1y ago

Which Android mobile phone brand brings less pre-loaded 3rd-party apps?

Please write the 3 phone brands (in order please) which you think they bring the least number of third-party apps.

Notes:

1- PrivacyGuides recommends Google Pixel. But it is not selling on my country. I can not bring it from other countries because it will not have warrant.
2- We also don't have fair-phone and nothing-phone (i can not bring it from another country).
3- we only have: general-mobile, huawei, samsung, asus, tcl, htc, xiaomi, vivo, infinix, oneplus.
4- please dont recomend custom ROM. Its technically difficult for me. Also I will recommend the device to my friend (they don't have even an idead what is custom-rom)

74 comments

You might want to take a look at Universal Android Debloater it may help, but not necessarily meet all your requirements.
- This is very sound advise.
This is a bit of a pickle. Apart from Google, I think only Motorola and Nokia have stock-ish android. But they don't have stellar software upgrade promises. Oh and Sony makes some very good phones with clean android
- OnePlus offers mostly stock android too
  
  It used to but oxygen OS is pretty far from stock now.
  
  You mean other than forced Facebook and shit?
- I had a Galaxy Note 10 die on me after just a little over 2 years (such a shitty fucking phone) and then, swearing I would never pay so much for a phone again, switched to a Motorola Edge 30. It cost less than a third of the Samsung, and it even came without the bloating bullshit. Highly recommend it.
- There is a German manufacturer called GigaSet which does stock. I am rather happy with their GS5 phone and they even have a senior option if you want a not as smart smartphone for a parent.
  
  I had no idea Gigaset manufactured cell phones. I have a set of their DECT home phones, and they are amazing. Have had them for over 6 years now.
- My Sony xz2c does have bloats installed, namely amazon and facebook. Don't know what the state they're in now tho.
What difficulties do you encounter with the custom ROM stuff?
If you get a oneplus, they are very forgiving of things you could do to brick a phone.
A recent oneplus and installing a custom ROM (LineageOS + MicroG) would be fairly doable for a larger audience than just the "nerd" or "hacker".
If people know what you struggle with particularly, they can help better.
To get rid of google completely, a custom ROM or other technical things are necessary, but debloating using a standard tool is a good first step and is better than what you will have from the off.
https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
- That depends on the model. Plenty of newer OnePlus phones use mediatech processors with little to no custom ROM support.
  A fact I found after buying a new OnePlus phone without doing any research because I was in a desperate situation.
  
  Ah I see, is bootloader unlocking etc still available? (A more techy person could still go hard on privacy implementations)
  I'm using nothing myself but the op said its unavailable in their country. I also noted that now lots of ROMs come preloaded with GAPPS whereas you had to load separately in the past.
Motorola it's a good one.
Warranties are practically useless, or I should say I find better value buying a 2 year old phone for a fraction of new. I can own three or four Pixel 5/6 for the cost of a new Pixel.
I prefer having a spare around. One dies, just swap Sim and move on.
Custom roms are significantly easier today, and you can buy phones with them pre-installed, e.g. Graphene, /e/, and Lineage. I'd look at those 3, noting that /e/ also provides some google-like convenience.
- I don't have bad experience with fairphone's warranty. The part where I agree with you is that warranties don't make sense for smartphones that are still functional. They become such an important part of our lived that parting with it for repaird is difficult.
- 100%. I've only had one problem with my Pixel phones. A pixel 5A, out of five total pixels I've owned. And that phone I got repaired at a local repair shop for $30....
you can't have both privacy and total convenience
If nothing works out; look into Android Debug Bridge (ADB) and use these package names to remove all the google bloat. Perhaps it's a bit too involved, but AFAIK this is the easiest way to gain a semblance of privacy on your phone. I don't screw about with custom roms either.
LMK if you do try to use it, I can provide some guidance if you need.
- Universal Android Debloater
  
  Dandy!
I've read on several websites that Nokia comes with pretty much stock Android.
- Motorola as well. Either way, stock android is very intertwined with Google bullshittery, making a degoogled ROM like DivestOS or GrapheneOS necessary for proper privacy from google. A privacy respecting ROM won't fix relience on google apps though.
Keep it with smartphones like you would with every other computer: reinstall the preinstalled OS. Meaning in Android: a model that supports custom rom.
Btw, Samsung has probably the most, hum, custom vendor rom on their phones.
- Latest samsung models are quite locked down (at least I dont see any custom ROM for them on xda) talking about high end ones
On Xiaomi it's very easy to remove whatever you want without rooting. Here's a 3:30 min video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_rqhoMpr_Y
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  https://www.piped.video/watch?v=3_rqhoMpr_Y
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Asus zen phone had received great reviews. You can use it as stock Android or with Asus' slight customizations. It's on the smaller side but it's a good price.
- You make it sound being small is bad when it's the reason I bought it haha love not having a tablet for a phone!
- Isn't Asus disable the bootloader unlook and lost a case? I think I read this somewhere in Lemmy.
  
