Leak confirms GrapheneOS & Motorola partnership for non-Pixel hardware - PiunikaWeb
https://piunikaweb.com/2026/02/27/leak-confirms-grapheneos-motorola-partnership-for-non-pixel-hardware/Open linkView original on piefed.social755
Comments106https://piunikaweb.com/2026/02/27/leak-confirms-grapheneos-motorola-partnership-for-non-pixel-hardware/Open linkView original on piefed.social
While I'm happy that it's Motorola, i just wish someone like Fairphone also bites the bullet of investing in a proper encryption chip that's acceptable to Grapheneos. I'd like to see more or a trifecta (duofecta?) of trustworthy OS and sustainable/committed manufacturer.
Now is this the REAL Motorola or is it the brand name that Lenovo got a hold of. Cause real Motorola doesnt make consumer phones anymore.
Lenovo's Motorola, if you ask me. I don't think there's much left at all from original Motorola. But they had a decent track record with their recent phones, AFAIK. Not that I've owned any from Motorola.
I have a Motorola phone, I like it. It's at least better than the Samsung I had before.
My wife's previous phone was a Moto One Hyper. Pretty well made device, especially for the price.
I currently own the 2023 Motorola edge+ and love it. Its got flagship features at like half the price. I bought it for like $700 2-3 years ago.
The ONLY real drawback that I've had over 2 years is that the front glass is curved and breaks too easily for being Gorilla Glass. The curved design also means that case options are super limited so its a double whammy.
I have a 2021 Moto edge still going strong
GrapheneOS requires I think a few other things, like the possibility to completely disable the data lines in the USB port, and a bunch of others.
The problem with Fairphone is that they have rather high demands (e.g. long term support for hardware, better production practices) but they are a rather small outfit, so the default answer from parts manufacturers is "talk to the hand".
As they grow they'll become more interesting
I would argue that Fairphone with /e/OS is a combination of a committed/sustainable manufacturer with a trustworthy OS. It does not actively spy or screw with you, and it tries to prevent snooping in many places.
Of course it's not nearly as security hardened as GrapheneOS, so that may be an unacceptable compromise to some.
the fairphone 4 can do that, calyxos makes use of it
I think they just released the fair phone 6 not too long ago so it’ll take a while even if it’s on the tables.
I know....I guess it's just wishful thinking for the future. I've gotten a 2nd hand pixel pro last year. That's...a lot of storage and memory, just about as much as my laptop. Should last me for a while (I hope it won't physically break for any reason!), so I won't immediately ride this Motorola wave anyway.
Bifteki!
Fairphone has a slightly different focus, mainly sustainability and ethics (labour rights, production). Graphene's more on the privacy side.
Would be dope though, to have it on there as well.
Fairphone does partner with Murena for e/os. It's pretty similar to grapheoneOS
I wouldn't say that it's pretty similar.
They have rather different goals and feature sets.
Sent from my FP4 with /e/OS.
They are more similar than they are dissimilar. Only uber nerds see the differences more prominently
Im sorry, I think your have spelled LinaegeOS, an OS thats not even security based but to support old Hardware which security has already been compromised by missing Firmware.
If we want GOS to grow, we need to welcome and help people understanding the differences. We don't need to be pedantic schmucks.
Sent from my GrapheneOS phone
If you want to convince GOS users to occasionally drop their sense of superiority, it looks like you have your work cut out for you.
I hope people don't feel superior because they use a tool.
I use Arch, BTW.
You know, I’d love a razr flip with graphene. Bring it on.
Ooo I'm sure this is likely for future models, but I was actually pondering getting a cheap pixel to try out graphene and see what it'd be like compared to my Razr. Maybe I'll have to wait a bit to see how this develops.
You can find older pixels on swappa for cheap - my understanding is that we won't see a GrapheneOS phone earlier than 2027 (which admittedly is only 9 months away).
Don't you dare say such a thing
More like 10+however long it takes for it to complete months
I got my Pixel 9a for just around 500 euros.
That would be so awesome
The best thing about Motorola is that they ship with a very stock android ROM. It's also the worst bit, because there's nobody maintaining any software. Handballing software maintenance to GrapheneOS would be sweet.
This genuinely so fucking smart from Motorola. Whomever is greenlighting this needs major kudos. We're in a world where everyone wants to move away from US technology now and Google/Apple have monopolized the market. Motorola is making this move RIGHT when everywhere else is going "Is there literally nothing else we can use???" Good play esp as they need to up the specs on a new device to handle Graphene. I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with.
