9mo ago

Google Pixel alternatives?

I'm thinking of getting a second phone to ease off iOS. It has been good for productivity stuff but the closed off nature of the device keeps disrupting my plans. Everything is either expensive or ad ridden. (Except floccus, floccus is awesome)

So far I have read about graphene OS and am quite interested. I really despise google though. Any chance to use another device and put some linux flavor on it? I was playing with the idea of a pinephone but it seems to be nowhere near daily drivable, fairphone is starting at 580 €, volla phone (german) 450 €...

Some people said xiaomi should be rootable. But the amount of different phones is huge. The price range is awesome though. I was thinking sub 300 €/$ would be awesome so tinkering doesnt hurt me financially.

Disclaimer: I dont want to go full hermit mode with no sim and a faraday bag. I respect the opinion but thats not what I'm trying to do. I want to write some small apps for my phone and use it as a computer if needed. Calling, matrix and browser should work flawlessly.

Any ideas or suggestions? :)

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So, I'm on a P7 with GOS, and truly it is a brilliant way to divest oneself from google services, alongside being probably the most secure ~~third party~~ ROM. I think, they're certainly very keen on it, and laudably competent, updates are around weekly, sometimes every couple of days, because there are some vulnerable (to state level actors etc.) users. It's been great, I have a primary profile that is google free and a secondary for google stuff that I want, and over time I find, at my own pace, FOSS things to move into my primary, so I don't need my secondary as much, until I didn't need it at all. It's great, and now I can move to any other ROM without google services and be (mostly, except for some bastard in real life requiring an app that I can't install in secondary on Lineage etc, at least last time I used it, which will come up) happy. Thankyou GOS. Also, being able to revoke network permissions on any random app (including google services) via OS is Gold.
That said, P7 has some issues, it runs hot (I recorded via termux), and if you live in a hot humid environ, don't expect longevity near the 5Yr security updates promised. Mine's spicy pillow at 16 months, enough to break the seal and accelerate degeneration. I live in a country with consumer protection for 24 months, so it's not so bad (I hope, batteries are special), but in the rest of the world it would suck. I do not want to replace my phone every year, assholes.
TLDR: Get a second hand Pixel (4-7), hence not giving money to google, replace the battery, install GOS. Learn, live, enjoy, at the end you will have learned to live free (if that's what you want).
- Thank you for elaborating! Thats very helpful.
  Do you happen to know if the pixel 6 will run iut of updates with GOS like it will with android and other proprietary phones? Because I‘m searching for something I can actually own so that I can use it until it breaks without having a security nightmare in my pocket due to seized updates.
  
  My understanding is that GOS relies on google for security updates (and sometimes the other way around, they've made some flaws known to google). I would trust them to be solid, at least until google drops the P6 security updates, go look up how many years that is. At worst, you can then use LineageOS or something if you need security, hopefully by then you're degoogled. GOS will still work, but to my knowledge, doesn't guarantee updates after google stops updating. It's about as good as you can expect from a ROM, I'm quite happy, personally.
  
  this is kind of disappointing. My whole reason for switching is to keep apple from turning my device off when it becomes 5 yrs old.
  Now I learn that its more or less the same with graphene since it relies on google security updates which means in two years the phone will be out of updates.
  Maybe I‘m getting something wrong but my priority is not privacy^TM but owning my device which means as long as it turns on, I can use it.
  
  Fair enough, but P7 has 5 years of security updates, I think P8 gets 7 yrs, FWIW.
  
  6 has 5 yrs as well. For me its just turbo capitalism with extra steps.
  What I want is the phone version of the 15+ yrs old pc I just refurbished and turned into a server.
  I‘ll probably really go for something else entirely then. Probably go for my initial instinct and get a phone I can run mobile ubuntu or postmarket on. Need to research more.

97 comments