Like, I've been a samsung guy for years now but I'm kind of itching to try a pixel. But I'm also in love with foldables and I want to wait a while before I see how well the Pixel Fold holds up. And the watch... Pixel watch is great in theory but even the pixel watch 2 is a tough buy. It feels like what the Fitbit Sense 3 was supposed to be with WearOS thrown on top.
I'd love a pixel watch with a 45mm size instead of 41, and a screen that didn't have an enormous bezel.
Also, one note, I know we're on page 100. I'll create a new thread soon-ish. I need to re-do good chunks of the OP since it's from 2018 and reads like it is from 2018.
How far back in generations does the 7 years support thing go; or does it start with the 8?
As far as I know, starts with the 8. Google probably has the Tensor SoC tuned to the point now where it really is something they can support for that long starting with the 3.
I think Im going to make the jump from the 6a to the 8 Pro but I have a couple of preorder bonus options (basically $400? off if I go through Fi or free watch if I go through the Google Store), what are the Pixel watches like? I used to have a Fitbit (non smartwatch) and after a couple of them died I went to a Samsung Gear Sport which also died. Then I stopped working out and figured fuck it I dont need even more software tracking my lack of movement. I'm starting to work out again though.
I dont need to answer texts, emails, or phone calls from my watch, Im more interested in the fitness tracking than most of the smartwatch stuff.
I think Im going to make the jump from the 6a to the 8 Pro but I have a couple of preorder bonus options (basically $400? off if I go through Fi or free watch if I go through the Google Store), what are the Pixel watches like? I used to have a Fitbit (non smartwatch) and after a couple of them died I went to a Samsung Gear Sport which also died. Then I stopped working out and figured fuck it I dont need even more software tracking my lack of movement. I'm starting to work out again though.
I dont need to answer texts, emails, or phone calls from my watch, Im more interested in the fitness tracking than most of the smartwatch stuff.
If you don't need the text/email/calling, just get a Garmin watch. I've had a Vivoactive 3 for a few years now and it's still a champ, tracks workouts exceedingly well and holds a charge for about 4 days with moderate activity (turning on GPS monitoring on a walk or run will burn the battery down) and I can stretch to almost a week with the backlight to 0 and disabling GPS and just relying on step counts. It also has contactless payment though not many places take Garmin Pay.
I second getting a Garmin watch in this situation.
The way I like to say it is that if you want a very good smartwatch that can act as a casual fitness tracker, get a WearOS watch like a Galaxy Watch or Pixel Watch.
But if you want a very good fitness tracking device that can act as a casual/mediocre smartwatch, get a Garmin watch.
My wife has always sworn by Garmin and after killing my Galaxy watch I got a Garmin and haven't looked back. Depending on the model they can do calls and reply to texts and are as durable as a classic watch with sapphire crystal and so on.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
OnePlus Open looks pretty amazing
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I was just checking out a review of it and yeah, looks impressive.
a couple things with the Open. No wireless charging, Oxygen OS is..... a bit rough now that it's basically a reskinned version of what runs on oppo phones, and one reviewer had a broken screen in less than a couple weeks.
Take the last part with a grain of salt, since broken devices do happen, but it is worth mentioning with a folding phone.
The last thing I'd say about it would be support. When the screen breaks, what kind of support do you get from OnePlus/Oppo? Again, with a folding phone, i think that's much more worth paying attention to.
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Thanks to a trade in deal I got rid of my Galaxy and jumped back on the Pixel train. Happy to be back to stock Android, to get the space back from the Samsung bloat, and to just enjoy the phone.
As a bonus, the speakers on this phone are really nice!
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
i dont know if the S2X range of Galaxy phones has more bloat but I have noticed no real bloat on my Fold 5. Maybe it's less on the newer ones?
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
The Galaxy OS is something like four times the size of the Pixel OS. I went from a 128GB galaxy s21 ultra to a 128GB Pixel 8 pro and, with all the same things installed and downloaded (aside from the Samsung apps) I've gotten back almost 20GB for storage. And since I don't use Samsung's apps for anything because they're almost all just worse versions of Google's, it works out perfectly for me.
The Galaxy OS is something like four times the size of the Pixel OS. I went from a 128GB galaxy s21 ultra to a 128GB Pixel 8 pro and, with all the same things installed and downloaded (aside from the Samsung apps) I've gotten back almost 20GB for storage. And since I don't use Samsung's apps for anything because they're almost all just worse versions of Google's, it works out perfectly for me.
