Don't buy an Android phone. Not right now.

by Volker Weber

I used to call this an Alex warning. If you are in the market to buy an Android phone, I'd suggest to wait until June 10 before you make a decision.

Comments

vowe is a good mother :)

Abdelkader Boui, 2016-04-21

PDA - how quickly technology moves on...

John Keys, 2016-04-21

Danke, Volker 👍

Hubert Stettner, 2016-04-21

Too late. Bought one three weeks ago. Could not resist. :)

Daniel Haferkorn, 2016-04-22

Do I smell Moto G 4th gen? Let's wait and see...

Markus Dierker, 2016-04-22

"Don't buy an Android phone. Not right now." - Is not this always true? ;)

Ingo Seifert, 2016-04-22

Come on. Android phones aren't bad. There are people who cannot afford an iPhone, but a perfectly good Android.

Volker Weber, 2016-04-22

Or people who find iOs boring ;)

Hubert Stettner, 2016-04-22

I won't buy anything that isn't Google Nexus.

Hanno Zulla, 2016-04-22

Hubert, that is actually a more interesting statement than you would imagine. I have a friend who is very fluent in all sorts of Linux machines. He runs big server farms. Years ago when he was struggling with his workstations, I suggested he should buy a Mac. Now he has one machine that he is never tinkering with.

Hanno, I don't do Alex warnings for crapware. :-)

Volker Weber, 2016-04-22

@Vowe, there are people that could afford an iPhone but who don't want an iPhone, being a non Apple user is not always about affordability so don't position it in that way. The top end Androids are no cheaper than the iPhone I suspect.

sean cull, 2016-04-22

It's a small part of the Android market, and it will be quickly killed off by Huawei. And it's the part where Apple draws new customers, when they realize they cannot get timely updates for four years.

Volker Weber, 2016-04-22

I was a dedicated Windows Phone user, but I gave up since last week.


I bought a cheap ass Chinese phone: Umi Touch.
Heaving the phone delivered after about 2 weeks transport, I'm really impressed with the value for money you get from those Chinese brands.

135 Euro's

A full HD 5.5" screen, a big battery, nice full alu body, more than good enough processor speed and lastly the latest Android update (Marshmallow) without any fancy bloatware, which was updated already two times during the two weeks that I have the phone: both vendor improvements as Google security updates.

If this Phone will last for a year, I'm a happy camper and move over to the next Chinese phone.

Honestly, I do miss the Windows Phone interface, but the "app-gap" killed Windows Phone for me.

Frank van Rijt, 2016-04-22

I will never buy another phone sold by a carrier. Updates were slow to non-existant. My Verizon Droid Razr got 1 update in 3 years.

I now have a Motorola X Pure Edition, get the monthly updates from Motorola directly. Not to mention the lack of crapware installed by the vendor.

Bill Brown, 2016-04-22

You learned your lesson well.

Volker Weber , 2016-04-22

I meant my comment differently: there will always be a better one in a few months... ;) My kids are very happy with devices from Honor (Huawei) and Wiko. I would always favor an Android device over iOS if I had a personal choice.

Ingo Seifert, 2016-04-22

Techworld?! :-)

Martin Hiegl, 2016-04-22

so this marks the date when Blackberry stops their own hardware business and empties stocks finally?

Armin Auth, 2016-04-23

Thanks vowe!

Thomas Meier, 2016-04-24

@armin that would result in less effort for future updates and therefore no vowe recommendation ;-)

I somehow doubt it's the new 5" Lenovo Nexus. Project Tango (3D scanning of your surroundings) will be nice for early adopters who have an oculus rift, powerful workstation, etc. I can't imagine a high quality phone or even a flagship device from Lenovo...

Ralf ter Veer, 2016-04-25

There's only one model of Android phone Volker wrote about recently because he had his reasons. My guess is that a new batch of 'black fruit' is about to be delivered :)

Martin Loeschner, 2016-04-25

Mit den aktuellen Angeboten der Nexus Geräte und dem heutigen Amazon Blitzangebot für das Priv + Update auf Marshmallow fällt es ganz schon schwer die Füße still zu halten. Ich hoffe es lohnt sich...

Christoph Krieger, 2016-04-27

@Markus: Seems Moto G 4th Gen starts a little earlier (17th of May): http://www.areamobile.de/news/37912-motorola-moto-g4-wird-am-17-mai-vorgestellt

Dirk Stelloh, 2016-04-28

Sorry for digging up this old post. Does your Alex warning also apply to tablets, Volker?
I'm thinking about buying a Pixel C (with the developer discount). Would you suggest me to wait? Thanks a lot in advance!

Simon Hurtz, 2016-05-19

No, it does not. I'd obviously wait what is coming out of Google I/O. To those who are not Android developers: I do not recommend buying an Android tablet. Not enough software that makes use of the larger screen real estate.

Volker Weber, 2016-05-19

Thanks for your advice!

I'm not an Android developer, but I think that Android N will improve the tablet experience (split screen mode, finally!). Plus, I just don't want to dive into Apple's ecosystem, but that's another story.

