Phone vs Android – The FIVE Year Test #Helpful Post

with how much it costs to buy a flagship

mobile device I think it's fair to say

that most people would like to get a few

years out of their phones now for iPhone

people that means they're still rockin

an iPhone 6 or 6s both of which are

actually still supported on the latest

version of iOS but if you're more into

the Android scene you're probably

straight out of luck as even the more

reputable manufacturers only provide

feature updates for around 2 years and

security patches for another one with

the actual follow through on these

promises being reminiscent of an

elementary school pinkie swear so what

do you do except that your once flagship

phone is now a slow insecure mess we say

no so today's video has two main

objectives to see if we can take a

five-year old Android phone and make it

competitive with the experience of an

iPhone of the same era and while we're

at it to investigate if an old flagship

at just 50 bucks on eBay could be a

viable option if you're looking for a

basic smartphone and you want to save a

buck speaking of saving a buck thermal

takes a 500 that's not really about

saving a buck it's just really nice it's

got a modern middle list design with

brushed aluminum panels and dual hinge

Swing tempered glass doors check it out

today at the link in the video

description

we began our quest by looking at a bunch

of older devices near the five-year mark

from the likes of oneplus HTC and Google

but most of them were either no longer

officially maintained by lineage OS our

ROM of choice were weren't easily or

cheaply purchasable or didn't have a

removable battery and that last one is

something we really want because no

amount of fresh software is gonna fix a

worn-out lithium battery we were

actually getting kind of discouraged

until we stumbled upon the LG g3 it was

a pretty big deal when it launched back

in 2014 with its top-tier specs and at

the time super high res 1440 screen and

today not only are there heaps of them

for sale on eBay but they can be had for

a mere $50 with replacement batteries

from companies like iFixit coming in at

under 20 bucks

perfect now before you run out and buy

one though make sure you get the version

of the g3 that corresponds to your

cellular carrier even though most of the

changes between the variants are just

the bloatware that comes pre-installed

on them it's probably not worth risking

using a different one unless you have no

other choice so for us then the d 852

was the way to go oh not much in the way

of packaging on this thing but hey Wow

not bad this is in great condition

there's hardly a scuff on it

who original battery will definitely

need the replacement one now as much as

we hoped that this was going to be as

simple as one two three click and you're

done unfortunately Jake quickly

discovered that it was going to be a bit

more of an involved process now there

are multiple methods of gaining the

administrative access that we need to

install our third-party OS otherwise

known as rooting but none of them have

been updated to work on the latest

version of Android that LG rolled out

for the g3 thankfully though unlike iOS

we can downgrade Android with the

easiest method being to roll back to

KitKat then from there brooding is

essentially one click then we can

install our custom recovery software and

install lineage OS now we'll have some

more details in a forum post down below

if you guys aren't familiar

with this process before we begin the

downgrade you guys need to know a couple

of things one this tutorial is specific

to the LG g3 if you're looking to flash

lineage OS or some other rom to a

different phone Google YouTube and the

XDA forums are your best friends - this

process will result in your phone being

completely wiped you have been warned

now let's get into it start by

downloading and installing first the LG

USB drivers and second the LG up dll

then LG up itself this is the tool that

we're gonna use to downgrade the phone

once you have the software ready to go

download and extract the respective

KitKat ROM for your device we've got

addy 852 and we'll be using the bell

version specifically now we plug the

phone into our PC go into settings about

phone software info and tap build number

until it says you are now developer

filming it was that easy right

then we go back into the main settings

menu into developer options and enable

USB debugging this will allow our

computer to communicate with the phone

you'll also want to swipe down on the

notification tray and enable MTP USB

mode on the PC open up LG up as an

administrator select your device and the

dot t OT file and click start give it a

couple minutes and you'll eventually be

greeted by your KitKat equipped g3 set

up the phone quickly then head over to

settings and enable USB debugging again

with that turned on we can download and

run the one-click purple Drake route say

yes to permanently rooting as this OS is

going to be wiped for lineage OS shortly

anyway and then we're actually getting

really close now but before we can

install our OS we'll need a custom

recovery to be able to flash it this is

where TW RP comes into play download the

TW RP app from the Play Store onto the

phone then copy over the TW RP file

that's linked in the description select

the file from your device's storage in

the app and flash it then reboot to

recovery mode now is actually a really

good time to back up your install of

KitKat on the off chance that something

goes wrong so do that and copy it over

to your PC then we can wipe everything

off the device as

last but not least we'll need to grab

the latest nightly build of lineage OS

for our device and open google apps

since they don't come with lineage OS by

default and no Play Store on Android is

a pretty rockin bad time so we select

armed Android 8.1 and the nano version

for that then once we've got both we can

copy them over this into the device and

then install restart the phone and well

bound lineage OS is good to go from here

you can install any missing google apps

from the Play Store because basically

none of them come by default and then

you can optionally install the magic

root if you'd like to do root related

things not everybody's into that though

so all that's left now then is to take

this puppy for a little test drive for

the $70 total that we spent is this a

compelling option let's put it up next

to our iPhone which believe it or not

still costs nearly twice that much on

eBay and find out well one thing's for

darn tootin sure Apple while they

definitely didn't have a screen size

advantage at this point or resolution or

resolution advantage definitely had

brighter screams like that is a that is

a market difference I don't even think

we have phones and I think it's a

