4G Android phone megathread

SumnerH

Malt Liquor Picker
Dope
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
31,893
Alexandria, VA
Yeah I get fast enough charging with a C-to-A cable on my old Anker 5 (A) port charger that I rarely bother with anything else at home. At work I have a dual charger (one C and one A port on it) so I can charge phone and bluetooth at the same time, and I bought a car charger with an A port and a hard-wired C cable.

I also put a little C-to-micro A adapter on my keychain in case I'm caught somewhere unprepared, but I've never needed it.
 

jayhoz

Ronald Bartel
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
17,367
I did not know this existed. You are my hero today.
I wouldn't go too cheap on the cables. Early versions of these were causing fires.

Also, USB A to USB-C works fine, but you won't get the charging speeds of USB-C to USB-C.
 

Caspir

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
6,886
I wouldn't go too cheap on the cables. Early versions of these were causing fires.

Also, USB A to USB-C works fine, but you won't get the charging speeds of USB-C to USB-C.
Yea, just saw the reviews of Amazon Basics, and those ones were damaging phones and causing issues. Gonna go ahead and spend a few bucks on some solid new ones - after researching and comparing brands for more time than anybody should, of course.
 

Reardon's Beard

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 3, 2005
3,795
Good people of SOSH I seek your wise counsel.

I am a Google superfan. I live in the ecosystem, but am also a cheap bastard that operates pragmatically more than latest and greatest at higher costs. I love my dear Nexus 5X and it's been working just fine but I am seriously thinking of rewarding myself after hitting serious professional milestones. Do I go for the Pixel 2 or should I wait to see what October brings?

What say thee?
 

JakeRae

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 21, 2005
8,125
New York, NY
Good people of SOSH I seek your wise counsel.

I am a Google superfan. I live in the ecosystem, but am also a cheap bastard that operates pragmatically more than latest and greatest at higher costs. I love my dear Nexus 5X and it's been working just fine but I am seriously thinking of rewarding myself after hitting serious professional milestones. Do I go for the Pixel 2 or should I wait to see what October brings?

What say thee?
If what you want is a great phone at a bargain price, the Pixel 2 has had some amazing deals on it recently but doesn't appear to right now. I'd wait for another one of those rather than the Pixel 3. If what you want is the best phone, I'd wait for the next generation.

For context, I use the Pixel 2XL. It is great.
 

TheRooster

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 3, 2001
2,483
If you are really frugal, check out the Moro G6. I've had great luck with the G4 and will upgrade soon.
 

Marceline

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2002
6,441
Canton, MA
I love the oneplus phones as a good bargain alternative to the pixel. I ended up with the Oneplus 5T for $500 as I didn't want to pay $850 for a pixel 2 XL. Very happy with the Oneplus.

Coming from the Nexus 6p, it's a huge improvement.
 

amlothi

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 5, 2007
802
I love the oneplus phones as a good bargain alternative to the pixel. I ended up with the Oneplus 5T for $500 as I didn't want to pay $850 for a pixel 2 XL. Very happy with the Oneplus.

Coming from the Nexus 6p, it's a huge improvement.
Agree. No slow down like pixel phones.

 

Reardon's Beard

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 3, 2005
3,795
You wouldn't be disappointed with a Pixel 2, it's a great phone.
Which screen are you rocking? Or thoughts on regular or XL?

If what you want is a great phone at a bargain price, the Pixel 2 has had some amazing deals on it recently but doesn't appear to right now. I'd wait for another one of those rather than the Pixel 3. If what you want is the best phone, I'd wait for the next generation.

For context, I use the Pixel 2XL. It is great.
How do you find the screen size? I had been debating going for the XL to lessen eye strain but also higher cost, and higher physical space.
 

Marceline

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2002
6,441
Canton, MA
The oneplus 5t is almost exactly the same screen size as the Pixel 2 XL (6.0" vs 6.01") and both have the same 18:9 ratio.

I've always gone with larger screen size phones. Note 3 - nexus 6p - oneplus 5t. I'm very happy with the screen size. I did the math when I purchased and I think it's equivalent to around 5.5" or so for 16:9 content (too lazy to figure it out again so that might be off).

Edit: current model is the oneplus 6 which is 6.28" with a 19:9 ratio. I suspect that's going to work out to almost exactly the same 16:9 area - diagonal screen sizes are misleading.
 
Last edited:

Fratboy

Mr. MENsa
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Nov 29, 2003
18,152
McCarver Park
Has anybody else downloaded Android Pie yet? I'm on a Pixel XL, and skipped Oreo, because I found during the beta that battery life was beyond dreadful. I've had a notification for about a year (?) to install Oreo, and never did.