So, a couple things about this. a good chunk of the difference is because of how Android accounts for formatted space. Basically, a 512GB Samsung phone is actually only 477GB of real space. (this goes back to the time old tradition of 1000 vs 1024 as how we measure space). But what happens is that android puts that "ghost space" as I call it in with the OS. So while a Galaxy S23 512GB will report a 60GB OS, the real number is actually only 25GB.
Google's phones do this as well, so while you do lose a similar percentage, so Google's OS image is a couple gigs less than reported it makes the disparity between them much less.
Past that we get into the subjective views, so this is my own personal opinion. I frankly find Samsung's version of Android much better than Google's for the average person. Google's version of Android is barebones to a fault, in my opinion. And most people aren't going to go find a new launcher, or download a bunch of apps like Tasker to try to do things that are just built into Samsung's version of Android. That doesn't make one better than another. Both have their virtues. But I think for the mass market consumer, Samsung's devices are a much better buy.
Also, IMO, Samsung's UI was designed by someone who actually wants to phone to be convenient to use, while Google's is designed by someone who wants the prettiest looking screenshots for ad pages.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
the fact that you can't remove the search on the home screen alone is a deal-breaker for me, nevermind all the other features they lack. fuck Pixels
can't say storage space is ever something meaningful I think about, and there's no certainly no performance differences.
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
So, the main reason that high end phones got rid of SD card storage probably isn't what you think. The reason was performance, not (only) money. Even the fastest SD cards are orders of magnitiude slower than the UFS 3.x (or 4.0 now) SSD storage built into phones. That performance disparity causes issues. A few years ago a number of manufacturers came out and said that a lot of the complaints about slow phone performance was directly related to SD card storage. People complain that their cameras are slow? Well that's becuase the SD cards are too slow to write burst photos to in a timely fashion. In fact I remember the last phone I had with an SD card, some of the camera features, especially higher resolution video, wouldn't even let you save to the SD card because it wasn't fast enough.
Same thing goes for apps. People would put apps on SD cards, then complain to the developer that the app was slow. Not the app's fault, it was that the write speed of the SD card wasn't fast enough to keep up.
So no, at the high end you won't find many, if any, that support SD cards anymore, because they measurably slow down a phone.
Now, as for storage options, many OEM's have moved to 256GB as the starting point for their high end/flagship lines. All of Samsung's Galaxy S and Fold phones start at 256. Perusing the OnePlus site, there is a OnePlus 11 with 128GB, but as of this moment OnePlus is offering a "deal" to get the 256GB version for the price of 128. That's a pretty evergreen deal from OnePlus, I see it often. All of Motorola's high end phones are all at least 256GB now.
Really, of what I would consider the primary OEM's on the market only Google and Apple are still starting at 128GB for their higher end phones. Most others have moved to 256.
Also, IMO, Samsung's UI was designed by someone who actually wants to phone to be convenient to use, while Google's is designed by someone who wants the prettiest looking screenshots for ad pages.
Eh, yes and no. I do get the complaints that Samsung's UI can be busy at times, and there's a lot there to configure. I think Samsung could do some work to simplify the OS a bit without taking away the feature set. And it is, frankly, dumb that in late 2023 Samsung still makes the antiquated 3 button navigation the default on its phones, when swipe gesture navigation has been the android standard for literally 5 years now.
Also, IMO, Samsung's UI was designed by someone who actually wants to phone to be convenient to use, while Google's is designed by someone who wants the prettiest looking screenshots for ad pages.
Eh, yes and no. I do get the complaints that Samsung's UI can be busy at times, and there's a lot there to configure. I think Samsung could do some work to simplify the OS a bit without taking away the feature set. And it is, frankly, dumb that in late 2023 Samsung still makes the antiquated 3 button navigation the default on its phones, when swipe gesture navigation has been the android standard for literally 5 years now.
My wife still likes the three buttons so I don't begrudge that. And at least you can get rid of it. Honestly the only thing I miss from my galaxy is the edge menu. I like a clean screen so the edge menu is handy to put my most used apps on that aren't the favorites bar on the bottom.
Also, IMO, Samsung's UI was designed by someone who actually wants to phone to be convenient to use, while Google's is designed by someone who wants the prettiest looking screenshots for ad pages.
