Personally I'd love to have small phones like the early iPhones. I can't handle those huge screens combined with the ridiculous thin-ness of the things. I'm almost afraid of snapping the things....
Personally I'd love to have small phones like the early iPhones. I can't handle those huge screens combined with the ridiculous thin-ness of the things. I'm almost afraid of snapping the things. Give me a fat 1-1.5cm thick phone with a decent battery, not flat and fragile as is the trend right now.
edit: another problem with thin and large, like the latest iPads, is that they're thin enough to be able to bend; and they do.
I was watching a teardown of the most recent iPad, and there is basically zero support structures to protect the battery. If you own one of those and don't have a riged case for it, you are asking...
I was watching a teardown of the most recent iPad, and there is basically zero support structures to protect the battery. If you own one of those and don't have a riged case for it, you are asking for trouble.
That might actually be the least worrying part. The most damage is going to be when you apply pressure to it's front or rear. And even then, the battery would probably bend as well. It would take...
That might actually be the least worrying part. The most damage is going to be when you apply pressure to it's front or rear. And even then, the battery would probably bend as well. It would take a good amount of force to actually damage the battery. The real issue with the design is that the screen is a wide thin plane of glass that will shatter if bent.
If I could get a zippier iPhone in the form of the 5s, I'd be a happy man. Perfect mix of glass/metal backing, sturdy as hell, and doesn't take up the entirety of my pocket.
If I could get a zippier iPhone in the form of the 5s, I'd be a happy man. Perfect mix of glass/metal backing, sturdy as hell, and doesn't take up the entirety of my pocket.
I’ve still got my iPhone 7. It’s larger than the 5 was, but it’s pretty comfortable. If this breaks at some point, I’ll try to replace it with another 7 - or perhaps an even older model.
I’ve still got my iPhone 7. It’s larger than the 5 was, but it’s pretty comfortable. If this breaks at some point, I’ll try to replace it with another 7 - or perhaps an even older model.
When the iPhone SE came out, I was about ready to change sides from having used Androids since 2011 when I got my first smartphone. But the one I had (still have), a Nexus 5, still works perfectly...
When the iPhone SE came out, I was about ready to change sides from having used Androids since 2011 when I got my first smartphone. But the one I had (still have), a Nexus 5, still works perfectly fine so I couldn't justify spending money on the SE. It's been a couple years now though, and the SE is not worth it anymore on account of its hardware being outdated - all I want is new version of the SE, and I'd buy it the second they announced it... Because it's everything I need! Decent camera, fits in my tiny hand, and doesn't cost the same as the tip of a fighter jet.
And this is their Steve Jobs style presentation for it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VYLJLxKBhSU Hilarious. They are really selling multiple screens and multitasking as a new feature in blinking...
Hilarious. They are really selling multiple screens and multitasking as a new feature in blinking 2019. My shell has better multitasking than any phone out there. And the guy reveals that they used two batteries b/c the folding as if a breakthrough in battery technology. "Our engineers made them work together!" Uhm yeah I have had gadgets that took multiple AA batteries since time immemorial, and AA chargers that can do multiple batteries as well, so should not be that hard or novel.
This looks at best like a bad rip off of WWDC announcements, and both has become ridiculous recurring events by now. Hey, now you can have a blue one! If I pay a fortune, I better be able to have any colour. Hey, its screen us a few millimeters taller, and there is a genius hinge which makes those few millimeters unusable! Oh Lord, that was the only problem ever, thank you. That proper multitasking isn't available on these devices for example isn't a big trouble.
Fold actually looks interesting. But this whole dishonest theatre of marketing around it is become a sort of circlejerk.
Yeah had a bit of a laugh at their 3-app multitasking. Once they decided to move up from split screen multitasking they should have just bit the bullet and made a full tiling window manager.
Yeah had a bit of a laugh at their 3-app multitasking. Once they decided to move up from split screen multitasking they should have just bit the bullet and made a full tiling window manager.
Does anyone know how the Fold's inside screen is done? I'm assuming it's some kind of plastic, but I feel like that would create two issues. a) Wouldn't a crease appear over time? If you flex a...
