GrapheneOS makers take a knife to this 'Google-free' phone coming to the US (Updated) – Android Authority
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9 hours ago
Update, July 18, 2025 (04:40 PM ET): We have just heard back from Fairphone in response to our inquiry. In a statement, the company explains:
Original article, July 18, 2025 (04:36 AM ET): The Fairphone Gen 6 is one of the best Android phones to get if you want a repairable and sustainable smartphone experience. The device is also coming to the US with the Google-free /e/OS software instead of the conventional Android OS. However, it seems like you should think twice about getting this variant if you care about security.
The team behind the security-focused GrapheneOS Android platform has made some extremely concerning claims about the Fairphone Gen 6 running /e/OS.
Fairphone Gen 6 devices running /e/OS apparently lag “very far behind” the Android Open Source Project in terms of OS and browser patches. Furthermore, the team alleges that /e/OS “disables or cripples” important privacy and security protections.
Unfortunately, the standard Fairphone Gen 6 wasn’t immune to criticism, either:
“Lack of secure element throttling for disk encryption means users with a typical 6-8 digit PIN or basic password will not have their data protected against extraction,” the team explained. “Brute forcing the PIN or password set by the vast majority of users is trivial without secure element throttling.”
How does this compare to other phones? The team noted that Pixel phones and iPhones have a “high-quality” secure element while recent Samsung phones have a “basic” secure element.
However, the GrapheneOS developers alleged that /e/OS was worse than the standard Fairphone Gen 6 software as it “misleads” users. More specifically, the team claimed that /e/OS changes the UI for the security patch level to “mask” what’s really being provided. The alternative Fairphone OS also has an “inaccurate” security patch level as it ignores certain portions of security patches.
Furthermore, /e/OS is said to have “major issues” providing browser updates. That’s a significant problem, as many apps default to the OS Webview, which effectively uses the system web browser. Finally, the developers claim that /e/OS has its own “invasive” services and still uses various Google services despite the deGoogled claims.
We’ve contacted both Fairphone and Murena (the company behind /e/OS) for comment on these claims. We’ll update the article as soon as the companies get back to us.
