Recently I’ve been looking for a phone that will allow me to install an google-free OS. I’ve never installed a different OS on a phone before. I’ve been looking online but haven’t really found a clearly best option.
Problem with standard recommendation
From what I’ve read GrapheneOS seems the best alternative OS. Unfortunately they only support the Pixel devices. I want to have local, offline access to my files (e.g. music files, documents) and don’t want to be dependent on cloud services. The Pixel with the most storage comes with only 256GB and no slot for an SD card.
Possible options
There are some other routes that may be feasible that I’ve listed here.
Fairphone 6
- No USB 3
- Pricey for what you get, both in terms of hardware and in terms of fairness, at least according to this post).
- It has an SD card slot
- You can order it with e/os installed, very convenient
- No GrapheneOS
Fairphone 5
- According to this post, the FP6 is a lot snappier
- Not significantly cheaper than the FP6
- It does come with USB 3
- It has an SD card slot
- Can also order this with e/os.
- No GrapheneOS
Sony
According to the Bootloader Unlock Wall of Shame Sony isn’t the worst of the bunch.
- Many Sony’s from the LineageOS list of compatible devices have an SD card slot
- Have to install the OS yourself
- No GrapheneOS
Pixel
Get a refurbished Pixel anyways and get a separate dumb MP3 player for music.
- Might be an option but 256GB is still cutting it tight with what I want to have available offline.
- The 256GB option is a lot more expensive than the 128GB option compared to the cost of a 128GB SD card
- Extra costs from buying the extra MP3 player
- Have to install the OS yourself
- Can install GrapheneOS
DumbPhone:
Get a dumbphone for calls, texting, banking, govt stuff, 2FA app, and music listening. Have a separate linux phone for all the other stuff.
- Not sure how privacy friendly the dumbphones are, might still be using Google Play services?
- Two devices instead of one to carry around
- Extra costs for two devices
- Tinkering with a linux phone could be a fun project
Bonus option: don’t get the linux phone
- Less screen time
- Only 1 device to buy/carry
- Can’t go on the internet while traveling
Questions
- What would be your recommendation that allows plenty of storage on the phone?
- Do you have good/bad experiences with any of these phones/operation systems?
- Are there any good options I’ve missed?
Does your no cloud policy extend to running a nextcloud instance on your own computer and pulling data over the network when necessary?
If that’s something you are willing to do, then I would go with the Pixel and just pull data from your nextcloud device when needed. I believe you can install nextcloud through Docker to make it super quick to update and deploy.
Kind of, it seems like a lot of extra work to keep that secure and up to date, esp with having access from outside. My current solution is just Syncthing desktop <-> phone and works exactly the way I want.
In that case, I’d probably go with the Fairphone 6, since you can get /e/OS on it by default, but you can also put lineage on it, if you wished.
Personally, I absolutely hate the /e/OS launcher. It reminds me too much of iOS. And I honestly hate it.
You can install whatever launcher you want. No need to stay on the default (don’t like it either). One of my old phones has /e/os and I’m using Zim Launcher.
Nice that you can install a different launcher
You should be able to do it in all androids.
True, but ever since Android 10, third party launchers don’t work quite as well as they used to.
Thank you, yes, that does seem super convenient and in case /e/OS sucks I could change it to Lineage
So I wanted to make sure before you did so, and it turns out the Fairphone 6 is not as of yet on the lineage OS website as officially supported. So you might be stuck with sl/e/OS for now. I’m fairly certain the Fairphone 6 will get lineage. It just does not appear to have it yet. So you might either want to wait or consider buying the 5 instead, which already is supported for certain.
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#fairphone
Good catch, thanks fo checking. Another comment also mentioned that the 5 is supported by CalyxOS. Means that there is a lot of choice of OS for the FP5, which is great
I believe these six will be supported. I just think it’s new enough that it hasn’t gotten official support yet.
Also, to the best of my knowledge CalyxOS is dead for the moment. I want to say the main developer who was working on it left and they said it would be like six months or something like that before they could get a new person.