I used to love Android but I want to move, and I don't know if it's the right thing.

Get a Pixel, install GrapheneOS and you're done.
- I would have gotten a pixel years ago
  No expandable storage
  
  The specs are also mediocre
- can't wait for my s22u to die so i can do that
  
  You can wait for a cat to fall into a garbage can or you can push a cat into a garbage can and get it over with.

iOS is probably the worst choice if you want to sideload apps. I would recommend sticking with Android and run your Samsung into the ground (maybe flash a custom ROM?) before getting something like a Fairphone.
Besides, what do you want to be "passionate" about in mobile phones? To me, they're just tools for browsing the web, playing games, and staying in contact with friends and family while on the go; anything extra is superficial.
- Actually I love to testing modded app, rooting, changing roms, with samsung and oneplus I lost this because install a custom rom brings a lot of issue with banks, camera (damn camera2 api) and so on almost all modern phone is not convenient to go to a custom rom
  
  so you are choosing to go from having issues with those things to not being able to do it at all? I don't understand. isn't finding/solving the issues part of the testing you mention?
  
  I dont think its possible -or easy- to install custom roms on samsungs since they dont allow unlocking the bootloader

Pixel Phone with GrapheneOS is simply the best solution available right now.
- And remember kids. Buy your pixel second hand
  
  Just be careful. OEM lock can fuck you over big time
- Checking in from GrapheneOS
- word.
  Am writing this on one in my second VPN only user profile. It's like having two phones
- in the selected list of countries 😿
  
  I got my pixel online before it was officially available in my country. If you can't find anything locally you can message sellers from other countries on ebay or use a proxy store like this guy link who offers worldwide shipping.

my girlfriend has iOS, and every time I want to forward an nsfw gif she doesn't see it
Say what? There’s no content censoring that I’m aware of. I’ve had no issues looking at all kinds of NSFW/NSFL content.
Regardless, you’re likely not going to enjoy the lack of modified apps and game piracy; I don’t do either of those. Maybe it’s possible but you’ve gotta jump through so many hoops IMO it wouldn’t be worth it.
Zero issues with NSFW though, that’s bizarre to me. There’s screen time web content filtering but I believe that only affects safari.
- My partner can't view webp/webm content on ios either. It's a real pain once in a while.
  
  Yeah but there's a difference between'doesn't support webp' and 'blocks porn'
- I can tell you that there are channel marked as NSFW that share video and gif and if I send it to my gf, on her phone (even with nsfw enabled) she get the message "this channel is used to share pornographic material" while on android I can see everything.
  
  Apple did something a while back to limit nsfw stuff on iOS. There was a setting in discord that you had to change to see nsfw stuff and some communities you had to join it from the desktop before you could view it on the phone.
  https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/04/ios-users-and-only-ios-users-face-nsfw-content-ban-on-discord-app/
  I’m remembering more now, Apple had a policy that was like we might block your app if it’s for nsfw. So some apps got worried and limited nsfw stuff on iOS.
  
  What do you mean by channel, like on Telegram?
  This is a region specific Telegram setting if so, it’s not iOS. Tell her to disable the adult content filter.

there is no android phone that I am passionate about,
Not what you asked for:
A phone is a tool which should enable you to do stuff. Be passionate about friends, hobbies, art, not a piece of plastic.
Being forced to use iOS (work phone) and Android (Samsung, also work), both suck IMHO but Android sucks less.
My next Android will be a Pixel, as others suggested custom roms are the way to go, but even vanilla Android is more functional/open/practical for my needs than iOS.
I would never buy Apples shit with my own money: Dumped down, locked down and in the end you are renting a device from Apple to pay fees for their Appstore and Cloud offerings and vendor lock in. No thanks.
- I will add that, after getting my first Pixel as my previous phone, I've found the Google vanilla Android experience is better than Android on other carriers that fill the phone with bloat that you can't get rid of without rooting.

iOS is way too locked down. Granted, it depends on what you do and what you need, but since you're asking in this community yeah.. not the best choice.
Honestly just get a Android phone that's just pure Android OS and nothing else, you don't have to deal with the added junk that Samsung or whoever want to add on top of the OS. e.g. Google Pixel is quite excellent for this. And even still, if you end up wanting a different OS try installing GrapheneOS & see how it goes.
- I really want to jump on Pixel, because, again I hate how iOS is locked for everything. but I hate in the same way that G2 seems to overheat. I didn't know grapheneOS this is interesting...
  