Eh, yes and no. I do get the complaints that Samsung's UI can be busy at times, and there's a lot there to configure. I think Samsung could do some work to simplify the OS a bit without taking away the feature set. And it is, frankly, dumb that in late 2023 Samsung still makes the antiquated 3 button navigation the default on its phones, when swipe gesture navigation has been the android standard for literally 5 years now.
My wife still likes the three buttons so I don't begrudge that. And at least you can get rid of it. Honestly the only thing I miss from my galaxy is the edge menu. I like a clean screen so the edge menu is handy to put my most used apps on that aren't the favorites bar on the bottom.
Not Saying Samusng should take the 3 buttons away. But literally 5 years after the first version of android that made swipe gestures the default navigation option, it is long past time for Samsung to do the same.
The first thing I do on a new Android phone is switch to 3-button navigation. This is not to say that 3-button navigation should be made the standard, more me being fascinated that apparently my preferences are so different from what most people like.
The first thing I do on a new Android phone is switch to 3-button navigation. This is not to say that 3-button navigation should be made the standard, more me being fascinated that apparently my preferences are so different from what most people like.
yeah we are at the point where pretty much every phone in the world except the iPhone SE and any Samsung phone ships with gesture navigation by default. The operating systems and apps are designed around gesture navigation first now.
I'm 100% on board with keeping it as an option for those who want it. There are also some accessibility reasons to have it as an option. But gesture navigation was introduced in Anroid 9, 5 years ago. Just like how we largely went away from hardware buttons, it is really time for Samsung to give up on the 3 button navigation as the default.
I own a Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the idea that using a foldable, where many of the multitasking features are gesture based and require swipes, etc, and then the default navigation is then 3 buttons is just... strange.
nah, keep both, I prefer buttons because I found I swiped the wrong thing many a time when I tried it. I know what the buttons do and don't have to guess or remember.
Yeah I've always found gesture navigation to be finicky and frustrating to use. Either by misinterpreting scrolling or other normal actions as gestures or being unreliable depending on the specific gesture due to the inability to actually touch the edges of the screen if you have a case on the phone. I eventually gave up on it and went back to the reliable buttons.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
We went away from hardware buttons, but I'm suggesting we go back. All the way.
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
So, the main reason that high end phones got rid of SD card storage probably isn't what you think. The reason was performance, not (only) money. Even the fastest SD cards are orders of magnitiude slower than the UFS 3.x (or 4.0 now) SSD storage built into phones. That performance disparity causes issues. A few years ago a number of manufacturers came out and said that a lot of the complaints about slow phone performance was directly related to SD card storage. People complain that their cameras are slow? Well that's becuase the SD cards are too slow to write burst photos to in a timely fashion. In fact I remember the last phone I had with an SD card, some of the camera features, especially higher resolution video, wouldn't even let you save to the SD card because it wasn't fast enough.
Same thing goes for apps. People would put apps on SD cards, then complain to the developer that the app was slow. Not the app's fault, it was that the write speed of the SD card wasn't fast enough to keep up.
So no, at the high end you won't find many, if any, that support SD cards anymore, because they measurably slow down a phone.
Now, as for storage options, many OEM's have moved to 256GB as the starting point for their high end/flagship lines. All of Samsung's Galaxy S and Fold phones start at 256. Perusing the OnePlus site, there is a OnePlus 11 with 128GB, but as of this moment OnePlus is offering a "deal" to get the 256GB version for the price of 128. That's a pretty evergreen deal from OnePlus, I see it often. All of Motorola's high end phones are all at least 256GB now.
Really, of what I would consider the primary OEM's on the market only Google and Apple are still starting at 128GB for their higher end phones. Most others have moved to 256.
Yeah but the solution is literally in your post. Just lock the OS to only having apps stored on the internal drive and other files can be moved around as desired. It is an incredibly easy solution to implement, in fact it used to be that way by default. The real reason is because of cost.
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
So, the main reason that high end phones got rid of SD card storage probably isn't what you think. The reason was performance, not (only) money. Even the fastest SD cards are orders of magnitiude slower than the UFS 3.x (or 4.0 now) SSD storage built into phones. That performance disparity causes issues. A few years ago a number of manufacturers came out and said that a lot of the complaints about slow phone performance was directly related to SD card storage. People complain that their cameras are slow? Well that's becuase the SD cards are too slow to write burst photos to in a timely fashion. In fact I remember the last phone I had with an SD card, some of the camera features, especially higher resolution video, wouldn't even let you save to the SD card because it wasn't fast enough.
