New toy - Honor Magic v2 phone

[Newbie777]

Hello, 

Excited about my new toy. 

I have had a number of mobile and folding phones over the years. 

But the arrival of the Honor Magic V2  folding phone got me very excited. 

Why? 

It's the future (along with garlic bread as our friend Peter Kay would say). 

So I have been into gadgets for many mnay years.. Walkmans hifi, laptops etc etc, 

This phone is light, mega thin and great specc, but surprisingly the Battery is big at 5000mah and made from new stuff, silicon carbon! 

The bad bit is the cost at £1700, even with early bird deals still looking at £1200, so hardly a bargain! 

For some it maybe worth buying in 6 months time when it will be worth £500? 

I have a few phones at the moment which I rotate round including a Samsung galaxy fold (the brick). I can assure you, I will not be doing that now and will use this everywhere including in the car. 

Also interestingly this could be the Battery technology for cars in the future? 

 

[Linas.P]

It does look great and I always wished for smaller thinner Galaxy Fold or Flip, I could even deal with smaller Battery if that is trade-off. 

Recently I was looking at Honor Magic V2, it does look very cool and I like texturing on one side of the phone (almost look like leather texture)... BUT - I just don't trust any chinesium nowadays, Samsung quality is Samsung quality and every person I know who had Huawei, Honor or whatever other stuff comes from China always had issues. They do last ~6Months and then issues starts. I am not even going to go into discussion of chinese malware (it may not be that relevant unless you work for MI6).

Now sure - some years back I would replace phone every 6 months trying to get latest and greatest, so 6 months would not be a deal breaker, but nowadays I use my phones for 3-4 years and therefore I started to appreciate Samsung more, they just get regularly updated, updated for at least 3 years and they usually last just as long. Also I heard rumours that next Fold 6 is likely to be £600 phone, so I may as well wait for that. 

[GMB]

We have had our Honor and Huawei phones for about 6 yrs now. They do the job and are no problem and cost nothing. We have had samsung phones that conk out a few days after the warranty period. Maybe just us? apple - don't even go there! Waste of money. I don't mind the Chinese secret service knowing that I ordered a takeaway.

[Newbie777]

7 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

It does look great and I always wised for smaller thinner Galaxy Fold or Flip, I could even deal with smaller battery if that is trade-off. 

Recently I was looking at Honor Magic V2, it does look very cool and I like texturing on on side of the phone (almost look like leather texture)... BUT - I just don't trust any chinesium nowadays, Samsung quality is Samsung quality and every person I know who had Huawei, Honor or whatever other stuff comes from China always had issues. They do last ~6Months and then issues starts. I am not even going to go into discussion of chinese malware (it may not be that relevant unless you work for MI6).

Now sure - some years back I would replace phone every 6 months trying to get latest and greatest, so 6 months would not be a deal breaker, but nowadays I use my phones for 3-4 years and therefore I started to appreciate Samsung more, they just get regularly updated, updated for at least 3 years and they usually last just as long. Also I heard rumours that next Fold 6 is likely to be £600 phone, so I may as well wait for that. 

I totally agree Samsung quality is top notch. 

The Magic v2 does feel well made though, but only time will tell. However it is not water or dust resistant. 

The 6 months inside or outside screen cover is a £50 labour charge only, so pretty good if you break it! 

Also, I know a bit about quality owning a Vertu Signature Touch made from grade 5 titanium, that was made over 8 years ago!

For me and my eyesight folding phones are a big help, but the Folds weight means it is just too heavy to carry around in my suit pocket

 

[ALAW]

2 hours ago, Newbie777 said:

Hello, 

Excited about my new toy. 

I have had a number of mobile and folding phones over the years. 

But the arrival of the Honor Magic V2  folding phone got me very excited. 

Why? 

It's the future (along with garlic bread as our friend Peter Kay would say). 

So I have been into gadgets for many mnay years.. Walkmans hifi, laptops etc etc, 

This phone is light, mega thin and great specc, but surprisingly the battery is big at 5000mah and made from new stuff, silicon carbon! 

The bad bit is the cost at £1700, even with early bird deals still looking at £1200, so hardly a bargain! 

For some it maybe worth buying in 6 months time when it will be worth £500? 

I have a few phones at the moment which I rotate round including a Samsung galaxy fold (the brick). I can assure you, I will not be doing that now and will use this everywhere including in the car. 

Also interestingly this could be the battery technology for cars in the future? 

 

I saw a review of this on Tech radar. I will be looking to change this year. I have been pondering Samsung or apple, I've been on Android for few years now on my one plus. Tech radar mentioned this was a game changer in its thickness. To be honest id never considered a fold phone now i might this does look a nice piece of tech though. 

[ALAW]

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

It does look great and I always wished for smaller thinner Galaxy Fold or Flip, I could even deal with smaller battery if that is trade-off. 

Recently I was looking at Honor Magic V2, it does look very cool and I like texturing on one side of the phone (almost look like leather texture)... BUT - I just don't trust any chinesium nowadays, Samsung quality is Samsung quality and every person I know who had Huawei, Honor or whatever other stuff comes from China always had issues. They do last ~6Months and then issues starts. I am not even going to go into discussion of chinese malware (it may not be that relevant unless you work for MI6).

