Is it worth unlocking the bootloader on my phone? It’s a Samsung with One UI 7.0 (I’ve been avoiding upgrading to 8.0 since they don’t let you unlock it after that). I just want to avoid having Google Services and AI installed. I use my phone to take photos of my art / send it to friends on signal and hate the idea of it being scanned by AI. I use a camera and gallery from fdroid but somehow the default photos app still has access (I know because it makes GIFs of pictures I took even though I marked permissions as “not allowed”). I also would love to get rid of the default apps I don’t use. While I can unlock the bootloader (for now), I can’t install a custom ROM because there are none compatible with my phone, so will I just be forced into using 8.0 at some point anyway? :( ATP I’m pretty much ready to give up smartphones and get a digital camera for anything I don’t feel comfortable feeding to tech companies.
Well, 800 - 1000€ for a new pixel is normal even in EU. Where the fuck could I even get that kind of money as a highschooler? I’ll just use my old (2017) Redmi 4x with LineageOS for the time being. I know it isn’t secure, but it’s the best I have.
And of course, I don’t recommend buying older redmis (I got mine for free around a year ago). The security is atrocious since it doesn’t support AVB (not even with original OS). I’m always anxious about it starting to bootloop (since it randomly restarts, I saw the same issue on multiple Xiaomi phones, even ~2 year old ones). And while I have used some decent phones from 2017, the Redmi’s performance is underwhelming while others (like my mom’s huawei p10) still perform well.