But inevitably, within a week or two, Google will do something that makes me uncomfortable relying on them for any piece of hardware that I'm likely to keep for 3+ years.
It is wild to think that there are still people loyal to Google. Just use their primary product - search - and tell me how anyone can not froth at the mouth in anger over the complete and total capitulation to the ad team? Seriously, fuck these guys and if you work for them, you're part of the problem.
This year was the first time I seriously considered switching to an iPhone as I watch their hardware keep progressing while Android manufacturers just copy design and slip in terms of specs.
Things like the Lidar sensor show that at least Apple is pushing their devices to do more. Yeah I hate that they eliminated the headphone jack, etc. but Android devices just copy those decisions anyway so they're really starting to feel less like a competitor and more like wannabe iPhones.
I still have two reasons not to switch: Termux and GrapheneOS. Who knows what Google's gonna "sunset" next though? There's already hints that the Linux system calls Termux depends on will be locked away by security policies. If that happens I'm gone.
I bought a Pixel just for GrapheneOS. Can't speak for anyone else.
> What features are those
There's a rather exhaustive list here:
https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
Some that stand out to me:
> Hardware memory tagging
> Isolated radios (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, etc.), GPU, SSD, media encode / decode, image processor and other components
> Weaver disk encryption key derivation throttling provided by secure element
Sounds like that's a feature in any ARMv9 processor, which would include current Xperias?
What you've linked is a long list but a lot of the items in it are underspecified and hard to search for. Would be good to be able to know what all these features actually do and why they do or don't exist in other models.
https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2023/11/first-handset...
I understand that some people are still upset about headphone jacks. When Apple first pushed that direction, people convinced me to be upset too. But then I broke down, and went on Amazon and realized that quality Bluetooth headphones are plentiful and cheap and only need charging once or twice a month. After trying a pair, I felt silly for waiting so long.
So I'm sure there is SOME audience of people with $500+ Sennheiser headphones, trying to somehow produce an audiophile experience on a cell phone. But the reality is that 99% of normal consumers are better off going wireless and getting the improved water resistance if not better use of space.
But. A few years later the usb port is almost unusable.
Also note that, at least for this old phone, Sony updates stopped two years from when the phone was released which is pretty bad, especially as I bought it a year after it was released.
Are you in one of those countries affected by this move?
I note in the original post by Google (two links away from 'mobilesyrup', who don't deign to mention the actual countries) they write:
"We are no longer selling Fitbit products in select countries—but don’t worry! We will continue to support you and the devices you currently own with software releases, security updates, warranty fulfillment, and access to customer service."
So if you had bought a fitbit, and were in one of the countries they were not selling in any longer, you'd still be fine, presumably for at least 3+ years.
Were, past tense, being the operative word. If I don't already have one, the ability to put an alternative OS on a pebble watch, while cool, isn't particularly useful.
I guess there's the android watch thing?
Combine that with GrapheneOS and it's a pretty good long-term solution.
Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, etc all make great phones. You don't have to get a Google.
They couldn't even do a mailing list, so that I could have a single email address for the kids school, etc, that emails both myself and my wife. The best they could offer was a shared mailbox, but it wouldn't go into my wife's inbox so not much point in that.
Fastmail did a better job than that.
I have an S21 Ultra (2021). It's big and somewhat heavy, but it has 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, a good camera, it will get 4-5 years of updates in total, and it's easily the best Android I had thus far.
My last Google device was Nexus 6 and it was shit. The first device I got had screen issues. Changed it in warranty, and the replacement died just after the warranty was over. Pixels are not as appalling as Nexuses were back then, but from reviews on the web, it's not far either. Also, the default Google experience is shit too.
Are you sure? Historically that's not been the case. I have an S6Edge which I got in 2016 and Samsung provided less than 18 months worth of Android updates, so it's stuck back on Android 7.0. I have several other Samsung device which I've rooted/jailbroken and have versions of Lineage that are way more up to date than anything Samsung have ever provided, I've got a couple of S4s running Android 12. (I'd do that with the S6Edge as well, except I have a GearVR which the Edge fits into, and most off the neat tricks the GearVR uses won't work if I lose the original Samsung-supplied OS).
I have an iPhone 6S which can't update to the most recent iOS versions, but is still getting security updates from Apple.
I understand how people in the apple ecosystem must feel about compatibility, it's actually really nice.
I do hate duplicate apps from Samsung but like you the last appealing google device for me was the nexus 5.
Weirdly enough I'd rather have close-to-stock rather than have essentially both Google and Samsung trying to monetize me.
I run an Apple phone at this point, and I'm not going to lie, they're so far ahead in this respect (good if not overpriced hardware, build quality, coherent ecosystems, less reliance surveillance capitalism, interop between devices), that it is just really hard to consider Android.
As much as I like the customization possibilities, more F/OSS-aligned OS & apps, etc of the Android ecosystem... It's hard to recommend it over Apple today.
The preference for the pristine Google experience is absolutely weird, because Google is not Apple, indeed.
On my phone, using Firefox with uBlock Origin, I go into ThePirateBay, download entire shows on my phone, then using VLC I stream them to my TV straight from my phone. There's nothing in Apple's offering that beats that for me. Mostly because Apple hates general purpose computing.
Yeah it might be a bit silly of me, but I basically consider all of Samsung's apps bloatware. Maybe that's an extreme position, but they almost never have the polish of the apple ecosystem, and when I'm on Android I'd rather use something like k9 over Samsung Email (so I wouldn't want it pre-installed, or would want to immediately remove it).
On Android it seems like finding the "best" version of all the apps is the price of choosing the bazaar over the cathedral.
Also, sometimes Samsung/other Android providers get weird about letting you uninstall their apps or daemons they might be running, etc. I have zero tolerance for any of that, on a platform that's supposed to be more configurable and somewhat under my own control. So it tends to be easier to just tend to a close-to-stock provider (and then eventually putting on a custom ROM or whatever if I get antsy).
On Apple, for better or worse there just is no choice... And the walled garden is just comfy enough.
> On my phone, using Firefox with uBlock Origin, I go into ThePirateBay, download entire shows on my phone, then using VLC I stream them to my TV straight from my phone. There's nothing in Apple's offering that beats that for me. Mostly because Apple hates general purpose computing.
uBlock Origin on mobile is definitely a great point -- the one big issue with Firefox on iOS, but I expect it will be solved eventually for iOS (there are always rumors but nothing concrete yet)...
VLC also is on iOS BTW I use it and it's great/my default.
And yeah I definitely sympathize with the dislike of Apple's hate of general purpose computing and user control. But I have to admit when what they've built is better/more cohesive and it just is for now.
I'm also an EU citizen, and the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive, i.e., the law, is above any terms of service, as Facebook recently found out.
Not sure what the difference between regions is, I'm in Europe, but on my S21U I have the option to unlock the bootloader in “Developer options”.