About a week ago, I finally made the decision to flash GrapheneOS on my Pixel 6. I’ve been thinking about moving to GrapheneOS for months but was afraid to do so because of missing functionalities or app incompatibility that would result in my Pixel 6 becoming unusable. Even though I could just re-flash stock Android should I encounter those issues, I didn’t want to bother.
However, last week, I decided to set aside my fears and made the move to GrapheneOS. Whatever fears or concerns I had about missing functionalities or app incompatibilities were completely unfounded. Flashing of GrapheneOS was really easy, thanks to the instructions they provided on their website. The sandboxed Google Play environment still allowed me to download the key apps I needed, whether it be the mobile game that I’m currently playing or a smart home app (e.g. Ring) or a banking app (e.g. Chase). They all worked as expected, though my banking apps required me to turn on Exploit Protection Compatibility Mode, something that was explained to me in one of the Graphene Discussion Boards. Android Auto was another app that I needed for driving, and thanks to the latest update that was made by the GrapheneOS makers, I had no issues in setting up Android Auto to work with my car. That was a huge relief for me!
That being said, there is one thing that is not working, but it’s not that important of a feature for me, and that is NFC. Prior to making the move, I did not use NFC that much for payments, although my car app did have a Remote Key function that relied on NFC. As far as I can tell, it looks like NFC is not usable in GrapheneOS. There’s probably a good security and/or privacy reason for this, but I do wish something could be implemented for it, as it can be quite convenient. Again, it’s not that important of a feature for me to have right now…more of a “nice to have” feature…but I wonder if the GrapheneOS developers are looking into this.
Anyways, it’s only been a week since I made the move. I’m sure more use cases will come up the more I use GrapheneOS, and instead of fear, I find myself excited at testing out more apps and functionalities on the OS. Traveling is one scenario I have not yet tried, but that’s because I’m not leaving town to go anywhere. That’s one set of scenarios that I look forward to trying out.
If anyone has any other advices or information they have about their experience with GrapheneOS, I would welcome it. And for those who are still undecided about moving to GrapheneOS, I hope this post relieves some of your anxieties or worries about making the transition.
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Paid $250 for a refurbished Pixel 7 on Amazon. Other than coming in a generic box and having a generic charging brick and cable, from the phone itself you’d never know it was a refurb.
Purchase an A series model from last year. Run Graphene for 3 years. Then switch to Calyx for the next 2 years, assuming your battery lasts (or you fix it with an iFixit).
You don’t even need to switch after the initial support period ends, in my experience they’ve kept supporting older pixels for longer than they promised
That’s great then
Copy from another comment I made about “extended support”, I think it means they are still supporting it but they might stop at any point. From their actual doc:
Their resell value is ass, but that’s good for consumers. My brother bought a Pixel 5 for $165 recently off of swappa.com
Just get an older Pixel. I got a 4a 5g that I bought a couple years ago. Still works fine and goes for less than 200 EUR these days.
Just be aware of the supported devices for GrapheneOS, as the older Pixels may not receive updates.
I’ve never spent less for what I’ve gotten than with pixels. Paid $350 for a pixel 4a that lasted me 3.5 years and I paid less than 400 for a 7a. Just get last year’s model. To be clear the hardware still worked after 3.5 years but I decided to not continue after the security updates stopped
Brand new the 6a is just over $400. That seems pretty reasonable to me for a modern smartphone.
You could probably get a used one for less.
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If you watch for a sale you can get a brand new one for less than 400. They seem to last well, but I’ve never had any phone last 5 years.