I've been using a 2018 Samsung Galaxy Note 9. It meets all my needs. I use the stylus mostly for quick engineering technical drawings. I don't do gaming.

The battery was getting old and not lasting the whole day, so I changed it to one I ordered from AliExpress. The battery from AliExpress lasts about the same as the old original: no improvement. Samsung does not provide replacement batteries directly, and the official Samsung service centers in Peru are corrupt.

My screen, while still usable, is cracking around the edges so I started wondering about a replacement. In 2023 I thought of replacing the phone with a small tablet, but the market for this is very sad. Now I'm looking over the rest of the market.

Update: With the edge of the screen cracked, my cat got a fancy for chewing on it and now the area of the clock is blacked out.

Flagship Phones:

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Tech Chap
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, GSMArena

Folding Phones:

OnePlus Open, the Tech Chap
Honor Magic V2, the Tech Chap
Oppo Find N2, the Tech Chap
OnePlus Open vs Honor Magic V2, Tech Bandicoot
OnePlus Open vs Google Pixel Fold, Tech Bandicoot

Budget Phones:

Tecno Spark 20 Pro Plus, the Tech Chap
Tecno Spark 20 Pro Plus, Valor Reviews
Moto G Stylus 5G, GSMArena: not good.

Mid-Range Phones:

Xiaomi Poco: Reddit

Mediatek Dimensity 8100 or Snapdragon 7+ gen2

Do I really need a flagship phone when current more affordable phones offer the same performance as my Note 9?

One reason to get a flagship phone is that its performance will still be sufficient many years into the future. The Note 9 was a good choice in 2018. New phones haven't had any new features, just incremental improvements.

However, the industry may be reaching physical limits on performance? If the industry is backing itself into a corner, will it innovate or just continue creating artificial demand (like planned obsolescence) to fuel sales?

Looks like some innovations are in the pipeline:

Hold off as much as I can with the Note 9 or get a budget phone for the interim? Or get last year's flagship open box for half price on ebay?

Benchmarks are useful even though they are crude at approximating real life performance: newer phones aren't as fast as the benchmark implies. I think maybe benchmarks are skewed to favor newer model years (to increase sales, of course). I compare benchmarks of other phones to the Note 9 since it meets my needs.

Update: This guy knows what he's talking about:

s0ukXDnWlTY

My Note 9 has 1050 nits of screen brightness, the minimum for a sunny day (according to a quick Google search). My Note 1 was sufficient although I struggled in the shade of a very bright day.

Many mid-range and budget phones tend to lack a full diversity of LTE and 5G bands. They may not be able to connect to your provider on all bands, or all available bands in your country. It's good to check with sites like kimovil.com which compares the available bands for a phone model to the bands in use by carriers in a country. Another good site is frequencycheck.com.

Checking bands available at a specific location

Claro: LTE-2,UMTS-5,HSPA-5,LTE-28
Viettel: UMTS-8
Movistar: GSM-850
Entel: UMTS-2

https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/blog/which-type-of-smartphone-gets-the-best-reception

His conclusion about Samsung and iPhone having best reception is wrong. If you follow the link to the research, the iPhone had the poorest reception. Also, very few phones were tested, and no mid-range or budget phones.

The screen ratio for the Tecno Spark is 20.3/9 (length/width). That's too thin of a width. My Note 9 has a 18.5/9 ratio and an S24 ultra has a 19.5/9 ratio. 19/9 ratio is very common for smartphones.

The best was a Note 1 with a 16/10 golden ratio. I like more of a tablet screen. Which is why I searched only for tablets last year.

Should I hold my breath for smartglasses that would serve as a monitor screen for mobile use? Would this render the larger screen sizes of tablets and folding phones superfluous? Maybe not since it's nice to have extra viewing options.

I was willing to go up in size to an 8“ tablet for use as a smartphone. I was willing to only have 4GB RAM, a relatively weak CPU and chipset, and a lesser performing camera. But I couldn't accept 400-450 nits for maximum screen brightness. That just sucks. As reviewed in 2023 below, they just don't make anything good available.

A folding phone might be good, but I don't have experience with it. My thought is that it's nice to take out the phone from the pocket and immediately have the big screen without having to fiddle. My pants have custom deep pockets.

I also think a folding phone would be more challenging to balance in one hand. A screen you can't hold with fingers on opposite edges. Also fragility. Also price: I couldn't find the foldable I wanted cheap on ebay.

Also, the unfolded screen is a square shape. Widescreen movies will show small compared to a larger normal phone.

Also, on a square screen, web pages will show too zoomed in for my taste. I appreciate how web pages show now, where I see the desktop version of a web page on my phone, where several pages fit on the vertical screen. A little wider of a phone would be nice, but the square foldable is too wide.

An attractive feature for me is the ability to use a custom ROM and gain ROOT to the device operating system. Manufacturers and possibly governments do not want added freedoms to the users. There are limited number of phone models where the use of custom ROMs is possible.

The most popular rom is LineageOS.

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/

My best option right now for a phone that can run a custom ROM is a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G SM-N975F/DS. Better performance than a Tecno Spark 20 Pro Plus and available open box on ebay for $275.40. It has a 6.8” display.

Wikipedia

Many if not all aren't listed on GSMArena. Looking at some newer ones, the display sizes are tiny and narrow. The volla phone 22 has a 6.3“ 2240×1080 (19.5/9) display. Why do they suck? An illusion of choice?

https://www.androidpolice.com/huawei-could-say-goodbye-android-apps-good-next-year/ (2023)

Huawei uses its own harmonyOS, which will drop library support for any Android apps (apk).

Former subsidiary Honor is now ok.

- Huawei Mate 20X (5G) model EVR-N29 with 7.2” screen. Review of 20X sibling. It's the largest smartphone ever made according to GSMArena phone finder (not considering tablet category). Anything newer is smaller so as not to compete with foldable phones.

I ordered it a little overpriced at $440 shipped for a 5 year old new phone because I want the big non-folding screen.

I didn't get the 4G model EVR-AL00 with the larger battery, actual dual speakers (not the earphone), and headphone jack, because the 4G band 28 is missing. I don't need 5G because 4G is fast enough for me in 2024, but the one missing 700 Mhz band 28a that is used in my remote area is a deal breaker. I hope “28” means both 28a and 28b.

I worry that without updated firmware, the connection to cell towers won't be optimal, but I don't know that as a fact.

Other Options I Considered

GSMArena comparison

The AliExpress seller took over a month to ship the phone despite promising delivery under 30 days. AliExpress didn't care about the guarantee and gave the seller more time. I was amazed to finally receive the product.

The Hunt for a 7-inch Tablet with LTE or 5G

To improve profits by market segmentation, corporations do not introduce a flagship 7“ tablet, as this would satisfy most consumer's needs and reduce sales from consumers purchasing separate smartphones, tablets and/or folding devices.

The meager Lenovo Tab M7 is the best I can find. The model TB-7306x has the processor MT8766 with LTE capability, but it is only sold in very few markets like the Philippines.