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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

shortwavesurfer
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 (5 days ago)
in reply to shortwavesurfer

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
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 reply to lavendertea

shortwavesurfer
shortwavesurfer
• •

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.

in reply to shortwavesurfer

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
Thank you, yes, that does seem super convenient and in case /e/OS sucks I could change it to Lineage
in reply to lavendertea

shortwavesurfer
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 shortwavesurfer

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
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
in reply to lavendertea

shortwavesurfer
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

FrostyPolicy
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 FrostyPolicy

shortwavesurfer
shortwavesurfer
• •
True, but ever since Android 10, third party launchers don't work quite as well as they used to.
in reply to shortwavesurfer

abeorch
abeorch
•
Its also a lot safer to have a backup of you ever lose your phone

DeGoogle Yourself reshared this.

in reply to lavendertea

Arghblarg
Arghblarg
• •
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.
This entry was edited (5 days ago)
in reply to lavendertea

Arghblarg
Arghblarg
• •
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.
in reply to Arghblarg

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
Large internal storage would be a compromise if there is no SD slot, but 128GB is not a lot
in reply to lavendertea

jevans ⁂
jevans ⁂
• •

I have a Pixel 7 with GrapheneOS that used to be my daily driver. It's nice, but I'm trying to move away from doing everything on an Android or iOS smartphone, so I'm going the multi-device route. I still use my Pixel for banking apps on wifi at home and as a Briar server.

I got a OnePlus 6 to install Linux on because it's one of the more well-supported options and I got it on eBay for $80. It works okay, but doesn't check enough boxes to replace any devices. I'm waiting on an MNT Pocket Reform computer that I hope can be a better, albeit more bulky option.

I got a Mudita Kompakt as my phone primarily because of the switch that can cut power to the GSM module and the 4-day battery life. It's slow, but calling, texting, and Signal work fine on it. I use it with a $10/month 30GB/month T-Mobile data-only plan and a VoIP phone through JMP. chat.

I use a digital camera for photography and a Tangara music player.

I got a physical transit pass to not need a smartphone for that.

When the PocketMage kit becomes available, I hope to offload notes and calendar to that. I'm also playing with replacing other smartphone functionality with a Meshtastic or NomadNet bot hosted on a server at home combined with a T-Deck LoRa device for things like live transit schedules and weather forecasts.

It is a lot of different devices that take up a significantly larger volume and are heavier, but what I've found is that I don't need all of them all of the time and more often than not I still just have the Mudita Kompakt in my pocket.


GitHub - ashtf8/EinkPDA: An E-Ink PDA device using the ESP32 S3.

An E-Ink PDA device using the ESP32 S3. Contribute to ashtf8/EinkPDA development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
in reply to jevans ⁂

lavendertea
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

jevans ⁂
jevans ⁂
• •

Yeah I heard the Tangara team is taking a break. Hopefully they'll start back up soon.

The other open hardware devices that I'm excited for are the Precursor once it gets more functionality and the Teufel MYND once it's available in the US. There is, unfortunately, a lot of stuff out there that claims to be open hardware, but isn't released under an open license or any license at all, and true open hardware end-user devices are few and far between.

The CPU on the Mudita Kompakt is a huge part of what makes it slow. There is definitely latency in Signal because of that. The OS is not open source and it's pretty infuriating. There was an opportunity to create a device that the open source and security communitirs could rally around. Instead they decided to focus on pseudo-science and "wellness", which is incredibly unfortunate.


Precursor

Mobile, Open Hardware, RISC-V System-on-Chip (SoC) Development Kit
Crowd Supply
in reply to jevans ⁂

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •

Cool stuff, the precursor looks like it could end up being very useful.

  • Quite a shame about the Mudita Kompakt, if it would be open source it might have been a cool option.
in reply to jevans ⁂

DSN9
DSN9
• •
I've an old OP7T, with 512gb. Only thing is security is no longer updated. Installing Linux is fun, sure, but security is lacking because the hardware vendors no longer updates the drivers. Meaning big security holes. At least this is my understanding, or the thing could act as cloud storage, or at least local storage.
in reply to lavendertea

chi-chan~
chi-chan~
• •

Fairphone 5 with CalyxOS?

No updates, but you'll have one of the best Android OSs, and a SD card slot.

in reply to chi-chan~

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
Good point, CalyxOS I hadn't considered yet. Would you say it's comparable to GrapheneOS?
in reply to lavendertea

monovergent 🛠️
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 🛠️

hansolo
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

lavendertea
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

hansolo
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 hansolo

monovergent 🛠️
monovergent 🛠️
• •
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.
in reply to monovergent 🛠️

hansolo
hansolo
• •
Seriously. I've almost left my bank over their shit security. But they're nearly all bad!
in reply to monovergent 🛠️

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •

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?

in reply to lavendertea

krolden
krolden
• •
Sony phones are supported by sailfish OS
in reply to krolden

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
Thank you, hadn't considered Sailfish yet. Would you recommend it as a good OS?
in reply to lavendertea

krolden
krolden
• •

I like it when I can get it to run on unsupported devices but I've never had an officially supported device.

