As the title suggests, curious if any alternatives exist that are actually decent, specifically privacy focused alternatives. I’ve looked into the pine phone pro but the battery life is pretty garbage from what I can tell, it doesn’t look daily drivable at all. I’ve also looked into Librem 5, but there seems to be no easy way to get regular apps on your phone. What other options are there? My criteria is basically privacy and useable, I don’t feel like I have a very high bar but I’m not finding anything.
Best, in the sense that it can be daily drivable is still Android - but custom ROMs:
This specifically requires a Google Pixel phone.
For non-Pixel phones there is:
The problem is, device support is hit or miss.
Also, important apps like banking, streaming, relies on specific Google or Apple services. It may be best to have 2 phones - one for actual secure comms and another for less sensitive stuff, or maybe offload some apps to an Android VM like Genymotion.
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Thanks for info! I’ll definitely look into GrapheneOS more as it should be compatible with my phone.
Probably a more sane way forward is to use a stock phone but you have to de-Google apps via ADB (using a command prompt/command line interface). It will get you about 90-95% of the way there. This could be viable for a new phone but I am unsure if this would give you renewed privacy from a reused phone.
I think that a good middle ground, if you live in the EU, is the FairPhone 4. It’s fully unlockable and easy to work on, so you can slap a degoogled or even a fully stock build of Android with no services whatsoever on it and be good to go.
I don’t think there’s a way out of Android to this day. It also depends on what are your needs. If you can make it work with webapps or not.
My recommendations would be graphene or calyx os.
If you want an off the shelf solution, there is the nitrophone. Be sure to get the version with the cameras, sensors, and microphone removed.
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