The Android Thread - He;pl - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The Android Thread - He;pl

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Fun fact, the sensor in the S20 Ultra and the OnePlus 8 Pro is actually larger than the one in the Galaxy Camera (by a significant margin.)

1/1.33 and 1/1.43 vs 1/2.3

The native pixel pitch on the phones is 1.12 and 0.8 vs 1.33 of the Galaxy Camera.

So, the more recent ones have much smaller pixels which negates some of that advantage (thought the OP8P is pretty close) and the glass isn't anywhere near as good. But it is interesting to think about how large phone sensors have gotten.

bull3964 fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Jun 2, 2020

# ? Jun 2, 2020 16:00

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# ? Apr 20, 2024 02:13

AARD VARKMAN: May 17, 1993

My Pixel 3 XL from release month is continuing its death spiral. Choppy video in apps, freezing, and the camera only turning on every third try were one thing.

What I'm pissed off about is that the newest issue somehow caused my alarm clock to go off at maximum volume and 1/4 speed today, like some kind of horrifying nightmare wakeup

# ? Jun 2, 2020 23:10

grack: Jan 10, 2012; COACH TOTORO SAY REFEREE CAN BANISH WHISTLE TO LAND OF WIND AND GHOSTS!

redeyes posted:

Actually Samsung stopped producing those like 6 years ago. No idea why. They had actually incredibly good lenses.

Samsung discontinued their entire consumer camera division in 2015. They probably figured it wasn't economically feasible to continue designing and producing zoom lenses just for mobile phones.

Designing and producing prime lenses, especially of the size needed for phone-sized sensors, is significantly cheaper.

# ? Jun 3, 2020 01:33

Twerk from Home: Jan 17, 2009; This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.

My wife's Pixel 3a is dead as a doornail. Shut off around 50% battery, will not turn on, does not appear to charge. Fully non-responsive. We didn't buy any extended warranty or anything, so I guess that's a loss.

So far between the two of us we have had:

Nexus 6 that suffered some internal storage failure and put itself into bootloader. Re-installing Android over USB bought it another year of life.
Nexus 5x that died when 7 months old and the warranty replacement LG gave us was an LG G5, which was garbage.
Pixel 1 that suffered microphone bug, got replaced under warranty, ended up being traded into T-Mobile for $400 credit towards a
Pixel 3a that we got on release date, now dead.

We had Nexuses before the 6, but they were all fine. What should we be buying if we really like Nexus / Pixel, but at this point I feel so abused by hardware failure that I guess I need to look somewhere else. Moto G Power? My Moto G5+ is soldiering on like a tank and has now outlived 2 pixels.

Twerk from Home fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Jun 3, 2020

# ? Jun 3, 2020 01:58

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

It's only a month past warranty if you bought it on release day. I wouldn't be surprised if Google would do something for you (if not cover it completely) under the current climate.

# ? Jun 3, 2020 02:06

Twerk from Home: Jan 17, 2009; This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.

bull3964 posted:

It's only a month past warranty if you bought it on release day. I wouldn't be surprised if Google would do something for you (if not cover it completely) under the current climate.

Purchased from T-Mobile, so I guess I'll give it a shot with them. I don't have high hopes after a recent experience with Fitbit and a 14 month old Fitbit Versa screen failing.

# ? Jun 3, 2020 02:09

UnfortunateSexFart: May 18, 2008; ð» ððð« ð·ððð·
ð ð ð ð« ð®ð ð¾ð ð ð¡ððð

Lol I just got this ad on Instagram :australia:

I mean if anyone was gonna buy that it'd probably be me but even I draw the line with no Google services.

# ? Jun 3, 2020 05:13

MREBoy: Mar 14, 2005; MREs - They're whats for breakfast, lunch AND dinner !