  It was disabled on the 10, yes. ASUS promised to enable unlocking but last I checked (a few months ago) they still hadn't done it.
- i loved mine but 2 years from launch they stopped all updates. can't recommend asus at all just for that reason. i havent tried custom roms because a couple years ago when i tried they all had weird issues
If you can get a Blu phone shipped in, that would be exactly what you're looking for. All Blu phones come unlocked by default, they're about a third the price of name brands with the same specs, and while they have minimal bloatware to begin with, their apps are all unprotected so you can uninstall everything that isn't a core system.
Bonus perks that aren't relevant to your question, every phone they make is made with gorilla glass, so they're ridiculously hard to crack or scratch. They come with a case, screen protector, charger block, cable, headphones, Sim key, and sticker in every box. Lastly, to put into perspective how bafflingly reliable these things are, I've bought 3 of them in 10 years. I'm replying to you from one I bought two years ago that has been a 6% decay in battery life and still has no issues running anything I use it for.
- Never heard of them, I'm gonna check them.
  For you fellow lemmies, here are the links:
  Official site
  Wikipedia page
  
  It doesn't look good with the hidden spyware listed on Wiki. I know Google is doing similar things but I would rather pick a less rotted apple.
Google Android comes with tons of bloat so custom roms are the simplest these days.
You can buy devices running /e/os last time I checked
I don't have hands-on experience with any of the brands listed so sadly can't give specific recommendations
Would a second-hand Google Pixel work fine for you, or do you definitely want to buy new? Mobile devices are really reliable nowadays, I doubt you'll need to worry about a warranty (which would not cover accidental damage, like a cracked screen)
I've noticed most countries outside of the US and Europe (making that assumption based on inability to get a Google Pixel or a Fairphone) typically have some locally used apps preinstalled regardless; usually a social networking and mobile e-payment app. I'd expect it to be possible to remove these using ADB if you have access to a computer.
Are you buying direct from manufacturer, or via a carrier? Do note that carriers may have customized the apps installed on your device if you buy one through them. For the least preinstalled bloat, buying direct is ideal
it will not have warrant.
No warrant will refund our privacy.
Its technically difficult for me. Also I will recommend the device to my friend (they don’t have even an idead what is custom-rom)
You think we were born knowing it?
General-mobile only makes phones with 10 years old hardware afaik. Asus is probably what you're looking for. Huawei has fake ad icons on home screen by default which are not installed apps but still I don't recommend them because they don't have Play Store. Everything else will give you a lot of preinstalled 3rd party bloatware apps I think. Google Pixel or custom ROMs are the ways to go for lowest amount of pre-installed apps
So you're posting on the privacy community. Point 4 makes things very difficult, as every smartphone by default ships with either Google apps or Apple apps pre-installed, both of which collect data and send them to their respective companies.
What is your threat model?
The only way to get away from Google or Apple is to install a custom ROM, and OnePlus currently has the best phones for that at the moment, not including Google or Fairphone phones, since they offer unlockable bootloaders. The 12R currently has an AOSP port for it, and the 12 has a WIP port that has yet to be released to the public (but can be compiled from source).
Nokia ? I have an XR20. Doubles as a GPS etc on the front of my bicycle, its great, has a headphone jack and SD expansion.
I am not that familair with their lineup though there is an XR21 I think? And a bunch of other models.
Take a look at https://lemmy.ml/post/13548401
Pixel phones from Google are the cleanest.
Edit: the cleanest you can get out of the box
- Pixel phones ship the entire Google garbase.
  Anyway, OP said can't get a Pixel phone.
  
  I appreciate OP has requirements. But as this discussion reaches a wider audience, it is absolutely necessary to indicate that pixel phones are the cleanest out of the box phone experience you can get. For all of the people who are not OP who are reading this.
  The absolute cleanest experience is a pixel phone loaded with grapheneos, which isn't hard to install - they have a website that does it all for you.
You have three options:-
Use a tool like Universal Android Debloater to disable (but not completely remove) them.
See if you can get Nokia or Motorola phones. These have mostly vanilla Android.
Get a Xiaomi or OnePlus phone with a custom ROM pre-installed.
Pixel and GOS , very easy to install. Warranty blaha. Oneplus usually have a lot of lineage support. Spend and afternoon on YouTube , XDA forum and learn.
All of your brand's listed are bloated. Samsung is really bad though.
I'm going against every one of your requirements by suggesting a pixel 6 or onwards used on eBay and install graphene os, it has the least amount of bullshit and is stupidly easy to install even for someone who's never heard of a custom ROM
- If you didn't read the post, the OP doesn't have Pixels available in their country and they want warranty so used phones are not an option either
  
  He also said he can't bring it in for lack of warranty.
  Well, ignoring warranty, used pixels are so cheap you can own 2 or 3 for the cost of one new one with a warranty. Basically eliminates the warranty concern.
  I've replaced exactly one phone under warranty (well, the expensive extended warranty bullshit), and since then I only buy used phones and just keep spares. It's a far better value in my opinion, and I can switch phones nearly instantly.
  
  They clearly read and understood the post. That's why they said I'm going to go against every one of your requirements.
- Stupidly easy is an understatement, you can accidently install it its that easy!

74 comments