Samsung has gone hard promoting AI in their phones, and now OnePlus has also announced some heavy AI-based features in their new Android OS. Pretty much every other brand is now doing the same, so you can’t escape it.
I’ve been in the market to upgrade my nearly 6-year-old phone, but seeing all these AI features, especially when they rely on Google’s Gemini (or other cloud AI), and it feels deflating.
Will privacy ultimately have to be sacrificed “from now on”?
By not using these AI features, you pay a lot for features you won’t be using. And the usefulness of the device becomes limited as nearly all functions now have AI-based components to them.
I’m totally fine with on-device AI, but many features I’m seeing don’t seem to be on-device, and I’ve spent years trying to stop sending my data to companies like Google. I don’t want to go backwards for the sake of market trends.
What are your future plans when it comes to smartphones?
If you don’t mind old hardware, get it refurbished from Amazon. You can get pixel 7 for 400 CAD, sometimes less. Amazon quality control is better than ebay, so was the support.
My biggest problem is with the camera of all mobiles, the photo looks good because there is a lot of processing in the background, and it becomes very apparent how the hardware is bad when you take pictures with an aftermarket OS.
You can sideload the google camera app and restrict any online access to it on graphene.
I tend to buy flagships because I know they’ll last me many years without worrying about the hardware being too outdated.
But then updates stop, and the batteries need to be replaced… that’s kind of where I’m at now. Seeing that OEMs now offer at least 5 years of major Android OS updates, I’d at least be covered there.
But man, are they all pushing hard for these AI features. Like I said, I’d be totally fine if these were all on-device AI features, but I really don’t want Google getting their filthy hands on my data through Gemini.