I installed Pie last night, and found that it's really quite GOOD. My phone is responsive and snappy, and battery life looks to be good so far. I don't really know the new features, though, but I like what I see so far.
 

milfordsoxfan

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 26, 2006
516
Connecticut
Has anybody else downloaded Android Pie yet? I'm on a Pixel XL, and skipped Oreo, because I found during the beta that battery life was beyond dreadful. I've had a notification for about a year (?) to install Oreo, and never did.

I installed Pie last night, and found that it's really quite GOOD. My phone is responsive and snappy, and battery life looks to be good so far. I don't really know the new features, though, but I like what I see so far.
I've had it for about 24 hours now on the original XL. I've had an app or two crap out on me unexpectedly, but otherwise is pretty good. The battery life seems like it might be better, but it's virtually impossible to say for sure after just a day. I don't think I'm seeing any difference in the responsiveness of my phone one way or the other.

The clock going from the top right to the top left is bothering me irrationally. Probably just because I'm used to it the other way. I do like the way the new notifications look, as well as the menus.

I did not mess with the betas this time around because I thought the Oreo betas sucked. I'm fairly certain what we have now is the final build? Pretty sure it is the last new OS that I'll be getting with this phone, so I'm hoping it's a decent one. I'd really like to hold out for the fourth gen Pixel, but I've never had a phone make it 24 months, let alone 36. We shall see.
 

saintnick912

GINO!
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Oct 30, 2004
4,968
Somerville, MA
I'e been running on P since the second developer preview and people saying that it was generally stable.

I had a couple of apps act funny, particularly DJI Go 4, but it just prompted me to grab a tablet for use with my drone controller, so win-win there.

Battery life has generally been in line with an almost 2 year old phone, I had a bad run up in northern Maine a couple of weeks back where I was in and out of marginal signal (Project Fi, mixture of underlying carriers) but I mostly just did airplane mode when in the woods. I got a bad Play Services update a couple of weeks ago also that was eating 40-50% of each charge, but that was only a few days before it cleared up (presumably another update). I have a bunch of beta nonsense so not sure how much of that is P.

The "full device usage" numbers in the battery settings don't add up to 100% or to 100-current% so I'm not sure they're that useful. The Adaptive Battery has so far given me a heads up and caused me to restrict any background usage for a number of apps where I really can't see why I'd want it ever.
 

Caspir

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
6,886
I put Android P on my Pixel 2XL and love the update so far. I echo the annoyance with the clock moving, but I've adjusted. My battery life has improved substantially, and it was already great. I had 4 hours of screen time, podcasts and music going, and from 7 am until 7 pm, only worked the battery down to 80%, where it would normally be around 70-75% prior to updating. I do like the look of the settings, etc., as well. The adaptive battery seems to be doing a good job of shutting down anything running in the background that I don't need.

Anyone else using this digital wellness component? It tells me a lot of things I already know about my usage, but the breakdowns are useful. I like that it gives the grey-scale option as a component of Do Not Disturb that can be set automatically. Still looking to see what it can do vis a vis reducing usage, but it's a nice little add on.
 

Spelunker

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 17, 2005
11,867
I can't get past the clock. It is so fucking stupid. My peripheral vision sees that as a new notification. It's the whole point behind the notification system: noticing something that needs action out of the corner of your eye while you're looking elsewhere at the screen.
 

TallerThanPedroia

Civilly Disobedient
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
25,544
Boston
Yeah, the clock bothers me (and WiFi moved as well), but also just the fact that the middle of the status bar is now dead space.

I'm on a Pixel which I got in December 2016 so it's getting "old" and lately my battery seems to drain pretty quickly at times without warning, and also drops fast down from 100%. I've only been awake for 90 minutes today and I'm already down to 75% and I've just been reading Twitter and RSS.

Some apps don't seem to be playing well. I'm pretty sure some of my Tasker profiles aren't working quite right. I have one that turns off WiFi when I'm not at home and I think it's just staying on. I also had a thing happening where I'd click on a dropdown notification and it would take up to 30 seconds for anything to happen.

I tried to do the new swipey home button but ultimately had to turn it off. I'm used to quickly double-tapping the square to switch apps, particularly when driving to go between maps and music. The new swipe right thing was not working well for that. You're supposed to swipe quickly right to just switch between your most recent two apps, but then if you hold after you swipe, you can then slide between all open apps. But the difference between the two requires way too much precision. Even with the new feature off, the apps screen is still changed, and I have to tap the square more slowly now.

Meanwhile, the swiping up function to get to your drawer doesn't seem to play well with Nova Launcher.

