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:
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Long software support. I want to get as long as possible out of this next one.
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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.
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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.
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I’m interested in running a custom ROM. Graphene, Lineage, /e/is, anything. Not a deal breaker if I can’t.
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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:
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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.
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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.
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I recommend the Pixel to absolutely everyone because:
- 7 years of software updates
- Unlockable bootloader
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.
If only the Pixel was shipped with a Snapdragon processor I’d consider it as my next phone, I like gaming without generating unnecessary heat, and also emulation over all.
Honestly, I’m shocked that anyone plays games on their phones…
Lots of people only have a phone and still want to play games
Not sure if you are really serious, AFAIK mobile gaming is like the one that takes the biggest slice of the cake.
Yes, not everyone will be playing Cyberpunk 2077 on their phones, but the gaming industry has adapted a lot of games to be played for mobiles.
And yes, the touchscreen argument is still strong, but this is easily fixable for me, and lots of people with a telescopic controller.
I am not even the most mobile gamer myself, (I don’t play GaaS with it) I play a lot of more casual games there (touchscreen friendly games) but for emulation with a telescopic controller you are kinda in heaven.
No need to pay for extra hardware (aside the telescopic controller) because most of our phones are already powerful enough to support a good bunch of emulators, no need to un-dust my PS1 or PS2 just to get some retro gaming, and a very personal one: no need to fight with PSPs that die on me so I can finally finish Persona 3 Portable on the go with my own hardware this time (all PSPs I own end up dying if they are not used, mostly battery issues, but my 3000 unit died because the freaking CMOS battery and I can’t fix it and don’t trust repair men here).
On a second thought, this could be a personal or regional experience, for example, I am shocked people use SMS on a phone in 2025 lol, where I live it is WhatsApp (or meta apps) or nothing, not even iMessage is used among iPhone users generally, the only use we have for SMS are confirmation messages and such, nobody knows what RCS is, and just thinking about SMS takes you back to early 2000s lol.
I know that people do it, but it’s still shocking. The experience is horrendous, the hardware is completely underpowered, the display is absolutely tiny, the display resolution is too high, the battery is tiny, you’re constantly taken out of the game by annoying interruptions, going in and out is a pain because the system will kill the app, and worst of all, pretty much every mobile app I’ve ever seen, as well as the stores that provide them, are absolutely riddled with ads and microtransactions. Back in the day we had Angry Birds, and it was legitimately a fun, excellent, and simple game that I really enjoyed, but that game, and the entire industry as a whole, has been absolutely ruined by exploitation. Is there another store that exists that isn’t like that where you can find actually fun games to play?
the hardware is completely underpowered
It depends, compared with a gaming rig? Yes, it has been more powerful than a Nintendo Switch since ages ago and although this is not a biggest achievement, remember Switch 1 has a decent lineup almost since its conception (oh, and some even emulate Switch games there).
the display is absolutely tiny
It depends on the phone model, I have been doing fine with my Poco F2 Pro with a 6,67 inches screen, destiny has taken me to a Samsung Galaxy S20 with 6,2 inches and I have been doing just fine, I still prefer the Poco as it didn’t have any notch or camera hole whatsoever.
the display resolution is too high
Not sure if I am following this correctly, but AFAIK you can tweak that from settings or developer settings.
the battery is tiny
For smaller devices yeah, it tends to be the norm, but batteries are becoming bigger, so I expect more 3D gaming time if games are optimized.
you’re constantly taken out of the game by annoying interruptions
I mean, this is easily fixable with 3rd party or system inbuilt apps… Both of my devices have a gaming mode and it can enable do not disturb any time I open a game, now if you really can’t allow to use that feature I understand, I could care less about somebody not been able to reach me by a phone call lol.
going in and out is a pain because the system will kill the app
This depends a lot of the phone, again, and that is correct for my case with the F2 Pro as it only had 6 GB of RAM, the S20 has 8 GB of RAM and I haven’t noticed this in a while, and nowadays phones are been shipped with crazy amounts of RAM so yeah…
and worst of all, pretty much every mobile app I’ve ever seen, as well as the stores that provide them, are absolutely riddled with ads and microtransactions. Back in the day we had Angry Birds, and it was legitimately a fun, excellent, and simple game that I really enjoyed, but that game, and the entire industry as a whole, has been absolutely ruined by exploitation.
