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?
Out of interest what music files and documents do you need with you at all times that will fill up a 256GB phone?
Not speaking for OP, but having a 1 TB microSD would let me:
All for under 100 USD
Fair enough, seems like a nice setup. I guess I’ve already accepted that I can’t do that on most phones and constant network access to cloud stuff is a reasonable alternative. There is no perfect device so we’ve all got to choose which compromises to make, eh?
Absolutely, everyone has different priorities. Personally I dislike the rent extraction model of cloud services, especially for use-cases like mine where local storage would suffice.
Local storage is so abundant, and cloud so expensive. We will hopefully see more innovation to bridge the gap for non sys admins. I.e. no more rent extraction!
Don’t buy the fairphone 4, qualcom doesn’t support the drivers. Security is shit. As to the 5 and 6, they don’t meet the hardware security requirements of the GOS team.
If security is your priority go for a Pixel with GOS.
Filen offers a mountable drive stackable 100gb lifetime deal. Free 10gb, so 110gb. The lifetime deal is like 20 bucks. So pay 40 bucks 220gb. The deals are stackable.
If you use my referral I get an additional 30gb 😂
Anyways that’s not why I recommend them, i was in the same position using syncthing, self hosting. Until I spend the time to harden remote access filen is simple and damn good.
The convenience of cloud is to always have access to your documents when you need them. I want that, but without relying on a cloud provider. Syncthing syncs from desktop to phone when I’m home and I always have access to everything when I’m away.
There’s about 100GB of various photos, files, documents, notes I sync. Music collections can easily grow to significant sizes if you don’t use streaming services.
Have you thought about getting a homeserver? Immich is great service to selfhost for photos, paperless ngx is a very nice selfhosted document management system and there are several options for notes. If you use a VPN to connect you phone to your home network you don’t even have to expose any service to the general web.
I do have a homeserver for hosting stuff around the house. Unfortunately am not knowledgeable enough to be comfortable opening it to outside. And sometimes I mess around and bork it, meaning I would lose access to my things until I fix it.
My router has a great wireguard integration, that makes it pretty easy to tunnel into my home network. I don’t open it to the outside in any other way. But yeah, it does require some maintenance and a backup strategy. I bought an unraid license back when the lifetime ones were still cheap, that makes it pretty easy to work on overall.
You could look at doing a VPN only connection to your home server - some people use tailscale / headscale to achieve this but I’ve been happily using PiVPN on my home PiHole to provide full home server connectivity from anywhere for years.
my current, somewhat curated music library is almost 500 gb (mostly flac tbf), that i copied over to my phone, a fp4 with a 1tb sd
Impressive, though do you actually need to have it all with you at all times? I’ve been there, and ultimately having everything on me all the time wasn’t worth the other tradeoffs.