Would it be so bad? The recent Androids have been going downhill. E.g. the mandatory edge-to-edge nonsense.

mixermachine a day ago | parent | next [-]

Got to say, I like the current Android versions. In the early days I flashed my Motorola Defy every second month with some cool new ROM. Always rooted and Xposed, always enabling something new.

Now I run a S23 Ultra and after two years it still does everything I need. OneUI 8.0 and Android 16. For work (app de) I also have a Pixel 7a, always with the newest Android Beta. Also works well.

Even the entry level phones work OK to pretty good now. My Samsung A16 5G (also for work) functions surprisingly well for 150€.

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drnick1 a day ago | parent | next [-]

> Now I run a S23 Ultra and after two years it still does everything I need.

Maybe, but it is fully under Google and Samsung's control, and is choke full of spyware. You couldn't pay me to use a stock (Googled) Android phone for this reason alone.

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MarsIronPI a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How well is rooting supported on these newer Android versions/devices? If I install LineageOS on my device, for example, I can be reasonably sure that Magisk will work fine. But how well does it work on a stock, locked-down ROM?

	▲	kasabali 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Most devices doesn't have unlockable bootloaders now thus you can't even root them unless it was a popular device and a temporary /finicky hack was found.

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LoganDark a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Back when I used Android phones, tweaking was pretty important to me too. I still remember when I installed CyanogenMod on a Motorola XT1565, those were the days... Eventually, LineageOS, and then some new phones happened, not all of which were rootable, though I eventually ended up with a OnePlus 7 Pro which was pretty tweakable and even opened the possibility of bootloader re-locking, until a TWRP bug wiped my device and I pretty much stopped tweaking. Was never quite able to get EdXposed working right again...

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LoganDark a day ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

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morcus a day ago | parent | next [-]

I am asking out of curiosity and nothing else: what use cases do you have that motivate you to get a new phone every year? Do iPhones get notably better with every release? I'm guessing camera or storage would be big ones?

	▲	hypercube33 a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I'm not parent but a counter perspective - the only three motivations I have are: phone dies camera vastly improves (imo it's been on a decline since the Nexus 6) phone is too slow to use I'm on year 5 of my Samsung s21u that I can replace the Samsung ux slop with asop ports
	▲	LoganDark a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Well, with this last one they finally made the telephoto 48MP. Also, vapor chamber is nice. I don't know if the 18 will have enough for me to upgrade, and it might even have a reason for me not to upgrade (removing gestures from Camera Control). But so far it's been every year, because I've only been using iPhone for a couple years, and my first was a refurbished 15 Pro Max. The 17 Pro (non-Max) only comes with up to 1TB of storage, but that's still more than my 15 of before.

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cyberax a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> when I started being able to afford to get the latest iPhone every year.

I'm truly sorry about you having to re-live the trauma of using iPhone all the time.

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LoganDark a day ago | parent [-]

If it's not for you, that's fine. I used to think it wasn't for me too.

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lrvick a day ago | parent [-]

It is not for anyone but Apple, because they control the source code and full remote code execution access to your device at a higher privilege level than you as the supposed owner have.

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LoganDark a day ago | parent [-]

I trust Apple with that. Maybe not as much as I would've were Jobs still around, but I certainly still trust them more than any Android OEM.

	▲	MarsIronPI a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Including custom ROM devs like the GrapheneOS team or the LineageOS team? That's a lot of trust you're putting in a company that only has their own profit at heart.
	▲	rwyinuse a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		After Trump's re-election, I figured that there's not much difference between using a cheap Android from Chinese OEM, or an iPhone. Both will give away my information if the totalitarian government (Chinese or American) requests so. I don't really have particular preference on whether it's the Chinese or Americans spying on me, so in the end it all boils down to price. Chinese Android devices deliver same level of performance and features as Apple for 1/4 of the price. Of course if I really cared about privacy, I would just install GrapheneOS or LineageOS on supported Android device, so no Apple in that case either.