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).
For example I checked Asus.pt (I’m from Portugal) and this is what they tell you about the bootloader unlocker: “Before you download, install, and use the Unlock Device App you acknowledge and assume complete risk to the quality and performance of this App, including but not limited to the following: once you activate the App you will not be able to recover your ASUS product (“Original Product”) back to original locked conditions; the Original Product with the activated App will not be deemed the Original Product; the Revised Product will no longer be covered under the warranty of the Original Product; the software of Revised Product will no longer be deemed the software of the Original Product and can no longer receive ASUS software updates; your purchased digital content may also be affected.”
I’m not sure if they are just saying this to scare customers of or if they are referring to the warranty granted by the company itself. In the EU you have to distinguish from two different kinds of warranty. The first one is granted by the legislator and requires the manufacturer to repair devices bought within a timeframe of two years. The second kind of warranty is granted by the manufacturer itself on a voluntary basis. They can for example grant you three years of warranty. In this case, they can deny your smartphone repair in the third year if the software has been tampered but have to repair it if something happens within the first two years.
@exyna Thank you so much for the information! I’m definitely going to be sharing that link.
Moving on and coming back to /e/. Is there any guarantee of long term software support for the devices they sell? In what state are the batteries on those devices?
Sorry for the double post but I really want to know the answer to the questions I posed about the /e/ phones. I’m still in the process of choosing a new phone.
I don’t think that there is a real guarantee but as the /e/ project just started and still is in beta phase, I’m pretty sure that it won’t just disappear in a few years.
Again, there is also no real guarantee for long term device support but as long as the device is supported by Lineage OS, it’s about 99% safe that it will also be supported by /e/. And who knows, if /e/ continues to grow over the years, they would be able to hire full time developers and further extend their list of supported devices.
Anyway, if you want to deep-dive into the OS-flashing world, I’d recommend you to not buy a refurbished phone directly from /e/ but from a reseller directly in your country as you will save quiet a bit money. But in return you’d have to take care of the software yourself.
My S7 phone was in very good condition, including the battery.
The problem with the S7 is the back of the phone. Samsung did a ridiculous job, the back of the phone is in glass and breaks very easily even without dropping the phone…
All phones on the supported list are still getting updates. The update frequencies may vary depending on if there are any changes in the code or bug fixes done.
The S7 stable and dev builds went out last week. There are no plans on dropping any phones from the supported list. Plans are on to upgrade ROM OS no ETA’s but we are working on it.
Hi @Moonyf Glad to hear you’re considering /e/!
If you wouldn’t mind switching away from Samsung, I would really advise you to check out the amazing specs of supported Xiaomi phones.
My personal favorites are the Redmi Note 7 Pro (48 MP camera!) and the Mi Mix 2S (Snapdragon 845!)
Also, the Poco is awesome specs, if you don’t mind the lack of NFC…
@Moonyf unfortunately, no. However, there is the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S for around 195 Eur
Also, there is the Pocophone (look on Amazon or Ebay, Amazon has some pretty amazing deals on used Poco right now) for around 150 Eur.
Well maybe I was a bit too stingy with the price range I gave. But I really don’t think my phone use warrants spending much more than that. Thx for the suggestions.
No, it’s totally not too stingy. Say, instead, that I should learn not to be greedy…
I really hope you find a phone in your price range.
Again, look at Xiaomi. There are phones in almost every price range that lead in specs for money. An amazing brand!
In my research for the new phone I got an idea for /e/: sell refurbished Galaxy S4s. They can run LineageOS 16 and are dirt cheap. I will probably buy one for 60€ this weekend.
