this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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The best middle ground is probably GrapheneOS with sandboxed Google Play Services. At that point, most things "just work" and you can at least mitigate Google's spyware.
Middle ground option has a weirdo author & is limited to Google’s Pixel line only (which eliminates one of the best parts about Android vs. iOS: device variety so you can find something specific to your needs)
I wish I could find something specific to my needs still. Headphone jacks, front facing speakers, mSD cards, and hole-less screens are hard to come by now.
Sony Xperia 10 iii has all those things, and you can run Sailfish OS on it, including VoLTE and Android app support with it.
It doesn't look like it has front facing speakers, it looks like it has that earpiece+bottom facing bs that is popular now.
Whoops, yes you are correct, you would need to go to Asus for front facing speakers. Maybe the Asus Rog 2, which can run degoogled Bliss ROM
Crazy how these went from standard features to niche in a generation. Like a sibling comment mentioned, I picked up an Sony Xperia III 5 with microG for Lineage OS installed (tho I swap OLED + <6" screen for your front-facing speaker requirement). Stupidly, not-rooted I still can’t run banking apps since custom ROMs are dangerous (but make me safer). Ironically, the banking apps I would use have trackers in them since it’s their security/privacy that matter, not mine.
I had a Nexus 6 and miss it all the time for watching videos. It was a 6" AMOLED screen with front facing speakers and wasn't this long aspect ratio thing that they do now. I wish it had a micro SD card but even then it would eventually just be too old.
Feel ya. The Xperia line still has them where you have to choose between dual SIM or microSD, but if it’s that simple why aren’t more phones offering that in their SIM tray (oh wait, they want you to use e-SIM so you can’t just physically swap it to another phone with ease)
Yeah, which is why I use de-googled "vanilla" Bliss ROM 17.2 (Android 14 with latest security patch) on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro instead of going the Graphene or Calyx + Pixel route. This way I have the hardware features I wanted (headphone jack, micro SD card slot, 5000mAh battery, 108mp camera, stereo speakers, 120mHz refresh rate) all for cheaper than a Pixel, and the Bliss ROM community is pretty friendly and dedicated in my interactions with it.
is your phone still officially supported by the oem with security patches? Because if not, no custom rom update can have the full range of security patches.
Is bliss compatible with apps and stuff?
There are "vanilla" versions (which is what I use) that are basically de-googled AOSP which work well with apps from F-droid, Izzy-on-droid, and free apps from Aurora stores, which you can also install MicroG on if you wanted to - and there are "Gapps" versions which have Google Play Services, the Google Play Store and some of the basic Google apps pre-loaded.
What is the issue with the author? I was thinking of installing graphene
He stepped down last year. A bit toxic and troubled. A lot of social media drama around it.