suggest phone - removable battery & storage, high ppi, unlockable bootloader

[Milind R]

Hi all,

So my old GNexus died, and am now looking for a new phone for the next several years, if I'm lucky.

Broadly, I am looking for a post-2014 smartphone with the following features :
1. Removable battery
2. Expandable memory
3. Unlockable bootloader
4. <5.5-inch screen and 1080p resolution
5. Price under (₹20000 ~ 350$).

The first two seem to be common in LG phones, the 3rd in HTC. Having great difficulty in one phone that ticks all these (reasonable, right?) boxes.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[Golfdriver97]

The unlockable bootloader is a tough nut to crack as well. Many OEMs are going away from that.

 

[Milind R]

Shucks. Maybe I can find one that can be rooted at least.

HTC phones all seem to have expandable storage and unlockable bootloaders, but does any have a removable battery?

And everyone seems to have a problem making a high-PPI <5" phone...

 

[Milind R]

OK an update, sort of :

• Asus Zenfone 2 Laser and Selfie tick 1-3, but the versions available in India are 5.5" in size.
• Most Samsung and Lenovo phones seem to have unlockable bootloaders these days, by the look of it (i.e. "fastboot oem unlock" works).

Will update when I decide and place the order.

 

[Milind R]

So there turned out to be an additional requirement that I realised later I hadn't spelled out : availability of external spare battery charger in India. With this my list narrowed down to the Zenfone Selfie and the Galaxy S4. Since the S4 is quite old, I went ahead and ordered the Zenfone Selfie; I received it last night. It seems as good as expected. The spare battery+charger (Battery Charger (ACHA001) | Phone Accessory | ASUS India) has been ordered, should reach me soon.

So that's the end of a month-long search. Let's hope it turns out to be as tweaker-friendly as it seems to be.

 

[steezytech]

i was going say note 4 but its bigger. zenfone is and AWESOME choice!