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Joined 12 days ago
Cake day: August 17th, 2025
  • DupaCycki@lemmy.worldtoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•Is there still any hope for privacy phones? 2025 and beyond
    1·
    4 hours ago

    Hey everyone! As many have noticed, the PinePhone Pro is currently out ot stock on the Pine Store. Unfortunately we have to deliver you the following news: the PinePhone Pro is officially discontinued. We were told it didn’t sell well enough to keep production going. But the good news for current owners are that spare parts will still be made for up to two years, depending on demand. Meanwhile, the trusty PinePhone (A64) is still alive and kicking, and Pine Store plans to keep it rolling for about two more years.

    Well, that sucks. So I guess the better move here would be to wait for something new? I don’t think the regular PinePhone is at all viable as a daily driver.

  • DupaCycki@lemmy.worldtoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•Is there still any hope for privacy phones? 2025 and beyond
    3·
    2 days ago

    I’m a huge fan of Pine64, but I wouldn’t expect the PinePhone to be a great replacement for an Android smartphone. Personally I have quite extensive experience with PineBook Pro, PineTime and PineBuds Pro. I haven’t had the chance to try the PinePhone, but I’d definitely go for the Pro.

    Even then, prepare for a junky experience and forget about lixuries such as good camera, nice screen, smooth UI/UX. Their devices are great, and the ideas behind them more so. But unfortunately they rarely work well, perhaps with the exception of PineBuds Pro.

  • DupaCycki@lemmy.worldtoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•Is there still any hope for privacy phones? 2025 and beyond
    35·
    2 days ago

    As of right now, it’s looking like GrapheneOS will be unaffected, and Google has yet to lock down the bootloader. So this should remain a valid option for at least 2 years.

    Other than that:

    • Any smartphones with an unlocked bootloader + any ROMs without gapps
    • Chinese smartphones with non-Google Android builds
    • Linux smartphones
    • Bonus: Huawei is about to release their own non-Android OS, but I wouldn’t expect it to be privacy-friendly

    Honestly there probably isn’t any good, long-term solution. Personally I’m somewhat shocked we’ve gone this many years with reasonably open smartphones. Next step is probably closing bootloaders in new laptops, as part of the switch to ARM (which is already undergoing).