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
If you don’t mind getting an older used phone, then the Samsung A52s might be a good choice.
Its, OLED, has an SD slot, and has a headphone jack.
Also, apparently Lineage OS supports this device. https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/a52sxq/
The other option is to get another Pixel and install Graphese. Though they don’t come with an SD slot.
So far this is the only thing I can actually find, so it might have to be what I go with if I insist on not getting a Pixel again. My last Samsung was a pain to flash, but I’ve heard that Odin is a thing of the past so hopefully it’ll be easier this time.