Pixels, simply because they run Graphene. Buy them used and have a degoogled phone within 10 minutes of delivery.

Fuck Google, but I have a Pixel for GrapheneOS.

Any phone that allows me to install GrapheneOS with a locked bootloader. Currently, that’s only the Pixels. Maybe, one day, I’ll add Moto to this very short list.

Fairphone would be great with GOS. Security, privacy and repairability is my fantasy.

Technically Google Pixel, because of GrapheneOS. Realistically I don’t have a single mobile phone brand that I like

I love Sony phones. But Sony doesn’t love me (exited the North American market, expensive AF).

I’m clinging to my Xperia 5 IV as long as I can.

Basic ass answer, but I really enjoy my iPhone. I can’t quite make the switch to a pixel running graphene, so it works really good for me.

One that doesn’t take away bootloader unlocking

Not sure anymore. It has been Samsung for a really long time because of excellent hardware (except from when it had a dedicated bixby button).

The hardware is still excellent (at least in the flagship models), but the software part has gotten so bloated and annoying that I’m going for something else next time.

The bloat is partially android itself, but Samsung layers it’s own crap on top of that again.

I might go for Jolla next. Or a pixel with graphene.

Fairphone, I guess? But I unfortunately can’t have any of their phones. My requirements are so specific that I have given up on ever finding a phone that meets them all and is better than my current one from 2019. I mean, find something that is small (below 6 inches), has SD card and headphone support, and an open bootloader. That alone seems impossible. So yeah, I’m gonna stay with this old one. Its not like there is much happening in the industry anyway, and its even better for the environment than buying a fairphone for example. And it still runs well sooo. I’d just love to have a zoom camera and an IR blaster, the one I have doesn’t.

I’m interested in the answers here. I have an old-ass OnePlus right now, battery is starting to feel it. And while it’s not a terrible phone, OnePlus is just not what it used to be, and if they have any spiritual successors I’d love to hear about it.

I miss the Nexus line of phones.

I love Motorola. I miss droids, specifically, but that’s a bygone era unfortunately. I’ve tried all sorts of different brands and haven’t found another that uses gesture controls like Moto does. Chop chop for flashlight, wiggle wiggle for camera? So damn handy. I’ve had a Samsung for the last while and while you can (kinda) program the buttons, it’s such a lame imitations.

Just give me a new droid that is smaller than 5.5", please.

Data points ya’ll

I don’t know if they’re my favorite but I’ve been buying Moto gs for a decade because they’re cheap and still have headphone jacks and SD card slots.

Loved my Droid with the slide out keyboard. After that I went to LG and had those for a while I liked being able to easily unlock the bootloader to root, plus the knock code unlock was really nice. Anymore rooting is to much of a pain and custom roms tend to break online banking. With the discount I get on the phones my carrier provides I’ve been using Samsung because of the software update policy.

If someone was to have something similar to the S26 Ultra with a slide out keyboard and similar specs and support for around 650 I would switch.

Even when I had a physical audio jack I used Bluetooth so not a huge deal to me and hasn’t been for years. MicroSD card support would be nice but I’ve got like 200GB of storage available and when I was in Mexico I transferred video to my 4TB hdd anyway. Not to mention that I could have just left the video on the MicroSD in my camera if I had one large enough but the cost wasn’t worth it.

For the junk software I just remove it via adb or Canta with Shizuku. I don’t use windows or Microsoft services so those things just go away.

I don’t really have any brand loyalty.