Hi,
I just lean about brax3 android ( De-googled Android 14) preorder:
What do you think about this phone ?
I think that Braxman is a scammer, and that people shouldnât follow any of his sensationalist, half-baked, idiotic knowledge or advice.
Here is a thread discussing him: Can GrapheneOS take advantage of NPUs? - GrapheneOS Discussion Forum
13 Likes
The seller is a known snake-oil salesman. Personally, Brax is in my âbest to just ignoreâ category.
I donât know anything about the phone specifically. Others may have more specific info about the phone itself.
10 Likes
I once wrote a long comment about Rob Braxman in this forum with many sources, in case you want to look into his controversies and various criticisms towards his channel, his advice and his products.
5 Likes
where I live I could get a Pixel 7a for the same price and I would definitively do that and install GOS on it instead of giving that charlatan money for a inferior product.
4 Likes
Even if you ignore that itâs from Braxman, itâs still a preorder thing? Why would you ever preorder anything? Thereâs no way of knowing if the product is any good.
1 Like
Another scammer donât go for it. You can go for a latest pixel. Just throwing some light here. No details on how long the device receives updates, how the device is private, 2 yrs ltd warranty but device gets only one year and much more.
Warranty
All our devices come with a 2-years limited warranty, providing you with peace of mind from the date you receive your product. Please carefully read the following warranty terms and conditions.
1. Warranty Coverage Period
Our warranty covers your device for 1 year, starting from the date you receive the product.
When I started my privacy journey I would watch Braxmanâs youtube channel as well as other youtubers and a few subreddits. Braxmanâs âinformationâ seemed off. He mixes in just enough truth so the noobs will believe it.
Once I found out he was selling out of date Pixels I gave up on him. He is a scammer. I canât find any other way to describe anyone selling unsecure phones to unsuspecting noobs.
1 Like
I had never heard of this guy and just perused his channel. Just based on the fact that he calls iPhones ânormieâ phones and projects a superiority complex for the listener getting started in their privacy journey made my eyes roll.
This just breeds all sorts of toxic traits into his followers that make everyone hate or ignore the privacy community in general.
1 Like
He sells his services and products when there are far better alternatives in the market.
Scammer. If you ask him legitimate security questions about his services, he is clue less.
He spreads irrational fear.
1 Like
To add more pile of shit on him (as already added in this thread) is his embarrassing âprivacy focused social media platformâ brax.me . which he claimed he designed himself and is âprivateâ. I can say that his platform is totally trash when i used it back then. He could have better gone with discourse forums and saved his effort.
1 Like
6 Likes
It is hard to see why anyone would call him a âscammerâ.
if you take the time to listen to what he says, he is just informing you of the ways tech companies, and therefore government, can increasingly access everything you do.
eg Windows Recall, of which the Beta version took a snapshot of your Windows computer screen every few seconds, and archived it. It was withdrawn - for now.
eg the ability of AIs from MS and Apple, and no doubt Google too eventually, to analyse everything you type on a phone or computer screenm, and store that. Which invalidates the encryption of you encrypted messaging, as it can all be captured before it is encrypted.
Is telling you about that being a âscammerâ?
He is not the only one selling ultra private phones. Do many people need one? Probably not. In the US should be fine as long as you are a/ not committing actual crimes b/ percieved as such c/ trying to overthrow you government in a riot. But then again, maybe you donât want your phone being interrogated in real time and analysis sent to a tech company server to make it available to government, which could lead to you being pre-emptively profiled based on your views. Of course, no harm could come of that. Itâs not like anyone is tar and feathered as a âright wing extremistâ, right? Or if that criminal is elected, a âleft wing extremistâ. Or maybe you live in one of most countries on the planet where government gives no f**** about privacy at all.
Or how about informing you about the 100% real time visibility to government of sms, or the ability to simply and quickly listen on PSTN phone calls?
If you think being concerned about all that is âscammingâ, good luck to you.
1 Like
What would you recommend as a far better alternative as a phone?
The harm isnât the awareness of privacy issues, it is the purported solutions.
5 Likes
Ok so writing him off as a scammer is unwarranted, as the detailed info about privacy issues is important.
As for the solutions, well, what are the better solutions?
There are other degoogled phones, and totally non iOS, non Andriod phones, non MS, but as far as I can see, none of them works, um, like an iOS or Android phone. Which is hardly surprising. Maybe the Brax phones are worse (or not) than alternatives, but that does not = scam. Nor harm, per se.
This is straight up wrong. Braxman shares information that is mostly wrong, with some basic stuff thatâs correct mixed in. Itâs the classic castle and moat argument: You start with something people know is true (Companies do try to spy on you), and then try to spin any shitty argument that vaguely relates to this (NPUs break encryption). Then when anyone says you are wrong, you run back to original argument and ask them if they think the original argument is wrong too. Classic Idiocracy.
Like the example you cited of âAI will break encryptionâ, thatâs just straight up wrong to anyone who has a working brain and slight knowledge about phone hardware. NPUs are just dedicated GPUs, nothing special. They can be used to run AI models, process images, etc. Saying NPUs break encryption is like saying using any phone processors break encryption.
Braxman appeals only to the lowest common denominator in privacy community: Less aware conspiracy theorists who donât understand the tech they use. Anyone who actually reads the experts, or knows their stuff, would just laugh at the stuff Braxman peddles. For more information do read the f-droid forum link shared above.
6 Likes
The original question has been adequately answered: Brax3 phone - #12 by SkewedZeppelin
Closing as weâre straying into irrelevant arguments.