[lynndotpy]

I feel this a lot. Android's used to differentiate themselves from iPhones by having useful technical features at a competitive price. I used to be die-hard pro-Android, but now I can find very few reasons to buy one.

Now the Android UI is sparse and wobbly, Androids lost call recording, sideloading is limited, and they raised their prices to cost as much as iPhones.

Meanwhile, iPhones got call recording, they opened up NFC (a bit) and they support CalDAV and CardDAV and SMB natively in its built-in apps. The "control center" on iOS is customizable, to the point they do what Android's quick tiles did before 2020 or so.

It's very frustrating-- I wish they still made Androids like they used to :(

[homebrewer]

This comment equates Android with Google phones for some reason. The complaints have nothing to do with Android — side loading is light years ahead of Apple (and third party application stores can finally automatically update applications). Call recording works fine on my friend's Xiaomi 14T (I think) that he bought just a couple of weeks ago, and it works fine on my own device that's on latest Lineage (Android 15). There's lots of choice in UI depending on which vendor you're going with; I'm fine with stock Lineage (i.e. stock Android). There's lots of choice price wise (even the homeless have smartphones these days), while the cheapest iPhone costs about two median monthly salaries here.

Just don't buy anything from Google, they've always screwed something up.

[lynndotpy]

I have a very small pool of Androids I consider. Pixels maintain a strong security model (similar to what iPhones have), and they allow you to re-lock the bootloader after installing a non-stock OS. It's between a Pixel, or a FairPhone.

I liked Lineage, but an unlocked bootloader is a security non-starter for a device that's so personal and vital.

For those using the stock OS, Googles are nice because you "only" have Google's spyware built in to the OS.

[dhc02]

I didn't realize there were some non-stick OSes that you could re-lock the bootloader for. Which ones?

[lynndotpy]

GrapheneOS and CalyxOS are the only ones I'm aware of! It requires OS support and the phone to support it too, so it's a rare combo.

[spencerflem]

Same- I stick with them out of spite, since I refuse to use a device that doesn't allow replacing the OS or installing your own software ("sideloading")

But they're pretty clearly worse as phones and I'll go to my grave mad about the headphone jack.

[JTbane]

I'm still mad that I have to keep track of a tiny 3.5mm to USB-C dongle.

[spencerflem]

I lost mine yesterday -_+ have to buy a new one I guess

pure evil

[Lammy]

I've been very happy to have my headphone port back since I upgraded from iPhone 7 to REDMAGIC 9S Pro

[olvy0]

Hear hear