GrapheneOS could break Pixel exclusivity in 2026 with major OEM deal
GrapheneOS could break Pixel exclusivity in 2026 with major OEM deal
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GrapheneOS could break Pixel exclusivity in 2026 with major OEM deal
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According to details shared on Reddit, the partnered manufacturer will offer GrapheneOS support on future versions of their existing models, priced similarly to Pixels. These initial devices will feature flagship Snapdragon processors, which GrapheneOS notes provide significantly better CPU and GPU performance compared to Google’s Tensor chips. The Snapdragon platform also bundles high-quality wireless connectivity, eSIM support, and decent image processing capabilities directly into the system-on-chip.
Oh thank you. Let's hope for something nice for a change.
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This might be it. This might be the alt phone to defeat all others. Flagship chip + graphineOS features and long term support is a killer killer deal.
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I'm skeptical. Even knowing how paranoid Daniel is about, well....everything.
Who remembers the last time a custom ROM got an OEM deal? It is the reason Lineage OS exists today...
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With everything Google is doing with Android, they might not have a choice. It's either this or possibly one day no longer being able to work on Graphene.
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I dearly remember my OnePlus One with CyanogenMod, if that answers your question?
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But do you remember the clusterfuck that was Cyanogen Inc?
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So who do we think? It's not Fair phone and it sounds like it's not oneplus. I'll be needing a new phone within the next couple of years, if they roll it out soonish
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I hope Nokia
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They are called HMD now.
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I actually think this could be it. Nokia has always been a little adventurous with their operating systems, and I think they are eager to claw back their old reputation.
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I'd love an HTC again
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About fucking time.
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I can't wait to hear more. Please just make a phone that I'll want to buy. My phone is 4 years old and there's just nothing I want to replace it with yet.
It has become less and less of an issue over time though. Not only have I gotten used to using my phone FAR less with positive health results, but I have set myself up to have access to my Linux PC during the "chill with the family on the couch" times in the evening when one might zone out on their phone for a bit. That's what I'm using right now!
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Qualcomm isn't exactly the best vendor to choose either. They're US-based, closely-aligned with the US government as a military contractor, and the baseband/processor are heavily integrated on many chipsets, even sharing memory. That means a compromised carrier network could twiddle bits that the operating system sees, if they so wanted. Among many other issues.
There's something about a Samsung Exynos designed to spec by Google that is actually more desirable even with the lack of compute performance. More fingers in the pot, less chance of some sneakiness working its way in.
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Fuck Samsung.
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Bixby! Bixby is on a fridge!
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I'll hold off on a new phone to watch for this. Android could be great without Google's nonsense. An OS that has high end hardware support and continues to work on convergence with desktop Linux both by the communities development and Google's
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Exactly. Google is evil, and I don't want Google-related things on my phone.
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Let's hope so. This should be my last Pixel if it all plays out like that.
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Every cell phone manufacturer has some interest in diversifying the operating systems. Because Google develops Android and sells its own cell phones, it has an unfair market edge. And now Google is threatening to filter out apps that it doesn't like which makes the risk even higher.
So we can be sure all of the other major manufacturers of Android phones have considered if they'd like to support other distributions.
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Maybe they will make deal with other distributors to ship their exclusive app stores and so that would be a good economic move for them
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All I know is that whoever partners up with PostmarketOS, Mobian, and Ubuntu Touch will win big
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I wonder if this will have a significant negative impact on Pixel sales.
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The only reason I bought a Pixel is for GrapheneOS and the only reason my SO has one is also GrapheneOS.
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I can't see how it would. Techies are the only people who know what GrapheneOS is, and even then it's a small percentage of us. The average person still asks if you have an iPhone or a Samsung.
I hope it takes off, but even if it does the dent will be small.
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I would assume it will, if the SoC performance is in the same ballpark. Pixels have good NPU specs but their CPU, GPU and RAM feel like mid range options compared to snapdragons. So I don't think that's a high bar to hit. I don't run graphene because I'm not buying a google phone, but I would consider running it on something else.
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I want to try GrapheneOS. But my current Samsung phone still works. If I ever do switch, I would be looking for a Pixel on the local resale market so as to avoid giving Google money, anyway.
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Used Pixels are cheap.
I have three, paid about $120 for each one.
