Switched from Motorola to a pixel for Grapheme. This is cool to learn!
Hell yeah. I use a Motorola so hopefully I can get back support.
This is especially good news since Motorola makes some of the few phones with a headphone jack. I just hope that whatever phone they make isn’t some nearly 7" behemoth like their current line.
My large hands would probably be fine with a “nearly 7” behemoth" if it would go back to a 9:16 aspect ratio. I may even be able to appreciate a more ereader-like aspect ratio like 2:3, 3:4, or 4:5. I have just been fed up by the unnecessarily tall phones of the past decade.
I bought my current phone, a Motorola Moto G Stylus (2025), because I of its hardware support. It has E-SIM plus a physical SIM slot, SD card support, and a headphone jack. The one downside is not having any custom firmware builds available. I’m hoping that changes in the near future.
At this point you HAVE to make it a 7" behemoth to get sales, but a lower-volume model with a smaller screen would be a great addition to the lineup. But I can’t imagine too many people buy them because Apple stopped making the Minis and they don’t usually stop making things that make them money. I actually loved my 13 mini. If this Motorola-GrapheneOS partnership ends up spawning a phone of that size (I do think a lot of privacy enthusiasts may also be smaller phone enthusiasts), I may finally go back to Android.
Xperia still sells. Mine is a bit over 5".
Edit: ok, sells not that good. Why? Mine often gets jealous glances in public transport. Fits nicely in hand and pocket.
Xperia is massively overpriced, full of bloatware, trash software, 2 years of software updates, and they’re absolutely massive. And not just massive but like, insanely tall. Hard to believe they’re still around while LG has called it quits.
Oh, it’s only the Xperia 5 line then?
About the bloatware; rooted, removed, soon LineageOS on this one too. Same advice for phones as for PC: reinstall on a new device, factory OS is bloated with malware.
Well, I’m not even asking for a true “mini” phone at this point, because we both know that would be asking too much. I just would just be happy with something like a 5.5-5.7" phone with a resolution that isn’t insulting (looking at you Librem 5) and some halfway decent storage. If the Moto collab phone doesn’t end up being viable for me due to size or other factors, I’ll live. My current Pixel should be supported on GrapheneOS for a good while, so I can hold out. I’ve already moved to using a DAP for listening to music because I couldn’t get a decent phone with a headphone jack anymore. Maybe one of the linux phones will be viable as a daily driver by then.
I mean that IS mini. The iPhone 13 mini, considered a tiny phone by most people, had a 5.4" screen.
I of course remember thinking my 5.0" Moto G (2nd gen) was a huuuge ass slab compared to my previous phone lol
I’ll never forget carrying around my Galaxy Note 2 and this guy asked me if it played DVDs LOL
I got my Nexus One out the other day and it still booted. The screen is 3.7", it’s hilarious that it felt like a large phone at the time.
Damn… I wanted it to be Blackberry
Fucking finally. The only reason I couldn’t get my hands on GrapheneOS is due to having to buy a Pixel which, wherever I look, would be around $400-$500 for something that they themselves admit would likely only get around 7 years of support.
I can’t spend that kind of money right now. I need something below $300 and if possible, below $200.
I didn’t like the look of the batteries in the pixel watches. I actually have a Huawei watch (yeah, I know) and it’s great. Turns out, when you’re subsidised by the Chinese state you can make a good product that costs less.
Honestly, $400-$500 for 7 years of support is a killer deal. 5 years ago the only manufacturer to give a meaningful amount of support was Apple, everyone else was up to 2, even for flagships.
But I completely understand your situation, especially if you’re trying to be fiscally responsible and NOT get your phone on a payment plan of some sort. The 7 years of support means you might be able to find a 2 year old Pixel for below 300 though? Unless they don’t depreciate fast enough for that.
Unfortunately the first device from this partnership is unlikely to be cheaper than the a series Pixel lineup. The GrapheneOS team already confirmed it will have a flagship snapdragon SOC. Have you looked into used a series Pixel devices? The 8a can be had refurbished in the low $200 range, and it will have software support for 5 more years. The 9a can be had for about $250 and will receive 6 more years of updates.
Interesting
I’ll believe it when I see it
I look forward to using GrapheneOS on a phone with a MicroSD slot. Google and Apple (as examples) are always incorrect in their assumptions that “this amount of built-in storage is all you will ever need.”
No, they intentionally limit storage so they can sell cloud solutions and suck up more of your fungible personal data while you pay them.
That’s good news. I hope it’s a budget device with a plastic case, SD card, IR emitter, notification LED, and headphone jack.
Dude I miss notification LEDs so much. And there is no proper “do not turn on my screen” permission in Android so some app stubbornly wake my screen.
Also would add Display Output over USB to that list.
GOS already confirmed it’s shipping with a flagship snapdragon SOC so it won’t be a budget device. Maybe a future model though.
I think most of those other features are a long shot as well. The GOS team hasn’t really specified any preferences for non-security related features and I doubt Motorola would suddenly change their hardware design/direction.
Where did you see that?
It was announced a while ago https://www.androidauthority.com/graphene-os-major-android-oem-partnership-3606853/
And a user replaceable battery!
And a projector!
Cry-laughing in Tank 4 Pro
And my axe!
I’d rather have it be a bit more mid to upper range, I want a nice processor and decent cameras
I don’t have any use for a “nice processor”. I have a basic one and I don’t have any problems with it.