Now sure - some years back I would replace phone every 6 months trying to get latest and greatest, so 6 months would not be a deal breaker, but nowadays I use my phones for 3-4 years and therefore I started to appreciate Samsung more, they just get regularly updated, updated for at least 3 years and they usually last just as long. Also I heard rumor's that next Fold 6 is likely to be £600 phone, so I may as well wait for that. 

I tend to agree with you Linas i will change this year been with android for a bit now  my wife has Samsung likes them and she never has top end ones. Im leaning towards Samsung like i said above to Niaz I've never considered one of these fold phones ill have to get a look at some in the shop. I too am bit against chinesium ha ha they wont learn a lot of me but i hear what you say about malware and that stuff. So for me Samsung or apple and do i go for a fold type help me choose. Tell you what these phones nowadays are bloody expensive. 

[Linas.P]

5 minutes ago, ALAW said:

I tend to agree with you Linas i will change this year been with android for a bit now  my wife has Samsung likes them and she never has top end ones. Im leaning towards Samsung like i said above to Niaz I've never considered one of these fold phones ill have to get a look at some in the shop. I too am bit against chinesium ha ha they wont learn a lot of me but i hear what you say about malware and that stuff. So for me Samsung or Apple and do i go for a fold type help me choose. Tell you what these phones nowadays are bloody expensive. 

Yeah, nowadays they have "high-end" and then "true" high-end. As always we can thank apple for this mess - I think they started it with Iphone x, or maybe 11. Basically before you get either Iphone or galaxy S and that was the high-end phone of the year to get, then apple introduced "pro" for like £1500. At first it looked like either you get normal phone or overpay for some gimmick, but now the normal Iphone or Galaxy S are actually mid-range, for example I have S22 and it just feels cheap even compared to my previous S10, because the one to get suppose to be £1500 S22 Ultra (or it was 2 years ago at least, S24 just launched now). Well and obvious they have these foldable phone now which used to cost a lot, but again rumours are Samsung is going to get competitive on pricing again.

As for foldable phones - they are still fragile. When they were not water-proof I didn't even consider them, but I bought Z4 Flip as present and it was quite good, the special screen protector failed after 15 months, but it was replaced by warranty for free. Screen seems to hold just fine for now and Samsung does £150 subsidised replacements. But foldable phones are still fragile in comparison to normal ones, you definitely need to take extra care with them.

I honestly can't care about latest and greatest now, somehow few years back each phone release used to excite me and there was some significant upgrade, but in recent years I really struggle to see what am I getting for extra money. Same applies to both Samsung and apple - I can't even tell the difference between iphones after 12, Galaxy S likewise... last 3 or 4 are pretty much identical... S21, 22, 23 and now 24 really offers more or less the same package. If anything I probably prefer my old S10 (generally would like to have more compact phone, but there are no more compact high-end ones). As such I just keep the phones until they fail now... had S6 edge, to be fair it had not failed, but got quite slow after 4 years, S10 - I cracked the screen after 3 years (still works fine, just glass has chip) and S22 still going strong after 2 years, so if rumours are true then maybe in 2 years time I will pick-up discounted Fold 6. As for all other brands I personally find them irrelevant, so if android then it is Samsung, if not android then it is Iphone... Never found Google Pixel to be any good, Sony, LG, HTC etc. are all pretty much irrelevant now. Motorola is basically chinese company as well and they kind of hang around in mid-range and then there is probably 100 different chinese companies. Generally they have impressive spec sheets, but features are just not polished and do not work half of the time and that is even considering Samsung features are often not fully polished. Also again in my experience they simply fail in less than a year, it starts little by little, but in 12 month it usually turns into brick... sort of maybe camera starts turning off at first, then it doesn't turn on at all, then microphone starts glitching, then people can't hear you anymore and by years' end they stop charging, or holds 4h of charge... or some combination of similar issues.

As for malware - 1 it is real thing, but 2 - I kind of agree, there is nothing useful they can find out about me and I am not planning to go to china at any time soon. So it isn't real concern, but it is there. Also perhaps I would be little bit worried logging in into my banking account, they probably wouldn't bother stealing my 2p worth of savings, but I in theory they could if they wanted to. Also also - that is not to say google or apple does not spy on us, the difference perhaps is targeted advertising vs. "re-education camp" in Xinjiang. That said I think my key issue is their quality and "longevity" and their price isn't even that good in UK. For example I bought Oppo Find X in 2018 when I was in China and my girlfriend bought Vivo something... whatever. Point is in China Oppo Find X costed something like £290, whereas here it only launched year later for £899. And similar story for Vivo, it was even cheaper, if memory serves - like £155. So yes - at those prices they are amazing devices and I don't even care if they last 6 months, but at UK price I just never going to pay £1000+ for chinese phone, for one I kind of know they are not worth it, because they actually sell for maybe £250 in china and secondly, they are made to that level of quality. So yeah - if ever needed "burner" phone for some reason, then I may just get one of the cheaper ones for under £200, but I will never regard them as premium devices in the same league as Samsung or apple.

[Newbie777]

8 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Yeah, nowadays they have "high-end" and then "true" high-end. As always we can thank apple for this mess - I think they started it with iphone x, or maybe 11. Basically before you get either Iphone or galaxy S and that was the high-end phone of the year to get, then apple introduced "pro" for like £1500. At first it looked like either you get normal phone or overpay for some gimmick, but now the normal iphone or Galaxy S are actually mid-range, for example I have S22 and it just feels cheap even compared to my previous S10, because the one to get suppose to be £1500 S22 Ultra (or it was 2 years ago at least, S24 just launched now). Well and obvious they have these foldable phone now which used to cost a lot, but again rumours are Samsung is going to get competitive on pricing again.

