The woeful state of smartphones in 2025

For the past year or so, I was using a Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact for my phone needs. It was running on Lineage OS 21 and it performed admirably. As of lately, for whatever reason t-mobile dropped data coverage in my area for the phone and now it doesn’t work anywhere in my general area. The design of the phone was perfect for what I wanted. A credit card sized phone with expandable SD card storage and a headphone jack, USB-C charging and all of the up-to-date android stuff I could ever hope to use. What particularly grinds my gears is the fact that I could’ve kept using this phone were it not for the constant march towards faster speeds and different data bands by these corporations that manage communications for us.

Nowadays, buying a smartphone is an absolute mess. At least in the United States, your options are mainly limited to iPhones or androids from companies like Samsung or google. The designs for these phones are atrocious, with wider screens getting into the realm of tablet size or the lack of expandable storage, not to mention the elimination of headphone jacks in the belief that people will want to use Bluetooth headphones all the time. It becomes far harder to fit these devices in your pocket (which I probably shouldn’t be doing anyway) and it feels more like carrying a big brick around in order to conform to society's’ demands on us. We must always be connected to everyone else and we must always have our data harvested so corporations can make more money off of us. I could definitely drop out of this system and refuse to own a smartphone, but my options are limited nowadays unless I want to completely hermit out and live off-grid (which is an option I am considering more and more). It is difficult to function and get everyday tasks done unless you have a smartphone or other devices. Jobs ask you to fill out online-only applications or families and friends want you in groupchats in order to organize in-person social events. The effects of this media on our relationships becomes more grueling and effectively rules out slower and more cohesive means of communicating with other people.

There is certainly the dumbphone market for other discontents such as myself to look towards fulfilling the phone niche without completely giving into the system. However, examples such as the Light Phone 3 or the minimal phone are so outrageously overpriced for what you’re getting that it’s not even worth considering. There is a justification for paying a premium on what is essentially a slimmed out phone experience from the get-go, eliminating the worry about configuring the device to suit your needs, but paying upwards of $400 - $600 is just far too much for the average person. The latest android and iPhone devices definitely go for more than these prices but getting older models with the same software needs doesn’t break the bank as much. It’s admirable to create these devices and try to slow things down, but in practice it just ends up being more of a hassle than anything else. It would be ideal to have something more sustainable in the long-term, rather than having these expensive devices as a short-term fix for what is obviously a horrid and immediate problem.

So What's Next?

In spite of my ranting about smartphone technology, I ended up ordering a Sony Xperia 10 VII on ebay for a rather pricey price. This is rather hypocritical of me in spite of my beliefs, but based on what I’ve seen and read about it, it’s more of what I liked about the Sony Xperia XZ1 compact in a slightly lengthier form factor. I’ll include an update on my thoughts about this but I’m hoping that it’ll be a decent experience with less of the ills I mentioned up above. I’ve been rather spoiled with expanding the storage with a Micro SD card and having a headphone jack for the optimal music listening experience.