#like I can guarantee y'all that Xiaomi ain't good either but I enjoy their shit more than I think I'd enjoy Google's

[senilthesynth]

The Pixel 9 is apparently the same size as the 9 Pro but missing out on some stuff (telephoto being the biggest one) which is... A Choice. Yeah the 9 Pro is more expensive, but if the fucking Xiaomi 14 was guaranteed to work great in the States it'd compare to the 9 Pro no problem. Unfortunately, it's missing THE MOST IMPORTANT RURAL BANDS (B71 for LTE, n71 for 5G) which makes it a harder sell. Plus, I have no way of knowing how it handles WiFi calling, which is the thing that makes existing in a rural space (with good internet mind you) viable.

My current phone gets shit service here AND gets booted off of WiFi calling even though cell calls regularly break up or drop out, AND despite being TMobile compatible so it's not like it's really on good grounds for what it's worth. Not sure what crack Motorola is on here. Literally might be the same experience lol.

IDK I want the Xiaomi 14, partly because I like its design language for the hardware (I'm not a huge fan of MIUI or their HyperOS whatever, it tries too hard to be iOS, but there are ways to clean up some of the garbage bloat), but also because there are basically no other compact Android phones that are GOOD. I'm literally forced to look outside of the US market for good shit because we're so starved for choice here. It sucks I hate it I just want a nice phone damn it why is it so hard.

Like it boils down to "do I suffer with Samsung's UI/UX for a phone with a hardware design I like, get the Pixel which has a software UI/UX I'll probably like but a meh hardware design, or gamble on cell service with the Xiaomi and put in some debloating work to get a phone that has a design language I like paired with a software language that I at least know." (I ran a Mi 9 a few years back, up until AT&T decided "no fuck you we're gutting 3G support and not entertaining the idea of VoLTE on this device that supports VoLTE" which was when I moved to Motorola).

Hate this hate this hate this.

Looking at the current phone market here in the States. I really wish it was easier for international markets to break in here, but you pretty much HAVE to be able to get into a carrier or retail store to be viable by the masses.

I like Motorola because a) they're cheap, and b) they aren't half bad for the price in my experience. But... nothing they make is remotely on the smaller end. Everything is at least 6.5" diagonal, really closer to 6.7". The newer Edge model (base Edge since they never dropped the '24 Edge+ here apparently?) is maybe a TINY bit smaller than the Edge+ 2022 that I have today. And that's cause of bezels, not really the screen size.

And I personally really like the clean, straightforward Android UI/UX Motorola has... and the only comparable one that doesn't involve a custom ROM is Google's, as far as the States are concerned.

I ain't the biggest fan of Xiaomi's UI/UX, but the Xiaomi 14 looks nice and is almost exactly what I'd be after. Clean look, solid camera setup, small build with a nice screen... and a nicer construction too. Yeah, I could import it, but it's missing a few of the crucial 4G LTE and 5G bands that are used in the US. Ones that are important for... rural coverage, outside of urban areas. Which is important for me since my region now has a lot of rural stretches.

Yes I know the Galaxy S23 and S24 exist, but I really really hate Samsung's UI/UX. I tried the S23 last year and I hated the UI so much I returned it. I liked the size, though if anything it felt a bit too small - but I'd been using larger phones for years now.

The UI was just miserable for me, as someone used to & desiring cleaner UI/UX. I used custom ROMs on my Xiaomi Mi 9 to get that, because MIUI was trying to be an iOS clone (as many Chinese OEMs did, at least back then) and if I wanted iOS I'd get an iPhone.

sigh