As for foldable phones - they are still fragile. When they were not water-proof I didn't even consider them, but I bought Z4 Flip as present and it was quite good, the special screen protector failed after 15 months, but it was replaced by warranty for free. Screen seems to hold just fine for now and Samsung does £150 subsidised replacements. But foldable phones are still fragile in comparison to normal ones, you definitely need to take extra care with them.

I honestly can't care about latest and greatest now, somehow few years back each phone release used to excite me and there was some significant upgrade, but in recent years I really struggle to see what am I getting for extra money. Same applies to both Samsung and Apple - I can't even tell the difference between iphones after 12, Galaxy S likewise... last 3 or 4 are pretty much identical... S21, 22, 23 and now 24 really offers more or less the same package. If anything I probably prefer my old S10 (generally would like to have more compact phone, but there are no more compact high-end ones). As such I just keep the phones until they fail now... had S6 edge, to be fair it had not failed, but got quite slow after 4 years, S10 - I cracked the screen after 3 years (still works fine, just glass has chip) and S22 still going strong after 2 years, so if rumours are true then maybe in 2 years time I will pick-up discounted Fold 6. As for all other brands I personally find them irrelevant, so if android then it is Samsung, if not android then it is iphone... Never found Google Pixel to be any good, Sony, LG, HTC etc. are all pretty much irrelevant now. Motorola is basically chinese company as well and they kind of hang around in mid-range and then there is probably 100 different chinese companies. Generally they have impressive spec sheets, but features are just not polished and do not work half of the time and that is even considering Samsung features are often not fully polished. Also again in my experience they simply fail in less than a year, it starts little by little, but in 12 month it usually turns into brick... sort of maybe camera starts turning off at first, then it doesn't turn on at all, then microphone starts glitching, then people can't hear you anymore and by years' end they stop charging, or holds 4h of charge... or some combination of similar issues.

As for malware - 1 it is real thing, but 2 - I kind of agree, there is nothing useful they can find out about me and I am not planning to go to china at any time soon. So it isn't real concern, but it is there. Also perhaps I would be little bit worried logging in into my banking account, they probably wouldn't bother stealing my 2p worth of savings, but I in theory they could if they wanted to. Also also - that is not to say google or apple does not spy on us, the difference perhaps is targeted advertising vs. "re-education camp" in Xinjiang. That said I think my key issue is their quality and "longevity" and their price isn't even that good in UK. For example I bought Oppo Find X in 2018 when I was in China and my girlfriend bought Vivo something... whatever. Point is in China Oppo Find X costed something like £290, whereas here it only launched year later for £899. And similar story for Vivo, it was even cheaper, if memory serves - like £155. So yes - at those prices they are amazing devices and I don't even care if they last 6 months, but at UK price I just never going to pay £1000+ for chinese phone, for one I kind of know they are not worth it, because they actually sell for maybe £250 in china and secondly, they are made to that level of quality. So yeah - if ever needed "burner" phone for some reason, then I may just get one of the cheaper ones for under £200, but I will never regard them as premium devices in the same league as Samsung or Apple.

I think the keyword is latest technology that nobody yet has achieved.

Regarding malware, honestly, that is political, in this country they know everything about you, where you go shopping, car insurance etc

Samsung and apple only changes are a better processor, different materials etc. Nothing wrong with them and they are quality, tried and tested, but same old stuff.

I also think China is good at copying.🤣

However, this is something that has NOT been done before and it is from China. It will push Samsung further and apple will need to think long and hard too.

The bad news the Honour will not hold it's price and the current marketing strategy is all over the show. The software is a mix of android and iOS.

So far I am very happy with device and with it all it's faults, it is something that is a bit of marvel, see it your hand and you understand.❤️

Am sure in 6 months the quality test will reveal it all, but I am not thinking that far ahead😃

 

 

 

 

[dutchie01]

Still available on the web new for 70 euro( not 1700 ). Battery lasts 2 weeks

 

[Linas.P]

2 hours ago, Newbie777 said:

So far I am very happy with device and with it all it's faults, it is something that is a bit of marvel, see it your hand and you understand.❤️

Am sure in 6 months the quality test will reveal it all, but I am not thinking that far ahead😃

Well yes - I guess that is my point. I would be happy to participate in experiment if it would be significantly cheaper... it is significantly cheaper in China. 

So if I visit China like I did in 2018 and I see it for £250, then I would be more than happy to "throw that money away" to marvel at devices from the company that takes risks. I do understand what you saying, but the price of £1700 or £1200 is the price of the tired, tested and reliable device, not prototype which may or may not turn on in 6 months.

Also as I said it is priorities - if I still be upgrading every 6 months as before, then that money would be wasted either way and then it doesn't matter, but when now I keep devices for 3 years+ I started valuing how they last long term. But I also understand different people have different priorities, so for some this totally works and makes sense.

[ALAW]

23 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Yeah, nowadays they have "high-end" and then "true" high-end. As always we can thank apple for this mess - I think they started it with iphone x, or maybe 11. Basically before you get either Iphone or galaxy S and that was the high-end phone of the year to get, then apple introduced "pro" for like £1500. At first it looked like either you get normal phone or overpay for some gimmick, but now the normal iphone or Galaxy S are actually mid-range, for example I have S22 and it just feels cheap even compared to my previous S10, because the one to get suppose to be £1500 S22 Ultra (or it was 2 years ago at least, S24 just launched now). Well and obvious they have these foldable phone now which used to cost a lot, but again rumours are Samsung is going to get competitive on pricing again.

