So, I just learned about this the very, very hard way. After buying a second hand S10 and finding american ones can’t be unlocked, traveling 4 hours to buy another one after much research, much annoyances to unlock it (samsung requires you to be online, which I didn’t know) and testing multiple ROMs, I finally read this page more properly https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/beyond1lte/ which says “known quirks: IMS”. I thought it was just something like dolby sound.
What it means is that it doesn’t suport VoLTE and most currently used phone systems. Samsung made their proprietary mess, unlike most other developers, which means it will probably never have an open source version.
And that applies to ALL modern samsung phones. I had samsung phone before with a custom OS, but didn’t realize because VoLTE wasn’t mandatory back then. Now it is here in Australia, and many countries. So if you ever plan to buy a samsung phone to degoogle it, know that it won’t make phone calls. SMS and mobile data also doesn’t work.
I don’t know how I missed this. It should be talked more often given how popular samsung is. There should always be a warning “YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO MAKE PHONE CALLS IN THE FUTURE IF YOU CONTINUE”.
S10 was the last decent phone ever made (for me). Not too big, SD card, headphone jack (one of the most important things for me), good camera, etc, etc… That’s why I was so persistent to find one to degoogle.
So I’m stuck with my amazingly shitty pixel 5 (and other ones are even worse for me). And considering the possibility of a life without smartphones at all, since this is a losing battle. Mainstream doesn’t care and evil companies have every incentive to kill freedom. It has been getting really bad and it will just get worse. But anyway… this post is not about this.
Be warned, if you care about freedom don’t ever buy samsung again. Not because they are evil (they are), but because you won’t be able to make phone calls on your “phone”.
OC writeup by @guismo@aussie.zone
$9 more than it used to cost. How about connecting it to a second pair of headphones? Worse: what if it’s time to charge?
I know you already cant be convinced but for other people who want to know, there are splitters.
Edit: I have no dog in this fight, I just wanted to flag this as an option. Personally I want a headphone jack but I’m not willing to give up on camera specs.
So we can spend more money on top of spending more money for something that used to be free. It’s pure greed and enshitification.
One splitter is $50. So that’s $59 of heavy adapters dangling off a USB port.
Now let’s imagine I want to plug my phone into something in a different place. What now?
I miss the dedicated headphone jack at times, but I also now have both Bluetooth and USB-C headphones, plus I have a nifty little adapter that converts the lone USB port to a USB-A, 3.5mm, and a USB-C so I can plug in a MIDI keyboard and headphones so I can play music on the go all in one dongle.
A USB port can be turned into anything. Yeah, you have to buy an adapter once, but then you have it. A 3.5 jack is always just a 3.5 jack.
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This problem exists with any phone, even if they have the 3.5mm slot.