I need an Android device for archival purposes, it has several requirements and I would appreciate any suggestions. I’ve done some research myself, but I would appreciate it maybe you know of something I haven’t discovered.
Requirements:
- Must fit inside this Faraday pouch, or a different one that is of a similar price, and is both water and fire proof
- Must support an open OS (Degoogled, rooted Android ROM or Linux - both support touch interfaces, Kiwix, and storing and viewing files)
- at least 256GB internal storage to store the files
- at least 8GB RAM for running local AI models, preferably nearer 16GB
- Good battery life, since it will stay inside the pouch most of the time and I don’t want to have to take it out to charge it every day
- As cheap as possible
I have no other requirements, it doesn’t even have to have a camera, let alone a good one.
Thanks for all your help!
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It will make the search even harder, but I’d recommend to add “removable battery” to the list.
Yep that’s what i was thinking. He would have a exploded battery in few years rather than a archival phone.
Could you extend on the “archival” parts a little? What would your daily(?) use look like?
Storing Wikipedia (using Kiwix), various media files (TV shows, movies, books), an LLM (using Layla Lite if Android, Jan if Linux), Stable Diffusion (SDAI if Android, Krita with AI Diffusion if Linux), and if there’s enough space left some games, and then putting it in the case so it’s safe in the event of an EMP/Solar flare
Used pixel from swappa.com and install graphene os . can have all that for under $200
Which model would you recommend?
Pixel 7 comes in right at 200 on swappa and has 8gb ram. Pixel 7 pro has 12gb and is around $50 more.
If “rooted” is a requirement, then this won’t work.
GrapheneOS can be rooted, though they don’t recommend it as it’s bad for security. For an archival device I imagine security isn’t a big concern.
Get an SBC with a battery backup
SBC?
Singe Board Computer
If you meant Single Board Computer, that seems like a whole class of devices. What specific model would you recommend?
Raspberry pi would be a good place to start.
Just use any cheap one that you can find that runs Linux well. There’s 100s of them I’m sure you’ll find your pick
Are you sure I’ll find one with my memory, storage, and size requirements? And I didn’t specifically list that I wanted a touchscreen and chassis rather than a naked motherboard, but I do indeed want that.
Why do you want a mobile device specifically?
It should be able to move around, if that’s what you mean, easily, as a desktop wouldn’t fit in the pouch or be simple to use. I’d prefer a touchscreen so I dont have to put a keyboard in the pouch, but it doesn’t have to be a phone. It could be a small tablet.
You’d do well by looking into the higher-end Fairphone 5.