If you pay for a license you get their android compatibility layer

in reply to lavendertea

smeg
smeg
• •
Out of interest what music files and documents do you need with you at all times that will fill up a 256GB phone?
in reply to smeg

monovergent 🛠️
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 monovergent 🛠️

smeg
smeg
• •
Fair enough, seems like a nice setup. I guess I've already accepted that I can't do that on most phones and constant network access to cloud stuff is a reasonable alternative. There is no perfect device so we've all got to choose which compromises to make, eh?
in reply to smeg

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
Absolutely, everyone has different priorities. Personally I dislike the rent extraction model of cloud services, especially for use-cases like mine where local storage would suffice.
in reply to lavendertea

DSN9
DSN9
• •
Local storage is so abundant, and cloud so expensive. We will hopefully see more innovation to bridge the gap for non sys admins. I.e. no more rent extraction!
in reply to smeg

DSN9
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 smeg

lavendertea
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

Witziger_Waschbaer
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 Witziger_Waschbaer

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
I do have a homeserver for hosting stuff around the house. Unfortunately am not knowledgeable enough to be comfortable opening it to outside. And sometimes I mess around and bork it, meaning I would lose access to my things until I fix it.
in reply to lavendertea

doogstar
doogstar
• •
You could look at doing a VPN only connection to your home server - some people use tailscale / headscale to achieve this but I've been happily using PiVPN on my home PiHole to provide full home server connectivity from anywhere for years.
in reply to doogstar

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
It is something I would really like to learn more about in the future, but for a variety of reasons I currently really want a device with ample local storage.
in reply to lavendertea

Witziger_Waschbaer
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 Witziger_Waschbaer

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
Do you have a route model you'd recommend? I've been meaning to upgrade my home networking to something that depends on OpenWRT devices.
in reply to lavendertea

antipiratgruppen
antipiratgruppen
• •
I'm not that person, but I'm satisfied with my GL.Inet Flint 2. It runs OpenWRT, and if you keep their version of the firmware, setting up a wireguard VPN is made very simple.
in reply to smeg

rapchee
rapchee
• •
my current, somewhat curated music library is almost 500 gb (mostly flac tbf), that i copied over to my phone, a fp4 with a 1tb sd
in reply to rapchee

smeg
smeg
• •
Impressive, though do you actually need to have it all with you at all times? I've been there, and ultimately having everything on me all the time wasn't worth the other tradeoffs.
in reply to lavendertea

millerjutsu
millerjutsu
• •
You should look at Brax 3 on indiegogo right now. No telemetry tied to big tech under $300. Iode is privacy focused. Braxtech.net
in reply to millerjutsu

monovergent 🛠️
monovergent 🛠️
• •
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.
in reply to millerjutsu

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
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?
in reply to lavendertea

antipiratgruppen
antipiratgruppen
• •

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 lavendertea

Ardens
Ardens
• •
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?
in reply to Ardens

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
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?
in reply to lavendertea

Ardens
Ardens
• •
That's my experience... And I really hope it is true, everywhere else too...
in reply to lavendertea

DreasNil
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 (3 days ago)
in reply to DreasNil

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
Nice, good to know. Have you run into anything with the USB 2 connection?
in reply to lavendertea

DreasNil
DreasNil
• •
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!
in reply to lavendertea

Mike
Mike
• •
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.
in reply to Mike

rdri
rdri
• •
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.
in reply to rdri

Mike
Mike
• •
Welp, that's a good question, but the Graphene folks seem confident that they can support it for now.
This entry was edited (3 days ago)
in reply to Mike

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
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.
in reply to lavendertea

kittenzrulz123
kittenzrulz123
• •
The simple fact is a Pixel + GOS will be the most secure option by far and is going to be the most frequently updated.
in reply to lavendertea

infjarchninja
infjarchninja
• •

I have installed Lineage on all my families phones.

all with android 15

Oneplus 5T; still going string after 8 years use

motorola edge 20 128GB 8GB RAM; I had to buy it for £20, fluff in the charging port. fabulous phone.

motorola edge 20 pro 256GB 12GB RAM: My daily driver.

Samsing SM-T500 Tab: As an Ebook reader.

Android 11. no longer supported
Samsung S4 with E/os: my alarm clock and stop watch for the kitchen.

There is a New samsung Heimdall firmware flasher called Heimdall-Grimler for installing custom roms on samsung phones. A much improved Heimdall.

I only use Heimdall-Grimler especially on linux where there is no Odin only Jodin3-bin which is a pain to use.

aur.archlinux.org/packages/hei…

git.sr.ht/~grimler/Heimdall

AUR (en) - heimdall-grimler

aur.archlinux.org
in reply to infjarchninja

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
thanks for the tip about Heimdall, and for reporting re: Lineage. It seems like Lineage is a really good option for you
in reply to lavendertea

saimen
saimen
• •

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.


Volla Mobile Devices

Volla Devices
in reply to saimen

lavendertea
lavendertea
• •
thanks, it seems like there is definitely a few devices being developed for use with alternative operating systems
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