I should really do something about the schedule slip. Last week has been pretty exciting.
Can’t promise that it won’t happen again, but I’ll try to keep on schedule.
Previously on Lemmy:
Past Discussions:
Now we get to the fun part, the 700 USD+ range of phones. Go wild with your recommendations, showcase the excellence in the top end Android ecosystem and your favorite features that people don’t know about.
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I never felt comfortable spending significantly over $500 on a phone despite easily affording it, so I’m mostly limiting myself to mid-range phones (though my Pixel 7a doesn’t feel mid-range at all and I’m very happy with it). But if I had to pick a $700+ phone, I’d pick something that has a track record of providing good software support and future-proof hardware.
The Asus Zenfone 10 has amazing hardware, the form factor is perfect, but the latest shenanigans around bootloader unlocking and Asus abandoning the Zenfone lineup (https://9to5google.com/2023/08/26/asus-zenfone-series-ending-report/), adding to my personal experience with an Asus Zenfone and the almost nonexistent software updates that led to my phone being obsoleted within 2 years as it just kept rebooting randomly, all lead me to cross that brand from the list.
The Fairphone 5 looks really good, but to be honest, it’s technically a mid-range priced like a high-end phone. Its Qualcomm QCM6490 is a 2 years old 6nm SoC that’s ranked between the Qualcomm 860 and the Exynos 1080 in Geekbench, a bit near the Snapdragon 782G, which in other words means that the Fairphone 5 should feel like a OnePlus Nord CE 3 5G in terms of performance. But obviously here you’re paying more for fairness and sustainability (though it gets a bit contradicted by their removal of the audio jack).
I’d wait for October 4th to finally confirm the specs, but from what’s leaked right now (see https://lemmy.world/comment/3775773) the Pixel 8 Pro looks really good and has some future-proofing (Wi-Fi 7, 7 years of software updates) which makes it conceivable to keep such a phone for 5+ years, especially as they’re making parts available through iFixit (though it’s obviously not as easy to open as a Fairphone). For me personally it ticks most of the boxes.
Oh the Pixel 8 Pro from the article does look promising. Cautiously optimistic for now.