I can't speak for calyx, but graphene has been great. Most android apps run by default using a stand-in for google play services; some don't, but its rare, navy federal works for instance, but USAA doesn't, you'll have an easy time with mostly anything that isn't related to the government or banking though. For apps that don't work out of the box, you can run them in a sandbox that protects the rest of your data. Its loaded with a lot of nice features, like the camera app doesn't retain metadata, so if I post a picture here I don't have to worry about it tracking me. Its been very stable overall, the only exceptions being user error in not updating the fdroid store apps. I can't speak to battery life because my (and my spouses) phones are both pretty old, but my battery usually holds if I'm not on amethyst all day. It retains all the major UI elements of android, so I'd be confident recommending it to people, I'm trying to put my mom on it soon and I doubt she will be able to tell the difference. Lastly, gives me a great excuse to not install apps to my phone, anytime someone bugs me to install tiktok I miss notifications from work (I turned them off) I just tell em I have a nutter crypto phone that won't let that stuff work.
Discussion
sounds quiet awesome actually, thanks for the write up! Will most definitely research and most likely try when the EoL for my Pixel arrives.
So you mentioned you and the missus have old phones but it runs great… how old are we talking? I’m rocking a pixel4a at times but fear it’s longevity. Is GrapheneOS installable on any phone then? Not just locked to Google Pixels like CalyxOS?
That would be very cool!
I'm running a pixel 4 and the better half has a 3, the battery life on the 3 seems to be dropping off too much. If I had to guess, graphene probably has better battery life because its not always phoning home to google etc.