Android - what's in your pocket?

Canada computers had some recertified Nexus 6 on for $300. You can replace the battery per ifixit instructions and perhaps $20, though it is fairly difficult. Love mine.

Have you used something like GSAM to see what’s using up the battery? Even Samsung’s built-in battery monitor will give you some idea.

That seems incredibly high. My phone has been unplugged for 6 hours. I commute through areas with poor connectivity and take the London underground for another part of it (which means my phone spend some time looking for networks, even though it’s a small amount of time all things considered) and my mobile standby usage so far is 2% (Motorola phone). The number you describe is more in line with the proportion of power needed to keep the screen on. Doesn’t seem right.

I wonder whether Samsung bundles other figures into that number.

When you click on that standby entry, does it give you a breakdown of the time spent without a signal and of the power consumption?

Wendelius

It does on mine (9% usage, BTW).

I can see it going to 10% if it spends a lot of time hunting (as I work in London, mine basically happily stays connected once I get into the office). But over 25% of the phone battery sounds excessive.

Wendelius

I’ve seen poorly seated SIM cards cause as many issues as bad ones. Maybe double check the new one is really nestled in there.

OnePlus announced the 3T. Which, as you may have guessed, is a somewhat updated and slightly more expensive version of the OP3 w/ Snapdragon 821 and more battery capacity.

[quote]

Although it hasn’t gained any girth or heft, the OnePlus 3T managed to squeeze in a larger 3,400mAh battery – a 400mAh increase over its predecessor. That, together with the power efficiency of the new chip, should make for longer battery life. The original OnePlus 3 already delivered pretty impressive endurance during our review, so this could mean even more stamina. Plus, it supports rapid charging, with OnePlus claiming a day’s worth of juice after just a half-hour of being plugged in.

While a 16-megapixel front camera sounds like a horrifying way to show your followers just how large your pores actually are, OnePlus said it made the 3T’s selfie lens sharper for better livestream quality. The rear camera now has a sapphire crystal cover for protection against scratches.[/quote]

I’m in the market for a premium spec phone at 5 inches or less (coming from a Moto X 2013 that’s starting to creak). I’ve been looking around, and the Xperia X Performance looks to be my only real Android choice, and reviewers in general don’t seem to like it - am I missing anything that’s out or coming out soonish? I don’t really want to switch to Apple, but it’s looking like I may have to, since Android handsets are focusing pretty exclusively on the 5.5+ inch form factors.

Google Pixel is 5"

The Xperia XZ Compact should be a little newer than the one you mentioned.

From what I can see, the X Compact (which I think is what you’re talking about - the only XZ is the giant one in the same line) is a solid tier or two below flagship level specs.

I did completely forget about the Pixel, I think because I just dismissed it after the initial announcement was so closely tied to Verizon. I’ll have to take a look a deeper look at that one, as it might end up being what I want, especially if there ends up being any kind of discount over the next week. Thanks.

Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about this year’s new Compact not being a feature clone of its big brother. Doh!

So… non-hardware question - tl;dr: What’s the best solution to make an Android device ‘childproof’?

My cousin got a mid-range LG smartphone for my brother as a birthday gift. I was not really amused since he (cousin) didn’t consult with me prior that, and the task of actually setting everything up is now on my desk. Basically: “Here’s your gift, your brother will do the actual work though!”

It’s not an ideal gift either way. My brother is autistic; he has an oldschool cellie, which is fine, because it’s low maintenance (charge it once a week and you’re good to go), it’s robust, and you can’t really mess up anything. Still, now the gift has been given and my brother really wants to use it since he also liked to play stuff like Bejeweled on the tablet at my mother’s place. I want to set it up so that he can use it at home at least.

I guess it’s best to set up a separate Gmail account which I can filled with some Google Play voucher card so that I can buy some games for him. (I don’t want anything tied to a credit card for obvious reasons.) Is there a good software/launcher that allows me to lock the device down so that the user can’t even move shortcuts on the homesceen? (Aforementioned tablet always looks like a mess after a while since he somehow makes it to wildly move around and even duplicate app shortcuts.)

I’d recommend checking out Google’s resources here: https://www.google.com/safetycenter/families/start/#home

It’s possible to link accounts as family members to share purchases so you can buy games on your account and then mark them available on your brother’s account which can’t otherwise buy content. As for preventing the home screen from being modified, you might take a look at a kid friendly launcher. A few exist, though I’ve not used them myself.

Nova Launcher lets you lock the appearance of the home screen, but not particularly securely. It will prevent accidental movement but won’t stop someone doing it deliberately.

What a coincidence, I just spent the last few days childproofing a Nexus 7 for my daughter.

The first step was setting up a restricted user account. This feature is built into Android, and sets up a new profile that someone else can use. Just like on a PC, they have a personal homescreen which choice of wallpaper, widgets, etc. On your account, you can control which apps are available to each restricted account. A restricted user cannot access the Play store or IAPs at all. Most apps behaved well, but a few did freeze up when trying to phone home to the Play store.

For even more control, I also installed Dinnertime. This allows you to monitor app usage from a different device, like your own phone. You can set individual timers for each app, (e.g. I put a time limit on Minecraft). My daughter reports that it thoughtfully gives her a one minute warning. You can also temporarily shut down the device remotely with a “dinnertime” button.

The free version of Dinnertime does everything I need, but if it keeps working I’ll spring for the paid upgrade just to support the devs. The upgrade gives you more stats on how the device is being used, and you can control more devices. There are a lot of competitors, by the way, but all those I looked at either didn’t work or wanted an annual subscription, which IMHO is ridiculous considering what the app does.

Thanks for the input, everyone! @Brad_Grenz : I’ll check the Google website out. @Ginger_Yellow: Seems like Nova Launcher will do fine then. It’s all about keeping him from accidently moving, duplicating or deleting shortcuts. @magnet, I’ll toy around with the restricted user account then.

The 5X looked like a good choice, but couldn’t find one to buy.

I got my Christmas present early in the form of a Samsung Galaxy S6. Now I just need to get used to holding it. It’s like a slippery bar of soap compared to my old Blackberry Q10 and every surface seems to trigger the phone to do something.

All modern phones are too slippery. Put it in a case. It’s really the only option.

My son has a Nexus 6P, and would like to listen to audio (earbuds) via the USB-C port. support.google.com says that the 6P (and some others) can send audio through USB-C using USB Host Mode / a USB OTG connector. Presumably an appropriate adapter containing a (really small) DAC would do the trick. I understand that the Moto Z comes with such a thing, though Motorola does not sell them separately. We tried a cheap adapter from Amazon that claims to be what we’re looking for, but it does nothing.

Is there a setting in the phone that needs to be tweaked, or are there more sophisticated adapters that would work?

Excuse me if irrelevant, but my 6p has a headphone port… any reason you need to use the usb-c?