Ive been using custom roms to greatly extend the lifespan of my phone (still using a xiaomi mi9t from 2019, running smoothly on A15, with lineageOS). Some apps, like banking apps, or gov apps sometimes require a stock android and locked bootloader. But, besides the stock spyware, stock roms become unusable in 2 to 3 years, forcing an upgrade.
Im thinking of getting a cheap 2nd phone to keep with stock android to use banking/gov apps and to leave at home. This way i could use my primary phone with a custom rom and have it working for way longer than 3 years, with less spyware, and wasting less money (depending on the price of that 2nd phone).
Does this seem like a decent strategy considering how android is moving?
Important question: If the cheap phone gets outdated, would it be safe to use it for banking considering i wouldnt install other apps or use a browser in that phone?
The brands available here (brazil) are mostly motorola, samsung, lg, xiaomi and realme (no pixels, nothings, fairphone, pinephones,…). What would be the best options for these two phones? The 2ndary phone should be cheap and reliable (gonna be used like once a week, but should last as long as possible) and 1ary phone should have unlockable bootloader and have good rom support for many years (i hope this niche wont die soon).
Banking on the browser is not an option anymore in my situation. I think it wont be around for long in the rest of the world too.
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I have a separate phone for this exact reason. Works great. I’m only using it with trusted apps straight from a factory wipe, no funny business, no webbrowsing, no nothing. Worked well so far.
When I’m not using it I turn it off.
3 phones.
- GOS for day to day
- Travel phone for international trips
- Super old stock phone for banking just sitting on my desk
Whats the issue with taking (1) and/or (3) in international trips? Is it about those countries that want to search you phone at the airport?
Depends on where your going and your threat model, but basically every time you cross a boarder your phone is fair game to be searched and compromised.
Even if you have nothing to hide and your phone gets searched, now you can’t trust it, something may have been tampered or installed, so you have to reset it (at a minimum).
Travel phones might optimize different features (like sharing vpn over hotspot) vs high security (gos), may have different radios, or just less of a pain to replace.
When you travel you may have to install apps that are outside your comfort zone (wechat, velo chat, taxi apps, etc)
When you have a dedicated blanked phone for travel, you become very deliberate about what data you take with you, which is good for corporations and thoughtful individuals.
3 - Since its not getting security updates, should never leave your network or talk to the cell network, its just a conceit to good enough convenience.
Super old stock phone
for banking
🧐
Yup! Risk reward balance, but its not on the cellular network, its only on a desk in a protected network, it isn’t a daily driver, and it stays off unless I need to use it. So I’m not wasting a good phone on a stock os, and I have access to the annoying banking apps when needed (rarely)
That’s basically what I was thinking. I would have a “normie” phone that has all the stuff modern society expect people to have, which would also have my sim card in it. Then I’d have a second device, not necessarily a “phone” but just something portable. Could be a Pinephone, or some Non-Google Android phone, or maybe a handheld PC (but I would need like a backpack for it, can’t fit a SteamDeck in pocket unfortunately). The “normie” phone would then hotspot the internet to my other device.
A pocket linux pc would be great. Why do you want to keep the sim in the normie phone? Or is that just in case you get a handheld that doesnt have a sim slot?
Because the thing is, phones are not PCs. You can connect almost anything to a wifi network (cuz otherwise, many of those cheap wifi smart gadgets wouldn’t work, I highly doubt they are gonna police wifi networks any time soon), but with cell towers, the carriers control which devices they allow to connect to their towers.
Example: In Australia, the have a phone whitelist system, where older phones are banned from connecting to cell networks, including for emergency calls. Something like a fairphone, pinephone, librem 5, would definitely not be on the whitelist, and thus would not be able to connect.
Now, the US, where I live, hasn’t done this yet, but the writing is on the wall, might as well get used to it, and have a, sort of, “Standard Operating Procedure” developed for it so that when they do start doing the whitelisting thing, I would already be prepared for it.
Hence, TLDR:
Banking, Government stuff, SIM Card, all goes on the “Normie” phone.
Everything else, on my actual private Phone (or Pocket PC) that I watch youtube videos on, torrent tv shows/movies, write a journal, browse the dark web, Lemmy, etc…
At least that’s the plan, I have to change a lot of my habits and get used to this new way of using tech.
Private phone with GrapheneOS and an iPad with banking apps etc. works well for me.
Good idea. I dont know why that didnt occur to me, i actually have a tablet that i could use for that.
Have you tried creating another ‘profile’ (user)?
I’ve used banking apps on LOS and GrapheneOS, it worked great and never complained.
I’d recommend Shelter over a regular user, so you won’t have to switch between them; but it works too, if you prefer it this way.
Ive used Insular, that creates a “work” profile, mainly because the apps become somewhat hidden and it allows for a different password than the main profile. So I can share my main pin for other people to use my phone while still keeping the banking apps out of reach. But some apps just wont work if they detect a custom rom or even unlocked bootloader, even in insular.
Maybe buy used iPhone. Privacy wise it’s better than stock Android. Banking apps should be working and you get more years of security updates than cheap Android.
and you get more years of security updates than cheap Android
Eh, depends… In the US, I could get a brand new budget Samsung phone for like $75 with 5 years of security updates, its carrier locked tho, but you only need to activate it once and then wait 60 days and it automatically unlocks, you don’t even need a 60 day plan, a cheap 30 day plan would work as well.
(Unlocked version is $200)
I got a free iphone 13 when switching carriers, I still use my android phone with a physical sim but kept the iphone and now use it to better test my flutter apps, can’t do everything from emulators.
Yea, maybe not a bad idea, depending on the price and how many years of updates it still has.