I do like that the default volume is media, and the new screen rotate feature because I like to keep mine locked, but if you do turn your phone it gives you the option to change the orientation.
 

charlieoscar

Member
Sep 28, 2014
1,339
...so it's getting "old" and lately my battery seems to drain pretty quickly at times without warning, and also drops fast down from 100%
This is something that I'm finding troublesome with new phones--the inability to replace batteries. Your battery stops working? Just go out and spend another $750 on a new phone.
 

jimv

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 5, 2011
1,118
Yeah, the clock bothers me (and WiFi moved as well), but also just the fact that the middle of the status bar is now dead space.

I'm on a Pixel which I got in December 2016 so it's getting "old" and lately my battery seems to drain pretty quickly at times without warning, and also drops fast down from 100%. I've only been awake for 90 minutes today and I'm already down to 75% and I've just been reading Twitter and RSS.
This is something that I'm finding troublesome with new phones--the inability to replace batteries. Your battery stops working? Just go out and spend another $750 on a new phone.
I was in similar situation as TTP - Nexus 6P which was showing its age, no desire to purchase a new phone. I replaced the battery myself (plenty of video instructions online

- -

you can find multiple videos for every phone). For about an hour and $40 the phone holds a charge like new.

Unfortunately the Snapdragon 810 processor shows its age running Android 8. I'll probably upgrade after the holidays for that reason.
 

charlieoscar

Member
Sep 28, 2014
1,339
you can find multiple videos for every phone). For about an hour and $40 the phone holds a charge like new.
I've seen replacements being made for some of these phones and some of them are not easy to do. The phone I have now has an easily replaceable battery but it also hasn't been updated for a while (LG V20). I probably won't consider replacing it until T-Mobile upgrades their system to 5G. But thanks.
 

Monbo Jumbo

Hates the crockpot
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 5, 2003
25,231
the other Athens
Pixel 2 XL is now on sale, $200 off if you activate it on Fi within 30 days. You won't see this deal in the Google store, but you will if you go to the Fi website.

I was waiting on the Pixel 3, but now think I will bite on this deal, getting a 2 XL with 128gb for $750 is pretty good.

I've managed to get 38 months of service out of my Nexus 6, but its definitely time to move on.
 

TallerThanPedroia

Civilly Disobedient
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
25,544
Boston
So in the "old" days when texting cost money, I got a Google Voice number, and when I got an Android, I used the Google Voice app for texting. It was somewhat problematic because it couldn't handle MMS, and we were just on the cusp of people starting to text pictures and even video to each other. Sometimes a person would text me a picture and they'd at least get an error message back, but often it would just go into the void and I wouldn't know about it. I think at one point there was a workaround where I'd get the image in my email.

Then I think the Voice app finally got MMS, but soon after that Google decided they didn't like Google Voice much anymore, and gently pushed me into using Hangouts for my texting, which has mostly worked fine. But it has always amazed me that a company that was begun as a search engine would not let me search my texts. They do get saved if you know where to look in Gmail, on desktop at least, and you can search that way, but people's names don't show up, just their phone numbers. And who remembers phone numbers anymore?

But it looks like Voice just got updated, and now I can see all my text messages in it, and Google seems sort of ashamed of Hangouts these days. And when I go into Voice I can now see all my texts, even though they still go to Hangouts. And there's a nice big search button up top, so with great anticipation I pressed it and tried to search my texts..... and it still only searches my voicemail.

So, does anyone know the backstory to all of this? Should I get rid of Hangouts and go back to texting from Voice? I never used any other aspect of Hangouts so I don't really care about it.
 

Marceline

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2002
6,441
Canton, MA
I switched back to the Voice app and ditched Hangouts awhile ago. The Voice app works great now. MMS and group texts, no problems at all. Searching texts works fine too.
 

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
7,878
Boston, MA
Anyone using a standard Pixel 2 have extremely low volume on recorded video? I have to blast the volume up to the top to even hear it. There were a bunch of threads on it a year ago, but nothing really since. All the software is up to date.
 

TallerThanPedroia

Civilly Disobedient
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
25,544
Boston
I switched back to the Voice app and ditched Hangouts awhile ago. The Voice app works great now. MMS and group texts, no problems at all. Searching texts works fine too.
I switched back just to see what it's like now. I thought maybe it would only be able to search new text messages. But now suddenly it's searching them all!
 

