My current phone is 7 years old, does not support recent android versions, and battery life is becoming atrocious. This feels like right time to change my phone.

Currently, I know of & am considering 3 options:

  • Google Pixel
  • iPhone
  • Samsung Galaxy

I heard that Pixel is the best choice for privacy, despite it being Google^TM. Should I go with it, and install Graphene OS or similar options? The very fact that the name “Google” is attached makes me nervous. Also, I don’t think I can trust android, so I would have to install Graphene OS or the like. In the case, app support would be lacking, though.

I am considering iPhone as well, since it has “reputation” of being secure. Of course, Apple can access my data, but that might be a good enough compromise? Honestly, I don’t know. It’s the best supported option as well - lots of apps support iPhone.

Galaxy is just the one that I am the most familiar with (my current one is Galaxy S8). I don’t trust it, though. Do they even make good hardware nowadays?

EDIT: Turns out, Pixel phones are poorly supported by local telecomm companies. It is relatively cheap though. Still worth it?

EDIT2: I heard that data & message is fine, but the call quality is impacted by lack of VoLTE compatibility.

  • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
    0·
    3 days ago

    Also, I don’t think I can trust android,

    Yes. Google’s framework service seems to be spyware.

    so I would have to install Graphene OS or the like.

    GrapheneOS does seem to be the best way to address the privacy concerns with Android. There’s also LineageOS and others.

    In the case, app support would be lacking, though.

    Uh…Android is the single most popular operating system in the history of operating systems. The app support is quite good.

    If you mean because many apps require Google Farmwork Services, and GrapheneOS replaces it - I find that to be a largely solved problem. The GrapheneOS neutered rebuild of Google Framework Services now fools most apps into working.

    It’s been years since I encountered an app that actually couldn’t run on GrapheneOS, unless the app was aggressively trying to spy on me.

    The remaining issue tends to be bank and credit union apps, which aggressively spy on their users “for security”. I work around this by using my credit union’s mobile website, instead. It has all of the same features without the spying, anyway.

    • tiramichu@lemm.ee
      0·
      3 days ago

      Just for clarity, Graphene doesn’t provide a “neutered” version of play services - the version of play services which runs is the same code as provided by Google, with the only difference being that it runs in a sandbox which only grants it the same level of permission as normal apps (which you can choose to grant or not) rather than running as effectively root on your device like it does on most android phones.

      Docs: https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play

  • gortbrown@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    4 days ago

    Out of the options you mentioned, Pixel with a custom rom (GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, etc.) is probably the best bet. Seconded by any Samsung that could run a custom rom, though I agree with others here that the hardware is better on the Pixels. Plus they have extra security hardware features that will be better. Of course, if things are weird with your telecom, that might effect things (trust me, been there with an Ubuntu Touch phone before.)

    Another option you could look at depending on where you are is Murena’s phones. They have a bunch of options pre-flashed with their de-Googled rom /e/ os. Not my favorite rom, but still not bad! And of course those can be flashed with another rom if you want as well!

  • mazzilius_marsti@lemmy.world
    0·
    4 days ago

    I owned 4 Samsungs: S8, S10e, S22 and S24 Ultra. Their products got worse. An example is the recent One Ui 7 update, it is just terrible: My notification area that works perfectly fine before, is now changed; my battery life got worse…etc.

    Even if I ignore the update, Samsung products are just not great anymore. Remember when a Galaxy can take really great photos? Those days are gone. My S24 Ultra takes the worst pictures in comparison to a Xiaomi or Huawei. Heck, even the controversial Asus Zenfone 10 takes better picture. Sure the Galaxy has better Megapixels, but the AI bullshit makes it so the colors are all wrong.

    With that said, you want to go for Pixel + GrapheneOS. Anything that is close to stock Android should be ok. Oh, and stay away from anything with a lot of AI.

    • CCAirWater@lemm.ee
      0·
      4 days ago

      If you swipe down on the notifs twice, you can edit them to be similar to the previous style.

