Nothing and pixel prove that Android is one thing in the past

When you think of a phone that runs Android, what comes to your mind? If I had to guess, you probably think of a Google Pixel first and perhaps a Motorola phone in second position, but you are wrong on the two accounts. It is not entirely your fault, however – Google manufactures Android, and Google manufactures pixels, it is therefore perfectly logical to connect the two. However, if you have picked up a pixel performing a really in stock of Android, I don’t think you would enjoy it very much. Of course, it would work, but the truth is that Android origin no longer really exists.

Now, I know that there are purists that will argue that the Android stock is the fastest, most efficient and customizable operating system you can get on a phone. What do you know? They are probably right. A phone running the most bare version of the source code of the Android open source project would be quite fast and quite easy to update because there would be nothing. There would be no applications, no Google services and none of the very important APIs that allow it to connect to cloud storage or make wireless payments. Android really in stock is just the stock of which all other Android flavors are made.

Even the versions of Android confidentiality and uprooted that claim to be almost in stock are just light and effective Android skins. Each Google service that grapheneos or Murena’s / E / OS deletes is simply replaced by an internal solution like Murena Workspace. Is it always Android? Of course, that’s; It is based on the AOSP frame, but it is not the same thing as being in Android stock. It is just a light and simplified version of Android with slightly different priorities – and that makes the open -source software great; Not all versions should be the same.

With this little bit of clarification away, let’s talk about light Android skins. As mentioned, this is where something like a pixel user interface enters. See, although Google’s pixel skin is close enough to what you expect from original Android, with simple menus and a fairly minimal interface, there are enough specific features to pixels that we could never call the pixel user interface stock – and I wouldn’t want either.

In order to obtain a Pixel 9 to the point where you could call it Android stock, you must delete all the best pixel features only that we rent year after year. You would have to cut Hold for me, a call screen, a higher shot, the Google solution to astrophotography and intelligent mounting tips like Add Me. At this point, you will end up with a phone that could be pretty and very efficient, but you have almost deleted any need to have the Tensor G4 chipset under the hood.

Another company that claims to stay close to stock Android is nothing, but a quick look at anything in the operating system is everything you should need to know that stocks are not the same as the stock. After all, an Android running phone would not need an interface of glyphs full of LED lights at the back – it cannot do what to do with it. The LEDs have not become as omnipresent as something like the native black mode, and even it took ten versions of Android before becoming a default customization.

From the real prospect of the software, however, hunting for a telephone running and Android in the runner in the cost of being just as boring as it is to do it on a pixel. We should abandon the omnipresent points matrix which crosses most of the applications and widgets of the first Nothing parties, as well as several of the widgets which give the skin inspired by the robot its personality. Personally, I became dependent on the 35 mm travel photo widget of 35 mm, which opens the camera at 1.4x zoom (35 mm) by default, a focal length that I know well of my Fujifilm X100V and prefers a lot to the standard slightly too wide by 24 mm.

Dispress all this? I probably don’t want to use what is left.

If Google and nothing can not convince you that Android is not good enough in 2025, I have another option for you: pick up an Android executing phone – if you can find one. Android One is perhaps as close to Android stock as possible, but it only existed because Google wanted to clean the chaos of the budgetary Android segment. And, on this front, he has sort of work – Android One has given reliable, but rigid cheap phones, software with only a few additional applications so that companies can focus on improving their hardware while Google has managed the software.

Unfortunately, this controlled experience also strangled the Android One program on its own vineyard. Because low prices meant that the developers could only do a lot with their respective equipment, cheap phones of the Android One program needed software wrinkles to stand out from each other, and these wrinkles never materialized. Developers are only authorized five preloaded applications, including those mandated by carriers and operators, giving otherwise simple phones even less space to stand out.

In some respects, however, this lack of flexibility could have been the idea – because companies could at least count on Google to update their cheap phones, they suddenly have been able to put more time and energy in valid Android skin, how much they no longer needed Android stock. Or, if they tried to stick to Android like Nokia / HMD, they suddenly found themselves not to move at all.

And now Android One is no longer. He no longer has a destination page, phones are no longer shipped with him, and even Reddit messages asking: “What’s going on with Android One?” died about three years ago. He did not offer enough personality for Google to stick to his pixel a series, and he did not offer enough flexibility for Motorola to trust him even with the most affordable motorcycle G devices.

If anything, Android One has taught other developers that Stock Android was not the way to follow, and it is now time for the most obstinate fans of Android to learn. In addition, on our list of best phones with near Android skins, not one of them actually manages Android in stock. Of course, they get closer, but it is the customizations and personalities who keep our favorite phones together but not the same.