DeGoogle Yourself

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A community for those that would like to get away from Google.

Here you may post anything related to DeGoogling, why we should do it or good software alternatives!

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My Pixel 5a just died after 5 months of use. Looking for a new phone I can deGoogle. (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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It seems that the motherboard is dead, and that it's a common issue with the 5a and I "should've known better," despite it being impossible to find decent information on phones these days.

I got it because it was the last Pixel with a headphone jack, and because it had good official LineageOS support. But I compromised: giving up the SD slot was tough for me, and now that I've been burned by not having one (I typically auto-backup my Signal history and other things to the SD card) I don't want to get another phone without it.

But the landscape seems bleak. The vast majority of phones that are officially supported by LineageOS are Pixels. It's impossible to find easy information on which phones have non-official LOS ROMs. Search results are useless these days, and I also keep running into an issue where after researching a phone for half an hour I discover that it has some arcane process to unlock the bootloader that doesn't always work, and the forum posters imply that the purchasers "should've known better." I'm just at my wit's end.

If anyone can suggest something that has decent deGoogled ROM support with the following features, I'd be very grateful:

OLED screen (a must-have for my photosensitivity)
SD card slot
I am willing to give up the headphone jack in order to expand my options

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (5 children)

If you don't mind getting an older used phone, then the Samsung A52s might be a good choice.

Its, OLED, has an SD slot, and has a headphone jack.

Also, apparently Lineage OS supports this device. https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/a52sxq/

The other option is to get another Pixel and install Graphese. Though they don't come with an SD slot.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So far this is the only thing I can actually find, so it might have to be what I go with if I insist on not getting a Pixel again. My last Samsung was a pain to flash, but I've heard that Odin is a thing of the past so hopefully it'll be easier this time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Don't buy Exyonos phones. They are full of weird incompatibilities and quirks. I've returned my A52 because once someone sent me a movie from their phone and I couldn't play it because the hardware didn't support some obvious codec.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The S10 line of phones might be something to look for as well. They do have a headphone jack and a SD card slot.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

if they're getting an S10, they should not get a US or Exynos chip versions. The US versions are bootloader locked and can't be unlocked and the exynos version are bad perfomance wise. If they can get their hands on Chinese or Hong Kong released versions, those have snapdragon chips and can be unlocked.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Hm, that would probably be a challenge, might not be worth it.

I'm using an S10e with the Exynos chip since recently, and I think it runs great. The problem is that I was coming from a 5 and a half year old Huawei phone, and most phones offer a better experience than that so I'm not sure if I can really give a good performance estimate.

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