Ask HN: What phone(s) do you use?

4 points by butterNaN ↗ HN
I would assume the subjects of the survey (you) to be privacy-valuing, security-aware, and overall technology-conscious folks. I am interested in knowing how this compares to general consumer market.

14 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 33.9 ms ] thread
Anything not Android or iOS, no matter how old.
(comment deleted)
Motorola G52. It's my second Moto after One Action (I would buy it again with G52 CPU and RAM instantly) since I moved away from iPhones. I consider Moto the next best thing in terms of security and bang for a buck. iPhones got ridiculously expensive and I genuinely get more useful for me features from Motorola. As for security I don't trust anything that comes from China so I avoid Xiaomi, Huawei, Honor, Oppo, realme etc. I also avoid Samsung but that's my personal, subjective decision because of my personal bad track record with Samsung devices. I also avoid Google branded phones because of many reports that their software get significantly slower over time.

Why Motorola?

- pretty clean version of Android

- fairly fast updates (at least that how it was in Android One program)

- gestures

- good price to value ratio

Have you considered flashing a Google Pixel with GrapheneOS? Maybe it won’t slow down with that, I’m not sure? And it’s very secure too.
No but I don't want to fiddle with this software. My phone have to work and I don't want troubleshoot it when I'm in the middle of nowhere when it dies. Some of bank apps also don't want to work on non official or rooted systems.
Just upgraded from Samsung Note 9 to Samsung S22 Ultra.

I know, not exactly "value", but I love having the pen.

Xiaomi Mi A1; bought it about 3 years ago and it's been working great so far, I had a few issues with the screen ghost-touching about a month ago, I had started looking for new phones and it fixed itself.

Camera is great for my needs, battery as well, it's the perfect size not too big nor tiny like the iPhones, I don't game or do anything intensive in my phone, mostly maps, texting, reading, etc. so it's perfect, also it has Android One (pure Android) the only thing I'd love to have is NFC.

Maybe if I lived in a more "1st world country" I'd have changed the phone by now, but phones like the Pixel or high-end Samsung devices are way too expensive for my needs, and comparing with low/mid tier phones currently in the market... I'd rather stay with the Xiaomi till it stops working.

iPhone 13. Wouldn’t change it for anything else other than a newer iPhone.
> privacy-valuing, security-aware

Somewhat.

My solution is to hide in the pack and commit to really good opsec on an ad-hoc basis when truly necessary AND auto updates with an eye to security updates and lack of security support.

Pixel 3XL, Pixel 5, iPhone 9

iPhone 13 Pro. It just works.

I'd love a non-spying Android phone that effectively required zero fiddling with, but I haven't found it yet. Yes, I've even tried a Pixel with LineageOS.