You mean like the one on Sony Xperia smartphones? If so... Man I am glad that Sony never got rid of it!

I'm realizing I have to upgrade my s9+ with all of my apps being phased out of my phone. What android do y'all recommend for someone who's enjoy this s***. I know I might have to give up on headphone jack

What's your experience with Sony? I'm dealing with software being old and apps not compatible with my phone. I use apks for free YouTube and music as well

Well I've had my current smartphone from them for 5 years now and it's very close to stock Android so I would personally recommend it.

And well I think you should have for the most part no issues with installing APK's on it for sure... But well make sure that it's the latest smartphone from Sony as it's the one that will be getting at least 4 OS updates and I believe it was either 6 or 7 years of security updates.

Which one is that? I've never looked deep into the Sony market

Samsung does 7 years of updates on their phones
OneUI is way better than Stock android to me, just got OneUI 9 & it is hard

In theory I would like a Sony phone (3.5mm/mSD slot) because I own loads of headphones 3.5mm although I don't mind using a dongle

Cameras don't matter much these days (they're all fine on flagships) but Sony always lags behind the competition ever so slightly due to poor processing

Sony phones rarely go on sale (besides maybe the XM headphones bundles they occasionally do) so you might end up paying 500 bucks more than an S26 Ultra or something would cost you.

So open box Samsung s23 is the right choice if I can get a 500+ gb version?

Not the S23, that was the last year where they only offered 4 years of updates, they added the 7 year policy the year after (cries as owner of S9 Tablet which is on its last update, superb Game Emulator tablet though )

So go for a S24 or higher
I'm on a S24U 512GB (& 16 Pro Max as my side piece) & I'm hoping to keep em for years to come

I heard/read that the s24 and 22 is dealing with bullshit issues from their last OS update. I've just seen only great things about the 23

I've had about 3 updates since those July reports, I didn't really notice any issues tho
Currently on the Android 17/OneUI 9 BETA

The base model (S23/24/25/26 standard) usually go pretty cheap (comparatively)
So if you can stretch for the later year, I would do it
Which country you buying from? (No dox)

Sony Xperia 1 VIII

Bet bet. I'll be trying to find a way to test using the s24. I'm really sad about losing expandable storage and audio jack, but the lack of flexibility for traveling with my s9+ is killing me now.

reddit.com/r/SonyXperia/comments/1umgkcu/sony_xperia_1_viii_honest_review

How does this sound with the work around to connect to 5g?

I hear you fam
I still think my S10 Plus is my best phone pound for pound (relative/taking into account time etc etc), if they threw a modern processor & bigger battery in it that'd be my ideal phone

My big microSD lives in my tablet now (where it houses every episode of the Big Three, minus filler )

The audio jack wasn't as tough of a loss admittedly, given the Bluetooth headphones
Although if you see my posts in the headphones thread you'll see I have lots of 3.5mm headphones inc. some IEMs i got the other week that retail at $349 & the dongle thing really isn't much of an issue

Kimovil site has a neat way to show which network bands the phone support according to your country and telco

kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-sony-xperia-1-viii

Also check out RedMagic phones they have a jack and pretty good phones overall especially for multimedia, gaming wise. Another rec is the Moondrop phone it caters to audiophiles. The spec might fall short but it's still a more recent phone and for most tasks it should still works fine

The Xperia phones still ticks both on jack and SD card support so it might still be your best pick for recent release

Yeah the site recommended here seems to be good as I think you can find a way to get 5G to work but with not with all SIMS/phone carriers. @ragedsycokiller

Thanks guys. I really appreciate it. It'll take a month to decide between the sony or samsung.

No probs fam.

I think you should at least try to own a Sony phone once in your life time as there's just something special and rare about it... But hey do what makes you happy tbh

Got around to trying new gallery apps realizing I use ts so often. Aves Gallery is the one but it did took time to set it the way I prefer. My previous one was Simple Gallery, still really good but Aves makes browsing pics a satisfying process