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loopy @lemm.ee

Help with a simple and private phone

Hi everyone, I’m looking to possibly simply my smartphone setup. I would really love to keep it as a utility: phone, text, camera, GPS, web browser, notes, email, music player. Im think of switching to local NextCloud backup system as well. I currently have an iPhone but used to flash ROMs on Android phones, so I would be willing to do that again for more privacy options and less unnecessary changes to the OS.

I have looked a little into it, and I’m wondering about getting a couple year old Pixel and putting GrapheneOS on it. I also searched a little and came across the Purism Librem 5 that has physical kill switches and sounds neat; a little pricy but I’d be willing to pay if it lasts a while and has good privacy options.

What are your thoughts? Are there other hardware suggestions or setups that you like? The idea of FOSS is appealing because it seems like the money aspect seems to skew the priority of smartphones.

53 comments

  • For me, the key aspects for selecting the right hardware are the camera and the comunity support. All the other capabillities you listed are available on any phone that has a relatively recent ROM available.

    Let's start with the camera quality: If you want to use your phone without GSF or microG, you could use the camera app that comes with the ROM you flashed. Sometimes, the picture quallity is decent, but often times its lacking. Instead, I would recommend using a modded GCam App together with fake GSF. This way, you can use googles powerful camera app without sacrificing your privacy. So when I'm looking for hardware, I always check, if there is a modded GCam version available.

    Aside from that, I would check if there are recent stable versions of the ROM I want, available for the hardware. The last thing I would check is, how active and how big the modding community for that device is. If you can't find a lot of support on XDA, it's probably not the best hardware choice to begin with.

    When it comes to software, there are a lot of privacy-friendly replacements to choose from, but here is my setup:

    EDIT: GCam and FUTO are not Open Source, but they are free and don't collect or require any user data

  • A colleague of mine is very happy with the Punkt phone.

    • Punkt is neat, but in the end it is Android (if you can believe it). So, it has Signal (or Pigeon, as they've branded it) but it is also vulnerable the same way any Android phone can be. There are some baked-in apps that track and whatnot.

  • GrapheneOS and a Pixel. Sounds exactly like what you want.
    Alternatively, a Fairphone with CalyxOS.

    Both are more secure and private than a stock Android phone.
    GrapheneOS would be my recommendation.

    I used Calyx for a year and recently switched over to Graphene. Calyx was great for the time being, as it focused more on usability, when GrapheneOS didn't even provide push notifications and was needlessly secure for my threat model.

    But now, GrapheneOS is even more compatible and complete than Calyx, while more secure.
    It's very barebones by default and Google services are optional and sandboxed + strongly restricted.

    I would get a newer Pixel model in your case. I bought the Pixel 5 and somewhat regret it, since it hit end of support.

    Or, you could buy a Fairphone. That would be more sustainable, since you can modify and repair it easily yourself, and it has a super long warranty and support.
    GrapheneOS sadly does only support Pixels, but Calyx the Fairphone too.

  • I'm not sure this checks all of your boxes, but I use the Light Phone II and love it. No need to worry about privacy if the phone isn't designed to be a data mine

53 comments