Amazing how bad it has gotten just in 2025 alone. We had:

-play integrity api

-changing the monthly security patches into embargoed proprietary blobs

-not releasing device trees for 10 series

-holding back the source code of QPR releases

-the upcoming app installation lockdowns

I guess Pinephone with a 20k mAh powerbank taped to the phone starts looking pretty good…

Are they? I’ve had three Pixel phones, all of them second-hand and I always though they are ridiculously cheap when you get one about a year after release. I got my Pixel 8 in december for a little below 300€, still on warranty. I would never pay a full price for a Pixel phone, though. Way too underpowered considering the full price.

Play services and play store are not installed by default. You can choose to install them and they will be sandboxed, but out of the box you get a clean system with no Google apps out of the box.