Does anyone know how the Fold's inside screen is done?
I'm assuming it's some kind of plastic, but I feel like that would create two issues.
a) Wouldn't a crease appear over time? If you flex a plastic film over and over it starts creasing.
b) Plastic scratches quite easily. Now imagine if you got a bit of sand on the inside of the phone as you close it and it starts rubbing all over the inside screen.
I'm sure they thought that all through, but I can't find details about the screen covering.
I think this article has the most specific details about it I've seen (still not very much): https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/20/samsung-announces-the-galaxy-fold-a-phone-that-opens-into-a-tablet/
The roughly 200-gram Galaxy Fold flips open in portrait orientation, and the inside is coated with a film that gives it a photopaper-like appearance. It’s got a protective polymer consisting of a cover window, a shock-absorbent film, and a polarizer that’s 45 percent slimmer than the company’s previous thinnest, along with a flexible layer and backplane. Samsung says the tech — dubbed Infinity Flex Display — took seven years to develop.
Thanks to a highly durable adhesive and a “sophisticated” hinge system with interlocking gears, the Fold’s 7.3-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED (4.2:3) primary screen can undergo “hundreds of thousands” of flexes without sustaining any sort of damage, Samsung says. The 4.6-inch HD+ Super AMOLED (21:9) cover screen purposefully doesn’t bend — it puts apps at your fingertips when the Fold’s folded in half.
Ah, that's much better then, but it the device will be really chunky in that case. On the other hand I would literally never buy it since tt costs 2000 bucks, so why am I so picky about it...
Ah, that's much better then, but it the device will be really chunky in that case.
On the other hand I would literally never buy it since tt costs 2000 bucks, so why am I so picky about it...
Doesn't look like much innovation is happening. It doesn't do anything other phones can't already do. The folding phone is the most interesting from a technical point but just combines a phone and...
Doesn't look like much innovation is happening. It doesn't do anything other phones can't already do. The folding phone is the most interesting from a technical point but just combines a phone and tablet. I still wish more phones would focus on either bringing down costs or providing more interesting hardware functionality.
The Galaxy Fold is neat but it really reminds me of those iPhone 5 memes. The ones where the phone is just obnoxiously tall. But in folded form it does seem to fit better in your hand than most...
The Galaxy Fold is neat but it really reminds me of those iPhone 5 memes. The ones where the phone is just obnoxiously tall. But in folded form it does seem to fit better in your hand than most phones width-wise. Wish more phones would quit trying to be bigger and better. Just make a simple, sane phone that doesn't cost as much as a supercomputer. But of course I guess they do make those, but those don't grab the headlines.
I think a lot of the reason that phones got bigger is to accommodate larger batteries. The first few generations of LTE phones got horrible battery life...so they just made them bigger to shove...
I think a lot of the reason that phones got bigger is to accommodate larger batteries. The first few generations of LTE phones got horrible battery life...so they just made them bigger to shove more mAh in and increase the battery life of the phone.
So I wonder what the battery life on a smaller phone would be today? Have chipsets advanced enough that they could get decent battery life on a smaller phone?
I believe so. The feature phone Nokia 8110 4G is supposed to get multi-day battery life out of a 1500mA battery. And on my own smartphone Droid Turbo 2, the big battery suckers are the screen and...
I believe so. The feature phone Nokia 8110 4G is supposed to get multi-day battery life out of a 1500mA battery. And on my own smartphone Droid Turbo 2, the big battery suckers are the screen and apps I run, not the radio. The Punkt MP-02 was supposed to get similar battery life and it's downright small, only a 1,280mA battery.
I love the idea of a fold-able phone and have been waiting for when they would finally hit the market. Now, they fold the wrong way! It would be great to have a normal size phone that folds away...
I love the idea of a fold-able phone and have been waiting for when they would finally hit the market. Now, they fold the wrong way! It would be great to have a normal size phone that folds away to half its size. Basically, more of the dimensions of this, less of this. This sort of "hamburger" fold instead of "hotdog" fold would also finally restore the superior phone design of it bending to your face between your ear and mouth.
