Pixel 6a
Switching from a OnePlus 6 to a Pixel 6a.
What features do i want from the new phone
This last point maybe needs some context, I don't like fiddling with phones, yes I can get some Xiaomi or Huawei flash some fancy ROM, unlock the bootloader, use Magiks etc. I don't want to.
I use my phone for nothing else then Twitter, Mydealz, WhatsApp, Signal, E-Mails, making calls and taking some pictures.
For everything else I have a gaming pc and I really hate to use phones for anything remotely serious, i just don't like using them even less just thinking about gaming on them, I get the shudder just thinking about it.
On this epic search to replace my OnePlus 6 bought in 2019 for €455.18 I only found depression... OnePlus is dead, just a lifeless shell left, the biggest companies are now the 100 different Chinese smartphone clone factories together with Samsung and Googles own offerings.
Some found their niche, like Asus building mostly gaming phones in the high-end segment or Sony trying to market their phones by using special cameras.
Here are some good websites if you are also looking for a new phone.
Introducing the Pixel 6a
Fingerprint guesser
Fuck the under display fingerprint reader t(-_-t) , it is shit, it will not work... WTF is this shit no face unlock, no fingerprint, back to the old school PIN.
This is no joke, it works maybe 30% of the time, and when you add a screen protector it is reduced to maybe 10% so just stop using it.
They claim to be working on it, but they are also claiming this since over half a year, I think the last phone with face unlock was the Pixel 4.
There seems to be some hope for Pixel 7? ¯\(°_o)/¯
What really sucks about this are apps that support biometric unlocks where you don't have to retype your password when using it, for example my password manager Bitwarden supported this and now I have to re-enter my password every time I want to look something up.
Update: 26.09.2022
Well this is awkward, while speaking to a colleague at work and wanting to show him how broken the scanner is, I had to re-register my fingerprint, and it worked perfectly?
I have no idea why, but the success chance now is around 90%, so you can ignore that whole paragraph up there... why does it now work?
No idea, I did not really change anything other than getting rid of the case and adding my fingerprint again in a dim lit room?
Like, the room was quite dark and the last time I tried it was really bright in my living room, but this feels like schizo posting, maybe if you have the same problems just try adding it in a dim lit room?
Size
The form factor is a bit weird in comparison with the OnePlus 6, at least for me.
It is a bit smaller with only 6.1 inches, but I really notice the missing space in notifications or maybe it's Android 13?
No idea to be honest, especially coming from OnePlus with Android 11 and OxygenOS 11.1.2.2
It has a different aspect ratio with 20:9 instead of 19:9 as with the OnePlus 6, well whatever this will just take some time getting used to.
But the worst offender is the missing headphone jack, while considering the other options I had no other choice then give up on ever owning another phone with a 3.5 mm jack the industry really likes wireless earbuds, people love them too, it seems the whole market just moved on... to unrepairable earbuds that you can only throw away, my solution now to keep using my headphones not only at work but also at home is this little gadget.
That is the FIIO BTR3K Bluetooth receiver, this got my missing 3.5 mm Jack and is tiny with only 58×25×11 mm.
You can even replace the battery with some simple soldering.
Why no other phone?
The Switch
This has gotten a lot better, not as perfect as on the apple side, but everything got transferred over to the new phone, one or two apps were missing, and I had to transfer the 2factor authentications, but other than that nothing but applause from me.
Until I noticed that my power button is not working, it opens the Google Assistant? Wait what?
So google wants you to tell the assistent to shutdown or reboot the phone, fuck that.
Settings -> System -> Gestures -> Press and hold power button -> Toggle off the hold for assistant.
Okay nice after this is solved where is my Nova Launcher because for some reason the Google launcher thinks I'm blind.
Before
Why are the icons so big?
This gives me Vietnam flashbacks to iPhones I have seen in the past, where you could play find Waldo because they had 20 windows to swipe through.
After
Thank god the Nova Launcher works without any problems and I could also import my backup, so all my gestures are back and at least my muscle memory can mostly stay the same, some features from the OnePlus are missing like the alert slider or moved places.
No Case Gang
After using my OnePlus without a case for all this time, I thought that maybe I should get one now for the new phone.
