General **What phone should I buy next?** -- Not sure what device to buy? Ask here!

lu99ke said:

If you want 5 years out of something .. you will need to probably go for top shelf processor... And something that has Lineage OS support as it is the only way you will get continued software updates...sp phones that can be unlocked and are popular enough in the developer space for people to keep tinkering on them ....and be prepared to swap a battery or two over it's life.

As an exercise... If you had a phone from 2014, what would still have LOS support ... Nexus 6...have a look at its forums to see of it is still active ....

Honestly...want 5 years out of a phone...get an iPhone.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Maybe I'm just stingy. I'm the kind of guy that goes and gets a $250 Walmart laptop and uses it until Microsoft drops the extended support for its OS 10 years later.

Anywho, I've compiled a small list of phones I might be interested in. I'm citing prices from my service provider since I will probably finance the phone in monthly payments.
___________
Motorola Moto G7 Power 32GB with SD card slot
Expected Lifecycle: 2 years
Cost: $240
Theoretical cost per year: $120

Google Pixel 3a 64GB
Expected Lifecycle: 3 years
Cost: $400
Theoretical cost per year: $133

iPhone XR 64GB
Expected Lifecycle: 5 years
Cost: $750
Theoretical cost per year: $150
___________
iPhones, although they last longer, don't seem to be the best bang for buck. Plus there's no headphone jack which bothers me.

As far as Google Phones go, I did check out the Nexus 6 as well as the original Pixel and Pixel XL and saw that they all are supported by LineageOS 16.0 with nightlies. Does that mean there's a chance that the just released Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL might get LineageOS in the future? (I guess that's a question to ask in the respective forum/thread).

My wife's and my Windows Phones lose support in December, and our most important apps are already announced for losing support around that same time as well. The plan is to get an idea of what phones we want this summer and then look for deals this upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Isaac Zackary said:

Maybe I'm just stingy. I'm the kind of guy that goes and gets a $250 Walmart laptop and uses it until Microsoft drops the extended support for its OS 10 years later.

Anywho, I've compiled a small list of phones I might be interested in. I'm citing prices from my service provider since I will probably finance the phone in monthly payments.
___________
Motorola Moto G7 Power 32GB with SD card slot
Expected Lifecycle: 2 years
Cost: $240
Theoretical cost per year: $120

Google Pixel 3a 64GB
Expected Lifecycle: 3 years
Cost: $400
Theoretical cost per year: $133

iPhone XR 64GB
Expected Lifecycle: 5 years
Cost: $750
Theoretical cost per year: $150
___________
iPhones, although they last longer, don't seem to be the best bang for buck. Plus there's no headphone jack which bothers me.

As far as Google Phones go, I did check out the Nexus 6 as well as the original Pixel and Pixel XL and saw that they all are supported by LineageOS 16.0 with nightlies. Does that mean there's a chance that the just released Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL might get LineageOS in the future? (I guess that's a question to ask in the respective forum/thread).

My wife's and my Windows Phones lose support in December, and our most important apps are already announced for losing support around that same time as well. The plan is to get an idea of what phones we want this summer and then look for deals this upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I think it's a safe bet that any phones directly from Google will continue to have good dev support for many years ... They are ( as it stands... But may change in future I suppose ) easy to unlock and play around with... And source codes are released... And nerds love them ... And nerds are the ones that develop ... So all good there! ( I say nerds with the utmost respect and love!! )

If I hadn't stumped for a pixel 3xl... I would be def getting a 3a ... For the money, the camera is simply amazing.

And I just cannot bring myself to use an iPhone... They are awesome phones and I recommend my family get them.. especially ones less tech savvy... But they are just too restrictive.... I mean... You seriously can't just have a bottom row of apps on your home screen?? WTF!!

I'm in the market for a reasonably priced android phone, one that's unlocked and easy to root and customize unrestricted. My last couple phones where on the straight talk network. I'd prefer to keep that service if possible but their compatibility can be hit and miss... What would be my best bet?

Hi there,

I'm looking for a 10inch Tablet:

rootable
aosp or los Rom available
WiFi
SD Slot
possibly cheap (as always ;])

Its supposed to be used as a Entertainmentsystem in my Car for the Kids. They dont Play Games on it but watch movies and listen to music.

What device would you recommend?

snoerme said:

Hi there,

I'm looking for a 10inch Tablet:

rootable
aosp or los Rom available
WiFi
SD Slot
possibly cheap (as always ;])

Its supposed to be used as a Entertainmentsystem in my Car for the Kids. They dont Play Games on it but watch movies and listen to music.

What device would you recommend?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Mi Tab 4

snoerme said:

I'm looking for a 10inch Tablet:

rootable
aosp or los Rom available
WiFi
SD Slot

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Great question! Anyone else have other recommendations than the Mi Tab 4?

