[Miscellaneous Android Development] uzalu:
The bluetooth issues are very oddly-timed. I was using the device to listen to music while I was out today and had zero cut-outs at all, but sometimes I'll get 5-6 cuts in the space of a few minutes. The latter hasn't happened for a while though, so at the moment this isn't a major problem. Perhaps increasing the CPU tuning using L-Speed helped with this.

for a rugged phone, you'd think the torch being reliable would be a really high-priority. I did notice that the torch also doesn't work from the quick-settings while the camera is active on my XZ1c running stock android 9, so maybe it's not a problem specific to this phone, but I'm pretty sure that the torch not functioning while below 15% battery is not normal. Maybe it's a power-draw problem on the Atom L.

I have edited my above post to include the fact that I did get xposed working without breaking safetynet or anything, so using gravitybox I was able to put a better battery percentage display in the top-right. As far as I know, accubattery would put its battery display in the top-left, which is a minor distinction but would bother me, so this is preferable (especially including the other benefits of having xposed). The Atom L's stock OS also puts a bunch of persisten system-icons like wifi in the top-left, which can't be hidden or moved by any method I've found.

the "smallest width" option in the developer settings appears to do the same thing as "display size". I have mine set to 341 currently, but that might be the stock setting. Reduce the number to increase the size of elements, it seems to go as low as 320. For me, this made one thing in a 3rd party app stop rendering, in a short time I was testing it.

the vibration motor in the unihertz, though it is unpleasant, actually seems to be better than the one in the XZ1c. Try tweaking the vibration response for a key-press, like on the keyboard, and see what the smallest value you can actually feel is. From memory, I think it was 35ms on the Atom L, but 50ms on the XZ1c. By this metric at least, the vibration motor could be worse.

I can live with the weight, the worst it gets is when trying to type when in bed for example - my pixel 2 is much better for this, not to mention the much nicer vibration motor it has. I don't really need the 'rugged' aspect of this phone, so I'd probably be fine with less of the heavy structural components, so maybe this is worth looking into in future.

I was also looking at the king kong mini, both 1 and 2. I agree, the main problem seems to be the very weak processor, to the extent that it would probably be less powerful than my 2015 Xperia Z5c, which this new wave of phones was meant to be replacing. If there was a version of it with a better processor but a higher price tag, I'm sure I'd consider it. What kind of vibration motor does your kingkong have?

I also found the corners of the XZ1c annoying, yes, but I bought a good case for it, and it's much better now. The main issues with that phone for me are the crappy vibration motor, and despite the fact that the screen is the same dimensions as the Z5c, the screen itself is higher up the phone, making everything harder to reach. Camera quality doesn't bother me much, and the XZ1c has impressive battery life for its size, much better than the pixel 2, though the latter is much lighter-weight.

if the XZ1c had a decent vibration motor, and if the one I got wasn't permanently-locked so I can't even root it, it'd very likely be my main phone over the unihertz.

I too reckon the ideal screen size for me is somewhere around 4.2 inches. I despise the idea of needing to use two hands to operate a smartphone fully, but it seems the manufacturers don't agree with me. It's extremely lucky that I don't need to use my smartphone for anything high-end, and that I'm content using one which is 3 or 4 years old, or otherwise niche like the Atom L.

There is a little tweak you can use on large phones to make them more usable (before android re-implement one-handed mode in 12), if you have root, run in the console 'wm size 1080x1400' (on the pixel 2) (you can use tasker for this), I calculated this as the size which puts the top of the screen display at the same level as it was, relevant to my hand, on the Z5c. Unfortunately, it centers the display in the screen, so you get black areas at the top and bottom. Still, really nice to have this option, I bound it to an extra button on the navbar. Similarly to the XZ1c, it wouldn't take much for the pixel 2 to be my main phone: better battery life and a slightly smaller screen, or a good way to move the top of the screen down in software.

Good to talk to someone else who has what I consider sane preferences for phones, and has a similar recent history looking for adequate ones. Perhaps we should add each other on Discord or something and share notes more in future.