schizoidmanLeak confirms GrapheneOS & Motorola partnership for non-Pixel hardware
Mwa
woelkchen
roofuskitDamn, that’s surprising. Motorola has never been known for a strong update policy, and having a good update schedule is one of the key requirements for GOS. I hope they are addressing this issue.
Ulrich
Possibly linuxThat’s on the cheap models. The higher end stuff comes with 4 years of updates
James R KirkMy jaw is on the floor
galoisghostThis is potentially very good news. Image GrapheneOS on a base model Motorola.
Lenovo*
Motorola does not have a mobile phone business, Google absorbed that ages ago. The brand and only the brand was sold to Lenovo.
Motorola does not have a mobile phone business
Phones made by Lenovo with the dead Motorola brand slapped on them. Lenovo had a phone business before they bought the Motorola name and just put it on their phones.
I’m guessing you weren’t around when Motorola was really making phones. Lenovo didn’t buy the company, didn’t hire the staff, Google kept all of the patents. Lenovo bought nothing but the name. It’s not the same thing as rolling Motorola mobility into Lenovo. Nobody who made Motorola phones is involved in making Lenovo phones under the Motorola name.
You’re playing into the idea that Lenovo can just buy the reputation and brand recognition of Motorola without anything that went into that.
Confidently incorrect
Motorola mobility is a Lenovo subsidiary
Other than the article being ai slop, motorolla would make a lot of sense. Good, friendly hardware and a horrible update policy from what i hear where graphene could just fix that for them.
ikiddGrapheneOS won’t be coming to any existing Motorolas due to hardware security requirements.
I highly recommend not getting Razrs. Not sure if the competition’s folding phones are any more durable, but my family’s Razr+s all lasted less than two years even with cases. I dropped mine 15cm onto a padded car floor while unfolded and that’s all it took to get superbright vertical lines through the screen.
I frickin love my razr. I’d get another in a heartbeat even if the screen cracked at the bend. But I’ve used it for almost 2 years now and it’s been fine, and I’m not easy on phones . I’d just love to have a custom rom.
Razr+ 2023 has ROMs. Newer Razrs have Dimensity processors that never seem to get open-source support; I think because MediaTek doesn’t release much documentation.
We liked ours but they were both the most expensive and most fragile we’ve had. On mine, the seam was even still almost invisible! My wife’s… had the protector completely cracked and lifting at the seam.
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra / Razr+ / Razr 2023
The Motorola Razr 40 Ultra is a 6.9" foldable device, with a 165Hz 1080x2640 LTPO AMOLED display. It also features a second 1056x1066 external AMOLED display. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset is paired with either 256/8GB, 256/12GB or 512/12GB of internal storage and RAM. A 12/13MP...
kittenzrulz123This reeks of AI slop
Jo Miran
cally [he/they]yay! i have a motorola phone hopefully i will be able to install grapheneOS on it some day. though for some stupid government/banking apps i’ll probably need a secondary, crappier phone with the usual spyware on it. i really hope that they make grapheneOS available for already purchased Motorola phones.
edit: from what i see it looks like it’s probably gonna be for newer devices, and that is very sad, as i’m only gonna buy a new phone in like 3 to 4 years. Anyway, at least motorola has pretty good hardware and ok prices. Wait, do newer motorola phones come with a headphone jack? my Moto G55 has a headphone jack.
keepandroidopen.org <- offtopic with the post, but i’m just leaving this here in case someone hasn’t seen it.
My 2021 Moto edge does not have a head phone jack.
It is dependent on the region
US models don’t have headphone jacks
Anything but a mainstream brand!
Pixels are stupid for GOS since the HW is mid at best and overpriced. If you are buying a phone to flash it anyway, the decision should be made only on hardware (and ability to flash)
Motorola is a mainstream brand
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.
Regrettable_incidentI 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.
ProdigalFrogfor something that they themselves admit would likely only get around 7 years of support.
Do you know of an android device with longer support than 7 years? The norm is 3 years.
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.
HanrahanInteresting
I’ll believe it when I see it
vaultdweller013Hell yeah. I use a Motorola so hopefully I can get back support.
Motorola is a major supplier of communication equipment for the IDF and produces bomb fuses used in IDF’s bombs. It also donated money to Project 2025.
I don’t know, I expect them to call it the (We’re clear on) OPSEC 1
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.
And not just in Brazil! I think Perú and Chile are also big on MercadoLibre.
My bank’s app won’t run on my Pixel 8 Pro with GrapheneOS. Most apps run fine. It’s pretty much just the bank app and eBay that refuse to run.
Oh damn, why doesn’t eBay work? It’s not a deal-breaker, but it is an app I use with some regularity.
It annoyed me at first but it really doesn’t matter because the eBay website works fine. It’s just some companies choosing to use Google’s API to check OS integrity. It’s supposed to be a security check to make sure core components haven’t been hacked, but of course Google makes their API returns a “no” if your version of Android doesn’t let them run all their spyware.
shortwavesurferUse your bank’s web portal. If your bank doesn’t let you use a web portal, switch fucking banks, because that means they don’t care about you.
Bank apps are filled with all kinds of tracking spyware.
Truth be told I was hoping for Sony because I really like their high end phones from a hard ware point of view.
This better be flagship level specs.
Motorola is sadly still owned by google. I still wish we had the Fairphone x Graphene combo tbh
Wikipedia says Google sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo in 2014. The article also mentions that Motorola is owned by Lenovo.
Moto g15 (2025) has a headphone jack. I don’t know why their phones aren’t more popular.
Hmmm this would have sounded interesting if it didn’t require releasing new phones. I don’t think Motorola is going to release their next phone within a $200-$300 price range. As it stands, this is marginally better than yet another “ponzi your VS funding on the privacy community” scheme.
What would be useful, if they now have a partnership going, would be to convince Motorola to release the relock keys / firmware fixes for the bootloaders of some models that are no longer in production but are affordable and useful in the secondhand market. In particular, models that see good support from eg.: Lineage. Much easier to start a road towards better privacy and freer systems if it’s feasible on hardware you already have, after all.