I recently asked for recommendations elsewhere regarding a cost-effective phone with the best camera that’s a reasonable price. Almost unanimous recommendations for a Pixel a couple years old. I’m a total noob for privacy stuff but joining Lemmy under the dbzer0 instance, I’m feeling more motivated to learn more and get out from under the thumb of major corps as much as possible.
Can you have a Pixel and still de-google? It seems unlikely… Any advice?
Of course you can, in fact GrapheneOS is specifically made for this purpose lol
I’d just get a Fairphone and flash my own ROM tho. Reparability is a big plus here
Does the Google Camera perform as good on GrapheneOS as when installed on stock? I’m thinking it may rely on proprietary libraries only available on the stock ROM
I got a Galaxy S20 Ultra refurbished off ebay for $300. It was a flagship phone and was $1,400 when released. It has an SD card slot that allows up to 1TB I think, a 5000mAH battery, and a 108 MP main camera. And it has 12 gb of ram.
Whatever you decide, definitely consider refurbished options.
If you want take privacy more serious level with some deep understanding in the future, for me Redmi 2 / other phones that compatible with PostmarketOS is enough. For me, android will never been a safe and private place to be for your own data. Too risky…
Man all these mfs are steering you deadass wrong. If you’re a noob for privacy stuff start with an iPhone.
You get very clear user settings at first boot that let you choose your level of privacy and you have to actively add trackers on it. You get a very clear functional internal check that communicates what you’re letting different applications do and gives you an opportunity to change that. You get a functional phone that only requires that you trust the people who made it, honestly the same devils bargain any phone requires.
You also get one of the biggest userbases to look shit up and one of the longest support windows in phones.
Once you’re paying attention to your apps and data then you can get a sealed pixel from last year shipped to a vacant house and run graphene and only connect through a vpn and only log in with anonymous accounts.
Don’t try to learn in formula one. Start with a go cart.
Check the list below , get the cheaper a be happy, i did that at least
An iPhone SE might be a solid option. A new one is $429 and a used one is much, much cheaper.
Note: They come out with an SE every few years, so if you are buying used or reading reviews, pay attention to which generation it is.
Here ya go: https://murena.com/america/products/smartphones/?wcpbc-manual-country=US
The Fairphone is expensive, but pretty neat and repairable. All phones are warrantied through them…
Yes, I have a Pixel 6a, and have installed GrapheneOS on it. It does what I need and I enjoy the extra privacy. Would recommend.
What do you use for maps?
I haven’t really needed to yet, but I think I’d probably look for OSmand (sp?) on F-droid. It uses Open Street Maps.
Edit: seems they have a few anti features. Maybe I’d just use browser and apple maps in a bind.
Try Organic Maps on F-Droid. It seems to have no anti-features and is pretty solid in general.
I’d really like something that has traffic data, my frequent routes are often messed up
Might not fit the de-google aspect of your search, but I love my galaxy S10 plus. Older phone, but still snappy and takes great pictures and videos.
I got mine used for like 400 bucks (CAD) before Covid, so while it may not hit the Google free aspect of your search, you’ll save some $$$
