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Ask HN: How to have a secure smart phone in 2022

6 points by throwaway54313 ↗ HN
My understanding is that if I want a safe, secure, and private smart phone (no personal data being siphoned off to google or apple etc) I have 2 choices in 2022:

1. Don't have a smart phone 2. Spend around $600 on a pixel 6 and replace the stock android OS with GrapheneOS.

Am I wrong? I would love to be proven wrong!

20 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 57.8 ms ] thread
ev1
A Pixel 4a or 5a is $200-400 and works fine with Graphene. Don't get anything below 4a in terms of age if that is your plan.

Also, they have back hardware fingerprint reader instead of in-screen with the 6/6 Pro which has been orders of magnitude more responsive, at least for me. I routinely have issues with the in-screen readers.

throwaway54313
My concern with getting a pixel less than 6 is that the phone would only be supported for a year or two by google which means I'd have to get a new phone or have firmware that is not receiving security patches.
ev1
Wait, is that not what Graphene is for?
throwaway54313
My limited understanding is that smart phones also have firmware that is distributed by the manufacturer that also requires security updates. So grapheneos takes care of the operating system, but google would need to provide the firmware updates. I think this is one of the reasons why the graphene docs recommend a pixel 6/6a, as they have an unusually (for android) long support life from google - 5 years or so.
MerelyMortal
Apparently the Librem 5 has been making a lot of progress on being usable, but there's still a long delay between placing an order and getting it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30760883

throwaway54313
I'd love to get a linux phone but the librem wait time seems to be at least a year (that blogger said he'd been waiting since 2018) and the librem5 is $1200. I can't really justify spending that much on a phone.
MerelyMortal
There appears to be an inverse relationship between cost and delivery delay. I paid around $650, but I had to wait four years :-) It's worth it though. If you can afford it, I recommend ordering now to get your place in line. The software will be better then at least.
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[dead] akc3n
MerelyMortal
Your comment history is soley comprised of talking up GrapheneOS and calling the Librem 5 a scam.

Also, please don't "yell" at me and insinuate that I am a scammer. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[dead] akc3n
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dang
Yikes, you can't post like this on HN, or like your other comments in this thread. No matter how wrong someone else is or you feel they are, you need to stick to the site guidelines: .https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html We ban accounts that break them this abusively, so please don't do that again!

If you wouldn't mind reviewing the guidelines and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

akc3n
Thanks. I'll start doing that from now on.
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throwawayHN378
Also you need to buy the Pixel directly from Google. If you buy from carrier you can opt too the Pixel
throwaway54313
What does "If you buy from carrier you can opt too the Pixel" mean? Sorry if I am being dense.
ev1
You can not root [I assume autocorrect]/bootloader unlock the Pixel if you buy a carrier phone in the US. The carrier or network unlock status does not matter. They will not let you bootloader unlock it to put your own OS on. It does not matter if you pay 100% of it, not financed, etc. If it's sold by them it's disabled.

Examples: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/unlocking-pixel-5-for-ver...

https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/156939637/pixel...

https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/bmdtlu/tmobile...