I heard about /e/ recently and really like what I see, specially the 2020 roadmap and the /e/ OS pre-installed phones. However I do have a few questions regarding the later:
Why only have refurbished phones available?;
Also, if you are going to sell refurbished phones S7s, why make them so expensive? You can buy new phones with better specs for less than 200€;
Why only 1 year warranty?
I am asking these questions not for myself (If I had to buy a new phone right now I would probably buy one of /e/s S7s), but for the average/casual consumer. If you want to make privacy the default you have to provide a service as good (or almost as good) as the competition.
Anyway, this is just my initial impression to the project, take these comments as constructive criticism. I am actually trying to sell one of your phones to a friend of mine haha =)
Why only have refurbished phones available?;
Because we have no planet B and we must be more careful with natural resources
Also, if you are going to sell refurbished phones S7s, why make them so expensive? You can buy new phones with better specs for less than 200€; Pls compare the prices with rebuy or any other refurbished phones seller. The prices are ‘normal’ for refurbished phones with this condition.
Why only 1 year warranty? It’s a refurbished phone and for refurbished phones it’s also a normal time frame. Pl compare with other refurbish phone sellers. Most are only giving 6 month
Why do you have buy a new phone ? who forces you to buy a new phone ??
I think I have bought my last new phone 10 years ago. I’m always buying used phones. That’s good for me (savings) and good for our planet.
(The above answered are NOT official e.foundation answers)
Although I agree with the general sentiment of your post, in my assessment the pricing of the S7s is too high. Also, they should offer not only reconditioned phones but also new ones. Not everyone will want to buy a refurb. And if the goal is to push open and privacy respecting software I think one ought to be as inclusive and competitive as possible.
That posture of “if you don’t buy a refurb every 10 years, you’re an idiot” is not constructive and it will drive people away.
Never written something like that. So please cool down. Thx
You won’t find any manufacturer like Samsung, Xiaomi or Huawei who would eOS preinstalled. The want have their own UI with all the spyware included. And they won’t give garantie for a device without own UI.
Because Google gets device manufacturers to sign what is called an anti-fragmentation agreement which prohibits them from selling their devices with anything other than Google products. There are some challenges to this in European courts but the situation on the ground has not changed much.
So right now a manufacturer can’t sell some devices with stock Android and others with a Forked version? I remember a few years ago the manufacturer BQ sold Android and Ubuntu versions of one of their phone models.
However, couldn’t you (/e/) just buy brand new phones in the market, flash them with /e/ OS and then re-sell them?
Is there a place or post where I can ask for help on how to choose a device that would run /e/, based on some specifications I desire?
Than, you have to pay more for the ePhone as for the same phone without eOS preinstalled. Because e.foundation pay the same as you for the phone and than e.foundation has to pay for flashing the eOS and for shipping/packing/handling. So noone will buy this phone.
Nice, but I can’t find any eOS for it and I don’t know if there is a official LineageOS available.
And … You have to compare it with S8 or better S9 because you are talking about brand new devices. And getting a brand new S7 is not so easy, S8 will be running out of stock soon and than only S9 and S10 are availble brand new.
EDIT: but I will quit now this discussion. You have decide for yourself, that the phones are to expensive and I can’t change your mind.
The particular phone doesn’t matter, what matters to the discussion is that you can find cheaper phones brand new that are comparable to the S7 being sold by /e/.
What we look for is quality refurbished phones that would be available in sizable numbers. Vendors are only able to provide Samsung models which meet these conditions. If we get good quality phones of other vendors we would be more than happy to sell them with /e/.
So my current phone is becoming more and more annoying to use (it’s more than 5y old) and I was doing more research on which phone to buy next. I realized that something escaped my initial analysis presented in this thread: if you buy a new phone, and install LineageOS or any other custom ROM for that matter, you lose your warranty. This means that the /e/ refurbished phones become slightly more appealing.
Where are you located? If you live within the EU, you will not loose your warranty for rooting or flashing a custom ROM on your phone. You can still claim your rights for hardware problems and production faults. However, I’m not sure how the situation will be once Britain leaves the EU (referring to your UK amazon adress).
