What smartphone gives me root, has an OS that'll be around in 2 years, & won't crash too much?

[brainwane]

I want to buy a smartphone. Help me decide.

I care about:

• Freedom (I want root on my phone without having to jailbreak it)
  
• Hardware quality
  
• Operating system quality (random crashiness is not acceptable)
  
• Operating system longevity & upgradability (Maemo and Meego went away pretty fast, and I don't want to buy a device that will never see another OS upgrade)
  

I'd rather have a physical keyboard, either in addition to or instead of a touchscreen, but I can stand not having one. And I have basically no hope that I could get a device made under fair labor practices and with any attentiveness to the environmental impacts of its manufacture, but am willing to be surprised.

I really do not care how many apps are available for a phone -- I'll be fine if it browses the web, makes and received phone calls, and it would be lovely if it takes mediocre photos and plays music. And it can be big and heavy and ugly and I don't mind as long as the hardware is robust.

I am planning on buying a device, that is, buying an unlocked one separately from getting a data/voice plan from a carrier (see again: my interest in freedom). I acknowledge that I am being picky here so I'm fine with spending commensurately. And I live in the US but am willing to purchase devices from abroad. For example, if multiple people have tried the Geeksphone Zero and can recommend it, I'm willing to pony up.

Recommendations?

(Crosspost from Ask MetaFilter.)

Comments

[rivenwanderer]

I'm happy with my HTC-made G2, and it's cyanogenmod-able if need be. My girlfriend CM'd her old G1 for a while, and it seemed like a pretty reasonable experience.

[aedifica]

I rooted my G1 so I could run Android 2.x on it. I was happy to have been able to do it, but I did get increasingly frustrated with the phone for the last year or so that I had it--it was exceedingly crashy. I don't know if that was the mod or the increasing age of the phone (and the increasing demands that are made of smartphones).

Now I have a G2, unmodded so far, and am pretty happy with it. I don't know about OS longevity, though--branewane, does the ability to run something like Cyanogenmod meet that criterion for you?

[brainwane]

Thanks for your answers. Cyanogenmod is an interesting case. I saw someone recently make the argument: if you're unhappy using MeeGo because it's now community-supported, well, guess what, so is CyanogenMod, so what is the difference?

Thought-provoking.

I eventually decided to get an N9 for partly sentimental reasons.

[jeshyr]

BTW I see you posted this is a few places, if you come up with a single-ish answer can you let me know? Because aside from preferring a touchscreen keyboard to a physical one your requirements totally match mine :)

[brainwane]

I decided to get an N9 - I know it's not as great as I wanted but I used to have a Nokia N900 so I'm somewhat familiar with that ecology and (as I realized) sentimentally attached to the Maemo legacy. It's a touchscreen, so if you can, check it out -- but who knows about continuing support. I am betting that the community will fix any serious security flaws that get found and openly reported. We'll see.

[rhivolution]

I don't have any specifics and I'm pretty stuck to knowledge about UK-available phones at the moment, but I will say that if the trend here is indicative of where the US is going, physical keyboards on smartphones are on the way out. My partner's looking for one himself and there really isn't anything widely available that's not BlackBerry-based.

[brainwane]

I think you're right. I shall simply get used to it, or catch as catch can....

[sophie]

Good question about having root without needing to jailbreak! I'm not sure if any would even exist. I could be wrong, though.

(Also, hi! *waves*)

[brainwane]

The Nokia N9, which I decided to get, lets you enable "developer mode" which gives the user a kind of root. Better than many.

And - hi!

[xb95]

I'm not sure this exists... Carriers are notoriously sticky about wanting to have the devices locked down. I'd definitely be interested in knowing if you find a solution that fits this bill of particulars, though.

[brainwane]

I got an N9 basically out of sentiment and wanting to make a decision already (see some other answers in this thread). But thanks for the reply. Yeah, I think I was asking for a pony here.