It seems that the motherboard is dead, and that it’s a common issue with the 5a and I “should’ve known better,” despite it being impossible to find decent information on phones these days.
I got it because it was the last Pixel with a headphone jack, and because it had good official LineageOS support. But I compromised: giving up the SD slot was tough for me, and now that I’ve been burned by not having one (I typically auto-backup my Signal history and other things to the SD card) I don’t want to get another phone without it.
But the landscape seems bleak. The vast majority of phones that are officially supported by LineageOS are Pixels. It’s impossible to find easy information on which phones have non-official LOS ROMs. Search results are useless these days, and I also keep running into an issue where after researching a phone for half an hour I discover that it has some arcane process to unlock the bootloader that doesn’t always work, and the forum posters imply that the purchasers “should’ve known better.” I’m just at my wit’s end.
If anyone can suggest something that has decent deGoogled ROM support with the following features, I’d be very grateful:
- OLED screen (a must-have for my photosensitivity)
- SD card slot
- I am willing to give up the headphone jack in order to expand my options
Ah yes, but it is the job of you, the consumer, to make sure you educate yourself about the products you buy. As the manufacturer, it’s not my job to tell you anything about my product; except what I am legally responsible for divulging. It’s your fault dear consumer, you didn’t do your due diligence. Now, let me sell you another. /S
Sounds like OP was aware the 5a had a known higher failure rate, ignored the reports and bought one anyway. Just doing a search for Pixel 5a comes up with results about motherboard failures. I’ve never seen that while searching for phones, so it must have been a significant issue with the 5a.
Someone looking for flashable phones is going to run into these results while choosing a device. I know everything about the phones I have - it’s part of choosing a device.
I wouldn’t buy a 5a knowing there’s a higher-than-usual failure rate.
I should’ve known better when I flashed a phone and bricked it by not following proper procedure - I knew the risk and ignored it, like OP.
As someone who thinks that “all” phones should have headphone jacks and that sustainability is a precious thing : https://www.sustaphones.com
- And not sure if this suits your needs but Murena sells new and refurbished DeGoogled phones : https://murena.com/products/smartphones/
As someone who has given up, I admire your patience and persistence.
Have you considered https://grapheneos.org/ ? A cursory look has me considering a jump back in to the de-googled world.
I tried GrapheneOS. They don’t have a black theme, and they refuse to add it as an option. I immediately flashed LOS over it.
It’s grey, not black. LineageOS has this option. Google removed it (of course) because now, after ten years of having it, all of a sudden they think that having white text on a black background causes “smearing” when you scroll, and they need to save users from this. Nevermind that some of us want the option.
Sorry this doesn’t directly answer your question, but I start with the supported phone list at Lineage then use www.gsmarena.com and www.phonearena.com to compare specs and release date.
This goes into a spreadsheet so I can sort/filter by specific features (in your case, headphone, SD slot, etc). Makes comparing easier.
From what I’ve seen, generally the unlockable phones (other than Pixel) come from Motorola, Sony, Xperia (there are others, those just seem to be the most prolific).
I’m currently working with Pixel 5’s - I like the price point and size, and the simple flashing. Plus there’s an image from DivestOS (a version of Android based on Lineage that’s a little more security-minded, kind of between Lineage and Graphene).
How flashing is done could be a useful metric in your spreadsheet - some phones are rather straightforward (e.g. fastboot flashing unlock), while others require a separate app with (looking at you, Samsung).
This is basically what I’ve been doing. But every time I find something that seems like a decent option, it’s unavailable to purchase. I was interested in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro despite them being a bit older until I couldn’t actually find one. I can find the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro and newer, and of course they aren’t supported. It’s just so frustrating.
And the Pixels don’t have an SD slot and seem to have bad problems with dying randomly based on discussion I saw on Reddit, so I’m not excited to try them again.
My old go-to was the Moto line, but they’re so expensive now for what you get. $450 + shipping + import fees, for a Moto G from two years ago? When I bought a brand new one on release day in 2015 for $200? I just can’t bring myself to do it, not when it only has 4GB of RAM. The Pixel 5a had 6GB and already had lag even running a very lean ROM.
If anyone has other recommendations that don’t precisely match OP’s needs, I’ll also be in the market soon.