[batmanRises]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Why? Because battery life is likely to be longer if only charged slow and cool?

I think you are right. But there are so many myths and misconceptions (mythconceptions?) about Lion batteries that I can never remember what is right and what is wrong.

i think the most important factor is cycling your battery within 20 to 80%, if you wanna eke most out of the battery. Charging speed/rate comes after that. Most BMS eitherway taper's of charging current post 90%

[NiInJa]

How I wasted my money on a Xiaomi phone!

I had to get an Android phone as a secondary device as I have to keep my iphone tied to India region and the India SIM active in the U.K. Since it was an experiment, I thought of getting a Xiaomi phone. There was a hefty discount on the Xiaomi 13T, plus, I was getting a 67 Watt charger in the box, so I decided to get it for 300 GBP.

In summary, there are only two things I liked about a Xiaomi phone: Their 67W fast charger and the IR blaster that comes built-in. The charger can power my laptop as well, so I need not carry its bulky wired brick everywhere. While the IR blaster works to control ACs and TVs when I travel. The other aspects, especially the software is a slow-acting poison that will kill you mentally after some time.

Xiaomi's software is utter crap. I will not recommend this brand, even if they plonk the biggest processors, full sized camera sensors and bullet proof glass on it.

https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_13t-12389.php

Here are some major issues:

- The biggest one: Notifications: Some app notifications do not show up even after changing all settings and permissions. Whatsapp incoming calls do not appear on the phone screen! you have to open the app when you phone starts ringing. Notifications relayed by the phone to the Garmin watch as a bunch of all unopened ones at the same time. This is frustrating, for example. If you have three messages that are unopened since an hour, if you get the fourth one now, the watch will show the first three messages first and the fourth one last!
I would have happily found solutions to these 17 years back when I was in college, now it is just a pain.

- Their background app optimizer is crap. For example: If you pair a Garmin watch with its 'Connect' app, you have to go somewhere deep in the settings to enable it to run in the background, otherwise, your phone will not show updated weather and 'Find my watch' function will not work. Even after enabling it, the app will crash or bluetooth will disconnect and reconnect often.

- Sound : The speakers are ok, but the moment you put some good headphones (I have Sony XM4 cans), the clarity is not up to the mark. It is shrill and you wont enjoy it. The Dolby feature it seems only amplifies the sound and does not improve your listening experience as such. Playing the same on my iphone 13 (same streaming app and all), while iphone has flat bass (which can be increased using Sony's Sound app), sounds extremely clear, distinct and enjoyable. This is despite the fact that it uses LDAC audio codec. The in-built equalizer is a pain to use. The frequency bars cannot be adjusted precisely with your fingers as they are too thin.

- Battery: While it was good initially, it is not as great now after a year of usage. I mean, it still is better than my iphone, but for the capacity, it could have been better. I have to charge it more often these days. It is down to app optimization and how I use the phone. I have seen two notable cases: the Garmin connect app running in the background draining more battery now and Instagram/Microsoft teams app left open. Suppose you open the teams app at night to have a quick chat or scroll some reels and keep the phone bedside, the display will go off after a few seconds (or when locked manually with power key), now when you unlock the phone in the morning, it will have battery drained more than usual. With iphone, the Garmin app would run in the background but it never consumed battery at noticeable levels.

- The worse: Camera: This phone boasts some collaboration with Leica to get the best pictures. Try clicking foliage (trees) photos or grass photos and see how bad it processes them. The wide angle and 2x zoom lenses serve purpose only on bright sunny days. The Leica 'authentic' filter does nothing but adds a vignette, a darker mood to the photos, similar to old cameras. The worst part is, the jpeg/heif image is saved in this setting, you cannot have a copy of the same photo in original colors. It is not that you want to click all photos in Leica authentic mode, landscape photos especially look bad in this mode. Besides, this filter can be applied using basic photo editing softwares.

- The worst: GPS: Yes, for all the money paid, this approx 30,000 Rupees phone just does not lock in quickly and accurately. It might still be ok when navigating while driving, but man, start using this phone for navigation while on foot. Not sure what is wrong, the GPS or the google map app, but there is a deviation of around 10 to 20 feet initially on where you are standing and where it shows you on the map. How does that matter? You call a cab or friend and unable to tell your exact location. You might appear to be close to a landmark, but in reality, you are on the other side of the street. Or you want walk to a bus stop, the stupid phone itself is not able to show which direction you need to start walking unless you start and realize it was pointing in the opposite direction. Never had a problem with my wife's Samsung S20FE or even the cheap M31 I had earlier.