As for foldable phones - they are still fragile. When they were not water-proof I didn't even consider them, but I bought Z4 Flip as present and it was quite good, the special screen protector failed after 15 months, but it was replaced by warranty for free. Screen seems to hold just fine for now and Samsung does £150 subsidised replacements. But foldable phones are still fragile in comparison to normal ones, you definitely need to take extra care with them.

I honestly can't care about latest and greatest now, somehow few years back each phone release used to excite me and there was some significant upgrade, but in recent years I really struggle to see what am I getting for extra money. Same applies to both Samsung and Apple - I can't even tell the difference between iphones after 12, Galaxy S likewise... last 3 or 4 are pretty much identical... S21, 22, 23 and now 24 really offers more or less the same package. If anything I probably prefer my old S10 (generally would like to have more compact phone, but there are no more compact high-end ones). As such I just keep the phones until they fail now... had S6 edge, to be fair it had not failed, but got quite slow after 4 years, S10 - I cracked the screen after 3 years (still works fine, just glass has chip) and S22 still going strong after 2 years, so if rumours are true then maybe in 2 years time I will pick-up discounted Fold 6. As for all other brands I personally find them irrelevant, so if android then it is Samsung, if not android then it is iphone... Never found Google Pixel to be any good, Sony, LG, HTC etc. are all pretty much irrelevant now. Motorola is basically chinese company as well and they kind of hang around in mid-range and then there is probably 100 different chinese companies. Generally they have impressive spec sheets, but features are just not polished and do not work half of the time and that is even considering Samsung features are often not fully polished. Also again in my experience they simply fail in less than a year, it starts little by little, but in 12 month it usually turns into brick... sort of maybe camera starts turning off at first, then it doesn't turn on at all, then microphone starts glitching, then people can't hear you anymore and by years' end they stop charging, or holds 4h of charge... or some combination of similar issues.

As for malware - 1 it is real thing, but 2 - I kind of agree, there is nothing useful they can find out about me and I am not planning to go to china at any time soon. So it isn't real concern, but it is there. Also perhaps I would be little bit worried logging in into my banking account, they probably wouldn't bother stealing my 2p worth of savings, but I in theory they could if they wanted to. Also also - that is not to say google or apple does not spy on us, the difference perhaps is targeted advertising vs. "re-education camp" in Xinjiang. That said I think my key issue is their quality and "longevity" and their price isn't even that good in UK. For example I bought Oppo Find X in 2018 when I was in China and my girlfriend bought Vivo something... whatever. Point is in China Oppo Find X costed something like £290, whereas here it only launched year later for £899. And similar story for Vivo, it was even cheaper, if memory serves - like £155. So yes - at those prices they are amazing devices and I don't even care if they last 6 months, but at UK price I just never going to pay £1000+ for chinese phone, for one I kind of know they are not worth it, because they actually sell for maybe £250 in china and secondly, they are made to that level of quality. So yeah - if ever needed "burner" phone for some reason, then I may just get one of the cheaper ones for under £200, but I will never regard them as premium devices in the same league as Samsung or Apple.

I think you have summed up the marketing perfectly there Linas. I think I'm erring to the Samsung phones and android. Saying that my lad and a new colleague at work swears by Iphone. I still cant decide to be honest maybe if your right and Samsung reduce prices i might go there. I at one time was considering that S22 very expensive do i need that ?. I'm also thinking like you do i need the latest and greatest as well. One thing i think should be considered is how long will you get updates for i think the latest Samsung they are saying 7 years don't quote me it might be the Honor. To receive the latest updates i think is a plus. This phone i have now one plus 6 it has done exactly what you say and something starts getting a glitch most notable on mine was the camera i cant tell you how annoying that was, where i work i have many occasions to take instant snaps of wildlife etc. and I've forgot how many times its failed and the chance has gone. I bought a carbon fibre protector and its served me well and the phone is like new if i take it off. The Battery is going a bit now but a quick charge gets up very quick. The malware thing there's not a lot they can get from me either but you know i think Google Samsung android etc. are all stepping up for security. Regarding pricing one plus started off cheap and are now in the expensive bracket in the UK. Its not called Rip off Britain for no reason. Yeah Samsung or Iphone ithink. Not decided the wife nothing but a Samsung.

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, ALAW said:

I think you have summed up the marketing perfectly there Linas. I think I'm erring to the Samsung phones and android. Saying that my lad and a new colleague at work swears by iPhone. I still cant decide to be honest maybe if your right and Samsung reduce prices i might go there. I at one time was considering that S22 very expensive do i need that ?. I'm also thinking like you do i need the latest and greatest as well. One thing i think should be considered is how long will you get updates for i think the latest Samsung they are saying 7 years don't quote me it might be the Honor. To receive the latest updates i think is a plus. This phone i have now one plus 6 it has done exactly what you say and something starts getting a glitch most notable on mine was the camera i cant tell you how annoying that was, where i work i have many occasions to take instant snaps of wildlife etc. and I've forgot how many times its failed and the chance has gone. I bought a carbon fibre protector and its served me well and the phone is like new if i take it off. The battery is going a bit now but a quick charge gets up very quick. The malware thing there's not a lot they can get from me either but you know i think Google Samsung android etc. are all stepping up for security. Regarding pricing one plus started off cheap and are now in the expensive bracket in the UK. Its not called Rip off Britain for no reason. Yeah Samsung or iphone ithink. Not decided the wife nothing but a Samsung.

