I went with the 9 ultimately - and recently - and am very happy so far. I was prepared for a buggy or difficult experience but grapheme is really smooth in my experience so far.

After months of trying to degoogle a Samsung running stock OS, finally having control and proper security is a relief.

I also went with the 256gb and would recommend spending on storage whatever model you go with. Personally i don’t see much in the 9;pro that i don’t already have in the 9.

Signal, Lemmy (Voyager), Mastodon, PipePipe etc all running smoothly.

Learning that many apps you can get on Aurora will work, but most apparently rely on Google Play services to send notifications. So it’s annoying to not receive those or need to set up workarounds, but honestly think about that. The app is telling google every single item it wants to notify you and relying on google to deliver it. That really sucks as a strategy.

Thankfully Signal has its own way of delivering notifications

Many appa that seem to “need” Google Play Services to run will work without it, especially with Exploit Compatibility turned on in that specific app settings. Even worked for banking for me, no play services needed in that profile etc.

Proton Calendar is working well for me. I send and respond to invites from friends and family within it, and it is even able to view my work calendar which unfortunately has to live in Google. I can view work events from my personal device without needing to use any Google login on my own devices so it works for me. Proton Calendar’s UI and UX is pretty similar to Google Calendar IMO

1.Email –

proton

2.Cloud storage / file sync–

pCloud (lifetime storage purchase FTW)

3.Maps & navigation–

Magic Earth works pretty well

4.Search engine–

Qwant for daily driver, exploring SearxNG

5.Web browser–

Waterfox on desktop and mobile, exploring LibreWolfe and Fennec as well but Waterfox is smooth and fast

6.Calendar–

Proton

7.Contacts management–

Fossify

8.Notes / to-do lists–

Obsidian MD (free) with paid vault sync upgrade

9.Office suite (docs, spreadsheets, etc.)–

LibreOffice & Obsidian

10.Messaging / chat–

Signal, Line. I really, really tried with Element and Element X - would love a federated discord alternative - but honestly I was not even successful at adding friends with confirmed accounts. Could be user error.

Signal is great.

11.Video calling–

Line, Signal

12.Social media / microblogging–

Mastodon, BkueSky

RSS reader / news–

TBD open to suggestions -

13.Music streaming / podcast app–

Podcasts - AntennaPod is great, switched over from PocketCasts and haven’t looked back. Fuck Spotify.

Music – Bandcamp (must try it!) + CloudBeats on mobile (streaming my own flac files to myself) + MusicBee on desktop. Also, fuck Spotify.

14.Video streaming / YouTube alternative–

PeerTube, PipePipe

15.Password manager–

Proton

16.VPN / DNS / Firewall–

Proton

17.Launcher / Android OS (if you use custom ROMs)– Android with I hope all the right settings and no g-apps in the main profile. Looking at Lineage (my device can’t do Graphene)

Never wanted a pixel for any reason but might try it for next device solely for graphene - we’ll see.

18.App store / APKs–

Aurora / F-Droid

19.Photo backup / gallery–

Fossify Gallery

20.Weather–

Ehh. Still on MyRadar but probably time to switch

21.Smart assistant (if any)–

None

22.Anything else you’ve replaced?–

Left audible for Libro.FM, so far so good.

Left Amazon, been buying books on Thriftbooks.

Pixelfed seems to have potential as an IG replacement.

RedReader when looking at Reddit .

Looking for a meaningful Goodreads replacement with a mobile app…

Goal is to potentially try Lineage this summer…

LibreOffice has been working “fine” for my DeGoogled personal life.

Work is heavily Googled still (and not entirely up to me), but I’ve practiced a hard barrier between work tech and personal tech for years now. In case I can sway any colleagues: Anybody feeling like any of these alternatives would be ready for a small or larger team to jump over to that routinely collaborates on spreadsheets, documents and slides?