Hi all! I’m needing to replace my aging Razer Phone 2 (I know lol) and I want to wean off of Google a bit. I’m hoping to buy a mid range phone, no more than 500 Eur and install a custom rom (preferably Lineage). The officially supported phones on the Lineage page are a bit on the older side, but do you guys have any recommendations for which phones to go for? I’m looking for something relatively popular so I can find a pretty case, and hope for a larger community and support, and I kinda need either large storage or an SD card slot.
I’m hoping for high refresh rate and somewhat large battery, but most specs are negotiable.
I was considering the Moto G Stylus or some Poco phone, but I haven´t been able to find a source of Roms for those.
Speaking of which, where do you look for roms nowadays? I used to go to XDA for my Oneplus One, but it doesn’t seem nearly as robust.
Thank you!!!
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Pixel phones, the ones with a in the Name are cheap. Especially the older models.
Yeah, and they’re good, and you have the option of graphene too, but they all come with very little storage and no expansion
What do you use all that storage for?
I have photos, videos, downloaded maps, a few dozen downloaded podcasts, downloaded Spotify playlists and 149 apps and I’ve only used 99GB.
I use it to store the anxiety that I’m running out of space. That, and a bunch of FLAC music :D
I’m going to echo the same sentiment: pixel phones.
Why would I suggest them?
Multiple reasons.
First and foremost (for me) is GrapheneOS. Pixel phones are of the few if not only (don’t have source handy) that allow you to relock the bootloader. From my reading the security chips that pixel phones use are quite robust. Pixels are readily available, and the more people that use them the more support a device typically had. GrapheneOS is enough reason for me, but may not be for everyone.
I have also used LineageOS on my phone as well, but with the recent stuff that went down with Play Integrity Fix, LSposed, and I believe a few more projects aimed at rooted phones, I can’t rightfully stick with a rooted custom ROM.
Not only do I like the software support, I would personally say that my Pixel 7 Pro is my favorite android device I have owned.
yeah, the relocking is honestly a very strong argument and I’ve thought about it. But like 128gb and no other version or expansion? Gurl…
I have the 7 Pro, which is a bit higher priced than you’re looking for but I do have 256gb of storage. Which initially was saddened by not having expandable storage, but switched from usi lng lossless flac files to using a streaming service.
Used Pixel 7 Pro or 7 any other variant may be viable depending on where you’re at
yeah, I guess I was looking at a series that all come with 128, but even a 6 pro with more storage is still out of my budget currently 😭
One that comes instantly to my mind is pixel phones, since you can easily install grapheneOS in it and they are pretty new
Pixel 5 - $130 at Walmart, refurb, with a warranty. $160 on Amazon.
pixel 5 is end-of-life. This is the support cycle for GrapheneOS: https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime
If someone can’t afford buying pixel 6a then getting something that works with Calyx/Divest is probably better.
Surprisingly cheap, pretty cool
I had a oneplus 6 for a while and used lineage. It worked great and had an expansion slot.
oh yes! I’m considering an older Oneplus! They seem to have great support. The Oneplus One is still officially supported!
Meanwhile, I have a Oneplus 7t and can’t find support for custom roms. I was actually considering a Pixel with GrapheneOS.
Oh! Good to know, fair warning lol
Can’t answer, but commenting because I’m interested too
Seems like pixel is the answer as expected. Kinda expensive for me, waiting for better times 🙃
Have you looked at used ones?
Better to get the new ones if you can afford it, as they’ll be supported for much longer, but better a used Pixel 5 or something rather than a Chinese garbage machine.
If you want GrapheneOS: Get a Pixel
Otherwise: Fairphones are pretty good as well with even Linux being able to run on them.
OnePlus, POCO / Xiaomi and older Pixels.
I was considering the Moto G Stylus or some Poco phone, but I haven´t been able to find a source of Roms for those.
Note that Poco do not make their own phones, but licence and tweak Redmi phones. So you might not see ROMs for the Poco version because they are listed under the original Redmi version.
Yeah I know they’re all Xiaomi, but I haven’t looked in detail at what they offer, but good tip. In any case the idea is to go by popularity, so if there’s very similar phones from both brands I would go for the one that seems to have a more active community