My colleagues are also all on iphones, generally in UK iphones are very popular, certainly way more popular than Globally or in rest of Europe. Not really sure why they are so popular.

I personally never liked iphones, just my preference. Bu they also been quite dodgy recently with removing features rather than adding them, also with introduction of Pro... basically if you don't get Pro then you getting "mid-range" phone, for the price that used to be "high-end". Also I just don't like how restricted everything is, basically you buy the phone, but apple still owns it and dictates you what you can and can't do. Just can't live with that. 

In my experience Samsung provides 3-4 years of updates for operating system, but they continue with security updates for quite a while. I am not sure what they promise, but certainly more than 5 years. At least that is true for their "flagship" devices, so Galaxy S, Galaxy Fold all getting at least 5 years of updates. I guess depends on where one draws the line, but 5 years in my experience were plenty, longer than that and phone becomes really obsolete anyway. 

As for Chinese phones - they simply can't be trusted, some models may get updates, some may not get-updates... simply the number of different devices they spit out each year means that it would be very hard to stay on top of their all updates for many years. I think 2-3 years if you lucky. The Oppo Find X that I got in 2018 only got 1 update after like 18 months and that was it, over time apps started glitching and crashing on it and by ~2021 it became almost useless. To befair nothing major has failed on it, Battery got to maybe 6 hours, also it had sliding camera and it developed the fault where sometimes you would slide camera cover and it would not turn on, but then usually if you close and open it, then it would turn on, not sure if that was software or hardware issue. I guess with time it would have stopped working completely, but had not done so in time I was still using it.

[ganzoom]

On 1/31/2024 at 8:34 PM, Newbie777 said:

I have a few phones at the moment which I rotate round including a Samsung galaxy fold (the brick). I can assure you, I will not be doing that now and will use this everywhere including in the car.  

Through circumstance I'm in a similar situation, using a Fold 4 and Honor Magic Pro 5. Samsung blows Honor out of the water on the software and stability front, however the Honor has a genuine all-day Battery life even when hot-spotting to the iPad and doing GPS tracking.

The V2 is too expensive and doesn't move the game on from the Fold....... I left the apple walled garden after moving away from the Iphone 5S to a Galaxy S7. However my iPad pro has been really impressive interms of functionality and am now saving up for V2.0 of this....... 

 

 

[Newbie777]

5 hours ago, ganzoom said:

Through circumstance I'm in a similar situation, using a Fold 4 and Honor Magic Pro 5. Samsung blows Honor out of the water on the software and stability front, however the Honor has a genuine all-day battery life even when hot-spotting to the iPad and doing GPS tracking.

The V2 is too expensive and doesn't move the game on from the Fold....... I left the Apple walled garden after moving away from the iPhone 5S to a Galaxy S7. However my iPad pro has been really impressive interms of functionality and am now saving up for V2.0 of this....... 

 

 

I agree with you regarding the Samsung is better in some ways. I do own a z fold and also a Google pixel.

However, unless you see it hold the V2, it is hard to understand, this is new great technology and not a marketing ploy.

[Newbie777]

9 hours ago, Linas.P said:

My colleagues are also all on iphones, generally in UK iphones are very popular, certainly way more popular than Globally or in rest of Europe. Not really sure why they are so popular.

I personally never liked iphones, just my preference. Bu they also been quite dodgy recently with removing features rather than adding them, also with introduction of Pro... basically if you don't get Pro then you getting "mid-range" phone, for the price that used to be "high-end". Also I just don't like how restricted everything is, basically you buy the phone, but apple still owns it and dictates you what you can and can't do. Just can't live with that. 

In my experience Samsung provides 3-4 years of updates for operating system, but they continue with security updates for quite a while. I am not sure what they promise, but certainly more than 5 years. At least that is true for their "flagship" devices, so Galaxy S, Galaxy Fold all getting at least 5 years of updates. I guess depends on where one draws the line, but 5 years in my experience were plenty, longer than that and phone becomes really obsolete anyway. 

As for Chinese phones - they simply can't be trusted, some models may get updates, some may not get-updates... simply the number of different devices they spit out each year means that it would be very hard to stay on top of their all updates for many years. I think 2-3 years if you lucky. The Oppo Find X that I got in 2018 only got 1 update after like 18 months and that was it, over time apps started glitching and crashing on it and by ~2021 it became almost useless. To befair nothing major has failed on it, battery got to maybe 6 hours, also it had sliding camera and it developed the fault where sometimes you would slide camera cover and it would not turn on, but then usually if you close and open it, then it would turn on, not sure if that was software or hardware issue. I guess with time it would have stopped working completely, but had not done so in time I was still using it.

The Magic V2 will get 4 years Google updates and 5 year Magic OS  software updates.

nI the UK your info is shared with people you know and people you do not!

I was into apple right from the start, pdas and Psion before . I found out that apple was using my data without my consent, switched over to Android and at least Google told me they were using my data.

In terms of not trusting Chinese, that is something that our media and government have decided to blow out of propertion, it is a personal choice.