Honestly, lower cost phones are so good nowadays that there's very little need for people to buy a $799 phone. For $500, you can get a fantastic phone. With phone prices going up over the past two...
Honestly, lower cost phones are so good nowadays that there's very little need for people to buy a $799 phone. For $500, you can get a fantastic phone.
With phone prices going up over the past two years, I think we're gonna see a lot of people choosing smaller brands (i.e., not Apple or Samsung).
I'm going to need to replace my phone soon and would really rather not spend $700+ USD on the new one. Is there a good place to look for information about lower-cost phones, or are there certain...
I'm going to need to replace my phone soon and would really rather not spend $700+ USD on the new one. Is there a good place to look for information about lower-cost phones, or are there certain ones that you think are particularly good?
I'm a huge fan of Xiaomi phones, and have been happily using a Mi A1 for quite a while. The biggest problem with Xiaomi phones is that many of them lack support for US LTE bands, which makes them...
I'm a huge fan of Xiaomi phones, and have been happily using a Mi A1 for quite a while. The biggest problem with Xiaomi phones is that many of them lack support for US LTE bands, which makes them an unwise purchase in 2019, considering 3G is being phased out. For anyone looking to get a Xiaomi phone, I'd strongly recommend making sure it supports the necessary LTE bands for 4G in your area.
I think that that may be changing. The last time I checked up on Xiaomi phones, the newer models seemed to support most of T-Mobile's LTE bands. But as with all things, do the research before...
I think that that may be changing. The last time I checked up on Xiaomi phones, the newer models seemed to support most of T-Mobile's LTE bands.
But as with all things, do the research before purchasing.
I personally go for used second-hand iPhones or the lot. Currently on a 5c, though it's got little memory I don't really use it for more than a few apps and internet browsing, so 8GB is fine for...
I personally go for used second-hand iPhones or the lot. Currently on a 5c, though it's got little memory I don't really use it for more than a few apps and internet browsing, so 8GB is fine for me. Got it for free, so that's a plus too.
The Motorola Moto G series (currently the G6) has been a perennial winner on "best cheap smartphone" comparisons. Pricing is in the £150 region, which is a whole different ballgame from the...
The Motorola Moto G series (currently the G6) has been a perennial winner on "best cheap smartphone" comparisons. Pricing is in the £150 region, which is a whole different ballgame from the flagships, and I can't say I've every felt it to be lower quality or lacking anything - there's nothing about it that suggests "budget". They also come with stock Android, or very close to it, which is important to me.
I'm typing this on a G6 that I'm very happy with, and I previously had the first or second generation (I forget which) that was also excellent.
As it happens, I did go for a Xiaomi in between (a Mi 5s) which came in at about 40% of the price of the near-identical Pixel at the time. Hardware was great, but I really vehemently disliked the software. Flashed it with Lineage, which was a solid solution but never quite worked properly with the fingerprint reader. Battery life dropped precipitously over the two years I had it until it was unusable, which is when I got the G6. Software is personal preference, and everything but the battery was great, so I wouldn't write off Xiaomi - but I'd put the overall experience there as "decent" compared to Motorola's "excellent".
Speaking as a compulsive maximizer, not satisficer, the OnePlus 6T is about the best phone you can get under $700 USD right now. It's compatible with most US carriers' bands....
Speaking as a compulsive maximizer, not satisficer, the OnePlus 6T is about the best phone you can get under $700 USD right now. It's compatible with most US carriers' bands.
I recently went from an iPhone XS Max to a OnePlus 6T and I love it. It was about $580 and it does pretty much everything the iPhone can do, with the exception of wireless charging. I’ve heard...
I recently went from an iPhone XS Max to a OnePlus 6T and I love it. It was about $580 and it does pretty much everything the iPhone can do, with the exception of wireless charging.
I’ve heard really good things about Nokia’s mid/low-end phones too. Those are even cheaper.
Personally I'd love to have small phones like the early iPhones. I can't handle those huge screens combined with the ridiculous thin-ness of the things. I'm almost afraid of snapping the things. Give me a fat 1-1.5cm thick phone with a decent battery, not flat and fragile as is the trend right now.
edit: another problem with thin and large, like the latest iPads, is that they're thin enough to be able to bend; and they do.
