Question #4371: Cell phone buying advice

[AskSatanOperator]

Hello everyone
Unfortunately, I have to change my cell phone but since I am not very experienced, could you recommend me a model that is good but not too expensive?

Which cell phone should I buy? Which are the best given and also considering the "Chinese" situation?

Thank you all for your time

 

[Power of Justice [JG]]

They are all equally vulnerable in terms of security if that is your only concern.

 

[ramses13th]

All I can say is to avoid Apple products at all costs.

 

[AFODO]

Google pixel from second hand and change the OS to graphene OS if you want to have more privacy and security than the ususal phones.

In any ways, I recommend second hand whatever you buy, but check the battery capacity life, if it's below 75%, you will likely need to change the battery soon.

 

[Wotanwarrior]

All I can say is to avoid Apple products at all costs.

Is also best to avoid at all costs Xiaomi which is a company directly linked to the Chinese government.

 

[SATchives]

Not true, if you are interested in security I would go with an unlocked google pixel 5 or higher, I don't know where you live but places like https://swappa.com/listings/google-pixel-5?carrier=unlocked you can get them reasonably. make sure it's not from verizon or At&t (you want to buy one that was bought from google, typically it's the unlocked ones) when you get it you will want to unlock the bootloader and follow the instructions on https://grapheneos.org/ to install, it's simple. It is the most secure and private OS for android there is at the moment.

• husky (Pixel 8 Pro)
• shiba (Pixel 8)
• felix (Pixel Fold)
• tangorpro (Pixel Tablet)
• lynx (Pixel 7a)
• cheetah (Pixel 7 Pro)
• panther (Pixel 7)
• bluejay (Pixel 6a)
• raven (Pixel 6 Pro)
• oriole (Pixel 6)
• barbet (Pixel 5a)
• redfin (Pixel 5) (extended support)
• bramble (Pixel 4a (5G)) (extended support)
• sunfish (Pixel 4a) (extended support)
• coral (Pixel 4 XL) (extended support)
• flame (Pixel 4) (extended support)

those are what they list as they support, it would be in your best interest to go with something that is not on it's extended support such as 5a or higher.

but 5 will be your cheapest option.

https://grapheneos.org/faq this answers alot of questions, and if you read through this you will see why graphene OS is a lot more secure.

The following is NOT true on any other phone but graphene OS

"activating airplane mode will fully disable the cellular radio transmit and receive capabilities, which will prevent your phone from being reached from the cellular network and stop your carrier (and anyone impersonating them to you) from tracking the device via the cellular radio The baseband implements other functionality such as Wi-Fi and GPS functionality, but each of these components is separately sandboxed on the baseband and independent of each other. Enabling airplane mode disables the cellular radio, but Wi-Fi can be re-enabled and used without activating the cellular radio again. This allows using the device as a Wi-Fi only device." Meaning that you can then connect VPN and be 100% secure with this device.