  Pixel phone with GrapheneOS, it's an unbeatable solution. Rock solid, reliable, safe & secure and private. A lot of people mentioned Pixel 8 gen to be really with very long-term support (about 7 years if I not mistaken), so that's really worthy!
  Edit: typo
  
  I've been using two different (refurbished) Pixel phones with CalyxOS for over 3 years now. It is a really great experience :) And the photos the phones can take are great, too!
- *cries in s23 ultra

There are other mobile OSs besides Android and iOS. That being said, iOS is one of the most locked-down restrictive platforms on the planet, and any "freedom" you have now can be taken away in a single update as soon as Apple gets an angry letter from Nintendo or the RIAA or whatever.
- This comment has definitely stopped me from wanting to switch to iOS, I can't do it, if I don't sail the high seas I don't feel comfortable, I only spend my money where I have a grain of apparent freedom

Fairphone 4 with eOS, escaping Google and Apple's duopoly is quite liberating and not as hard as I thought it would be. Yeah, eOS is technically Android, but deGoogled.
https://e.foundation/

Long time Samsung user. Get a Pixel 8. Install Obtainium. Use it to install Neo Launcher and 99% of the apps you probably use. Or just switch to GrapheneOS. You will be happy again.
I also found filly changing my layout helps. My daily calendar, task list, and clock are the only things on my first home screen.
- +1 for GrapheneOS
  
  Agreed, grapheneos is great
- Obtainium
  Didn't know about obtenium. I think pixel 8 seems the only good choice also if it's pricey and I'm afraid that is a lot smaller than the s22+ that I think is a right size
  
  Yea, they have gotten pricey. I ended up going down in phone size instead of getting the bigger 8, really like being able to reach all the way across the phone again. Using a tablet for reading things probably made a difference here, though.
- Filly? What does that mean in this context?
  
  I think they typoed "fully"

I use a Pixel and would recommend one. I dont have much experience with apple devices but I've heard of people using https://sideloadly.io/ to sideload apps on iphones. No idea how well it works if at all.

Samsung is garbage IMO, and OnePlus has been getting worse for years. Pixels offer the smoothest experience. Nothing phones are really nice too.
Wdym about the gifs? there should be nothing stopping you from sending those on any device.
Sideloading is possible, but there's more hoops to jump through than on Android. Plus an overall smaller amount of apps available to sideload.
Piracy depends on what you're pirating. TV/Movie wise you'll be fine, as well as ROMs for the few emulators iOS has (relative to android). I doubt you'll have any luck with apps or mobile games.
- Wdym about the gifs? there should be nothing stopping you from sending those on any device.
  I forward gif from channel that maybe are marked as NSFW, I know that also some content creator makes 2 channel on telegram because if they are marked as NSFW are not shown on ios anymore.
  Pixel are really expensive and I read that the 7 pro gets really hot, and I don't like it, while the 8 it's a bit small after the s22+
  
  Dude, Pixels of any generation compared to iPhone are actually cheap. iPhone are the most expensive overrated phones ever made.
  
  Like the other guy said, used/refurbished pixels are pretty good deals. The overheating is a bit overblown, yes some people get a bad device but you can just return it if it's really bad. My experience with the pixel 7/ 7 pro is that it's very smooth and don't notice any overheating even in hot climate, and Android 14 and also the upcoming 15 updates helps with heat and battery significantly.
  
  Pixels second hand are decently cheap from my experience
- Some sideload services offer paid games for free

Xiaomi. Or poco, redmi... Same stuff. For 200 bucks you get awesome phones and you can usually always remove stock and install LineageOS. They are all freely uockable and still under warranty after that.
Get a model near its end of market life, buy new the oldest you can find... Unlock, install LineageOS, enjoy.
I bought my Poco X3 NFC for 160€ 4 years ago and still rocks today with LineageOS 21 (Android 14).
(It usually take 6 months to 1 year for each new model to get LineageOS support, so don't buy the latest model Also worth looking if there is official support on LineageOS before buy, or at least some unofficial ports).
- Asus Zenfone are nice as well
  
  Can you unlock them easily and still have valid warranty as well? That would be a great point
- Get a model near its end of market life, buy new the oldest you can find
  This is a very good advice for someone who is buying a new phone to install a custom ROM on it, since they are indepandant effort they need some time to hack things and find workarounds
  
  Yes, I am a maintainer for a 4 years old device, and I would love to be able to buy it new today! New battery and all.

