I’ve found Routines to be one of the most important features with Samsung - set up a car mode to auto run when charging AND connected by bluetooth to a specific device …and have it set the brighness dependant on the time of day. Turn location off completely unless certain apps are opened. Protect your battery if charging overnight …but go into power saving mode should charging stop for some reason. I find it invaluable. Even more powerful when used with Routines+ add-on

Looks OP has solutions but it looks like Routines also has options to separate sound on app specific basis

MJ PDF

I use this Square Jellyfish tripod mount which screws onto any standard tripod.

It is spring loaded but unless you buy a phone specific mount I doubt you’ll find one that isn’t. It’s not too stiff so it’s easy to insert your phone.

It opens quite wide - handles my Note 20 Ultra 5G plus Poetic Revolution rugged case with no issues.

They hype 4k/8k recording capabilities but the average buyer is unlikely to realise exactly how fast this eats storage.

I had to buy a new phone when my last one broke. Needed S Pen & external SD so I opted for a used Note 20 Ultra in conjunction with the same SD card ive used since I first bought a smart phone.

I self host my own Nextcloud but cloud isnt the answer. Even in this day & age in a big city or driving, streaming is not available all the time. I insist that everything important is available offline: maps, notes, all media be it music, podcasts, audio books …even movies/TV shows seeing as these phones can easily be connected to a TV for use with Kodi or similar. Another thing is recording footage of holidays etc for editing. It all takes up space.

I’m of the opinion the external SD was only removed for profiteering reasons.

Can’t remember the last time I installed anything from Play store. Every app comes from Github/FDroid/XDA etc & updates through Obtainium. I dont use any Google service & this sounds like get another garbage decision from Google

MiXplorer. If you don’t already use it theres a bit of a learning curve but I just ran a quick test & it found a file 6 directories deep in /android/data/… with no problems at all

1. I don’t want to scramble round in the dark looking for a Bluetooth “bud” when it inevitably falls out in the night
2. I don’t want to have to charge yet more stuff
3. I don’t want full on Bluetooth headphones, I have Sony MDR7506 when I want quality audio & a set of small in ear Sennheiser for nighttime podcasts

The point is, the dongle is simply not a good solution

I cant sleep without listening to podcasts & i charge the phone at night so this is one of the reasons why i was reluctant to upgrade my old phone.

When I inevitably had to upgrade I bought a USB C headphone/charging dongle for about €15. All good, I’d been worrying about nothing …Until it broke within a few months so I had to go without podcasts for a few nights whilst I waited for the replacements to arrive (might as well be prepared & buy a spare right?). Guess what? The first replacement lasted a only few months again. So far, a lack of headphone jack has cost me an extra €45 inside of about 6 months. Absolutely ridiculous

Still holdin out for a concealed S Pen

Like others have said I too gave up on Play Store a long time ago. If I need an app it comes from Github, XDA, F-Droid etc. Obtainium for updates

Good job I don’t use any Googles apps. High proportion of my apps are from the likes of Github

Here is the address for the IzzyOnDroid F-Droid repo

Here is a short video explaining Obtainium

I tried Neo Launcher a couple of rimes in the last week specifically for the Neo Feed add on (like Google feed but user defined RSS instead of Google). Neo Feed is excellent but unfortunately Neo Launcher doesn’t allow a scrolling dock, which ive used for years with Nova Launcher.

Anyone know of an open source launcher with an option to have a scrolling dock? Bonus points if its compatible with Neo Feed!

Its an additional repository (source) for apps. You can add extra repositories in F-Droid settings.

…or rather than waiting for apps to become available on F-Droid, download from Github etc & use Obtainium to let you know when app updates become available

Great machines, I use an NUC8i7 as our HTPC. Supports 4K 60fps. Got it hooked up to a Denon amp for Dolby Atmos. At some point i hope I’ll find time to look into Home Assistant, I’d use another NUC for running that.

Not sure if this is a thing on other manufacturers but its a great feature born from Bixby (yeah the same Bixby everyone laughed at for some reason). I set up a Samsung Routine which during work hours automatically turns off wifi, turns on power saving mode & turns on bluetooth (for watch notifications). You can do so much with Routines but this one is so nice leaving work in the evening still having around 80% battery remaining.

Kiwi browser (with uBlock) Joplin (notes) Keepass2Android