For several reasons including needing NFC and a fully functional mobile web browser I need to find a LineageOS microG compatible phone to use as a tablet. I am looking for a small device, I was thinking of a Samsung S4 mini LTE(serranoltexx).
My concern in shopping for a used phone is that the bootloader would be hard locked and the device will be unusable to me, I refuse to use a stock android device.
Does anyone have ideas what to look for to get an unlockable Samsung? The only other experience I have with androids was helping with a One+1(stock Cyanogen) and a Nexus 7 which both only come with ADB unlockable or unlocked bootloaders.

(Edit - SOLVED!)
See posts 15 and 17 of this thread:
https://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?...6&postcount=15
https://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?...0&postcount=17
I found a Samsung S4 mini which is small and if an international I9195 is acquired it can be converted to a TWRP recovery and LineageOS 14 for microG. Post !7 details how to software disable the cellular radio and re-enable it if desired.

Your description is kinda confusing.
If you want to use something as a tablet, why don't you get a tablet? If you want it to be small, then you need a phone, so I really don't know what to suggest here
Other than that, you have to give us a budget. There are thousands of options out there!
As for the s4 mini, that phone was 100% crap 5 years ago. I wouldn't recommend that to literally anyone today.

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I need a small phone sized android device, no intention of inserting a SIM and might later look into cutting the power pin to the cellular modem. I suppose now people call tablets big and phones small but I am more talking in the N800 is a tablet(no cellular until the N900) manner than the last 10 years.
I already have a Nexus 7 but that is huge, I need something pocket sized that can tether to my N900 but run some modern FOSS software.
Android is a bad solution even Lineage with microG but better than not having services I need when using public transportation.

Why not an xperia x compact then?
I got a used one locally to try sfosX for 40€.
I mean sure, it's a budget and ancient device, but it will work and it's small!
But if you wanna try something modern, the galaxy s10e is about 1cm taller/5mm wider than the compact, but it's a million times better.
Obviously I'm talking for the exynos cpu version, cause I think you can't unlock the bootloader in the snapdragon version.
Not sure though.

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The S4 mini has a SD card slot, removable battery, and I can still run a current browser and OS. That and they are very cheap as long as I can be sure I can get past the bootloader step. The main difficulty is finding a used direct from Samsung phone(no code on bootloader) vs something unusable which was sourced from a US or Canadian wireless carrier and no hope of installing a usable OS.

Whatever floats your boat mate!

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Hi,

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy A5 (2015) now with LineageOS... I do not have any idea of your worries or expectations about the size of the phone; it is fine for me. OK, it is way bigger than the n900 (I mean taller and wider) but I can use it with one hand at least and the big screen comes handy...
I have termux on it; I could even wrote a small python script and run it in the background to make some things done... So for me it is quite a good solution for having today's services (browser, navigation, pay/banking) with the capability to costumize (OK, not as deeply as on n900) and even write programs/scripts on it...

OK, it does not have a removable back cover and battery, NFC isn't working and yes, I should use google stuffs but I'm not struggling with ads or anything like that. Or at least you can use this to avoid google...

Micro g?
I don't use no stinkin' micro g
(Bad rip off there)
I use nano on one of the nexus 5s I have ...that has floko pie on it.

You may rather enjoy trying out maru or Ubuntu touch ...biketool.
I like em.
Just saying...

Regarding the Sony Xperia X Compact and custom ROMs…
If you are going to use any Android custom ROM based be aware that all the custom ROMs for X Compact (except some old, unmaintained CyaonogenMod 13/14.1 and LineageOS 14.1 builds for which the source code has been removed from GitHub and some stock ROM based ROMs) are based on Sony AOSP which for like two years or so contains a bug where on random basis (mostly on high GPU load) the phone restarts itself or "bricks" to the state a key combo reset is needed. I have struggled with these for like a year and abandoned this device for this reason, therefore I would not recommend this device for using it with any Android based custom ROM.

For clarification, I would not blame open source code as it is often maintained in developers' free time and I appreciate their work and will to do it but this bug seems to be in closed source drivers worked on mostly (except for providing logs) by Sony and that's why I personally feel rather disappointed.

Do you think there's different versions of each device, some locked, some not?
FWIW, I have never encountered a "locked" device.
I'm not even 100% sure what people mean when they use that term.
If the device has clear installation instructions on the LOS wiki, it should also work that way, no?

Are you saying unlockable via "only adb" is bad/inacceptable???