Good news on the GrapheneOS front: Graphene will be available on hardware other than Pixels.
I like my Pixel 6 Pro just fine, but I’m nonetheless thrilled about this.
My girlfriend and I both need new phones from her failing and buggy Samsung A52 and my Xperia 5ii. We are not going Samsung anymore because they are putting unremovable Israeli spyware baked into their devices, fairphone 6 still seems very buggy and we had a friend with a fairphone 4 with 99 problems with it, and I don’t want to give google money and we want SD card slots instead of almost no memory to force cloud subscriptions.
For what its worth, I’ve been daily driving a Fairphone 6 with /e/OS for over 4 months now and it seems quite polished to me. I’ve had a small number of issues that I’ve had to work through (as has been the case with every phone I’ve ever used), but I definitely wouldn’t describe it as “very buggy.”
Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about it? Especially on/e/? I think you are the first user I have seen.
Does android auto work, connect fast, and have all of your enabled apps on it? My girlfriend’s maps app just doesn’t work in android auto sometimes and the same with Antennapod for me and we have to reconnect. That is quite an important one.
How is battery life with screen off? On my xperia 5ii it has always been terrible with 1.5% per hour (accubattery) on WiFi or 3% per hour on 4G…
Does your microphone work well in calls, recording, and on speaker? I have seen a ton of bug reports for that.
Have you run into the common “terrible haptics/vibration” thing that people are saying with it barely being noticeable or not noticable in your pocket? I have heard that and that the haptics are really really bad in general.
Android Auto works well! I’ve used Finamp, Antennapod, CoMaps, and Google Maps with it and they all work great. I can voice search destinations with Google Maps while driving and it works. The only downside of Android Auto is that you have to install some Google apps for it to work, which feels icky on an otherwise-de-Googled device. No connection issues.
Battery life is great! I did an experiment when I first got it to see how long I could go without charging and got 3 full days (with plenty of use, since I was excited to play with my new phone). I’m ending most days around 50% now that I’ve got a bunch of stuff always running in the background (KDE Connect, Tailscale, etc.).
The mic and speaker aren’t amazing, but I haven’t had anyone say they’ve had trouble hearing me. I haven’t encountered anything I would describe as a bug, though I’d say that my previous phone (an iPhone 15 Pro Max) had noticeably better speakers.
And I actually don’t know about the haptics, since I leave my ringer on pretty much all the time. I’ve definitely had times when I’ve been in a concert or movie with it silenced and felt notifications, but I have no idea if I’d be able to detect them if I were walking around or something. I’ve always been a ringer-on guy unless I’m wearing a smartwatch.
Good news on the GrapheneOS front: Graphene will be available on hardware other than Pixels.
I like my Pixel 6 Pro just fine, but I’m nonetheless thrilled about this.
https://piunikaweb.com/2026/02/02/grapheneos-non-pixel-hardware-announcement/
good but I don’t have couple months
That’s just the announcement. The devices won’t be ready till 2027. 😖
Refurbished Pixels can be cheap nowadays. I got a Pixel 8a for less than 300 euros in great condition.
My girlfriend and I both need new phones from her failing and buggy Samsung A52 and my Xperia 5ii. We are not going Samsung anymore because they are putting unremovable Israeli spyware baked into their devices, fairphone 6 still seems very buggy and we had a friend with a fairphone 4 with 99 problems with it, and I don’t want to give google money and we want SD card slots instead of almost no memory to force cloud subscriptions.
2027 is starting to be a big ask though.
For what its worth, I’ve been daily driving a Fairphone 6 with /e/OS for over 4 months now and it seems quite polished to me. I’ve had a small number of issues that I’ve had to work through (as has been the case with every phone I’ve ever used), but I definitely wouldn’t describe it as “very buggy.”
Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about it? Especially on/e/? I think you are the first user I have seen.
Does android auto work, connect fast, and have all of your enabled apps on it? My girlfriend’s maps app just doesn’t work in android auto sometimes and the same with Antennapod for me and we have to reconnect. That is quite an important one.
How is battery life with screen off? On my xperia 5ii it has always been terrible with 1.5% per hour (accubattery) on WiFi or 3% per hour on 4G…
Does your microphone work well in calls, recording, and on speaker? I have seen a ton of bug reports for that.
Have you run into the common “terrible haptics/vibration” thing that people are saying with it barely being noticeable or not noticable in your pocket? I have heard that and that the haptics are really really bad in general.
Android Auto works well! I’ve used Finamp, Antennapod, CoMaps, and Google Maps with it and they all work great. I can voice search destinations with Google Maps while driving and it works. The only downside of Android Auto is that you have to install some Google apps for it to work, which feels icky on an otherwise-de-Googled device. No connection issues.
Battery life is great! I did an experiment when I first got it to see how long I could go without charging and got 3 full days (with plenty of use, since I was excited to play with my new phone). I’m ending most days around 50% now that I’ve got a bunch of stuff always running in the background (KDE Connect, Tailscale, etc.).
The mic and speaker aren’t amazing, but I haven’t had anyone say they’ve had trouble hearing me. I haven’t encountered anything I would describe as a bug, though I’d say that my previous phone (an iPhone 15 Pro Max) had noticeably better speakers.
And I actually don’t know about the haptics, since I leave my ringer on pretty much all the time. I’ve definitely had times when I’ve been in a concert or movie with it silenced and felt notifications, but I have no idea if I’d be able to detect them if I were walking around or something. I’ve always been a ringer-on guy unless I’m wearing a smartwatch.