Isn't Motorola still a US company though? How is this a move away from US tech?
Nope, moto mobility is owned by lenovo. So chinese.
Looking at Wikipedia now, Motorola Mobility is owned by Lenovo but still a US based company, so kinda the worst of both, no?
Better than American owned and operated.
the irony of a company most definitely compromised by the greatest censorial government on earth marketing a private and secure mobile OS.
The irony of somehow thinking the chinese gov is worse than the US
we dont need to pit two bad bitches against each other. but at least we aren't being fully censored yet over here 🤷♂️ China is leagues more competent at censoring their people and they actually have the will to do it.
Are you serious? We dont censor people in the great and free western empire? Go look at reddit, facebook, twitter, or any fucking news stream you absolute twit
not at the network level.
I Fucking love Motorola, I'm cumming as I'm reading this. Thank you Motorola.
Same. I don't think I could use a phone without the chop to turn on flashlight thing.
At first I though the chop was so useless but I use it all the time now, lol.
Everybody is always amazed when I do it while they're still stumbling around looking for their flashlight toggle lol
Unfortunately I was an idiot and uninstalled it when I was debloating my phone. I reinstalled moto actions, but the chop for flashlight doesn't work unless it's recently after a reboot (the turn for camera does though). Legitimately temped to make a backup then factory reset my phone to get it back.
Yeah this is cool. Could have been much worse than Motorola. Looking forward to this
Man I can't WAIT. Next up: Fairphone
lineage already works on those
That'd be a dream!
Sounds like a good choice. Motorola has some very good budget phones and also good high-end phones. All running pretty clean versions of Android. I hope GrapheneOS will support both a flagship (or midrange) and a budget phone.
This is hilarious to me because other than a Samsung once (which made me go back) I had only moto... Until when I finally upgraded I wanted grapheneOS so pixel it was. Very happy about this.
Glad to see this. Motorola seemed like a solid choice. Hopefully we'll get some specs and release dates when they officially unveil it. I know it was pushed back to 2027, so I'm hoping for a Q1 2027 release. I've been holding off on getting a pixel in the hopes of getting a non-Google GrapheneOS phone. It would be nice if I don't wind up having to wait too much longer.
Really hope it releases 2026 so I can get rid of this pixel asap
In case others were wondering, MWC 2026 is March 2-5. So, hopefully we'll have official verification by the end of the week.
why in the thumbnail is it neither org's logos?
Interesting catch, weird AI image maybe?
According to the article, it was a little obvious that it'd be Motorola. To me it's unexpected as I wasn't following this all that closely. In any case, I'm personally pleased with the OEM choice. I'll need to do some research on Motorola's smartphones to prepare for the one/s that support Graphene.
They are basically stock android with minimal bloatware for a decent price. I've been using them for years. There's the whole Lenovo scandal but its hard to find any decent phone I want nowadays so concessions need to be made somewhere
I'm mainly interested in the hardware, i.e., screen, camera, build quality, that kind of stuff. Though it's good to know about the software, since Graphene will most likely be the same with its security features.
Their hardware's usually 'fine' not great, but with decent screens and battery life.
I have Edge 50 pro and I can tell you it is full of shit. Meta services, their own shitty services installing crap of their choice, adware they are reenabling as soon as you disable it... You'll need
adbto remove all that.yikes, I noticed a lot of that crap is added by phone carriers themselves
I was following closely - checking for updates weekly or more, while struggling to be so much as content with my P9FP and trying to decide whether to upgrade to a P10FP (marginal upgrades on paper, but they really help out in the weakest areas).
Still entirely unexpected to me, and even in my wildest hypotheticals, Motorola was not on my radar.
It's great to see a mainstream OEM work with GOS. I really hope Motorola will make phones with an actual headphone jack. That's my no. 1 complaint about modern Pixel hardware.
they still do have jacks in some of their low and mid devices
Haven't had a Motorola in many years. Hopefully this works out well and we get a really nice piece of hardware that isn't subject to the whims of Google.
This is how a functioning capitalist system should work. Companies competing against each other for the benefit of the consumer.
The purpose of a system is what it does. Capitalism is functioning, it's just that we're not the beneficiaries.
Since when is Graphene's logo a football and Motorola's the Super Mario M?
It's AI slop.
