They are. All carriers use the same tower infrastructure, but I can’t use 5G from the tower operator carrier.

I am trying to use SaskTel, which is the opposite: all carriers (except Rogers?) have an agreement to use SaskTel towers, and SaskTel uses other carriers’ towers in different provinces. I know that Bell and Telus work, but not SaskTel? They both use the same tower, so I don’t know why there is still no 5G for SaskTel on my Pixel.

The provider that I use has 5G antennas/towers all over roads, and the capital also has some 5G+ locations. It also annoys me that I seem to need the 5G option to show up or else LTE+ does not work at all.

eSIM works, but 5G doesn’t work.

I can’t really disable Gmail though, because I have two accounts that currently rely on it.

It doesn’t have an email app option for me, though.

I’ll be checking out Samsung phones in the future then.

I live in Canada and screen recording a phone call with audio doesn’t work, and the option that seems to be in the phone app for India isn’t on my phone, even though Canada is a one-person call recording policy country.

Apple seems to be losing my respect for their software each year…

Try using Button Mapper to remap the button if you want to, worth a try!

Motorola seems good, I’ll check it out.

Motorola seems to be a good choice for me, then.

I live in Canada, and the Pixel non-pro phones seem to sell at a normal price for me (I still don’t want to overspend on a pro model) I’m also really in the Google ecosystem right now, so I can’t leave and install custom systems and disable Play Services. I’ve also never heard of the Pixel’s being out of stock here.

Are they good without LineageOS? I have already said that I don’t want to deal with custom bootloaders/systems.

Can’t you remove Netflix on CCwGTv? The Play Store let me, and it doesn’t seem to reinstall.

I might consider the Fairphone much more highly when the software is more polished and Qi is added. (I use a Framework laptop, so the Fairphone is really fitting for me)

The Zenfone looks really nice. I’m going to have to skip it though, because it’s just too small. (Hopefully they make a 6" screen version)

I have a friend that uses a Redmi phone, and the ad situation is horrible. You have to manually go into the settings for each app and disable ads, and some apps only disable them for 30 days.

What would be some examples of Samsung bloat? Are there ads in those apps?
Side note: What is the C*****e company?

I can’t use an iPhone because no sideloading, no filesystem access, you need iTunes to upload music (really?), etc.
(I’m asking in an Android community because I want an Android phone, not an iPhone.)

Is Apple that bad nowadays that they need News ads in a weather app? I thought Apple was the almost ad-free and privacy-focused company.

I have already said that I don’t want to deal with custom bootloaders/systems.

I would consider an ad to be an ad like on Youtube, and also things like popups to download an app when connecting a device, or deals from the same phone company as a notification. I don’t care if the “ad” is from the same company as the phone, I still think of it as an ad.

I have already said that I don’t want to deal with custom bootloaders/systems. I’m also just looking at phones (and by extension phone companies) to see whether I should stay with Google in the future, or switch to a different brand.

I just want to see if other phones don’t suck nowadays, I’m not switching to a different brand just yet (I own too many Google things).

I have already said that I don’t want to deal with custom bootloaders/systems. I know that stock phone systems are full of tracking, but I just want to know which ones have the least tracking that are not from Google.

I have already said that I don’t want to deal with custom bootloaders/systems.

I really can’t tell if this is a joke or not (I’m not mad), but don’t third-party app stores have almost all of the features as of the Play Store? F-Droid has the ability to automatically update apps silently, I think.

I have already said that I don’t want to deal with custom bootloaders/systems.

It seems like there are ads in apps like Game Center, and I have heard that plugging in an Xbox controller shows a Samsung popup to download a Xbox app.

I know, but I think a Pixel looks visually different from Samsung and Xiaomi phones (I think). Look at something like the settings app in those phones, for example.

oops… fixed now

If Google started taking privacy and E2EE as seriously as Apple, I wouldn’t even be thinking of switching over to iPhone, but now I’m thinking whether to stay with Android or switch. (also no ads would be great on Google TV/Chromecast)

No, this stuff actually requires somewhat heavy ML processing that most phones probably couldn’t do locally.

My old iPod touch 7G could run it all locally, it just wanted me to connect to power when I did it (unless I am wrong and it did stuff on Apple servers, but then that would defeat Apple’s claims about privacy…), which confuses me even more since the Pixel is marketed as an AI-first phone…