I miss the Nexus 6. I loved the large comfortable display and dual front-firing speakers. It does not have modern pros like a fingerprint reader, USB C, or a recent processor. But it also doesn’t have modern cons like an obstructive front camera, 9:18/20 display, or curved glass.

iPhone 14 Pro. Got it deeply discounted from my carrier when the 15 line came out.

It’s ok, but it’s a modern smartphone like any other so I have too many dislikes to say it’s the best. The phone I think of most fondly was probably my LG Keybo 2

I miss my note20. I’m a behemoth, with massive hands, so it was just the right one-hand size for me hah. It was also just a quality phone that survived a lot of abuse. Contrast to my pixel 7 pro, that I bought for one feature, and whose screen has had numerous issues in the year I’ve had it… Not happy with that switch.

I’m currently using a Samsung s21 ultra, and it’s kinda meh. The compass is not bad, it’s horrendous. It used to be offset by say 90 degrees, but nowadays it seems more likely that it’s a random number generator from 0 to 360 degrees, making any maps app bacically unusable unless you look at road markings, and other buildings to guess which way you’re facing. The main camera has over time developed a hardware issue that makes all pictures always out of focus, unless you hit the phone on a hard surface to dislodge the focusing mechanism. From a software standpoint it’s a good device. No major bugs, and it’s pretty stabile.

My favorite phone was a used Samsung s6 as it felt kinda “flawless”. Battery was good, camera was great (for the time), and hardware was pretty awesome. It was a great phone while it was still getting updates.

Current Pixel 9 Pro. Second best phone I’ve used, but it hasn’t stood the test of time yet.

Best I used was the Galaxy S7.

Note 9 would be my top choice, but it started having display issues around the 2-year mark.

iPhone 15 pro currently. Blackberry passport was the GOAT though.

iPhone 12 Mini. I loved my 5S and first gen SE and I still can’t understand why phone manufacturers these days insist on making tablets and calling them phones. I just want something that fits in my pocket. I would probably have switched to Android years ago but I haven’t found a single Android phone with a small form factor, decent performance and decent camera.

Considering the state of the phones back then my 1+ 3t was amazing. No bloat, dirt cheap. A real flagship killer, as they positioned it.

These days I only require a phone to have fast charge like OnePlus or Oppo delivers it. 15 minutes charge for a full day of use. That’s awesome. I can never go back to iOS because I’m so used to my custom keyboard and the gestures I use for quick acces to apps and other stuff.

Currently using a Google Pixel 8, I’ve been reading up about GrapheneOS.

Why would an average user need to install this over the stock OS?

Currently a Note 8, my favorite was the Note 4. I love big phones lol. I have fat fingers and I just really liked it. My least favorite was the iPhone. I got an iPhone 2 awhile ago and even jail breaking it wasn’t enough for me to like it. I actually had that phone until a few months ago. I was using it as an alarm clock (that’s literally all it could do), but the battery broke the screen, so 🤷🏿‍♀️

Currently using a Galaxy S21 FE. I’m honestly not rhat picky, as long as it’s not apple, and as long as it’s fast enough, as my employers have paid for them. I got this one after being on the wrong side of the country while my phone died, so I had the shop clerk phone up the guy at the head office to confirm that I could just pick one and send them the bill. The S21FE was what was in store at the time, and I was kind of in a hurry, as I was in the middle of a projectrelated field work.

I’ve mostly stuck to Samsung because that’s the (mangled) version of Android that I’m used to. It takes some tampering with adb to remove the bloat, but once done it works really well.

The “best” phone (quotes, because I think that’s highly subjective) I ever had was the Galaxy Note 2. I loved that phone. Great stylus, good OCR, and once it got used to my terrible handwriting, it was much better and less prone to error than typing on the softkeys. The Note 3 through 6 were not available in my country, so I know nothing. And it annoyed the fuck out of me that Note 7 was a safety hazard, because beyond that it seemed like a really good phone. Sadly the later iterations of the Note series seem too cheaply made. Plastic stylus, etc.

Honorable mention: Openmoko GTK 2. I loved it, but the concept of a linux smartphone (or smartphones in general) hadn’t matured completely in 2007, so it wasn’t at the stage where it could replace my dumb phone completely.

Today, as mentioned, I’m not that picky. I feel like most phones are the same, except the ones that are too cheap. There is only so much useful hardware that can be crammed into a phone, and beyond that there are mostly improvements on things such as the camera. The rest comes down to software.

One Plus 8, it’s been more than 4 years. I refreshed it with a /e/OS install and I still love it!

I’ve only had to replace the charging port a few days ago. It’s not too hard if you have a heat gun

I’ve owned a total of 3 smartphones in my life. The very first one I got was an Alcatel Evolve. I got that in 2017 I want to say. It was a budget phone, just enough to get the job done and had it for roughly 5 years. I ended up smashing it in 2021 because by that point, it’s performance has slowed to a crawl and it’s battery life was poor to the point where it could not be used anymore for daily use.

To replace it I got a Samsung Galaxy A02s, another budget-line phone and it is still around me today. Not quite as good as it was the first year I had it for and it’s only purpose is to give me entertainment during breaks and meal times at work.

Alongside it, my current and best phone that’s my primary is the Samsung Galaxy A32-5G. Because of how much I spent on it, I gave that phone an Otterbox protection and it has done wonders since there were times because of my stupid coat pockets, it’d fall about a couple feet from the pocket to the concrete flooring at work. It is used for everything, almost.

Sony Xperia 5 V

Great camera, small size, excellent battery life, removable storage, IP rated, and has a headphone jack. The only thing it is missing is a removable battery.

Currently have Pixel 9 Fold, it’s ok

Best is probably HTC G2. Still waiting for HTC to make a G3