So, I thought I’d kick things off here with some community building.
Quote this post with answers to the below!
What phone are you using?
Are you happy with it? What are its best and worst qualities?
Which phones have you had previously? Which were the best and worst of the lot?
How often do you upgrade to a new phone?
What other Android ecosystem devices do you have? Watches, headphones/earbuds, etc.
Do you also use any Apple products, or are you Android all the way? (And/or Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, etc.)
Well, to be honest, I’m using an iPhone 6S. I want to switch to an Android phone, but I really want one with a headphone jack, an easily-replaceable battery, /e/ support, and good enough specs to last several years with multiple major OS updates. The Fairphone 4 looked great until I found out about the headphone jack being absent. Well, that and if anything was wrong with it, I’d be screwed. I’ve read about enough Fairphone defects to not want to have one imported.
I came pretty close to buying a Sony Xperia 5 III about six months ago, but I decided against it due to the battery being annoyingly difficult to replace.
Shift phone seems like an interesting Fairphone alternative, but availability in the US seems tough. Hopefully the new EU law on replaceable batteries will make improve the situation worldwide.
Yeah, I’ve heard about Shiftphone. It might be possible to have a company like Clove ship one to me, but exchanges would likely take ages, which is one of the reasons why I haven’t just had a Fairphone imported by Clove. Ideally, I’d like to be able to go the store where I bought the phone if I need to get an exchange.
Hopefully, companies won’t either make EU-specific phones with replaceable batteries or remove the headphone jack to make room. I’m mostly optimistic, but a also little concerned.