I also need such a device. I was looking at recent Samsung tablets and was disappointed in the lack of development work. I have a Samsung Tab S4 (SM-T830), but I have to keep it on the stock OS for work. I would get another Tab S4 if there were any custom ROMs for it, but not yet, though recently it got TWRP.

I was looking at the Lenovo forms earlier. The Lenovo Tab 4 10" Plus, which is recent and apparently has good community support, is still sold as new, though a bit expensive at $350 USD. The 2016 Yoga Tab 3 Plus has offical Lineage OS support, but is no longer sold. It may be possible to find one used though.

Looking for the new phone options too. Requirements:

- dual sim
- major US + Eu bands, including LTE
- good DAC
- rootable
- waterproof, should survive wet pocket/fingers when skiing
- decent specs & camera

Ideas?

What is the best phone under $700 I can buy right now with unlockable bootloader? I tried the Pixel 3a but didn't like it. Thank you.

Holysmoke99 said:

What is the best phone under $700 I can buy right now with unlockable bootloader? I tried the Pixel 3a but didn't like it. Thank you.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

What didn't you like about the 3a?

Try the Umidigi F1 Play. Massive battery. Great camera. Fast. Does gaming very well. I have the F1, which only differs by battery size and camera. I enjoy it and now my Mrs. wants one. She is so picky about devices she has threaten to divorce me if I pick a phone out for her. She picked up my F1 and was on it half a day and told me she wants one.

Android 9 with some nice specs screen, CPU, memory, and everything else. Sub $200 Octa Core, 128 GB phone. Worth the bucks in my opinion. Especially if it make my wife want one.... :laugh:

If anyone wants a super cheap 7" tablet the Amazon Fire 7 (7th generation, codename austin) recently had it's bootloader broken and unlocked. It's normally $50 on Amazon (in the US), regularly goes on sale for $40 (it's on sale now), and goes on sale for $30 once or twice a year.

Amazon is about to release a new hardware version of this tablet (Gen 9, codename unknown yet) with a new SoC. It's not known if the current exploit used to unlock the old hardware will work on the new tablet, so make sure to get the Gen7 if you want to install a custom ROM.

There will probably be Prime Day here in the next month, so that might be a good time to buy. Set up a price alert on camelcamelcamel.com.

I got one a few weeks ago and have been playing with it. The hardware is low-end but it's a great value for a cheap tablet. I have been using it in my garage while working on my car to read PDFs and watch youtube vids without worry of breaking my expensive tablet or getting dirt/oil on it.

It only has 1GB of RAM, 16GB of flash. The screen is somewhat grainy because it's a low resolution, but it looks good for the price. Brightness levels on the low and high end are great. There's no light sensor on the front so it's all manual-brightness adjustment, which is slightly annoying but I don't change it often. Sound from the speaker is junky but sound over bluetooth and the headphone jack is very good. Wifi and bluetooth have been reliable for me. The cameras are fairly poor but are functional (no flash). The battery lasts a long time for me. It feels good to hold and has a nice body.

Unlocking requires a hardware hack, so you have to take off the back panel and short some pins, but it's not difficult if you have some talent. No soldiering required. Just stick a wire in the right spot while booting up and run a script over the USB port.

There's a custom TWRP on the latest release for recovery, which works great for me. I've been using the LineageOS release and the dev is active and the only bugs I know of is that the camera app crashes on video (other camera apps work fine), and AudioFX causes crash message sometimes (causes no real problem). I'm very happy with it.

There's only two custom ROMs available for it right now, plus a few custom FireOS ROMs. There is AOSP/Nexus and the other is unofficial LineageOS 12.1. Both releases are based on Android 5.1 because that's what the Amazon Fire OS is based on. It's possible there will be released to later Android versions later but no guarantee. There are other ROMs for this SoC with later releases, so it's not impossible for someone with dev experience. The dev for these ROMs has been applying security patches and fixing bugs, so I have some confidence things will continue to get better.

Here's the unlock and ROMs threads if interested:

https://xdaforums.com/amazon-fire/development/unlock-fire-t3899860
https://xdaforums.com/amazon-fire/orig-development/rom-lineage-12-1-t3639447
https://xdaforums.com/amazon-fire/orig-development/rom-fire-nexus-rom-lmy49f-t3300714

Hi guys, watching among Nokias, which device is worth and we'll supported in XDA for ROMs and development?

Yes

Enviado desde mi G8141 mediante Tapatalk

Any recommendations for a flip (clam shell) phone?

especially one that isn't super expensive! :fingers-crossed:

[Why: the phone is mainly for talking (hence the clam shell) for someone with bad eyesight (hence the number pad), and using basic apps like Whatsapp and Moovit (hence smartphone, not feature phone)]

Thanks

I am currently on the OnePlus 6T and soon looking to upgrade to a new phone. I am stumped between the OnePlus 7 Pro or the ASUS Zenfone 6.

