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Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move

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522 points josephcsible | 1 comments | 13 Oct 25 15:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.206s | source
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itg ◴[13 Oct 25 16:13 UTC] No.45570037[source]▶
Installing any app I want outside the Play Store was the primary reason I decided to go with Android, despite most of the people I know using iPhones. If I can't do this anymore, I may as well switch and be able to use iMessage and FaceTime with them.
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63stack ◴[13 Oct 25 16:29 UTC] No.45570265[source]▶
Same, I'm tempted to call android just a shittier iPhone now
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Aachen ◴[13 Oct 25 17:37 UTC] No.45571133[source]▶
What part of cheaper, better, and open source is shittier exactly?
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array_key_first ◴[13 Oct 25 18:27 UTC] No.45571733[source]▶
1. Not cheaper.

2. I think it's better, I like the UX but that's subjective.

3. Not open source. AOSP is open source. Android is not open source.

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stronglikedan ◴[13 Oct 25 19:22 UTC] No.45572286[source]▶
It's certainly cheaper when you compare phones with like specs.
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dangus ◴[13 Oct 25 19:36 UTC] No.45572445[source]▶
Not by much these days. The Pixel 10 actually gives you half the storage as the iPhone 17 at the same price.

The only Android phones that are significantly cheaper than equivalent iPhone tend to come with some kind of compromise (and don’t forget that Apple’s phones start at $600 - the iPhone 16e exists).

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vbezhenar ◴[13 Oct 25 20:04 UTC] No.45572750[source]▶
Try Xiaomi.
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1. all2 ◴[13 Oct 25 20:34 UTC] No.45573054[source]▶
I did. I cannot recommend it. There is no real way to unlock bootloaders on these. They've locked it down so much that you can't really do anything but run what they give you.