I am planning to buy a new phone and I would like to follow your guide. The phone brands which you consider as Tier 1 are Asus, Nokia, Motorola, Sony, LG, FairPhone, and Huawei/Honor. In this comment https://lemmy.ml/post/64888/comment/55721 you prefer Fairphone, Xiaomi, Asus, Motorola (if in USA). And for the follow up comment https://lemmy.ml/post/64888/comment/55784 you prefer Fairphone, Xiaomi or Moto. What happened to SONY, and why did you least prefer Asus now. It is not possible for me to get a Fairphone as I am not living in EU. I am happy to go with SONY cause I like photography and their camera department. Also is it possible to get same privacy and security in a SAMSUNG phone if I follow your guide? (Again for the same camera reason),
Thank you for your reply. Which is the best phone to debloat now as per your guide. What is your opinion about both nokia and motorola? I like clean Android interface than cosmetic or modified versions.
It depends. If you are not going for a custom ROM, and want to go for a debloated non root experience with clean UI/skin, Motorola is your best bet overall. You can go for the more expensive Sony, but it is very expensive. Nokia is a very topsy turvy company, but their phones, if you specifically want that brand, are fine too. Asus is another option, and OnePlus phones upto 7T are okay. Huawei phones come with no Google services, and are best to work with outside of stock options. Realme is another option, but it is a bit harder to workaround than the others.
As a long time iPhone user, I am new to the world of Android. My threat model is just want to protect my privacy from the corporate giants and and trackers (Ads). From my understanding, custom ROM like Lineage is good with privacy but their security updates are behind. Also most phones are not allowed to lock the boot loader after the root. Is there any security threat for that? So for my threat model, I would like to know your suggestions. If I go with a custom ROM, which one you prefer? Also do you have any suggestions about any phone brand or particular model. One more thing I would like to hear from you is that can I get same level of privacy and security from your non-root guide like a custom ROM?
Bootloader threats are usually state level or the kinds of apparatuses that TSA uses, so if that is a concern, or you know your adversaries are technologically capable, that should be a factor.
For custom ROM, you can use LineageOS or DivestOS, or if you went for a Pixel (which I do not recommend in general), CalyxOS. Or for a non-root device, you can use this program to auto wipe your device if such a kit/tool usage is detected: LockUp (Cellebrite UFED self-defense app) - https://f-droid.org/app/io.nekohasekai.lockup
Non-root is more secure than with root or bootloader unlock. The only feature that my guide cannot provide is running a VPN on top of a firewall in the same user account. Currently only using one tunnel is possible per user account (main and work profiles).
Thank you for your suggestions.