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Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone

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Re: Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone

#81

Post by ALLTaken »

Sounds very much like HarmonyOS. I was just in a Huawei Store and I think from a UI/UX perspective, despite being quite new, it's incredibly slick and leaps ahead in great design and integration within the HarmonyOS ecosystem. Even saw it being used as Laptop OS and Mobile, the convergence is quite applaudable.

The kindest was that the store's staff advised against buying the device as it's quite painful to use it with Google's apk & blobs, because it drains more battery than when it's integrated with your system services directly. I told him, that maybe rare, but I'm actually happy to not use Google apps as much as possible and especially not within my operating system. Another point he made was that 5G'A is blocked by Google, about that I know nothing to be honest.

Some Android forks are indeed quite nice, but the issue has always been the updating model, upstream maintenance and compatibility. With Harmony OS a large cooperation with the consumers in focus and the one developing the entire hardware stack is behind the OS development and maintenance making it safer against supply-chain hacks and a deeper integration possible than any other OS.

Re: Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone

#82

Post by azzentys »

vitaflo wrote: post #79
contubernio wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banking basically has to be done via phone now.

Find a better bank I guess. I’ve never used my phone for banking of any kind ever.

Sadly, that's not a great answer where most banks are going towards the same direction. It's also convenient to use a phone for banking.

Re: Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone

#83

Post by snypher »

fg137 wrote: post #80
alnwlsn wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a phone can make calls, send texts, read emails, and take pictures it already covers 98% of my use cases.

If you never hang out with friends and pay them via a QR code, sure.

I know I live in Oregon or whatever but a lot of people use cash.

Re: Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone

#84

Post by ctdinjeu2 »

johnsea wrote: post #14

This article fails to mention GrapheneOS. The article starts with Murena, Punkt, Volla which are all based on Android. If you do this, then imho you must mention GrapheneOS, the by far better option (updates, privacy, security, organisation). Google Pixel with GrapheneOS is the best non-Google phone... ;-)

[dead]

Re: Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone

#85

Post by aniviacat »

fg137 wrote: post #80
alnwlsn wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a phone can make calls, send texts, read emails, and take pictures it already covers 98% of my use cases.

If you never hang out with friends and pay them via a QR code, sure.

I suppose that's region dependent. I have never used (or seen someone use) a QR code to pay.

Re: Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone

#86

Post by SoftTalker »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #76

The challenge isn't buying it, the challenge is being able to do phone things with it. Nowadays, you can no longer exist in society without a phone. Most things will work but it takes one critical service that doesn't have a viable workaround, and you're forced to buy (and possibly carry) a "mainstream" phone just for that. Banking, government, authentication, postal service and public transit apps are just some of t…

You can exist, but life will be as inconvenient as it was in the 1990s (though importantly, it didn't seem inconvenient at the time, it was just the way things were).

Re: Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone

#88

Post by bix6 »

snypher wrote: post #83
fg137 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you never hang out with friends and pay them via a QR code, sure.

I know I live in Oregon or whatever but a lot of people use cash.

I thought y’all just bartered with rhododendrons and cutthroat

Re: Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone

#89

Post by SoftTalker »

ryandrake wrote: post #77
contubernio wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banking basically has to be done via phone now.

Maybe I am lucky in the USA, but every bank I’ve ever done business with can be accessed through a PC and web browser. If any of my banks should decide to remove that option, I just move over to one of the other thousands of banks in the USA.

That or you can simply go in to a branch office.

Re: Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone

#90

Post by SoftTalker »

bobim wrote: post #27
ttkari wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are also less than 2 months away from the first deliveries of the Jolla Phone 2026, a new SailfishOS device they have designed and built from scratch. Over the past years the official Sailfish experience has largely been relying on Sony Open Device program - a co-operation which hasn't always been very smooth for the customers. I have been daily driving SFOS on a Sony Xperia 10 III for the past 3 years and it wo…

I have rage-quit apple for a C2 and the muscle memory still kicks in after months. The ergonomy of Sailfish is sometimes bizarre, the little top left dot for navigation for example. Still it does everything I need, just with a very bad camera. Let's hope the 2026 will fix that.

I've been on Apple for a couple of years after a decade on Android and I still haven't internalized all of iOS's inconsistencies. But admittedly I don't do much on my phone besides SMS, calendar, and maps, so using other apps is always a bit of initial relearning.
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