      On topic of your post, fuuuuck everything about their forcing AI, but my biggest gripe is how they moved the audio display (from, like, Spotify or audiobook readers/podcast apps) to the bottom of the lock screen as a tiny bar on the bottom instead of showing me all the info as it did before. It’s super annoying when I swipe to unlock and pause what I’m listening to.

      • mazzilius_marsti@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 days ago

        yeh the other day I accidentally swiped down and touched the Media section. It automatically played my music, eventhough the music app was off lol. Luckily it didnt play any “videos”…

      • moonpiedumplings@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        4 days ago

        On a Samsung Galaxy? I have one and am also similarly frustrated with the changes, but it seems like the support for custom roms is poor.

  • cy_narrator@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    4 days ago

    You should consider buying a flip phone and only put in SIM card when you need it, assuming you can acquire SIM card without your name on it where you live

  • 0x0@lemmy.zip
    0·
    4 days ago

    I am considering iPhone as well, since it has “reputation” of being secure.

    Which doesn’t mean private.

    Pixel+Graphene is a common suggestion.

    For real privacy you can’t beat these.

  • fullovellas@lemm.ee
    0·
    4 days ago

    I’ve been rocking a Pixel 8 pro with Graphene OS for a year and change and it was a great experience after being an iPhone user for 8 years aproximately.

    The install process is great, automatic and foolproof, you just need the phone, usb cable (probably came with your phone) and a computer with a Chromium-based browser.

    App support hasn’t been a problem for me, you can reach for Aurora Store (anonymous Play Store client) if you really need something from there. Otherwise you have F-droid and the usual suspects and also Accrescent, which Graphene offers through its own app store, but barely has anything as of today.

    I setup Shelter to have some apps more isolated and being able to just not see them if I want, namely some Microsoft apps I need for work and some that depend o Google’s services. Shelter is recommended by privacyguides.org, so you should be fine using it.

    I think Pixel/Graphene is probably your best option for security if you need it. Privacy I guess you can achieve many other ways.

      • fullovellas@lemm.ee
        0·
        4 days ago

        I guess there are some tradeoffs, for sure. I’ve encountered a couple things:

        • Bad location functionality. The phone is most likely to blame for this, but I can’t say with certainty. GOS uses a custom proxy server for location related operations, so maybe that’s the reason, or maybe I fiddled too much with settings and messed something up.
        • Very ocasional crashes due to exploit protection. This almost never happens, but can be annoying. Some app may have a bug that would be overlooked by another OS or try to access some feature that is considered exploitable and the system will kill it, letting you know why with a notification. You can fine-tune these protections at the system or app level to make it work for you though (at your own risk).
        • If “tap to pay” refers to NFC payments through some app like Google Pay, I think they do work. You just have to enable NFC (you can even enable it only if the device is unlocked, which is cool), and configure contactless payments with your payment app. I don’t use this feature though, so I’m not speaking from personal experience.

        I think that’s it, really. I found the actual user experience to be quite breezy.

        • arcterus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          0·
          4 days ago
          • The location functionality has significantly improved recently since it no longer relies solely on GPS, but yeah, it could still be improved.
          • Generally, I’ve found the apps that tend to have problems with exploit protection are games, VPNs, and banking apps (which is probably the sort of app you’d most want exploit protection on…). I’m not sure if I’ve ever had an actual problem with other apps honestly.
          • While NFC works, Google Pay does not. Google needs to basically certify the OS for it to work, and they refuse to do so (monopoly gonna monopoly). Basically, this means if you’re in the US or some other country where Google Pay is pretty much the only payment option on Android, NFC payments don’t work. Some places in Europe at least have NFC payments available through banking apps though, so if you happen to reside in one of those countries and your bank has one of those apps with payment support, you should be fine.
  • dajoho@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    4 days ago

    Using a Pixel 6 with Graphene here with google services in their sandbox. It’s pretty neat, especially with apps like Firefox+uBlock and GrayJay, which let me also block 99% of ads, which was very important to me. I have not had trouble with any banking apps either.

