Dude every companies forums are full of complaints! Go to MS forums and it will feel like windows is unusable. I have bought 3 nokias - 6.1 , 5.1 plus and 2.1 . All working perfectly. 5.1 plus and 6.1 give me 3 days battery at low usage.
Android One is one of the most underrated things in tech. Using supported hardware, using approved tested drivers and no extra bugs of extra UI layers is going to have a better chance of a better experience IMO. Buying non android one is like buying a xiaomi laptop that has a modified windows UI, cheapest hardware selected by xiaomi and using closed drivers installed and tested only by xiaomi.
Besides people can't differentiate between phone issues and bad application issues that lead to slow phone > heat > battery over. This could be a a driver, the OS, malware, brand specific UI layers, brand application or anything from the playstore.
When 1 user using a HMd model makes a complaint about system issue, it's understandable. When 5 users using same model makes a complaint, it would be still acceptable. When 9 users raise issue, then it's an alarm. While other forums mention bothe problems and solutions, Nokia forum mentions only problem. Even the mods admit there are problems and HMD needs to address it.
I must say you are lucky with all 3 devices working for you. But on this forum itself, we have 2 users using same model(7+), one works fine, other is discarded due to Nokia's inability to repair for lack of spares. Even my friends having 7+ and 6.1 plus have charging issues, charging ports being damaged, no replacement available at Nokia care. And they were premium devices(7+, still poor support).
And no, I am not talking about a specific model, it's pan Nokia. While I agree, a rogue app might cause a phone to malfunction, but after factory reset the issue persists.
You mentioned supported hardware.. I hope you are aware how "Evenwell" botched it's hardware so badly that users face with screen flickering, proximity sensor non functioning. There is not even camera support bas Nokia has ended it's tie up with Evenwell. Point is users should not be victim of a phone manufacturers wrong policy.
You make mention of tested drivers.. HMD inability to update it's Aosp base resulted in botched implementation of Android 10. And after 6 months, they have still not solved the persisting issue. Besides fast updates doesn't mean good updates. It had lead to poor QA, loose testing.. again no one has to believe me. Please go through threads of respective models. You will see a pattern of problems which is common to all devices.
While I agree, Android one is a great programme. Pure vanilla runs smooth even with 4 GB ram. But issues like these destroy the Android experience.
If anyone wants to go for Android One phone. I would suggest going for Motorola fusion+. It's a bit on higher sid, 17k, but it's stock Android and minimal bloatware(only some Moto apps). It has 6gb which has you covered for a good time plus regular security updates.
Again, I would never suggest Xiaomi devices. Not because it's Chinese but it's ads are very shady promoting adult stuff and soft p0rn.
As I mentioned earlier, my post is to make users aware of the problems faced with a particular company so that they don't feel cheated the way we did. User experience may vary.
Do mention which phone you end up purchasing @OP.
