zlacker

>>asimop+(OP)
> $700-800

I can.

Nothing will make happier than ditching Apple and get a smaller Android phone. In fact the size of iPhone 5s was the only reason that had piqued my interest and I had migrated to the iPhones. Then I stayed for other (and important) reasons.

> Stock Android OS

Ah, no. I take that back. That is not going to be worth 700-800 just for the size! In fact take more and put it to a fight which tries to force Google to "decolonise" every aspect of this mobile OS and push for apps to go for alternative app stores.

But as long as Google has it claws and fingers and feet and palm and teeth (imagine every other organ) into my data (and also existence via sensors and what not) on an Android phone in every way possible (sometimes not even imaginable), such pervasive and entangled, that getting out of this Kafkaesque privacy nightmare means using a custom ROM that no OEM supports (or probably will every support) and half the app I use (including bank/payment/Govt apps) will stop functioning and it makes me feel like puking - even the thought of being tracked like that non-stop!

Until then sadly I will contribute to the trillions of Apple and participate in this cozy duopoly these companies have established and rather be in this Kafkaesque control and closed walled garden. It is sad.

So no, I am done with "Stock Android OS" trope at this point :(

The reality is - and it is a sad truth - such a phone in today's world can only exist as a vanity/niche product and hence even with high cost it will suffer from lack of support, abandoned update/upgrade promises, and a really really bad support experience unless it is released to "just few cities" (not even few countries) because this is going to attract such a small number of people!

>>crossr+J41
"Stock Android" usually means "what runs on Pixels" in Android user circles, not actually AOSP. It's a comparison between Samsung/Huawei/Xiaomi/... and Google/OnePlus/Motorola/...

>>franga+Sb1
“Stock Android” means where Google does inside it what I have listed above in less savoury words. The ones you’ve listed are basically compromised devices in your pockets — so a notch higher or lower, depending upon how you look at all this :)

>>crossr+Uq1
Of course, but that's why the bootloader is unlockable. A production device will ship with either a close-to-stock (== close-to-Pixel) ROM or a heavily customized one. If the ROM is closer to stock, it's easier to develop and maintain custom ROMs, so it makes sense to want that as opposed to the alternative.

>>franga+Er1
That doesn’t really help. If you play around with it, the plat integrity test will not pass and there goes too many apps — so that nullifies even MicroG etc as well. I haven’t played around with microg’s #2611 (had seen it on github when it was getting implemented) but the point is — it will remain cat and mouse in this manner and that is a headache one doesn’t want to have on their primary device.

>>crossr+xW1
I'm well aware, but I'm not sure what the point here is.

The OP was complaining that the author of the page wants "stock android". On a production device, you can either have 1) the manufacturer's custom version of Androi, 2) a near-stock Android, or 3) your own custom version but with all the usual issue that brings. There is no secret fourth option. So I don't see what the OP's complaint is trying to achieve.