It seems that the motherboard is dead, and that it’s a common issue with the 5a and I “should’ve known better,” despite it being impossible to find decent information on phones these days.

I got it because it was the last Pixel with a headphone jack, and because it had good official LineageOS support. But I compromised: giving up the SD slot was tough for me, and now that I’ve been burned by not having one (I typically auto-backup my Signal history and other things to the SD card) I don’t want to get another phone without it.

But the landscape seems bleak. The vast majority of phones that are officially supported by LineageOS are Pixels. It’s impossible to find easy information on which phones have non-official LOS ROMs. Search results are useless these days, and I also keep running into an issue where after researching a phone for half an hour I discover that it has some arcane process to unlock the bootloader that doesn’t always work, and the forum posters imply that the purchasers “should’ve known better.” I’m just at my wit’s end.

If anyone can suggest something that has decent deGoogled ROM support with the following features, I’d be very grateful:

  • OLED screen (a must-have for my photosensitivity)
  • SD card slot
  • I am willing to give up the headphone jack in order to expand my options
  • K0W4L5K1@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 months ago

    IMO pixel phones are still the best for security an degoogling with grepheneOS also you should look into the downsides of having a customOS like linage that unlock your bootloader and can root your phone. They are worse for security then a regular phone.

    So I think newest pixel with graphene OS is the best option still as they are the only phones that use the titan chip

    • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      Pixel+graphene is a joke. Graphene is not special compared to stock AOSP. It is mostly a rebranding of features.

      • K0W4L5K1@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 months ago

        It doesnt unlock the bootloader or root your phone. Which is the most important security your phone can have. While any that root your phone leave it wide open to maid attacks

          • K0W4L5K1@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            6 months ago

            OK not sure about that will do some reasearch myself, but a photo of them saying they did it in a YouTube video is a weird piece of proof

            But my point is that grapheneOS doesnt require the bootloader to be unlocked or root the phone which itself is the main defense in your phone from those attacks so unless others dont unlock the bootloader they are just worse for that reason alone. From 2022 but still relevant Article on bootloader and rooting