When I rarely used the phone, its speed building and displaying screens
didn't bother me. Now I'm getting impatient. Is there a difference in
processor speed between cheap phones and expensive ones, or between
phones that are 3 years old versus new ones? Enough that the phone
would work noticeably quicker, for example, when switching to google
maps and waiting while it seems to be, one stage at a time, buiding the
screen it displays?

Am 01.04.22 um 10:04 schrieb micky:
> When I rarely used the phone, its speed building and displaying screens
> didn't bother me. Now I'm getting impatient. Is there a difference in
> processor speed between cheap phones and expensive ones, or between
> phones that are 3 years old versus new ones? Enough that the phone
> would work noticeably quicker, for example, when switching to google
> maps and waiting while it seems to be, one stage at a time, buiding the
> screen it displays?

That is exactly what differentiates high end-smartphones from cheaper
ones. You pay for advanced hardware that guarantees snappiness, speed
and more storage capacity. And the life cycle is considerably longer as
well as the support with updates.

--
De gustibus non est disputandum

In comp.mobile.android, on Fri, 1 Apr 2022 11:11:08 +0200, Joerg Lorenz
<hugybear@gmx.ch> wrote:

>Am 01.04.22 um 10:04 schrieb micky:
>> When I rarely used the phone, its speed building and displaying screens
>> didn't bother me. Now I'm getting impatient. Is there a difference in
>> processor speed between cheap phones and expensive ones, or between
>> phones that are 3 years old versus new ones? Enough that the phone
>> would work noticeably quicker, for example, when switching to google
>> maps and waiting while it seems to be, one stage at a time, buiding the
>> screen it displays?
>
>
>That is exactly what differentiates high end-smartphones from cheaper
>ones. You pay for advanced hardware that guarantees snappiness, speed
>and more storage capacity. And the life cycle is considerably longer as
>well as the support with updates.

Makes sense. I'm probably going to buy another phone and I'll bear t his
in mind.

actually have 2 phones now, one 3 years old and one 2 years old (bought
for a trip that was postponed by two years.) . I had to buy the 3-year
old phone in Europe when my rentacar was broken into and the phone was
stolen. Then back in the USA, i bought a better one, more suited to
the USA iiuc, but decided to use the "European" phone again when I went
to Europe this year. It's also thinner and lighter, because of the
battery I think.

Then I rented a bicycle and 40 minutes later fell off it. Even though I
landed on cement, I was totally uninjured, unbruised, but the phone
landed on little stones and I in the bottom 3rd of the screen I have
about 25 pits and 2 cracks all across the screen. Mostly noticeable
when the phone is off. I don't think any of the phones problems are
related to pitting or breaking the screen.

But I suspect this phone will fail completely. I brought the other
phone with me, but I don't want to dmage two phones on one trip. And
it's heavier. So I'll keep using the broken one u ntil I get home.
Maybe the second phone is faster, and if not, I guess I'll buy something
better before next year's trip, which may be my last so I'm willing to
splurge.

Also the current phone has some idiosyncyrcies that I think will go away
when thy update google maps. When I figur e out how I get into t he
mess (where the screen is frozen) I'll try it on the other phone and
then I'll whine about it heree.

Am 01.04.22 um 19:58 schrieb micky:
> I was totally uninjured, unbruised, but the phone
> landed on little stones and I in the bottom 3rd of the screen I have
> about 25 pits and 2 cracks all across the screen.

Happened to me at the beginning of my smartphone career. Then I started
to buy always a high quality leather protection covers for my phones.
Keep your fingers crossed: It never happened to me anymore.

And I seriously hope you wore long pants and a protection helmet for
your head when you climbed on the bicycle ...

--
De gustibus non est disputandum

On 4/1/2022 1:04 AM, micky wrote:
> When I rarely used the phone, its speed building and displaying screens
> didn't bother me. Now I'm getting impatient. Is there a difference in
> processor speed between cheap phones and expensive ones, or between
> phones that are 3 years old versus new ones?

