Hey guys, just want to clarify what we’re trying to say with this video. We’re using the generic image to illustrate that these days, even the Pixel UI is significantly customized by Google- to the point that calling that interface 'Stock Android' feels quite disingenuous. 'Stock Android', that is to say ‘Android without any vendor customizations’, isn't really a usable thing anymore as it was in the past. Even the most straightforward custom ROMs make tons of their own changes to the base Android code because the most basic forms of Android, like AOSP and GSI, aren’t meant to be daily driven.
The date is 2015. You’ve just bought a Galaxy S6. You pull up XDA and refresh daily, hoping for bootloader unlock and a custom ROM. You scroll through the threads of Nexus fanboys, Indians demanding ROMs for Xiaomi’s, and Motorola and Sony fanboys smugly twirling their moustaches claiming you should have just bought one. You love it. This is what you’ve done for years already.
2012 for me. Rooting Android phones and jailbreaking iPhones/iPads... Loved those days. The only reason I don't do it anymore is because of banking/payment apps. I prefer not to risk it.f
@@vishalcj4044 If I was you with you're expertise, I'd have made the problems in this video very clear to Linus. I know some stuff about custom roms and this video really pisses me off. It was clearly just made in a rush without really checking stuff. He's complaining about aosp as it "sucks", but only really tried a gsi? There are so many flaws in this video that it was actually more of a pain for me to watch. I already wrote a really long comment which now cost me some time I could've spent to fall asleep already 😂
I still miss the old cyanogenmod. Edit: Can everyone stop saying LineageOS now? Everyone knows that Lineage is the new Cyanogenmod. That‘s why I wrote „I miss the old“ one. For me the OnePlus One Version was the last good Version of Cyanogenmod.
What do you like about the old one versus the new one? Is the new one not better in every way? (LineageOS _is_ Cyanogenmod in virtually everything but name)
I'm one of the founders of halogenOS - which is based on AOSP (not LineageOS) - and has been around since 2016. While we don't have enough resources to provide builds for many devices, there are test builds for select devices that we use as our own daily drivers - and I've been using it pretty much uninterrupted since it exists - across the 4 phones I've owned since then. AOSP, unfortunately, is only maintained to a bare minimum. Apps haven't been updated in years, basically since the Google Pixel exists. Back then, Google Nexus phones would run stock AOSP, but now they are doing their own thing and leaving us in the dust. As for GMS, I used to use microG but stopped using Google Play Services/GMS altogether. But if you want to run Google Apps on halogenOS - feel free to do so - it's your choice - and we even try our best to keep Play Integrity working.
This is the perspective that I feel a lot of people are missing. Over the years the whole Android ecosystem has changed a lot, and perhaps most users haven’t really noticed the change.
the out of date apps are one thing. the fact that trash security policy prevents you from easily making proper app backups and deleting bloatware without unlocking your boot loader and installing root is another story.
just focus on de-google project from pixel image and maintain a few popular models. that's the only way that makes sense. it sucks that we have to face this kind of nightmare. but it's just better to have the AOSP choices from those corp mining machine.
Lower end Samsung A series phones are still ultra bloated, ads on the lock screen type of thing Most of it is opt in, but you really have to get through those checkboxes instead of clicking "Accept all and continue" Which many people don't do Xiaomi phones (low end) are just as bad, except worse because they started the trend of ads in your phone Everytime you install an app, it "scans for viruses" before proceeding to show you an ad The file explorer app shows fullscreen ads, like in mobile games And you get constant notifications from apps like Music which are also ads That's on top of the slow SOCs that lower end phones run, which doesn't have enough processing power to really run the bloated OS as is, let alone with a bucket of ads thrown in So these phones struggle on the stock OS, too bad since basically no one bothers to do ROMs for them unless it's a brazilian/indian guy who can't afford a better phone (not joking, that's what usually happens)
@@Daniel-dj7fh His note9 isn't broken as far as I'm aware. I think it was his fold that ended up in the pool. He switched back to the note9 after he broke his former daily driver phone.
recently got an ipad, first ios thing in my life, and I was astounded at how janky everything is. like wasn't it supposed to be extremely polished in exchange for walled garden? everything constantly refreshes when it's not supposed to, the inputs feel less smooth, the programs have less features than the same thing on android, it's so amateurish. the walled garden shit sucks too, but man, I feel like I've been lied to my whole life when people presented this dichotomy that android was the less polished and stable but more free one, it's clearly more polished too
When people comment about "stock Android" I feel like they usually mean the Google Pixel experience. While that's not fully correct, I can understand the confusion.
yep, I thought it was stock Android. I mean as Linus said it's Google who makes Android so you'd figure they'd put stock android on their own devices. I guess we learn something new everyday.
Yeah, being in the custom rom scene since the galaxy s3 days stock android for me was cyanogenmod/lineage os. But I definetly see why people see pixel as it. And honestly it would be pretty nice if it would. Nowadays I think Motorola is the one customizing android the least. Still they offer few updates and their camera experience is very subpar.
I used to own a Nokia 7.1, and part of the reason was because it was part of “Android One”, which was marketed more or less as “Stock Android”. Obviously with all the Google services added on top of the open base, but no skins, no launchers, no OEM-specific versions of apps, no carrier bloat, etc. Seems that while there was no skin and no bloat, there were actually a lot of quiet quality-of-life tweaks and some apps like the phone and camera had been swapped out for better versions made to look like generic stock apps. I never realized it was less stock than implied until this video.
@@NonLegitNation2 if they’d put stock Android on Pixels there really wouldn’t be any incentive to buy a pixel phone. Considering this also means that every other manufacturer has all the pixel features as a baseline, and can only expand from there. This would result in basically any phone being more feature rich than the Pixels.
An android rom dev here, a GSI is **not** the same thing as building AOSP for a device (lets say a Pixel 8 Pro in the case of the video), it is a generic image, meant for testing. You wouldn't have seen Can developers add stuff to GSIs to make them usable? Yes, absolutely, and they do that all the time. I do agree that barebones AOSP is horrible to use, but I think it's this way by design, there is no reason for anyone to use it; if you are savvy enough to build and flash it to your device, you could've flashed stuff like LineageOS or any other custom rom way easier. Moreover, having more stuff in AOSP means more work (pointless work) for rom devs, and manufacturers. If a manufacturer wanted to ship android on a phone without building out their own AOSP fork, they can easily use stuff like lineage. EDIT: I AM NOT DISAGREEING WITH THE MAIN POINT OF THE VIDEO. There is no usable ""stock"" android anymore. (There hasn't been for quite a while). The only major criticism I have is the use of a GSI instead of an Android build for the device that was used. Furthermore, the video shows installation of a android 15 beta GSI, which isn't even a release build of android. (Though, I do not know if this was just footage captured by an editor, since one of the options is the A15 beta on Google's web flash tool). These issues would explain the finicky/buggy behavior with settings and Bluetooth.
I mean, but isn’t that the point of the video? There is no “stock Android”. Every android is going to be its own thing. LineageOS is not stock Android, it’s Android with Lineage’s choice of apps and features. Just like any other custom ROM or manufacturer ROM.
well yeah but the point of the video is to address what people's conception of "stock android" is. At this point there is no usable baseline, just a skeleton used to make custom versions. Not meatriding linus btw I just didn't see a problem with the video in that regard
as an average xda user i truly think linus missed the mark with this video many viewers are gonna think what is known as "stock android" is complete garbage
Just a nerd here. AOSP being garbage now is by design. It used to be quite good without the Google stuff. Why would Google want the good functionality to be free? They got theirs, everyone else gotta work for it. EDIT: I uhh, posted before getting far in the video.
Essay essay essay... aaand people still think why iOS is so darn popular from grandma to very tech literate nerds. Enjoy your beta dev builds with bloatware and Google all over the place.
@@ThatIceChampionI think people just called it Pixel ROM or something like that. Which also why, as mentioned in the video, there's exist a Custom ROM that's called PixelOS which aim to provide the same experience as Pixel devices to other phones.
The stock camera is so bad because google stopped updating the open source versions of core apps like camera, contacts, messages, phone etc... which are part of the Android Open Source Project and left them untouched for years developing their Google branded proprietary versions instead. Fortunately there exist a plenty of FOSS alternatives you can install and most Custom ROMs based on stock Android do so. Other issues happening to Linus (bluetooth, hotspot etc...) are not a problem of stock Android at all, but Linus (or someone from his team) installing a ROM that includes drivers/firmware that are not fully compatible with the device (these are usually issued by the manufacturer). I am sorry, but this has nothing to do with stock Android, but the ROM itself not being fully compatible with the phone model. Flashing a Custom ROM is not like live booting a USB with a desktop system that works on most machines with a correct architecture. Each custom ROM has to be configured specifically for every device model to work correctly.
Luckily, there's always the FOSS alternatives, which are either open source from scratch, or based on the standard AOSP apps. LOS does this pretty well. Their Aperture camera app (based on CameraX) is great, and if you have a good unofficial/official build, it has seamless zoom across all the lenses.
I know you are trying to argue these are not real problems, but if a team of people could get out so easily wrong, most consumers will be in the same boat.
@@Sreekar617 So the FCC wont let me be, Or let me be me at LTT, They tried to shut us down on scrapyard wars part iii, But it feels so empty without this segue ... to our sponsor
I don't think the point is what is intended by the manufacturers, but what certain reviewers and people screeching in said reviewers comment sections say that perpetuate "stock android and being as close to stock as possible is best." I might not even have been what was meant, but that is the message that was received.
