• General
  • Any cheap way to try the OS on some device before investing in a Pixel phone?

I couldn't find any second-hand smartphone with Graphene installed on Amazon (or any of my local second-hand online resellers)... I really want to try GrapheneOS but not quite enough to risk buying a Pixel phone and end up disappointed 😕 Any advice? Also, I'm not against some first-hand opinions from people who actually use it in daily life 🙂 Thanks!

    ultome

    Maybe I misunderstood - it sounds like you were looking for used phones with GrapheneOS already installed. But you can also look for one of the supported devices on the second-hand market (don't know the situation in your country, but there might be something outside of Amazon) and then use the easy to use web installer.

    Or you can watch a lot of hands-on videos about GrapheneOS and read a lot about it - then you can get a pretty good feeling for whether GrapheneOS is something for you or not.

    That's what I did (I didn't have a Pixel beforehand either) and I haven't regretted switching to GrapheneOS.

    Incidentally, if you finally realize that it's not for you, you can easily replace GrapheneOS with the stock OS and use it with stock OS or resell the phone.

    ultome No, GrapheneOS is only supported on Pixel devices and no other phone brand will work.

    Anyone selling a phone claiming its GrapheneOS that is not a Pixel is scamming you. I would buy directly from Google themselves (store.google.com)

    I wouldn't buy anything from second hand online resellers or Amazon. It has to be a carrier unlocked Pixel device, these are the only ones that work with GrapheneOS. Why I heavily suggest buying from Google themselves since many times Amazon listings will say unlocked when they mean SIM unlocked. Carrier branded Pixel devices cannot be used for GrapheneOS.

      ultome
      Hi
      I bought a used pixel 6 on eBay really cheap because it has a scratched Display. It may not look very nice but it is fully functional.
      Then I installed Graphene OS myself
      So I was able to start testing it without investing too much.
      Installation wasn't too complicated either, no need to search for a device where GOS is preinstalled.

      I have been using the phone as a daily driver for a few weeks now.
      So far I'm really happy , no issues at all.
      Haven't touched my previous phone (IPhone 13) since

        • Edited

        (1) There are flashlights powered by one or more high voltage lithium batteries. The forum candlepowerforums has a subforum (link below) dedicated just to the discussion of them. Even forum members who are highly knowledgeable and experienced in regards to them have experienced unsafe events. I think I will remember one image for the rest of my life -- a person was cradling his arm; an unsafe event with his lithium battery powered flashlight resulted in the metal flashlight tube being turned in an instant into shrapnel that caused injury both to himself and his living room including the sliding glass door several feet behind him.

        In buying a secondhand phone one has no idea how the previous owner took care of it; then there is the factor of the age of the battery depending on the model of the phone.

        (2) Speaking from firsthand experience last year, Target stores sell Pixel phones with an unlockable bootloader. The stores where I bought the phones for my family treated the transaction no differently than the sale of any other item in the store. Completely disregard at all times the inventory status on Target's website for the Pixel phones at individual Target store locations; when the website has listed several onhand, I've seen none on the shelf and when it's said none I've seen one or more. If a store still has a Pixel 6a, it was sold last year for ~ $ 300 once the price settled down; I regard the 6a as still an excellent model to consider. Today the store's website lists a price of $ 400 for the 7a which is ~ the second most affordable Pixel model that can be found at a b&m store.

        (3) From your wording, I think your level of understanding might not be far enough along for you to be ready to commit money to the phone. I highly recommend the videos posted by Side of Burritos on youtube. Carve out some time every day to watch every one of his GrapheneOS-related videos. If you have access by phone or tablet to Android OS, the app LibreTube is an ideal tool for watching/studying his videos. If not, then the next best thing is piped and/or invidious on a web browser.

        Another good channel on youtube for GrapheneOS content is The Privacy Wayfinder

        links:

        https://www.candlepowerforums.com/forums/flashlight-electronics-batteries-included.9/

        https://github.com/libre-tube/libretube

        Side of Burritos
        https://piped.smnz.de/channel/UCij1VEjDb88RCbqsvZ1gqaw
        https://vid.puffyan.us/channel/UCij1VEjDb88RCbqsvZ1gqaw

        The Privacy Wayfinder
        https://piped.smnz.de/channel/UCrG6IID2FX7-GxyKtavRhEA
        https://vid.puffyan.us/channel/UCrG6IID2FX7-GxyKtavRhEA

          Eury
          Reiterating that you must have a Pixel that you can Boot-Loader Unlock. If you look for a phone not directly from Google insure you can go into the settings and toggle Boot-Loader Unlock. If you can't, it's no-go for GOS.

          That's cool to know Target sells bootloader unlockable Pixels.

            0x436861726C6573 I still say Googles store is the best place, their customer service is top notch and you are 100% going to get an unlockable device (assuming you don't buy a carrier brand)

            Good thing to note tho. If you have a gift card or store credit I get wanting to get it from the store itself, just make sure its unlockable and it should be good

              ultome

              First off ignore any idiocy expressed to you by "some".

              Just so you know, after installing gos on a phone you can revert back to original os without any sign that a custom os what ever installed. And then you can return the phone if you want.

              The gos experience is almost identical to a regular android experience. The main differences are:

              1. the initial setup and finding and installing all the elementary apps that don't exist on gos. If you don't know the good replacement apps out there then this step takes a lot of time and research and is painful.
              2. The known limitations of gos, which means some google feature sets will be missing. (Background music, chromecast, google pay, google assistant, etc).
              3. Gos also has some added bonus features, which you wont find on regular phones, and are quite awesome. (Network block, storage scopes, hardened security, all the privacy tweaks, user profiles, etc. See gos features page).

