this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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The GrapheneOS team has already absolutely dismanteled the Fairphone on Mastodon:
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/110272102808113949
The GrapheneOS team is security focused to the point where it is detrimental to the regular user experience. I.e. "Secure App Spawning" increases app startup time considerably on older devices like the Pixel 4a.
GrapheneOS is security focused and it's great that they point out security issues, but for most people security updates being late isn't an issue. Half the people I know have devices without security updates for months to even years.
Also, with the Fairphone 5 using an automotive SOC with 13 years of updates, the FP5 might actually be able to receive Android updates for 6 years. Iirc the FP3 still receives security updates, albeit not monthly and a bit late. Edit: The last security update for FP3 is from 2023-12-05. Edit 2: The FP3 got the 2024-02-05 security update on 2024-03-01.
Also, the GrapheneOS team has very high standards for security features supported by a phone. Basically no phone besides Pixel supports those features, which obviously isn't a big problem for most people (else we'd have a big problem).
Anyway, I'll keep recommending Pixel + GrapheneOS, but imo Fairphone is also a solid choice.
That's why Graphene allows you to disable the security features. Turning off secure app spawning won't make your device incredibly vulnerable, it will just be set back to normal AOSP security level.
You know which phone has basically all of those security features? The iPhone. GrapheneOS is not building something insane, they're just hardening Android to a point where it's actually comparable to iPhone security. Sure, usability might not be perfect because Google only releases base Android as open source software and keeps all their fancy apps proprietary, but it's not in a state where it's totally unusable either.
Agreed. GrapheneOS/AOSP feels a bit like desktop Linux, where the base OS is there but many components like screen time have to installed seperately (e.g. screen time/app usage). Compared to many phone manufacturers installing apps for ads or other unnecessary bloat.
That's what I did the second time I tried GrapheneOS. The worse ootb performance made me install CalyxOS again, until I found out Secure App Spawning can be disabled.