(thanks for the suggestions on close-to-stock-Android hardware)
It's pretty disingenuous to compare Android and iOS like it's a 1:1 comparison. Google Play services and several other components get updated independently from the system. A Nexus 4 that is running the last official security patch still works "just fine" and gives you access to the majority of apps on the Play store.
While the update model isn't perfect and a bit concerning security-wise, if you want a device that "just works" for 5 years and won't be artificially crippled, Android wins.
Definitely isn't a full Nexus or Pixel experience unfortunately.
It was once going to be Google providing them but they changed the site a while back.... that makes me skeptical about when / if you get those updates...
Google has been struggling to get manufactures to do updates and backpedaling on Android One's updates doesn't have me optimistic.
I love innovation as much as the next guy/gal, but getting all those products to 7.5 billion people is probably not (yet) sustainable for our planet. What if we could make (in this case mobile phone) producers (partly) responsible for the waste disposal/recycling of their products?
As for security updates, yes it is a bummer, but not much better than what feature phones and Symbian used to offer, which was basically zero updates.
All the Apple stuff I have access to has been paid by my employer.
I am not doing contracts and their price ranges are out of what I deem as acceptable to pay for hardware as private user.
Less than a percentage point of reduction of purely electronic waste. This is what I mean by "almost all waste claims fall apart when examined."
And I'm not defending the practice of throwing out TVs or computers or anything else after 2 years, just phones.
If you don't consider "completely unusable performance" to be a problem then yeah sure I guess it is "running" it.
"Apple completely ignored performance on older devices for several generations until the complaints got too loud. Now let's act like that never happened, because they have put some effort in now."
> And even in the cases where there is a performance tradeoff, updating isn't mandatory, but it's still an option for those who want it.
Yeah. Except that many of the new Xcode updates to support iOS 12 involve builds that remove older compatibility. So sure, "you can still use your older iOS! Just ignore the fact that if your favorite apps are actively being maintained the chance they'll retain old iOS compatibility will be a rapidly shrinking one".
People always demand new features, but want them on their old devices. Apple at least offers you the option.
Also, I don't see how that is different from an Android device that did not receive updates for 3 years and "your favorite app" that surely will be maintained for all eternity on an outdated system ...
I'm scared to root it. Because they don't provide factory images and the update process is very fragile.
It's a far cry from Nexus.
All the other Android manufactures have been so hit and miss I'm not really interested in them as an alternative.
For example, iOS doesn't let you change default apps (e.g. browser). Also their third party keyboard integration is not so great.
At the same time Android just isn't ... feeling good right now with privacy and etc.
I did it for my mom's phone and most recently my own (which until I hit some software issues was running Google stock). It's really easy nowadays, with some tech skills and assuming your phone isn't obscure.
I ran into an apparently common issue where it won't connect to Windows through its bundled USB cable (or any other USB cable...).
Plugging it into my external monitor, which is also a USB hub, solved that problem. Except that in bootloader mode, it is once again unrecognized, making it impossible to unlock.
For $159 I'm not sure what more you could expect. Band 12 would be nice, but I understand they need to cut some corners.
I have a Xiaomi Redmi 4x, which cost me $140 and has perfectly smooth performance. The camera isn't terrible either, it does the trick. Best of all, spare parts are cheap and easy to find. I completely shattered the screen on my phone, it was only $20 to get a complete new screen assembly (lcd, digitiser, and frame), which I'm fairly sure is OEM. I broke the ear speaker in the process of replacing the screen, only $1 to get a new one shipped from China. I can literally make a phone from parts, I can even buy the motherboard on Aliexpress.
Xiaomi have really good build quality too, and their their custom version of Android isn't terrible.
I also have a Xiaomi bluetooth speaker that I bought for $30, which performs as well as a speaker 2-3 times the price. It's built out of solid aluminium too, so it can take an absolute beating.
Bad Sample: https://i.imgur.com/vD2uC9u.jpg
It would appear that they are used and recycled though, rather than new OEM parts.
My only warning for buying Xiaomi phones is to make sure they work on your carrier in your country.
Meanwhile Xiaomi's Android One devices (not MIUI) are just 'fastboot oem unlock' without any key requests, just like good old Nexuses.
I’m willing to bet that 80% of HN users have iPhones :)
Also, where the Nexus phones were supported for at least 3 years the 3T wasn't going to get Android Pie just 2 years after release, but it seems it now will (eventually).
I agree it's been filling the segment, but I'm not sure it's continuing to, sadly. Don't get me wrong, they still seem to be beating Apple and Google in terms of bang for buck, but they're definitely chasing up the ladder after them.
It works fine, but it's so large that it hurts my hand. And OnePlus appears to be committed to making only comically oversized phones. Very sad.
Considering that the Nokia 6 costed me only ~$170 when I bought it a few months back, this is top value.
The "Android One" label communicates 2 years of updates.
Either way, it's a Treble phone with an unlockable bootloader (without any key requests even! just like old Nexuses). I flashed a GSI (unofficial Lineage 16) right after I came home from buying the A2 :)
Of course this Treble stuff is still pretty new and you need to hack around some things — for example, I had to remove some XML file to make Bluetooth audio work, and (when Magisk rooted) SELinux is blocking the Wi-Fi driver from automatically loading so I have to load it from a root shell manually after a reboot :D but that's perfectly acceptable for me.
What does this even mean? I mean, since there are no cheap stock-Android phones clearly anyone who buys a cheap phone doesn't only care about stock Android.
But it's absolutely possible for someone to (1) want a phone at non-"premium" prices and (2) want a phone running stock Android. The fact that they then have to pick at most one of those two because no one but Google makes stock-Android phones and Google have gone premium-only doesn't mean that they don't, or shouldn't, want both.
Alas, most of what's still on the market is either ancient (and not getting new Android updates), or cheap low-res junk, or usually both. The only exception seems to be MediaPad M5, and Huawei screwed that one up by reporting it to the apps as a phone rather than as a tablet; and then there's the whole shared antenna issue (basically if you use Bluetooth, your WiFi is an order of magnitude slower).
And I'm not holding much hope for sub-10" ChromeOS tablets. It seems that everybody just wrote that market off.