Back in the day, Google used to allow you to download most Pixel/Nexus apps via the market on any phone. But for some apps that's no longer an option and in either case, it still meant you had to configure your phone with those Google store apps, which phone's who were supplying "stock Android" would do be default.
The key issue with Samsung is the impossible to uninstall bloatware. I don't need a Samsung browser, a Samsung App Store, or a Samsung version of Kindle, or apps. Yet Samsung keeps reinstalling these, and blocks their removal. I'd be happy with Samsung if they didn't force unwanted apps back into my device at every update.
OMG so true - I had my heart set on a fold phone as my next upgrade - then I bought a Galaxy Tablet and the almost daily battle against bloat has completely put me off ever buying anything Samsung again.
You can get rid of most of them using android developer tools from your pc. You might need to learn a few command line prompts, though. I am quite cross with Samsung for making many things so hard, but it is possible.
This is the same with all major manufacturers, unfortunately. I recently switched from Samsung to Pixel under the misconception that Pixels didn't have bloatware, but it has just as much as my old Samsung phone :(
This is where Android and GNU/Linux meet. Whatever distro or flavour you pick, someone out there will get mad. Edited: GNU/Linux Yes. They use Linux kernel. Android is Android. How is someone reading "Android is GNU Linux" from this?
Well... yes, this :) Although... if that's where Android and Linux meet... does that mean that's also where iOS and Windows meet? Because you just have to deal with the current flavor? Oh man... no... not starting that one!
Don't forget to let everyone know why Google did this. They started out as 'never do evil' and Android started out as open source, but then they slowly rolled that back and started close sourcing apps, and putting functionality in Google Play Services instead of leaving them in AOSP. Trying to develop an Android app that doesn't have AOSP functionality can be quite difficult because they give you a zillion API calls that aren't actually in AOSP Android, and a lot of devs get lazy and don't abstract away that functionality to make it easier to swap out.
stock android now is just enough of a baseline for another company to use it to start with and basically make their own version of android, it kinda makes sense that android is going more of the linux approach and is including less and less out of the box and leaving that stuff up to the makers of the phone
@@Gabu_ this is a very low IQ response. As others have said, it's basically if you want to build your own Linux based OS. You get the basic kernel and build out from there.
GSI is like the worst, it's only for development. A custom ROM is more useful. Also Google has been cutting out stuff from AOSP, many apps don't exist and is now proprietary Google Apps. Google isn't pushing AOSP. Still random AOSP video.
Click baity title yes, but their video is more of a "stock android is used as a base for manufscturers and people keep saying to 'use stock' which could mean anything" psa more than anything from what i got
@@mineland8220 that's my interpretation, and I've been defending them in the comments, but to be fair to the people commenting, LTT *should've* put in the conclusion of the video that GSI while technically could be called "stock android" at this point is probably a misrepresentation of what people want to say with that phrase, and collectively when talking about android phones people should probably just call pixel's version of android stock android from now on either that or something like linneageOS but that's a very small portion of people who hang on to an old android phone and put a custom ROM on it
@@burhanbudak6041 No it is not only for development. You're referring to GSI AOSP, but there's PixelOS GSIs, Grapheneos GSIs, Pixel Experience GSIs etc. With treble patches, those can be set-up for daily usage without much hassle. GSIs were very unstable many years ago, but as someone who daily drives PixelOS GSI, it's pretty much like turning any phone into a Google Pixel.
That's literally what the video is saying. He's saying stock android is a misnomer because no such things exist anymore. Before GSI was basically pixel (or nexus), now no one uses it and everyone defaults to lineage os, evolution x or pixel experience mod.
Linus mentioning Sony Xperia is the biggest marketing their phones have ever received 💀 Now... as a 10 year Xperia user, "stock" to me = all the nice QoL stuff but no UI elements. with how interconnected everything is it's kind of crazy for anyone to believe anything is "stock" nowadays.
Can't blame him. I returned my Pixel 8a and went iphone as well. I will never look back. If I need some obscure Android app I have backup phones or could buy a cheap Xiaomi.
He'll be back on samsung in a week and probably will have some story about a smart home device whose app is only available as an apk on their website and thus can't be downloaded on Iphone
It’s amazing to me how many things in that stock AOSP are basically the same as they were in stock Android 5 or 6. Like, surprisingly little has changed in eight years!
@@gelbphoenix GNU is the operating system project, android isn’t gnu as it uses its own userland. Desktop linux is usually GNU. Linux by itself isn’t really an operating system, it’s just the kernel
I like Motorola's skin best, even if only for the moto gestures- the chop for the flashlight, wrist twist for the camera, holding volume up and down to move forward and backwards tracks when the screen is off. Anything that lets me change my music without needing to look at the screen is a massive plus
The skin was nice to use but in my experience from using a g100 for two years it there is still work to do. It happens quite frequently that apps just freeze up, sometimes even the whole phone and I have to force a restart. I also noticed that the phone slowed down significantly when switching from android 11 to 12. Using the fingerprint reader to unlock used to be instantanious and after the update it started to hesitate for a tiny moment. Every action felt slightly delayed. The zooming in the camera app is delayed. All of these things make the phone feel older than it actually is and is not representative of the Snapdragon 870 inside it. Updating the Os should not have this kind of penalty. After the screen broke I swichted to a used iPhone Xs which feels more responsive than the Moto (and runs the newest iOs.) Of course iPones have their own problems too, but for 156€ it was the cheapest option that had everything I needed.
In that case, you might wanna check out One Plus. I can draw a V on an off screen to go to flashlight, or an O to open the camera app. < and > go to start of the current and next song, respectively. And two fingers top to bottom is pause. Three is a screenshot if the screen is on, iirc, but I just use power button and volume down for that.
@@ts757arse I mean considering one of the few "major" reasons he couldn't use iPhone was no t9 dialing and they're finally adding it with ios18, it actually makes sense for him to finally try switching back again
For real, all Android phones seem to have some random issue. Samsung devices typically have more bloatware, Pixel devices have hardware issue, and underpowered SOCs, the list goes on. iPhones while lacking some features, just work.
i got an xperia 5 IV recently and the only two things i do not like is the extremely dim flash and the fact i cant set an app to open when i press the power button twice. i used to have it set that my phone would toggle the flashlight when i pressed the power button twice, it was super convenient and was absurdly bright. if the power went out i could just turn my flashlight on, put my phone face down so the light was facing the ceiling and the entire room would be lit by the light bouncing back down off the roof. it was also very useful outside at night, this was a samsung A42. honestly would go back to it if i could find another one, i gave mine to my gran as the 3g networks are getting shut down over here and she needed a new phone. i do like the xperia 5 IV, but it cost me 5 times what i paid for my A42, i dont think its 5 times better.
@@guesswho2778 I install something called "Android Nav Bar" which allows you to re-config your 3 button nav bar and add "hold" effects to each key individually. I configured my back button to turn on flash light if held, the middle button to launch app search and the right button to take screen shots (all if held). The flash is weak only when its constantly on, its actually very strong when taking photos ... I think Sony does this to save the flash LED from burning out. Last time I owned a Samsung it was the Note 4, and my flash LED actually burned out due to using it as a flash light for far too long than necessary - so I kind of get why they dim it, its really designed to be a "flash" and not a "flash light" which is constantly on.
@@hehehahahmhmhm They actually do, just not in the same way. Ask any die-hard Arch fan what they think of Ubuntu, and you'd get basically the same response.
@@hikkamorii sorry but no. you don't get the same answer. arch fans hate ubuntu mainly because the think it is anti choice and anti privacy features. that's it it .not because they think it is not stock linux. in fact arch users run the most customized linux builds. they think ubuntu is anti freedom
Kinda the reason why it's just not recommendable to say "just switch to Linux bro", since some just want to have it already made for them, not set it up themselves.
@@divisionic4641 There are distros that are set up and work right out of the box, like Linux Mint. I would recommend a beginner use that over something like Arch, where all you get is a command-line interface out of the box. And as someone who has fully switched to Linux, it is SO worth it.
@@divisionic4641the problem with this is is nobody's telling anyone to get a bare Bones Linux distro. There are plenty of beginner distros that are a lot simpler like ZorinOS. However, even most of these aren't completely perfect at the moment. But neither is Windows these days honestly. Plenty of issues that require mild technology literacy that most people just don't have.
I think the message of this video is pretty clear from the beginning. Android stock is NOT the one on Pixel devices, and we think it is because is the one on the Google phone, but the real stock android is the one shown in this video...
oh dont you worry about that. He is gonna switch back to Android after he finds out that there are some things terribly implemented on iOS. Then he is gonna do a whole rant on WAN show on why he is switching back. The same drama since 2013
@@thunderingeagle he will be mega frustrated having to use Webkit for browsing, not being allowed by Apple to install third party apps for the stuff he's admitted to need and all the other Apple shenanigans
@@thunderingeagle ive been using the 18 beta, and it feels like a lot of the poorly implemented stuff has been fixed... Issue is, the fixed stuff in 18 just makes the other stuff that was fixed in upgrades before feel poorly implemented.
My iPhone 14 Pro Max generally speaking just works. Not sure what these terrible implementations are but I either don’t use them or don’t notice them 🤷♂️
Last year I switched to GraphenOS on the Pixel 7 and I will literally never use a different OS ever. No bloadware, full restriction over all apps. Full compatible with all banking apps it is full experience with non of the bs.
@@sandrokapellen9064 it isn't fully compatible with all banking apps though due to safetynet/play integrity not passing on graphineos due to it not being CTS certified
I've been using Nova Launcher on Moto devices for around 10 years now. I really just want an unbloated experience with a neatly organized desktop, a world clock, some upcoming events from the calendar + the few apps I use, easily accessible from the desktop. My phone has kind of looked the same for the last 10 years now. It's great, and I love the Motos twist motion gesture to activate the camera, and chop motion for flashlight.
