Yesterday, I got a new phone, a Samsung Galaxy S24. Jade green, ordered from samsung.com because that was the only place to get green. I never got my Pixel 3a running again and my Moto X was just a little too broken, slow, poor network connecting, and unable to handle some apps. The S24 was my first Samsung and notably more expensive than any phone I’ve gotten before. But I justified it by its:
- likely longevity with 7 years of updates, strong build, waterproofing
- reasonable size
- full features
- 5G data
- Dex desktop mode and USB video out
I’m still getting set up and getting used to it, but I think I’m happy with it. I couldn’t migrate from the Pixel because it was dead and not from the Moto because the phones couldn’t find each other for transfer (micro-USB to USB C issue maybe), so this was a clean install, other than that contacts and stuff were brought over with my Google account. After the unexpected death of my Pixel, I’ve turned on the backup stuff and switched to “cloud” services for some things, so I’ll hopefully have everything if this one dies.
This has Samsung’s skin of Android rather than straight Android. It’s taken some getting used to compared to the Pixel. I’ve removed some apps I definitely don’t plan to use and switched around a number of settings from their default. There is a Samsung account thing that seems to be required for some of the functionality. Themes, including changing icons, is the one I’m most interested in. I bypassed signing up for it on setup by disconnecting WiFi and removing the sim card after I had already set them up, because it wouldn’t let me skip it otherwise. I don’t really want another account attached to my phone with another agreement, especially one with indemnity, but I may end up giving in.
Dex is the probably the single feature I’m most excited about. I’ve been excited about the idea of “convergence” at least since the failed Ubuntu phone pushed the idea, ie connecting a phone to a monitor and keyboard to make a desktop computer. I bought a NexDock a while back hoping to use it with Raspberry Pi’s, but had trouble making that work usefully. I’ve only played with Dex a bit, but it seems really promising. Dex is still Android, and is limited to Android apps, but it looks and behaves somewhat more like a normal desktop OS. I want to install Termux and see if I can do a bit of programming. Won’t be able to do everything, like Vagrant and virtual machines, but should be able to do basic vim, git, and PHP stuff. With that, web browsing, and document editing, it could handle most of my regular computing needs.
The jade green color is very light, just barely green, but still enough to say green when looked at closely. This is my first actual green phone. The Moto was a blue color that looked more green on the computer screen when I ordered it. For this, I got a jade green case as well. It makes the edges green that were metallic on the phone itself. It’s still a light green but maybe just a bit more green than the phone itself, and in totality, makes the whole thing more green.
I’m glad to be back to having a normally functioning phone and hope I am happy with it for many years to come.