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[โ€“] 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

You don't need to get a non-Android phone in order to get a non-Google phone.

Android is open source, and if you are willing to forgo the Google Play Store and Google Play Services there are non-Google options. GrapheneOS and /e/OS are de-Googled versions of Android, for example.

Fairphone comes with an option with /e/OS installed by default, if you don't want to bother installing it yourself.

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  • [โ€“] 7 points 2 months ago

    Android may be technically 'open source' but it is not a collaborative project. It is completely controlled by Google, who are reducing the frequency of their source code releases and gradually making it more difficult for third-party Android forks to survive by convincing app vendors to make their apps refuse work on non-'certified' Google Android installations.

    Alternative phone operating systems are the way to go if you really want to de-Google. Lots of them can run Android apps as well as the Android forks for now, and their own app libraries are growing rapidly as developers get tired of Google's shenanigans.

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  • [โ€“] 5 points 2 months ago* (2 children)

    I need to look into this. Fairphone seems a good option.

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  • [โ€“] 6 points 2 months ago*

    If you specifically want /e/OS, you need to watch out where you buy the Fairphone.
    There is two versions, with the regular Android (with Google services) version being the more common one.

    https://www.fairphone.com/nl/the-fairphone-gen-6-e-operating-system

    If you buy this one from their website you are guaranteed to get the /e/OS version

    Edit: Also worth noting that you could also unlock the bootloader, and install /e/OS on the regular Android version as well. You might be able to save โ‚ฌ 150-200 that way.

    To my knowledge you can relock the bootloader after you are done? You'd have to look into that yourself though.

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