Excited teenagers definitely would. Honestly, I bet anyone that sees the marketing for a game they’re excited for and hasnt been burned before in that way is a prime candidate for preordering.

I agree that it’s a bad idea to preorder or pay extra, especially with Ubisoft. However, following that logic they are basically preying on people new to the hobby, which sucks and deserves to be called out.

My day to day experience is good. I have worries about the long term issues but it was one of the only ones that had a headphone jack and microSD. I’m not sure I would have sprung for it otherwise.

The OS could be better as I do get some occasional freezes but nothing particularly bad and that could be the launcher I’m using. Also the software support is shit: they’ve never announced how long it’ll get updates for - previous phones were only 2 years of security updates - and when the updates come they don’t have a changelog (in fact, their website doesn’t even have the latest updates listed but I believe a very minimal changelog turns up when they eventually update the site). Also, there are various things people want fixed or features they want ported (I think there’s some camera options from the 5V that never got made available on the 1V despite using the same sensor), though I only know about these because I’ve had to look at reddit to see what’s changed in an update.

In terms of the security updates, I’m basically counting on LineageOS support turning up at some point.

This all sounds very negative but the camera, screen, battery life, and speakers are all excellent. The OS is fairly close to stock android, which makes it less annoying than Samsung. I’m just annoyed that a device that seems built to last, is hamstrung by the software updates.

I have an Xperia 1V and have a “4G Calling” toggle. I suspect VoLTE is now assumed as 2 & 3G services are getting turned off all over.

I moved from Splitwise to Splid. I wish I had a FOSS alternative too.

I’d have jumped on one of those if it had a microSD slot

Yeah, it’s not cool. However, the Xperia phones up to series iii all have LineageOS releases, which can extend the life, and I’m hoping it comes to the later series as those get to EOL. They absolutely should have better official support though.

Just to offer an alternative viewpoint, because I have come across these issues and ended up buying a Sony phone because I had such a bad time without the 3.5mm headphone socket.

Some people want more internal storage than even 512gb - I have a 400gb microSD in my phone because with the OS and apps getting bigger, even a large internal storage can fill up fast. Also, it’s nice to have media collections, photos, and other files with you, rather than relying on data and cloud storage, and the cost is now very low for a large microSD. It’s also easier to transfer large amounts of data between devices that way.

As for headphones, dongles are a pain and USB headphones have to have a (usually not great) DAC in them to work, plus many people already have great headphones they want to keep using. All of that said, the biggest issue with USB headphones IMO is that there is only one USB port - the wear and tear of using it for everything is significant. Also, USB-C plugs are much more breakable and harder to replace than a 3.5mm jack. Additionally, you cannot charge and listen at the same time without a dongle and many of those are bad (none of the ones I have tried have worked for more than a few weeks before connectivity issues started).

I use MiX, which has a “Search local” option when adding SMB, which sounds like what you’re after

I don’t know about your scenario but I recently started using Insular to manage separating my work apps on my phone and that’s been great