[Linas.P]

14 minutes ago, Newbie777 said:

In terms of not trusting Chinese, that is something that our media and government have decided to blow out of propertion, it is a personal choice.

It is personal choice here, but it could be life and death choice in china. I also know that some chinese who have left china had been harassed based on information china was able to collect on them abroad, in fact I know one person myself who had bought Iphone in china (they have segregated icloud etc.) and they were still harassed based on information crapple shared with china. Only once they got Iphone in UK they managed to lose the tail (still weird choice to go back to the company that sold you out).

For google I just create account for each new device and only use that account with that device. I mean I am sure google can still figure out based on IPs and what not that it is same user using multiple accounts, but at least from targeted marketing algorithm it seems to work. Still (this may be paranoia) but if you speak out loud about your holiday plans in the room, few hours later you get adverts for package holiday to the destination you discussed... well it is still better than be re-educated in one of the china's camps. 

Ironically - you can hide from targeted advertising by using chinese phones, because their google services do not connect to main google servers, or at least it is not so obvious. So in some sense if CCP can't reach you and hurt you, then as foreign national you may get more privacy using chinese phones.

As for crapple - I can just confirm they are horrible, from developer perspective they are horrible to deal with, from user perspective they are horrible to deal with, they basically IDs you personally, because you must give them your credit card details to download even free apps... so you can't be semi-anonymous with them like you can on android and their control freaks as well. 

[ALAW]

22 hours ago, Linas.P said:

My colleagues are also all on iphones, generally in UK iphones are very popular, certainly way more popular than Globally or in rest of Europe. Not really sure why they are so popular.

I personally never liked iphones, just my preference. Bu they also been quite dodgy recently with removing features rather than adding them, also with introduction of Pro... basically if you don't get Pro then you getting "mid-range" phone, for the price that used to be "high-end". Also I just don't like how restricted everything is, basically you buy the phone, but apple still owns it and dictates you what you can and can't do. Just can't live with that. 

In my experience Samsung provides 3-4 years of updates for operating system, but they continue with security updates for quite a while. I am not sure what they promise, but certainly more than 5 years. At least that is true for their "flagship" devices, so Galaxy S, Galaxy Fold all getting at least 5 years of updates. I guess depends on where one draws the line, but 5 years in my experience were plenty, longer than that and phone becomes really obsolete anyway. 

As for Chinese phones - they simply can't be trusted, some models may get updates, some may not get-updates... simply the number of different devices they spit out each year means that it would be very hard to stay on top of their all updates for many years. I think 2-3 years if you lucky. The Oppo Find X that I got in 2018 only got 1 update after like 18 months and that was it, over time apps started glitching and crashing on it and by ~2021 it became almost useless. To befair nothing major has failed on it, battery got to maybe 6 hours, also it had sliding camera and it developed the fault where sometimes you would slide camera cover and it would not turn on, but then usually if you close and open it, then it would turn on, not sure if that was software or hardware issue. I guess with time it would have stopped working completely, but had not done so in time I was still using it.

According to a review i have read on Tech Radar the S24 ultra will receive updates for 7 years 7 years. Tech Radar rate the phone as the best on the market they did some benchmarks against an Iphone and it beat it hands down. The issues you raise here the glitches on the chinese phones i have experienced them as well on my one plus.

[ALAW]

11 hours ago, Linas.P said:

It is personal choice here, but it could be life and death choice in china. I also know that some chinese who have left china had been harassed based on information china was able to collect on them abroad, in fact I know one person myself who had bought iphone in china (they have segregated icloud etc.) and they were still harassed based on information crapple shared with china. Only once they got iphone in UK they managed to lose the tail (still weird choice to go back to the company that sold you out).

For google I just create account for each new device and only use that account with that device. I mean I am sure google can still figure out based on IPs and what not that it is same user using multiple accounts, but at least from targeted marketing algorithm it seems to work. Still (this may be paranoia) but if you speak out loud about your holiday plans in the room, few hours later you get adverts for package holiday to the destination you discussed... well it is still better than be re-educated in one of the china's camps. 

Ironically - you can hide from targeted advertising by using chinese phones, because their google services do not connect to main google servers, or at least it is not so obvious. So in some sense if CCP can't reach you and hurt you, then as foreign national you may get more privacy using chinese phones.

As for crapple - I can just confirm they are horrible, from developer perspective they are horrible to deal with, from user perspective they are horrible to deal with, they basically IDs you personally, because you must give them your credit card details to download even free apps... so you can't be semi-anonymous with them like you can on android and their control freaks as well. 

The release price for the S24 ultra is around £1300

[Newbie777]

On 2/2/2024 at 11:40 PM, ALAW said:

According to a review i have read on Tech Radar the S24 ultra will receive updates for 7 years 7 years. Tech Radar rate the phone as the best on the market they did some benchmarks against an iphone and it beat it hands down. The issues you raise here the glitches on the chinese phones i have experienced them as well on my one plus.

No one will keep a phone for 7 years, technolog moves fast

[Newbie777]

On 2/2/2024 at 11:41 PM, ALAW said:

The release price for the S24 ultra is around £1300

I paid £1200 for my V2 and will get some B&O headphones and 6 months internal and external damage cover.

It not cheap I agree and not for everyone

[Bluemarlin]

On 2/2/2024 at 11:46 AM, Linas.P said:

As for crapple - I can just confirm they are horrible, from developer perspective they are horrible to deal with, from user perspective they are horrible to deal with, they basically IDs you personally, because you must give them your credit card details to download even free apps... so you can't be semi-anonymous with them like you can on android and their control freaks as well. 

