I’m using a Pixel 6 Pro right now, and I’m looking around to see if there are any good phones. However, I have heard that there are ads in the newer flagship phones (Samsung, Xiaomi). I am willing to spend around USD$750 on a new phone, but I just don’t want any crazy ads or preinstalled apps like Facebook. Are there phones that don’t suck nowadays? I can buy a phone that is sold in the US, Canada, or EU.

(I don’t want to go through menus to disable ads (Xiaomi), and I’m currently looking at phones other than the Pixel lineup to see if there’s a better option for me)
(I also don’t want to mess around with custom bootloaders/systems, I rely on Google services way too much)

EDIT: If it wasn’t clear enough, I am not looking for things like GrapheneOS or LineageOS or others, I am looking for a phone and judging based on the stock system on it.

    • @tester1121OPEnglish
      1•9 months ago

      Are they good without LineageOS? I have already said that I don’t want to deal with custom bootloaders/systems.

      • @[email protected]English
        3•9 months ago

        I guess it depends on your order of priorities?

        I think they’re good as they are the last flagship that has a 3.5mm AUX port, MicroSD 1TB for $100), and the camera is pretty decent.

        I typically am not pro-sony but they have a lot of their devices under ASOP open source https://developer.sony.com/open-source/aosp-on-xperia-open-devices

        You can literally reflash a II or III using only XperiFirm and ADB in 30-60 minuets I was surprised, there is a V image I saw on XDA dated january 24 and the device was open souced in December 23.

        I think they got their tweaks in the mainline Linux kernel IIRC which was notable to me for potential Linux distro testing some future day.

        Stock version comes with crapware like all other major vendors, to me this order of priorities is a peak annoyance, with other vendors not on a part of the ASOP open source I think they’re not worth the hassel of buying and without MicroSD if the device bricks your data is lost.

        YMMV only you know what is best for you, LineageOS is so much nicer than stock Android. Not having all that crap installed. Google apps installation is “optional”, I too am reducing my reliance on their services.