I’ve been needing to buy a new phone and while I’m here in china I’ve seen some really intriguing options only available here.
obviously the telemetry is extremely problematic, more so than non chinese phones, is it feasible to try remove with adb or the universal debloater? since there is custom rom support at all? or should I just forget about it?
With Chinese phones, we have no real way of knowing where the spyware is. It may may be baked into the main OS, the added apps or other. Your safest bet would be a new ROM. ADB requires knowing which apps to pull out and unless someone has identified them, you’ll largely be guessing. Debloater will only remove what it knows about, so better than nothing. Whatever you do, I’d suggest something like RethinkDNS, or Netguard. These type of apps can go a great job of locking down anything that tries to connect to the outside world. It’s easier than it sounds, you simply select and allow at all the apps that you want to have connection.
Summary New ROM or ADB or Debloater plus, RethinkDNS or Netguard or similar.
we have no real way of knowing where the spyware is. It may may be baked into the main OS, the added apps or other.
Or in the hardware, like the baseband processor or even something more obscure. Replacing the OS won’t help with that.
In Huawei at least, you don’t have the ability to install a custom ROM. They don’t allow you to unlock the bootloader.
And what’s the situation with non-Chinese phones? Given the Snowden revelations and our understanding of US military intelligence projects for the last 50+ years, I would say every phone is likely irredeemably compromised. Just look at what the US did with Siemens phones and literally every embassy in the world.
Precisely this. The fuss about Chinese telecom hardware spying on you is made up by US intelligence because they want to be the ones who get to spy on you and keep their back doors in your products
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They’re bad as the other close source android companies.
Look at taobao, look for Google pixel phones. They’re amazingly available, and slightly cheaper than outside of China. I think the discount is reflective of what a pain in the ass it is to use a Google phone in China.
For all the people saying they would never buy a phone from China, you realize most phones are built in China already right?
Just make sure to erase that Google spyware and install GrapheneOS
Removing by ADB is fine if you are able to identify which packages should be removed or if they’re already covered by Universal Debloater. You should also use Invizible Pro to control what connections are made and block trackers.
I’ve been buying OnePlus for years and they’re as good as anything, even factory. Relatively easy to install custom firmware on.
I’ve got a OnePlus, but it’s the worst phone I’ve had and I’m looking forward to it breaking. Could be my model, but I’m permanently done with the company
Which model is it / what’s wrong with it? Might be something for me to be aware of.
The Nord N10, I bought it because everyone in the store recommended it at the same time. After my experience, I’m pretty sure they were paid to say that
My impression has been that the Nords are not very good, I’ve never gotten one though.
I had a Xiaomi as my previous phone, a POCO F2 Pro. I ran it with the stock firmware after disabling all possible tracking options in settings, and after debloating with a script easily found on xda. As much as I would have loved to install a custom ROM and root it, I didn’t want to forgo Google Pay and access to banking apps.
It was quite good and very powerful for the price. Bested flagship devices from Samsung and others when it was new and for up to a year after that. Dare I say, it was one of the best phones I ever owned.
Then after 2 years it stopped charging. I had to crack it open and replug a connector between the mainboard and the USB-C port. Worked flawlessly after that.
I switched to a Pixel 7 since. A friend is still using the Xiaomi and loves it.
I would consider them but the Pixels are very good for the price as well.
Custom roms like lineageOS let you use banking apps, it is when you root the device that it becomes an issue, and even that can be fixed by installing safetynet fix.
You’re right of course, but I didn’t feel like playing the cat and mouse game with Google for access to certain apps and functionalities that I often use.
I’m not an expert but my instinct says you should never take any digital device over the chinese border. No matter in which direction.
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Xiaomi phones usually get their source code published. From there, you may want to choose a Qualcomm device, for some reason developers prefer these to build device trees for custom ROMs. If you don’t mind having an older phone, you may want to check the list of officially supported phones for reputed custom ROMs like Lineage OS or Pixel Experience and buy one of those. I’m guessing that phones in China are cheap and options are numerous.
I’ve had a Huawei for years and I love it. The only telemetry I’ve noticed is from Google services and other third party apps I’ve installed. I use a firewall to block network access to apps that don’t need it.
Besides the privacy concerns that have already been addressed, you probably need to be able to repair the phone yourself when it breaks. No after sale service when you take that phone back home. So that means you need to be able to buy parts from AliExpress or whatever.
Hey there are a lot of cell phone repair shops all over the USA like in shopping centers in every major city. call cell phone doctor or I break you fix, I’m pretty sure they could handle those Chinese phones for repair.
Xiaomi has quite a few official or partner repair shops
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Pretty good once you get a custom rom on it.
hella
Absolutely LOVE my Xiaomi 13 Ultra w/ xiaomi.eu ROM. Best phone I’ve had since my Nexus 5, easy.
TL;DR: Pretty bad. I definitely wouldn’t buy one. I wouldn’t mess around with Custom ROMs as most phones don’t allow you to relock the bootloader, which decreases security significantly. A Pixel with GrapheneOS is the best option. Pixel phones have great hardware security and full supported for Android Verified Boot, even with a custom OS. Just make sure to get a 6th Generation or newer, as the older models don’t get security updates anymore. The Pixel 6a is perfect, you can find it for around $150 used and it gets security updates until 2027.
If you can unlock the bootloader and change roms, they aren’t bad at all.
Otherwise, they’re a hard pass for me. Mind you, it isn’t like they’re any worse than phones made elsewhere as regards invasive practices. But if I’m going to be mined for data I would actually prefer it be for profit than whatever a government wants. Since the governments that are acting invasively other than china aren’t doing so as extremely, if I had to use a locked down device, it wouldn’t be chinese.
