> my one complaint is that it is almost never available for the phones I own
This is the reason that I've only bought Google's handsets. Easy to unlock and always excellent ROM support. Flawless LineageOS support and I have also very good experiences of GrapheneOS (former CopperheadOS).
I buy them when the next model (or the model after that) is out for a fraction of the price. Couldn't care less about getting the latest phone these days. At this level they're pretty much all the same to me.
Only thing to look out for is Google's crappy long term support and security fixes (which even GrapheneOS relies on). For my current Pixel 1 device OS updates were supposed to run out over a year ago. Still, Android 10 was "just" released for the Pixel 1...
This is the reason that I've only bought Google's handsets. Easy to unlock and always excellent ROM support. Flawless LineageOS support and I have also very good experiences of GrapheneOS (former CopperheadOS).
I buy them when the next model (or the model after that) is out for a fraction of the price. Couldn't care less about getting the latest phone these days. At this level they're pretty much all the same to me.
Only thing to look out for is Google's crappy long term support and security fixes (which even GrapheneOS relies on). For my current Pixel 1 device OS updates were supposed to run out over a year ago. Still, Android 10 was "just" released for the Pixel 1...
[1] https://grapheneos.org/