You guys can concentrate?! 🤨

Joking aside though, I find it more difficult to concentrate with music on, unless the task is something that grabs my focus anyway. I’m waiting on a diagnosis, but it feels like it’s either the autistic side not liking the distraction, or the ADHD side focusing on the wrong thing 😫

Holy shit, I think I love your parents 🤣

£200 to £250, possibly stretching to £300 if there’s a big difference. The Moto G86 looks ideal other than having usb3 or display out, but they were just nice to have rather than actually important though.

I’d love to, but it’s going to be another few years before they’re in my price range

That was originally my plan. It’s a decent phone other than the outdated software, but it’s starting to give up. The screen occasionally turns the blue light filter on randomly, and the network slowly stops working until I reboot.

It’s possibly a software issue, but I could do with more built in storage anyway, and seeing as it’s Christmas, I may as well get a useful present :)

As others have said, they’re usually disposable. If not, or if you want to try cleaning them anyway, try putting them into a mesh bag or something similar, then put them in the washing machine on a gentle wash cycle and let them dry naturally.

Obviously, try this with a small amount first, so that if they don’t survive the process it’s not the end of the world. If you don’t have a mesh bag, a clean sock should be ok, just tie the end closed.

You can wash them in the sink with warm water and a little bit of soap too, but it’s more work. Just remember to rinse them thoroughly before they go back in your ears :)

I mostly agree, but some small communities, many years ago, would go by oldest, continuing from where you left off last time. That was fantastic for the sort of place where you wanted to read everything for whatever reason. If that could be put in on a community basis, it would be great :)

At that point though, I may as well be plugging it into my computer to update, and it’s just inconvenient. The majority of my storage is taken up by music and podcasts, and photos. I don’t plan what I’m going to listen to, or which photos I’ll use, so I can’t organise them in advance, other than making playlists, so the bulk of it would need to be on the phone anyway.

Update post:

After reading the replies, and the suggestions from @[email protected] and @[email protected], and a load of research, I’ve narrowed the choice down to three phones

The Samsung Galaxy A55, The Nothing Phone 3a Lite, and the Motorola Moto G86

https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=13917&idPhone2=14267&idPhone3=12824

They’re all a pretty similar spec and price, but I think the G86 is just edging it out for me. I’m going to sleep on it tonight and have a look again tomorrow evening once my head clears a bit :)

Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply and to help, it’s appreciated :)

EDIT: It looks like the Samsung is out 😳

https://cybersecuritynews.com/spyware-on-samsung-devices/

Believe it or not, I hadn’t actually considered that. I’ve switched to Linux, and FOSS for a lot of other things, but completely forgot about my adblocker. In fairness to them though, I set it up a few years ago, and haven’t had a problem with it, other than when Sky, a British ISP, seemed to restrict traffic to it.

That’s a good point, thanks :)

I use AdGuard at the moment, and one of the Android Debloater scripts, so there’s no reason I couldn’t use them on a new phone :)

They could work, depending on where I am, but as Noodles pointed out, it makes things a lot more inconvenient a lot of the time :(

My life would be easier at the moment if I didn’t need one >.<

I’m currently using a bit over 300GB for things like music and photos, as I tend to be in places with bad internet coverage. Including apps on the phone storage I’m over 350GB, and that’s with regular cleaning, and moving files between the phone and PC. It’s annoying, but I’m stuck with it for the time being at least :(

No worries, thanks for taking the time to answer in the first place :)

Thanks for the suggestion :)

Unfortunately I had to rule it out because of the lack of SD card slot :(

It is very tempting. The only thing putting me off is that it’s a Samsung, and they seem to be getting worse with regards to advertising and privacy. It’s definitely in the running though :)

Also, thanks for the link, I didn’t realise they had a phone finder :)

Sorry, I’ve just edited my post after a similar reply. A Pixel with GrapheneOS would be ideal, if it had an SD card slot, but the lack of one is a deal breaker. I’m regularly in places with no internet connection, so keep my media on one :(

That’s awesome, thank you :D

Thanks for replying :)

It looks like a great phone, but the lack of an SD card slot rules it out for me :(

Sorry, I meant to put it in the body. They don’t have SD card support, and that’s a must have for me. I regularly go to places with no internet, or a very poor signal, so I keep a lot of media on the card.