Mrs B and I have always had the same kind of cellphone. Right now we've got IPhone 6s which are old. Her battery won't hold a charge for long, and mine is literally coming apart. So I contacted Straight Talk -who we have our cell service with- and bought 2 iPhone SE 64GB phones for $149 ea. Anybody have this phone? Reviews look pretty good, seems to be a lot like my current phone only updated with newer guts. Hopefully I didn't make a terrible consumer purchase! [Reply]
Those are fine phones for that price. I’d buy one for my kid if he was old enough for one. I’m one of those suckers dropping 1100 on the latest greatest iPhone but I can’t go back to a little screen. I need to watch pron in style. Got five years outta my last one so hoping for five with this. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fish:
Android phones have facial recognition. Just not nearly as secure. Which they straight up admit when you enable. Something like "This method isn't as secure as other methods, and someone that looks like you might be able to unlock your phone or use a picture of you." LOL
I'm really digging the in-display fingerprint scanner in my new Galaxy S21 though. Best fingerprint scanner I've ever tried. I'd bet the next iPhone has one. When covid hit, the mask requirements screwed up a lot of people's routines using FaceID.
Yeah the mask thing absolutely screwed up face rec. But that’s over with here. I like the secure face rec because it subs for your password on almost all sites that require one. That’s good to know about the S21. I’m down with a good print reader though and I’m a Samsung fan. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
My household has Amazon and Google devices. I use Siri infrequently but when I do, she does what I ask. I've never had an issue with speech to text but then again, I use it on my phone directly, I don't use Car Play.
Alexa and Google? They like to pull shit out of thin air and offer up odd advice not even related to what was asked.
I can stand any of the personal assistants, honestly. The all suck.
Interesting, my experience with Google is more positive than yours. You bring it all home though with your last sentence. Agreed. [Reply]
Originally Posted by vailpass:
Face ID may be the one thing that keeps me from switching back to Android next time I get a new phone. It's spectacular.
Without thinking about it, have you ever fired it up and tried the face feature with a mask on? Happened to me twice. Both times I was trying to do about 6 things at once and forgot all about the mask. Needless to say, that didn't work out well until I whipped off the mask. :-) [Reply]
The SE is the flagship phone we are using to replace our entire fleet or mobile phones. They are cost effective and work good if you are not one who wants all the extra power and fancy display.
They are good, solid, workhorse type devices. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bwana:
Without thinking about it, have you ever fired it up and tried the face feature with a mask on? Happened to me twice. Both times I was trying to do about 6 things at once and forgot all about the mask. Needless to say, that didn't work out well until I whipped off the mask. :-)
Hah yes I have! More than once and each time I was at it for a good fifteen seconds before I figured out I was going nowhere. [Reply]
Originally Posted by petegz28:
The SE is the flagship phone we are using to replace our entire fleet or mobile phones. They are cost effective and work good if you are not one who wants all the extra power and fancy display.
They are good, solid, workhorse type devices.
HemiEd has been looking for a new iPhone for his wife. I wonder if he’s considered this one? Or maybe she wants the bigger screen. [Reply]
ive had one for quite a while it works fine and even i can navigate it ok, im 57 so its a lot smarter then i am ! to be fair i only use it to call, text and play some games. it does take nice pictures too [Reply]
Originally Posted by vailpass:
Yeah the mask thing absolutely screwed up face rec. But that’s over with here. I like the secure face rec because it subs for your password on almost all sites that require one. That’s good to know about the S21. I’m down with a good print reader though and I’m a Samsung fan.
Back in the day I was strictly android. My first smart phone was an Iphone 2 and I hated it, I hated that it was limited to At&t and had to jailbreak it to get on a new network and then, once you did, it wasn't anything special.
From that point until 2016 avid Android user. That is until it managed to erase my entire work calendar both on outlook and on the google calendar. Switched to iphone and never looked back. I have a 12 and I'm a fan. Stable, secure and does everything I need it to. [Reply]
I didn't really need anything too fancy, didn't want to spend over $500, and felt the need to switch back to an iPhone after having an Android phone for a couple of years.
The biggest downside with the SE is the battery life. It really does suck, especially if you have to use something that requires constant data, such as streaming music, navigation, etc. The cheap Android phone I got rid of had twice as much battery life. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Munson:
I got an SE about 6 months ago.
I didn't really need anything too fancy, didn't want to spend over $500, and felt the need to switch back to an iPhone after having an Android phone for a couple of years.
