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My Newest Android Phone Will Probably Be My Last

My OnePlus 5 had killed third battery this year, so I decided it’s time to new phone. I have a few requirements when buying a smartphone:

I’d prefer a phone with mini-jack but those are hard to come by nowadays. I don’t particularly care about camera. I carry my Ricoh GRIII everywhere. So „camera: works” is good enough for me.

Long story short I got myself OnePlus 8. It’s decent phone, 90Hz AMOLED display is nice. The phone is still supported by the producer so it runs Android 13. Unfortunetly it’s customized OxygenOS instead of pure Android.

My OnePlus 5 was running LineageOS for MicroG. I had to install root to spoof SafetyNet check, otherwise my banking app told me to fuck off.

Now, with the new phone I have a tough choice. I can either install LineageOS or stay on producer’s ROM. Both choices suck.

LineageOS

LineageOS is good ROM when your phone gets no security updates from the vendor. It can greatly extend lifespan of the device. My OnePlus 5 runs Android 13 while official updates stopped at version 10 🙈.

There are few problems though.

Google Services

Everything except most basic dumb phone functionality requires Google fucking Services. Banking apps, Spotify, Signal… Those can be installed on LineageOS - either real Google Gapps packaged for Lineage or in form of a FOSS implementation called MicroG. While the MicroG is not perfect, it’s good enough for daily use (from my experience). Some apps won’t work but that’s to be expected.

SafetyNet

Piece of trash invented by Google. Now replaced by „Play Integrity API”.

Google Play’s integrity and signing services help you to ensure that users experience your apps and games in the way you intend.

From bullshit to English: API for banking apps so they can check if tech savvy user (stars forbid) doesn’t use their own device way they want.

Like most of client based security brain-farts it can be spoofed. SafetyNet is quite easy, Play Integrity API not (yet).

To spoof SafetyNet you need to install Magisk (root) and Universal SafetyNet Fix module. Ironic, isn’t it? Hopefully by the time apps switch to Play Integrity API it will be spoofable as well.

Camera

Cameras on Android are broken. There is only one app that can use all cameras and produce decent quality photos - one that comes with original ROM. It’s not even matter of drivers or firmware. Camera FV-5 can’t access all lenses of OnePlus 8 on stock ROM. Sometimes Google Camera hacks works as well. Still - more trouble than it’s worth.

Stock ROM

OxygenOS isn’t bad but it contains Google services. I don’t trust Google at all. There are other annoyances. Apps you can’t uninstall (only disable), call recording disabled in my region (someone misunderstood GPDR laws?), news drawer on the left… The default apps are mediocre. The plus is that Google Lens app works (probably the only useful Google app).

Conclusion

I’m staying on stock ROM for now (as long as it gets updates). My next phone will probably be an iPhone. Apple is not much better than and Google but at least they support their devices for years, and they are not an advertising company. My expectations will be also much lower.

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