Hector Martin

It's honestly kind of sad just how common build quality issues seem to be with smartphones these days. The 5X died with that thing where using the big cores crashes the phone (soldering issue?). The X2 Pro touchscreen glitches (in-screen controller connection failure).

Also my X2 Pro's NFC died when I took it apart for unknown reasons (antenna is fine?). And its battery is unobtainium now, especially from Japan. Not worth swapping screen, battery (if I can get it at all, $$$ to reship), and whatever broke NFC. Will the Pixel 4a 5G fare better?

At least I hope official LineageOS comes soon (there's an unofficial one already).

But really, I used to swap phones because they got *old*, not because they *died* (other than batteries). My Nexus S still works fine. There's still a Galaxy Nexus kicking around my parents' house. Tablets too, my Nexus 10 is slow but still *works* after two battery swaps.

For anyone wondering, my main criteria for a smartphone are: - Unlockable bootloader - LineageOS (or good chances thereof) - 3.5mm jack - No hideous notch (I've resigned myself to accepting a hole-punch camera) - Type C 3A charging or PD - Overall decent specs (midrange)

I had great experiences with Sony phones. I dropped my current Xperia 10ii at least a dozen times and there's barely a scratch on it let alone broken functionality. The 10 (not 10ii) has a Lineage OS version too

Only disadvantage would be that the camera quality suffers a bit when unlocking the bootloader, at least that was the case when I looked into it a while ago.

I tend to avoid Sony products ever since they sued me.