Phone woes (searching for advice)
For the past 5 years or so, Ive been using a Samsung J36v as my primary mobile phone. I mostly bought it in the wake of my CDMA based dumbphone being, effectively, bricked by verizon shutting down the 3G network in my area. It wasnt my first choice, but it was dirt cheap and served my needs well enough.
However, the last couple of months, the microphone has just... died. Got quieter and quieter, until now I need to plug in headphones in order for a person at the other end of a call to hear me, let alone understand me. I think I need a new phone.
While Im not a fan with the software side of my current phone (locked bootloader, loaded with bloatware from the factory), I rather liked the hardware, as it had a swappable battery (like, not just easily replaceable, but swappable with only ones fingernails), an sd card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. All of these features are ones that I regularly use.
Because of this, anytime I look for a new phone, they just seem like an expensive downgrade. I dont care too much about the SOC performance so long as its reasonably modern and can be expected to be usable for 5ish years. (I dont do gaming, YT watching, etc. Just signal, discord, call, text, and gps navigation). The things I do care about is a user-replaceable battery (screws are fine, but no solvents or heat needed), the ability to install either stock android or lineage-os or /e os (to get rid of carrier bloat), an sd card slot and physical SIM card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
However, I havent been able to find anything on the market like that. I tried the pinephone a year ago, and while Im a competent linux sysadmin, I was never able to even get MMS texting working reliably, and calls would not always be received while sleeping. Ive been reluctant to try other phones since then due to being afraid of spending money on something that wont work. At this point, its seriously affecting my mental health, as I go into a bit of a panic attack whenever Im reminded of the fact that my current phone is failing.
So Im asking for help. Ive compiled a ranking of the features I need/would like on a new phone, ranked from 'wont even consider a phone without it' to 'would be really nice to have, but I can still use it as a phone without it'.
Must haves (not an option without it)
- Needs to run some form of reduced-bloat android. I use signal and discord to communicate with my network, and while I could give up discord, only using it in the browser or desktop, I cannot give up signal.
- Needs to have a user replaceable battery. Doesnt need to be hot-swappable or anything like that (though that would be awesome), but needs to be replaceable without having to break the screen. (so, no requirement to break adhesives to replace the battery)
- needs to have a physical SIM card, and be carrier-unlocked. Me and my wife will be moving overseas in a year or so, and I will need to change carriers during that move.
- Must be able to use both USA and EU 4g bands. (for same reason as the SIM card)
Really, really nice to have
- Sd card slot. I dont stream music, and have a rather large collection of music on my home server. The storage space to sync that to the phone for offline playback would be a massive plus.
- capable of running a degoogled andriod version. While I could make do with stock google android (at least I wouldnt have the 'official nfl app' force-installed on me), it would be really nice if the phone was supported by either lineage-OS or /e OS.
Nice to have
- a 3.5mm headphone jack. I have trust issues with bluetooth, never had a BT device that worked reliably. I want to keep my copper wire headphones in use, and having to choose between charging the phone and using a DAC dongle doesnt really cut it.
- usb-c charging. Yah, usb-c is nice, but its actually less of a concern for me than the above categories. My micro-usb on my current phone has lasted 5 years, so I wouldnt be too fussed if my next phone used micro-usb.
You have some extremely difficult criteria to assure across the board.
It's almost a guarantee that you're going to have to heavily compromise on one (or several) aspects of your phone. That being said, I think the closest ones I can find are:
Samsung Galaxy Xcover6 Pro though I can't guarantee it will work in both Europe and the US (though it has one nano SIM and one eSIM so you might be able to get by with that). It apparently has an interchangeable battery, a 3.5mm jack, has USB-C charging, and is fairly new so it should last a while. This isn't something I've ever really looked at, but it might be a decent option, though you ultimately would have to root or flash a new OS on it to get rid of what Samsung does to Android.
The Fairphone 4 is apparently a Dual-SIM as well, but isn't necessarily CDMA which limits what bands you can use in the US heavily. Plus it doesn't look like it's got a headphone jack so I don't think this is the right move for you - but you can investigate that as well.
Finally, I saw the Nokia C21 which looks pretty junk, but it's like $100 and apparently fits the criteria of at least having an interchangeable battery so that's something.
Hopefully something works for you - I'm definitely not envious of trying to find a new phone right now.
