Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone
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It's great. I hope in the future same goes for flagship devices. At the moment it feels like getting a phone like this or Fairphone, you make a compromise in having a sustainable phone but only get mid-range specs.
Same should go for software side. For example I just bought a 3 years old Oneplus 8 Pro, still a banger phone running Snapdragon 865 with 12gb of RAM but updates will end soon. Sure I could go for LOS but then I have to deal with banking apps not working etc. 2-3 Years software support is a joke.
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@dave1904 same here for me. Sustainability is critical these days, but the key elements that once existed such as the ability to remove and replace the battery, plus updates made end of life on flagship models is nothing more than a revenue generator for the tech companies releasing new handsets almost every year.
Don't get me started on Apple.....
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@dave1904 said in Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone:
Sure I could go for LOS but then I have to deal with banking apps not working etc.
Frankly this is ridiculous. Luckily the banking apps I use were fine, although one health insurance app I use threw up so many warnings that it was just easier to use their website
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@julian it is definitely ridiculous. I could rather use my 15 years old Android 2 HTC Desire than a rooted phone with current security patches. I know there are workarounds with Magisk Hide etc. but in the past it was such a pain that I just sticked to stock rom.
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@dave1904 I will admit this is also one reason why I ended up with a Pixel. The Nokia 6.1 (just like my Xiaomi phone) ended up slowing down with subsequent Android releases, so much so that the mid-range CPU couldn't handle it.
Disabling animations only gets you so far...
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@dave1904 said in Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone:
It's great. I hope in the future same goes for flagship devices. At the moment it feels like getting a phone like this or Fairphone, you make a compromise in having a sustainable phone but only get mid-range specs.
It seems things are moving slowly in that direction (obviously thanks to regulatory pressures) - Pixels allowing re-pairing fingerprint sensor after replacement, iPhone 14 allowing for sane back glass replacements, Samsung finally adding battery pull-tabs in S23.
I just hope these moves don't stop regulation attempts (at least until they go much further), but otherwise they are very promising. -
It looks so nice as usual. I can easily remember before 5-7 years ago Nokia has a great demand of using their device all over the world. But now-a-days it's rare. And only a few people are using Nokia device. Overall, I have a good experience with Nokia, Model-1100. Because I used this one for a longer period of time. Thanks a lot!
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@zakcharyzelish I'd say rooting is another issue unfortunately - and the direction here is a bit worse, since it's easier to sell locking things down that way "for security" - so vendors largely stopped getting in the way of someone who really wants it, but making it a one-way trip with features being disabled when you do it.
For example, I remember when rooting Samsung phones was hard, and I think some S-series models with Snapdragon SoCs never actually got proper custom ROMs.Now you can just unlock the bootloader by using developer settings and a built-in wizard, but once you blow out an e-fuse and lose some features, including even OTA updates.
But even outside of vendors who do their own security in this way rooting breaks "strong" integrity from Play Integrity API and AFAIK there are only a few devices where security vulnerabilities allowed faking that check. Google is basically one developer recommendation away from making rooting a lot less appealing (very few apps require "strong" integrity right now, even Google apps, including Wallet, are fine with just "basic" integrity).
On the bright side, Android is now good enough that I simply haven't felt the need to root. The only thing I was thinking of doing that requires root is Mifare Classic emulation, but I'm not even sure if it's possible on my current phone with root, even ignoring the effort it'd require...
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@julian said in Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone:
I think rooting (or at least, custom ROMs) is/are important for extending the life of older devices.
Yup, and current devices seem better at that than past ones, since generally the loss of functionality would happen without updates anyway (more apps are probably dropping older API levels than using strong integrity, OTA updates don't matter anyway if you have no official updates anymore, and again, most vendors don't have an equivalent to Samsung's Knox that would be lost while rooting).
I'll note that there is one device line that I would consider installing custom ROM on even new - Pixels, to get GrapheneOS. Though unfortunately they're not officially available in my country, so I make do with Samsung devices.
