The fact that this even exists is amazing.

That's why I'll believe it when it's actually in people's hands.

The many qualifiers they hanged on the Signature and the uncertain date makes me believe they could pivot at any time. Also Google is not going to be happy about any manufacturer trying to get away from under their thumb. So it could still turn out to be some kind of rope tug between Google and Motorola, like Samsung duplicating all Google apps just to make a point.

Last but not least the many supposed years of support are most likely bogus, Lenovo's Motorola has never updated any of their phones for so long.

The devs have confirmed that GrapheneOS will eventually work on more budget options, but initially will only be available for flagship models

The devs would need hardware functionality which is only found in a handful of phones all which are expensive. You are unlikely to find a cheaper device getting support.

Yeah, but you’re missing out on the biggest reason to upgrade to the latest shiny new phone. You get to feel all smug and show it off to all your friends who still have last year’s phone.

/s

I hope they make it possible to install GrapheneOS on their budget phones as well.

Not within Graphene's intent, alas.

Still, from the fact that this deal worked (so far...) I now expect other Custom ROMs such as lineage to reach deals with manufacturers to release the bootloader relock keys for near-EOL (or even EOL) devices that are already on the market. The way I see it, it's a win-win: the segment of people who are privacy or environmentally conscious were not going to buy a new phone from them or the competition anyway, so securing that they continue your brand gives you the option of data input to tailor next models to them, prevents ewaste from going into the environment, and keeps phones of the brand circulating in need for repairs or replacement parts which means the brand can license parts and operations.

Same

I swear. I hate how modern design does misshapen/ugly/asymmetric just for the shock value, instead of because how it might actually look good.

Someone needs to fire the business student that told those engineers to make that.

I don't mind it, but I wish Motorola would make some smaller phones. 6.8" is so damn huge. I want my shit to fit in my pocket, dude.

Three shallow/flat cameras in a row, and one didn't fit, so they carried it over to a new row.

Pretty mundane/mid. Having the four cameras in a 2x2 grid would be about the same to me, functionally, aesthetically. It's not amazing, and it's not horrible. It's pretty much a standard phone tablet.

My biggest problem is likely going to be the price, not the camera placements.

I can't even look at that for long. It looks like a camera CSV.

Motorola Signature 27 is promised 7 years of Android OS and security updates and has quite the look with its quad-camera setup on the back. That includes a 50MP Sony LYTIA 910 main sensor and 200MP periscope telephoto lens. The other two haven’t been confirmed just yet.

Sauce

Gonna charge like wounded bulls.

This is actually an important thing to consider. Unfortunately, there is a large overlap in the groups of people who are big on degoogling Android (or mobile devices in general) and who were the tech gadget enthusiasts who cared more about the toys than the utility which has helped facilitate this state of affairs.

Much of the pro-privacy and renewability discourses are then mired in the contradictions between utilitarian software/hardware design and consumerist notions of "supporting" alternatives. Fairphone is another good example of how this often manifests as advertisements to own yet another extremely resource-costly device to be part of a progressive tech movement.

They won't because Graphene uses specific hardware architecture which is usually only found in "flagship" phones.

But you don't understand. The flagships are the only chips that support their requirements.

I would much prefer lighter phones, personally.

Thanks to inflation, we have a special prize for your country: $2000.

it doesn't ship with grapheneOS, it just has support for it. I imagine the stock android it ships with will be riddled, though

That's an interesting question.

Fortunately being Graphene you should be able to do what you want. Though the Graphene team is very much anti-unlocked-bootloader.

No microG in GrapheneOS, banking app support varies