I am a big fan of OnePlus especially with it being stock Android with its own twist (OxygenOS). The price, specs, and overall quality of their phones is what has kept me with them. However, working at T-Mobile, I'm not too keen on the OnePlus 7 Pro. Yes, the specs are awesome but I've already had 3 customers return theirs because the camera is absolutely horrible. I've seen multiple pictures on the customers phones and they're grainy or the shutter speed is too slow to capture a proper picture. I have been following up on the OnePlus Community forum and they're pushing camera updates to the phone at every update they have, but how long do you wait until it's considered a phone with good camera quality? I know the phone hasn't been out for a month yet, but I don't know if waiting another 2 months will be worth it.

The ASUS Zenfone 6 has caught my eye too. The specs, the price, and everything about the phone has grabbed my attention. The specs are identical to the OnePlus 7 Pro which is why it's my other go to choice. However, the cherry on top is the main camera as the selfie camera, the SD card slot, and headphone jack. I've not missed those on the OnePlus 6T, but it'd be nice to have them back and OnePlus seems to be doing away with those. I've never used an ASUS phone or ZenUI so I don't know how I'd like it. I'm not too sure where I'd go to see one in person either.

Anyway, what are your thoughts? I've watched a lot of comparison videos of the two and the big hype is the ASUS Zenfone 6.

These all appear to be great phones except they are so big. Is there any phone that rivals these but more in the 5.5"-6.0" size and that work on T-Mobile and/or AT&T in the US?

Guess I'll jump into this thread - had and struggled on Priv for couple of years until I ended up with Axon 7 and its still going fairly strong, but is undoubtedly becoming very dated, but at the same time I just can't seem to find or narrow down where to go next. I wanted to try new Nokias, but rooting and support for them seems full of crickets and nothingness.

My rough criteria is battery life, decent camera hardware, IP67 or better, and somehow smallest screen possible because I'm not writing essays nor watching 4k movies on a, phone, and some degree of future-proofing aka good development going on.

---------- Post added at 12:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:49 PM ----------

Guess I'll jump into this thread - had and struggled on Priv for couple of years until I ended up with Axon 7 and its still going fairly strong, but is undoubtedly becoming very dated, but at the same time I just can't seem to find or narrow down where to go next. I wanted to try new Nokias, but rooting and support for them seems full of crickets and nothingness.

My rough criteria is battery life, decent camera hardware, IP67 or better, and somehow smallest screen possible because I'm not writing essays nor watching 4k movies on a, phone, and some degree of future-proofing aka good development going on.

Advice for my next device

Hi there,

TL;DR
Any advices about a new phone with minimum root, not too big and future LOS support?

---

I wrecked my OP 3t last week (Spider App) and I'm doing research till then finding a new Phone. But this was getting a real long task...

Some background info first: 1 year ago, I switched from an iphone SE to a used oneplus 3t, installed lineage 16 and was very happy. Especially the LOS in general and also especially the cam-quality with some gcam-mod was really amazing. And also I was really surprised that using addon-su from lineage was really a non deal-braker for apps like netflix, banking and so on - there was simple just a warning that I' using root.
Great thanks for everybody woking for LOS on this point!

So, my 3t is gone, killed it successfully and I don't think buying another one is an option for me. So first I thought, a perfect time cause the new OP 7 was just released! Especially oxygenOs was really impressive, clean and really near to stock, so LOS would not be very important for me. But then I realized that since the OP 3t, Oneplus Smartphones were getting even huger and expensier. Yeah, I know, better display to body ratio - but in fact it only matters (for me) how big the device is in general is.
Sadly, I decided to look ahead for some other Devices. Then I came to huwaei - and first I was really to happy to decide to buy a p20 pro cause it is currently cheap and there is a official LOS version available. But things have changed since last year, bootloader unlocks are not any more available. Of course, there are some sources you can get one for money (again), but it I don't think it makes sense, especially when you phone is broken and you need a new one with an new unlock code. And also I don't want support huwaei and its current politic in general.

Then I came to Samsung and its new Series 10. And I was really impressed especially about the s10e with its great form factory, display and wide-angle lense. I was putting the s10e into the cart and wanted to order it but stopped checking some facts out and realized that the exynos-version (I'm living in EU) is having a remarkable battery-issue against the snapdragon version. Also the process installing twrp together with root is not that easy cause of VaultKeeper and the Android 9 changes - I was really reading those manuals here for rooting several times and I'm still not sure what to do and what not to do. Sure, I will get it working, but currently there are too many issues present like non working apps, complicated updates and so on. And there is of course missing an AOSP-version of the s10-series.

Hello

any good advice on a mid range 8" tablet please?
Xiaomi Mi Pad 4?

Mainly for my children, but I like to install twrp and lineage if possible. usbc would be great...
seems a bit of a mine field since I bought the nexus 7 that died recently after 6 years good use!

thanks
Dai

Pixel 3 or 3a?