Been using redmi phones since those are the most personally usable features with great budget option. Current active one has IR blaster, stereo, display finger print, 3.5 jack and sd card slot. ~$190 in 2025 money

Software wise, it is manageable with help of shizuku & canta, as noted also in the article. The OS doesn't have good UI/UX but not bad either. Many of android material features are missing under the custom OS they provide and I'm not doing major rom modification since this is the daily communication & banking phone.