Chronologically...

TCL 10L. Decent phone, I liked it a lot, the software was kinda buggy but was overall pretty good... Kinda destroyed it in a gym accident.

Samsung Galaxy A12. Horrible phone, do not buy. Slow, sh!t software, crap battery life. Thank God for GSIs as they are the only things that made this phone bearable.

Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G. Best phone I've ever owned. The software sucks but it's supported by most custom roms (I use lineage). Got it for a good price 2nd hand and it's been my daily driver ever since.

Google Pixel 8

Got it recently after the battery started swelling on my Google Pixel 6 after 3 years of ownership.

I love that it's smaller than the 6, the 120Hz OLED display, the clean software, the 6 remaining years of updates, cameras are great (as were the cameras in the Pixel 6), and (relative) lack of bloatware compared to other phones I've had from Motorola and LG.

I am kind of irritated by the battery life and and how warm the phone tends to get. It was $200 cheaper than the Pixel 9 when both were on sale, but I'm wondering if I should've bit the bullet and gone for the 9.

Overall, I really like the phone for it's features and performance, but wish it had better endurance and ran cooler.

Moto G Stylus 2020. No real complaints about the phone. Battery life is about 2 days. It has headphone jack and SDcard slot. I like the chop chop motion to turn on the flashlight and the twist motion to run the camera.

I agree with the one user who stated that modern phones are too goddamn big.

I've had Samsung's Z Flip5 for over a year now and I've been really enjoying it. Small form factor when folded that actually freaking fits in women's pockets. And when unfolded, I have a case with a ring that helps me hold it and reach higher up on the screen. Honestly, I would like if it was a bit smaller when opened, but it's a fun compromise.

It doesn't seem to fit in with what you want though, as it doesn't have a headphone jack and isn't going to be as durable as a regular phone. Still, it's fun and I like it!

I have a Galaxy M35

It's fine, but when it's not playing something and the screen is off I can't change the volume, which is really stupid.

Sometimes I've got earphones connected and press play on them and the volume is loud, but I can't just pause and lower it, I have to: pause, grab the phone, unlock it and only then lower the volume. At least it should be a setting.

Huawei P30 Pro, decent cameras and screen, battery still going strong after 3 years, pretty happy with it!

Small phones pleaseeeee!

Every time I buy a new phone I'm devastated to learn that I can't get anything usable with one hand.

I need a 5.5 inch phone, anything bigger is hard to use, anything past 6 is impossible with one hand

Pixel 4a with CalyxOS.

Support has ended while my phone is still working great and could probably last me a few more years (4 already) I get that companies can't support devices forever, but I wish they would apply their 7 year support policy retroactively because now I'm going to buy a new phone for the simple reason that mine is now insecure (no security updates for firmware)

This sucks and it's so wasteful.

Recently jumped from a Pixel 2 XL to the 9 Pro Fold. I had the 2XL for quite a while, and a few times over the years it developed this issue where it would shut off when I plugged it in to charge, unless YouTube was playing for some reason. Sometimes it would stay on if I turned it back on after it was plugged in, but not always.

I used my phone as my morning alarm, which typically meant starting a video like this before going to sleep. Generally the problem went away after a month or so, and so I just dealt with it. This last time was pretty persistent though, and got to the point where I decided to get a new phone.

Obviously I've only had the Fold for a couple months, so nothing crazy I've noticed so far. First time I've ever had a brand new flagship phone, which is neat I guess. A little pricey, but I do a lot of reading on my phone so honestly I think it's a decent investment. Doubt I can go back to reading PDFs on a non-fold, but I tend to keep phones until they're run into the ground, so by the time this one gives out there should be plenty of cheaper folds on the market.

Samsung Galaxy S9. have replaced the battery twice, got it at launch. skipped the s8, had s5 and s7 prior. it's not rooted, user lawnchair launcher and love it. will drive it til it dies.

I've had three Google Pixels now and they've all developed problems with just freezing up or shutting down randomly. Won't be getting one again. Also, the smaller versions keep getting bigger with every iteration. What's the point? I want a small phone.

OnePlus 6 I got secondhand for a great price. Love the hardware (especially headphone jack). Don't love the back being made of glass (just... why???)

the main problem

IT IS TOO BIG

Pixel 6. Upgraded from a pixel 4a.

Where's my fucking headphone jack.

An iPhone 12 Pro as my daily driver. I bought it four years ago, and might get a battery replacement in the coming months to extend its lifespan until Apple stops supporting it. The phone is as reliable as the day I bought it. It just works.

As for quirks, there are plenty that appear, disappear, and reappear with each software update. I made a post about it a while back[0]. One that bothers me the most is the ability to seek a video in the native player by swiping across the screen (not just using the scrub bar), a la Apollo for Reddit's video player. This feature didn’t work in iOS 14, the OS it shipped with, or in 15. It worked in 16, which is when I discovered that the native player has this feature, but it stopped working after updating to 17.

I also use, in decreasing order of usage, a Moto G60 Fusion (with a debloated and de-Googled stock ROM), a Pixel 6A (running Graphene OS), and a Mi A2 (with Ubuntu Touch). Unlike my daily driver, these devices do not have a SIM card and serve as experiments to assess the feasibility of living without reliance on big tech. I acquired these phones from friends and family who were either discarding them or exchanging them for new ones. I also disassembled a few older Asus Zenfone and Redmi Note models that were either too outdated or bricked, to learn more about their innards and architecture.

[0] https://lemmy.world/post/7676569

Pixel 6 with Graphene OS.

