Well, at this point... I really don't know anymore. I know I need to upgrade from this Note 3, and that's about the one thing I can fully agree on.
What I can't agree on, is what next to get.
Ideally, I would want something with comprehensive bands support for multiple carriers, so I don't have to replace the phone if I replace my carrier. While I am currently happy with T-mobile,
years and years of being burned by carrier locked phones and carriers letting their networks fall apart after I'd invested in a fresh phone have me very much un-desiring of carrier-locked phones.
But long have I needed a removable battery. Especially the ability to have an extended replacement battery. I also prefer having external storage in the form of an SD card, because as so many have pointed out, external storage steadily drops in prices.
aaaand, last but certainly not least in importance... I like to tinker. I like to tweak. It pretty much goes without saying that being able to root within 5~10 minutes is a must, as well as supporting Xposed framework.
So...
- Desiring Xposed pretty much excludes anything and everything from Samsung, since Samsung's edits basically nuked it from ever being on my Note 3 ever again.
- The G4 (US991) should have fit the bill for what I was looking for, but LG had dropped the bomb where LG does not warranty any unlocked phones. PERIOD.
So, far as I can work out, finding full bands support plus removable battery is a lost cause. Unless LG decides to turn this awful policy around, I have to exclude them too.
So, far as I can work out, this leaves me with only phones that are all overpriced and have NRB's. And only one of them actually has SD storage... the Moto X Pure. And I don't even know where that stands.