The Graphene Experience

I ditched GrapheneOS for iOS, hear me out.

Introduction

I care about privacy, you care about privacy. Most of our personal information is on our phones, shouldn’t that be the first line of defence of keeping your internet privacy? Therefore, lots of people recommend GrapheneOS as the solution. An Android ROM that is de-googled, has hardened security and enhanced privacy. Sounds good? Well…

As a grapheneOS user for over 5 years, I am not even going to mention countless things that are annoying:

  • Numerous week-long bugs like being unable to pick up the phone that one time in 2021 for some reason
  • Lack of extended support unlike literally Google that provides for 8 years now
  • Some built-in apps can’t be disabled
  • Drama between the developer Daniel Mackay and Louis Rossman (i don't really care)
  • Still some banking apps don't work (but that's just Google's monopoly's fault)
  • Annoying confirm to switch on screen (also Google's fault)
  • Camera hardware is removed so the pictures look like shit (whole point of a Pixel is the camera)
  • Lack of modern features and yes I like AI shut up

But in fairness, before I constructively criticise this project (not it's users). It does provide lots of benefits such as the aforementioned hardened security and enhanced privacy. But also it’s sandboxing of applications and giving more control over your phone to you, the user. Who has bought the phone, you know. Basic stuff.

However, let’s boil down my criticisms into two categories. First of which is outside of Graphene’s control and the other that is under their control.

Criticism

My first criticism lies on the fact that this Android ROM can only be loaded onto Google devices. That’s a problem due to the chip that runs the device. Google Tensor in comparison to every single other chip in the market, including the horrible Samsung Exynos’es out there. Is the worst for performance which isn’t really an issue if it doesn’t excessively use power, except it does. Google’s chip is not only power intensive, but provides less power than other competitors. This wasn’t an issue till the Pixel 6, that’s why I regard the Pixel 4a as one of the best devices for Graphene.

Because of this horrible chip and lack of optimisation. In theory, say you live in a country that is a third world country pretending to be a first world one like the UK. Mobile data connections are not going to be the best, thus the antenna inside the phone would require more power to ensure a stable connection. So whenever I leave the house, this battery just goes away. I could get from 100% to 40% in three hours on a Pixel 8 which has a large battery size.

Now you may ask, why does Graphene only run on Pixels? Well that’s because you can lock the boot loader again which is a very important security feature. This is why I understand and respect the project’s choices for only providing for Google devices, but the issue is that Google devices are horrible. Not only that, but these phones are too overpriced and depreciate in value quickly.

My second criticism is about the software itself. The system is configured in some odd way that even launchers have issues, and trust me I have tried multiple. Now why do I have to use a launcher? Well it’s due to the fact that I can’t even replace or hide the stock camera app which gives horrible picture quality. Not only that, but the UI that Graphene has made looks objectively worse even that of default stock Android. People always state that Graphene removes all the bloat and that it gives more freedom to the user. Then that still doesn’t explain the camera situation, which may I remind you is the main selling point of the Pixel.

Another issue which easily could be fixed is the lack of uniformity within the apps, I am sure that I am in the majority (as in using dark mode). So explain why within the stock application apps of Graphene that it provides, the SMS app (including dialer and contacts) does provide dark mode which won’t blind my eyes at night. But then the calculator app doesn’t? Not only that but the stock android apps look like they were straight out of 2014, while the other included apps that were created by the GrapheneOS team look sleek and modern with Material You. The issue is that there is a lack of uniformity, and it just makes the system feel clunky and unprofessional. It is 2025 and not 2014. Surely, some effort can be put in for it to reflect the modern times.

But my last criticism is the most important issue of all is the community. Yes, just like reddit. It is a nerdy hive mind. From my point of view, the community has some sort of weird elitism where they think that they are better and smarter than everybody just because they loaded some obscure operating system on their 800 pound phone and have the right to boast about it and talk down to people everywhere. Similar to people who scream that “I use arch btw”.

Now there’s a spectrum that I have analysed, there is the general user who just wants a phone that fits their requirements and needs who doesn’t know much about tech. Then there’s this other side where everyone acts like a nob.

On the Graphene forums (yes, they have their own because they think they are too cool for reddit), someone politely suggested similar to my criticisms of the lack of uniformity and provide some sort of identity for the Android ROM. Stating: “Please make Graphene pretty, because normal people don't care about security” found in this link here

Literally the first response to this request was: “Would you mind providing us with your definition of "normal people”?”, like bro you literally ☝️🤓 just sybau.

Now another response just following this other comment was: “perhaps this software shouldnt be in hands of ‘normal people’ they can continue to use their glossy iphones”

This is the inherent issue of not just Graphene, but also some Linux distributions where the user base is too smartassed out of its mind to gatekeep tools from ordinary people that may need it too. Yeah, no wonder people buy iPhones and now including me, because this godforsaken community is so toxic. I literally have a budget iPhone 16e that was cheaper than this crappy Pixel 8 I had running Graphene with 1000mAh less battery and still outperforms (in battery, camera and performance) your shitty soyrig of a Pixel 9 Pro in pink running grapheneOS with an Arch Linux sticker at the back bro sybau. These people are the biggest Google haters but every time they buy a new phone they are still voting with their wallet buying a Google phone.

Like ever thought to mind, in a society where you vote with your wallet. To boycott Google for ethical reasons due to privacy invasion, the LAST thing to do is to buy a Google phone. Yet they still do and boast while being smart asses about it, if you are that impressive with your technological skills. Meet me in Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen, China and be like that dude who reverse built an iPhone from scratch except you build a Librem knockoff that runs GrapheneOS. And I bet you it still won’t be as capable as any Apple slop that comes out the next WWDC 2k26 or some shit like that.

Shut yo goofy ahh I hate people who gatekeep technology when what you should be doing is actively contributing and helping those in the dark or are clueless about technology, your gatekeeping is as bad as companies hiding stuff behind a paywall, which may I remind you. Is entirely against your viewpoint of things being free and open source? Don’t make that software just free and open source but the education too. The 4chan /g/ mindset of keeping normies away is just really childish, especially if it’s just about a piece of software. Give me a break bro.

I am personally “tech savvy” or not a “normie”. I know and did the shit half of you do. Yes, I ran the boot loaders manually. I loaded the arches, gentoos and distrohopped, did the whole Nextcloud thingy and use the terminal and tiling window managers and all that bullshit but man… It all gets so tiresome, and like how are you proud wasting THIS much time?

So that is WHY. And it IS WHY. I stopped using GrapheneOS and opted for an iPhone instead.

Now some of you may say Apple collects your data and everything and I understand the concerns. But firstly, if anyone has remotely studied a bit of marketing. It’s really not in Apple’s incentive to sell your data, if they really had that much access to data then Meta wouldn’t be that pissed off at them for blocking their trackers, Siri and Apple Intelligence wouldn’t be this crap and Apple would be ten times cheaper and most apps wouldn’t cost and arm and a leg. Apple relies mostly on subscriptions and their hardware that they sell for profit. And if you are really that worried about iCloud then just don’t use it.

I’m sorry, the Apple ecosystem is so convenient, I’m not doing tech gymnastics just to do a simple task like you retards prefer to do, like I have a life and I can’t waste time on making my system look less shit or setting up stuff from the ground up. It’s like either digging a cave with a rusty spoon to live in or buy a house, I’d take the latter.

Anyway moral of the story is, no one likes a smartass. I am happy with my iPhone. If you like GrapheneOS then go ahead and install it, but don’t ask for anything without expecting any pushback from nerds. Like Pewdiepie did recently, but I don’t know if the neckbeards would be upset at that too.