1437
Can someone ELI5 me what's so special about Google's SoCs that no other manufacturer could do (preferably citing sources not involved)?
I still find it weird that a major manufacturer would bother with a ROM.
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
1437 points (99.4% liked)
Technology
82460 readers
2847 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Being able to lock the bootloader with custom keys. Major OEMs do not want people to bypass their backdoors. Google signalled they will shift away from it too so Motorola is a welcome addition
great
Any non Google phone running graphene would be epic.
Having a vendor explicitly supporting it...epic is an understatement.
load more comments
(3 replies)
This is great news. While I still think we should make a push towards Linux phones being mainstream so that we don’t keep this duopoly on OSes, it’s nice to know that at least one manufacturer is currently defying googles obvious goal of suppressing third party ROMs and marketplaces.
load more comments
(4 replies)
maybe my next phone will be a Motorola.
My last few phones have been Motorolas and I've been very very happy with them.
My only issue was that back then, I wasn't really paying attention to alternative OSs like Graphene, Lineage or e/os and was therefore not really too concerned with ROM support/chip set. When I switched over to e/os, two of my Motorola's (including the one I WANT to use with it) has no ROM support because it's running a Mediatek chipset. So I'm using my second to last one while my nice new one collects dust.
Moving forward I'll be paying more attention to Qualcomm vs Mediatek.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(7 replies)
If I can get GrapheneOS + headphone jack + SD card slot, I am in.
I'd add "less than 15cm tall" too. I've had enough of stupid giant phones that don't fit in pockets and where you can't even reach the top or other side with your thumb.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
But how are they going to include useless "uninstallable" apps and advertisements?
Grapheneos is a pretty attractive selling point for a phone. They could even make money the old fashioned way: by selling phones.
load more comments
(14 replies)
Well, fuck. I really hoped they would pick FairPhone. Motorola is... Okay. I guess they made the Nexus 5 ; which was one of the best phones ever.
I hope they make a SMALL one, I am so tired of this GIGANTIC pixel 9.
Actually LG made the Nexus 5, Moto did the Nexus 6, developed while Google owned Motorola and released a few weeks after Lenovo bought them.
Depending on your definition of 'small', your only hope might be if they did Razr and you used it folded up. That's credibly small, though I don't know if Graphene would be game for bothering to do that sort of multiple display work.
Fairphone isn’t available everywhere while Motorola is. It’s pretty easy to understand why they chose them.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Let's see if it gets released before GrapheneOS and unlockable bootloader get outlawed
load more comments
(4 replies)
Android seems intent on creating a huge market for this. Chef's kiss!
I actually bought a new Motorola phone 2 months ago precisely because i wanted a phone with an unlockable bootloader, and motorola delivered that.
Vote with your wallet.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Something like that is what I've been waiting for a long time for. Really looking forward to it.
My biggest concern is the life cycle of the device. I almost went with Motorola for my last phone, but saw that you were lucky to get 3 years of OS updates. Is that likely to be better on GrapheneOS? If so, that is a huge win imo. If not, it still isn't ideal because I don't want to have to buy a new phone every 2 years...
load more comments
(9 replies)
view more: next ›