Same thing goes for apps. People would put apps on SD cards, then complain to the developer that the app was slow. Not the app's fault, it was that the write speed of the SD card wasn't fast enough to keep up.
So no, at the high end you won't find many, if any, that support SD cards anymore, because they measurably slow down a phone.
Now, as for storage options, many OEM's have moved to 256GB as the starting point for their high end/flagship lines. All of Samsung's Galaxy S and Fold phones start at 256. Perusing the OnePlus site, there is a OnePlus 11 with 128GB, but as of this moment OnePlus is offering a "deal" to get the 256GB version for the price of 128. That's a pretty evergreen deal from OnePlus, I see it often. All of Motorola's high end phones are all at least 256GB now.
Really, of what I would consider the primary OEM's on the market only Google and Apple are still starting at 128GB for their higher end phones. Most others have moved to 256.
Yeah but the solution is literally in your post. Just lock the OS to only having apps stored on the internal drive and other files can be moved around as desired. It is an incredibly easy solution to implement, in fact it used to be that way by default. The real reason is because of cost.
So, Google actually tried that. I think it was back in the Android 6 days. might have been 5. the SD cards in that version could only be used for media, not app storage. Part of the reason for that was to prevent piracy, as expandable storage was a big vector for modified/malware filled APK's. The backlash against having no apps on SD card that was so swift that that was what began the end of expandable storage. Google did come up with a way for apps to be moved to SD cards again in a more secure manner, I think by Android 8. But that still didn't solve the responsiveness/speed issue.
And then we hit the point where phones were at that time mostly coming with 128GB of storage, and the hard numbers showed that the vast majority of people used less than half of that amount of storage, so companies decided it was better to cater to the 99%.
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
So, the main reason that high end phones got rid of SD card storage probably isn't what you think. The reason was performance, not (only) money. Even the fastest SD cards are orders of magnitiude slower than the UFS 3.x (or 4.0 now) SSD storage built into phones. That performance disparity causes issues. A few years ago a number of manufacturers came out and said that a lot of the complaints about slow phone performance was directly related to SD card storage. People complain that their cameras are slow? Well that's becuase the SD cards are too slow to write burst photos to in a timely fashion. In fact I remember the last phone I had with an SD card, some of the camera features, especially higher resolution video, wouldn't even let you save to the SD card because it wasn't fast enough.
Same thing goes for apps. People would put apps on SD cards, then complain to the developer that the app was slow. Not the app's fault, it was that the write speed of the SD card wasn't fast enough to keep up.
So no, at the high end you won't find many, if any, that support SD cards anymore, because they measurably slow down a phone.
Now, as for storage options, many OEM's have moved to 256GB as the starting point for their high end/flagship lines. All of Samsung's Galaxy S and Fold phones start at 256. Perusing the OnePlus site, there is a OnePlus 11 with 128GB, but as of this moment OnePlus is offering a "deal" to get the 256GB version for the price of 128. That's a pretty evergreen deal from OnePlus, I see it often. All of Motorola's high end phones are all at least 256GB now.
Really, of what I would consider the primary OEM's on the market only Google and Apple are still starting at 128GB for their higher end phones. Most others have moved to 256.
Yeah but the solution is literally in your post. Just lock the OS to only having apps stored on the internal drive and other files can be moved around as desired. It is an incredibly easy solution to implement, in fact it used to be that way by default. The real reason is because of cost.
So, Google actually tried that. I think it was back in the Android 6 days. might have been 5. the SD cards in that version could only be used for media, not app storage. Part of the reason for that was to prevent piracy, as expandable storage was a big vector for modified/malware filled APK's. The backlash against having no apps on SD card that was so swift that that was what began the end of expandable storage. Google did come up with a way for apps to be moved to SD cards again in a more secure manner, I think by Android 8. But that still didn't solve the responsiveness/speed issue.
And then we hit the point where phones were at that time mostly coming with 128GB of storage, and the hard numbers showed that the vast majority of people used less than half of that amount of storage, so companies decided it was better to cater to the 99%.
Damn it you make it sound so reasonable. I just want to be pissed that the world can't cater to my specific incredibly niche use cases.
