I’m using a Pixel 6 Pro right now, and I’m looking around to see if there are any good phones. However, I have heard that there are ads in the newer flagship phones (Samsung, Xiaomi). I am willing to spend around USD$750 on a new phone, but I just don’t want any crazy ads or preinstalled apps like Facebook. Are there phones that don’t suck nowadays? I can buy a phone that is sold in the US, Canada, or EU.

(I don’t want to go through menus to disable ads (Xiaomi), and I’m currently looking at phones other than the Pixel lineup to see if there’s a better option for me)
(I also don’t want to mess around with custom bootloaders/systems, I rely on Google services way too much)

EDIT: If it wasn’t clear enough, I am not looking for things like GrapheneOS or LineageOS or others, I am looking for a phone and judging based on the stock system on it.

  • dutchkimble@lemy.lolEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    Try librewolf for browsing it’s a privacy oriented fork of firefox and I have ublock on it also I suggest nextdns for ad and tracker blocking on your whole phone and even router

    • sramder@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      I’ll give it a look. I generally just use Firefox and uBlock when I have a choice.

      I’m running Techtinium right now for DNS privacy, any killer features in NextDNS that made you pick it?

      • dutchkimble@lemy.lolEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        I think techtinium is a self hosted solution if I’m not mistaken? Not really heard much of it so if it fits your needs then great. I like nextdns because I don’t want to self host my private dns and it is easy to setup and monitor for all my devices and provides a lot of lists to easily choose what I want to block on what devices. For example I have a different profile for my kids with parental control. Medium for the wife so that her internet browsing isnt distupted and strict tracker blocking for myself because I don’t mind things not working.

        • sramder@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          9 months ago

          Oh okay, that’s pretty cool. I don’t think Techtinium can do per-device settings at all, and (obviously) only works on my home WiFi. And the bulk of the DNS requests are just passed to cloudflare, so it’s better than using my ISP, but only by a bit.

      • dutchkimble@lemy.lolEnglish
        2·
        8 months ago

        Sorry, as I was corrected in another comment, I meant Mull not Librewolf. Librewolf is on my PC and Mull on android. I also use an iPhone in which case I have the Orion browser from Kagi…

    • Delusion6903@discuss.onlineEnglish
      1·
      8 months ago

      I love librewolf too but there is no mobile version. And don’t say mull because that refresh rate makes it unusable.

      • dutchkimble@lemy.lolEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

        Oh yes I’m sorry I meant mull! Didn’t realise there was a refresh rate issue until you said it. Is there any alternative you recommend?

        • Delusion6903@discuss.onlineEnglish
          0·
          8 months ago

          I would use mull if they only increased that refresh rate. But as it is now, I use Firefox on mobile in the strictest tracking protection mode and UBO.

          • dutchkimble@lemy.lolEnglish
            1·
            8 months ago

            So it turns out you can fix the refresh rate if you disable resist fingerprinting. However, mull advises you not to do that, and not knowing much about it I learnt online the following details and now I prefer a lower refresh rate to disabling it -

            “Resist Fingerprinting” is a privacy feature that can be found in various web browsers, including Mull Browser, which is a fork of Firefox focused on privacy. This feature aims to make users less identifiable and trackable across websites by minimizing the amount of information browsers reveal about users and their devices.

            Web fingerprinting involves collecting details about a user’s browser and device, such as screen resolution, operating system, installed fonts, and browser extensions, to create a unique identifier for tracking purposes. Each piece of information might seem benign on its own, but collectively, they can create a detailed profile that can uniquely identify a user, even in the absence of cookies or traditional tracking methods.

            When “Resist Fingerprinting” is enabled, the browser attempts to reduce this uniqueness by:

            • Providing websites with less detailed information or more generic information about the browser and the device.
            • Limiting or altering the behavior of web APIs that can be used to gather unique information about the device or its user.
            • Adjusting the content of HTTP headers to be less revealing or more uniform across users.

            By doing so, Mull Browser and other browsers that offer this feature help protect users’ privacy and make it more difficult for advertisers, analytics companies, and other third parties to track users across the web without their consent. However, it’s important to note that while “Resist Fingerprinting” enhances privacy, it may also cause some websites to behave differently or break certain functionalities that rely on the information it restricts.