in the next sometime soon, I really am gonna need to replace my phone

what phone would fedi recommend I replace it with?
I want to go with a fairphone, but support in canada is nebulous and my cell provider may or may not support them (not to mention buying it here will be a pain in the ass)

my next option after that is a pixel I can put grapheneos on
but, well, google. need I say more?

are there any other decent options?

• I care about privacy, so I want to put a good OS on it
• price is not a huge consideration, so long as it's reasonable (i.e. not the $2000 absolute latest newest highest end model)
• if it has an audio jack, then I will prioritize it significantly over other options, within reason (i.e. unless it's like 50% slower, 50% worse battery, and doesn't support any good custom roms)
• more battery is good
• basically any modern smartphone has a sufficiently good camera, I so I don't care about that.

@solonovamax Do you rely on any government or company apps? Those might not work on a custom OS.

@Tengu the only apps I rely on which have a chance of not working are paypal and my banking app
other than that, everything should work without issue

and iirc most banking apps should work on graphene?

@solonovamax @Tengu Obligatory banking project plug:

https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compatibility-with-grapheneos/

@solonovamax

but, well, google. need I say more?

well you already outlined you'd be putting graphene on it regardless, so yes you do! /lh

@solonovamax

If helpful, Google doesn't break out phone sales profit when it reports earnings, and it's likely they price phones with little profit; instead expecting future profits from Play Store and Google apps. So possibly we shouldn't default feel bad about buying a Pixel for a custom OS.

The 10a will receive updates until 2033, is well reviewed, is currently marked experimental support for GrapheneOS, but reports are it's stable, so worth consideration.

*If it's just worn out battery on your current phone and you're happy with it otherwise, if IfixIt tutorials exist it's pretty painless to replace most batteries.

Whatever you decide, I hope you love your new phone!

@solonovamax < i replaced my phone recently with a motorola g84 which I’m pretty happy with. It’s not that expensive and it has a headphone jack + installing lineageOS is pretty easy.
the cameras aren’t that spectacular but the performance is good for the stuff i do (mostly browsing and watching videos) and it has lots of ram which is nice when I’m switching between apps lol

@Paradox @solonovamax did you have to agree to some terms before rooting the phone ? / how did the install go in general

@goes2hard @solonovamax < oh, yeah i did. it was some weeks ago so i didn’t really think of it, but yeah, i think i had to make a motorola account and go through some steps on their website and my computer to get a key to root it. i did absolutely have to agree that like if the phone kills me they’re not accountable, lmao
the install went smoothly overall though, iirc? i’m like, competent with computers but they’re not a hobby or anything and i just followed the instructions on lineageOSs website and everything worked smoothly

@Paradox @solonovamax neat. do you know if the terms are public / do you have a copy of the terms ? if yes, would you kindly provide it to me in form of a link or text file ?

@goes2hard @solonovamax < https://en-us.support.motorola.com/ci/fattach/get/741421/1385047216/redirect/1/filename/Boot_revised.pdf this is the one, i believe

@Paradox @solonovamax thx for the file!
points 3 and 4 kinda suck ngl. (unless transfer doesnt disallow gifting. tho honestly, you should be able to resell your phone on ebay when you dont need it anymore. which this contract explicitly disallows)
idk what they mean with the copyright restrictions, but if that applies to being disallowed from reverse engineering the software that is lowk ass.
also forced arbitration bad, ofc.

@solonovamax @LunaDragofelis it's either one of those or an Xperia imho (also, friendly reminder that Project Treble exists)

@solonovamax i think that if your goal is to run custom roms, no, not really. most options are europe-first like the fairphone, or rely on the pixel line

you can check lineage os device list but no new devices are there, it is mostly older devices (i think the pixel 9 line and the one plus 13 are the newest phones there)

@agatha I am perfectly fine going with a device that is a year or two old, so long as it's not so old I won't be getting any more security updates and it starts to feel slow

@solonovamax i do think the pixel line is technically the best option simply bc it receives updates for a very long time, and it tends to have the best custom rom support overall, after all graphene only runs on the pixel line

@xerz @LunaDragofelis no clue what project treble is, never heard of it

@solonovamax @LunaDragofelis "Project Treble" was an Android refactoring that led to the split of the userspace into "Generic System Images", or GSIs for short, making that part of the OS portable

so, yeah you can just install any Android from a GSI image on any device, it might have a broken driver or two but otherwise you don't need to go looking for hardware support

@xerz @solonovamax I just looked up Project Treble, that's a pretty cool thing to be honest

Sad that vendors aren't using it to provide updates to their older hardware that people can use without breaking out the nerd tools

@solonovamax What do you mean by "cell provider won't support Fairphone"? Does Canada have some sort of reverse simlock?

