Freedom Phone: Scamming the uninformed
July 20, 2021
Erik Finman is selling the Freedom Phone, a 500 USD phone which is focused on free speech and privacy. Not a bad concept actually, considering the growing influence of FAANG and other big tech companies in our daily lives. A lot of people just want to reclaim their privacy, not only the MAGApedes. I have been seeing posts and comments even from liberals that they want this phone
Hold up your horses, so I would say to those people who are interested on this phone. They are not getting a good deal. Based on research of techheads, it's basically a rebrand of Umidigi A9 Pro . Selling price right now is about 180 USD on Amazon, and 150 USD at Chinese retailers like AliExpress. It's a good phone at its price range, but awful at 500 USD, unless it offers something value at the software side.
News flash, it's not. Based on the two videos from Candace Owens and Anna Khait, It's running on LineageOS and microG . You just need to flash LineageOS for microG ROM, if you need some Google services. That's basically my set up on my secondary phone (Xiaomi MiA1). If you really want to disconnect from Google, you can also flash the official LineageOS ROM
WARNING:
Flashing a custom rom requires wiping your data on your phone. Back up before flashing. Also, do your research first.
To be fair, there is no official build from Lineage OS nor LineageOS for microG for Umidigi A9 Pro. It isn't worth 300 USD though. Hobbyist are porting LineageOS to unsupported phones for the longest time.
If you're not tech savvy. Other people will flash a custom rom for a fee like Rob Braxman . He offer his services for 130 USD.
Another option is just buying a new/refurbished phone from iodé, /e/foundation, or Rob Braxman . All of them sell their phones for around 100 to 150 USD mark up. iodé, and /e/foundation also offer their custom roms for free if you want to flash it yourself. In short, they are overcharging a services by about 200 to 300%.
Whether you go to harder free option or easier paid option above, you get more value than buying the Freedom Phone. He's scamming the uninformed from they're hard earned money.