Android Devices which Stand Out from the Rest

[Windroid]

Android is an open source Linux OS, and Steve Ballmer once said "Linux is a cancer".

That's misleading. True, the Android OS contains a component by the name of "Linux" (the kernel). But when we say "Linux": We usually mean the GNU operating system (which also uses Linux, the kernel). Android is not the GNU operating system.

 

[nickdalzell]

The UI is still flat. They still make them too big when the slide is in (can anyone please make a 4.5" display and have a home button anymore? Gestures stink if you're having arthritis issues)

A lot of these are just worse rehashes of the older concepts. Nothing new, just worse implementations, with worse UI, compromises like non-removable batteries, missing headphone jacks and IR blasters, and larger than necessary screens. UI design has as many corners cut as the hardware today. They don't make 'em like they used to and that stinks.

folding phones are nothing new, as Kyocera did it in 2012 (the Echo).

At the least I want variations in size, features, software, and please UI design that's not always flat. Heck, why not start the pace of innovation back again and start packing in more and more features? We were doing so great in 2009-12, then it all stopped.

I have a Nintendo Switch, and it's neat in that it feels like 2010 tech with the HTC-style kickstand, buttons and thick design and large bezels, too bad the UI feels empty compared to the one on the Wii-U and 3DS. It's a neat concept though, and I got my ever-expanding older game library on it via Switch Online which replaces virtual console. They still need GameCube content though. Playing GameCube games with an actual GameCube on an LCD HDTV really sucks. It ends up a pixelated distorted mess. It was clearly a byproduct of the CRT era and I only have one CRT TV and it's out on the patio for streaming in Summer.

I'd still love to see a phone that is a true successor to the Samsung Galaxy S5. That is the last Samsung phone and last Android phone that packed that many features in one device and didn't compromise. No phone since has added more, only taken away. Samsung's modern phones force app updates on everything and every single notification makes sound. It's awful and not the TouchWiz I'm fond of and no themes can over come that. I also despise USB-C with extreme rage. I don't want a phone that folds anyway since it's too large (and too thick--thicker than the HTC Thunderbolt) when in 'smartphone mode' and I never carry a tablet with me. My tablets are just glorified Kindles.

I just want a phone that has more features than the S5, without compromises, and with the option at least of a skeuomorphic UI (or choice of Android version, like say, Android 4.1 which was at least the best balance of flat UI and skeuo design. Holo can't be replaced and still looks kickass even today).

Too bad even HTC downgraded Sense since the M8. I'm so sick of the flat UI and minimalist thing. It's been around too long as it is, and is a byproduct of 80's computing. It has no life, no depth and is obsessed with white. It frustrates me to use any modern device for any length of time. I'm using Windows 7 and it needs no dark or night filter. It is just easy on my eyes. Nature mixed with depth. Connecting you to your world, not isolating you from it. Skeuomorphism feels like an organic mix of the real world and the digital, while flat just feels like you're stuck in a clinic or institution and told to 'work work work'.

 

[Hadron]

I'd still love to see a phone that is a true successor to the Samsung Galaxy S5. That is the last Samsung phone and last Android phone that packed that many features in one device and didn't compromise. No phone since has added more, only taken away.

Funnily I have almost the opposite impression of the s5: to me it was an unimaginative rehash of the s4, build quality was nothing special Touchwiz was a mess, the processing of images from the camera was heavy-handed (I'd say that about even my s21, but they were much worse in the mid-2010s). My thoughts about the s5 at the time were that Samsung were losing it, and that they needed to up their game if they were to retain their position.

Samsung's modern phones force app updates on everything and every single notification makes sound.

Not on my s21 (Android 13). No app updates are forced, no OS updates are forced, and notifications are no different from any other phone I've ever owned.


To introduce a positive note though, and in keeping with the theme of this thread, I'd like instead to nominate 2 of the s5's predecessors as Android devices which did stand out:

First is the Galaxy s2. The original Galaxy S was a flimsy, forgettable, uncomfortable device (I tried it out when buying my first Android and rejected it almost as soon as I picked it up). The s3's garish screen almost gave me a migraine looking at it, and the phones themselves were prone to failure. But the s2 was a classic: a powerful (by the standards of the time), well-balanced device, usable one-handed, had a longer than average period of software support (and even longer through custom development), it genuinely was a candidate for best phone of 2011 rather than simply best-selling. I always felt that this was the device that cemented the Galaxy s line.

The second, and more notable (pun intended) is the original Galaxy Note. Absolutely not my style of device (83mm wide, forget it!), but this one kick-started the whole "phablet" genre and introduced the S-Pen. This was a genuinely innovative phone, in fact probably one of the very few Samsung devices that actually deserves that adjective, and I think any list of Android phones that stand out should include this one.

