The Fairphone (Gen. 6)

Which features specifically do Fairphones miss? It seems to me like most of those requirements are all part of the (mostly open-source) software stack. The Fairphone uses a standard Qualcomm chip that should work as well or as badly as a Pixel SoC.

The "Complete monthly Android Security Bulletin patches without any regular delays longer than a week for device support code (firmware, drivers and HALs)" part isn't even true for Pixels.

> The Fairphone uses a standard Qualcomm chip that should work as well or as badly as a Pixel SoC.

I suspect it's the features of the titan m2 security chip. It's a pretty cool piece engineering [0].

[0] https://www.androidauthority.com/titan-m2-google-3261547/

>The "Complete monthly Android Security Bulletin patches without any regular delays longer than a week for device support code (firmware, drivers and HALs)" part isn't even true for Pixels.

Doesn't the ASB get published at the same time as pixel updates? So by definition it's up to date.

Yes, but vulnerabilities don't always get backported to older (supported) devices immediately. I distinctly recall one case where an Android CVE was patched months later on one Pixel model compared to the others that were in support. However, because search engines have all become terrible in the age of AI, I can only find vague references.

I did, for instance, find a case where Google Project Zero published a blog post on a vulnerability while their Pixel 6 was still four days away from the first updates: https://9to5google.com/2023/03/20/pixel-6-march-2023-update/

I myself regularly find my Pixel only noticing updates half a month later unless I manually check while my Samsung tablet notifies me immediately once my quarterly update is available. It's quite annoying to have to check for updates manually every week, but I suppose updates are technically available.

The tech is impressive, but not exactly Google exclusive. If the ROM developers intend to only support devices with Pixel exclusive features like the Titan chips, they might as well say they're not interested in supporting non-Google phones.

This is a misunderstanding. It's just that Google Pixel are the only devices that have this level of hardware security engineering AND are open to thirdparty roms like grapheneos to a decent degree.

Samsung Flagships and Iphones seem to have similar level of security engineering in them (Pixels use Samsung CPUs essentially) but aren't open to the required degree for third party roms.

There's nothing else on the Market that delivers on that Level. The GrapheneOS guys are working with someone one a potential custom phone to get the required level of hardware security but nothing has materialized. Companies like Fairphone are free to deliver hardware that is competitive in the security space and i'm sure that the grapheneos team will consider them then. But until anyone else does i'll keep buying whatever phone grapheneos wants me to buy, i don't care.

here's a pretty good thread about compatibility:

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114721666000552094