Now the mobile device market is dominated by an obvious duopoly of iOS and Android, between which Huawei / HONOR is diligently trying to wedge itself with its offshoot in the form of HarmonyOS. On the one hand, IT giants compete with each other and constantly come up with interesting features. On the other hand, the reality is that getting out of the ecosystems of these two companies is very difficult – they have captured all categories of consumer devices and almost every gadget.
If it is quite easy to renounce “apple devices”, it is enough just not to buy gadgets from Apple, then it is extremely difficult to run away from Google – every major manufacturer cooperates with it. However, for those who really want to do this, there is a way out – there are various well-known companies in narrow circles that produce gadgets independent (or partially independent) from Google. Specialists from Vivaldi took care of this problem and found 5 smartphones that are completely independent of the largest corporations.
Volla Phone
The Volla Phone project is aimed primarily at getting rid of everything related to Google. The proprietary firmware is based on AOSP, a freely distributed and open source Android (as opposed to the “green robot” licensed by Google). All standard applications have been replaced with specially selected open source counterparts, you can use your smartphone without any account at all. hide.me VPN is built into the system, which is positioned as a secure solution with no history.
However, the manufacturer also offers a variant based on Ubuntu Touch. At the moment, the project has released two smartphones: the regular Volla Phone and the Volla Phone X protected from mechanical damage. Smartphones differ in design and stuffing, but they are released under the general idea – privacy and no Google.
📲 The official website of the project.
NitroPhone
The German NitroKey cannot be called a startup or a project of ambitious enthusiasts – it is a company that has already made a name for itself, which produces not only secure smartphones, but also the same flash drives, laptops, NAS and more. Its NitroPhone smartphones are positioned as the most secure in the world. They are modified Google Pixel gadgets that run the ultra-secure GrapheneOS operating system. Edward Snowden himself said that he would use this platform for his smartphone.
Since any NitroPhone is a Pixel smartphone, it is equipped with a separate Titan M chip to handle sensitive data. It is complemented by software protection of the operating system: for example, a smartphone constantly checks the integrity of the firmware, allows you to enter a mock PIN code (so as not to be afraid of peeping), automatically turns off when idle for a certain duration, isolates applications in sandboxes, and so on.
For particularly demanding customers, the company offers modifications with physically remote cameras, microphones, and even other sensors that can be indirectly used for wiretapping – it will be possible to maintain communication only when a headset is connected. There are currently three models: the NitroPhone 1, 2, and 2 Pro, which are based on the Pixel 4a, Pixel 6, and Pixel 6 Pro, respectively.
📲 The official website of the project.
Astro Slide
After the departure of BlackBerry, the search for a smartphone with a physical QWERTY keyboard turned into a real quest, and if it also has to leave the side of the slider mechanism, then this is generally an almost unrealistic task. Astro Slide is just that, but it’s not just a smartphone with a keyboard for the sake of wow effect, it’s a full-fledged transformer smartphone for work.
The keyboard has received a lot of attention. Firstly, there is a Russian layout and engraving. Secondly, the keys (and all characters, including Cyrillic) are backlit, and the brightness of the LEDs can be adjusted. Thirdly, the actions of buttons (and combinations) can be reconfigured. The Astro Slide is positioned as a gadget for business users, and the really well-designed keyboard lives up to that 100%.
This gadget has a few other interesting features for business owners (for example, HDMI for presentations), but of all of them, the option to boot multiple operating systems is of most interest: in addition to Android, the user can install GNU / Linux like the same Ubuntu Touch. Astro Slide is not the company’s first smartphone, it had two more.
📲 The official website of the project.
PinePhone
The article could not do without this very famous project in geek circles. PinePhone is notable primarily for the fact that it supports all sorts of distributions based on Linux – its bootloader is unlocked, so users can switch between different systems as easily as using bootable flash drives on a computer. You can store all the necessary systems on a microSD card, the smartphone supports external drives up to 2 TB. When the translation of the PinePhone review appeared on Treshbox, the smartphone supported 17 operating systems.
Another PinePhone feature is physical controllers that allow you to hardware disable the modem, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, microphone, rear camera, front camera and / or headphone jack. The project has a large community, but there are also drawbacks – smartphones (there are several models now) have a very mediocre filling, which is why gadgets are mainly suitable for geeks.
📲 The official website of the project.
shift phone
The main idea of the Shiftphone manufacturer is that smartphones should be very easy to repair. That’s why Shiftphone’s design is modular, making it easy to replace components. In addition, the company focuses on environmental friendliness of production (for example, ceramic capacitors are used instead of tantalum capacitors with a low level of filtration), prohibition of child labor in factories, advocacy of fair trade, and the like – all this is not particularly interesting within the framework of this article.
Shiftphone smartphones, in addition to maximum maintainability, attract with their ShiftOS firmware – or rather, its modification in version L. The system is devoid of Google services, which is why Shiftphone gadgets were included in the selection – roughly speaking, this is an ordinary Android smartphone without the services of the “corporation of good”, which in In which case it is very easy to repair even on your own.
📲 The official website of the project.
Source: Trash Box
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