Nice write up.
I feel like everyone under-sells the speed difference, though. I haven’t seen performance differences this impressive from an OS switch in many years.
For those that know the feeling of switching a tired old x86 to Linux and getting a peppy performant device - this is better.
Maybe it just feels better from being a pocket device, or maybe my last phone was more deeply bogged down with vendor crap than I can fathom.
Either way, my affordable older Pixel is running GrapheneOS substantially more responsive for daily tasks than the most expensive phones I have ever bought before.
That Sounds Great! But Will It Work on My Phone? Currently, GrapheneOS is supported on Google Pixel devices only…
Aaaaaand, you lost me.
I’ve got so many spare phones that I’d love to install this on. Not a single one is from Google. They screwed me once with their hardware (Pixelbook), and I don’t feel like giving them any more money.
Yeah it only being supported on pixel is what made me lose interest too but there is a good reason why it’s specifically pixel phones, it’s one of the only phones that doesn’t have a bootlocker/ you can disable it. GrapheneOS can’t operate on phones with a bootlocker. I could be a little off on this explanation but that’s the gist I remember.
Is dual booting possible? I’d love a Google boot for when maps/pay/etc are needed, then switch back for the rest
Google Maps works just fine on GrapheneOS, the only thing that doesn’t work is GPay.
Need Google Pay…I don’t even know the pin for my debit card anymore…
Maybe now is a good time to fix that? Do you really want Google to be a part of your everyday transactions?
If I can find an alternative that works everywhere like Google Pay does where I live then sure, I would switch in a heartbeat. But no.
“Imagine browsing without trackers following you everywhere or your phone’s performance lagging because of ads. That’s the kind of freedom GrapheneOS promises.”
It’s hard to take the sales pitch seriously after such disingenuous statements such as this. The OS itself doesn’t serve ads, but rather the apps you install and the web pages you visit. As well, as soon as you browse the web or install one of your most loved popular apps, you’re being tracked. For the average user, the one that wants to use the same apps on the gOS OS that they do on stock android, they will be faced with basically the same ads and the same tracking.
The OS itself doesn’t serve ads, but rather the apps you install and the web pages you visit.
I don’t know what phone you use, but a stock Samsung phone absolutely serves ads and tracks like crazy. You can monitor the activity with something like Adguard. Not to mention the bloat like Facebook will call home even when you aren’t using it.
So yeah, it would be nice if the OS itself wasn’t an open door for this type of crap.
“So just uninstall Facebook.”
You literally can’t on the last two Samsung phones I’ve owned.
Were your last 2 samsung phones purchased from your carrier at a discounted rate? Like an $800 phone for $50? Or did you purchase them not from a carrier?
