I still love my Pixel 6 and I am thinking of grabbing a used Pixel 8 to run GrapheneOS.
I am not one to chase the latest benchmarks. Any phone made in the past five years or so is perfectly capable once you take the bloat out.
I still love my Pixel 6 and I am thinking of grabbing a used Pixel 8 to run GrapheneOS.
I am not one to chase the latest benchmarks. Any phone made in the past five years or so is perfectly capable once you take the bloat out.
The linked article sums my position up perfectly. I’ve had a Nexus 6P, a Pixel 2XL and now a Pixel 6 Pro which, were it not for a cracked screen and (small but increasing) issues with overheating, I’d be happy to stick with.
However there’s no way I’m even considering a Pixel for my next phone - much too expensive and fuck all that AI bullshit.
Not sure what I’ll go for, and not looking forward to a phone with an OEM skin on the OS but Google has finally driven me away from the Pixel line. It’s a shame.
Your phone lineup is almost a mirror to mine, and your sentiments match mine as well. I used to root phones and flash custom ROMs to get the stock android experience on the garbage phones Verizon would sell me. The point was to get less bloat, and a functional device that I could get to do what I want with it. Once there was a nexus phone compatible with my carrier, I moved to Google’s phones, and stopped tweaking the OS altogether. All Google has done over the years is remove useful features and try and shove AI down people’s throats. I’m now looking at options to degoogle my phone, and I’m not particularly fond of buying any flagship phone should this one die.
If you want a clean OS, both Sony and Fairphone offer devices with relatively clean stock OS + good support for custom ROMs (and in the case of Fairphone, mobile Linux too!)
The Xperia devices have headphone jack AND microSD slots! Fairphone’s devices are super repairable, which is really nice too, but no jack (they do have microSD slots though).
You only get AI if you stick with the stock OS or don’t do anything with it.
The advantage of the Pixel is they can be factory unlocked, which permits root or flashing a different OS.
My current phones are Pixel 5 - they $100 these days, and run great with Graphene or Lineage
That is why I’m considering the used Pixel 8. GrapheneOS will support the Pixel 8 through October 2030. Maybe by then this Motorola deal will bare fruit.
this is exactly what I’ve done, and I’m very happy. used pixel 8 with GrapheneOS. works well!
Me too. It’s been a long time since I’ve really liked my phone.
Nexus 4, 5, 6 and 6p here. The 6p was a disaster. Everyone’s battery shit the bed and they screwed a lot of people over. Brutal.
I’ve heard several similar things about the pixel brand. Not sure if the battery issues were due to software or hardware. But having a reliable battery is on top of my list of phone features.
Edit: Nexus 5 was peak android device. I wish it had larger storage or a SD slot but it was still near perfect.
The only contender I see for a Pixel are the flagship Sony ones.
But they cost some serious money. :(
Sony also offers the cheaper “10” series (yes their naming scheme is very confusing), and the Xperia 10 VII is cheaper, smaller, plastic fantastic, has good LineageOS support, headphone jack (!!), and microSD slots too (!!)
Too bad I need a great camera as I am a sucker for quality pictures and want to minimize the garbled (ai-)details on low quality enhanced pictures
Honestly, if you wanted a good camera, I would rather go for a dedicated option as those have far better image quality due to much larger sensors + lenses. There’s a lot of good small options that are relatively affordable, like many of Lumix’s M43 cameras (particularly the older ones, like the GX800/850) or some of the older Fuji bodies if you prefer something like that. Sony themselves have really solid cameras too, the A6000 series is excellent and nearly all the same (main differences are IBIS for A6500 and up and newer sensor + software UI on the A6700), a lot of people recommend the A6000 as a solid budget pick. I personally use the ZVE-10, which is basically a plastic body no EVF version of the A6400 (which has a metal body)
Sony’s E-mount, Fuji’s X-mount, and Panny and friends’ L-mount will all give you lots of good third-party lens choices. I would stick with M43 and APS-C purely because of the size difference compared to full frame. Sony and Fuji have APS-C options while Panny has M43 ones that are even smaller. The most notable size difference is definitely the lens, M43 lenses can be very tiny!
If you want some content to watch relating to fun budget cameras, I would recommend Micro Four Nerds (mostly covers Lumix and Olympus), Mark Wiemels (covers budget lenses and APS-C cameras), and Mark Bennett’s Camera Crisis (funny guy who likes a good deal, he’s a comedian who likes cameras as a hobby)
I have a canon 90D.
But that is not exactly light to have around 24/7 and the best camera you have is the one you got in your hand.
My Pixel 7 was sufficient enough to just take that on my trip to Sri Lanka but I couldnt zoom into any picture.
I just need a good phone, with no (or almost) bloatware and nog annoying to keep updated with a longer update cycle than 4 years.
I just want the best camera for a reasonable price (meaning sub 1000€).
The Pixel 10 Pro is very close to overstepping it’s welcome, the Pixel 11 Pro probably is amd Sonys offerings are oof.
Edit:
And Samsung is out of question. Fuck Samsung and it’s app bloatware on top of Androids.