If Motorola is willing to have a non-shitty operating system, why can't they just put a non-shitty operating system on at the factory? All the stock Android OS I've seen lately, including Motorola's, are crappy, have privacy settings disabled, and in many cases are full of unremovable malware.
Well, Google wants to continue their trend of spyware and people don't give enough shits for anything to change. Same as with smartphone manufacturers removing features (SD cards, removable battery) and car manufacturers adding spyware and unnecessarily complexifying cars to make them less sustainable.
Presumably they could start shipping graphene stock
Because that was not their goal before, they were OK with the level of freedom their users had with stock Android. With the future restrictions Google will apply to Android they are probably looking to ship their new devices with Graphene to prevent that.
I used Motorola's products with Android for years and they one of the few in the market to still deliver something close to stock Android with only a couple of apps added for specific features (gestures to turn off flash lantern, etc) so I don't where you got this malware thing going on with them. Unless you count everything Google as malware, in that case yes.
Now I got a Samsung and it's one of my worst experiences ever using their "One UI" and it is really riddled with crap because Samsung for some reason thinks they need to add their own versions of every app included in stock Android.
Yes, but more urgently, Facebook.
Lenovo is based.
The same Lenovo that shipped laptops with a malicious root certificate preinstalled?
One mans based is another mans cringe
Fuck yeah, solid shoid of brand.
Although I don't know how good motorolas camera game is if you are more serious about the camera.
Edit... Not sure how I got shoid from typing choice...
Their cameras are upper midrange, at least on their flagships.
I have the 2025 Power. The camera is decent. It seems to struggle in low light
Yeah all my motos were okay. But not "serious" cameras.
My next phone I wanted to be one of the top performing cameras.
i would liked xiomi more but more Hardware is better than only google
Amen! I was using a note 13pro until all the carriers in the United States blocked it the month that Trump took office.
I remember having a motorola razr when i was younger. Loved the design
that and Wabistics, if i here you mention anything else but Wabistics...
Except the tumor below the flip
It will be great if this reaches the Moto G series. I'm sure the Fairphone is nice but it's 4x as expensive--no thanks.
My guess is, that they will offer a new Thinkphone model with GraphenOS to target business customers.
But of course I don't know it, just guessing.
Twinkphone will require socks.
I'm very confused this news. Reddit sub said it wasn't Motorola. This post claimed it's Motorola.
The Motorola mobile brand is owned by Lenovo. So it's basically that.
Motorola had made several classic phones.I hope this will be their true comeback.
Official link https://motorolanews.com/motorola-three-new-b2b-solutions-at-mwc-2026/
Something I’ve been thinking about: independent security projects often face pressure once corporate partnerships or funding enter the picture.
Does GrapheneOS have any structural safeguards to ensure development priorities remain community-driven if hardware vendors become more involved?
I’m not assuming there’s a problem — just interested in how projects like this avoid the “venture capital influence” problem that has affected other open source initiatives.
Tbh, not a huge fan of the pick. I had various Motorola Droid phones for years before switching to Samsung. All of the Droids were horribly underpowered after 2 years and the batteries only had 1/2 of their original capacity by that point. Then I got a Samsung S10e and it lasted 5+ years.
I seriously hope Motorola has gotten rid of their planned obsolescence policy in the past few years. It's nice that there's going to be a second vendor option for GrapheneOS soon, but I wish it was a better vendor
what would you consider a better vendor? samsung, xiaomi, oneplus? those all have been plenting more and more malware into their phones from the factory, sometimes making it seem like a feature, and recently they started to bar owners from replacing the OS on it by taking away the option to unlock the bootloader
hmd global / nokia might have been a good option
Motorola flagship phones are decent. I've been running a razr (the flip alternative) and its been solid. They're not groundbreaking but they are a good bang for your money
Their low budget ones aren't that good because they cost like 200 usd and run on bare minimums
I would like it even more to see that working on a Xiaomi or Samsung
wish i could pre order
Oh shit. This is amazing. I would buy this in an instance. Especially the folding phone from Motorola.
I really hope motorolla just does a regular unaltered Graphene OS and not some skinned version of it
I sense Motorolas authentic belief in me as our pact is formed....
BOND RANK LEVEL 1 LEARNED PIXEL DEFOCUS YOU CAN NOW STUDY THE MOTOROLA ARCHETYPE IN AKADEMIA
There wasn't exactly anyone else it could be except Motorola Mobility. It's not much of a leak since we all already knew.