From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Arno Welzel wrote:

At the moment I have only 128 GB memory in my smartphone and still more
than 40 GB available.

128 GB phone
apps 29GB
android 10GB
temp system files 6GB
photos 5GB
the rest is noise 3GB

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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia wrote:

It's a nice plan to keep the Pixel on stock Android untli support dies.
Then we can put GrapheneOS on it I guess.

A pixel 9a will drop off graphene support by then, the same way you
shouldn't put graphene on a Pixel5 or 5a now.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> wrote:

Maria Sophia, 2026-02-03 20:17:

Jeff Layman wrote:

On 03/02/2026 01:00, Maria Sophia wrote:
ort that out with the T-Mobile store that whom signed the paperwork from. >>>

What do you think of the Pixel 9A?

Are you putting GrapheneOS on it?

That's part of the allure, I think, of a Pixel.
Does the Pixel really allow easy rooting or not?

Yes, they do. That's one of the advantages getting a Pixel device. You
don't even need to register you device to get an OEM unlock code etc. -
just enable it in the developer options and then use adb/fastboot to to so.

<https://grapheneos.org/install/cli>

AIUI Pixels are bootloader/carrier locked in the box, and on first boot talk
to a Google server which enables unlocking (although some US carriers
prevent bootloader unlocking, I believe Verizon is one). So you may need to
do initial setup in the stock OS before you are able to reflash them.

If it's a secondhand phone, somebody already did the first-time setup so it should be good to be reflashed (unless it came from Verizon).

Pixel is still the go-to device for modifications, though, due to the way
they support alternative OSes.

Theo
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

Maria Sophia wrote:

It's a nice plan to keep the Pixel on stock Android untli support dies. Then we can put GrapheneOS on it I guess.

A pixel 9a will drop off graphene support by then, the same way you shouldn't put graphene on a Pixel5 or 5a now.

https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime
The 9a is supported until April 2032, which is when it drops off Google's support.

In the past, have GOS supported 'harm reduction' releases for about a year
or so after the EOL date - they are based on the last released Google OS (so are missing security patches for more recent vulnerabilities) but still have GOS' own security improvements. They're mostly intended as an offramp to a newer phone that's in support, but are still useful if you're using the
phone for some secondary purpose.

I'm not sure if they're going to do that for phones that are 7 years old at that point, as likely fewer of them will still be in circulation.

Theo
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia, 2/6/26 01:32:

Arno Welzel wrote:

[...]

Doing
backups by removing the SD card and copying data from it, s is not
really practical.

But it has nothing (per se) with doing backups.
The sd card can be replaced with a *bigger* sd card at any time.

That's where they make their money.

They don't. People buy, what they want to afford.

Money is done with services - and storage is only one of *many* services (GMail, Google Docs etc...).

You have to plan five years in advance for your storage needs.

I never did this. I buy, what I need *now*. And usually this will be
enough at least for the next 2-3 years. And in most cases it was even
enough for 5 years.

A better way to do this would be to use tools like
FolderSync, apk etc. and maybe your *own* server with Nextcloud or
similar software.

The advantage of the sd card is you can get away with a 64GB phone.
As you know, I have over a thousand packages installed on mine.

So you know *now* how much storage you need. Or do you expect to have "tenthousands" of packages installed in five years instead of only a "thousands".

[...]

And, to me, the default (free) Pixel 9A with only 128GB is too little.

Then get one with 256 GB. And if you believe that you may need 1 TB in
the future, get a device with 1 TB or an SD cards lot and a 1 TB SD card.
--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de
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