hello everyone. I’m looking to buy an old phone with a great battery life.
Privacy and battery life are really important for me! I don’t really care about camera and I might even tape it out…
do you guys have any suggestion on what should I buy and what kind of custom ROM should I install on it?
oh and by the way I’m living in Iran and my budget is a not really that much so I can’t go with pixel and GrapheneOS no matter how much I love them…
I think it would help if you gave a specific budget. Also do you have a high threat model or are you more just wanting to avoid passive corporate surveillance?
I don’t think what you’re asking is possible. Especially when you live in Iran and budget is a factor. I say this because I know people from Iran so I know how difficult things can get.
But what you’re asking is not going to be available, sorry to say.
I don’t know what options you can avail living in Iran. The sanctions, affordability, and availability are a huge problem.
my budget is around 150$ to 190$
corporate surveillance and most importantly IRGC and Ministry of Intelligence
what about the closest and safest I can get?
No pixel can offer great battery life unfortunately. Having said that, a used P6-P8 should be relatively affordable.
Anyway, your best bet would be whatever phones that support other “mainstream” custom rom such as Lineage, Calyx. Go check out their website and see what phones could be purchased within your budget. However, the privacy gain for using “mainstream” custom rom would be significantly smaller than GOS.
Also, I suppose in Iran the potential adversaries and possible attack vector would be so different from most country in the world. Don’t let a “privacy phone” gives you a false sense of security.
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price for a pixel 6 here is 240$ …
that’s too much even for a brand new phone (and GOS will support p6 for only one year more so it really doesn’t worth the price)
which one of these custom rom’s is the closest I can get to GOS?
DivestOS but it has been discontinued.
I am not aware of other close alternatives. IMO the rom comes closest could be Calyx but that are in middle of an on-going drama. So the next would be… Lineage probably? But it is not much better than stock roms, except it is less bloated. But base on the inherited risk level in Iran, I would not use any custom roms that does not allow re-locking boot loader and not providing enhanced exploit protection.
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There is also postmarketOS but I have no idea how the security, privacy, and usability compares to LineageOS. GrapheneOS is really light years ahead of everything else, it’s too bad it only works with one line of phones. Honestly the Pixel 6 or 6a even when it is no longer supported by GrapheneOS will still likely be light years ahead of these other options.
hmm… Lineage does not allow re-locking boot loader? and doesn’t provide enhanced exploit protection?
If you keep your bootloader unlocked, all enhanced protections are basically meaningless, unfortunately.
IIRC lineage OS does not support re-locking bootloader.
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you think so?
actually I was talking about this with someone and he said what is the point of installing GOS when its not up to date and supported?
I was thinking the same before talking to him. I was like I can save my money and buy a used P6 and install the latest supported GOS on and use it as long as I want but he’s tone was like there is no sense in doing this and this way it’s not really safe at all
i think you are right… what is the point of installing a custom rom if it is not safer than a stock rom…
I would guess it would still be significantly better than lineageOS or postmarketOS security-wise at least for some time, but I’m not an expert.
In the long run, the security of a stock Android OS might be superior to any of these options, but obviously it won’t grant you much privacy. Without the option of Google Pixels, I’m not sure which of those would be best.
I wonder if @anon63378639 has any thoughts about this?
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who is he?
They were the developer of DivestOS before it was discontinued
Khosh amadid.
As others have said, you have little to no choice (if you’re limited to Android) other than getting your hands on a Pixel & flashing GrapheneOS on it.
Even then, I’d not bet my house on Pixel + GrapheneOS being a wall tall enough for state actors, as safety mostly then depends on OpSec in the physical world, rather than just the tech. You’re better off without a permanent smartphone on you, if the threat is serious.
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For your needs, I feel like you need to buy a Pixel phone and install GrapheneOS on it. There is simply no better alternative right now. Look for Pixel 8 or 8a, which are the cheapest options. If you can’t afford it, save up until you can.
Just my two cents.
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I agree there aren’t any better options, but I don’t think you realize how expensive these are in Iran. If this website is anything to go by, a new 8a currently goes for the equivalent of about $1.2K USD there: Google pixel 8a در تهران - ۱۵ آذر ۱۴۰۴
Wow, thats severely overpriced. I assume the used market is that inflated as well.
To be honest man, I don’t know what you should do at this point. I’d say maybe try to import from another country, but I have no idea how this works there so don’t take this as advice.
Perhaps using no phone is the easiest solution here.