Review of Jolla Phone 2 and Sailfish OS

[Jason]

You don't hear about them often, but there are alternatives to Android and iPhones. And with Android shutting down the ability to run non-approved Android apps, or at least making it very difficult, there's never been a better time. This phone is expensive, but it has a replaceable battery and supports memory cards. And the OS is based on Linux, but it can still run Android apps in a more privacy-oriented way. Having a hardware switch for turning off the microphone is nice, too. I should add that, at this time, the phone is only available in the European Union and a couple of other European countries. But they are planning on making it available in North America soon. The phone is already compatible with North American communication bands. So if you can get someone in Europe to buy it for you, it could work here?

What do you think? About this phone or Android in particular? Do you trust Google with your privacy? Would you use a phone with this or another Android phone alternative ROM like Graphene?

[ssfc72]

As for Goggle, using it, means you have no privacy.
I have considered installing one of the alternative cellphone OS's, on a compatible brand, used phone.

[Jason]

The Graphene OS, which is a de-Googled Android OS which, ironically, can only be installed on Google Pixel phones, is pretty good from what I've read. It can still run most apps from the Play Store, although they have an alternate store. But even when you use the Google store, it uses replacement APIs so that it runs in a "jail," preventing data from one app from leaking into another. Graphene OS is going to be moving to Motorola phones soon, starting with the mid-high-tier Edge model. There are other phones that Graphene runs on, but not many. Other ROMs run on more phones, but aren't quite as secure or private. Still, anything is better than the standard Android privacy-wise. Also, the ROMs tend to get all of the Android updates, not just the ones the manufacturer decides to provide.