Refurbished Samsung Android Phones Sans Google Now Available | Hacker News Reader

Refurbished Samsung Android Phones Sans Google Now Available

ibtimes.com

53 pointsprince70716 comments

How in the long term will this be any different from Google?

Reading the features of /e/, it recommends the use of a an @e.email account (like Google and their recommendation of a gmail account), /e/ runs their own cloud service for your files (like Google), and pre-installs apps of their choosing (like Google). I'm struggling to see the difference.

What I want is an open OS on my phone, with the ability to properly remove any pre-installed apps, and to choose all my own apps from my own sources. And to be able to auto-backup my files to my own private cloud. That's the only way I'll feel properly in control of my own phone.

I seriously wish they went with Motorola. Almost all phones are officially unlockable. They are also available at reasonable price (€100-200 - Moto G4 to newer ones). Sorry US hn readers, we Europeans do not (may be rarely have) have locked/carrier controlled phones.

> we Europeans do not (may be rarely have) have locked/carrier controlled phones.

I think it's fairly common with subsidized pay as you go phones (at least in the UK), since the network has to earn back the subsidy somehow. With phones on a contract, it's not necessary since you're locked in to the contract, but even so, it at least used to be the rule that the phone would be locked to the network, but they would provide the unlock code once your contract was over.

EDIT: Yep, turns out all the major UK networks (except Three) lock phones: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice...

It's now free to unlock on most networks (not EE) during contract, and MUST be free once the contract has ended.

In Canada all phones must be carrier-unlocked, and if they are, they have to be unlocked for free.

https://www.canada.ca/en/radio-television-telecommunications...

Ifixit also has official repair parts and kits you can buy instead of the gray market parts that are of suspect quality.

I can get a Moto G4 unlocked for $100-200 in the US. Its just that people desire phone far more expensive than they can realistically afford so they will keep financing it.

No, not "now available". This is NOT a pre sale: you’ll go through a 0€ checkout process (you won’t be asked for any payment details). This is the best way for us to plan for volumes by market, and to keep you informed when products are available.

I have a Caterpillar-branded phone which has never run much Google software. I bought it new, and when it ran the startup program asking for a Google account, I answered "Later". Then I deleted the startup app, installed F-Droid, and deleted almost all Google stuff, although not Google Play Services. That breaks too much. Other than Google Play Services, you can turn almost everything Google off without side effects. Then install replacements from F-Droid's open source store.

That's the big headache - Google Play Services. Does /e/ have a good replacement for them?

/e/ bundles microG as a Google Apps replacement.

https://microg.org/

how good is this replacement? do most of the apps work? google apps like maps?

This is well appreciated. I was recently shocked/surprised, after running a netstat, at the number of open network sockets. Even worse, stopping all apps with netguard, still lets 'system' open a connection to GOOG's servers! This is absolutely horrifying; I wonder what kind of data big brother Google has on me and billions like me.

With device-independent ROMs and unlockable bootloaders, this is quite easy to do in a large set of recent phones. See [1] for a detailed list.

There are some model-specific glitches, though. Some manufacturers haven't implemented Treble HAL properly.

So, for the time being, I prefer running pure AOSP on a Pixel. Paradoxically, the best way to use Android but avoid Google is buying a Google phone.

[1] https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/wiki

One can also buy refurbished smartphones with Replicant:

https://tehnoetic.com/mobile-devices

Sorry if I'm just being stupid, but aren't there other alternatives to /e/ already available?

it's not clear to me but where is /e/ based? is it American or Chinese (or even Russia) based? how would that be different from Google, honest question, why should I trust it?

> it's not clear to me but where is /e/ based? is it American or Chinese (or even Russia) based? how would that be different from Google, honest question, why should I trust it?

I cant speak for where /e/ is based but the correct answer to why you should trust them is "you shouldn't", regardless of who the company is or their intent for as we know intent can and likely will change down the road.

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