I have been considering replacing my nearly 7 year old iPhone (although very reluctant) and I was checking for options. Really the only phone that caught my eye was the Sony xperia 1 V, but I found no information about how to degoogle and lock down the device. I really like the features and the built in camera apps, etc. Is there a way to degoogle the phone without loosing the funcionality/ease of use?
I have an Xperia 5 III.
All the Sony Xperia phones consistently & eventually make it to LineageOS mainline (so LineageOS for microG support too), but these ROMs don’t tend to come until near then end of a device’s 2 year warranty. I would assume that this is when they get cheap/used enough that developers can get their hands on them. Sony provides all the tools to unlock so it isn’t difficult or locked behind some centralized server for unlock keys. However, the nice cameras the come with… well you need their proprietary app unfortunately or the camera becomes a plenty bad device with the default LineageOS software.
On the plus side you get to support the only brand still shipping flagships with microSD, a headphone jack, and the ability to unlock bootloader (bonus the the 5s are <6" screens which is rough to find smaller phones now). Google Pixels won’t get you a headphone jack or microSD & Asus Zenfones don’t have unlockable bootloaders.
I have an xperia 1 iii running LineageOS w/microG and I was able to get and install the sony stock Photography Pro, Cinema Pro, and Videography Pro apps, however several features of these apps are missing, such as the ability to do panorama shots and other stuff.
Yup. That is the tradoff. I’m willing to accept that one.