Cell Phones??

[Bill Dufour]

The radiation thing is for emitted radiation when in use. It is not emitting when it is in your pocket, it is only receiving em waves then.
Bill D

[Curt Harms]

I recently went through the same ordeal with my old flip phone!

I'm not one to be glued to a cell phone like some people seem to be, but I figured it was finally time to get my first smart phone!
I ended up getting a Motorola One 5G Ace and it's been an on-going battle trying to figure everything out!

Eventually I'll probably get use-to-it! But talk about trying to teach an old dog a new trick!
These smart phones are like mini laptops that can also make phone calls.

I'm also trying to figure out how to carry one around, most of the time I just leave it in the center console of my car.

Doug

This is one of the advantages of an unlocked phone. The ones I've looked at come with Google's apps and that's it. No carrier crap. Even Google's stuff is more than I'd prefer but better than the carrier locked phones.

[Curt Harms]

The more I read here the more questions I come up with. First as I said back pocket will not work. The front pocket thing brings up the theory about radiation around the male organs. at one time the big concern with cell phones was brain cancer being so close to ear when used. Is this theory still in play?? I wear jeans alot so front pocket won't work either. They should make pants with side pockets. I do not wear cargo pants. All these decisions for a phone.

I think the radiation fears are overstated, maybe by a lot. This is what my layman self thinks he knows. There are at least two kinds of radiation, ionizing and non-ionizing. Ionizing radiation is the one you want to limit exposure to - think like X rays and gamma rays. Those are known to have health risks in larger doses. Non ionizing radiation is around us every day. Cell phone radiation is non ionizing and outputs minuscule power. Otherwise the batteries would last seconds or minutes instead of days. Here is easy to understand info on radiation we're exposed to in our daily lives.
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/n...radiation.html

[Brian Elfert]

This is one of the advantages of an unlocked phone. The ones I've looked at come with Google's apps and that's it. No carrier crap. Even Google's stuff is more than I'd prefer but better than the carrier locked phones.

You might not get any carrier specific apps with unlocked, but many phone manufacturers put their own interface on top of Android. An unlocked phone generally still has any manufacturer add-ons. The Google Pixel phones are pure Android.

[Jim Becker]

You might not get any carrier specific apps with unlocked, but many phone manufacturers put their own interface on top of Android. An unlocked phone generally still has any manufacturer add-ons. The Google Pixel phones are pure Android.

This is very true in the Android world. There are few choices outside of the Pixel series that is pure Android. If I were ever forced to leave the Apple ecosystem (not going to happen...) Pixel would be my device of choice.

[Michael Schuch]

I switched my service from Verizon to Mint 6 months ago. I have been quite happy with them and their 5g service that runs on the T-Mobile network. I just cut them a payment for $480 for 2 lines at 10Gb a line, unlimited text/calling for an entire year of service. I can cancel and get a remainder of my money back. $20 a month per line is a fraction of what I paid at Verizon for 2GB a month shared data.

This is one of the reasons I never buy a phone from a carrier. I can switch any time I want to.

I love my Top of the line LG V60 that was introduced 2 years ago. I paid $197 for it in Mint condition 6 months ago from a seller on Swappa when we switched from Verizon to Mint. The LG is no longer a bleeding edge phone but I like it considerably better than my daughters Samsung S21.

I gave up on Samsung phones when they dropped support for 1/8" headphone jacks. I also have no interest in phones without a micro-SD memory card slot. I like being able to save a copy of photos on the internal memory as well as the Micro-SD memory card as an instantaneous backup. I could probably run over my phone with my car and still be able to pull the micro SD card out and retrieve all of my snap shots and other important files off of it.

[Lee DeRaud]

I gave up on Samsung phones when they dropped support for 1/8" headphone jacks. I also have no interest in phones without a micro-SD memory card slot. I like being able to save a copy of photos on the internal memory as well as the Micro-SD memory card as an instantaneous backup.

When did that happen? My (admittedly bottom-end) 2021 Samsung A01 has both headphone jack and micro-SD slot.
(The latter isn't obvious: it's on the same slide-out widget that holds the SIM card.)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

We got Samsung S-21s in March. They don't have either a 1/8" jack or a place for a micro-SD card. The S-5 I used prior to the S-21 had both.

[Larry Frank]

There is a small adapter for the USB port to headphone jack. But using Bluetooth is so much easier.

I have the Samsung S21 Ultra and it has 12 GB of memory . I love the phone especially the camera.

The attached picture was taken from inside the house sitting in my lounger, thru the window and 25 feet away.

