ultome
First off ignore any idiocy expressed to you by "some".
Just so you know, after installing gos on a phone you can revert back to original os without any sign that a custom os what ever installed. And then you can return the phone if you want.
The gos experience is almost identical to a regular android experience. The main differences are:
- the initial setup and finding and installing all the elementary apps that don't exist on gos. If you don't know the good replacement apps out there then this step takes a lot of time and research and is painful.
- The known limitations of gos, which means some google feature sets will be missing. (Background music, chromecast, google pay, google assistant, etc).
- Gos also has some added bonus features, which you wont find on regular phones, and are quite awesome. (Network block, storage scopes, hardened security, all the privacy tweaks, user profiles, etc. See gos features page).
If you are the kind of person who is willing to to make some compromises in your life in order to have a privacy phone then you will find gos to be totally acceptable.
I was willing to accept lots of compromise, and I was shocked by how little compromise I actually encountered with gos. I never expected a privacy phone to be this functional.
I'll warn you the start can be bit difficult while you find the right apps and setup to make the phone like regular phones, but once you become knowledgeable you will never go back to a regular phone.
But if you are the compromise-non type and not willing to endure any inconvenience then privacy phone might not be for you.
That said, GOS is the most functional out of all privacy phone setups.
Make sure the phone you buy is the right model# to ensure it is factory unlocked.
Dont buy a damaged pixel for low cost, cause if you decide to continue then you will have to buy another phone and might not be able to resell the damaged one. Also remember that you can always resell the phone at "some loss", and that loss may be worth the tryout.