Please write the 3 phone brands (in order please) which you think they bring the least number of third-party apps.

Notes:

  • 1- PrivacyGuides recommends Google Pixel. But it is not selling on my country. I can not bring it from other countries because it will not have warrant.

  • 2- We also don’t have fair-phone and nothing-phone (i can not bring it from another country).

  • 3- we only have: general-mobile, huawei, samsung, asus, tcl, htc, xiaomi, vivo, infinix, oneplus.

  • 4- please dont recomend custom ROM. Its technically difficult for me. Also I will recommend the device to my friend (they don’t have even an idead what is custom-rom)

  • Ilandar
    5·
    6 months ago

    it is absolutely necessary to indicate that pixel phones are the cleanest out of the box phone experience you can get.

    No they’re not. Have you actually bought a newer Pixel and used it without a custom ROM? They are loaded with extra Google applications and features now. It’s a very different experience to several years ago when everyone referred to Pixels as “stock” Android. Motorola phones have a more “stock” experience than Pixels now.

    • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      Motorola phones: asop + google + Motorola

      Pixel phones: asop + google

      Asop flashing pixel only: asop

      How is the risk surface lower on a Motorola phone?

      • Ilandar
        2·
        6 months ago

        That’s not true, though. Motorola phones do not contain all the same Google features and applications as Pixels and the way in which their first-party applications are embedded in the OS is less significant than the way in which Google embeds theirs.

        EDIT: Your risk surface question is also a strawman and shifting the goalposts. Neither myself nor OP made was making an argument about risk surface.

        • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          I see we are talking about very different things when we talk about bloat.

          If Google play has super control of the phone I consider that bloat and a huge risk surface.

          • Ilandar
            2·
            6 months ago

            If Google play has super control of the phone

            You are describing basically all phones, including Pixels. If you want to flash AOSP or some custom ROM, fine, but that’s not an “out of the box” experience as you originally claimed.

            • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
              2·
              6 months ago

              It’s the least amount of trusted parties you can get on Android phone. Since every android sold outside of China has Google play as super root anyway, limiting the trusted parties to one is the least bloated you can get… And that’s pixel. If you want AOSP. That’s also pixel, the only phone with pure AOSP builds available

              • Ilandar
                2·
                6 months ago

                I guess the disagreement here is coming from how we define a “clean” experience. Based on my recent use of phones from both manufacturers, the Motorola phone allowed me to disable and uninstall more stuff without breaking the core UX, hence it was a cleaner experience. Motorola doesn’t really impose itself on the user, in that sense.

                Alternatively Pixels are really designed to be used by people fully integrated within Google’s ecosystem. When you start attempting to escape that it becomes a pretty annoying experience and one that I would not define as “clean”. It’s increasingly akin to using a Samsung phone with OneUI, which is similarly insistent on you using all it’s baked-in, exclusive first-party features (many of which requite an account or enable additional tracking).