Topic: What mobile phone?

[WhereAngelsPlay]

It's a crazy world we're living in when a £250 phone is considered budget.

Good write up though 36.

[ChaChaMooMoo]

There are people out there who think a €1100 phone is abaolutely necessary. Simply because they can.

[paulrazor]

There are people out there who think a €1100 phone is abaolutely necessary. Simply because they can.

yep

200 every two years will do me

["21C or 70F?" SchizoidWeatherMan!]

I recently got an Xperia 1 iv from the US for about 1500 USD.

Eye watering price aside, it is the ONLY phone that offers all that I want. A headphone jack, an SD card slot and a display which can function as a portable monitor for your DSLR or console or anything that can be hooked up to an external display.

Well worth the money imo. 

[ChaChaMooMoo]

yep

200 every two years will do me

The funny thing is, I calculate about 10 euros a month as a breakeven point for a phone. I dont know how/why I came up with this number.

If I buy a phone for 240 euros, I have to use it for 2 years minimum. Anything more, is an added bonus. So if I use it for 3 years or 3.5 years, thats how long the phone is going to last anyways. Which is fair I feel.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

There are people out there who think a €1100 phone is abaolutely necessary. Simply because they can.

Most important things I look for in a mobile is quality music playback & the camera,after that I'm not arsed.

[dikwad]

I just keep mine until the updates stop, then pass it on it to the missus. Had this Oneplus Nord for a few years but even they're getting pricey now.

["21C or 70F?" SchizoidWeatherMan!]

to be honest updates make the phone worse in most cases in my experience. Only the security updates matter...

[ChaChaMooMoo]

Most important things I look for in a mobile is quality music playback & the camera,after that I'm not arsed.

How is this phone dependent? Isnt it headphone dependent?

["21C or 70F?" SchizoidWeatherMan!]

How is this phone dependent? Isnt it headphone dependent?

If the phone has a DAC, its absolutely phone dependent. Also support for high bitrate codecs and lossless wireless formats depends on the chipset/SOC as well. LG phones used to have some of the best DAC setups in the market, making it the best for audiphiles. Unfortunately, LG are gone from the smartphone space.

Some newer phones (Moto Edge 30 pro for e.g) don't even have DACs and analog output, so you cannot use standard usb c to 3.5 mm adapters to use your wired headphones. They rely on external DACs, which some premium adapters include. Otherwise you are limited to using USB type C earphones/headphones, which are nowhere near as common as standard 3.5 mm wired ones.

Its a mix of hardware and software.

[ChaChaMooMoo]

Wow TIL...

So which phones fulfil that requirement?

[ToneLa]

Most important things I look for in a mobile is quality music playback & the camera,after that I'm not arsed.

Out the box you're screwed I reckon. Software end I do this:

I rooted my Xiaomi mix 4 for this reason - can install a DSP processor eg. I have JamesDSP

Can also ensure its very high (flac-matching) bitrate in the Developer Settings

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/jamesdsp-audio-manager-mmt-ex.3607970/

So as ever my advice is buy what you want as long as it's on Android and get ready to root

[stevieG786]

time to upgrade from the iphone xs

thinking of buying the iphone 14 pro max when it releases this month for £1100, anyone know what date they're thinking?

[ScouserAtHeart]

time to upgrade from the iphone xs

thinking of buying the iphone 14 pro max when it releases this month for £1100, anyone know what date they're thinking?

Release is tomorrow, usually up for per-order the same day, deliveries starting a couple weeks later

[owens_2k]

I need to upgrade from my iphone X because the battery is just completely worn out. Can anyone recommend a phone worth upgrading to? Budget circa £500.

Things I cant live without are Siri, Wallet, Apple Pay and Banking apps so ideally need something which has those or equivalent.

Thanks

[GinKop]

I need to upgrade from my iphone X because the battery is just completely worn out. Can anyone recommend a phone worth upgrading to? Budget circa £500.

