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Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Alternatives To Android Or iOS?

Posted by BeauHD on from the slim-pickings dept.

An anonymous Slashdot reader is asking whether or not there are any alternatives to Android or iOS smartphones: Like most of us, I've owned a few smartphones over time, ranging from a Nokia E71 to a Samsung Android phone and now, an Apple iPhone. It is close to phone upgrade time, and I've been reviewing the features that I use on my phone. When I think honestly about it, the only features I really need are:

1. Phone calls (loads of conference calls, for which I use a wired headset with a microphone)
2. SMS Messaging (unlimited on my plan)
3. Navigation (very important, and is probably the most-used app on my phone)
4. Occasional internet browsing

All of this could be done by the Nokia E71, when Nokia Maps was a thing. If I want to move away from Apple, Google and the like, do I have any options now? Are there any trustable (and by trustable, I mean avoiding unknown Chinese manufacturers) phones in the market today that could do all four and (ideally) have better battery life than one day?

8 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. First Post? by 14erCleaner · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, there are no good alternatives.

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    Have you read my blog lately?
    1. Re:First Post? by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 4, Informative

      iOS and Android dominate the market today, but there are a few alternatives with potential to escape from the app/spyware hell. Silent Circle make the Blackphone, which is Android-based but with a heavy emphasis on security and privacy compared to most of the major off-the-shelf brands. Perhaps more interesting, Purism are working on the Librem 5 and recently beat their funding target by a comfortable margin, which potentially means a privacy and security focussed phone that runs a different platform entirely could be available in the not too distant future.

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  2. Tizen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Tizen. Samsung Z2/Z3 you can get one on Amazon. They don't have a large amount of apps, but they have all of the things you really need.

  3. Sailfish on Sony Xperia by chill · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sailfish by Jolla, on either the Sony Xperia or any of a number of other phones as aftermarket.

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    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  4. Cheap Windows phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Any cheapo windows phone will do all that just fine. The built-in map app is great for navigation, even without internet.

  5. The E71 still does ALL that... by williamyf · · Score: 4, Informative

    Provided you load up The Garmin APP, and get the maps from OpenStreetMaps, and OperaMini

    More seriously though, the market has spoken, and there are only three platforms:
    iOS 18% Installed base.
    Google's Android with PlayStore/Services 55%
    AOSP (Android Open Source Ports) 27%

    the rest of the platforms (WindowsPhone10, BlackBerry's BB10, WebOS, Bada) are pretty much roundng errors.

    WP10 will be supported (including security patches) until 2020. BB10 will be "zombie supported" (no mention of security patches) until 2020 as well. The other two, I do not know.

    So, pick your poison wisely; for there is pretty much no escape.

    But, if you are hellbent on not being on neither iOS, nor any flavour of Android, then, for your specific use case, I'd bet either on Bada (Samsung has big pockets to keep the platform going for a while), or a "Smarther than a featurephone, but dumber thn a smartphone" asha-type phone from HMD (the owners of the Nokia brand).

    PS: My last four phones were a Nokia E71 like you (which I still keep around as my Garmin), then a Nokia N9, then a Blackberry Q10, then a Blackberry keyONE (android, current one), but I had a mobile phone in some capacity since 1996 (Motorola AMPS, then ericsson AMPS, then Sony AMPS, then nokia 6119, then nokia 7110, then Ericsson-Symbian-but-I-forget-cause-I-was-mugged, then Nokia 7250i, then some no-name huawei). So I kinda speak from experience.

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  6. Here's a comparison: by John.Banister · · Score: 4, Informative

    Comparison of mobile operating systems

  7. Re:Not anymore, anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is not true, Windows 10 Mobile allows you to do everything local to the phone without an account. Heck even apps update without an account in the store, and you can install "free" apps from the store without the account. If anything its the only mobile OS that DOESN'T require you to have an account to use fully.

    Google still requires you to have an account to even use the play store...

    Either way, this might have been true in 8.0/8.1 days but with Windows 10 Mobile (probably just going to be Windows 10 S (ARM) in the near future) you can get away with no accounts signed in.