Currently, I’m using a Motorola moto g100 and I’m happy with it. Good battery life, nice big screen, much improved performance compared to my last phone. Best phone I’ve ever owned. The main inconvenience is the location of the fingerprint sensor: I’d have preferred if it was on the front of the device somehow (definitely not on the back – I often have it lying flat on the table).

I also dislike the fact it can only remember five fingerprints while I have 10 fingers. Who thought that was a good idea? :þ

Previously I had a Moto G5+ and a Moto G. I guess you could say I enjoyed the quality and relative lack of bloatware of these Motorola phones, while being more affordable than some of the alternatives I was considering at the time I bought them.

Going further back, I had a HTC Desire Z (with a slide-out physical keyboard). I picked it as my first smartphone because I was hesitant to get rid of physical keys, but as it turned out I hardly ever used them. Looking back, this one was clearly the worst value for the money.

Since I switched to smart phones I’ve been upgrading every 3 or 4 years.

Before the smart phone era, I had an Alcatel device (can’t remember the exact model). I used that tiny near-indestructable thing for over a decade, only charging it about once a week. It was mostly an “in case of emergency” though, not nearly as heavily used as later phones, because it wasn’t really usable as a miniature pocket-computer (like smart phones are). Still, I was pretty happy with it at the time: the only reason I got rid of it was because the ‘0’ button broke, and in my country all phone numbers start with 0.

I also have an LG G Watch (Wear OS). A relative worked at Google when these were handed out to employees but didn’t actually want it, so I got it as a gift. It’s pretty old now: I’ve replaced the bands a few times and it won’t charge past 70%, but it still mostly works and the battery still lasts all day. I’m not sure if I’ll get another smart watch if and when this one finally breaks, though.

No Apple products, and my laptop runs Linux Mint. These days, I only use Windows at work or when helping relatives with tech problems (sigh).

Samsung S21+ 5G

S20 Fe 5g, with SD865, 8GB RAM and 256GB Storage

What phone are you using?

One Plus 8

Are you happy with it? What are its best and worst qualities?

I am happy with the phone. I’ve had it for the past almost 3 years and it has served me well. The thing I love the most about this phone is the specs and the custom ROM community. 3 years later and this phone still holds up very well. It handles everything I throw at it; even the occasional Genshin Impact. The custom ROM community is also very active. My phone is still in good condition after three years. Battery is still holding up. I get about 5-7 hours SOT wifi on light usage. When using data and heavier usage (maps, spotify, max brightness) I get around 3-4 hours of SOT which isn’t that bad for a three year old phone. I plan on replacing the battery and using custom roms to extend my phone’s life.

Which phones have you had previously? Which were the best and worst of the lot?

s5, j7 prime My s5 was a hand me down from my mother. The phone worked fine but the the display would glitch out and turn off. The j7 prime was just garbage after about 6 months of usage. It was laggy as hell and I’m not sure how I survived with that phone for three years. It was definitely the worst out of the two.

How often do you upgrade to a new phone?

I don’t upgrade phones until the one I am currently using cannot handle my daily usage, or breaks. When my phone is no longer usable, then I am considering either going back to samsung or going pixel depending on if the charging and efficiency gets better.

What other Android ecosystem devices do you have? Watches, headphones/earbuds, etc.

I have a galaxy watch active 2 and galaxy buds plus.

Do you also use any Apple products, or are you Android all the way? (And/or Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, etc.)

I do not currently have any Apple products. I am using a windows pc and my laptop is dual booting windows 10 and ubuntu (windows just in case I have software that doesn’t work on linux).

Pixel 7 Pro w/GrapheneOS. Being able to control what my phone is sending or not sending + the battery life gain from everything not phoning home is amazing.

Pixel 7 Pro, Android 14 Beta. It’s sooooo broken. Pixel Launcher doesn’t work, so the app switcher won’t open. Crashes constantly. Debated buying something else.

Using a Samsung Galaxy A12 Works perfect for my needs and was super cheap 🤷 My favorite phone ever was my Nexus 5 These days I just replace a phone when I stop getting security updates 😀

• Motorola G30
• very happy! battery life (2.5 days) and weight (prolly due to the big battery)
• a string of Motorolas (I like the fact that it has the purest of the Androids)
• as soon as it shows it is ageing (around 2 years)
• none
• ChromeOS on 2 chromebooks: Lenovo Flex5 and HP 11a na0120nr

edit: typo

Google Pixel 6. I upgraded from an iPhone 8 a year ago. I love how open the os is, letting me do a bunch more then what’s on the app store.

For headphones I have Soundcore Q30. They’re decent Bluetooth headphones, that were pretty cheap when I bought them.

I use Windows with WSL. I tried switching to Linux for over a month, but I had too many issues with Windows only apps.

I also love usb-c. Almost all my devices can charge using the same cords. The only exceptions are my laptop with a 200W brick, and my diabetes pump. Nothing I can do about those.

Current daily driver is a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4. Pretty happy with its compact size when folded, and it serves as a mini-tablet of sorts when unfolded. It’s also the first phone I’ve owned that I’ve not needed to worry about running out of juice midway throughout the day. Though I find its quite hard to find a suitable table stand for it, especially if using it unfolded.

My Android journey began in January 2014 with a Sony Xperia Z1, upgraded from an iPhone 4S with a busted home button. It was a pretty great introduction to the Android world with Sony’s near-stock interface (when compared with the dark days of T**chwiz bloatware and whatnot) and lasted until January 2016 when I upgraded to a Sony Xperia Z5 Premium. The lack of an SD card slot of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 made me hold my nose and get the Z5P despite its Snapdragon 810 SoC, and I endured its abysmal 3.5 hour SOT until 20 months later I upgraded to a red Sony Xperia XZ Premium. This was a really good looking phone and its SD835 SoC was definitely a far cry from the 810 with 5.5 to 6 hours SOT. 28 months of use later and the XZP unfortunately started lagging, which prompted me to try out Samsung. The Note 10+ impressed me with its nearly bezelless screen and s-pen, but the Exynos 9825 SoC was pretty meh at battery life. So another 28 months later and I’ve upgraded to the SD 8+ Gen 1 Fold 4.

S21 Plus

Pocophone f1 and I have a xiaomi note 8 as a backup ; because I tend to drop my phone due to carelessness (¯ ¯٥) i have had my screens change twice this year.

Pixel 7 Pro

My main PC is on Pop!_OS, Ubuntu based distro based on rolling kernel releases

S10. It’s older, bought refurbished, but probably technically the “best” phone I ever had and it’s all I really need tbh.

• S23 Ultra
• Best is everything, worst is size.
• Xiaomi and Samsung. I can’t compare since they were at completely different price brackets.
• Usually every 3 years.
• Watch, buds.
• Windows but i miss linux