Smartphones

God I hate to be the one to start this thread. But it seems like people will post in it if it’s here and I have a question for all you smartphone whores out there. <3

I’m considering buying a cheap hopefully small (iPod touch size? Or a bit bigger?) android phone to use exclusively for bubble upnp for my Pi2AES because the iOS software options suck.

all I need is a screen, good battery life, decent speed snd latest Android.

I can get a Motorola Moto G fast used for under $100 but that still is overkill for my needs and big.

I then found the Nokia 5.1 plus. Looks like a good option. $140 on amazon. It’s also big. But I may not have any other options.

any thoughts? I know nothing about Android phones I’ve only ever owned Apple. I’d want it to use straight up google os not a modified version and be upgradable to the latest android os for at least a couple years.

thanks

 

small android phone... that's somewhat of an oxymoron. Ever since Samsung came out with the first Note, it's been bigger is better from manufacturer's eyes. I've been looking for smaller phones for years... I actually read a recent review that called the 6" Google Pixel 5 the best "small" android on the market.

I had an Essential phone (it was a great phone, ignore the reviews) and now a Samsung S10e (I'm trapped on verizon for work, so my selections are somewhat limited). Both are small by today's standards, but big by yesterday's standards.

Sony made a couple of small phones (I was looking at a 5" xz2 compact until I realized it wouldn't work on Verizon). Don't know if they still make it...

 

Would an old Nexus 1 or Nexus S work? I even have a car dock for the Nexus 1. I'd have to check, but could possibly update to a newer Android on it…

I could send it for cost of shipping.

 

thsts super generous of you! But I’m not sure the os would be up to date enough and possibly not fast enough for bubble upnp. But I don’t know the requirements of bubble upnp. That’s literally all I’m going to do with it.
Thank you!

 

Your best bet may be the Samsung S10e. It’s not exactly tiny, but if you are used to any of the current day smartphones, you will actually find it compact. It’s new enough that it will be future proof in terms of software and app support and its old enough that you should be able to find one for as low as $250.

Alternatively you could look into the Sony NW-A105 Walkman DAP. It’s tiny per today’s standards and can be had for $150 in the used market.

 

You can always install LineageOS (or something similar) on an older phone/tablet that doesn't have manufacturer updates available. If going the used route I would recommend to get something with an easily replaceable battery.

PS: BubbleUpnp shouldn't be demanding at all.

 

I could install the Nougat version of Android on it (Lineage 11, used to be CyanogenMod, very close to stock Android). It looks like that's the latest version that's commonly out there for it on XDA.

edit: Plugged it in, I'm gonna go ahead and flash Lineage 11 on it, I can install Bubble UPnP on it too.

If Bubble UPnP is just a file server, then the processing is I/O-bound and shouldn't require much CPU power at all.

 

Among android, only the oneplus and pixel have had roms that can provide consistent experience throughout their life. Almost every other iteration of google one (xiaomi a1/a2, Nokias, Motorola, Asus Zenfone) have been subpar experiences. Choppy scrolling, out of no where stutters etc.
LG V30+ was another impressive phone, not for the rom which wasn't as good as oneplus but not terrible either like their previous models, but the form factor,absolutely fantastic to hold.
If not for the pixel/oneplus, motorla's iteration of andorid have been relatively niggle free among other android one devices.
Absolutely avoid any other random android phone with heavy custom ui overlay, they are all hideous.

 

If all you’re using it for is BubbleUPNP, then I wouldn’t limit yourself to stock Android - that’s probably too limiting in order to find something compact. Get something relatively newish (1-4 years old) and it should be good for quite a long while even if it doesn’t have the latest OS. I run a 3-4 year old version of Samsung OS and it runs BubbleUPnP fine.

Sony had some compact Android phones I believe that were pretty good a couple years back. Xperia Compact or something to that effect.

 

"Smartphones" always seems rather an old-fashioned thing to say, because they are now the rule, rather than the exception.