@@RoseQuartz692in my experience they don’t grab when you want and they will grab when you don’t want it. Like ive been scrolling an article or product page on my 24u and it will randomly grab as a back swipe and I lose where I’m at or the site even.
My main annoyance with stock Android is that there is no sound recorder app. Every OEM has to make their own, but some don't bother (Sony Grrr). Google made their own for pixels, but it is... exclusive to Pixels for no reason lol.
Of course there is a reason, to drive sales! Pixel recorder was one of the first in the industry to convert speech into transcripts. Do you think they will give that away for free?
Sony Used used to make one but seemed to stopped updating it in 2019. There used to be a scene of porting Skin-specific apps(Xperia\Pixel\Touchwiz\OneUI) into either flashable zips or universal APKs but i dont think it is as active as it was before with the exception of Gcam.
That is why I dont like atock or close to stock Android. They lack a lot of basic stuff that is very useful. Yes, apps with these features do exist but I hate to search for a good alternative without ads for a thing that is included on a Galaxy phone.
Yeah, it has been a while since stock android was a thing, we should start calling each manufacturers ROM by its name, android can be a wildly different experience from one phone to another. Android became more of a foundation than a OS and that is good
It is a Generic System Image for a reason. AOSP is a framework at this point, which is built upon by manufacturers, including Google themselves, to showcase what their "vision" of AOSP. I understand your point, Linus but you should clearly rename the title to mention AOSP & GSI.
I customized everything about 6-7 years ago, and since then, I've been importing my settings. Of course, now and then, I update my GUI interface with some new features, but that's about it. Some smartphones have a very long battery life regardless of their small capacity. Some get a little warmer even with TH-cam and WhatsApp use. The removal of the SD card, audio jack, and charger is the real difference that has hurt me the most. No change that to random non-rollback updates, which makes your device bad. Iike heats up and drains the battery even on standby, charging slows down significantly, and then it heats up, and the UI starts to stutter. And then, you'll use a screen guard and case cover even when the manufacturer claims the absurd durability of the phone. They make the phone so sleek and sexy, but you have to cover it in an armour-like case, which heats the phone even more. Yeah, it is still a mixed bag.
4:30 I think it's important to highlight the screenshot shows this is a beta build. I heard a lot of the issues (mainly the ble ones) and thought to myself it sounds like the times ive done alpha/beta installs for testing new OS versions and skipped back and saw that was the case. The UI/UX issues are fair play but a beta build vs release build is not really apples to apples.
6:48 watched until the end before commenting, but for someone who hasn’t dabbled in Android for years I always thought when people say “stock” it’s what Google’s Nexus/Pixels ship with, aka how Google intends you to use a phone
Jup google stopped supporting aosp apps and some have been thrown out of the project. Google killed stock android by creating pixel apps for everything instead
Is this different from the ASOP experience? Or did google just basically stop doing updates for the default android system? Edit: oh... Wow they uh, really left it behind.
3:30 in all fairness to 'Droid, BlueTooth is steaming hot trash *everywhere* because, despite numerous revisions of the standard, it's just....hot garbage. Like parallel ports. Remember those?
@@k80theshade can confirm. I really don’t understand how Bluetooth sucks on android. The standard itself is very old but is being constantly improved on.
I think this video would've been way better if you had used that version of AOSP for like a week tops, realizing it isn't mean for disly use and commenting on it, and then switched to a "stock" custom rom like LineageOS for the remaining time I at least would've liked to know the current stage of ROMS rather than whatever this was
At the time of "stock" Android, people felt the phones suffered lag and slowdown because the skins on the launcher were slow. This was true at an extent, but mostly it made Android experiences difficult to grasp for many and share help to those with different systems. These days it isn't quite the case as much. Most Android is fairly cohesive with premium phones generally being different enough but built on "stock" Android to some extent. Honestly I don't mind being on the samsung UI train. They generally introduce features that Google ends up copying and integrating into Android.
00:51 thats been true a long time!! stock android lack a lot of features. And Soc have come a long way and run really well almost any skin you throw at it.
@@borjie2727 and without the headphone jack. Without all those anyone might as well buy an iPhone or a different phone and use the note 9 as a companion.
I love Sony for their stock-ish Android. Yes, there are tons of their Sony specific optimisations, features and apps, but the user interface itself is somewhat what Google has intended. Definitely not a fan of flashy asian UI's you get on pretty much any other phone.
I would LOVE to see a follow up where the custom ROMs would be reviewed and/or compared in detail. Would be helpful for people whose phones have reached (will soon reach) the EOL date
Evolution x has to be one of the BEST custom roms As it has many spoofs for Google photos ,games ,etc.... And it passes Play integrity ❤ Who's with me ?
point of stock android isn't that it is the best user experience. the real point is that you can install whatever launcher/customization and it doesn't clash with the vendor customization, or, at the very least, consume space while deactivated (although i do admit that this is becoming a moot point with all the gigs of storage we get these days)
Ye I used to do stock back with the first Nexus phones and customize it to hell and back. Nowadays Pixel UI is so well made though and I don't have time.
This. Although it's not the proper use for the term Stock Android, it's basically what it meant for me too. If the phone comes with vendor apps or vendor system apps that integrate tightly with the launcher app or with any other vendor app, it's not "stock android". I hate that if I want to use a different app to do something, the default app for that thing is still linked somewhere and cannot be changed. I've been using the same launcher on every phone since 2014, and I switch phones when other apps "require" the vendor launcher to operate without issues. Don't know if this is still the issue on Samsung phones, or if the default launcher can be disabled without causing other problems with the phone. But it was a problem at one point, and I've stayed away from Samsung since then. I should probably give it a try again, as small form factor phones with good hardware are disappearing and S24 meets my requirement otherwise. Earlier Pixels, Sony and Asus phones have worked fine with a custom launcher and disabled vendor launcher. Also I cannot use custom ROMs due to the hassle with banking apps, 2FA apps, and NFC issues, those are one of the key use cases that I have for a smartphone.
Point of stock Android is that it's not meant for end users, it's meant for dev purposes, or rather the 'core OS' and ROMS are built on that... just like nobody uses "stock linux" as an end user. The Google Pixels are the closest thing to "stock" that's actually usable IRL.
@@micglou Ye that's the POINT of them but that doesn't mean stock android wasn't appealing to a lot of people. Back then I wanted ONLY the most basic stuff to come with the phone, and I'm not a developer.
This video is gonna confuse a hell of a lot of people that are looking at buying a "stock android" phone and think it's terrible now. Where it's actually just pixel android or very close.
A lot of people in this comment section are trying to sound smart, but make a fool of themselves because they clearly didn't watch past the first 30 seconds.
*DivestOS* - It's like LineageOS, except it's more privacy-oriented. It has broader support than OSes like Calyx which supports only an extremely narrow number of devices, with the only mainstream/common one being Google Pixels. GrapheneOS is the same way in that it _exclusively_ only supports Pixels.
I rooted so many phones back in the day and I learned way back then that stock Android just wasn't it. Half the features it does have were things they just copied from Samsung anyway. Edit: Ok I just finished the video. If you're already used to Samsung then wouldn't the obvious choice be the S24 Ultra? I'm literally typing this on one and it's amazing.
Realistically speaking, the reason why people love Stock Android or custom ROMs is because many major Android skins are filled with bloatware and ads (most notorious one being MIUI), whereas with stock Android you get to choose your own calculator, web browser, dialer, et cetera. LineageOS is also quite bare bones too, but it felt like a blessing coming from MIUI.
I went from MIUI to LineageOS and it was a breath of fresh air, no bloat, no unneccesary artificial limitations and it worked worderfully by the way I could finally use the Google clocks app on MIUI theres a 50/50 chance that it wont ring
I almost started writing angry comments on the video because the idea of using GSI as a baseline for "stock" is a very huge mistake. These days, what's considered "stock" would be more along the lines of Lineage, PixelOS, PA, etc. and "non-stock" would be a any fork of those. So I'm glad at least the leading custom ROMs were given recognition. I'm a personal user of PA recently and I love it.
Except non-stock aren't forks of those you listed. They're forks of AOSP, which is what GSI is. They acknowledge that GSI isn't a functional experience, and the entire point is that ANY usable experience on Android is filled with custom stuff specific to that flavour of Android. One person's "stock android" is going to be completely different to someone else's. You either have a Pixel phone, or a Samsung phone, or a custom OS, but none of them are close to "stock android."
@@NabsterHax I mean, I don't think we disagree. As I've said, I almost started getting angry UNTIL they acknowledge what people actually use in the custom ROM community. Stock, Non-stock, etc. pretty much semantic arguments at this point.
1) the camera is the same camera it's been on android 5. long before gestures. first give away to the fact that it's for testing. (2) the phone is from android 5 so it's set to some other way. Bluetooth and the other things he mentioned are probably broken to the image not being for daily use. (4) the screen saver only works when charging or docked (been like that since android 4 or earlier). (5) just use the stock pixel for stock android or phones like unihertz or cubot
Just my opinion here, but this is the result of using an over customizable interface. People complain about iOS being a walled garden, but iOS is usually a fairly intuitive experience. Unfortunately, IOS 18 is headed this way. Some of us prefer the simpler interface. Regardless, great video LTT.
I'd argue that people don't prefer simpler interfaces, they prefer what they are used to and they hate change. Thus, I think your post says a lot more about you than you realize XD Say 3 times without laughing: John Deer trying to go full walled garden is a great thing because it's a fairly intuitive experience.
