Update: I wanna thank everyone for the advice, I’m shipping the bunk phone back for refund today and ive got my eye on a few from swappa and back market for when I get the money to buy.
I’ll probably try out graphene but after looking into crdroid I’m pretty stoked about it having all the customization I’ve been wanting for ages. Which ever feels cleaner to manage and easier for the family to pick up will probably be the go to.
So I fell for the classic blunder and ended up with a pixel that’s not OEM unlocked despite being advertised as such. After a few hours of searching it looks like the only way I’m getting an OEM unlocked pixel is full price from Google itself. I don’t have $400 for a new phone, I bought the one I have for $150 in 2019.
Are there any cheaper ways to get control of my phone?
There’s nothing anywhere close to the security and privacy Graphene provides. Find something like a used 8a somewhere. Check Backmarket, Swappa too not just Amazon and ebay.
Are there even locked Pixels? Who has them.
Other guy beat me to it, but Verizon has the bootloader so secured no one even bothers trying.
As long as it isn’t “carrier locked”, you should be good to go. The thing about Pixels, is that they allow you to unlock the bootloader (and critically, for Graphene, relock it).
You’d think so, but apparently the Verizon model will allow you to unlock the carrier but you can never unlock the bootloader.
Damn, you’re right. That sucks.
Buy some old chinashit and flash lineage/cr droid, they actually give you more control than graphene
This is actually the best option I’ve gotten so far, crdroid looks good. Is there anywhere I can find a video that explains the daily use side of it?
I’ve found many unlocked, used Pixel phones on eBay. I’ve bought 5 of them this way for myself and my family and had no problems.
You mind sending me a link? I could only find 1 eBay seller that stated it was OEM unlocked and they were out of stock.
I can’t vouch for any particular seller I’m afraid. I used various sellers and I guess I have just been lucky so far.
lineageos is a good alternative. but if it’s not oem unlockable, you are out of luck with roms.
I’m already returning this one, l was just hoping to find something I could set up that wouldn’t cost most of a check to get my hands on
almost any phone that can have its bootloader unlocked has lineage available. to make sure it’s well supported, try to find one from their officially supported list.
a lot of cheap motorolas or xiaomis in there.
or an older pixel, might be cheaper and still supported by graphene.
I paid ~$180 for my used mint-condition Pixel 6 on Swappa. You have to look up which exact model numbers are bootloader unlockable, then filter on those.
