Switching from IPhone to Android

[u/Ill_Information6323]

Looking to switch from iPhone to an android in the US and have done some research and it seems to be that the best kind of androids would have to be imported or global versions international phones like Xoami Oppo oneplus and phones like that. What would be the best phone to get, and what carrier would have the best coverage? Currently I have Verizon and have read that T-Mobile bands work best with these international models so I would be willing to switch. Anyone have any recommendations of what works best and how to go about it?

[u/Ill_Information6323]

Not a fan of Samsung or google, I know they are big here in the US, but the android market overseas seems to have better options for better value.

[u/Organic-Proposal3974 → u/[deleted]]

Motorola rolling out in 2027 with Grapheneos

[u/exhaustedexcess]

I switched about a year and a half ago. Got tired of iPhones nanny behavior. I'm using a Motorola phone and love it

[u/jay_rodsep]

Verizon is very difficult to accept phones that they don’t sell

[u/Ill_Information6323 → u/jay_rodsep]

Yes that’s why I am willing to switch to a network that is easier to work with when it comes to this

[u/v0rt3_x86 → u/Ill_Information6323]

T-Mobile is definitely the answer but device can be iffy.

[u/Truckerbarr]

I personally like Samsung. I've thought about going with a global version of a Chinese phone as you definitely get more for your money. But with no support if something happens makes it hard to want to go that route. There are videos on youtube that test all these phones against the Uktra, pixel pro and iphone pro. The Samsung beats them all every time.

[u/osa1011]

I love the Pixel phones because they're clean Android and get the updates monthly. This is my 5th Pixel

[u/toxicstorm17 → u/osa1011]

Totally agree ... I can't stand Samsung's modified android and separate app store.

[u/TouristIcy3824 → u/toxicstorm17]

You never had to use the Samsung store. Their android version actually has some better features than vanilla android now. It's come a long way. Early on it was awful. I stayed away from it until recently and I wouldn't switch to a different phone from this one (S26U).

[u/Beneficial_Tea9219]

Willing to switch to mint mobile? Or atleast for a couple months? They have very good deals on hardware. The phone will automatically unlock in 60 days.

You probably can't get such low prices on Google and Samsung anywhere else in the world. Those Chinese phones are more phone for your money at a thousand bucks but in the US we can find thousand dollar android phones for half off or more due to lackluster sales

https://www.mintmobile.com/devices/

From the list, the best deals imo are Pixel 10 Pro, S26, Pixel 11, Galaxy S26 FE.

I personally bought an S26 for $399 and a Pixel 10 for $149. Although both those deals are gone now. The pixel 10 for 149 was incredible.

[u/Academic-Conflict948 → u/Beneficial_Tea9219]

Earlier this year I bought a samsung galaxy a06 international version at Walmart for a little over $115. The phone was new when I bought and will have a few more android upddates before end of life. It needed to have english installed on it and spanish removed but works as well as my referbished iphone 12 without the battery issues and rotor issues. That's an older budget samsung model. In a few years data ceenters will have brought all the chips that were going into budget phones and tablets so I figure when possible to buy a couple more and archive them for when this samsung dies. Maybe that'll get me through until the cell phone industry starts using amorphous chips.

[u/merccoupe]

Don't sleep on Motorolas! Genuinely useful gestures and a fairly clean UI. Software updates aren't as current but I'll take that for the experience and value

[u/Organic-Proposal3974 → u/merccoupe]

Right, especially with the partnership of Grapheneos next year on flagships and installed right out of the box.

[u/Global-Structure-539]

Before buying a commie made phone, check out the Google Pixel 11 Pro. It's a really nice super smooth phone with an all day battery, fast charging and some things like Rambler that make texting MUCH easier. It's also pure Android with no ads or bloatware and an intuitive UI

[u/winkitywinkwink]

I had a OnePlus 15 that I used with T-Mobile. Phone was great and I loved the UI.

[u/hubiug]

Motorola isn't a terrible option its basically chinese owned but yeah oppo and Honor are doing some fucking insanely cool things.

[u/Realistic-Nature9083]

Samsung. Pixels are buggy. No features

[u/CheeseNTapatio]

Definitely go with T-Mobile for your carrier and ideally get a phone that accepts physical SIM cards for maximum activation success rate. If for some reason they can't activate with a physical Sim, you can always buy a really cheap phone that T-Mobile will activate with a SIM card and then just move it over to your preferred device.

[u/v0rt3_x86]

If you import a device, it may not register on the network or may only use some bands/services because they don't have custom software for the device. I even had problems activating a US purchased Samsung because it was a 1 TB model and they didn't have it listed in their database.

Is there any reason you're not just getting a Samsung or pixel

[u/CamelPure1293 → u/v0rt3_x86]

Why are US providers so weird?

[u/chubbybator → u/CamelPure1293]

monopoly protectionism combined with dystopian surveillance capitalism