Looking for a phone, for basic usage

[jos]

I am expecting twins, so me and my partner have decided to use smartphone as little as possible. The idea is to get an inexpensive phone, that can quickly charge. But can run latest Android. We do have 5g and wifi axe at home. But need only 4g and ax wifi. The application that I need to run are, Amazon shopping, what's app, banking apps, slack, smart things, Gmail, outlook, calenders. And there are few more apps, but I should be able to remove YouTube, browser, social media app, gallery, camera only needed for QR codes, no playstore to prevent easy install of APPS, any suggestions? I can may be not install banking apps, if security is issue. The idea is not to use phone as often.

[jos]

I am ready to install custom rom, that is way to go, so community support is needed. But it would be good if it is a new device. 

[BiotechBen]

17 minutes ago, jos said:

I am ready to install custom rom, that is way to go, so community support is needed. But it would be good if it is a new device. 

What's your country and budget?

[ImWilly]

46 minutes ago, jos said:

install custom rom

Generally, banking app is quite sensitive on root/custom rom phone, so probably best to leave it as is to prevent hassle

47 minutes ago, jos said:

no playstore

Strongly indicates for Chinese brand for Chinese market (Huawei, XiaoMi, Oppo), but I will try to recommend other brand if Chinese government spy is a huge concern

At least the international version will have Playstore (except Huawei)

 

The safest and cheap I could think of is probably Samsung Galaxy M series

For this year, you can choose M14, M34, or M54

It's all 5G capable, and Exynos processor, battery is hunky 6000mAh, and One UI OS (light, stock-ish Android)

It's nothing special, so probably won't feel obliged to always checking on the phone (I used M12, the processor is painstakingly slow, but reliable and still got security update)

 

 

[DrMacintosh]

Rather than doing all of this....quite frankly, user nightmare scenario. You could just get a cheap Android device, talking around $300, and simply put parental restrictions on it? 

 

What is the point in loading a custom rom these days? You can already disable the ability to install new apps as a core feature of Android. 

[jos]

I do have s21 ultra, the problem is if I do disable thing in settings i can easily enable it. I just need to make it difficult to enable things again. I am used to working with custom roms 10 years ago, when I had xperia z1. I believe custom rom was more active those days, now I cannot see newer devices supporting twrp, lineage etc. The one that I saw supported is mi ll lite 5g, that is 2021 device. I saw realme GT 3. 15 minutes full charge. But no rom available. 

[E-waste]

On 9/24/2023 at 1:16 PM, jos said:

I am used to working with custom roms 10 years ago, when I had xperia z1

Have you looked at Sony's developer page, they have exactly step by step instructions for unlocking the bootloader on almost every single Xperia device they have ever made, going all the way back to 2012.

 

https://developer.sony.com/open-source/aosp-on-xperia-open-devices/get-started/unlock-bootloader/

 

So check out https://forum.xda-developers.com for current device support information, and https://lineageOS.org/ for installing a custom rom to your device.