Howdy fellow lemmings,

I know your collective knowledge is greater than mine, so I have come to you for your wisdom.

My OnePlus 9 is nearing the end of it’s life. The power button doesn’t work or registers a double press (I use tap2wake and tap2sleep instead) and some other parts are hinting that they’re starting to die. Also, something in 915Mhz or 925Mhz seems to be causing random UI reboots at the grocery store. Might be hardware or custom rom related.

I’m looking for something with:

  1. Unlockable bootloader with option for root. I may or may not root this time around, depends on how tailscale to my pihole at home works. I absolutely must be able to strip out the bloat and preferably the google apps as well (though I’d like to keep the option for play store), I’m extremely ad-phobic.
  2. Open hardware that third party developers can properly use. I’m running CrDroid on my OP9 and it’s ridiculously great, but cannot make good use of my camera. There are quality issues, cropping issues, and functionality issues and I’ve experienced similar with other phones I had in the past. Are there manufacturers who publish specs resulting in better 3rd party camera implementations? I would be fine with a more midrange phone, as I don’t play many games, but I need the camera to work well.
  3. A large/active modding scene is appreciated
  4. Bonus points if they don’t advertise a bunch of AI bs that I don’t want or need
  5. Location is USA, though phone can be from anywhere as long as it works. I need at least a few bands to be able to use the phone in Germany.

Can anyone advise on which manufacturers meet my requirements?

My understanding is: OnePlus - unlockable, rootable, custom ROM cameras suck unless the rom uses default op9 camera and it seems that this doesn’t work well with more AOSP-y ROMS

Pixel - varies by manufacturer

ASUS - I’m seeing concerns about unlocking and Roms though it seems they have been good in the past

Nothing Phone - unlockable/rootable

Fairphone - seems ideologically pure, but performance, camera, and battery life may not be awesome

Suggestions and insights are appreciated.

  • @MarkaosEnglish
    5•2 months ago

    Pixel - varies by manufacturer

    That was the Nexus line, Pixel phones are all made by Google. Although Pixel 5 series and older use Snapdragon SoCs, while 6 onwards use Google’s custom Tensor based on Samsung’s Exynos. The major downside is IMHO the awful modem efficiency - if I want to keep mobile network on so that I can receive calls, my 7a is limited to 2 days of battery life if I’m lucky (and that’s with barely using the phone, just a few pictures).

    Edit: and I forgot to mention that all Pixels have great third party ROM support, except if you want GrapheneOS, in which case you need to go for the recent ones that are still supported by Google.