Huge differences. The low-end phones are especially slow.

Samsung makes it more difficult, with their A series, by having some low
end phones like the A32 5G with the MediaTek MT6853 (Antutu score of
226561), but some mid-range phones like the A52 5G with a Qualcomm
SM7225 and a 71% faster processor (Antutu score of 386474). OTOH, the
S22 Ultra with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 got a score of 909053.

As to what's a minimum acceptable score, I don't know. I have one 5G
phone that got a score of 331854 and I don't notice any lag, but I'm not
doing gaming. I previously had some LG Stylo phones that were painfully
slow, with an Antutu score of 39702.

Benchmarks are useful to at least give you some idea of which phones are
really slow.

I think that I'd stick with a phone that uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon
7xx or 8xx series, and that of course has a headphone jack and a MicroSD
card slot.

sms wrote:

> I think that I'd stick with a phone that uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon
> 7xx or 8xx series, and that of course has a headphone jack and a MicroSD
> card slot.

Starting point? Dunno.
a. At least a 5Amp Hour battery & a phablet size for old eyes
b. At minimum an 8-core CPU with at least 4GB RAM & at least 64GB storage
c. Nowadays, at minimum 5G & and sdslot & headphone jack

Anything more is gravy.

Nothing wrong with more power, more memory, bigger screens, faster displays,
etc., but the handful of _free_ 64GB Samsung A32-5G phones T-Mobile gave me
work just fine for what I use them for.

My specs?
Don't even know them.

For a $200 phone, they're just fine (I didn't pay that but that's what they
are on Amazon according to the link below - and at $135 on Ebay).

Let me look them up and post them, but for me, the specs are fine.
<https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a32_5g-10648.php>

GSM / CDMA / HSPA / LTE / 5G
BODY Dimensions 164.2 x 76.1 x 9.1 mm (6.46 x 3.00 x 0.36 in)
Weight 205 g (7.23 oz)
Build Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), plastic frame, plastic back
SIM Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
DISPLAY Type TFT LCD, 60Hz (International), 90Hz (SM-A326U only)
Size 6.5 inches, 102.0 cm2 (~81.6% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution 720 x 1600 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~270 ppi density)
PLATFORM OS Android 11, One UI 3.1
Chipset MediaTek MT6853 Dimensity 720 5G (7 nm)
CPU Octa-core (2x2.0 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55)
GPU Mali-G57 MC3
MEMORY Card slot microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot)
Internal 64GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM
MAIN CAMERA Quad 48 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF
8 MP, f/2.2, 123˚, (ultrawide), 1/4.0", 1.12µm
5 MP, f/2.4, (macro)
2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)
Features LED flash, panorama, HDR
Video 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/120fps
SELFIE CAMERA Single 13 MP, f/2.2, (wide), 1/3.1", 1.12µm
Video 1080p@30fps
SOUND Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes
COMMS WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE
GPS Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
NFC Yes (market/region dependent)
Radio FM radio
USB USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go
FEATURES Sensors Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, compass
Virtual proximity sensing
BATTERY Type Li-Ion 5000 mAh, non-removable
Charging Fast charging 15W
MISC Colors Awesome Black, Awesome White, Awesome Blue, Awesome Violet
Models SM-A326B, SM-A326B/DS, SM-A326BR/DS, SM-A326BR, SM-A326U, SM-A326W,
SM-A326U1
SAR EU 0.33 W/kg (head) 1.08 W/kg (body)
Price $ 135.00 / C$ 453.48 / £ 229.00 / € 255.00
TESTS Performance AnTuTu: 226561 (v8)
GeekBench: 1673 (v5.1)
Display Contrast ratio: 1470:1 (nominal)
Camera Photo / Video
Loudspeaker -28.5 LUFS (Average)
Battery life
Endurance rating 123h

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> sms wrote:
>
>> I think that I'd stick with a phone that uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7xx

That feels enough for me, I don't do gaming on the phone.

