What phone you use as your daily driver? And, a discussion of them.

[Frick]

S24 Ultra. Replaced my Xperia 5 II because I got it for a stupid low price and can't complain about anything yet except the camera which overprocesses everything to infinity. The 4 year old Sony takes better daytime shots, and Sony's processing is IMO one of the best in the business. It doesn't auto edit photos for some major pop points and keeps things natural.

The camera was actually the main reason I got a Pixel 8a to replace a Xperia 5iii. The autofocus sucks on the Sony and the jpg compression has a tendency for banding. The Sony is technically better (as in you can make better shots with it if you put time into it) but as a point and shoot camera (which is the whole point of smartphone cameras) even the budget Google is miles ahead.

 

[mkppo]

The camera was actually the main reason I got a Pixel 8a to replace a Xperia 5iii. The autofocus sucks on the Sony and the jpg compression has a tendency for banding. The Sony is technically better (as in you can make better shots with it if you put time into it) but as a point and shoot camera (which is the whole point of smartphone cameras) even the budget Google is miles ahead.

Oh yeah I agree, Sony had issues too with banding and autofocus. It was getting a bit old too and S24U is miles ahead in that regard but I was just complaining about the overprocessing.

I used to take my time and go manual whenever possible on the Sony as you could potentially take great shots but it wasn't great as a point and shoot. So now the A7c and S24U does the job instead for Manual/Point and Shoot

 

[SchumannFrequency]

Oh yeah I agree, Sony had issues too with banding and autofocus. It was getting a bit old too and S24U is miles ahead in that regard but I was just complaining about the overprocessing.

I used to take my time and go manual whenever possible on the Sony as you could potentially take great shots but it wasn't great as a point and shoot. So now the A7c and S24U does the job instead for Manual/Point and Shoot

Two acquaintances have an old Sony XZ2 that they have been using daily for several hours a day since 2019. These are the photos they took less than three weeks ago.

https://i.imghippo.com/files/E7mwV1724671296.jpg

https://i.imghippo.com/files/Bk1ce1724671351.jpg

https://i.imghippo.com/files/LSFjh1724671279.jpg

https://i.imghippo.com/files/IYiSg1724671237.jpg

Above you see the compressed images, the original images are over 5MB in file size and also higher quality than the above links.
But even in the links above, you can easily see that the Sony XZ2 is a better photo device than these new Pixel 9 devices.

For the Sony XZ2, they had then paid around 350 EUR since they bought it after it had been released for over a year. This new Google Pixel 9 is almost 3x this price.
If you value photography then the new Pixel smartphones would not be among my top 40 best options for 2024.

 

[Apocalypsee]

Just received my new daily driver and I am really excited it also got cool pattern in my opinion on the back a little hard to catch unless I use flash

View attachment 361883View attachment 361884

Spoiler: Back cover effect

View attachment 361885View attachment 361886

How was it? Any reviews?

 

[Shou Miko]

How was it? Any reviews?

First impression was and still is a beautiful phone to look, at I feel it's big compared to my S23 but the 5500mAh battery requires some space.

For my use it's a battery champ holding up 1 and a half day compared to a 8 hour work day on my S23.

Is there anything specific you want to know @Apocalypsee ?

OriginOS is different than OneUI, ColorOS and such because here I actively have to activate the apps I wanted notifications for, not like other androids or iOS where all apps by default sends notifications and got access to everything.

Only thing I so far haven't found a fix for is when I got notifications on my lockscreen and unlock my phone they are not visible on the lockscreen anymore but they are in the notification center.

 

[Apocalypsee]

First impression was and still is a beautiful phone to look, at I feel it's big compared to my S23 but the 5500mAh battery requires some space.

For my use it's a battery champ holding up 1 and a half day compared to a 8 hour work day on my S23.

Is there anything specific you want to know @Apocalypsee ?

OriginOS is different than OneUI, ColorOS and such because here I actively have to activate the apps I wanted notifications for, not like other androids or iOS where all apps by default sends notifications and got access to everything.

Only thing I so far haven't found a fix for is when I got notifications on my lockscreen and unlock my phone they are not visible on the lockscreen anymore but they are in the notification center.

Thanks for brief review. 5500mAH is huge capacity (and physical size for sure!)

I just wonder how it perform in camera department? Stills and is there any stabilization on the video recording?

I only familiar with ColorOS since I'm using Oppo right now.

 

[inquisitor1]

lg phones. v10 v20 v50 g2 g4 g5 g6. hoping tpo pickup more like another v50 and v60

no chinese phones, no samsung, maybe will try sony too in parallel to LG.

 

[SchumannFrequency]

It amazes me how few people in this forum use a realme smartphone. It has been the fastest growing smartphone manufacturer for several years and they have over 200 million global shipments. I know Samsung as the market leader does this in one year, but realme hasn't been around that long so this is a significant amount of sales.

My realme has been working perfectly for 4 years now anyway. It was the smartphone with by far the highest price/quality ratio at the time I bought it.
All they need to do now is slightly increase their ‘overall quality and performance’ in their flagships so that they can compete directly with Samsung and iPhone.

 

[Shou Miko]

Thanks for brief review. 5500mAH is huge capacity (and physical size for sure!)

I just wonder how it perform in camera department? Stills and is there any stabilization on the video recording?

I only familiar with ColorOS since I'm using Oppo right now.

Haven't recorded video yet, I took some photos and they look really good quality wise.