              If you are the kind of person who is willing to to make some compromises in your life in order to have a privacy phone then you will find gos to be totally acceptable.

              I was willing to accept lots of compromise, and I was shocked by how little compromise I actually encountered with gos. I never expected a privacy phone to be this functional.

              I'll warn you the start can be bit difficult while you find the right apps and setup to make the phone like regular phones, but once you become knowledgeable you will never go back to a regular phone.

              But if you are the compromise-non type and not willing to endure any inconvenience then privacy phone might not be for you.

              That said, GOS is the most functional out of all privacy phone setups.

              Make sure the phone you buy is the right model# to ensure it is factory unlocked.

              Dont buy a damaged pixel for low cost, cause if you decide to continue then you will have to buy another phone and might not be able to resell the damaged one. Also remember that you can always resell the phone at "some loss", and that loss may be worth the tryout.

              • Edited

              Thanks to everyone (except Mr Grumpy bookreader ) for your very quick and enlightening answers. I will follow your advice as soon as I can and hopefully transition to GrapheneOS as early as possible ^^

              May I ask the top 5 apps you use on your GOS phones? On my Android Motorola they're Brave, standard com apps, plus openstreet/weathermap and Flesky Keyboard (but maybe sandboxed GBoard would do?) - oh and super important the whole Proton Suite (Mail, VPN, Drive, Calendar and Password Manager).

              Thanks again!
              Also I run Arch Linux on my daily laptop so I'm not afraid of a little work to get things running ^^

                • Edited

                ultome looking at your app list it seems like you already took some steps towards increasing privacy, congratulations! If you are anything like me, using GOS for the first time will be amazing once you go to the settings and realize the power and control you suddenly have over your apps.

                If you want a smooth transfer and no sudden changes, I recommend installing the Sandboxed Google Play Services and the Sandboxed Play Store (always follow the official manual on the GOS website). This way most (if not all) of your current apps will work as intended (for example, without Google Play Services you won't get push notifications from ProtonMail). Also look up the pinned comment on App compatibility to be sure nothing important will break for you (like your banking app).

                As for your question regarding our essential apps, I mostly use

                • Vanadium
                • Signal (soon to be replaced by Molly FOSS)
                • NewPipe SponsorBlock
                • AntennaPod
                • Fossify Calendar
                • Tuta
                • Magic Earth
                • IVPN

                There are more but those are the most important to me. Let us know if you have any further questions, most of us are here to help and share.

                Thaks! I do have one more question, actually. Can you check if this phone meets the requiremebts to support GOS? I coldn't find any info about the bootloader...

                  ultome Of course!

                  Currently supported devices are as listed:

                  Pixel 8 Pro
                  Pixel 8
                  Pixel Fold
                  Pixel Tablet
                  Pixel 7a
                  Pixel 7 Pro
                  Pixel 7
                  Pixel 6a
                  Pixel 6 Pro
                  Pixel 6
                  Pixel 5a
                  Pixel 5 (extended support)
                  Pixel 4a (5G) (extended support)
                  Pixel 4a (legacy extended support)
                  Pixel 4 XL (legacy extended support)
                  Pixel 4 (legacy extended support)

                  (https://grapheneos.org/releases)

                  The Pixel 7A, also known as lynx, is supported. If you buy from store.google.com (the link you provided) it should be fine, but do not get a carrier brand version. It will ask if you want a carrier device during check out, select 'unlocked' when it does.

                  The pixel 7A will have security updates up to May 7, 2028 so you have a good amount of time before having to upgrade

                  Please do read https://grapheneos.org/install/web before continuing, its a lot but will help answer any questions

                    For me it was enough "previous insight" how GOS looks and feels to watch some videos on YouTube about their installation and first steps.
                    To be honest, there's not much to say about its daily use except that it feels like any other very clean latest android system.
                    Everything just worked perfectly fine for me just from the beginning, that said after about three months.
                    Of course, videos about some of the special features can also be very helpful and give you a little insight to the OS.

                    ultome here is a link that i give to all new comers. It answers a lot of questions they have and also you will find recommendations about all essential apps and things to setup with some tutorials. I strongly recommend that you look at all these posts and follow also sub-links and read them. They give you 90% of what you need to know

                    https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/9750-i-am-loving-grapheneos/2

                    ultome

                    • f-droid basic as store (not the normal one!)
                    • aurora store for google stuff
                    • Florisboard / openboard
                    • davx5, fossify calendar gallery files
                    • mint calculator
                    • k9mail
                    • shelter for work profile
                    • grayjay, lemmy, fedilab
                    • syncthing, keepassdx
                    • wormhole
                    • qr scan (only for generating codes)
                    • deku sms with encryption
                    • osmand / organic maps
                    • streetcomplete, tower collector
                    • ...

                    Brave does not use vanadium webview. But it may still be more secure than firefox. I like Mull though.

                      Shortly.. Its like pure android with some extra security settings and options

                      missing-root The download button from the link you provided for F-Droid basic seems to download... F-Droid (non-basic)...? Or maybe the names are ambiguous?

                        ultome I bought a new Pixel 7a on eBay for $375 and it's been great from moving from my iPhone 8. I do run the Google keyboard but without any permissions and a few other things I've learned I really don't need and it makes me feel way better about my phone. I watched a YouTube video and did my phone step by step and installed Graphine OS myself and it was very easy and after 2 months now I figured out exactly what apps I actually need, hope you have luck and don't get flustered it will be just fine!