Help me choose a new phone

I’m in the market for a clean slate. Since I’m getting my ipod here soon I’m not worried about a headphone jack, but rather I have a new conundrum that I hadn’t considered. I could get an iphone… and shit I’d probably like one.

So… Help me choose here, and at that help me figure out what android device would be a good choice. Heres my current running list of choices:

iPhone 7 / 7 plus
Unihertz Titan
Samsung Note 9

Requirements:
Expandable / big battery (iphone battery cases, titan has 6000mAh battery, or battery bank / wireless charging, more in a sec)
Lineage 17
Decent Camera
Under 450 USD
Verizon / Sprint compatible, Unlocked preferred (will be on ting)

If I get an iphone the one thing I would want is a decent camera. I could get the 8 and be ok probably, but for one the 7 is super cheap, plus of all the iphones its the most desirable feature wise to me. The only thing I’m worried about is if its going to last long enough software wise.

On the android side, I don’t really care WHAT I run, but I want to use lineage 17 / android 10 for security reasons, first and foremost. Secondly, I’d like lineage just so I cut out of background processes eating my battery. As a side note, I’m looking at the unihertz titan because its one of the more interesting phones on the market for me. Plus, I’d like a keyboard. That’d be ok to me.

Lastly, I’ve had wireless charging and other similarly “Modern” features on my mind. Honestly I think some of that stuff will accelerate the decay of use on the phone, but wireless charging would be a breeze for me I’d love to have that. I have this issue of every USB C phone I interact with, the cable always backs itself out over night. Whoever heard of such a thing! So, wireless charging and other similar features highly interest me.

Thanks for any info.

The second gen SE looks to be in your price range, and the total cost of ownership beats every phone you’ve listed, if you keep it for its complete life (5 years).

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I’m likely to. Is it worth it? Last I remember its pretty stripped of features, just being an iphone 6S with the new chip in it.

Eh, looking at it, yeah that’d be perfect. Just at the top end of what I’m willing to spend rn. Whereas, the 7 would do pretty much the same stuff at like 150 / 175. I’m mostly using this as a communication and youtube device since music and podcasts will be handled otherwise…

Hmmm, I’ll have to think on it because that is still a good deal.

Does it have to be new?

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No, preferably not. I’d get an LG V20 if I could reliably get a rooted one. I love my current one, but no lineage available on it. Security system is too up to date to allow dirtyCOW exploits.

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OnePlus 7 pro

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Isn’t that like 500 bucks tho.

It has the most powerful mobile SoC in existence currently, which for a $450 phone is pretty unbeatable, and futureproof.

The camera looks to be similar or equivalent to the iPhone 8 image sensor, but benefiting from the A13 image processing.

It may be the body of the iPhone 8 but a lot of the internal are upgraded.

If its something you’re wanting to keep for as long as possible, the SE costs about $109 a year over 5 years with a midlife battery replacement. It’s difficult to beat over that time period.

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Maybe for a refurb in near perfect shape. I think you could find one for less. The tricky part is finding the one with cdma and gsm support. It’s got lineage support though.

Yeah I was looking at 6T’s as a matter of fact.

That might be a good way to go too. I wanted the newest thing with lineage, so I went 7 pro.

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iPhone SE. Very snappy, compact, solid, reasonable price and you know you actually get the new OS.

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Doesn’t have to be a new phone either though. Hell I could do a flip phone if I were ballsy

I just planned on keeping it for a good long while which is why I went this route. Just a thought.

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I would also agree with the iphone se if you aren’t looking for a bunch of work rooting and custom roms. It’s battery charging shenanigans kinda mirror what I do with my root.

Hmmm, ok new thought now. The se would be great, however I am hearing claims ef poor battery performance with just daily use.

It’s only something like 1300mah, but if you’re gonna get a case that is a battery extender then I don’t think this is an issue.

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You know I only just thought to check but, pre owned iphone X’s are pretty cheap. I’ve held one, I liked the size… I need to come up with a solid list of phones.

I’ve been on nexus/pixel phones for the past 8+ years. My order of preference of alternative vendors is OnePlus/Sony/Samsung. With a heavy preference towards OnePlus, and totally ignoring anything else. I simply like that their update cadence matches Pixel phones and in some cases exceeds it, if you enroll into betas, probably, I wouldn’t even bother with lineage.
Sony/Samsung are a hit and miss for me (leaning towards Samsung at the moment). I wouldn’t bother with the rest.

S9+ owner on Lineage here. My phone received no security or other updates for close to a year (from May 2019 when it was still on 15.1, to when 17.1 was released in April this year). They simply didn’t push anything during those 11 months.
If you want Lineage “for security reasons”, that may be something to keep in mind. Just because a new phone is supported now, doesn’t mean it will be supported next month. If whoever develops stuff for that phone decides to stop, you are SOL and will have to look for other ROMs … which is another issue because most other custom ROMs are based on Lineage instead of on pure AOSP.

I bought mine in April 2019 with the intention of using it on Lineage until the phone or battery dies on me. I figured I’d be good on Lineage because everything from S2 to S7 was still supported when I bought the S9+. 3 weeks later I stopped getting updates, and a little while later the phone was simply removed from the LineageOS downloads page.
So I’m not so sure about long-term support anymore. Yeah, it’s supported again … for now. But for how long?

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