Not so Essential phone

https://medium.com/@pacavaca/not-so-essential-phone-ddcab1bb1f75

by pacavaca • 9 years ago

36 44 9 years ago

skrowl• 9 years ago

They lost me at no 3.5mm headphone jack. How can you say your phone covers the essential and leave out an essential port?

freedomben• 9 years ago

Preach it friend. I use my headphone jack several hours every single day. To me, it is absolutely essential. I have feared that after Apple did it, all the Android manufacturers would follow them off the cliff D-:

jorgemf2• 9 years ago

I started using Bluetooth headphones last year without special reason. I am not coming back to 3.5mm headphones, wires are so annoying when you are doing something else and they are in the middle.

So you have people like me and a lot of people that never use that connection. And I guess a lot of people buy the phones based on the feeling when they catch them, and thinner phones feel better and people are more likely to buy them. Thus say bye to the 3.5mm connection and loss the hope for bigger batteries. Buy trends is what matters for business.

pacavaca4• 9 years ago

I agree Bluetooth is convenient, no doubts. But I think the adoption of wireless should be driving the ditching of wired interfaces, not the vice versa. Otherwise, a lot of people feel being forced to use something, that is just supposed to be better.

khedoros12• 9 years ago

I've got bluetooth headphones. I get tired of keeping them charged, so they never are. But I've got like 10 pairs of wired headphones around, and the convenience always wins. Headphone wires have never bothered me.

Thus say bye to the 3.5mm connection and loss the hope for bigger batteries.

Sounds like a couple of great reasons to stop buying music to listen to on the phone, stop buying game apps, etc. And to stick with my current phone as long as possible.

Markoff2• 9 years ago

your headphones are not connected by cable, what model you own?

abritinthebay4• 9 years ago

Bluetooth headphones surpassed wired headphones in sales early last year.

It’s fundamentally not essential anymore for many - even possibly most - users of new devices, especially when the other port can duplicate the functionality through the same DAC.

I know it’s a big change but honestly Bluetooth audio has got so much better - the newer more advanced codecs are basically CD quality sounds - and most decent new BT headphones are pretty high quality.

allover3• 9 years ago

I mostly agree and use bluetooth headphones a lot. They are better for the gym, and better for connecting to my laptop/desktop so I can get up and walk away from it.

That said and though the audio quality is improving, they are still a pain to use between multiple devices, remember to keep charged, often uncomfortable to wear in bed/lying-down (usually have some battery bulk going on).

So I'm still glad my phone has a headphone jack for backup and times I just don't feel like faffing with the far from perfect bluetooth, like right now I just got out of bed, plugged my wired headphones into my phone and started listening to a podcast.

(Also, I understand that some of my issues will be solved when 'AirPod'-level headphones become more affordable).

gumby• 9 years ago

From the article:

My <Android phone> is two years old and, as every Android, becoming slower and slower. The battery has degraded too, and now the phone is not holding even half a day of moderate usage. {author says other words to same effect later}

Although I am an iPhone user myself I hope this is hyperbole. My phones have lasted a lot longer and when I have replaced them it has been for new features (original -> 4 -> 6S Plus). I have had my current phone for a couple of years and don't see a reason to upgrade yet.

I'm not saying this to say "apple good others sux", I'm saying that surely this kind of planned obsolescence can't be the rule.

On another point: part of the benefit of Android is you don't have to run the stock apps, right? So as long as the hardware is decent, you can run the google camera app as the author did and got the best of both worlds.

(BTW I know a bunch of the Essential folks including Andy and the same guy spec'd/designed the camera hardware for Essential and, before that, Google).

pacavaca4• 9 years ago

From what I hear from my fellow Android users, it's a common story. And yeah, it happens less for iPhone. My thinking is that partially it's a platform fragmentation to be blamed. As long as the phone is new, companies will be running perf tests for it, but it's physically not possible to rigorously test an app for 2+ years worth of Android devices. While in Apple ecosystem 2 years == just 2 devices. I'm an Android user from the inception and I observed this ~2 years trend for every one of my phones. My wife's iPhone 5s (not the strongest device by any means) seems to be still fine though.

boundlessdreamz• 9 years ago

I'm still using a galaxy S6 without any complaints. It never had stellar battery life and still doesn't but I haven't found that to be a problem. Samsung gave a free wireless charger when I bought it and I have that on my desk which makes charging very easy.

I love how the new phones look but can't justify replacing a perfectly working phone.

nxc18• 9 years ago

I had windows phone for the longest time. At the expense of apps, it had great a battery life, great camera, and was always fast.

I switched to the flagship 2014 Moto X in October 2014. I got the material design update (iirc lollipop) in march 2015 and by then it was slow. The battery life was terrible. The camera was worse than the old windows phone despite the superior resolution.

Having a less than one year old unusable flagship sucksss. I got the iPhone 6s at launch and was blown away by the battery life, and the speed. I'm no Apple fanboy (as my post history proves), but iPhone is hard to beat. I'm thinking of getting an iPhone 8, not because there's anything wrong with my phone now, but because I want a shiny new toy. (and now I'm starting to rethink if its a wise decision...)

