Did you actually stick a needle in and scratch around? I’ve seen ports that looked okay, because the lint was packed down so tightly it looked like it belonged there. But when i scratched hard enough, it came loose and eventually came out. And then the port worked again. I’ve done at least 4 phones, maybe more.
And
Is the typical symptom of packed lint.
Yes. I did.
I checked.
Oh huh I had forgotten that! Mine didn’t come with a wireless charger and I’ve been fine with the USB charger. Thanks, maybe I’ll have to get a wireless charger to try it out 
Yeah, it sucks it’s not still supported so I’ll be in the market for another phone at some point. Boooooo. I really love my pixel 5 for all the reasons you mentioned – fingerprint reader, wireless charging, not super large!
As someone who bought his first wireless charging phone 3 weeks ago (Samsung S24) I can attest to the challenges of finding charger bases that locate themselves accurately against the phone and charge effectively.
I have some that when you set the phone on it, the phone makes the happy “I’m charging” display and noise. Yet doesn’t actually charge.
I’m about to buy another pair of the kind that seem happiest (with my phone; I’m not willing to endorse them for your phone) and throw all the other nearly new chargers away.
I’ve been using wireless charging for years. I use ones that look like a phone holder. Usually they just work. Sometimes, it helps to lift the phone a little higher in the holder. For instance, by putting two little dice on the bottom. Maybe it sometimes would work if you could make the phone lower, but of course you can’t.
I’ve only once had a phone i couldn’t get to charge with the wireless charger. And buying a new charger worked. And once your find the sweet spot, it works every time, in my experience.
I like my Motorola Moto G Stylus 5g 2022 edition (8 GB/256 GB). But I’m not sure if the 2024 version has wireless charging–my 2022 doesn’t. (If you go for one, skip the 2023 which dropped to 6 GB of RAM for some reason.)
Mine in my particular color was on sale for $250 unlocked and included a free 256 GB MicroSD when I bought it (the other colors were still $400). Not the top spec CPU but the display is 120 Hz and with a screen so big that it makes non-Ultra Samsung Galaxy Ss look like toys beside it, even though they cost 4x as much.
I’m a big fan of the Pixel (A) series. 80% or so of the features of the main lines, 2/3 of the cost. Currently I’m using a Pixel 8a, which retails new, no sales, unlocked for $499. My wife snagged a Pixel 8 Pro during an earlier Amazon Prime sale, for $699. The 8a still supports wireless charging (my opinions on that in a moment) at slower speeds up to 7.5 IIRC. It’s a good phone, a good camera, 128 gig of storage and gets the job done, at a cost point where if it gets broken or lost, I’ll only complain about, not break down crying.
As for wireless charging, my wife LOVES it, because she needs to keep her phone out and readable if work has an emergency, so I got her a wireless charging stand for home use. I use an aftermarket dash mount for mine for long drives, which was nice to not have to worry about rigging a recharge after 10 hours of driving with GPS and Audible playing. For that matter, the new Rav 4 Prime my wife got comes with a build in wireless charging pad, large enough for two phones, which works nicely when paired with Android Auto mirroring to her infotainment center.
There’s still a lot of talk about long term effects on battery life for it, and the potential additional heat, but overall I think it’s a worthwhile gimmick if you don’t get charged a premium for it.
I’d endorse it even more if USB-C hasn’t (for the moment!) won the charging standard. For a while our house was a mix of micro USB, Lightning, and USB-C. Now, just a few last micro’s from my older but still good tech (Kindle Paperwhite) and all the rest are gone.
This is what I was going to recommend. I did have a Pixel 6a, and it worked well, but I replaced it with a Pixel 8 Pro, because I wanted a telephoto camera in the phone that was good enough that I didn’t have to carry a stand alone camera.
I liked the rear facing fingerprint reader on my older Pixel 3, because I could unlock the phone and have it ready in the same motion as removing it from my pocket. The 6a and 8 Pro have in screen fingerprint readers, and they’ve always worked perfectly fine for me. I know some people have fingerprints that don’t seem to work well with some, or any, readers.
AT&T, my existing carrier, paid me $1000 for my two year old 6a, and that was too good to pass up, so now I’m locked into two more years (3 total) with the 8 Pro. The best part of being locked into a contract is it keeps me from caring too much about new phones.
Current Samsung S-series phones are promised something like 8 years of security updates. There would be no reason to throw a phone away after 3 years.
I’m typing this on an s21 ultra I bought 4 years ago that still has excellent battery life and performance. I charge it wirelessly every night on a stand that works perfectly, and I have a wireless charging cradle in the car that will charge it even while using navigation. I’ll keep using this phone til it stops getting security updates (this one only gets them for 3 or 4 years, it was before Samsung committed to the longer support). I think the last update it will get is December of this year. My job requires that I have a phone with current security updates, so it will get replaced early next year.