>> or 8xx series, and that of course has a headphone jack and a MicroSD card slot.

I do get a headphone jack, but no SD slot, in fact the only smartphone I had
with a slot was my first one, back then with 0.5GB flash it was necessary, since
then each phone has at least doubled the flash capacity, and I've less than half
filled it before it gets replaced again, so I don't see the point of SD.

> Starting point? Dunno. a. At least a 5Amp Hour battery

New phone has 4600mAh, only had it a few days, usually you can't leave a new
phone alone for a couple of days, so it eats battery until you stop "fiddling"
with it.

Last 24 hours it's used 26% battery, so I'm expecting 3+ days of normal life
from it.

> & a phablet size for old eyes

Again every smart phone I've upgraded has been bigger than the previous, without
me actually wanting it to be, this doesn't have a chin or a notch, just a
holepunch camera, which I can put up with, it's physically 3/8" taller but gets
1" inch extra display height

This new one doesn't seem to make best use of the extra screen area, home screen
icons are too spaced out, yet (without changing launcher) I can't ask it to e.g.
fit in 6x6 icons instead of 5x5, I can only go down to 4x4 or lower

> b. At minimum an 8-core CPU with at least 4GB RAM & at least 64GB storage

going from 4GB to 6GB seems to help a lot with keeping multiple apps in memory.

> c. Nowadays, at minimum 5G & and sdslot & headphone jack

I now have 5G, my house isn't yet in coverage but the next door town is, and no
doubt it will creep this way, I found a street where it gets 345 Mbps download,
which is technically impressive but not very necessary for anything I do on a
phone (or even on my laptop, that 5G is 4x faster than my home broadband)

Andy Burns wrote:

>>> I think that I'd stick with a phone that uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7xx
>
> That feels enough for me, I don't do gaming on the phone.

Hi Andy,

It's good when people like you and me give our observations as none of us
know everything so it's nice to learn from others what their minimums are.

Similarly to you I don't do gaming either, and yet the CPU Steve deprecated
(on my free 64GB Samsung Galaxy A32-5G) is fast enough for me for what I do.

While a Tipo F140 65� V-angle Ferrari engine would be nice, I find a 3.5L V6
Ford F150 engine works just fine for most of my typical smartphone needs.

My A32-5G has the MT6853/NZA 8-core ARM CPU with 2 CPU clusters, 6 of which
are 2.00GHz ARM Cortex-A55 and two are 2.00GHz ARM Cortex-A76 architecture.

>>> or 8xx series, and that of course has a headphone jack and a MicroSD card slot.
>
> I do get a headphone jack, but no SD slot, in fact the only smartphone I had
> with a slot was my first one, back then with 0.5GB flash it was necessary, since
> then each phone has at least doubled the flash capacity, and I've less than half
> filled it before it gets replaced again...

In contrast, the _only_ Android phone I've ever had without SD was the $200
Moto-G from Google at that time, which by most accounts was a crappy phone.

> so I don't see the point of SD.

That statement frustrates me because the point of sd isn't extra storage.

I've said this many times but people don't understand the point of sd isn't
to expand your storage anymore (since almost none of us need more storage).

A 64GB phone, nowadays is free for many of us, where 128GB and 256GB abound.

Think about a USB thumb drive. Is the point to expand PC storage? No. Right?
The thumb drive is _portable_ storage.

People, for some reason, don't realize portable storage isn't the same thing
as storage. I don't know why they get that confused, but that's why it
frustrates me when people say they don't need more storage.

The whole point of sd, nowadays, is that it is _still_ portable storage.

>> Starting point? Dunno. a. At least a 5Amp Hour battery
>
> New phone has 4600mAh, only had it a few days, usually you can't leave a new
> phone alone for a couple of days, so it eats battery until you stop "fiddling"
> with it.

4.6 Amp hours is big enough. When I said starting point of 5 Amp Hours, I
mean "around that number", where 3 Amp hours is unacceptable, and, in
reality, anything less than about 4-1/2 Amp hours is pretty crappy nowadays.

