Same. Pretty disappointing to see that Brave would promote this very shady seeming brand of phone just because the brand promoted them.
But Brave has always felt like a company with one foot in the privacy world and one foot in a weirder space. The privacy benefits of Brave over Chrome (or even Chromium) are real, but Brave’s commitment to privacy as a company has always felt contingent, fragile, and to some degree in conflict with their other focuses and incentives.
I’ve used Brave and followed Brave since it began, but I’ve never felt I could put much faith in the company behind the product over the longterm. I treat Brave somewhat like I treat Apple, I use their products when it practically benefits me, when they provide real demonstrable privacy benefits, but I don’t count on their longterm commitment to privacy if market conditions change, and I don’t have a lot of respect for their corporate ethical compass.