[ale] Smartphones

[Ed Cashin]

Have you checked eBay for a highly rated seller of the LG V20?  I see 360
buy-it-now style V20s for sale, at around $60-$90 and up.  Sold items have
been in the same price range.

On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 10:23 AM Charles Shapiro via Ale <ale at ale.org>
wrote:

> 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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-- 
  Ed Cashin <ecashin at noserose.net>
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