12h ago

What phone can I switch to that gives the least money to American companies?

I currently use an iPhone, but given the recent attacks made by the US president and members of his administration on my country (tariffs, annexation threats,etc) I am loathe to support any company based out of that nation any longer. Obviously I know that it is likely impossible to get a functional mobile experience with zero US corporate involvement, but what is the least possible I could do and still be practical? A degoogled fair phone device? Something Chinese running a custom rom like lineage os?

I want to sell my iPhone and Apple Watch ASAP and get something that won’t have my sending money to the US via my app purchases (store cut), monthly services (iCloud), and my data being used/sold.

Thanks!

41 comments

Second hand Pixel phone and install GrapheneOS on it.
https://grapheneos.org/

Something chinese (lol)

You already own it. You aren't doing Apple any favors by continuing to own it and you're not hurting them by getting rid of it.
- False. You are hurting them by not providing them a recurring revenue and stream of your data.
  
  What "recurring revenue stream" are you referring to? And what data?

For the phone itself I would say fairphone, but another option is buying a second hand android and installing a custom rom, No money given to the owner company.

Anything second-hand, really.

Maybe Jolla with SailfishOS would be the best bet.
- They had significant Russian funding last I knew. Has that changed?

Devices
Fairphone 5 (Netherlands)
OS: LineageOS, CalyxOS
Or buy it new from iode (France), they also sell other phones as well
Shiftphone 8 (Germany)
Is the only Android phone with hardware kill switches (for mic and camera)
Working on CalyxOS and LineageOS support
For OS comparission
- Such a bummer that I can’t use one here in the US.
- I have the Fairphone form iode with their OS on it. Best phone I had so far and the System ist pretty much set up the way I like it out if the box.
- I have a Fairphone 5 and am very satisfied with it. Would definitely recommend
- For OS comparission
  It's worth noting that graphene doesn't have automatic calls recording, and the Devs have been weirdly aggressive about deleting and banning people that ask for it.
  
  Maybe because... automatically recording calls is literally illegal in some places around the world? It should probably be user choice to opt in to that so it wouldn't be on by default. And then, if you have it on while travelling, you could forget and break the law when going through a jurisdiction that does not allow it. Better to explicitly allow for each call, like it does currently.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_call_recording_laws
  
  Graphene OS just has weirdly aggressive devs.

Nothing Phone is British, if I remember correctly

Used pixel, put grapheneos on it.
Helps prevent e-waste and youll end up with a fully functioning phone
- Yes, used is the way to go to be the most socially and anti-capitalist conscious.
- Yep buying used is the route to go to not directly source a company with new revenue.
- This is a very good option

Samsung is from South Korea, and their flagships are on par with iPhones.

Maybe Fairphone (Netherlands) with /e/OS (Google free Android from France).

Not being stupid here, but: do you need to? I completely understand and support the anger, but what in-app purchases are you making and can't you stop making them? You can switch to the free iCloud account (so they don't get money) and download/delete your content so they don't have access to it.
I think your data being used is the big one, but it leads down a big privacy hole; you'll have to decide how far you want you take that.
I'm just wondering if you'll end up giving more money to them by buying a new phone, Rather than sticking with your current phone, stopping in-app purchases, deleting iCloud, and installing privacy protection.
- Right. Purchasing new sends money to the ultra rich somewhere in the world.

if your in the EU give fairphone a look, over 7 years of updates promised for the fairphone 5 in addition to being one of the more repairable phones out there

If you want a phone that can run a degoogled rom without voiding warranty and don’t mind some American parts Fairphone
If you don’t care about warranty or some American parts you have a lot of choices. Samsung is Korean, Sony Xperia is Japanese, etc
If you want a phone that has absolutely no American parts (which means avoiding the Qualcomm chips in the above phones) you are limited to Chinese phones and really to Huawei. Xiaomi still uses some Qualcomm chips. This will make using western apps a bit of a chore though as they will have to be sideloaded, they won’t be available through the huawei appgallery and the kirin chips don’t support 5g. These are degoogled though. I don’t think you’re in the us based on your post but just in case you are these won’t work in the USA, carriers may not activate them bc sanctions
Qualcomm is hard to get around for cellular modems but their stranglehold is finally starting to get broken. Mediatek (Taiwan), Samsung (Korea), Huawei (China), etc are making cellular modem ics now. Even within America apple finally released theirs with the newest iphone that just released the other day
- Ulefone is a great option if you don't care about security updates and want to beat something to death with your phone.
  I dropped my power armor 13 while getting out of my car one day and left a half-dollar sized dent in my door frame.
  
  I’m unfamiliar but some brief searching shows they use kigen for sim handling and mediatek for processor/modem so it appears they also have little to no American parts, though I’m not sure of this

If you want to cost a company money, calling and talking to a person is a big expense for any company.

Can we be real for a minute?
The kind of companies involved in android may have started in the US, but they're international.
Buy a Samsung, it isn't like it only puts taxes into one country's coffers. Same with Google, which is headquartered in the US, but their phones aren't actually made here. So you skip pixel devices, and feel all good about it, but if you actually get enough people boycotting them, it isn't the us that takes the hit. It won't even hit the pockets of the shareholders.
Who would take the hit is the people at the bottom, making the hardware, and that's going to be whatever country has people willing/forced to work for bare minimum.
Some things, yeah, you can completely boycott and only US companies take the hit, which still isn't really going to hit a big enough company because most of them are an international conglomerate's property anyway. It might fuck over something like Arizona Iced Tea since that's still a family owned company. But anything that's publicly traded? Nah, it's theater unless you boycott everything that conglomerate owns, and it ain't like any of the nestle botcotts have hurt their bottom line in the decade or so it's been going.
Phones though? There's nothing you can buy that isn't going to enrich Google in one way or another, at least indirectly. You can get close. Pine phones, fairphone, stuff like that where you have the ability to cut them out. But even going with a pixel and cutting google out from out still has feedback effect into Google's influence via the secondary market keeping their brand with higher values, making their hardware look better than it is.
I get it, the shit is stirring, and you want to slap back.
But the only real way to slap back for real is to abandon smart phones. Some of those, android free, you can cut things down and maybe avoid sending funds into us coffers. LG dumb phones still exist on the secondary market, and they were decent. So I don't doubt there's other brands out there making phones that are decoupled enough that it might only be pennies instead of dollars.
- I think you might be missing a few things.
  First, sure there's probably some minor feedback but really, outside of luxury goods (which neither Apple or Google are at this point) more customers is seen as better by investors/the market.
  Yes, the market is all theatre but amazingly, it's theatrics to which a great deal of attention is paid. The more share prices of magnificent 7 stocks drop, the more that affects those who have actual power and influence.
  Heck, forget abandoning smartphones, living in a cave would be the ultimate way to not contribute to America. But most folks want to balance their morals with a functional life, which for many includes a smartphone.
  If you want to slap back, instead of trying desperately to convince maybe a handful of folks to switch to dumb phones over tarrifs, much better to help a lot of people make incremental but helpful changes.
  
  I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything.
  Well, maybe that the conglomeration of everything across the world into the hands of oligarchs means that tariffs are the lesser problem, but even that, I ain't got patience to convince people of.
  I'm just rambling and venting a little

Probably a Huawei.

41 comments

Devices