> Android is a mess

Compare apples to apples - Samsung and their Android version are a mess. Most vendors do the same because they can and to differentiate themselves and earn extra money ( like having Facebook crap preinstalled). Android would have never worked if it weren't so open in the first place, and at least the workarounds are well documented and you can usually flash with LineageOS or something; it doesn't help your average Joe, but each manufacturer having their own custom OS with the same crap wouldn't have helped him either.

People keep making this argument, but if you go out and try and get an Android phone, it’s more likely to be Samsung or one of the Chinese brands. Even with enthusiasts Android is a commodity phone. You min-max price and features more often than not because there’s no lock in to an ecosystem.

I mean, I'm not everyone but I can and do both buy and recommend phones with close to stock android, even if they are more expensive.

Like Sony and Motorola used to be pretty good about that.

Problem is, it's hard to search those phone finder sites for "Android purity" so I have to dig deep to find out how bad it will even be. The more fancy features listed on the manufacturers marketing page the more confident I can be that the features are all preinstalled spyware that might offer a cute gimmick as a bribe, at best.

Why buy a Samsung when Oneplus is just as cheap, and not complete junk?

Well, for one they just had to jump aboard the bandwagon and drop the headphone jack. Samsung did that too on some models, but at least they still have the option.

Design...

Not just design. I was so excited to get a 5g oneplus 8,I'd heard great things about the 7 and 7t.

Well I went through three of them with T-mobile and all 3 had serious issues which varied, but all 3 had a very serious battery issue.

All 3 phones were new out of box, and all 3 needed to be charged multiple times per day, probably about 4 with light use. All 3 got hot, and I believe the culprit on all 3 was the front screen fingerprint reader. Upon checking advanced battery usage tab, screen took up 98% of the battery, something I've never even heard of.

Constant random reboots, loss of signal and having to reboot to re-obtain, so hot it was uncomfortable to hold or have in pocket.

I thought about getting a 7t McLaren or whatever, but decided against it due to lack if 5g at the time.

I really hope they ironed out the issues because I'm definitely over Samsung and can't wait to get rid of my current S20+. And the 8 was really a joy to use, wasn't even the pro version and seemed far faster than my s20. Shoot, it took me three failures to finally be forced to try another phone.

Edit: fix words.

I have a OnePlus 8t since last october and have not found any issue on the battery side. On the contrary I'm quite pleased with battery management since i can charge it in 30 minutes from 0 to almost 100%, so usually i just charge it for 5-10 minutes and I can use it all day easily.

With full charge on average I get around a day or two without recharging with mostly firefox, youtube, messaging apps open and some light gaming.

Battery saving mode gets me almost 1 hour more of usage when I'm at 15%

Haven't really had any signal problems and 5g isn't that much of an improvement around where I live so it's not really a concern for me but ymmv

The comment that kicked off this whole thread is about the Pixel 3a being a mess, so while I'll agree that Samsung and their Android version are a mess, Google isn't exactly helping here either

FWIW the only two apps that my S20 came with that I wish were uninstallable are the Tips app and the Samsung calendar app, and there is a good reason for the latter (if a user managed to delete all calendar apps on Android the OS does not like that at all). They're pretty trivial to hide.

But some people might have to accept the presence of a Facebook shim for installation is such an incredibly mainstream proposition that they are in a vanishingly small minority wanting rid of it.

Don't forget that one time when one of the apps became an addware which showed adds on the lock screen.

https://fossbytes.com/peel-remote-use-remove-smart-remote/

That one hurt when it deteriorated into adware. At its prime, it was a great app, and being able to control my TV using the IR Blaster in my HTC One M7 really felt like The Future™ for a brief couple years.

Now the app is gone and phones have removed the IR Blaster.

My Galaxy S4 on 4.4.x had this app pre-installed. I must have either rooted prior to any parasitic behaviour or attribute it to Xprivacy, as I did not encounter any ads. Regardless, not endorsing this app, just an alternative view, as it not only acted as a stopgap for a flailing universal remote, but also had a decent TV guide from what I can remember.

// just a nitpick: advertisement is just one 'd' so, as far as I know it should be ads

That app was super useful for me when I had a Note 3 with IR blaster, I had so many devices which I could control (and oddly enough, my laptop had an IR sensor). Shame to see what it turned into.

After unboxing a new device, i usually take a look at what is installed (using pm) and poke around (by reading the app manifest and sending intents to the app).

You can remove them, but it's a pain and you need to either be a developer or have technical knowledge

> Android is a mess.

TBH, so is iOS if you start actually worrying about services running on the device that may not be necessary or helpful, but iOS just doesn't tell a regular user they exist.