well… from my experience with LineageOS I know, that “supported” doesn’t mean “fully working” and not at all “without bugs”.
I am looking for a somewhat small and fairly stable phone with stable /e/.
Some supported devices of the devices.list are not available anymore, or at least there are no spare parts left. Which leads me to a Question like: Do you have a List of recommended phones that will be supported for “at least two more years”?
for newcomers a ranking of the supported phones might be cool.
This is my first post. There’s my background:
Avoiding google since several years, never used /e/ before, but had quite some trouble with migroG and LineageOS in the past. This is not working, there’s a bug and that is going to be fixed soon promise - and the Speaker works perfectly but it doesn’t work with Whatsapp (wtf).
since I decided to quit with Fairphone due to quality and compatibility reasons (well, I am really looking forward to use a phone that just works for a while), but also because of the size of the FP3, and therefore gave up my ethical expectations on the producer of my phone, I am free to decide about a new (second hand) phone.
I don’t know which is the best device but if you go here:
…and choose whatever device you like, e.g. Sony XA2, click on codename “pioneer”:
…there will be a “What’s not (yet) working” section for every phone. If you click the link there under “here”, issues will be shown.
A forum search for the device name will also help finding issues. Sometimes only some users have certain problems while others don’t. I have a Nexus and there are minor issues but all in all it’s working fine. I would say this goes to most of the supported devices.
After what I have read so far here in the forum, my estimation is: All 91 currently support /e/ phones will be maintained by the /e/OS Build Team for a long time to come.
Although the Samsung Galaxy S5 (SM-G900F) is a real oldie (released in 2014), certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, certainly not the best /e/ device - but it fully meets my requirements.
It is inexpensive, often still in very good general condition and in large quantities on ebay ebay and fits in every pocket. The Full HD Super AMOLED 5.1" display, 1920x1080 (432 PPI), is still great even by today’s standards. It is robust, IP 67 (protection against dust and temporary immersion), exchangeable battery (by user in a few seconds) and USB 3.0 port, which also allows for much faster charging than via USB 2.0.
With the purchase of an S5 nothing can go wrong to enter the /e/cosystem.
With it, for only $250, you get excellent software support, still very powerful SDM845 hardware, great camera (same main sensor as in Pixel 4), outstanding external design with durable ceramic back and notchless LCD screen, wireless charging and acceptable 0.54 SAR.
Yes, there are some drawbacks too: no water resistance rating, no headphone jack, no SD card, awkward front camera, outdated USB 2.0 and a pretty wide 75mm body. But man, only 250 bucks!
On gitlab people are writing about not working e ROMs for this phone:
“…and it doesn’t help that there is no support here. I spent many many many hours trying to get this to boot. I flashed Android back and sold the phone on eBay.”
I wanted to ask if face recognition is working with e but clearly that might be only relevant for a working ROM.
Xiaomi devices are a bit tricky in terms of flashing (anti-rollback protection, regional dependencies, etc), but in this case the problem seems to be on the /e/ developers’ side. But maybe they’ve already fixed it? However, even if they haven’t, there’s always a plan “B” with LineageOS for MicroG.
By the way, soon the devices with LineageOS 16 support should get eOS Pie update. Maybe this will change all that.
It’s very easy to find. The best price on the White 128GB version I saw on Amazon.соm — $240. You can also get the same Mi Mix 2S on eBay, but the price will be slightly higher — $250 . Aliexpress sellers only offer Black color, and I don’t think it’s the best option because this ceramic back tend to keep fingerprints.
UPD: Checked Aliexpress again. At the moment, there’s not a single decent offer at all.
i would be really careful with recommendations concerning /e/ compatibility – especially if they are only based on some announced promises etc.
i also both my phone (xiaomi mi a1), because it seemed to be rather popular her in this forum resp. used by many others. and yes, it worked very well for my moderate daily demands. but i also have note, that this model – although its utilized by so many /e/ users – still didn’t get an official pie update till now! – it was just promised every month again and again… and in the meanwhile it’s obviously getting closer to EOL – i.e. its usually not sold anymore…
it’s therefore really hard to recommend a mobile device, which is already supported by /e/ in an acceptable manner – i.e. comes at least with official pie support in /e/ – and will be available at least for some remaining time in the shops…
i definitely would at least take this options into account:
the rather affordable android one phones are usually a good choice, because of their more clean vendor update policy and open boot loaders. but unfortunately not many of the newer android-one-models are already supported by LOS or /e/.
the sony xa2 is another intersting option, because its part of this vendors open devices program, which provides linux upstream support and acceptable openness.
you can also use this phone e.g. for installing sailfish, once you get finally tired of android and all its derivatives etc.
the pinephone is a rather new and very affordable option, but it’s a little bit hard to purchase. IMHO it could become those device, which will see the best support from the wider open source community. this goes far beyond /e/, but concerns especially support in postmarketos an all the alternative approaches based on it.
I had already researched various sources on 29.12.2019 - and had not found a single offer for “250 bucks!”. Not even refurbished phones or “very good” used devices.
All available devices were partly much more expensive. It’s certainly an attractive smartphone - and other interested parties appreciate that, too.
I checked just before I left my post — both, black and white, are in stock on eBay and Amazon. But note that I’m using US as a delivery location while searching.
I would like to add that I don’t use purchasing sources in the Far East, i.e. direct sales from China, Amazon Marketplace or Amzone or North America. With purchases in Germany I can best assert my rights as a private person.
Is here anyone using Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S with e then?
I wonder how or why would this be better than something like a OnePlus 5T or 7 pro or one of the newer Samsung phones (which can be found relatively cheap second hand)?
hi, here is my 2cents: i would go for the smallest phone with /e/ pre-installed that you can buy on their site, just because it is easiest + it is a nice way to support /e/. If you want something smaller: i have a Samsung Galaxy A3 that is pretty small and supported by /e/, i like it a lot!
but unfortunately it’s only supported by some lineageos 17 ports untill now – and i wouldn’t be surprised, if the /e/ port will take more time than the already mentioned vendor support period (=lifetime)…
Sorry for being late to the discussion, but I am running /e/ on both a Nexus 6P and a Moto 4G Plus (3GB, 64GB , athene version) and I am using the Moto over the 6P. It is rather straight forward to flash. The Google Pixel can be had for between $100 - $120 off of Amazon (it is that return guarantee that I would want, especially if the phone is locked to an account when you try to reflash it.)
But it must be taken into account that in this case the quality of photography is sacrificed. The problem is the Exynos SoC for which it is unlikely to find an acceptable Google Camera port, while the stock Samsung camera app cannot be used with non-stock ROM. All you have left is LineageOS camera or OpenCamera, which is a big trade-off.
On the other hand, on the flashed Xiaomi you still have the ability to use both GCam and Xiaomi’s camera.
