Android

Heya OP, I'm more or less at the same point you were. So how did you decide in the end?

nothing would be a good choice :p

Dual SIM (2 physical cards)

With the dawn of eSIM, I'm not sure if Dual physical-SIM is very useful.

Last time I went on a trip, I just downloaded an eSIM + kept my physical SIM slot.

I would strongly consider just crying about the headphone jack. Like you I'm really annoyed that most phones got rid of it, but take a look at how many more options you have on gsmarena phone finder if you ditch it.

My main use case for it was sharing my wired noise cancelling headphones between my work PC and phone for zoom calls. But I ended up getting a nice pair of Bluetooth headphones recently and so haven't used it in a long time. I'm sure it'll still annoy me on occasion living without it, but if it's only a few times a year I can live with that for all the options it opens up for new phones.

I'll be seeing any phone for your requirements

FAIRPHONE 5

Typing this on a Zenfone 10.

The good thing is that this phone don't really have bad querks like ZF8&9, and the 2 years update only means not getting new android features, Zenfone still works perfectly fine a long time after the 2 year mark.

And yes, Asus has been quite an A** hole in the whole bootloader situation, but putting that aside there are still plenty of ways to tinker a phone without root(Fdroid, adb, launcher, netguard, etc..).

I would say If custom ROMs are too important for you, get a Pixel, they are just that good with it.

But if you are willing to look past that, Zenfones are great.

I’ve had very little experience with OnePlus, but my sister has had a OnePlus 8 for about two years, and has had consistent, weird problems with it. She hates it.

Have you considered the Sony flagships? They fit all your criteria except maybe the bootloader bit

Thank you for reading this far.

Your welcome

I would stick with newer 5T.

Why?

You where fine with it, the phone clicked with you; you know your way around it. so why not.

i can vouch for xiaomis

I got a Xiaomi POCO F5 recently that might fit all your Must criteria (idk about size), but another Xiaomi may work. Just if you're located somewhere that doesn't use the Type C Socket, you may need an adapter or a different 67W charger

Xiaomi has a bootloader unlock process, though it is a bit involved. You've gotta put your SIM in the new phone, create a Xiaomi then you've gotta run their bootloader unlock software, which needs a Windows Computer, idk if it runs in a VM, if thats an issue for you. Then you've gotta keep your SIM in the phone and have it on for a full 7 days and then run the bootloader unlock software again, which will wipe your phone, but now the bootloader is unlocked

You do have to use MIUI for a week before you can wipe it and try something else, but once you go through it its fine. I've been using Paranoid Android on mine with no issues.

This should apply to any recent Xiaomi phone. Just something for your consideration

Consider your privacy, a Pixel with GrapheneOS is vastly suggested.

The 3 phones you linked from gsmarena vary A LOT in price. First you need to establish your budget. Zenfone 10 is basically last year's flagship, though IMO the screen is too small to be usable for me.

The xiaomi redmi note 13 pro is one of the best value for money phones but it has a "value" soc(system on a chip), which is fine for most every day use but it isnt anywhere near current flagship levels of performance(less performance headroom for future apps). Xiaomi's sub-brand "poco" has phones that offer insane soc but you are sacrificing some other niceties(cameras, etc). Poco f6(and f6 pro) are about to come out.

IMO Oneplus usually aint worth it. It is basically rebranded oppo phones, you might as well get a xiaomi. Budget oneplus phones offer mediocre value with slow soc. However, oneplus flagships from previous years can often be find on sale, in which case they might be worth it. Sony old flagships also can be found at steep discount.

Nothing phones are pretty but their value is low, especially in terms of performance.

IMO, if you dont mind buying a chinese android phone, with 2-3 years of support, xiaomi is usually the best option. Redmi note 13 pro is a good choice, poco x6 and especially x6 pro and upcoming poco f6/f6 pro are also great(if you really care about performance). I dont think i would recommend an expensive xiaomi phone because you can basically get a samsung flagship at that price.

I think the 7 year support offered to google and samsung current flagships is very important. Xiaomi phones reach end of life after 2 or 3 years. Which means that if there is a security hole discovered later on, they will remain unpatched. Considering the amount of banking and stuff people do with their phones nowadays, this point deserves consideration.

So while i have absolute confidence in the performance of xiaomi phones like poco x6 pro or poco f5(and newer) for the long term, the software support landscape has changed a lot this year. And the old norm of 2-3 years software support might not be cutting it anymore.

Also xiaomi has xda forum

https://xdaforums.com/c/xiaomi.12005/

PS Be careful with the snapdragon names. Poco f5 has snapdragon 7+ gen2, while poco x6 has snapdragon 7s gen2. The performance difference between these 2 almost identically named socs is immense. The upcoming snapdragon 8s gen3 is also nothing like snapdragon 8 gen3, it is basically an overclocked 7+ gen 3. Which is still amazing but not 8 gen3 amazing. The "s" stands for "slow".

Have you checked out the buying guide on the sidebar yet?

Xiaomi phones tend to have more active custom rim communities since they have historically been fairly liberal with bootloader unlocks. Make sure it covers your provider's frequency bands if you buy the global version and you live in the US, for example, otherwise you may have reception issues.

Still, the Zenfone 10 is probably your safest bet if a 3.5mm jack is mandatory for you.

Thank you everyone and thank you for the links! Based on all info, I decided to wait for Asus's statement until the end of April. I hope my current phone will survive until then. In case of no good news, I will try to find a OnePlus Nord CE2 somewhere, or may go with a good used one. If that doesn't work out either, then maybe an Xperia. Or Nothing 2. Or Pixel... We'll see.

Why oled only? Modern lcd screens are fantastic. For example look at the OnePlus n30, its lcd screen is super bright, very colorful, has absolutely no PWM, has a refresh rate of 120 hz, has a wide viewing angle range with no change in brightness or color, and is just gorgeous all around.

I used an LG G3 for around 5 years, and I was in a similar situation to yours when it started dying (but with a slightly different set of features I wanted).

I ended up buying a Xiaomi phone (Mi 9T Pro), but the community support for it wasn't even close to the LG and I constantly tinkered with the system to keep some stuff working on custom ROMs (mostly MicroG issues, might be fine with Google Play Services).

Now I use a Pixel 7a. It fit all my requirements except for having a headphone jack, but after getting some AirPods Pro for free, which were much more convenient than using my IEMs (I fairly quickly stopped using them with my phone), I dropped that requirement. I'm assuming the community will support this phone for a while, but since you said you don't mind spending more the Pixel 8 series has more than six years of official support left.