What phone are you daily driving currently?

[kojack]

On 3/6/2025 at 4:39 PM, 6730b said:

A few months now with the Pixel P8P, it works fine (unexpectedly!), great display, excellent photo abilities from great macro to good zoom. Can live well with the 'slow' chip and relatively lack of batt time.

But the Doodle OS, damn, desert island, coconuts only. Samsung oneui + addons is a 5 star mega-restaurant in comparision (with nothing to pay for the meals).

So carrying 2 phones (no problem + using many sims): Pixel for it's great photos (+ hotspot use), Samsung for all the rest :O)

I have both the P8P and the s25 Ultra, I prefer the 8 pro in every single way. I hate all the garbage in the OneUI Skin. We both (my wife and I) use Microsoft launcher to get rid of the google search bar, and add icon packs.  Other than that all that whizbang'ery of OneUi is added bloat.  We get through a day of heavy use without issue and I have never had a slow down because of a "slow" processor.  Benchmarks don't me a fiddlers fart in real world use. As proven by my laptop benching better on affinity photo with my Xe Graphics from 2020 vs a radeon 890m from 2025. 

[6730b]

Happy with the p8pro, nothing broke in 9 months and good photo dept.

Am liking 'minimalistic everything' when it comes to looks, still using this launcher, really light and good !
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.vincent_falzon.discreetlauncher/

And on all and every phone in my posession, Netguard to have full control of background net activity (see the lock key next to level bars).

Bloat ? Pixel got a good dose as welll, my debloat list:
reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/1hno705/comment/m43rc3f/

 

[6730b]

About Samsung, among the myriad of apps\options\tweaks available (called bloat or choices, depending of one's standpoint), many am not using\disbaled\unistalled but a big fan of some of the most important ones. And always impressed by the manufacturing quality.

Photo Gallery, Editor, Notes, Calendar, Messages, Phone app, Modes\Routines, Good Lock add-ons, Edge Panel and more, all nicely tweaked and refined over many years to provide 1st class services and interface (imo).

The above weighs quite a lot so want to stay with Samsung, still using one as my main daily driver. If only the Sam's did manage someday to keep up with evolution > improve the photo results in it's S-line, would be a no-brainer here.

That said, after the Pixel testing (satisfied with reliability and performance, great photos (not doing much videos, not gaming so soc speed\heat is fine, AI of less importance), am wanting to investigate Xiaomi (14\15 Ultra) and Honor (Magic 6\7 Pro), to get more insight into the 'philosophy' differences between brands. Will be looking for some great deal on black friday or other sale.

Some very interesting China-only models out there, but not taking the risk with import (warranty, china-special OS etc) so sticking to brands that are sold locally in regions I dwell in.

[kojack]

Thats the fun with android.  Choice.  Check out vivo, red magic and their parent company, as well as nothing. I am taken by the nothing lineup lately just for their quirky style and minimal and futuristic OS.  Very cool. 

[mellbroooks]

I’m currently daily driving the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G. It’s a solid mid-range phone — great AMOLED screen, reliable performance, and a surprisingly good camera for its price. Battery life easily lasts a full day, and I like that it runs clean with full Google services and minimal bloat.

Not the flashiest phone out there, but super consistent — it just works.

[kojack]

2 hours ago, mellbroooks said:

I’m currently daily driving the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G. It’s a solid mid-range phone — great AMOLED screen, reliable performance, and a surprisingly good camera for its price. Battery life easily lasts a full day, and I like that it runs clean with full Google services and minimal bloat.

Not the flashiest phone out there, but super consistent — it just works.

I have one for my work station phone for scanning ids etc. I agree its a great phone with little fuss. I charge it once every 3 or 4 days. We don't use it much but I like it better than the iPhones at the other stations. 

[Vasudev]

Just an update. Moved from Pixel 7 to iPhone 17 due to constantly missed calls without notification after Android 16 updates Sept/Oct. Tried numerous fixes and enabled 4g/NR only mode and under limited connectivity WiFi calling routing is also broken. Never had any issues with modem until recently when people were reaching out via Whatsapp since Phone was switched off or unreachable. No call screen or spam detection feature is available in India and no voicemail support.

Not sure if its due to buggy IMS update that removes functionality on unsupported countries especially if phones are imported from the states which makes no sense because its an unlocked Rest of the World edition targeting UK/EU/IN/AU/JP etc.

 

Some posts:

https://old.reddit.com/r/pixel7series/comments/zn8ngy/missing_phone_calls_on_pixel_7/

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/12102-intermittent-issue-of-pixel-7-pro-being-unable-to-receive-calls/6

https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/267466494/missed-calls?hl=en

[kojack]

5 hours ago, Vasudev said:

Just an update. Moved from Pixel 7 to iPhone 17 due to constantly missed calls without notification after Android 16 updates Sept/Oct. Tried numerous fixes and enabled 4g/NR only mode and under limited connectivity WiFi calling routing is also broken. Never had any issues with modem until recently when people were reaching out via Whatsapp since Phone was switched off or unreachable. No call screen or spam detection feature is available in India and no voicemail support.

Not sure if its due to buggy IMS update that removes functionality on unsupported countries especially if phones are imported from the states which makes no sense because its an unlocked Rest of the World edition targeting UK/EU/IN/AU/JP etc.

 

Some posts:

https://old.reddit.com/r/pixel7series/comments/zn8ngy/missing_phone_calls_on_pixel_7/

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/12102-intermittent-issue-of-pixel-7-pro-being-unable-to-receive-calls/6

https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/267466494/missed-calls?hl=en

Funny, I moved from my iPhone to my Pixel for the exact same reason. Missed notifications and calls on the iphone constantly.  Dropping service, calls etc for multiple mins at a time until a restart. Apple said it's fine. Meanwhile my Motorola g 5g worked fine in the same spots I was dropping service in the iPhone. 

[Vasudev]

17 hours ago, kojack said:

Funny, I moved from my iPhone to my Pixel for the exact same reason. Missed notifications and calls on the iphone constantly.  Dropping service, calls etc for multiple mins at a time until a restart. Apple said it's fine. Meanwhile my Motorola g 5g worked fine in the same spots I was dropping service in the iPhone. 

Not sure though. Pixel had no issues and had better signal than iPhone with 2 bars higher.  I’m not even sure what new firmware Google pushed that made perfectly working phone a paperweight. So I’m sticking with qualcomm modem because of better power efficiency and connectivity. Exynos handoff from 5->4->2G alongside WiFi calling is slow causing calls to drop, no voices on either end while older iPhone 7 and pixel 4a with qualcomm modem perform fine without updates amid older modem firmware. Very disappointed. 

[kojack]

On 10/26/2025 at 1:42 PM, Vasudev said:

Not sure though. Pixel had no issues and had better signal than iPhone with 2 bars higher.  I’m not even sure what new firmware Google pushed that made perfectly working phone a paperweight. So I’m sticking with qualcomm modem because of better power efficiency and connectivity. Exynos handoff from 5->4->2G alongside WiFi calling is slow causing calls to drop, no voices on either end while older iPhone 7 and pixel 4a with qualcomm modem perform fine without updates amid older modem firmware. Very disappointed. 

Funny how peoples experiences differ.  My Pixel 8 Pro is the best most reliable phone I have owned. I have owned mobiles all the way back to this guy.