Back in August of last year, my contract was up, and my phone (a Samsung Galaxy S5) was pretty long in the tooth.
My daily device is now a Xiaomi MI A1. It runs AndroidOne which basically means stock (Android 8.0 as of this writing). Ars did a review of it not too far back.
Pros:
- Was inexpensive, shipped free/quick on Amazon.ca (Prime)
- No bloat, normal Android OS (quickly upgraded to 8.0)
- Good amount of space (64GB)
Cons:
- Doesn't have the LTE band of Bell in Canada. Not a huge loss, as I get both 4G and 3G depending on city/rural travel. And my heavy data usage normally occurs on WiFi
- Processor (Snap 625) can be a hair slow, in heavy games. Normal app performance is excellent.
Overall a fantastic value for the money (~$320 CAD), and I didn't have to sign a new contract or anything.