What phone brand do you like the best?

I don't get people claiming stock iPhone is private. We literally have very little idea. It's a closed system. It's private if you take Apple's word but all the other manufacturers also have similar claims. Why trust Apple and not them?

On top of that you end up locked into their ecosystem, unable to use most FOSS applications or have cut down versions of them because daddy Apple didn't like some features.

casts protect

iPhone

The downside of Google Pixels is that they don't have jack connector and sd slot.

But I accepted the deal just to use GrapheneOS (I bought one used on ebay). Sometimes the battery lasts 3 days without being recharged.

People at GrapheneOS should really focus on some brand that cares about users on the hardware side.

For me it has to be Fairphone. They are more expensive than the others to buy new but they are more aligned with openness and free software. They receive updates for a long time, are well supported by CalyxOS, /e/os, Linux mobile OSs etc, are repairable, you can carry extra batteries, usually have an SD card slot and two SIM slots and are more environmentally-friendly than others.

OnePlus.

I'd never buy Samsung again, they are full of bloat and make it excessively hard to unlock the bootloader and get root access or install an alternative OS.

Don't exclude Pixel phones so quickly. They are one of the most versatile for custom ROMs, and they check all of your checkboxes. I love my CalxyOS Pixel 6.

What phone brand do you like the best?

(I have excluded Graphene as they are only compatible with Pixel phones).

You're asking this on the privacy mag and intentionally/explicitly exclude the best privacy option with no explanation.

Wtf.

If privacy is important, a custom ROM is highly recommended or rather mandatory. Most brands have locked boot loader which can't be unlocked immediately without voiding warranty. Some let you to using some bs proprietary software but only after few months. That was the only reason I had to resort to getting a pixel. So look into all the brands available to you and check their policy on custom rooms before looking into the mobile themselves.

Sony. They still have a headphone jack.

@clark
Google Pixel with GrapheneOS
@privacy

Why exclude GrapheneOS? It's a really good mobile OS, and the creator has given his reasons for only supporting Pixels.

xiaomi has awesome hardware, audio jack, sd slot, even ir blaster.

their privacy policy is bad, but a lot of them have official lineageos (and microg-patched lineage) and it works really really well.

pine64 because freedom.

For Privacy?

Oneplus with lineage os is pretty good but they sorta make it a pain to unlock the bootloader if the phone was not originally factory unlocked.

second hand Xiaomi + flash Lineage, good hardware for the price, community support

Xiaomi and Oneplus have some battery beasts of phones.

i daily a Fairphone 4, has neither the best camera nor the best battery life. but it's the most repairable and durable phone i've owned.

i've had extremely good experieces with oneplus phones, dunno about custom ROM support though.

i've also heard good things about modern motorola phones, if the ROM support is there it's worth a shot imo.

The mod on this post is on such a humongous power trip lmao. Someone needs a reality check and a few slaps.

Not under your specs but the Sony Xperia line offers a headphone jack + microSD, can be unlocked, & has flagship specs (1 & 5). The 5 & 10 models are also smaller devices that actually fit in one hand too. This characteristic combo does not come in the other models folks are suggesting. Older models have LineageOS for microG support if you want an ungoogled phone (but beware the stock camera app is trash).

I like fairphone the best out of all the ones that are currently available, however, my next phone will be a Pixel 8A because grapheneos doesn't support fairphone

I just got a OnePlus 12 and this phone is fantastic. Bootloader is unlocked and you can do whatever you want. Battery is amazing. Charger is insane. Camera is more than decent. Price is very reasonable for what it offers.

As I usually unlock bootloader, I just buy cheap Chinese phones from around 100 bucks, right now I'm using a FreeYond M5 5G. Debloated and rooted. Working like a charm.

Edit: I prefer Motorola over Nokia.

My assus zenphone is quite good in a compact package and minimal changes to android.

No idea about customisation though.

Custom ROM support relies a lot on a phone either being unique in some nerdy kind of way or having widespread community interest (especially appeal to Indian consumers since many community developers are Indian). The Google Pixel and Fairphone lines consistently have great support due to the first reason, while cheaper Chinese brands often have decent support for the second reason. Nokia is in a bad position in both respects - its phones are neither interesting or particularly cheap/good value for money - so its support is generally pretty bad.

If you plan to just use a phone with the stock ROM then they are all equally bad when it comes to leakage to Google. However brands that try hard to force you into their heavily modified Android ecosystems like Samsung and Xiaomi are particularly bad for privacy since they have a ton of extra data collection built in that is either forced or suggested to you quite heavily (many features are locked behind additional privacy policies and account logins). You are better off going with something as light as possible in that case. Since you mentioned Motorola, I'll add that I have a razr 2023 and beyond a few optional apps that I can disable, it is pretty standard Android with no additional data collection or accounts required. Motorola phones can have dogshit software support, though. Like this one I have is less than a year old and it's already taking them 4 months to push an update.

I focus on the OS. However, I like the moto phones. I've had mine for 5 or 6 years and I don't have any reason to change.

I've asked a similar question not long ago and the consensus was pixel, even though I had already ruled them out in my question.

I still haven't changed phones but I'm leaning on a nothing 2a, since it's reasonably priced for the storage that I want.

However, I've been looking at phones based on the specs I want and check XDA forums and see how active they are, in the hopes I get a phone popular enough that has long term community support

Conair was always my favorite

I'm using a SHIFT6mq with LineageOS. It's similar to the Fairphone (expensive, but repairable, sustainable, good Custom ROM support), but it's got a few different design decisions and much higher build quality compared to the FP3 I had before.

HTC (Wildfire, Desire Z, [rip!]), Samsung (they are/were easy to flash; S3, S5, S7, A5 2017).
I once had Nexus 5 (by LG [rip!]) - I was disappointed, poor quality.

Nowadays, you should have control of a baseband firmware too!
So, looks like the Pixels are the best option.

Well Nokia is a no no They don't allow bootloader unlock, I would recommend that you check which privacy oriented custom ROM you want to install and check the supported phones they have listed and buy one of those models for installing the ROM

Samsung Ultra all the way. It has top of the world hardware, software support

AND I can customize my phone the way I want.

The hardware is wholly unremarkable, but the pixel line supports Graphene. Custom Roms are a necessity if you care about privacy even a little bit, but there are other options.

Unfortunately in many places, illegal searches are the rule, not the exception and as such security is almost as critical. If you need security AND privacy there is simply no substitute.

Motorola hardware looks kinda nice though...

So I’ve gone back and forth between Apple and Android for the past decade and a half: I currently daily an iPhone 12 mini because I like the UI, size, ease of use, and the fact that I don’t use my phone as a multimedia device. If I could do akin to GrapheneOS or CalyxOS on iPhone I’d stick to it.

In the future once my iPhone breaks or finally becomes obsolete, I intend to go to either a used Pixel or a Fairphone. Both are supported by secure OSs but I also dislike how big both of them are.

TLDR: love iPhones, appreciate Fairphones.