Recently I’ve been looking for a phone that will allow me to install an google-free OS. I’ve never installed a different OS on a phone before. I’ve been looking online but haven’t really found a clearly best option.
Problem with standard recommendation
From what I’ve read GrapheneOS seems the best alternative OS. Unfortunately they only support the Pixel devices. I want to have local, offline access to my files (e.g. music files, documents) and don’t want to be dependent on cloud services. The Pixel with the most storage comes with only 256GB and no slot for an SD card.
Possible options
There are some other routes that may be feasible that I’ve listed here.
Fairphone 6
- No USB 3
- Pricey for what you get, both in terms of hardware and in terms of fairness, at least according to this post).
- It has an SD card slot
- You can order it with e/os installed, very convenient
- No GrapheneOS
Fairphone 5
- According to this post, the FP6 is a lot snappier
- Not significantly cheaper than the FP6
- It does come with USB 3
- It has an SD card slot
- Can also order this with e/os.
- No GrapheneOS
Sony
According to the Bootloader Unlock Wall of Shame Sony isn’t the worst of the bunch.
- Many Sony’s from the LineageOS list of compatible devices have an SD card slot
- Have to install the OS yourself
- No GrapheneOS
Pixel
Get a refurbished Pixel anyways and get a separate dumb MP3 player for music.
- Might be an option but 256GB is still cutting it tight with what I want to have available offline.
- The 256GB option is a lot more expensive than the 128GB option compared to the cost of a 128GB SD card
- Extra costs from buying the extra MP3 player
- Have to install the OS yourself
- Can install GrapheneOS
DumbPhone:
Get a dumbphone for calls, texting, banking, govt stuff, 2FA app, and music listening. Have a separate linux phone for all the other stuff.
- Not sure how privacy friendly the dumbphones are, might still be using Google Play services?
- Two devices instead of one to carry around
- Extra costs for two devices
- Tinkering with a linux phone could be a fun project
Bonus option: don’t get the linux phone
- Less screen time
- Only 1 device to buy/carry
- Can’t go on the internet while traveling
Questions
- What would be your recommendation that allows plenty of storage on the phone?
- Do you have good/bad experiences with any of these phones/operation systems?
- Are there any good options I’ve missed?
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Does your no cloud policy extend to running a nextcloud instance on your own computer and pulling data over the network when necessary?
If that’s something you are willing to do, then I would go with the Pixel and just pull data from your nextcloud device when needed. I believe you can install nextcloud through Docker to make it super quick to update and deploy.
Kind of, it seems like a lot of extra work to keep that secure and up to date, esp with having access from outside. My current solution is just Syncthing desktop <-> phone and works exactly the way I want.
In that case, I’d probably go with the Fairphone 6, since you can get /e/OS on it by default, but you can also put lineage on it, if you wished.
Personally, I absolutely hate the /e/OS launcher. It reminds me too much of iOS. And I honestly hate it.
Thank you, yes, that does seem super convenient and in case /e/OS sucks I could change it to Lineage
So I wanted to make sure before you did so, and it turns out the Fairphone 6 is not as of yet on the lineage OS website as officially supported. So you might be stuck with sl/e/OS for now. I’m fairly certain the Fairphone 6 will get lineage. It just does not appear to have it yet. So you might either want to wait or consider buying the 5 instead, which already is supported for certain.
Good catch, thanks fo checking. Another comment also mentioned that the 5 is supported by CalyxOS. Means that there is a lot of choice of OS for the FP5, which is great
I believe these six will be supported. I just think it’s new enough that it hasn’t gotten official support yet.
Also, to the best of my knowledge CalyxOS is dead for the moment. I want to say the main developer who was working on it left and they said it would be like six months or something like that before they could get a new person.
Personally, I absolutely hate the /e/OS launcher. It reminds me too much of iOS. And I honestly hate it.
You can install whatever launcher you want. No need to stay on the default (don’t like it either). One of my old phones has /e/os and I’m using Zim Launcher.
Nice that you can install a different launcher
You should be able to do it in all androids.
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thanks for the warning!
Quite impressive of Mr Braxman. Third time he’s worked with an ODM to release a phone degoogled out of the box at this price point. Would love to see something analogous for GrapheneOS, though I suspect it’s been hard for them to find an OEM that meets their high bar for security.
Looks like a great option (with SD slot) and a lot cheaper than the alternatives. I can’t find the specs on their website though, am I looking in the wrong place?
I clicked a few buttons, scrolled for a while, and then found the specs on this page, including this chart:
The specs seem generally fine, I think. I notice a built-in minijack, which I like. Though, I also notice only 10W charging which isn’t a lot – about half the charging power of my Pixel 7 Pro – but the battery will probably last for more cycles then. What do you notice? Any numbers that seem too low/high/outdated to you?
It’s nice to see how many people wants alternatives to Google and Apple… I just wonder what would have happened, if so many people had actually supported either the Ubuntu phone, or the Firefox Phone?
We still have a chance with Linux mobile.
No idea, this is the first I’m hearing about either of them. Sometimes a great idea can fail because it is too early. A lot of people around me who have never been interested in tech are messaging me asking about what browser is most private, what social media alternatives there are, etc. Maybe there is more momentum now?
That’s my experience… And I really hope it is true, everywhere else too…
https://volla.online/en/index.php
This might interest you. Comes with own google free android OS or Ubuntu Touch.
I have no experience with it though, just stumbled upon it when looking for alternatives.
If I were you, I’d wait until Aug 20, when the new Pixels get announched; they might have one with 512GB and you should be able to install GrapheneOS a bit after launch.
Is GrapheneOS even a good recommendation at this point? I won’t be surprised if changes Google makes to Android will effectively kill it, as soon as this year.