First I would say best Android right now, is a pixel with custom ROM installed.
Sidload: there exists modified apps for iPhone. To install them you have 3 options (if not in EU) you can sideload using your personal free apple dev account, there you are limited to 3 different apps and you have to reinstall them every 7 days to keep them working, if you pay apple 100$ a year, you can upgrade to a "real" apple dev account without the limitations. Easiest way to self sign apps using above methods would be AltStore application. The third way is Sideloading using a service, that uses enterprise certificates to distribute such apps, those services are either expensive (e.g. BuildStore) or they inject ads into the apps you sideload (sorry, you have to "google" yourself).
I had no issues with NSFW on Reddit, Lemmy and discord yet, 🤔 for discord I don’t know if it changed since I used it. NSFW on telegram is blocked in the iOS app, but the webApp of telegram can be added to the homescreen and then it feels like an App
I use the sea via the self hosted arrr apps and have added the webUI of each to my homescreen, alternatively you can control your arrr apps using LunaSea app. For streaming, I use plex and jellyfin which both work great on iOS
For youtube, there were some modded apps, but I just went with premium via India, because that was more convenient.
I block ads on my phone by routing my internet through my server running adGuard and on device I use 1blocker as backup (since i payed for lifetime long time ago)

I have recently gotten an iPad, because my carrier had a banger of a deal (30% off on the 2024 Air, 48 months payment no interest) and my Huawei tablet was getting long in the tooth, so I jumped.
I have owned Android since the first Galaxy (no number), tablets since the first 7" Galaxy Tab.
I have gone through a few tablets, 3-4 Samsung, Lenovo, Huawei, a couple of no names, and I got the iPad, because for tablet things is still the reference. Best experience hands down.
Would I get an iPhone? NO WAY.
The iPad is an occasional use device. I use it for media consumption, some social media (not much of a user) and for graphics stuff with the Affinity suite, which BTW is reason enough to get an iPad if you do design/photo. It's the device for when the laptop is too cumbersome, or overkill. It's great to take notes, scribble, sketch. It's awesome to edit pics on the go, which I do a surprising lot.
But.... Apple limits what I can do. Too much.
Would I accept the constraints of iOS in my main electronic device? No. I can live with the iPad's constraints because I have a super capable phone (a 4 year old Xiaomi which is truly fantastic), which I can tune as I wish, and because it's use case is fairly well defined. I would not compromise with my phone. Simple things like changing the launcher, what goes on my lock screen like alternate number / emergency contact, or whatever clock I want, or the keyboard, or installing apps from wherever I want, or rooting and changing the ROM (not all phones) or not dealing with iCloud bullshit, or having proper Firefox with extensions, or torrenting, or any of the tweaks, modifications, or whatever that make my Android MINE.
Just search for "things that iphones can't do". You'll have reading for an afternoon.
- Same here. iOS is so severely limited compared to Android it would be unusable to me as an phone.
  As a tablet I use it 99% for streaming apps (music and series) that I put on while cooking or doing chores, 1% as a backup device for things like access to my bank app.
- THIS ^
  Thank you so much, I didn't think about Firefox, I'm a firefox user on every system I have, and I rely a lot on extensions. And I have my little server with sonarr, radarr, jellyfin and syncthing that is not so much, but it works and I had fun making it, I don't want to lose the joy of do what I want with my phone.

iOS is probably the most locked down option you can pick. The EU even told Malus to open it up and Malus tried to fuck around. Now they might be in for some monetary justice, but that might take a year or two. Emulation was even only recently allowed, but only of old shit like Windows XP.
Android is still the most open, mainstream, phone OS out there. Get yourself a phone that can run a ROM like LineageOS, eOS, FairPhone or (if you want to give Google more money for surveillance) a Pixel to put GrapheneOS on it (easy process, you just need a browser and USB-C cable). That'll get you more freedom to keep the phone alive longer and optionally become more private (if you can learn to live without Google).
To save money, you don't even need to buy a new one. Get a refurbished phone. They are often 100-200€ cheaper than new phones and are sometimes as good as new.
iOS will lock you in, give you less options, and cost you loads to boot.
Anti Commercial-AI license