Things I cant live without are Siri, Wallet, Apple Pay and Banking apps so ideally need something which has those or equivalent.

Thanks

You'll be able to get all of those with Android (or the equiv.) - the Honor 70 looks like a really nice phone. Under £500.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiSeegZbDMw

This is a good review of it. You get free wireless earbuds with them at the moment.

[Walshy nMe®]

This 14 pro looks amazing, I love the pill they have gone with, though the name "Dynamic Island" is a bit OTT.

Pre order going live 1pm, will be on this like a shot.

[Walshy nMe®]

time to upgrade from the iphone xs

thinking of buying the iphone 14 pro max when it releases this month for £1100, anyone know what date they're thinking?

Pre order today, will be ready on Fri 16th.

[Walshy nMe®]

I need to upgrade from my iphone X because the battery is just completely worn out. Can anyone recommend a phone worth upgrading to? Budget circa £500.

Things I cant live without are Siri, Wallet, Apple Pay and Banking apps so ideally need something which has those or equivalent.

Thanks

Or go get a new battery, will give you another year or 2 of the X.

[Trump's tiny tiny hands]

God damn the Apple store sucks. Filled out the pre PRE-order stuff ready to go for today and it failed at multiple steps and never got to check out. Now all the early delivery slots are gone. Genius my arse.

[owens_2k]

You'll be able to get all of those with Android (or the equiv.) - the Honor 70 looks like a really nice phone. Under £500.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiSeegZbDMw

This is a good review of it. You get free wireless earbuds with them at the moment.

Funnily enough I've been looking at that phone after seeing an unbox therapy review of it. I'm just scared to make the jump from Apple!

[stevieG786]

Pre order today, will be ready on Fri 16th.

Missed out, it’s now saying October 10 delivery 

Argos are suppose to drop the IPhone 14 pre orders today, anyone know what time to expect with Argos?

[ToneLa]

Funnily enough I've been looking at that phone after seeing an unbox therapy review of it. I'm just scared to make the jump from Apple!

Don't be, I have a work iPhone and it's terrible for my purposes - but my opinion aside, making the jump from Apple is not the obstacle it was ten years ago. At any rate, their business model is lowest common denominator tech coupled with walling you in

all your photos with Apple? That is not an accident.

Is it easier? The alternative isn't hard - do explore it, but I assure you jumping from Apple is entirely surmountable and I encourage you to do it 

[AndyMuller]

Thinking of making the jump from Apple to Samsung myself. What are the benefits? I own a Mac too which is my main laptop.

[stevieG786]

Shall I order it and go for the mid October delivery date or shall I wait for launch day and try and hope to get it around release time? I really don’t want to wait till mid/end of October but on the other hand I don’t want that date to go even further November etc

[PeterJM]

Shall I order it and go for the mid October delivery date or shall I wait for launch day and try and hope to get it around release time? I really don’t want to wait till mid/end of October but on the other hand I don’t want that date to go even further November etc

I'd try Argos in the morning as i ordered mine this morning after missing out yesterday.

[Skeeve]

Thinking of making the jump from Apple to Samsung myself. What are the benefits? I own a Mac too which is my main laptop.

In the past you'd have had a number of hardware benefits if you switched in that direction, but these days the likes of Samsung have pared those right down.

Do you just fancy a change or is there a specific reason for switching away from Apple, the former is obviously a completely valid reason, but otherwise if somebody is happy with android or ios, they might as well stick with their current one.

[owens_2k]

In the past you'd have had a number of hardware benefits if you switched in that direction, but these days the likes of Samsung have pared those right down.

Do you just fancy a change or is there a specific reason for switching away from Apple, the former is obviously a completely valid reason, but otherwise if somebody is happy with android or ios, they might as well stick with their current one.

My reasons are simply because I've had the iPhone X since 2018 and the battery has run its course. The new iterations of iphones don't really offer much in terms of upgrades for what I use mine for.

Maybe as someone mentioned above, a new battery may be the best bet.

