I'm seeing that buying a Pixel and then degoogle-ing it with Graphene OS is the way to go. Before I pull the trigger on that, can anyone point me to a good guide on how and when to load Graphene OS? Do I load it after activation with a carrier? Ok to do this before carrier activation?
And what functionality do I have with Graphene OS? Only Fdroid as a store? Can I sideload apps?
I'd really like to hear from some people that have actually done this about what to do and what their experience is with grapheneos. I'm leery of spending hundreds of dollars on a phone that may or may not work as I want.
I am seriously considering doing this but I'll buy an iphone if I can't really understand the pixel/graphene path well enough before dropping the $$.