Cyberwolf

No, I don’t. Samsung and other authorized OEMs run stock Google services so there’s no benefit to using them. Those devices are also substantially inferior to the Pixel in terms of security features anyways.

The only phone I recommend is a Pixel with a properly set up GrapheneOS install, making use of profiles and private spaces depending on which apps you want to expose to Google Play Services/Framework, and which you don’t.

Ideally your most used profile is filled exclusively with FOSS or privacy-respecting apps that can run without Google services. And I’m talking about going really deep even on elemetary things like using an offline keyboard like Heliboard or FUTO that won’t send everything you type to Google/Microsoft/Apple. Or using Gboard but with network access blocked.

Yes, this set up takes time and some research, but it’s the only way you can guarantee your data is properly split between what is just for you to see, and what others see.

A device that is truly yours and not someone else’s to mine for data and spy on you, possibly getting you in trouble in the future when a government demands your data from Google/Apple.

But if you’re not willing to put in the work to set it up, then I don’t recommend any other Androids. Stay on iPhone instead.

Hold on, you think GrapheneOS isn’t perfectly private (and you’d be right, it isn’t, and their main focus is security anyway) but you think iPhones are better?

Why, because Apple told you it is? Because they have some gimmicks that sound good on paper but don’t actually protect your data in any real way?

Okay dude. Reach out to me whenever cus i got a bridge to sell you.

Also, everything you said is incorrect, and so is your conclusion. But I don’t think we’ll ever see eye to eye on this so why bother.

To be fair i’ve not tried fucking up with this too much

We could tell.

Sorry, but what you are dismissing as “They only… You still… You lose…” is very ignorant.

What the GrapheneOS team has achieved is technically impressive, sandboxing Google Play is something no other project has done yet, and now with Private Spaces you can essentially split your profile in two and decide which apps you want Google Play to run through, and which you don’t.

I put all the privacy intrusive apps in the private Space and installed Google services there, and I only open that space about once a week to keep in touch with some friends. The rest of the week I’m enjoying a fully degoogled phone using only FOSS apps and a bank that doesn’t require Google services to be installed.

The team deserves all the praise they get for building the most secure (and ironically, private) OS in the market right now, even with Google being so antagonistic to them. The phone is fully functional and we’re definitely not living 10 years in the past.

You should give it a proper try and form a facts-based opinion, or stop talking about it altogether.

It’s just their devices just aren’t up to standards. Of all, only Pixel phones have the security features GrapheneOS is looking for. If that isn’t indicative of the garbage that OEMs are putting out there, I don’t know what is.

No! Don’t take the fall for what Windows forces you to do. Creating a billion GUI menus for users to get through before reaching what they really want to reach was Microsoft’s choice, not yours.

That’s the AI code at work there.

Mac is actually nice to use though… My wife has one and it was my first exposure to them.

As a lifelong Windows user, I recall vividly asking myself “why am I not being abused by random pop ups and an overly complicated process to achieve basic things right now?” over and over while working on her machine.

Plus their graphical interface is a pleasure to work with once you get past some of its quirks. If I wasn’t already happily on Linux I would definitely move to Mac.