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Comment by sametmax | Hacker News Reader

That's the comment I wanted to write.

I'd add:

- kde-connect. It's awesome to be able to control my computer for my phone, especially while watching a movie.

- alternative stores. Being able to use aptoid and f-droid let me use the full potential of the phone without tying it to an email account.

- productivity concepts arrive first on android. We had wifi hot spot. Quick wifi/bt/3G switch first. Etc. With apple, you only have what Apple though about, or could copy later. With Android, the community can implement many things.

- USB-C charger. I don't want yet another charger/adapter

- my phone will still work in 5 years. No "oh the home button is broken" scandal.

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- USB-C charger. I don't want yet another charger/adapter

This for me is a downside as the USB-C landscape is a disaster of poorly-implemented designs. I'm less inclined to trust a USB-C adapter than a dumb USB adapter, and I would never plug a laptop charger into my phone. At least with dumb USB and micro-USB, you know you're getting 5 volts (excluding serious hardware failures).

- my phone will still work in 5 years. No "oh the home button is broken" scandal.

I'd argue the opposite, many Android phones are built to be as cheap as possible and their longevity is really hit and miss. If you want build quality, you need to buy flagship phones - my Galaxy S5 is still working after 5 years, sure, but many cheaper phones are just disposable; I'd have smashed several screens by now if I'd bought something cheaper. There's also the issue that most manufacturers give up on Android updates after 18 months; my S5 officially maxxed out at Android 6, but I'm running 9 via LineageOS. This means I get security updates to the OS, at least, but the low-level firmware has been abandoned by Samsung and if there are serious vulnerabilities, they won't be patched.

I use my laptop charger for my phone all the time. May I ask what has you scared to do so, because you have me concerned now.

USB-C charging relies on negotiation between both sides. A laptop charger can supply 20+V if it determines there's a high-power device on the other end. I'm not particularly trusting that a cheaply-made power supply won't hit the wrong condition on a case statement and supply 20V to my phone.

Implementing USB-C wrong seems to be a passtime of all major manufacturers now. Nintendo got it almost completely wrong with the Switch. The RPi 4 is also wrong, as it bridges two connectors that shouldn't be and identifies itself as an audio device to some adapters. The whole ecosystem is a farce and I wouldn't trust it as far as I could throw it.

It's worse. Both sides need to negotiate properly, and the cable needs to follow specs, which many don't. Where micro USB has QC and QC2, there's a whole suite of PD (power delivery) and data protocols that cables may or may not support.

https://www.theverge.com/2015/11/5/9674462/usb-type-c-google... is dated coverage of a Google engineer testing for out-of-spec cables. See also: https://twitter.com/laughing_man.

I already encountered such cable. Red cables from Oneplus phones rated for dash charge tech (5V, 4A) won't charge regular phones (e.g. Samsung A8), despite being rated for higher current.

> The RPi 4 is also wrong, as it bridges two connectors that shouldn't be

Do you have a link or some more info on that?

https://www.scorpia.co.uk/2019/06/28/pi4-not-working-with-so...

Nice. Thanks a lot!

[quote]- my phone will still work in 5 years. No "oh the home button is broken" scandal.[/quote]

I don't think this is a standard, not every iphone button will be broken in 5 years; or no phone (with android os) has hardware guarantee for 5 years.

I'm referring to that time where iPhone 5 buttons where breaking all over the place, Apple said it was hardware and that the only fix would be to buy the iPhone 6, but then rooted versions of the iPhone could use a non official software patch to fix the issue.

Similarly, there was the time iOS 11 crippled my iPhone 6+. Apple's response of "you're imagining it, maybe buy a new phone" instead of "oh, ya, just replace the battery" soured me on Apple.

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