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

ultome

Well for now I'm experimenting with Fleksy. If anyone can provide feedback... It seems ok on most aspects but I don't know if I could find better in the wide free world?

missing-root

ultome you need to go past those buttons to the releases and download the APK directly. Its very messy and most people will not know about that.

I thought it was some development version for a long time.

https://f-droid.org/repo/org.fdroid.basic_1019003.apk

Thats the latest one

Foggy

To 'try' GOS coming from iOS I bought a used Pixel 4a on eBay for £40. It has a working but cracked screen held together by a screen protector so isn't very comfortable to use for lots of reading web pages, but was fine for experimenting with the OS. I figured if I hated it I could always resell it for £20 or something and I could take that loss.

It turned out to be very useful to have a test device, because I could experiment with various ways of setting the device up - messing about with profiles etc. I got it wrong a few times and reinstalled and that was no big deal.

Eventually I was happy and I bought a daily driver Pixel, but the 4a then came in handy a few times where it was useful to have a phone running stock Android and wasn't afraid to factory reset. It's replaced a collection of ₁₀ year old phones (Galaxy S4, Note 4) as my backup phone. So £40 well spent overall. If the screen eventually falls apart I've had my money's worth it out of it.

ve3jlg

raccoondad I would buy directly from Google themselves (store.google.com)

Best Buy is an excellent place to buy an unlocked Pixel phone in my experience / opinion.
U.S.: BestBuy.com unlocked Pixel phone
Canada: BestBuy.ca unlocked Pixel phone
if you are able to visit a retail store you can purchase in cash and retain some anonymity.
Save your receipt. It's is easy to return a phone to Best Buy if necessary, even if you paid cash - and not have to pay return shipping if you bought in-store.
Canadians have a 14 day legal right to return a cellphone when purchasing in Canada.
Best Buy also sells open box phones at a lower price which have the same return policy as new phones.
Over the past 14 months I have seen that Best Buy's Pixel prices were the always same as or less than Google's prices. And sometimes Best buy has promotional deals where they give away extras for the same priced phone as Google. (I am not talking about the extras like Bluetooth earbuds that Google was also giving away).

raccoondad

ve3jlg Good to know :) I only had one bad experience from Amazon really so its good to know best buy is another place I can safely buy a device with OEM unlocking.

other8026

Many replies here were off topic, so I cleaned up some of the posts.

Just a reminder to please be polite when interacting with other community members and avoid being argumentative.

Blastoidea

raccoondad

Over the years, I have bought Pixel phones from both Google and Best Buy, depending on who had the better deal. (Pixels 2, 5, 5a, 6, 7 Pro, 8)

In spite of reading some real horror stories about dealing with Google, I haven’t had any problems with either vendor, and would recommend both, or either. (of course, I haven’t had problems with any of the phones, so that may have helped)

raccoondad

Blastoidea I don't know how Best Buys customer service is, but Googles is absolutely top notch.

It feels odd giving them so much credit, but honestly I never had a bad experience working with them. Getting my phone upgraded for free also made me soften up to them a bit.

I'm sure best buy is similar, I just found Google to be very responsive in their customer service (you can have them call you or text them through the help desk)

Never used Best Buys customer service however, I wonder if you could use Googles help desk since its a Pixel device

ve3jlg

raccoondad I don't know how Best Buys customer service is, but Googles is absolutely top notch.

I have seen many horror stories about very poor Google customer relations in reddit.com/r/googlepixel; That said, people tend to post complaints.

commodore64

ultome I purchased my Pixel 6 Pro from https://www.ebay.com/str/thegizmotrader I followed their inventory for a couple weeks and found the details listed for their items very helpful . They clearly indicate the carrier the phone will work with and whether it is "Network Unlocked" (meaning carrier unlocked) of if it is "Factory Unlocked" (meaning OEM unlocked). You'll want factory/oem unlocked. They have several high resolution pictures of each Pixel and all from the same angels for comparison. Prices seem reasonable and I received it quickly. I'm very happy with the phone I purchased and with GOS.

I would not buy one with GOS installed. The GOS installation guide is very detailed and easy to follow.

Hope this is helpful.

Bouzenzel

raccoondad
Can I use older devices for installation ! Like a pixel 1 or pixel 2xl !?

raccoondad

Bouzenzel No idea I wouldn't think so

missing-root

Bouzenzel

https://grapheneos.org/install/web#prerequisites

Only lists Android 11 as minimum

Dumdum

Bouzenzel
Doing so would be pointless as you would be missing newer features available on the up to date versions, and therefore not get a proper taste of GOS.

TheGodfather

Bouzenzel

missing-root I can't find it ! Can you elaborate please

Bouzenzel

Dumdum I'm already a user of GOS in a pixel 6a for 14 months and I loved it .. I want to buy a secondary device for my work sim and I don't want to invest too much money that's why I'm asking, if possible I want to buy a 2XL and GOS it.

[deleted]

There is nothing like trying out GrapheneOS. You either run it or you don't. It is only available for currently supported devices. You are welcome to build your own and maintain it, but that is not GrapheneOS anymore as are any adulterated "security/privacy" forks of GrapheneOS. If you want to have a first hand experience with this amazing OS and you are tight on a budget, get yourselves a used OEM unlockable currently supported device with a lowest price tag (can not recommend anything below P6) and once convinced you can upgrade. It will provide you with top of the class security and privacy features out of the box. Not to forget to mention that choice of your habits and apps you are running are just as important as the environment you use them in.

raccoondad

Bouzenzel The Google Pixel 2 has long past its end of life, I would not recommend using one

Blastoidea

Bouzenzel
This raises the question “Is GOS on an EOL (unsupported) phone better or worse than stock Google Android of whatever version?

Better or worse = more secure or less secure.

archvile77

Geert this is a good way to go about this if you are unsure. Possibly the best way. Another route is swappa.com, though they have been inundated with cell phone reselling companies lately (used to just be other individuals you'd buy and sell from, you can still do that but you have to do a bit of digging).
I've been on GOS since August of last year and have yet to find any reason to pull me away from it. I greatly enjoy the enhanced feeling of security, and privacy, but a lot of the privacy stuff also comes from using self-hosted platforms and not anything cloud-based. But all of that works with Graphene. The only thing I really miss out on is certain apps that run push notifications through GCM/Firebase (I don't and won't put google play services on here). To me, its worth the trade-off.
Minimize phone time and distractions. Maximize real-world time and interactions.
That's my motto, and GOS helps me with that in so many different ways.

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