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.

  • tester1121@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    Is Apple that bad nowadays that they need News ads in a weather app? I thought Apple was the almost ad-free and privacy-focused company.

    • sramder@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Yeah, I hate to fanboy cuz’ Jobs was a prick… but cracks are starting to show. It’s been careful and slow but I have a marketing allergy so I’m not a happy man.

      Granted it was a link to a local story, in apples news app, on a weekend where people were loosing their shit because it was going to rain… but it should have been well below all the content that’s supposed to be there.

      So my calling it an ad was disingenuous, but I’ll stand by it.

        • sramder@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          I’ll second that in a heartbeat. It’s not just the obvious stuff either, much of the inobvious refinement is just gone. I hated Apple for years because their UIs were offensive and the thought of a single mouse button seemed convicted for the feeble minded… but I came to really appreciate the small refinement, common actions requiring minimum input. It’s hard to be specific without getting to esoteric, but the primary input field always having focus is the one that on my mind constantly.

          For example I navigate somewhere with maps, hit end navigation, it’s now 3 clicks to get back to a search field and type the next destination… not a lot of work, but that’s coming from 0 clicks.

          I would happily go on, but I sound like a cranky graybeard already and we’re supposed to be finding you a decent phone ;-)