Recommend me a smartphone

[Ormy1]

My current phone is a Oneplus 5, it does everything I need it's just getting a bit old. It's on its third battery, volume button is temperamental, charging is temperamental on certain cables, and people who call me keep complaining they can hear an echo of themselves.

So here are my requirements (in approx order of importance), I'm looking to buy something a year or so old that I can buy used.

I need:

• 3.5mm headphone jack (absolutely 100% necessary, can't have a phone without this).
• Bloatware/preinstalled apps that can be removed. Don't care if it comes with a ton of bloat as long as I can uninstall most of it without rooting, anything with unremovable bloat is not for me, which basically rules out anything from Samsung.
• Either 128GB memory + microSD slot, or 256GB with no microSD slot.
• Rugged and IP68 water resistant
• Large battery and long battery life
• Not crazy large, don't need a huge screen, I prefer to able to operate it with one hand.
• AMOLED screen, don't care about resolution, 120Hz would be nice-to-have but not must-have.
• No silly notch in the screen, they annoy the hell out of me. I'd rather have a nice thick bezel any day. I can compromise on this if the phone is perfect in every other way.

I don't care one bit about:

• NFC, don't use it.
• Camera quality, I figure any modern phone will be better than the 6yr old phone I currently have, and it's good enough.
• Wireless charging, don't use it.
• Weight, heavy is good.
• Dual SIM, don't use it
• How many years of android upgrades it gets, never found this to be an issue.

I've looked at a few phones so far. I really like the Nokia XR20, it's just way too big for me, tempted to buy one anyway and hope I get used to it, I like how rugged they are. Asus Zenfone 9, only came out recently-ish so still quite expensive though. Moto G 5G, also a bit big though and IPS screen.

So give me your recommendations.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ormy1]

You are going to have to compromise somewhere as your criteria only comes back with about 5 models in the last 2 years

Xperia 5 IV might be an option, but don't know how much bloatware it has, and it's probably too expensive

I had no idea GSM arena had a search function like that, many thanks.

I can extend the budget (even significantly so) for the right phone. I know the batteries on these phones are advertised as 'non-replaceable' but if the battery on the Xperia 5 IV isn't glued or soldered in I may well buy one.

Xperia was also my first thought reading those requirements. Could maybe drop down to the 5 III model or even the 5 II if you need it cheaper. Not sure on the recent Xperias but last one I used was the XZ Premium, not much bloat and was able to uninstall/disable all of them with ease.

Even better if the bloat can be uninstalled or disabled. Much appreciated.

 

[Ormy1]

I used to be fanatical about a 3.5mm headphone socket. However if you care about audio fidelity a separate DAP is probably better anyway? Mine also has a terabyte card full of FLAC files on it.
You don't run down your phone battery when listening either. Just an option...

Portability and a seething hatred for wireless earphones are my main considerations. I don't listen to music on my phone much at all so a DAP would be way overkill. Regarding fidelity, I have an extensive library of FLACs and top notch listening hardware at home, when transferring music onto my phone (brace yourself if you're an audio purist/snob lol) I encode the music at 160-224kbps VBR mp3 at 32KHz sample rate which is good enough for me for on-the-go listening.

 

[Ormy1]

Update: I bought a Sony Xperia 5 IV, paid £660 for new open box, here's a brief review and comparison against my old phone (Oneplus 5) and the requirements I posted here.

Overall I really like it, it's missing one or two very minor features I liked on the OP5 but makes up for those with outstanding camera quality*. The weird aspect ratio is taking some time to get used to, it makes sense when you use Sony's photography app and the cynical side of me wants to say that it feels like Sony designed this entire phone around the camera and their photo software. Battery life is fantastic if you turn off the 120Hz screen mode (I notice the difference if I'm looking for it, but I quickly realised that 60Hz does not bother me one bit on a phone unlike a desktop monitor where it does). Sony's app launcher and other default apps aren't great (apart from the photography ones) so I'm using Nova-launcher but still haven't got quite as fine-grained control over notifications as I had on the OP5. It also lacks a hardware switch for do-not-disturb, the OP5 had a three-way hardware sliding switch for normal/vibrate only/total-silence which I liked, if I was in a cinema or whatever I could flick the switch with the phone still in my pocket. Also the wifi reception is not as good, at certain spots in my flat I have to hold the phone in an upright orientation or wifi signal drops to near-zero.

Other nice features are the indented (rather than protruding) lock button, and the charging and 3.5mm ports feel much better quality (i.e. more secure, very satisfying tactile click upon full insertion).

A word on wireless earphones: I maintain that I have never and will never buy wireless in-ear headphones. But I decided I wanted some over-ear phones with decent noise cancelling for air and train travel. Turns out nobody makes these wired-only anymore so I had to buy wireless. On the plus-side the Sony WH-1000MX5 I bought have the option to use them in wired mode even when turned off, and when turned on the noise cancelling is superb. After some testing, using them wireless vs. wired (with noise cancelling ON) did not drain either the phone's or the headphone's batteries significantly faster, completely contrary to my expectations.

*Seriously, how is this phone not near the top of the rankings for best phone camera? I went on holiday to Kraków with two friends shortly after buying the phone, they had iphone 13 and 14, at the end of the trip when we shared pictures they were envious of how good my pictures were. All my pictures were taken in Auto (not Basic) mode in good to moderate light. I get that the Pixel phones have superior low light performance due to Google's software processing but wtf, are the big review sites all being bribed by samsung/google/apple or something?