My phone is no longer getting updates, so it’s time to buy a new one. The hardware could easily last 1-2 more years but I’d have to replace the battery, which is a pain on my phone.

I’m looking for something that has long firmware support and some good privacy roms while not being worse than my current Oneplus 8 in any way. I don’t care about cameras at all and I’m still mad about the missing headphone jacks, but unfortunately those don’t seem to be coming back and I can survive without one.

So, the options are Fairphone 5 and Pixel 8 from what I found out. The Pixel 8 is a little small for my taste and with 256GB storage it’s more expensive, but it does have grapheneOS, which I’d prefer because the app sandboxing would allow me to have peace of mind even if I have tracking apps sitting on my phone. I could use the proper play store and do IAPs without fiddling with aurora store. I use it already and it isn’t great.

With the Fairphone, I’d get a replacable battery so I can buy a spare and swap instead of charging my phone. I used to do that with the good old S3 and it was great. MicroSD slot is also nice. But the ROM options are CalyxOS and /e/OS. I know Calyx has a nice firewall to keep tracking at bay and /e/OS is an LOS fork mainly focused on getting rid of google from what I know, but neither has as much protection as grapheneOS.

My main goal is to become less dependant on google while still being able to use google maps for my way to work. The traffic aware routing saves me 10 minutes every day so letting google know when I go to work is a fair deal.

So, any opinions or experiences with either? TIA

  • markkdark@lemmy.ml
    5·
    7 months ago

    I replaced the Pixel 6 with the Pixel 8 257gb of storage, this solved my need for an SD card, I replaced the 3.5 headphone jack with an Ibasso DC03 pro DAC for the USB C port. Since I’ve been using phones with custom ROMs for years (also 2x Sony with SailfishOS) I was always looking for something that would be useful for me (the best choice would be the LG V50 if it could be loaded with GOS or DivestOS). The Pixeli8 is still an expensive phone (mine bought new from another user) but I like the GrapheneOS, compact design, camera and usability, and long-term support (hopefully I’ll have it for a long time). I only have FOSS applications on my profile, and my work profile contains Gplay and a few apps that I occasionally use. I have no comments, everything works as it should and I like the compact design and the camera. The keyboard is also finally FOSS, open board (fork) with swipe function. I much prefer using it than Gboard with internet blocked.