I've been burned by android and I just don't feel like I can trust the device to still work in a year. Kind of like the worst of Windows devices in the mid 2000s.

thanksgiving• 9 years ago

Two things I'm hopeful for: project treble which has seen extensive discission on hn and the steady progress in finding the balance that places more restrictions on background apps.

Personally, I'd like for no app to be able to run at boot or run in background or go online without explicit (revocable) user permission. I agree with you. I am not very optimistic about it.

jorgemf2• 9 years ago

Moto X 2014 user here. I love this phone and sadly I would have to replace it soon because it is half broken.

I don't have crappy apps like Facebook or Snapchat which drains the life of any phone. I think the biggest problem of Android is the background process and how devs use too much this and not for improving the user experience but for revenue. Facebook tracks everything it can in the background to show you better ads, this is not possible in iPhones. Android Oreo might solve a little bit this big problem, so let's see.

limeblack• 9 years ago

What made you come of Windows Phone now Windows Mobile when it has always been fairly lacking in the app department?

Try getting an old Nexus or Google Picel they have worked okay for me but funny enough I still use my iPhone as my main work phone and barely use the Android Nexus.

mixedCase2• 9 years ago

I have no idea where his experience comes from. I've mentioned this on HN before, but my 5 year old Galaxy S3 has only gotten faster since launch and the battery lasts longer; with its current 7000mAh extended battery lasting 10-15 days without needing to recharge, and no that's not a typo.

I swapped the Samsung ROM to CyanogenMod (now LineageOS) shortly after release; inmediately gaining some speed from the process and noticeably improving with each major Android version bump.

pacavaca4• 9 years ago

That means you are probably using a limited set of lightweight apps. Or maybe competing for the longest lasting S3 award :P Usually, people tend to install more and more apps and those apps themselves are getting more and more resource hungry. That's what's driving the higher and higher hardware requirements and that's how the manufacturers survive. This is not even Android or iPhone specific pattern, this is true for all my laptops as well. Several years ago a dual-core 4Gb ram laptop felt like a hell lot of power and now, with Docker, VirtualBox, tonnes of services running inside of them, and a video call on background, my i7 16Gb macbook feels like a turtle.

Add: Skype, I think is a great example. I used to use it (maybe through immo.im) on Nokia 5233 and it was fine. And today Nexus 6P is getting hiccups.

audeyisaacs• 9 years ago

I still have a Galaxy Note 3 from either 2013 or 2014. It does OK, though has had a cracked screen that's only getting worse (I drop it pretty often). Battery life is the biggest issue, but it's still just within the OK range. Normal use and it will get down to 20% by the end of the day.

Yetanfou2• 9 years ago

I'm using a Motorola Defy from 2011. The thing runs Android 4.4.4, gets about 4-5 days / 7 hours of screen time on a single charge. It does not get slower 'as every Android' which is not that surprising given that Android itself is not susceptible to slow-downs like e.g. Windows is. I'm careful not to heap too many background-active apps on the thing to keep it nimble. I don't use live wallpapers, widgets or other such trickery. I also try to keep storage (internal and external) from filling up as those do get slower the closer they are to full.

lostmsu• 9 years ago

I bet you don't have mobile internet enabled.

jvvw• 9 years ago

The battery of my four year old Nexus 4 can certainly still manage nearly a day.

mirceal• 9 years ago

Apple has am easier life ensuring compatibility and performance. Even with that you can see a phone getting slower over multiple iterations of ios.

As far as battery drain: i believe the usage pattern and how much time you invest in configuring your phone go a long way (did it for android, did it for ios. For example: background app refresh? Nope. Gps while not using the app? Nope. Look at battery usage over the day and see what kills your battery)

482794793792894• 9 years ago

In my experience, the Google Play Services play a big role in that.

They get updated independent of the OS, which is in some ways a good thing, but does play a role in things gradually getting slower. My first phone for example became essentially unusable thanks to those, as my internal storage got completely filled up.

And it's Google's main-highway for collecting user data. It obviously takes battery and processing power to tell Google everything about you.

Markoff2• 9 years ago

I've never had such issues with any of my Android phones, but it might be because i don't buy flagships and always run custom ROM

lucideer• 9 years ago

My android has started to get extremely slow recently, but I realised, somewhat unexpectedly, the culprit was Google'so "GBoard" keyboard app. Switching keyboards brought it back to life.

Other than that, I've had it over 4 years and had no performance issues. The battery lasts 2 days or more.

I think quality control of app performance must be a big factor. And not just 3rd-party ones. Google are really not good at software performance where obsolescence is a concern - things can only be expected to be usable on new setups.

VladTheImplier• 9 years ago

I honestly don't get it. My OnePlus One still holds strong to this day, easily get through day on one charge with watching Videos and so on. New Roms keep everything updated and smooth. My Android phone has never been faster. Even the battery is replaceable, once that day comes.

Not so Essential phone

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