I’m pseudo-new here … I was a follower and supporter of the eelo effort, pretty much from Day 1, but I mostly lost track of the project shortly after the name change (my T-shirt still says eelo on it … ). Just in the past few days I’ve started revisiting the project (updated my email settings to the new server … hey look! I have my own NextCloud share! Nice. … etc).
I want to buy a phone, preferably a cheap one, specifically to put /e/ on it. Being able to install and run /e/, quickly and easily, with minimal hiccups – this is my top priority in choosing which phone I will buy. And I cannot find any resources here indicating which phones are better-supported, better-tested, easier-to-unlock (I’m looking at you, Xiaomi), etc.
I have owned a OnePlus One, and barring any other input, I will probably end up with a OnePlus 3 or 3T … because they are cheap enough (used), have all of the other features I want in a phone, and are on the “supported devices” list.
But if we don’t already have one, we should have some kind of “recommended, works-best-on-these-devices” short list.
Danke,
etc
… Addendum: What’s the status on that Q1 2019 plan to start selling post-market phones preloaded with /e/? 'Cuz, y’know, sign me up if it’s soon.
I can’t be sure but if you receive emails with some news from /e/ and links to new articles at e.foundation then yes I suppose you’re already in the newsletter
There are different categories of support for the various devices: official, community etc. But that’s currently very difficult to find out as far as I can tell; there’s no single page on the wiki that gives this breakdown and lists the devices.
Many words to support the wish for a “recommended” devices list, or any shortlist with just a few devices with more guarantee for attention and support.
A few days ago, I went through the full list of devices (manually, so take it with a grain of salt).
I found zero device with the Official status. The majority of them were “Community”. Many were missing the information about the level of support.
Then came the selection of refurbished phones that will be offered for sale. I thought that these would get more support/attention. Except that the list includes the Samsung S9, which doesn’t have official LineageOS 16 yet. And when Gael announced that Pie was coming soon, it was carefully clarified all devices which have official Lineage 16.0 ROM’s will be eligible for /e/ pie ROM’s. So, no Pie yet for S9.
So, my understanding is that, even that list of 4 handsets doesn’t guarantee the best experience with /e/. Hence my wish for a shortlist of more advisable handsets. You may want to avoid the “Official” tag as long as the project is in Beta. But some shortlist seems desirable to me.
