My venerable Moto G5 has developed multiple independent problems. Thus I’m in the marked for a new phone and I’m looking for suggestions.

I don’t have many requirements, but those are non-negotiable:

  1. Must have a headphone jack
  2. Must have expandable storage (AFAIK that still means an SD card slot)

Bonus points for:
3) a large battery
4) not being from a chinese company
5) not having that ridiculous array of cameras on the back that seems to be common nowadays (I do want to be able take photos, but they don’t have to be good)
6) not having a selfie camera that is built into the screen
7) being a rugged / outdoors phone (which seems to correlate with point 3)
8) allows for an alternative OS, or maybe even comes with one preinstalled.

Price doesn’t really matter beyond me not wanting to get ripped off.

I already looked around a bit and found a couple of options:
a) Volla Phone X23: German company, comes with the option of their Android spin-off or Ubuntu Touch. Even has a replaceable battery. But the screenshot of the spin-off don’t look like it would be for me and Ubuntu Touch doesn’t seem to be quite there yet
b) AGM H5 Pro: from Portugal, a rugged phone, but only comes with Android 12 and I found no information on which version it can updated to. Also since it’s kinda niche, I guess I can’t put a non-google Android on it.
c) Moto G56: upgrade from what I have now. Back then I chose a Motorola because I was told I comes with the least amount of garbage pre-installed, is this still true?
I couldn’t find it in the list of models LineageOS supports, but since a lot of other models are listed I attribute that to the G56 being new, right?
d) hopefully you can give me some better options

Thank you!

  • Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    5·
    9 hours ago

    Back then I chose a Motorola because I was told I comes with the least amount of garbage pre-installed, is this still true?

    This was definitely still true for the Moto G72 I am using for almost three years now, but had already changed for the Moto G54 my girlfriend bought 1.5 years ago.
    This one had several unwanted and unremovable crap apps preinstalled. One forced itself to the screensaver with a button you often accidentally pushed that then started downloading and showing animated screens that led to online ads when you clicked on them. Very hard to disable and would return after each Firmware update…

    I couldn’t find it in the list of models LineageOS supports

    And being a device with a Mediatek chipset it is unfortunately very unlikely to ever appear there.

      • MalReynolds@piefed.socialEnglish
        1·
        7 hours ago

        If you’re thinking like that, consider a second hand Pixel 8(a) GrapheneOS and 7 years of security updates… Zero crapware. I combine it with a Qudelix-5K which gets me back a very high fidelity (48/96 Khz 32bit) audio jack via bluetooth.