  • utopiah@lemmy.ml
    0·
    4 days ago

    best choice for privacy […] “reputation” of being secure

    Disentangling privacy and security, and potentially other priorities, e.g. secrecy, anonymity, etc might be important before making suggestion.

    Another way to help deciding what is the best choice for you, not necessarily anybody else, is what is your threat model?

    An analogy I thought recently is “Are you putting a very tough lock on your door but leaving the windows opened?” or “Are you locking your car but walking outside naked?”. The point here is not to imply that people do obvious mistakes but rather that, truly there are people who go to parades naked AND lock their cars. The concerns can be orthogonal and thus must be considered individually. For that I believe thinking about “who the enemy is” as a way to discover your threat model is interesting, namely :

    Are you worried by :

    • government getting your private data without your consent?
    • government doing so automatically and cheaply through intermediaries e.g. platforms?
    • government doing so via extremely costly individual security attacks e.g. 0-days, with a “legit” hacker manually doing it?
    • small private companies?
    • platforms?
    • your actual neighbor?

    The answer to those questions will then provide you a more limited set of options. Basically I would argue only the 3rd option ties tightly with security but that’s up to a certain extent and companies like Pegasus shows that it can also be done at scale, for profit. Still, AFAICT it wasn’t done for a random person BUT that was few years ago.

    Anyway one you go through options, e.g. iPhone vs Android vs deGoogled Android vs Linux phone vs dumb phone you will see your usage itself will have to change. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it is not something most people will think about initially.

    I suggest then to… try. I know it’s not the answer you want but what you are asking for, I believe, is genuine change. It is about the technology, yes, but it also is about your habits. Consequently it is a process with some success, failures, cascading changes and thus IMHO must be iterated on.

    It is worth it though.

  • CodeAssembler@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    4 days ago

    I bought a Fairphone 3 and put LineageOS on it a few years back and can recommend it. LineageOS is less secure than GrapheneOS as far as I can tell but the privacy aspect is there, as you have a completely degoogled phone. I have some friends that have the same setup on the newer Fairphones and they are also very happy and have a smoother experience than me, because it is a newer phone.

    Fairphone is an European country that has a move to open source (https://www.fairphone.com/en/open-source/).

    To the compatibility and functionality:

    • SMS and Calling is no problem, VoLTE works and as SMS app I recommend QUICK.
    • AppStore I recommend F-Droid and Aurora Store. With Aurora Store you can download and install all apps that are on the Google Store. Just check, that your Banking Apps and so on support non-Google-Android OSs as some people I know had to switch back because some banks and services only work with Google Services (and that is a shame in my opinion, a Bank should NEVER be dependent on other companies for transactions and authentication. I for my part switched bank because of such a thing.)
    • microG can be used to use apps that need Google services, I do not use it but friends use it and are happy

    In general you will find an replacement for every app you now use that is from a big company. Open Source came a long way and most alternatives are even better in my opinion.

  • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.com
    0·
    5 days ago

    I’m currently testing lineageos on a oneplus 6t since it is dirt cheap (from 50€$) ob ebay.

    So far my track record has been:

    • Around 6 months of daily use
    • wifi, bluetooth, lte, gsm all work without issues
    • calls work 99% (same as iphone)
    • headset needs usbc bc no headphone jack. Works with adapter but so far only for music
    • camera works, qr codes work
    • nfc works but without google services, ive found no oayment provider thay supports it
    • around 16 hrs of battery life under normal use
    • no ads in os (or browser, thanks to ublock)

    As with all custom roms, you need to unlock the bootloader and if you dont encrypt, you should not do anything on the phone that cant ever be found by a third party, say law enforcement. I would argue that the majority of phones with a locked bootloader arent any better but apparently, if you want that extra security, graphene on a pixel seems to be much more fitting. I have heard of issues with reliability so I’ll stick with lineage.

    I do develop for and did try postmarketos (actual linux) and I love it. But its absolutely not end user ready from last time i used it. If you tinker and want to help, postmarketos deserves your help but please dont use it as a daily and expect more than 80% reliability. Its for people who love linux and want it to become the real deal and who can manage their frustrations.