*In terms of privacy, customisation, camera quality, and battery time.
For the longest time I have only used either iPhone or Samsung. I plan on switching to Android for the next phone I get, but I find that Samsung phones are often too big for me and put too much energy on camera quality (I don’t take many photos). I have started to look into brands such as Nokia and Motorola, and I would like to know what you guys think of them. Additionally, do you suggest any other phone brands aside from them? My biggest priorities are privacy and long battery time. Bonus if the phone can run LineageOS (I have excluded Graphene as they are only compatible with Pixel phones).
Thank you for any answers. Cheers!
Xiaomi and Oneplus have some battery beasts of phones.
Not under your specs but the Sony Xperia line offers a headphone jack + microSD, can be unlocked, & has flagship specs (1 & 5). The 5 & 10 models are also smaller devices that actually fit in one hand too. This characteristic combo does not come in the other models folks are suggesting. Older models have LineageOS for microG support if you want an ungoogled phone (but beware the stock camera app is trash).
i loved my XZ2 Compact SO MUCH and then all the carriers in my country simultaneously dropped voice calling support for it. i’m still so salty
Because we need innovation, even if we got on just fine then
OnePlus.
I’d never buy Samsung again, they are full of bloat and make it excessively hard to unlock the bootloader and get root access or install an alternative OS.
Samsung support is also a straight up scam. They’ll lie to your face about how they’re getting ready to send you a replacement, and then ghost you. I hope the feds sue them too but I’m not holding my breath. We filed a complaint with our state’s AG and fuck all came of it.
@viking@infosec.pub @clark@midwest.social
I had multiple OnePlus phones and I still think it’s the best Android phone on the market with great CP. But I am currently using Moto X40, great experience too.
pine64 because freedom.
it ha physical killswitchs. thats pretty appealing if u need that.
You can’t just recommend Pinephone.
It is at best an half baked device. Phone calls are not that good and I had to manually enable VoLTE and flashed a custom firmware on the modem.I’d love a Pinephone, but that’s not happening until it’s usable as a phone, meaning:
- MMS
- decent call audio
- reliable wake up from suspend
- decent battery life
I don’t even care about the camera working, fingerprint sensors, etc. I literally just want a phone that works reliably as a phone with super long term software support.
I just got a OnePlus 12 and this phone is fantastic. Bootloader is unlocked and you can do whatever you want. Battery is amazing. Charger is insane. Camera is more than decent. Price is very reasonable for what it offers.
For me it has to be Fairphone. They are more expensive than the others to buy new but they are more aligned with openness and free software. They receive updates for a long time, are well supported by CalyxOS, /e/os, Linux mobile OSs etc, are repairable, you can carry extra batteries, usually have an SD card slot and two SIM slots and are more environmentally-friendly than others.
i second getting a fairphone, but look into a second battery or a power bank for heavy use.
xiaomi has awesome hardware, audio jack, sd slot, even ir blaster.
their privacy policy is bad, but a lot of them have official lineageos (and microg-patched lineage) and it works really really well.
Currently in the process of installing Lineageos on my brothers redmi note 10 pro.
Its a huge pain compared to my phone, mainly because unlocking the bootloader requires an account with his number connected. Then I had to install Windows to use their shitty unlock app, which the requires you to wait up to 30 days for seemingly no reason. Luckily “just” a week for us.
But yeah the hardware is amazing.
yes the unlock process is obtuse as fuck! they do something similar to samsung and their RMM bullshit of having to wait.
luckily after its done they wont bother you again.
Until their cheap manufacturing quality makes them stop working because of a motherboard failure
chinese electronics have come a long way, if you dont get them from the dollar store that is
Check out the Poco X3 Pro motherboard failure, and this is a common issue in a lot of Poco and Redmi phones, the only one that are worth it are the high ends Mi devices, and at that price point you can just buy a Pixel phone
Its actually so good that the redmi note 8 (with lineageos-mucrog) I had before performed basically the same as my pixel 6a
As I usually unlock bootloader, I just buy cheap Chinese phones from around 100 bucks, right now I’m using a FreeYond M5 5G. Debloated and rooted. Working like a charm.
Edit: I prefer Motorola over Nokia.
I’ve asked a similar question not long ago and the consensus was pixel, even though I had already ruled them out in my question.
I still haven’t changed phones but I’m leaning on a nothing 2a, since it’s reasonably priced for the storage that I want.
However, I’ve been looking at phones based on the specs I want and check XDA forums and see how active they are, in the hopes I get a phone popular enough that has long term community support
Why exclude GrapheneOS? It’s a really good mobile OS, and the creator has given his reasons for only supporting Pixels.
Removed by mod
Are you good bro? You’re putting a LOT of words in somebody else’s mouth and your sources here don’t really back up your argument
If you mention Graph<nospam>eneOS, you summon him. Check his history
Removed by mod
I don’t get people claiming stock iPhone is private. We literally have very little idea. It’s a closed system. It’s private if you take Apple’s word but all the other manufacturers also have similar claims. Why trust Apple and not them?
On top of that you end up locked into their ecosystem, unable to use most FOSS applications or have cut down versions of them because daddy Apple didn’t like some features.
Removed by mod
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Apple’s authorised repair leaked a customer’s sex tape during iPhone repair.
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Apple’s authorised repair leaked a customer’s sex tape during iPhone repair.
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
A friend told me there’s no point in stealing them as it’s impossible to unlock or wipe them, which would give them the edge at least in that respect. Is this accurate?
Yes iPhones are secure but not private. The two are related but different concepts. I’m not sure what exactly your friend is referring to though.
He’s referring to how, if you are signed into an Apple ID and have a passcode, there really is no way to use the phone if you steal it (to my knowledge). The device is a complete brick if you don’t have the Apple ID credentials.
This is accurate, it is also accurate for (at least some part of) android though… Going into recovery boot requires the phone pin for my mid-range phone. Hell even turning off the phone can be set to require pin or biometric.
The turning off part is completely stupid though, nearly every phone has a button combo to hard power off (usually power + either vol up or vol down).
second hand Xiaomi + flash Lineage, good hardware for the price, community support
Oneplus with lineage os is pretty good but they sorta make it a pain to unlock the bootloader if the phone was not originally factory unlocked.
What phone brand do you like the best?
(I have excluded Graphene as they are only compatible with Pixel phones).
You’re asking this on the privacy mag and intentionally/explicitly exclude the best privacy option with no explanation.
Wtf.
GrapheneOS isn’t a phone brand.
It might as well be since it only works on Google Pixels.
Removed by mod