 

[nickdalzell]

Actually with any modern Samsung, the Samsung Health app forces updates (it tries to look like it's asking you but if you say 'no' it closes the app), if there's an Android version or security update available it nags you endlessly without a way to fully disable it, and many other apps pop up little screens saying 'an update is available, install now? later? remind me tomorrow? such as Samsung Internet, Samsung Messages, even My Files. From my experience with an S20 FE 5G and an A13 5G, every time I heard the distinctive default Samsung notification tone it was not for an important notification like a new call, text or email, but stupid stuff like setting up your Samsung account, a notification about Bixby, or a Config update, or other minor notification that doesn't have to make noise. If it weren't for the literal days it took to silence all of the unnecessary notifications (there were hundreds out of the box) it would have made sound or noises every hour or sometimes every few minutes. Maybe having phones in your homes going DING! for everything from news articles to a new TikTok post don't bother some people but I prefer silence unless it's a phone call, text message or emergency.

Just stop. I don't believe in updates and their unnecessary changes, just leave me alone! Let me use my device how I want and live in peace for crying out loud!

The S5 was still a massive upgrade from the S4. For everyone who complained about the back, for example, they never had an issue with the Google Nexus 7 doing the same thing! But it combined IP67 Water resistance, USB-3.0 fast charging (with wireless charging accessory), removable battery, fingerprint sensor, IR blaster, heart rate sensor, headphone jack, a more 'modern' looking TouchWiz version (which would satisfy the flat UI lovers out there), barometric pressure sensor, even better camera, having a home button, and far, far more. It was the most feature packed smartphone out there. Now? most of those features are missing, and phones are as boring as ever and nobody gives a damn. With us being so docile and taking what we're given, I fear our future is one of permenant homogenization and boring design.

The Samsung Galaxy Note series is the example I use to prove we don't need every smartphone being so freaking big. At least then it was relevant to have a phablet option for those who wanted it, while retaining the smaller option for those who don't. I don't understand why every phone has to be designed with Sasquatch in mind, as if more and more humans are being so pumped up with IGF-1 that they've started growing massive hands or something.

Either the corporations don't care about anyone who complains (after all they only want to satisfy shareholders not the actual customers) or people aren't complaining enough. Everything seems so backwards today. Companies are supposed to satisfy the market not the other way around, and companies like Walmart shouldn't survive while Kmart dies, and Made in USA shouldn't have stopped being a thing, and repair should have never been banned. The fact we actually need a law for 'right to repair' is telling of our current state. A bunch of docile sheep who take what they're offered, never questioning anyone or anything. It's like a farmer running a farm, where they feed the horses and cows and sheep meat byproducts vs. plants/oats/hay, and the animals eat it anyway because it's better than being hungry. But it don't make it right.

While the Note did stand out, today, it's either a non-existant line (didn't they finally cancel the Note?) or at least just the same thing as an S-series today with only the S-Pen (which it didn't even have a holster for in the last model released, and it actually needed to be charged, a downgrade from when the S-pen was powered by the phone itself) as the only differentiator. I think the only other factor was the Note had a more squared off appearance.

 

[Windroid]

Moving away from foldables, here's a dissembled Fairphone:

I'm showing it disassembled for a reason: It's designed to be taken apart, repaired, and put back together! It also gets security updates for a long time. Unfortunately, it's not designed to work with U.S. cellular networks.

 

[nickdalzell]

1) I don't believe in updates. Not even security updates as I've discovered a few apps get updated or their UIs change with them. Burned too often by updates that change what should be left alone, and no way to revert back.

2) The FairPhone doesn't work in the US so it's not an option anyway, plus I'm certain it also has the annoying flat UI software design. So long as my S4 Mini continues to work, I am immune from updates or UI redesigns and it still has the highly skeuomorphic TouchWiz UI.

3) the FairPhone recently got rid of the headphone jack. Ain't no way I'm going back to BlueTooth gear that needs to be kept charged also, and drops out if I so much as look at a deer in the woods or pass by a tree on the hike, or one earbud is quieter than the other or doesn't want to work at all.

Three strikes, Y'er out!

 

[Hadron]

The fact that the Note series has been subsumed is irrelevant to my reason for citing it, since most of the devices in this thread have no direct descendents. And I already noted that the size means it was of no interest to me, but this isn't a thread about devices we like but about ones that stand (or stood) out, and I'm happy to acknowledge a device that I feel stood out at the time even if it wasn't to my tastes.

As for Samsung apps forcing updates, mine don't. But I also don't use any of the Samsung apps apart from the dialer, and don't even have Samsung Health installed.

 

[nickdalzell]

Whenever your Samsung phone gets an OTA update, it will nag you endlessly each time you unlock the device, and if it's set to auto download on Wifi (the default) it only gives you three postpones before installing it anyway whether you want it to or not. changing the setting to not auto download will just have it pop-up reminding you of an update being available (and in settings, it shows it at the top of the screen as well) over and over again.

I say the Note no longer differentiates. It looks almost identical to the S series now, with the S-pen being the only differing factor. Back in 2011, we had many phones of various designs and I truly miss it. A lot became e-waste because of unnecessary carrier shutdowns (which again, nobody asked them to do, no market demand or view given, nor were we asked first. We don't even need 5G.)

I honestly want a phone that stands out. The Nokia N95. Totally unique and since all I do with a phone today is text and play music it'd be up to the task. Unfortunately, the aforementioned carrier shutdowns have reduced them all to e-waste, or paperweights.