5 ms·

Their software is terrible, but their hardware is pretty nice. Shame they've been paring it down over the years. Pinnacle of their hardware, IMO was the Galax

Their software is terrible, but their hardware is pretty nice. Shame they've been paring it down over the years. Pinnacle of their hardware, IMO was the Galaxy Note 4. Had their "antiglare AMOLED" (admittedly still not ideal for long device lifespan and outdoor use), wacom stylus with hover and right click (awesome for local or remote desktop sessions), replaceable battery, IR blaster, blood oxygen sensor, pulse measurement, audio jack, physical buttons. Nowdays I make do with their 2022 XCover6 - but I miss the features I lost.

GuB-42 4y ago
I still have my Galaxy Note 4. It refuses to die, and manufacturers refuse to give it a competitor. It may be its last year though, even though it is perfectly functional, and I blame app developers for that. It runs Android 6, and for the last couple of years, developers have been dropping support. LineageOS is an option, though on that particular phone, it is not as good as stock, and know some apps are going to piss me off because of SafetyNet. It is also starting to lack in processing power, as apps get more and more demanding even though they don't offer more in terms of features. My next phone is probably going to be the XCover6 too. Seems to be the only decent phone with a removeable battery, with the FairPhone, but the FairPhone has no SD card, no headphone jack, and I find it overpriced. BTW, the S5 was also an excellent phone, a combination of the two would have been perfect. It lacked a stylus, but it was waterproof and built like a tank even though it wasn't a rugged phone. It it also supported hovering on its touchscreen (called Air View), a feature I don't understand why it isn't present in every phone today, if just for its ability to support "hover" target in web pages. Its hardware implementation is also pretty cheap and clever: it is just a particular way of driving the capacitive touchscreen.
- earthling8118 4y ago
  The lack of touchscreen hover in modern devices is pure tragedy. I had an S5 as my first touchscreen phone and so many things have gone downhill since then. It had a removable battery, headphone jack, IR blaster, and just a ton of features. Each time I get a new one there are less useful features. I had an S8 that had a mimicked home button press with haptic feedback (since they removed physical buttons, this was perfect IMO). They removed that feature. There was an extra button for Bixby that could be (awkwardly) used by Tasker to have custom controls. Gone. They moved the buttons to all be on the same side and now one handed screenshots are hard to take. It's all a bit too much.
- lmm 4y ago
  I was a huge Note fan, I'm using a Sony Xperia 1 III now which is not perfect but it's OK. Has a proper headphone jack at least, and the S7-style colour notification LED is really useful (although not quite as good as the S7's version).
- bilkow 4y ago
  Just a correction, but the Fairphone 4 does have a SD card slot.

GuB-42 4y ago

I still have my Galaxy Note 4. It refuses to die, and manufacturers refuse to give it a competitor. It may be its last year though, even though it is perfectly functional, and I blame app developers for that. It runs Android 6, and for the last couple of years, developers have been dropping support. LineageOS is an option, though on that particular phone, it is not as good as stock, and know some apps are going to piss me off because of SafetyNet. It is also starting to lack in processing power, as apps get more and more demanding even though they don't offer more in terms of features. My next phone is probably going to be the XCover6 too. Seems to be the only decent phone with a removeable battery, with the FairPhone, but the FairPhone has no SD card, no headphone jack, and I find it overpriced. BTW, the S5 was also an excellent phone, a combination of the two would have been perfect. It lacked a stylus, but it was waterproof and built like a tank even though it wasn't a rugged phone. It it also supported hovering on its touchscreen (called Air View), a feature I don't understand why it isn't present in every phone today, if just for its ability to support "hover" target in web pages. Its hardware implementation is also pretty cheap and clever: it is just a particular way of driving the capacitive touchscreen.

earthling8118 4y ago
The lack of touchscreen hover in modern devices is pure tragedy. I had an S5 as my first touchscreen phone and so many things have gone downhill since then. It had a removable battery, headphone jack, IR blaster, and just a ton of features. Each time I get a new one there are less useful features. I had an S8 that had a mimicked home button press with haptic feedback (since they removed physical buttons, this was perfect IMO). They removed that feature. There was an extra button for Bixby that could be (awkwardly) used by Tasker to have custom controls. Gone. They moved the buttons to all be on the same side and now one handed screenshots are hard to take. It's all a bit too much.
lmm 4y ago
I was a huge Note fan, I'm using a Sony Xperia 1 III now which is not perfect but it's OK. Has a proper headphone jack at least, and the S7-style colour notification LED is really useful (although not quite as good as the S7's version).
bilkow 4y ago
Just a correction, but the Fairphone 4 does have a SD card slot.