GrapheneOS is not comparable to "Custom ROMs" or CalyxOS for that matter. It is a production ready OS focused on security and privacy. It's purpose is not removing Google or something as nebulous as "tracking". It would be great if LMG went over it and garnered a full understanding of the OS.
Graphene and Calyx are for the tinfoil hatists - one of those two once told users to keep their device in a faraday bag when they werent using it. ROM's for the conspiracy theorist....
Using GSI as a daily is like using a Windows PC/Laptop without installing drivers. That's the experience of using GSI. Don't complain if something doesn't work as it should. If you want to use stock Android, you need to create an image for a specific phone, so it will install drivers specifically for that phone. LineageOS has near stock experience if I not mistaken. Personally, I really like the experience of using stock Android, there are so many features that other vendors like Samsung put on it that I never use. I'm a simple user, as long as my phone can browsing, call, text and email, I'm fine. Keep it up Linus, make another video about using a custom ROM esp. GrapheneOS
Why waste the effort in running a custom ROM when you can just leave your phone stock and run Nova launcher over the top of it? Security updates still work, but you get to customize everything. Win win.
I have also been using nova launcher for years and i love it. But it has been sold to a bigger company about two years ago and just recently they fired all staff working on nova but one person. So i doubt nova will still be as good as it is right now in a few years sadly.
"Stock Android" refers to a version of the Android operating system that is free from any manufacturer or carrier-specific modifications or bloatware. Unlike devices from companies like Samsung, which often come pre-loaded with their own app stores and a host of pre-installed apps that many users find unnecessary, Stock Android offers a cleaner, more streamlined experience. It includes only the essential apps such as Phone, Messages, Calendar, and a few others, leaving it up to the user to install any additional apps they want through the Google Play Store. This results in a more efficient system, free from the clutter that can slow down a device. My journey with smartphones started with the iPhone 3, then the iPhone 4, before switching to the Huawei Honor 8, which had a great camera for its time. After that, I moved to the Nokia 6.1, followed by the Nokia 9 Pureview. The Motorola One Zoom came next, offering the best camera quality for its price range while still providing a stock Android experience. Now, I’m using the Nothing Phone (2). The experience of using Android can vary greatly depending on the brand of the smartphone, even if they are running the same version of the OS. Each brand might customize the software, leading to differences in how the OS feels and functions.
After seeing the article on Slashdot "Google Threatened Tech Influencers Unless They 'Preferred' the Pixel" evidently Google scare tactics do not work on Linus!!!! YAY!!!!
Hey guys, just want to clarify what we’re trying to say with this video. We’re using the generic image to illustrate that these days, even the Pixel UI is significantly customized by Google- to the point that calling that interface 'Stock Android' feels quite disingenuous.
'Stock Android', that is to say ‘Android without any vendor customizations’, isn't really a usable thing anymore as it was in the past. Even the most straightforward custom ROMs make tons of their own changes to the base Android code because the most basic forms of Android, like AOSP and GSI, aren’t meant to be daily driven.
hi linus
review evolution x and hi joey
Okay, Linus.
hi
So what is the "best" custom ROM...comments haven't helped at all.
The date is 2015. You’ve just bought a Galaxy S6. You pull up XDA and refresh daily, hoping for bootloader unlock and a custom ROM. You scroll through the threads of Nexus fanboys, Indians demanding ROMs for Xiaomi’s, and Motorola and Sony fanboys smugly twirling their moustaches claiming you should have just bought one. You love it. This is what you’ve done for years already.
damn the good old days of custom roms
@@MarioGoatse I understood every word of this sentence and it made me incredibly nostalgic.
Ohh boy these were the days
S6 active was the best phone I've ever owned. Bring back phones with IR blasters!
2012 for me. Rooting Android phones and jailbreaking iPhones/iPads... Loved those days. The only reason I don't do it anymore is because of banking/payment apps. I prefer not to risk it.f
Thank you for the shoutout Linus!😄
- Vishal (Paranoid Android Dev)
@@vishalcj4044 Back then I used Paranoid Android on my Galaxy S4 intensively ☺️
Lol
do you have vanilla build+signature spoof support?
@@vishalcj4044 If I was you with you're expertise, I'd have made the problems in this video very clear to Linus. I know some stuff about custom roms and this video really pisses me off. It was clearly just made in a rush without really checking stuff. He's complaining about aosp as it "sucks", but only really tried a gsi? There are so many flaws in this video that it was actually more of a pain for me to watch. I already wrote a really long comment which now cost me some time I could've spent to fall asleep already 😂
@@zerbrechliches5200 and somehow, magically, unexplainable no one else cares.
I still miss the old cyanogenmod.
Edit:
Can everyone stop saying LineageOS now? Everyone knows that Lineage is the new Cyanogenmod.
That‘s why I wrote „I miss the old“ one.
For me the OnePlus One Version was the last good Version of Cyanogenmod.
came to the comments to find this comment
LineageOS essentially is Cyanogenmod tho
lineageos is literally cyanognmod
Fun times. Learned so much
What do you like about the old one versus the new one? Is the new one not better in every way? (LineageOS _is_ Cyanogenmod in virtually everything but name)
What Apple fanboys think having android phone is like:
They dont
>think
They do?
@@korosoid They think different.
They think?
@@Akruit_HD beat me to it🤣
I'm one of the founders of halogenOS - which is based on AOSP (not LineageOS) - and has been around since 2016. While we don't have enough resources to provide builds for many devices, there are test builds for select devices that we use as our own daily drivers - and I've been using it pretty much uninterrupted since it exists - across the 4 phones I've owned since then.
AOSP, unfortunately, is only maintained to a bare minimum. Apps haven't been updated in years, basically since the Google Pixel exists. Back then, Google Nexus phones would run stock AOSP, but now they are doing their own thing and leaving us in the dust. As for GMS, I used to use microG but stopped using Google Play Services/GMS altogether. But if you want to run Google Apps on halogenOS - feel free to do so - it's your choice - and we even try our best to keep Play Integrity working.
@@xdevs23 interesting to hear a bit of inside from one of the devs, thx!
This is the perspective that I feel a lot of people are missing. Over the years the whole Android ecosystem has changed a lot, and perhaps most users haven’t really noticed the change.
the out of date apps are one thing. the fact that trash security policy prevents you from easily making proper app backups and deleting bloatware without unlocking your boot loader and installing root is another story.
Can you port it to OnePlus Nord n100(not n10 5G)? I can’t find a good rom for mine
just focus on de-google project from pixel image and maintain a few popular models. that's the only way that makes sense. it sucks that we have to face this kind of nightmare. but it's just better to have the AOSP choices from those corp mining machine.
Custom ROMs used to be a MUST USE on Samsung phones, their UI was so insanely bloated
Lower end Samsung A series phones are still ultra bloated, ads on the lock screen type of thing
Most of it is opt in, but you really have to get through those checkboxes instead of clicking "Accept all and continue"
Which many people don't do
Xiaomi phones (low end) are just as bad, except worse because they started the trend of ads in your phone
Everytime you install an app, it "scans for viruses" before proceeding to show you an ad
The file explorer app shows fullscreen ads, like in mobile games
And you get constant notifications from apps like Music which are also ads
That's on top of the slow SOCs that lower end phones run, which doesn't have enough processing power to really run the bloated OS as is, let alone with a bucket of ads thrown in
So these phones struggle on the stock OS, too bad since basically no one bothers to do ROMs for them unless it's a brazilian/indian guy who can't afford a better phone (not joking, that's what usually happens)
Hello Theo, nice to see you here :P
Still is (bloated), even on their S23+ that I last used.
I don't care
@@servissop151ive seen the mi videos app have a tiktok client built in, i hate how true all this is.
There's a part of me that always forgets Pixel UI is not Stock Android
Pixel UI is Stock Android like Pixel Experience a Stock Android Custom Rom with the Pixel UI
@@RoseQuartz692 it's not stock android, it just looks like that
And it's sooo bad.
@@RoseQuartz692 Absolutely not, it's way worse.
@@MiGujack3 what is worse
Linus being such a note9 fanboy and just not getting the s24 or something is my type of humor.
@@Daniel-dj7fh I love it because I still use a note9.
Them removing the micro SD slot lost me
I still use the s9 i don't see why i should change it anytime soon. New phones are not better at doing stuff that i use on a daily basis!
@@iulianhagea5815 But Linus' phone is literally broken
@@Daniel-dj7fh His note9 isn't broken as far as I'm aware. I think it was his fold that ended up in the pool. He switched back to the note9 after he broke his former daily driver phone.
Stock Android is like Stock Linus...a man without a beard
Yeah. It lacks looks.
@@hyedefinition1080no beard is a good thing
@@mroie hes way more handsome with a beard
Are you sure he's a man? Girly earrings, dyed hair and sandals!
@@elemar5 how old are you
"I tried the last iPhone and HATED it" video in 30 days let's gooooo
Latest*
you'll be disappointed when linus gives a relatively un biased fair view on apple products like he **always** does.
Having used both IOS and Android I find the Apple iPhone easier to navigate
@@ToatsMcGoats534 What are you talking about? He's always shitting on Apple. 🤣
recently got an ipad, first ios thing in my life, and I was astounded at how janky everything is. like wasn't it supposed to be extremely polished in exchange for walled garden? everything constantly refreshes when it's not supposed to, the inputs feel less smooth, the programs have less features than the same thing on android, it's so amateurish.
the walled garden shit sucks too, but man, I feel like I've been lied to my whole life when people presented this dichotomy that android was the less polished and stable but more free one, it's clearly more polished too
When people comment about "stock Android" I feel like they usually mean the Google Pixel experience. While that's not fully correct, I can understand the confusion.
yep, I thought it was stock Android. I mean as Linus said it's Google who makes Android so you'd figure they'd put stock android on their own devices. I guess we learn something new everyday.
