Carriers also has the final say on your update, and they are the ones signing it.

Updates go from: Google —> OEM —> Carrier. Extra delay for critical patches for security vulnerbilities. Hackers are very happy about this

Unfortunately, they haven’t figured out a way to get gorilla glass to bend and not shatter so the current plastic screen is way too weak and a fingernail can scratch it. Not good for a $1500+ device.

A $100 Motorola Moto G Play has a 6.5 inch screen. To get a foldable big enough to double the screen area would cost $1400 more. Most people couldn’t afford that, so the budget phone is the best price/screensize compromise. The foldable still get more easily scratched than the $100 phone which just makes foldables very bad.

Straight from the Fdroid page (on the Fdroid Android app)

Google literally does pay Mozilla to make Google the default search engine in Firefox, its not some conspiracy, its a known fact.

Fennec is maintained by Mozilla lol

Even if Firefox is selling your data, its still 10x better than chrome since they allow uBlock Origin. Fuck chrome and fuck ads

Surprise Mechanics 🤗

For people in developing countries

Oh its not just developing countries. My parents in the USA have their phone as their only device

All phones already have that, regardless if its Google or Samsung or whatever.

And all computers even those running Linux, are still vulnerable to the Intel ME and AMD PSP backdoors.

Like I don’t see a way to stop mass surveillance unless we have open source hardware.

Consumers just aren’t that interested in a product that’s visibly cheaper and worse than what everyone else is carrying. And that is what a smaller phone signals.

A smaller phone is less comfortable to view things on. Most people are using their phone as their main device. Its not just a “status” thing.

These days I never go for flagships. I want 1TB storage and if I choose the 1TB phones, they’d cost $1500. I could get a Samsung A-Series and have the 1TB MicroSD Card slot at around $400 for the phone + a 1TB MicroSD card at around $130, so basically a $530 phone with a 1TB storage, $1000 cheaper than a flagship. I don’t play any games anyways these days (too depressed), I don’t even need flagship specs.

I once used $50 phone because my main phone broke so I had to use that cheap phone as a temporary stopgap. It was a locked phone thats why I could get it so cheap. (Moto G Play 2023, btw)

(Now I use a $400-ish Samsung Galaxy A Series phone. I just can’t deal with the lagging and frequent freezing of a $50 phone)

Yea the plastic screens is why I didn’t like the “fold”/“flip” phones.

The other reason being that due to them being flagships, they also don’t have MicroSD card slots.

Unfortunately phone itself is not impressive especially from OS update standpoint (only 2 year support for major Android versions).

Companies with a smaller market share tend to do that (with Fairphone being the exception).

Why spend resources to support devices for 5 years (or more) if you can keep selling newer phones and redirect your devs to work on the new phone. Its just capitalism 🤷‍♂️

For the US, its not just shipping, but also an import fee on top of that, since the De Minimis rule just got overturned by the trump administration.

Yea, but with the De Minimis rule overturned by the trump administration, importing it to the US is gonna have import fees. And also a lot of fees for each part you import, making the whole “repairability” thing pointless as it cost so much.

Unfortunately, that’s the cost you pay for a more “ethical” phone. Apple, Samsung, and all the mainstream phones are cheaper because they are subsidized by underpaid labor and sometimes even child labor.

(Not judging people who buy mainstream phones, just stating the reality.)

replace the battery

Besides the obvious Fairphone, theres a Samsung Galaxy XCover series, which acoording to many users on Reddit, the specs are not great for its price. The latest XCover 6 Pro is like $599 USD at release.

3.5 jack is easy, most budget phones have them (along with a MicroSD card slot)

The replaceable battery? That’s gonna be hard to find. There the obvious Fairphone, but its very costly for its specs and is only made for EU, and even if someone from the US imports it, the only US carrier allowing it is Tmobile.

Samsung Galaxy XCover series have IP67 Water resistance, headphone jack, and MicroSD card slot, and the replaceable battery, but its specs are not that good for its cost (as reported by various Reddit users).

I wouldn’t trust the water resistance tho. One drop into a puddle and the back comes off exposing the internals.

Because most people use their phone as their main, if not only, device, so a bigger screen is more desirable to consume content.