The Moondrop MIAD 01 is one of the most distinctive Android devices of 2024 thus far. It has a 4.4mm headphone jack to go with the more conventional 3.5mm type. Furthermore, it seems it might be as appealing to teardown enthusiasts as well as audiophiles, and may, therefore, also be easier to repair...
Seems nice. I just wish it had removable battery, like phones used to, so I could carry a spare around, like I used to with Sony Ericsson W200i.
Also dedicated dual SIM + MicroSD instead of hybrid.
Just got an idea, the Galaxy Flip has 2 batteries. Small one, and large one. What if there was a small one built-in, and a larger swappable one. You could then hot-swap the batteries like with some ThinkPads (those with internal + external battery).
Oh look, a "specialty" android device with actual decent specs. Someday something like the Linux phone or fair phone or any of the other "specialty" phones to catch my attention over the years will get it together and do the same lol
Unfortunately making the battery removable will make the phone considerably thicker and probably easier to break which is not what most of the users want
The Galaxy S5 was the last of the mainline series to have a removable battery, and was thinner than the S9 which came out four years later. It also had a pretty good water resistance rating.
Any "downsides" to a replaceable battery are a myth.
I wouldn't say placebo. It's definitely doing something. I would say it's unnecessary in most environments, and probably definitely on a mobile phone. But to lift right out of the article:
You may be wondering if balanced audio is “higher quality” than unbalanced — the answer is no. Balanced cabling doesn't provide a better quality of sound than unbalanced cables. Audio source and the quality of materials in the actual cable's construction determine sound quality more than anything. However, balanced audio does a better job of eliminating noise, should it exist in your signal. In a case where extraneous noise is present, balanced audio will be clearer than unbalanced audio.
The practical reason people use balanced jacks is because they push more power which allows you to use headphones with lower sensitivity. I have a few pairs myself that would benefit from this, they have relatively low ohm ratings so the high impedance setting on my V60 doesn't get triggered when I plug them in and they are very quiet.
Hahaha!! I wish! Actually, I have old equipment that only takes the 6.35mm TS (and a couple TRS) connectors, and I don't like adaptors, as they almost always noticeably reduce audio quality.
Kinda wild these weren’t really a thing. A lot of these DAP/DACs were already running Android & many folks don’t like carrying a second phone-sized device (my DAP is small on purpose for this… well & my previous phone didn’t haze microSD for extra storage). Was it something to do with complaince for the cell radios?
The big question mark to me would be if they open source those drivers & what not or make any required apps downloadable & sideloadable. I would make something like this my next device if I knew I could flash LineageOS for microG on it & not, you know, lose all the audio stuff that makes it special. A lot of these Chinese brands haven’t even done the bare minimum GPL v2 compliance of releasing their kernels so we would have to see on that front. The ability to control your software is just as important as repairing your hardware.
Yes. All I want from a phone is to be able to run a custom rom and have decent audio chips. I haven't been able to justify having a dedicated dap because I hate carrying more than is necessary.
This is not so much as an edorsement or recommendation, but you might check out the DAPs by Shanling or Hidiz if you have coin to spare. They use Linux & don’t publish kernel mods, but they do have inexpensive, very small, lightweight options that may fit your needs. I have one & it has a place to have a dedicate device to not chew thru my phone’s battery as well as function as a high-quality USB DAC in scenarios where you don’t have a jack (like my old laptop) or the DAC is horrible (like in my dock for my laptop).
It is a very unpolished phone with crashing firmware. Some people on r/headphones reported crashing and forcefully needing to factory reset phone. One Hokage Tea Time reviewer even lost all of his SD card data with a bunch of FLACs on it.
It lacks Google services like Huawei, which is a privacy bonus if you are interested in it.