Google Pixel

For me, I love Android and to me Pixel is the "iPhone" of the Android world. I prefer software to hardware as well and I think they get the combo right.

Also you can never go wrong with the camera.

Every other phone is full of garbage bloatware that is not easily uninstalled from the worse companies, like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft.

Other companies promise updates, but you're waiting months if not years (or even never) for them.

and most importantly, every other phone I have used is super laggy or stuttery. Even though the Pixel 6/7 have lesser specs than the S22 Ultra, the S22 Ultra performed terribly compared to my 6 Pro (I now have a 7 Pro).

I posted a comment on Lemmy about my experience with my S22 Ultra and how it was filled with ads, despite it costing $2000 CAD ($700 MORE than the Pixel 6/7 Pro) and being an unlocked model.

The killer point for me is that its supported by all android distros like lineage graphene and calyxos.

I've loved clean Android since the Nexus 5 days, so the Pixel line was the natural place for me to end up. The cameras have been a nice bonus, and the call filtering alone would be enough to keep me in the Pixel camp.

They're just fluid and uncluttered, plus they can be tinkered with without voiding the warranty (unlike the Motorola I owned a while back). Helps that there's always great ROM support as well once they fall off of official support.

Wife wanted a decent camera, and I wanted to switch to Google Fi, so she got the 6 Pro. I really hate the curved edges and all the problems with screen protectors that go along with it, as putting those on falls to me. She seems to love everything else about it.

I'm still on the 4a which was a great deal for the money, good camera, solid updates, and I love the headphone jack for occasional use.

Updates straight away instead of waiting 6 months, and stock android seems to work fairly decent for me. Also very good cameras! Overall one of the better phones I've owned, just wish it had a little bit better battery (Pixel 7 Pro)

Is runs grapheneOS

Easy, because it lets me run GrapheneOS, not into my phone being a house arrest anklet, nor it being my personal data miner.

It's the only phone on that you can install GrapheneOS.

I like that I can unlock and root a pixel more easily than most. Although I got my onePlus 6t for the same reason and unlocked it five years later.

I'm tired of Google's privacy sucking, so I got a Pixel so I could immediately install GrapheneOS.

I literally bought it just to install GrapheneOS because I was tired of Apple's ecosystem. I have no idea what the experience on a stock Pixel is like.

I have no love for Google either, but at least they give me freedom over my phone OS and the Graphene team offers security updates for five years from release. Not as long a support window as Apple, but the experience on Graphene is better. This is mainly due to having sandboxed Google Play and Fdroid access.

I had a Galaxy S7 years ago and really disliked the phone, so changed over to a Pixel 2XL as my first Google phone. I absolutely loved the 2XL, and still would be using that phone to this day, but end of support and security updates caused me to move to the Pixel 6. I would have attempted to go to another OS with the 2XL, but... Verizon bootloader lock. The 6 I bought direct from Google so I will no longer have that problem.

The call filtering and overall experience with the 2XL is what kept me in the Pixel line. After experiencing the Pixel 6, I am still partially liking that 2XL better some. I take photos of equipment labels and motor data plates for work and the fonts are pretty small and the 2XL camera did a way better and consistent job of being able to focus on the text than this Pixel 6. The 2XL also never had Bluetooth connection issues and random disconnects like this Pixel 6, or the random reboots. And then there was the awesome rear fingerprint reader on the 2XL.