The good news is most new Android phones are at least 4-1/2 Amp hours, where
I never knew how liberating it is until I got my A32-5G with 5 Amp hours.

> Last 24 hours it's used 26% battery, so I'm expecting 3+ days of normal life
> from it.

What I _love_ about the huge batteries in all modern phones nowadays is that
you don't _worry_ about the battery charge anymore. And, since they come
with fast chargers (most anyway), they charge to full in a couple of hours.

That's _liberating_ to me! Very enjoyable.

>> & a phablet size for old eyes
>
> Again every smart phone I've upgraded has been bigger than the previous, without
> me actually wanting it to be, this doesn't have a chin or a notch, just a
> holepunch camera, which I can put up with, it's physically 3/8" taller but gets
> 1" inch extra display height

The good news is that as our eyes get worse, the screens get bigger! :)

I've settled on the "phablet" size lately. Dunno if I want bigger or I'd
carry the iPad around with me (which I used to do on hikes but no more).

My screen is 6.5" at 720x1600 pixels where yours is likely better resolution
but I don't see any issues with 720p resolution as size matters more to me.

> This new one doesn't seem to make best use of the extra screen area, home screen
> icons are too spaced out, yet (without changing launcher) I can't ask it to e.g.
> fit in 6x6 icons instead of 5x5, I can only go down to 4x4 or lower

I have my Nova launcher "Desktop Grid" set to (let me look) "7x7" at
"Icon Layout" set to "125%, Labels On" & "Padding None".

Here is a random screenshot that shows the icon layout at 7x7.
<https://i.postimg.cc/T1CkDhcC/charging12.jpg>

Bear in mind that I drastically reduce the pixels in an uploaded image.

>> b. At minimum an 8-core CPU with at least 4GB RAM & at least 64GB storage
>
> going from 4GB to 6GB seems to help a lot with keeping multiple apps in memory.

There's no doubt more memory (up to a point) is better, where 6GB is really
nice, although I wonder if 12GB is overkill for an Android device?

I have only 4GB but even then, I don't notice it being 'too slow' for me, so
my recommendation for an "ok" phone is 4GB minimum (but 6GB is nice too!).

Often I use the "Close All" button because I sometimes seem to have a dozen
or so apps in the background, where I haven't seen any issues with speed
even with my rather tame 2GHz 8-core MediaTek CPU "Toyota Camry" engine.

>> c. Nowadays, at minimum 5G & and sdslot & headphone jack
>
> I now have 5G, my house isn't yet in coverage but the next door town is,

Be careful with the FCC maps as they don't have 5G on them (last I checked).
The Oookla maps do have 5G but it's all done by self reporting from the app.
<https://www.speedtest.net/ookla-5g-map>

I checked my area which has nice 5G coverage and it shows up as zero for all
three carriers so the Oookla map will only work in populated areas (where I
live in a decidedly unpopulated area that they don't want more people on).

> and no
> doubt it will creep this way, I found a street where it gets 345 Mbps download,
> which is technically impressive but not very necessary for anything I do on a
> phone (or even on my laptop, that 5G is 4x faster than my home broadband)

My 5G coverage is just getting better and better like yours will too.
What's strange is most of apps still call it "5G LTE" but some apps call it
"5G NSA". Does that make any sense (I can make screenshots for you)?

BTW, I'm lucky in that I'm on top of a mountain so I guess that helps to get
5G sooner even if there are no towers within miles as I can see LOS for, oh,
I don't know, 50 miles in every direction (maybe more, maybe less, I'm just
estimating). Even my WISP is miles away.
<https://i.postimg.cc/RZmtTPxj/apsixmilesaway.jpg>

I _know_ the towers are _miles_ away, so 5G works fine even at a few miles.
<https://i.postimg.cc/zf9w1tGZ/speedtest07.jpg>

My RSSI is about -85 to about -95 dBm most of the time.
<https://i.postimg.cc/gcsyc4Vn/speedtest04.jpg>

Do you have decibel reading of your typical carrier signal strength?