Why not Nothing, if you don't mind my asking?
I've also thought about Fairphone as my next one.
And I've thought about an iPhone like this too - if you have adblocking via a home router or pihole or some such then why not? Piracy could be done indirectly and just play/stream from Jellyfin or some such. But my thoughts are not well enough along to be of any use to you there, just to say that your ideas don't seem crazy to me. Buttery smooth operation, actually pleasant to hold and use (not burning a hole in my hand after not even a minute of standard web browser usage as my own S22 does, probably bc of my Blokada VPN adblocker?), so long as the downsides can be mitigated.
Pixels seem to be to be entirely too imbalanced to me to include a super expensive camera that I barely use and barely any stats that I actually do (game emulators or whatever) - I really want a Nexus except they don't make those. Even OnePlus doesn't make those flagship killers anymore. I doubt they exist at all tbh.
Another idea is to get like an old OnePlus 7-ish device and just immediately replace the OS with a custom ROM. Fast charging is both good and bad - great utility but leads to heat issues later in the battery's life.
I almost just want a cheap piece of crap dumb phone at this point, so that I don't have to spend hundreds of hours researching every damn thing that the manufacturers are trying to do to me and ways to get around them without leaving (literal!) scorch marks on my hands.:-( But I also want Google Maps and maybe an Uber app in an emergency so that's what holds me back.
So with that I think I've recommended just about literally everything now in this comment... :-P
- I almost just want a cheap piece of crap dumb phone
  Looked into a KaiOS device? Not entirely dumb, GMaps is only the web version so no voice navigation etc.
  But might be something of interest to ya?
  
  This does sound quite cool!
  
  KaiOS
  It looks interesting - thanks for the tip!:-)
- My Nothing is the most unstable Android device I've ever owned and they don't ever actually fix anything just come out with childish gimmicks.
  I think the last one was Chat Gpt integration which turned out to just be a widget that launches chatgpt if you manually install it and even that only worked for a couple of weeks and chatgpts own widget is better so what was the point.
  
  YIKES!? So it's a marketing gimmick then? Not the ChatGPT, that's obviously one, but the Nothing phone itself? So sorry to hear that:-(, but at least you are spreading the word so as to help others avoid that for themselves.:-)
  I do have higher hopes for the Fairphone though.

Have you looked at Sony phones? I recently switched to the Pixel Fold from a 1 Mark IV. Sony phones are some of the best IMO.
- Sony excels at product, sucks at marketing. Their phones are truly fantastic.
  
  How? Even though sony makes camera lenses, their smartphone cameras are terrible compared to the competition and their own standalone cameras
- OMG I was a Sony user long time ago, Xperia X was so so beautiful!

If you feel like tinkering and walking around with a brick, you can try a DIY raspberryPi Phone - https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-smartphone-ourphone
https://github.com/evanman83/OURS-project

read the megathread. rentry.co/megathread
Mobilism is a source for pirated ios apps, but it's quite limited. I agree with the people mentioning pihole, but if you have to block ads on-device change the dns settings and/or use brave browser, which has the most adblock capabilities on iOS. Altstore is an alternative appstore (AltStore PAL in europe costs 1,50 a year in europe iirc) which has alot of cool apps and allows sideloading of ipa files on-device. I generally do recommend a pixel with grapheneOS, though I haven't tried it myself yet.
Edit: Forgot to mention some of the downsides of AltStore, which includes needing to refresh the app once a week wirelessly or wired via a computer running Altserver

On mobile you have 4 choices :
Stock Android, the worst you can get, simply not use it
iOS, as worst as android but with better UI
Degoogled Android, good choice, avail able on many devices 👍
Linux phones, the best but in early development and only available on some devices only

I used to do side loading on iOS for a modded YouTube app (uYou+) but now I just use YouTube in the browser with AdGuard and Vinegar extensions. There’s ways to sideload and auto refresh the certificate that don’t need you to connect the phone to a computer which apparently work pretty well (I used AltStore which was pretty annoying because it doesn’t do that).
Usually I think you just have to enable NSFW on a computer/via the browser for it to work in the app. At least that how it is for Telegram iirc. Generally there shouldn’t be a problem accessing anything.
No idea, the only thing I play on my phone is Shattered Pixel Dungeon and I bought that

- Chinese companies steal your data
  Try Pixel
  lol
  Putting GrapheneOS on the Pixel is good advice though
  
  Pixels are arguably the most private android since you only get Google tracking. With other androids you get Google tracking on top of all the other tracking

For nsfw I use Quix but its shareware
For youtube I use Yattee
I don’t use reddit since some of us moved to lemmy
For gaming I use RetroArch
I don’t know how are things with sideloading

Funny, I followed the same exact course. IPhone 2-5 then switched to Samsung after 5. I feel like they had a strong edge at that time and it was getting to be more and more of a PITA to jailbreak the iphones then. Pixel w graphene sounds intriguing but I can't imagine it's without headaches. If you are already sideloading things frequently though you might be the type to not mind some of the extra steps graphene will demand. I wouldn't blame anyone for going with Apple right now - I don't think the Android benefits are as strong as they used to be. At the same time, I don't see any attractive reason to switch since for me it would mean more cost and dealing with the frustrations of an ecosystem switch without any clear reward in return.
- good answer thank you, the problem is that if I have to sideload every week it could be an issue for me. My concern is about youtube, because I watch so much vanced, reddit (that I still read but I'm writing here when I can), and the freedom to see nsfw. I love to try games and on the high seas I can find a lot of apk but I don't know if its the same on iOS.