The biggest downside with the SE is the battery life. It really does suck, especially if you have to use something that requires constant data, such as streaming music, navigation, etc. The cheap Android phone I got rid of had twice as much battery life.
Remember the good old days when you could have a spare battery to pop in them? [Reply]
Originally Posted by vailpass:
Yeah the mask thing absolutely screwed up face rec. But that’s over with here. I like the secure face rec because it subs for your password on almost all sites that require one. That’s good to know about the S21. I’m down with a good print reader though and I’m a Samsung fan.
Gotta say, I've been incredibly impressed with the S21. I had been using a S8 since it first came out, and actually wasn't really even interested in upgrading yet. Still had great battery life, and phone was fast enough. But I got a phone for my daughter a couple weeks ago, and noticed them advertising a trade-in for old Samsung phones. For kicks, I decided to see what they'd give me for trade-in value for my 4 year old S8. Actually got a $799 trade-in credit for it. LOL. I couldn't really say no. Got the S21 for $50 + the $35 upgrade fee. I'd been holding out on a very old service plan that they don't offer anymore, so I upgraded to the 5G unlimited plan and now get Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu free with my plan. Had been paying for Hulu and Disney+. So, technically got a new phone, and lowered my monthly rate no longer paying for Hulu/Disney+ separately.
Seriously though, the finger print scanner in the screen glass is very accurate and lightning fast. The phone itself is super fast. Performance difference over my S8 is crazy. And the camera trio is very impressive. 64-megapixel (telephoto), 12-megapixel (wide-angle), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide). 120Hz refresh rate, which makes navigating everything just silky smooth. Double the refresh rate of iPhone 12. That uses more battery, but it's got a huge battery so it doesn't really matter. S21 has a 4000mAh compared to iPhone 12's 2,815 mAh. Different chips use power differently so actual battery life isn't that vastly different.
Anyway.. Sorry for the Samsung thread hijack. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bwana:
Without thinking about it, have you ever fired it up and tried the face feature with a mask on? Happened to me twice. Both times I was trying to do about 6 things at once and forgot all about the mask. Needless to say, that didn't work out well until I whipped off the mask. :-)
Apple actually patched Face ID to get it to work better with masks. It's improved but still not perfect. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fish:
Gotta say, I've been incredibly impressed with the S21. I had been using a S8 since it first came out, and actually wasn't really even interested in upgrading yet. Still had great battery life, and phone was fast enough. But I got a phone for my daughter a couple weeks ago, and noticed them advertising a trade-in for old Samsung phones. For kicks, I decided to see what they'd give me for trade-in value for my 4 year old S8. Actually got a $799 trade-in credit for it. LOL. I couldn't really say no. Got the S21 for $50 + the $35 upgrade fee. I'd been holding out on a very old service plan that they don't offer anymore, so I upgraded to the 5G unlimited plan and now get Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu free with my plan. Had been paying for Hulu and Disney+. So, technically got a new phone, and lowered my monthly rate no longer paying for Hulu/Disney+ separately.
Seriously though, the finger print scanner in the screen glass is very accurate and lightning fast. The phone itself is super fast. Performance difference over my S8 is crazy. And the camera trio is very impressive. 64-megapixel (telephoto), 12-megapixel (wide-angle), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide). 120Hz refresh rate, which makes navigating everything just silky smooth. Double the refresh rate of iPhone 12. That uses more battery, but it's got a huge battery so it doesn't really matter. S21 has a 4000mAh compared to iPhone's 2,815 mAh. Different chips use power differently so actual battery life isn't that vastly different.
Anyway.. Sorry for the Samsung thread hijack.
My wife is Samsung fangirl thru and thru. I'm heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem outside of my iPhone though - 2 Mac's and 2 iPad's. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
My wife is Samsung fangirl thru and thru. I'm heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem outside of my iPhone though - 2 Mac's and 2 iPad's.
iOS just drives me crazy to be honest. I have to have complete control and ability to customize my OS experience the way I want. The only way I've ever been satisfied with iOS is to jailbreak it. And that becomes a pain in the ass over time. The crazy thing is that I manage Apple devices at work. I've actually been a Apple Certified Mac Technician for almost 15 years. Certified to do warranty repair on any current Apple laptop or desktop. But I haven't owned an iOS device in probably 15 years. I know it's gotten much better recently. But my last 3 phones were Galaxy S3, S5, S8. Kinda thought my next phone would be a Pixel 5, but then this deal fell in my lap. Couldn't be happier. [Reply]
