Daagar
3594
Interesting! I’ve seen people not care about having one, but not outright despise it.
Lantz
3595
I fucking hated the loss of headphone jacks and then I picked up some Sony WH-1000XM4’s and they make me so happy. No tangled cords, not worrying because my headphone jack is going to flake the fuck out after 6 months and I will have to open up the phone and fix it, etc.
Yeah tbf I have some moderately expensive BT headphones that work wonderfully. Also I’m not all that picky about these things so eh.
So wireless headphones are easy to charge then? Pixel buds came free with my Pixel 6 Pro, but I still plug in my Pixel 3 headphones because I don’t want to mess with having another thing to charge.
I guess I need to find a room in my house with an unused outlet and put a charger there on the floor or something. The outlets near my bed and in the living room and in my computer room are all spoken for.
I use the Pixel Buds - charge them while at the computer, they refill very quickly. Pretty trivial to find a loose USB c these days.
I had a OnePlus 8 until yesterday. It was fine. The strength of the brand used to be flagship-phone-performance on the cheap. But starting with the 8, their prices started falling more in line with the Pixels and Galaxies they were supposed to be undercutting. They do some cool things and they kinda sorta are able to stand toe-to-toe with other flagships, but I was ultimately just whelmed by it.
I traded it in for an S22 Ultra.
BTW, about that Google Fi VPN that came with my Fi service-- Hulu’s app complained and wouldn’t let me connect to Hulu while it was on, so I told my phone to “forget it” because I didn’t see an alternative like just turning it off. Did I mess up? Should I try to get it back somehow?
Rimbo
3602
Wireless earbuds, if you get good ones (see: Sony), beat the pants off of wired headphones for convenience. The Jabra earbuds I got… I have no idea when the battery is supposed to die on them. I’ve never used them long enough to put a dent in their battery levels.
But for sound quality, nothing beats real headphones.
Wireless headphones were life-changing as a new parent. Being able to pop one in and watch something on HBO or YouTube or listen to music without risking waking up napping newborns that must be held at all times was fantastic.
You guys must have some really comfortable earbuds. I have two sets - one cheapo and one decent but not Apple or Sony. Both are uncomfortable for any extended wear. The ideal of easy to pop in and out, comfortable bluetooth earbuds always sounds great but I have yet to find a pair the delivers.
Yeah, I’ve got some cheapo JBLs, some very high end Samsungs (the original Bud Pros), and some middling Jabras I steal from my gf, and all of them are kind of uncomfortable, fall out easily, even with the fancy foam replacement ear tips, and none of them last long enough for my ideal use case (quietly listening to fan noise to help me sleep in a way that I’m confident doctors would tell me not to).
ledshok
3607
Any love out there for the cheap Chinese brands?
I just upgraded from a Pixel 2XL to a Poco F3 as the battery was starting to go (not bad for 4.5 years).
For $340 (converted to USD) I got a Snapdragon 870, 6.7" 120Hz AMOLED screen, 128GB storage, 33W fast charger, and (thanks to the custom ROM community) I’m running effectively-stock Android 12 with no bloatware.
The screen is 1080p (which I really only notice when lying in bed without my glasses on), and the fingerprint scanner is side-mounted rather than on the back (better than under-screen though), but it’s really snappy and nice to use.
For the price, I’m very happy with what I got. For comparison, here’s what I’d be paying for decently spec’d phones in my country:
- Galaxy S20 $480
- Galaxy S21 $625
- Pixel 6 $770
- Galaxy S22 $800
- Pixel 6 Pro $990
I was a big fan of Xiaomi around 10 years ago, before switching to Essential and then OnePlus - also Chinese companies. I think they often offer great value but with some compromises.
Xiaomi was especially bad on UI. Essential was great while it lasted, my perfect form factor, but it didn’t have wide enough appeal and support worsened. OnePlus was a victim of its own success, building a strong enough brand to raise prices.
If I was still as cost sensitive I would probably still be on Xiaomi, but in the decade since I’ve become more able (and willing) to spend a few hundred more on a phone I use way too much for a few years per purchase.
Lantz
3609
ear buds suck, these are the best
Yeah but those are even harder to sleep in!
ledshok
3611
Yeah, I had to use MIUI for the first week until the bootloader could be unlocked and I tried my best to like it, but even once I’d removed the built-in ad spam the whole thing still felt a bit clunky. Switching to a clean Pixel-like ROM solved all those problems.
My cost-sensitivity went in the other direction. Bought the Nexus 6P and Pixel 2XL on release as I was contracting at the time and “why not have the best?”. Now I’m back in permanent employment I need to be a bit more judicious in my purchasing choices and, despite using my phone a lot, it does tend to focus on only a few functions ie I don’t take a lot of photos and fancy camera-tech seems to be a significant contributing factor in the higher-priced phones.
Hard pass on cheap Chinese phones. The CCP will have to steal my data the old-fashioned way.
Lantz
3613
They won’t choke you to death unlike wired ones. Sounds like you need:
