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The lack of massive camera bump is almost reason enough for me to purchase this thing on a future sale.
But then you’d be missing out on deleting ‘great’ pictures that make no sense to you two years from now!
Make no sense? They all make sense:
Picture of my cat. Picture of my cat. Picture of my cat. Picture of my cat.
I have an almost Infinite amount of pictures of my kid. This might be the only use of these features, but I love being able to take good pictures at all times and getting reminders from previous years.
Does this actually matter that much? I have a pixel 6a that has the visor style camera bump and with a case on it just disappears.
And even if I’d use the phone without case Google’s bar shaped design still allows the phone to lay stable on a surface without wobble, just at a slight angle instead of flat. Which I guess would be an issue with other designs.
it’s light on AI
Good. I have yet to see a preloaded AI feature on a phone that I want to use. The one I actually want is correctly deciding of I want to be disturbed with a given notification.
Throw lineage OS on this thing and it would be a battery beast. Just because then you wouldn’t have Google Play services crap running all the damn time.
Edit: I have the OnePlus Nord N200 5G from 2021 that I purchased new in the box in 2023. It has a 5,000 mAh battery and i charge it to 80% and discharge it to 30% before charging it again. So I am only using 2,500 mAh of the total capacity. With LineageOS it runs super well and the battery does not discharge quickly. If the average phone battery gets to 5,500 mAh that would give me an extra 250 mAh of usage which would be really cool.
Since it’s a pixel might as well go for GrapheneOS and upgrade your privacy too.
Good point
Lineage OS is closer to regular Android and has the benefit for getting lots of feature updates.
If anything I would recommend Calyx OS due to the Graphene OS controversy
What controversy? I haven’t heard about this? Can you share a link? I was planning on getting a pixel bur if some weird shit happens then I might go for a fairphone instead (and put lineage or eos on it).
Honestly I use a more generic setup with privacy apps services such as shelter and netguard plus Android has a lot of built in privacy and security features. All my apps are foss except for a few work apps that I have in a work profile.
Rant incoming
I don’t want to be reliant on the Graphene OS devs especially since they are jerks. They harass or shutdown anyone who has any form for criticism and they insist that they are the absolute best. I’m simply not ok with devs who are more concerned with there public image than actually making something accessible and private. I’ve also noticed that they seem to frequently mix up the difference between privacy and security. You can have strong security but no privacy and vis versa. Security in privacy really only comes into play when people are trying to exploit something to compromise privacy. I think Graphene OS focuses way to much on the theoretical when they could be spending time elsewhere. The devs have harassed the MicroG team while they continue to claim that there Google services sandbox is somehow private. It is in fact not perfectly private as it needs data to function as that’s how it was designed by Google. What’s worse is that Graphene OS seems to encourage people to continue to use proprietary apps that are bad for privacy because of BS security claims. They seem to think security is more important than getting people to use foss apps that are private by design. If you only use Foss apps you don’t really need fancy privacy tools since the apps are designed to be trusted to a reasonable extent.
TL;DR: The Graphene devs want everyone to see them as the source of truth. They have harassed others devs and they don’t want anyone to say anything negative about Graphene OS. Graphene OS seems more like a status thing to me personally. It comes with lots of extravagant claims but no really results that I can see.
Yeah I’ve done some digging after your comment and also found the Louis rossman video.
They are indeed quite aggressive. What would you suggest as a good alternative? Lineage?
I try to use only foss apps as well (mostly F Droid).
What would you suggest as a good alternative? Lineage?
Nothing is really a direct alternative to GrapheneOS overall, it leans into security a lot more than other privacy ROMS. However, if you just want to deGoogle your Pixel and improve its privacy, another option is iodéOS which is a fork of LineageOS with some further privacy enhancements and an inbuilt tracker blocker. Updates are a couple of weeks slower than GrapheneOS, but you can lock the bootloader following installation. You can check if the Pixel you want is supported here. There are also community builds for some of the unsupported Pixels. The 9 series hasn’t been added yet beyond a community build, although I’m sure it is coming soon.
I would really love if Lineage OS would start signing builds and disabling debugging so that it could be used with a relocked bootloader.
For now you have 3 options. Either:
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Run Lineage OS and be aware of the risks (evil maid)
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Use third party tools to make a custom build of Lineage OS with a locked bootloader. You will be in charge of your own keys and you will need a powerful machine.
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Use Calyx OS and accept the fact that it isn’t as polished as Lineage OS
I would really like it if Lineage OS supported bootloader relocking on supported devices but I don’t see that happening. Also they are kind of in need of a restructure as the only people really working on it is the same set people that have always have. They are still pretty hostile to new contributors but at least they are trying to do better. I think the community around Lineage OS is better than Graphene but it isn’t perfect.
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Is LineageOS missing any feature for you?
Not really know. I can’t use some apps that absolutely depend on Google Play services, such as Uber and Lyft. But I can use the Uber website. So that doesn’t matter.
Those sound bad for privacy anyway.
However, you can probably use MicroG and Shelter/Island to make it work. MicroG pretends to be the play services while Shelter creates a isolated environment for isolated apps.
They are bad for privacy, which is why I use them from the web instead of having an app installed anyway. Even if I could make it work with the apps, I don’t want the apps on my system because apps have more access than a website does.
Don’t buy anything from Google. It’s an evil company now.
Normally I would agree but the Pixel hardware is unmatched in terms of custom roms.
This is true. Can’t run Graphene or Calyx on anything else (unless you want to import a Fairphone Or Moto for Calyx, but EVEN THEN they only work on GSM carriers.)
Exactly. That is my dilemma. I run CalyxOS, de-googled, but unfortunately pixels are the only phone supported in the US. I will be getting the 9a once it goes on sale.
You can run Calyx on the Moto G52 with full bootloader relocking. Its the Graphene OS devs that decided to not support other hardware. They routinely make arbitrary choices and then go around acting like they are facts.
Anyway the big benefit with the Pixel is not only the simple bootloader unlocking/relocking but also that it is popular enough to be sold in a lot of places. I think Moto comes pretty close to the Pixel but I’m not sure which devices support bootloader relocking.
Its just the G32 G42 and G52 I believe, and then the Fairphone 4 and 5. Like I said though its not helpful unless youre on a GSM carrier, because of course the US has to be different and have a 2nd standard that only some phones work with. (if you can’t tell I’m on a CDMA carrier and am stuck with pixels unless I move to a place where GSM carriers have more coverage)
All the phone you need
No SD slot
Hmm, nope. Not all the phone I need.
Just got this because it was a great deal to turn in my 6a. I’m glad it’s AI light so I don’t get bogged down in things I don’t need. If AI is great I can get it in 3 generations when it works
