Get a Pixel
this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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Privacy
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A Pixel with GrapheneOS is okay but you don't get Android Auto, which kinda sucks.
ooh no problem I despise android auto and glad it doesn't force my phone to connect every time I start driving the way it did at the beginning, I had to dig into the settings and figure out how to disable it.
Well you won't be able to use it at all even if you need it, but if that works for you, go nuts.
I can't imagine ever needing it. What is it even for? All it ever did for me was instantly answer spam phone calls that I would have rejected, doesn't let me use my phone until my GPS indicates I've reached my destination, and it would automatically answer texts telling them that I'm driving. Like leave me alone big brother ugh!
What are you going to use if you are driving somewhere new and don't know where you are going though? I used AA for the maps and directions only and I miss it alot.
I use a phone holder and my phone sits there with my maps app showing me the navigation.
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I pair my phone to my car's Bluetooth. Google maps is what I use. You don't need Android Auto for that.
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"smartphone" doesn't matter. it is a computer that runs software. the only question is who controls that software? free/libre software is by definition one that you control. and what you described means that you dont control your device.
so advices: easy way is to just install lineage os or graphene or some other open source android version. you will control it. i dont advice to install google play services.
other advice: you can get a sony phone because it can run sailfish os. also i believe those are great. otherwise install open source android, lineage or something.
sailfish has android emulator (it costs money) but sailfish is not android. it is a linux/qt based system. very polished. not as polished as open source android, but it is fast, lightweight and beautiful. native sailfish apps arent feature rich but do you really need feature rich? then you can get more apps from fdroid store and use android emulation layer.
other, better but harder option: get a device which is well supported by postmarketos.
postmarketos has several user interfaces but neither of those is what you have used to. i believe it is the best option but you must prepare yourself to be able to change. most probably you wont have a working camera. thats ok, i live like that.
Murena phones are basically Fairphone with /e/OS https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki//e/_(operating_system) with IMHO compare to GrapheneOS.
Their privacy features are really good. It replace Google Services with an open source equivalent. Not sure I can deploy Google applications.
The result is a smartphone mostly degoogled, a good UX and you 'feel' the privacy features without being annoyed by them.
EDIT: changed "completely degoogled" to "mostly degoogled".
The Smartphone is not completely degoogled. Please check before posting such statements. It can not be compared to Graphene. Graphene is far ahead.
See: https://divestos.org/misc/e.txt for a list of issues
/e/ is very slow in terms of security updates and they rely on some google services.
The only point you can make: If you want it easy and you don't care about security and less google but not degoogled is okay for you, /e/ is your choice.
But please stay away from Fairphone. They have several hardware issues even in more than one generation (for example ghost inputs in 3 and 4) but they do not accept them and try to solve with software update which surprisingly did not work. And if you use /e/ you don't geht support from FP side.
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Murena phones are basically Fairphone with /e/OS
One of the main features of Fairphones is that they are easily repairable - it doesn't look like Murena has done anything to make it easier to fix.
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