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What other options for good phones are out there? (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 days ago by ZeDoTelhado@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I have now a pixel 8, which was working OK from the past 8 months and using grapheneos. Unfortunately, today out of nowhere got the green screen bug (searched around, this seems to be really a thing with pixel 8 and some pixel 7). This really stroke me a nerve. Previously I had a pixel 5 which at some point also got screen problems and later the speaker piece just straight up did not work properly. And now this with the pixel 8.

So my question is: what other phones could potentially be used with a custom ROM that allow bootloader relocking? Other Roms can be something like divest or calyx (I used calyx before, so I am fairly familiar with it).

It really pisses me off the only option until now are pixel phones for proper relocking (from what I know from a while back), and then they have these annoying issues. It makes my skin crawl, but if required I would change to an iPhone (and throwaway a lot of things that android is actually superior, such as proper tor browser, VPN split tunneling, work/user profiles, no bloody account to use a phone).

Thanks for the responses in advance.

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[–] ZeDoTelhado@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

I do understand where you're coming from. I never buy a phone without a somewhat good discount (which I got on this one). As for the risk flashing, quite frankly the cases of breaking are so far and few in between that for the odds given nowadays, I am OK in doing this on a brand new pixel (for other phones that require unlock first and all that jazz I do not try it on brand new).

As for the lineage os bit: lots of devices, but the lack of unlock for me is a no no. If it was an older device without important stuff such as banking sure, I would totally go for it.

EDIT: where you read unlock I actually meant root. Most phones cannot be unlocked unless you have root

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 1 points 4 days ago

Unlock has nothing at all to do with root.

Root is dependent on unlocking, not the reverse, as root is part of the installed OS.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

EDIT: where you read unlock I actually meant root. Most phones cannot be unlocked unless you have root

I don't think this is right.

Unlock related to bootloader. root is different.

[–] ZeDoTelhado@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Haven't touched other phones in a while, so there is a chance this is not correct. However, I do remember trying to have my old s10e to have anything else that is not Samsung ROM. Its a nightmare.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 1 points 4 days ago

As far as I recall, root has never been required to flash a phone.

This is because flashing occurs at the firmware level, while root, again, is a function of the installed OS.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yeah rooting was a thing in mid 2010s, it changed since then. you don't need to root to flash a room. unlocking bootloader is enough.

samsung went out of their way to fuck over custom rom community.

oneplus did something similar around oneplus 9. i think they were relockable for a bit then oneplus pushed out firmware update to block it or some such thing.

this is how we ended up with pixels as only viable "mass market" choice. I am sure google would shut it down if it was not used as reference model for devs.

watch them close this route for us soon enough.

They are getting annoyed with us but they got ad blocker fight on their hands and anti trust ruling so they got to play coy for now.

[–] ZeDoTelhado@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

For the reasons you mention, I really REALLY hope pinephone goes far and we have something else viable on the long run