I've never owned an android, but for any android folks: how do you all think about device security/privacy when the manufacture is relatively unknown and overseas?

I really wanted to get one, but didn't know the risks associated with this.

Completely untrustworthy.

I have a Likebook e-ink android device and it's great, except for the fact that I can't trust the software at all.

I just assume it has a root kit on it.

The faster refresh isn't even what excites me about the daylight, it's the fact that it's a more trustworthy vendor (hopefully).

Yea I was recently considering a Boox device but this turned me against it. It’s not even running a recent version of Android (only Android 11).

I tried grapheneos, and it’s great out of the box. It’s snappy, 3x manufacturer claimed battery life, and the camera sort of works (everything else did except the pixel fast charger).

However, to run third party apps (especially those that use GPS, including lyft and uber), you have to install the Google Play Services, which are sandboxed, but cut the battery life by 66% back to the manufacturer claims (so I assume at least some of the continuous surveillance crap was running / successfully phoning home).

On top of that, at any given time, 5-10% of apps would crash on startup.

They gave java stacktraces saying they got an unchecked null pointer exception when looking for random system services. The set of apps would change randomly over time, as companies only test on android, and take a while to fix such low-priority bugs.

Also, it was missing a bunch of functionality I take for granted on iPhone, and that I ended up needing (like crdt-based notes).

On the bright side, android’s non-carplay bluetooth support is miles ahead of iOS.

Tl:dr: Degoogled android would be nice, but don’t bother.

>how do you all think about device security/privacy when the manufacture is relatively unknown and overseas?

Find out their update policy. I wouldn't buy a device not matching or exceeding 7 years of OS upgrades / Security patches.