A hard decision to make...

[Alperoot]

Hello there!
I plan to buy a new phone. My phone is a nearly-3-years-old Note 3 and it is slowly dying. Sometimes it stops charging, the touchscreen sometimes starts to make input to the places I don't touch. The battery life is pretty annoying, too. So I plan to buy an S7 Edge after Note 7 makes it release.

I also want to buy a GPD WIN. I could get a Pyra instead, but it just won't run some programs that I want to run on the go. Honestly, money is a problem here. I cannot afford both a phone and a UMPC. I also have a Pandora which I could sell but first, I am not familiar with shipping and such and second, I don't know if I will use it or not. (As we all know, the Pandora community is a place of surprises ^^)

So... What should I do? This community really helped me a lot about my questions and I really cannot thank all you guys enough!

 

[Christoph.Krn]

You should write what exactly you'd be intending/wanting/planning to do with each of the given devices.

 

[Wally]

Don't get the S7 Edge. Get an earlier edition if you must get an Android Device (S4 / S5) you'll save a lot of money that way thus being able to afford other things OR try and fix your phone so it actually works again, 3 years isn't really that old, try reinstalling the OS, cleaning it internally or contacting whoever makes that phone to get it repaired.

Having the top of the line / current generation isn't everything. People aren't going to judge you for what you have as everyone wants the best so they can get attention (but you'll have the Pyra right? )
[doublepost=1470090372,1470090102][/doublepost]oh and in addition, sell your Pandora when you get your Pyra as stuff on the Pandora with a recompile will run just fine on the Pyra, it's just a matter of someone actively porting stuff so we have a like-for-like library.

 

[Alperoot]

With a phone I want to do :
1 - Make phone calls (obviously)
2 - The phone I use now powers on really slow (fast powering on)
3 - While using google maps or playing pokémon go, the gps starts to position me wrong after 5 minutes
4 - Debian NoRoot drains battery really fast, so a big battery would be great

With the GPD WIN I want to :
1 - Run some ROM Hacking tools
2 - Run some x86 software (which some of them will be ran on VM) like Cain, wireshark... small indie games from Steam, some little emulators
3 - Got Photoshop on my hands (slowness does not matter if it's runnable)

Don't get the S7 Edge. Get an earlier edition if you must get an Android Device (S4 / S5) you'll save a lot of money that way thus being able to afford other things.

Having the top of the line / current generation isn't everything. People aren't going to judge you for what you have as everyone wants the best so they can get attention (but you'll have the Pyra right? )

S5 is nearly as same as my Note 3 except it will only have slowness problems and will not hardware failures. Software I try to use on Debian NoRoot (it is a Google Play app) is really slow (and it's not unexpected at all) and I think it will be faster on a new generation phone. Also, you said "an Android device", what OS do you prefer on a mobile phone? (except iOS ) Being honest with you, I really want to play Pokémon GO without lagging (Don't judge me )

Also just a bit offtopic, I went to Australia (Sydney) (I guess this is the place you live on) before two weeks because of this FLL thing. It is a great place.

 

[Taeko]

Well if it is android I would go for a nexus phone. Like the lg nexus 5x.

 

[Alperoot]

People aren't going to judge you for what you have as everyone wants the best so they can get attention (but you'll have the Pyra, right)

Well if I wanted to get attention I wouldn't "waste" my summer trying to get into programming (in a starter level), right? When my friends first saw my Pandora on a trip, I magically became a "nerd" even though I never was good at exams and never liked school lessons. Of course, the S7 Edge is for better performance and processing power and a better phone to use for a long-term time period. (Hopefully even more than 3 years) I would just buy the S7 but the expanded battery is really an upside for me.

