Turns out replacing rounded silicon shells with hard-edge thin plastic on a handheld device, then expecting you to buy a second silicon shell anyway was a very lucrative decision.
In other news, I'm looking into getting a new phone. I don't really use phones for much other than messaging apps, firefox and the occasional lemmy browse, so lowest possible price is cool. No 1080/4K stuff.
I'd also want to avoid the 2.5 phone lifespan problem, since Moore and his law are dead so durability trumps performance every time.
It'd also be nice if it was supported by alternative OSes like Lineage. Any particular model or model series y'all recommend?
Huawei yes I think. For Xiaomi I think band support could be a problem but should work.
I guess another option is older OnePlus phones from ebay which have more US bands.