If, according to this thread, Samsung is so bad and I don't t want buy a Chinese phone... What are my options for an Android phone?
Is there any Android phone brand/model that is not exploiting its users?
Is there any Android phone brand/model that is not exploiting its users?
I've used flagship Android Samsungs since Google stopped Nexus phones, and they were great. The hardware is fantastic, you can install and change any default app, and their performance doesn't degrade in time.
I can count 4 pre-installed apps that I forgot about. It has much less bloatware than an iPhone, that comes preinstalled with a dozen useless apps that cannot be removed from your home screen.
Safari was the most egregious, since all other browsers had to use it as a backend.
Doesn’t that exactly explain why Safari couldn’t be removed?
It’s poor design, but Safari is one of those special apps that is both UI and system component. Same thing behind the PWA mess.
My tablet came with a weird Google Now replacement that I can't remove, but that's the only bloatware I really encountered. The rest was free versions of paid apps like drawing software and the standard Samsung suite. No weird shopping apps, no ads anywhere, just what I wanted for the tablet.
Xiaomi is pretty bad, though. It kind of makes sense, because they need to develop their software for China, where there is no Google cloud, so they've become their own Google. Every app prompts for agreeing with a privacy statement. Some models of phones actually include ads in the system apps (which can be disabled by a setting, but it's still a problem). Their privacy policy is also a blatant lie. I love the bang-for-the-buck nature of Xiaomi phones, but I wouldn't buy them unless there's a good custom ROM available. Other Chinese brands suffer similar problems, but not to the same extend.
I'm considering buying one as I'm paying £16/mo for just a SIM but I can get a 7a on a contract for the same price!
That sounds like a pretty sweet deal!
My parents both each have some Samsung and it's awful whenever I have to help them do something.