Ask Paul: October 30 (Premium)

Happy Friday, and Happy Halloween! Here’s a great set of reader questions to get the weekend and the holiday started a little early.
You have $500 to spend on a phone. What. Do. You. Do.
rambone05 asks:

If you have $500 what android phone would you buy? This is for my father to upgrade his OnePlus 5T that he is holding onto. He likes having a good camera and a fingerprint sensor in the back. He also prefers the OnePlus UI vs Samsung UI. This doesn't need to be the newest phone, I would go back a year if necessary to get him a good phone that will last him several years before we upgrade to 5G (when it is widely and readily available). Thoughts? Appreciate the help.

If you literally have $500---including whatever you might get on trade---the Google Pixel 4a (5G) seems like the right choice on paper, but with the understanding that I’ve not yet tested it: It has a good camera and a rear-mounted fingerprint reader, and of course a clean software image and unique Pixel features, and at least three years of Android version upgrades. Plus, it even has 5G support.

I can’t test this myself since it asks for an IMEI number, but I suspect OnePlus offers pretty good trade-in values on its own phones, so you might want to look at ordering a OnePlus 8T or OnePlus 8 directly and see if that gets either closer to $500. Both handsets have an in-screen fingerprint reader, but they’re excellent.

I would also look at the Samsung A-series, which I’ve also not tested personally. A Galaxy A71 is just about $400, it looks like.
Sun Valley/21H2
will asks:

I wanted to know what your thoughts are on rumored UI update that Windows might get next year, "Sun Valley". Curious what, if anything, you might have heard about this and if it is as big as some people are hoping for or if it will be a lot less ambitious as is rumored? Is there anything you would like to see done?

I’ve not heard anything specifically about this codename, but you may recall that a trusted source told me earlier this year to expect big changes to Windows in the next year, and this must be what he was talking about. I’m not sure whether a UX overhaul, while overdue, can be truly ambitious, but if Microsoft could just give Windows 10 a modern and consistent UI, similar to what Apple did with macOS Big Sur, I’d be very happy. Let’s just hope it’s not as dull and bland as Windows 10X.

By the way, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella may have obliquely referred to this refresh in Microsoft’s post-earnings conference call the other night. When asked about Windows 10, he noted that Microsoft was “doubling down on it.” He didn’t provide any details, but it’s pretty clear that COVID-19 has triggered a rethinking about Windows’ role within Microsoft and that it will regain at least some of the attention that it had previously lost internally.
Dell, iPhone, and Your Phone
SRRLX1986 asks:

Why does Dell offer a much better phone companion app than Microsoft...