Android 11 released

Posted Sep 9, 2020 9:57 UTC (Wed) by Snackiz (guest, #66890)
In reply to: Android 11 released by josh
Parent article: Android 11 released

Just out of my curiousity, which vendors do you consider the good ones?

Personally I'm pretty happy with my OnePlus and the Samsung that was provided by my workplace.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 9, 2020 10:16 UTC (Wed) by josh (subscriber, #17465) [Link] (15 responses)

Google Pixel devices, and the small subset of devices from vendors that ship completely stock Android with no vendor modifications whatsoever. I said "1-3" because such devices tend to rotate, and no one vendor seems to consistently offer them. For instance, Motorola did for a little while, on devices sold through the Google store.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 9, 2020 10:22 UTC (Wed) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

I'd heard that Motorola were pretty good for stock android, so I got a G5. Later heard that was the lemon between two roses, but I was pretty happy with it. Upgraded recently to a G8 and gave it to my brother-in-law, at which point I discovered why the sound occasionally stopped working ...

For anybody who does have a G5, there's a BIG design flaw (which affects several other phones too). The speaker uses touch contacts, so it can move slightly and breaks the connection! Try not to flex the upper right corner as this will stop the speaker, unless it's not working in which case you want to do it to fix it!

Cheers,
Wol

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 9, 2020 14:03 UTC (Wed) by bojan (subscriber, #14302) [Link]

Had a Motorola a couple of years back, but they broke their promise of timely updates. Switched to Nokia and they kept their promise for over two years now. Nokia ships Android One, which is stock.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 9, 2020 16:12 UTC (Wed) by juliank (guest, #45896) [Link] (9 responses)

Aside from Pixels, there only is one: Nokia. All other vendors abandoned Android One this year. Motorola ships "regular" security updates, but they don't say how regular. And Nokia is dying fast, they ship less and less phones.

If you don't go for stock look, Samsung flagships get monthly updates, OnePlus every two months. Those are 1st of month patches though, so if you get an update end of September for Sep 01, the platform vendor blobs will only be at Aug 05. So pretty meh.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 9, 2020 17:21 UTC (Wed) by poruid (guest, #15924) [Link]

Fairphone 3(+) ?

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 10, 2020 22:51 UTC (Thu) by LtWorf (subscriber, #124958) [Link] (2 responses)

I have a nokia 4.2 and the quality isn't great.

The phone reboots randomly. Most often when I try to reply to a phone call.

I broke 2 sd cards in it already. I suspect it is damaging them so I stopped putting them in.

There is no rim around the glass, so if you put it face down it's direct hit on the glass, not on the 1mm plastic rim as my previous samsung s5 mini. Sooo it's the 1st phone where I've ever broken the glass. It's shattered on the corners.

Also the glass is not great, it had some major scratches very soon.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 11, 2020 6:11 UTC (Fri) by juliank (guest, #45896) [Link] (1 responses)

Flat glas is a feature though, not a bug. A rim around the glas would make it awkward to hold and interact with gestures, as you swipe in from outside the screen. Usually the glass is curved too (2.5D edge they call it), which makes it more likely to hit.

I'm sorry your phone broke. I'm not sure what glass it uses. My OnePlus 6 uses Corning Gorilla Glas 5 and despite countless drops (6 mo without screen protector and case, mostly on wood) and scuffs on the aluminium frame and the glasses, no glass breaks yet. It's very confusing.

I can't find anyone else with your other issues, so it seems like you might have gotten a rare bad device.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 11, 2020 7:41 UTC (Fri) by LtWorf (subscriber, #124958) [Link]

> Flat glas is a feature though, not a bug. A rim around the glas would make it awkward to hold and interact with gestures,

I want a vertical rim, not an horizontal rim. Like, if I put the phone face down (to not damage the camera lens) I want a 1mm of plastic around it so that it's not directly sitting on the glass.

I live on an active volcano which is continuously throwing volcanic ash around, so every surface is covered in overly abrasive dust. But even without that. It'd make sense, so when falling it wouldn't hit directly on the glass but there would be a plastic buffer.

> I'm not sure what glass it uses.

Not a very good one I guess. The deep scratches it has are not due to ash. And again my older samsung phone had none of those issues with the glass.

Google seems full of people with nokias restarting by themselves, so I don't know how you can say that it's my special issue.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 13, 2020 5:49 UTC (Sun) by ras (subscriber, #33059) [Link] (4 responses)

> And Nokia is dying fast, they ship less and less phones.

Are you sure?

https://i0.wp.com/nokiamob.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11...

While Google chose only to sell phones several times they price I think there pretty safe, and apparently Nokia is making a comeback in the feature phone market.

