Hi everyone, I actually hate smartphones, but I need to replace my extremely old and unsupported smartphone with a new one for a few basic tasks. I don’t care about specs as long as it has ≥4GB of RAM, supports /e/OS, and I need it to be as small as possible within the crazy big size of modern Android devices. Since I hate smartphones and I use my phone very lightly I want to spend as little as possible as long as the hardware is long-lasting and reasonably future-proof.
It looks like the Pixel 4a (not 5g) is the closest thing to what I’m looking for, especially regarding size and /e/OS support. But I just wanted to check if there are any experiences with how well it does or doesn’t support /e/OS in the real world, or if there are any major caveats. I’m proficient with Linux and I’ve spent way too much time over many years dealing with custom ROMs on many different devices, but ideally I want something that doesn’t require jumping through many hoops and doesn’t break from one OS update to another.
Over-the-Air /e/OS updates or requires manually downloading and flashing them?
Banking apps work with /e/OS on the Pixel 4a? (SafetyNet or whatever it’s called passes?)
Standby battery drain rate with just cell phone service enabled and mobile data and WiFi turned off?
Can you make the always-on ambient display only turn on if there are pending notifications and only show the notifications? How much extra battery drain does this cause? Or have you tried any of those apps that keep a few pixels illuminated to simulate a notification LED? If so how much battery drain?
In general Yes, but that might be different in the case of upgrades (jumps from one major android to the next or further:
Well, it’s a smartphone so do not exoect miracles, especially if you use it as a portable computer (which it is) for online services etc. like banking … That said: with a fairly good battery and only cell phone on and not too many apps that eat up battery in the background and with a not too bright display etc 2 full days should be doable.
Notifications would not worry me much - depending on how many to expect (see above: number of apps running in the background)
Thanks a lot to @mihi and @obacht for the replies.
My current smartphone can easily last a week on a charge, because it usually spends most of the time just sitting there waiting for an infrequent phone call. It’s only when I travel or very rarely need a banking feature not available on the bank’s web browser interface that I use the smartphone. But on different devices I’ve noticed that standby battery drain is often a major issue with 3rd party ROMs compared to the stock Android version that came with the device, so I just want to make sure that’s not a problem on the Pixel 4a.
Thanks, I was looking at that one too. Any idea how much effect it has on battery drain? I’m afraid I’m really going to miss the notification LED, since as I described the phone usually spends most of its time just waiting for phone calls and I need to know if I missed a call. But unfortunately phones with a notification LED are a dying breed these days, so I can’t have that requirement anymore and need a workaround.
Regarding notification LED simulations or replacements, I wonder if the always-on display option would work for me. Does /e/OS allow for the always-on display to only show notifications (not the clock or anything else) and only activate when there is an active notification? I found this random picture online for a Samung device that looks like it would do what I want:
Samsung S7 has that and it is well supported by eOS because murena used to sell that model in the shop, therefore an “official” version (formerly known as “stable”) is available. Plus it is a bit smaller than the 4a…
There is no actual “Allways on Display” as far as I know. I stopped using HolyLight and don’t remember the actual features and settings. I broke the screen of my 4a and replaced it with another used 4a (it was cheaper than a new screen…). The one I used has a bit a diffrent battery consumption, don’t know why. The screen crushed one I use for testing channel of e/OS/.
Yeah, since reading a bit more it looks like they changed it to “Ambient Display” now? Have you tried that for an option that makes it turn on only when there are new notifications waiting?
