We're not currently putting a large amount of resources into finding Linux, AOSP or Chromium vulnerabilities this way because many others are doing it with far more resources including Google. There are much higher impact things for us to focus on instead. Our focus remains systemic privacy and security improvement rather than case-by-case fixing of bugs. We definitely do that much better through shipping Linux and Android patches much faster than the Pixel OS along with fixing many issues ourselves but it's not our priority for the most part. Certain parts of it are priorities such as finding and fixing VPN leaks because Google doesn't consider it to be a relevant security issue.
GrapheneOS literally puts Motorola on the map for me.
Motorola Mobility was sold to Google in 2012 for ~$12bn, and then in 2014 to Lenovo for ~$3bn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola#Split_of_Motorola
No wonder if I see the "crap" my collegues have to endure with their Samsung phones in comparison to my rather quiet GraphenOS phone. It has security and cost/time consequences. They could configure their phones better but don't care (due to insecurity what could break & complexity).
Remind them of the fact that Google is too incompetent to sell Pixels worldwide. Brazil, for example, has never gotten a single Pixel, but already has preorders for the Motorola flagship.
I was hoping that by being pre-installed, GrapheneOS's public image will slowly transition from being an "obscure OS that scary hackers go out of their way to install" into just yet another stock OS found on certain brands.
Every time I buy sometning that is not Motorola I regret it, and it is like 85% because of this feature. I don't know how they do it, but it triggers reliably, never misfires.
People always suggest apps that supposedly should allow the same thing, but they never work, which makes me think Motorola uses some lower level sensor access to do it.
On a hike a few moons ago, as I approached a scenic overlook, another hiker pulled out their phone, twisted it, and took a picture. We had a brief conversation about our love for Motorola gestures.
If Motorola comes out with a lower priced phone with GrapheneOS and a Pixel quality camera or better, I'm there.
Shake to flashlight is the perfect combination of easy to remember, easy to trigger, and actually useful. It should be industry standard.
I'm unconvinced there is a market for a premium GrapheneOS phone. It seems to do well in a niche where phones built for another OS get repurposed to it on the cheap.
If your max price point were $600 or something, sure, but once you’re above $1k what’s the difference? You already value it greatly.
2k is two times 1k. There are many things that I would not buy for double the price.
In your example where you were sold on a $20k car, would the car being $20,499 stop you from buying it?
The real example would be the car costing $9073 more than the $20000 budget. It's an increase of 45% it's not trivial.
To be clear, I’m not criticizing anyone balking at a $1,600 phone. I’m expressing skepticism at marketing a GrapheneOS phone at that price point.
Yeah, well, to me flagship is a one-word descriptor for "overpriced and enshittified device for suckers". Just in this case, now that the OS seems to deliver, it's the hardware. If you don't offer 3.5 mm audio, active stylus, full-feature USB-C 3.x+, and a uSD slot with a good enough screen in a slab you can get lost. It's that simple.
Just those 2 alone disqualify a lot of the market. I'd like to have both, but I'm currently typing this on a pixel 9 with neither simply because the market isn't there for them.
And Lenovo (Motorola)? For me, so far, nothing. Unless this or next year's successor to the Moto G Stylus 2025 model comes with a much better USB-C port (i. e. not just that cheap 2.0 garbage), runs on GOS, keeps the audio jack as well as the dedicated uSD slot, and improves the not-so-hot stylus.
I’m glad to hear this. And I hope it succeeds. The top comments all complaining about price may just be reinforcing my biases.
Me too! And that more Motorola phones will support GrapheneOS later, including cheaper ones.
My first impression from the comments here is: if the only thing people complain about is the price, I guess it's not too bad :-).
Generations of MTE improve over time. The implementation of MTE used on a Pixel 8 for example has certain side channels which arent present in the MTE used on an iPhone 17. That being said, it being imperfect doesn't make it irrelevant.