I was watching a teardown of the most recent iPad, and there is basically zero support structures to protect the battery. If you own one of those and don't have a riged case for it, you are asking for trouble.
Thin is bad.
Are you saying that you think if you dropped it that it could damage/puncture the battery?
That might actually be the least worrying part. The most damage is going to be when you apply pressure to it's front or rear. And even then, the battery would probably bend as well. It would take a good amount of force to actually damage the battery. The real issue with the design is that the screen is a wide thin plane of glass that will shatter if bent.
If I could get a zippier iPhone in the form of the 5s, I'd be a happy man. Perfect mix of glass/metal backing, sturdy as hell, and doesn't take up the entirety of my pocket.
I’ve still got my iPhone 7. It’s larger than the 5 was, but it’s pretty comfortable. If this breaks at some point, I’ll try to replace it with another 7 - or perhaps an even older model.
When the iPhone SE came out, I was about ready to change sides from having used Androids since 2011 when I got my first smartphone. But the one I had (still have), a Nexus 5, still works perfectly fine so I couldn't justify spending money on the SE. It's been a couple years now though, and the SE is not worth it anymore on account of its hardware being outdated - all I want is new version of the SE, and I'd buy it the second they announced it... Because it's everything I need! Decent camera, fits in my tiny hand, and doesn't cost the same as the tip of a fighter jet.
Video in the article doesn't show the Fold, only S10.
The Verge has a video of the Fold folding (after 2:37).
Pus, there's a gif
Nifty.
Here's the official "unveiling" video for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r_UgNcJtzQ
And this is their Steve Jobs style presentation for it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VYLJLxKBhSU
Hilarious. They are really selling multiple screens and multitasking as a new feature in blinking 2019. My shell has better multitasking than any phone out there. And the guy reveals that they used two batteries b/c the folding as if a breakthrough in battery technology. "Our engineers made them work together!" Uhm yeah I have had gadgets that took multiple AA batteries since time immemorial, and AA chargers that can do multiple batteries as well, so should not be that hard or novel.
This looks at best like a bad rip off of WWDC announcements, and both has become ridiculous recurring events by now. Hey, now you can have a blue one! If I pay a fortune, I better be able to have any colour. Hey, its screen us a few millimeters taller, and there is a genius hinge which makes those few millimeters unusable! Oh Lord, that was the only problem ever, thank you. That proper multitasking isn't available on these devices for example isn't a big trouble.
Fold actually looks interesting. But this whole dishonest theatre of marketing around it is become a sort of circlejerk.
Yeah had a bit of a laugh at their 3-app multitasking. Once they decided to move up from split screen multitasking they should have just bit the bullet and made a full tiling window manager.
Does anyone know how the Fold's inside screen is done?
I'm assuming it's some kind of plastic, but I feel like that would create two issues.
a) Wouldn't a crease appear over time? If you flex a plastic film over and over it starts creasing.
b) Plastic scratches quite easily. Now imagine if you got a bit of sand on the inside of the phone as you close it and it starts rubbing all over the inside screen.
I'm sure they thought that all through, but I can't find details about the screen covering.
I think this article has the most specific details about it I've seen (still not very much): https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/20/samsung-announces-the-galaxy-fold-a-phone-that-opens-into-a-tablet/
The hinge never folds the screen like you would doing origami, it looks like a 5-10mm gap bend.
Ah, that's much better then, but it the device will be really chunky in that case.
On the other hand I would literally never buy it since tt costs 2000 bucks, so why am I so picky about it...
Doesn't look like much innovation is happening. It doesn't do anything other phones can't already do. The folding phone is the most interesting from a technical point but just combines a phone and tablet. I still wish more phones would focus on either bringing down costs or providing more interesting hardware functionality.
And so cheap too, it is like they buy them for you.
The Galaxy Fold is neat but it really reminds me of those iPhone 5 memes. The ones where the phone is just obnoxiously tall. But in folded form it does seem to fit better in your hand than most phones width-wise. Wish more phones would quit trying to be bigger and better. Just make a simple, sane phone that doesn't cost as much as a supercomputer. But of course I guess they do make those, but those don't grab the headlines.