@@NonLegitNation2 it was in google nexus i guess. but after pixel series it isnt true anymore.
Yeah, being in the custom rom scene since the galaxy s3 days stock android for me was cyanogenmod/lineage os. But I definetly see why people see pixel as it. And honestly it would be pretty nice if it would. Nowadays I think Motorola is the one customizing android the least. Still they offer few updates and their camera experience is very subpar.
I used to own a Nokia 7.1, and part of the reason was because it was part of “Android One”, which was marketed more or less as “Stock Android”. Obviously with all the Google services added on top of the open base, but no skins, no launchers, no OEM-specific versions of apps, no carrier bloat, etc.
Seems that while there was no skin and no bloat, there were actually a lot of quiet quality-of-life tweaks and some apps like the phone and camera had been swapped out for better versions made to look like generic stock apps. I never realized it was less stock than implied until this video.
@@NonLegitNation2 if they’d put stock Android on Pixels there really wouldn’t be any incentive to buy a pixel phone. Considering this also means that every other manufacturer has all the pixel features as a baseline, and can only expand from there.
This would result in basically any phone being more feature rich than the Pixels.
This is where I realized that my beloved Pixel 8 Pro is running a skinned android.
your dreams of purity may no longer be🙃
Not skinned, rather just all apps being replaced by closed source ones.
@@davinkeee so that is skinned.
@@craighart depends on what you mean by "skinned"
An android rom dev here, a GSI is **not** the same thing as building AOSP for a device (lets say a Pixel 8 Pro in the case of the video), it is a generic image, meant for testing. You wouldn't have seen Can developers add stuff to GSIs to make them usable? Yes, absolutely, and they do that all the time.
I do agree that barebones AOSP is horrible to use, but I think it's this way by design, there is no reason for anyone to use it; if you are savvy enough to build and flash it to your device, you could've flashed stuff like LineageOS or any other custom rom way easier. Moreover, having more stuff in AOSP means more work (pointless work) for rom devs, and manufacturers. If a manufacturer wanted to ship android on a phone without building out their own AOSP fork, they can easily use stuff like lineage.
EDIT:
I AM NOT DISAGREEING WITH THE MAIN POINT OF THE VIDEO. There is no usable ""stock"" android anymore. (There hasn't been for quite a while). The only major criticism I have is the use of a GSI instead of an Android build for the device that was used. Furthermore, the video shows installation of a android 15 beta GSI, which isn't even a release build of android. (Though, I do not know if this was just footage captured by an editor, since one of the options is the A15 beta on Google's web flash tool). These issues would explain the finicky/buggy behavior with settings and Bluetooth.
I mean, but isn’t that the point of the video? There is no “stock Android”. Every android is going to be its own thing. LineageOS is not stock Android, it’s Android with Lineage’s choice of apps and features. Just like any other custom ROM or manufacturer ROM.
well yeah but the point of the video is to address what people's conception of "stock android" is. At this point there is no usable baseline, just a skeleton used to make custom versions. Not meatriding linus btw I just didn't see a problem with the video in that regard
as an average xda user i truly think linus missed the mark with this video
many viewers are gonna think what is known as "stock android" is complete garbage
Just a nerd here. AOSP being garbage now is by design. It used to be quite good without the Google stuff. Why would Google want the good functionality to be free? They got theirs, everyone else gotta work for it.
EDIT: I uhh, posted before getting far in the video.
Essay essay essay... aaand people still think why iOS is so darn popular from grandma to very tech literate nerds. Enjoy your beta dev builds with bloatware and Google all over the place.
“What these guys are thinking”
@@BocuD I didn't get this comment until the video loaded
Canadian AVGN be like:
what?
@@peterparker-zy9oe Pretty sure Linus was supposed to say "What are these guys thinking?".
its probably cut (from "i dont know what these.."). Just guessing
TIL Pixels out of the box are not actually "Stock Android".
Read the pinned comment
Indeed, do not run stock android.
@@AngelicHunk its called Pixel launcher right? Or is it something else? (I have a pixel but I can’t find what its called other than Pixel launcher)
@@ThatIceChampionI think people just called it Pixel ROM or something like that. Which also why, as mentioned in the video, there's exist a Custom ROM that's called PixelOS which aim to provide the same experience as Pixel devices to other phones.
@@807800 cool
Most of the AOSP apps haven't been updated in years, and most of them became closed-sourced Google apps.
If only you guys flashed Evolution X instead.
@@joeyhuab hi joey
This
fr
@@joeyhuab fr
@@joeyhuab hi
0:19 - watching linus still holding note 9 shows me that this phone still rocking solid,
one of the best flagship phones!
@@EdiUtomoPutra note 9 was my favorite. I wish it still got OS updates
Thank goodness too as its still my daily driver 😅
I still use it, with custom ROm
Note9 seemed to be good. I just couldn't choose it over my Note20 Ultra, though. That thing has treated me beautifully.
The stock camera is so bad because google stopped updating the open source versions of core apps like camera, contacts, messages, phone etc... which are part of the Android Open Source Project and left them untouched for years developing their Google branded proprietary versions instead. Fortunately there exist a plenty of FOSS alternatives you can install and most Custom ROMs based on stock Android do so.
Other issues happening to Linus (bluetooth, hotspot etc...) are not a problem of stock Android at all, but Linus (or someone from his team) installing a ROM that includes drivers/firmware that are not fully compatible with the device (these are usually issued by the manufacturer). I am sorry, but this has nothing to do with stock Android, but the ROM itself not being fully compatible with the phone model. Flashing a Custom ROM is not like live booting a USB with a desktop system that works on most machines with a correct architecture. Each custom ROM has to be configured specifically for every device model to work correctly.
Luckily, there's always the FOSS alternatives, which are either open source from scratch, or based on the standard AOSP apps. LOS does this pretty well. Their Aperture camera app (based on CameraX) is great, and if you have a good unofficial/official build, it has seamless zoom across all the lenses.
I am sorry I mentioned some stuff that was later acknowledged in the video, but I am a custom ROM enjoyer, so I hat to spit it all out 😂.
Anyone say MacOS Darwin?
I know you are trying to argue these are not real problems, but if a team of people could get out so easily wrong, most consumers will be in the same boat.
Stock Android is a total mess, I switched to MIUI
0:39 made in heaven
@@Sknoodle underrated comment
@@militosipac1257 at 6:27 , isn't there a taboo against nose picking ?
JoJo reference no. 12734
bro was so flabbergasted he turned into slim shady
Partial Mathers
More bars than Cadbury's
@@Sreekar617 So the FCC wont let me be,
Or let me be me at LTT,
They tried to shut us down on scrapyard wars part iii,
But it feels so empty without this segue ... to our sponsor
💀💀💀 gawd dayum
Lmfao 😭
I've been using LineageOS on my Pixel 4a for soo long, and Custom Roms are the greatest thing about androids.
GrapheneOS is more secure than Lineage
@@JoshuaCasey Yeah but it's unusable for me. CalyxOS with microG is a good compromise.
Sad that google is trying to kill them, Constantly banning fingerprints and making it impossible to use banking apps on rooted devices or custom roms
crDroid anyone?
@@destiny_02 Big no go for me because like most other custom ROMs these days it comes with Google services baked it afaik
I forsee no backlash to Linus not using a stock Pixel for a month instead. /s Edit: This is not a dig at the point of this video.
...what?
@@loganatori6117people are going to be mad he's getting an iphone
I don't think anything will happen. Pixel UI is NOT stock android and it's just bad.
@@MiGujack3 My whole family use Pixel phones and I disagree with "it's just bad". Best Android experience in a long time.
@@Lord_zeelPixel UI isn’t stock android at all. Once you tried a deegoogled rom you will never say that again
people cant tell the difference between "Stock android" and "stock rom" 😭😭 watch the full video till the end
I don't think GSI was ever meant to be used by an end user...
I don't think the point is what is intended by the manufacturers, but what certain reviewers and people screeching in said reviewers comment sections say that perpetuate "stock android and being as close to stock as possible is best." I might not even have been what was meant, but that is the message that was received.
Back in the day, Google used to allow you to download most Pixel/Nexus apps via the market on any phone. But for some apps that's no longer an option and in either case, it still meant you had to configure your phone with those Google store apps, which phone's who were supplying "stock Android" would do be default.
Welp I thought it was, so good to know it isn't now.
That’s the point of the video.
@@socramdavid So what do they meant? Which ROM is considered stock that actually fits the meaning of stock?
The key issue with Samsung is the impossible to uninstall bloatware. I don't need a Samsung browser, a Samsung App Store, or a Samsung version of Kindle, or apps. Yet Samsung keeps reinstalling these, and blocks their removal. I'd be happy with Samsung if they didn't force unwanted apps back into my device at every update.
OMG so true - I had my heart set on a fold phone as my next upgrade - then I bought a Galaxy Tablet and the almost daily battle against bloat has completely put me off ever buying anything Samsung again.
You can get rid of most of them using android developer tools from your pc. You might need to learn a few command line prompts, though. I am quite cross with Samsung for making many things so hard, but it is possible.
have you use samsung internet tho? in my experience the ads blocking is superior compared to chrome, that i used it on my secure lock mode
This is the same with all major manufacturers, unfortunately. I recently switched from Samsung to Pixel under the misconception that Pixels didn't have bloatware, but it has just as much as my old Samsung phone :(
Universal Android Debloater
This is where Android and GNU/Linux meet. Whatever distro or flavour you pick, someone out there will get mad.
