I'm hopeful. I want my next phone without Google or Samsung - and I really hope Motorola will deliver their promises.
And also that the upcoming phone have to have an extendable storage for me to buy. It is my main principle - unfortunately I had to give up on headphone jacks...
Privacy
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
If you want GrapheneOS without funding Google, why not get a secondhand Pixel?
This is what I did but you do need to be careful with it - in the US ar least you can't unlock the bootloader on a Verizon-issued pixel which are very common. Always ask the seller where they got it from, since most wouldn't be technical enough to check the bootloader for you
This is very important and deserves its own post. Resellers typically either don't specify or don't know if the bootloader is unlockable on a Pixel so the buyer has to find out for themselves. Sadly "Unlocked" in an eBay post often refers to the carrier rather than the bootloader. Thanks for mentioning this!
Yep I made this mistake but luckily was able to return the phone via backmarket. Was more educated the second buy and am happy with the phone.
you're still supporting google if you still do this via resale value.
and that's why i'm waiting for motorola
How does resale value “support Google”?
How many GOS users are out there, you think? They have zero impact on the resale value.
If you understand what graphene is for and you need that then you wont wait.
Even if you don’t understand what graphene is for or if you need it and are trying to make a decision: graphene on new and used pixel phones works as expected now. It has been tested and proven against many different intelligence and surveillance apparatus. Motorolas new phone may not come out at all (it’s more likely than you might think!), may not end up supporting graphene (or graphene may not end up supporting it!) or it may have serious flaws that need to be addressed (it is a new hardware platform after all!).
If you need it now don’t wait.
Swappa.com for a cheap ass used pixel...typed from my cheap ass pixel with GrapheneOS
Buy it now if you're ready to make the switch. That timeline sounds a bit optimistic. Last I heard Motorola had confirmed they're working with GOS on bringing a phone to market, but no release date has been announced, unless I'm mistaken.
It's a great OS. IMO, it works better than most OEM Android OS's, aside from a handful of quirks and a few app issues. I get that buying a Pixel seems antithetical, but it's really just a hardware "shell" for GrapheneOS.
Even if the Motorola GOS phones arrive as soon as you hope, keep in mind it's an initial launch. It may not be as smooth or stable as the current Pixel GOS experience.
I will wait for Motorola.
Aside from how the phones actually compare, I think it'd be good to show there is a market for a factory graphene phone. I want companies to see the difference (financially) when they start taking privacy and other pro consumer ideas seriously.
Unless I needed a replacement now, I would wait. It’ll be the first phone designed with GOS in mind but also Motorola’s recent track record isn’t amazing. I’m also hoping they have multiple phones supporting GOS. If initial reviews aren’t great, then refurbished Pixel it is.
FWIW, am using a pixel 7 pro, and don't feel any need for higher specs. Though I'm not doing any kind of demanding gaming.
You're not missing anything whatsoever. I got a great deal on a lightly used Pixel 10 Pro and other than the telephoto camera lens (which is admittedly nice) there is literally no functional difference I notice day to day from my previous Pixel 7 (not pro).
Same here on a 7A, which is slower than the pro version. Although OP should know that the 7 series is stopping support in 1-2 years: https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime
7a user here. I think the device is getting slower and I have very minimal apps installed almost none aftermarket. Only 2 extra profiles set to run only when active. Minimal background usage and still its slowish. The battery is decent still so long as it's used like a phone and not browsing much or on dimmer brightness. It's ok.
I think ram and cpu are the same on 7,7a, and 7pro. It's just camera, battery, screen, and misc that differ I think.
For the most part you can't really do demanding gaming on a pixel. For emulation and playing PC games you pretty much need a snapdragon.
Most mobile gaming people do are with apks through the playstore and flagship phones from 8~ years ago can still run those games pretty much maxed out besides frame rates. Pixel will play your call of duty mobiles and gebshin impact fine.
Even recently I learned termux now allows gpu pass thorough on snapdragon phones from 610+. Most projects I cone across favor the 645 if you don't have one of the new series. And those chips are ancient and still put up good performance even if it is short lived due to thermals/boosting.
Not saying its not possible or you can't have a good experience with things like gamecube. I think for most people you really don't need anything past like a oneplus 5/6 in terms of specs. Just if you wanted to get into fex/switch emulation you are probably going to want to go with a snapdragon device. They have arm based hand helds with dual screens and controllers built in, and just having a dedicated device for gaming might be a better option. Out side of that having a more performant phone has minimal improvements to your average experience, in the play store there isnt much of anything that can really utilize it. There's maybe 5-10 graphically demanding games, and they where all made to work with phones from 10 years ago.
