2018-07-11 03:44:23

@pulseman45 you're right. a lot of features from other manufacturers' skins have later been integrated into pure Android. And yeah it's a bit of a pain that even the Pixel phones or the Android One phones receive system updates for only two years and security updates for 3. I suppose the argument of the manufacturers is that after that time, a new software update would slow down your phone and therefore hinder your user experience. And once again, you're right about ROMs being a way to deal with this, and get the latest and greatest of Android on your phone, but I see you're also aware of the risks of installing a ROM.

@Omar Alvarado unfortunately, phones tend to become slow over time. That could be one reason for the slow down of your keyboard. You can either try different keyboard apps from the Play Store (I like Google's own keyboard, Gboard, or Swiftkey), or for something more radical you can do a factory reset on your phone. If you do the factory reset, however, all your data (pictures, files, saved passwords etc) will be lost, so you'll need to back them up first.

2018-07-11 14:13:46

Hi,
I actually went a step further and installed a clean ROM of android 6.01 so, there's very little bloat on this device.
The phone was rarely used actually only used it for a handful of days and that was it, I put it back on a shelf and it sat there for quite a long time with the battery removed, until recently.
I'd really like some kind of braille input keyboard, as I'm most used to that from iOS, though it seems the only ones or really only one, is quite drifty.

2018-07-13 13:47:04 (edited by pulseman45 2018-07-13 22:12:00)

Yes, the fact IPhones are updated for a longer period might make their price tag a bit more justified, but we know how it can go sometimes. I hope after IOS 9 getting available on the 4S nothing that bad happened, but I don't know. The slowdowns they integrated due to defective batteries don't count, though due to the way Apple handled the thing they arguably counted much more than they should have.
Too bad installing a rom on an Android is such a double-edged sword especially on the first times, things would be interesting if we lived in a perfect world in which each Android user knew how to do it. Or maybe not, as some manufacturer are starting to lock up that possibility, most notably Huawei who did that recently.

2018-07-15 21:46:00

I can not recommend anything modern motorola, and here's why.
There update policy is basically non-existent. For $250 on initial purchase, your lucky if you get one update. Otherwise, I hope you like the OS it comes with, or you feel like rooting a brand new phone, or waiting a year to get your update.
So add motorola to the list of brands to avoid if you can, unless you really, really, really want to root a brand new phone.
That being said, I'm avoiding samsung and now motorola, what phones would you guys recommend for under $250? I'm with boost though boost is using sprint's lower networks.
I'm ideally looking for a phone with a fingerprint sensor and decent battery life, and optionally an sd card slot.
Thanks and hope this helps in some way!

2018-07-16 12:05:04 (edited by pulseman45 2018-07-16 12:05:45)

I don't really know what you can find at this price, except from Huawei and Xiaomi, for which I don't know much about their update policy. Well, the Huawei P10 Lite only received Oreo very recently, so it's not very good in this range. I guess you may now find the Nokia 6.1 in that price range.
If not, maybe you may wait for releases of Nokia 3.1 and 5.1 or Xiaomi Mi A2. But other than that I don't know too much what to recommand except Nokia 6.1, in hope that it's battery life is good enough.

2018-07-16 14:26:49

From what I know, it is good, I am waiting for Nokia 3.1 just because it will probably have a finger print sensir,

I am myself and noone is ever gonna change me, I am the trolling master!

2018-07-16 15:09:43

I'd be surprised if it doesn't have one.
Also, for the moment I avoid Motorola for the same reason that was said earlier. It's sad, it would have been cool to see another strong rivalry between Nokia and Motorola due to there appearant similarity in terms of software, and I guess that rivalry does somewhat exists at least in the mid-range segment, but Nokia really seems to be the best of the two by now.

2018-07-16 22:17:49

My Nokia 3, the simple model does not have a fingerprint sensor, but yeah, for what I payed, like 100 pounds or something similar, got a 64 gigs Kingston sd card and after that it rocks still better than a j5 2017 for example, I compared them recently.
And at that price, I still get security updates and I talked with Nokia suport and it will get probably android p.

I am myself and noone is ever gonna change me, I am the trolling master!

2018-07-18 18:03:26

Omar I'm curious to know what you're choosing to avoid Samsung... if it's the keyboard issue, it that is probably solvable with another keyboard... and that is hardly the phone's fault. lol Samsung may take a while to get the updates out as well, but half of that is due to carriers as well... I'm just curious to know why you're choosing to lump Samsung in with Motorola as the two sufer from entirely different issues and Samsung is nowehere near as bad. I love my galaxy s8...

Discord: clemchowder633

2018-07-18 20:43:44

Regarding phones having only 2 years of android support, What about installing lineage OS and flashing talkback on it? (however that is done, I don't know because im  not an android user)
has anybody done this? installing lineage after not receiving any updates from the phone manufacturor

twitter: @hadirezae3
discord: Hadi

2018-07-19 01:38:21

Hi @hadi.gsf. I personally hadn't heard of lineage OS before, but as far as I know TalkBack is part of Android so no need to flash it. You just install the ROM and should be good to go. I could be wrong though.

2018-07-19 05:51:07 (edited by assault_freak 2018-07-19 05:51:26)

Talkback comes preloaded on certain phones, but not all. Some phones require you to download it from the google play store separately though that's becoming less and les common.

Discord: clemchowder633

2018-07-19 07:31:31

regarding lineage OS, my research revieled that, They can't put google talkback in it because it needs some dependencies that is lisenced by google and they can't have it in lineage.
Their other option is to include the open source version of talkback which is on version 5, and they decided to not do this for whatever reason.
so lineage does not have  talkback. But apparently it's a popular choice

twitter: @hadirezae3
discord: Hadi

2018-07-19 10:06:45

Yeah I don't know any newer phones that don't have Talkback in them, that used to be a much bigger problem. I'm sure they're definitely out there though.

2018-07-19 14:23:50

I know a few people who are blind who use Lineage OS and still use Talkback, so either there is a way to download talkback as is, or they're happy with the older version... but I'm speculating. I love my phone the way it is, and don't really have an interesting in flashing it with a rom.

Discord: clemchowder633