this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2024

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What's a good phone now that doesn't force ads on me? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I have the Xiaomi 13T Pro, and I haven't noticed any ads. You can buy wallpapers and ringtones, but there are also tons of free ones, and it doesn't pop up advertisements for it except once to show the function is there. The new HyperOS although it looks the same and has similar functionality on the surface as MIUI, is way way better IMO.
Security and game center are gone, 2 of the top annoyances with MIUI IMO. HyperOS feels way snappier too. With MIUI the 13T Pro was slower than my old Motorola to turn pages in an e-book quickly. Now it's super snappy. HyperOS just feels better somehow.
I installed Firefox with uBlock Origin, and chose it as default browser. I also uninstalled "Community Center" I think it was called. An app to use various Xiaomi services.
There are a couple preinstalled apps, I don't recall if Facebook was among them, but they are easy to uninstall, it literally just takes a minute to uninstall.

But maybe Motorola would be more to your liking, they use almost completely vanilla Android, with only an app to configure Motorola specific features. I did get some ads for printing services on my Motorola, but it seemed to be more a Google thing than Motorola. (Haven't seen any such things on my Xiaomi 13T Pro)
And AFAIK you can still remove the search widget from the desktop on Motorola, something that apparently is no longer possible in completely vanilla Android. Reason enough for me to completely avoid Google Pixel phones. Why would they even want to do such a stupid thing?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The easiest way to get rid of ads it's a DNS level AdBlock, you can simply use the private DNS option of Android(with AdGuard or Mullvad free DNS resolvers), next step use alternative frontends for YouTube(NewPipe x SponsorBlock) and Music like Spotify and YT Music(xManager or ReVanced), there will be some apps what will keep showing ads like Facebook but at least it will be a minor amount.

If you want to be more sophisticated about Android AdBlocks I will suggest you to root your phone, but with these non-root options 90% of people will do pretty fine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

They will hate me but iPhone has BSD/XNU/openSTEP. Of course it may feel like a prison after Android. Either that or a Linux phone with Waydroid

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

I've been happily running cheap Nokia phones for the last couple of years. It's vanilla Android with very little bloat, no ads and years of security updates.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I have the Pixel 7 Pro and there's no ad forcing. Some apps can push ads, but just block them or don't use those apps. I'm using the Nova Launcher though. Idk if that matters.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

The Pixel 7 pro is 👍. No ads. Are there preinstalled 3rd-party apps like Facebook or Spotify?

It's 👍 that tester1121 isn't focused on Pixel and considers other phones. But if his Pixel 6 pro is still 👍, I suggest using it for minimum 2 more years. If he needs to replace it now, I suggest the Pixel 8. USD 641 on Amazon.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Mine didn't come with anything pre-installed. I bought it directly from Google though. Idk if that changes things.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I currently own a S23+ and had a OnePlus 6T before that and Nexus 5X before that. I wouldn't be bothered by the Samsung bloat. You can uninstall nearly everything. Set the default apps you want to use and hide the rest. You have this configured quickly and then you will never be bothered by it again.

The default Pixel 8 launcher doesnt even allow you to remove the huge Google search widget, which bothers me a lot more. I find One UI pretty vanilla feeling to be honest. Don't notice that much difference from my OnePlus 6T which had a fairly vanilla OS.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The S23+ is my dream. Big screen and flagship Snapdragon. The S23 ultra is overkill for me. Of course, if 1 needs the features that only the Ultra has, he should buy the Ultra.

I'm excited re the upcoming big phones but I won't be :o if the S24 ultra will be the best big phone of 2024. It seems Samsung knows how to make 👍 big phones.

No ads on my Samsung a70 but there are preinstalled 3rd-party apps. I just disabled those that I haven't needed.

There are some Samsung apps that I haven't needed like Radio and Tips. There's a not-so-easy way to remove those. But those never annoyed me so I won't bother to remove those.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Oneplus

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

That one does seem to be getting a lot of attention lately. I just wish more phones offered on-device subtitles for phone calls and anything played through the device. Until another phone offers that I'm sticking with Pixel.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I am still loving my Pixel 6 Pro. Other than installing AdGuard, or just change your DNS, I pretty much use it as is. I turned off all the Google home or whatever that thing was to the left. Take a minute and go through your installed apps and turn off notifications for things you don't want or just uninstall. I don't think you could ever convince me to buy a Samsung again.

My only gripe is the size and how the camera sticks out. The battery life is great, I have plenty of space locally, and I can wirelessly charge my earbuds with it if I want.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You want your Pixel 6 pro to be bigger or smaller?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

A little smaller as it is a little "tall", but I otherwise love this thing. The uneven back (or something else?) makes it difficult to consistently work with the wireless charging pad in the car.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Any with good hardware as long as you can switch to stable and community-made ROMs.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

Agree a lot, Google Pixels are stupidly huge.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Pixel 6 Pro+GrapheneOS is my choice. Finding apps that dont need google play services is tough, but doable. Its insane how much of the android app ecosystem relies on google play services, especially for push notifications.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Well...since Google is primarily an Ad company.....

I just plug into the Private DNS settings dns.adguard-dns.com and run ad free. As for bloat- mine was infested with Facebook and other apps preloaded by Samsung, but it was easy enough to remove by long pressing and deleting it. They fortunately didn't make them system apps.

With that said, if you are handy with android-tools such as ADB, you can place your phone in debug mode and issue adb commands to disable system apps. Pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

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