I mean we all know about the sideloading restriction thing. So I wanna explore alternative OSes, just gathering info, not sure if I'll even end up buying another phone (currently have a Samsung as a main phone, and in North America they are bootloader locked).
Like I know Graphene OS is supposedly more secure, but is it worth paying so much more for a phone? And used phones are kinda sketchy btw, most originate from a carrier so unlockability is in question (I'm not playing the buy/return "lootbox" game lol, so much hassle and its never guaranteed when a seller would even accept a return).
The moto I was looking at apparantly was on CalyxOS's supported list, but they suspended development for some reason, so Lineage is the only Custom ROM left other than Graphene.
Graphene seems cool, but idk if its really that much better. Getting a pixel is directly giving Google the most money, and I don't feel so good about that after they closed sourced Pixel device tree codes (or whatever that thing was called that they closed sourced), and then they killed sideloading, feels wrong to be buying a pixel right now. So that leaves me with just Lineage. And I could get a much cheaper phone too going Lineage.
So TLDR: If you were to recommend a phone to someone, which would you recommend? Expensive phone for Graphene, or Cheap phone and just use Lineage? Or something else?
A 500$ pixel 9a gets support for 7 years
Those cheap phones get updates for 2 years max
Also, they are actually usable, unlike the cheap budget phones
Eh, budget phones in 2025 aren't like those in 2015, they are quite usable these days
Even flagships from 10 years ago are still decent. I still have my OG Pixel XL from 2016, which is still officially supported by Lineage OS. I pulled it out the other day to test the "fully de-googled" experience on LOS22. Wiped it clean, installed TWRP, LOS22, and Magisk (because it's fucking mine).
Outside of the battery being complete garbage (dies completely at ~40%, I plan on replacing it at some point), it's still perfectly usable:
I don't think pixel getting 7 years of support would be relevant here. Op is already going to install a custom rom on it. Why would it matter here?
unless Linaege is somehow managing to reverse Engeneer the Firmware for the SOC, it is pretty relevant regarding Updates. And thats something not even the GrapheneOS team is dreaming of, hence they themselves say their extended Security Updates are only a temporary solution
Sauce
The Firmware on these Phones determines what Android Version is Supported, and also fixes many Security Vulnerabilities that cant be fixed using Android ROMs. So while yes, you can just somehow backport the newest Security Bulletin for Android 9, since the Firmware is so outdated, there will be so many zero click RCEs, your Phone can be compromised by a 12 year old with a flipper zero.
For Proof, please see the SOC for the Fairphone 3, which should be still supported until this day, which has 7 whole HIGH SEVERITY CVEs