Any recent recommendations for purchase of 8a, specifically?

I've just had a bad experience buying a phone from Harvey Norman (post here) - phone will not unlock. Feeling quite burnt.

I see Officeworks recommended here for 6a and I've had good experience with them before, but this experience has me wondering if different retailers might occasionally get a bad batch?

Should I just be buying through Google itself (I'm not stressed about privacy implications, not my threat model)?

5 days later

I understand most people here have replied in relation to banking apps. But does myGovID (australia) work from the Aurora Store? Quite important as I won't be able to get by without it, so I thought I would check if anyone has experience with this. One mate says they couldn't get the confirmation codes.

6 months later

I've been talking to a local supplier of Degoogled phones and they have told me not to install any banking apps on my phone as defeats the purpose of getting on....? they have not really elaborated why but what are others thoughts?

    jb7 "they have not really elaborated why but what are others thoughts?"

    I would not buy devices from that person, sounds extremely shady. You should, at the very least, insure its a legitimate functional Pixel device and reinstall GOS yourself.

    Really, however, you should buy one directly from store.google.com

    As for his statement, he is not correct. Do as you wish, just understand the implications when you do.

      Tamedbaloney I've been using GOS for nearly a year and my banking apps work both from Aurora and Sandboxed Play.

      I haven't attempted Google pay.

        From what I understand there is not really significant differences between apps downloaded from Play Store v Aurora Store (see, eg, https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/2962-app-repositories-google-vs-aurora-vs-apk-vs-fdroid), however Play Store is considered more reliable and secure.

        I have a separate profile where I run Sandboxed Google Play for banking and other apps such as MyGovID, so I can't comment for apps downloaded through Aurora store. I do this because Play Store is the more reliable and secure (eg, has automatic updates) and when it comes to banking and other apps that are integral to general life functionality (eg MyGovID) I have a strong preference for security and reliability (although of course we all have different threat models, so you may naturally not share the same preferences).

        I bank with ubank and there was a period when their app stopped working (I couldn't log in) but it is now working again.

        • jb7 replied to this.

          phatballz

          Thanks, I am also mainly banking with Ubank so that is good to know. I would also intend to download apps from the Play Store which would be critical for security like banking.

          Regarding 'separate profile where I run Sandboxed Google Play', I imagine there is a simple user guide somewhere here explaining some of this stuff?

          I haven't got hours to read stuff but would like to give it a go - getting a pixel and installing GOS and see how I go :)

            6 days later

            No worries! If ubank plays up again, the backstop solution is to do online banking on a web browser. So your hands won't be completely tied if the app plays again.

            It is quite simple to set up another profile. Go settings > system > users > add user or profile (or just search for "profile" in settings). Instructions for sandboxed Google Play are set out here: https://grapheneos.org/usage#sandboxed-google-play.