Best smartphones
Smartphoness outside of the Big Tech surveillance devices made by Apple/Google/Samsung/etc.:
- Jolla, a Linux-based, privacy-focused phone made in Europe. The Finnish team is also responsible for SailfishOS, “the only European mobile OS.”
- Sidephone, from a team in Toronto, is a phone with dedicated buttons to Big Tech apps like WhatsApp and Uber. $249 and shipping in early 2026, they claim.
- Wisephone II is a “healthy smartphone” from Techless, which is “on a mission to overcome digital addiction, rebuild relationships, and embrace life to the fullest.”
- From Fairphone, an announcement (Dec 4, 2025) about their open-source efforts in the phone’s OS:
We’re proud to report that after a lot of hard work and dedication from our software team, the open source code for the Fairphone 5 and the Fairphone (Gen. 6) is now in excellent condition for building, just like the Fairphone 3 and 4. Try flashing these newly compiled images onto your Fairphone devices if you are so inclined, and use the code to build your own OS. We’re big fans of open-source buildable code at Fairphone. Here’s why. - Fairphone
On pause:
- CalyxOS, a mobile operating system, seems to be on hiatus. Cory Doctorow wrote about the project back in 2024:
Calyx is an incredible, privacy-focused nonprofit whose founder, Nicholas Merrill, was the first person to successfully resist one of the Patriot Act’s “sneek-and-peek” warrants, spending 11 years defending his users’ privacy from secret - and, ultimately, unconstitutional - surveillance:
Merrill and Calyx have tapped into various obscure corners of US wireless spectrum licenses that require major carriers to give ultra-cheap access to nonprofits, allowing them to offer unlimited, surveillance-free, Net Neutrality respecting wireless data packages:
. . . The company has graduated from selling mobile hotspots with unlimited data SIMs to selling jailbroken, de-Googled Pixel phones that have all the hardware reliability of a Pixel, coupled with an alternative app suite and your choice of a Calyx SIM and/or a Calyx hotspot:
Creative Good members: The Forum has the latest updates on this entry - if you're not a member, join us to get access.