If only the battery was s point of potential compromise because I have a Motorola G100 and I'm mostly pleased with it. I'm a headphone jack and SD card or bust guy and I shudder to think when I'm going to have to shell out for the Xperia line to keep them.
The replaceable battery is definitely going to be the primary limiter here. I used to be a stickler for that too but it very much reduces your options. I eventually gave in and decided as long as I stuck to lower-end budget phones then I didn't care so much when the battery finally gives out, because I could probably buy three more phones and still be saving money versus buying a flagship whose battery will also eventually die.
Yup. Unfortunately, the battery is probably the hardest reqirement here, less due to cost and moresoe because I dont want to be buying a disposable device... selling a phone where you cant replace the battery is like selling a car where you cant change the oil or the brake pads, IMO. The battery is a wear item, and in anyphone where it isnt replacable, it will be the first to go by a mile.
(I used to work for a computer repair place, ive done a few battery swaps on surface pros and misc android smartphones. We were never able to get the screen off without shattering and/or cooking it, so after the first few times, we just started ordering batteries and acreens together.)
I've done some battery swaps and I hate them as well. I just need Framework to make a smartphone.
Ive been eying the fairphone. CDMA shut down in my region a long time ago, its what prompted me to switch from a dumbphone to my current phone. WRT the headphone jack, ive pretty mutch accepted that Im gonna have to give something up from that list, and the headphone jack is definitely more a want than an absolute need.
I found the same phones that you just listed while searching with these criteria and I agree that's probably the closest OP is going to get.
I feel like they all have something important from the criteria list but they also have downsides. The Nokia also runs on a near stock Android version so that's one nice thing about it at least.
I've found that for more recent versions of Android the bloat problem isn't too bad. I've now had Samsung, Motorola, and OnePlus devices and was able to completely clean them of bloat with the various debloater scripts that you can run over adb. This one is particularly comprehensive and easy to use. You don't get a completely pure Android experience (it will still have whatever custom skin, settings, and visual tweaks the manufacturer baked into the ROM) but you can get rid of pretty much every app you don't want without too much hassle (including the Google ones).
Thanks. Ive actually used that in my current phine, and while it disabled a lot of the bloat apps, it never freed up space (which, for a phone where android+system apps are currently taking up 14 out of 16gb of its internal storage, is a problem...) maybye its just a samsung thing?
That's a side effect of how the debloaters work. They hide the apps from userspace, but don't actually remove the apks from the system partition. That's why some of the tools are also able to restore the apps after you've removed them. Since the system partition is read-only there's no way to truly remove the apps and release that space back to the user (at least not without rooting, and even then I'm not so sure).
Other users have pointed out a lot of the common pivots that come close to your needs, Nokia G22, Fairphone 4, Sony Xperia models, but I haven't seen any mentions of the Pinephone/Pineohone Pro. While i can't speak to how well it functions as i have not used one, it seems to check every box that you are looking for in a phone except maybe carrier network bands.
https://www.pine64.org/pinephonepro/
Probably because I mentioned my experiences with the pinephone previously. Even with the better part of a decade's expwrience with linux on desktop and server, I wasnt able to get the phone to consistently wake up from sleep for an incoming call, let alone getting signal working on it. Cool terminal device though, might have to dig it out and use it as an ssh machine or something in the future.
One phone that meets all your criteria and that others haven't mentioned (probably because it doesn't show up on gsmchoice) is the GigaSet GX4.
It's the base phone of the "Volla phone X", and consequently also supports their de-googled Android OS (Volla OS).
Another bonus is that it is MIL-STD-810H and IP68 compliant which might be of interest since you sound like you want to use your phone for a long time.
Biggest downsides I see is that it might be a bit overkill for your purposes, and also that Volla OS (unlike lineageOS and /e/) looks and feels very different to regular Android.
Unfortunately, Neither GigaSet nor Volla sell to the US. (I should have clarified that we are moving from the US to Europe.)
Hmmm what about a Moto G Play? Not sure how replaceable the battery is, but at that price you might as well just replace the phone. As others have said, it's really hard (and just going to become harder) to find devices with user replaceable batteries anyway.
Most of the reviews say it's pretty sluggish but it's hopefully better than the phone you're using now.
You didn't really comment on price, but if you're willing to drop some of your requirements you can get a pretty decent device for pretty cheap these days. Samsung's "Galaxy A" line has some really good value devices that regularly go on sale. You'll also get software updates for a few more years too.