They’ve got some Motorola thing that was an upgrade over whatever Samsung A series they had before. Both newer phones than mine, I’m plugging along on my dad’s old hand me down samsung galaxy s7 edge. It’s slow as shit but their phone is even slower! It really seems like every advantage in computational improvement in every internet connected device just gets eaten up by more tracking bullshit and more unoptimized apps and it ends up being clunky and shit again
I need to get SOMETHING because the fucking NERDS who run everything have decided my device is too old to run their bullshit apps. Like I had 10 texts from a pharmacy yesterday telling me to use their app for everything. Ah, but guess what i can’t do
If i spend hundreds of precious dollars on something i intend to have another 10 year long usage lifespan and it’s even worse performance wise than what i got now im gonna scream. And post annoying complaints about how my own lack of consumer savvy fucked me
also the move is not to bother with the budget lines
buy the flagship from 2 gens back instead for around just a little bit more
If you can, disable all animations in the accessibility settings and the developer options–makes the phone feel 1000% more responsive
I dunno why but your pfp made me realize i hadn’t seen @Frank@hexbear.net post in like, a year now. Hope theyre ok
I don’t know them but I will do my best to carry the flame
I disable as many animations and flashing colors as I can, because it’s healthier for my brain
I use a Pixel 6 with Graphene OS and it runs great and is cheap af if u get one refurbished.
If the problem OP wants to solve Is apps refusing to work I’d take this suggestion with a grain of salt.
I can’t think of an app that doesn’t run on graphene, if you really need an app that relies on google play services, you can still install them and they work perfectly fine, or you could make another user just for apps with google play services. My banking app always tells me I need play services but it’s working just fine without
edit: I’ve found some more information on this thread. So the only apps that won’t work or have limited functionality are ones that check the Play Integrity API. Graphene works with needing the most basic level but not with the two higher ones
You know what that might be alright, the lying machine says itd be a “massive upgrade” and it’s got 2x as much ram so maybe it won’t be as fucked even if it’s still 5 years old
Does everything I need it to do just fine. Just FYI you will need to install graphene yourself or its gonna have google bloatware on it. I never used mine with stock android only with graphene so I can’t say if it would run badly that way.
Aren’t they about to drop support? (RIP my Pixel 6 Pro)
yes but thats just security updates it will still work fine and still be much more secure than what OP has now. Or they could just get a 7 or 8 instead and have support longer.
You have an old flagship phone, they almost certainly have a budget phone. The Samsung A series are among the worst phones money can buy and it’s unlikely that they suddenly switched from that to a phone that retailed for over $1000 because people don’t usually do that.
All budget and mid-range phones are designed to be genuinely terrible pieces of shit and consequently, they universally run significantly worse than far older flagship phones. Simply put, if you are not buying the Expensive Phone, the companies want you to be absolutely miserable so that you give up on saving money and just buy the expensive one.
Buy a used
flagshipPixel(do not buy a model that ends in A!!!)that fits your budget, they’re the only devices that can run custom OS so you can keep it functional longer. A Pixel 7 or Pixel 8 is likely in your budget and will massively outperform anything else you could get for that price, especially anything new.With all due respect, a lot of this is bullshit that may have been true a decade ago. Last year’s Pixel 9a for instance, the budget option, runs the same exact processor as the Pixel 9. Both can run custom firmware (I’m typing this post on my 9a on GrapheneOS).
You tend to get additional cameras, higher built quality (glass, frame) on the flagships, but Samsung and Google’s budget/midrange lines have been far from “designed to be terrible pieces of shit” as you’re claiming for ages. In some cases they’re actually the better option, as budget phones kept cut features like the headphone jack and SD card slots around in some cases, while they’ve long been abandoned on flagships.
You can compare the specs for the two phones I mentioned here: https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=13219&idPhone2=13478
Okay, nice! I stand corrected on the A series pixels!
I stand by my analysis of the Samsung budget devices. I regularly see the MediaTek A06 and A07 devices go out and they are absolutely Straight To Landfill garbage that should genuinely be illegal to manufacture.
