Been using syncthing with a script on my PC to keep copying stuff on another non synced location in the same filesystem with deduplication enabled (zfs). Technical solution, sadly, not many people are doing it... Btw i use.. Xdd
Syncthing is really nice, I am also using it to Sync PC, Laptop, Phone and NAS.
Last with a headphone jack on the flagship while still allowing bootloader unlocking too. This is why I picked one up last year.
Was going to get a Sony. Then I saw their update roadmap... 2 years of major updates and another one for security patches, that was it. Noped out because of that. I'd like a headphone jack and an sd card slot, but I'd like even more to keep such an expensive device for more than three years.
Also, their phones are too big, but that's an issue for every single manufacturer.
That is a real concern & it seems they are moving to 4 years of updates as well as not rolling out a new phone every year, but given that LineageOS supports the phones, even if I am not getting firmeware updates, I am willing to take that risk since I get more IO.
The Xperia 5 is a skinny 6.1" & many consider it to be a small phone option in 2024.
In the end, I got an S23 which receives (presumably) four years of major revision support plus another two years of security patches, which is still much more than Sony is willing to promise.
I had an Xperia Z, which I was supposed to be able to patch with custom roms. Too bad that while that generally worked, Sony locked the camera to its own software which then fell back to a much inferior mode, meaning you had to decide between updates or shitty pictures, which was a deal breaker for me and had me update to an S10e back then.
The Xperia 5 is a skinny 6.1" & many consider it to be a small phone option in 2024.
I know. It's still too big. I was this close to switching to apple just for their iPhone mini range, but that got discontinued as well. My S23 is something like 6 or 6.1 as well. It's only usable because Samsung has a better one handed mode than default android or Apple.
Yep. Camera situation is shit. I often carry a mirrorless so I can get a nice photo if I need it, but it means a general photo by me is shit since you need that proprietary software. And yet still since I use the headphone jack more than anything, it is a requirement—along with an unGoogled experience for privacy. If you want a jack + unlockable bootloader with flagship specs, Xperia is the only line left.
True. I also have a XA2 with SailfishOS.
I saw the SailfishOS support last month. I would have picked up a 10 instead of 5 even with the non-flapship specs to have a way ‘out’ of Android in case. It is quite a suprise Sony is their chosen brand over the more popular option (even if they have worse IO)—butt the bigger shame is not extending support to the flagship 1 & 5 😔
Great to know. I saw it missing from the support table & just assumed that was that.
HTC released a phone this year that had expandable storage AND a headphone jack
AND it came with a charger in the box.
I gonna have to wait and see if they actually support this phone but if they do and continue to release phones like this (and ditch the curved glass screen) I would be totally down to switch.
What phone is this? I thought they released one but no jack. I'd be interested if it has one and an unlockable bootloader.
Nevermind. Just saw your post under.
Since the thread has grown large and I had trouble finding the comment I'll just link it here (sorry the link is instance specific, it seems you can't make relative ones)
Not that I think it was a good reason for ditching them whatsoever, but one of the main reasons given has a tiny bit of merit:
Allegedly, a lot of users often cheaped out on SD cards and then used them as adopted system storage where they moved all their apps to. This had the effect of completely tanking phone performance and then they would often get corrupted after a bit of use taking user data with them. This then generated a load of negative reputation about the devices being slow and unreliable, when the problem was the choice of SD card, and generated a load of wasted money in supporting these users when that happened (think unnecessary RMAs, etc).
Personally I think they should just have restricted it to A1+ SD cards, and sucked up the people complaining about their bargain bin Scrandrisk SD not working. But I guess they saw an opportunity to have their cake and eat it by just removing it and charging a premium for larger storage skus.
Question is rather: why does Android not allow any distinction between Internal and external/removable?
My downloaded media files belong on the SD card, but APKs, sqlite DBs and temp files don't belong there. But de facto, it's just used as an extension for internal storage. That's just stupid.
it does, or at least older versions of Android did
Sometime around android 9 they removed a bunch of sd card related features to make you have to do the weird combine with internal storage thing
How did you miss the opportunity to use scamdisk instead?
That very much isn't the case beyond like a decade+ ago. For the last decade its been not possible, or extra work to install apks on sd card. The choice is there, but it's far from default.
There is a UFS-II specification and even a PCIe version specifically for micro SD cards. It was all planned out, and it would have been trivial to tell consumers: "Yo need card with more contacts as shown in picture". But no, the biggest manufacturer of flash storage is samsung, and they decided they'd rather sell higher storage capacity phones as a premium. Easy to do when you're the second biggest manufacturer of of phones and apple already paved the way.
I literally never heard or read about a user say that when using an sd card. They just took it out to charge more for more storage.
There needs to be a law mandating expandable storage in phones.
The market will regulate itself, the consumer decides with his/her/* money, feel free to start your own company producing it (with your own money) \s
Sorry for that.
I know this is sarcasm, but I still have to also point out that companies literally conspire with each other to undermine the consumer's ability to choose. Remember when Apple removed the headphone jack and Android vendors mocked their decision for all of one year before immediately following suit? That's 100% intentional and planned from the start. They know we want to vote with our money, which is why they do everything they can to make sure we don't have that choice.
That has nothing to do with a conspiracy, it's just cheaper. If they can get away with it, they'll do it.
Reality is, most people give relatively thought to their purchases. They just buy "the new iPhone" or pick an Android that seems reasonable to them. And even those who do ostensibly care, often enough only care about specifications. More cores, more nits, more camera.
I don't really see it as a conspiracy. What seems to happen is Apple does something like remove the headphone jack. Apple users essentially have to accept it as they are locked in and don't have any choice in the matter. Plus you have the fanboys that have an amazing ability to rationalize anything Apple does. Everyone else sees that Apple got away with something, and they follow suit.
Losing the SD slot would still be annoying but not as big of a deal with everyone wasn't also copying Apple's model of massively overcharging for storage upgrades.
It’s collusion not conspiracy
another advantage of the glorious fairphone
My fp4 has been very disappointing so far tbh, after a year or so of using it it's slow unresponsive and the mic doesn't work
for this reason I waited for the Fairphone 5 which is responsive, has an oled display and the components Work without issue. have had it for a year and am looking forward to still using it in 6 years from now
It's not supposed to do that. My FP3 got unresponsive after a while as well. The trick was to open it up and gently tighten all screws.
Im curious, why would that help?
Because in IT, the fix is always to power cycle. If that doesn't work, you take it apart and put it back together and then magic happens.
Loose cooler contact?
I have experienced that the microphone is in a weird spot on the left border of the phone, frequently where my fingers are placed when calling. So maybe check if you're covering it too!
waiting for the framework phone
This image by itself always makes me sad for Skips...
Amazing show
I have a recent Xiaomi that supports 2 sim + storage and a 3.5mm jack. I'm on Redmi Note 12 (don't recommend since memory management is atrocious)
When SD card is the only criteria for a 'high end' phone
It’s not. Maybe I worded it poorly. I mean that Sony is the last smartphone manufacturer where the high end line got MicroSD slots. The others removed them. (Google doesn’t count, they never got one)