Pixel 11 Pro Fold is MSRP $1900+
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 MSRP is $1900+ ($2100 for 512GB storage)
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 512GB MSRP $1600 (and this was before a lot of hardware price increases, I imagine the Galaxy S27 will be more expensive)
iPhone 18 Pro Max 512GB $1500 on Apple Store
As memory and storage chips get more expensive, phones will continue to get more expensive. Even Qualcomm SoCs have seen significant price hikes. [1]
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/qualcomm-t...
is motorola's phone folding?
There's not a lot of flagship phones that released recently which is why I included them alongside phones that do not fold but were released a bit earlier.
I think the most fair comparison will probably be the Galaxy S27 when it releases in early 2027.
That said, I've never seen a regular Moto phone nearly this expensive, so who knows.
That was still after the RAMpocolypse had started but hadn’t hit Apple yet, I remember thinking Apple was immune
The M4 Mac mini was announced two years ago with 16GB RAM standard, starting at MSRP of $599, without anything like an education discount (which knocked another $100 off the machine), and stayed at that price until early this year when supply simply evaporated. Then the M6 model this fall went up by $300 for the same base memory and storage capacities. +50% in overall price of the entry-level machine, and probably not much of it was due to the M6 being a more advanced processor than M4.
This is a phone for hackers and drug dealers and enemies of the state and perhaps some types of bankers, and the tinfoil hat Gribble contingent. Everyone in that list will pay whatever it costs without much of a second thought.
Some of those people will also buy a premium phone because they want to have a great camera system.
Absolutely. Vanilla Android is actually very nice, and compatible with many types of devices (phones, tablets, TV boxes, now some laptops). In fact, I recently compiled and patched an x86_64 version of LineageOS for an HTPC and it blows ordinary Linux distros out of the water in that role. Fully usable with remote only, etc. The problem with Android is that commercial versions people are used to are riddled with Google spyware and OEM crapware.
Technically you don't even deserve a note of why I am personally interested in a Signature 27, but: GrapheneOS of course, on a top tier design, audio, battery life, display and performance, because I enjoy excelence. Thank me later for shifting your argument from "its for criminals" to "its for corporate ball lickers", now proceed into making a fool of yourself like so.
In battery life and thermal performance alone, where Google seems to have conveniently ignored valid criticisms since the Pixel 6 series.
Been considering getting a couple just to test/use with Graphene...
My hope is that Motorola will continue like this, with cheaper models too.
But I agree with your sentiment, there is hope!
Just buy something older (ideally version 8 or more recent) and switch to Motorola after few years, when Signature 27 is much less expensive.
Honestly I was looking lately for some deals for black friday or 11.11, and I saw that the Oppo Ultra 9X or whatever it's called, had a rom and a bootloader cve that would allow you to root it and replace god awful COS with someone AOSP based. The 12/256 is 1200€! And that's the chinese version. A phone with a last gen chip! Absolutely crazy. The ram prices are way worse than I thought.
I'm not saying none of them do, but you've made a heckuva blanket statement there with zero citation.
If you set your pricing by what it costs you to make, you're not very good at capitalism.
Prices also skyrocket relatively fast, and come down much slower, for the same reason.
1. Most companies release their most expensive models first, and then follow up with cheaper ones. Like, that's business 101. Nvidia does it, Lego does it.
2. You're comparing a new flagship to a three-year old phone, bought second-hand. Like, those two serve completely different markets.
Im running linux/phosh on my 6+ now, but i playes with both the default os and the supported e/os systems on it too. All were good
/e/OS degrades security compared to AOSP, bundles privileged MicroG which makes connection to Google by default etc.
Linux/Phosh is based on a traditional Linux desktop OS which lacks system wide mandatory access control and an obligatory enforced app sandbox with a fine grained runtime permission model. Lots of its user space is using tech stacks written in memory unsafe code with much less exploit mitigations than modern Android.
It's not the same category of hardware and software.
No doubt it's a way WAY better device, really, but I don't see where I would actually need that. I happily toss the one I have around and don't even care if it gets stolen or lost one day, different preference.