As an iPhone user from the 3G days, this is legitimately interesting to me. I love the form factor of the modern Razr flip-phones, and having access to a privacy-focused OS like Graphene might just tip me over the edge.
Anyone with first-hand experience, how’s Graphene OS with banking apps?
It runs fine on my Pixel 7a, I have an account with 2 Brazilian banks and they all work well.
Some apps just don’t work though, but they are far and between, an example is Brazil’s gov.br, which is a website that is used for ID confirmation on everything that pertains to the government (tax revenue, your own business details,etc.). But then an old phone does that job for me at home.
Speaking of Brazil, it is worth mentioning that Google Pixels are not officially sold here. The ones I did obtain I bought on a “Brazilian eBay” and there is no e-SIM support for it nor any warranty services. I had to do the battery replacement myself despite knowing that Google was offering to fix faulty Pixel 7a’s on NA/India/Europe/etc. I am only bringing this up because, coincidentally, 50% of Motorola’s smartphone sales are on LATAM. It’s a pretty smart move they are making if you ask me, they are aware they could explore this huge market it seems.
what is this brazillian ebay? I am struggling to find good ecommerce stores here in latam
oh I apologize, I should have just used it’s correct name: Mercado Livre/Libre. It’s pretty huge here.
Honestly thought they’d partner up with fairphone since both companies share a similar view in longevity for the end user. Hope Motorola does the same
GrapheneOS devs have been very clear about Fairphone not caring the slightest about security. They are the last OEM in the world they’d choose.
lenovo doesnt strike me as a privacy lover and avid kernel updater.
They don’t for me either, but they’ve recently pushed a lot into making enterprise phones. Guaranteeing timely security updates for 7 years and such.
I haven’t actually checked if this is just marketing bs and if they’re following up on it or not though.
might be useful for moto g type budget phones.
I highly doubt it will come in budget phones which are usually subsidized by preloaded apps.
Oh hell yeah! Last two unlocked phones I’ve bought have been motos! I’m very excited to see what this brings!
My favorite phones were the original Motorola Droids…member the charging dock that looked like an alarm clock?
I am a huge fan of this. It’s a big step in the right direction.
I think it’s just smart business, too.
Several companies deserve a larger market share in the cell phone game, and it seems the levers to pull which get us there are OS and hardware based.
Tons of users and enterprise users just begging for better solutions.
Switched from Motorola to a pixel for Grapheme. This is cool to learn!
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.
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 5 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.
My large hands would probably be fine with a ‘nearly 7" behemoth’ if phones would just 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.
That is a hard ask, the reason they are tall is because it makes them easier to hold with a single hand. And it would make them even less pocket-able.
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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.
Hell yeah. I use a Motorola so hopefully I can get back support.
GrapheneOS has strict requirements about hardware being secure enough, so if existing Motorola phones were secure enough then they’d already be supported. This is presumably about future devices that Motorola are going to build.
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.
Bruh Android devices used to only get 2 to 3 years of support at most not that many years ago. 7 years is a MAJOR improvement.
I just picked up a Pixel 7 for 200 from swappa
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.
That’s good news. I hope it’s a budget device with a plastic case, SD card, IR emitter, notification LED, and headphone jack.
And no notch or circle in my display!
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.
And a user replaceable battery!
And a projector!
Cry-laughing in Tank 4 Pro
And my axe!
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.
I doubt Motorola would suddenly change their hardware design/direction.
That could be a reason for gaining the SD card and headphone jack. They already have a few phones with those features
Where did you see that?
It was announced a while ago https://www.androidauthority.com/graphene-os-major-android-oem-partnership-3606853/
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.
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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…?
sam sung did, they abandoned for thier higher end models, i think thier “budgety phones” still use thier processor.
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.
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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.
Clarity can also be achieved with a 4k panel. Once your panel gets over 600ppi it’s gonna blow an eink screen out of the water at its own game. Those phones were barely ever made only Sony even tried. Probably due to battery life, or maybe noone realized what they do to the reading experience.
Either way we’re gonna improve battery life and maybe even get microled before eink ever gets competitive with emissive screens. Someone is bound to rediscover that you never truly needed eink for comfortable reading, just a significant increase in resolution.
Ooh, a headline that might get me to pay attention to an upcoming phone. How fun!
Damn… I wanted it to be Blackberry
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.
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.
Those aren’t the real logos either.
That sucks because Motorola actually is great at hardware
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/
I would love something with a good camera (sensor & (zoom) optics).
