To celebrate a particular movie’s nominations for the Golden Globes next Sunday, Jan 7, we are hosting our very own Golden Lemmy award for Best Android Device on [email protected].

Rules are simple, tell us about your favorite Android phone from 2023 in the top level comment, and the device with the most up votes wins the esteemed and coveted Golden Lemmy Award, along with 1 Lemmy Silver.

Our regular discussion will resume in 2 weeks.

  • @solrizeEnglish
    3•6 months ago

    I’m gonna say Moto 5G Stylus 2023. Disclosure: biased because I got one recently.

    Pros:

    • Relatively cheap for a 5g phone at $250 new
    • Seems pretty fast, Qualcomm chipset, 6GB ram, 512GB flash, NFC, pretty good camera and screen (not top end), 5000 mah battery holds up pretty well. Connoisseurs will have to make their own judgment about the cpu and chipset since idk what else is out there. Android 13.
    • SD slot supports up to 2TB card (I don’t think those exist yet), 3.5mm headphone jack, has better sound than my Moto G4 did, though maybe still not great (idk).
    • The stylus is actually useful for poking tiny UI elements even though the graphics apps aren’t there afaict.
    • Not from Google or Apple or Samsung
    • Claims to support 20 watt USB-C charging (haven’t tested, but I do get 15W with a 5V 3A charger)
    • Battery replacement not too difficult according to ifixit. Replacement batteries readily available.
    • Moto Gestures (make a chopping motion with the phone to turn on the flashlight) comes in handy
    • Cameras are decent. Regular, and wide angle with macro. Not high end but I didn’t want to pay for that so it’s fine.

    Cons:

    • Much bloatware (mostly removed now). Moto used to be better about this
    • Not many software updates promised. No LineageOS support (yet), though some older Moto devices have it, so it might arrive someday
    • I don’t know the rootability situation, haven’t really looked into it, but I hate the idea of downloading binary rootkits from rando authors on file sharing sites
    • Claims to support 20 watt USB-C charging but comes with a 10 watt USB-A charger and an A-to-C cable. This works ok though, and slower charging is probably better for the battery.
    • No swappable battery though almost nothing has that now.
    • Doesn’t support Boost Mobile even though the lowest model of the series (Moto G play) supports it
    • It would be nice to have an external (e.g. on the edge of the phone) temperature sensor, though I don’t know of any phone with that. There is an internal sensor to monitor the batteries and electronics, but those are usually warmer than the ambient air.
    • No USB-C HDMI video out

    I really don’t know the difference between this phone and a flagship, other than wireless charging and fancier cameras.