[Sony Xperia 5 IV] POMF2K:
I'm gonna start this by saying I'm coming from a rooted xz1 compact running android 8. I lasted as long as I could but I needed a new phone. It's constantly running out of room, necessary apps won't run on it anymore, and the vibrator is broken and frankly sounds dangerous. I really wish someone was still making a small, square, sleek phone that could fit nicely in my pocket and be fully operated with only my thumb.

Now I have the 5 IV (us variant) running android 13 and I'm incredibly frustrated. It doesn't even feel like android anymore. Everything is so round and bubbly and it seems like there's a "this is how it's done now" attitude rather than options for customization. I feel like I'm using an apple product.

Regardless I have a few questions hopefully someone can help me with.

How do I get full control the notification led? I'm talking app, color, flash frequency, custom sound and vibration, priority, etc. To me. this is the single most important feature of Android and the reason I passed on the 5 Mk V. I've always used apps to set custom led notifications so I could glance at my phone and know exactly what was coming without even picking it up.

How do I ensure that calls and messages only vibrate when in vibrate mode? For the life of me I cannot seem to get this device to only vibrate for notifications and calls when set to vibrate mode. I don't want it to vibrate while it's ringing and I don't want it to be fully silent when set to vibrate. I don't like the excess battery drain of vibrate when not necessary but I do frequently need my phone quiet and I almost never use do not disturb mode.

Am I going to have to go custom rom to square off the corners on notifications? The controls in the notification drop down are the worst. They look like big pill capsules. What happened to just icons for the buttons? I feel like I'm using my mother's iphone. I feel like everything new looks old now. Real fisher price vibes to it.

Any luck getting Vo-WiFi with Shizuku on the US version after the latest update? I was really excited about that but then I finally allowed all the updates. Which of course took damn near a day. Should have just found a way to flash the latest.

What's the best means to block ads without rooting? I've always rooted my phones and used an ad blocker. I literally forgot that android gets ads. It's insane what a difference it is. I will likely unlock the bootloader and root further down the road but I would like to try this out for a while.

Is there any way to create a restorable backup image (full copy of a moment in time) without root? I know that android has come a long way and that apps and even a lot of setting can easily be restored from the play store, but I want means to restore exactly as it was. I do a fair amount of customization with launchers and what not. I want it to feel like my phone immediately upon restore.

All of this has got me so frustrated. New actually feels like a regression. In fact the only feature I really like is the ability to cap battery charge to 80%. This is the reason my phones always last so long. I used to have to use root apps to achieve this. Is this standard on android or just Xperia?

I realize that this forum doesn't get much traffic and that a lot of these questions pertain more to android 13 in general rather than the device. Is there another place I should post these questions?

Thanks so much in advance. I hope someone can help me.