As for cameras, I think it’s pretty clear at this point that it’s all about the software. The Pixel was winning blind smartphone camera tests with >10 y/o sensors.
The sensor size also plays a part, the pro has a pretty large sensor for a phone.
We’re talking about the pixel 7a here, the budget model, not a “pro” anything. It doesn’t have a large sensor.
Google literally made their own processor for those results though. The tensor chips might not be as high end, but it’s not a budget phone chip.
Samsung and Apple make their own processors too…?
I’m not saying they couldn’t get results with another processor, but that it still wouldn’t be a “cheap” processor found in a budget device
The Pixel 7a is a budget device.
In a sense, but it’s more of a mid-budget phone. I’m thinking like $200 phones. Maybe the landscape is different than what I’m considering nowadays.
Edit: I might not be giving Motorola enough credit either lol
e-ink screen! i adored the motorola-f3 with the led segment screen
My crackpot theory is that we’re 10 years away from e-ink displays becoming the new hot thing. The clarity of looking at something that isn’t backlit is great. If they can solve refresh rate and resolution, we’re there.
This site is a (possibly AI) content mill. The sources are all circular.
It probably isn’t Motorola.Edited, see comment for clarifications…
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47053243
GrapheneOS was contacted by one of the largest Android OEMs in June 2025 and we’re actively working with them. They’re going to be announcing our partnership in March 2026 and the phones meeting our requirements with official GrapheneOS support are scheduled for 2027.
Xiaomi, Huawei, Honor, and Vivo are all larger OEMs than Motorola.
Those aren’t the real logos either.
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/116148741815778719
We never ruled out working with Motorola, Samsung, Nothing, OnePlus, etc. We said none of their current devices meet our requirements which remains the case for all of them. Only future devices from our OEM partner can be supported and it’s going to take time to meet all of the update and security feature requirements. It’s planned for 2027 but we aren’t sure when in 2027 the devices will be launched. There’s a lot of work to get done on updates, MTE, etc. before then.
That sucks because Motorola actually is great at hardware
I would love something with a good camera (sensor & (zoom) optics).
one of the largest
The source is not this publication, the source is Motorola, as posted by a user on Reddit.
True. They are 11th or 12th so that is one of the largest.
I just meant they for the other comments just reference themselves.
Anyway, it would be neat to have more options and this isn’t the first time it has been brought up
https://www.androidauthority.com/graphene-os-major-android-oem-partnership-3606853/
Damn, that’s surprising. Motorola has never been known for a strong update policy, and having a good update schedule is one of the key requirements for GOS. I hope they are addressing this issue.
I thought the same initially, but Lenovo also owns the ‘Think’ line of products which have historically been targeted at business customers and known for security. Whilst neither of the ThinkPhones currently meet GrapheneOS requirements, Motorola has been improving in that regard (according to GrapheneOS). Motorola also recently released a phone with 7 years of security updates, which is unusual for them.
Motorola, although it is now owned by Lenovo, is still headquartered in the US. North America continues to be one of its primary markets, and it’s the next biggest company there by market share after Apple, Samsung and Google. Micay is based in Canada AFAIK. Altogether it makes a lot of sense to me that Motorola would be the company to reach out, as opposed to another Chinese brand headquartered on the other side of the world with zero market share or presence in North America, or one with any prior reputation for security.
Yes, I agree with you. Motorola does seem to be the most likely collaborator. If they can fix the update schedule, make it affordable and release a phone that’s easily available world wide, it would be better than what the Pixels offer.
I mean it seems like a no-brainer for OEMs. You can just turn over all your software development to a 3rd party, for free.
That’s on the cheap models. The higher end stuff comes with 4 years of updates
I think this is exactly the win-win situation from this possible partnership: Motorola makes secure hardware and firmware patches, GrapheneOS takes care of the whole software security and timely updates (they already do).
yay! i have a motorola phone hopefully i will be able to install grapheneOS on it some day. though for some stupid government/banking apps i’ll probably need a secondary, crappier phone with the usual spyware on it. i really hope that they make grapheneOS available for already purchased Motorola phones.
edit: from what i see it looks like it’s probably gonna be for newer devices, and that is very sad, as i’m only gonna buy a new phone in like 3 to 4 years. Anyway, at least motorola has pretty good hardware and ok prices. Wait, do newer motorola phones come with a headphone jack? my Moto G55 has a headphone jack.
https://keepandroidopen.org/ <- offtopic with the post, but i’m just leaving this here in case someone hasn’t seen it.
My 2021 Moto edge does not have a head phone jack.
My Motorola phone was released in 2024 and has a headphone jack, so maybe it’s just some of their models that don’t have them. I just looked up a more recent 2025 model (Moto G 5G) and it also has a 3.5mm jack, so it looks like Motorola will keep having headphone jacks, hopefully this is the case as I don’t like having to charge my headphones.
It is dependent on the region
US models don’t have headphone jacks
While exciting, Motorola is bottom of the barrel hardware and support, but you gotta start somewhere.
nothing is confirmed here, chill with the high-fives
Anything but a mainstream brand!
Pixels are stupid for GOS since the HW is mid at best and overpriced. If you are buying a phone to flash it anyway, the decision should be made only on hardware (and ability to flash)
HW is mid at best and overpriced
GOS has strict security requirements and so far Pixels have been the only devices out there that both allow GOS installation and meet their security requirements. Simple as.
Personally apart from repairability, I see very little meaningful difference in phone hardware these days. And a series Pixels are very reasonably priced.
Motorola is a mainstream brand