I have had several versions of the Moto G family and they’re pretty easy to repair. Usually under $30 for a screen. Trickiest part is glueing the back panel back on.
I agree, Motorola is owned by Lenovo. They have found middling success with the return of their Razr line and with phones in the lower to mid tier range. But they really want something super flagship. Something like the Think Phone would have probably sold really well with a Graphene option.
Device hardware, firmware, and software are integrated to protect your most sensitive data from mobile threats. With Moto KeySafe, PINs, passwords, and cryptographic keys are isolated from other device data for an added layer of high-level security.
Not OP, but my (German) bank supports the Digitales Bezahlen App with GrapheneOS. I used it exactly twice, both times because I forgot my wallet at home.
I think people overestimate that feature. Where I live you still have to hand your card to the teller most of the time and nobody is handing their phone over for tap to pay.
I pay with a normal card but I’d say the majority of people around me pay with their phone.
Also, I need to use my bank app to pay for things online. I scan a QR code and confirm the payment with a pin or fingerprint. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think many bank apps also don’t work properly with graphene.
Edit: maybe I’m getting confused, I thought bank apps normally needed google play services and that because of that they don’t work on grapheneOS, but I don’t know if that’s correct
I live in the US and I also just got back from a 10 day trip that had me in 6 different airports around the US and saw basically nobody using their phones to pay. I saw a bunch of people using the translate app, the camera, FaceTime, Apple wallet for boarding passes, but no tap to pay.
I think it’s because the places that use it also have their own apps, like Starbucks. You can order and pay in the app and if you are likely to setup Apple Pay you are probably fine going all the way with the app too. The same is true of Walmart and other major retailers who also specifically don’t take Apple or Google pay because they want you to use their app.
It’s heavily used everywhere else in the world, the US is well-known to lag behind on payment technology. It’s like travelling back in time when you go there.
I pay with my phone literally everywhere in Canada, haven’t opened my wallet in months. I was in the US last year and they didn’t have mobile payment terminals at restaurants so you always had to pay for sit down service at a counter, always wanted me to sign for tap, kept calling it Apple Pay instead of tap or contactless, had places that would only swipe a physical card which isn’t even allowed in other countries anymore, it’s crazy.
Walmart takes tap in Canada, they were one of the last holdouts. The “individual app for each service” thing is very American, even American companies abroad don’t do it because they’ll lose business. It’s the same thing with cash transfers. There are 100 different private ways to send money in the US. PayPal, CashApp, Facebook Pay, Apple Pay, Venmo, etc.
None of those exist in Canada because we just have Interac e-transfers. Hard to compete with free & automatic support by every bank account in the country. Other countries have similar systems. The US has Zelle but as far as I know that was implemented way later and doesn’t have the mindshare.
So random that the USA is lagging behind in this regard, travelled Europe - everyone using phone pay, and in Australia my home country, it’s pretty much the only way people pay nowadays.
I hope Sony simply because I want a headphone jack and an MicroSD card reader. Their phones are already pretty bloat free and their custom apps, usually focused on the camera system, would mesh very well with GrapheneOS. Would be a great way for them to become relevant again.
There aren’t too many OEMs that sell worldwide. So that would be one of Samsung, Sony, Moto, OnePlus.
Not certain Sony counts as worldwide anymore since they seem to have retreated from the US.
My money is on Motorola.
How repairable are Motorola smartphones?
I have had several versions of the Moto G family and they’re pretty easy to repair. Usually under $30 for a screen. Trickiest part is glueing the back panel back on.
I agree, Motorola is owned by Lenovo. They have found middling success with the return of their Razr line and with phones in the lower to mid tier range. But they really want something super flagship. Something like the Think Phone would have probably sold really well with a Graphene option.
Yeah this sounds like what Graphene insists on.
That sounds like a fancy speak for a Trusted Platform Module. Isn’t some kind of TPM mandatory to obtain a google certification for a new device?
Yeah, a TPM or secure element. I don’t think it’s required.
The only way a graphene is phone gets major adaptation is if you could use pay with it.
I can pay with NFC and my GrapheneOS phone.
Where is this/ what app do you use?
I’m in the UK and use Curve. I’ve used it locally, of course, but also in Singapore, Australia and Japan and it worked without incident.
