i wrote it in a comment threat on this post. i repost it this way, welp
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Doesn’t matter how easy it is when step zero is “spend $500+ on a new phone because you’re currently using a Samsung or other device with a locked bootloader”
Remember, even cheaper phones (that actually work with your carrier) get marked up. Taxes, shipping, accessories like a case. Being able to afford a new device is nice and Lineage/Graphene make a good case for which new device you should buy, but someone’s five year old phone still works.
Yep, I saw a comment once like “GrapheneOS saves lives in countries under heavy censorship” as a tool for activists and such… but, really, do you know how accessible a phone that supports GrapheneOS is in such countries? I’m from Brazil, and among third world countries we are one of the most developed, but it’s about 8x as hard for us to get a Pixel phone compared to the USA (about double the price and about four times lower wages), and for really censored places it would be even harder!
My phone has an unlocked bootloader and I still can’t install LineageOS because they don’t have an image for it.
Xiaomi smartphones are cheap, but the waiting period is horrible (two weeks now), saying this from my Xiaomi Redmi Note 9s on LineageOS with microg. (I’m actually on my computer right now)
Were you able to unlock It? It seems it’s getting more and more complicated (I own a Xiaomi phone, too, a Poco F6)
Yeah, it needs an xiaomi account with unlocking privileges (I have one from 2018, so this step was already done) and a Windows partition with the xiaomi bootloader unlocker (the official one, updated to the last version), then putting a SIM card into the phone, putting the same account on the phone, going to the bootloader unlocker, checking all the boxes and then just waiting for the time it says on the unlocker to unlock the phone, with the SIM card and not changing the account on the phone.
I just added a Windows 10 IoT LTSC partition to do that :/, then deleted it afterwards.
Did you have to try many times before getting it done? I always kept being replied I have to try again because the credits for that day had ended :(
Credits? I didn’t need any credits, I used this, from the official website. I just checked on the fastboot screen (using this program) once in a while for getting the time to unlock the bootloader.
Can you explain a little more?
Sorry I meant quota. Here’s a link explaining it better: https://xdaforums.com/t/unlocking-bootloader-poco-f6-pro.4675388/
On your xiaomi account? I never saw that quota thing, is this for the account to have unlocking privileges?
Doesn’t matter how easy it is when step zero is “spend $500+ on a new phone because you’re currently using a Samsung or other device with a locked bootloader”
Misleading statement: OnePlus Nord N30 5G (a.k.a. Nord CE 3 Lite 5G) costs 300$ in OnePlus’ official store, and supports Lineage. And the price gets lower when buying second-hand phones (e.g. Pixel 6/7 series, Motorolas, Nothing Phone 1, older OnePlus)
Remember, even cheaper phones (that actually work with your carrier) get marked up. Taxes, shipping, accessories like a case. Being able to afford a new device is nice and Lineage/Graphene make a good case for which new device you should buy, but someone’s five year old phone still works.
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Having to fiddle with carriers is an US-exclusive problem, so I can’t voice an opinion.
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Someone’s five year old phone should work with, maybe not Lineage, but maybe another custom ROM. Most of them are based of Lineage, anyway.
$300 plus shipping and taxes. In your region. And a whole lot more than $0, which is the cost of staying on someone’s old phone. when someone’s buying a new phone already, considering its compatibility with Lineage or Graphene is something that should be on more people’s radar, I agree. But switching from googled vendor’d Android to fully open Android isn’t a pure skill issue like switching from Chrome to Firefox (/Waterfox/librewolf) or Windows to Linux is. “I’d switch but it’s too hard” is a much smaller reason than “I’d switch but it’s too expensive” is.
Someone’s five year old phone is just as likely to be a five year old Samsung/etc with a locked bootloader.
I found Samsung’s struggled after 1.5 years. I’m 3 years in on Pixel 6a. Less bloat really seems to help.
What phone would you recommend privacy wise?
If you’re buying a new one, whatever fits your budget and is compatible with Lineage/Graphene.
The only times I’ve personally been forced off of a Samsung phone (though I’ve mostly had flagships) wasn’t due to any day-to-day degradation in user experience. It was stuff like switching USA carriers or my carrier blacklisting devices with 3g. My current S22 Ultra is three years old, going on four, and aside from needing to use adb and shizuku to have a semblance of control I once had with root there’s nothing wrong with it. My previous phone was only replaced because it became incompatible with my ATT phone service in the US. The Note 9, which was four years-ish old when ATT decided 3g+4g wasn’t good enough and deactivated any SIM i put in the thing. If not for that arbitrary carrier-made decision, I can’t think of many things that 9 couldn’t do that the S22U can.
My next phone won’t be a purchase I make until I absolutely need to make it, and at that point it’ll exclusively be a pick from degooglable unlockable models. I’ll probably choose based on hardware like an SD slot, removable battery, and stylus if any of those are available. Or maybe linux phones will be a thing at that point and I’ll be looking at those.
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