Dear tech consumer’s diary.

The battery of the Xiaomi phone was starting to conk out, and I decided to try and replace it; ordered a new battery, found some useful disassembly guide for the MI 5S – and destroyed the display when trying to open the phone… 😠

I am not good with hardware.

I was using the phone for about 5 years now (and – except for the battery – satisfyingly so); thus, I gnashingly took this as a sign to get a new device.

As I wanted to continue my slow degoogling process, I thought a refurbed Huawei would be a good idea – it comes without any Google apps, that sounded like a good idea.

Of course, it was plain stupid.

Because even if you manage to install some popular app with F-Droid or Aurora, it often does not work without these darn Google Play services…

The phone itself was too big and too heavy, and I just did not want to use this everyday. And I returned it.

It somehow begs the question what justifies this annoying form factor of clunkiness in current smartphones – but this was already posed multiple times and ultimately answered: reasonably sized devices are simply quite the slow sellers!

I never will understand consumer’s choices.

Nevertheless, I discovered some cute little phones like the Jelly 2 or the Palm Phone (via takemy.money) which rekindled some hope in me again. Still, they are not what I was looking for.

Searching for the best phone for degoogling ultimately leads you to GrapheneOS – and they support – Google’s Pixel phones! Badum tss!

Quite some twist in this degoogling story.

From the newer Pixel models they recommend I chose the 4a because of its size, its price, and the convincing reviews for a budget device. I expected something like an Android version of the iPhone SE 2020.

I think it’s exactly what I got – a new Pixel 4a from the German Google store where it was offered even cheaper than many used ones on second-hand platforms.

(No idea why it is not available in the Austrian store… Thanks to LogoiX this was hardly an obstacle, though.)

Now let’s see when I get the courage for installing GrapheneOS on it.

Btw. the b0rked display of the Xiaomi still bugged me pretty much. So much, I decided to give myself another chance, order a spare display and try to replace this too. This time I was more experienced, and of course luckier. I managed to disassemble the phone without any further damage, exchange the display and put everything back into place again. Almost a brand-new phone. Well, the fingerprint sensor had to go, that was baked into the old display and not possible to remove. Finally, it even got Android 11 via the PixelExperience – now it’s in such a good shape I would not have needed a new phone in the first place. Bad timing.