Choosing a new Cell Phone

Written in January 2022, for reference.

It’s far past time that I say goodbye to my Samsung Galaxy S7. It has served me 5 faithful years of service through the end of high school and most of University.

But it hasn’t gotten a software update in 3 years, and software is running slower and slower. Its second battery is keeping less charge every day. It’s time for an upgrade. It was probably time for an upgrade a year ago.

For anyone else in my shoes, you might find it worthwhile to read how I approach this problem and what I do eventually decide on.

The Criteria

Here are my criteria, ordered from most to least important.

• Security.
  • If the phone is only going to get 1 year of security updates, I’m not buying it. I plan for my next phone to last as long as this one has, and I would like my software to be up to date for that whole time.
  • I will not compromise here.
• Privacy.
  • I don’t want my phone sending data about me or my habits anywhere that I don’t know about.
  • I am willing to compromise on this one if it means that I get security.
• Features and Feel
  • This is my “everything else” category. How nice the camera is, how the screen looks, how the OS feels, how many apps have dark theme, how fast the processor is, how long the battery lasts. I don’t want to break it down further than this because for me the whole experience is cohesive. A feature that might be good in one ecosystem may not be right in another. I’m willing to compromise this, but I would rather not.
• Price
  • I buy a new phone very rarely, so if it’s a little more expensive but lasts as long as I want it to, I’m okay with that.
• Android OS
  • I did some android app development back in 2018/2019, and I enjoyed it a lot. If at all possible, I would like to keep the option to pick that up again, should the desire strike me.
  • I am willing to compromise here if it means I get security and privacy. That would just mean always testing apps on an emulator or buying hardware specifically for testing, which I could do.

The Options (from those that check most the boxes)

A notes about the options here: I don’t want to go the whole Android ROM route and buy a phone just to replace the stock android OS with LineageOS. These do not seem to offer support for some of my use cases (mobile banking comes to mind). I’m not willing to sacrifice these use cases.

Second, I’ve eliminated any phone choices where vendors do not make promises about how long they will support their software for. I don’t want to be in the same boat that I’m in now – a phone without a security update in years. I’m not willing to sacrifice the security that comes with these promises.

Google Pixel Lineup

Security:

Google has promised 5 years of security updates. This gets second place from me, and the rest of the industry could do good to make solid promises the way that Google does.

Privacy:

Google is not renown for its privacy. This is probably one of the worse

Features and Feel:

No comment here until I can get into a store and play around with one.

Price:

$1,179 CAD ($939 USD)

Android:

The most pure android that can be found

iPhone 13

Security:

I can’t seem to find any written promise from apple about support period, but Apple seems to have consistently provided security critical updates long past the 5 years mark. Apple seems to be winning this category.

Privacy:

From my research, Apple seems to be doing significantly better in this category than Google.

Features and Feel:

No comment here until I can get into a store and play around with one.

Price:

$949 USD Android: None

Samsung Galaxy S22

This has yet to be released, but I see no reason to count it out when it should be announced within the next 30 days or so.

Security:

Samsung has promised 4 years of security updates. While this is sufficient, this does leave something to be desired.

Privacy:

Somewhere around google’s level. Maybe worse. After some light reading, I’m not impressed. This, coupled with the least amount of security support time, probably eliminates Samsung from the running list.

Features and Feel:

No comment here until I can get into a store and play around with one.
Price: ?
Android: Yes

The Final Choice

Right now, my plan is to go into the store and hold each of the phones for an hour and see how they feel. If I like the iPhone, that’s probably my first choice. Behind it is Google, and third is the Samsung phone.