I was thinking about using graphene OS, but I've read some lemmy users dislike this OS due to perceived misleading advertising and the pixel 7a you're supposed to install graphene on because it's from google (an advertising company).
Another option would be lineage OS, but there is so much false information about this OS, namely compatible phones that simply don't work with this OS and no support.
what works for you? I want a phone with no google, that doesn't force me to use the manufacturer's ecosystem and that won't show the apps I don't want or need (on an asus I own you cannot neither get rid nor hide bloatware)
I totally agree. Used pixels are superb with grapheneos. Syncthing is what i use ad a backup. I think the problemi is that google stops releasing updates after 5 yearss old units don't get updates I think. I have the 5th June build and it reports a security update of December 2023.
If you don't live in the EU. Here you get a better new phone from xiaomi/motorola/oneplus than a pixel for the same price. Yes, I get grapheneos and relockable bootloader, but used things are too expensive here. If you need a cheap phone, buy a cheap phone (fuck EU's import regulations).
I don't know what you are on about, but if brand-new Pixels are too expensive for you (although their price is uniformed to the US one), you can easily find them second-hand.
For example at a time where my Pixel 7 was available for 500$ (466€) in the USA + 100$ trade in (93€) for my Galaxy S8 = 400$ = 373€ it still was 620€ in Austria on Amazon, the only way to buy it because Google did not offer it through their Google store here and normal stores didn't go below 650€. I could've gotten 20€ trade in for my old phone = 600€. 60% more than in the USA at the same time.
Used market basically didn't exist because Pixels generally were a bit overpriced
That's the point. You can't import anything to EU without paying a 20% import tax +-5€ depending on the import. This makes the used device market prices in EU inflated.