can't help you with the sd card slot but if you don't mind carrying a wired headset, a usb-c > 3.5mm adapter can't be the dongle that breaks the camel's back..?
I never carry a dongle or a wired headset. I use an aux wire in my car, and a pair of over-ear wired headphones at my desk. When I travel to visit family, I can plug my phone into their old stereo receiver (which works as great now as it did 30 years ago). When a friend wants to play music in my car, they can plug into the aux wire I have. A usb-c dongle is one more thing I won't have with me and I'll be stuck using the speaker in the phone, and it will be garbage. So I will once again hunt for a phone that has an aux port.
People always seem willing to die on the hill of this incredibly minor inconvenience. Literally solvable with like 10 dollars.
I do this by using a phone that has the port built in.
> They sell things to attach it to your keys. You can buy a few adapters to leave at your desk in your car, they are cheap.
My "keys" are a single key with nothing attached.
> People always seem willing to die on the hill of this incredibly minor inconvenience. Literally solvable with like 10 dollars.
Yes, I am willing to buy a different brand of phone over a port that I use daily. The aux port is worth more to me than getting a slightly-more-stock android, or a probably-better camera. Is that hard to understand?
But you could attach something to it. My point was mostly that you (presumably) already carry something around with you all or most of the time, something that a dongle can be attached to for basically no cost.
> Is that hard to understand?
It really is hard for me to understand. It's not like they took away to play music over a wire, that I would understand being a problem.
Cables and dongles and adapters are just part of life.
No, they added an additional inconvenience to something I use every day. So I'll get a phone from someone who hasn't. Easy peasy, no workaround or buying and carrying dongle to worry about.
> Cables and dongles and adapters are just part of life.
Not for me so far, and I'll continue to make consumer choices to keep it that way.
Many people stand up for their principles by putting their money where their mouth is.
I'm not as extremely opinionated, but I also continue to buy phones with aux ports to support the headphones I already have, and mostly to not worry about misplacing those dongles.
I can live with a phone that doesn't play music, but I can't with one that doesn't charge
Now I'm the sucker they'd always envisioned, owning a Airpod Pros and a Bluetooth Bose headset. At this point though, whether it's Stockholm Syndrome or not, I still do generally prefer the wireless life.