General Smartphone Discussion Thread - What phones to recommend and which ones to avoid?

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I use Samsung Galaxy S21U with Android 13 and One UI 5.1. I don't have (or want to use) a Google account. I installed Streamlabs using Aurora Store because I want to test streaming to Twitch with my phone. However, when I run the app, it opens a generic Google Play login page. What's the deal? Can I circumvent that somehow?
 
Get your rainbows ready: Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS Foundation / archive
Motorola is introducing a new era of smartphone security through a long‑term partnership with the GrapheneOS Foundation, the leading nonprofit in advanced mobile security and creators of a hardened, operating system based on the Android Open Source Project. Together, Motorola and the GrapheneOS Foundation will work to strengthen smartphone security and collaborate on future devices engineered with GrapheneOS compatibility.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Motorola to bring GrapheneOS’s industry‑leading privacy and security‑focused mobile operating system to their next-generation smartphone”, said a spokesperson at GrapheneOS. “This collaboration marks a significant milestone in expanding the reach of GrapheneOS, and we applaud Motorola for taking this meaningful step towards advancing mobile security.”

By combining GrapheneOS’s pioneering engineering with Motorola’s decades of security expertise, real‑world user insights, and Lenovo’s ThinkShield solutions, the collaboration will advance a new generation of privacy and security technologies. In the coming months, Motorola and the GrapheneOS Foundation will continue to collaborate on joint research, software enhancements, and new security capabilities, with more details and solutions to roll out as the partnership evolves.
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I am very rainbow about this. BUT is there a contingency to keep schizo-dan from taking the GOS socials and announce to the world that Lenovo has sent a hitman after him because of a youtube comment?

I truly want to believe that GOS and Moto are forming a partnership free of the adversarial shit that the likes of googs has been doing. But i hope the GOS tardwrangler can keep the whole deal from capsizing.
 
Question: is there a cheap chinkphone nowadays that works with Graphene or whatever alternate OS. Looking for something strictly to mess around with, and at a quick glance, all the newer ones seem to be incompatible/locked down?
 
Apteryx Retardi said:
Question: is there a cheap chinkphone nowadays that works with Graphene or whatever alternate OS. Looking for something strictly to mess around with, and at a quick glance, all the newer ones seem to be incompatible/locked down?
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You will most probably end up using Lineage OS as it is closest to stock android you can get which has a wider range of supported hardwares.

Graphene only works on newer Pixel phones, it feels like installing barebones linux yet every second option you want to have left on is turned off by default, and permissions have to be granted manually. A lot of control but a lot of "I wish this shit just worked like a normal phone". I recommend it in the end though.
 
Dreamland said:
I truly want to believe that GOS and Moto are forming a partnership free of the adversarial shit that the likes of googs has been doing. But i hope the GOS tardwrangler can keep the whole deal from capsizing.
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what I'm wondering why it took this long. europe is all about "DiGiTaL SoVeReIgNiTy" while having the literal normalfag tech device tied to the US.
just get some of the smaller phonemakers together and spread the load working on an alternative, can't be that fucking hard when they're basically doing it already on their own.
 
ZMOT said:
what I'm wondering why it took this long. europe is all about "DiGiTaL SoVeReIgNiTy" while having the literal normalfag tech device tied to the US.
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Off-topic:
Oh don't get me started on that, Eurocrats have been bloviating about his for more than a year but i can tell you that nobody in charge actually gives a shit whether your info ends up in a US CLOUD act-covered serverfarm or that the city surveillance contract is awarded to Palantir.
Yuropoors are just being sanctimonious faggots like always.

On-topic:
The smallbois are already suffocating under regulatory burdens, making friends with an outfit that has no intention to work on compliance and euro-chatcontrol is simply not something that Jolla and Fairphone can pull off.
 
For whatever reason my Samsung Galaxy S23 has decided to stop inputting my voice whenever I'm on a phone call, so I can hear the other person but the other person cannot hear me. The thing is this only happens sometimes. Guess I'm upgrading to the S26.
 
Installed graphene yesterday and its awesome, can any kiwis can recommend an alternative wallet application?
 
Any of you guys use Sony Xperia? I NEED that phone. There's no other android model with small and slim screen other than that one
 
TwistedFreak said:
Installed graphene yesterday and its awesome, can any kiwis can recommend an alternative wallet application?
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There's no such thing as an alternative wallet application that can do NFC payments like Google/Samsung Pay, but if you're just looking for something to hold and display your .pkpass tickets, I've found FossWallet to be good.
 
Kosher Dill said:
There's no such thing as an alternative wallet application that can do NFC payments like Google/Samsung Pay, but if you're just looking for something to hold and display your .pkpass tickets, I've found FossWallet to be good.
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There used to be bank specific ones back when nfc was new but they all used the Google or Apple wallet app now
 
Found some educational posts on how Signal interacts with iOS:
Screenshot 2026-04-09 160458.pngScreenshot 2026-04-09 160446.pngScreenshot 2026-04-09 160514.pngScreenshot 2026-04-09 160532.png
 
Ruined by the Rain said:
Any of you guys use Sony Xperia? I NEED that phone. There's no other android model with small and slim screen other than that one
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Sony phones seem like the second best modern phones, only behind weird enterprise stuff that is a pain to get thst is made by companies like Unitech or Zebra. I'm pretty sure they still have the headphone jack and an SD card slot, and they have bezels instead of notches. The phones that I use are all pretty old, but I'd I needed something more modern I would get a Sony phone.
With that being said, I hate the 21:9 aspect ratio, because it lead to the death of their truely compact phones.
 
Ruined by the Rain said:
You guys should buy Sony Xperia 5 v specifically. The one I brought just arrived and I feel my life improving already
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While I made the mistake of getting 5 IV, the camera app/button has been absolutely quintessential for the 4th year I'm using the buggy, non-rootable, sexy bastard of a phone. I refuse to use anything either bigger, without 3.5 jack, or without that dual-action dedicated shutter button.
 
I've stuck with iPhone for a long time, but I refuse to spend the money on a new one. I look for the flagship model from a generation or two ago, they start popping up on Marketplace for next to nothing when a new model drops and the consoomer types rush out and buy the Next Best Thing.
 
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