I’m really interested in HarmonyOS and other Chinese domestic market (CDM) phones and OSes after reading so many discussions about Huawei, Vivo, and OPPO phones. I was hoping we could compile some details on them and how one might get one from outside of China. A place where we could discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and distinctions of using them on a daily basis, perhaps with some reviews?
Oh, Graphene is great. It’s just that you can only install it in Pixels. There was a recent info leak showing that Graphene was one of the only operating systems aside from newer iPhones that couldn’t be cracked by the fancy new Israeli hacker software that the US government uses. But they’re focused on security, not privacy. So if you’re not concerned about the govt getting your phone, most of the benefits can be replicated by using open source software, a private DNS, etc. Graphene sand boxing apps by default is sometbing that should definitely be a standard though.
As for Pixels, if you look at benchmarks, they are always significantly behind comparably priced and even cheaper phones in every category. You might say ‘oh well thats just benchmarks and doesn’t carry over to every day use’ but they’re still selling people objectively worse hardware for flagship prices. They also have overheating issues and poor cell signal in addition to the overall subpar performance. They’re better than like prepaid phones, but that’s why I said they’re junk.