So if Nexus is not an option...what is Plan B?

[GTaudiophile]

I am getting ready to ditch my aging Samsung Galaxy Nexus after MWC. It has fought the good fight but it's time for it to go. I really like the bare-bones / stock Android OS and I love that I got a few "free" OS upgrades over the years. But the Nexus 6 is not for me in regards to size.

So what is plan B? Which non-stock /custom OS do you prefer? See the poll and please vote!

Edit: I am a T-MOBILE customer.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I haven't tried one yet. But I hear the Moto X is pretty close to stock.

 

[sweenish]

No poll.

Motorola.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Poll added.

 

[Commodus]

Motorola for the near-stock experience, closely followed by HTC (which is simply well-done). Samsung is getting better, but it still has that kitchen sink approach to software design.

 

[mikeymikec]

Nexus 5?

- edit - I bought one for my wife in the last two weeks, but I had to wait a while for them to have more in stock. Currently they don't have any stock according to play.com, though I would have thought that if they completely ran out of inventory that they would have taken it off sale completely.

 

[paperwastage]

Nexus 5?

- edit - I bought one for my wife in the last two weeks, but I had to wait a while for them to have more in stock. Currently they don't have any stock according to play.com, though I would have thought that if they completely ran out of inventory that they would have taken it off sale completely.

guess on Verizon, so no nexus 5...

should add an option: leave verizon (and perhaps grandfathered unlimited data) to get a nexus 5

or moto x dev edition for that unlocked bootloader (and clean stock rom if you choose to stick to stock)

 

[soccerballtux]

Lg g2 or yeah leave verizon

 

[mikeymikec]

Huh. I just buy my phone separately as my needs for calling/texting/mobile data don't match up (in terms of phone providers' phone packages) with how fast/nice a phone I want.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Nexus 5?

- edit - I bought one for my wife in the last two weeks, but I had to wait a while for them to have more in stock. Currently they don't have any stock according to play.com, though I would have thought that if they completely ran out of inventory that they would have taken it off sale completely.

They have zero stock of all phones at the Google Play store every time I check it. I don't know if I want to play that game for yesterday's phone.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I am on TMO. Not going anywhere.

 

[blackdogdeek]

I really like CyanogenMod 11S on my OPO.

 

[poofyhairguy]

If ROMing is out of the picture a Moto X.

If you don't mind roming a M8 with a GPe ROM.

 

[Graze]

I dont like the size of the Nexus 6 but where it comes to future updates and use of roms, little would have it beat. Because of this it would be my future phone.
The Nexus 5 would have been second to that but you are on Verizon.

 

[Trader05]

I recently picked up a Nexus 5 used. The only complaint I have is the battery life coming from an iPhone 6 Plus (iOS 8's bugginess really got to me even though the battery life was great). I clean installed 5.0.1 and love Lollipop. There's also rumors for a maintenance update of 5.1 coming in March. I can't stand waiting for updates through carriers so the Nexus line is for me.

Side note: Even though I had a 6 Plus, which is borderline too big for me, the Nexus 6 is definitely to wide for my hands.

If updates and capacitive buttons aren't an issue for you, check out the OnePlus.

 

[IGemini]

I really like CyanogenMod 11S on my OPO.

This. CM12S is due for release on the OPO by this time next month.
Nexus 5 would be my second choice.

Started on T-Mo, switched to StraightTalk (AT&T).

 

[ThisIsChrisKim]

I personally think CM12 (and CM11 for that matter) are still very rough around the edges compared to OEM software releases. In general, I think they've not got as solid of a grasp of the hardware/kernel is most OEMs and it takes a while to iron out a lot of hardware issues. I didn't have nearly the same experience as with my Nexus 5 on that front.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Seems like a lot of people are willing to buy a one-year-old N5 just for the 'privilege' of stock Android.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Seems like a lot of people are willing to buy a one-year-old N5 just for the 'privilege' of stock Android.

Despite similar hardware to the G2 it carries a large premium on Swappa for that reason.

 

[mikeymikec]

Seems like a lot of people are willing to buy a one-year-old N5 just for the 'privilege' of stock Android.

Not ONE YEAR OLD?!?

Next we'll be wearing leopard skins while worshipping fire gods. /s

Seriously though, it's the only Android phone I've used that doesn't show some signs of laggyness. When I want to use my phone, I want it to work quickly and smoothly. As one might expect, it's as fast as when I first bought it, so whether it's one year old or five doesn't really make any difference to me.

 

[zerogear]

Motorola, Sony, HTC. In that order. (In terms of Android bare-bones)

 

[GTaudiophile]

I guess my biggest gripe about the N5 might be its camera compared to the latest and greatest.

 

[sweenish]

You should make up your mind on what it is you actually want from a phone.

You just keep piling on conditions. Edit the first post, list your provider, and just say what you want from a phone. Otherwise this is going nowhere.

 

[Platypus]

I would not waste your time with a nexus 5, horrible battery being at the top of the list.

If you want a stock experience and you're on tmobile, outside of the nexus line which you don't seem to want, moto and sony do the least amount of crap to Android. You're not going to be happy with anything from Samsung or HTC if that is a problem for you. You have a ton of choices on tmo, but a lot of them depend on your willingness to replace the stock firmware.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I would not waste your time with a nexus 5, horrible battery being at the top of the list.

If you want a stock experience and you're on tmobile, outside of the nexus line which you don't seem to want, moto and sony do the least amount of crap to Android. You're not going to be happy with anything from Samsung or HTC if that is a problem for you. You have a ton of choices on tmo, but a lot of them depend on your willingness to replace the stock firmware.

That's the information I'm looking for. Thanks. Is there consensus?