About the difference between nitrophone and Google phone

What’s different between the nitrophone and google Pixel?

Dear professional firends,
I really want to know what is the difference between nitrophone and I am buying a google phone from Google store and then flashing it to graphene os? Moreover, the nitrophone is so expensive and has small memory. Is there any professional who can thoroughly answer this question?

Buying in bulk is possible for companies without the need to flash an image. The expertise (even when this can be done when you are a bit tech affine) for people like journalists that might not have this know how. Warranty is not void as the phone already ships with the firmware. Having someone remove the microphone or camera for you.

What you mean is that Nitrophone only helps you remove the camera, and nothing else has changed. In fact, apart from this point, can it be achieved if I buy a Google mobile phone? Right?

Correct. They offer a finalized product and the firmware is open source and can be downloaded and applied on the matching hardware.

Surry for this impolite opinion, but my main problem with the Nitrophone is that by buying one, I financially help Google, which is basically the very opposite of what I want.
Not being a critical spy nor a celeb, I’m perfectly happy with a Fairphone with /e/Os on it.
I’m definitely a Nitrokey user, have been for long, also have a Nextbox, since the very beginning and crowdfundings, but google, not.

The question is: Is nitrophone safe or is it safe after modifying Google Pixel to graphene system?

Hervé S. via Nitrokey Support <noreply@nitrokey.com> 于 2024年2月11日周日 19:16写道:

Both are safe, and far safer than an ordinary google pixel.
Than it’s up to you to decide if it’s safe to buy a google hardware anyway.
To me, it’s a bit like a fish saying choosing a specific hook on a specific line is safe because that special hook is perfectly clean.
Indeed it is. Totally clean.
But you are encouraging the hook maker still.

One of the main features of Pixel phones is that the bootloader can be locked again. That means the firmware cannot be tampered with.

I think the Pixel series is for Google more to showcase what is possible with Android and that they do not make a lot of profit with the hardware

Do you mean nitrophone has completely solved this problem? Is there any official notification? If so, then the advantages of nitrophone are very obvious.

nku via Nitrokey Support <noreply@nitrokey.com> 于 2024年2月12日周一 02:58写道:

Locking the bootloader is important as it enables full verified boot. It also prevents using fastboot to flash, format or erase partitions. Verified boot will detect modifications to any of the OS partitions and it will prevent reading any modified / corrupted data. If changes are detected, error correction data is used to attempt to obtain the original data at which point it’s verified again which makes verified boot robust to non-malicious corruption.

Source: GrapheneOS manual

Is this the security demonstrated by nitrophone? But Google phone can’t do it?

nku via Nitrokey Support <noreply@nitrokey.com> 于 2024年2月12日周一 12:58写道:

Google’s Pixel phone does the same in the quote, but GrapheneOS/Nitrophone has additional security features.

Few Android phones allow installation of custom firmware with the option to lock the phone again.
Phones / Android combinations that do not have this feature show a message that a custom firmware is installed and someone that has physical access could modify the firmware and modifications would not be reported during boot.

Thank you professionals for your explanations. In the end, it can actually be boiled down to the following points, which are also the points I learned: 1. Nitrophone uses secure booting, encryption and other methods within the physical framework of the Google chip, making the firmware more private and less likely to be hacked. attack. This needs to be done within graphene OS, but the above changes were not made in the original googlephone. 2. Nitrophone may have 30% security made by nitro company, but the price is very expensive, which makes many people afraid to buy it. 3. I have never figured out why there is no 1TB nitrophone. What is the reason?

nku via Nitrokey Support <noreply@nitrokey.com> 于 2024年2月13日周二 05:08写道:

At the same time, I found a serious problem. In nitrophone, the system is extremely unstable. As far as I know, there have been countless bugs. At least compared to Android and Apple iOS in the existing market, what is the reason for this problem?

XinYang <phyxiny@gmail.com> 于 2024年2月13日周二 17:32写道: