Fact is, today the majority of smartphones worldwide are based on Android as operating system.

The good news:
Android [better: AOSP/Android Open Source Project] is 100% open source. That means:  Everyone can view the source code of the system and the internal apps when looking for bugs or potential security issues. Plus: you can use/change the code for your own projects and devices.

The bad news:
Google, the company behind Android has put a layer of proprietary (“closed source”) apps on top of that, e.g. Gmail, Google Maps, Google Search and many more. These extras  uses a lot(!) of your phone’s ressources like cpu and memory. Also, it uses a lot of internal storage that you might use better for apps or your personal data.

More bad news:
Samsung, a great electronics company for decades puts an additional layer on top of the already bloated Android/Google combi: Knox + Samsung Shop, Body sensors/Fitness/Wearable apps and more.

When buying a Samsung phone (new or used) today you usually get:

–  a Phone with latest Android (14,15,16 …)

PLUS: Google layer/Maps, Search, Gmail and more

PLUS: Samsung layer/Knox (Security?!) + Samsung app store, etc.

PLUS: Provider layer, e.g. apps from Vodafone/Orange/Magenta/O2/VEON/…

PLUS: Pre-installed (sponsored) apps like Microsoft 365 suite, shopping/Temu and even Games (e.g WoW)

–> that uses up to 50% of your phone ressources before you even installed a single app of choice!

–>  Here is why LibRe-S phone might be an interesting alernative