Phone Upgrade Options

[freakdiablo]

Yes, one of these threads.

Currently I have a Motorola Z4, which has been good over the past few years. My main two issues though are the side volume buttons are pretty much shot (I need to go into the sound settings within android to change volume) and Android updates from Motorola are starting to slow. Plus I think it's kinda hitting RAM limits (closing apps when I tab out instead of just "sleeping" them like when I first got it).

My only two real requirements are a MicroSD slot and 3.5mm jack. Have a 1TB card I use for MKV rips and juggle between 4-5 wired headphones.

I'd have been OK staying with Moto, my last few phones have been from them and I've liked them. They seem to support their phones longer and have less bloatware than other manufacturers (*cough* Samsung). But looks like they dropped the mSD/3.5mm support from their mid to upper end phones.

Current front runner I found is a Nokia XR20. Pretty solid midrange phone, 3 year update support, most of what I'm looking for. LG would be front a center here but they killed off their smartphone lines.

Any other phones out there I should look into?

 

[ihrsetrdr]

LG stopped making phones??? Most of my phones have been LGs, and Motorolas. Samsung still with the bloatware, that's too bad. **subscribed** will be interested to see what people suggest, as I am also a "mid-range" phone buyer.

 

[freakdiablo]

Yeah, they announced it in the last year or so. Shame, had a G3 as a work phone 7, 8 years ago - really liked it till I cracked the screen. Last I checked they still had some listed on their site but they won't be developing anything new.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I currently have an S10, not sure if you can still get them new at this point, but the Samsung UI is much better than it used to be. The only downside for you is the microSD slot supports up to 512GB officially.

 

[notarat]

Yes, one of these threads.

Currently I have a Motorola Z4, which has been good over the past few years. My main two issues though are the side volume buttons are pretty much shot (I need to go into the sound settings within android to change volume) and Android updates from Motorola are starting to slow. Plus I think it's kinda hitting RAM limits (closing apps when I tab out instead of just "sleeping" them like when I first got it).

My only two real requirements are a MicroSD slot and 3.5mm jack. Have a 1TB card I use for MKV rips and juggle between 4-5 wired headphones.

I'd have been OK staying with Moto, my last few phones have been from them and I've liked them. They seem to support their phones longer and have less bloatware than other manufacturers (*cough* Samsung). But looks like they dropped the mSD/3.5mm support from their mid to upper end phones.

Current front runner I found is a Nokia XR20. Pretty solid midrange phone, 3 year update support, most of what I'm looking for. LG would be front a center here but they killed off their smartphone lines.

Any other phones out there I should look into?

Have you looked at the Moto One 5G Ace? It seems to have the MicroSD Slot and Headphone Jack

 

[freakdiablo]

I currently have an S10, not sure if you can still get them new at this point, but the Samsung UI is much better than it used to be. The only downside for you is the microSD slot supports up to 512GB officially.

After a quick search it looks like the S10+ is still available new from Samsung through their Amazon store. GSM unlocked too. Have they improved on updates though? That was the other reason I moved away from them, they had a bad habit of stopping support after only a year or so and I've always been kinda lazy when it comes to loading custom ROMs on my phones.

As far as only supporting 512GB mSD cards, I've personally never found the "max" supported size to be an issue - as long as a device can support the SDXC format it's one of the few times size truly doesn't matter.

Have you looked at the Moto One 5G Ace? It seems to have the MicroSD Slot and Headphone Jack

Ok, I'll admit I looked at the 5G Ace and actually missed that. Honestly probably the strongest contender for me at this point - mSD, 3.5mm jack, QI charging, all that fun stuff. Another thing I learned is that the 750G 5G benches higher than the 480 in the XR20. Even though CPU/GPU performance is pretty far down my list of requirements that's good to know.

And Motorola's actually running a sale on them - $100 off. It's Friday night, check back in an hour, I may have ordered one

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Have they improved on updates though?

Absolutely, I just got an update last month and I'm currently on Android 12.

 

[PanteraGSTK]

Pixel phones have one me over. Not the expensive ones either, the A series. They get the awesome camera software from the flagship, but are MUCH better on batter (for me). I don't game on my phone so I can't speak to pure performance, but I never notice any slowness.

It helps that I get them for free since Google is a partner of my company.

I won't do without call screening though. That feature alone is worth it to me.

 

[freakdiablo]

Pixel phones have one me over. Not the expensive ones either, the A series. They get the awesome camera software from the flagship, but are MUCH better on batter (for me). I don't game on my phone so I can't speak to pure performance, but I never notice any slowness.

It helps that I get them for free since Google is a partner of my company.

I won't do without call screening though. That feature alone is worth it to me.

I took a look, downsides being the 6/6 Pro lack a 3.5mm jack and mSD slot. The 5a has the 3.5mm jack but still no card slot - and it looks like there's only a 128gb model. Not being able to add storage is going to be tight.