Perhaps things might change now Google has abandoned their "high end only" strategy, but I hope not. If you want stock android (which translates to wanting a stable android UI as you can hope for, and the least amount of bugs), then Nokia is your only choice outside of Google.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 13, 2020 8:00 UTC (Sun) by juliank (guest, #45896) [Link] (3 responses)

See

https://i0.wp.com/nokiamob.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05...

Sales started a massive downward trajectory in Q2 19, they lost one million each quarter and got down to 1.7 in Q1 20.

I don't think Nokia phones are what I'd call stable. They seem to be amongst the most laggy and unstable phones on the market. But at least they have good security support.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 13, 2020 10:21 UTC (Sun) by ras (subscriber, #33059) [Link] (2 responses)

> https://i0.wp.com/nokiamob.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05...

Sigh, how did I not find that?

> They seem to be amongst the most laggy and unstable phones on the market.

I own a Nokia 8.1, which cost me around $400. Previous phone was a Pixel, AUD$1200. The Nokia is both faster and more stable, but of course has 2 years on the Pixel. (The Pixel overheated.) Today Android phone hardware now seems to be not very different, regardless of manufacturer. Maybe that's because they are almost all Qualcomm chipsets. Different chipsets are used at different price points, but *shrug* you make your price choice. How stock Android running on running on the same chipsets everyone uses could be more laggy or unstable is mystifying, and isn't my experience.

Still, those sales figures speak for themselves. I do hope some Android One manufacturer survives, because my experience with software manufactures add in an attempt to stamp their brand on Android has been abysmal. Granted I've only dealt with Samsung's and Huawei's efforts, but it's been over a few models now and the bugs have swamped the hardware differences.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 13, 2020 15:27 UTC (Sun) by juliank (guest, #45896) [Link] (1 responses)

It's quite easy, really. While other manufacturers are using Qualcomm enhanced Android base from Code Aurora, Android One like Pixel run on AOSP base. AOSP is less optimized.

You also hear people constantly complain about how slow and sluggish Pixels are, and that they give up and switch to OnePlus. Then they get tired of crappy camera and go back to Pixel and then they endlessly switch back and forth once they get tired again of bad performance/camera.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 13, 2020 22:25 UTC (Sun) by ras (subscriber, #33059) [Link]

That is the first time I've heard of Code Aurora.

https://www.codeaurora.org/about tells me it's a Linux Foundation project serving the "open source projects serving the mobile wireless ecosystem". It looks to be home to some 7,000 git repositories, which at first glance means it fits my definitions of "substantial" and "significant". From https://www.xda-developers.com/qualcomm-snapdragon-845-so..., it appears to be where Qualcomm does code drops for it's chipsets. It smells like a collection of vendors selling Android/Linux or perhaps ARM/Linux pooling their resources.

As for AOSP being slow: I've used Huawei, Samsung, Pixels and Nokia, and I can't say I've noticed a huge difference. The Pixel's camera software Google is/was keeping to themselves did make a noticeable difference in low light, but I don't use the conditions camera in very poor conditions a lot and I suspect most people don't. Given that, the difference in sales between the Samsung A51 and Nokia 7.2 was hard to explain here in Australia as the prices are about the same and the hardware performance is near identical. If I take what you say about speed at face value, that means software wise it's a choice between faster vs working reliably. Then I happened across the price in the USA. The A51 is 25% cheaper than the 7.2 there, or putting it another way the 7.2 was the same price in USD$ as it is in AUD$. _That_ would explain it. Nokia has screwed up their distribution chain somehow.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 11, 2020 16:55 UTC (Fri) by scientes (guest, #83068) [Link] (2 responses)

But this is part of the pornlem that you can only get LineageOS for the expensive phones. I see no need for an expensive phone when it is only going to run a toy OS (Android) that can't even use a SD card properly, and thus I have to use cruddy stock roms, but the OS is such a joke that it doesnt mke much of a difference.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 11, 2020 19:47 UTC (Fri) by donbarry (guest, #10485) [Link] (1 responses)

While certainly this is a trend, it's not a rule. The Moto G7 is a delightful and responsive large-screen thin phone with an active LineageOS and MicroG spin that was available earlier this year for only $150. I'm very pleased with it, though as others have noted, Android itself is getting more and more annoying for people like myself who feel an OS should provide flexibility to its own user to do what they want. Getting an encrypted thumb drive to mount was clearly outside what Google thinks is appropriate for a user to do on its OS, requiring some ugly hackery.

Android 11 released

Posted Sep 13, 2020 22:22 UTC (Sun) by scientes (guest, #83068) [Link]

> Google thinks is appropriate for a user to do on its OS,

Why, is that not the entire problem right there.