Moving on from Fuji A310 ,,,

My first digital point-and-click was a Fuji Finepix A310. Since it
died, I am stuck with the XD cards, so looking for an up-to-date
equivalent, hopefully impoving on the most annoying features (easy
accidental turning on in pocket, batteries falling out, switching off
all the time, obliterating continuous pictures by continuing to snap
the pavement when batteries low, large file size for not-so-great
images).

I am a bit confused about the spec. The A310 claims 6 m pixels, and
certainly creates large enough files, but also claims only 3.1 m
effective pixels. The A350, on the other hand, claims only 5.2 m
pixels, but also 5.2 m effective pixels. In normal mode its pictures
are smaller, but it also has a "fine" mode, which takes yet bigger
pictures (in file size).

Are the inconsistences in information simply due to changes over time
in the way they advertise the different camersas? Is the A350 a higher
spec equivalent of the A310?

I am guessing that the "fine" mode on the A350 might be the same kind
of electronic trickery that takes 3.1 m to 6 m pixels on the A310, but
that they've stopped claiming the equivalent higher figure in more
recent specifications.

Thanks for any advice on this rather basic question.

(Incidentally, the death of my A310 seems to be just that it can't get
enough power. Maybe there is some kind of leakage, but it works
briefly on fully charged rechargeables, and won't work at all with
normal batteries. Is this a common fault? I can't imagine it to be
worth fixing.)