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Comment by kbenson | Hacker News Reader

So, if I wanted to buy a good middle of the road (or even somewhat cheap) phone that has good LineageOS support, what would the community (of LineageOS or HN) recommend?

I looked on /r/LineageOS and found some older posts (a year plus) that claim to give some insight on this. Those might still be fairly accurate, but the same conditions that would cause me to need a guide also mean I wouldn't know if one is still accurate after a year. :/

I would consider putting it on my current phone since it's close to end of life with the shipped Android (Samsung S6, getting slow), but it only seems to support 14.1, which just went unsupported earlier this month.

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OnePlus seems to be a favored line for Lineage. You'll notice that the One, a 5(!) year old phone, is still on the initial-adopters list for 16.0. The 3T, two years old, has 6GB ram and still stands with the latest flagships in terms of raw power. The whole line is known for being really easy to put ROMs onto and being a great bang for your buck, and in theory any concerns about Chinese software would go away given that you're putting a new OS on there.

On the other hand, the latest two OnePlus phones (6 and 6T), the older of which was released 9 months ago, still aren't supported.

(Apparently the reason is LineageOS' lack of / in-development state of A/B partition support which would enable safer upgrades.)

I've been using one of z3ntu's builds of Lineage 16.0 on the OP6 for quite a while, and it's worked pretty well for me.

I'm somewhat surprised they aren't including the OP6 in the initial supported devices, but there could be lingering bugs with hardware. (Blurry photos, for instance.)

I have the 6T, still waiting for a stable ROM. But about the photos, they can easily get blurry too with the preinstalled OxygenOS.

Agreed, I'm running LineageOS 15.1 on my OP3 and it's fantastic. Will be upgrading to 16 as soon as it becomes available in the updater app.

(I'm aware that I could flash it manually but I'm far too lazy for that)

Sadly one of their best phones (not in raw perf for sure but overall) the OnePlus X had an issue where flashing has a non-zero random chance of completely bricking the device. Coincidentally happened to mine just as I ordered a replacement screen and had to cancel the order at the last minute.

I can vouch for the One. Nice device. Lineage runs perfect. Now if I could only get aftermarket screens that are tempered...

I loved my 3T as a piece of hardware. Only problem was I couldn't live with Google spyware, and Android without gapps - despite all the wonderful work done by this team - is barely functional as a modern smartphone, sadly.

Unfortunately oneplus only sells accessories for the last and current generations. Really sucks cause my 3 is still working flawlessly but I can't find a good screen protector for it.

I still find (good) screen protectors for my OnePlus 2 on amazon. You don't necessarily need the official ones from OnePlus.

It would help if you disclosed your budget and the name of your preferred wireless carrier.

A used Google Pixel XL in good condition is currently priced around $100-$130 on eBay, and supports all U.S. carriers. This model is on LineageOS 15.1, but should be upgraded to 16.0 once a technical issue is resolved. The Google Pixel XL's PassMark rating is just over 40% higher than that of the Samsung Galaxy S6, and it packs a good camera and an above-average 3,450 mAh battery.

https://www.gsmarena.com/google_pixel_xl-8345.php

https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/at3bf5/_/egzcoxb...

https://www.androidbenchmark.net/device_list.php

https://www.dxomark.com/google-pixel-camera-review-retested-...

If you're looking for something more recent, a used Moto Z2 Force is in the $100-$150 price range, but comes with compromises. Its PassMark score is about twice that of the Galaxy S6, but its camera is weaker than the Pixel XL's and it only has a 2,730 mAh battery. On the other hand, the Moto Z2 is a modular phone and is compatible with a range of Moto Mod accessories, including extended batteries. The Z2 Force already supports LineageOS 16, and the unlocked version works on all U.S. carriers. Its screen is shatterproof, but susceptible to scratches, so a screen protector is highly recommended.

https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_z2_force-8693.php

https://www.dxomark.com/motorola-moto-z2-force-review-motoro...

https://www.motorola.com/us/moto-mods

OnePlus phones are also good options, but they're mostly limited to GSM carriers. If you're in India, South Korea, or another country with compatible cellular bands, the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 offers excellent value with a fast processor, a good camera, and a large battery.

I'm quite fond of the Moto G or E lines; generally good support, easy to unlock the bootloader, and they're actually pretty decent hardware without being extensive.

Motorola has a nasty habit of leaving out NFC in many variants of their cheaper phones, including U.S. versions of the G6 and G7. This makes those generally unsuitable, at least in the U.S., if you care at all about NFC payments or NFC-based fido auth. It's can't be for market segmentation either, as many non-US variants of the same phones have NFC. The only explanation I can think of is that they're using chips binned with NFC disabled for some reason. (If it's cheaper, why is it mainly US variants that suffer? Wouldn't the cost of supporting multiple variants outweigh whatever trivial cost decrease they get by buying chips with nfc fused off?)

This question came up the other day in #lineageos@freenode. My reading of that is that there are a lot of good options but the most common issue is that they're EOL or becoming EOL.

And this might not be an issue for everyone but fact is that in my own circle of friends I know of three Nexus 5X phones that have died to hw failure. And one that is acting strange.

But I personally still have my old 5x with LineageOS and no issues at all. I love it.

What I would go for is one of the phones that came with stock android 2-3 years ago. Buy it used it perhaps from a re-seller that still has one in stock.

Pixel for example has a really nice feel in my hand and is pretty cheap.

Isn't the 5X in the same line of phones affected by the LG bootloop issues? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_smartphone_bootloop_issues#...

Yup, had the same one. I disabled the big cores and it "fixed" it for a long time but then it started looping again. Then did a reflow and it fixed it for a month before it died for good. I was really hoping to keep that phone around as a cross border phone.

I'm trying to work out why the S6 is unsupported. Funnily enough, I just helped a friend put 14.1 on their G920i, but I didn't realise it was so far out of support.

I also don't know why a faulty / for parts S6 still goes for ~$150 here in Australia.

Probably because S6 has Exynos and not Snapdragon SOC.

I purchased a OnePlus 5T (previous gen) about a month back, and I'm extremely happy with it. I splurged a bit, as the 5T comes in at ~$400, but you can find the 3T on Amazon for ~$250.

OnePlus One is a great option for LineageOS. Just a pity you can't buy it new anymore and the later OnePlus model is 1.75x the price.

Pixels, due to their general availability of immediate firmware updates and kernels, are usually by far the friendliest for 3rd partty ROM installation.

Remember that even with LineageOS you're still at the mercy of your OEM to actually release security updates for the vendor layer and Google is still by far the most active when it goes to security fixes.

Older models of either Google or Oneplus phones seem fine, I have been using a Nexus 6p with no problems other than some battery life but that's expected given how long it's been used.

Replace it sooner than later... my 6p's battery lost a lot of life, charging became irratic, then it literally caught fire when the tech was replacing the screen and battery. Now on a Pixel 2 XL (since I couldn't wait for the 6p replacement at the time).

You can go for a Wileyfox or a Motorola G series. My gf had a G2 with Android 6 but it ran LineageOS beautifully up to the latest version without any issue

Wileyfox is in administration, any hardware sold is old stock and not supported.

It's still not out yet, so it won't have LOS support for at least a few months, but this new phone seems value packed:

https://www.androidauthority.com/xiaomi-redmi-note-7-pro-960...

Xiaomi phones have pretty good custom ROM support.

I mentioned it in a different thread, but the RedMi Note 5 lost support after about a year. Do you think the Note 7 will be any different?

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