He asks, in a FOSS community.

It’s Fisher Price, it does not let me do poweruser things.

I recognize that they currently have basically the most refined hardware on the market. However: No other device I own is in the Apple ecosystem. Not one. So the benefits are just not there.

quite frankly the benefits of owning an iPhone are kinda garbage unless you fully buy into the Apple ecosystem for full intercompatibilty. Trying to interact with other Androids, Windows, Linux machines is just pain. Otherwise, it’s just a slightly better built, slightly better specced, very much more locked down phone like every other phone. It does phone things. Not worth the premium.

custom roms, launchers, sideloading, rooting

Lmao why the fuck would I do that? You say it like it’s the thing to do

There’s a lot of features on a pixel that I’d miss out on in an iphone.

However, the biggest is the back gesture.

I love the back gesture, I just swipe from the side to go back a page instead of reaching allll the way to the top left to go back.

I can also actually develop on this without paying $2,000 for a Mac.

I prefer the openness of android as well.

Price and closed ecosystem. (closed for users and devs)

Apple, iOS, and the iPhone.

Why should I downgrade?

Apple’s stuff is:

• Locked down hard, meaning you get completely vendor-locked-in, and you can’t install alternative OS (there is none I think) or even apps from different sources without voiding warranty or using unsupported, unreliable hacks like jailbreaks for specific models.
• Privacy-invading. Sure, not as bad as proprietary Android distros, but still far from privacy-respecting
• Account-bound. Everything is tied to your Apple account. To even set up or use the product you need an account.
• As proprietary and closed source as it gets
• Ridiculously overpriced, so very low value for the money
• The company is known for its anti-competitive and monopolistic, even mafia-style behavior (e.g. when insisting on their 30% cut for all apps, insisting that apps use the in-app-purchasing system and not allowing “subscriptions from outside of Apple’s ecosystem”, stuff like that. If app developers don’t comply with ridiculous rules, they get their apps taken down, and since the AppStore is the only source for apps, this means they have 100% control and can kill any app which they don’t like or which they perceive as competition for Apple’s own apps.

Use GrapheneOS. It’s a secure, fully privacy-respecting open source distro of Android (based on the open source Android) without any Google services/apps by default, but with full Android app compatibility.

I bought a flip phone (Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3) a year ago, and it’s so much more comfortable to have in my pants pockets that I feel like I will never buy a non-flip phone again…

But also what everyone else says: customizability, etc. I’m using Tasker to run automated tasks, and KLWP to essentially program my own live wallpaper.

I like my phone, I have more control over it, I like that it’s not made in ways to punish me for fixing it, I don’t trust Apple, and it cost 300$ instead of costing more than my current car

Why would I want an inferior device?

Nothing. I just do not want to and don’t see any positives in me switching.

Right now I’m using a custom ROM, ~10 magisk modules, 2 Xposed modules and a handful of other things that require root… My phone is almost 5 years old and I am on the latest Android version with no signs of community support stopping. Half my apps are open source, and the paid, proprietary ones are actually affordable hobby projects (and not VC backed startups) with one time payments and worth the price.

I can load up a non-Android Linux distro on it and everything except the camera will work. Mainline kernel, too.

And I didn’t need to take out a loan to buy it.

Moronically overpriced hyped product which misguides humanity into capitalism and surveillance