All in all, the Xiaomi phone is a great piece of hardware: great display, good speakers, haptic feedback, but the user experience is ruined in the long term by extremely poor software optimization and image processing capabilities. Anyone who is getting impressed by its godly specifications on youtube reviews, do note that there are some things that are just not right with these phones and they start appearing only after extensive usage. I want to trade in this phone, but not getting good price, mostly this phone is not listed as eligible for trade-in.

I always knew that software optimization is key for all Android phones and I've always kept the high end phones as primary runners (S16 Edge, S20, iphone 13) with secondary ones for navigation/backup (hand-me-downs from my parents' Motorola G series, M31, Samsung A series), but I was surprised that even after so many years, there are manufacturers out there who have not got the basics right yet.

[meerkat]

Originally Posted by batmanRises

i think the most important factor is cycling your battery within 20 to 80%, if you wanna eke most out of the battery. Charging speed/rate comes after that.

Drawing an inference like that is not so straightforward. There are just too many variables.

For example, my own experience suggests just the opposite, i.e. slow charging is much more beneficial than the 80% cutoff.

My previous Samsung midranger (with an Exynos processor too) didn't have the 80% charging cutoff option built-in. I didn't care, and charged everytime to 100%, and usually discharged down to 10% before recharging. The battery ran just fine for ~6 years before a noticeable drop in capacity. Now, at 8 years, It still gives me ~1 day of moderate use of calls, music, browsing and watching videos (I'm no gamer). The battery used to last ~2 days on a charge when new. I did have to move on to another Samsung (again running on Exynos) because a new battery was no more available.

Oh yes, the phone always ran cool (despite the Exynos), and the battery is still as flat as new. The charging mode? Usually super slow, via a laptop USB port.
.

[GalaxyS]

Originally Posted by ramnaresh_2000

I am currently at my hometown and forgot my Smartwatch charger. I thought of buying a new one here, the original was costing some 2.2k. The compatible first copy one is some 500 bucks, but did not want risk it. I then remembered reverse wireless charging feature and tested it.

Hello,
Could you kindly share from where you were able to see the original Samsung Smartwatch charger for around 2.2k?

Couldn't find any original Smartwatch charger from Samsung in Amazon/Flipkart and even Samsung doesn't sell one on their website.

Samsung should start selling their official Smartwatch charger like Apple does, as they are launching Smartwatches every year. Thank you.

[ss11011988]

All,

Picked up a OnePlus Nord 4 (12GB, 256GB, Mercurial Silver) for around 27K from Amazon after much speculation. They were running a limited time deal wherein I was getting a discount of around 4.7k on my ICICI credit card, so took the plunge before I started having second thoughts. Quite happy with the phone as it got everything I want and nothing more. Good screen? Check. Fast charging? Check. Good battery life? Check. Clean enough software experience? Check. Not much of a camera person, so a decent enough camera experience works for me, which the Nord fulfils quite well. Would recommend this phone if you want an allrounder of a phone without having to break your bank. Mid rangers are getting peppier these days negating the need for the absolute best and the moolah you need to spend to acquire it, unless you are an enthusiast wanting the greatest and latest.

Cheers,
NI

[tbppjpr]

Android 16 seems to be the only meaningful OS update after Android 12, rest of the in between releases were more like 12.1, 12.2 and so on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj1VMRN1xjM

[Oxy]

A really huge advantage of using an esim on your phone is that the itch to buy a new phone vanishes due to the sheer lack of options.

I would really love to upgrade from my Moto Edge 40, but the options available in the 25k range of phones that have esim support are: Moto Edge 60 Stylus, Samsung A55 and Alcatel V3 Ultra.

So, no thanks. I think I am better off with my Edge 40 that jitters even when scrolling, heats up when using the camera, battery drains a bit too quick and the phone is still on Android 14!

[dragonfire]

Originally Posted by tbppjpr

Android 16 seems to be the only meaningful OS update after Android 12, rest of the in between releases were more like 12.1, 12.2 and so on.

I updated my Pixel 9 to the 16 beta and it is indeed looks like a nice UI refresh. They introduced transparancy (like iOS) and it gives it a premium feel. Rapidly Andoid is catching up with iOS in the looks department, and soon there will be little to differentiate between the two.

PS: The new slider looks horrible, though.

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by Oxy

I think I am better off with my Edge 40 that jitters even when scrolling, heats up when using the camera, battery drains a bit too quick

Thats the result of choosing Mediatek and answer to all those believing the marketing claims of Mediatek getting better on par with Snapdragon. Raw performance is nothing if its inefficient and non-sustainable.

