How often do I have to buy a new pixel if I fully degoogle with GrapheneOS? A support question
still deciding to fully degoogle with GOS or muddling through with what I have (proprietary, data grabbing and bloated).
To understand the question, compare with my main hardware with debian on it: a regular notebook I bought in 2016 and I've used heavily for all kinds of stuff: working, writing papers, downloading and playing media including AV1, editing audio, torrenting...
One of the best investments I ever made, considering what I paid and how prices nowadays are. Debian offers regular upgrades and I don't have to check if my hardware is going to support the software on a level comparable with android devices (GOS only runs on pixels, other open-source, privacy focused Android operating systems have similar hardware restrictions).
I want this kind of ROI for the device I buy and the software I use, but I don't know if that's possible:
GOS drops support for older pixels but I don't know how many years any particular device is supported by GOS: 3 years? not enough. There's no way I'm buying a new pixel every 3 years. I'd even consider 6 years restrictive.
unexposedhazard
in reply to merompetehla • • •Imho pixels fucking suck. Repairability is really bad, so as soon as anything has issues you need a need phone. I would say the answer to your question heavily depends on your daily battery life requirements. If you wanna stretch the phones overall life, set a 70-80% charging limit to damage the cells less. (If that is even possible with the new models idk, you didnt specify yours...) If you treat it well and turn off all the battery sucking toggles to extend the time before needing to charge, then 4-5 years might be doable.
I tried Graphene for a bit but ultimately couldnt put up with pixel devices anymore and went to calyxos on a fairphone. Not having a swappable battery or extendable storage is just not fun. If you want a 10 year phone get a fairphone. The 6 just came out and is very well priced in the EU.
9tr6gyp3
in reply to unexposedhazard • • •Devices lacking standard privacy/security patches and protections aren't private - GrapheneOS Discussion Forum
GrapheneOS Discussion Forumunexposedhazard
in reply to 9tr6gyp3 • • •Coleslaw4145
in reply to unexposedhazard • • •☂️-
in reply to Coleslaw4145 • • •Coleslaw4145
in reply to ☂️- • • •You'd give the duress password before you get pipewrenched.
And once it's wiped there's no point in them pipewrenching you because its too late.
☂️-
in reply to Coleslaw4145 • • •Coleslaw4145
in reply to ☂️- • • •TXL
in reply to Coleslaw4145 • • •FauxLiving
in reply to unexposedhazard • • •Counterpoint: Yeah, but if ICE kicks in your door would be comforting to know that powering your phone off prevents it from being cellebrighted. GrapheneOS with a supported Pixel device is one of the few smartphones that they can't exploit from BFU.
The federal government isn't using wrenches (yet)
unexposedhazard
in reply to FauxLiving • • •FauxLiving
in reply to unexposedhazard • • •monovergent 🛠️
in reply to unexposedhazard • • •someacnt
in reply to 9tr6gyp3 • • •ProdigalFrog
in reply to merompetehla • • •GrapheneOS supports a phone model for as long as Google officially does. You can see the support lifetime of each model here: endoflife.date/pixel
If you want to keep an updated phone constantly, you'd have to upgrade every 7 years.
Google Pixel
endoflife.dateTenderizer78
in reply to ProdigalFrog • • •This link is also important.
grapheneos.org/faq#device-life…
Generally speaking, the answer is 7-15 years by combining these two sources.
GrapheneOS Frequently Asked Questions
GrapheneOSTheCoralReefsAreDying69
in reply to Tenderizer78 • • •What? How are you getting to the 15 year number?
Tenderizer78
in reply to TheCoralReefsAreDying69 • • •ProdigalFrog
in reply to Tenderizer78 • • •artyom
in reply to ProdigalFrog • • •ProdigalFrog
in reply to artyom • • •From the link:
Emphasis mine. That quote does not imply they will provide an additional 3 years of support, only that they will offer the harm reduction updates from the end of official OEM support until the next version of Android is released.