You do't have to have a credit card with apple. I once had issues with my iTunes account being hacked, so I deleted my credit card details and just use Itunes vouchers now.

Years ago I used to be a big gadget fan, and was lucky enough to work in the mobile industry, so always got the lastest phones for free. Now that the novelty's worn off (and I have to spend my own money) I find that pretty much any phone does what I need. I still use an Iphone as my main phone, but usually buy used for under £100 (current one I've had for 3 or 4 years) and only upgrade when apps won't work on whatever highest level of OS it will take. My backup phone is a used Moto G, that was only £50, which frankly works as well as any Iphone I've ever had.

I still like gadgets, but tend to be more interested in those that do things I couldn't previously do, rather than ones that might do the same things a little better.

 

[Bluemarlin]

On 2/1/2024 at 8:32 AM, Newbie777 said:

I think the keyword is latest technology that nobody yet has achieved.

I think there's also a case of the latest technology that nobody has yet released.

In some case what we get isn't just what's possible, but what's sufficient for us to be persuaded to upgrade, with manufacturers releasing previously developed upgrades as and when they have to.

[Mr Vlad]

There's a saying "you get what you pay for". Personally speaking I find anyone spending over a grand for a mobile phone either needs their head testing or have more money than sence or are fashion conscious. 

Chinese phones. OMG have you seen what you can get on Temu? Blatant copies of Samsung phones.

These modern phones have more computing power that what they had to send the first rocket into space. 

My current phone is the Samsung S22 Ultra. Did I buy new or is it on a plan? No. I bought reconditioned. To be honest I'm disappointed with it. My previous phone the superb Samsung S10 Lite, bought reconditioned years ago, developed a niggle which bugged the sheitte out of me. Later found out I'd messed up the ZoneAlarm Internet security settings. But what got me, I was under the impression the S22 Ultra was a Bigger phone. Not ruddy likely. They're the same size. However the camera wires the floor with the S10 Lite. 

I use to be a Nokia man till one day I learned that my phone dialled 999 50 times whilst in my pocket. Straight to Samsung after that and I've had them ever since and that's over 30 years. 

As for longevity of phones. The phone before the S10 Lite was the Note 4. Got that very very soon after they came out, Gid knows when that was, but just last month I stripped it to pieces and off the the phone palace in the sky. That phone just became so slow it was painful. It was my backup phone. 

As for how a phone feels in one's hand. All phones feel plastic. However I've been using Spigen phone cases and the phone feels like a piece of quality. Nevermind titanium this and diamond encrusted that. That's just posh nonsense. 

[Linas.P]

7 hours ago, Bluemarlin said:

You do't have to have a credit card with Apple. I once had issues with my iTunes account being hacked, so I deleted my credit card details and just use Itunes vouchers now.

Years ago I used to be a big gadget fan, and was lucky enough to work in the mobile industry, so always got the lastest phones for free. Now that the novelty's worn off (and I have to spend my own money) I find that pretty much any phone does what I need. I still use an iPhone as my main phone, but usually buy used for under £100 (current one I've had for 3 or 4 years) and only upgrade when apps won't work on whatever highest level of OS it will take. My backup phone is a used Moto G, that was only £50, which frankly works as well as any iPhone I've ever had.

I still like gadgets, but tend to be more interested in those that do things I couldn't previously do, rather than ones that might do the same things a little better.

 

On iTunes maybe, but to use App Store you must link credit card to it, so basically it is ID check as well... because you can't be just Mr. Joe Blobs with e-mail ihatecrapple@gmail.com. 

You can indeed create alt-account with all made-up information, log-into App Store, but you can't download any apps, because as soon as you try to do it it will ask for payment method (even for free apps), and obviously once you add credit (or debit card) they know EXACTLY who you are. I had this comical moment with apple support, because I had issue validating my credit card, because obviously all the info on my account was made-up and when they ask me for my account e-mail address it was something like applesucks8345@mailinator.com. At that point they advised me that "perhaps credit card is not validating because I had made-up info on the account", even thought for credit card I obviously had to enter my real details. 

So basically there is no escaping all knowing apple spy network... if you want to use their ecosystem.

[Linas.P]

7 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

There's a saying "you get what you pay for". Personally speaking I find anyone spending over a grand for a mobile phone either needs their head testing or have more money than sence or are fashion conscious. 

Chinese phones. OMG have you seen what you can get on Temu? Blatant copies of Samsung phones.

These modern phones have more computing power that what they had to send the first rocket into space. 

My current phone is the Samsung S22 Ultra. Did I buy new or is it on a plan? No. I bought reconditioned. To be honest I'm disappointed with it. My previous phone the superb Samsung S10 Lite, bought reconditioned years ago, developed a niggle which bugged the sheitte out of me. Later found out I'd messed up the ZoneAlarm Internet security settings. But what got me, I was under the impression the S22 Ultra was a Bigger phone. Not ruddy likely. They're the same size. However the camera wires the floor with the S10 Lite. 

I use to be a Nokia man till one day I learned that my phone dialled 999 50 times whilst in my pocket. Straight to Samsung after that and I've had them ever since and that's over 30 years. 

As for longevity of phones. The phone before the S10 Lite was the Note 4. Got that very very soon after they came out, Gid knows when that was, but just last month I stripped it to pieces and off the the phone palace in the sky. That phone just became so slow it was painful. It was my backup phone. 