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It's what I did. I bought a used pixel 8 and only regretted it after the recent strong of Google shenanigans. I'm still looking for a proper Linux phone solution in the meantime. I'd rather not have to be reliant on anything Google does in the future.
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Yes it well. Their chips are pathetic and they seem to have no motivation to do anything about it.
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The phone market is very saturated
I doubt it will have any effect
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manufacturer will offer GrapheneOS support on future versions of their existing models, priced similarly to Pixels.
Great, so I still won't afford it...
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I paid $120 for each Pixel I own.
I refuse to pay a premium to have the "latest and greatest gadget"
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How's the battery life so far on the phones you've had?
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Pixels will be supported until EoL. You can get a used Pixel 8a or 9a, which will get supported until May 2031 and April 2032 respectively. Both feature modern, important hardware security features, such as the ARM memory tagging extension.
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I thought the exclusivity was because of Googles superior chip security?
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Partially. It's more that Google's overall architecture was better for security, inclusive of many different features.
You can find a big ass list here: https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
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So far all I have seen them say is that the new device meets their requirements. Considering that this company has a lot of power over them I would be very tight-lipped about details in case they start throwing curveballs
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Snapdragons finally somewhat caught up to Google's Tensors and the Titan M with the Qualcomm SPU and by implementing the ARM MTE
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Lol wut
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Disappointed to learn about Fairphone lagging behind in terms of security.. I really wanted to get one. But still good news I guess.
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I'm not saying the information about Fairphone is wrong, but you shouldn't assume it's all as bad as they made it out to be. You're reading a marketing pitch from one group that works with one vendor saying why another vendor isn't that good.
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GrapheneOS has criticized Fairphone from a security perspective for a long time, long before any partnerships with OEMs were ever made. GrapheneOS chose to partner with this specific company (which they don't want to broadly disclose yet) because they have shown, that they actually care about security, and are willing to invest time and effort to meet the GrapheneOS device requirements, not the other way around.
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Not really a 'Fairphone issue' and more a general 'smartphone issue'. The vast majority of OEMs don't invest into security and just use random parts with mostly stock Android. Sometimes they actually make it worse by replacing AOSP apps with their less secure ones. Which sadly will become more common with Google abandoning AOSP.
Fairphone simply isn't focused on security. Should that change? Are Fairphone users interested in improved security?
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Not too surprising as they don't have the same company size, it's hard to keep up.
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Please be Motorola and put it on my Razr+...
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I'm hoping for motorola too.
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Don't know if that's an existing phone because from what I read the new integration will be for a new/next gen device. So not anything that's on the market now
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Yah, a guy can dream though, can't he?
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Finally, some good news!
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But if google goes on with locking out the app store with the developer verification bs, how would would this play into that? If Aurora won't install the app or the app won't run, then we've accomplished little in that area. I'm really hoping I'm missing something.
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Custom ROMs should be able to disable the checks. My bigger concern is what it does to the open app ecosystem as a whole.
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TBH I would actually expect GrapheneOS not to disable these checks. GrapheneOS devs pride themselves to have the best implementation of the official Android security model, and enforcing signature checks is likely part of that...
They might add additional certificates I guess, to allow their own apps, and maybe a selected few others.
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Nothing needs to be disabled, since it isn't present in GrapheneOS in the first place. The sideloading checks are implemented in Play Protect, which needs elevated privileges to function. On GrapheneOS, Google Play services run with normal privileges, just like any other user-installed app.
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But the app might refuse to run without those checks being done. Or a new format, apkx2 I don't know, might only be able to be decrypted with the proper key and only once verification. It's not a new tactic. I'm very, very glad to see this type of development finally happening (though, admittedly, a couple decades later than of hoped), but it's now a new ballgame, and google owns the stadium, the seating pricing, and concessions, the parking lot, and ticketing counter. I'm concerned we've waited too long. What's GOS's plans for this? They're, essentially, going to have to create a new ecosystem, with most of the growing pains of new ecosystems.
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I bet on Steam /hjk
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Whats that?
