Android phones, apps and tablets

Bear in mind that a custom rom may also not satisfy the security requirements. Lots of things don't like phones with unlocked bootloaders, rooted, etc.

Good point.

TBH I'm not so fused about work email on my personal phone, but the calendar is fucking handy.

I use this to sync my work calendar to gmail
https://www.outlookgooglecalendarsync.com/
Obviously need to consider whether there are any confidentiality issues with work stuff being replicated in a google calendar.

Cheers that's much appreciated. I'll give it a shot.

Can anyone recommend a tablet for doing homework etc on? Maybe some very light gaming? Budget flexible. Maybe a few a hundred quid?

Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite seems reasonable, it comes with the s pen too

Personally I'd get a Chromebook. Something with a keyboard and an OS a bit more set up for that kind of thing.

Most can run android apps too.

Something with a keyboard

If you're going to be pounding keys, a good quality Bluetooth keyboard is a better choice than a laptop

Budget (£200 or thereabouts) android phone with decent camera and wireless charging. What do?

Samsung Galaxy S10 flashed with Lineage (to get rid of the Samsung bloat).

Isn't the point of Samsung's Android Mods to improve performance? Am I being naive? I've owned vanilla Android and Samsung but it's impossible to compare given the hardware differences. That said, after owning am S6 right the way to an S20 I've never "felt" that Samaung have bloatware.

Interesting. I've never bought a Samsung off the back of my experience with partners and parents Samsungs.

Admittedly that was quite a while ago now, but the experience stuck and I've always written them off.

get rid of the Samsung bloat

It seems it would help if you could enumerate the so-called bloat which needs a new OS flashed to uninstall or disable.

Appetites for extraneous software may vary, of course, but here's a few apks that are bloaty.

I should probably restate what I wrote - a new ROM is not necessary to remove the Samsung apps, but it does make it cleaner. Particularly if you like a google-free phone.

The S10 is a decent enough phone at that price point in any case.

S10 was a decent enough phone

ftfy. There's a lot that comes into play if you're counting used phones at any particular price point.

if you like a google-free phone...

...then you're probably in the wrong thread 🙂

Google-free as a shorthand for Google Play Services Free AOSP then

Theres a shit load of forced apps for sure, but I just hide the icons and forget about them.

Apart from Bixby, which you can't get rid of. I'd pay to get rid of Bixby.

There was a Samsung OS update for my (otherwise superb) Galaxy Tab S6 that turned the power button into the Bixby button. What the actual fuck!

Bixby, which you can't get rid of

Apparently you can. You can also change the button action to something other than bixby without any hacking on my Tab Active 3, YMMV

Bonus points for a brand new phone. I'm beyond the days of worrying about specs for my phone when all I do is take photos and browse the internet with it.

Agreed. But if you're just sat at the sofa or quickly on the kitchen table then using a laptop keyboard is better than a tablet on-screen thing. Plus a nicer OS in terms of window management.

Decided I was being lazy and will try to fix my current Pixel 3XL. The only issue with it is (I believe) the charging port. I usually just have it on a wireless charging dock, but no USB-C cable wants to stay in the port when I want to charge it in other random places, if I can even get it to start charging on the cable at all. Have cleaned out as much detritus as I can to no avail. Otherwise the phone works flawlessly. New port and a bundle of repair tools and adhesive etc, even with next day AM delivery, was £20. I will report back how easy/much of a nightmare the task is.

For anyone wondering how this went, new phone is arriving in the next half hour....

I'm getting a Pixel 6a tomorrow.

Looking forward to it, but I am hoping the the stories about the fingerprint reader are overblown....

For anyone wondering how this went, new phone is arriving in the next half hour....

Lols, doh