Good idea, I’ll definitely wait and see what they come out with. A 512 GB Pixel + separate MP3 player might be a good option. Thanks.
I got my FP6 with /e/os a few weeks ago and I love it so far! Only downside is the camera which will apparently get a software update eventually.
Nice, good to know. Have you run into anything with the USB 2 connection?
I only use it to charge the phone, so nope. Works just as expected. I rarely even have to charge it, the battery is awesome compared to my old iPhone!
fyi it’s usb-c 2, not old usb 2
Which is completely not confusing to anybody
On the FP5 with /e/OS there’s an option in the settings to enable the official Fairphone camera app, which improves picture quality by quite a lot. There’s no such option for the FP6?
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Thanks a bunch for this great overview. Looks like you keep up with open hardware. The multi-device route is something I’m considering as well, e.g. going to the gym with only an mp3 player, having a separate navigation device, etc.
The Tangara music player looks awesome, unfortunately they’re currently not available (according to this). Do you know of any other cool open hardware devices that are worth checking out?
Had a look at the Mudita Kompakt, never heard of it before. Love the idea of a minimalist eink phone. You say it’s slow, is that because of the eink display? Is it slow also when texting/using Signal or only when using more intensive apps? Do you know if the OS is open source? It looks like they have Mudita OS open sourced, but that it’s not used in the Mudita Kompakt.
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Regarding Fairphone, I found modularity to make their phones cheaper than the competition in the long run, even though the initial cost is slightly higher.
I have not experienced any performance issues on my FP5 with /e/OS, so unless you plan to do something crazy with it I don’t think it being snappier should be the reason to opt for a FP6 instead.
That’s very useful info, thanks for sharing. How are you liking /e/OS?
I’m liking it a whole lot. I think for my purpose it strikes a pretty ideal compromise between supporting parts of the Android ecosystem (I could easily install banking and public transportation apps) and avoiding Google and a lot of the things that were increasingly present in Android and that increasingly annoyed me.
It also integrates really well with Nextcloud out of the box, which I appreciate. Basically when setting up the phone instead of being asked to provide a Google account you’re asked if you want to either sign in to Nextcloud or to sign up to their instance of it. You can of course choose to do neither and to keep your stuff away from the cloud.
I have had trouble using a couple of apps - most annoyingly I can’t manage to sign in to AirWallet, which I need in order to do laundry - but for the most part it’s been a really smooth experience.
The default camera app can be a bit hit or miss, but on FP5 there’s an option to use the stock Fairphone camera app, which works just as well as in normal Android. If I didn’t have that option this would probably be my only real complaint.
Nice, that sounds pretty good. Would love to get away from Google as well and sounds like /e/OS might be a good option esp with the FP.
Pixel + GOS - no complaints works great
They’re not new, but if you can get a Oneplus 5T or some models after that, they run LineageOS fine. With Magisk even my banking apps work. All save the finerprint reader work well. Sadly I hear OnePlus is going to stop allowing unlocking in new models.
Thanks, looks like it doesn’t have an SD card slot unfortunately. According to these specs
No, the 5T doesn’t sadly. The 128gb model I find roomy enough… but if you absolutely need an SD socket I guess that rules it out.
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thanks for the tip about Heimdall, and for reporting re: Lineage. It seems like Lineage is a really good option for you
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Fairphone 5 with CalyxOS?
No updates, but you’ll have one of the best Android OSs, and a SD card slot.
Good point, CalyxOS I hadn’t considered yet. Would you say it’s comparable to GrapheneOS?
This is not the time to be considering Calyx - Calyx website
Pixel + GOS just works, even has proper sandboxed Play Services if the need arises. Never had a Fairphone myself, but I really do fancy a SD card slot and removable battery.
Words of caution on dumbphones though, especially if you live somewhere with 4G as the minimum:
- The overlap between 4G+VoLTE support and true dumbphones is very small
- Watch out for KaiOS “dumbphones”, which will come bundled with Google’s goodies and telemetry
- Voice calls and SMS are already unencrypted and monitored, so I don’t see any undue risks from a dumbphone, as long as you don’t store any more data on it than you need and use a true dumbphone rather than one with KaiOS or even Android.
Yes, I wish GOS would support the fairphone, then it would be a no-brainer.
Thanks for the warning re: dumphones, I had no idea. Is there one that you think is suitable for privacy and 4G+VoLTE support?
I use the Maxwest Neo Flip LTE as my backup dumbphone
Additional dumb phone warning:
SIM swapping attacks take all of 10 minutes to accomplish, and will give an attacker access to your phone number for them to use SMS 2FA codes to lock you out of your email and accounts. You will have zero access or recourse until you physically go into a carrier location and get your phone number fixed. Then you begin a lengthy process of reclaiming accounts to see how bad the damage is.
Thanks for the warning about the SIM swapping attacks. Do I understand correctly that this is an issue on the dumbphones because you can’t install a 2FA app on it but have to rely on SMS? I thought there were also some ‘dumbphones’ where you can install apps, just not browsers or social media apps. But maybe those are the ones @monovergent@lemmy.ml was warning about.
Correct. 2FA apps are the safest option.
2FA codes sent by SMS are barely better than just a password, but if your password leaks and your phone number is public info on a data broker site, it’s simply a matter of when the attacker makes it to you on a list. It’s especially bad for people who flaunt crypto or stock wins online and make themselves a target worth trying a SIM swap on.
Indeed. One of my pet peeves are services, especially from financial institutions, that force you to use SMS for 2FA with no option for more secure options.
Seriously. I’ve almost left my bank over their shit security. But they’re nearly all bad!
The simple fact is a Pixel + GOS will be the most secure option by far and is going to be the most frequently updated.
Sony Xperia with Sailfish
Are the compatible Xperias new?
