Ranting about modern phones

23 Aug 2021

A brief timeline

Back in the days, I used to have a portative MP4 player. It was simple, I could plug it to my computer, browse it's content and add new songs/videos.

Then, I got an iPhone (4th gen, I think): to do the same thing, I had to use iTunes…

Then, I got my first Android phone (OnePlus X): I used to copy songs to an SD card which I then plugged into the phone.

For the past 2 years, I've been using a Pixel 3. Long story short: it's a nightmare.

• No jack output
  • I have to use a stupid USB-C to jack adapter or wireless headphones — no thanks for that last option.
  • I can't listen to music and charge the phone at the same time.
  • It's advertised as a way to make the phone thinner. My OnePlus X is as thin if not thinner with the jack output and none of these problems. Plus I don't care about how thick is my phone.
• No SD card slot, which means I have to use the MTP. It's full of bugs and almost never works (from my experience).
• Recent Android version (9, I think). Makes me feel like I'm being spied on in every way possible with all those Google things.
• About one day of battery. I could do — and still can — at least 5 days with my OnePlus.
• It's getting slower and slower… when it works…¹

We used to have simple things that worked. Now we have complex pieces of bloatware selling themselves as “intelligent devices” but that won't allow you to do what you want with them. It's sad.

On my OnePlus, I flashed Lineage OS with no Google apps. Even tho it's older and has poorer specs compared to the Pixel 3, it runs way better.

I come to the conclusion

People seem to thrive for technological “advancement”, but part of what they're doing is make things harder to use if not unusable.

This applies to the real world too. And sure, some might say “yeah we use MTP for security”, to which I'd like to reply “not my problem if you plug your phone anywhere”.

And a few more complaints about recent mobile phones

• Not a tool anymore — a tool gets the work done, it does not try to seduce you
• It gathers considerable amount of data on your usage
• No root access means you're not the owner of your phone, the manufacturer is
• Inefficient, bloated code (AOSP — Android Open Source Project, is around 150GB of code… for a phone operating system)
• It has sucked life out of majority of people: look at the zombie crowd holding their phones out there!
• More to come…

What to do?

I guess one could install an alternative operating system on their phone. It would solve at least a few of the previously mentioned problems. I'm thinking about flashing my Pixel with Calyx OS or Graphene OS.

One could also take a first step into “better” phone usage by trying to switch away from all G-Apps (feaseable, I've done it).