So the 3.5 year old OEM battery in my S7 Edge decided that going for the Full Note 7 Experience was going to be a possibility in the near future :stonklol:

. Phone still works & I have reason to get it usable again. I looked on Amazon and found a large variety of replacement battery kits but I'm leery of trusting something that has a brand name that looks like it came from someone facerolling on a computer keyboard. Is there such an animal as a decent/trustable brand of battery or is it just a dice roll at this point ? At least I don't have to worry about trying to take the back of the phone off :haw:

! I'm honestly surprised that nothing bad happened. The phone has been in an Otterbox Defender case since the day I got it and apparently the case was strong enough to keep together even with the internal pressure. I only took the phone out to maybe see why the side volume buttons stopped working... which was because they were shifted out of position far enough that the pass-through buttons on the outer rubber shell weren't in contact with the phone anymore :stonkhat:

# ? Jun 3, 2020 05:23

Rexxed: May 1, 2010; Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

MREBoy posted:

So the 3.5 year old OEM battery in my S7 Edge decided that going for the Full Note 7 Experience was going to be a possibility in the near future . Phone still works & I have reason to get it usable again. I looked on Amazon and found a large variety of replacement battery kits but I'm leery of trusting something that has a brand name that looks like it came from someone facerolling on a computer keyboard. Is there such an animal as a decent/trustable brand of battery or is it just a dice roll at this point ? At least I don't have to worry about trying to take the back of the phone off ! I'm honestly surprised that nothing bad happened. The phone has been in an Otterbox Defender case since the day I got it and apparently the case was strong enough to keep together even with the internal pressure. I only took the phone out to maybe see why the side volume buttons stopped working... which was because they were shifted out of position far enough that the pass-through buttons on the outer rubber shell weren't in contact with the phone anymore .

The batteries are probably sourced from the same places but when I have to replace one on a good phone I get the ifixit kit for it since their guides are good and the kit includes some decent tools:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Samsung+Galaxy+S7+Edge+Battery+Replacement/105877
https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Android/Galaxy-S7-Edge-Replacement-Battery/IF329-033?o=4

# ? Jun 3, 2020 05:30

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

The biggest issue you have with getting replacement batteries on a older device is they are all likely new old stock. So, it's a crapshoot as to whether or not they may have degraded while sitting in a warehouse somewhere.

# ? Jun 3, 2020 05:46

ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

Twerk from Home posted:

My wife's Pixel 3a is dead as a doornail. Shut off around 50% battery, will not turn on, does not appear to charge. Fully non-responsive. We didn't buy any extended warranty or anything, so I guess that's a loss.

So far between the two of us we have had:

Nexus 6 that suffered some internal storage failure and put itself into bootloader. Re-installing Android over USB bought it another year of life.

Nexus 5x that died when 7 months old and the warranty replacement LG gave us was an LG G5, which was garbage.

Pixel 1 that suffered microphone bug, got replaced under warranty, ended up being traded into T-Mobile for $400 credit towards a

Pixel 3a that we got on release date, now dead.

We had Nexuses before the 6, but they were all fine. What should we be buying if we really like Nexus / Pixel, but at this point I feel so abused by hardware failure that I guess I need to look somewhere else. Moto G Power? My Moto G5+ is soldiering on like a tank and has now outlived 2 pixels.

I or my partner has had every generation of Nexus and Pixel since the Nexus One with the exception of the 5x/6P (which had a nearly 100% failure rate) and the Pixel 3 line. I, personally, have never had a problem with any of them. My wives, on the other hand, had failures of the S, 4, Pixel, and Pixel 2.

My current wife just decided to go back to the iPhone despite liking the Pixel better simply because 2 out of 2 failures is enough to know it's not worth it.

# ? Jun 3, 2020 07:50

90s Solo Cup: Feb 22, 2011; To understand the cup
He must become the cup

Twerk from Home posted:

My wife's Pixel 3a is dead as a doornail. Shut off around 50% battery, will not turn on, does not appear to charge. Fully non-responsive. We didn't buy any extended warranty or anything, so I guess that's a loss.

So far between the two of us we have had:

Nexus 6 that suffered some internal storage failure and put itself into bootloader. Re-installing Android over USB bought it another year of life.

Nexus 5x that died when 7 months old and the warranty replacement LG gave us was an LG G5, which was garbage.

Pixel 1 that suffered microphone bug, got replaced under warranty, ended up being traded into T-Mobile for $400 credit towards a

Pixel 3a that we got on release date, now dead.

We had Nexuses before the 6, but they were all fine. What should we be buying if we really like Nexus / Pixel, but at this point I feel so abused by hardware failure that I guess I need to look somewhere else. Moto G Power? My Moto G5+ is soldiering on like a tank and has now outlived 2 pixels.

