why is buying a cell phone so annoying
May. 20th, 2020 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnMy cell phone is slowly dying by inches, and although I think it could last for quite a while, I was reminded recently that as we don't know what will happen as things open up, second waves happen, supply chains, etc. I should probably get a new one now rather than be stranded later.
So I have narrowed it down to the Samsung A51 and the Google Pixel 3a.
A51 pros:
Expandable memory
bigger battery
A51 cons:
Too big
Kind of... just okay. It seems like a decent phone but there's nothing that super impresses me about it
Samsung comes with all kinds of bloatware
Camera has too many megapixels and apparently won't let you pick how big you want your pics to be
Camera is not great in low/inside light, which is a large percentage of my pics
Pixel pros:
Right form factor
Google is probably a bit smoother than Samsung
Will continue to get google updates for at least a couple of years, which is not at all clear for the Samsung phones
Everyone agrees it has an amazing camera, which is my #2 criteria for a smartphone (the #1 use is as a phone, of course)
Pixel cons:
No expandable memory
Decent battery but smaller than A51
Pixel 4a is coming out soon
A number of users have reported problems with the speaker where they either can't hear the call or the caller can't hear them (which, uh, see my #1 criteria)
So as far as I can tell it is a minority of people who have this problem, but it's not like one or two people, it's a bunch, probably several percent. Ordinarily, I'd roll the dice and take my chances with those odds, but I am also moving from a micro Sim card to a nano Sim card and I don't have any other phones at this point that take that kind of card. So if it dies or has to be fixed I'm stuck in the same situation where I don't have a phone, which is the whole reason I'm buying a phone to start with! And because people report finding this problem after 6 months or so, I don't think I can go with the Pixel 4a either, just in case.
I think I have to go with the Samsung this time, even though I really really want the Pixel. I guess since phones don't have replaceable batteries any more (I have been holding to my Samsung S5's for forever because it's the last generation of replaceable-battery phone) the battery will start dying in a couple of years and I'll have to get a new phone anyway, but I feel like I'm not so excited about this line of thought :P
Anyone have either of these phones and like/dislike them? Other thoughts on phones?
So I have narrowed it down to the Samsung A51 and the Google Pixel 3a.
A51 pros:
Expandable memory
bigger battery
A51 cons:
Too big
Kind of... just okay. It seems like a decent phone but there's nothing that super impresses me about it
Samsung comes with all kinds of bloatware
Camera has too many megapixels and apparently won't let you pick how big you want your pics to be
Camera is not great in low/inside light, which is a large percentage of my pics
Pixel pros:
Right form factor
Google is probably a bit smoother than Samsung
Will continue to get google updates for at least a couple of years, which is not at all clear for the Samsung phones
Everyone agrees it has an amazing camera, which is my #2 criteria for a smartphone (the #1 use is as a phone, of course)
Pixel cons:
No expandable memory
Decent battery but smaller than A51
Pixel 4a is coming out soon
A number of users have reported problems with the speaker where they either can't hear the call or the caller can't hear them (which, uh, see my #1 criteria)
So as far as I can tell it is a minority of people who have this problem, but it's not like one or two people, it's a bunch, probably several percent. Ordinarily, I'd roll the dice and take my chances with those odds, but I am also moving from a micro Sim card to a nano Sim card and I don't have any other phones at this point that take that kind of card. So if it dies or has to be fixed I'm stuck in the same situation where I don't have a phone, which is the whole reason I'm buying a phone to start with! And because people report finding this problem after 6 months or so, I don't think I can go with the Pixel 4a either, just in case.
I think I have to go with the Samsung this time, even though I really really want the Pixel. I guess since phones don't have replaceable batteries any more (I have been holding to my Samsung S5's for forever because it's the last generation of replaceable-battery phone) the battery will start dying in a couple of years and I'll have to get a new phone anyway, but I feel like I'm not so excited about this line of thought :P
Anyone have either of these phones and like/dislike them? Other thoughts on phones?
no subject
Date: 2020-05-21 05:58 am (UTC)I have a Pixel 3a as a tiny work-only device (my choice and my $), which I have not used for voice calls at all. The speaker works for Spotify, but if the issue is in the software that handles phone usage specifically, that wouldn't matter. I think the battery life is pretty good: it's not only capacity but how well the device manages screen brightness, background app use, etc. Samsung has more cruft (I have manually disabled several apps that I never use), but it does currently have better battery management than a Google Experience device; even so, the 3a is pretty good there, IMO.
It's kind of a dieroll whether the 4a will outdo the 3a meaningfully in factors that matter to you. The 3a is better than the 2 for my purposes, but the 2 was/is better than the flat 3, for me, soooooo....
Good luck choosing!
no subject
Date: 2020-05-21 09:03 pm (UTC)The speaker thing appears to be a hardware issue (or at least that seems to be the general consensus among people who have had this problem), so it's good to know that yours at least is working!
Hmm, I think maybe I can wait for the Pixel 4a and figure out out then, if the rumors are true and it's going to come out at the beginning of June...