@LunaDragofelis no clue, but apparently cell providers will sometimes just not support phones, I think? idk, I don't particularly want to risk it

I have also heard though that if you just call them and tell them "my phone is an iphone" they just like flip a switch that makes it work??? but idk

@solonovamax my solution is always refurb like new google pixel so they don’t get my money directly and graphene OS

@katiekat that's what I'm thinking, though I'd prefer something which has as long a battery life as possible (so, basically unused)

@solonovamax my cheapn motorola phone (Motorola g9 play) has an audio jack but to put on a custom rom you either have to brute force the bootloader unlock code, or agree to a contract with motorola (make an account on some website, request bootloader unlock, agree to some terms. also ive heard motorola sometimes denies the request too)

@solonovamax similar boat, waiting on he official graphene phone from I think it is Motorola?

@arichtman sadly I will likely want to replace my device before like may 20th, so I don't have time to wait for that

otherwise, I would have liked to wait for that, even though my battery is so shot that I'm recharging it like 2-4 times a day

@solonovamax @LunaDragofelis by the way, here's the list of supported carrier bands on the Fairphone: https://support.fairphone.com/hc/articles/8873147802257-Global-network-coverage#network_specifications

looking at gen 6 and comparing to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks#Belize,_Bolivia,_Canada_(FCC_band_plan), it seems like you should be fine so long as you're not on ABC, CCI Wireless or Xplornet

@solonovamax www.gsmarena.com/search.php3? is a pretty decent index of phones. You can even filter by if they have a headphone jack.

I only found out about it existing quite recently, too.

@solonovamax @LunaDragofelis well theorically if you put your SIM card in anything idk why it shouldn't work

I would kind of assume it's for tech support, every Android phone manufacturer like to have their own UI and shit so they figured if it's a phone they don't know, it works but they can do nothing about it and you're on your own

speaking of which I saw Nothing phones on sale at Best Buy, idk how good it is

@solonovamax my pixel 8 I bought from bestbuy was a stock return I believe it was brand new in box basically. Half the price and brand new.

the "next sometime soon" has transitioned (🏳️‍⚧️) to "now"

https://tech.lgbt/@solonovamax/116534135223687388

@alexia I do not enjoy giving google my money or promoting their products if I don't have to

@solonovamax what model of phone was that btw? so i can stay away lmao

@peachymist oneplus 9 pro

I am quite dissatisfied with it due to the battery issues

@solonovamax yeah i can imagine personally i'm terrified of lithium batteries so i wouldn't touch this one with a long stick

@alexia @solonovamax they didn’t

@solonovamax used google pixel with grapheneos

@june yeah, I'm starting to feel like that's really the only option sadly

@mkljczk @alexia if I got a pixel, then the only reason would be to put grapheneos on it

@peachymist tbh stay away from oneplus entirely

@solonovamax then buy used! no extra money going to Google's pockets that way :)

@alexia still encourages others to buy google devices because I'm providing a secondary market

also, sadly used was not an option for me due to my phone literally no longer working, and I kinda really need one for tomorrow

@solonovamax your individual contribution to said secondary market is nearly immeasurable, as we can clearly see it continues to exist whether you buy a used device or not

@solonovamax besides, resting on your "individual responsibility" is the wrong approach. That is like the "Personal carbon footprint", which is a measure of personal contribution to the ecological issues of climate change which was quickly debunked to be nothing in comparison to major corporations.

Additionally, because no money goes to Google for buying a device second-hand, Google could stop making devices altogether tomorrow and they would still circulate for many, many years to come. Don't think that Corporations look at the used market to decide whether or not to keep making devices.

@solonovamax some second-hand SDM845 phone with postmarketOS? Pixel 3a and OnePlus 6 have headphone jacks.

I think it's probably the best way to get a good OS (I wouldn't really call any Android distro a "good OS", although some are better than others, and SDM845 is probably currently the best option for postmarketOS), but I'm not sure how good the camera support and battery life would be. I only used postmarketOS on a PinePhone and neither was very good, but that's at least partially a hardware issue rather than a software issue.