this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2026
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Sino
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It's trash. Xiaomi makes good phones and that's it. I made the very foolish decision to get locked into the Xiaomi ecosystem and everything else they make is trash. My fitness band broke twice, my scale stopped synchronizing with their fitness app, and recently my phone updated itself after I deliberately disabled auto updates. Now I have a "security" app that demands I turn on scanning and claims an app I don't have installed is a security threat. Naturally, it us uninstallable. I also got an "in car" app I can't get rid of though I don't have a car. After that stunt my next phone won't be Xiaomi either.
All of mine either stop working, get a software update that removes features or get a software update that starts displaying ads for things I ALREADY PAID FOR.
I've had an 11T for like 4 years now. It's got some quirks, but still works great
What type of phone would you recommend?
Huawei on the basis it’s pretty much an employee owned collective
Best phone I ever used was a Google pixel. I'm not a Google fan (for obvious privacy-violating reasons), but they make gosh darn good phones (well, I don't know about post pixel 8, since that one is still serving me well). Especially considering you can install GrapheneOS!
A few other brands I've tried:
Pixels suck as actual telephones. I have had several and my friends are like, "I called you and you never called back!" No ring, no notification. Missed or undelivered messages.
If everyone was on WhatsApp I'm sure it'd be great but the carrier services suck ass like I've never experienced with another phone.
Have you had that experience? Maybe I just have shit luck
Ironically, the Pixels are the only devices officially supported by GrapheneOS at this time. If you ever get sick of google enshittification this is definitely something to look into
This happens to my wife where she’ll get a voicemail a month late. Idk if it is a phone problem or a network problem
I do feel like I have also had that experience, but I suspect it's because I nearly always have my phone on silent and otherwise use Signal. But notifications do arrive inconsistently late! I wonder if that is connected to battery saver or something. Definitely a worthy criticism, though; thanks for bringing it up.
I have the new Fairphone 6. Previously had Samsung S25 Ultra. I'm a privacy nut and couldn't be happier.
Yeah, I gotta admit the Fairphone 6 looks a lot better than the 4 I tried, especially the e/os version. Happy to see they've improved :) we need to a cool phone company right now, especially one that offers an alternative OS
I have no fucking idea. Huawei sucks even worse, it's for domestic only. Someone I know has a Huawei tablet and despite an hour of work, installing other app stores, developer mode, installing APKs the thing still would NOT play mp3s. It wants you to subscribe to its music service.
I hate Apple so Samsung maybe?
One of those weird freedom linux phones but they probably suck, too. I want my 2015 Xiaomi Note 2 back. I still have it, and it's perfect. Modern apps won't install and it's slow as fuck.
At this point I have accepted the fact that all smartphones suck ass, and we will never have good ones under capitalism
Huawei works fine in the USA on the hot pink carrier you just won't have the google play store
Well yeah, that's where you get any good software. I tried the alternative ones like F-droid and they SUCK. The Huawei app store is the one that doesn't have a single music player that supports MP3s. This is by design, they nag you to pay a subscription fee to their shitty censored music service.
you can probably install an android mp3 player via EasyAbroad or DroiTong
Pixel with GrapheneOS is the best security focused phone you can have. Works very well and is easy to install, you can buy a used pixel if you don't want to support Google.
Is the OS Android based? This might actually be Google's fault, because this year (if not rolling out already) they are trying to move Android toward becoming a walled garden by seriously complicating third-party APK installation. Supposedly there will be like a 12 step annoying process that we will have to go through to install stuff with F-Droid for example
Xiaomi has their own version of Android called MIUI that is hacked to look just like Apple. It's getting further away from stock Android, whatever that is.