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Swappa.com for GrapheneOS compatible devices – Stay Away

discuss.grapheneos.org

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Re: Swappa.com for GrapheneOS compatible devices – Stay Away

#41

Post by kube-system »

uyzstvqs wrote: post #39
hmry wrote: post #5

> we are unfortunately not able to guarantee bootloader unlocking, as it is not feasible for us to search through thousands of devices in order to find one that is Ohhhh, is that how it works? Maybe I should try that next time. Instead of selling broken hardware as "NOT TESTED, AS IS, PARTS MACHINE" I should sell them as "100% working!" and when someone asks, I'll tell them "sorry, it's not feasible to search through…

Imagine a supermarket telling you "sorry, it's not feasible to check the expiration dates on all of our products".

That essentially is the case. Grocery stores make a best effort to remove expired foods but you can often find expired food on the shelf in the US.

Go make a stink about it at the customer service desk and they will probably say exactly that.

Re: Swappa.com for GrapheneOS compatible devices – Stay Away

#42

Post by mikestorrent »

edm0nd wrote: post #30
deeplowdock wrote: post #6

I wonder why almost no one in these GrapheneOS praise topic mentions that you won't be able to pay with your phone, and often even bank apps refuse to install on it - it was a deal breaker for me personally, and now I'm back under Google umbrella :<

Yup, Chase Bank app will not load at all. I think its a "security" feature that it wont load on rooted phones lol

There's some reasonable fear that at some point large portions of the web will require secure attestation that a device is not rooted; this may come in the form of automating age verification for convenience. When all it takes is a checkbox on Cloudflare to require 18+, a lot of site operators will just use it.

Re: Swappa.com for GrapheneOS compatible devices – Stay Away

#44

Post by ShowalkKama »

hnuser435 wrote: post #16
deeplowdock wrote: post #6

I wonder why almost no one in these GrapheneOS praise topic mentions that you won't be able to pay with your phone, and often even bank apps refuse to install on it - it was a deal breaker for me personally, and now I'm back under Google umbrella :<

Limitations are on the website - https://grapheneos.org/articles/ I don't care about google pay/wallet or android auto. My credit union's app does work fine, but even if it didn't, I'd still use GOS. It's great.

>I don't care about google pay/wallet

and if you did you could use curve pay instead. Basically the same thing with more features, the only catch is that they charge FX fees after surpassing a limit (but that can be mitigated by paying with the same currency of your linked card, thus never executing a change in the first place)

Re: Swappa.com for GrapheneOS compatible devices – Stay Away

#45

Post by mikestorrent »

deeplowdock wrote: post #11
cyanydeez wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying with your phone just seems like one of those separation of concerns problem. I'm sure you have backup forms, and cash, etc, but there's something about not having to worry about the multinefarious capabilities of my phone if it's not in my posession.

You could then separate the audio system from your car and drive around with a boombox

Well, that's what we all did like 10-15 years ago with nice double-DIN decks that had nothing to do with the car besides taking power from it and perhaps some steering wheel controls. It was just a hard-wired boombox, 100%. Now, the stereo is in fact properly a part of the Infotainment System you cannot replace, so as it ages out in a perfectly good vehicle, the entire car deprecates faster than it would have in decades past.

Even my 2015 Mazda has enough vehicular settings in the infotainment menu that despite being replaceable with a double-din I haven't bothered because I'd lose all configurability there. I opted for a cheapo $100 carplay unit instead - the modern equivalent of the discman-to-tape adapters ;)

Re: Swappa.com for GrapheneOS compatible devices – Stay Away

#46

Post by Melonai »

troyvit wrote: post #28
beej71 wrote: post #24

I was just about to buy something from them, but maybe not now. I want a used pixel--where is the best marketplace for that?

I've gotten used pixels off of ebay more than once and never had a problem. I feel like if it was that simple swappa.com wouldn't exist though. Maybe I've been lucky?

Same here, I bought my current smartphone, a Pixel 6, two or three years ago for 200 dollars on eBay, and it arrived in pristine condition. Super small bump on one of the frame edges, not a single scratch on the display though now there are many, of course, I'm not that careful and the phone is cheap enough not to be too upset.

I generally trust private sellers a lot more than professional ones, if you vet them well enough (check their page, check their reviews, check their other listings), the chance that you'll get a good deal on a device in the condition described. The incentive to gain a profit is a whole lot lower, a commercial seller has to make sure they're the winner in some way during a transaction, they have bills, staff and assets. A private person is often happy to just get rid of the phone, as it would usually rot in the old phone drawer, until it eventually ends up in an e-waste bin a decade later when they clean out. Getting a little money back is already a win. Surprisingly, I've never had a bad experience. I presume there's also buyer protection, but I'm hoping I never have to use it.

Re: Swappa.com for GrapheneOS compatible devices – Stay Away

#47

Post by prg318 »

McDev wrote: post #25
hnuser435 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Limitations are on the website - https://grapheneos.org/articles/ I don't care about google pay/wallet or android auto. My credit union's app does work fine, but even if it didn't, I'd still use GOS. It's great.

FWIW I've tested Android Auto before with sandboxed Google Play, works fine.

Yup! You can even get Android Auto to work without Google Play:

- https://github.com/sn-00-x/aa4mg

Re: Swappa.com for GrapheneOS compatible devices – Stay Away

#48

Post by neilv »

I've used eBay to buy several used Pixels for GrapheneOS, without problem.

The easy way is to search for ones for which the seller explicitly says "OEM" or "bootloader" unlockable/unlocked (or seller says it already has "grapheneos", "graphene", "calyxos", etc., installed).

For awhile, I came up with some tricks to try to get a better price by identifying ones that were bought directly from Google (rather than through a carrier, which are who has been disabling bootloader unlocking thus far), but decided it wasn't worth the effort.

Of course, you can also just buy a new one from Google.

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