the android device I might buy with the audio format I usually listen to.
Some of my flacs are way over 3 mbps (up to 6 mbps). The bluetooth on my desktop supports speeds up to 1 mbps. If the pixel is going to support similar rates, I don’t see how this is going work.
ETA: Im still going to nuke the device and install graphene or lineage on it. Do both foss support higher rates?
Yeah, the microphone mode is pretty bad. Actually, on desktop I have enabled a setting (mSBC-XQ) that basically forces way more bandwidth through the connection than is officially supported and it actually works, lol. Audio is still mono and not as good, but it no longer makes me want to scratch my ears out. I think some custom ROMs also offer this.
Once modern Bluetooth standards start getting implemented, things will change for the better. May take a couple of years for cheap chips to make it to every device, though.