I’d been hoping for a Framework phone to come out of the event last week but understand that launching into an entirely new product line is probably not the best business decision. My Pixel 4a, that I’ve only owned for about 20 months is kind of falling apart. Screen has cracked in multiple places, the back is chipped, battery struggles to get through a full day even when I don’t use it that much. So, I’m thinking that I’m going to need a new phone kind of soon.
Repairability is a high priority for me as is customization. I’d also love to be able to get away from Google tracking. Previously I’ve run phones without Google Play Service and would like to get back to that if I could. The obvious choice that meets those requirements would be Fairphon, but I’m in the U.S. and the lack of support for most carrier bands makes it a non-starter. Are there other similar options in the U.S. that I’ve missed? What do other Framework folks use for mobile?
I’m in the U.S. I know the Fairphone doesn’t support most U.S. bands. I haven’t heard of Shift, but it looks like there’s not U.S. support for it either. Teracube is also new to me, thanks for the info. Based on price and the marketing for kids, it isn’t obviously a good fit, but I’ll take a closer look.
Any other suggestions, particularly for those that live in the U.S.?
Going to be tracking this thread for recommendations as well. I know this doesn’t alleviate the repairability aspect, but have you looked into privacy Android ROMs? the Pixel series is a very popular target for OSes like Graphene and CalyxOS.
Appreciate the responses. I’ve looked at Pine a while back, and while I appreciate what they’re doing, it seemed like the consensus was it wasn’t quite ready for prime time? Anything changed on that front? I use my phone for consulting work, and while I don’t need much in the way of apps, I do need stability.
As for alternative OSes, I’ve heard of both Graphene and Calyx, but don’t know a ton about them. I’ve spent a little more time looking at /e/ and have been thinking about their phone, as it has expandable storage and maybe even a replaceable battery (not sure if I’m remembering right on that last one). But I haven’t been able to find a ton of support in the community for it.
Ideally, I’d like to get something that is installed out of the box. I’ve rooted and put ROMs on before, but it always seems to take me multiple tries and troubleshooting and still something ends up wrong. I’ve still got the idealistic side of me, but been leaning a lot more to convenience these days.
Thanks for the link, I hadn’t seen that thread and it does contain a lot more recent info than what I’ve dug up on FP4 in the US from other sources. Unfortunately, it confirms what I’ve read other places, basically you can get data and c text to work (sometimes with some fiddling) but voice, especially since 3G was shut off, is pretty spotty. No VoLTE or WiFi calling. Considering I’m one of those rare people that still uses the phone function of the phone daily, that’s a deal breaker for me.
I replied to a related thread (last post a little more recent) - to those that posted here. It would be great to update this topic with experience of phone options in the Framework community…
