lemmy - Link to source

Which phone to get for alternative OS

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.


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?

My Fairphone 6 from Murena (e/OS) review! - Lemmy.World

Lemmy
lemmy.world
#degoogle
in reply to lavendertea

lemmy - Link to source

shortwavesurfer

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.

This entry was edited (Sunday, August 17, 2025, 12:51 PM)
in reply to lavendertea

lemmy - Link to source

shortwavesurfer

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.

wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#fa…

Devices | LineageOS Wiki

wiki.lineageos.org
in reply to lavendertea

lemmy - Link to source

shortwavesurfer

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.

in reply to shortwavesurfer

lemmy - Link to source

FrostyPolicy

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.

Zim Launcher | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

© 2010-2020 F-Droid Limited and Contributors
staging09.gitlab.io
in reply to lavendertea

lemmy - Link to source

monovergent

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.
in reply to monovergent

lemmy - Link to source

hansolo

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.

in reply to hansolo

lemmy - Link to source

lavendertea

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.
in reply to lavendertea

lemmy - Link to source

hansolo

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.

in reply to smeg

lemmy - Link to source

monovergent

Not speaking for OP, but having a 1 TB microSD would let me:

  • Sync my music library in FLAC without having to re-encode over storage limitations
  • Have more of Wikipedia downloaded through Kiwix
  • Keep a backup copy of my photos and important documents on hand
  • Pop the card directly in the computer and bypass the clumsy MTP protocol when syncing files

All for under 100 USD

in reply to smeg

lemmy - Link to source

DSN9

Don't buy the fairphone 4, qualcom doesn't support the drivers. Security is shit. As to the 5 and 6, they don't meet the hardware security requirements of the GOS team.

If security is your priority go for a Pixel with GOS.

Filen offers a mountable drive stackable 100gb lifetime deal. Free 10gb, so 110gb. The lifetime deal is like 20 bucks. So pay 40 bucks 220gb. The deals are stackable.

If you use my referral I get an additional 30gb 😂

Anyways that's not why I recommend them, i was in the same position using syncthing, self hosting. Until I spend the time to harden remote access filen is simple and damn good.

Filen – Next Generation End-To-End Encrypted Cloud Storage

Filen – Next Generation End-To-End Encrypted Cloud Storage. Get started with 10 GB of free space.
filen.io
in reply to DSN9

lemmy - Link to source

lavendertea

How did you harden remote access filen?
Unfortunately 220 gb would not cover having a real music collection, but potentially with a separate mp3 player it could work. The issue with lifetime deals is I don't think it makes sense for them to offer a lifetime deal for something with recurring costs.

Privacy is my main priority, of course security is also important. However doesn't it depend a bit on the threat model? I'm no celebrity or politician, isn't "regular" security good enough unless you are a target?

in reply to smeg

lemmy - Link to source

lavendertea

The convenience of cloud is to always have access to your documents when you need them. I want that, but without relying on a cloud provider. Syncthing syncs from desktop to phone when I'm home and I always have access to everything when I'm away.

There's about 100GB of various photos, files, documents, notes I sync. Music collections can easily grow to significant sizes if you don't use streaming services.

in reply to lavendertea

lemmy - Link to source

Witziger_Waschbaer

Have you thought about getting a homeserver? Immich is great service to selfhost for photos, paperless ngx is a very nice selfhosted document management system and there are several options for notes.
If you use a VPN to connect you phone to your home network you don't even have to expose any service to the general web.
in reply to lavendertea

lemmy - Link to source

Witziger_Waschbaer

My router has a great wireguard integration, that makes it pretty easy to tunnel into my home network. I don't open it to the outside in any other way.
But yeah, it does require some maintenance and a backup strategy. I bought an unraid license back when the lifetime ones were still cheap, that makes it pretty easy to work on overall.
in reply to lavendertea

lemmy - Link to source

antipiratgruppen

The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.

I clicked a few buttons, scrolled for a while, and then found the specs on this page, including this chart:

BraX3 specs

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?

BraX3: the most privacy-friendly smartphone!

Meet BraX3. The most privacy-friendly smartphone. Open-sourced, easy to use, and fairly priced. | Check out 'BraX3: the most privacy-friendly smartphone!' on Indiegogo.
Indiegogo
in reply to antipiratgruppen

lemmy - Link to source

lavendertea

Thanks for the link + graph. I'm definitely not an expert, but the SD card slot only accepts up to 512 GB according to the website, which is a shame. Additionally, @lemmyng@lemmy.dbzer0.com posted this warning by the Graphene OS team.

GrapheneOS (@GrapheneOS@grapheneos.social)

Useful information on Braxman's products and services from a security researcher (founder of DivestOS): https://forum.f-droid.
GrapheneOS Mastodon
in reply to lavendertea

lemmy - Link to source

DreasNil

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.

Edit: someone told me to enable the HDR setting which wasn't enabled from the start. So there's hope for the camera yet! I haven't had time to try it out but it sounds promising.

This entry was edited (Monday, August 18, 2025, 4:06 PM)
Unknown parent

lemmy - Link to source

lavendertea

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.

Shipping News and More

We're happy to be able to say that by the end of this week we will have finished assembling the last of the roughly 1300 Tangara units you helped crowdfund all the way back in March 2024.
Crowd Supply
in reply to lavendertea

piefed - Link to source

cabbage

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.

in reply to lavendertea

piefed - Link to source

cabbage

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.

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