Edited: GNU/Linux
Yes. They use Linux kernel.
Android is Android. How is someone reading "Android is GNU Linux" from this?
Well... yes, this :) Although... if that's where Android and Linux meet... does that mean that's also where iOS and Windows meet? Because you just have to deal with the current flavor? Oh man... no... not starting that one!
Android uses the linux kernel, so you’re have a point 😅
@@paradoxx_4221 It's so heavily modified that I really wouldn't call that Linux anymore tbh
This is what makes android so great.You can literally do whatever you want with it.
Good luck doing that with an Iphone.
Android and Linux meet in the source code first off all but I get what you mean.
And here in the comments you realize how many actualy watch videos and dont actualy pay atention/listen or completly miss the point.
Yeah, they don't even understand the purpose of this video...
They probably watch like 30 seconds on it and then let the comments fly.
Don't forget to let everyone know why Google did this. They started out as 'never do evil' and Android started out as open source, but then they slowly rolled that back and started close sourcing apps, and putting functionality in Google Play Services instead of leaving them in AOSP. Trying to develop an Android app that doesn't have AOSP functionality can be quite difficult because they give you a zillion API calls that aren't actually in AOSP Android, and a lot of devs get lazy and don't abstract away that functionality to make it easier to swap out.
Now the Alphabet Boys motto is DO EVIL - and try not to get caught
Google has made stock android a lot more bare bones than it used to be in the past. All new features are now closed source google exclusives.
stock android now is just enough of a baseline for another company to use it to start with and basically make their own version of android, it kinda makes sense that android is going more of the linux approach and is including less and less out of the box and leaving that stuff up to the makers of the phone
Typical google move - enshittify everything to increase profits for a quarter.
@@Gabu_ this is a very low IQ response. As others have said, it's basically if you want to build your own Linux based OS. You get the basic kernel and build out from there.
GSI is like the worst, it's only for development. A custom ROM is more useful. Also Google has been cutting out stuff from AOSP, many apps don't exist and is now proprietary Google Apps. Google isn't pushing AOSP. Still random AOSP video.
Click baity title yes, but their video is more of a "stock android is used as a base for manufscturers and people keep saying to 'use stock' which could mean anything" psa more than anything from what i got
@@mineland8220 the day of TouchLag is long gone.
@@mineland8220 that's my interpretation, and I've been defending them in the comments, but to be fair to the people commenting, LTT *should've* put in the conclusion of the video that GSI while technically could be called "stock android" at this point is probably a misrepresentation of what people want to say with that phrase, and collectively when talking about android phones people should probably just call pixel's version of android stock android from now on
either that or something like linneageOS but that's a very small portion of people who hang on to an old android phone and put a custom ROM on it
@@burhanbudak6041 No it is not only for development. You're referring to GSI AOSP, but there's PixelOS GSIs, Grapheneos GSIs, Pixel Experience GSIs etc. With treble patches, those can be set-up for daily usage without much hassle. GSIs were very unstable many years ago, but as someone who daily drives PixelOS GSI, it's pretty much like turning any phone into a Google Pixel.
That's literally what the video is saying. He's saying stock android is a misnomer because no such things exist anymore. Before GSI was basically pixel (or nexus), now no one uses it and everyone defaults to lineage os, evolution x or pixel experience mod.
Linus mentioning Sony Xperia is the biggest marketing their phones have ever received 💀
Now... as a 10 year Xperia user, "stock" to me = all the nice QoL stuff but no UI elements. with how interconnected everything is it's kind of crazy for anyone to believe anything is "stock" nowadays.
This is how iPhone users think all Android are
Cope 😊
@@nothingtoseehere93 The only one coping is you lmao
iphone users will say smthing like cope
I 🐑 s 😂
Iphone is designed for the average person.
Linus switching to an iPhone..? We're in a dark, dark and sad timeline.
Lmao, he just want something that works
@@Nael000 But android just works also...
@@Nael000 if that was the case he would go Samsung since that's what he's used to, he's just trying stuff out
Can't blame him. I returned my Pixel 8a and went iphone as well. I will never look back. If I need some obscure Android app I have backup phones or could buy a cheap Xiaomi.
He'll be back on samsung in a week and probably will have some story about a smart home device whose app is only available as an apk on their website and thus can't be downloaded on Iphone
It’s amazing to me how many things in that stock AOSP are basically the same as they were in stock Android 5 or 6. Like, surprisingly little has changed in eight years!
They do not have a reason to change it as no one is using it.
It's almost like Google started to hamstring stock Android as soon as they were in the hardware market...
they are when they started working of Google's own proprietary apps like messages. Before this they just used open source apps mostly
So basically "Stock Android" has become like the often ignored GNU OS, its almost purely a baseline image that other Linux distros build on top of
i'd just like to interject for a moment...
GNU? WHAT?
There is no "GNU OS". Linux distros are either build on existing Distrobutions like Debian, Fedora or Arch or build from scratch like NixOS.
@@gelbphoenix GNU is the operating system project, android isn’t gnu as it uses its own userland. Desktop linux is usually GNU. Linux by itself isn’t really an operating system, it’s just the kernel
If you mean just the kernel, GNU coreutils and a package manager of choice? Yep. Exactly.
I like Motorola's skin best, even if only for the moto gestures- the chop for the flashlight, wrist twist for the camera, holding volume up and down to move forward and backwards tracks when the screen is off. Anything that lets me change my music without needing to look at the screen is a massive plus
The skin was nice to use but in my experience from using a g100 for two years it there is still work to do. It happens quite frequently that apps just freeze up, sometimes even the whole phone and I have to force a restart. I also noticed that the phone slowed down significantly when switching from android 11 to 12. Using the fingerprint reader to unlock used to be instantanious and after the update it started to hesitate for a tiny moment. Every action felt slightly delayed. The zooming in the camera app is delayed. All of these things make the phone feel older than it actually is and is not representative of the Snapdragon 870 inside it. Updating the Os should not have this kind of penalty. After the screen broke I swichted to a used iPhone Xs which feels more responsive than the Moto (and runs the newest iOs.) Of course iPones have their own problems too, but for 156€ it was the cheapest option that had everything I needed.
In that case, you might wanna check out One Plus.
I can draw a V on an off screen to go to flashlight, or an O to open the camera app.
< and > go to start of the current and next song, respectively.
And two fingers top to bottom is pause. Three is a screenshot if the screen is on, iirc, but I just use power button and volume down for that.
@@MrNicoJac That's hard to do in your pocket. Holding the volume buttons to switch music works even through a jean or with gloves.
I do miss having moto gestures after switching to pixels.
@@bastienx8
Oh, yeah...
For in my pocket, I use the commands on my Bluetooth headset
Giving up and going to iPhone is NOT something I saw coming TBH.
Feeling like it's either rage bait or he's just sick and tired of the nonsense and wants something that "just works".
@@ts757arse I mean considering one of the few "major" reasons he couldn't use iPhone was no t9 dialing and they're finally adding it with ios18, it actually makes sense for him to finally try switching back again
it's the only sensible choice at this point tbh
Really? Linus is about as brand-fanboy as they come, so it was no shocker that he'd go with the biggest one eventually.
For real, all Android phones seem to have some random issue. Samsung devices typically have more bloatware, Pixel devices have hardware issue, and underpowered SOCs, the list goes on.
iPhones while lacking some features, just work.
Linus: iPhone is soo expensive!
Google: Say no more! Can I interest you for a 1100$ phone?
Pretty much all flagships are expensive now.
@@seanlacroixYeah but Pixel tries to be Cloud-based without cutting costs
6:07 Yup and I am finding this episode a real eye opener. I am very fond of the Xperia world with its 3.5mm audio jack and other norms.
@@marjon1703 That caught me out when he mentioned Xperia. Watching this one my 1 IV
Xperia for life!
i got an xperia 5 IV recently and the only two things i do not like is the extremely dim flash and the fact i cant set an app to open when i press the power button twice.
i used to have it set that my phone would toggle the flashlight when i pressed the power button twice, it was super convenient and was absurdly bright.
if the power went out i could just turn my flashlight on, put my phone face down so the light was facing the ceiling and the entire room would be lit by the light bouncing back down off the roof.
it was also very useful outside at night, this was a samsung A42.
honestly would go back to it if i could find another one, i gave mine to my gran as the 3g networks are getting shut down over here and she needed a new phone.
i do like the xperia 5 IV, but it cost me 5 times what i paid for my A42, i dont think its 5 times better.
@@guesswho2778 I install something called "Android Nav Bar" which allows you to re-config your 3 button nav bar and add "hold" effects to each key individually. I configured my back button to turn on flash light if held, the middle button to launch app search and the right button to take screen shots (all if held).
The flash is weak only when its constantly on, its actually very strong when taking photos ... I think Sony does this to save the flash LED from burning out. Last time I owned a Samsung it was the Note 4, and my flash LED actually burned out due to using it as a flash light for far too long than necessary - so I kind of get why they dim it, its really designed to be a "flash" and not a "flash light" which is constantly on.
@@marjon1703 I still have the LG V60 because of that
Wait before LMG discovers what Stock Linux is 😄
A kernel
no one accuses any linux distro for not being stock . unlike android users which is always their number one critic about any vendor roms
@@hehehahahmhmhm They actually do, just not in the same way. Ask any die-hard Arch fan what they think of Ubuntu, and you'd get basically the same response.
