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Anyone using the Brax3 phone? What do you think of it? (store.braxtech.net)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/android@lemmy.world
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Really just curious about how it stands up spec-wise. The price point leads me to believe it's gotta be low-end on the spectrum but he's got a habit of pricing much lower than expected for products and services. I'm currently using a Pixel 9 running Graphene, for comparison's sake.

https://store.braxtech.net/products/brax3?variant=45587022446636

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[–] 3 points 4 months ago (4 children)

If you want to use Linux on a phone, I would rather you go with an older device w/ postmarketOS rather than any dedicated "Linux phones" (e.g. Purism) since those tend to not be great values for the money. The OnePlus 6 / 6T are very well supported, but you also have devices like the Pixel 3a series and the Fairphones (which are newer, if you want their repairability. They come with an Android base OOTB) as well.

pmOS + Phosh on the OnePlus 6, from my own testing, has been pretty good. However, the camera drivers are very new (no AF, fixed zoom, grainy, poor dynamic range, etc. Photos look kind of cool, like film-style photography almost), GPS is inaccurate, and battery life isn't the best OOTB (it's an 8 year old device, so super degraded). It's still pretty neat though, and although it's not a daily driver phone for most people (including myself), it's fun to mess around with. I particularly enjoy the ecosystem of mobile games that, although small, is excellent as there is no microtransactions, advertisements, predatory marketing, etc.!

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago* (3 children)

    Wait, the OP 6 is well supported but the camera and GPS aren't working? Is pmOS + phosh different from postmarketOS and not supported as well?

    It sounds interesting though, but I'd want at least all hardware working as it did on android.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    Right now, my main issue with it is instability, since things are still being actively developed. I've had a few crashes here and there, and sometimes you do get annoying bugs. There's also app support, you can do most things (and indeed, there's a lot of weird niche apps too) but there's some that are curiously missing (thougu you can get away with web apps or Waydroid for most of them, on my device I never used Waydroid!)

    Everything else is okay at best, the cameras are fun to shoot with, but won't be what you want to capture your important memories.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago* (1 child)

    GPS via WiFi does work but puts me in a nearby city (making it useless for navigation). Note I didn't use it much with a SIM card, so maybe GPS works better with that. Mobile data does work, 4G LTE and all.

    Cameras do work but early stages right now, here are some sample images:

    very bright conditions (very sunny, direct lights)

    very dark conditions (nighttime)

    ideal conditions (in the shade)

    I personally think the cameras are objectively not great, but they do work and some of the images look pretty cool and almost film-like with glare, graininess, colour shift, etc. It's different from modern smartphones where every photo is automagically good through lots of algorithms, while with this guy you need to find good lighting and such

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