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> People, for some reason, don't realize portable storage isn't the same thing
> as storage. I don't know why they get that confused, but that's why it
> frustrates me when people say they don't need more storage.

The only phone I had with SD storage, you had to remove the battery to get at
the slot, and from what I see nowadays, you need to remove the SIM tray to
remove the SD, so hardly convenient.

> The good news is that as our eyes get worse, the screens get bigger! :)
>
> I've settled on the "phablet" size lately.

The days of single-handed operation are gone.

> Dunno if I want bigger or I'd
> carry the iPad around with me (which I used to do on hikes but no more).
>
> My screen is 6.5" at 720x1600 pixels where yours is likely better resolution

1080x2000

>> This new one doesn't seem to make best use of the extra screen area, home
>> screen icons are too spaced out, yet (without changing launcher) I can't ask
>> it to e.g. fit in 6x6 icons instead of 5x5, I can only go down to 4x4 or lower
>
> I have my Nova launcher "Desktop Grid" set to (let me look) "7x7" at "Icon
> Layout" set to "125%, Labels On" &  "Padding None".

Yes, I used to use Nova (and various other) launchers before, but quite like
Pixel Launcher now, guess it doesn't hurt to look as some others again.

> My 5G coverage is just getting better and better like yours will too.
> What's strange is most of apps still call it "5G LTE" but some apps call it "5G
> NSA". Does that make any sense (I can make screenshots for you)?

Is it down to sub-6 vs mmWave? we only have sub-6 in the UK, so I grey-imported
a Japanese Pixel 5a, the phone seems to call 5G "NR" internally

> Do you have decibel reading of your typical carrier signal strength?

About -97 dBm for an 800 MHz 4G/LTE base that's about 6 miles away

Andy Burns wrote:

> The only phone I had with SD storage, you had to remove the battery to get at
> the slot, and from what I see nowadays, you need to remove the SIM tray to
> remove the SD, so hardly convenient.

I'll try to add value to your comments where you're more high end than I am.
So we form a chasm of what's acceptable between your high end & my lower
end. :)

It's a good point that the sd isn't usually "convenient" like a USB
thumbdrive is. It's more like connecting a 120VAC powered USB storage drive
kind of convenient in that it takes a couple of steps.

But when you need it to be portable, it's there!

Having said that, I realize most people use the "cloud" for such things.
Not me. But most people.

>
>> The good news is that as our eyes get worse, the screens get bigger! :)
>>
>> I've settled on the "phablet" size lately.
>
> The days of single-handed operation are gone.

What I love for single-handed camera are the camera apps with the 2nd
floating shutter button. You can hold the camera with one hand and you can
move the shutter button to where your index finger lands perfectly.

The default Samsung camera app does that. Dunno which others do though.
<com.android.app.camera>

To add value (so others can get the feature), let me look for it for them.
<https://play.google.com/store/search?q=com.android.app.camera>

Darn. It's not there. Ran a search for "floating shutter" & found this:
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.jentsch.floatingcam>
It does the job but it does it differently than the Samsung camera does.

(I like the second floating camera shuter button one-handed GUI better.)

>> Dunno if I want bigger or I'd
>> carry the iPad around with me (which I used to do on hikes but no more).
>>
>> My screen is 6.5" at 720x1600 pixels where yours is likely better resolution
>
> 1080x2000

That's tremendously better than mine, by way of direct comparison.
Actually, I'm surprised you can't easily get a nice 7x7 desktop grid.
Nova free launcher is great - which you're aware of - but I'll plug it
for lurkers to benefit (since threads should benefit as many as possible).
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher>

>>> This new one doesn't seem to make best use of the extra screen area, home
>>> screen icons are too spaced out, yet (without changing launcher) I can't ask
>>> it to e.g. fit in 6x6 icons instead of 5x5, I can only go down to 4x4 or lower
>>
>> I have my Nova launcher "Desktop Grid" set to (let me look) "7x7" at "Icon
>> Layout" set to "125%, Labels On" &� "Padding None".
>
> Yes, I used to use Nova (and various other) launchers before, but quite like
> Pixel Launcher now, guess it doesn't hurt to look as some others again.