Gamertag: KL Retribution
PSN:Furlion
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
So, the main reason that high end phones got rid of SD card storage probably isn't what you think. The reason was performance, not (only) money. Even the fastest SD cards are orders of magnitiude slower than the UFS 3.x (or 4.0 now) SSD storage built into phones. That performance disparity causes issues. A few years ago a number of manufacturers came out and said that a lot of the complaints about slow phone performance was directly related to SD card storage. People complain that their cameras are slow? Well that's becuase the SD cards are too slow to write burst photos to in a timely fashion. In fact I remember the last phone I had with an SD card, some of the camera features, especially higher resolution video, wouldn't even let you save to the SD card because it wasn't fast enough.
Same thing goes for apps. People would put apps on SD cards, then complain to the developer that the app was slow. Not the app's fault, it was that the write speed of the SD card wasn't fast enough to keep up.
So no, at the high end you won't find many, if any, that support SD cards anymore, because they measurably slow down a phone.
Now, as for storage options, many OEM's have moved to 256GB as the starting point for their high end/flagship lines. All of Samsung's Galaxy S and Fold phones start at 256. Perusing the OnePlus site, there is a OnePlus 11 with 128GB, but as of this moment OnePlus is offering a "deal" to get the 256GB version for the price of 128. That's a pretty evergreen deal from OnePlus, I see it often. All of Motorola's high end phones are all at least 256GB now.
Really, of what I would consider the primary OEM's on the market only Google and Apple are still starting at 128GB for their higher end phones. Most others have moved to 256.
Yeah but the solution is literally in your post. Just lock the OS to only having apps stored on the internal drive and other files can be moved around as desired. It is an incredibly easy solution to implement, in fact it used to be that way by default. The real reason is because of cost.
I'm curious, what are people downloading that takes up the bulk of the space on their phones? Looking over my storage, there's always a gig or so in photos that will clear itself up over time. Beyond that my big stuff is:
I still have like 40GB free on my phone. I know not everyone does cloud storage for their photos, but I'm just not sure what takes up space for other folks. Do people still download that much music to their phones?
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
I can't see myself ever using up the 512gb I have. I even have almost 200gb in downloaded Prime shows for airplane travel and it's still only a bit over half full.
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
I was perusing the phone market and the lack of expandable storage sucks ass. The headphone jack was missed but i am not an audiophile at all so whatever. But damn i download a ton of crap on my phone and 128 GB does not fucking cut it.
So, the main reason that high end phones got rid of SD card storage probably isn't what you think. The reason was performance, not (only) money. Even the fastest SD cards are orders of magnitiude slower than the UFS 3.x (or 4.0 now) SSD storage built into phones. That performance disparity causes issues. A few years ago a number of manufacturers came out and said that a lot of the complaints about slow phone performance was directly related to SD card storage. People complain that their cameras are slow? Well that's becuase the SD cards are too slow to write burst photos to in a timely fashion. In fact I remember the last phone I had with an SD card, some of the camera features, especially higher resolution video, wouldn't even let you save to the SD card because it wasn't fast enough.
Same thing goes for apps. People would put apps on SD cards, then complain to the developer that the app was slow. Not the app's fault, it was that the write speed of the SD card wasn't fast enough to keep up.
So no, at the high end you won't find many, if any, that support SD cards anymore, because they measurably slow down a phone.
Now, as for storage options, many OEM's have moved to 256GB as the starting point for their high end/flagship lines. All of Samsung's Galaxy S and Fold phones start at 256. Perusing the OnePlus site, there is a OnePlus 11 with 128GB, but as of this moment OnePlus is offering a "deal" to get the 256GB version for the price of 128. That's a pretty evergreen deal from OnePlus, I see it often. All of Motorola's high end phones are all at least 256GB now.
Really, of what I would consider the primary OEM's on the market only Google and Apple are still starting at 128GB for their higher end phones. Most others have moved to 256.
Yeah but the solution is literally in your post. Just lock the OS to only having apps stored on the internal drive and other files can be moved around as desired. It is an incredibly easy solution to implement, in fact it used to be that way by default. The real reason is because of cost.
I'm curious, what are people downloading that takes up the bulk of the space on their phones? Looking over my storage, there's always a gig or so in photos that will clear itself up over time. Beyond that my big stuff is:
I still have like 40GB free on my phone. I know not everyone does cloud storage for their photos, but I'm just not sure what takes up space for other folks. Do people still download that much music to their phones?
Oh it's not music, just massive amounts of porn.
