Ask Paul: November 13 (Premium)

Happy Friday, and happy Friday the 13th. Here’s a mammoth edition of Ask Paul to kick off the weekend a bit early.
The perfect smartphone?
Nic asks:

This is related to your premium post on Inconsistency. I've been a contented user of OnePlus phones for several years now, but I've reached a point where the photo quality is just not good enough (regardless of what specs and scores are touted by whatever organizations). It's time for me to move on. I don't want to get locked in to the Apple ecosystem which makes the iPhone a non-starter for me. On the Android side there does not appear to be much to choose from - there's the underpowered small battery of the Pixel and the bloat infested Samsung Galaxy/Note. Huawei isn't really an option given the worries around support. What's going to work out best camera wise and for a daily driver? Any opinions?

So, I’ve literally started an article on this topic, and there’s no good answer. A week or so ago, I discussed with Brad the notion of a game of sorts called “this smartphone would be perfect if...” where you name a phone and then the thing(s) you’d change about it to make it perfect. For example, the Pixel 5 would be perfect if it cost $100 less, came in an XL variant, and also had a telephoto lens. It’s not hard to construct such a sentence for any phone, and of course everyone’s fixes would be different because we all care about different things.

At a high level, I wouldn’t avoid the iPhone just because it’s an Apple product. I also wouldn’t ignore the Samsung phones because of Samsung’s software bloat. These are both surmountable problems. I do agree that Huawei is a non-starter, which is unfortunate: It literally makes the best smartphone cameras, but it doesn’t make sense to go that route unless the U.S. sanctions lift and the company can do business with Google and other U.S.-based firms.

Looking ahead---it won’t arrive until the end of the month---I purchased a Google Pixel 4a 5G because it’s reasonably-priced (especially with my Pixel 4 XL trade-in) and is as close as I can get to an XL-sized Pixel this year. Will that work out for me? I’m hopeful but realistic. If it doesn’t, I’ll almost certainly keep using the Huawei P30 Pro, which isn’t an option I can recommend to others. But I could see going with an iPhone or trying the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE as well.

I’m basically as mystified as you are. I really don’t know which way to turn.

Speaking of which, when it comes to OnePlus, the OnePlus 8T would be perfect if it just had a better camera system. It’s that close. (Others may add wireless charging and an IP rating, but neither is a deal-breaker to me.) That’s why I wrote that article: It’s so frustrating that OnePlus gets so much so right and then keeping blowing it with the camera.
Misinformation
jwpear asks:

Do you think society and tech media companies can find the right balance between free speech and spreading mi...