I kind of skipped the basic computer phase. For years, I dove with no computer. That was kind of a carryover from my initial open water class. At the time, computers were around, but they were primarily used by the tech community, Nitrox too, by the way.
When I finally did get a computer, I got an Oceanic Pro Plus 2 Air integrated console. I liked having everything in one place. When this computer finally died, I replaced it with an Oceanic VT4.1. That was about 6 years ago. Transmitter and computer still function great, but I did nearly lose the computer last year. Rubber strap gave out when I was standing on a submerged platform ready to start the dive. I noticed it, and retrieved it. Had it happened later in the dive, I probably wouldn’t have found it. I replaced the strap with a bungee mount, so worry about that less.
My next computer will be a Shearwater Perdix AI. Since my Oceanic transmitter still works, and will work with the Shearwater, I’ll keep using that for now. I strongly considered a Teric,but it didn’t really make sense for me as I don’t wear a watch. The Perdix also comes with two straps, and can be converted to bungee as well.
My Oceanic has a digital compass, and the Shearwaters do as well, but I prefer a wrist mounted analog compass. With the Oceanic, using the compass took up the whole screen, so it wasn’t really useful during a dive. With the Shearwaters, the compass takes up less room, so you could still use it as a computer. But, I’ll probably still use the analog compass.