I bought my samsung galaxy a couple years ago for something like $250 and its worked fine for me. That is without any sales or subsidies.
I miss that fingerprint reader on the back. As you said it just worked really well and you’d unlock the phone as you pulled it from your pocket.
I have the Pixel 8 Pro and it uses the crappy photo fingerprint reader under the screen. It works ok but I all too often find it asking me for my passcode which is annoying. On the upside it can also unlock with the front facing camera which often seems to recognize me more than the fingerprint reader but depends on decent lighting so it can “see” you (doesn’t work well in a dark room).
Mostly it is fine but I really do not know why Pixel moved away from the fingerprint reader on the back. Those were excellent (and could also be used to scroll by swiping your finger over it). I am surprised to hear @puzzlegal say the Pixel 9 fingerprint print reader is bad. I thought I read they moved to the much better ultrasonic reader.
I have the 9, and not the 9 pro, it whatever the more expensive one is. Although most of the reviews say the plain old 9 has the improved reader. All i can guess is that the one in between was even worse. But i really miss the functionality of the 5, and also, frankly, the location was more convenient. I put a finger on the back to hold it. It’s much more awkward to put a finger on the front.
I don’t get the appeal of a glass back. Glass is slippery, and can shatter. i prefer textured plastic.
I don’t get that design choice either but I always use a case so it doesn’t really matter to me.
I never use a case. Phones have been larger than I’m comfortable holding for a while now, and a case just makes that worse.
B…B…But…now it’s titanium!!! You have to buy it!!!
Otherwise, you’re missing out on the experience of…well, titanium, I suppose.
Hear hear!!!
If they’d make the actual phone body slightly less slippery and easier to orient top/bottom & front/back by feel without looking I’d be a lot happier. A phone case or stick-on wallet / card case helps more than it should.
Clearly the phone makers are in the pocket of Big Case. 
My new phone (S24) has the on-screen ultrasonic fingerprint reader. Which cannot recognize a thumb, only a finger. Darn shame the reader is in the perfect spot to unlock by using your thumb. Morons.
That’s probably a function of your thumbs and your fingers, as some fingerprints are easier for these things to read than others.
But the reader on the back, whatever it was, was much better. I’m mystified at why they moved the things to the front.
Good thinking, but probably not. My thumb has worked fine on many other readers over the years.
The recording process gives you a circle to press your fingertip against. It seems my thumb is bigger than the circle and if there’s much overlap of detected pressure outside the circle the recorder will reject that impression and ask you to try again. Lather rinse repeat.
On two occasions I did finally, after about 20 impressions, get it to accept a thumbprint as a usable biometric. Except that when I use that thumb to try to unlock something, the recognition rate is exactly zero over dozens of tries. Color me mostly mystified and a bunch miffed.
In their defense, I do have a rigid screen protector adhered to the face glass, and the documentation warns those kinds of protectors can interfere with the print reader. Which itself seems like bad design since they know those sorts of protectors will get installed by a sizeable fraction of their user base.
I have very much liked my Pixel phones over the years but they are a little maddening. They always seem to be close to perfection but never quite there. There is always a weird design choice or two that defy explanation that takes them down a peg.
As you mentioned (and I agree) they tossed that excellent fingerprint reader. Not only super accurate it was multi-function (you could use it to scroll and double-click with one hand) and its placement was perfect. Then they tossed it for no reason. And my Pixel 8 Pro has a temperature senor. I can point it at something and know its temperature (but, notably, it was not deemed accurate enough to take my temperature). I’ve used it twice and then only to test it out. Worthless. Why? Just…why? Toss that useless sensor and give me the better fingerprint reader.
Not to mention glass backs. Why?
Mystifying. They are really nice phones in most respects but just keep doing these weird stupid things. To be fair, I think all phones have some bit that don’t seem quite right and the Pixel is still a very nice phone by any measure…they just keep coming up slightly short of a homerun.
On my Pixel it asks during the recording process to put my finger/thumb on in different orientations so it can, presumably, read the fingerprint in different ways. I can see it helps some since I don’t always put my finger on in the same way every time. And it can record multiple fingerprints so I have index and thumb of both hands recorded. It usually works but not always and can be frustrating. The front camera seeing my face can also unlock the phone…that saves me more than it should.
The fingerprint reader is my main complaint about the Pixel 8. Also the temperature sensor but mostly because it is a worthless gimmick with no real use. Save me the money or get me a better fingerprint sensor with that money.
I can’t imagine how the design teams get to these places. “Let’s cheap out on the one thing a person uses many times a day and instead add a gizmo no one will ever use!”