I know personally that I would never buy a Samsung phone again. The budget models are filled with ad/crapware. The premium models are expensive, gimmick laden and bad value.

Genuine question: what do you recommend instead? Not really excited to support Google via pixel either and didn’t love my last iPhone. Is there a good choice anywhere?

Oneplus has gone to shit as far as software is concerned, but the hardware is still good, so if you’re OK running a custom ROM, they’re good.

I last used the Xperia lineup ages ago, but it was a pretty decent experience, close enough to stock Android and the additions they did add were actually improvements. No idea if that’s still the case, but you could look up some reviews.

Ditto for Motorola, which was nearly stock Android back in 2014.

Murena sells refurb and new phones with /e/os preinstalled if you want to go google-free.

I do miss the early days of Android, when you had players like HTC creating completely unique Android experiences (I mean so did Samsung, but their uniqueness was how slow Touchwiz was).

I’ve had a Nokia 3.1 and 5.1 and I would advise everyone to steer clear! I won’t be buying a Nokia phone again