The Moto G Stylus would have been my next phone if I wasn't so hard up about having a phone with a good camera. It seems like something worth trying, especially if you don't want to blow a bunch of money on a higher-end phone.

Here's hoping get a couple of years worth of drama-free use out of my weeks-old Pixel 3a XL. :ohdear:

# ? Jun 3, 2020 10:50

dissss: Nov 10, 2007; I'm a terrible forums poster with terrible opinions.

Here's a cat fucking a squid.

LastInLine posted:

My current wife just decided to go back to the iPhone despite liking the Pixel better simply because 2 out of 2 failures is enough to know it's not worth it.

When the battery on my 6P failed and the store was arguing about replacing it I went out and rage bought an iPhone. I stuck with that for several years but never got used to iOS at all so I eventually picked up an S10 on sale. Never thought I'd buy a Samsung Android phone but it hasn't been nearly as bad as I'd have expected from reading this thread.

BTW the 6P did get a replacement battery (and screen too because the repairer cracked it) and is still working to this day - probably because I passed it on to my mother who never used it for anything but taking photos and looking at Facebook.

# ? Jun 3, 2020 20:41

Raymond T. Racing: Jun 11, 2019

Combat Pretzel posted:

How hosed up does your graphics stack have to be to break the whole system because of an "incompatible" color space? How about just ignoring it and showing the image with terrible colors, because it doesn't know how to convert? Like what you'd expect? What the hell is going on here? Why is this a system breaking bug?

Not really hosed up at all? It calculates the average color, and when it was written, whoever it was forgot about HDR images.

code:

            // TODO: Fine tune the performance here, tracking on b/123615079.
            int[] histogram = new int[256];
            for (int row = 0; row < height; row++) {
                for (int col = 0; col < width; col++) {
                    int pixel = grayscale.getPixel(col, row);
                    int y = Color.red(pixel) + Color.green(pixel) + Color.blue(pixel);
                    histogram[y]++;
                }
            }

if y ever goes higher than 255 it breaks and that's that

# ? Jun 4, 2020 01:33

BabyFur Denny: Mar 18, 2003

You can tell it's real code by the long forgotten TODO in there.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 03:08

90s Solo Cup: Feb 22, 2011; To understand the cup
He must become the cup

Is there supposed to be a fix incoming for this poo poo?

# ? Jun 4, 2020 04:27

sourdough: Apr 30, 2012

Probably, but also who cares, use a different wallpaper

# ? Jun 4, 2020 05:02

Sillybones: Aug 10, 2013; go away,
spooky skeleton,
go away

What phone should a poverty person look at? I guess just for calls, chat apps, text and reasonable photos. Replacing because old phone is a Windows(??) phone with a broken battery.

I am afraid to buy online because I fully expect:

But if someone has some advice on that front it'd be nice.

Suggestions I have so far are Galaxy Note 4.

-Australia. Budget is a few hundred, but trying to minimise.

Sillybones fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Jun 4, 2020

# ? Jun 4, 2020 06:12

Grey Area: Sep 9, 2000; Battle Without Honor or Humanity

Do not buy an ancient phone. The software will be unsecure and obsolete and the battery will be dead. Try looking at Nokias, they have a range of low end models with decent hardware and software.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 06:33

Sillybones: Aug 10, 2013; go away,
spooky skeleton,
go away

If a 2014 phone is ancient what is the cut-off year is not-ancient?

# ? Jun 4, 2020 06:56

CLAM DOWN: Feb 13, 2007

Sillybones posted:

If a 2014 phone is ancient what is the cut-off year is not-ancient?

Phones generally will have at least 2-3 years of support. Hence why you want to look for a cheap/budget current gen phone, so you get that support 2-3+ years.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 06:59

90s Solo Cup: Feb 22, 2011; To understand the cup
He must become the cup

Grey Area posted:

Do not buy an ancient phone. The software will be unsecure and obsolete and the battery will be dead. Try looking at Nokias, they have a range of low end models with decent hardware and software.

This. I got burned on a Note 3 with a blacklisted IMEI, so that put an end to me buying used phones. Nokia's a good look unless you can't live without Verizon service, in which case I'd look at Motorola.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 07:03

anakha: Sep 16, 2009

Sillybones posted:

What phone should a poverty person look at?

