My assus zenphone is quite good in a compact package and minimal changes to android.
No idea about customisation though.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
My assus zenphone is quite good in a compact package and minimal changes to android.
No idea about customisation though.
Be warned that the latest models ASUS removed the ability to unlock the devices
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.
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
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.