Not saying it’s not valid (we all want longer software support!), but wtf does length of software support have to do with rating the UX? They are completely separate things.

Yeah unfortunately their inclusion of that kind of renders the whole list pointless. This was actually just a list of manufacturers ranked by their update policies.

It’s actually 4 years now. Still terrible for the price, of course.

Wow, that video ad wasn’t subtle at all lol

They might deliver on the base promise but the other point is that Motorola is extremely unreliable with regards to the frequency of their updates. The OS update will come a year after a Pixel or Samsung and around the launch of a new version. See the razr 40 series, which has only recently received Android 14 (released October 2023), right before the release of Android 15. You could maybe argue that is to be expected for a smaller player in the market but the same applies to security patches, which are all over the place and often several months out of date. Even if Motorola hasn’t actually abandoned a phone, it can sometimes feel like it for the owner because you just never know when they are going to push something (if ever).

There are two problems and they are price and durability. These products will only ever “serve niche users” while those two concerns remain. The reason people are not buying these devices is not because of the aspect ratio, as much as tech journalists who receive these products for free would like to think this is the case.

Yeah, as did LG (sort of) with the second screen on the V50.

Most of the A series receives 5 years of security uodates now.

This is not really directly comparable to those older designs (or the Fairphone). It’s more of a middle-ground - you still need to undo multiple screws and use a prying tool to gain access to the battery, so it’s not something you can do anywhere or in a handful of seconds like you could with older models. You don’t get particularly great dust or water proofing for these inconveniences either (reminder that the Galaxy S5, which is over 10 years older than these phones, had an IP67 rating with a back cover and battery that could be removed in seconds with your hands).

I recall ASUS doing something similar with the Zenfone 10 and then never following through.

Yeah if I could only get one of them back I’d pick the SD card too.

These dongles that came with phones were also usually very thin. It also sticks out and made of plastic.

I agree that many of the ones that used to come bundled with phones (they don’t even do that now) weren’t great, though you can buy some pretty good third party ones now with sturdy ends and better quality, flexible cabling in-between. They don’t have to be expensive either - I bought mine (CX-Pro CX31993) for AU$10 and it is durable and sounds good.

But yeah, I share your frustrations overall. It was an unnecessary removal of a useful feature to increase profits on already expensive devices. It’s the same with the removal of the SD card slot to sell internal/cloud storage, though thankfully that has remained on many of the less expensive phones. I am definitely not trying to defend the manufacturers here, only point out that there are solutions for those like myself who want to continue using their wired headphones with newer phones.

This is true, but for whatever reason people always overlook the fact that you can still use your wired headphones with a USB-C adapter on most modern smartphones (I believe Samsung devices need one with a DAC). And that, depending on the quality of the phone’s DAC, the wired headphones may actually sound better through a USB-C DAC than they do through the headphone jack. You can even charge your phone and listen through wired headphones at the same time using the USB-C port. Wired headphones are only incompatible with modern smartphones if you choose for that to be the case - there are plenty of ways to solve this problem without clinging to an older phone (though there is nothing wrong with that solution either).

No, it is not normal as far as I know (within the world of smartphones). However, this was a widely reported problem with one of Xiaomi’s recent flagships so it could be a similar design flaw.

No, you’re also paying for an extra 128 GB of onboard storage. The onboard storage is faster than an SD card and can run applications.

The CMF phone was arguably even worse since it didn’t come with any guarantees around support for replacement parts, nor was a battery replacement particularly easy despite the removable back. The marketing from both Nothing and HMD feels like they’re targeting tech illiterate zoomers who would buy a phone based on 2000s era nostalgia bait design instead of practicality. Like just look at this new HMD marketing video - it even has 2000s style classic trance.

Yeah I thought it was pretty cool. Never knew this was possible, though it appears to have been for quite a while.

I really like Motorola’s design for most of their recent phones. Having the option of a textured, grippier back is great and changing from a separate camera bump to this new one that slopes into the frame has made them look a lot classier. The choice of colours is also quite fun at the moment.

No one cares about custom ROMs for a Korea-only model that is clearly targeted at the business sector.

India has not frozen Xiaomi’s assets as far as I know.

$676 million of assets were frozen by the Indian government in 2022 and Indian courts rejected an appeal by Xiaomi in 2023.

All the viable alternatives to Xiaomi (Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, etc.) are also Chinese, so this doesn’t really matter.

Vivo was subjected to an asset freeze in the same year and Oppo was also investigated. As far as I know, the Indian government is still putting pressure on Chinese smartphone manufacturers in 2024.

Does anyone know if the Indian government’s asset freeze on Xiaomi, and its attempts to stir up a China vs India culture war, have affected sales there?