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Arguably, any system that uses a Qualcomm SoC is not secure: either they do it on purpose, or they truly are incompetent, or it is a mix of both. No Qualcomm ph

Arguably, any system that uses a Qualcomm SoC is not secure: either they do it on purpose, or they truly are incompetent, or it is a mix of both. No Qualcomm phone I've ever owned I've been truly happy with from the SoC SDK perspective (makes the job of community ROMs a thousand times harder). I do consider the Pinephone and Pinephone Pro secure, however. It doesn't use Qualcomm, and the broadband SoC is an isolated part. Allwinner and Rockchip do not have the security nightmare track record that Qualcomm does. They also ship with Postmarket instead of an Android that isn't security focused, which is nice. The only problem with Allwinner and Rockchip is they are both Chinese companies that may be tampered with by the Chinese government. Qualcomm and Mediatek just have a record, today, of security flaw after security flaw. The new Samsung-made SoCs in the new Pixels are also an interesting choice. They do not use the Samsung TPM, instead opting for Google's newest version of the Titan TPM. Shortly after the Pixel 6 came out, Google Project Zero issued a story about the Samsung TPM having security issues. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

csdvrx 3y ago
> I do consider the Pinephone and Pinephone Pro secure, however. It doesn't use Qualcomm, and the broadband SoC is an isolated part. Good, I'll play with my pinephone then! I didn't want my efforts to be wasted if I discovered some horrible security hole that I would find as distracting as this obvious huge elephant in the room > The only problem with Allwinner and Rockchip is they are both Chinese companies that may be tampered with by the Chinese government. I do not believe this is a likely problem. And even if it was, "not for me": I already have a few eink android Chinese devices so I'd be toast anyway, so it shouldn't influence my decision. > Qualcomm and Mediatek just have a record, today, of security flaw after security flaw. I see that and I find it concerning, so I'd rather take my chances with something I can explore, see the flaws and limit them, than something that doesn't let me do that. BTW I love how they are more flexible that US devices, letting me root and change their mtd content! Check the boox and bigme devices if you are interested in linux on baremetal color eink, yet with full control.

csdvrx 3y ago

> I do consider the Pinephone and Pinephone Pro secure, however. It doesn't use Qualcomm, and the broadband SoC is an isolated part. Good, I'll play with my pinephone then! I didn't want my efforts to be wasted if I discovered some horrible security hole that I would find as distracting as this obvious huge elephant in the room > The only problem with Allwinner and Rockchip is they are both Chinese companies that may be tampered with by the Chinese government. I do not believe this is a likely problem. And even if it was, "not for me": I already have a few eink android Chinese devices so I'd be toast anyway, so it shouldn't influence my decision. > Qualcomm and Mediatek just have a record, today, of security flaw after security flaw. I see that and I find it concerning, so I'd rather take my chances with something I can explore, see the flaws and limit them, than something that doesn't let me do that. BTW I love how they are more flexible that US devices, letting me root and change their mtd content! Check the boox and bigme devices if you are interested in linux on baremetal color eink, yet with full control.