If you buy a new Pixel and then run an alt rom like graphene or lineage, you're most likeley costing Google money. I believe they manufacture the Pixel at a small loss because they expect to make their money back harvesting and selling your personal data. Denying them that should mean you get decent hardware at a fair price, without really "supporting" Google as much as you fear. I could be wrong, but I've definitely seen that mentioned before.

You can buy a used Pixel smartphone

Even if you buy a phone that isn't a pixel, then you just end up giving money to a different privacy-invasive corporation that will continue to partner with Google for search deals and surveillance advertising.

Pixels have wide aftermarket repair parts available, relatively reasonable pricing, and the largest support from custom roms since they all test on Pixels as a standard device. (same with app developers)

Pixels often have longer update periods than other brands, and many custom roms provide extended security updates on top of that.

Android development is guaranteed to continue supporting at least the Pixel phones over all others, it'll be easier to repair down the line, and the money Google makes from the sale is nothing compared to the money they'll lose by having less power to surveil you.

And as much as I like Fairphone, the specs just aren't worth the cost currently, although they are catching up as time goes on.

I personally use a Pixel with GrapheneOS, and it works better than any phone from Samsung I've owned in the past. (plus it's usually a bit easier to unlock the bootloader)

Just make sure that, no matter what phone you buy, you don't buy it through your carrier, as that will make your bootloader un-unlockable unless you pay off the full payment plan and have a carrier that supports unlocking the bootloader in the first place.

Just go with GrapheneOS. Nothing else is even remotely close tbh.

If not a Pixel with GOS, I would say the second best pick is a Fairphone with CalyxOS.. And don't worry about the updates, they'll provide extended support for as long as possible, which could be years, CalyxOS is also awesome

Just get a pixel. Use the enemy's weapon against them.

Pixel 6a/7a/8a with GrapheneOS.

If you have other or older device, I'd go with DivestOS.

I wouldn't go e/os because it uses a much outdated Android version. Be careful of this when looking at other operating systems as lots are like this. On the other hand GrapheneOS is always up to date

Next best thing to GOS would be Calyx OS. Seems only pixels are getting full updates unfortunataly.. https://calyxos.org/install/ The hardware on the pixels security wise is unfortunately hard to beat. Get a used one?

E/OS seems like a good choice if you don't want to use a pixel.

I like stock Lineage OS

Do you plan on using any proprietary apps?

Also Graphene has a very vocal fan base. It isn't the gold standard for some.

I have a "old" OnePlus 6t with LineageOS. I try /e/OS and i don't like me. if I had to buy a smartphone to install a rom in, I would look for a OnePlus 7-8....

@en1gma
What smartphone to buy: A device that is produced #fair an designed #repairable. Such as #Fairphone or #Shift. I for one prefer the Shift6mq because it still has a headphone jack.

What CustomROM to use: depends on your choice of HW. My number one is #IodeOS followed by #e_OS.
You can even buy devices new or refurbished with /e/OS or iodé already installed at murena.com or iode.tech.

Sony's Xperia phones are fantastic and the bootloader can be unlocked on most models (check the sony bootloader unlock webpage to check). Xperia phones have a micro sd slot, headphone jack, and physical camera shutter button. I have an Xperia 1 iii running LineageOS w/microG and it's fantastic and stable. Bit of a learning curve to set it up though.

Depending on where you live, I would recommend the new Xperia 1 VI; Sony is promising support for three OS versions and four years of security updates. It's not great but it is far better than what they previously promised with their phones.

I think divest most supported because based on lineage. But not nearly as secure as graphene.

Edit: i think most of benefit of custom rom is not really security, read graphene faq on future device, say most hardware not secure enough on own. more like privacy, choice and control. most custom rom probably enough for that.

if you want real linux, look at postmarket. but not great experience iirc because hardware thing.

I feel the 50 years support claims, whether in hardware or software, should be of little concern; you'll grow tired of it, no one is going to rock the same phone for 10 years, replacing components as they fail and whatever Fairphone's delusion is.

as to concrete recommendations, take a look at Xiaomi phones (Mi/Redmi/Poco/etc.). they ship with a bloated spyware called MIUI which is such a horrific mess on so many levels I can't begin to count the ways it sucks. even moderately competent phones have trouble keeping up with the bloat, they glitch out, drop frames, freeze, etc. so people just get rid of them and upgrade to something snappier. as a consequence, they can be had for cheap on the used market.

the good news is, they have snapdragon models with super competent hardware and a good portion of them have lineageOS support (and by extension, many other derivative OS) - Poco F1 is one of the rare semi-modern phones that also has postmarketOS support.

the bad news is, the bootloader unlock process takes a week, just because; do yourself a favor and don't connect this monstrosity to your LAN while you wait for the timer to expire. also, they're chaotic (to say the least) with their model naming, with zero consistency what each suffix means (T, Pro, etc.) and it's not rare that they do a model "refresh" where they replace snapdragon with mediatek in the "updated" version.

google pixels sadly are the best device for any custom ROM. if you really don't want to use google and your willing to sacrifice some performance and quality of life I'd recommended the fair phone 5 with /e/os. it is easily repairable and has I think 7 years of support. ofcorse it sacrifices a few qol things of most modern phones like the top end displays or the best photo quality and it costs the same as a google pixel 8 but its all ethically sourced and is a extremely good project and product. I'd reccomend watching reviews first "not Linux tech tips" the software updates fixed most of their issues anyways.

Anyone know a good CustomROM if you have a Motorola?