My large hands would probably be fine with a 'nearly 7" behemoth' if phones would just go back to a 9:16 aspect ratio. I may even be able to appreciate a more ereader-like aspect ratio like 2:3, 3:4, or 4:5. I have just been fed up by the unnecessarily tall phones of the past decade.

At this point you HAVE to make it a 7" behemoth to get sales, but a lower-volume model with a smaller screen would be a great addition to the lineup. But I can't imagine too many people buy them because Apple stopped making the Minis and they don't usually stop making things that make them money. I actually loved my 13 mini. If this Motorola-GrapheneOS partnership ends up spawning a phone of that size (I do think a lot of privacy enthusiasts may also be smaller phone enthusiasts), I may finally go back to Android.

I bought my current phone, a Motorola Moto G Stylus (2025), because I of its hardware support. It has E-SIM plus a physical SIM slot, SD card support, and a headphone jack. The one downside is not having any custom firmware builds available. I'm hoping that changes in the near future.

I didn't like the look of the batteries in the pixel watches. I actually have a Huawei watch (yeah, I know) and it's great. Turns out, when you're subsidised by the Chinese state you can make a good product that costs less.

Honestly, $400-$500 for 7 years of support is a killer deal. 5 years ago the only manufacturer to give a meaningful amount of support was Apple, everyone else was up to 2, even for flagships.

But I completely understand your situation, especially if you're trying to be fiscally responsible and NOT get your phone on a payment plan of some sort. The 7 years of support means you might be able to find a 2 year old Pixel for below 300 though? Unless they don't depreciate fast enough for that.

Unfortunately the first device from this partnership is unlikely to be cheaper than the a series Pixel lineup. The GrapheneOS team already confirmed it will have a flagship snapdragon SOC. Have you looked into used a series Pixel devices? The 8a can be had refurbished in the low $200 range, and it will have software support for 5 more years. The 9a can be had for about $250 and will receive 6 more years of updates.

And no notch or circle in my display!

Dude I miss notification LEDs so much. And there is no proper "do not turn on my screen" permission in Android so some app stubbornly wake my screen.

Also would add Display Output over USB to that list.

GOS already confirmed it's shipping with a flagship snapdragon SOC so it won't be a budget device. Maybe a future model though.

I think most of those other features are a long shot as well. The GOS team hasn't really specified any preferences for non-security related features and I doubt Motorola would suddenly change their hardware design/direction.

And a user replaceable battery!

I’d rather have it be a bit more mid to upper range, I want a nice processor and decent cameras

Those aren't the real logos either.

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/116148741815778719

We never ruled out working with Motorola, Samsung, Nothing, OnePlus, etc. We said none of their current devices meet our requirements which remains the case for all of them. Only future devices from our OEM partner can be supported and it's going to take time to meet all of the update and security feature requirements. It's planned for 2027 but we aren't sure when in 2027 the devices will be launched. There's a lot of work to get done on updates, MTE, etc. before then.

No, they intentionally limit storage so they can sell cloud solutions and suck up more of your fungible personal data while you pay them.

I thought the same initially, but Lenovo also owns the 'Think' line of products which have historically been targeted at business customers and known for security. Whilst neither of the ThinkPhones currently meet GrapheneOS requirements, Motorola has been improving in that regard (according to GrapheneOS). Motorola also recently released a phone with 7 years of security updates, which is unusual for them.

Motorola, although it is now owned by Lenovo, is still headquartered in the US. North America continues to be one of its primary markets, and it's the next biggest company there by market share after Apple, Samsung and Google. Micay is based in Canada AFAIK. Altogether it makes a lot of sense to me that Motorola would be the company to reach out, as opposed to another Chinese brand headquartered on the other side of the world with zero market share or presence in North America, or one with any prior reputation for security.