I can personally vouch for the XZ1 Compact as a great device! Mine still worked (almost) flawlessly in 2022. ... Until US phone providers started shutting down

I can personally vouch for the XZ1 Compact as a great device! Mine still worked (almost) flawlessly in 2022. ... Until US phone providers started shutting down 3G. As I understand it, in order for the phone to work correctly with towers, the 3G signal needed to be verified as sort of an emergency "fallback" in case 4G/LTE wasn't working. As soon as 3G towers were replaced with 5G, the phone started having severe connectivity issues, even with only 4G/LTE enabled. I don't know if there is a way to get around this, as I also believe the hardware modem is a factor. I'm not thrilled at this aspect of forced obsolescence. Between (lack of) firmware support, locked root capability, frequency band issues, and non-replaceable batteries, devices are not "supposed" to be used for more than 2 years.