My intention is to buy the cheapest smartphone I can reasonably get as I need to use a phone for professional reasons; the company uses Whatsapp and other applications I do not want to have occupying space in a smartphone I use for my personal life.

I've been loading my phones with FOSS applications from F-Droid for years now but I am aware the loop is tightening and continuing to do so is becoming more and more difficult.

Ideally, I would like to keep this phone as much as possible exempt from connecting with Google. This means I don't intend to load an account on the phone and instead load F-Droid and Aurora to get the software I want to use.

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[–] [S] 1 point 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Oh, the stories I could tell you.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)
  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 weeks ago (5 children)

    Go on, then. Now you got me curious.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    Not really very interesting. Got new job. On 1st day of job they tell me I have to download a bunch of apps. I said my phone is Degoogled and their apps won't run on my phone so they'll have to get me another one. And they did.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 weeks ago* (3 children)

    Where I currently work they aren't the worst but they don't give phones easily to employees.

    I've had one but the thing - and I nearly coddled it - simply malfunctioned and it took nearly three months to be replaced. Then we all had our phones recalled in order to have the service provider renew the fleet; the brass got theirs quickly enough but not the grunts.

    I regularly have to check aerial photos and read documents and maps when I'm working. My coworker gladly uses his phone for work but I refuse. I will not mix private life and work. Hence my option to get a cheap phone. The company can give me the SIM and pay the bill but I control what phone I use.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

    The company can give me the SIM and pay the bill but I control what phone I use.

    Is it a monthly stipend? If so, and it's enough to pay for a decent plan, then IMO that is a fair alternative.

    I wholly agree with you about not using personal devices for work. I've had a work-issued phone for almost 15 years in varying forms. I set up an automation to turn on DND mode 5 minutes after my shift ends.

    What I would do is find an older iPhone, like a 15 or something, and use that for your work device. My current work device is an iPhone 17e, and I just got it like a month ago from our IT dept to replace my aging-but-still-perfectly-functional iPhone 12.

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