Ask Lemmy

US owner of an EU Fairphone 4. It is functionally locked to T-mobile due to AT&T not wanting unlocked devices on their network and the 5G bands dont always line up correctly so calls while driving are tricky. Beyond that, I love the device and can do that cool party trick where you can take out your battery and everyone stares in awe at my organic, free-range smart phone. (That part is a lie, I dont go to parties).

Joking asside, I like having an attempt at an ethically sourced phone, even though it is a finicky device. There is a US redistributor and they sell a model with region appropriate changes and a de-googled cloud backup service, but im not in the market for replacing this thing yet.

Asus Zenphone 10; headphone jack, minimal bloatware, two physical sim slots, good battery, small size so it actually fits in a pocket, finger print sensor on the power button so it's seamless to unlock. Best phone I've had in quite a while

One possible drawback is that I don't think it supports esim or has an sd card slot.

I'm currently using a Samsung s21 ultra, and it's kinda meh. The compass is not bad, it's horrendous. It used to be offset by say 90 degrees, but nowadays it seems more likely that it's a random number generator from 0 to 360 degrees, making any maps app bacically unusable unless you look at road markings, and other buildings to guess which way you're facing. The main camera has over time developed a hardware issue that makes all pictures always out of focus, unless you hit the phone on a hard surface to dislodge the focusing mechanism. From a software standpoint it's a good device. No major bugs, and it's pretty stabile.

My favorite phone was a used Samsung s6 as it felt kinda "flawless". Battery was good, camera was great (for the time), and hardware was pretty awesome. It was a great phone while it was still getting updates.

Samsung Galaxy note 4 or my current asus rog phone 6d. Note 4 was a peak of smartphone design, large screen, exchangable battery, stylus ( mostly for fun, i do like to have phones that have something special in them, but it was quite usefull for playing nonograms , havent actually used it for notes ever ) microsd, jack. Evrything ever needed in a phone was there.

Rog phone 6d on the other hand has suprisingly many features minijack ,TWO usbc ports , actually large storage ( microsd is good but android has a lot of limitations on what you can use it for so its not that usefull and you still need fairly large internal memory unfortunetly ) and most imporantly the back has rgb ( have i mentioned that i like phones that have something special ). Also it comes with a fast charger included ( which shouldnt be special for such an expensive phone but apparently getting single usb cable for charging somehow became a standard practice ). Also a large screen and it looks sick.

Currently using a Google Pixel 8, I've been reading up about GrapheneOS.

Why would an average user need to install this over the stock OS?

Some motorola g30-something.

Great value for money. I don't care for anything extravagant when it comes to phones.

Galaxy Z Fold 5. Before this I had a Z Flip 4. This Fold 5 is probably the best phone I've ever owned. The screen is amazing to watch stuff on, I make music sometimes on it, I played through all of Paper Mario on it, I use it to draw when I'm bored or waiting for someone.

Huawei nova 3 was the best one I had, Second best one I had was iPhone 6s plus because it was handed down to my mom from my dad and then handed down to me and i still had software updates and was still smooth compared flagship samsung trash i owned that slowed down after 4 years. I might have put iphone6s as the best if sideloading was easier.

I miss my LG Alias 2

Current: Pixel 6a. Probably the best out of all the phones I've owned. Wish the battery life was a little bit longer.

I do have a soft spot for my first ever smartphone, the Nexus 4. I adored it.

I miss my Galaxy S4. After that, things just got worse and worse... Shoutout to my Nexus 6 for the screen size and ratio, though.

Current phone: OnePlus 9 Pro

Best phone ever: Nokia N900

Samsung Galaxy S10+ stable, battery lasts, all good

I've owned a total of 3 smartphones in my life. The very first one I got was an Alcatel Evolve. I got that in 2017 I want to say. It was a budget phone, just enough to get the job done and had it for roughly 5 years. I ended up smashing it in 2021 because by that point, it's performance has slowed to a crawl and it's battery life was poor to the point where it could not be used anymore for daily use.

