[deep_blue]

The front camera of my s22 ultra has stopped working after the latest update in end October, get a 'Camera failed' message. Has anyone faced the issue & managed to resolve?

[Torque_Curve]

I have a OnePlus 7T purchased approximately 3 years ago. I wanted to replace the battery at an authorised service centre but they claim that production of the model and battery have stopped, hence it is unavailable.
Wanted to understand from members here if there is a norm to have spare parts up to a particular period, similar to car OEMs having a rule of supplying parts for 15 years after the last unit is produced?

[krankstter]

Dear BHPians,

I can see that a lot of people have been happy with Samsung and are recommending them in this forum.

I would like to request people to avoid buying phones with Exynos chipsets, or any chipsets which are manufactured by Samsung. India is a relatively hot country, and these chips are known to heat up quite a bit.

In addition, I don't know what battery technology Samsung uses, but they don't seem to be fully stable. Please refer below video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfM0GqsIB6c

I'm not a Samsung hater, I use an S23 myself. But I think people who are buying should be fully aware about these things before making a purchase decision. Hence highlighting the same.

Samsung is very good with their software updates. The only problem is that, down the line, if you don't have a decently capable enough chipset, your device tends to slow down significantly on newer OS versions. So, if you have a 30-40k budget for a mobile, I recommend something a bit more powerful and robust than a Samsung device with Exynos chipsets.

Some good alternatives, Oneplus nord 3, Nord CE3, 11R, Moto Edge 30 series, Moto Edge 40 neo, Iqoo Z7 pro, Iqoo Neo 7 and Neo 7 pro.

If you need the longest lasting devices, Redmi phones are great, although Chinese, these things refuse to die. MiUI is also very good but this is subjective. I would prefer stock OS over anything else but OneUI and MiUI are both great with optimizations.

Avoid Realme, the UI optimization is terrible with Ads and popular streaming apps crash in some unique cases.

The tensor chip in Pixel 7A is also made by Samsung and is notorious for overheating. If you cannot compromise on photo quality and if you operate in an air-conditioned environment, this might be a perfect fit for you. Please avoid this device in any other cases.

[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by krankstter

Dear BHPians,
I would like to request people to avoid buying phones with Exynos chipsets, or any chipsets which are manufactured by Samsung. India is a relatively hot country, and these chips are known to heat up quite a bit.

Thanks for sharing this. I use a Samsung A54 with Exynos chipset and I see the phone heating up on heavy usage with multiple apps running, which is fine with me as my usage is not heavy. Maybe the slow charging used by Samsung compared to other phones with fast charging is because of these inherent risks.

The mitigation as per the video is to charge the phone well within 100% limit. My son has set charging limit of his Samsung M34 to 85% as a good practice to prolong battery life. Seems that good practice applies for the long life of the user without any mishaps with swollen battery.

[krankstter]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

Seems that good practice applies for the long life of the user without any mishaps with swollen battery.

This practice is recommended for all batteries in general. Not getting into the technical aspects of it but batteries are comfy when between 15% to 80%. So this protect battery feature of Samsung is great. Even apple slows down charging speeds of their iPhones considerably after 85% if I'm not wrong.

I used the protect battery on my S23 for a while now and disabled it recently. Buying 100% of a phone and using only 85% of it feels a bit weird actually. IMHO, I feel like this aspect of mobile phones could be engineered better, I don't know how, but with their resources, just invent something already.

[Haque]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Now looking at Moto Edge 40 and Egde 40 neo.

Purchased the Moto Edge 40 at Reliance Digital, over the weekend. Happy to get back into the Moto fold and the nearly stock android. Display is great, device is lightweight and has a reasonably good camera.

A big disappointment is that Android Auto is not available on this OR I have still not figured out despite much endeavor a way to pair it with the Ertiga.

[DetectiveMiles]

Originally Posted by krankstter

I can see that a lot of people have been happy with Samsung and are recommending them in this forum.

My 2 cents,

I haven't had heating issue with Exynos chipsets till now. Have used S6, S7 Edge, S10 Plus with Exynos and now using S23 Ultra with Qualcomm. I have noticed heating is common and temperatures are about 3 degree more than outside temperature. If you are using camera on hot day, any phone heats significantly and battery drains. Seen this in iPhone too. But phone cools down in no time after your usage reduces as per my personal experience. As far as video is concerned, I felt it is more of a clickbait as I had seen it before buying my latest phone.

[krankstter]

Originally Posted by DetectiveMiles

As far as video is concerned, I felt it is more of a clickbait as I had seen it before buying my latest phone.

I have personally experienced battery issues with Samsung. My mom's old galaxy S4 had a swollen battery within 2 years of use. A friends A-series Samsung also had the same issue. The only other brand that I've seen swollen batteries in consistently is Huawei's Honor. The back panels pop out after a while, so it would be harder to ignore with each passing day. If you're someone who uses a single mobile phone for 3-5 years continuously, there is a potential chance for this to repeat.

I don't think this is a clickbait video, but I do see where this is coming from. Mr. WhoseTheBoss is a known apple fanboy, and he might have shot this video to convince a small percentage of Samsung users to potentially switch over to Apple. However, since I've personally experienced these battery swelling issues, it would be hard for me to ignore this video when recommending the Exynos chipsets. Too much heat degrades battery life.

All I'm saying is, take every suggestion and observation regarding Samsung devices with a pinch of salt. The only scenario in which I could justify someone using Exynos Samsung devices is when they're primarily using their phone in air-conditioned environments.

Pros: Hassle-free software experience

Cons: Exynos Chips overheat, Battery issues (might be QC issues), Other better value products for this price.