Gamertag: KL Retribution
PSN:Furlion
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I have about 40GB of photos and videos that I've taken on this specific phone, it's all up in Google Photos and OneDrive but I usually don't completely delete local photos until/if I run out of space or it is time to retire the phone. Pocket Casts is about 5GB right now. I usually keep about 5GB of music stored offline, and have about 20GB total of offline video (from places like Disney+, netflix, etc). I watch a lot of content on my Fold 4 as I have a personal situation where I'm sitting in a location that isn't my house in a caregiver role with a lot of time to kill and I don't always want to carry/have my Switch or Steam deck on me. So my Fold 4 is my primary content consumption device.
Some mobile games can get quite big now too. If I remember correctly, Call of Duty Mobile clocks in around 20GB if you have everything downloaded.
Looking at my 256GB Fold 4 right now and storage is about 60% used.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
That actually is something i am thinking about doing. I have been reading up on building one and it looks both relatively easy and much cheaper than a prebuilt. My only concern would be setting up the software side but i am assume there are plenty of NAS for medium skilled tech people guides out there.
Gamertag: KL Retribution
PSN:Furlion
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Ear3nd1lEärendil the Mariner, father of ElrondRegistered Userregular
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I'd love a pixel watch with a 45mm size instead of 41, and a screen that didn't have an enormous bezel.
Also, one note, I know we're on page 100. I'll create a new thread soon-ish. I need to re-do good chunks of the OP since it's from 2018 and reads like it is from 2018.
As far as I know, starts with the 8. Google probably has the Tensor SoC tuned to the point now where it really is something they can support for that long starting with the 3.
I dont need to answer texts, emails, or phone calls from my watch, Im more interested in the fitness tracking than most of the smartwatch stuff.
If you don't need the text/email/calling, just get a Garmin watch. I've had a Vivoactive 3 for a few years now and it's still a champ, tracks workouts exceedingly well and holds a charge for about 4 days with moderate activity (turning on GPS monitoring on a walk or run will burn the battery down) and I can stretch to almost a week with the backlight to 0 and disabling GPS and just relying on step counts. It also has contactless payment though not many places take Garmin Pay.
The way I like to say it is that if you want a very good smartwatch that can act as a casual fitness tracker, get a WearOS watch like a Galaxy Watch or Pixel Watch.
But if you want a very good fitness tracking device that can act as a casual/mediocre smartwatch, get a Garmin watch.
Take the last part with a grain of salt, since broken devices do happen, but it is worth mentioning with a folding phone.
The last thing I'd say about it would be support. When the screen breaks, what kind of support do you get from OnePlus/Oppo? Again, with a folding phone, i think that's much more worth paying attention to.
As a bonus, the speakers on this phone are really nice!
So, a couple things about this. a good chunk of the difference is because of how Android accounts for formatted space. Basically, a 512GB Samsung phone is actually only 477GB of real space. (this goes back to the time old tradition of 1000 vs 1024 as how we measure space). But what happens is that android puts that "ghost space" as I call it in with the OS. So while a Galaxy S23 512GB will report a 60GB OS, the real number is actually only 25GB.
Google's phones do this as well, so while you do lose a similar percentage, so Google's OS image is a couple gigs less than reported it makes the disparity between them much less.
Past that we get into the subjective views, so this is my own personal opinion. I frankly find Samsung's version of Android much better than Google's for the average person. Google's version of Android is barebones to a fault, in my opinion. And most people aren't going to go find a new launcher, or download a bunch of apps like Tasker to try to do things that are just built into Samsung's version of Android. That doesn't make one better than another. Both have their virtues. But I think for the mass market consumer, Samsung's devices are a much better buy.
can't say storage space is ever something meaningful I think about, and there's no certainly no performance differences.
PSN:Furlion
So, the main reason that high end phones got rid of SD card storage probably isn't what you think. The reason was performance, not (only) money. Even the fastest SD cards are orders of magnitiude slower than the UFS 3.x (or 4.0 now) SSD storage built into phones. That performance disparity causes issues. A few years ago a number of manufacturers came out and said that a lot of the complaints about slow phone performance was directly related to SD card storage. People complain that their cameras are slow? Well that's becuase the SD cards are too slow to write burst photos to in a timely fashion. In fact I remember the last phone I had with an SD card, some of the camera features, especially higher resolution video, wouldn't even let you save to the SD card because it wasn't fast enough.
