I’ve been looking at phones to replace my Pixel 4a as the battery goes and it becomes increasingly silly to get it replaced instead of getting something new. I don’t like huge phones, which i consider to be anything over ~6.2". Everything under that is either:
- A Google Pixel with poor efficiency, thermals, and call reliability
- A Samsung Galaxy S with a high price, locked bootloader, dodgy privacy, and bloatware
- A miscellaneous brand with abysmal software support lifespan, variable bootloader lock status, and little to no custom rom support
the ASUS Zenfone 10 would have been honestly perfect for me - sub-6" screen, headphone jack, good performance. But they just haaad to remove bootloader unlocking despite promises to the contrary so now you have to settle for one more OS update and three more years of security updates for something that costs $600+. blurgh.
I like my Galaxy S22. It’s one of the few small phones out there. I stopped fussing with custom UI and just get a refurbished, unlocked carrier ones off of Amazon or some other outlet, they’re relatively cheap now. You have to read over descriptions carefully though, I’ve been sent locked carrier ones before.
The market pigeon holes you into having to make a compromise. I wish we could still get phones with removable batteries.
But I thought free market magic invisible hand? How come no invisible hand?
one invisible hand is out there putting bloatware on your phone, the other adding complementary feces to your lettuce