It's perfect. I wouldn't swap it for anything. Graphene is a delight to use. Android as it should always have been. Regular updates, very secure, no bloat, full (optional) Play Services support, all my banking apps work.

Only downsides are:

• Google Wallet/Pay doesn't work but I've never seen the point in mobile payments anyway.
• No headphone jack, which I was dead against but tbh Bluetooth earbuds these days are superb and wired headphones were cumbersome.

Pixel 6A. No headphone jack, no sd card slot, low battery life, but has grapheneos support.

I know it’s fashionable to hate Apple here, but switching from android to iPhone was the best decision Ive made. They just work. All of them. As a software guy, I spend my time making computers do stuff, so my phone needs to just work

Currently iPhone 15 Pro.

I replace every 2-4 years so I can give it to my kids another 2-4 years

• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone X
• iPhone 6+?
• iPhone 5?

I have an iPhone 12 Mini.

I am an IT guy, I just want a phone that works.

It is not amazing, it is not horrible, it has good cameras, it's fine.

CarPlay is awesome, the size is great, the battery is too small. The notch isn't as annoying as I first thought.

It's a fine phone.

Pixel 4a. It has a headphone jack, the bootloader is easy to unlock, and it's well supported by third party developers (I run LineageOS on it).

The stock kernel doesn't support ExFAT, which is annoying. I'd prefer if it was a little smaller.

Rant: every newer phone is worse in terms of bootloader, size, or headphone jack.

I've got a Fairphone 4. Had quite the headache, cause I had a slightly broken one. I don't want to go into detail, but I can say the support on Fairphones side is excelent, they were super friendly and helped to fix the issues as best as they could. And the nice thing is that you can repair most things yourself. But it is still a "nerdy" product. Fairphone doesn't have the best flagship with the fastes processor. But if you value something, where you own your hardware, and can repair stuff easily, you should consider it.

Fairphone 4. No complaints at all

I have an iPhone. It's pretty recent, but definitely not the most recent. No, I don't know exactly what model it is. It's an utterly boring glass brick that lets me find out stuff and say stuff and take pictures. It set itself up from my last iPhone like a clone emerging from a vat, and someday it will be fated to transfer its lifeforce to its brother-self-son. Such is the way of the iPhone.

It's... fine. I got a red one.

Unless you have a philosophical/moral reason against it, try a Samsung. Can't speak for the cheaper models, but the top models (S-series and Z-series) are usually really great.

Samsung Galaxy A02s. This thing feels like it isn't that old, but damn sure operates like it's old. Thing lags like a slug to where I've had performance lag in keyboard interfaces to even recording audio clips on Discord. It's battery life is shitting the bed, even at 100%, it is down to 94% immediately even when it's not used.

Samsung Galaxy A32-5G. This is my primary and I like it, still does fine and was worthy to slap an Otterbox protection case on it. Does what I need it to do and is reliable, it's roughly 3 years old.

I have a Pixel 8.

It's quirk is that every now and then, I have to manually force Pixel Launcher to close or I can't minimize/switch apps. Basically since getting the phone, and going to their support pages/forums it's a super common issue that's existed since launch. And the fuckers won't fix it.

And also the AI assistant thing, despite being turned off completely, still sometimes activates randomly as if you said "hey google." Sometimes in the middle of the night in completely dead silence.

pixel 8 running graphene

pretty decent

fingerprint sensor is mid as hell, but cameras and screen are super nice

Pixel 8 Pro. I take issue with the buttons all being on the right side, which makes combination presses difficult. The cameras are positioned in such a way that it's difficult to keep stable while not covering them. Gestures are less good than iOS, but it's literally 2024, and digital buttons should die. I do not like the under-screen fingerprint reader. Rear was so much better on my OnePlus 5T, and that was probably my best unlocking experience.

No headphone jack (surprisingly not new).

Moto G Stylus 5g 2023. I'm satisfied with the hardware but Android has its own issues and it only gets 1 major version update, to Android 14, which it's running now. Main new feature of the 2024 version is wireless charging.

I've been using Google brand phones since the g1. The Nexus 4 and the pixel 7 were the worst build qualities. The screen on the seven fell off three times and then finally died. I've switched to a Samsung.

Asus Zenfone 10. Reminds me of the Nexus 5x, but less buggy and less lag.

It has one absolutely atrocious bug that still hasn't been fixed - randomly auto brightness will just crater into fully dimmed brightness, leaving the phone unusably dark in the daytime. I've disabled auto brightness to avoid this and have probably done more harm than good to my overall phone experience, but damn if it isn't frustrating when you try to use your phone and have to find somewhere to duck inside to even see it.

Samsung Galaxy A35

I had the Samsung Galaxy A54 and it had issues with constant wifi disconnect and can't be fixed even with factory resets, so I had to get a new one. (According to reddit, wifi issues are so common with A54) A55 does not exist in the US, so A35 it is.

Reason I didn't get an S-series is because of missing SD card slot. Yes I'm this petty. I might've gotten the S24 Ultra if it had sd card slot, but corporations likes to be douchy, okay you play stupid games 🤷‍♂️. A35 is powerful enough anyways, whatever, saves me money too. I'm enjoying my 1TB sd card (that cost like $100 extra on top of the phone) that would've costed like $1500 total for in the S-series phones.

The only reason I still want samsung is because I want use a Samsung Smarttag to track my cat, amongst other items I want to track. And I hate iOS, so Samsung trackers are the only viable alternative to Airtags.

There's not much special, its just a phone. Not flagship, but also not a shitty budget. Its "okay".