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I'm surprised, what brand is it?

It's likely not about the brand, but about the location. As a result of the Android anti-trust lawsuit in EU, Google has shown a search engine choice screen at initial setup since (I think) 2018. They also unbundled Chrome and Search from the other proprietary apps.

See https://www.android.com/choicescreen/

Was a Xiaomi Redmi.

I wouldn't recommend it for privacy, but them giving me the choice means manufacturers can do this if they want.

What android brand would you recommend "for privacy"?

I agree Xiaomi loves their data collection to the point of selling pole fan that require an app to operate - I saw that one in one of their stores.

So what else is there?

Pixel or maybe Nokia / Fairphone / Motorola (Stockish Android) if you are a regular user, but you will have to change a few options for sure, modded Pixel if Privacy Nut.

Motorola has notoriously unreliable hardware though. I have only had bad experiences with the brand.

This is the same as any laptop discussion. If you mention any brand someone is bound to say how negative their experience was. Probably there were a few bad models, but Im not aware of any common issues with moto phones.

OnePlus is still reliable and boasts decent build quality and (relatively) non-intrusive software. It has abandoned its "budget phone" shtick though.

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