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Comment by 6d6b73 | Hacker News Reader

I'm still rocking my Nexus 5 and see no need to upgrade it. Parts are cheap, performance is decent. I installed LinageOS, rooted the phone, removed GApps. Why would I want to spend $1000 on something that could break in a year, and that I will have no control over?

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I would have used this phone forever if the battery life wasn't mediocre to bad. And yes, i put in a fresh battery that came well recommended. It took it from pathetic to just barely ok. It's a shame too, because just about everything else about the phone feels current. Even the design has held up well with the tiny bezels.

I always wished someone had made an extended battery mod for these with a different back cover or something. Or that someone had figured out a trick like the S7 batteries in the galaxy S6...

The problem is that phone is at the end of the day a niche device. Anything requiring real computer power will be relegated to a larger screen such as a laptop or desktop. Phone reached the speed they needed to get pretty much any basic task done years ago. Other than battery or slight speed improvements, most new phones just aren't game changers anymore.

By what measure are they niche? Smartphone in general became the first non-vital product in history of humanity that was bought by everybody who could.

Meh. We just did not come up with better uses yet.

I'm exactly the same. I'm using the white Nexus 5 that I bought on the day of release. I recently installed Lineage OS to bring some of the newer Android features in. I don't see myself buying a new phone for quite some time.

I'm glad I'm not the only one still using a Nexus 5. My only frustration is the delay between tapping on the screen and the desired action occurring (e.g. in Google Maps). Do you find that ROMs based on newer versions of AOSP make this older hardware sluggish?

can you recommend a guide for lineage OS - I am concerned I could break my phone permanently rather than get the installation correct.

I have this problem --> https://xkcd.com/1586/

You seem quite happy with your Nexus 5, but most people don't want to root their phone and install another OS on it. I'm happy to trade some control over my phone for assurances that it will have an up-to-date OS that gets security updates in a timely manner.

Other reasons to spend $1000 on a new phone are a larger screen or nicer screen, waterproofing, more than 2GB ram for better multitasking, better performance in 3D games, better camera, more than 32GB of storage, etc, etc.

Many (possibly most) people also pay for their phones monthly over two years, so the difference between a $1000 phone and a $700 phone is only $10 a month. That's a much smaller commitment than $300 up front.

> I'm happy to trade some control over my phone for assurances that it will have an up-to-date OS that gets security updates in a timely manner.

Unfortunately, you have things just about perfectly reversed. Using stock firmware on Android devices typically leaves a few months' lag time between upstream AOSP patch release and OTA updates for your phone. In contrast, LineageOS devices get updates every week; sometimes LineageOS beats even Google at issuing security updates.

Further, OEMs often discontinue updates after a couple years, while LineageOS will support your device for years and years.

Your tradeoff is really to lose control over your phone for a less-up-to-date OS, (frequently) months-old unpatched vulnerabilities, and a short support period. Your point about users not wanting to root their phones and install another OS still stands, but I dispute your perceived advantages to using stock Android crapware.

PS: Check out the Moto G4 Plus. It has a decent processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a microSD card slot, all the bells and whistles (fingerprint reader, GPS, LTE, etc.), full LineageOS support, and all for ~$220 on Amazon.

The phone that I was referencing with my comment is my Pixel 2 (and the Pixel I had before it) which gets OS updates faster than any other Android phone. Possibly not quite as fast as LineageOS gets them, but I imagine they are pretty neck and neck in that regard.

I used to use a Samsung Galaxy S4 with CyanogenMod for the security reasons you mention, though. I agree that LineageOS is more secure than most Android phones because the update model is so bad. Sometimes I forget because it's actually quite nice on the Pixel line.

I'd go for Librem 5 when it will come out, but otherwise - totally agree.

Agreed. That phone is, imho, a game changer. Or more accurately, a game reintroducer since there was once a time when mobile devices ran gnu/linux.. (e.g. Nokia N8x0/900)

I would have used my Nexus 5 for at least another year, maybe longer, if it didn't bootloop. I replaced it with a Nexus 5X that I would still be using today if that too didn't bootloop.

Beware, your Nexus 5 is on borrowed time with regards to the notorious bootlooping.

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