I’ll be that guy. No headphone jack, no sale. As others have said, I’d love GrapheneOS as well, but I know why that isn’t in the cards.
Is it not worth repairablity and potential headphone jack upgrades? Their pr is really moving quick now… 🤔
$650 is less bad than I thought it was going to be.
WOOHOOO
I can’t wait to get mine!
Now make it for Graphene
I thought Fairphone was one of the few supported phones. Perhaps I’m thinking of a different phone OS.
No I think you are thinking of calyx. Graphene repeatedly asserted that they won’t support fairphone because of the slow update.
It wasn’t just the update cycle either, it’s that they don’t have the physical hardware chips to support Graphene’s minimum requirements for security, which would severely weaken any benefits you actually get from GrapheneOS.
not any, but some benefits, and GrapheneOS maintainers are perfectionists
Entirely lacking disk encryption for typical users due to not having a secure element is a pretty major flaw.
It’s also missing hardware accelerated virtualization which is necessary for much of GrapheneOS’s sandboxing, has weak security for other keys in the OS keystore, is missing hardware memory tagging which makes it much easier for apps to use overflow attacks, doesn’t have proper verified boot support once a custom alternative OS is flashed, and leaves exposed debugging APIs even when the phone is locked.
This breaks:
- Secure app spawning
- Memory corruption protection
- Integer overflow protection
- Most of Graphene’s kernel hardening
- Much of Graphene’s attack surface reduction abilities
- Hardware-based attestation and security monitoring
- Quick tile protection pre-unlock
- Debugging access prevention
- Verified Boot
- The security of your PIN against any automated attack
At that point, GrapheneOS can’t physically provide you essentially any security anymore.
Buy a Pixel or wait for Motorola to release their GrapheneOS compatible smartphone.
I haven’t heard of this. Looking into it there’s at least a year wait. I’d consider it - though my Edge 2022 battery may not make it until then. Damn thing was crap from day 1.
I am pretty sure Motorola plans to sell flag ship devices with GrapheneOS preinstalled. They won’t support old devices. Also the manufacturer needs to still ship firmware updates for a specific duration for GrapheneOS to support it.
Graphene is only on pixels, why not their /e/os?
Graphene is only on pixels
Only because Pixels have met their hardware requirements. They are going to start working with Motorola now.
why not their /e/os?
From what I understand, the two OS are not aiming for the same objectives. /e/os is a degoogled OS and that’s its main purpose. GrapheneOS is focused on hardening security on AOSP.
Why not posmarketOS?
I love Linux as much as the next guy but I’ve got PostmarketOS as well as Ubuntu touch running on a Fairphone 4 and the experience is far from polished, postmarket doesn’t even do VoLTE.
Not saying it sucks - I love it. But it’s not for everyone and unlikely to replace android for most use cases at the moment unfortunately.
postmarket doesn’t even do VoLTE.
Well do i have good news for you!
Yeah I think it just doesn’t work on the FP4 yet. At least I haven’t managed to get it working. On Ubuntu touch it also took years (although that community is also very… special)
That’s definitely possible, although it will take some work, because the processor is different from the Fairphone 6, which is currently running post-market OS already.
It won’t take any work, Luca has confirmed the image works on both Fairphone 6 and Fairphone 6+
https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_(Gen._6)_(fairphone-fp6)
its on the wiki now too
Oh sweet, thanks
All of the above, preferably
Preferably before my Pixel 6 is EOL later this year…
You’ve got a month, FYI…
You either have to wait for Motorola or get a new Pixel.
I’d choose any other company over Google tbh.
My last few have been used off ebay. Pixels really are mediocre phones these days. And the deals on used A series aren’t as good as I remember.
I’ve “read my last free article”.
Fuck you, Wired
How dare they try to figure out how to stay employed
I just used it to pass that bullshit message for a different article
No, see it was meant as a threat.
You read your last free article, kid.
Sorry you got twisted up in this scene.
From where you’re kneeling, must seem like an 18-karat run of bad luck.
Truth is, the game was rigged from the start.
Wish I had the time for another playthrough…
Wired subscription is pretty cheap and they do good work.
