Hello there! This is my problem: I’m going to buy a new smartphone, and I’d really like to degoogle myself as much as possible. The idea would be to buy a device compatible with LineageOS, but… Supported devices are usually older models, and often there are newer devices with better specs for the same price, that does not support lineageOS. Is seems a shame to buy a device with lower specs than another one just because of software compatibility. So the alternative would be to buy an unsupported device, unlock the bootloader and debloat it as much as possible, flash privileged fdroid and aurora store on it, install microg, etc… What do you suggest me to do? Is the second alternative a viable option? What other steps should I do if I decide to go that way?

Thanks in advance folks!

Edit:
Thanks to anyone for the great answers! I finally decided to buy a pixel 6 (or 6 pro if I find a good deal) and install a custom ROM on it! GrapheneOS will support it for “only” 3 more years, while other roms like lineageos or divestos will have longer support. What do you suggest? Graphene OS and when support ends switch to another one? O directly use the other one?

  • tubbaduOPEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    thanks for the answer! I would gladly do this if only pixel phones had an SD card… Sadly they don’t, and I really need it, so no pixel for me :(

    • @Genghis@monero.town
      3•1 year ago

      You can always connect a USB stick or card reader with an SD card via USB-OTG

      I will recommend you do use a phone that still receives security updates (Not EoL) because I don’t want you to lose out on security just to deGoogle.

      If you are strict on having an SD card slot and your phone is still receiving support, you should use StockOS to receive firmware updates as soon as possible. If the phone you decide to get is EoL, the least bad option would be DivestOS (fork of LineageOS)

      Again, I would advise not using an EoL phone.

    • caosDeutsch
      3•1 year ago

      Perhaps you should add this criterion to the start post? Otherwise ten more people will recommend GrapheneOS…

    • @GasMaskedLunatic@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      1•1 year ago

      Is there a reason you need SD storage? Some Pixel devices have onboard storage of 256GB+, so unless the storage needs to be removable, they could still be a good option.