[ale] Smartphones

[Charles Shapiro]

I am still luvin' my 2017 LG V20 running LineageOS. The user-replaceable
battery and separate charger makes my life simple. I trust the LineageOS
folks enough to believe I am free of surveillance-ware baked into the OS.
I blew away all of the provider bloatware by installing Lineage.  I'm on my
second set of batteries, so it still runs a couple of days between
charges.

Alas, All Phones are Mortal and I worry that I'll drop the thing into the
lake or fall on it.  My essentials are backed up privately, but replacing
the hardware might be trouble.  The simple way out would be to get another
V20 off swappa ( https://swappa.com), but Mint V20s are getting rarer.

So I've been desultorily looking at other phones.  Buying one from my
provider is right out, since I know that they all Hate Me and Wish Me
Harm.  Interesting phones include:

* OnePlus
One of the older models perhaps. The OnePlus 5T is the latest model to have
a 3.5mm headphone jack.  Android 7.  Looks like there's an official
LineageOS build for it. OnePlus's android build might be trustworthy.
Swappa has a few in the $200-$300 range.  Rootable.

* Fairphone 3
Completely repairable (ifixit rates it 10/10), user-replaceable battery,
parts allegedly ethically sourced. Android 9, allegedly with no bloatware.
A little bit big and heavy for the performance and screen size.  Average
camera. Around $490 US. Looks like it's fairly easy to root. No LineageOS
build (yet?), but the Fairphone  2 has one.

* teracube
4-year guarantee.  Crappy camera, possibly poor bluetooth per the reviews.
Android 9, allegedly no bloatware. $329 on Amazon.  Current model has a
permanent battery ( you can send it back for a $39 replacement ). They hint
that later models will have a user-replaceable battery.  Also looks
rootable.  No LineageOS build.

Anyone have any other suggestions?  I'm leaning toward the Fairphone.
Having spare batteries is a life-changing convenience. I reckon I'll have
to decide how much I trust the  phone manufacturer on software.

-- CHS
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