Hi everyone,

Currently looking at either a Pixel 8 or a S23 as a replacement for my Zenfone 8 that is slowly becoming a hindrence due to (primarily) the battery. I would replace it, but as it costs a lot to do that here and I have needs for a non-compromised water protection DIY feels like a dangerous option.

So S23 vs Pixel 8, what would you guys recommend assuming I can get either for the same price?

I like the S23 hardware a bit better on paper, but as Pixel phones generally are very flashable my anti-Google sentiments might (ironically) push me there.

I would get a fairphone 5 for the hot-swappable battery etc if they weren’t so expensive for what you get, and as Im buying second hand reuse is better for the environment anyways.

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Got it, plan was to avoid adding my Google profile onto this phone. Anyway, I don’t use Gmail or gsearch or Google maps or any of that.

    And it looks like as long as I don’t have a profile, the minimal data that is sent out from micro g would be anonymized.

    Proactive security is important, but obviously use case is also pretty important.

    Agree that graphene OS seems like a pretty secure option, but for me personally it wouldn’t add much more security than how I already use my phone.

    I still like the idea, and when I get a new phone, I’ll probably be experimenting on this one a lot more, and I’m sure that’ll include graphene OS at some point.

    I’ll have to get a new non-pixel phone anyway, since non-expandable storage was already absurd 5 years ago, but graphene OS does look like it’s worth playing around with on my older phone.

    Oh, and I do have to make it perfectly clear that the ethical supply lines, corporate responsibility and transparency, as well as consumer respect from fairphone is the larger reason I’m intent on buying a fairphone, the added privacy and security is just a bonus to that.

    • Pantherina@feddit.deEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Keep in mind that if you download apps from the playstore (no idea if /e/ proxies those apps or something) many include Google Play libraries and SDK.

      I think I linked that comment under the microG post in the GOS discuss. Apps dont even need any play services to communicate to Google.

      the minimal data that is sent out from micro g would be anonymized.

      MicroG downloads official Google binaries, e.g. their tracking BS. These are able to read persistent device identifiers like IMEI etc. Under many circumstances these are personal identifiers, and if you for example would create a seperate user profile for banking or Google crap, Google could easily link those activities.

      non-expandable storage was already absurd 5 years ago

      It never worked well. Either it was unencrypted, or it could only be read by this device, making it useless as a backup solution if your device dies.

      corporate responsibility and transparency

      I think they are transparent in the hardware area. I didnt find it very easy to find out where exaclty who is getting how much money, with what companies they share production facilities etc. But I understand that point.

      Just want to stress that their software and their de facto limitations due to standars hardware suppliers like anyone else, are not really transparent.

      Cheers!

      • Varyk@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        At this point, minimal anonymized data is fine by me. I equate it with walking down the sidewalk and people who don’t know me being able to know what color I want my hair to be. Not what color it is, but what I would like it to be.

        Honestly even minimal non-anonymized data doesn’t really bother me relative to the changes that an ethical company makes.

        I’m not sure what e specifically uses, I know that murena allows you to choose your app store according to whether you want to use open source apps or not, or tethered to play services or not.

        Yeah, non-expandable storage is incomprehensible to me, having used phones with expandable storage and having used phones with non-expandable.

        • Pantherina@feddit.deEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          Keep an eye on DivestOS. It seems to be somewhat similar to GrapheneOS but on more devices.

          I think the changes are a bit too many though. They support microG in the GrapheneOS sandbox, which may be pretty cool (until it breaks, or you need stuff not included in microG)

          I think 128GB is enough, but a small phone with a headphone jack, good cameras and a working fingerprint sensor…

          • Varyk@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            1·
            9 months ago

            I am pure Bluetooth, I was very happy to get rid of the headphone jack.

            Thanks for the OS recommendation.

            Oh, if you’re interested in cameras, you should check out the side by side videos of fairphone cameras with pixels and iPhones. At least half the time, I prefer the fair phone camera shots I’m seeing.

            I don’t know if it’s less processing or what, but something about the fair phone photos look better to me, even without umpteenth megapixel updates.

            128 GB is way too small for me. I can work with it, but it’s like 12 minutes of video and I take a lot of video.

            7 years ago I had an oppo with their proprietary usb charging that went zero to 80 in 30 minutes and had up to four gigabytes expandable storage, I had 512 gb on there, 6gb ram.

            The state of phone tech today is crazy to me, the one percent increase in CPU processing power every month means nothing to me if I can’t take more than 20 minutes of HD video and edit it without the phone crashing.

            Also, not really relevant, bring back front facing speakers! I want a phone with front facing speakers again so bad.