Same thing goes for apps. People would put apps on SD cards, then complain to the developer that the app was slow. Not the app's fault, it was that the write speed of the SD card wasn't fast enough to keep up.
So no, at the high end you won't find many, if any, that support SD cards anymore, because they measurably slow down a phone.
Now, as for storage options, many OEM's have moved to 256GB as the starting point for their high end/flagship lines. All of Samsung's Galaxy S and Fold phones start at 256. Perusing the OnePlus site, there is a OnePlus 11 with 128GB, but as of this moment OnePlus is offering a "deal" to get the 256GB version for the price of 128. That's a pretty evergreen deal from OnePlus, I see it often. All of Motorola's high end phones are all at least 256GB now.
Really, of what I would consider the primary OEM's on the market only Google and Apple are still starting at 128GB for their higher end phones. Most others have moved to 256.
Eh, yes and no. I do get the complaints that Samsung's UI can be busy at times, and there's a lot there to configure. I think Samsung could do some work to simplify the OS a bit without taking away the feature set. And it is, frankly, dumb that in late 2023 Samsung still makes the antiquated 3 button navigation the default on its phones, when swipe gesture navigation has been the android standard for literally 5 years now.
My wife still likes the three buttons so I don't begrudge that. And at least you can get rid of it. Honestly the only thing I miss from my galaxy is the edge menu. I like a clean screen so the edge menu is handy to put my most used apps on that aren't the favorites bar on the bottom.
Not Saying Samusng should take the 3 buttons away. But literally 5 years after the first version of android that made swipe gestures the default navigation option, it is long past time for Samsung to do the same.
yeah we are at the point where pretty much every phone in the world except the iPhone SE and any Samsung phone ships with gesture navigation by default. The operating systems and apps are designed around gesture navigation first now.
I'm 100% on board with keeping it as an option for those who want it. There are also some accessibility reasons to have it as an option. But gesture navigation was introduced in Anroid 9, 5 years ago. Just like how we largely went away from hardware buttons, it is really time for Samsung to give up on the 3 button navigation as the default.
I own a Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the idea that using a foldable, where many of the multitasking features are gesture based and require swipes, etc, and then the default navigation is then 3 buttons is just... strange.
Remake the Droid.
Yeah but the solution is literally in your post. Just lock the OS to only having apps stored on the internal drive and other files can be moved around as desired. It is an incredibly easy solution to implement, in fact it used to be that way by default. The real reason is because of cost.
PSN:Furlion
So, Google actually tried that. I think it was back in the Android 6 days. might have been 5. the SD cards in that version could only be used for media, not app storage. Part of the reason for that was to prevent piracy, as expandable storage was a big vector for modified/malware filled APK's. The backlash against having no apps on SD card that was so swift that that was what began the end of expandable storage. Google did come up with a way for apps to be moved to SD cards again in a more secure manner, I think by Android 8. But that still didn't solve the responsiveness/speed issue.
And then we hit the point where phones were at that time mostly coming with 128GB of storage, and the hard numbers showed that the vast majority of people used less than half of that amount of storage, so companies decided it was better to cater to the 99%.
Damn it you make it sound so reasonable. I just want to be pissed that the world can't cater to my specific incredibly niche use cases.
PSN:Furlion
I'm curious, what are people downloading that takes up the bulk of the space on their phones? Looking over my storage, there's always a gig or so in photos that will clear itself up over time. Beyond that my big stuff is:
PocketCasts: 3.2GB
Hulu: 1.05GB
Genshin impact: 29.3GB
Honkai: Star Rail: 12.3GB
Epic Seven: 6.01GB
I still have like 40GB free on my phone. I know not everyone does cloud storage for their photos, but I'm just not sure what takes up space for other folks. Do people still download that much music to their phones?
Oh it's not music, just massive amounts of porn.
PSN:Furlion
But might I get you to consider a NAS?
Some mobile games can get quite big now too. If I remember correctly, Call of Duty Mobile clocks in around 20GB if you have everything downloaded.
Looking at my 256GB Fold 4 right now and storage is about 60% used.
An NAS is kind of hard to keep in your pocket.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
You're not trying hard enough!
That actually is something i am thinking about doing. I have been reading up on building one and it looks both relatively easy and much cheaper than a prebuilt. My only concern would be setting up the software side but i am assume there are plenty of NAS for medium skilled tech people guides out there.
PSN:Furlion
Is that a NAS in your pocket?