Like the title says. I’ve been reading recommendations about this OS, so i went to look on their homepage, but you can only install it on Pixel phones, which are from google, right? In other words, to get rid of google products, you still have to spend your money on google? Am i missing something? I thought there were other custom roms where you can choose whether or not to add to add google products? Please be gentle, i’m a noob when it comes to custom roms. I have had CyanogenMod on a phone many years ago, but someone helped me do it. And i’m really not current with changes in recent custom roms.
Buy the phone second hand. Not a cent goes to Google. From my understanding, they only support the Pixel line because it’s the most secure hardware or something. Someone more knowledgable will probably explain it better though.
Exactly, for example Pixels support a locked bootloader when using a custom ROM.
pixels are the only phones that you can lock the bootloader after you flash a rom to it, that is why grapheneos supports them, buy one second hand and not give your money to google
Also don’t get Verizon phones since Verizon locks the OEM toggle preventing you from flashing them.
GrapheneOS doesn’t only support Pixel phones because the bootloader can be relocked using a custom ROM (my phone does that) but rather because it is the best phone for security. That much is true. But more importantly, it’s the standard Android implementation and the GrapheneOS team only has so much bandwidth to add support for various phones.
However, there’s no way in hell I’m giving Google a single cent. Also, I wanted something that could be repaired, and Pixel phones ain’t it.
So I went for a Fairphone 4 with CalyxOS. I’m glad I did: the phone is just what I need in terms of repairability (not in terms of price, but that’s kind of expected when you buy from a small outfit in Europe) and CalyxOS is a wonderful deGoogled OS for a variety of reasons. Installing it on the Fairphone went as smooth as butter. And yes, the bootloader is relocked :)
One more thing re buying a Pixel phone second hand: it IS equivalent to giving money to Google. You don’t give more money to Google, but you partially reimburse the original owner. In other words, you buy back part of their original purchase. In other words, you replace part of their money in Google’s coffers by yours.
And if you use a Pixel Phone, you promote the use of Google hardware. I don’t want to promote any Google product.
Not to mention of course, the irony of giving Google money for the privilege of escaping the Google surveillance. That’s too rich for me. I’d rather have a little less security with a non-Google phone.
Very interesting comment, thank you so much for your thoughts! The Fairphone is interesting, i’ve been reading about it now and then, and i will definitely check out CalyxOS. How do you like the Fairphone? I wouldn’t need it for resource heavy apps, but i would like to be able to make some decent pictures with it (big bonus for macro option). Again, much appreciated!
I’m not a gamer or a heavy social media user. So I don’t know if the FairPhone 4 is a good choice for that, if that’s your thing. Probably not from what I’ve read.
It’s plenty good enough for my needs though. It feels like a good mid-level cellphone from 3 years ago - with the price of a top-tier cellphone of today though :)
I like the Fairphone 4. It has one annoying bug that the Fairphone folks are taking an inordinate amount of time fixing: random screen dimming when the phone gets hot in the sun. Other than that, it’s been absolutely flawless for me. Hopefully the screen dimming issue will soon get resolved.
Bonus: the Fairphone 4 supports charging control, and CalyxOS has the option enabled. That makes it the only phone I know that supports this apart from Pixel phones!
As to your question re pictures: I’m not much of a photograph, but I’ve read the cameras are nothing to write home about. They take very decent pictures for me though. Maybe I’m easily pleased… If you install Open Camera to replace the crummy stock Android camera app, it has a button to select the wide angle camera or the regular camera. The latter can focus onto stuff maybe an inch away. Not sure if that’s enough for you. I can shoot a sample photo if you want.
A bit late, i think lemmy.world was in maintenance for a while. Thank you again for your thoughts on the fairphone 4. I’m not going to buy a phone just yet, so i still have time to do some more research, but you definitively put this phone on my radar!
My pleasure :)
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Thank you all for your replies. Good tip, it definitely makes sense!
Yes, you do. Sorry.
