Samsung Ultra all the way. It has top of the world hardware, software support
AND I can customize my phone the way I want.
this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
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Privacy
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The hardware is wholly unremarkable, but the pixel line supports Graphene. Custom Roms are a necessity if you care about privacy even a little bit, but there are other options.
Unfortunately in many places, illegal searches are the rule, not the exception and as such security is almost as critical. If you need security AND privacy there is simply no substitute.
Motorola hardware looks kinda nice though...
Be careful with Motorola, here's a Louis Rossmann rant about Lenovo/Motorola sucking, and here's the official unlocking policy and procedure he mentioned. Some specific issues to call out:
- need to wait a week before unlocking the bootloader after purchase
- you lose your Motorola warranty
- you cannot sell or transfer your unlocked device (in linked legal agreement)
That's pretty scummy IMO, and why I'm not interested in Motorola devices. I don't intend to ever use the warranty or sell my phone, but I'm not okay with that being a legally binding agreement.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
here's a Louis Rossmann rant about Lenovo/Motorola sucking
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
you cannot sell or transfer your unlocked device (in linked legal agreement)
The fuck? There's no way they can forbid doing that, right? Video game publishers would be all over that with physical discs to make it the same as for digital releases.
Unlocked meaning you've unlocked the bootloader. So if you want to flash your own ROM, you agree not selling your device.
I'm not sure if it's enforceable, but it certainly chills people from trying.
Well Nokia is a no no They don't allow bootloader unlock, I would recommend that you check which privacy oriented custom ROM you want to install and check the supported phones they have listed and buy one of those models for installing the ROM
So I’ve gone back and forth between Apple and Android for the past decade and a half: I currently daily an iPhone 12 mini because I like the UI, size, ease of use, and the fact that I don’t use my phone as a multimedia device. If I could do akin to GrapheneOS or CalyxOS on iPhone I’d stick to it.
In the future once my iPhone breaks or finally becomes obsolete, I intend to go to either a used Pixel or a Fairphone. Both are supported by secure OSs but I also dislike how big both of them are.
TLDR: love iPhones, appreciate Fairphones.
HTC (Wildfire, Desire Z, [rip!]), Samsung (they are/were easy to flash; S3, S5, S7, A5 2017).
I once had Nexus 5 (by LG [rip!]) - I was disappointed, poor quality.
Nowadays, you should have control of a baseband firmware too!
So, looks like the Pixels are the best option.