This is no secret for anyone, and this only happened because people allowed it and that’s why mobile gaming is so popular, for good and bad reasons alike.
That’s why in my previous comment I said some companies have been putting games for mobile with quality.
Is there another store that exists that isn’t like that where you can find actually fun games to play?
Not sure if it counts as a store, but both Android and Apple offer a subscription tier model which let’s you play lots of games without ads or dark patterns, there is also the Netflix subscription games which operate similarly…
Now talking about stores I heard there are some interesting games in Fdroid, and we now have the Epic Game Store, both on Android.
Like I said, I don’t really game that much on the phone, but I keep good games in my radar from time to time, and we have some good ones like Balatro, Vampire Survivors, Shattered Pixel Dungeon, etc, I still prefer emulation on Android.
I hop in some Android subreddits on Reddit and you can get a lot of recommendations there (or ask here in Lemmy I guess), gaming on mobile shouldn’t be just plain bad, we the users have the last decision whether or not engage with it, some decide no, and some decide to dive in a little just to see what they can find, but just going to the official stores will not help you as the games with the dark patterns proliferate there.
It depends on the phone model
The market is plagued by colossal phones already. The last thing I want is an even bigger one.
you can tweak that from settings or developer settings.
It still uses additional resources to downscale the image rather than just displaying natively. This is why the Steam Deck is 800p.
batteries are becoming bigger
I haven’t seen such a thing.
do not disturb
but then…that’s a whole other problem, isn’t it? Do you just never get urgent messages?
both Android and Apple offer a subscription tier model
Not interested in more subscriptions.
on Reddit
Not ever again.
I play things like solitaire, Spades, etc.
The most intense thing I’ll play is something like Ticket to Ride. I don’t enjoy action games on these screens with the on-screen controls.
Those games are playable on hardware several times slower than Tensor. Its only in medium graphics to high graphics and CPU intensive games like genshin impact, and others where you should feel the heat on tensor.
But, I haven’t tested this so make sure to check in person before pulling the trigger to verify it won’t have heat issues on basic games you play.
I can assure you that any Pixel device is perfectly capable of running Solitaire.
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.
What phones are you shopping for that have a “good” battery design? If it’s the Fairphone, that’s the only one, so no need to ask. It’s really not that hard to swap them, anyway. The difficulty is deeply overblown.
There’s no shortage of downsides to Pixels but the two I listed alone very simply make them stand above the rest, and in my opinion are the most important.
I’m talking about the phones catching on fire.
And yes I’ll be waiting on EU battery replacement laws before I buy another pixel because I’m 2/2 on pixels that have battery recalls. 1 model with battery issues is an abberation. 3+ is a pattern: google makes shitty, flammable batteries.
I’m quoting here:
replacing the batteries is a huge pain in the ass
I will be waiting until EU regulations on battery replacement
It doesn’t sound like you were talking about phones catching fire.
Regardless, the number of phones that have caught fire is in the single digits. If that concerns you, my only advice would be to avoid any and all mobile electronics, because this is an inherent risk in all of them.
Also the personal attacks are unwarranted and unappreciated and only serve to undermine any sort of argument you’re trying to put forward.
If you read “bad battery design” and just make assumptions about what that means, then maybe thats on you because it only takes the slightest amount of curiosity to say “I wonder why somebody would be talking about having to replace batteries”
I’ve had both pixel models affected and the 4a at one point was smoking because of a related heat issue with the phone where the charge port overheats. The 4a at least was an easier fix- the screen is easier to remove.