If my memory serves me correct these are the modules:
Sony IMX920 - 50 MP, f/1.9, (wide), 1/1.56", PDAF, OIS
Samsung S5KJN1 - 50 MP, f/2.0, 119˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.76", 0.64µm, AF

So I guess the normal video should be fine since it's a good and known sony sensor.

 

[Apocalypsee]

Haven't recorded video yet, I took some photos and they look really good quality wise.

If my memory serves me correct these are the modules:
Sony IMX920 - 50 MP, f/1.9, (wide), 1/1.56", PDAF, OIS
Samsung S5KJN1 - 50 MP, f/2.0, 119˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.76", 0.64µm, AF

So I guess the normal video should be fine since it's a good and known sony sensor.

On paper those specs looks good! Maybe I should look for IQOO phone too

 

[Hyderz]

apple event for iphone 16 if ya interested

 

[Shou Miko]

On paper those specs looks good! Maybe I should look for IQOO phone too

So far I am enjoying it, just look careful because the Neo9 models have a plastic frame and it do get hot when pushed.

I do not mind plastic it's not durable in my world than glass and fancy things

I took the fake leather option for mine since I really enjoy the white and blue look of my Vivo iQoo Neo 9s Pro+
and the 2 symmetrical camera lenses on the back.

I really loved the phone when I first saw the Neo 9 and I am happy Vivo kept the design and I just knew when I saw the Neo 9s in the blue that was the model I wanted and know I have it and it have not disappointed me.

I am still learning all the features it have, but there are still a little complain from my end since the phone is meant for the chinese market a lot of the "vivo" apps are in chinese and the vivo translation app will translate any language but only into chinese

Other than this you can uninstall almost all the default apps when activating adb without root using a program, there are several tutorials on youtube about it, but I don't want to mess with these things since the security needs to be on or a lot of my country apps for banking, security and such won't work this is also why I do not do beta testing anymore since a lot of beta builds ain't signed and secured so the apps I use on a daily basis doesn't run sadly.

I am waiting on a Android 15 release and I know Vivo is working on it and it's currently in beta on the Neo 9s Pro+ so I am excited.

I believe I finally found the right phone design wise and spec wise just have to learn the OriginOS day by day because it's a little strong on battery saving during the night where I loose about 2% battery life when I go to sleep around 22:00-23:00 and wake up at 06:35 which is impressive but than all my apps notifications appears but phone calls and sms' works fine.

*Edit* I am not native in the english language, but what I mean is all my apps notifications first appear when I unlock my phone in the morning but alarms, phone calls and sms' works fine doing sleep.

What I like the most is I found a video explaining how to get apps on your lockscreen without adb rights you can do it directly on the phone no hacks required just remember what I wrote above which is the only downsize but it's small price compared to others which have a larger battery drain.

 

[Ruru]

Updated to iOS18, works just as smoothly as iOS17 did. I guess that Apple's SoCs have been powerful enough for several years that they don't slow down like iPhone 4s did with iOS9 back in the day.

 

[[crs]]

Currently use a Nothing Phone 2, really like the almost stock UI with the dots theme in monochrome. It may not be the most bleeding edge in specs but thanks to its pretty lightweight OS, feels faster than it should be. I do have one issue with the software, when somone phones you sometimes the drop down menu sticks while your on a call and you cannot get out of it until you hang up.

 

[Hyderz]

went in to buy iphone 16 pro max 512gb ... out of stock... so the wait continues with 12pro max...

 

[Shou Miko]

went in to buy iphone 16 pro max 512gb ... out of stock... so the wait continues with 12pro max...

What do you expect? It's a new phone that's just been released

 

[Hyderz]

What do you expect? It's a new phone that's just been released

the 1tb pro max was in stock... but it was a bit too much for me and i didnt want black

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Shame the battery on most Samsung phones is suck a pita to switch out. It is usually much easier on a iPhone, on more modern ones though there is the problem with non apple fitted ones been unrecognisable and hense losing the battery health. Which is what happened to my old ip11 that I gave to my partner. The battery lasts great even though it is a eBay special.
I'm using a ip13 now and will chug the cost of apple replacing the battery when it needs it this time.

 

[GamerGuy]

Since my last post, I've added yet another phone, from left...

S24 Ultra, Z Fold6, Z Flip5, Nothing Phone 2a, and my good old Note10+

 

[[crs]]

Since my last post, I've added yet another phone, from left...

S24 Ultra, Z Fold6, Z Flip5, Nothing Phone 2a, and my good old Note10+

It looks like you have a perfect scratch going from the fold 6 to the flip 5, could be the light, it aligns perfectly.

 

[GamerGuy]

It looks like you have a perfect scratch going from the fold 6 to the flip 5, could be the light, it aligns perfectly.

It's the lighting from some sort of lamp I have above my monitor....didn't notice the alignment till you'd mentioned it.

 

[RaceT3ch]

ROG Phone 6
I want the huge battery and Snapdragon, that's it.

 

[Dave65]

I have the s24 Ultra and the Pixel 9 Pro XL. I use the Pixel dad to day just because it feels so good one handed... Not into gaming but love photography and both these phones do well with that. IMO!

 

[RaceT3ch]

I have the s24 Ultra and the Pixel 9 Pro XL. I use the Pixel dad to day just because it feels so good one handed... Not into gaming but love photography and both these phones do well with that. IMO!

How's 8G3 and Galaxy AI?

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Just got a galaxy s24 today, SM-S921B/DS Really impressed with the circle to search. Only needed a normal sized phone so did not need to get reamed for the ultra, this is perfectly fine.