I am using e/OS for years now, first on my company’s Fairphone 3, and currently on a Samsung S9, and I am really happy with it.
Now that I need a newer phone for different reasons, I noticed that the list of supported Devices for the Easy Installer hasn’t been updated for years now, not even with the new Fairphone 5.
Since I am not an expert and I don’t want to risk bricking a new phone, I would prefer not to install the OS by myself. Are there any plans to make e/OS available for newer phones than the ones on the list for the Easy Installer?
If not, are there any recommendations, for another non-Google Android OS that works with newer devices?
This is good news but unfortunately, I couldn’t find any more information about a planned update. Do you know when this is scheduled or where I can keep updated?
I know…they are always out of stock, and I’m on the waiting list now
With the futur release of the android upgraded “U” major version of /e/OS,
devices already supported by LOS 21, but not by LOS 20, will soon be added to the /e/ list of supported devices…
I found out that you can buy the Fairphone FP5 (or the FP4) from Murena with /e/OS/ pre-installed.
There are also instructions somewhere (sorry, I did not keep the link, but possible on the Fairphone website) for installing /e/OS/ on the FP5 if you bought one with the more standard Android. I did look at that, and think I could have managed it if need be, but it is always a slight concern when hacking a brand new expensive phone…
After looking at three places to get the FP5 (Fairphone, a British reseller, and Murena) I went for the Murena shop because they do the installation of the OS that I wanted. I am very happy with my FP5, and not being totally confident with unlocking bootloaders and suchlike that was the less stressful option for me.
Do be aware that if you are not in the EU, then you will likely get a bill from the courier on behalf of your government to collect sales taxes and import duty. Also, I think that both Murena and Fairphone themselves are not yet ready to ship to all countries. Buying from a reseller in your own country has the advantage that you know exactly what the total cost will be, whereas buying from Murena you won’t know exactly till you get the bill (unless you are a customs expert!) – (and even then, the courier is allowed to add a small fee for “handling” the paperwork).
Hope that helps.
Edits:
also, the updating works fine – mine wanted to update as soon as I had finished the setup process, and had updated since.
Fairphone don’t support /e/OS, they “just” keep the phone open for alternative OSes and have a partnership with Murena in place. The install guide is part of /e/OS documentation …
You can take inspiration from iode for phone models. They sell phones that just work (limited models) with lineageOS and google services removed and this of course works if you plan to buy without iode and install /e/.
Newer models are not supported by LineageOS this is the blocking part and restricts the choice of smartphone.
What’s more, if you want a cool phone, taking a non-recent phone will get some feedback and avoid frustration or problems. For example, it was well known that snapdragon smartphones are better than other chipsets (mediatek etc) and the only ones compatible with lineageos. But from 2021 to 2023, Qualcomm changed the company that manufactures snapdragon chips: from TSMC in Taiwan to Samsung in China. Chinese chip manufacturers are trying but failing to copy TSMC, which is leading to a host of problems such as overheating, battery depletion and Android bugs, reminiscent of the bugs found in mediatek chipsets made in China…
From my point of view, there’s another point to consider: new technologies aren’t always good. This is the case with amoled screens, which aren’t as mature as ips screens, and amled screens suffer from a known screen refresh problem that causes eyestrain and headaches. The site notebookcheck has tested this problem on a number of phones, so it’s worth taking a look.
Finally, a blogger has tested most of the custom android operating systems concerned with privacy, it’s worth a read and after several searches you’ll have finally realised that if you want a new phone with /e/, it’s ironically better to buy a google pixel phone Android: GrapheneOS, CalyxOS und Co. unter der Lupe - Custom-ROMs Teil1 • Kuketz IT-Security Blog But that implies you overpay google …
For my part I recently migrated from a mi9t to a mi10t, not wanting to put an exorbitant price tag on a freshly released model and not wanting the snapdragon made by samsung …
