Hey folks, looking at getting a new phone. My current one is a Pixel 3a XL. Love the phone but it's starting to show its age and most importantly, has not had a security update for a long time.
My priorities:
-
Long software support. I want to get as long as possible out of this next one.
-
Decent cameras. Mainly for landscape shots when hiking or whatever. The astrophotography mode on my pixel is also pretty neat and is like to have that option.
-
Price. Ideally I don't want to spend much over $600 US. I'm fine getting a return or even used in hood condition phone off eBay, but I can't stomach paying over $1000 for a phone.
-
I'm interested in running a custom ROM. Graphene, Lineage, /e/is, anything. Not a deal breaker if I can't.
-
Finally, probably the hardest one to find with am of the above; a headphone jack. I greatly value the ability to plug into any car, speaker system, etc without dongles or bluetooth (ew).
My candidates so far:
-
Asus Zenfone 11: Meets most of my desires except Asus software support is reportedly awful, and of promise feature updates for 2 years and security updates for 4. Being a year old already that greatly reduces an already short window. Also probably has a locked bootloader and limited support with ROMs. Has a headphone jack and a decent set of cameras, and I've seen refurbs on eBay for $600.
-
Pixel 9(pro?) Has everything I want (updates, cameras, grapheneos, price is ok) except no headphone jack. Might be able to DIY a case with an adapter built in so I can charge and use the jack at the same time? If anyone has experience with that I'm super interested in hearing about it. Have a 3d printer.
I know some of the budget Samsung phones have jacks, and the Moto G power, but I'm leery of getting something too budget when I want to use it for years to come.
I've seen Sony phones mentioned. Very expensive. How's the software on those? Cameras good?
Anyways, thanks for you're time if you read this. Going to be doing more reading. Really wish Asus had better software policies, otherwise that would be an easy pick.
Edit: Thanks for the thoughts, folks! I'm leaning heavily towards getting a newer pixel, either the 9a or 9 pro XL (refurbished). Probably will wait until after this year's is announced for any price drops or whatever.
I recommend the Pixel to absolutely everyone because:
That's pretty much it. Aside from that, most modern smartphones are more or less the same.
The long term software updates mean you can buy a fairly old device for very little, and expect it to last many years into the future. As far as I know, only Samsung has matched them on that, but I can't stand the mountains of bloatware on those things, and they've also recently started locking the bootloader, so fuck them twice.
The downside is they have bad battery design and replacing the batteries is a huge pain in the ass. I will be waiting until EU regulations on battery replacement to kick off in 2027 before I buy another pixel.
Edit: To clarify for the pixel fanboy, the 6a and 4a phones have been catching fire from battery overheating. Its speculated several newer phones (such as the 7 and 7a) will also have this problem as their batteries age.
Link: https://www.androidpolice.com/pixel-6a-battery-issues-explained/
The 7a already has the same issues. I got a full refund a few months back because of this.