maximus87 I did not start it yet.
And I won't test it that much without GrapheneOS privacy features.

maximus87

I've tested it without a simcard and it's basically vanilla android. I really like the size of it and it's the smallest phone in the current line of pixels, along with the more rounded corners (compared to the more square P6/P7) it feels great in the hand. Oh, and the camera was the best phone camera I've ever tried on a phone. Can't wait to use it as a daily with GOS on it.

Edit: and the original pixel case was great too!

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    @Orphee and @VAULT if you haven't already, join the Matrix community especially the Testing channel.

      Frost Thank you! Actually I also wanted to know how vanilla Android on Pixel feels (from behavior / features point of view) compared to GrapheneOS.

        maximus87

        It has a different background and more preinstalled apps compared to GOS. It also have the Google search bar on the home screen which is impossible to remove. The stock launcher is very similar to what you get with GOS and the boot animation is different. If anything, stock feel more bloated than GOS.

        Edit: the stock launcher is indeed a little different. On the bottom of the home page the Google search bar is in place instead of the stickied apps you get on GrapheneOS.

        Edit 2: you also need to push in the off button and the volume up button if you want to turn off the device. The off button is dedicated to Google assistant.

          Frost Thank you very much!
          My questions might have been strange, it´s because I have used GrapheneOS for a long time by now and supported as much as I can. But I will receive the Pixel 8 shortly, and honestly (please don´t torch for this!), a little voice inside my head is telling me to go back to Stock. Specially that I have an understanding of permissions / acount settings etc... So I probably can make the Pixel more private than out of the box.
          I think Google marketing is getting to me...

            maximus87

            I like the minimalistic feeling I get with GOS. Stock still feels kinda bloated to me. I will continue with GrapheneOS that's for sure. The only reason I bought the P8 is for the smaller size and more rounded corners compared to my P6 and P7a. Again I would like to mention that the P8 feels amazing to hold. Loading this baby with GOS will make it nearly perfect.

            Same here - I willingly offer myself as tester with a 8 Pro, as long as chances are small that I brick it completely by doing so :D
            I won't need it to fully work, as I still have my 6 Pro working fine, but ready to test it in daily life.

            maximus87 it's a difficult one this. My friend has just got the pix 8 pro and he is using stock at the moment. The AI features, Google lens etc are very impressive and useful.

            But the privacy side of things is still concerning.

            I suppose it's just your threat model.

              L8437 Thank you. I think half of it will not work for me as I disabled every possible tracking on my account (that I am aware of) and will request that I reactivate them. But I guess there are still little things which could work and nice to have.
              I hope GrapheneOS will support Pixel 8 soon, so I don´t contemplate much with it in the box waiting :)

              L8437 I just set my Pixel 8 Pro up with the Stock Android it was delivered with, and these advertised AI Features to edit your pictures are only available when you enable the Google Cloud Backup of your phone. It is not possible to use those AI Enhancements for Pictures with Offline Images.
              That alone is an absolute No-Go for me, and the reason I want to use Graphene in the Future.

                YouShouldntMind Thank you for the feedback! Bummer... But confirmed what I thought would happen in my previous message with tracking deactivated. Well, again I hope the support for the 8 will not get much further delayed. I just saw that Auditor now support Pixel 8 / 8 Pro.
                And I hope the project will have enough resources to also focus on more features that will make no one miss stock!

                YouShouldntMind

                I tried it too and can confirm. The magic editor needs cloud backup. That being said I think magic editor just includes moving people in images, as well as changing the sky for the most part. You can still use best take and audio eraser with backups disabled.

                  When you get to needing Pixel 8 Pro testers, UPS just dropped mine off. Glad to help if I can with testing images.

                  redfoxjumper Thank you. Just to be sure, you are talking about Phone backup and not photos backup, right?
                  Because, I made a little search, and a Phone backup is actually encrypted, so I assume it is still somehow a little privacy respecting feature.

                    maximus87

                    It's the photo backup. Also the phone backup isn't encrypted. If you read the text, it says only certain things are encrypted (in a e2e fashion) but it doesn't say what. So basically you should treat it as being unencrypted

                      Just got my 8 Pro, will wait on the GOS to drop before I switch over to using it full time.