No one in their right mind is suggesting Samsung. Heck, similar to Apple, you have swaths of people warning you about Samsung.
Samsung lives and dies off their huge marketing budget. Buying their phone is more of a psychology thing, than 'I did lots of research and I bought a high quality phone'.
Maybe they got me with their clever marketing but there doesn't seem to be competitive hardware in this class (fast, oled screen, 5g, overall build quality) available from another manufacturer.
Apple and Samsung are the two most popular phone brands in the world, so it's not like "everybody knows not to use them" as you suggest. Actually, it's the complete opposite.
For me it's more of "I'm no longer a kid so I don't have time to do lots of research". Samsung gets my money because their flagships are reliably good.
This is a ridiculous take. Samsung is the entire reason Android didn't go the way of WebOS and Windows Phone.
Samsung had pressure-sensitive pen support on Android 5 years before iOS. Samsung DEX desktop environment can turn my phone into a proper work machine with just a USB-C display cable and a lapdock.
They've also had folding phones that can turn your phone into a tablet for several years, but I suppose we'll need to wait until 2030 when Apple launches it "the right way" to recognize it as an innovative form factor.
it sounds fantastic hence i suppose there is a catch
The catch with Dex is that it's only offered on the high end models: Galaxy S and Galaxy Z Fold series phones.
I got a Samsung S21 as my daily driver, but just wanted to check out a non-Samsung one over time.
So far I've been very impressed. It comes with Google apps for almost everything, the Moto specific stuff seems to be addons you can easily ignore.
Even came with a transparent protective case and audio jack.
Performance-wise I don't notice any difference in normal use, ie surfing, pictures and such. I don't play games though, there the S21 would blow it out of the water according to benchmarks.
Screen isn't quite as good, but close enough that I'd be happy with it as a primary phone.
Only thing that's a bit of a downer is they only do 3 years of security upgrades it seems. This is a bit short I feel.
Haven't tried any of the other brands over time in recent years, just adding my 2 cents.
Google Pixel 5a... The last Google product before they went full Apple.