[stevieG786]

in stock on amazon roght now

just placed my order

[AndyMuller]

In the past you'd have had a number of hardware benefits if you switched in that direction, but these days the likes of Samsung have pared those right down.

Do you just fancy a change or is there a specific reason for switching away from Apple, the former is obviously a completely valid reason, but otherwise if somebody is happy with android or ios, they might as well stick with their current one.

Mine is literally just for a change mate. I’ve had iPhone for years and sometimes a change is good.

[owens_2k]

You'll be able to get all of those with Android (or the equiv.) - the Honor 70 looks like a really nice phone. Under £500.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiSeegZbDMw

This is a good review of it. You get free wireless earbuds with them at the moment.

Was gonna pull the trigger on the Honor 70 until I realised it has no IP protection

[gazzalfc]

Was gonna pull the trigger on the Honor 70 until I realised it has no IP protection

Have a look into that. Getting an IP rating for a phone costs alot so they don't actively pay to go through the IP process. But their phones are manufactured so they have the same water ingress protection that the major brands do (rubber ring seal on the SIM card tray, mesh protection around the speakers and microphone and sealant around the screen). They just don't have the official rating

OnePlus did it for years to save money.

One thing to remember with an IP rating. It does sound fancy and may help if you drop it down the toilet. But phones still have water tamper measures inside and companies won't pay out if you happen to still manage to water damage your phone

[JasonF]

Have a look into that. Getting an IP rating for a phone costs alot so they don't actively pay to go through the IP process. But their phones are manufactured so they have the same water ingress protection that the major brands do (rubber ring seal on the SIM card tray, mesh protection around the speakers and microphone and sealant around the screen). They just don't have the official rating

OnePlus did it for years to save money.

One thing to remember with an IP rating. It does sound fancy and may help if you drop it down the toilet. But phones still have water tamper measures inside and companies won't pay out if you happen to still manage to water damage your phone

I had a OnePlus 2 that got water damaged just from exposure to condensation on the inside of a tent while camping back in the day. Also had a Huawei Mate 20 Pro that was meant to be IP 68 "can withstand depths of up to 1.5 meters of water for as long as 30 minutes" which fell into a hot tub for a matter of seconds and stopped working which surprisingly Huawei replaced. It's better to have one that's actually covered in my experience.

[ChrisOH]

Had a Huawei P30 Pro since 2019 and it's done me great. However, I went to a music festival with the missus this summer and her iPhone 13 recorded amazing sound/videos with surprising consistency. The 13 also feels great with the vibrations etc. Never had an iPhone as I've always been Android but I'm really considering getting the 14 Pro. I'll still likely use Google Maps instead of Apple's etc but there's just nothing popping out at me on the Android market that seems to match the consistency of the iPhone.

[liverbloke]

Had a Huawei P30 Pro since 2019 and it's done me great. However, I went to a music festival with the missus this summer and her iPhone 13 recorded amazing sound/videos with surprising consistency. The 13 also feels great with the vibrations etc. Never had an iPhone as I've always been Android but I'm really considering getting the 14 Pro. I'll still likely use Google Maps instead of Apple's etc but there's just nothing popping out at me on the Android market that seems to match the consistency of the iPhone.

tbf most videos will look good to the majority of people who watch them on phones

how was it on a larger screen?

i have about 14 close friends, about 30-odd family members and around 40 'mates' and the majority of them watch everything on their phones

my point is - unless you're gonna watch it on a big tv (that's a television to the yoof) or on a decent sized screen (mostly gamers use these but only use them for games) or on a laptop (what's one of them i hear you ask) then does it matter that much really?

i know a guy whose photographs are amazing but he's only got them on his phone and shares them via his phone - even when he posts them online on fb flickr and insta then people still only view them on their phones so they exist in a miniature scale and everything looks good in miniature

["21C or 70F?" SchizoidWeatherMan!]