Have you looked at Sony phones? I recently switched to the Pixel Fold from a 1 Mark IV. Sony phones are some of the best IMO.
- Came here to say, why is OP dealing with all these bloatware companies? Samsung is the Apple of Androids - decent hardware decent OS for those who like it, but ridiculously bogged down with prevention features.
  I also have the Sony Xperia 1 IV and it's been stellar. Lineage support if I don't want the main Android, otherwise I'm pretty much free to do whatever I want on the phone. Plus I actually have a headphone jack still and an SD card slot.
  
  Sonys have the stupid 21:9 aspect ratio that's like a tv remote. Camera also sucks vs the competition despite sony making the lenses and their own standalone cameras

The telegram thing is caused by telegram itself
Login with a pc and disable safety filters for your account and you’ll be fine
iirc the play store version of telegram is the same as the App Store version, but on android maybe you downloaded it directly from the telegram website (?)
Anyway, safety filter can be disabled

Sideloading is quite bad. If you're in the EU, I know you can use AltStore PAL, which costs money (~€1.50 a year), but all you'll be getting is emulators, virtual machines, clipboard managers, and torrent clients.
There is another method for sideloading that works anywhere and lets you download modified apps, but it is very limited, tedious, and probably insecure. I've done it, it's not worth it. Better to stay on android or use a browser with adblock or something.
I don't think iOS has any specific limits to do with NSFW stuff, I've never heard of anything anyways.
Pirating games is probably not going to be worth it either since you have to sideload apps with the second method.
Other types of piracy are probably fine. If you have AltStore PAL you can get a torrent client and an emulator.

Wait WHAT BLOCKS ON SIDELOADING for Samsung?? I'm not in the loop
- Normally it's blocked by default which is pretty easy to get around (It's just a setting toggle) but apparently Samsung added a second "safety" autoblocker to a recent update. (Which can also be turned off, so I'm not sure what all the fuss is about, aside from being a mild inconvenience.) https://www.androidauthority.com/enable-sideloading-one-ui-6-1-1-3463446/
  
  Interesting. I don't like this at all. Remember AT&T tried this with locked phones (or something like that I believe) where unknown sources was completely gone?

Sideloading apps on iOS has gotten a lot easier. I use sideloadly. It has to connect to your computer (wirelessly) once a week but does this automatically in the background. I’m still running Apollo, the best Reddit iOS app this way.
I have YT premium through Sri Lanka for $3/mo. Sponsorblock works in safari.
ROM apps like delta are in the App Store now. I have no idea about phone gaming otherwise.
Never ran into any content filtering.
If your gf uses iOS try it out there first and see how you like it.
New iPhones release on a pretty strict schedule each September so even if you don’t want the new model best to wait for older ones to be discounted.

Ever tried custom ROM?

Ive use sideloaded youtube thats ad free, apollo for reddit to this day, telegram nsfw stickers, chats, everything, i havent pirated games but i wouldnt sideload a pirated game cuz that seems like a recipe for viruses (for android too). Roms and emulators are fine and easy to play now
- How are you still using Apollo 👀
  
  Sideloaded it using https://sidestore.io/

Welcome to Linux for Mobile.
The next generation OS for keeping your smartphone private and your conversations (kinda) secure.
It's "next generation", because we probably won't have a good enough solution in the lifetime of the current generation's people.
But if you have both: enough money to buy an extra fairphone for testing and the time and ability to program drivers, please consider it.
- As much as I love Linux for mobile idea, it doesn't have a lot of apps that people rely, like banking or government related stuff.
  
  I am a desktop person.
  My main reasons for using a smartphone instead of a phone, are:
  GPS Maps. This is something I most probably won't be able to contribute to, while at the same time, I need it a lot.
  UPI (Unified Payments Interface). I can manage with paper money, but this is just too useful. If Linux mobile were to pick-up, I think I could manage to get it supported by the Govt.
  WhatsApp, because no matter how much I don't want to, others, including workplace teammates, will make that a requirement.
  Until these requirements are met, I will associate Linux mobile with words like, "next" and "tomorrow".
  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- No

Uuh. I wouldn't do it. As far as I know iOS is still pretty locked down and that won't change.