BlackBerry, tho I jumped to that sinking ship pretty late with the Z10 and Z30, the BB OS10 was the best freaking OS I have ever witnessed and used on a smartphone.

Whichever ones allow bootloader unlocking and make it not a PITA to unlocked.

For a while that was Motorola, but I’ve read recently less models are allowed to be unlocked. OnePlus is also pretty good about unlocking the bootloader.

Google Pixel because of GrapheneOS

i also really like Fairphone. In a perfect world the fairphones would have the same or equivalent security chip as the Pixels. I’d really prefer to buy a european smartphone due to privacy and install GrapheneOS.

GrapheneOS is a must for me.

Okay so not specifically to do with smartphones but Nokia was the most innovative and creative designer of cell phones altogether, until they made the unfortunate mistake of going all-in with Windows Phone with the Lumia. They should have been smart enough to see that like almost everything MS does, it was doomed from the start. It was their downfall :-( So sad because they made some of the most gorgeous phones in the world.

I have a modest collection of Nokia phones and I’d like one day to have one of everything they made.

Smartphones nowadays are just catalysts to exploitation. There’s no more innovation they’re just cramming more things they can claim as “features” without really making any substantial innovation anymore. There are a handful of gems here and there but they’re really spread evenly across the gamut of brands. Also there are so many more smartphones with cool designs and functionality that are just not available in the U.S.A. I don’t really understand why, other than the big names wanting to keep the market stuck to the same handful of gigantic bricks that refuse the idea of any flavor or character. Maybe they lobby to keep affordable and innovative designs out of the U.S. market so they can keep peddling their mediocrity forever.

For me it’s Motorola because they are one of the free companies still iterating and throwing different weird designs at the wall to see what sticks.

Ooof, that’s hard. There’s no single favorite.

Xiaomi and similar (like Poco) I like because of their higher performance and usually including both headphone jack and IR blaster. Currently have X3 Pro.
What I do not like about them is the tracking. Ads I don’t mind, honestly, but data collection kinda bothers me. You also need a Mi account to unlock the bootloader with a proprietary Xiaomi tool, plus there’s a waiting period. Yuck. Also, the software feels like unfinished rushed project. I am pretty sure Alpha releases of most custom ROMs are more stable. Anyway, I kept the stock ROM on this one anyway.

Moving on…

Google. Yes, you read that right. They not only allow easy bootloader unlocking, but also relocking with a custom key, thus being the choice of Graphene OS.
What I outright hate is no headphone jack and Micro SD card slot. Otherwise, I’d just get one of the Pixels pretty damn quick.

Lastly…

Pine64. Easy to obtain spare parts, pogo pins for hardware expansion (like a keyboard or LoRa module), possibility to communicate directly with the modem over internal serial interface because that’s possible too, built mainly for GNU+Linux distros.
But the whole idea is very much experimental.

Could have been Nokia up there if they kept it up with N900.

Google–not really a fan of the company, but the Pixels have been solid for me. The cameras have always been great, and weirdly, the bootloader has always been easy to unlock (I’m running LineageOS on my Pixel 7), so you can still get some modicum of privacy if you like.

My go-to is to grab a used samsung galaxy from Ebay. Usually the best bang for the buck. The reasonably new ones have no headphone jack, but the solid dongles (not the flexible ones) work pretty well for that.

iPhone, though this site hates Apple. I had a HTC Dream, then the okay successor, then switched to and iPhone 5s when my partner got one and at the time it was the best phone to touch type on. Android got better but I quit all Google services and hardware.

I’ve had two iPhones that have lasted 5+ years. I’m current on a six year old XS max. I’m only upgrading this year because I want USB-C, a 120hz screen, and better low light pictures for cats.

The only thing I use iTunes for is one click encrypted incremental backups and I stand by it’s the best backup software for phones. When I get my new phone, I will plug it into my computer, click a button, and it will be exactly like my current phone. And that’s awesome.

I use windows for games and Linux for my servers, but I can’t say i don’t love my iPhonez.

I’d guess OnePlus. Been a while since I bought my current Samsung, but I miss their better interface and battery saving often.

Though it truly is a shame that they started putting the fingerprint sensors under the screen, too. The meh sensor on the Samsung is possibly my biggest irritant. But reportedly at least the OnePlus one is better.

I’m in the Samsung boat currently and was considering Pixel but with Google being, you know, Google, I was more recently considering OnePlus, the Open in particular.

Any other considerations to sway me either way?

HTC. i still mourn its passing

I used to own a Samsung galaxy s6, and that thing was killer. I still miss mine since it’s compass was pretty much perfect compared to the wildly inaccurate one on my s21 ultra.

Google Pixel, not because the company is in my good standing or anything, just good hardware.

And if you buy unlocked you can just flash unless you want some of the first party pixel exclusives (which I use along with gpay)

BlackBerry’s last phone, the Passport.