Fratboy

Mr. MENsa
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Nov 29, 2003
18,152
McCarver Park
I can't get past the clock. It is so fucking stupid. My peripheral vision sees that as a new notification. It's the whole point behind the notification system: noticing something that needs action out of the corner of your eye while you're looking elsewhere at the screen.
I was thinking about why they moved the clock this morning. Also, you'll notice that you don't get more than 4 more notifications, and if you have more, there's a dot that appears to indicate you have more than 4. On the right side, it appears you'll never have more than 5 icons.

So Pie was designed to have a blank space in the middle of the "notification row," almost as if Google is intending to replace the blank space with... nothing... in future phones ;);););)
 

Fratboy

Mr. MENsa
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Nov 29, 2003
18,152
McCarver Park
Also, I've been seeing some buzz about Pixel 3 being beyond wretched, with only 4 GB of RAM, the same I've got with my OG Pixel XL, and that's disappointing.

So what do I do now that I can upgrade? Get a Pixel 3 or hold out for Samsung X/10? I'm in some serious flux here.
 

jayhoz

Ronald Bartel
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
17,367
I'm on the pixel bandwagon. Solid track record to date, timely OS updates, unlimited image storage at full resolution, etc. It would take a ton to get me to go back to Samsung
 

Fratboy

Mr. MENsa
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Nov 29, 2003
18,152
McCarver Park
I'm on the pixel bandwagon. Solid track record to date, timely OS updates, unlimited image storage at full resolution, etc. It would take a ton to get me to go back to Samsung
I'm with you there, especially on the OS updates with zero bloatware.
 

Spelunker

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 17, 2005
11,867
I was thinking about why they moved the clock this morning. Also, you'll notice that you don't get more than 4 more notifications, and if you have more, there's a dot that appears to indicate you have more than 4. On the right side, it appears you'll never have more than 5 icons.

So Pie was designed to have a blank space in the middle of the "notification row," almost as if Google is intending to replace the blank space with... nothing... in future phones ;);););)
Oh, it's definitely being done as part of notch support, but they really shouldn't fuck up the non-notch experience for it. Besides, even with a notch it's still broken being on the left side.
 

amlothi

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 5, 2007
802
Also, I've been seeing some buzz about Pixel 3 being beyond wretched, with only 4 GB of RAM, the same I've got with my OG Pixel XL, and that's disappointing.

So what do I do now that I can upgrade? Get a Pixel 3 or hold out for Samsung X/10? I'm in some serious flux here.
Oneplus
 

Spelunker

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 17, 2005
11,867
I thought the clock move was Pie's biggest issue. Holy shit this has killed my battery (OG XL). It's not an acclimation issue, as I've been on this for three weeks now.

My battery dropped 2% while typing this message.
 

johnmd20

mad dog
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 30, 2003
61,996
New York City
I thought the clock move was Pie's biggest issue. Holy shit this has killed my battery (OG XL). It's not an acclimation issue, as I've been on this for three weeks now.

My battery dropped 2% while typing this message.
I didn't love the clock move, but I'm getting used to it. Pixel 2 owner here and I'm extremely grateful Pie didn't hurt my battery in a similar way. Nothing can destroy the utility of a phone like a woeful battery. I'm sorry.
 

Spelunker

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 17, 2005
11,867
Yesterday I was at the gym for two hours. 55min of a treadmill episode on Hulu, and Chrome browsing (and podcast) between sets the other hour brought me from 98% to 14%

With battery saver enabled.

Just wrapped up a run: 1:20 since full charge when I left, only 10 minutes of screen time, app usage was podcast and mapmyrun (battery saver off, because it hurts tracking precision), currently at 47%

WITH ONLY 10 MINUTES OF SCREEN USE.

This is...bad.
 

glennhoffmania

meat puppet
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 25, 2005
8,411,599
NY
I have an S7 and I'm due for an upgrade. But I could also wait if necessary. Is the S9 any good? When is the next one due out?
 

glennhoffmania

meat puppet
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 25, 2005
8,411,599
NY
I can find out when the next one is due out, but I'm more interested in getting reviews on the S9, since that's the only option right now.
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
Sorry I couldn't resist giving you a hard time.

I can't say anything about the Samsung phone since I switched from the S3 to the Nexus to the Pixel. Have you considered going to the Pixel? I can't recommend it enough, especially coming from Samsung.
 

glennhoffmania

meat puppet
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 25, 2005
8,411,599
NY
I looked at. My issue, but correct me if I'm wrong, is that I'd have to buy one at full price. The S9 I could "lease" for like 23 bucks a month.
 

glennhoffmania

meat puppet
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 25, 2005
8,411,599
NY
Can you trade it in early? If I get a Samsung and make 12 payments I can trade it in for the newer one and not have to pay the remaining balance on the old one.