They also had a data breach of all their users a few months ago so…
Have to learn that somehow, but hard paywalls make it impossible :/
Cool! I bought mine through Clove several months ago. This is great news! The Fairphone 6 is a pretty good phone. I’m happy with it.
The power button + volume buttons are in the perfect place… for accidentally taking screenshots!!! :( That’s the one thing I don’t like, but everything else is good.
Oh, and I wish I could use either SailfishOS or at least Graphene. But, still. I don’t miss my old Pixel.
Oh yeah I have so many screenshots from picking up my phone
This is incredibly exciting news. It will hopefully be quite some time before I need a new phone but I’ve always wanted the option of this brand when I finally do.
That’s exciting. Does anyone know how /e/os compare to stock android or graphene? And should we be worried about Murena messing it up, or is it a solid company?
I’ve been using the Murena fairphone for about 8 months now. Has its ups and downs, it uses microG to simulate play services. Most things work except for my Samsung watch and the wallet. Feel free to send questions my way
Cool, any issues with annoying apps like banks requiring play protect or something? Is there an Android auto equivalent or an emulation to allow use in a car?
So far so good with banks, haven’t had any bank apps not work (and do use some large and small ones). Honestly haven’t tried Auto yet though
No issues with banking apps in the Netherlands, Android Auto works!
Cool. But, which repair centre has the contract for bricked phones. In Europe only one place has the vendor key thing if you fuck up while flashing the device, they won’t let users or other repair places have it so I assume it works the same in the US.
If I needed a new phone, I might get one of these. Repairable phones are cool.
$650 and no Verizon service
There is Verizon service, you have to buy from the US store. But then it is Android and not /e/OS … it took me a while and a fair number of AI tokens to full figure that out.
trl;dr it is a hardware cert problem why the EU version is T-Mobile and the US is VZW/ATT. I still couldn’t figure out why the US-VZW/ATT version can’t have /e/OS but it still smelled like obtaining certification is the problem and there doesn’t appear to be any public statements on a timeline for it.
If you want privacy, buy a pixel and flash GrapheneOS.
If you want modularity/repairability buy a Fairphone.
- If you want modularity/repairability and privacy, buy an /e/OS Fairphone from the EU store but accept only T-Mobile
- If you want modularity/repairability and ATT/VZW, buy a Fairphone from the US store but accept no extra privacy
- If you want it all, guess we gotta wait.
Is the bootloader on the US version not unlockable? If so you can put whatever OS you want on it.
Yes you can put whatever COMPATIBLE OS you want on it. Sadly GrapheneOS isn’t one of them. But again, you’re not wrong. I was just highlighting what I found about the options and their trade-offs.
Ha. Most of the fairphone community is pretty meh about it.
I have one though and my biggest complaing is lack of the national payment app.
€600 is the minimum for a Fairphone. A new cheap one by a major brand would be €150.
I’d definitely like some privacy on my phone but damn.
It’s 150 because they’re subsidizing the phone so you’ll pay for service, addons, and so they can sell your data and bloatware. Fairphone isn’t expensive, the other phone is artificially cheap.
They’re kinda comparing apples and oranges, fairphone doesn’t really have a budget phone.
They just have one model, which they gradually upgrade the hardware of and gives a new number.
Right now there’s barely any sellers of a Fairphone 4 as an example, and you’re able to get it for ~400 euroes from refurbished condition sellers.
Most brands, continues to sell old models. Which ends up as the budget phone 3 generations down the line. But fairphone doesn’t, they only sell a fairly powerful phone from new condition.
You’re right. They do get us with all the bloatware and other nefarious stuff. Time to start saving.
It’s the cheapest they have, but not really a cheap model. Those are pretty decent specs for the price. Unfortunately I don’t know any smartphone selling for under 200$/€ that doesn’t suck.
Unfortunately I don’t know any smartphone selling for under 200$/€ that doesn’t suck.
Tbh, I was going with prices from years ago when I bought mine. It cost me €150 and still runs today’s apps and the battery lasts a day. Problem is no more updates from the vendor (and lack of privacy of course).
