I got a Supernote A5X to read papers - I'm very happy with it and wouldn't want a tablet. I specifically wanted a dumb device dedicated to notes/reading that I wouldn't connect to the internet, which really helps me focus. The eink display is easy to read and is a great break from screens, it feels natural to write on.

However it's not perfect - eink has a small lag in turning pages, so if you intend on flipping through a ton of pages while coding that may be a pain. The searching experience also isn't great, typing takes longer because of the lag. I use it as an advanced notebook rather than a smart device, and I love it from that lens.

At the bottom right of every page, you can click on the "Instances" button (or just go to https://lemmy.zip/instances) to see what instances your site is federated with/is defederated from. lemmy.ml is under linked, so lemmy.zip is federating with them.

What you may be running into is that on this smaller instance, you may need to discover the communities:

These previous ways [searching for instances] will only show communities that are already known to the instance. Especially if you joined a small or inactive Lemmy instance, there will be few communities to discover. You can find more communities by browsing different Lemmy instances, or using the Lemmy Community Browser. When you found a community that you want to follow, enter its URL (e.g. https://feddit.de/c/main) or the identifier (e.g. !main@feddit.de) into the search field of your own Lemmy instance. Lemmy will then fetch the community from its original instance, and allow you to interact with it. The same method also works to fetch users, posts or comments from other instances.

(from the join-lemmy docs)

You can read their original announcement and reasoning here: https://beehaw.org/post/567170

Agree - I jumped from a OnePlus 5T to a Pixel 5a 2 years ago and have no regrets. It really depends on what you're modding for, but I found that on Pixel not having (as much) bloatware, getting the latest Android updates, having real Google Camera support instead of chasing the best mod, and using Wavelet instead of Viper4Android took care of most of my rooting needs. Instead, with the unlockable bootloader I've been able to explore custom OSes like GrapheneOS which has been really great!

I'm really excited for what it means for the future! I'm not going to buy a first-gen product like this, but the fact that Google is making a foldable hopefully means that Android is going to become a better experience on devices like these, so when the technology does get cheaper the software will be ready for it. I'm totally onboard with having a larger display in a more pocketable form factor.