My Flip 4 just broke for the... 4th time. I'm replacing it again, but also looking to move on, please help.
So, I have a very particular phone wishlist, and I know the exact phone I want does not exist and probably never will again.
My favorite phones I’ve ever owned were:
HTC G2 Slide, which is what my memory insists on calling it. I think it was officially the T-Mobile G2 / HTC Vision? Uncontested. Pound for pound the best phone I have ever owned for me. It’s okay if you disagree.
Galaxy S5. Full breakable screen, sure, but the textured back meant my essential tremor didn’t make me constantly feel like I was going to drop it.
Moto X. Ridiculous little phone, but I loved the size and the complete lack of fuss.
BlackBerry Curve, or whichever one had the trackball around 2008.
My point is that I’ve loved a lot of different phones over the years, in different sizes and with different hardware.
I used to care a lot more about staying on top of smartphone technology. One of the reasons I didn’t want an iPhone in the beginning was how often I saw people breaking the screens. For years, despite owning smartphones, I somehow avoided that problem.
Then I moved on from the S5 and suddenly I could not stop eventually breaking phones. Not immediately, and not because I was throwing them across rooms, but sooner or later something would happen and there went the glass, either front or back. The Moto X was my reprieve on that front, although I vaguely remember it developing some other bizarre problem instead.
Then Samsung announced the Flip... I was SO happy. All I wanted was a phone where I could physically protect or shut away the screen when I wasn’t using it. I patiently waited several generations for the hinge problems to calm down, then finally bought the Flip4.
I love this stupid phone and am apparently stuck with it. I won't upgrade because Samsung finally made a phone that protected its giant touchscreen without requiring an enormous shell case, then immediately decided the logical next step was to turn the entire outside of the phone into... another screen.
So I keep using Flip4s. I am currently on Flip4 number four. This one has lasted the longest at just over a year. Every previous failure except one has involved the hinge. The exception was a freak drop where it landed perfectly on a protruding rock and smashed the screen despite having a case.
This time it is still hinge-related, but I may actually get to keep THIS phone. I think the battery flex cable is failing rather than the hinge itself mechanically breaking. It powers off at the same point when I start closing it, but stays on if it’s plugged in. So maybe somebody can actually repair the cable. We’ll see.
But as I stare down the possibility of Flip4 Number Five: Attack of the Clones, and wonder how much longer T-Mobile is going to keep finding these things to replace mine with, I’ve started thinking seriously about what comes next.
In a perfect world, my dream phone would have:
A full touchscreen with an actual protective bezel around it
A slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard
Android
NFC / Google Wallet
T-Mobile compatibility
Basically, give me the G2 again with modern radios and tap-to-pay and I will leave the smartphone industry alone for another decade.
I also no longer care very much about camera improvements. I think we've mostly plateaued in that field, despite the number of lenses that keep being added. If a phone can take a nice picture in daylight, I am satisfied.
So what is out there for somebody who wants some combination of the following?
Physical keyboard
Google Wallet / tap-to-pay
Works reliably on T-Mobile
Not completely made of glass on the front AND back
Either genuinely small or almost comically large
That last one sounds ridiculous, but I’ve realized I apparently want no middle ground. Either give me something I can comfortably use one-handed, or give me enough screen that I can remote into my work computer through Jump Desktop on the train and click on a filename without squinting so hard I give myself a headache.
After falling down this rabbit hole tonight, I have developed several sudden phone crushes:
- iKKO MindOne + keyboard
Conceptually, I LOVE this thing. Tiny square phone, modular physical keyboard, headphone jack with an actual DAC, rotating single camera instead of seventeen lenses. Unfortunately, what I’m reading makes it sound like the real-world software experience still has some rough edges.
- Unihertz Titan 2 Elite
I want it. This may be the closest thing to a modern BlackBerry I’ve seen. My main hesitation is T-Mobile compatibility and Unihertz’s return policy if I buy it and discover the network situation isn’t good enough.
- TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro
Possibly the most tempting practical option right now because I can literally get it through T-Mobile. The ability to switch the display into paper-like or monochrome reading modes sounds fantastic for commuting. It is also just pretty.
- Unihertz Tank 4 Pro
Comically overpowered for anything I need in daily life. Enormous battery. Rugged. Night vision. Built-in projector?! I love that it exists. I vaguely remember discovering that it was missing one of my actual requirements, though.
- Galaxy Z Flip6 or Flip7 FE
These are the phones where I keep trying to convince myself, “Maybe you’ll get over the bigger exterior screen.” But sometimes I just want to close my phone and have it show me a little picture of my daughter, the time, and maybe that I got a text. I do not need the closed phone to become a second place where every app can yell at me.
I briefly considered book-style foldables because they would genuinely make working on the train easier, but then T-Mobile showed me the price and I screamed, laughed, and cried simultaneously. We are no longer discussing folds.
So... what have I missed?
Old models are absolutely welcome. I am not looking for “best flagship of 2026.” I don’t care if the processor is two generations old as long as the phone is still secure enough to use, runs the apps I need, and isn’t about to lose support immediately.
Thanks if you made it through all of this. Buying a new phone weirdly unnerves me now because, for better or worse, I rely on the thing for an absurd amount of my daily life.