What Verizon phone is closest to pure Android?

[AC Question]

What Verizon phone is closest to pure android

I'm considering upgrading my Samsung S III on verizon. But I still have one of the grandfathered unlimited data plans so I buy my phones off-contract / used. I'm looking for one that is closest to pure android that can be used on verizon...or one that can have cyanogen mod installed - easily for a noob that only has mac's.

 

[SactoKingsFan]

Re: What Verizon phone is closest to pure android

Nexus 6

Sent from my LG-G2 running Vanir 5.0.2

 

[Rukbat]

Re: What Verizon phone is closest to pure android

Nexus 7 also. Any Nexus is pure Android, kind of by definition. "Pure Android" means "what's on the Nexus".

As for Cyanogen, not a Samsung. (Verizon's [and AT&T's] Samsungs are locked.) Cyanogen has its own installation package (CyanogenMod Installation), so any phone for which there's a version of Cyanogen (there's a list at the site) is an easy installation. (It's basically the same installation for any phone - as long as Cyanogen makes a ROM for that model. If they don't, you can't install Cyanogen on that phone. It's not like Apple, where iOS 9 will install on any iPhone. Each Android phone is different and has different ROMs that are written for it. You can't just install "Android" on any Android phone. That's Apple's one advantage - a single environment.)

 

[dpham00]

Re: What Verizon phone is closest to pure android

There are loopholes to get subsidized phones on Verizon unlimited data. Check out the Verizon forum if interested.

And the nexus 6 would be the closest to stock Android. I would consider it stock Google more than stock Android though as it has a lot of Google bloat. Still it is the least bloated out of all the Androids

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 4