 

[Wally]

With a phone I want to do :
1 - Make phone calls (obviously)
2 - The phone I use now powers on really slow (fast powering on)
3 - While using google maps or playing pokémon go, the gps starts to position me wrong after 5 minutes
4 - Debian NoRoot drains battery really fast, so a big battery would be great

With the GPD WIN I want to :
1 - Run some ROM Hacking tools
2 - Run some x86 software (which some of them will be ran on VM) like Cain, wireshark... small indie games from Steam, some little emulators
3 - Got Photoshop on my hands (slowness does not matter if it's runnable)


S5 is nearly as same as my Note 3 except it will only have slowness problems and will not hardware failures. Software I try to use on Debian NoRoot (it is a Google Play app) is really slow (and it's not unexpected at all) and I think it will be faster on a new generation phone. Also, you said "an Android device", what OS do you prefer on a mobile phone? (except iOS ) Being honest with you, I really want to play Pokémon GO without lagging (Don't judge me )

Also just a bit offtopic, I went to Australia (Sydney) (I guess this is the place you live on) before two weeks because of this FLL thing. It is a great place.

Few questions to think about:
Any reason why you need to run Debian Jessie on top of Android, explicitly when you can do so with the Pandora already because that would hit performance and obviously battery life pretty badly, try running it without Debian noRoot and you might find all your issues will go away.
Secondly, Pokémon Go will suck the battery out of any phone, no matter how big it is. My iPhone 6+ (Which explains your phone OS preference thing) can't even hack it because it uses the GPS constantly.
Thirdly: I live in Melbourne, but cool!

Well if I wanted to get attention I wouldn't "waste" my summer trying to get into programming (in a starter level), right? When my friends first saw my Pandora on a trip, I magically became a "nerd" even though I never was good at exams and never liked school lessons. Of course, the S7 Edge is for better performance and processing power and a better phone to use for a long-term time period. (Hopefully even more than 3 years) I would just buy the S7 but the expanded battery is really an upside for me.

It's not really a matter of being a better performing / better phone, it's about how the phone works for you. Expanded battery won't really help you with Pokémon Go. Think seriously about it, it's a big investment...

 

[Askarus]

No matter what you want to do, buy a used phone from e-bay.
So much cheaper.
I always buy used products. Especially games.
My Laptop for example. It's a high end gaming Laptop with recent Interiors. Price:2000€. Payed: 1350€ (1-2 Months old, not even used 10 times).
Wait for your lucky day and save a lot of money

And a recent phone is never worth its money. I've got an eight year old Android phone because it has a physical Keyboard (HTC Desire Z).
It does everything I want. Don't know how well Pokemon Go would be.
A 3 Year old phone is more than one needs.

 

[Alperoot]

@Wally I tried running Debian on my Pandora a lot and whenever I try to install it again, some problems always pop up. What I learned from them?
1 - DON'T DO an apt-get upgrade. Seriously, it's harmful.
2 - DON'T MESS with Wi-Fi. It just disables it and you will never be able to mess with ot again.
3 - DON'T INSTALL a software if it installs a lot of packages. And that is where I seem to fail. I guess I always try to install a software which has plenty of packages and I never be able to login again after a restart.
I will try to install it again (fortunately I have an SD card I don't use)

@Askarus
About that phone-thing. I decided to buy a second-hand one. After some research, I was able to find S7 Edge (a $1000 phone here) for about $660. But I might aswell just format my Note 3 and buy a GPD WIN or a Pyra instead.

Thank you all for your answers!

 

[Askarus]

About that phone-thing. I decided to buy a second-hand one. After some research, I was able to find S7 Edge (a $1000 phone here) for about $660

WTF?!
You seriously tell me that money is an issue and you're planning to replace your 3 year old phone with a second hand one for 660$??
The price span I was thinking of is 100-300$.
I would not want to spend more than 200$ for a phone.

Do about one hour of research and you can get a phone with great specs for a great price. There is no need to get such an expensive phone.

I tried running Debian on my Pandora a lot and whenever I try to install it again, some problems always pop up. What I learned from them?
1 - DON'T DO an apt-get upgrade. Seriously, it's harmful.
2 - DON'T MESS with Wi-Fi. It just disables it and you will never be able to mess with ot again.
3 - DON'T INSTALL a software if it installs a lot of packages. And that is where I seem to fail. I guess I always try to install a software which has plenty of packages and I never be able to login again after a restart.
I will try to install it again (fortunately I have an SD card I don't use)

I wouldn't boot Debian but install PanDebian.
It's a Debian inside Pandoras Angstrom.
I had access to LibreOffice via PanDebian before it was available as a PND.