Had a Huawei P30 Pro since 2019 and it's done me great. However, I went to a music festival with the missus this summer and her iPhone 13 recorded amazing sound/videos with surprising consistency. The 13 also feels great with the vibrations etc. Never had an iPhone as I've always been Android but I'm really considering getting the 14 Pro. I'll still likely use Google Maps instead of Apple's etc but there's just nothing popping out at me on the Android market that seems to match the consistency of the iPhone.

Good luck using the quagmire that is Itunes to transfer audio and video files to/from your PC.

IOS is so restrictive it is barely a smart OS.

You cannot even download or upload big files in the background while using a non-apple app like Plex or Spotify.  For example, on Android, I can simply set files for downloading,  lock my phone and go to sleep.  On IOS?  Apps get 'suspended' in the background in a couple of minutes so you have to keep your screen on for downloading/uploading large files.  This is supposedly a 'security' feature.

Forget about installing apps outside of the apple store. Forget about using emulators or torrent clients.  Forget about using standard HID peripherals on your phone if needed with a simple OTG cable.

[jonnypb]

Some valid points and I think it highlights the difference between Android and iOS.  Android is probably more suited towards the more technogeeks who want to delve more into the OS and customise things without having to jailbreak an iPhone.  However, for the large proportion of users you won't be doing any of this so either Android or iOS is more than adequate for the vast majority of people and it comes down to personal preference of what phone you like and which OS you prefer.

I was on Android for many years before switching to Apple and see no reason to switch back to Android.  We have Android phones at work and they're fine, but I just find the iOS system slicker, maybe it's just what you get use to over time.

Good luck using the quagmire that is Itunes to transfer audio and video files to/from your PC.

Yeah iTunes isn't great.  But who actually transfers audio and video files to their phone anymore, or who has time to do this!?  Did people not stop doing that 10 years ago since the introduction of spotify, apple music, amazon prime, netflix etc etc. 

IOS is so restrictive it is barely a smart OS.

Yes it can be restrictive, but I wouldn't say that it isn't smart.  For 95% of people it has everything that you need without wanting to butcher the OS.  For those who want to delve more into the OS and tinker about with it then you can jaibreak it (if that's still a thing)

You cannot even download or upload big files in the background while using a non-apple app like Plex or Spotify.  For example, on Android, I can simply set files for downloading,  lock my phone and go to sleep.  On IOS?  Apps get 'suspended' in the background in a couple of minutes so you have to keep your screen on for downloading/uploading large files.  This is supposedly a 'security' feature.

Forget about installing apps outside of the apple store. Forget about using emulators or torrent clients.  Forget about using standard HID peripherals on your phone if needed with a simple OTG cable.

I would say the majority of people wouldn't be doing this anyway?  Also why would you want to install an app outside of the app store?  That's asking for trouble IMO.

[Walshy nMe®]

Good luck using the quagmire that is Itunes to transfer audio and video files to/from your PC.

You can just go to iCloud.com and get them all there. Or Google drive.

The criticism of iOS is so lazy it’s like nothing has changed from 5-10 years ago.

You can pretty much use all Google apps now and essentially do it in better hardware and better software. I’ve never not been able to find a stream or watch something pirated in an iPhone. I’m not sure many people are torrenting movies and sitting there watching them for hours at a time, perhaps I’m wrong.

Lots of people use them differently but uploading videos to YouTube, to the cloud etc happens in the background for me

[Walshy nMe®]

To add to that I used to jailbreak my phone every year.
 
But every year there was less and less reason to do it as the apps/tools become norm in iOS.

[ChrisOH]

Looks like I ran into some Apple haters here aha. I've seen the missus use it and used the phone enough myself now to know that software wise, the change from Android to Apple wouldn't be an issue for me.

To clarify, if there anything on the android market that would match the iPhone 14's consistency in taking everyday pictures/videos. Mrwhostheboss latest video basically says the iPhone 14 wipes the floor with Samsung 22 Ultra so I'm guessing not?