why would you choose any of the asuses?
“nicely built”, and “sleek design” are not positives, but made up qualities. That’s basically a goal for all phone manufacturers
“good AI features”. sorry what? do they mean the power button opens the assist lant instead of the shutdown menu? or that the device sends home an order of magnitude more information about you than usual?
“ultra portable”? what the fuck does that mean for a fucking smartphone?
and “univeral fast charging” means it’s glued in battery will wear out ultra fast.
buy a pixel if you don’t care about keeping it for a long time, and about having a removable battery. otherwise get a fairphone
Sites so stupid you know some weren’t even build by AI, just there to sell ads into your brainhole - and those ads will rot your brain less than the actual site “content”.
Positives … Good AI features
Negatives … No 4K recording on all lenses
Some people just have different priorities.
If I’m paying $900 for a phone, you’d better believe that 4K30 is the barest of bare minimums I’m expecting that rear camera to do unless it’s a deliberate tradeoff for something more ethical like a Fairphone. The Pixel 9 base model can shoot at 4K60 and 1080p240 (256 GB and the same $900 price). “Good AI features” lmfao blow it out your ass, Asus. I wonder where this comparison chart is coming from anyway.
- shove it up your asus
My priority would be longevity, ports and an open bootloader.
+ good custom rom support.
My 2022 iPhone SE, that I bought new for about $550, records 4K at 60fps.
I’m a little shocked that isn’t the base standard for all smartphones now.
There are Samsung A-Series phones that support 4k @30fps
Galaxy A25 is about $299 and has 6.5 inch 1080p 120hz display, records at 4K @30fps
Galaxy A35 is about $100 more than the above, and along with the above mentioned, also has IP67 water resistance hand under-display fingerprint sensor
Cheap phones are getting so good these days
I don’t care about camera quality at all, I much prefer longevity, performancd, ports, other sensors, custom ROM and root support. And so, most smartphones of manufacturers chasing the trend of camera quality, especially if they are 1k+, are not fit for me.
I hate that they lumped the “AI” features into one.
Like… I love AI up scaling, but AI assistants can f*** off.
Yeah. AI and quality of video recording is just not high on the list for me.
how is “ultra-portable” a positive, when all these phone are the same size, and not even small phones at all?
Yeah, these pro/con lists are just random bullshit with 0 accountability and consistency.
The only useful comparisons are ones that show the actual specs side by side, and even then it doesn’t tell the whole story.
I looked it up and the ROG phone 8 pro isn’t even smaller or lighter than the other two - if anything it’s slightly bigger and heavier. Truly useless as a positive point.
Just finished setting up my Experia Z2 Compact with Lineage OS. It is such a relief to have a truly compact phone again
Gsmarena is a better site to use for comparison of technical specs, if you care about those.
I feel like this should probably be top comment here
I was wondering when someone would say this. It’s the only site I use to research phones.
They are quite exceptionally good and I really wish other consumers products had a website like that one with as much trust as that one.
Fairphone 5
positives:
- nicely built
- user servicable with replaceable components
- no AI shit
- eco friendly
- 8 years of service updates
negatives:
- its a bit more expensive for its specs
- cameras are a bit on the downlow but still good enough
downlow
I do not think this word means what you think it means.
Inconceivable!
I got an FP5 just a few months ago, very happy. Currently running E-Os on it. Big upgrade on the FP3 that it replaced. Liked the 3 but it was getting way to slow. It’s not very expensive, considering it’s fairtrade!
The performance is perfect, and who can say no to support until 2031😃
Edit: the best feature of a Fairphone is the high horse it comes with😉
Edit: the best feature of a Fairphone is the high horse it comes with😉
Oh being smug/on the high horse about being woke, I like it :D
and yeah Support until 2031 is damn nice. After that period I probably will use PostmarketOS and turn it into a linux phone
You’re more morally superior to me in that regard.
The SECOND Fairphone starts shipping to Canada, I’ll buy one…
You could probably still get one via a shipping forwarder
Great recommendation!
thanks for endorsing it :)
Of these 3, the Pixel 9. It can run both GrapheneOS and CalyxOS.
The Pixel 8a can also run both, but it only costs $400. CalyxOS will support both phones until 2031.
I’m about to switch from iPhone to a Pixel 9 so I can put CalyxOS on it. Used iPhones since a 3GS in 2009, but the time has come.
pixel, so you can run GrapheneOS
Those comparison charts like the one you posted are unresearched/uncritical garbage made to sell affiliate links. They’ll never actually give a harsh review to anything listed because they want you to buy something
Your best bet is to ask owners’ groups for each phone you’re considering for reviews and buying advice and weighing that yourself.
samsung galaxy S10. headphone jack, expandable micro SD storage, none of the bloatware.
Samsung? No bloatware? Since when has that been a thing
It runs Lineage, the last of the Galaxies iirc.
I had a similar inquiry, I think the conclusion is Pixel. It’s not ideal but they’re supporting updates for 7 years now which is a good push towards deshitification. And as others put, it can have custom firmware which can prolong that even longer (or if you want out of that Google ecosystem).
Haven’t took the leap yet though. I’m typing this from a hand me down Galaxy S10 that’s held together with rubber bands because the back glass became unglued. I haven’t had updates in a while but bs Knox protection threatens to brick the thing if I flash a new firmware. Pixels are expensive, though.
S10-clutcher gang represent.
Hot glue might do the trick
Eh, I think I’ll order a 15 dollar back glass replacement since it’s also a little cracked. I only got this phone because I replaced it’s spicy pillow battery myself (it was due for the trash heap). I might as well treat it with a little more care until I get some broken Pixel to play with lol
Personally, when I can afford it I’m going to go for the OnePlus Nord N10 5G. I don’t feel the need for the more stringent security hardening on GrapheneOS, so basic LineageOS MicroG is enough for me.
I hate the lack of a headphone jack enough to make that tradeoff, vs a Google Pixel.
Is there a phone with a proper headset jack and isn’t tainted by whispers of Chinese evil gov spying ? My country still feels the sting of the Nortel issue.
Good question, I honestly don’t know. :-(
I’m very happy with my OnePlus 12. I’d recommend looking into them as an option.
The pixel, so you can put graphene on it
Is graphene less glitchy than stock on a pixel 8? Or at least no worse? I’m tired of unfixed glitches since the pixel 6. YouTube PIP and split screen specifically
It doesn’t aim to make enhancements beyond privacy/security specific ones. In that sense it’s more likely to give you issues with certain apps because of things like sandboxed Play services and apps not having access to the device identifier.
That said, I use it and if you’re OK with giving up certain things like Google Pay, then I recommend it.
To add to that, most of the time there are easy work arounds like just using the apps browser version instead of an app. The only thing I’ve had a couple times was my keyboards just wouldn’t pop up. No matter what I did the keyboards were dead for about 3 minutes each time it happened, they started to work again but it’s just a quirk of a privacy focused OS
Google now provides a full 7 years of parts and updates for the pixel 8 and 9. Samsung may I think now do 7 years of updates on some phones no idea about parts though.
God can these people keep AI out of phones?
Even those stupid “AI” camera features can fuck off, they always make the photo worse, unless all the do is pick a filter and adjust the saturation/brightness/contrast/etc. as soon as the do something unreversable like add blurring, they can fuck off because it always looks janky AF in real world use
