this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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Privacy

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What phone should I buy for privacy? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by someacnt@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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My current phone is 7 years old, does not support recent android versions, and battery life is becoming atrocious. This feels like right time to change my phone.

Currently, I know of & am considering 3 options:

  • Google Pixel
  • iPhone
  • Samsung Galaxy

I heard that Pixel is the best choice for privacy, despite it being Google^TM. Should I go with it, and install Graphene OS or similar options? The very fact that the name "Google" is attached makes me nervous. Also, I don't think I can trust android, so I would have to install Graphene OS or the like. In the case, app support would be lacking, though.

I am considering iPhone as well, since it has "reputation" of being secure. Of course, Apple can access my data, but that might be a good enough compromise? Honestly, I don't know. It's the best supported option as well - lots of apps support iPhone.

Galaxy is just the one that I am the most familiar with (my current one is Galaxy S8). I don't trust it, though. Do they even make good hardware nowadays?

EDIT: Turns out, Pixel phones are poorly supported by local telecomm companies. It is relatively cheap though. Still worth it?

EDIT2: I heard that data & message is fine, but the call quality is impacted by lack of VoLTE compatibility.

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[–] mazzilius_marsti@lemmy.world 11 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

I owned 4 Samsungs: S8, S10e, S22 and S24 Ultra. Their products got worse. An example is the recent One Ui 7 update, it is just terrible: My notification area that works perfectly fine before, is now changed; my battery life got worse..etc.

Even if I ignore the update, Samsung products are just not great anymore. Remember when a Galaxy can take really great photos? Those days are gone. My S24 Ultra takes the worst pictures in comparison to a Xiaomi or Huawei. Heck, even the controversial Asus Zenfone 10 takes better picture. Sure the Galaxy has better Megapixels, but the AI bullshit makes it so the colors are all wrong.

With that said, you want to go for Pixel + GrapheneOS. Anything that is close to stock Android should be ok. Oh, and stay away from anything with a lot of AI.

[–] CCAirWater@lemm.ee 1 points 4 hours ago

If you swipe down on the notifs twice, you can edit them to be similar to the previous style.

On topic of your post, fuuuuck everything about their forcing AI, but my biggest gripe is how they moved the audio display (from, like, Spotify or audiobook readers/podcast apps) to the bottom of the lock screen as a tiny bar on the bottom instead of showing me all the info as it did before. It's super annoying when I swipe to unlock and pause what I'm listening to.

[–] domoel@feddit.org 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

This! I even installed an AOSP Rom to get rid of this shit.

[–] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 1 points 17 hours ago

On a Samsung Galaxy? I have one and am also similarly frustrated with the changes, but it seems like the support for custom roms is poor.