Where do you live and what's your max budget? That will help us figure out what phone is available there that will fit your needs and price.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 07:03

Shai-Hulud: Jul 10, 2008; But it feels so right!; Lipstick Apathy

Sillybones posted:

What phone should a poverty person look at? I guess just for calls, chat apps, text and reasonable photos. Replacing because old phone is a Windows(??) phone with a broken battery.

I am afraid to buy online because I fully expect:

But if someone has some advice on that front it'd be nice.

Suggestions I have so far are Galaxy Note 4.

You don't need to buy an old phone when you don't want to spend a lot of money. Current budget phones have gotten pretty drat good. If you are in europe (or any other part of the world thats not at war with china) you'll get the best bang for your buck out of chinese manufacturers. Xiaomi or Realme for example. I bought my wife a Redmi Note 8t and its pretty drat impressive for 150�.
If you are in the US then Motorola and Nokia are the low budget kings. You usually get a bit more modern hardware in the Motorolas but Nokia tends to be way better with keeping their Software up to date.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 07:14

ThermoPhysical: Dec 26, 2007

90s Solo Cup posted:

Is there supposed to be a fix incoming for this poo poo?

Yes, it doesn't happen on Android 11, only 10 and below according to the guy on Twitter who investigated it.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 07:16

Sillybones: Aug 10, 2013; go away,
spooky skeleton,
go away

anakha posted:

Where do you live and what's your max budget? That will help us figure out what phone is available there that will fit your needs and price.

-Australia. Budget is a few hundred, but trying to minimise.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 07:24

anakha: Sep 16, 2009

Sillybones posted:

-Australia. Budget is a few hundred, but trying to minimise.

E: Echoing the recommendations above regarding Xiaomi - the Redmi Note 5 is 300 AUD, but if you can stretch the budget a bit, the Redmi Note 8 Pro will stay good and updated for a longer period

anakha fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Jun 4, 2020

# ? Jun 4, 2020 07:50

dissss: Nov 10, 2007; I'm a terrible forums poster with terrible opinions.

Here's a cat fucking a squid.

You can get a Nokia 2.3 for like $150. The hardware isn't going to blow you away and it's giant but the same applies to a Note 4 and at least with the new phone you get a warranty and a new battery.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 08:30

anakha: Sep 16, 2009

dissss posted:

You can get a Nokia 2.3 for like $150. The hardware isn't going to blow you away and it's giant but the same applies to a Note 4 and at least with the new phone you get a warranty and a new battery.

2GB RAM is gonna be frustrating as gently caress to deal with though.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 08:57

Sillybones: Aug 10, 2013; go away,
spooky skeleton,
go away

anakha posted:

2GB RAM is gonna be frustrating as gently caress to deal with though.

Is it going to matter for like, chat apps? Phone Discord? For reference, it is replacing Windows 8X (2012).

Sillybones fucked around with this message at 09:26 on Jun 4, 2020

# ? Jun 4, 2020 09:23

Shai-Hulud: Jul 10, 2008; But it feels so right!; Lipstick Apathy

Sillybones posted:

Is it going to matter for like, chat apps? Phone Discord? For reference, it is replacing Windows 8X (2012).

Yeah go for at least 3GB, better 4GB. Even if you are not a heavy smartphone user its incredibly frustrating to get apps kicked out of memory just because you quickly googled something. Especially on cheaper phone where launching the app again takes more time.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 09:29

anakha: Sep 16, 2009

Sillybones posted:

Is it going to matter for like, chat apps? Phone Discord? For reference, it is replacing Windows 8X (2012).

From my experience, with 2GB RAM, your phone OS will experience hiccups during usage and most of your apps will be kicked out of memory as soon as you minimize or exit. It'll be frustrating to use after a while, especially as many apps continue to increase memory usage as they get updated and add new functionalities.

Imagine exiting an online payment app to quickly google for prices, then accessing the app again to discover that it got kicked out of memory and you have to enter payment details again. Those little frustrations will add up.

