I would avoid both Samsung and Google. Samsung has enormous prices and
tries to reinvent everything from the browser to at one point the screen
reader, which it changed up dramatically and made part of the OS that
could only be updated with a system update, no Play Store support. I
believe in recent updates they returned to the Android Accessibility
suite with Talkback, but that little experiment left a bad taste in my
mouth, especially after I couldn't even figure out how to use their
voice assist screen reader effectively and productively as I can use
Talkback. They also remove the headphone jacks in recent versions.
Google's phones have always been substandard for the price, because they
have never had removable storage, and they removed the headphone jacks
from their phones as well. My personal recommendation is Motorola
phones, which all keep the headphone jack right on the phone and never
lost the SD slot either. Aside from Moto Actions and rebranding the
launcher, Android is a pretty stock experience, including built-in
Talkback that can be updated from the Play Store in the Android
Accessibility Suite. Their phones also include fair amounts of internal
storage and RAM. Most of these still have the fingerprint sensor, which
is getting harder to find now for some reason, and some of their phones
even ship with NFC if you want to be able to quickly pair some bluetooth
devices by tapping them with your phone, send files from one phone to
another by letting them kiss, or make contactless payments using GPay.
My current phone, the G(7+), has 64GB internal storage, I have expanded
it for under $30 with an additional 256GB removeable, which can be
adopted as internal if desired, and it has 4GB RAM. It's not 8GB RAM,
but the $150 price tag makes all the difference in the world. It's
running Android 10, which is definitely new enough, and still gets
security updates.
If newness of the OS and getting full OS updates rather than just the
security patches is a concern, then your best bet is a phone that is in
the Android 1 program. Several Nokia phones fall into this category, and
although their prices are higher and you get less internal storage, you
still can plug headphones into them and add a MicroSD. I think one of
Nokia's Android 1 phones may still even have a battery that can be
replaced easily without tools, which is something that is becoming
impossible to find these days. If price is a concern, I don't think
you'll find many of their phones that are more than $500.
Unfortunately, your carrier is a bit odd and has very little
compatibility, so it looks like Moto is your best bet overall. In any
case, do go with something that is factory unlocked, as although you are
locked into your carrier for now, you don't want to extend that lock-in
any further than you absolutely have to, and you will want to be able to
carry that phone with you elsewhere when the need arises, or even put
free service like the $5 TextNow SIM into it if you want to experiment
or just have a spare phone that can make calls and send texts, and do
most other things on wifi. Every other carrier in the country has now
switched up its network to be compatible with most factory unlocked
phones now, so in the future, finding one that is compatible with your
network should you decide to change carriers will no longer be a
concern, although Moto has had very broad compatibility for years, all
while keeping the price relatively low. I hope this helps.
~Kyle
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