 

[comradekingu]

Wireshark is in armhf already.

Any android-device is a big disservice to yourself. Similarly a GPD WIN will require at least a lot of tinkering, and hopefully some luck.

You can try:

• Reflash with a good rom, without gapps, use F-droid, sell both the note and the S7.
  
• Use an external GPS, preferably over usb-otg to not use as much battery.
• Get a bigger battery
• Replace digitizer on screen if errors not a result of software problems.

 

[bleeeer]

I'd look into getting a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, cheapest and best phone out at the moment - though you'll probably have to import from Hong Kong.

 

[Askarus]

Here is a list of Custom Roms for your Phone.

XDA developers have great roms.

I for example got PureKat for my 8 years old phone.
It's a stripped down Android 4.x (don't know the Version).
My phone has 512 MB ram and can use Whatsapp, K9-mail, OperaMini, open Camera and Navigation apps (google is not nice to use)
I didn't want the playstore or any google stuff. I use Aptoide instead.
It's not super mega fast with everything but it works better than Pandora for web browsing speed wise.

If you buy an older phone it can get a big speed boost with a new Rom.

 

[erico]

You really should look into fixing you note 3 and how to work with it to extend battery.
I have a note 2 for what seems like ages now and it works all fine.
My primary use is to have a machine to test android compilation and it works wonders.
It is going to be years till I actually have to change it for something else.

 

[benoitb]

A note 3 should last you at least 3 more years.

 

[Alperoot]

@Askarus you really misunderstood me...
$660 is not really for a second-hand. It's hard to find second hands here and I would love to buy from ebay if $200 shipping and warehouse was not a thing... I will just format my Note 3 to a custom ROM to see how it works.

About PanDebian, I had no luck installing it. It always fails somewhere and had no luck fixing it. I will also wait GPD to see if they release a bigger ROM version (and also wait for the price to calm down a bit...)
I also can buy a Pyra over a phone, but I am not really interested in better emulation. (I heard some people saying Pyra is an improved Pandora with keyboard backlight and 4G/LTE-GPS.)

 

[TrashyMG]

but I am not really interested in better emulation.

Emulation isn't the only thing the Pyra can do, native linux applications are more of a draw for me.

 

[Alperoot]

Emulation isn't the only thing the Pyra can do, native linux applications are more of a draw for me.

Of course it isn't but WIN can already run them on VM and if it is too demanding, it probably won't run on the Pyra, either. But we know that Pyra hasn't just got native linux applications, it also will have Pyra-specific apps that the community will make.

 

[Swordfish II]

Hello there!
I plan to buy a new phone. My phone is a nearly-3-years-old Note 3 and it is slowly dying. Sometimes it stops charging, the touchscreen sometimes starts to make input to the places I don't touch. The battery life is pretty annoying, too. So I plan to buy an S7 Edge after Note 7 makes it release.

I also want to buy a GPD WIN. I could get a Pyra instead, but it just won't run some programs that I want to run on the go. Honestly, money is a problem here. I cannot afford both a phone and a UMPC. I also have a Pandora which I could sell but first, I am not familiar with shipping and such and second, I don't know if I will use it or not. (As we all know, the Pandora community is a place of surprises ^^)

So... What should I do? This community really helped me a lot about my questions and I really cannot thank all you guys enough!

I have seen you in the pentesting thread, IMO get a SGS II GT-I9100, with the bcmon hacked firmware it supports packet injection and runs around $100 off amazon. It has been my daily use phone for a while now, just reflash with Cyanogenmod and a PIT to reallocate some more of the internal storage to apps and it works great.

 

[TrashyMG]

Of course it isn't but WIN can already run them on VM and if it is too demanding, it probably won't run on the Pyra, either. But we know that Pyra hasn't just got native linux applications, it also will have Pyra-specific apps that the community will make.

That I think is where you are wrong, there will be some cases that it will run at a crawl in a VM on the WIN, but run perfectly fine on the Pyra itself. The processing power between the OMAP5 and an Intel Atom bogged down by Windows is not as much as you think.