There actually ARE other choices - like Librem, PinePhone, etc.
These other choices definitely are better when it comes to privacy. But probably worse in every other regard.
I personally am not quite willing to make that tradeoff (yet). But I sure am highly grateful to everyone who does, and helps make those alternatives better, and helps them gain momentum.
> There actually ARE other choices - like Librem, PinePhone, etc.
The trade offs pretty much rules out the alternatives for most people. I need just a few apps, but they are for payment and government stuff, so they are only ever going to be available in the official app stores. For others it's going to be messaging apps, social media or something local, like an app for the supermarket. If those apps are not available, then the point of a smartphone goes away. At least of me.
Not just you. Loads of countries are pushing further digitalization and pseudo-require a smartphone to not make things a complete hassle. If you're lucky, their APKs are distributed outside the playstore and you get to manually update everything once a month.
The whole thing is making people dependent on the common app stores. Not actually dependent, but practically.
I agree, given how much I rely on my phone/computer to just work, I'd not personally be willing to make the usability and reliability tradeoffs with switching to something like a PinePhone. Plus there are some other steps you can take to reduce the privacy/security risks of relying on Google/Apple/etc., for example I use PiHole/Tailscale for DNS and Cryptomator for files stored in the cloud
The most annoying part is the hybris if they would really care they would go for the real alternatives like a pine or phones with plasma or sailfish. Nope most of these articles take the comfort option over what they preach.
Android is just worse from a security perspective, and I'm not an Apple fan.
If you're going to use Android, use an open source AOSP fork. Lineage, Graphene, Calyx... how can you be sure that you're actually secure and private if you can't even be sure exactly what firmware your phone is running? You can't.
Currently replying on my newly deGoogled Android phone (/e/OS). It's a bit awkward in a few ways but it definitely feels like I'm not handing over all my data to Google.
A degoogled pixel phone with CalyxOS or GrapheneOS is a good alternative. You can choose not to use cloud services and better control what runs on your phone.
I wish there was a better choice; but I think I would still pick Android for now...