Any non Google phone running graphene would be epic.
I had completely forgotten Lenovo bought Motorola from Google some 10 years ago. Honestly haven’t seen a Motorola phone in at least that long …
They spotted an opportunity
Good. Now if only they could make the Edge+ with the same relative spec sheet and ditch the curved glass in 2027. I’d buy it in a heartbeat for Graphene. My next phone WAS going to be a Pixel for the broader case/screen protector support, but that would make me reconsider cause I would really miss the chop chop flashlight.
My biggest concern is the life cycle of the device. I almost went with Motorola for my last phone, but saw that you were lucky to get 3 years of OS updates. Is that likely to be better on GrapheneOS? If so, that is a huge win imo. If not, it still isn’t ideal because I don’t want to have to buy a new phone every 2 years…
Reading the original press release might be a good Start
Their Thinkphones pretty much always had good update policy
Almost like you cant really sell a 100€ device and expect it to be optimised like a mid range
Why do you think they are $300-500? I don’t care about “only” 3 years of updates if i don’t have to spend $1300 on a friggin cellphone.
I mean, I sort of get what you are saying but it also feels a little like Grimes’s boots thing from Terry Pratchet. Like, I can spend $200- $300 and get a phone that will stop getting security updates in 2-3 years… Or I can spend $700-$1000 to get a phone that comes with 7-10 years of security updates. Money per year, you are the same or better off if you can afford the up-front cost of the more expensive product, and we are generating a lot less techno-garbage clogging up the planet.
Generally, I hate the hard limit of use of these things. Coming from desktop computers, if you spend more money the machine is faster, but if you don’t need the speed you can use the cheap machine just as long (or longer if you really don’t need performance). All phones feel like they are just a subscription model.
Thats the trick, when a company supports romming, you can extend the support for however long you want!
But gos dropped support for pre-6 Pixels so not quite.
Never had graphene, but been using Lineage since it was called CyanogenMod on my Galaxy Nexus
but saw that you were lucky to get 3 years of OS updates.
fucking great, less enshittification when they stop shoving the updates down your throat.
Yea, except you aren’t getting security updates either… Basically anything connected to the internet should be getting security updates…
I’ll buy if decent specs and price good
I solely need camera, contactless payments and projection for cars. If it is capable of these I am pre ordering.
While the Motorola/GrapheneOS news is interesting, it’s a shame that GrapheneOS’s lack of root access continues to be a significant limitation. For users who prioritize data ownership and the ability to create full, local backups (Swift Backup being a prime example), it’s simply not a viable option. Security is important, but so is control over your own data.
That’s nice, but how much will those phones cost? Will GrapheneOS be an option on the low end devices or will they only support “some” devices, which happen cost as much as a Pixel anyway?
Pixels have hardware documentation and are directly supported by Android, making them possible for the GrapheneOS dev community to support. Good luck doing that on a Samsung.
Motorola is doing good here. Also, buy a used Pixel 8, you’ll have almost three years of support left.
That’s the thing, even used Pixels are almost twice the price of what I paid for my new phone.
Back when I bought my phone I considered that route. but then since I can’t replace the batteries on new phones without risking destroying the device. And there’s a big probability that the phone comes with an almost dying battery.
I also understand that GrapheneOS can’t be installed on any “unlocked” phone, it needs to be OEM unlocked and most sellers don’t know/specify, so ended up considering too expensive and too much of a risk.
I asked Motorola for an OEM unlock code for an Edge 30 Neo and got it straight away. I then installed Lineage OS 22, and the phone is working really well. The total cost is one-third of what a used Pixel 8 would cost.
Pick your poison. Want cheap? Be tracked. Want privacy? Pay the price.
Hey mate, don’t need one of the Motorola’s, buy a second hand pixel, I’ve got a 6 and a 10 pro (soon to be converted to GOS now that there are stable builds since it’s my daily).
It’s a bit of a shock compared to stock android but you’ll actually feel like you own and control your phone again (like I do here on the pixel 6), but you’ll lose features like the scam block, hold for me etc. that the stock OS does).
The onus becomes on you to keep the device secure, you can do another user profile to install stuff you want separate and it works nicely. It’s all sandboxed and asks your consent before giving any permissions to an app, like android used to.
This is crazy big news.
a future smartphone to have GrapheneOS pre-installed
I’ll not trust Lenovo (Motorola is Lenovo) preinstalling stuff on my phone. They’ve already ship Windows laptop with literally malware and backdoors (even in UEFI, so persistent across format) preinstalled.
I will rather install it myself.
I remember my original Moto G. It was a good phone for the time. I will follow Graphene wherever they go until a Linux phone is ready.
Hello Moto!
SailfishOS runs in Jolla phones (linux) and PostmarketOS is doing strides.
I looked at their latest phone on their website. The specs look better than some of the other Linux manufacturers. They finally ditched the 720p display that was holding back the Pine, Jolla, and similar Linux devices for an FHD panel. I appreciate that they are differentiating on user-benefitting hardware features like swappable batteries, SD cards, and headphone jacks seems like a smart strategy as these are things mainstream manufacturers largely refuse to implement but are popular among a good chunk of users. Sure, there will be a mainstream phone with a brighter screen, faster processor, better “features”, but it looks like the hardware is finally on par with the rest of the market. I’m really happy to see this!
Unfortunately, SailfishOS is not FOSS, and FOSS must be the basis of all trust, or else you have no idea to tell what kind of software (spyware) the vendor is operating on your phone. At least Jolla is starting to open-source some traditionally proprietary components.
I always thought Pixel was the platform to have for fucking around with the OS and stuff. Of fucking course I was an idiot.
“Embrace, Extend, Extinguish”. When have they ever done otherwise.
Don’t be too hard on yourself, they definitely put money and effort into influencing opinions in all the subversive ways they can manage. But also, let this be a lesson to always check alternatives and their reason for existing. I consider it part of best practices.
I tried to switch from iPhone to Pixel 10 Pro Fold with GrapheneOS, but I needed RCS to work. Unfortunately, even installing Google Messages and allowing it permissions wouldn’t allow RCS to work for more than 36 hours before I had to go through the whole install and allow process again. I would be willing to cut off all Google services, even banking apps and whatnot, but I need RCS to work. I’m unfortunately an American and cannot reliably expect my friends and family to use an app other than iMessage to text, so I need RCS.
Will Motorola provide some GrapheneOS compatible RCS client? If so, I am likely to switch.
Take. My. Money.
The reason I got my ZFold5 was I like the fact that it could open up and give me a larger area to view and bigger keyboard. I have gotten the biggest phone I could get for the last 15 years or so because I have a hard time seeing the tiny screens. I would be happy to switch to a new OS but my old ass needs a bigger screen.
Great play, Motorola. And I’m not even against it. Take my money.!
Very interesting, I’ll keep an eye on Motorola phones. Not that I need a new one anytime soon, but still that’s the kind of thing that could be refreshing to read news about.