Dont buy a pixel new. 11 pro is underwhelming anyway, weak af
What specs do you need? The cheapest GrapheneOS compatible phone you can get for before the Motorola release is a Pixel 6a, or 7/7 Pro if you need better specs. I use a Pixel 6 Pro and the specs are fine if it weren't losing support in October. If you want more longetivy get a Pixel 8.
Honestly however releases a flip phone on which I can install GOS
I'll on the opposite side: will the Moto GOS be more affordable than a Pixel one? It seems they'll go the way of the Signature and beyond
If you have an ok phone now, there's no need for a new one unless it's interesting. I'd wait to see about the moto graphene phone. I'm quite happy with low end moto hardware (G series) but they will probably screw up and make the graphene phone a flagship, as someone mentioned.
I have a Motorola that runs Android 15. It would be great if GrapheneOS would work on it.
I just got a used pixel late last year and have been using that.
Is the pixel actually worth buying? I have an iPhone 15 Pro and I’m kind of interested in buying a $200 pixel 8 off of eBay.
Same situation (current phone is dying) so I'll be watching this thread as well, sorry I cant contribute with an answer
I'm thinking of waiting for the actual specs of the Motorolla to make a decision, I don't want to give Google my money so a refubished Pixel is my other option
I am precisely doing that since my xiaomi drowned last month. Got myself a spare/ secondary phone that happens to be my primary at the moment. It has another feature I wanted to try: an eink screen, black and white, easy on my eyes (model: bigme hibreak).
I am happy with my decision :) it's like a digital detox in its own way... Most of my app consumption was text > sound >> video, and the latter doesn't look bad at all anyway, so... here we are. Only some content received via Whatsapp but I use the web version at my pc most of the day (e.g. videos of my family or photos from friends)
The 10 pro still has graphene support. It'll be on sale here in a little while because the pro 11 is launching (same with their other variants, I think). Unless we get a for sure launch date for the graphene moto phones, I'd pull the trigger on a new pixel.
wait like a month and the pixel price will go down to like 600 dollars. that's what I did for my pixel 10.
It all depends on how badly you need a new phone. My current Pixel is perfectly serviceable, so I have no problem waiting to see what Motorola eventually has to offer. My current phone will almost certainly suffice until then.
With that said, if my current phone was actually broken or whatever, I would probably buy a cheap/old/used Pixel to tide me over until the Motorola reveal.
i bought a used 8 pro
It's nice to have some other choices but, given all the current legislation suddenly appearing about requiring vendors to identify users, I think there's a good chance Motorola is rethinking this decision.
If I just learned of GOS now and didn't have a Pixel, I would buy an unlocked unit cheap and used now. Motorola have gone quiet about their GOS phone in the months since the announcement. If it ends up flagship-priced, I'd have to settle for a used Pixel anyway.
But since I have a Pixel with GOS that is perfectly usable already, I'm holding out to see what Motorola comes up with. Either way, not too worried about specs since I don't use my phone that much. Would be nice to have SD card, headphone jack (bonus ease of security points over Bluetooth and dongles), and replaceable battery, but have also learned to (begrudgingly) tolerate phones without those.
I'm waiting. Not only because I'd rather use Motorola over Google, but also because I want to wait and see how the EU ID apps will work on GrapheneOS. If it won't work on GOS (which seems quite likely as of today), then I will ditch the phone as a social medium entirely and only use it for ID, banking apps and other proprietary garbage society forces upon me. I'd relegate my social life to a portable laptop or something, on which I have a far greater control of the software.
I'm sitting on my Pixel 8 until I can compare the Moto Graphene phone and the next Fairphone. If I'm going to get subpar performance relative to Apple and Qualcomm, I'm going to at least get a removable battery in exchange. I want wired video out, which disqualifies the Fairphone 6.
I am waiting for now, for me, since I already have a phone. That said, if it's the difference between zero connection and the status quo, I would just buy something now. The status quo is better than nothing at all. But once Graphene'd Motorola comes out, it's a no brainer purchace.
Maybe, but probaby not gonna budget friendly, because of GOS hardware requirements for security and we all know how overprice a Pixel phone is