I didn’t make any assumptions, I just read your comment. Again, any mobile devices are subject to fires.
You’re still doing the fanboy stuff. This isn’t about “mobile devices” in general this about a history of google phones having battery recalls.
Before you get a Pixel phone, you may want to check the battery issue record Google has earned itself with Pixel 4a and 6a. Not the same product line as you said 9 (Pro) but just FYI.
Even the 7a has gotten the same issue in certain regions. Link
Personally, I am a fan of the Fairphone, but it’s hard to come by in the US and the price is definitely not competitive. But what you’ll get is long software support and easy repairability. But does not offer everything you ask for.
I looked at the Fairphone. Would love to go that route, but unfortunately the price is too high for now (and no headphone jack, lol). Maybe in the future it’ll drop, we’ll see.
Sony is even worse than ASUS in regards to length of software and security updates. It hasn’t been a deal breaker for me, but I have a Xperia 5 III and at only 3.5 years I am beginning to have issues with my fingerprint reader.
Apparently it’s a fairly widespread issue that moisture can get in the edges and degrade the backing, and they are still to this day using the same fingerprint reader design. I’m pretty irritated about it. I feel like I could get at least another year out of this phone otherwise, but it’s surprisingly annoying to have to go back to passwords for app logins.Xperia 5ii here, fingerprint sensor slowly died. i still absolutely think it is a software issue that Sony intentionally put in there for planned obsolescence because Sony sometimes just re-enables it randomly after a restart, and multiple other phones have a similar side fingerprint sensor without the issue at all.
Some people have said a factory reset fixes it for a while too, which lends more credibility to it being an intentional software block.
Mine so far seems to be hardware as it fails when the phone gets hot, and works if I restart once it’s cooled off
My daughter’s Motorola has the fingerprint sensor on the power button. It drives me nuts 😅
If it’s in your budget I recommend getting a pixel 9. I don’t know what prices look like right now, but I got a refurbished 9 pro ealier this year for about $750. The only box it doesn’t check is having a headphone jack
You can get a used pixel and put grapheneOS on it. Stores sometimes sell returns that are either completely new or have very small issues.
For what you want to do and where you’re coming from, i would stay on the pixel.
I’m just a little confused, you’re considering the pixel 9 pro, but want to stay under 600?
Also, there’s no pixel 3a XL. I guess you’re on the pixel 3a, or?
Personally, i would go for the pixel 7, maybe even pixel 7a.
P9P price could drop with the new range being unveiled soon. Maybe not that low though.
Thanks for the reply! The more I read about Asus being scummy the less I want to get the zenfone.
Re: Pixel 9 pro, I figured I should aim for the latest one so I can get the longest time out of it. I see a few different refurbs on ebay for $460-$560 USD. Unlocked ones are ~$570. Generally a pretty cheap way to get decent phones.
Pixel 3a XL. It’s served me well but is a few years outside of updates now.
I’m thinking that a pixel is probably the best bet. Looking into the best way to mod a headphone jack onto it lol.
i have a 7, it’s very nice. 8 or 9 should be even better, but if shopping used the 7 is very affordable.
TIL color me surprised about the pixel 3a XL.
I got the nothing ear (a) a few weeks ago and it’s the first time i have a good Bluetooth headphone experience.
What about Sony phones? They have headphone jacks. They don’t get long update guarantees though.
Samsung’s Galaxy A series still has jacks, I think Samsung promises 5 years of security updates for them.
I think the latest Sony Xperia 1 was bumped up to at least 5 years of security updates, so that will probably be their new minimum going forward.
Used Galaxy S21 for 4 years. Didn’t like that phone. Issues with overheating, I didn’t like Samsung custom interface, battery life too short at the end and loudspeakes are mid.
Motorola ThinkPhone 1?
Go for Pixel 9a. Its fresh this years phone, 7 years of support, Doesn’t cost a kidney, and has pretty good battery. It doesn’t have headphone jack tho.
