This hits close to home, I have 3 "current generation" phones right now, and all because of the reasons you've mentioned. However where I ended up was different.
- Apple iPhone 12
- Samsung S21FE
- Pixel 7
I got the Apple because of the ecosystem, I have a ton of Mac products (Airpods, Apple Watch, Macbook, etc.) and figured it would be a natural fit. Apple has weird restrictions that make me unhappy and generally there are not much open source apps to use. I particularly dislike being forced to use iCloud for certain syncing services (e.g. Obsidian).
Next I picked up a discounted openbox S21FE because I wanted to get back into the Android ecosystem, it was very nice device. Camera takes nice shots, really beautiful screen and high refresh. I did not enjoy the intrusive apps that forced themselves and couldn't be uninstalled. Google Play and other services felt intrusive and I had no expectations of any privacy. I use pihole at home and notice this device consistently being the topped blocked device. Outside of Google, Samsung themselves are pretty abhorrent at forcing you into their ecosystem.
Lastly I picked up a Pixel 7 and immediately went with GrapheneOS. It was not as rosy as I would've imagined, without Google services a majority of the apps (particularly social ones) do not work, and in general I was struggling to "find the open source version of app. There are supplements to Google play services such as MicroG but that felt more like a work around than just a fully working device and ecosystem. I will admit out of all 3 devices this had little to no blocked content on my Pihole server, and the battery life was the best of the 3.
Eventually I settled back onto my Apple device (iPhone 12), as the watch is a crucial part of my day to day, and unfortunately there are no well made Android watches. I tested out a Galaxy Watch 4 for a while, but even that was a far cry from my Apple Watch.
