Android

I'm using OP6 and for 2023 it's rocking like a brand new phone. Everything works exactly as I want and I rooted and installed AOSP 13 so I'm pretty much up to date, about the new ones I'm not quite sure what to say; far as I heard the new OnePlus is Nothing Phone

I had the one plus 8uw and absolutely hated it. Didn't work at all even tho it's was a Verizon phone. Went back to pixel and won't go back.

I would prefer Pixel or Motorola

I currently have a 7T. It's not bad. Felt pretty impressive at the time that I got it. These days I feel like the camera is a bit lacklustre and every now and then something freezes. I'm gonna upgrade to something else soon. Probably something much higher end as I'm more comfortable spending money on a high end phone these days. But it's been a pretty solid phone, especially for its price and age.

My 5T has been my daily driver for years. I've replaced the battery & USB port on it once so far, and that's it. I've also run LineageOS (rooted + Magisk) since day 1, which I agree is its own set of challenges. Seriously no complaints and I'm not really shopping for anything more right now.

If the Fairphone 5 specs are solid I may take the plunge, but for my needs nothing else out there has been compelling enough to make a change.

The Oneplus 7 series was the last one that seemed good. Newer models have worse cameras somehow too.

I agree with your assessment. I never had a OP phone, but they seemed like solid mid-range choices at the start. I did consider picking up a used on recently, but it would have been for installing LineageOS on it. I wouldn't trust the default software that comes on the phone like any Chinese phone.

I had a OnePlus 6T and a OnePlus 8T.

OnePlus 6T: had it for 1.5 years and sold it because it had some weird bugs (can't remember exactly which).

OnePlus 8T: had it for almost 2 years. Updated to Android 12, was shit after few weeks. Factory reset to 11, used that a long time. Updated to 12 for a a few days and then to Android 13. Was alright but again a few bugs. Factory reset it again a few (staying on Android 13). Later Factory reset it to Android 11.

I have factory reset it 5 times in 1 the last year i had the OnePlus 8T.

And despite the many factory resets, every few days had a bug where it became so slow it wasn't useable anymore and had to reboot.

Short story: OnePlus had a lot of potential and I bought a OnePlus 6T for the price and the good software support they had in 2018. I feel a little betrayed because they became so worse over the few years I had my OnePlus phones.

I now have a Samsung S23 Ultra which has good software support and yes it has some bloat. But i don't have stupid bugs and the phone stays fast.

My friend recommended the brand saying he never had a problem with it and it was as fast as the day he got it. My wife got one because her Pixel 3 died (apparently a relatively common thing for that model). Then after my wife got one my friend started complaining about his phone and my wife didn't like her new phone. Then he got a pixel lol. Then I got one. It's a nice phone. The Pixel 3 was my wife's favorite before it died. So 2 years later we ditched the one plus for a new Pixel for her.

It seems like one plus used to be a good brand and maybe my friend had some loyalty still or his phone coincidentally started to slow down right after he recommended it lol

I got a OnePlus Nord. I think they are pushing too many phones. They do like Xiaomi, they announce a phone, it doesn't even have time to arrive in the stores that a new one is already announced. This is confusing as they need to resort to ridiculous naming like "OnePlus Nord 2 ce lite se 5g". Stores can't hold 100 identical phones that are differing only in the name. The store where i bought my Nord, dropped OnePlus entirely because "we already carry Oppo, vivo, realme, it's the same brand"

And this reflects also in the updates. They can't possibly continue to send updates with this many phones.

I like to get a phone that gets at least 3 years of updates, but in total for the bbk group it means supporting and testing 400 phone models at the same time? They have thousands of employees but they're not enough , what happens is that software development is basically dropped as soon the new model comes out

Why can't they do like Apple??? Just three phones per year. Easier to market, easier to support...

Poco is better

A lot of friends of mine have OnePlus for a reason, but I have personally stayed away since the data collection scandal in 2017 (https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/11/16457954/oneplus-phones-collecting-sensitive-data). I don't trust Chinese phones in general very much because the government can force data collection very quickly but this is documented behavior by the company. I understand why developers use telemetry but everything but the most basic stuff should be opt in.

As somebody who doesn't want the US gov access into my phone, I love my gapp-free, super cheap, easily rooted, boy ass bitch phone.

They have good hardware, but their software is—or, at least, feels—unreliable. With so many digital interactions virtually expecting to be done from a mobile device these days, the last thing I want is for the phone to glitch and give up on me when I need it. Yes, customization is nice, but these days I value reliability much more than that, even more than performance in some respects. Unfortunately, that mostly leaves Samsung and Apple as options for "reliable" software...

Typing this comment on one right now

My wife loves them, I don't care for them though. I used lg phones until they gave up so oneolus was never really my thing.