As for how a phone feels in one's hand. All phones feel plastic. However I've been using Spigen phone cases and the phone feels like a piece of quality. Nevermind titanium this and diamond encrusted that. That's just posh nonsense. 

I used to be able to justify it when the phones were very innovative, but as of late I can't see much of said innovation. Well I guess it needs to be defined, back in the days of say Galaxy S2, to S3, or S3 to S4, or S4 to S5, there was genuine step in specs screen resolution 20% higher, screen size 10% higher, Battery size/life 30% higher, camera +50% megapixels, S5 added water resistance, S6 added metal frame and curved screen and the price was going up slowly almost with inflation. By like £50, sometimes maybe £100. But by the time we got to S10 to S20, there was honestly very little between them, S20 lost 3.5mm jack and that was pretty much it, for the rest you need to look at the spec. sheet with magnification. Then Samsung also switched to "tick tock" release cycle like apple... S20 was pretty much S10, just some features, cut, charger removed from the box, the camera cut out moved from corner to middle. S22 was pretty much same as S21, even externally identical, perhaps 1mm here and there, S23 and S24 again - I struggle to see why do I have to spend £1000 on phone one year and next year to replace it with nearly identical phone. 

Also as mentioned Samsung followed apple in egregiously overpricing their flagships. Galaxy S used to be flagship at the price of ~600-£700 + inflation, but then they introduced Ultra. So whereas logic says S10 should have been replaced by S20, that is not true, S10 was replaced by S20 Ultra and S20 was basically a step down in quality from S10. That is why when I replaced my S10 with S22 I felt like going a segment down, S22 despite being obviously much more technologically advanced device (because it is 4 years newer) is a solid upper-midrange phone and not flagship. Honestly my S10 is snappier and nicer to handle than S22. S22 Ultra a different story, but it was £1179...

Now sure - Samsung does appreciate loyalty, so if you upgrading EVERY YEAR, then they will knock down £400-£600 trade-in. So if you got S23 Ultra in same fashion (trading your previous S22 Ultra), then with trade-in it worked out probably less than £799, then before launch you could pick-up S24 Ultra for £1299-£600 trade in for Z-Fold 5 or £500 for S23Ultra + 512GB free memory upgrade for pre-order + Galaxy Gear watch (worth ~£299), so reasonably speaking your S24 Ultra will cost you £1299-£500=£799 + free memory upgrade that is worth £100 + free smar****ch that is worth £299, so you paying in ballpark (or even less than £600) if you upgrade every year. It was the same when I pre-ordered S22, I got £200 discount for ANY Samsung phone in ANY condition and I just had dead A52 in the draw + Galaxy Buds Pro 2 (which were probably £249 to buy and they are honestly the best wireless earphones I have every tried (they are very loud, very clear, very deep base, good Battery life, good microphone, good active noise cancellation, excellent active noise filtering boost - feels a bit like superhuman as you can snoop on conversations across the train it is a little be eerie...). So I paid £799 for the phone + very very viable free earphones that are worth their price. 

In short - you can always have latest and greatest Samsung phone for ~£600 a year + a lot of various freebies depending on what they have on offer that year, sometimes it is honestly crap and useless, but sometimes it is something you may want to buy yourself, so it could be quite sweet deal. But even then I am struggling to justify £600 a year, as the phones are simply not different enough, or not better enough to upgrade. So I rather pay ~£800 every 3/4 years, to get 6 month old "flagship" and that works out for me as £200 to stay somewhat with the trends.

I also still have Note 4 - still works well, but it is unbelievably slow, borderline unusable, I can't believe what updates did to it (it was very snappy and smooth phone at launch). Was considering to even put a custom rom on it with some clean vanilla Android 8 or something, but it would be obsolete either way. 

Finally - Samsung did innovate with foldable and they did set the new big trend, defined the next step in the smartphone development for sure. However, there is difference between practical innovation and public technology testing. Galaxy Fold was a public technology testing, the device was very rough and fragile at the start and I just can't see how it is worth to pay £1999 to be a test subject (or was it even over £2000?!), I hoped such prototype phones will trickle down into mainstream, but it has barely happen, only about to happen now. So it just shows how much it has changed. I remember they launched original Galaxy Edge, just around the time Note 5 came out, it was probably around £1000, when Note 5 was £600 and Galaxy S5 was £489. It was that sort of prototype - technology showpiece for few fans etc. But next year there was S6 and S6 edge, with the price difference of only £50 and both under £600. So it took Samsung 6 months to bring "future showcase device" into mainstream for affordable price. Fold was launched 5 years ago and Fold Z 5 was still well over £1000... £1649 if I noted correctly... so it is still way way into public prototype testing realm and well too expensive for mainstream and even then S23 Ultra was a better phone overall. So it is a difference between overpriced gimmick and true innovation. I consider that until device is not available at reasonable price for mainstream - it is a gimmick. I think foldables just about to break into mainstream, I bought Z4 Flip as a gift, but again only because it kind of worked out around £650 with discounts for me. Now I guess why it took so long for Samsung to do it ? It is because competition drives innovation, Samsung was way above the curve and there was no real competition in folding screens space, so Samsung could afford to keep the prices high. Hence my hope that Z Fold 6 will be sub-£800 phone once all the rebates, trade-ins and gifts are included and I could finally upgrade.