I think a lot of the reason that phones got bigger is to accommodate larger batteries. The first few generations of LTE phones got horrible battery life...so they just made them bigger to shove more mAh in and increase the battery life of the phone.
So I wonder what the battery life on a smaller phone would be today? Have chipsets advanced enough that they could get decent battery life on a smaller phone?
Not really, because the displays keep getting larger and more pixel-dense. High resolution takes more power to drive.
Phablets also became a thing, which means more power drain for lighting.
I believe so. The feature phone Nokia 8110 4G is supposed to get multi-day battery life out of a 1500mA battery. And on my own smartphone Droid Turbo 2, the big battery suckers are the screen and apps I run, not the radio. The Punkt MP-02 was supposed to get similar battery life and it's downright small, only a 1,280mA battery.
I love the idea of a fold-able phone and have been waiting for when they would finally hit the market. Now, they fold the wrong way! It would be great to have a normal size phone that folds away to half its size. Basically, more of the dimensions of this, less of this. This sort of "hamburger" fold instead of "hotdog" fold would also finally restore the superior phone design of it bending to your face between your ear and mouth.
Honestly, lower cost phones are so good nowadays that there's very little need for people to buy a $799 phone. For $500, you can get a fantastic phone.
With phone prices going up over the past two years, I think we're gonna see a lot of people choosing smaller brands (i.e., not Apple or Samsung).
I'm going to need to replace my phone soon and would really rather not spend $700+ USD on the new one. Is there a good place to look for information about lower-cost phones, or are there certain ones that you think are particularly good?
Xiaomi phones are budget and get the job done in my opinion. Especially their Redmi sub-brand.
I'm a huge fan of Xiaomi phones, and have been happily using a Mi A1 for quite a while. The biggest problem with Xiaomi phones is that many of them lack support for US LTE bands, which makes them an unwise purchase in 2019, considering 3G is being phased out. For anyone looking to get a Xiaomi phone, I'd strongly recommend making sure it supports the necessary LTE bands for 4G in your area.
Yeah, that's something that you should be aware of before buying one. The wiki at r/xiaomi is really helpful in that regard.
I think that that may be changing. The last time I checked up on Xiaomi phones, the newer models seemed to support most of T-Mobile's LTE bands.
But as with all things, do the research before purchasing.
I personally go for used second-hand iPhones or the lot. Currently on a 5c, though it's got little memory I don't really use it for more than a few apps and internet browsing, so 8GB is fine for me. Got it for free, so that's a plus too.
The Motorola Moto G series (currently the G6) has been a perennial winner on "best cheap smartphone" comparisons. Pricing is in the £150 region, which is a whole different ballgame from the flagships, and I can't say I've every felt it to be lower quality or lacking anything - there's nothing about it that suggests "budget". They also come with stock Android, or very close to it, which is important to me.
I'm typing this on a G6 that I'm very happy with, and I previously had the first or second generation (I forget which) that was also excellent.
As it happens, I did go for a Xiaomi in between (a Mi 5s) which came in at about 40% of the price of the near-identical Pixel at the time. Hardware was great, but I really vehemently disliked the software. Flashed it with Lineage, which was a solid solution but never quite worked properly with the fingerprint reader. Battery life dropped precipitously over the two years I had it until it was unusable, which is when I got the G6. Software is personal preference, and everything but the battery was great, so I wouldn't write off Xiaomi - but I'd put the overall experience there as "decent" compared to Motorola's "excellent".
Speaking as a compulsive maximizer, not satisficer, the OnePlus 6T is about the best phone you can get under $700 USD right now. It's compatible with most US carriers' bands.
https://www.gsmarena.com/oneplus_6t-9350.php
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/oneplus-6t,review-5886.html
I recently went from an iPhone XS Max to a OnePlus 6T and I love it. It was about $580 and it does pretty much everything the iPhone can do, with the exception of wireless charging.
I’ve heard really good things about Nokia’s mid/low-end phones too. Those are even cheaper.