I have it on a studio display.
I don’t notice any blurriness or colour inaccuracy next to my 14" Macbook Pro screen.
I do notice way less glare.
It’s nice. Not sure it’s worth the price increase, but if glare bothers you, it’s almost certaintly worth it.
You could potentially match on audio, though – look for the 15 seconds of podcast audio preceding the ad, and the 15 seconds following it, if folks reported it in a sponsorblock way.
Alternatively, we could build a shazam-style database of 30 second podcast ads, then skip them when they’re identified. There isn’t much variety out there.
Unfortunately true. Support sites you love through purchases, subscriptions, and donations. Ads are, at best, a vector of mental malware. At worst, a vector of actual malware.
If only we could get RCS with any app other than Google’s. I wonder how long they can gatekeep those APIs.
Minimalist with a 6.7" screen, eh? Now I really want to know how they define minimal lol. Minimal features? Minimal security? Minimal support?
The containers UI is damn near unusable, they’ve squeezed so many of those “offers” into the tiny addon manager popup.
I wish Mozilla had management who understood their userbase. But instead they keep pulling this crap which only makes me (and likely most other power users) less likely to use Mozilla branded products.
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I was going to say that the Mini should be pretty cheap now that it’s two generations old – the 13 is down to $629 new, after all, and the Mini ought to be $100 cheaper…
But it looks like Mini demand has actually driven prices much higher than the normal 13. Strange, almost as if there IS demand for small phones…
The Z fold is 67.1mm across in folded mode. The iPhone 12 & 13 Mini is 64.2mm.
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Thanks! I’m also trying a new Fi SIM, mine is pretty old and I know that older SIM cards can cause issues sometimes. So far so good!
I’d go with the Fairphone if I were you, as long as you actually care about having the phone long term. I know the Pixel is very shiny and very nice, but Google really does have an awful history of QA. Fairphone isn’t perfect either, but being able to repair things yourself is a huge benefit. Sure the CPU and camera and screen aren’t as nice, but they’re probably nicer than what you’ve currently got, and definitely nice enough unless you’re a tech reviewer who’s constantly looking at the new shinies.
Plus, y’know, it is kind of cool that Fairphone tries to produce their phones without any slavery or labor abuses, and at least makes real attempts at sustainability. When you get burned by Google, you just feel shame because you knew they were going to screw you one way or another. If you get burned by Fairphone, at least you tried to do something better in the world.
I’ll probably switch it to GrapheneOS after next month because I think it’s a software issue, not a hardware problem. But my partner can’t use Android Auto even though our car supports it, her phone crashes and becomes unresponsive randomly, and apps frequently drop out of memory when you aren’t heavily multitasking. The phone is perfectly capable of running a browser, music player, and maybe the camera all at once, so it’s frustrating to see this nonsense play out.
The phone is only two years old and runs stock Android. Around 60-70% storage usage on average. No clue what’s causing so many problems, but I’ve heard other 4a users say similar things lately.
I know you don’t want to hear it, but if you want a phone that’s (relatively) privacy respecting, reliable as hell, well constructed so it won’t break after just a couple of years, and supported for a long time… you just described an iPhone. You could be the 2022 SE today for $400ish and use it for 3+ years before you have to do anything to it, and even then you’d just have to pay $69 or so for a battery swap. You could also buy a 13 Mini or a 12 Pro for close to the same price and get an OLED screen and a better camera.
The Pixel series is probably your best bet in terms of specs and theoretical support. But I would be very surprised if you were able to use a Pixel for 3+ years without developing a hardware issue. Maybe you’ll be lucky, but I wouldn’t bet on it, personally. My partner’s 4a isn’t even 3 years old yet and it’s clear that Google does not backtest any of their software updates on older hardware either. Hopefully that changes going forward, but Google has a pretty shit record with long-term support. They’ve promised to make replacement parts available for the 8 year lifespace of the 8 series phones, but the phones are glued together and hard to repair, so unless you’re hardcore about DIY, it’s unlikely that you’ll bother with it. Instead you’ll likely end up going to a repair shop, which you could also do with older Pixels today. And both Pixels and their replacement parts are iPhone-level expensive unless you’re playing the carrier incentive game.
I’m not sure why others are shitting on the Fairphone’s hardware. I think it’s incredibly dumb that they killed the aux jack, and the phone is way too big for my liking… but it’s literally built to be easy to repair. And Fairphone has a proven track record of support for their phones. It isn’t perfect, but I’m much more likely to believe that you’d use a Fairphone for 5+ years than a Pixel. If you’re concerned about part availability down the road, just buy a couple of spare batteries, a spare screen, a spare camera module, and a spare USB-C port today.
Official, too! And I believe the predecessor, the Z2 Compact, also has official Lineage support.
Sadly the XZ2 did away with the headphone jack and has a (subjectively) shittier design. But it is still smaller than any modern phone by a fair margin.
Have you had any issues with crashing modems on your cellular provider? I’m curious if my issue (works OK for a few days after flashing Lineage over stock, then the cell modem totally dies and the wifi crashes every minute or so) is limited to Google Fi. Sadly Fi’s international data is really valuable for me so I can’t switch to another MVNO, but it would be nice to know if I have the option.
It turns out that the DRM keys only matter on Android 8 (Oreo) – on 9 (Pie) and on all custom ROMs, they don’t matter. I think. Camera quality certainly seems fine to me – comparable to my 2016 iPhone SE, that is, acceptable but not beautiful.
It seems nobody really cares about the DRM keys any more unless you’re hellbent on reselling your XZ1C with the capability of taking high quality photos on Oreo. A pretty niche thing these days!
Because the DRM keys don’t matter any more, no need to root or downgrade. You probably have to factory reset, but you should be able to take a backup and install a custom ROM. Lineage 17.1 and 20 have both treated me well, and introduce some nice new features and conveniences along with improved app compatibility now that Pie is so old. A tough sell on a daily driver, I know, but if you’re contemplating a phone upgrade anyway, this might get you a couple more years out of the XZ1C!
Verizon-style bootlocking ought to be criminal.
Makes sense. I can confirm there’s a nice step-by-step procedure for the XZ1C, and it’s been tested by at least dozens of folks, some of which have multiple devices.
I’ve also looked at the Atom L myself, please post a review if you do end up getting it and using a custom ROM on it! I chose the XZ1C over it because the Atom L is literally 2x the thickness of the XZ1C, which is already as thick as I’d like a phone to be. I’m curious if the thickness will bother you at all, and just how good the unlocking and custom ROM experience is on such a niche phone.
Raspberry Pi runs their own Connect service, which is free for personal use. Includes remote ssh and vnc sessions through a browser.