Lessons from a decade old smartphone experience...

[TheMystic]

WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM MY EXPERIENCE

When I visit online forums and read about several discussions, complaints, suggestions, etc. I can identify with some (many) of them, because I have been in the same boat at some time, so can relate to what is written.

Having experimented with multiple smartphones (from different brands, both iOS and Android) over the years, including flashing custom ROMs, rooting, modding, automation, etc., I have sufficient first hand experience, although there is a lot more that I can still learn (obviously).

With time, I have kind of matured in understanding what is essential (utility oriented), what is interesting (more fancy, but less utility), and what is gimmick (very little practical use). In this thread, I will try and include points that (hopefully) will allow you to rethink the way you use your smartphone, and if many of the things you look for are actually required.

So, let's begin:

1. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING

You get the BEST EXPERIENCE if you keep things SIMPLE. The more complicated or sophisticated your setup is, the lesser will be your satisfaction (there is never an end to this as this is human psychology).

2. YOUR PHONE IS JUST A TOOL

This is also true of any gadget/ non-living object. Don't pay too much attention to how your phone looks. It is okay to spend sometime customising it to your liking. But doing it daily or every so often is a total waste of productive time. The primary reason for this is you get tired of every setup, no matter how good you feel about it when you first set it up.

I have also spent hundreds of dollars in just cases. What a waste of money! Don't do it.

Use a 'set it, forget it' approach and STOP admiring it.

3. DON'T LOOK AT STATS TOO MUCH

All sorts of fancy apps are available that show you un-actionable (read: useless) information, have their own theories (unproven) of what is best, etc. Stay away from apps that need to run in the background to provide you with information which is totally useless. Examples are apps that give you battery stats, temperature, RAM, etc. Do remember that you are relying on stats from an app, that by itself is unreliable!

There was a time when I used to have apps that would show me all such info (like battery temperature, CPU temperature, free RAM, data speeds, etc.) on the status bar (via overlay), and as widgets on the Home-screen. Over time, I found myself constantly looking at these stats every now and then (because they would be always available on the status bar) and would actually be bothered because something or the other would almost always be off from expectations. Once I uninstalled all such fancy apps and stopped bothering about such details, my smartphone experienceSIGNIFICANTLY improved.

A classic example was when a very popular app reported high temperature, but the phone was cold to the touch. And the same app reported normal temperature when the phone was warm to the touch. What did I do? I decided to rely on how it felt to my touch and uninstalled that app!

Your phone is designed to thermally throttle/ temporarily shut down the internal components when they get too hot and unsafe for operation. So stop bothering about these stats and just use your phone.

4. DON'T TRY TO AUTOMATE TOO MUCH

Automation means one or more (automation) apps running in the background. While some functions can be useful, most functions are just fancy stuff. They have very limited application and you are better off manually taking care of them than have an app running 24x7 in the background.

At some point, I had automated several things on my phone, only to realise that doing them manually was much more simpler and effective than keeping an app running in the background unnecessarily, that was wasting my hardware (CPU cycles, battery, etc.) away.

5. YOUR CHOICE OF APPS

Last, but not the least, your choice of apps plays a huge role in your smartphone experience.This is, by far, the most important determinant of your smartphone experience. Most apps you find in the App Store are poorly coded, either due to developer incompetence, or because the app is simply a tool to show ads to generate income for the developer.

Apps can run background service, can utilize Google Play Services to send you notifications, can poll the system continuously for events, can display ads, can call a remote server, etc. All these activities drain your battery, consume CPU cycles, and utilize other hardware too eventually resulting in lags, freezes, battery drain, etc which ruins your smartphone experience.

Try out different apps and choose one that is simple, yet fully functional.

I have linked some additional reading below. Hope to see fewer complaints in this forum going forward.

USEFUL READINGS

1. No more lags, freezes, battery drain, heating, etc. https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Tech-Talk/No-more-lags-freezes-battery-drain-heating/td-p/111135...

2. Battery Facts https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Tech-Talk/Battery-Facts/td-p/11113629

3. Choosing the right charger https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Tech-Talk/Choosing-the-right-charger/td-p/11110950

4. Best Android Apps (2022)
https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Tech-Talk/Best-Android-Apps-2022/td-p/11116521

5. How to block ads systemwide
https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Tech-Talk/How-to-Block-Ads-systemwide/td-p/11138216

6. Blank Thumbnails problem
https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Tech-Talk/Blank-Thumbnails/td-p/11138325

[Anonymous]

Mai bhi na 😂

[mHappiee]

1. Nope... If you do those complicated things correctly, then it's very useful... It only takes a little time for once to do the setup 😬

2. Yes, but some customisation is also a part of it... But Not so fancy thought... If you make it too much then that's a problem... 😅,
You can show your creativity through this also... Eg : I have invested ₹ 0.0/- in cases but it's a customised case (coz i made it myself)

3. Yes, completely agreed to this point... There is no need of such apps.

4. Automation is good ig 🤔... May be dependent on which app you use for automation and what things you automate... I use Tasker, which runs in background 24x7 and it takes <1% of battery juice.

5. Yeap...

[PrateekPriyadarshy]

Yeah
You're right after one ui 4
First 2, 3 days were excited then I realized that customizing everything is unnecessary and did a full reset to all those settings and now I am so happy with normal as usual look.

[ㅤ]

🙃fir se ek essay read kiya aaj.

[mHappiee]

😅

[ㅤ]

lya likha tha isme..🙃...?

chlo chhodo..🤣... mere kaam ki ceez na hogi. agar hoti to mai read kr hi leta.😅

[mHappiee]

Wo apna experience and what to do and what not to do bataya h...

[ㅤ]

hmn🤔...

pr hume us se kya... 🤣... yeh banda evei'n hi bs.. experience btata rehta hai

[mHappiee]

Accha... Koi nahi ... Maine b apna experience bata diya 😅

[TheMystic]

If people stop crying for updates, such essays won't be necessary. 😃