[poloman]

All Samsung flagships suffer from battery expansion and back cover popping out issues. Authorized service centers were unable to glue it back in my case. Had to use some local mobile shop service. That said Chinese android phones are worse and wont last more than 2 years.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I bounced from Pixel to Samsung, from Samsung to Moto, then back to Samsung.

Now I haven't a clue where to go! Back to Mi, perhaps. But all their phones seem to be too large.

[shipnil]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I bounced from Pixel to Samsung, from Samsung to Moto, then back to Samsung.

Now I haven't a clue where to go! Back to Mi, perhaps. But all their phones seem to be too large.

Thad, I think my preferences are similar to yours when it comes to phones but still I'd like to put in few thoughts here.

I had Mi phone till Diwali, which was 4 years old. It was going strong, except for degraded battery life, obviously. But the itch was there and I wanted to upgrade to a non-chinese phone this time around. I have a Samsung Tab for last couple of years which has One UI but I never enjoyed it. Too many notifications and some of which I cannot turn off. In MIUI, I could control each and every apps notifications. I'd anyday prefer MIUI over OneUI. So Samsung was out. So from Android universe only Pixels were left.

So I bought Pixel 7a last week. Also, at the same time, got a Redmi Note 12 Pro for my wife. Now the thoughts/comparisons started. I had moved from a phone that had 6.4 in screen to a 6.1 in screen. Although the difference is just 0.3 in, in usability it felt a lot. For startes, the app grid in home screen and app drawer had to be reduced from 5 to 4 apps per row. 5 apps were making the Pixel screen look cluttered. Also, the widgets were not fitting in due to the change in grid size. Some of widgets follow system theme while some follow the app theme, which makes it weird like when I use the app it might have light theme which prefer but the same apps widget has dark theme.

Pixel feels thicker compared to my wifes Note 12, and with the case on, it feels like phone from yesteryears. So from size perspective, I'd say it becomes difficult to go for small screen once you are used to a big screen phone.

The charging takes some 2 hours from 10 to 90% while my old phone used charge much faster. No comparison with my wifes phone as it has 67w charging speed.

The main usp of Pixels, the camera and the photo processing is there which I am yet to experience fully. Also, for UI, it is good but I will not go gaga over it compared to MIUI. I had used a Lineage OS device earlier, which was similar to stock android and each has something or the other.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by shipnil

Thad, I think my preferences are similar to yours when it comes to phones but still I'd like to put in few thoughts here.

Thanks very much. Do give another instalment of your thoughts, and comparison with the Redmi, as your experience grows!

My big problem with the Pixel 7a is the limitation to 128Gb with no expansion.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I bounced from Pixel to Samsung, from Samsung to Moto, then back to Samsung.

Now I haven't a clue where to go! Back to Mi, perhaps. But all their phones seem to be too large.

I feel your pain.

Take a quick glance at Nothing 2 as well. Since you are already bouncing around, what's another bounce?

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Thanks very much. Do give another instalment of your thoughts, and comparison with the Redmi, as your experience grows!

My big problem with the Pixel 7a is the limitation to 128Gb with no expansion.

Why not the new pixel 8 series. 7 years of updates guaranteed!

[krankstter]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

7 years of updates guaranteed!

Honestly, although I love the idea, this seems like a gimmick for the following reasons.

Having 7 years of updates can only mean that google has acknowledged their lack of innovation which can utilize powerful hardware. They're basically saying that for the next 7 years, our UI will only change so much that this existing hardware would be capable enough to power it.

Also, Android 11 -> 14 had bare minimum changes which would mean absolutely nothing to the average end user. Most of these are changes done to increase UI convenience (rearranging stuff and adding minor features here and there) and have minimal impact on a phone's performance. If they're committing to this style of UI development for the next 7 years, this can only mean that Google has given up on working towards new and innovative features. I'm a little scared what this would do to the UX and UI developers of Google. With resources at hand and no work to do, I feel like they'll turn this into another Instagram by just rearranging UI elements and breaking the rule of familiarity.

In case the aforementioned is not true, and they manage to bring in features which require powerful processing capabilities (only possible with more powerful AI integrations), this would slow down the Pixel 8 within max. 4-5 years of usage. Unless we are someone who's hyper patient with absolutely no urge to upgrade every once in 2-3 years, this phone would suddenly stop making sense and start showing age.

Batteries give out way earlier than 7 years, Google's service network is not strong enough to address and replace potential customers who would just like a battery replacement instead of a new device. The customer count who'd want a battery replacement would increase in case the phone's performance doesn't degrade with OTA updates.

Camera glass scratches, no matter how powerful or scratch resistant they make their camera glass covers, they are bound to get scratched up over time thereby reducing the image quality. This in turn puts more strain on the CPU to correct images (assuming they bring in more powerful AI), thereby putting more strain on the battery as well.

This 7 years is literally nothing but a marketing number. Now that people started understanding that 12-16-20GB of RAM is pure marketing using numbers, Google moved the number game to software support duration.

One good thing that can come out of this (similar to when apple first launched the iPhone X at $999 and then Samsung and other flagship mobile manufacturers were forced to price their products higher than anticipated only to prove that they're no less than an iPhone); this would cause an opposite effect here. Samsung and other manufacturers would be forced to offer greater software support duration as well. How this shapes the market can either turn out to be a hyper boring situation, or a massive move towards a new era of mobiles.

Back when I was in school (somewhere around 2012-14), I used to dream of a day where we have holographic mobile phones being the norm somewhere around 2030. And Google is out here killing people's dreams by offering 7 years of software support to the same old hardware.

Get Real Google.