Do you have a recommendation for a phone that has a <=5" screen that is supported by LineageOS and MicroG? It seems like most of the well supported phones are too big to comfortably fit in my pocket.
Pick your country on the right, then lookup the models listed at the left from most popular to least popular.
The phones that are the most popular stand the chance of being the most stable, and best supported. I finally arrived @ "nash", which is more commonly known as the "Moto Z Force" (https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/nash). You'll have to copy/paste the code names to their devices wiki to get the specs.
I got one second hand with some wear for about US$100 on ebay. It was easy to unlock, and I'm fairly impressed with how it works with Lineage thus far (About 2-3 months as my only phone). It's 6" tall, I'm not sure the diagonal, but it fits comfortably in my pockets. I added a case since it's super thin otherwise.
With MicroG, Google Camera works as it does on stock Android. Most phones on LineageOS aren't able to use their stock camera app, which results in reduced camera quality compared to stock Android. The Pixel/Nexus line, ironically, is the main exception.
Google Camera isn't available on F-Droid or Yalp/Aurora Store, but you can download it from APKMirror:
Can you elaborate on this? Is it the app itself needing to do some type of processing for peak performance, or some firmware blob that the app bundles and loads?
Pictures on my S7 herolte (microG+LOS obviously) are grainy, and investigating why is quite far down on my todo list. This wasn't a problem on i9500, klte, or shamu. I had thought the issue must be some missing firmware, either from the OS image or it got wiped somehow. Compounded by being in Exynos rather than more popular Qualcomm land. But not knowing all that much about the Android photo stack, it's interesting to hear you say it depends on the app used itself.
Camera quality depends on both the camera firmware blob and the camera app. On high-end Android phones, the camera app usually makes use of proprietary features on the firmware blob and performs post-processing (such as HDR and bokeh).
Other Galaxy S7 (herolte) users seem to have the same problems as you on LineageOS, but it's hard to tell exactly what causes them:
Google Camera's post-processing has been well-received, and the app has been ported to many non-Google devices, including the Galaxy S7. I'm not sure how well the S7 ports work (especially if your S7 has an Exynos SoC) but XDA Developers has a couple of active threads here:
Using one of the ports might improve your camera situation. No guarantees, but it doesn't hurt to try.
I recommended the first-generation Pixel and Pixel XL because they are the only phones that are currently supported by both LineageOS and the latest version of the official (non-ported) Google Camera app. For people who aren't particular about camera features and quality, the Camera app that comes with LineageOS or any third-party camera app would be adequate, and you can use these with any supported device.
Oops, I missed the "at most 5 inches" part. The first-generation Google Pixel (not XL) has a screen that measures exactly 5 inches, and is even cheaper than the XL.
I used Moto X (1st gen) with LineageOS (Marshmallow) and microG until I broke it this May. It has a 4.7" AMOLED and 2GB RAM. CPU has only two 1.7GHz cores, but it did its job quite well even after 5 years.
Check their stats: https://stats.lineageos.org/
Pick your country on the right, then lookup the models listed at the left from most popular to least popular.
The phones that are the most popular stand the chance of being the most stable, and best supported. I finally arrived @ "nash", which is more commonly known as the "Moto Z Force" (https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/nash). You'll have to copy/paste the code names to their devices wiki to get the specs.
I got one second hand with some wear for about US$100 on ebay. It was easy to unlock, and I'm fairly impressed with how it works with Lineage thus far (About 2-3 months as my only phone). It's 6" tall, I'm not sure the diagonal, but it fits comfortably in my pockets. I added a case since it's super thin otherwise.
#3 in the US is https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/klte @ 5.59" tall ...