lineage OS thing cuz as I recall when

this was stock it was a little brighter

I'm not a hundred percent sure and that

sounds a little bit weird but I kind of

feel like it was better before all right

well why don't we go ahead and fire up a

video dude some help yeah can we just go

to the beginning ready three two one and

go

okay well whatever close enough cool

there you go all right you got to give

Apple credit for the color accuracy of

their displays though even back then you

can tell this is far more true to life

than this is it's more washed out it's a

little bit too warm screen is so much

bigger on here yeah it's definitely

gonna be better for content absorption

yeah so I downloaded pub G on both of

them right yeah it's a big game like

about a gigabyte yeah and it was

completely done along with the like ten

other apps I downloaded on this phone

before pub G was even done on that one

one

though is that speakers yeah should we

try it out this is before front-facing

speakers were really much of a thing

although the HTC one did do that around

this time but Apple even though they

were still doing just the bottom firing

speaker that's still a lot better than a

rear speaker that was one of my big

complaints about this phone at the time

yeah I'll crank this up what's the other

dish is it harder to cover it up with

your hands like either way you're gonna

have to cut it right it sounds kind of

crappy sound like a regular iPhone no

it's it's it yes but not in the moral of

the story they both kind of sound like

garbage all right so gaming wise we have

pub G mobile loaded it is capped at 30

FPS and we're on low settings but how

you how you feel it's playable although

I am seeing frame drops as well yeah it

seems like that's a common trend with

mobile games but I'm I'm definitely

having an experience that I would say is

acceptable it's kind of like Xbox 360

graphics but if you like play one of

those games on a laptop that can't quite

do it so gaming wise we're on a pretty

even playing field but let's try web

browsing so I think for this test we

should just load up a couple of the same

websites while you're already typing

things great Alex it's working fine boy

it searches for fu Jake really well

okay what's the site we can load Ars

Technica ready yeah three two one go

all right so Android looks like it was

winning a little bit there yeah this

still hasn't even loaded all the way on

their Ltd forum yeah sure let's let's go

to the corporate site because I think we

already did the forum earlier the line

is Media Group okay three two one go

Oh iPhones really check in now I mean

like final load time I think we're

pretty close yeah true it did look like

at the start there that this was going a

little bit faster but I think that was

just I mean overall they're both pretty

similar I mean it look like the g3 was

edging out a little bit at the start but

overall acceptable usable pretty simple

we can take a quick look at my NATO

assets and for those not familiar it's

very similar to your your stock Android

experience so to speak so not a not a

ton of like extras or anything like that

but you can load up whatever launcher

you want though so if you want to get

the ruthless pixel launcher make it look

like a pixel or any of them really even

the Microsoft one is actually pretty

good I don't know if you've seen that

before

cool whereas on an iPhone I think we can

go deeper than this though because one

of the things that Android was really

behind Apple on in this era was rear

camera quality oh yeah we know that

software is a major component of mobile

camera performance so I think maybe why

don't you take some pictures run around

get some other people's impressions and

see what they think of our five year

Android versus five year iPhone

experience when we get to the camera the

gap between devices starts to become a

little more apparent

we took three identical photos on each

phone and threw a pixel three and as a

modern reference and it's clear to see

the g3 definitely falls behind a bit

colors are more washed out and the noise

is definitely more noticeable compared

to the iPhone 6 now this is likely

because lineage OS is supported across

such a wide range of devices meaning its

camera app isn't going to have the same

image post-processing that's

specifically tuned by the manufacturer

for a given device you can tinker with

these settings and the included camera

app to help with this so we'd recommend

doing that it actually looks like our

older Android device be it the LG g3 or

one from another manufacturer holds up

shockingly well if you can get an OS

like lineage OS that is fully supported

with security updates

I actually am blown away by how much

phone we got for just $70 after we

replaced the battery with a brand new

unit which remember makes this thing

because it's not like SOC s degrade over

time functionally brand spanking new now

it is missing some creature comforts

we've got USB micro-b instead of type C

it's not as durable it's not as fast it

doesn't charge as quickly no wireless

charging obviously mobile speakers have

come a long way in the last five years

this wimpy rear speaker here compared to

the you know dual front or side but

sounds kind of front firing speakers on

something like a note 9 and of course no

biometric authentication really did feel

like going back in time compared to

facial scanners or fingerprint scanners

especially the ones under the screen and

the like bottom line is unless you need

iMessage this is looking like a very

compelling option if you want to save a

buck and you've got the time to invest

in it or if all that looks like way too

much work an older iPhone is still a

solid choice just make sure the battery

is up to snuff speaking of being worth

investing in how about a ring doorbell

ring is on a mission to reduce crime in

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one on your door is definitely a step in

the right direction they've got an

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so you can talk to whoever's at your

front door its Wi-Fi capable so you can

always check what's going on wherever

you are and it's powered by 8 to 24 volt

AC so that's your existing doorbell

wiring or the battery bank it connects

via an app that can work on your smart

phone or desktop with Mac and Windows

support and they've got a special offer

at the link below for their doorbell

camera kit that includes the video

doorbell to a spotlight cam and a solar

security sign so check it out at

ring.com slash ltte we're gonna have

that linked below so thanks for watching

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featured at the link in the video

description also down there is our merch

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