Also, loudspeakers can act as microphones, too.
In other words, paranoia gets exhausting in modern times.
(And my smartphone has a replacable battery for that reason to at least sometimes enjoy potentially surveillance free time)
No shit. How is the current state btw?
I suppose still not ready to be a daily driver to replace my normal phone?
I'd say that depends on your definition of daily driver and/or how much compromises you're willing to take. I occasionally see members at my larger hackerspace running around with those or other seemingly "unfit" hardware and not complain too much about it ;)
As for phone feature, reliability of that depends on reliability of firmware of the modem, which was always shaky.
I've been using it daily for 3 years for watching movies and main notebook while traveling.
It's not at all abandonware or e-waste.
Apart from the inconvenience it was somehow liberating knowing there is no microphone physically active.