Yes, I know there still exist the ludicrously misnamed feature(-less) phones. Very simple, very cheap. I know people who can't afford the alternative, and people who don't want it. But most people have a phone which is a pocket computer, which is called smart, or more usually, just phone.

The desire for the small Android phone is universal. The manufacturers' insistence on not making one is almost unanimous. The ether burns with frustrated small-android-phone desire! Join the club

 

FWIW, I use an ancient Nexus (in a pogo dock) at work to bubble upnp into moode... I'll look tomorrow to see what android version it's running. I will say that it takes forever to boot the phone, forever to load bubble upnp but it is ok once it's loaded (although, I wouldn't call the responsiveness "snappy").

In general, I try to leave it on 24/7 to avoid the load time (but it does need to get restarted about once a week).

----edit----
to build on @rlow... one way to get closer to a consistent interface is to install a launcher on all your devices. I use ActionLauncher on every phone/tablet/android device I own so that every device works exactly the same in daily use.

 

So if I gave up on it being small snd accepted “not huge” are these good options?

Motorola Moto g fast

Nokia 5.1 plus

Nokia 7.1

which would be better or is there another one I should look at instead? I found these from reading a bunch of phone recommendation articles via google. I’m leaning toward the Nokia 5.1 plus or the Nokia 7.1

 

The budget Android phones tend to use pretty ghetto chipsets, it might be better to buy a used higher end phone. Check out this Geekbench list for the sordid details.

https://browser.geekbench.com/android-benchmarks

 

Even if I’m just using it for Bubble UPNP?

this is one of the articles I found that recommended the Nokia phones.

https://www.androidcentral.com/best-small-android-phone

 

If someone has the device and it works well for them then it’s probably fine.

I don’t use Android but I spent a lot of time looking into an issue with budget type Android phones on a relevant web app where it’d stall when switching between views in chrome and tracing a javascript log from an affected device there was no smoking gun, it was just slow. Maybe chrome is just a dog on those phones when dealing with large html structures (though one of them was a Pixel so that’d be kind of sad) but without first hand experience saying bubbleupnp performance was good I’d buy a used premium phone with lots of ram and good benchmarks or a small tablet.

 

I’ve used macs my whole life I don’t know how to make sense of processor speeds! I just point the mouse and click on stuff.

 

update on my old Nexus at the office - it is a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which is surprisingly still sold on Amazon. It's running Android 4.2.2 (I should probably try rooting the phone since @Syzygy pointed out that it will run Lineage 11, but I don't see the model listed on Lineage download site).

Speed - make no mistake, it's not fast. The only thing installed on this puppy is BubbleUPnP and my preferred alarm app (I use the nexus docked in a POGO dock)... otherwise, the phone is completely stock. It takes about 45 sec to start the phone (time from pushing power to reaching the login screen) and takes another 45-60 sec to start BubbleUPnP (from hitting the icon to the time bubble will recognize inputs). When starting Bubble, the phone gives me a single "this application is not responding, wait or cancel" type prompt... if I wait, it takes about 15 more sec before bubble starts.

Once bubble's up and running, navigation is acceptable, but nothing like running bubble on my S10e (which has instantaneous response times). If I was simply listening to local music, then I would get a touchscreen and forget about bubble. But my office listening is 100% streaming qobuz thru moode, so I use bubble as the controller.

 

I think I’m going to get a used S10e on the bay and hope for the best. Thanks for all the input!

 

FWIW, Amazon has some pretty cheap "renewed" samsungs... eg., a10e is $132... not sure how it compares speedwise to the s10e, but it's essentially the same size (with an IPS screen instead of AMOLED)

 

You have to go to xda-developers if you wanna find (more-)current ROMs for older phones. I first started running those on my old HTC Dream ("T-Mobile G1"). They only supported it to Android "C", IIRC, but there were ROMs up to "F" at least.

For the Galaxy Nexus, I'd look here and search for [ROM].