Privacy

31816 readers

296 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

Chat rooms

[Matrix/Element]Dead
Discord

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

What smartphone to buy and what CustomROM to use? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by en1gma@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

46 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I am looking for a new Android smartphone (currently on iOS).

Obviously I read about GrapheneOS as the „Gold Standard“ of alternative OS. But the downside is that it only runs on Pixels. Which is kinda weird to buy a device from a company you want to „boycott“ (de-Google).

On the other hand I kinda like the approach of Fairphone: most parts are easy repairable, parts are available and cheap compared to Google and Apple. But the downside here is that it isn’t supported by GrapheneOS, doesn’t have the most capable hardware for the price and probably won’t get 7 years of updates like the Pixel 8a in comparison.

So that leaves me with a „analysis paralysis“: I have to choose a device and a CustomROM.

/e/OS does seem interesting but I read some comments that it isn’t that secure like GrapheneOS. I don’t need that high-level of security but it should be significantly more than stock Android to be worth all the hassle by installing/using a CustomROM. On the other hand I don’t want to sacrifice every comfort for the sake of the last bit of (theoretical) security.

Did someone go down this path as well recently and can share some experiences? Maybe there is even some better alternative.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

$500 is NOT "affordable". $300 for my 7a new was already hard to swallow, and I think only previous-gen models border on "acceptable price". 7 was only a bit more expensive in the store I used though - didn't go for it because it is larger, and 7a is already at the edge of what I can comfortably use one-handed, but for someone this might be indeed a better deal.

Edit: just remembered another factor in favor of 7a: it has a plastic back instead of glass. I don't know why you'd put a more brittle material on a more expensive phone...

[–] ExtravagantEnzyme@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I said "more affordable" as I was comparing the 8a, 8, and 8 Pro. Whenever a new model comes out, last years always has a price cut. I didn't think referencing the 7a was required, as it's implied it's less expensive than 8a. But the 7a only will be supported for 5 years, while 8a will be for 7 years. This alone could make it the better choice. However, I know finances are different for everyone. Regardless, when I said it's more affordable, this was a reference to it being noticeably less expense than the 8 and 8 Pro.

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 1 points 3 months ago

Well, given how short phones' support is, most people end up using it past EOL anyway. But at least Pixels are pretty universal in their custom OS support, so they can have, for example, Lineage installed if updates are important. Spending $500 on a phone is insanity, two extra years of support are not worth it imo.