Samsung Galaxy S5

I agree 100%. And when people inevitably claim that the reason for eliminating the headphone jack is so you could have a phone that could withstand being dropped in water, I think back to the Samsung Galaxy S5 that I bought 10 years ago. It has a headphone jack, a microSD slot, and a user-removable battery, plus an IP67 rating.

> If it wasn't fragile - people would not buy cases and protective glass for their phone. Well for my money I think they're mostly nonsense. I never use them and despite living in my pockets for years, my phone aren't scratched up. Cases are annoying and unwieldy, making it more likely I would drop my phone, and screen protectors make the screen look worse - which I think is what they're supposed to prevent? I often go 5+ years with the same phone, so it's not like I write them off any faster. My S2 and S5 both lasted for ages, and they both still work perfectly fine - the only issue is that software "outgrew" them.

If you care about privacy and have about $100 + 4 hours you can get a Galaxy S5 running LineageOs without GApps (use F-Droid store) . Almost completely OSS besides a few manufacturer blobs you can't really work around. I have a "normal" Android phone I use for work but my S5 is my daily driver for everything else. Works great, hardest part is setting up stuff to replace FAANG. I use ProtonMail, Open Camera, Matrix/Riot for family chat. Haven't found a good calendar yet but overall way more usable than a dumbphone and privacy concious There's some "nicer" options like One plus for LineageOs but you will probably find the S5 fairly snappy since its based on Android 8.0 . IMO the last few versions of Android make a much larger performance difference than a few CPU generations

I recommend going backwards one generation, to the Samsung Galaxy S5. This is the phone I have, and I love it. The battery life is fantastic: I can easily go two full days on a single charge. I'm still using the OEM firmware too (Sprint version), which does have its share of bloat, but I have a bunch of the built-in bloat disabled. If you haven't done that yet, you need to. Moreover, if my battery does die early because I was doing too much with it, I have a spare battery in my backpack I got on Ebay for less than $10. I can easily pop that in and have a full charge again, without messing with some stupid USB-attached battery pack. On top of that, the S5 has two other very important features that the S6 lacks: a microSD card slot, and being water-resistant (IP67 I think). The S6 was a massive step backwards. Why on earth did you even buy it, when the previous generation was so obviously superior in every way? Anyway, my recommendations in a nutshell: buy a Sprint S5 on Ebay for $100-150, and sign up for service with Ting or another Sprint MVNO.

I.e. Samsung Galaxy S5 was IP67, Samsung Galaxy Xcover 6 Pro was IP68.

And the Galaxy S5 that came after it, still had a replaceable battery while being waterproof.

Galaxy S5 was IP67-rated (1 metre depth, 30 minutes) and had a user-replaceable back cover / battery Also a notification LED, OLED screen, bezels to pick the device up by, headphone jack, unlockable, a continuous light sensor... peak smartphone, save perhaps for the meager 200 Hz accelerometer refresh rate (modern phones have 500 Hz usually, I have no idea what for but I personally love toying with FFT plots)

Not sure if I should be repeating the same answer below each instance of the question but here goes: See the Samsung Galaxy S5 for example as having a good waterproofing rating and user-replaceable battery

Samsung’s Galaxy S5 or so was water resistant and had a replaceable battery. I remember a test where it survived a full washing machine program without any issue. Oh, and it also had a headphone jack.

Dropping the phone in water is a possibility, the battery becoming useless is a certainty. Repairability is important. The Samsung S5 had a removable back with a silicone seal, this was one of the first widely available water resistant phones. I'm sure they could come up with an even better version now if they wanted to. Glueing it shut is not a requirement for water resistance. Drop this plastic phone onto concrete, drop a glass iPhone onto concrete. Phone cases should not need to exist, nor be as ubiquitous as they are - they are band-aids on bad durability. You could probably bend this thing easier than an iPhone, I don't know how much of a metal frame is in this one, but they could add one make it as sturdy. Screws do not preclude this. It's not all about durability. Screws have a minimal impact on durability compared to materials. It's about a sleek design for sales, with the added benefit of planned obsolescence. Sorry, I don't buy your argument at all.

Same thing with the Samsung S5 from 2014. IP67 waterproof with headphone jack and removable battery.