There are several supported apps, such as Curve Pay, PayPal, and banking apps that have their own tap-to-pay implementation.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/contactless-payments-with-grapheneos/
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/115295538501760765
You can also use the
contactless payments supportedtag when searching the GrapheneOS banking app compatibility list on GitHub. https://github.com/PrivSec-dev/banking-apps-compat-report/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3A"contactless+payments+supported"Not OP, but my (German) bank supports the Digitales Bezahlen App with GrapheneOS. I used it exactly twice, both times because I forgot my wallet at home.
We need details please
I’m in the UK and use Curve. I’ve used it locally, of course, but also in Singapore, Australia and Japan and it worked without incident.
I think people overestimate that feature. Where I live you still have to hand your card to the teller most of the time and nobody is handing their phone over for tap to pay.
I pay with a normal card but I’d say the majority of people around me pay with their phone.
Also, I need to use my bank app to pay for things online. I scan a QR code and confirm the payment with a pin or fingerprint. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think many bank apps also don’t work properly with graphene.
Edit: maybe I’m getting confused, I thought bank apps normally needed google play services and that because of that they don’t work on grapheneOS, but I don’t know if that’s correct
I think you underestimate it. Where I live, 39% of card transactions used a mobile wallet last year.
hmm how bout round the world?
Like Germans prefer cash but tons go all digital—yuge in China for example, Apple Pay’s big stateside (USA)…
Curious your region btw to expand my knowledge on this
I live in the US and I also just got back from a 10 day trip that had me in 6 different airports around the US and saw basically nobody using their phones to pay. I saw a bunch of people using the translate app, the camera, FaceTime, Apple wallet for boarding passes, but no tap to pay.
I think it’s because the places that use it also have their own apps, like Starbucks. You can order and pay in the app and if you are likely to setup Apple Pay you are probably fine going all the way with the app too. The same is true of Walmart and other major retailers who also specifically don’t take Apple or Google pay because they want you to use their app.
It’s heavily used everywhere else in the world, the US is well-known to lag behind on payment technology. It’s like travelling back in time when you go there.
I pay with my phone literally everywhere in Canada, haven’t opened my wallet in months. I was in the US last year and they didn’t have mobile payment terminals at restaurants so you always had to pay for sit down service at a counter, always wanted me to sign for tap, kept calling it Apple Pay instead of tap or contactless, had places that would only swipe a physical card which isn’t even allowed in other countries anymore, it’s crazy.
Walmart takes tap in Canada, they were one of the last holdouts. The “individual app for each service” thing is very American, even American companies abroad don’t do it because they’ll lose business. It’s the same thing with cash transfers. There are 100 different private ways to send money in the US. PayPal, CashApp, Facebook Pay, Apple Pay, Venmo, etc.
None of those exist in Canada because we just have Interac e-transfers. Hard to compete with free & automatic support by every bank account in the country. Other countries have similar systems. The US has Zelle but as far as I know that was implemented way later and doesn’t have the mindshare.
So random that the USA is lagging behind in this regard, travelled Europe - everyone using phone pay, and in Australia my home country, it’s pretty much the only way people pay nowadays.
Not really. The kind of people this ROM caters to are exactly the kind of people who don’t use Google Pay to begin with.
There’s other pay features in the world like Wero and MobilePay
Oh man, please. My current Motorola could use replacing, official Graphene support would be fantastic
That would make sense as Motorola is fairly supportive of custom roms
Ooh yeah let’s get a 6" 2025 take on the OG Motorola Droid with the slide out keyboard, to make it more linux-phone-y.
It’s not going to be a Chinese company.
How come? I’d bet they’d be the most easiest “oem” to get started with.
All western ones will be on the mercy of google licencing, so I’d guess no one wants to burn bridges.
I’m quite sure no one would consider Chinese company as safe option for privacy and clearly security focused phone.
Also as Sony already has the Sailfish support the company is likely going to be Sony.
I wouldn’t bet on it. Lenovo is used across North American corporations, banks and government institutions.
I hope Sony simply because I want a headphone jack and an MicroSD card reader. Their phones are already pretty bloat free and their custom apps, usually focused on the camera system, would mesh very well with GrapheneOS. Would be a great way for them to become relevant again.
How repairable are Sony smartphones?
Hot take, but no alt phone will reach critical mass without those features. They need support from even the most stubborn users
Samsung doesn’t really rely on Snapdragon too much, so that might be out.
The US-based flagships do.
Yeah, but European ones don’t (or at least last time I checked). I guess that would be a hassle for them to keep compatibility.