I have personal experience with this, as my quite old Pixel 4a received harm-reduction updates from GrapheneOS for an additional few months into 2024 until the next version of Android was released, but that did not result in years of support. It is now completely unsupported, and has a warning on every bootup that says as much.
Further along they then say:
This implies they may actually stop doing post-support harm reduction updates for the newer devices that have longer support lifetimes from Google.
artyom
in reply to ProdigalFrog • • •ProdigalFrog
in reply to artyom • • •As an owner of a 4a, I can tell you with confidence that my device has not received an update in any form for many, many months now. It is effectively unsupported, and certainly is insecure in comparison to a Pixel 6 or newer.
The GrapheneOS developers themselves have stated in their forum that they will no longer provide extended support beyond the Pixel 5a, and that the extended support it has is already effectively insecure:
A day ago, a GrapheneOS dev said of the Pixel 4a:
So for the Pixel 4, it effectively received about an extra year and half of tenuous support. The Pixel 5 will receive a few more months of tenuous extended support, then there will be no extended support for any future devices, meaning users will have to upgrade at the end of Google's official support cycle for each device.
Pixel 4a legacy support - GrapheneOS Discussion Forum
GrapheneOS Discussion ForumTenderizer78
in reply to ProdigalFrog • • •OhVenus_Baby
in reply to ProdigalFrog • • •Just an FYI for those who think like this. I DID TOO.
Your cellular chip and network carrier will often phase out your frequency bands 2 to 3 years before the 7 year mark. Thus your service (internet/data) will not work long before your device loses updates. You will get fed up with your device and buy another pixel roughly every 3 generations to keep with reliable internet connectivity.
ProdigalFrog
in reply to OhVenus_Baby • • •OhVenus_Baby
in reply to ProdigalFrog • • •Its very carrier dependant for how much gets invested in infrastructure, but in the US carriers seem to be updating frequency bands almost every generation model of phone.
Go look at a few models of the same phone for instance pixel 6 vs 7 vs 8 vs 9. Carriers are phasing out antiquated cellular bands. They try to keep the most widely used bands like n71 or other most common 4 or 5 bands but then tweak or change another 10 bands inside the phone sometimes 20 bands in all.
But I assure you this is the case. Cellular bands change as towers get serviced and replaced.
*source phone repair tech for the past few years.
Feitan
in reply to OhVenus_Baby • • •OhVenus_Baby
in reply to Feitan • • •Because carriers and manufacturers together are trying to find bands that work how we want during life conditions. For instance inside hospitals with multiple floors of concrete we need high frequency bands to keep the speed we want and need for today's uses especially with multiple devices are in the same vicinity. We need the high frequencies to get through barriers and connection quality in dense urban areas. But high frequencies don't travel far.
On top of health laws and regulations.
Lower frequencies travel further but the speeds aren't as fast and any barriers in between the device and tower or transmitter for low frequencies will interfere with objects. Which is why 2g is good for rural areas but it's insecure and antiquated for modern speed and usages like we expect.
*phone repair tech for the last few years.
who
in reply to OhVenus_Baby • • •JamesBoeing737MAX
in reply to OhVenus_Baby • • •hankthetankie [none/use name]
in reply to merompetehla • • •Same as stock , a bit extra with minor updates.
After that either upgrade if you want a secure device or install calyx, lineage etc otherwise.
It's in the FAQ
grapheneos.org/faq#supported-d…
New pixels have 7 years official support.
GrapheneOS Frequently Asked Questions
GrapheneOSMonkderVierte
in reply to merompetehla • • •hexagonwin
in reply to merompetehla • • •imho lineageos is ok enough for privacy and older android versions still remain usable. so I still have a 2013 phone that does everything I need.
sure it might be insecure but I just do less with it.
JamesBoeing737MAX
in reply to hexagonwin • • •Chemical Wonka
in reply to merompetehla • • •eleitl
in reply to merompetehla • • •