So my last TV I bought I pretty much woke up, drank a coffee, walked to the tech store that isn't around anymore and got pretty much what I needed and went home happy and had a TV.
Either it is me in general but I hate having to upgrade tech nowadays. Even if it is just a friggin' smart phone I tend to go to deep into the subject and go through points I shouldnt care about because I'm not the target audience.
Like I don't care how great the cameras are now on phones. Yet when I have to upgrade duo to missing upgrades after 5 years I upgrade and then I read through all that non sense just to get the best out of the money I'll be dumping for features I won't ever use.
Ill compare Samsung S23, S23+ and Ultra and what ever and then read comments about how bad X is and company Y does better for the money and then it's to late.
Then I dump 12 hours into researching on youtube, trying to filter the company fanboys and the real talk people just to find out they are all "bought" and only 5% of the reviews aren't bought.
Now I am sitting here wanting to upgrade my 2011 TV and have to choose between LG G4, Samsung S90D, S94D, S95D and every single one of these tvs has negatives and pros and I am lost.
Might not just buy a tv and go drink coffee and play computer.
I personally would have went with the S95D from Samsung because I personally like matte screens more but funny enough most reviews critics are because it is a matte display and not glossy lol. I have huge windows behind my sofa and thought it might be cool but now I am not sure anymore duo to almost everyone saying how bad matte screens are for OLED TVs.
The dude in the shop said I should go with the S95D because it is cool if I have a lot of light sources and yes it has it's downsides because of the matte screen really bright scenes can create a "white cone" around the edge duo to matte screening but he also said it's something you won't notice or pay attention too when using it. I am not comparing G4, S90D and that TV when watching a movie.
I also don't watch a lot of TV at daylight but when I do I know reflections are annoying. And I also saw that the S95D performs great in the dark as well against other glossy OLED TVs even if it has a matte screen.
This again is probably a subject I shouldn't care about. It's like my TV right now is just displaying grey instead of black and I lived with it 12 years (happy). Either TV will be a huge upgrade for me. I could just save my time and buy the tv and be happy but no, I am here researching way to long for a friggin' TV. I am so deep in the TV subject now that I even know the S90D Series has a Panel Lottery because some TVs have OLEDs and some have QD OLEDS panels... like... honestly, if no one told me I would have been happy without QD panel and wouldn't have known but now that I know.... dunno not gonna buy.
I've not met anyone who enjoys buying things these days. Reviews aren't trustworthy, and even as I type this my hands burn from using a (checks notes) standard web browser app (Firefox, Android) - possibly my own fault for using Blokada VPN but iirc I've shut it off before and the issue still persists. On a Samsung Galaxy S22 for fucks sake!?!?!?
My next phone will probably be either a Fairphone, dumb phone (except I really need Google Maps rarely but occasionally), or maybe I'll get a pihole (or sth) on my home network and buy an iPhone, except I don't want to pay premium prices for just a handheld web browser attached to a phone and Maps device.
Anyway, companies don't sell what we want, only what they can extort from us to buy. If we don't like that then... well no, that's it, we have no choices between "become god-tier expert in every subject that we might ever want to make a purchase in, even once a decade", and "we enslave ourselves to the whimsy of chance to do with us what it wills".
If you need google maps mostly in the car then my dad has been very happy with an external devise only for maps and gps, no need for a subscription, no need for internet, etc.
I would think the map would need to be refreshed at some point, as new roads are built and such, but possibly that can be done manually somehow or at worst a trip to a mechanic.
But for me I sometimes need a device while traveling to another city I've never been to before. I suppose a laptop would mostly work.
Yeah, like once a year or so my dad takes it home to the PC with him, connects it through a USB cable and puts an update on it.
Oh wow that's awesome that it can use a standard cable. I imagine that varies per device like some built-in car ones might need a special one.
You can just buy something like a used s10e and install a custom rom (without gapps) and osm (if specifically maps isn't required). It makes a practically dumb phone with a browser plus maybe some apks.
That's a great idea. I almost bought an A22 but it took ~6 whole seconds after pretty much any button press to respond (I thought no way, but confirmed at a store first and it was true) - some kind of horrible software update that has since been corrected iirc and thought I needed something reliable so I spent more for the more premium phone.
My S22 is pretty much the only device I've ever gotten that works as they seem to have intended it but I actually regret purchasing. I hate Samsungs now, based on this experience. Maybe it's bc I didn't go big enough for the S22+ that cools better, more likely it's bc I won't make a Samsung account and this is their way of punishing me, by constantly checking a thousand times a second for if I've done that yet - in that case maybe I can root this one and get a whole second, better life out of it!?
I've had a replaced OS on a Nexus 5 as my daily driver before and loved it, but in general I'm very hesitant to do that with a non-Google phone that I NEED to function as my only phone. Except nowadays Google phones are only super-premium cameras attached to the shittiest specs I've ever seen on such an expensive phone.:-(
For my work I travel very rarely, sometimes not even once a year, but I don't want to be in a city I've never been in before without a reliable phone, maps, even an app to schedule an Uber (unethical company issues aside), plus subway/train/bus connection apps. Likewise if I have a 5-year-old phone (w/ 5-year old battery) that gives out on me halfway through the day... so then I'm looking at either carrying a giant charger block and spending time at an outlet, or getting like a second battery replacement thingy to swap out, either way an extra hassle.
Phones didn't used to be this way. My Nexus 5 would last all day, especially if I had a charger at work, and while I guess I did buy it at half price as it was discontinued, even the original price wasn't a fucking thousand dollars like phones are today.
But there's definitely all kinds of non-premium phones out there, if only the reviews could be trusted or we roll the dice and hope it lasts a little while.
Just warning you, US samsungs and BBK phones (excluding oneplus) aren't oem unlockable and mi unlock requires a phone number. Not all apps work without gapps (uber(I think), google apps, software requiering play integrity). I also reccomend buying a decently performant phone for osm. It crashes a lot on my redmi 4x, while on mi 11 lite it works great.
I think some Samsungs might be depending on the carrier. Verizon in particular has a BYOP (Bring Your Own Phone) program where you don't have to buy one that is locked down. OnePlus was similar iirc where like T-Mobile made you jump through very many hoops if you purchased from them, so for my previous phone (a OnePlus 7T) I had it shipped straight from the company as an unlocked device, and I've definitely put alternate ROMs on it no problem.
That's always much harder to set up though bc for every phone I've done that for I need to call Verizon, spending an hour or so for them to transfer me to a level 2 technician and do something on their end to enable me to send text messages (here I mean the initial BYOP of OnePlus, not yet with a custom ROM just whatever it came installed with, so it's something related to the account connecting to the device rather than whatever ROM it is running).
I never use banking apps on a phone - it seems too much of a risk if someone were to steal it.
You can put GApps on most custom ROMs - certainly on Google devices like Pixels it is far easier but people have gotten them to work on like OnePlus phones as well. I forget about Samsungs. Thanks for the warning about Open Street Maps though. It is getting harder and harder to break out of their walled gardens on both sides and use the devices and apps that we want.
I think all snapdragon samsungs are permanently OEM locked but I'm not sure. I recommended not using gapps for usability (battery usage and performance) and privacy (no need for explaination).