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A HW manufacturer (aka OEM) will share specs and interfaces with the GrapheneOS team, who will develop an official port for the hardware, with support and everything. The OEM will allow bootloader unlocking and maybe even ship some of these phones with Graphene preinstalled, depending on what their contract with Google allows. To this day, only Pixels have officially received GrapheneOS releases because Google has documented their hardware interfaces in AOSP. Now, AOSP is no longer developed with the Pixel as a target but a virtual device, putting the future of GrapheneOS on Pixels into question (the team refuses to use reverse-engineered hardware interfaces, as they could result in bugs: for example, many Samsung cameras only expose a 16:9 section of the 4:3 sensor in the open Camera2 API; other frequent issues with custom ROMs include VoLTE, Play Integrity and bootloader relocking).
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Thanks for the detailed explanation.
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Thx
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thank you for explaining
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the team refuses to use reverse-engineered hardware interfaces
Small correction: Current and future GrapheneOS releases for Pixels are produced by reverse-engineering Pixel OS releases. adevtool was developed together with the developer of ProtonAOSP back then, to automate extracing several components from the stock Pixel OS.
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my hot take: while this is good for users in short term, in long term it just prolongs non-copyleft android OS hold for google.
my only hope for grapheneos is that they pointed that they may move from android too.
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That's the long-term plan, yeah. Moving from Linux entirely actually, as they mentioned a future microkernel project
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as I said in last post, I only see copyleft as a viable alternative. too many dev efforts forked and privatized. android should have been a warning. but many devs just think open source is enough. and they still think getting adapted by big corporation will not change the direction of projects.
I am personally going in the direction of testing and helping only copyleft projects. so I skipped RedoxOS. even-though I like rust and new microkernel OSes.
If I am going to give my time to a project (small as it is) I don't want it to end up like android.
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It'd be so awesome if Fairphone made a deal for Fairphone 7
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Fairphone is very far from meeting GrapheneOS' requirements: https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
They also openly supported harassment of GrapheneOS developers in the past.
A lot of their marketing is very misleading, or completely false. They're not the moral and ethical company they claim to be.
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Genuinely wish it's a Chinese OEM, I'd love to run Graphene on something like the Xiaomi 17 Pro
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Chinese phone cameras are far superior than anything else. It would be cool tbf
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took their time
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Anyone guessed Jolla? If not, I place my bet...
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Do they count as major?
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Certainly not
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....good point...
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Not sure I'd trust Graphene so long as Daniel is still involved
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Can you elaborate?
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In all the time i looked online Ive never found a legitimate basis for these vague claims of drama around Graphene. See a lot of it in Louis Rossman circles (nothing against him, but he made a dramatic video on YT about leaving GrapheneOS) it's reactionary at best. Someone got blocked people got mad, full story only the ones directly involved know.
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Techlore and Rrossman both have excellent videos going into detail the long history of his negative impacts on the community
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I don't know... Part of me thinks that someone overruled Daniel on this decision. He stepped down as the main dev years ago, but is still a director... maybe the other directors overruled Daniel?
But again, I don't know. I'm just shooting from the hip.
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Sock puppets.
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There aren't too many OEMs that sell worldwide. So that would be one of Samsung, Sony, Moto, OnePlus.
My money is on Motorola.
I agree, Motorola is owned by Lenovo. They have found middling success with the return of their Razr line and with phones in the lower to mid tier range. But they really want something super flagship. Something like the Think Phone would have probably sold really well with a Graphene option.
Oh man, please. My current Motorola could use replacing, official Graphene support would be fantastic
That would make sense as Motorola is fairly supportive of custom roms
Ooh yeah let's get a 6" 2025 take on the OG Motorola Droid with the slide out keyboard, to make it more linux-phone-y.
It's not going to be a Chinese company.
How repairable are Motorola smartphones?
I hope Sony simply because I want a headphone jack and an MicroSD card reader. Their phones are already pretty bloat free and their custom apps, usually focused on the camera system, would mesh very well with GrapheneOS. Would be a great way for them to become relevant again.
Hot take, but no alt phone will reach critical mass without those features. They need support from even the most stubborn users
How repairable are Sony smartphones?
Samsung doesn't really rely on Snapdragon too much, so that might be out.
The US-based flagships do.
Samsung is also a synonym for useless bloat, locked boatloaders, intrusive ads, and every other hostile feature ever. They are the last one to open up their phones.
Not certain Sony counts as worldwide anymore since they seem to have retreated from the US.