I hated Samsung phones when I had them ~2019 because of One UI being so far behind Android as well as me getting constantly badgered to create a Samsung account to use the Samsung store so I can upgrade the built-in photo editor even though I never had any reason to do so.

I didn’t see any reason to complain about the hardware One UI ran on, though.

Would a pre-owned Microsoft one likely be better?

After looking it up, this is definitely not the Microsoft one. Has similar moulding to like, the first results on Amazon and AliExpress.

Where would I get higher quality composite cables from?

A composite cable, given to me by someone else. I don’t see a brand.

another observation about the differences: the eBay listing has an NTC sticker and mine had a Sound Blaster sticker. was this specific sticker size common back then??