20220522_181617.jpg

[Michael Schuch]

I have some high end over the ears real headphones that I really enjoy. LG brags about their high quality DAC's in their high end phones. I agree with them that their high end DAC does sound quite good. Ear buds don't do it for me. A port adapter from USB to 1/8" stereo is WAY too much of a nuisance for me. I honestly can't understand why people would put up with such nonsense!

What really made me angry with Samsung was several years ago when they quit making the phone batteries user replaceable (Galaxy Note 5 era). People may remember how well that worked for them (they ended up buying them all back due to fire liability issues). LG continued with user replaceable batteries for a few years longer than Samsung which is why I switched to LG phones. I usually keep my phones a lot longer than when the next super hyped phone comes out. With user replaceable batteries I didn't have to worry about battery ageing. If a battery gets weak just put a new one in. Unfortunately LG stopped making user replaceable batteries after their LG V20 (my previous phone). Begrudgingly I had to upgrade to a 5G phone 6 months ago or I would still be VERY happily using my old LG V20.

For photographs I prefer a real camera. Phone cameras are good for snap shots which I do appreciate. Over hyped phone cameras with a ton of automated image manipulation is not what a consider a photography instrument. But the computer enhanced snap shots are fine if you are only going to view them on your phone or post them on the internet. When I need to read the motor spec plate which is facing down under my lathe I certainly don't pull out a real camera for such tasks.

Do most android users want an iPhone knock off in their Android phones? This seems to be the direction Samsung is heading and other manufactures are mindlessly following. If I wanted an iPhone experience I would buy a darned iPhone!

[Greg Funk]

The radiation thing is for emitted radiation when in use. It is not emitting when it is in your pocket, it is only receiving em waves then.
Bill D

It it's receiving it's also transmitting. That said, the amount of radiation is miniscule.

[Rob Luter]

iPhone 12. Fits in my pocket well. I use it for calls, texting, and email.

[Curt Harms]

You might not get any carrier specific apps with unlocked, but many phone manufacturers put their own interface on top of Android. An unlocked phone generally still has any manufacturer add-ons. The Google Pixel phones are pure Android.

So are Nokia as far as I know. There are notes and wallpaper apps that I didn't install. I don't know if those are from Google or not. The other pre-installed apps appear to be Google.

[Gustav Gabor]

A few months ago I changed from an Apple product (Iphone 7) to Android. Pain in the a$$ to move all the info, but in this case, well worth it.
I didn't go with the usual Samsung or similar choices though.

I bought a rugged phone, specifically an AGM Glory Pro. (yeah I know, not the best name!)

It's a 5G phone running on Android 11.

It's a big, heavy beast, but has pretty much everything and then some, compared to the top name cell phones.

The selling feature for me was an amazing built in thermal camera, the best available in a phone currently.

It also has a fantastic infrared night vision camera, and the loudest speaker you've ever heard on a phone!!
256GB storage with an expandable SD card slot for a total of 512GB.
Battery life is very, very good, and works down to -27C for a full day, and even at -40C for over an hour.
Has a bright flashlight located at the top of the phone, so it's not as awkward as on most other phones.
Totally waterproof and freezeproof too.

It's not particularly cheap (but cheaper than new Iphones!)

A bit cumbersome to fit in the front pocket, but I got used to it pretty quick. Everyone thinks there's a case on it, but it's all built into the phone.
Since it's usually in my pocket, the thermal imaging camera in the phone has been exceptionally helpful in finding heat loss, finding studs, plumbing vent lines, water leaks, electrical issues, taking thermal pictures of the wife, etc...

Other manufacturers also make cell phones with built in thermal cameras, such as CAT, Blackview, Ulefone, and now Infiray (the maker of the actual thermal imager inside the AGM Glory Pro phone) has come out with their own version, the Infiray PX1.
To my knowledge, the AGM and Infiray have the highest quality imagers built into a phone currently.
Some of those other manufacturers have the Flir imager with the image outlines, which can be quite handy, but the resolution and refresh rate on those are less than half of the AGM and Infiray.

I apologize if this is sounding like a cheesy ad, but so far I'm quite happy with this tank of a phone!
Just thought I'd add phones with thermal cameras into the conversation, in case anyone other than me has a use for such a device....

[Michael Schuch]

I bought a rugged phone, specifically an AGM Glory Pro. (yeah I know, not the best name!)

I apologize if this is sounding like a cheesy ad, but so far I'm quite happy with this tank of a phone!
Just thought I'd add phones with thermal cameras into the conversation, in case anyone other than me has a use for such a device....

I always appreciate hearing about products I have never heard of before and I always appreciate hearing peoples impressions of them. Especially thigs like less than main stream smart phones.