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The OS on OnePlus is far better than any other phone I've had to date especially compared to Samsung, though I am yet to try a Pixel.
Bear in mind, this isn't iOS. Third party launchers are available if you don't like the one that comes with the phone.
Samsung ditched their dogshit TouchWiz interface years ago. What modern handsets are like, I don't know.
OnePlus is close to pixel in terms of look and feel, samsung has more bells and whistles, but isn't as intuitive or as nice looking imo.
Personally I would try and get a pixel, decent camera's, decent update support (although lots of apps get updated individually through play store, unlike software updates like apple, so maybe not as important).
I'd have to disagree with this: one thing I haven't noticed mentioned is that the flagship phones generally have better water and dust resistance, which may or may not be important to you (it is, to me).
That's a really good point. Googling "[phone] vs [other phone]" should send you to a comparison site where you can, uh, compare.
As for charging,
Modern phones* don't just sit there boiling their tits off at 100% charge and still pulling current. Once fully charged they will stop, then restart once charge drops below a given threshold. This is why you can have your phone on charge all day and still "only" be at 97% when you unplug it. Also, if you plug in a phone at night it knows that you're probably not going to need it again until morning and so will trickle charge rather than try to go from 7% to 100% in 20 minutes.
As for what's best for the battery in terms of overcharging, deep discharging, half-charging etc, I've lost track now. It depends entirely on the battery technology. There's a website called something like Battery University which does a deep-dive into this sort of stuff if you want further reading. My gut feeling is that we're overthinking it, by the time the battery's on its arse the phone is probably due for Silicon Heaven anyway.
(* - I'm referring to Android, iPhones probably do similar but I don't know)
I've set mine to notify me when the battery is below 20% and above 80%
Latest android has a setting that limits charging to 80% if you want.
I use it 95% of the time but switch it off if I'm away and using my phone a lot (like now happily wandering around Seville 😆)
Bought a g84.
Does way more stuff than I need.
Less crapware than my previous Samsung (flagship at the time S9).
Better than previous S9 in most respects.
I don't purchase often.
And, what cougar said. Anything over £100 is basically good enough unless you're a specialist phone nerd of some variety (games etc).
I've never regretted buying a pixel tbh. Regretted dropping a couple though. They're generally decent value for what you get and they just play really well with android in general, unsurprisingly.
Not sure where they are in the value lifecycle right now though, an 8a costs more today than it did when I got mine last year which is just weird.
Check out Backmarket if you don't mind used.
I recently got a Pixel 5 for £110, near mint condition. Apparently it's already had it's last update to Android 14, I'm fine with that but I don't expect to have it for more than a couple of years.
The last phone I had from them (pixel 4a) lasted over 3 years. backmarket support is very good if you have any issues.
Like you I don't have a need for the latest greatest model, I would consider something newer, and inevitably will have to, but I chose the 5 as it's nice and compact, and 5g.
Anything over £100 is basically good enough unless you're a specialist phone nerd of some variety (games etc).
I strongly disagree with this - the bottom end of the Android market is full of dog-slow phones with really poor specs and support/updates limited to a couple of years. Sure, they're vastly more capable than the old Nokias we used to have 25 years ago, but that's not saying a great deal.