28
votes
Decent Android mobile phones with good audio (and has a 3.5mm jack) recently released?
Hi all,
Been looking for a new mobile lately to replace my V20 (still havent found one but my criteria has changed). Looking for (im trying to avoid buying an mp player - not as if there are many options left)
3.5mm headphone jack
good/great audio (has good internal dac -- not looking for great speaker output)
good battery life
5G
dual sim
has to be something that lasts (had V20 for 7 years)
Not going to be used for gaming. Mainly scrolling, forums etc
Any suggestions ?
Or am i stuck with something in Sony range (i know bit overpriced but oh well..)
or getting an older V60 (not keen as the battery life wont be good now imho).
thanks
N
Zenfone 10 seems to fit all these, not sure how the dac is though.
Can confirm. Currently rocking the Asus Zenfone 10.
Let me know if you have any other questions about the phone
Just wanted to convey my partners experience with the ZF10 after coming from iPhones for their entire smartphone experience. I heavily pushed this phone due to good reviews, size, and stock (or near stock) Android experiences and it went so poorly I ended up selling it and getting my partner a S23 which was light years better. Here were the issues I tried to troubleshoot in the 2 months of ownership
Autodimming did not work. Tried solutions suggested here and zentalk which only temporarily fixed the issue
The camera is not great. Is it serviceable ? Of course but the color temps are weird and unnatural. HDR seemed odd. Shooting with it was incredibly inconsistent. The gimble was cool as hell but beyond that, I was pretty disappointed with the camera. Side loading Gcam was just not in the cards.
Notifications and messages would sometimes fail? There was a period of time when txt messages wouldnt go through which made 2FA difficult. It was weird but an annoying few days.
Contactless payment was inconsistent? I don't know what was going on here and it could be user error but sometimes it'd work just fine, other times we'd hold up the line. Feels like user error but never had issues with other phones
Biggest issue, and the one that led me to sell the phone, was the constant freezing and stalling of apps, particulalry Gmail. The solution that worked was a restart the phone but doing this multiple times a day is ridiculous, particulalry for a phone with these specs. Spent a lot of time trying to solve it and saw people pointing from everything from software to wifi hardware issues. What ever the case, the experience was incredibly frustrating and I felt so bad suggesting this phone to them.
The goods? Battery life is amazing, 3.5 mm jack finally convinced them to try audiophile quality IEMs, build quality is solid ( i love a good plastic back phone over slick glass) and it feels tanky. I enjoy the ZenUI and the ability to use stock android but it doesnt seem to be for everyone.
I also concede that our experience maybe unique? Maybe it has something to with how we use phones (seems unlikely as we're not power users) but I've never been so frustrated with a phone , especially one which I had such high hopes for.
Thanks for the feedback. I've been thinking about getting a Zenfone 11 when that comes out (or a ZF10 if the 11 isn't what I want). I mostly wanted something smaller than even my pixel 6, but it's good to see feedback on possibly buggy software. Your points #3 and #5 are having me doubt now, but we'll see how the ZF11 does on release.
I overall really like my pixel 6, but despite being one of the smallest flagship phones on the market, I still want something smaller. I checked on GMS Arena and the ZF is basically the only decent phone that fits what I want, unless I go ultra small to the Jelly Star (which does look neat, but probably too small for me). The latest iPhone mini would also work for me, but it is 2.5 years old now and I don't trust apple to support their older phones for very much longer than that (if I bought one now, I'm sure I'd need to replace it within a couple years and it also doesn't use usb-c...).
Couple thoughts as some more time has passed. Concerning point #5 and possibly even point #3, I think it may be a hardware issue aka the antennae. My understanding is generally speaking, Android phones use worse antennaes then what Apple runs. This could explain why my partner old Iphone 11pro never experienced the issues but both of the ZF10 and now the S23 have issues. Really not sure why this is and it's me speculating.
That said, the standard S23 and now S24 are about same size as the Z10 arguably feels smaller as they're a bit thinner. My understanding is the Pixel 8 is also quite compact and if rumors are true the Pixel 9 will be even smaller. I'm debating upgrading my P7 to the P9 but Google is expected to move away from Samsung for their SoC to the superior TSMC, which should occur around Pixel 10-era. My hope is a continued decrease in size and by the time we get the pixel 10, we have a sub 6" screen
Thanks for the link to that rumor! If the pixel 9 (or 10) keeps getting a bit smaller, that will be perfect for me! I love my 6, it's just slightly too big. I do feel that phones are going to trend smaller again soon now that we seemed to finish trending bigger.
GSMArena link for the specs given: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1PhZSDR8wE/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
Lots of Xiaomi (don't know anything about these), some Samsung, an Asus or two, a Sony Xperia 1 V, and a Motorola.
I had an early Asus Zenfone and liked it and I've never had any issue with the Motorola Android phones in the past.
Not sure you pasted the right link for the GSMArena haha. Here's a link searching for dual sim phones with 5G and a headphone jack released after 2021: https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2021&chk35mm=selected&s5Gs=0&sNumberSIMs=1
Like you said, it mainly seems to be Chinese brands like Xiaomi, the Asus Zenfone 10, and then the Sony Xperia 1V. I've heard some good things about Chinese brands recently, especially Xiaomi, Oppo, and OnePlus though getting them to work with US networks might be a struggle. I know AT&T for example has a whitelist of phone models for their network so you can't just use any phone you want.
Well that's what I get for popping onto Tildes, trying to be helpful, pasting what was already on the clipboard, and then bouncing out to go to dinner with friends.
To be fair, Korean/Mexican fusion tamales look damn delicious.
