Please write the 3 phone brands (in order please) which you think they bring the least number of third-party apps.
Notes:
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1- PrivacyGuides recommends Google Pixel. But it is not selling on my country. I can not bring it from other countries because it will not have warrant.
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2- We also don’t have fair-phone and nothing-phone (i can not bring it from another country).
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3- we only have: general-mobile, huawei, samsung, asus, tcl, htc, xiaomi, vivo, infinix, oneplus.
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4- please dont recomend custom ROM. Its technically difficult for me. Also I will recommend the device to my friend (they don’t have even an idead what is custom-rom)
What difficulties do you encounter with the custom ROM stuff?
If you get a oneplus, they are very forgiving of things you could do to brick a phone.
A recent oneplus and installing a custom ROM (LineageOS + MicroG) would be fairly doable for a larger audience than just the “nerd” or “hacker”.
If people know what you struggle with particularly, they can help better.
To get rid of google completely, a custom ROM or other technical things are necessary, but debloating using a standard tool is a good first step and is better than what you will have from the off.
That depends on the model. Plenty of newer OnePlus phones use mediatech processors with little to no custom ROM support.
A fact I found after buying a new OnePlus phone without doing any research because I was in a desperate situation.
Ah I see, is bootloader unlocking etc still available? (A more techy person could still go hard on privacy implementations)
I’m using nothing myself but the op said its unavailable in their country. I also noted that now lots of ROMs come preloaded with GAPPS whereas you had to load separately in the past.
It’s common but phones like the 10R don’t have any support for unlocking bootloaders
On Xiaomi it’s very easy to remove whatever you want without rooting. Here’s a 3:30 min video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_rqhoMpr_Y
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=3_rqhoMpr_Y
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I’ve read on several websites that Nokia comes with pretty much stock Android.
Motorola as well. Either way, stock android is very intertwined with Google bullshittery, making a degoogled ROM like DivestOS or GrapheneOS necessary for proper privacy from google. A privacy respecting ROM won’t fix relience on google apps though.
Pixel and GOS , very easy to install. Warranty blaha. Oneplus usually have a lot of lineage support. Spend and afternoon on YouTube , XDA forum and learn.
All of your brand’s listed are bloated. Samsung is really bad though.
I’m going against every one of your requirements by suggesting a pixel 6 or onwards used on eBay and install graphene os, it has the least amount of bullshit and is stupidly easy to install even for someone who’s never heard of a custom ROM
Stupidly easy is an understatement, you can accidently install it its that easy!
If you didn’t read the post, the OP doesn’t have Pixels available in their country and they want warranty so used phones are not an option either
They clearly read and understood the post. That’s why they said I’m going to go against every one of your requirements.
I’m sorry but what is this comment supposed to mean? I don’t understand. Is it an oxymoron?
He also said he can’t bring it in for lack of warranty.
Well, ignoring warranty, used pixels are so cheap you can own 2 or 3 for the cost of one new one with a warranty. Basically eliminates the warranty concern.
I’ve replaced exactly one phone under warranty (well, the expensive extended warranty bullshit), and since then I only buy used phones and just keep spares. It’s a far better value in my opinion, and I can switch phones nearly instantly.
When you don’t have the money or ability to buy a new used phone when the previous one breaks down, warranty is a must, even if applying for a repair is as hard as making a phone yourself. Please keep in mind that even $100 is a substantial amount of money in some countries
Pixel phones from Google are the cleanest.
Edit: the cleanest you can get out of the box
Pixel phones ship the entire Google garbase.
Anyway, OP said can’t get a Pixel phone.
I appreciate OP has requirements. But as this discussion reaches a wider audience, it is absolutely necessary to indicate that pixel phones are the cleanest out of the box phone experience you can get. For all of the people who are not OP who are reading this.
The absolute cleanest experience is a pixel phone loaded with grapheneos, which isn’t hard to install - they have a website that does it all for you.
The cleanest out of the box would be a brand shipping AOSP or something closest to it. Maybe Nokia, I’m not sure.
Pixel phones do not ship third party apps other than Google apps.
If you want to install pure AOSP, the only pure AOSP builds I’m aware of are for Pixel phones. And you can install them here, clean without any Google proprietary stuff, just AOSP pure and simple.
From the docs:
https://source.android.com/docs/setup/test/flash#device-requirements
Pixel 2 and newer DragonBoard RB3 (also known as db845c) HiKey 960 HiKeyThat’s not “out of the box”.
It’s as close as you can get.
Then you should edit your original comment to reflect this.
it is absolutely necessary to indicate that pixel phones are the cleanest out of the box phone experience you can get.
No they’re not. Have you actually bought a newer Pixel and used it without a custom ROM? They are loaded with extra Google applications and features now. It’s a very different experience to several years ago when everyone referred to Pixels as “stock” Android. Motorola phones have a more “stock” experience than Pixels now.
Motorola phones: asop + google + Motorola
Pixel phones: asop + google
Asop flashing pixel only: asop
How is the risk surface lower on a Motorola phone?
That’s not true, though. Motorola phones do not contain all the same Google features and applications as Pixels and the way in which their first-party applications are embedded in the OS is less significant than the way in which Google embeds theirs.
EDIT: Your risk surface question is also a strawman and shifting the goalposts. Neither myself nor OP made was making an argument about risk surface.
I see we are talking about very different things when we talk about bloat.
If Google play has super control of the phone I consider that bloat and a huge risk surface.
If Google play has super control of the phone
You are describing basically all phones, including Pixels. If you want to flash AOSP or some custom ROM, fine, but that’s not an “out of the box” experience as you originally claimed.
Warranties are practically useless, or I should say I find better value buying a 2 year old phone for a fraction of new. I can own three or four Pixel 5/6 for the cost of a new Pixel.
I prefer having a spare around. One dies, just swap Sim and move on.
Custom roms are significantly easier today, and you can buy phones with them pre-installed, e.g. Graphene, /e/, and Lineage. I’d look at those 3, noting that /e/ also provides some google-like convenience.
I don’t have bad experience with fairphone’s warranty. The part where I agree with you is that warranties don’t make sense for smartphones that are still functional. They become such an important part of our lived that parting with it for repaird is difficult.
Motorola it’s a good one.
So you’re posting on the privacy community. Point 4 makes things very difficult, as every smartphone by default ships with either Google apps or Apple apps pre-installed, both of which collect data and send them to their respective companies.
What is your threat model?
The only way to get away from Google or Apple is to install a custom ROM, and OnePlus currently has the best phones for that at the moment, not including Google or Fairphone phones, since they offer unlockable bootloaders. The 12R currently has an AOSP port for it, and the 12 has a WIP port that has yet to be released to the public (but can be compiled from source).
Google Android comes with tons of bloat so custom roms are the simplest these days.
You can buy devices running /e/os last time I checked
If nothing works out; look into Android Debug Bridge (ADB) and use these package names to remove all the google bloat. Perhaps it’s a bit too involved, but AFAIK this is the easiest way to gain a semblance of privacy on your phone. I don’t screw about with custom roms either.
LMK if you do try to use it, I can provide some guidance if you need.
Dandy!
Keep it with smartphones like you would with every other computer: reinstall the preinstalled OS. Meaning in Android: a model that supports custom rom.
Btw, Samsung has probably the most, hum, custom vendor rom on their phones.
Latest samsung models are quite locked down (at least I dont see any custom ROM for them on xda) talking about high end ones
You might want to take a look at Universal Android Debloater it may help, but not necessarily meet all your requirements.
This is very sound advise.
Take a look at https://lemmy.ml/post/13548401
you can’t have both privacy and total convenience
