this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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Privacy

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Supposedly, he sells out of his phones but I haven't seen any review or unboxing videos for the Brax 3. I know that you can ask for iodeOS or Ubuntu touch.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I heard that he was a scammer or pseudo privacy expert from other comments. I wouldn't recommend that phone. If you care about the privacy or security of your device, use DivestOS with a supported Pixel/OnePlus, or GrapheneOS with a Pixel. Only buy the phone new if you are super paranoid of some zero-day vulnerability being used on you. I recommend swappa.com because they have quality control, returns, and good prices for used devices (you can even get mint quality devices).

Comparison of Android ROMs: https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm

iodeOS has been behind on security updates often (still better security against unsophisticated attacks than Ubuntu but not a good ROM): https://divestos.org/pages/patch_history

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Why Divest over Graphene? Was considering moving from stock to Graphene.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

It removes more proprietary binary blobs and I dont care about gapps.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I learned about Swappa years ago and exclusively use them for buying and selling all my smartphones. I have no idea why they aren't more popular, except for the fact that repair shop resellers use it too, but they are pretty easy to avoid.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

Go through Brax's videos and see if he ever shows how to do anything or if he nly talks about it but never gives instructions. There are random no name channels that show how to flash ROMs, what does Brax show?

Look at his website, does that look like it was made by someone within th past 25 years?

Apparently he has some kind of an APK file to install, how easy is it to find and what is the date of the last release?

Does he always sell out of phones, or were they never available for public buyers? Where is his ordering page? Does the order page say sold out or is there no ordering website?

My point being, add up all of the evidence and comapred it to random websites that list which used phones they sell, compare to the amount of random videos that walkthrough how to to flash a ROM, I say Brax starts to look like a con who doesn't know tech, only parrots what he reads. Compare his website to free wsbsite builders, see which looks like more recent designs and web technologies.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

I've managed to listen to this doofus for a couple of minutes and then promptly added him to the ignore list (thanks Freetube!). whether he's a scammer or just deluded, I wouldn't trust or use anything that had his fingers in or near it.

if his general vibe of snake-oil salesman doesn't put you off, putting his name on the thing should. hard pass.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

This looks solid but keep in mind it's a kickstarter.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

I've watched few of his videos and they seem OK, but I would never trust a phone like that. I would suggest buy a pixel and flash Graphene OS yourself. It is best for security and privacy.

And as far as Ubuntu touch or any other Linux phone for that. They are currently so bad at security that I wouldn't daily drive them. If you want to play with them or contribute to them then that's OK but don't daily drive them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

He doesn't have a good reputation for his videos or products that I've seen, they come across as very scammy and he has a very 'podcast snakeoil scammer' feel. I would avoid it.

Better off buying a Google Pixel, the older ones are cheap now.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

I see no reason to overpay for this when all the features it offers are included in iodéOS, which it uses. You will save a lot of time, money and potentially risk by installing iodéOS yourself on a supported phone of your choosing. It is super easy these days now that all non-Samsung phones support their automatic installer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

SCAM, next!