Simon Hurtz, 2016-05-19

Des Menschen Wille ist sein Himmelreich. ;-)

Volker Weber, 2016-05-19

@Simon I've got an iPad Air and the Pixel.
Both are completely different devices. Only get the Pixel if you intend to use it mostly with the keyboard. The ergonomics are less well suited for bed usage but excellent for small desks and suitable for lap use where the iPad fails completely.

Apps? Yes, there are few highlights. But stuff like Evernote, Feedly and all Google Apps in general work even better on Android tablets. If you mostly use Chrome: get it ;-)

Ralf ter Veer, 2016-05-20

IOS versus Android:
An additional aspect:

http://www.br.de/mediathek/video/sendungen/quer/160519-quer-talk-100.html

Jens Huber, 2016-05-20

"Ich hatte nie ein Smartphone und werde hoffentlich auch nie eins besitzen, solange es nicht zwangsverordnet wird." - Ein Experte also. :-)

Volker Weber, 2016-05-20

Aufmerksame Menschen haben da schon mal "BlackBerry" und "Hamburg" gegoogelt. Oder liege ich komplett daneben und/oder BlackBerries mit Android sind keine Alex-Warnung wert?

Oliver Leibenguth, 2016-05-20

Thanks for your advice, Ralf. Indeed, I wanted to use the Pixel mainly for reading longer texts and watching videos on the couch. I have a Thinkpad T460s for being productive, so I didn't actually plan to get a keyboard for the Pixel. If I'm on the go and have to answer an email, my Nexus 5 is fine. If I have to write articles and edit photos or videos, I'll take my laptop.

But I'll try to get my hands on a Google tablet and figure out if it fits my needs. Thank you!

(Concerning the Alex warning: a new Motorola Razr a.k.a. Moto Z. Well, okay. Maybe interesting, if it comes with stock Android. Probably, my new phone will be a Nexus device anyway.)

Simon Hurtz, 2016-05-20

Ein Experte also. :-)...

...Das stimmt!

Kein SmartPhone-Experte ;-)

Ein Experte für menschliches Glück und Zukunftstauglichkeit, Aspekte die man in dieser "technischen"-Diskussion, nicht ausser acht lassen sollte!
"Schritte für die Fitness zu zählen", ist nicht alles.

Jens Huber, 2016-05-20

Jens, das lässt sich bestimmt bei Kathrin Passig einsortieren: http://www.nibis.de/nibis3/uploads/1chaplin/files/Standardsituationen_der_Technologiekritik_29.03.2014.pdf

Oliver, ich habe keine Infos zu neuen BlackBerry-Geräten. Aber eins ist klar: bei diesem Stückzahlen werden BBs immer deutlich teurer als die Konkurrenz sein.

Volker Weber, 2016-05-20

Der Preis eines Smartphones spielt für mich eine (in gewissen Grenzen) untergeordnete Rolle, sofern das Smartphone irgendwas hat oder kann, das diesen Preis für mich rechtfertigt. Ich muss den Kram kaufen und bekomme keine Teststellungen, auf denen ich ein paar Wochen zwanglos herumliegen kann, bevor ich mich entscheide. Von daher sitzt das Geld auch nicht ganz so locker ;-)

Oliver Leibenguth, 2016-05-21

Wenn das Geld in gewissen Grenzen keine Rolle spielt, halte ich den PRIV für einen guten Kauf. Nicht so gut wie ein iPhone, da man ihn nicht mehr so leicht in Geld wandeln kann. Aber definitiv ein feines Gerät. Was BlackBerry jetzt kocht, wird software-seitig ebenbürtig sein, aber deutlich weniger Hardware liefern. Einfacherer Screen, einen Kompromiss bei Tastatur/Screen (weil kein Slider mehr), und was sonst noch Kosten spart. Das wird von der Hardware her nicht mit den (günstigeren) Geräten von Huawei, Xiami etc mithalten können.

Volker Weber, 2016-05-21

Der PRIV steht immer noch auf meiner "wenn nix besseres kommt"-Liste. Auch wenn er nicht meinem primären Beuteschema entspricht.
Ich bin ein ziemlicher Pingel was ein paar Hardwaredetails angeht: Großes Display (idealerweise >5.5 Zoll, bin ans Samsung Note 3/4 gewöhnt), SD-Slot (wäre verzichtbar, wenn der interne Storage bei Androiden mal bei 256GB ankommt) und wechselbarer Akku (wäre auch verzichtbar, wenn die Dinger bei mir länger als 1,5 Jahre halten würden). iPhone ist sicher auch nicht schlecht, scheidet bei mir aber aus Gründen aus. Der Wiederverkaufswert nach ~2 Jahren ist mir egal; ich habe bisher noch kein Smartphone wieder verkauft, wenn ein neues ins Haus kam (ich bin ein Gadget-Messie und stelle die Dinger in die Vitrine).

Damit schränke ich mir das mögliche Angebot schon tüchtig ein, ich weiß - aber die Hoffnung stirbt ja bekanntlich zuletzt ;-)

Oliver Leibenguth, 2016-05-22

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