Those considering Mediatek based Edge 60 series, better choose SD based Edge 50 which are still on par in performance of the newly launched equivalent Edge 60 variant and hopefully will deliver smooth performance for longer period of life.

I always advice people to stay away from Mediatek and Exynos at all. Biggest drawbacks are they generate too much heat internally and reduce the life of battery very quickly compared to the similar Snapdragon variant.

Now this doesn't mean one brings some exceptions and try to generalize them as universal fact. For eg couple of last generations of SD 8xx series were made by Samsung before the introduction of 8 gen X, those were similar to the traditional Mediateks in terms of heating and poor efficiency at the cost of no gain in performance over the previous generations.

Now Google also seems to has realized the mistake of choosing Exynos as the base of their Tensor chips and now switching onto TSMC for chip manufacturing. Hope they get rid of the Exynos fully instead of just manufacturing the Exynos at TSMC. Then only I will repeat Pixel otherwise will switch back to Motorola and save money for some other better usage.

[Oxy]

Originally Posted by tbppjpr

Thats the result of choosing Mediatek and answer to all those believing the marketing claims of Mediatek getting better on par with Snapdragon. Raw performance is nothing if its inefficient and non-sustainable.

I don't think so. The new gen Mediatek Dimensity chipsets are almost on par with their Snapdragon counterparts.

My previous phone was the Samsung S20 FE 5G. It had the Snapdragon 865, and it used to heat up as well while charging and while using the camera (I am sure this one was TSMC manufactured).

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by ss11011988

Picked up a OnePlus Nord 4 (12GB, 256GB, Mercurial Silver) ... Mid rangers are getting peppier these days negating the need for the absolute best and the moolah you need to spend to acquire it, unless you are an enthusiast wanting the greatest and latest.

Cheers,
NI

Are the green line issue still a concern for OnePlus? I am looking for a mid-ranger for mom and the Nord ticks all boxes. But I don't want to deal with the screen issue, even if they provide an unlimited screen replacement warranty.

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Are the green line issue still a concern for OnePlus? I am looking for a mid-ranger for mom and the Nord ticks all boxes. But I don't want to deal with the screen issue, even if they provide an unlimited screen replacement warranty.

Any reason not to consider the Nothing 3a? The display brightness is better, pwm flickering is better, touch sampling rate and therefore touch sensitivity and input lag is better, main camera is larger sensor, battery life is better, network performance is better, and even though the processor is inferior, you will experience better performance since the thermal management is better and throttling is basically non existent compared to the Nord 4. And top of everything the 3a is a smidge cheaper. Unless you are feeling nostalgic about experiencing the metal back (which I can assure you does not feel like the unibody metal frames of old HTCs or even old Droid Razrs), the Nothing 3a makes the Nord 4 feel old. I picked one up for my father recently and checked out the Nord 4 before doing so.

On paper specs are one thing but in depth testing as well as checking phones out in person, can paint a very different picture.

[ss11011988]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Are the green line issue still a concern for OnePlus? I am looking for a mid-ranger for mom and the Nord ticks all boxes. But I don't want to deal with the screen issue, even if they provide an unlimited screen replacement warranty.

To be honest, my friend, I'm not very sure on that. I know their flagship phones are covered with the lifetime replacement warranty, but not so sure when it comes to the Nord series. OnePlus after losing their face due to this fiasco should be treading carefully, so I'm hoping that I don't end up in such a situation. If you don't want to take that risk, like what the gentleman suggested below, you could go for the Nothing 3A. Nothing wrong with going for Nothing either.

Cheers,
NI

[AjinkyaP]

Google India Store is now offering Pixel 9 lineup, with Pixel 9 Pro XL available at ~₹67,500 including store credit worth 10k and credit card cashback worth 10k. Avail exchange options to further lower the price.

Sweet deal in my opinion

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Any reason not to consider the Nothing 3a?

Originally Posted by ss11011988

To be honest, my friend, I'm not very sure on that. I know their flagship phones are covered with the lifetime replacement warranty, but not so sure when it comes to the Nord series. OnePlus after losing their face due to this fiasco should be treading carefully, so I'm hoping that I don't end up in such a situation. If you don't want to take that risk, like what the gentleman suggested below, you could go for the Nothing 3A. Nothing wrong with going for Nothing either.

Cheers,
NI

I have nothing for or against nothing. I had very good experience with my OnePlus 6 earlier and therefore inclined towards the Nord. Other choice was Samsung which mom already uses and is familiar with the UI. Didn't actively look at any other brands.