Hi all. I’m in the market for a new Android phone and I was hoping you could help with recommendations.
Thanks to my awesome friend cancer (and its awesome friends at Phillip Morris), I had my larynx removed and can no longer speak. Because of that, I use my phone as my main form of communication, typing out things and showing my phone to people. It’s in my hand all the time and it’s VERY important to me.
Thanks to some of the side effects of the drugs that are keeping me alive, I am very sensitive to heat. My phone (Oneplus 7T) gets hot when I’m gaming, most phones do, and it can occasionally get too uncomfortable for me to use. It doesn’t happen often though. My wife’s Pixel Fold, on the other hand, gets too hot just from normal use. I’ve read this is a thing with the newer Pixel phones.
So the most important criterion right now is that it can’t get too hot. Even when charging.
Second most important criterion is weight, since I’m constantly holding it and showing it to people… Or just sitting in bed texting. The Pixel Fold is cool and all, but too damn heavy to be lugging around everywhere.
Third would be size. With the amount I type, a bigger screen means bigger buttons and fewer typos. I know that bigger tends to mean heavier so there’s a balance to be struck between this priority and the previous one. One of the reasons I’m looking for help.
Last, I tend to prefer a close-to-stock Android experience. But given the importance of my other priorities, this is lower on the list.
Some other info: I live in the US, I’m on T-Mo currently but I only buy unlocked phones, price is obviously a consideration but not a constraint, don’t care about camera, nice screen and high refresh would be nice to have.
Thanks in advance for any help. It’s such a pain to try to sift through all the phones every few years. I used to just pick the newest Nexus. Then the newest Oneplus. But Google and Oneplus aren’t what they used to be and so I’m open to suggestions now. Thanks!
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I don’t know a good answer to most of these considerations, but its worth noting that you can help mitigate heat while charging by using slower charging AC adapters, which also generally tend to be a bit better for the battery.
I hope folks who know the android devices scene a little better can chime in, I’m mostly just commenting so there’s some engagement and more folks see it
Good luck in your search for something that works for your specific needs!
Thanks, that’s actually a good point I hadn’t considered. I do enjoy fast charging my phone, never considered the advantages of charging slower. Worth noting, however, that the Pixel seems to run noticeably hotter even when it’s not charging. I realize I’m particularly sensitive to it, but yeah, not even related to charging, just a hot processor.
Thanks for the help.
Yeah, the pixel definitely seems ill suited to what you’re looking for. I’m sure its a difficult parameter to research about phone options, so I hope folks are able to provide some useful recommendations
And you’re very welcome, take care!
My first advice would be to ditch those friends of yours as they’re a bad influence. However if you’re afraid of letting go please have a look at these options:
It’s a UK link but the search on your local Amazon, reviews or other techsites might help you find a solution for your problem.
I haven’t used a dedicated cool case myself since I was too cool for cool cases so i can’t help you on the review or experience part.
On sites like PhoneArena there’s also reviews which may help you choose your next futuristic device.
However, I hope I didn’t offend you in any way. That’s just me being a smart ass jerk sometimes.
Thanks. I was aware of the ridiculous “gaming” one on the ROG phone, but I didn’t realize there were more mundane cooling cases. I’ll look into those, thanks.
(No offense taken, though I admit my pain-killer-addled brain took a second to realize WTF you were talking about! 🤣 )
For gaming, have you considered using a gamepad attachment? It could help by providing you a way to hold the device without touching much of the phone itself. Example: https://www.razer.com/ca-en/mobile-controllers/razer-kishi-v2, or one with a fan: https://www.amazon.ca/GameSir-Gamepad-Controller-Android-Joystick/dp/B0B426XJ82
For a large screen, great power efficiency, lightweight, and decent speakers - the Galaxy S23 Ultra is a good choice. What app are you using for the text to speech?
Thx for the recommendation, I’ll look into that one. I haven’t had a Samsung phone since the Galaxy S2; I know people like them but they’ve always felt really overpriced to me. But given my kinda specific requirements, might be worth the premium.
For text to speech, I’m just using the Android built-in accessibility screen reader. It puts a little button on the bottom by the tile button and I can use it to read anything on the screen. Kinda sucks that I can’t change the voice to a male one, but I’m used to it at this point.
Here’s a quick recording of the options using Samsung TTS in case it’s helpful.
Also, this app is pretty outdated but seems like an easy no-fuss way of doing TTS: https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.googamaphone.typeandspeak.
I own a Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro - it’s designed for gaming and has cooling, from a review:
This model also includes some impressive cooling tech – we never felt like the phone was overheating during heavy use.
I haven’t noticed it getting warm in the time I’ve had it and I have hammered it.
It’s not expensive, has a decent screen and, being clumsy, I drop it a lot and it hasn’t had an issue. Weight may be an issue, but, as you say, you have to balance that out with other features - I often use it single-handed and don’t have an issue. A big problem for you may be the operating system, as it isn’t stock Android, but I added a launcher and it works perfectly for my requirements. Overall, I am very happy with it and would buy something similar again, even if people’s attention seems to drift half-way through my telling them the make and model.
Thanks, I’ll look into it. For some reason I didn’t think you could still get Xiaomi phones in the US.
I think that’s Huawei. Xiaomi do a lot of smart home kit that I am p=pretty Sure is also available on the US.
Another Xiaomi (M11 Lite) owner here and when I seen your post last night I checked my average temps and even now, while I’m fast charging it it generally never gets much hotter than the ambient temperature (~25°) during normal use. And like someone else said using a slow charger wouldn’t see mine go up to 30°+ whilst charging.
This isn’t exactly answering your question, but I thought I’d share this strange gadget the twiddler 3. It’s a full keyboard you can hold in one hand and it uses “chords” (think chords on a piano) to achieve a full keyboard with only a few buttons.
Seems you can achieve a typing speed of around 60 wpm with a bit of practice, might make typing a bit easier and it is super mobile unlike a real keyboard.
Interesting, thanks! I’ve already installed a custom keyboard on my phone called “TypeWise”. It helps me type faster for sure, but boy is its autocorrect terrible. Might be better in the paid version but they only offer a subscription option and I don’t think they have a sane concept of how pricing for apps works.
Having a real keyboard that I can use with my phone would allow me to use a software keyboard with better autocorrect and get best of both worlds. In theory. Gonna have to research this, but I really appreciate the suggestion.
For your requirements, I think the Galaxy s23 series would be great. Get a feel between the s23 plus and ultra and choose the one you find comfortable. With GoodLock and thermal guardian, you can make it so your phone does not heat too much. The snapdragon 8 gen 2 is also an efficient Soc. So, there’s that.