I'm so loving Nova I haven't even looked at another launcher in years! :)

If you find anything that's better - let us know as I tested some of the
free Android app launchers (there are too many to test 'em all) a while ago.

>> My 5G coverage is just getting better and better like yours will too.
>> What's strange is most of apps still call it "5G LTE" but some apps call it "5G
>> NSA". Does that make any sense (I can make screenshots for you)?
>
> Is it down to sub-6 vs mmWave? we only have sub-6 in the UK, so I grey-imported
> a Japanese Pixel 5a, the phone seems to call 5G "NR" internally

The free T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy A32-5G is the "(SM-A326U)" version.
<https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone/samsung-galaxy-a32-5g>
"UMTS: Band I (2100), Band II (1900), Band IV (1700/2100), Band V (850);
GSM: 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz; 5G: n25, n41, n66, n71;
CDMA: BC0, BC1, BC10; LTE: 2, 4, 5, 12, 66, 71;
LTE Roaming: 1, 3, 7, 13, 20, 25, 26, 38, 39, 40"

In the UK you may be using different frequencies.
>> Do you have decibel reading of your typical carrier signal strength?
>
> About -97 dBm for an 800 MHz 4G/LTE base that's about 6 miles away

-97 dBM is fine (anything greater than about 105 to about 110 is good).
Thanks for the data as sharing experiences helps us & others figure out
where we are in comparison to others out there.

I always find it interesting when I hear people complain about signal
strength who actually think Mbps is "signal strength" where I have to wonder
how many people out there are _that_ stupid. (Yes, I know. A lot.) :(

In comp.mobile.android, on Fri, 1 Apr 2022 21:47:45 +0200, Joerg Lorenz
<hugybear@gmx.ch> wrote:

>Am 01.04.22 um 19:58 schrieb micky:
>> I was totally uninjured, unbruised, but the phone
>> landed on little stones and I in the bottom 3rd of the screen I have
>> about 25 pits and 2 cracks all across the screen.
>
>Happened to me at the beginning of my smartphone career. Then I started
>to buy always a high quality leather protection covers for my phones.
>Keep your fingers crossed: It never happened to me anymore.
>
>And I seriously hope you wore long pants and a protection helmet for
>your head when you climbed on the bicycle ...

Earlier in the day I walked from where the car was parked and I found
some scooters and rented one, the kind that is 3 inches high and 5
inches wide. That came with a helmet and I wore it. I never road one
before but I was getting pretty good. Then they disabled the scooter
after less than an hour, for my convenience, they said. They wouldn't
let me rent it again, said something about the credit card even it
worked fine everywhere else. So I was in the middle of nowhere and I
had to start walking. 3 blocks away I remembered I was wearing the
helmet. I tried to get a passerby to take it back but she didn't speak
enough English, so I had to walk back 3 blocks.

Then I walked some more and tried to rent an electric bike, but iirc it
woulnd't upload my driver's license, even though I had done that for the
scooter.

Then I walked some more and rented the bicycle, which I sort of thought
was electric, because I was tired by now. I lost 20 kilos but still
need to lose 20 more. The bicycles didn't come with helmets and I
wasn't wearing one and it's really amazing that I didn't get the
slightest sore spot on, say, my upper arm, which must have hit the
ground.

I needed the map and everyone had the phone clipped to the handlebars,
and their clip seemed quite good, and indeed it didn't fall of during
riding, only during falling. I fell to the left. If I had had the
phone in my right pocket. where I usually keep it, it would have been
fine. Now if I'd falled to the right, who knows.