I don't like it, maybe because I choose one of the more bulky cases, but it makes not only holding the phone unconformable but also while carrying it in my front pocket.
Another thing that I noticed, that with a screen protector on the phone, lint likes to collect between the case and border of the protector, which bothers me.
So I will be returning it and use the phone again without a case, hopefully I don't jinx myself now.
Essential Apps
Here are some apps that I needed on my new phone.
- Nova Launcher Simply replaces the Google launcher
- QuickPic Gallery Mod The Pixel comes without a gallery app, they use the Google Photos app for that, so here is an alternative to it.
- Kuroba 4chan Browser (Clover replacement)
- Solid Explorer File Manager
- Sleep Timer Lets you set a timer that will stop, for example YouTube videos.
- Poweramp Music Player Well, a simple music player, but not used that much anymore because of YouTube Premium
- Wallpaper Engine This is just for the animated wallpaper, will I keep it? No idea, just something to play with.
Other contenders
You like big phones right?
Because if you don't, good luck finding phones under 6 inches, most phones today feel like a tablet... so this alone really reduces the viable options.
Here are some phones that I had an eye on, but ultimately decided against them.
- 5.9 inches
- 3.5mm jack
- 4300mAh
- Android 12.0
- ~ 849€
- 6.0 inches
- 3.5mm jack
- 5000mAh
- Android 12.0
- ~ 440€
- 6.6 inches
- 3.5mm jack
- 4050mAh
- Android 12.0
- Removable battery
- ~ 520€
- 6.5 inches
- 3.5mm jack
- 4500mAh
- Android 11 -> Android 12
- ~300€
-
They removed the headphone jack on the Fairphone 4
-
Android 11 -> Android ?
-
€579
Too expensive and questionable software support
The budget version of the new Xperia 10, still a bit expensive and no good trade in, the Android version should be very clean, so this was in second place if not for the unclear update future and quite low spec Qualcomm SM6375 Snapdragon 695 5G
Now it's Shitsung, but the features are really nice, you could say everything you could ever want, quite big but any phone with a removable battery should get some attention, sadly the screen is shit, the speakers are shit and people report weird issues like calls hanging up and random software problems.
If it would not be so expensive you at least could try it out, but for €520 it is quite expensive for otherwise bad hardware.
It's from 2021 but hear me out, this Shitsung is the holy grail it has everything you could ever need for only €300 and I have seen sales for around €250 no idea if Samsung itself knows they offer this phone because again there are 100 different versions out there and the new version A53 lost the headphone jack.
So if you used a Samsung before and can live with it, and do not have a personal grudge against them for this fucking Bixby button and their abhorrent behavior of just randomly adding bloat to your phone... go for it this is the best, feature rich budget phone 2021 - 2022.
Honorable Mention
Goes to the Fairphone 4 for being the best fucking disappointment ever, trying to be the "good" company with a repairable phone with replaceable battery and caring about their user base, well those are just lies.
Why? Because it breaks, at least they claim this so now on a phone that you can repair, where stuff breaking should not be a big problem, they will remove it for you and sell you fucking earbuds which are not repairable.
Hey, do you like Updates ? We got none, okay we have security updates, but that's all, since release they are stuck on Android 11 but why? Well mostly because they for some reason implemented their own Fairphone OS, which seems to be Android with some removed Google standard apps. ¯\(ツ)/¯
Wait Wait Wait okay a phone with lower production numbers will be more expensive and were also paying here for a better tomorrow, they are offering 5 years of warranty but with all phones that excludes basically everything other then the mainboard exploding.
I dont want to be a hater, but in the current market i cant see the value of the fairphone, it's in a weird place with its price and specs.
In my opinion, either create a high-end device that is repairable with stock android for 1k and above, market it as the ultimate phone which you can easily use for the next 5 years and get parts for it, or attack the lower price segment for around 300 - €400 and create a viable repairable product there but to be honest, i would not want to fight for any kind of market share with all those china phones and brands like Nokia which also try to get into greenwashing and sell low budget phones.
Also, they started to push some weird subscription for phones, so yeah in the future you will own nothing & you will be happy.