Logged into my banking app for it to tell my that my version of Android is outdated, leaving me vulnerable to attacks, and that I need to update my system. I see no updates and sure enough, the manufacturer just recently declared my phone EOL.
I could still log in to my banking app after dismissing the warning but how long is that going to last? Am I actually in danger of being hacked while browsing the Internet on my phone?
Do I really need to splurge on a new phone now? There's nothing wrong with this one. Fuck smartphones, honestly- sure, this shit also happens on PCs with Windows, but you usually get at least a decade of support. I've had this phone for less than five years, and at least with computers you could stick your preferred version of Linux on your outdated device to get more life out of it
It's also really cool how everyone in modern Western society is essentially dependent on one of two Yank megacorps to function, since you need an online bank account to verify your identity for basic shit like healthcare, social security and so on and those require either a Google Store or iPhone app
The Fairphone exists, which is (supposedly) pretty easily repairable. You're definitely gonna pay a price premium on it tho and the hardware isn't exactly latest. Might consider it for my next phone.
Eh I got it recommended by a comrade who seemed knowledgable about it, but I kinda regret it. It's expensive and, even if the parts are replaceable, the phone is slow and underperforming enough that it'll still just need replaced within 5 years due to software requirements from everything around it.
Literally cheaper and just as little (or less) impact in continuously buying used flagship phones from 4 years ago.
That comrade is a bit of a lib so I should've seen it coming. Of course I'm a lib so I didn't.
flatscreen TVs, an item I buy once a decade off craigslist for a few hundred bucks, singlehandedly hold down core CPI. meanwhile housing costs aren't even counted lmao
My laptop's charging port broke yet again. I've spent money on this piece of crap. This is the third time I've repaired, and I just bought a new battery. I'm so fucking frustrated, I want to throw this from the third floor, but I don't have any money to buy a new device.
I can't even imagine how horrible modern laptops are to take apart. Mine is an absolute pain to take apart to clean and it's so old it barely runs Win10
Unfortunately, all I have is ₹3k. I'm probably going to ask money from my parents to procure parts for the shitty laptop, which woube around ₹7k. And they don't even sell screws, wtf.
that's a very repairable problem and if i'm remembering correctly (there are different s540s) you don't even need to solder anything, just turn it off, unscrew it, unhook the battery, take out the old charging port and put in the new one.
Not a phone, but a laptop - Lenovo S540 15IWL. I examined the motherboard today, and realized that the guy I gave to repair did the bare minimum by not buying a new jack, but instead using some lofty solder to complete the connection. I have not done any soldering myself, nor do I have a soldering iron yet, but I've purchased the jack port myself from an online store.
7 years ago, I bought a flagship phone in hopes of keeping it for a decade.
Last year, I had to buy a new phone because the cell towers stopped broadcasting on frequencies my phone supported. It became a neat WiFi-only brick, and useless for my purposes, in 60% of my target lifetime.
In short, the entire industry is configured for a sub-decade obsolescence cadence.
Phones really are in a bad spot, even ROMs that extend lifespan come at a cost to Security a lot of the time. It's completely up to a manufacturer how long to give a phone security updates, and the phone could die before that due to irreplaceable batteries. When looking at phones that last long, the only options (that I would consider) are the Fairphone and the Pixel, of which only the latter even supports Graphene OS. I do know that Fairphone tries to extend the lifespan even further than they promise, but the phones are really expensive for what they provide.
I would go for one of the Pixel 8s if you need a new phone, a bit more expensive (edit: than a budget phone) but they are promising 7 years of updates, and you can install Graphene OS on it (Graphene OS works with banking apps as well.)
Logged into my banking app for it to tell my that my version of Android is outdated, leaving me vulnerable to attacks, and that I need to update my system. I see no updates and sure enough, the manufacturer just recently declared my phone EOL.
Even worse is they lock the bootloader so you can't install a costum OS
Check out LineageOs. The point of the phone os is to allow you to keep using your phone for as long as you want. Bit of a pain to initally setup though
You have to flash in google apps (MindTheGapps) when flashing the OS to run the app but you have to do that to get Google Play and install the app anyways. After that the app doesn't know the difference.
price per spec isn't the worst aspect of it, though I suppose this is true. (the prices aren't insane but the specs are very bad because chipmakers have very bad mainline linux compatibility)
What's worse for the average person is the base functionality is a little bit unstable still, the app library is small and requires a lot of fiddling to make common services work that would "just work" on a typical smartphone, and they don't exactly even solve OPs problems directly since LTE will eventually go the way of the dodo too, and banking apps don't support it. Banking websites do, and linux phones generally run up-to-date mainline linux applications not out of date abandoned android versions, so it is workable for some people, but its not nearly as good of an experience relative to an android/ios smartphone as desktop linux is relative to windows
Oh and no unified system of push notifications on linux phones, so you have a tradeoff between battery life (sleeping all the time and only waking on calls and texts), vs actually getting non-SMS messages (need to wake up periodically and let every app individually check for messages). And that's on top of the battery life already being bad
There are custom operating systems for phones but all of them are supported for specific models and may stop being updated after a while on older phones because development depends on volunteer work. Also you need to know how to unlock bootloader for them and may brick the device if you do something wrong while flashing the rom, so be sure to use a guide the first time. The main two custom roms I know are GrapheneOS(only for Pixel models) and LineageOS.