But they don't call it stock Linux, because unlike some Android users, they actually know that even Arch is just a flavor of Linux.
@@hikkamorii sorry but no. you don't get the same answer. arch fans hate ubuntu mainly because the think it is anti choice and anti privacy features. that's it it .not because they think it is not stock linux. in fact arch users run the most customized linux builds. they think ubuntu is anti freedom
9:19 - Jonathan Horst Jumpscare
New meme unlocked
1:23 Classic Linus intro. Brings Nostalgia
That's really Linux in general; if you install a generic image, you're getting a generic image. It's up to you to set it up and make it usable.
Kinda the reason why it's just not recommendable to say "just switch to Linux bro", since some just want to have it already made for them, not set it up themselves.
@@divisionic4641 i mean thats where distros come in, this video is almost like installing just the linux kernel
@@divisionic4641 There are distros that are set up and work right out of the box, like Linux Mint. I would recommend a beginner use that over something like Arch, where all you get is a command-line interface out of the box. And as someone who has fully switched to Linux, it is SO worth it.
@@divisionic4641Just give them a distro like mint
@@divisionic4641the problem with this is is nobody's telling anyone to get a bare Bones Linux distro. There are plenty of beginner distros that are a lot simpler like ZorinOS. However, even most of these aren't completely perfect at the moment. But neither is Windows these days honestly. Plenty of issues that require mild technology literacy that most people just don't have.
When 1 month of Graphene OS
honestly graphene has some of that stock AOSP jankiness.. but it's super usable. I've only run into a couple apps that don't work.
Same here, I was surprised how almost every app worked, only one didn’t.
I think the message of this video is pretty clear from the beginning.
Android stock is NOT the one on Pixel devices, and we think it is because is the one on the Google phone, but the real stock android is the one shown in this video...
Next try "Stock Windows". Windows in safe-mode without any preinstalled programs
@@vladislavkotenochkin3589 😅
Seeing the intro puns makes me happy, makes me wish it would come back for every video
Linus is getting an iPhone - armies will be shattered. worlds will burn!
oh dont you worry about that. He is gonna switch back to Android after he finds out that there are some things terribly implemented on iOS. Then he is gonna do a whole rant on WAN show on why he is switching back. The same drama since 2013
@@thunderingeagle he will be mega frustrated having to use Webkit for browsing, not being allowed by Apple to install third party apps for the stuff he's admitted to need and all the other Apple shenanigans
@@thunderingeagle ive been using the 18 beta, and it feels like a lot of the poorly implemented stuff has been fixed... Issue is, the fixed stuff in 18 just makes the other stuff that was fixed in upgrades before feel poorly implemented.
My iPhone 14 Pro Max generally speaking just works. Not sure what these terrible implementations are but I either don’t use them or don’t notice them 🤷♂️
He's going to switch back when Apple demands 30% of subscriptions that go to his platform from an iPhone like they did for Patreon.
Last year I switched to GraphenOS on the Pixel 7 and I will literally never use a different OS ever. No bloadware, full restriction over all apps. Full compatible with all banking apps it is full experience with non of the bs.
Bought a pixel 8 just for graphene OS.
Same here, GrapheneOS is awesome!
@@sandrokapellen9064 it isn't fully compatible with all banking apps though due to safetynet/play integrity not passing on graphineos due to it not being CTS certified
Also on GrapheneOS. Very good OS. I appreciate how they give you the freedom to install sandboxed Google Play Services if you wanted to.
can you use GCAM?
I've been using Nova Launcher on Moto devices for around 10 years now. I really just want an unbloated experience with a neatly organized desktop, a world clock, some upcoming events from the calendar + the few apps I use, easily accessible from the desktop. My phone has kind of looked the same for the last 10 years now. It's great, and I love the Motos twist motion gesture to activate the camera, and chop motion for flashlight.
The back button and the gesture being similiar is one of the most annoying features in current stock android
Why annoying?
@@RoseQuartz692 we want buttons!
@@qwertyuiop. As soon as I switched to Custom Rom I got used to the gesture immediately and now I don't want buttons
@@RoseQuartz692in my experience they don’t grab when you want and they will grab when you don’t want it.
Like ive been scrolling an article or product page on my 24u and it will randomly grab as a back swipe and I lose where I’m at or the site even.
@@CurtisDishman just scroll in the middle of the phone since you drag on the side of the screen to go back I have never had any problems
My main annoyance with stock Android is that there is no sound recorder app. Every OEM has to make their own, but some don't bother (Sony Grrr). Google made their own for pixels, but it is... exclusive to Pixels for no reason lol.
Of course there is a reason, to drive sales! Pixel recorder was one of the first in the industry to convert speech into transcripts. Do you think they will give that away for free?
Sony Used used to make one but seemed to stopped updating it in 2019. There used to be a scene of porting Skin-specific apps(Xperia\Pixel\Touchwiz\OneUI) into either flashable zips or universal APKs but i dont think it is as active as it was before with the exception of Gcam.
Surely there is an app for that?
That is why I dont like atock or close to stock Android. They lack a lot of basic stuff that is very useful. Yes, apps with these features do exist but I hate to search for a good alternative without ads for a thing that is included on a Galaxy phone.
Yeah, it has been a while since stock android was a thing, we should start calling each manufacturers ROM by its name, android can be a wildly different experience from one phone to another. Android became more of a foundation than a OS and that is good
It is a Generic System Image for a reason. AOSP is a framework at this point, which is built upon by manufacturers, including Google themselves, to showcase what their "vision" of AOSP. I understand your point, Linus but you should clearly rename the title to mention AOSP & GSI.
It's clickbait for sure, but this is TH-cam. Personally I'd just put scare quotes around "Stock Android."
"What these guys are thinking"!?
I customized everything about 6-7 years ago, and since then, I've been importing my settings. Of course, now and then, I update my GUI interface with some new features, but that's about it. Some smartphones have a very long battery life regardless of their small capacity. Some get a little warmer even with TH-cam and WhatsApp use. The removal of the SD card, audio jack, and charger is the real difference that has hurt me the most.
No change that to random non-rollback updates, which makes your device bad. Iike heats up and drains the battery even on standby, charging slows down significantly, and then it heats up, and the UI starts to stutter. And then, you'll use a screen guard and case cover even when the manufacturer claims the absurd durability of the phone. They make the phone so sleek and sexy, but you have to cover it in an armour-like case, which heats the phone even more.
Yeah, it is still a mixed bag.
4:30 I think it's important to highlight the screenshot shows this is a beta build. I heard a lot of the issues (mainly the ble ones) and thought to myself it sounds like the times ive done alpha/beta installs for testing new OS versions and skipped back and saw that was the case. The UI/UX issues are fair play but a beta build vs release build is not really apples to apples.
Stock Android (even Google/Nexus UI) didn't even have a functional File Manager till a few years ago.
I love how the intros are back!
6:48 watched until the end before commenting, but for someone who hasn’t dabbled in Android for years I always thought when people say “stock” it’s what Google’s Nexus/Pixels ship with, aka how Google intends you to use a phone
Motorola and some Xiaomi phones use stock android atleast one similar to pixel
3:08 "no one talks on the phone anymore Linus ya dinosaur" got me rolling on the floor
Jup google stopped supporting aosp apps and some have been thrown out of the project. Google killed stock android by creating pixel apps for everything instead
Is this different from the ASOP experience? Or did google just basically stop doing updates for the default android system?
Edit: oh... Wow they uh, really left it behind.
3:30 in all fairness to 'Droid, BlueTooth is steaming hot trash *everywhere* because, despite numerous revisions of the standard, it's just....hot garbage. Like parallel ports. Remember those?
@@k80theshade can confirm. I really don’t understand how Bluetooth sucks on android. The standard itself is very old but is being constantly improved on.
Any clue why BTLE seems to work
But it surely doesn't help when all the device specific blobs are missing in the image
Is Bluetooth's basis of design just too outdated at this point?
The ONLY good thing about parport was it made it super-easy to integrate TTL circuits to a computer back in the day.
I think this video would've been way better if you had used that version of AOSP for like a week tops, realizing it isn't mean for disly use and commenting on it, and then switched to a "stock" custom rom like LineageOS for the remaining time
I at least would've liked to know the current stage of ROMS rather than whatever this was
2:03 what are these hands man hahaha
yeah, after I started using samsung I dont think I can use anything but one UI anymore, its just good, stable and insanely customizable
At the time of "stock" Android, people felt the phones suffered lag and slowdown because the skins on the launcher were slow. This was true at an extent, but mostly it made Android experiences difficult to grasp for many and share help to those with different systems.
These days it isn't quite the case as much. Most Android is fairly cohesive with premium phones generally being different enough but built on "stock" Android to some extent.
Honestly I don't mind being on the samsung UI train. They generally introduce features that Google ends up copying and integrating into Android.
also, stock android has a bug that audio always plays at FULL BLAST for a split second, funny thing is they didnt fix it for 10 years...
00:51 thats been true a long time!! stock android lack a lot of features. And Soc have come a long way and run really well almost any skin you throw at it.
Note 9 was truly peak phone, they don't make em like they used to.
@@ShihammeDarc they do. It's called the s24 ultra. Except without SD card and IR scanner
@@borjie2727 and without the headphone jack. Without all those anyone might as well buy an iPhone or a different phone and use the note 9 as a companion.
@@borjie2727😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 keep going... we'll wait to hear the other reasons the S line is TRASH.
@@tuanld91 yup, lack of SD and jack is a dealbreaker and after 10 years I might have to go away from Samsung.
