I’m saying I don’t want to modify my device because I don’t want to risk damaging it. How is that spewing words without knowing anything about the subject? I don’t care how easy it is for other people to modify it or how functional the phone might be afterwards, I don’t want to risk modifying it myself, that’s all. Also I wouldn’t want Graphene for other reasons, but that’s besides the point. It’s on Google to fix their crappy software, not me.

No, what they did was pick an SoC called QCM6490 which is used for embedded and industrial applications, and Qualcomm officially supports those for 8 years, unlike the snapdragon SoCs. According to gsmarena it should have performance similar to a snapdragon 778G.

I’m switching phones instead, but even if I wasn’t I don’t want to risk bricking my phone or playing the cat and mouse game with banking apps.

Either way I’m never touching a pixel again until they fix their buggy software.

With how terrible my P7P update experience has been (literally every update has made the phone buggier and more unstable) I’m no longer sure if this is a good thing or not. Maybe if they fix their insane QA issues.

But the point is that the description of the product clearly stated it needs a subscription to function. You literally buy it with that understanding. If you didn’t read the description then it’s 100% on you.

Whether it should be legal or not, or whether it’s ethical or not, is a different discussion. But the product wasn’t disingenuous about how it works, so complaining about how it works exactly as advertised is a bit silly.

Google: Invests billions in AI language models

Also Google: can’t understand words have different meanings

It’s ridiculous how a well standing dev can just have an app removed with no warning or human investigation.

For Android DAPs you definitely want to look into the 500€+ range simply because cheaper ones use very low end SoCs (usually the snapdragon 4xx series) which is why you had that experience with the Sony one. Only look at devices with a snapdragon 6xx and above to be honest. Also note most will never get an OS update so what you get is what you will have forever.

I also tried a cheaper DAP at first too (the Hiby R5 I believe) but although the audio was fine the laggy app experience left a lot to be desired, so I’m very happy I paid an extra 200 to have a DAP that’s not slow/laggy when navigating the interface.

For future reference you can bookmark this page that gets updated with newer DAP releases every once in a while.

I totally feel you OP. I have a 500+ GB music collection I refuse to give up for streaming apps (which don’t have all that music anyway). But I also acknowledge the vast majority of people install a couple apps, take a couple pics and videos, and that’s about it, so I get why 128 is the default.

My solution was to cough up money for a DAP (specifically the Fiio M11S). I know it’s outside the budget of most people and definitely a super niche purchase, but boy do I feel relieved knowing I can plug my 1 TB SD card in in it and have all my music whenever I want to (plus other neat features like an actual audio jack and no audio resampling). And it also means I’m no longer restricted in my phone choices which is wonderful.

Maybe it’s something for you to consider over a NAS or other local server solutions that require more upkeep.

Imagine you only have 10 dollars on you and buy a 9.99 item off the menu because of it, only to discover at the register there’s a 20% service fee. Not very a very pleasant customer experience, is it?

Thank God where I live this is completely illegal. The prices on the menus are always the final price.

From a technical standpoint they definitely don’t offer any objective advantage. However I still love using them personally. There’s just something satisfying about folding your phone. Also the built-in screen protection.

I’m so used to gestures I can barely use a phone with button navigation. When I have to help my parents/grandparents with their smartphones I take longer just because they use buttons lol.

Also the 3 button navigation is not gone afaik. All OEMs I’ve used have it buried in the settings somewhere.