In terms of budget, it depends on what angle youâre looking at it from. Is it a cashflow issue, or can you afford to take total cost of ownership into consideration?
The Pixel phones, for instance, have great total cost of ownership compared to most other phones. This is because cheaper Android phones are supported for a short period of time, so it ends up being more expensive to replace it every 1-2 years than to hold the same phone for 5-8 years.
Once you go into budget phones, you start needing to make a lot of different compromises. You need to know what is more important to you. There should be a minimum bar for privacy on phones, and for Android phones, it makes sense for that bar to be âyou can flash an alternative OS on it.â This will get rid of all the bloatware and spyware.
If thatâs the case, and itâs a cashflow issue, phone contracts are not an option. As far as I know, all phones you pay off over time come with a locked bootloader that isnât rootable (?). So despite achieving a lower cost of ownership by paying for it through a contract, you wouldnât be able to flash an alternative OS onto it.
Second-hand phones make a lot of sense, then. I donât know any budget Android phones myself (coming from iPhones, the Pixel is plenty cheap for me).
Another question: is PG willing to tolerate people owning a phone for months, maybe even years after the official software support for the phone has been dropped? There are people out there who still carry around 2000s flip phones, after all, and they donât have many problems with malware because they only use them for SMS and phone calls.
If youâre willing to sacrifice security here, you can get a much cheaper phone with the ability to use an alternative OS.
Personally, if I were in this situation, I would sacrifice security for privacy and budget. If we think of it like the classic Project Management Triangle, you have three options: Secure, Private, Cheap. Choose two.
Pixels are Secure and Private, but they arenât as cheap as they could be.
Honestly? I think getting the iPhone SE on a contract plan is probably the only option that is Secure, Private, Cheap. You get great total cost of ownership because iPhones get supported for so long while being able to keep your cashflow in check with the contract plan, and you donât need to mess around with alternative OSes, meaning itâs easy to use.
As a verified Apple detractor, I wish it werenât so. I guess I finally understand why iPhones are so damn common in my country now.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. As Cory Doctorow writes, companies often test the worst privacy-invasive practices on those who cannot afford to opt out. These people are also often the most at risk if their privacy/security is compromised. Making budget privacy a priority makes a lot of sense.