I am looking to replace my OnePlus 7 Pro (for a bunch of reasons, it is almost 2 years old), but I can’t figure out if there are any phones that I can purchase new that work with /e/ in the US? I am not a fanboy of any particular manufacture, anything works. I would love to buy a Fairphone (and ~$600 USD is about the price I am looking for), but they are Europe-only.
Does anyone have any other suggestions for devices I can purchase new in the US that work with /e/?
Thanks in advance!
P.S. I am not a fan of in-screen cameras, but they are not the end of the world if that is my only option. I will wind up just covering it, so it’s just a waste of my screen to have it there.
I am a power user, every day I completely drain the phone, and the battery will no longer hold a charge. Replacing the battery will cause me to loose waterproofing, and may not even be possible. OnePlus does not provide replacement batteries, and I can only find used ones on eBay.
I typically use phones for around 2 years, back when they had replaceable batteries I could go 3-4 years, but I need the battery to last all day.
Also, I keep my last phone just in case my current one breaks and I have to wait for a repair, so I wouldn’t be throwing it in the landfill.
I am honestly considering just buying another one at this point. It has good rom support, good battery life, and I otherwise really like it. They have them for ~$500 US on Amazon, very tempting…
Yeah, I looked at the list but nothing seems to still be available.
At this point I am considering re-purchasing the OP7P for $500…its expensive for what would essentially be a battery swap from my prospective, but at least it would solve my problem for a few years.
Alternatively, I could wait a while for the s10 series to get support and purchase something in that line. I am thinking I will wait a few months anyways since there are going to be some new phone announcements anyways over the next few months and I should be able to hold out at least until the end of the year.
Also, I happened upon this phone that seems to be very privacy respecting while taking the “apple approach” of controlling the full-stack (hardware and software) of the phone, and it looks really cool. It has removable battery, physical switches for disabling network, and custom linux-based os. It is a bit expensive and isn’t out yet, but I am going to keep my eye on it for sure.
the Fairphone 3+ does not work in the USA? if it does, it is possible to have it sent to you there, even if they don’t take orders from the USA (there are postal services for this kind of thing)
I didn’t know that site existed. I found a bunch of S9s and S9+es, both are actively supported for /e/ and are around $250 so I am thinking I will buy one of those as a slight upgrade (or at least a side-grade) from what I currently have, while also (hopefully) getting rid of my battery issues. Even if, being used, the battery only has a year left, I can just use it until I kill it and that should make it until the s10/s10+ gains support, or until the Librem phone comes out.
Yeah, I am careful about charging, I use a slow charger unless it is an emergency (I think I have used the box fast charger brick only twice), and I only use the cable (no wireless charging), but even when it was new I would fill it up entirely (I have a smart outlet that only lets it stay charging for ~4 hours each night), then drain it to 0% each day, so that puts a lot of stress on the battery.
I usually upgrade every 2 years now that phones have non-removable batteries. I do, however, still have working Motorola phones from the last ~6-8 years (some even with physical keyboards) that have replaceable batteries (I used to buy 2 batteries along with the phone in case they stopped making them so I could use the phone for many years), and they work and keep a charge to this day, and I will occasionally use them as a backup if I forget to plug in my current phone (although they will soon be loosing 3G support on Verizon US and are on an ancient version of android). It’s kinda ironic that the old solution is so clearly better than the new solution.
It’s really sad that companies dropped the removable batteries (not just phones, but in many laptops too). I guess they (correctly) figure that if we can’t extend the life of our phones we will just buy new phones, but it is really sad to have to stop using a device because one part failed.
One of the reasons im thinking of buying the Librem phone (along with the privacy stuff) is that it, as expensive at it is, has a removable battery so I could use it for ~5 years.
As you are from US/NA please check the Samsung Model numbers - Samsungs build many model with different chipsets per market -> often the US model comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, while the rest of the world gets the Samsung Exygnos models -> the OS builds are not interchangeable between chipsets.
e.g. S9: SM-G960F with the Exygnos 9810 vs SM-G960U with Snapdragon 845 (US).
Regarding the battery stress you might consider a power-bank - from my knowledge keeping the battery level between 20-80% (10-90%) slows the battery aging significantly compared to 0-100% drain/load.
Agreed. But they don’t. Manufacturers make money by selling phones, not allowing you to use them until they break. That’s the real reason for getting rid of user replaceable batteries.
