So I had to do a bunch of research on this so I'm going to do a post about it because I know some of you miss having a MicroSD slot and miss the 3.5mm headphone / mic jack.
There are really 2 Phones that I can really find that I consider higher end devices that have what you want.
Sony Xperia 1 VI
This Sony Xperia 1 VI is the only one that really fits everything I would seemingly want. Good screen, Good Cameras, 512GB Internal Storage, 12GB Ram, microSDXC.
If you film a lot of videos like me and don't like Bluetooth ear buds and want a phone with power this thing is a beast. I feel like the Bluetooth ear buds radiate my brain. I seriously feel like the radiation is drilling into my head if I'm on them for over 30 minutes. I hate it. I don't get that when I have wired ear buds in.
https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_1_vi-13003.php
In the US market you are going to have a hard time tracking one of these down and you could be pretty deep in it. Even for a used one from a couple of years ago you could be $800 deep. New it was $1,700. It's tough to find and you could end up dropping a lot of bread on one of these Xperia phones. Here is a video from a couple of years ago talking about the situation with the Xperia 1 V. Another one to look into is the Xperia 1 IV that came out in 2022. https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_1_iv-11521.php
They are all tough to find on the market and I wasn't even having success on Sony's website.
There is a tried and true beast that has everything except the 3.5mm jack.
Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra
This phone came out in 2020 and people are still going after it because if you go with a 512GB internal storage option and it can support up to a 1TB MicroSD Card you are at 1.5TB of total storage and that is very tough to do even with the newest phones.
I really feel that the phone manufactures want to sell you a new phone and also push you into cloud storage options on a monthly subscription which is annoying and not always an option if you are dealing with large video files.
Like I said the only thing it doesn't have that would make it almost perfect is the 3.5mm headphone / mic jack.
The Note 20 Ultra also has Samsung DEX which is interesting. It's another interface to utilize your phone as a desktop computer.
You can ultimately be into the Note 20 Ultra with 512GB and buy a 1TB MicroSD card and be all in for under $500. I would just be careful from what sellers you buy it from.
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note20_ultra_5g-10261.php
It's a lot of power and storage for the price.
Gaming Phones
So these two options are heavy hitters with the processors and ram and DO HAVE The 3.5mm headphone / mic jack but don't have the MicroSD Slot. 24GB of Ram and 1TB internal storage options for both so these things really are beast for sure. All they had to do is add that MicroSD capability.
For content creation these could be pretty decent options though in a lot of respects because you can plug in an external mic and you could do quick edits on the phone. Let's say someone did use those for content creation there would always be the option to plug in external storage through the USB-C port. It's an option but I don't really like the premise of that in a lot of ways. I guess I'm greedy. I WANT IT ALL but I also don't really want to be $1,400 deep in a phone.
What About The New Mid Range Stuff
Everytime I dug into the Mid Range stuff I wasn't impressed to be honest. The screens, cameras, internal storage, and ram limitations didn't really offer an improvement over these other options.
If you research the newest Samsung Galaxy A55s and the Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G you will immediately see the upper end options for storage and ram just aren't there.
Conclusion
Why not just get the newest Samsung Galaxy S25 with 1TB Internal? Well you are going to pay more and still not be at the 1.5TB total storage you can get to with the first two options I presented.
I put my phones on the gym floor all the time which is another issue as well. I don't like to have someone that is $1,000+ just getting put on the floor all the time.
If you are worried about those other phones going out of date I honestly don't think it is going to be a huge issue. If something happened years down the line there might be an options to install something like LineageOS or some other custom ROM on the phone.
The premise of having to delete stuff and clean up space on the phone is somewhat annoying for me and accessing stuff on the cloud isn't always an option so I don't like the premise of relying on that.
People just like the MicroSD option! Am I Right???
Hopefully this helps someone that is frustrated with their phone situation or wants what was taken away from them! The research on all this drove me crazy because it left me saying. "If The Note20 would have just had a 3.5mm audio port." "If you could actually get the Sony Xperia!" "if the ASUS and RedMagic would have just put MicroSD Card Slots in!!!!"
Seems like the Note 20 is the route if you want to save money on a heavy hitter. The Xperia is the ultimate if you can find it. The ASUS ROG and RedMagic seem to be beasts and you can make due plugging in external storage into the USB-C if needed and. Galaxy S24 and S25s can be heavy hitters but there is no MicroSD or 3.5mm jacks so there are two things missing there. iPhones are cool and you get blue text bubbles but none of the other options that this original post was about.