@@borjie2727 "except without the SD card and IR scanner"
You said it yourself.
Oh, and the headphone jack too.
Clever use of the hat at the beginning there, to hide his hair to avoid continuity errors
I love Sony for their stock-ish Android. Yes, there are tons of their Sony specific optimisations, features and apps, but the user interface itself is somewhat what Google has intended. Definitely not a fan of flashy asian UI's you get on pretty much any other phone.
"before you shoot the messenger" should have been "before you kill the messenger" and therefore a reference to google XD
Or in Samsung's case: "Before you reanimate the corpse of the messenger".
Zombie Samsung apps never die, even when you want them gone.
I would LOVE to see a follow up where the custom ROMs would be reviewed and/or compared in detail.
Would be helpful for people whose phones have reached (will soon reach) the EOL date
Evolution x has to be one of the BEST custom roms
As it has many spoofs for Google photos ,games ,etc....
And it passes Play integrity ❤
Who's with me ?
Nah. Too many updates require a factory reset. I also remember it being a tad too buggy for my taste.
*THANK YOU!* I hate all these people calling *GOOGLE* Android "stock".
Hate? You *hate* them? That's rough.
I didn't even know there was a stock android camera app, is there a single phone from any common manufacturer that actually ships with that?
thats the point, there isnt
point of stock android isn't that it is the best user experience. the real point is that you can install whatever launcher/customization and it doesn't clash with the vendor customization, or, at the very least, consume space while deactivated (although i do admit that this is becoming a moot point with all the gigs of storage we get these days)
Ye I used to do stock back with the first Nexus phones and customize it to hell and back. Nowadays Pixel UI is so well made though and I don't have time.
This. Although it's not the proper use for the term Stock Android, it's basically what it meant for me too. If the phone comes with vendor apps or vendor system apps that integrate tightly with the launcher app or with any other vendor app, it's not "stock android". I hate that if I want to use a different app to do something, the default app for that thing is still linked somewhere and cannot be changed. I've been using the same launcher on every phone since 2014, and I switch phones when other apps "require" the vendor launcher to operate without issues.
Don't know if this is still the issue on Samsung phones, or if the default launcher can be disabled without causing other problems with the phone. But it was a problem at one point, and I've stayed away from Samsung since then. I should probably give it a try again, as small form factor phones with good hardware are disappearing and S24 meets my requirement otherwise. Earlier Pixels, Sony and Asus phones have worked fine with a custom launcher and disabled vendor launcher. Also I cannot use custom ROMs due to the hassle with banking apps, 2FA apps, and NFC issues, those are one of the key use cases that I have for a smartphone.
Point of stock Android is that it's not meant for end users, it's meant for dev purposes, or rather the 'core OS' and ROMS are built on that... just like nobody uses "stock linux" as an end user. The Google Pixels are the closest thing to "stock" that's actually usable IRL.
I use an s24 with Nova Launcher. I've used it on all 3 phones I've owned. Much better than OneUI hands down!
@@micglou Ye that's the POINT of them but that doesn't mean stock android wasn't appealing to a lot of people. Back then I wanted ONLY the most basic stuff to come with the phone, and I'm not a developer.
Honestly, this video should have started with what's being said at 5:30 and gone into the 'let's take a look at what functionality it gives us' later.
This video is gonna confuse a hell of a lot of people that are looking at buying a "stock android" phone and think it's terrible now.
Where it's actually just pixel android or very close.
A lot of people in this comment section are trying to sound smart, but make a fool of themselves because they clearly didn't watch past the first 30 seconds.
*DivestOS* - It's like LineageOS, except it's more privacy-oriented. It has broader support than OSes like Calyx which supports only an extremely narrow number of devices, with the only mainstream/common one being Google Pixels. GrapheneOS is the same way in that it _exclusively_ only supports Pixels.
Bro just install lineage os and forget about it for years
I rooted so many phones back in the day and I learned way back then that stock Android just wasn't it. Half the features it does have were things they just copied from Samsung anyway.
Edit: Ok I just finished the video. If you're already used to Samsung then wouldn't the obvious choice be the S24 Ultra? I'm literally typing this on one and it's amazing.
Man, we really out here calling out @PhysicsGamer today, huh.
Realistically speaking, the reason why people love Stock Android or custom ROMs is because many major Android skins are filled with bloatware and ads (most notorious one being MIUI), whereas with stock Android you get to choose your own calculator, web browser, dialer, et cetera. LineageOS is also quite bare bones too, but it felt like a blessing coming from MIUI.
I used MIUI in the last 3 years and all the ads can be disabled
With stock android you can choose crappy freemium apps from the play store. The good and free ones are impossible to find, or they run on android 4.0
@@dtibor5903 If I remember correctly, that was only for the home screen, but not the apps themselves. I could be wrong though.
I went from MIUI to LineageOS and it was a breath of fresh air, no bloat, no unneccesary artificial limitations and it worked worderfully
by the way I could finally use the Google clocks app
on MIUI theres a 50/50 chance that it wont ring
@@DarkVoiderFrom03 the MIUI clock app is perfectly reliable and works fine. I don't get it why would you replace it
9:16 Noo Linus nooo
I almost started writing angry comments on the video because the idea of using GSI as a baseline for "stock" is a very huge mistake. These days, what's considered "stock" would be more along the lines of Lineage, PixelOS, PA, etc. and "non-stock" would be a any fork of those.
So I'm glad at least the leading custom ROMs were given recognition. I'm a personal user of PA recently and I love it.
Except non-stock aren't forks of those you listed. They're forks of AOSP, which is what GSI is.
They acknowledge that GSI isn't a functional experience, and the entire point is that ANY usable experience on Android is filled with custom stuff specific to that flavour of Android. One person's "stock android" is going to be completely different to someone else's. You either have a Pixel phone, or a Samsung phone, or a custom OS, but none of them are close to "stock android."
@@NabsterHax I mean, I don't think we disagree. As I've said, I almost started getting angry UNTIL they acknowledge what people actually use in the custom ROM community. Stock, Non-stock, etc. pretty much semantic arguments at this point.
1) the camera is the same camera it's been on android 5. long before gestures. first give away to the fact that it's for testing. (2) the phone is from android 5 so it's set to some other way. Bluetooth and the other things he mentioned are probably broken to the image not being for daily use. (4) the screen saver only works when charging or docked (been like that since android 4 or earlier). (5) just use the stock pixel for stock android or phones like unihertz or cubot
Just my opinion here, but this is the result of using an over customizable interface. People complain about iOS being a walled garden, but iOS is usually a fairly intuitive experience. Unfortunately, IOS 18 is headed this way. Some of us prefer the simpler interface. Regardless, great video LTT.
I'd argue that people don't prefer simpler interfaces, they prefer what they are used to and they hate change. Thus, I think your post says a lot more about you than you realize XD
Say 3 times without laughing: John Deer trying to go full walled garden is a great thing because it's a fairly intuitive experience.
Fair point, although I will say that I have had less issues handing a new less tech savvy user a new iPhone rather than an android.
GrapheneOS is not comparable to "Custom ROMs" or CalyxOS for that matter. It is a production ready OS focused on security and privacy. It's purpose is not removing Google or something as nebulous as "tracking".
It would be great if LMG went over it and garnered a full understanding of the OS.
Graphene and Calyx are for the tinfoil hatists - one of those two once told users to keep their device in a faraday bag when they werent using it. ROM's for the conspiracy theorist....
Using GSI as a daily is like using a Windows PC/Laptop without installing drivers. That's the experience of using GSI. Don't complain if something doesn't work as it should. If you want to use stock Android, you need to create an image for a specific phone, so it will install drivers specifically for that phone. LineageOS has near stock experience if I not mistaken.
Personally, I really like the experience of using stock Android, there are so many features that other vendors like Samsung put on it that I never use. I'm a simple user, as long as my phone can browsing, call, text and email, I'm fine.
Keep it up Linus, make another video about using a custom ROM esp. GrapheneOS
Why waste the effort in running a custom ROM when you can just leave your phone stock and run Nova launcher over the top of it? Security updates still work, but you get to customize everything. Win win.
not all android phones get security updates for all of time
I have also been using nova launcher for years and i love it. But it has been sold to a bigger company about two years ago and just recently they fired all staff working on nova but one person. So i doubt nova will still be as good as it is right now in a few years sadly.
8:50 can you tell what is that
@@rohithg8742 I would have to guess CyanogenMod
"Stock Android" refers to a version of the Android operating system that is free from any manufacturer or carrier-specific modifications or bloatware. Unlike devices from companies like Samsung, which often come pre-loaded with their own app stores and a host of pre-installed apps that many users find unnecessary, Stock Android offers a cleaner, more streamlined experience. It includes only the essential apps such as Phone, Messages, Calendar, and a few others, leaving it up to the user to install any additional apps they want through the Google Play Store. This results in a more efficient system, free from the clutter that can slow down a device.
My journey with smartphones started with the iPhone 3, then the iPhone 4, before switching to the Huawei Honor 8, which had a great camera for its time. After that, I moved to the Nokia 6.1, followed by the Nokia 9 Pureview. The Motorola One Zoom came next, offering the best camera quality for its price range while still providing a stock Android experience. Now, I’m using the Nothing Phone (2).
The experience of using Android can vary greatly depending on the brand of the smartphone, even if they are running the same version of the OS. Each brand might customize the software, leading to differences in how the OS feels and functions.
Yes. This is literally what the video was about.
After seeing the article on Slashdot "Google Threatened Tech Influencers Unless They 'Preferred' the Pixel" evidently Google scare tactics do not work on Linus!!!! YAY!!!!