I'm writing this on a Pixel 8 and it's the worst phone I have ever used. The wireless chip is basically dead. And the battery can't make it to 3pm. Annoys the hell out of me that so many reviewers I thought I could trust speak so highly of this phone.
It is surprising that many Android review sites always rave about Pixels. I have one because I love and run GrapheneOS, but outside the camera, the hardware is pretty mediocre. The 9 and 10 is a lot better than previous iterations because they moved to a newer Exynos modem, but real-life battery life is still bad compared to even Samsung [1]. Tensor is still an ok mid-range chip, but nowhere near Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 or even Exynos 2600.
After release, Pixels are really overpriced for what they are. It gets much better after ~6 months, when they are typically discounted ~250 Euro. But then you have similar discounts on Samsung S-series after only a few months.
I am happy that Motorola is being added to the GrapheneOS mix, there will be more interesting hardware to choose from.
[1] I am taking Samsung as an example, because many Chinese vendors have even much larger capacity batteries.
Is there even an option in the Android space that isn't entirely filled with Bloatware? I've always hated the Samsung Android skin so I've mostly written off the rest of the market
Nothing Phone comes probably the closest to bare bones at least what I have come across.
They started pushing lock screen ads. The retracted this on some models after huge community outcry, but typically there is no way back once a company goes down that route.
If you are considering Nothing, you might as well go for Samsung and uninstall all the bloat from the user profile with adb/UAD. It will at least have a separate secure processor (Knox Vault, IIRC even recent mid-range A5x) and not a TEE that runs on the main CPU and is vulnerable to side-channel attacks. And the SoC (at least if Exynos and I believe the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite) supports MTE, which Samsung is rolling out support for in OneUI 9, etc.
Going from a Pixel to a Nothing Phone is like going from a modern iPhone to an iPhone before the 5s in many ways security-wise (the first iPhone with a secure enclave).
But yeah, despite the hardware issues, Pixel with GrapheneOS is still your best bet for a vanilla, secure Android.
Graphene on a pixel is the most lightweight ROM