Wow, I didn't know that any carrier still was so restrictive about what they put on their network. I guess I've been spoiled for a long time being on T-Mobile and MVNOs that use them, where they are fairly permissive.
It might just be wishful thinking or placebo or something but I feel like T-Mobile US does a few more consumer friendly things like this because of their German parent company. Kind of like the reverse of when American companies try and fail to do things the "american way" in Europe and swiftly get frozen out by unions and consumers alike.
They do more "generous" things because they were and to some extent still are the challenger in the US telecom space. With the sprint merger, you could argue they're on similar standing now, but they were aggressively going after marketshare from entrenched players AT&T and Verizon after a long period of mismanagement.
I've heard that OnePlus has problematic build quality. I own a Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro and I'm pretty happy with it - it's far from perfect, but I'm quite sure it was one of the best options in its price range with no features that are truly bad. However one has to read up on specific models, ask for experiences on reddit etc., because every company makes better and worse phones. I've heard that the Note 11 line was almost a downgrade and not worth it, 12 and further I know nothing about.
I think that its DAC is fine, though I mostly just use it in situations where it doesn't matter that much. Battery life is merely OK in my opinion, but without much social media usage and other idle bullshitting it lasts for 2 days without issue. So hopefully the later models aren't worse. It does feel pretty well made and like it may last.
God the Sony Xperia devices are always just so friggin good. No compromises, literally everything I wish for. Audio jack, no notch, sd card slot. It's shame they aren't more popular, they are honestly the most underrated phone brand.
Agreed. I had an Xperia 1 ii and now use a 5 iv and these phones rule. They even have a notification LED! In addition to what you said the also have fairly stock Android and minimal un-uninstallable bloatware.
Only real catch is, they're pricy. Camera is often great but sometimes suffers in low light. And the woes of having an uncommon phone: few options for cases and screen protectors.
Also I really wish smaller screen sizes would come back! But so far that doesn't look like it will happen any time soon.
The price is os well worth it, even if I can't afford it for the foreseeable future. Compared to low-cost phones like Xiaomi's that subsidize the cost with ads everywhere on the system, or Samsung's devices that are overpriced and don't provide half the features Sony provides.
This has been my experience with the midrange and up Sony TVs, too. They ship near-vanilla Android TV with barely any branding added even, and they’re perfectly happy to never be connected to a network and be used as dumb TVs (paired with an Apple TV box, console, etc). They even support fully offline firmware updates by way of thumb drive.
My 2018 Bravia wasn’t cheap but it’s been wonderful to use in the 6 years I’ve had it and it’s still as great as the day I unboxed it.
I had an Xperia XZ1 Compact and loved it.
The trouble came when I broke the screen and couldn't get it repaired anywhere. Sony wouldn't fix it and none of the local repair shops would touch it. Seems like if anything goes wrong the solution is to buy a new one. I'd get the modern equivalent in a heartbeat if that weren't the case.
Xiaomi is ok....But the UI can be weird. The cheaper ones go banana shaped.
Samsung Note 9s are actually really good, if you can find one that still has a decent battery. You need to get a fingerprint scanner protector though, it's the first thing to go (top coating layer eventually rubs off). Also, no more software updates I think?
This could be hard to find, even before the death of the headphone jack.
I guess one upside of headphone jacks going away is that there is now a market for high quality ultra portable USB-C DACs that work with any phone.
Not sure if you'd be interested in them but there are android based media players (mp3/FLAC and streaming services) that will have nice DACS and headphone jacks
That way you could get the playback that you want but not have to resort to brands like redmii that might not have all of the carrier frequencies that you need.
Might be option at some point. Mp3 players themselves seem to be harder to find now.
Any android media players you recommend i should have a look at? ( i ended up getting a budget Moto ..but it will do as a phone for now)
What you want to look for are android based DAPs (Digital Audio Players).
Fair warning though, they can get pricey quite fast because they're very niche audio equipment. I own one myself (FiiO M11s) because I was tired of phones not having headphone jacks and it's honestly great, blows every phone I've had out of the water when it comes to audio quality, but it cost me 500+ bucks and it's not even in the upper midrange of DAPs.
Here's a list that might help you. It features all the more well known models and tells you whether it's android based or not. If you're on a budget your best bet are Hiby and Sony's DAPs.
I wish I got a Foil before they disappeared from here (Australia). Minidisc available selection has really dropped to point where there is literally two or three choices. None of them cheap. Wonder if there are any cheap good alternatives on alieexpress
Here was my recent (August) Mastodon thread on the subject: https://jawns.club/@skyfaller/110872297757734308
The Samsung XCover6 Pro was very tempting to me, as it's "ruggedized" and has replaceable batteries as well as a headphone jack. https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-xcover6-pro-review-3270687/
In the end I gave up and decided to focus on the camera instead, ordering a Pixel 7 Pro. I'm not as upset about buying a camera without a headphone jack, that was never an important feature on non-video cameras, so what if it happens to have a phone attached?
Though I’m only looking for an app test device/secondary phone, Sony has been on my radar for a while simply because they’re one of the few non-Google manufacturers that doesn’t goof up their Android distribution too much and isn’t trying to push their own half-baked me-too ecosystem like Samsung tries so hard to. They are indeed pricey but on some level it almost feels worth it just to help maintain what little variety exists in the Android smartphone space.
Zenfone is interesting but IIRC Asus’ track record of support isn’t great.
Get a Motorola phone with stock android.
Ended up getting a Moto G54 for the time being.
I know you are probably not going to be pleased with this answer but hear me out. The $10 Apple USB-C dongle is really good and you could just leave one permanently attached to your headphone (or headphones). That will dramatically expand your phone options.