I think many assume there’s more of a plan, or at least more structure, than there actually is. When you pick at it, or pull the single link keeping it all together, it tumbles down.

In December I finally bought a phone to replace my 3a. I did it mostly for the battery life, although I did actually buy a replacement battery for the 3a and have all the necessary tools to install it. It wouldn’t be my first time replacing a cellphone battery.

I was window shopping and the Oneplus 12 became fairly discounted at the end of last year.

Honestly, the overall experience really isn’t that different than my old 3a. It’s not like newer versions of Android are adding revolutionary features these days and if you’re running a custom ROM, odds are you’re on a newer version of Android anyway.

Nice things:

• Two days worth of battery life with my usage patterns. Even with a fresh battery, my 3a wouldn’t last this long
• Something like 4x more RAM means that apps are usually in the state I left them in when I come back to them, whereas on the 3a they had usually been forced to free up resources and not all apps deal with that well
• The telephoto lens is nice to have, but none of the built in cameras are a substitute for my dedicated camera for things that are moving and/or things are far away
• The screen mounted fingerprint sensor is very convenient, but that’s a placement thing. Some people liked the 3a location, but I didn’t personally

Unless you are taxing your processor, an upgrade will be incremental. At least that was my experience.

I somewhat regret the larger phone in that it’s a bit harder to handle one handed, but most on screen keyboards have a one handed mode to deal with this. I had a pop/ring type holder on my 3a, so gripping one handed isn’t that big of a deal.

You’re not going to find any of those in stores in the US either. Of all the brands i rattled off, the only one you can reliably find here is Birkenstock. However, you’re not going to find their shoes or boots. I had to order those from the web.

Xero shoes are a US brand, but I’ve never seen them in a store here. Groundies are German. Barebaics and Belanka are both from Slovakia.

The internet is a beautiful thing. Yeah, shipping from all over can be a bit slow but with standard measurements it’s not hard to order shoes that will fit correctly out of the gate.

And there is now so little choice!

There has been a consolidation of the major brands, but there’s a pretty solid niche market around foot shaped shoes.

Vibrams are the extreme. Birkenstock sneakers are pretty well shaped, but their soles are a bit rigid. I don’t mean that in a comfort way, I mean that in a bendable way.

More recent, to me at least, entrants are groundies, xero shoes, Barebarics, belenka, and a ton more.

Cut to the shape of an actual foot and flexible/minimalistic sole. I live in the Midwest, so I’ll compromise some ok sole thickness in the winter. Standing in snow with my kid at the bus stop in minimalistic soles and even thicker socks makes for quick feet.

Shape of your foot? I don’t understand why you would want your toes/foot contorted. I do not understand shoes that have a point in the middle of them. Either you’re smashing your toes together or your making something stick out in front of your foot that will mess up your gate.

Minimalistic sole? This will get you landing more softly on your heel and help you use the balls of your feet more. It’s amazing to me how thick/soft the soles of some shoes are. I suspect they’re necessary to compensate for the way a lot of us walk.

My feet feel fantastic and my motion feels very natural.

Genuine question: do they make money from AOSP being used on third party devices? Obviously they get revenue via the Play store, but you can avoid that by either installing something like graphine or an alternative store (Fdroid, Amazon, etc).