Update: I wanna thank everyone for the advice, I’m shipping the bunk phone back for refund today and ive got my eye on a few from swappa and back market for when I get the money to buy.

I’ll probably try out graphene but after looking into crdroid I’m pretty stoked about it having all the customization I’ve been wanting for ages. Which ever feels cleaner to manage and easier for the family to pick up will probably be the go to.

So I fell for the classic blunder and ended up with a pixel that’s not OEM unlocked despite being advertised as such. After a few hours of searching it looks like the only way I’m getting an OEM unlocked pixel is full price from Google itself. I don’t have $400 for a new phone, I bought the one I have for $150 in 2019.

Are there any cheaper ways to get control of my phone?

  • SomeLemmyUser@discuss.tchncs.de
    4·
    21 hours ago

    I bought a refurbished pixel 6a for 200€ from a local store with 2 years guarantee. Using it since 3-4 years and am happy.

    Maybe think about a used/refurbished one?

    • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      20 hours ago

      That’s what I bought and what I’m looking for, but no one has them with OEM unlocked. The only option I could find that guarantees that is a refurbished pixel 7a from Google for $350

      • blackbrook@mander.xyz
        3·
        16 hours ago

        I will bet a lot of the listings you are looking at really are OEM unlocked, they are just not clear about it. I bought a refurbished pixel 7 pro on Amazon in 2023 for $234. The listing just says “service provider: unlocked”. I installed graphene on it.

        That said, I see a subsequent review on this listing commissioning that the received phone was not carrier unlocked, so I guess you have to be prepared for some trial and error and returns.

        I would broaden your eBay search to just “unlocked” and then maybe message sellers to verify the kind of unlocked state.

        Possibly something here is useful: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/13146-any-way-to-tell-if-a-sealed-in-box-pixel-is-oem-unlockable

          • SomeLemmyUser@discuss.tchncs.de
            3·
            17 hours ago

            :/ HM that sucks. You could go with a phone with lineage OS support, not as secure but at least without bloatware from what I understand.

            Or save and try to snipe a good deal on some marketplace

            • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.worldOP
              3·
              17 hours ago

              I wish I had the time, but after nearly 8 years my charging port is finally giving up. It doesn’t do data transfer anymore and I don’t know how many more times I can plug it in before it stops charging all together.

                • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.worldOP
                  2·
                  3 hours ago

                  Oh regularly. I’ve been keeping this guy alive for years. The issue looks to be that the port itself is beginning to seperate and the blu g91s isn’t all that repairable.

                  I’ve been carrying it around long enough that the whole phone has a ~3° warp to it from my jeans holding it too tightly to my thigh. If you sit it glass down on a flat surface it wobbles like a bad table.