Anybody used CalyxOS?

General
#1

I have been using SFOS on my Xperia III since November and love the OS.

However…

I SUCK at typing on this phone. REALLY, REALLY bad. Throw in the sub par, sometimes non functional camera, the glitches using the camera w Android support, and the slow opening of apps and I have toyed with the idea of trying an ungoogled Android.

Yes, I get the irony of buying a phone made with a closed SOC by google to use an operating system to get away from google.

I have tried a couple of flavors of Linux on my OnePlus 6 and SFOS on my Xperia and SFOS is without a doubt the best user experience. After 4 months I am not sure the sacrifices to have Linux outweigh the benefit.

If we had a premium wide body phone with SFOS I would not even consider leaving, but…

So, has anyone tried Calyx and what is/was your experience?

Thanks!!

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#2

There is a Fairphone 4 with CalyxOS in my household.

If you can stand Android, it is the best option for it, in my opinion. Everything works as you would expect from Android+microG.

However, kuketz-blog.de has tested CalyxOS (https://www.kuketz-blog.de/calyxos-de-googled-geht-anders-custom-roms-teil2/) and was not very enthusiastic in terms of degoogling (in German, unfortunately).

#3

Thank you for the link. Google translate did a respectable job. It was a facinating read. Sounds like it phones home to the mothership more than Calyx leads one to believe. Their arguement that the user is just a voice in the crowd lacks any credence since the IMSI is transmitted! Pretty easy to identify and track you with that =(

Still sounds like the closest to getting away from google and using android.

I really wish SFOS did a premium phone for us.

#4

You might want to consider higher keyboard rows patch, it was a life saver for me, spelling mistake rate dropped to almost zero. Personally I love the the 21:9 ratio and think it should be the standard, even in laptops. It makes sense when you think about the eyes field of view

#5

There is also the native advanced camera app, which is a lot better

#6

Thanks. I just installed that and will see if it fixes my problem!

#7

I will look at it. I installed one of the advanced camera packages and it borked up everthing video related. Had to remove it.

Just looked in the Jolla store and cannot find any camera app. Can find advanced camera in storeman, but not the native apps.

#8

Advanced camera from storeman is the one I use, I thought it was native. Let me know if you decide to move away from Sailfish so I can talk you out of that madness. I’m going to try ubuntu touch on Xperia X, and e/os/ on Xperia 10, but I’m definetly sticking with sailfish. For me It’s patriotic as I’m finnish

#9

How did E and UT work for you?

#10

I actually use opencamera from fdroid. Because it runs on android it is able to use the camera2 api and thus is able to use features like hdr. The image quality is much better in low light conditions etc

4 Likes
#11

Not sure about the guy above, but since I recently got a pixel 3a (best hardware supposedly to run UT) to try UT I can tell you that you just can’t compare it with SFOs on Xperia III.
Yes, comparing SFOs with any modern smartphone running android/iOS is a joke, but compared to any other open or alternative OS SFOs is just miles ahead.
So much more functionality, stability, ease of use and APPS. Opening the App Store on UT is just sad and waydroid is even more sad compared to SFOs app support.

1 Like
#12

Vollaphone22, Siemens Gigaset GS5, Rephone is a very good port for Sailfish. Would be nice for official support. I like keyboard and camera, good daily. Very good removable battery - long lasting.

#13

Thanks for the tip. It is working MUCH better than the SFOS stock camera.

1 Like
#14

Irrelevent to the question I asked…

#15

Thanks, but looking for feedback on CalyxOS. I have tried UT on a couple of devices and went back to android on both. I had Mobian working pretty well on my OnePlus 6t until a sloppy update on their part bricked my phone worse than I have ever bricked a phone. Took me almost a week to sort it out.

Really like NOT having an android phone, but after several months the shortcomings are making it less and less worth it.

I agree SFOS is miles ahead over the other non android options.

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#16

Calyx, graphene or any other privacy focus rom is just another debloated android rom.
Meaning that it will work with basically almost every android app/function, especially if you also add microG and whatever magisk module you want.
If the point is to do your job it will work perfectly fine.
You will also have many hardware options to choose from.

2 Likes
#17

Well, after 6 months now with SFOS my plan is to order a used Pixel 6 next week and installl Lineage w micro G.

Open camera pretty much took care of the camera issue. Higher keyboard rows helped immensely, but I still suck at typing on this phone.

Finally dropped the phone just right and broke the top left corner of the screen. Stil fully functional, but found out no one in Pattaya, Thailand services or has parts for the obscure Xperia III. PLUS I have a wierd charging issue. Currently plugged into my pc and just flashed “not enough power to charge” and is acutally discahrging while plugged in. 3 times in the last 10 days it has fully discharged while plugged. Turning the phone off to charge seems to be the solution.

Add the little aggravations that come with using Linux mobile and I think I am probably done until Jolla brings out a premium handset.

#18

I don’t have a Pixel 6a but a very good running XA2 with Iodé, so you know what I would recommend instead of Lineage.

#19

There are phones that are better for typing? Everyone I lend my phone to, to put in their details, likes the Sailfish keyboard.
Well I presume wider ones are. I mostly mistype adjacently.

Thank God for OKBoard but I struggle when I have to type in French. I’ve been using Speech Keyboard as well.

Open Camera is neat and I had no idea any of Camera 2 API was supported. I have 4 camera apps now! I’ve a couple of camera threads up I’ll update.

I won’t use anything as ugly as Lineage/Android.

#20

Definitely.
Wider displays, better layout, theming, better predictions and corrections make a huge difference.
Even Jolla support told me (when I asked about predictive text for my language) that the function is very old and should be updated, but no eta.

Anyway, I’ll survive :smiley:

1 Like