorganizing preferences for no reason, the stupid bottom button placement, non-remappable Bixby button, aggressively killing apps for power management and breaking widgets, etc…

> I never understood why Samsung phones were constantly receiving praise by tech reviewers while LG got crapped on.

> LG always seemed a lot closer to stock Android, and was good at staying out of your way.

> Do people actually like all those Samsung annoyances? Why is Samsung considered the flagship of flagships? Build quality beyond the V30 is basically identical.

Well, knowing them only through my purchases of a Nexus S, Nexus 4, and Nexus 5:

The Nexus S is still around.

The Nexus 4 suffered from battery inflation.

The Nexus 5 suffered from a catastrophic failure that caused me to lose a year's worth of message history.

So all I can say in response to the news "LG is getting out of the mobile phone business" is "good riddance, they should never have been there in the first place".

Which one is "closer to stock Android" is a non-issue if you run stock Android anyway.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#517

Post by kolinko » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

whakim wrote: post #166

ohazi wrote: post #66

I never understood why Samsung phones were constantly receiving praise by tech reviewers while LG got crapped on. Samsung always wanted to do things their way -- different (shitty) UI, Samsung versions of all the core Google apps (but worse), reorganizing preferences for no reason, the stupid bottom button placement, non-remappable Bixby button, aggressively killing apps for power management and breaking widgets, etc…

LG phones have often suffered from a number of issues: really poor displays (bad calibration and/or poor power profiles due to LG's in-house displays lagging far behind); poor camera hardware and software (Samsung has definitely made a number of missteps in this area, but LG blew it generation after generation); and bad battery life. I agree that Samsung has the upper hand (and gets the benefit of the doubt) through…

+1. It was over a decade ago, but my mom bought an LG „smartphone” back around 2009.

It had a touch screen so bad that you could barely hit proper numbers on the number keyboard.

For me, the reputation of them as a phone manufacturers was gone from then on. How can you sell a product to people that essentially doesn’t work?

Ditto with their laser projector recently - movies stuttering on a $2500 machine, and speakers worse than on my laptop :/

Their TVs are still good though :)

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#518

Post by acdha » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 2:24 PM UTC

Macha wrote: post #348

benhurmarcel wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Changing the battery is an operation that you likely only do once in the phone's lifetime. It doesn't make sense to have design constraints just to make that operation super-quick. Currently it takes an hour at most to do at any repair shop. It's good enough. What matters is that it's possible for a reasonable price.

€100 for labour, €50-80 for parts, now it suddenly only makes sense for high end phones

That’s considerably more expensive than Apple’s $50/$70 flat rate pricing.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#519

Post by tertius » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 2:26 PM UTC

behnamoh wrote: post #509

gmadsen wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

that seems to be the case: - two-party government, - two major desktop OSs (macOS and Windows), - two main mobile OSs (android and iOS), - two major phone manufacturers (Apple and Samsung), - two main internet browsers (Chrome and Firefox), - two mainstream cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin and Ethereum), - two major home internet providers (Verizon and Comcast) - two ... There are exceptions of course, esp. in the retail ma…

Ah yes, it was so much better before...

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#520

Post by coolg54321 » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

jcronenberg wrote: post #312

What I find most sad about this is that LG appears to be the only manufacturer who makes phones with both wireless charging and a headphone jack. Somehow these features seem to contradict themselfs for other manufacturers. Wireless charging is seen as a premium feature, while headphone jack is seen as a budget feature. I unfortunately have gotten so used to both that I don't want to give them up. I love my wired head…

> only manufacturer who makes phones with both wireless charging and a headphone jack

May be the you should mention "flagship" because there are many android mid-rangers with both headphone jack and wireless charging, but this too is not true because sony's flagship xperia 1 mark 2 still have both headphone jack and wireless charging + sd card support that the others have abandoned.