4GB RAM is the minimum I would recommend for even a lower-end phone in TYOOL 2020. 2GB was a lot in 2012 (waxes nostalgic about the Nexus 4), but is not enough nowadays.

anakha fucked around with this message at 09:38 on Jun 4, 2020

# ? Jun 4, 2020 09:34

Uthor: Jul 9, 2006; Gummy Bear Heaven ... It's where I go when the world is too mean.

anakha posted:

Imagine exiting an online payment app to quickly google for prices, then accessing the app again to discover that it got kicked out of memory and you have to enter payment details again. Those little frustrations will add up

When I signed up for Cricket, they gave me a free phone instead of making me pay $10 for a plain SIM card (Wtf?) and I couldn't log into LastPass on that phone because it would get kicked out of memory when I switched to my authenticator app for 2FA. By the time I switched back, LastPass would have to reload and I'd need to reenter my password and the 2FA key would be expired.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 10:11

Twerk from Home: Jan 17, 2009; This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.

anakha posted:

From my experience, with 2GB RAM, your phone OS will experience hiccups during usage and most of your apps will be kicked out of memory as soon as you minimize or exit. It'll be frustrating to use after a while, especially as many apps continue to increase memory usage as they get updated and add new functionalities.

Imagine exiting an online payment app to quickly google for prices, then accessing the app again to discover that it got kicked out of memory and you have to enter payment details again. Those little frustrations will add up.

4GB RAM is the minimum I would recommend for even a lower-end phone in TYOOL 2020. 2GB was a lot in 2012 (waxes nostalgic about the Nexus 4), but is not enough nowadays.

I've got a Nokia 2.3 as a development test device to represent current low-end phones, and either Nokia or Android 10 has done something really significant to optimize the low-end hardware. I've been using it as a general browsing device during evenings to try and understand what $120 Android is like nowadays, and the answer is "fine".

It drops frames during animations, but the animations themselves are fast and get out of the way and keep it feeling responsive. I've been profiling some of my employer's applications on it, and I'm seeing significantly less memory usage than on other low-end or high end devices, I think partially driven by the 720p screen using less memory for everything graphics-related. I wouldn't worry about RAM as a reason specifically not to use it as your only device for the next year or two, honestly.

The only thing that it's missing is any type of biometric unlock. No fingerprint scanner is a killer, and likely justifies moving up to the ~$150 Nokia 5.3 if you can stand having a phone that big.

Edit: For reference, I'm comparing it to Honor 7x and a 4GB Moto G5+, and the Nokia is faster and more responsive than both and apps use less memory on it.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 15:35

Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

Buff Hardback posted:

Not really hosed up at all? It calculates the average color, and when it was written, whoever it was forgot about HDR images.

if y ever goes higher than 255 it breaks and that's that

quote:

// TODO: Fine tune the performance here, tracking on b/123615079.

Yeah, I guess bounding accesses to an array is one of these performance issues that need to get squared away.

And good job introducing HDR into Android and leaving that piece of code on the road.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 18:54

hooah: Feb 6, 2006; WTF?

How long do the monthly security patches / feature drops for Pixels usually take to fully roll out? I'm the past I've always been able to get it within a day or two, but I'm still sitting here with the May patch no matter how many times I manually check...

# ? Jun 4, 2020 22:53

CLAM DOWN: Feb 13, 2007

hooah posted:

How long do the monthly security patches / feature drops for Pixels usually take to fully roll out? I'm the past I've always been able to get it within a day or two, but I'm still sitting here with the May patch no matter how many times I manually check...

I usually get them by the 5th of every month. Sometimes a little earlier, like this month's I got yesterday.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 23:03

ThermoPhysical: Dec 26, 2007

https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/06/04/choosing-the-wrong-wallpaper-can-bootloop-your-android-phone/

Both Google and Samsung are working on a fix for the bootloop background image bug.

Also, Romain Guy from Google things it's not about the color space but luminence.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 23:07

Raymond T. Racing: Jun 11, 2019

hooah posted:

How long do the monthly security patches / feature drops for Pixels usually take to fully roll out? I'm the past I've always been able to get it within a day or two, but I'm still sitting here with the May patch no matter how many times I manually check...

Apparently the TMO version was held until today, so if you're on TMO or Fi that would explain the delay.

# ? Jun 4, 2020 23:26

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# ? Apr 20, 2024 02:13

hooah: Feb 6, 2006; WTF?

Buff Hardback posted:

Apparently the TMO version was held until today, so if you're on TMO or Fi that would explain the delay.

Hmm. I'm on Mint Mobile, which uses T-Mobile towers, so... Maybe?

# ? Jun 5, 2020 00:40

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