To replace it I got a Samsung Galaxy A02s, another budget-line phone and it is still around me today. Not quite as good as it was the first year I had it for and it's only purpose is to give me entertainment during breaks and meal times at work.

Alongside it, my current and best phone that's my primary is the Samsung Galaxy A32-5G. Because of how much I spent on it, I gave that phone an Otterbox protection and it has done wonders since there were times because of my stupid coat pockets, it'd fall about a couple feet from the pocket to the concrete flooring at work. It is used for everything, almost.

Currently on a CMF phone 1.

Best phone is a tie between Nokia E70 or the HTC Dream. Suitable form factors and physical keyboards <3

Current: S24U, Moto Razor 2023+, Pixel 8 Pro.

Best phone: Probably the LG V20 or V30. Can't remember which.

This cherry phone with a physical keyboard from the Philippines that allowed you to watch television using an antenna in the top right. However it sadly stopped booting for me.

The best phone was probably a landline that was shaped like a duck.
It quacked when you had an incoming call.

Currently using a Galaxy A52s 5G w/ LineageOS... Best phone I've ever used.

Sony Xperia 5 V

Great camera, small size, excellent battery life, removable storage, IP rated, and has a headphone jack. The only thing it is missing is a removable battery.

Pixel 6a. Changed the OS to GrapheneOS. This is the best phone I've owned.

Pixel 8 with GrapheneOS

cheapest. there hasnt been an innovation since they added bluetooth i care or need.

my phone is [generally] not used for content consumption, i have real machines for that.

iPhone 16 pro. Too early to tell but this might be my favorite ever.

Previous ones I also really enjoyed were all nexus or pixels but they all inevitably shit themselves after a couple years of use. Most recent one pixel 7 just decided it was gonna drain 6% battery per hour while idling out of nowhere. And nothing I tried fixed it. And I tried a lot.

Currently a Galaxy S9+. Battery life isn't the best anymore, and I'm running low on internal storage, but it's still serving me well. I'm not even sure what I'd upgrade to, I really need the SD slot that almost nothing new has anymore.

Best was my old Motorola Droid 2, I miss slide-out keyboards so damn badly.

iPhone 15 Pro and Pixel 6 for work. They’re both fine. Does phone things. Wish the battery life on the iPhone were better though.

Currently using a OnePlus 9 Pro. Best phone I've used? The OnePlus 5t, hands down. Slightly wider aspect ratio in portrait orientation, great screen, camera and fingerprint reader for its day and fantastic 3rd party ROM selection.

I recently got an Asus zenfone 10. I usually buy midrange phones but this time I couldn't find a good one. I like small phones, and they seem to be an endangered species these days. This one also has a headphone jack which is nice.

The OnePlus 7t back when it was on oxygen os 10. Great hardware, perfect software. It was the first phone I got where I didn't need or want to flash a custom rom. Unfortunately, every software update that it got since then felt like a downgrad. After oxygen os 10, oxygen os and Oppo's color os have been going through something of a merge. The result is that oxygen os is no longer as stock-like as it used to be and lots of small convenience features have disappeared in favor of flashy yet useless-to-me features. I have an 8t now and it's fine but I don't think that I'll get another OnePlus.

I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max. It's a nice phone. I like IOS better than I thought I would. I do think the Galaxy I had before it was pretty good though, too. If I didn't struggle so much with the iPhone keyboard, I guess this would be my favorite, but I use my phone so much and the swipe typing is so rough, it's hard to give a full endorsement.

That said, I am probably overestimating how gos typing on Android was. I remember lots of autocorrect issues, but iOS has a bunch of keyboard bugs that make correcting errors even more frustrating than making them in the first place.

I have a Fairphone 5. Maybe too expensive for what it is, but hopefully it doesn't have a big evil annoying company behind it and it should hopefully last a while. Still running stock Android on it though, because I don't want to lose Play Attestation or whatever it is called.