this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2023

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Deciding between Fairphone 5 and Pixel 8 (feddit.de)

submitted 11 months ago by nottheengineer@feddit.de to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

My phone is no longer getting updates, so it's time to buy a new one. The hardware could easily last 1-2 more years but I'd have to replace the battery, which is a pain on my phone.

I'm looking for something that has long firmware support and some good privacy roms while not being worse than my current Oneplus 8 in any way. I don't care about cameras at all and I'm still mad about the missing headphone jacks, but unfortunately those don't seem to be coming back and I can survive without one.

So, the options are Fairphone 5 and Pixel 8 from what I found out. The Pixel 8 is a little small for my taste and with 256GB storage it's more expensive, but it does have grapheneOS, which I'd prefer because the app sandboxing would allow me to have peace of mind even if I have tracking apps sitting on my phone. I could use the proper play store and do IAPs without fiddling with aurora store. I use it already and it isn't great.

With the Fairphone, I'd get a replacable battery so I can buy a spare and swap instead of charging my phone. I used to do that with the good old S3 and it was great. MicroSD slot is also nice. But the ROM options are CalyxOS and /e/OS. I know Calyx has a nice firewall to keep tracking at bay and /e/OS is an LOS fork mainly focused on getting rid of google from what I know, but neither has as much protection as grapheneOS.

My main goal is to become less dependant on google while still being able to use google maps for my way to work. The traffic aware routing saves me 10 minutes every day so letting google know when I go to work is a fair deal.

So, any opinions or experiences with either? TIA

top 11 comments

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[–] JeyNessuno@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is the fairphone's battery as easily replaceable as old phones were? I'd think that would make waterproofing really difficult

[–] nottheengineer@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

Yes and it isn't rated IPX7 for that reason, just IP55. I wouldn't hold it under the faucet but it should be perfectly fine for daily use.

Fun fact: It's still entirely possible to make a phone water resistant even if it has a removable back. Samsung did it in 2014 with the S5. Glass backs are just there to make it easier to break a phone, not for any technical reason.

[–] TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Try Petal Maps; might be able to replace Google Maps for you. It also has traffic info.

[–] pkill@programming.dev 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

OsmAnd is better since Petal Maps is proprietary.

[–] nottheengineer@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

I already have Osmand and while it's a great offline map, it can't pick the fastest route for me every single day.

[–] jacktherippah@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'd get the Pixel because of the long, not to mention timely software updates and security patches, better hardware and GrapheneOS. If you do get the Fairphone, use DivestOS. See this comparison

[–] nottheengineer@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

Thanks, I've been looking for a comparison like that but search engines have just gotten ridiculously bad. /e/ slacking on the webview updates is interesting and steers me away from it.

I'm leaning towards the fairphone right now because it's cheaper at 256GB and not smaller than my current phone. DivestOS looks like it does most of what grapheneOS would do for me.

[–] Undertaker@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

Fairphone is known to have several hardware related problems, but they usually ignore or do not acknowledge them. Recently they tried to argue a hardware problem (ghost inputs) can be solved via firmware update, but of course it couldn't. Additionally you lose support for device when using custom roms (even /e/os). They only support google Android. You could buy from Murena but they can not help with hardware or firmware issues. Fairphone is very to patch their devices in terms of security.

But google is google. I would never give them money.

[–] Templa@beehaw.org 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Just wanted to share my experience as someone that just updated to a p8p with GrapheneOS.

This is the first time I install a custom ROM in a smartphone and it hasn't been easy but I'm pretty impressed so far. I installed their sandbox Google Play/Services to keep using banking apps and other apps that need it. Everytime I install an app it asks if it should have internet access permission so I can use Gboard without the need to use NetGuard.

I can limit storage scopes for every app. If I want WhatsApp to only be able to access my Downloads folder, I can. If I want to trick it saying that it has access to my contacts, I also can.

The biggest issue for me now is probably install/use things in a way that just don't throw all the OS purpose out of the window and without asking questions considering how awful people can be when they think a question is dumb.

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of microSD but I realized I probably wouldn't use it. I also had to install a custom launcher to customize icons and such.

One thing that worries me is how to setup a way to find my phone in case I lose it.

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

Try shelter from fdroid

[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 0 points 11 months ago

With the Fairphone you get more than just a replaceable battery. You get replaceable nearly everything. Also they do their best to ethically source the materials. In terms of ROMs there is also Iodé, also based on LOS, and if you go with a FP4 instead Ubuntu Touch.