Edit: This is useless for OP though since bank apps don't work if they detect you are using a custom ROM.
I really like the phones Unihertz sells and makes. They are unique little pieces and they even offer replacement parts for all of their phones! The battery is dying? No prob, just pop in a new one.
I also like that they are amazingly priced. Other than that, fuck Google and major phone manufacturers. I hate them and this garbo closed down OS.
I need a new phone at some point in the next couple years but idfk what to get. I have a galaxy s7 edge and I don't want to spend money on something that feels worse in some way
Dont buy a fking xiaomi it fking sucks and the build quality is terrible and its full of random software bugs like the qr code scanner just randomly not workinf
If you want to buy a cheap Chinese phone get a oneplus or a huawei or a oppo instead
I've had two Xiaomis, the first went to shit after about 18 months, the second's still ticking along just fine nearly 5 years later. I think you've just got to avoid the absolute cheapest models, get the next level up because they're still much better than western equivalents for the price.
Fuck here I am waiting for my new xiaomi to arrive O: I've heard HyperOS is better and some models do support custom ROMs. I'm switching from a oneplus which I've loved for five years, the xiaomi seemed like good stats for the price.
Edit: It arrived. It feels like an arranged marriage, it might be my phone for five years or more if it holds up, I'm nervous to open the box. I need the ultimate device for efficient commie shitposting.
Mine's a Xiaomi and my only complaint is that MIUI sucks and the apps that came with it are awful. When I bought it the screen size, resolution, camera quality, specs, etc easily beat out other phones in the same price class. I quickly took a look at current phones and the screen in my phone is still like double the resolution of other cheap phones four years in
It is good stats for the price but I am ticked about two things:
-Battery life starts out good but goes to shit fast
-MIUI sucks and it is a specific pain in the ass to unlock bootloader. My other phone was much older but I only needed to pass the unlock command from ADB, this wants me to use an app that only works on Windows and then wait a week.
YMMV because my phone is the cheapest model possible.
I've been pretty partial to Xiaomi phones since their first release but it's getting to that point in the market where low-mid spec phones do everything I need them to and the Chinese market and the performance of my domestic currency are at a point where it's not really worth my next phone being a Xiaomi.
For whatever it's worth, changing the OS on a Xiaomi is a headfuck by design. Also note that if you are avoiding Xiaomi that means you should also avoid Poco, which is part of the Xiaomi brand umbrella.
I've had a Oneplus N30 for about a month and I'm mostly happy with it. I'm annoyed at the lack of a notification LED, and I had to do the ADB "pm uninstall" thing on a a few built-in apps to get rid of that idiotic "sign in to red dot club" or whatever the fuck it's called that clogged the top of the settings app, but aside from that I'm happy.
My last xiaomi was fine (lots of bloatware, obviously) right up until the battery started to swell. Luckily it was removable, so I ordered a spare and wouldn't you know it the "brand new" spare battery started swelling within a week. Very annoying because otherwise I quite liked the phone.
Yeah, I end up replacing my phone every 4-5 years. I always buy the 2 year old flagship phone they are starting to liquidate for deep discounts outright. It's always good enough. But that's about how long it takes to either have the battery starting to show it's age or the charging ports to be fucked or something else to be going bad. What sucks is having to take a phone like that within 2 years to a repair place to fix the port and replace the battery, which I've done for 2 phones. After a certain amount of time it gets harder to get parts for old phones.
I'm mostly pissed off that OLED display tech has become so commonplace. Prone to burn-in and yellowing planned-obsolescence piece of shit tech. Give me IPS any fucking day. Sure, blacks aren't completely black, and power draw is slightly higher, but IPS displays last.
The experience you’re having is one of the reasons I use an iphone despite running Linux for 25 years.
It’s no help to your immediate situation, but if you can tolerate switching consider jumping ship to the uhh… technology ecosystem that everyone makes fun of.
apples still sending security and bugfix updates for the 6s, an eight year old device.
the perception that apple has long support windows prompted other manufacturers to lengthen their own.
this is not meant as a defense or lauding of the enemy apple over other vile tech companies, just that apple is still supporting a phone released before there even was a google pixel 1.
when google, a company famous for dropping support for things, has dutifully fulfilled its support promises around pixel phones, i'll be recommending them to people frustrated with short cell phone life.
if i remember correctly samsung phone support windows were the ones tied directly to the qualcomm radio chips in them. i'll believe it and subsequently recommend it to others when i see it.
i'm not trying to fight or argue with you, just to add a little look into the recent history to back up my recommendation. if you have information about galaxy support windows i'm all ears.