There is no date of arrival for the motorola yet. I only read beginning of 2027. That could also be delayed. And if it is a phone with underwhelming specs, I wouldn’t want to buy it either. But buying a pixel now means not buying a motorola soon.
I just got a used pixel late last year and have been using that.
A Pixel. I don’t want the first generation of Moto/GOS. The 2nd or 3rd year should have fewer bugs.
The 10 pro still has graphene support. It’ll be on sale here in a little while because the pro 11 is launching (same with their other variants, I think). Unless we get a for sure launch date for the graphene moto phones, I’d pull the trigger on a new pixel.
Has there been any rumor of Google stopping GOS?
GOS came out with a statement detailing the continuation of Pixel support.
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114670995130379882
https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
They say it’s harder and harder to get AOSP and the Pixel 11 series have an upgraded ‘more secure’ proprietary chip set so they are unsure how long they will be able to continue support.
I will wait for Motorola.
If you understand what graphene is for and you need that then you wont wait.
Even if you don’t understand what graphene is for or if you need it and are trying to make a decision: graphene on new and used pixel phones works as expected now. It has been tested and proven against many different intelligence and surveillance apparatus. Motorolas new phone may not come out at all (it’s more likely than you might think!), may not end up supporting graphene (or graphene may not end up supporting it!) or it may have serious flaws that need to be addressed (it is a new hardware platform after all!).
If you need it now don’t wait.
Aside from how the phones actually compare, I think it’d be good to show there is a market for a factory graphene phone. I want companies to see the difference (financially) when they start taking privacy and other pro consumer ideas seriously.
FWIW, am using a pixel 7 pro, and don’t feel any need for higher specs. Though I’m not doing any kind of demanding gaming.
Same here on a 7A, which is slower than the pro version. Although OP should know that the 7 series is stopping support in 1-2 years: https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime
7a user here. I think the device is getting slower and I have very minimal apps installed almost none aftermarket. Only 2 extra profiles set to run only when active. Minimal background usage and still its slowish. The battery is decent still so long as it’s used like a phone and not browsing much or on dimmer brightness. It’s ok.
You’re not missing anything whatsoever. I got a great deal on a lightly used Pixel 10 Pro and other than the telephoto camera lens (which is admittedly nice) there is literally no functional difference I notice day to day from my previous Pixel 7 (not pro).
For the most part you can’t really do demanding gaming on a pixel. For emulation and playing PC games you pretty much need a snapdragon.
Most mobile gaming people do are with apks through the playstore and flagship phones from 8~ years ago can still run those games pretty much maxed out besides frame rates. Pixel will play your call of duty mobiles and gebshin impact fine.
Even recently I learned termux now allows gpu pass thorough on snapdragon phones from 610+. Most projects I cone across favor the 645 if you don’t have one of the new series. And those chips are ancient and still put up good performance even if it is short lived due to thermals/boosting.
Not saying its not possible or you can’t have a good experience with things like gamecube. I think for most people you really don’t need anything past like a oneplus 5/6 in terms of specs. Just if you wanted to get into fex/switch emulation you are probably going to want to go with a snapdragon device. They have arm based hand helds with dual screens and controllers built in, and just having a dedicated device for gaming might be a better option. Out side of that having a more performant phone has minimal improvements to your average experience, in the play store there isnt much of anything that can really utilize it. There’s maybe 5-10 graphically demanding games, and they where all made to work with phones from 10 years ago.
Is its bootloader unlockable, or locked to Graphene? Graphene seems to be trading freedom for ‘security’.
If they’re saying beginning of 2027 I’d wait, unless you need a phone sooner.
Swappa.com for a cheap ass used pixel…typed from my cheap ass pixel with GrapheneOS
Unless I needed a replacement now, I would wait. It’ll be the first phone designed with GOS in mind but also Motorola’s recent track record isn’t amazing. I’m also hoping they have multiple phones supporting GOS. If initial reviews aren’t great, then refurbished Pixel it is.
If I just learned of GOS now and didn’t have a Pixel, I would buy an unlocked unit cheap and used now. Motorola have gone quiet about their GOS phone in the months since the announcement. If it ends up flagship-priced, I’d have to settle for a used Pixel anyway.
But since I have a Pixel with GOS that is perfectly usable already, I’m holding out to see what Motorola comes up with. Either way, not too worried about specs since I don’t use my phone that much. Would be nice to have SD card, headphone jack (bonus ease of security points over Bluetooth and dongles), and replaceable battery, but have also learned to (begrudgingly) tolerate phones without those.
I’m hopeful. I want my next phone without Google or Samsung - and I really hope Motorola will deliver their promises.
And also that the upcoming phone have to have an extendable storage for me to buy. It is my main principle - unfortunately I had to give up on headphone jacks…If you want GrapheneOS without funding Google, why not get a secondhand Pixel?
you’re still supporting google if you still do this via resale value.
and that’s why i’m waiting for motorola
This is what I did but you do need to be careful with it - in the US ar least you can’t unlock the bootloader on a Verizon-issued pixel which are very common. Always ask the seller where they got it from, since most wouldn’t be technical enough to check the bootloader for you
This is very important and deserves its own post. Resellers typically either don’t specify or don’t know if the bootloader is unlockable on a Pixel so the buyer has to find out for themselves. Sadly “Unlocked” in an eBay post often refers to the carrier rather than the bootloader. Thanks for mentioning this!
Yep I made this mistake but luckily was able to return the phone via backmarket. Was more educated the second buy and am happy with the phone.
Google phone sales don’t even register as change
I’ve had to accept that I’m too careless to have expensive phones, and I don’t need new hardware, so I’m staying at the oldest supported pixel and upgrading in that area second-hand. Currently I have a pixel 6a (with a cracked screen…), but might move to a pixel 8 next year. Somehow I wish I could support Fairphone, but I keep reading things like people having issues with it and I want my phone to “just work”, and graphene has been great for that.
It all depends on how badly you need a new phone. My current Pixel is perfectly serviceable, so I have no problem waiting to see what Motorola eventually has to offer. My current phone will almost certainly suffice until then.
With that said, if my current phone was actually broken or whatever, I would probably buy a cheap/old/used Pixel to tide me over until the Motorola reveal.