The presence of a headphone jack or an SD card do not make a device viable to hold onto for 10+ years, a powerful CPU and GPU do.
The flagship models also usually have more RAM, which for most people the budget phone should be enough, but if you’re doing emulation/VMs or something like that it can be helpful
I think the Motorola they have now is supposed to be Pretty Good but it’s also a hand me down from my dad (guess who has all the money in our family). I would probably be willing to pay 1000 for another phone if I 1) didn’t really need to get a new car first and 2) knew it would 100% be an improvement and also be useful for another 10 years.
I could maybe do a pixel 10 in a few months, i just have anxiety i’ll be spending money for another piece of shit (and i’m suspicious of all the new phones having built in AI bullshit, as much as I defend llms as “useful” i don’t want it integrated into my fucking phone)
Honestly, a used pixel is probably the best bet for you. The Pixel 11 is supposed to come out in October and it’ll be an AI Slop nightmare. Picking up a 1 year old used pixel 10 is probably the right call.
Didn’t the 10 still have built in gemini stuff?
Absolutely, they all do. It’s literally unavoidable on any new phone. :(
I just turn all that shit off. Could always go for an 8 or 9.
8 still has a decent support lifespan left AFAIK, I might end up switching to it once 6 support gets dropped (also I recommend using something like GrapheneOS instead of stock Android)
Yeah and it randomly pops up all the time.
samsung galaxy s7 edge
This is a 2016 phone which no longer receives security updates. There is a security risk to using this phone unless you install a modern rom. You are at risk of being hacked. It’s like using a Windows 7 or Windows XP computer in the current year.
During Trump’s first term, Trump refused to stop using an out-dated Samsung Galaxy S3 (2012 model). https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/26/trump-android-samsung-phone-security-hacks
I need to get SOMETHING because the fucking NERDS who run everything have decided my device is too old to run their bullshit apps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GrapheneOS
GrapheneOS runs on only Google Pixel phones.
security risk
Oh buddy wait until i tell you how often i hit “do not update” on those Windows 11 updates
I just buy refurbished phones that are several years old and usually end up spending $150~
Aren’t you worried someone’s butt sweat is going to fuck it up too soon
Nah they usually last 5+ years, sometimes the phone is physically a little scuffed but you’re probably using a case anyways.
I’m using a years old Sony Xperia 5 IV on Android 14 until it breaks. I already got a Sony 1 V on Android 15 to replace it with when it breaks lol. Zero desire to upgrade any further, I’ve seen enough. Often I wish we could dial tech back to 2015 and just hang out there for a bit
Samsung A series
Yeah that’s basically e-waste
Now I’m wondering how much of a competitive advantage communist countries get just not using up all these resources for adware data tracking bullshit. I’m sure it’s not an insignificant improvement across an entire society even if it’s a small thing individually to have a slow as shit device
I regret to inform you that Xiaomi and Huawei really aren’t any better in this regard
But… but… xi, stop this!
I have a Vivo, and it’s the smoothest phone I’ve ever had. Chinese flagships are killer devices.
IQOO has an option to turn off data from most apps, including some system apps.
It is cool to use thatThe higher end of their mid range selection tends to be pretty good though
Still using an s7 edge here too, I am expecting the battery to blow up or something soon because this thing is ollllld.
It works perfectly fine for what I need it for, which is tiktok, calls and texts.
I was using an S8Active til just this past week, it finally died after almost a decade of service/abuse
I think it would work okay for me but the screen is cracked and i think that has slowed it down somehow. It just takes a long fucking time to open stuff like spotify sometimes, sometimes the keyboard gets really laggy texting, the various apps I literally can’t use like my bank’s app, shit (i.e. spotify) just straight up crashing when I’m playing music and set my phone down to charge, etc etc
There are minimalist eink phones these days. I haven’t used one yet, but people seem to like the Bigme Hibreak Pro.
honestly im buying a chinese brand next full on
