Reading back through my comments, I'm realizing they come off as shilling for Google. In my original top-level comment, I said "most" Android phones don't allo

Reading back through my comments, I'm realizing they come off as shilling for Google. In my original top-level comment, I said "most" Android phones don't allow you to install a custom OS, which I still think is true, at least when talking about phones currently sold in the US. Google is a notable exception because they have a consistent track record of not impeding the user from installing a custom OS in any way. Every phone they've released has been easily unlockable, and their policy has always been that this doesn't void your warranty. OnePlus is another US brand that operates this way. I was mostly just commenting on the sad state of industry that most vendors, if they don't completely disallow unlocking, at least put up various roadblocks to prevent most users from doing so. However, there are indeed good, non-Google options. GrapheneOS and CalyxOS currently only support Pixel phones due to their consistently unlockable bootloaders and security features, but hopefully they expand support to other phones. See the requirements for CalyxOS and GrapheneOS device support: https://calyxos.org/docs/guide/device-support#requirements-for-supporting-a-new-device https://calyxos.org/docs/guide/device-support#requirements-f... and https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices. LineageOS is not quite as secure but should still be perfectly adequate. Giving money to Google might actually make it harder to de-Google your phone in the future, since they'll be throwing that money into developing """features""" like hardware-backed SafetyNet attestation. You're right that from a different perspective (repair), Google phones actually offer you less control over your device than some of the competition. I don't think they've released a single phone with a replaceable battery, yet every phone Apple releases has one (though iOS will annoyingly warn you if you replace it yourself).